Its been a few days since I picked my new Audi A6. Yes, there is a big story behind this and I am still trying to pen that buying experience and the initial ownership thread, and it should come out soon. This isn't about that (what am I even saying?), but this is about how a drive can make life so colourful, doesn't matter if the skies are grey and the car is also grey.
Prologue:
Who gets the credit? The boss at home said that there are specific temples to visit, given the son is about to write class 12 exams in a few months. The divine intervention has to be sought. There are prayers that my wife has done prior to the exams, and 3 of them were about how we will visit Kollur, Udupi and Murudeshwar temples. Now, the 12th exams are at least 6 months away, and if this is what happens so early, I wonder what all she will end up praying with specific conditions of marks, colleges and what not. That's for me to worry about in June 2022. For now, let's focus on Kollur and Udupi and Murudeshwar.
My mom used to give all credits to my class 10 and class 12 marks to the alignment of the 9 planets, and I am sure that when my son gets the desired results, the credit goes to his mom for the prayers, but mostly, his efforts are forgotten. Anyways...
The Leave:
Never a problem for me. I work at a corporate where its never a challenge for a day or two. The problem really is for my son. He misses one day and all hell breaks loose because no one at home knows what is differentiation or integration or calculus that we can teach him. I sometimes wonder how I did manage to study all this back then.
The offline physical classes at school are for the first 3 days of the week, followed by online for the rest 3. Since he started his class 11, I had forgotten what a Saturday feels like. Since he started his class 12, I am slowly getting to forget what a Sunday feels like, because his school decides to hold tests every Sunday from 9 am to 12 noon. Stressful indeed, but I am convinced that the stress is more for parents than the kids.
The Plan:
Sometimes, the wife comes with some glimpse of brilliance. A Wednesday evening tea time made me ponder over a genius question from her, that went like - 'Listen, if you can work from anywhere, why can't our son Study from anywhere or attend classes from anywhere'? The tone and tenor of 'Listen' varies by situation and time and day and only I know what each tone means. This 'listen' is something that made me sit upright and happy. I knew a drive is coming up. But I didn't imagine it will be close to 1400 km. Not that I am complaining though. I told a verbal plan and went off for my tennis games in the late evening.
The son generally has been averse to taking leave for school classes. I left the mother and son to discuss and finalise the plan. When I got back home by 915 after my tennis games, I was surprised that there were 3 neat bags packed. We decided as below:
Thursday Morn: Depart at 4.30 am, finish Kollur temple darshan, reach hotel and relax the night. Son takes his class in the car. Class is till 1 pm anyways.
Friday morn : Wake up early, finish Udupi Krishna darshan, return to hotel for the son to finish his class. Relax the rest of the evening at the hotel
Saturday morn: Wake up at leisure, allow the son to finish class at the hotel, depart hotel around 12 noon, and get back home via Murudeshwar
Well, to be honest, the wife was talking to me on the temple visits for a few days now, just that it all got a firm structure only on Wednesday night. Given these dialogues, I was I touch with Dr AD and Parag for routes and places of stay etc. Both had provided enough ammunition. Ever so thankful to them both.
I was all set.
Bad Fall
Since it was a very sudden 'departure' plan, we hardly had anything to cook/carry. Lots of fruits were available for us. However, right at the time of leaving, I was juggling the home key and the car key, and in that, the car key fell, it lost a limb. Now, I don't know what the damage will be and what Audi can help. I have written to them, will see what options they come back with. I had to start the trip with the spare key.
We left home at sharp 5 am. We reached Kollur at 12.45, dropped off my son and wife and I reached the parking slot at 12.45. I then doubled up to the temple premises, and after a quick Aadhar number entry, we were let in. (PS : Mandatory for carrying Aadhar at this place. If you are from Kerala, you also need the Negative RTPCR certificate not older than 72 hours). With hardly any crowd, we enjoyed the peaceful darshan. I quietly murmur to myself that I shall take it easy and not jog or run, lesson learnt the hard way - Never run at a very humid place. I was sweating due to the jog from the parking to the temple.
