November 2015 - Sam Travel Magazine

Moodbidri Jain Temple

Posted on November 23, 2015April 2, 2022 by SamTram

When I went to Moodbidri to meet an old friend of mine (about whom I’d written earlier), I planned it such that I would have some time to explore the famous Moodbidri Jain temple (a.k.a Thousand Pillar Temple (Saavira Kambada Basadi) in Moodbidri), and the giant Bahubali statue in Karkala.

Moodbidri, a small town near Mangalore, is also known as the ‘Jain Kashi’ of South India and is an ancient centre for Jain learning.

Built in the 1400s, Saavira Kambada Basadi is the most famous of Jain temples here and is known for its pillars – all carved from granite, each having distinct and unique engravings.

Here are some images I took of Moodbidri Jain temple:

Sunil Jain, a friendly temple official who was guiding visitors the day I went there, called my attention to one particular pillar which had a carving of Lord Ram and numerous ones of Lord Hanuman around Lord Ram. He asked me to count the number of Hanuman images. I counted 15. He said I was wrong, and there were 16. Then he asked me to count again. I still counted 15. Perplexed, I looked at him. He then pointed to one particular carving of Hanuman, which though looked like one Hanuman, actually had 2 of them.

Most pillars there have similar trick carvings on them; so keep aside some time to look at each of the pillars carefully if you ever visit this temple.

Though the temple has upper floors, they aren’t open for devotees always.

Apart from the intricate carvings on the pillars, the other thing that will captivate you is the peace and silence that engulfs you. This is a great place for meditation, and so I spent some time just seated there silently before making my way to Karkala.

In Karkala, I climbed my way up the Gommata Betta – a rocky hill atop which the towering, 40 odd feet granite monolith of Bahubali (also known as Gommateshwara) is built.

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I had visited Saavira Kambada Basadi with my friends some 15 years back and found this one image from my archive that shows a few of them in their prime. One of them is no longer with us now – hope he’s happy up there. Some great memories…

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Read more about Saavira Kambada Basadi here: http://www.karnataka.com/mangalore/story-thousand-pillar-temple-moodabidri/, and Gommateshwara here: http://www.karkalagommateshwara.com/. If you would like to add more to this article, please leave your comments below.

A low budget trip to Goa

Posted on November 16, 2015March 28, 2022 by SamTram

I was visiting Goa in September. If you are looking for Goa places to visit in 3 days, please read on. Unlike my other visits (one such here: https://sampathmk.com/go-goa-gone), this one was different since this one involved offbeat things to do in Goa. Read on.

Planning the Goa visit

I wanted to get away from normal life for a few days and chose Goa as my hideout after reading various traveller accounts on the serene Goan countryside. Two of my friends had decided to join in as well. One has a home in Vasco that was lying vacant, which he graciously let us use for a few days (yeah, I do have some useful friends. Let’s call this friend ‘House Owner Friend’ or ‘HOF’ for short). The other – let’s call him ‘Beardy’ since he has a beard for a face – was gracious enough to take time out from his busy schedule to join in.

Since we’d also decided that this would be a ‘Goa on a shoestring budget’ trip, Beardy had chosen The Indian Railways for his travel, and to keep his costs low, he had gone in for General or Second Class tickets. He had planned to visit his hometown, so his itinerary looked as follows: Bangalore > Goa > Kerala > Bangalore. For having booked such a long trip for under Rs 1000, he was feeling pretty good about himself, and also got me feeling a tad guilty for choosing to fly into Goa (My justification: I was coming in from Mumbai and had got a cheap flight using the combination of a MakeMyTrip deal and my Payback points).

Beardy had reached Goa earlier that morning and had come to the airport to pick me up. The 15-hour second class rail journey he’d undertaken in the Indian heat should’ve made him 2 shades darker and caked his face with dust and dirt. But there he was, bright and shiny. All thanks to his beard, I supposed, inside which he must’ve cocooned himself all through the journey.

