kartik kannan's space on the web

Gokarna Trip Images
Part-1 Chennai to Gokarna



The Train journey from Chennai started at Central Station with the Chennai Bangalore Shatabdi Express at 5 30pm which we boarded just in the nick of time and was sweating profusely after the mad rush from office as we didnt have some items,s o we had to rush to the market and buy some essentials before we boarded the train



Since I was sweating, I decided to refresh myself with some sprinkling of water on my face and was taken aback when I saw the clean washbasin that was there.In the 2nd class compartment in other trains the most hated spot to go was the washbasin with different varieties of hydrogen sulphide emerging from the washbasin.Generally ,My feeling is that the 2nd class washbasins should also be given some importance in terms of cleanliness and should not be discarded the way it is being done right now.



The train journey was over at around 10 40 pm, leaving us 20 minutes to get off the train and dash across the station to the Majestic bus terminus at Bangalore and we ran like wolves who's tails were set on fire...and I guess somewhere in that melee I happened to have lost my mobile phone. This photo was taken once we boarded the bus.I must comment on the KSRTC bus service,which takes so much care in providing excellent bus service..to its commuters that it is such a pleasure to expect to travel on the Karnataka tourist buses.Tamilnadu ought to take some lessons from Karnataka and give better service ramping up the rather horrible bus services we have via SETC.This was not the usual Rajahamsa but was a rather comfy AC bus under the brand name AIRAWAT.



We reached Mangalore at 5 45 in the morning, greeted by some mist ...and found our way to the station after some haggling with the autowallahs over paying 30 bucks for a 4 kilometre ride.Our train,supposedly the Mangalore Madgoan Express had been re scheduled only that week and was to run at 7 30 am instead of the 6 50 start and that gave us some extra time to use the toilet facilities and eat some breakfast.We had a mild confusion as this train said "Mangalore Verna " Passenger... and we had a tough time finding that this train was indeed our train.






After we boarded the train, at Mangalore station...Our train chugged out of the lovely Mangalore city and had barely travelled a few kilometres,it decided to reduce its kinetic energy by stopping at this station called Kankanadi,which I guess is a part of Mangalore,but more of a suburb.The station above in the picture is Kankanadi and had a lovely feel of Malgudi around it.The platform was showing signs of senility with cement slabs cracking due to the high alternating frequency of the morning chill and the afternoon heat,and between the newly developed cracks were strains of wildly growing weeds and grass, on which were scattered hundreds of plastic tea cups alternating with plastic wrappers and half eaten food parcels.

Meanwhile a group of rather Irate passengers of city bred start to grumble over the train is remaining in stationary motion,even as an express train is passing over like a wind who's back was soothed with a Hot Iron rod. One can guess that these passengers are definetely from IT companies when they start using jargons like Productivity,Efficiency,Relaiability comparing the train to their mega dollar process oriented IT Company.

Was I irittated that the train was late ? Not at all ...I felt I had all the time in the world,I was able to see beauty in whatever stood in front of me.The chirping of birds amidst the reddish something flowers on a leafless tree cutting across the sun's rays was a sight to behold.



As Planned I got started on my fiction/short story novel that I wanted to do for a very long time.This was just wahat I wanted ..a place where no crowd was there... no shoving and pushing..no cacaophony .Just me and the 20 od passengers in 72 seater reserved compartment. This book should be out in the next six months .I have started to frame the outline of my book and have also hired a typist to publish my thoughts from my handwriting to the text that You see on screen . And the position goes to My mother..who has consented to be the editor as she feels I write too much about sex these days ..and wants to curbe my literaray urge to write on those topics.Will she succeed wont she ...time will tell .



After 5 hours of journeying on the 2nd class Konkan Railway train..I get off at PARADISE ....Gokarna Road.The station is a lot better than I expected ,but still resembles the fictional Malgudi in many ways.There are no buses outside the station.One has to walk from Gokarna Road..station for about 20 minutes along a muddy way in the hot sun to reach the bus stand.Auto's and Taxis do ferry people to the bus stand or the town but after demanding the fare for the journey from Chennai to Bangalore. Thank goodness,My friend Arvind,who had come from Mumbai..(we met at Gokarna Road)thankfully knew Kannada and somehow found out that it was not worth taking a cab,so we decide to walk it to the bus stand ...and giving us company were 2 cute Israeli babes who ask us directions..and I am nice soul..who decides to help them out.




We reached Gokarna Town at around 1 30 in the afternoon and got into a lodge close by the bus stand.It was called "Vaibhav Lodge" which gave " L I V E 'able rooms for 150 a night.We checked into the hotel to empty our stomachs which had gathered enough crap in the name of food and to wash our dirty bodies.The Lunch in the hotel was not so good,we decided to have some basic kannada Thali meals and the Food was hardly palatable...but what was not palatable was to see that we were the Only INDIANS in the hotel other than the hotel propreitor.We had British,Israeli,Bellgian and other nationalities staying at our place.Clothes were used only as a minimal measure to wear,with half of them prefering to keep their clothes short.Guys wore shorts or just a waste cloth around their body... with inners being a fairly alien concept for them.With the Women, they had clothes that just covered their bare minimums. On seeing this ...all we guys did was to stare with a michievous look at each other...knowing that this was just the tip of the iceberg...On reflections..as I type this ... I know my thoughts may sound a little peurile,but that's the magic of beaches in Gokarna here.

The Place or the city is just a 3 lane city with one lane leading to the beach directly.The city has so much of an old world Charm resembling those typical south Indian Middle class homes of the 1950's,so similar to the world which R.K Narayan Presented via his books.



The Beach was the most awesome thing in Gokarna....More about this and part 2 of the trip tommorow.