Saturday, October 27, 2007

Journey to the not so knowns- Part3

Village- HilleNijgal- 55 kms off Tumkur road. Better called Vishwa's village.


The journey started from Shopper Stop at Banerghatta Road. We all gathered to travel to a small village off Tumkur road. Vishwa had decided to show us his vilage. We were all excited. Started driving on the road, and met Vishwa near Majestic. We started following him on Tumkur Road. Dhaval took the driving seat and managed to get a dent on car almost right at the beggining of journey. :) After around 50 minutes of travel, we saw an indicator on Vishwa's bike for a left turn. The scanary around was beautiful. It was a big highway and there were small green hills around. After we took a left turn, we came across a railway crossing. We waited for around 10 minutes at the crossing only to discover the beauty of nature lying hidden behind. This was a small muddy track. We waded through it, to be received by host's family. This was the spot, we were supposed to have breakfast at. We were served with coconut chutney and rice made from a large round citrus fruit on a banana leaf. The food was yummy. We saw old way of heating water under a muddy chulha.
After having our breakfast we moved on for a trek through village farms. We started by peeping into an old house, houses which sheltered animals like sheep and cow, much to the thrill of 4 year old Muskaan.

We walked through farms to reach to capsicum farms, and custard apples. The farm looked beautiful with yellow and red capsicums, rice fields and also some typical masala plants that are out in sambhar. We proceeded to village school. There was a large ground and some classes in it. The place looked open and peaceful as it was holiday for kids. From there we trekked down to an ancient temple in village, it had a huge pillar at entry. We were huffing and puffing, thanks to the luxurious life we spend in cities, it was time to take some rest for us. The next trek started with water pool for cattles, coconult trees, sem fali plants and we saw some women picking these falis and pakaging them. We bought some of it and moved forth thorugh a thin lane towards a corn plantation. Vishwa plucked medium sized corns and offered them to us. They were sweet and tastier than any corn i had ever eaten. From there we climbed a semi tough terrain to reach to a small building on hill top. We rested there and drank coconut water.
Moving on to the village rain diety. This was a huge water reservoir right infront of rain diety temple. We rested in stony caves of that temple for sometime and started walking on stony elevated hillway towards the temple.
We climbed some 50 stairs to reach the village temple located at some good height. The village could be seen from there. We prayed to God and were all set for the rural lunch. The menu was Raagi ball, curry, green daal , salad and a sweet dish. We all were having Raagi ball for firt time, so was a relatively difficult thing to digest, but we managed. After having lunch and having strolled around the temple, we started descending to vilage again. This was a trek covered with Imli trees and natural tree webs, leading to village farms. Here came a tube well, everyone tried hands at putting their faces right infront of the water gushing out of the tube.
By this time, we were all tired, all set to reach back to pavillion. We visited lakshmi temple, rested for a while, got pictures clicked on a tractor and drove back to the city life.

Facts-
- Village is scenic and beautiful
- Main economy is based on agriculture, so people are cultured and united
- Scope for better education
- Village needs more source of income
- Caste system is prevalent

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