Since I was here searching for peace and tranquillity, I wanted this to be a quiet, offbeat kind of trip (Plus, I’d already done the usual Baga-Calangute-Casinos tourist circuit a few times). HOF proved to be even more resourceful when he jugaad-fied a car from one of his friends that we could use while we were there. Thus began our 3 day ‘offbeat Goa’ sojourn.

Vasco

Vasco (short for Vasco da Gama; named after the famous Portuguese explorer) – a port city and Naval base, heavily relies on the port for most of its economic activity. As a tourist, Vasco is probably the last place in Goa you would want to end up in, especially when Tripadvisor lists ‘Vasco’s Municipal Market’ as one of the top 5 places to see here. But Vasco is indeed a beautiful little city. Vasco also threw up a few hidden gems.

First, a restaurant named ‘Ananthashram’ (an unlikely name for a Goan non-vegetarian restaurant!). The special non-veg thali (rice plate with different kinds of seafood sides) I had there was just out of the world – so fresh, delicious and in line with our shoestring budget. The normal non-veg thali (with a few sides, one fish curry and one fish fry) is just Rs 80, and the special thali is Rs 300. We kept going back there for more every night.

I have always been a fan of Goan Fish curry (Mamma’s kitchen in Panaji is where I had it first), and Ananthashram’s version is by far the best I’ve had. We also tried the Mackeral Reshad (Reacheado), Red Snapper (Chonak) Reshad and Goa’s famous Chicken Vindaloo during our subsequent visits. While the Reshards were terrific (slightly sweetish), I didn’t dig the vindaloo.

So if you ever stray into Vasco, hunt down this place and have fish from there. If you don’t like it, your next meal’s on me.

Aside: Later, when I was back in Mangalore, I got this deep craving to eat some Mackeral Reshad again. So I got hold of a recipe (here’s the one: http://www.food.com/recipe/fish-reshad-stuffed-fish-goan-style-102408) and cooked myself. It turned out OK, but not as good as the one I had back in Vasco.

The other gem you should definitely visit is a bakery named Temptation. The chocolate-vanilla rolls and bebinca (a Goan sweet), which I picked up based on HOF’s recommendation, were lovely.

Then there’s the Bogmalo beach which we visited towards late evening. We had our dinner at Joet’s on the beach. The fish fingers, made from sardines (who makes fish fingers using sardines?!), destroyed the evening for us, but then some of the other dishes we had salvaged it to some extent.

The days I spent in Vasco also led me to believe that Goan women are more hardworking than men. Now, I may be wrong here, but I say this because I saw more working women than men in Vasco – selling stuff in markets, transporting heavy loads by balancing sacks and buckets on their heads, running eateries, baking cakes and bebinca, or just plain bossing their husbands.

Beardy had to rush home!

Late that night, we were awakened by a phone call that Beardy received. His tenant called from back home, saying that the house was flooded due to incessant rains in Bangalore.

Apparently, Beardy had faced this situation once earlier, when the shit had hit the fan (no, seriously. Dirt from the clogged gutters and tanks had floated in, and he was awakened in the middle of the night, floating alongside the aforementioned dirt, much closer to the fan than he had set himself to rest the previous night. It had taken him two days of back-breaking work to get his house back so that time).

After instructing his tenant to remain vertical and keep everything important 2 feet above ground level, he started checking for flights to head back to Bangalore. He booked an early morning flight which cost him four and a half thousand rupees. There went all the shoestring budget planning down the drain – what a waste! In parting, like a true optimist, he remarked thus: “On a brighter note, it’s not every day that I get to make a 15-hour train journey for dinner”.

Offbeat Goa: Morjim, Mandrem, Arambol beaches

Driving is what relaxes me the most. I sometimes wonder whether I should have pursued my childhood dream of becoming a bus driver. We were driving up north with a rough intention of seeing some of the beautiful beaches of North Goa.

Driving through the hinterlands of Goa was a fresh and beautiful experience for me. The roads in Goa, unlike those in many other parts of India, are very well maintained. Many new bridges that have come up in the past few years have connected the interiors and islands better by road.

