A day in Halebidu

It was decided mutually between four nomads to go on a short two day trip to some place on a summer weekend. The plan was only to go to Bylakuppae , a Tibetan settlement near Mysore in the state of Karnataka. But With two days in hand we thought of travelling to another place which is around mysore. It was halebid , where we travelled first. It was hot more than what we thought it would be. Saturday morning we set foot on the Mysore junction. That was only one of the very few times I saw railway tickets being checked meticulously. I remember last time I went to Mysore . If my memory serves me right it was during the summer in the year 2002-03. Back then it was not all this hot. It was pretty cool. I remember we did not leave the fans on during the night as it was really cold. Just a small interval of 11 years and the place had already been heated up. The difference was clearly evident.I never waste time on finding fancy hotels or air conditioned shelter whenever I backpack.That is one of the reasons I always stress on the fact that anyone can travel but only a few could back- pack. I made sure my travel had always been less luxurious in the past and always wanted it to be that way. I was glad that the others in the group were in par with me. With no intentions of wasting time, We broke our fast in the railway canteen just outside the station which soon appeared to be a bad choice.The food which was served was so close to ridiculous. After struggling with the food, we quickly walked out of the station. The auto stand unlikely yet surprisingly was so well organised. All the autos were queued up in a single line.The drivers had no chance of quarreling as there was one pre-paid booking office allocating the ride to the passengers. We boarded the ride which took us to the mysore bus terminus from where we had to get a bus to Hassan.As we were walking inside the bus stand , we saw a bus coming out with a conductor on the steps shouting 'hassan-halebidu,beluru' and clinging on to the bus with one hand. We got it into the bus and We already knew that it was going to be a 3 hour long journey to hassan. I was hoping to see some interesting scenes inside the bus but was totally disappointed with an empty bus. Kumary and Selva the other two nomads almost talked through the whole 3 hour journey. Sugee was quietly reading a book which was wrapped with a news paper which clearly suggested that she is an organised lady.I also tried to turn few pages of a book I took with me but I eventually was beat by the lack of sleep the previous night. It was only when i woke up after two hours that I felt Selva and Kumary were still discussing while Sughee was so much in to the book.I also joined the discussion with Kumary and Selva for the rest of the journey. Three hours passed by in a jiffy and we reached Hassan just past 12 noon. From there we had to take another bus to Halebidu. We waited close to 30 mins and the bus arrived. Before even we picked our backpacks, there was already a cluster of people on both the doors of the bus blocking each other's way not realizing the fact that no one had actually entered the bus. Somehow we managed some space to make ourselves seated at the back.As usual Kumary and Selva started talking, this time Sugee also joined them. It was almost 30 mins, me and the little one were seriously talking though both of us did not understand what each other said. The bus was brushing the dust on the road , and suddenly it stopped in such a way that we almost banged our heads on to the front seat. It was because an old man carrying a big bunch of curry leaves waved his hands. He literally threw that big bunch in to the bus and stepped on top of it. The conductor and the old man got in to a firing conversation because people are not supposed to take-in big luggage to the bus. People around cooled the conductor down and by the time the issue was settled, we already reached Halebidu.