Canon & Defy+ present: Bike trip to Gokarna

It was quite a long time since the last long bike trip in May 2011. A real opportunity came along when Srinath, my school friend and bike mate to the Laddakh trip in 2010, suggested a bike trip to Gokarna in the last 10 days of December 2011. I couldn't wait. And I didn't expect 9 more people to be joining us either. Totaal awesomeness

So this "RAW" trip was scheduled for 5 days: 24 - 28. But before going further, lets explore a bit into "RAW". Its something people forget about themselves over time... as life and people keep you "civilized". Raw is the true nature of things without dilution, corruption, makeup or build-up (TR-style rhyming!). RAW is explained succinctly by the following 2 pictures.

 

With salutations to our Captain for involuntarily agreeing to be the mascot of RAW, let-us-the- start-off.

DAY 1

Me, "Velakku" Srinath, Ajith, Hari and Vandana on 3 bikes, PK, Vivek and Dwara in 1 car left Bangalore at 7am from Velakku's house. Though we took different route to reach Shimoga, we lunched together at Shimoga.

RAW fist Velakku

Me and Ajith showing a RAW fist

We also went to an off-season Jog Falls at 5pm, which had only 10% water falling, if it can be seen in the background:

Vandana, Me, Ajith, Velakku, PK, Vivek

So we reached our hotel Kumta at ~8pm, settled, ate, talked, slept, full stop.

STORY of GOKARNA

In the old days, Pandavas and Kauravas were having a beach volleyball match. Karna was the star player who was thulping Padavas left-right-center! Some hippy tourists were searching for Goa when they heard the beautiful apsara-cheerleaders shout "Go-Karna!, Go-Karna!" and so they understood that this place was Gokarna and not Goa. This is the real history behind the name.

DAY 2

Ajith's sis, cousin and friend joined us: Madhu, Nimmu and Ramesh respectively (sounds like thesis language!). We wasted no time in the early morning of 11am and hit Murudeshwara for water sports.

LADIES and GENTLEMEN... presenting to you the latest and greatest yet... the subtle and stylish... rock solid... MOTOROLA DEFY+

Respect! It is also my fone, saar!

Raw gang: Hari, Vandana, Madhu, Nimmu, Ramesh, Ajith, PK, Vivek, Velakku

The Mighty Lord watches over

We did water scooter, banana ride and para-sailing. Some excerpts:

We lunched, headed back to Kumta, rested, headed to Om beach by 8pm. Yes... THE Om Beach!

This is a secluded beach where grass is greener on the same side... where a class of people head to and have a good time... with the food, beaches, music also. We stayed overnight at a "fully-booked" Namaste Cafe, thanks to Vandana. Namaste Cafe has one of the best foods served in the world catering to a variety of cultures... Indian, Italian, Chinese, Continental, Russian, Israeli etc. as equally diverse and hippy was the crowd.

We had nice long walks on the beach and lovely time with our good old friend Johny of the Walker family. We also played some 100 old pipers.

DAY 3

Breakfast Club@Namaste Cafe

The day was awesome... some of us trekked to Paradise beach, while some came by boat. Let the pictures do the talking:

uTake myTake

Yo Boys!

Y Nimmu cry?

Remember "Kadal Yeruma, Kadal Panni" ?

Ultimate Star Ajith

After all the fun we had in the sea most of us headed back to Gokarna in the evening, while Velakku, Ajith, Vivek and Dwara stayed back for taking some dusk photography. Madhu, Ramesh, Nimmu had to catch their return bus that evening so they left Gokarna by 5pm. Me, Hari and PK paid a visit to Mahabaleshwar temple and soon afterwards we picked Vandana to head back to Kumta. The boys who stayed back at Om beach took some of the best pics ever:

"Whattay pics I say...

To buy, 500 roobees you pay!"

- Thirukkural (translated)

DAY 4

The boys back in Om Beach stayed at a nice RAW cottage and came back in the morning and rested in Kumta. While Me, PK, HnV paid a visit to the great Kollur Mookambika temple. I didn't take a picture of the temple but this one is from wikipedia:

So we went back, relaxed, played cards, slept. Vandana had to catch bus so she left that night.

DAY 5

All of us got up early by 6am and got ready to leave. I learnt that Kumta is supposed to be a haunted town, as shown by this tree right outside the hotel:

We had breakfast and started at 7am and came back to Bangalore by 5:30pm via Hubli-Chitradurga-Tumkur-Bangalore route.