We soon came upon Morjim beach. Sun was beating down hard, and the beautiful, white-sandy beach glistened in the sunlight. There were only a few people around, mostly foreigners, either resting on those wooden beach chairs or inside water. Morjim beach is also a nesting and hatching habitat of the Olive ridley sea turtle, an endangered species. You can see the Goa forest department’s Turtle conservation centre at the entrance of the beach.

Further north is the Mandrem beach, which we skipped and continued our journey to Arambol beach – considered one of the most beautiful beaches in Goa. Arambol, like Morjem, was not very crowded but had more shacks/eateries lining the beach. We had lunch at a nearby joint, at the beach entrance (just outside the car park). The food (again, centring on fish), though a bit oily, was fresh and good. The joint had posters of art and yoga pasted all around. These beaches up north, as I could see, were more about relaxation, peace and tranquillity. We wanted to drive to Querim (Keri) beach, the northernmost beach of Goa, but the heavy lunch made us lethargic, and we decided to drive to Chorao island lazily.

Offbeat Goa: Chorao and Divar islands

A list of Offbeat locations in Goa won’t be complete without mentioning Chorao and Divar islands. They should be on your itinerary if you want to get a taste of the picturesque settings of rural Goa. Our drive through Chorao village gave us beautiful views of green and yellow paddies, small white chapels, brightly coloured Portuguese villas and some thatched houses. We also intercepted one of the famous Goan bread seller cyclists and sampled some Pois. Chorao Island is also home to Dr Salim Ali Bird Sanctuary – Goa’s only bird sanctuary. We took the ferry to Ribander before driving back to Vasco that night.

The next day, we drove through Amona, Sanquelim, Bicholim and Maem before taking a ferry across to Divar island. My inexperience with a ferry came to the fore when I did an eight-point turn to get out front first instead of backing my car out from the ferry onto land. Had I done this in any other part of India, I would’ve been shouted at and sworn off the ferry, but here in Goa, I just got patient, helpless smiles and a bit of help in my endeavour. Good Goans. The ferry ride also offered us terrific views of Old Goa. Like the island of Chorao, Divar also offers views of elegant, well maintained Portuguese villas. After my visit to Divar, I heard from a friend of mine that some of the Portuguese villas are available for rent for visitors. Maybe next time.

Offbeat Goa: Harvalem (Arvalem) caves and waterfall

Harvalem caves, also known as “Pandava Caves, ” is a site protected by India’s Archaeological Society. Believed to have given shelter to the Pandavas, this cave has many chambers carved into a laterite hill. Further down the cave is the Arvalem waterfall, which made the trip to this place worth it to me.

Offbeat Goa: Cumbarjua

Cumbarjua canal is the only place in Goa where crocodiles can actually be seen in the wild. We did drive to the small village of Cumbarjua but failed to find someone who could take us into the canal. Asking around with the locals didn’t help either, and so we had to abort this mission. I have to go back to for this sometime. I will most probably go with these people: http://www.southernbirdwing.com/goa_wildlife/croc_cruises.htm. Or, I could visit Baga to see some crocs (based on this article. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/goa/After-Morjim-now-crocodile-shows-up-on-Baga-beach/articleshow/49559523.cms).

Ruins of St. Augustines.

I had seen what looked like a run-down church while on the ferry to Divar, and as soon as I landed in Old Goa, I decided to see this place. The structure that I’d seen was the ruins of St Augustine, which is located very close to Bom Jesus Basilica. Now in complete ruins, the church gave me the creeps, especially since there wasn’t anyone around.

Three days driving through the hinterlands, experiencing Goa’s sunny susegad did provide me with what I came looking for: a bit of peace and calm. This was a fun, offbeat trip to Goa that will stay with me forever. This is the side of Goa I want to return to someday, maybe on my bike.

P.S: Beardy got his house back in order and plans to revisit Goa during sunnier times (in Bangalore, that is).