We then said that we will do baby steps up to the parking. Slow walk in the hot sun, in humid weather, so that we don't get sweaty all again. Well, there were two bulls in the premises who decided to have a go at each other, just when we were crossing them. Ofcourse, the three of us took to our heels. My wife stepped to the opposite direction to where my son and I were headed. Thankfully, they settle down, but only after we both had run about 50-60 metres. You obviously know the result. Gold to son, Silver to myself, the losing bulls don't even deserve the bronze. I and my son had to change our T-shirt because we were dripping in the humid weather, thanks to being chased out by the bulls. My wife doesn't let the moment pass so easily. She opined that we needed two such bulls at home so that my son and I will wake up early and jog or cycle for good health, we don't do this voluntarily. Now, I have a suspicion if she does speak the Bull lingo and told those two to do something to make us run. You never know whom you can trust or dis-trust in this pandemic. Phew!
A quick drive down the hills to the coast and we were at our hotel at Kundapur. Sorry, till here, we didn't click any pictures.
My A6 resting at the UVA Meridian, Kundapur Parking You not only turn back after locking the car, but you also look for your beauty from the room
I get a bad feeling that someone will put this picture on the 'Bad Parking' thread. Looking at this now, I feel I should have aligned the left wheels to the parking lines.
We were super hungry at the hotel. The 'suite' room came at a steal. We ordered in and had loads of Neer Dosa and Stew, Akki Roti and Veg Curry and some Pulav. What's a meal that doesn't involve the 'Gudbud' ice cream. We were so hungry, that none of us felt like clicking what we ate.
And oh, the metabolism kicked in and we all fell asleep. The nap was very helpful, and we decided to finish off the Udupi temple visit that evening. Good choice actually, given there was hardly any crowd.
Bliss and peace here. We headed to Mitra Samaj outside the temple and enjoyed Biscuit Roti, Mangalore Buns, Rava Dosa, Goli Bajji and few cups of filter coffee. Drive back to the hotel was rainy. Very rainy. We got back to the hotel around 7.30 pm. That's the time that my wife remembered that the 'Study from anywhere' actually hasn't worked yet. The son sensing a Mahabharata, quickly pulled out two books from his bag and said - 'Dad, you want to ask questions or do you want to give me some tough ones to crack from this book'. Smart chap indeed. He and his sense of timing. It prevented a bull run inside the room that evening. While I enjoyed the IPL on TV, my son actually did some studies for a couple of hours.
Grey Grey everywhere
Since we woke up early, we said that we will finish Maravanthe beach and head back in time for his online class. What followed was a very quick, but beautiful drive to the beach, on a very rainy day. The sun roof was open, and it was an experience to have the rains fall on the roof.
The A6 makes this picture colourful More Grey Lines or curves, what's your pick? Grey rocks and water A little splash of violet and green Grey car & Skies
We headed back to the hotel for a very expectant slow large spread of yummy breakfast. But no, we had to make do with a ok'ish spread. Since the Idly was cold, I headed for the dosa's but they were colder. With a childhood habit of being told to take all you want, but eat all you take, I did somehow finish those. Thankfully, they made some hot plain parathas that made our day.
The son went off to his classes at 8.30 am. I was happy to have a hot tall cup of coffee in hand, with two news papers tucked in my arms. I love reading the prints in the morning. It's a bit of an addiction. But no, that's not what its meant to be. The hotel called to ask what time we plan to check out and that's when I realised that I made a blunder. I picked one night instead of two. Amidst all the grey, there was one bright RED that I saw, ya, my wife. She had a face palm reaction, and this meant that her conclusion that I was dumb was proved once again.
