ChetNanjappa

After living for one and a half years in Dubai, my wife and I moved back to Bangalore. As, in that one and a half years we hadn't taken a break, once we were back in Bangalore, we thought it is the right time to plan a short road trip before we started off with the new job. Driving back home on a Friday midnight "How about we drive to Goa early next morning, spend the weekend there before we get to work on Monday?" "You mean a road trip to Goa? That'll be exciting!! Why not?" It was late September and the nights seemed to sound only of rains, we booked the stay with the least knowledge of the place, the route or the driving conditions. All we had was 100% faith (on the Google Maps!). Early Saturday morning we hit the road, uninformed, as everyone was out for the weekend.  We planned to stop by some places to visit en route, but all the tourist places, like the Chitradurga Fort, Ranebennur Blackbuck deer Reserve, Hubli city etc are at ...

“We are materialist spiritualists, nothing like this has ever happened in the world, this is a new experiment, new beginning and it has great future for it.” In a beautifully architected documentary series, Maclain Way and Chapman Way narrate the rise and fall of a cult that Rajneesh Osho calls ‘a failed experiment’. With increasing international followers and irking the then Indira Gandhi’s government in his discourses it became necessary for Bhagwan, as they address him, to lookout for a new country to set up his ashram. With the interviews of a balanced set of individuals involved in the ‘Rajneesh Movement’, the locals who were against him setting up the ranch in Oregon, the highest-ranking individuals of the movement who were with Osho till the end and who left the movement with Ma Anand Sheela and the federal officials who were heading the investigation, the documentary unfolds the story of the beginning and the official end of ‘Rajneeshism’ in 6 well-assembled chapters. The unfol...

50 kilometres off Kushalnagar, in Coorg, in a village called Kumaralli is this majestic waterfall - The Mallalli Falls . On the course of the same river, The Kumaradhara River, where we take a holy dip before entering the Kukke Subrahmanya Temple, is this waterfall that later merges with the Netravati River before it flows into the Arabian Sea. Visiting the falls is a trek. There are steep paths to cross, some cemented some not. So it would be advisable not to take kids or the elderly. We took our car as long as the road led us and then parked it at a high from where we did not want to take a chance driving down. It was about 2 kilometres from the falls. Only the MM540s could carry you on that country, or 'kutcha', road.  But they were expensive! With the number of tourists that day and the limited number of those vehicles, we did not have the privilege to bargain. We anyway decided to walk. The path has some breathtaking greenery! we could manage to click...

If you love cars, like really interested in these machines, this is one place you've got to visit. A 15 minutes drive from the town of Siddapur in, "The Scotland of India'', Coorg is a coffee estate called Mubarak Estate owned by Mr Ahmed Kutty (second person from left along with my dad in the picture below) has a garage full of vintage cars! Carson Cariappa and Ahmed Kutty A garage which is surrounded by lush green coffee estate Yes, you would be surprised to find cars like Tata Estate, HM Contessa and two-wheelers like Rajdoot, Bajaj Sunny and Chetak. But would the fact that they are all out of production and have a few enthusiasts make them vintage? Well, if you ask me then yes! I don't find them on roads and seeing them under one roof really excites me! Here is his treasury: Premier Padmini Rajdoot Bajaj Sunny and Lamby Plymouth Plaza Herald Ensign Austin A50 Willys Jeep Morris M...