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Update: A condensed version of this post was published on Huffington Post, India. Please click the image below to view it there:

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What about you – what are some of your favourite things to do in Goa? Leave your comments below

My friend Shankar: Techie turned farmer

Posted on November 1, 2015April 11, 2022 by SamTram

I was meeting Shankar (Shankar Kotian M) after a long gap of 16 years. Shankar is no longer a techie; He had ended his decade-and-a-half-year-old tech career in 2012 to become a full-time farmer. Time had taken away a lot of his hair, but nothing else about him had changed. This is his story, distilled from a two-hour conversation I had with him. I think what he is doing is different and inspirational; hence this feature on him.

“There was this reporter who had come to the santhe (market), and spotting a new species among the farmers there, spent some time chatting up with me”, said Shankar, smiling and pointing at himself when he mentioned ‘new species’. Shankar was telling me how the article in ‘The Hindu’ had come about. (Here’s the report: http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Mangalore/once-a-software-engineer-now-a-farmer/article7804873.ece). Shankar is indeed part of a rare, but an emerging crop of techie turned farmers who are returning to nature in search of their true calling.

Shankar - turning over a new leaf — Shankar – turning over a new leaf

A bit of history

Shankar and I were among the 15 odd software engineers who were drafted in as the ‘3^rd batch’ of Infosys, Mangalore branch back in 1996. While I was one of those uninitiated engineers taking my baby steps in the world of programming, Shankar was already creating rotating patterns and graphics (using C). He was one of those true techies, born to program. Our first project, code-named BKB2DB2, was insane – it had about ten of us working 16-18 hour days for close to 6 months straight. Shankar, with his saintly demeanour and soft, firm voice was the only calm presence amidst all the madness. After that project, we had drifted apart and lost touch with each other.

The newspaper report

It was a Whatsapp message a few days ago from a common friend of ours that reminded me of Shankar again. The message had the link to the newspaper report I mentioned earlier. The report had a picture of a goatee sporting Shankar, selling yam in a market in Mangalore.

What?! The programming ace was now after bugs of a different kind? The guy who used to give us ‘knowledge dumps’ was now dipping his hands in the real dump? I had to find out first-hand; so I tracked down his phone number and got myself invited to his farm.

The meeting

The 'ferocious' little pup! — The ferocious little pup!

Following the precise directions he had given, I drove up to his farm in Moodbidre, about 35 km from Mangalore. There he was, sporting the same cap I’d seen him wear in the report. He had built his house in the centre of his farm. I parked my car and settled comfortably on a couch on his veranda. Over a cup of coffee, we went back in time to our BKB2DB2 days, exchanged notes on hair loss and played with his 3-month-old puppy (which he hoped would grow into an aggressive watchdog. Seeing how friendly it was with me, I have my doubts).

“I always thought I was more of a research person; so after college, I wanted to get into Texas Instruments – which in the 90s was the Mecca for systems programmers”, he said, “but as fate would have it, I got selected to create business software at Infosys. Looking back, I think that was the best thing that happened to me because it exposed me to people and places and broadened my horizons”. His stint at Infosys had taken him to places like Australia, Switzerland and Japan which came in handy later when he decided to get into farming.

I asked him what made him quit his well-paying job, and why he chose to get back to nature.

“After the first 7-8 years, I started feeling a lack of challenge, … a lack of purpose. The excessive travel was also taking a toll on my health – I had a slipped disc and had to slow myself down. It was during that time that I decided I would take up farming. I started buying farmland here”.

A peacock I encountered en route to S's farm — A peacock I encountered en route to S’s farm

His journey as a farmer

He started researching more on crops, and farming methods and started talking to other farmers. He realized that most farmers just tended to follow what others were doing, and some of the natural farming practices our ancestors had developed had gotten lost in the last 30-40 years after the introduction of chemical farming. He is developing his land in stages, in a much-planned manner – typical of an engineer. He currently has rubber (his main bet), areca, paddy and maize. He is also growing vegetables on a small scale for his own consumption, and to sell in the local market.

