Gift of Nature

5 days work, 2 days rest by getting rid of mails, meetings, bugs, fixes…. Wanna have a break. So we family n friends had been to places around Shimoga, a 6-hour journey from Bangalore. A week before the trip only we were anxious about it. On a Thursday night, in horrible Bangalore traffic we somehow traveled 15 km from our place and reached the station in 3 hrs. By 12 at midnight we started for Shimoga and reached at 6 next morning.

When we came out of the station cool breeze touched us that made us feel fresh. A decent room of reasonable rent was arranged, we refreshed, got into the vehicle by around 9am. The vehicle started moving away, the greenish surroundings remained me of Kerala. On the way chatting, munching snacks, singing songs in almost all Indian languages brought us to the enjoyment mood. At a 100 km, our first visit was to Kuempu, the great kannada poet’s home. The surrounding was entirely different with huge rock like stones with which his samathi was built. Anxious friends fell down many times in the slippery hill coz of all time rain. A narrow road led to the poet’s home, wow beautiful lawn, benches in stone, entirely surrounded with trees.
We dint miss to capture in our camera a cute butterfly on an orange flower. It was amazing to view the home, which is being maintained, as a museum. The home is filled with memories of his life in a 45-member family, materials used by them. Sitting in a room he might have written poetry by admiring nature through the windows. It was astonishing to see a library with most of the books written by him, his doctorates from a number of universities. After roaming around we came down the hill and had ok kind of lunch we generally experience in all tourist spots.

The next spot was Sirimane falls in an hour travel. The vehicle stopped after climbing a particular point and from there we walked up for 2 km crossing leech which sticked with most of us. That was amazing fast falling water with banging sound. Being wet we returned back to see sharadamba temple at sringeri. This famous temple is at 20 km from the falls towards shimoga. Had dharshan at this quite a big temple, roamed around the place for few minutes. Then came back to the room to rest ourselves, the whole day enjoyment made us tired physically.

The next day plan was to visit jog falls and a forest on the way. Started by 9am, reached a forest near Sagar at 30 km from Shimoga. We were put in a vehicle to have Lion n Tiger safari. It was a bit different experience to see 7-8 tiger and lion, deer with n without dots, bear. That was a 15 min safari. Other animals and birds as in zoos and sanctuaries were also there. Suddenly one of us was shouting ‘come fast…’, we reached immediately. It was a scene of a dancing peacock with its pair nearby, such a rare scene that anyone would get to see. Dots allover the feather in blue and green, seeing God’s extra ordinary designing made our tiredness vanish in a second. At least 100s of flashes lighted in all our cameras.

Having finished our lunch, the next move was towards the most awaited Jog falls. The whole day rain, added extra spice to our journey. Roads were with little curves, bents and greenish on both sides. The happiness we felt at this moment with the beautiful weather cant be expressed in words. This waterfall, 70 km away from Shimoga was falling with great speed, need to go 2 km down the hill to take bath. The hill was soon surrounded with mist and a group photo session was conducted with lots of fun, a memorable picture forever. We went on the other side of the fall where we can stand under a shed to view the hill on one side and fall on the other. When it started raining heavily it was time for us to leave the spot. Again we enjoyed all through the journey and returned to room, packed our things and reached station. That night we started for Bangalore, 2 days enjoyment came to an end. But it was worth an exciting journey and above all good companions made it great.

Children of heaven

Once I have read the review of an Iranian movie ‘Children of heaven’. Since then I wanted to watch and that recently happened. The movie is all about the affection between two kids Ali and his sister Zahra from a poor family. Ali loses Zahra’s shoes. Knowing the family situation she doesn’t let her parents know about this rather they plan to share Ali’s shoes. She wears the shoes to the school and after her classes are over she runs faster to give it to Ali who is waiting on the way to his school.

When she comes to know that some other girl in her school wears her own shoes she follows her to find out her home. The touching scene is when both brother and sister knows that the other girl is poor they leave the place without asking her about the shoe.

Ali’s school announces a pair of shoes as third prize in a running race and he promises his sister that he would win the shoes. In the race he runs, runs thinking of the hardships Zahra faced with the tattered shoes. This made him run faster and faster. Ali is declared as the winner of the race.

What happens next? What did he tell her sister about the race? In the final scenes of the movie both the kids don’t even utter a word, they have given their wonderful performance with their facial expressions. The movie ends with a final shot showing the blisters on Ali’s feet.

The director has narrated the story with no much dialogue. All characters as very simple and honest, one such scene the little girl gives back the pen to Zahra when she left it on the road, portraying that she dint steal her shoes. This is a perfect movie for children. Mild background music, narrow Iranian streets, the poor family situation in the kids’ eyes and much more are there, everyone should watch this once.