Three options came by. a) Extend stay here b) Check for a different place or c) Head back home
For stay extension, the rates were high. The hotel wasn't ready to provide the same rates. I remembered Dr AD had suggested another place close by. A google maps look up said it was 15 minutes, and it was by the back waters. We thought that we should check out before we book, and hence, we did a quick drive. The rooms, though small, was ok'ish. Not as big or airy or lit to UVA standards, but what we didn't like was a bit of a moist smell that came. The bright part was a very large balcony facing the back waters. I did manage two clicks of my car there. The place was ruled out by the boss.
Side Lines Back waters behind grey matter
Two options were left. We negotiated very hard with the hotel and they came down a little bit. Just when we were about to close the deal, the son said that we rather leave today, and do what was planned for the next day. This meant that we checked out and got ready for our drive back. Well, for me, a drive means happiness. Checked out at 12.15 pm and we headed to our next temple, i.e. Murudeshwar.
The roads was super smooth to drive. The stretch from Kundapur to Murudeshwar was good. We reached Murudeshwar around 1.15 pm. Little did we know that the temple is shut from 1 pm till 3 pm. Having come so far, we did not want to turn back without darshan. So, we walked up to RNS residency for a quick bite and some lime soda and to make sure we get some place and shade to wait out till 3 pm.
Clock struck 3 and we were going again. Since there was hardly any crowd, we finished the darshan in less than 10 minutes. Since this was our first time here, we decided to spend the 10 rupees to go up the elevator in the Gopura. We spent some times up enjoying the views and the breeze.
Towering High Beautiful Sight
This looks more pretty in person, than in this picture.
What a view from above
We started back from Murudeshwar around 3.30 PM. I knew it was a long drive and was fully ready. The best part of this return leg was the stretch from Murudeshwar to Honnavar and then to Shimoga. Wow!. Butter smooth tarmac. Perfect curves.
Tarmac's be like this Love Trains, Tracks Sun playing with an orange hue
There was a particular time in the evening, that the sun decided to throw in some orange. The picture doesn't do justice. I wonder what that magic was. But like they say, enjoy nature at what it throws you.
Best Roads
The roads in this part of Karnataka are something that I have not seen elsewhere. It was such a joy on such roads. The 2.0 TFSI of my A6 was smiling I guess.
We hit a mall at the B.H Road at Shimoga for a coffee day break. We also packed some pizzas there. We left Shimoga at 7.30 pm after the coffee.
The moon
We were treated to a full moon and we had a lovely sight to our side and front for a very long time.
'Matrix' at work
In this road is where I truly experienced the A6 'Matrix' lights at work. It was doing its thing. In the 'Auto' mode, it was throwing up high beams, it adjusts in curves, it knows where the nose is pointed and throws light there etc etc.The big action of adjusting the light while driving is gone. Small pleasures in life.
The lights continue to impress. When we reached the Mumbai-Bar highway, the lights were doing its own stuff. It was dimming, it dips, it flashes when I am about to overtake etc..etc.. I think I am yet to discover my car in full.
Cat eyes
And by the way, the good part of the roads at Jog/Shimoga/Ajjampur/Hiriyur had lovely cat eyes
All was well till we hit the highway. There were two deviations near chitradurga, thanks to the fly over constructions. These are moments where you realise you are in the climax scene of the yesteryear Hindi movies. One car and a dozen Trucks surrounding you all over. There was a truck that had broken down in one of the deviations and we spent almost 40 minutes here trying to get to the highway. This is when I realised the amount of trucks plying in that stretch. I hardly noticed any other private car that time, but I lost count of the trucks though.
After this was a breeze, till we hit Tumkur. A bolero pick up had a nasty accident and this had held up traffic for a good 30 minutes. I do hope that the people in the bolero made it. The sight was ghastly.
So, a 2 nights plan to cover stuff we wanted do was done with just a night stay. Its always a joy to come back home after knowing that we went for divine intervention. For me, it was such a welcome break to drive. And having used to Diesel cars for 15 years, the driving experience in an uber cool A6 meant that I am longing for more drives.
Lets see, there is potential long drive coming up over the weekend.
Till then, thanks all, and appreciate you all spending time reading.