We approach the blue gate with sky high expectation. We have chosen the time with lots of care. Even then, the odds are pretty high that we might not see the Lord in his heaven.
The customary entry has to be made in the entry logs. We are asked to specify our source and destination, The sentinels of this heaven will NOT accept that this drive is indeed our ultimate destination and source of all the inspiration to wake up the 2 sleeping kids early in the morning, pack up and leave home. After understanding the futility of our effort at truth-speaking, we put in Hunsur as the source and Kutta as the destination - the 2 mortal habitats that lie at either ends of this heaven.
The gate opens and so do our bags. Cameras, binoculars on the ready, we slowly drive in. I even take the car key out of the key fob, so as to avoid the noise of the fob hitting the steering column. We are not about to give the Lord an alibi for a no-show. Not that he is answerable to us!!
We enter a completely dry paradise. What you would expect to see in extreme winters is what we see here in the middle of what has been a punishing summer. Trees standing tall and bald, bereft of any greenery. Stare at the woods for long and the subtle change of hue from bottom to top give the illusion of smoke rising up. Never before have I seen anything as brutally beautiful. To sink it all in, we stop the car. The silence around, is deafening! 4 pairs of eyes scan every visible part of the geography for any sign of the Lord. A deafening peafowl startles us out of our stupor. We start rolling again.
The road is poor! Broken surface and narrow. But instead of complaining, we thank our stars. We will be driving way below the 30kmph speed limit of the heaven, ensuring a longer passage and hopefully, a better shot at the moksha. Helping us immensely in our desire to kill the speed are umpteen adrenalin pumping blind turns. Nope! We are not taking them at full speed and coming out with a wide grin at having hit the apex. Instead, we approach each such turn with a wide grin and expectation that our Lord is waiting at the other side.
We have chosen this time of the year with great care. A very reliable source had counselled us on our last visit during the monsoons that the odds of seeing the Lord significantly improves during summer. Watering holes dry up deep inside. Therefore, His Highness descends down closer to mere mortals. The woods around, seem to suggest that we have timed our visit to perfection.
We drive on for a couple of kms through this parched landscape. What started off as an elation at the realization that we have perhaps chosen the right time, was slowly giving way to frustration. We have not yet spotted even the pedestrians of the heaven - the Chitals (Spotted deer). All we have seen is lifelessness and heard is silence, broken by the occasional scream of a peafowl or chirping of an unknown bird.
With prayer on our lips and still some hope in our hearts we turn yet another blind corner and freeze. About 40 feet away on the side of the road is an elephant, busy plucking leaves from the nearby trees! Leaves!! In our single minded focus on spotting the lord, we have not noticed that the surroundings have become significantly more green. Close in a little more on the towering giant and we notice that its a tusker. We are about to stop next to it, when my navigator (our 8 year old son) reminds me of the jungle driving rule we had both learned from this wise man of the jungle. When you spot an elephant in the jungle never stop till you have crossed it. Ensures an easy getaway, if the giant decided to get irritated by your presence and reacted in any way other than melting into the forest. Thereafter, we get lost in what we get to see. Never before have we seen or heard about a tusker with opposite tusks. Normally, both the tusks point outwards. But for this giant, 1 tusk was pointing inwards towards itself. In between its leaf plucking, it turns towards us, and we are mesmerized by this majestic creature standing face to face about 10 feet away. While we were experiencing National Geographic in real life, I was entrusted with the responsibility of watching the other side of the road for other mates of this giant. Elephants are known to go around in herds and if there are other members on the other side, there is a possibility of getting into a sticky situation if we get too mesmerized with the unfolding prime-time show. We were just starting to whisper how lucky we have gotten, when I spot a movement in front from the corner of my eye. Oops! Its an oncoming vehicle, approaching pretty fast. Once it gets closer, its clear the driver was after something much more important than a real life TV show. The vehicle passes on through the blind turn and disappears, leaving us to continue our experience. After some flying kisses from the kids for having treated us to such a show, our giant friend decides, he has had enough of the homo sapians and starts to slowly walk into the jungle.