THE END

(and so... the RAW begins)

Atal Bihari Vajpayee

Being a big fan of Vajpayee, I constantly keep looking for videos of his speeches or articles throwing new light on his life and principles.

Today, I was reading the transcript of Karan Thapar's interview of Brajesh Mishra in 2009, who was the principal secretary of PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee (1999-2004). This excerpt was just brilliant:

Karan Thapar: What was the special quality that Mr Vajpayee had that allowed him to hold a party like the BJP together and a government of 24 members together without any real major problems?

Brajesh Mishra: The first quality that he has is that he is very generous at heart. He never denied anybody the opportunity to speak his or her mind even though it may be critical of him. He dominated the meetings through his silence. Innumerable meetings of the Cabinet, he would keep quiet. Every member who wanted to speak or say were allowed to speak their minds. At the end of session, Mr Vajpayee would say just one sentence -- 'Shall we do it this way?' And that was it. This quality of his was a rare one. That's why I call him a statesman and not a politician. He understands people, he gives them all the opportunity that they want. It's human nature that once you have been given the opportunity to put your say forward, then you tend to be more amiable to decisions being taken.

Karan Thapar:You are clearly saying that both by giving people opportunity to speak and also by his masterful silences where he withheld what he himself would be thinking was actually a master tactician?

Brajesh Mishra: If you want to call him a master tactician, I would say that was something inborn. That was within in nature. Perhaps this tactician business is a by-product of his nature rather than something which he has cultivated deliberately.

Karan Thapar: The second corollary, the first from what you are saying is that because of his character, he always got the better of the sort of person who wants to burst out and speak first.

Brajesh Mishra: Yes.

Karan Thapar: He was never scared of others jumping into the fray wanting to speak and voice their opinion?

Brajesh Mishra: No, never.

Karan Thapar: It seems he got the better of his entire Cabinet?

Brajesh Mishra: I gave you instances. He let everyone speak but at the end he finished it with one sentence.

Freedom Park - Lokpal

At the height of the August agitation against corruption led by Anna Hazare, the people started coming on the streets, the numbers increasing day by day from August 16th. I started supporting the movement wholeheartedly after reviewing the points of the government, Anna's team and the sequence of events.

For sequence of events, please read the minutes of meeting (which not many people seem to be aware of):

http://www.lokpalbillconsultation.org/page.php?page=3

For the synopsis of Lokpal:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CHcKlIsvAQ

On day 6 of the movement, I finally managed to go to Freedom Park, the epicenter of movement in Bangalore. I arrived at 2:30pm and headed to the stage area where all the events were happening.

The stage area had around 20 - 30 people fasting, including a woman who was fasting from Aug 16 without water. Actor Vishnuvardhan's wife was also present among these people. But otherwise, the stage hosted various speakers and singers throughout the day.

When I arrived, the mobile phone numbers of all Members of Parliament were being announced so that people could sms and call these to ask each one of them for support. Creative stuff... good engagement with the crowd and increased the energy level.

Next, a swamiji came on stage who spoke in kannada but had the crowd on such a high with his speech on corruption ranging in both politics and religion. Wherever I could follow, it was really good stuff. Crowd was whistling and cheering wildly.

Among some other highlights for the 4 hours I spent were some children singing patriotic songs and other good speeches. But the ultimate of them all was the one from the head of the Gurudwara in bangalore who had some 300 people with him from the Sikh community. He apologized on behalf of his community for the actions of Manmohan Singh... making a really bold speech on how even though the PM maintained a very clean image of himself his claim to ignorance on corruption happening around him was just nonsense, and how it took 3 years for his government to arrest Raja but took only 3 days to take a wrong decision to arrest Anna. The crowd couldn't really expect to hear a more bold speech from a person taking pride in his community.

Some images of the crowd:

The crowd shouting slogans and waving tricolor all around, let me say this on a level headed basis that it was a very genuine coming together of people for a heartfelt cause. There is nothing superficial about this and especially I, an otherwise skeptic about everything, am convinced that now the government has no other go but to listen to the demands of the people. People on both sides now understand that the MPs and MLAs are public servants. We dont need to fight elections to make our voice heard, its rather the government who should understand our essential needs and listen to us.

Little drops make a mighty ocean indeed... and now I believe.

During this whole time of course, there were songs from Vandemataram (ARR), Rang de Basanti, Lagaan etc being played in between all the speeches and stage programs which gave the crowd a reason to sing, rejoice and get entertained. As "V" says in "V for Vendetta": Whats a revolution without a celebration?