This Time - it is Kukke

28/9/2012

Lights On.. Action 1 2 3…

Ooohhhhhhh….AAhhhhhh………jinka lakadi jinka lakadi ..Similar sounds and whistling rented the air. Girls, boys, men, women, senior citizens and all kids came together to enjoy the tunneling effect, something which was the first to many of us.

Dark and bright, dark and bright

Oh..is this day or is it night

one, two, three and four

Wow.. so good!! Can we have some more?

56, in all, counting one by one

A wonder in our face, once it was done

Amma, please, please, can we have a re-run

It was great, awesome and fun

For many years now, I thought that people got hyper and give such special effects only to  a rajini starrer. No..This was NOT a endiran or a shivaji and none of the rajini starrers. It was a kudos to the engineering marvel created by man. The journey from sakleshwarpur to Subramanya road by the kannur express was just awesome. My son went on asking me "how did they do this"?"How did they do this" and solemnly took oath that he would become a train driver when he grew big and particularly in this train. :)

People went crazy and got so excited that whenever the train passed through a tunnel, there were huge shouts and cries. The bridges after every tunnel added to the oooo’s and aaahh…’s. They were such that one cannot see the track below and would give u a feeling that the train is actually flying across the rivers. With the "dadang dadang" sound, it surely sends a fear down your nerve. 

There are 56 tunnels in this path with some being as long as ½ km. There are small creeks all along surrounded ofcourse, by the Western Ghats. There is only one colour that we can see all round - green , green and green. I really wondered. Many of us plan holidays outside India. It usually is in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, etc etc. and we proudly speak of it too. People fail to realize that our  country has such rich beauty to relish and appreciate.

We got off at Subramanya road to drive to Hotel seshnag ashraya in kukke. The autowala charged us a whooping Rs.200 for 4 people. The hotel is a decent one and is very close to the temple. Got ourselves refreshed and started our pilgrimage with the visit to the Subramanya temple. We went at around 5.0.p.m and there was no crowd absolutely. The GODs are (in order) vasuki, adisesha and lord subramanya sitting on his peacock. The lord is not very clearly visible as it is heavily decorated and is very small too. We had to get this info from the priest present there who was extremely reserved and feared if pearls would roll down lest he opened his mouth. We then went to Adi Subramanya temple which has the main snake hill (putthu). It was here that lord Subramanya first appeared in the form of a snake.

 The next day, we left to dharmasthala at around 8.30.am.  . This place is nearly 50Kms from kukke. We reached dharmasthala at around 9.30 and had finished darshan by 10.a.m. We had a rare nirmalya darshan of Lord manjunatha. The crowd here also was not much. The cleanliness that is maintained here is worth a mention. Not only here, in all temples that I have visited in Karnataka, utmost care is taken to keep the premises of the temple clean and tidy. Many banners and videos depicting the expected behaviour of devotees are displayed making the public constantly aware of what they are expected to do.

By 10.30 we left to kateel. On the way, we stopped at a beautiful ram temple. Lord Ram along with his consort Sita , Bharath, shatrugna, hanuman, various forms of shakti, the nava garahas are all carved out in marble. It had the flavour of a north Indian temple.

We then headed to kateel to see Durga Ma. The roads are well maintained; they go winding and winding with a canopy of trees on both sides. As I said , you can see only one colour here and that is green, green and green.

She sits small with four arms. Her temple is amidst a river. The time was apt and we had the divine opportunity to view the maha mangala aarathi. The Goddess was decorated and decked with jewels giving a majestic yet motherly look. We had free lunch at the temple complex. We then left to udupi at around 1.30.p.m.

We reached udupi at around 3.p.m. The temple was absolutely free and it was like Krishna was waiting only for us. We went round and round three times to see the kutti hero. And what to talk of the cute, cuddly, chubby Krishna who sits there holding a gili gili toy in one hand and butter in the other. Black is beautiful but never in my life have I seen black being so mesmerizing and so enchanting. He is dark as the new moon. Yashoda had decorated him in full gold. His eyes are twinkling looking eagerly if mother will give him more butter to feast on.  No wonder devaki veiled at the loss of the childhood pranks of Krishna. Though she gave birth to him, it was yashoda who had a great advantage of seeing him grow, of bathing him with her affection. I was reminded of oothukadu’s composition..”enna thavam seidanai yashoda..endrum nirainda para bramam amma endraikka” (What tapas did u do oh yashoda that the para brahmam himself calls you “amma”).

Frankly, I didn’t want to leave that temple. Krishna was so very attractive that you never feel like lifting your eyes off him. Oh my GOD…what a beauty, what a beauty!!! We left with a heavy heavy heart.

We left Mangalore to board the train to Bangalore. In Mangalore, we went to the gokarnatheshwara temple in kudroli. This temple is relatively a new one (around 20 years ) and is indeed very beautiful. Special mention of annapoornaeshwari is a must. The deity resembles the one in horanadu and is bedecked with rich jewels.

The train to Bangalore again went through the same tunnels. We were asleep but there was one soul who was awake and wouldn’t want to miss this chance even if it were to be night – shriram.

Note: The day train (Train no: 16515) YPR karwar express operates only on Mon, Wed and Fri. It leaves yeshwanthpur at 7.30 and reaches subramanya road at 3.10.p.m. The tunnels are built only between sakleshpur and subramanya road. So, if you wish to experience this, plan accordingly.