This was well beyond our imagination. If morning shows the day, the day holds major promise...
The customary entry has to be made in the entry logs. We are asked to specify our source and destination, The sentinels of this heaven will NOT accept that this drive is indeed our ultimate destination and source of all the inspiration to wake up the 2 sleeping kids early in the morning, pack up and leave home. After understanding the futility of our effort at truth-speaking, we put in Hunsur as the source and Kutta as the destination - the 2 mortal habitats that lie at either ends of this heaven.
The gate opens and so do our bags. Cameras, binoculars on the ready, we slowly drive in. I even take the car key out of the key fob, so as to avoid the noise of the fob hitting the steering column. We are not about to give the Lord an alibi for a no-show. Not that he is answerable to us!!
We enter a completely dry paradise. What you would expect to see in extreme winters is what we see here in the middle of what has been a punishing summer. Trees standing tall and bald, bereft of any greenery. Stare at the woods for long and the subtle change of hue from bottom to top give the illusion of smoke rising up. Never before have I seen anything as brutally beautiful. To sink it all in, we stop the car. The silence around, is deafening! 4 pairs of eyes scan every visible part of the geography for any sign of the Lord. A deafening peafowl startles us out of our stupor. We start rolling again.
The road is poor! Broken surface and narrow. But instead of complaining, we thank our stars. We will be driving way below the 30kmph speed limit of the heaven, ensuring a longer passage and hopefully, a better shot at the moksha. Helping us immensely in our desire to kill the speed are umpteen adrenalin pumping blind turns. Nope! We are not taking them at full speed and coming out with a wide grin at having hit the apex. Instead, we approach each such turn with a wide grin and expectation that our Lord is waiting at the other side.
We have chosen this time of the year with great care. A very reliable source had counselled us on our last visit during the monsoons that the odds of seeing the Lord significantly improves during summer. Watering holes dry up deep inside. Therefore, His Highness descends down closer to mere mortals. The woods around, seem to suggest that we have timed our visit to perfection.
We drive on for a couple of kms through this parched landscape. What started off as an elation at the realization that we have perhaps chosen the right time, was slowly giving way to frustration. We have not yet spotted even the pedestrians of the heaven - the Chitals (Spotted deer). All we have seen is lifelessness and heard is silence, broken by the occasional scream of a peafowl or chirping of an unknown bird.
With prayer on our lips and still some hope in our hearts we turn yet another blind corner and freeze. About 40 feet away on the side of the road is an elephant, busy plucking leaves from the nearby trees! Leaves!! In our single minded focus on spotting the lord, we have not noticed that the surroundings have become significantly more green. Close in a little more on the towering giant and we notice that its a tusker. We are about to stop next to it, when my navigator (our 8 year old son) reminds me of the jungle driving rule we had both learned from this wise man of the jungle. When you spot an elephant in the jungle never stop till you have crossed it. Ensures an easy getaway, if the giant decided to get irritated by your presence and reacted in any way other than melting into the forest. Thereafter, we get lost in what we get to see. Never before have we seen or heard about a tusker with opposite tusks. Normally, both the tusks point outwards. But for this giant, 1 tusk was pointing inwards towards itself. In between its leaf plucking, it turns towards us, and we are mesmerized by this majestic creature standing face to face about 10 feet away. While we were experiencing National Geographic in real life, I was entrusted with the responsibility of watching the other side of the road for other mates of this giant. Elephants are known to go around in herds and if there are other members on the other side, there is a possibility of getting into a sticky situation if we get too mesmerized with the unfolding prime-time show. We were just starting to whisper how lucky we have gotten, when I spot a movement in front from the corner of my eye. Oops! Its an oncoming vehicle, approaching pretty fast. Once it gets closer, its clear the driver was after something much more important than a real life TV show. The vehicle passes on through the blind turn and disappears, leaving us to continue our experience. After some flying kisses from the kids for having treated us to such a show, our giant friend decides, he has had enough of the homo sapians and starts to slowly walk into the jungle.
This was well beyond our imagination. If morning shows the day, the day holds major promise...
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