He, like many of the young farmers today, is moving away from using chemicals and is using organic techniques. But his aim is to move up to ‘Natural farming’, since the effort to output ratio is much better there. Natural farming, as I learned from him, is about being in harmony with nature, and making nature do most of the work that a farmer otherwise expedites using machines. Natural farming observes the law of nature and respects the rights of crops and livestock. This technique, interestingly also called ‘Do-nothing farming’ (now that sounds like something I could do) heals the soil slashed by chemicals, herbicides and machines, and is considered a natural next step after organic farming.

Snapshots from Shankar Kotian's farm land — Snapshots from his farmland

The core principles around which he is designing the rest of his life are:

Leave the land better than you found it (for future generations): Natural farming techniques will make the land better. Additionally, he is also leaving some portions of his forest land as-is, for what he calls ‘lung space’
Cut out middlemen, and sell directly to the consumers: As per Shankar, middlemen mostly do not add any value and don’t help farmers in any way. He wants to create a clientele initially through friends, engage with them and then expand the network
Go the cooperative way: Instead of trying to bring about a change single-handedly, work with other farmers in the region for the betterment of all
Pass on his knowledge through agri-tourism: He plans to build a few cottages and tree houses where his clients could come over, stay, try their hand at farming and experience the lifestyle. He wants to share knowledge that he has gained with people who are contemplating getting into farming. (I have already buttered him up to be the first customer in his treehouse. You can try the other cottages)

Shankar Kotians farm - Forest left as-is for lung space — Forest left as-is for lung space

Shankar Kotians farm - He mentioned Russel vipers, so I was observing the ground closely as I walked, and noticed these colourful mushrooms — He mentioned Russel vipers, so I was observing the ground closely as I walked, and noticed these colourful mushrooms

On his Cows

Shankar is also a proud owner of 40 cows, of which 15 are yielding close to 150 litres of milk per day. He makes a slurry out of cow dung for use as manure, and also uses gobar gas for cooking.

Now here’s an interesting tidbit I got from Shankar, which could be of use if you ever went cow shopping: The buying price of a cow can roughly be calculated as the number of litres it gives per day times Rs 3,000. So if it gives 30 litres a day, you will have to pay a whopping Rs 90,000 to buy the cow. (and I thought cows went for Rs 8 – 10 thousand).

Cowshed — This cow is Shankar’s personal favourite. No wonder. She’s got the looks!

His experiments, best practices and challenges

He does a lot of farming and dairy experiments, some of which are being emulated by other farmers. Here are some he showed me:

He is trying to grow paddy without flooding the area (flooding is usually done to keep the weeds and pests out)
He has created a pipe system that pumps cow dung slurry to nearby fields, for which other farmers pay him
In his cowshed, he has designed cubicles for his cows (the partitions developed in an ‘S’ shape to help the cows sit and get up with ease), and has rubber flooring for their comfort
He has installed a car-wash pump to bathe his cows. He adjusts the pressure settings for different cleaning purposes
He is also in the process of setting up mechanized milking stations, using machinery from Sweden. Once the system is in place, cows can stroll in, connect a pump to their udders (with some human help, of course), get milked and stroll off for another round of grazing. Seeing the wonderful life his cows were leading, I wished I were a cow on his farm.
By June, he plans to build a smokehouse for getting the best quality rubber

Cowshed at Shankar Kotians farm - — ‘Car wash’ for the cows

In the process of setting up an automated milking station

He also faces challenges on a day-to-day basis, for which he develops ingenious solutions, some of them below (Reminded me of that line from the movie ‘The Martian’: “You solve one problem and you solve the next one, and then the next. And If you solve enough problems, you get to come home”. Shankar hasn’t got to potatoes yet though).

Monkeys were eating his maize saplings. He placed a life-sized tiger doll in the centre of the field. The monkeys apparently surveyed the tiger from a distance, screamed, made faces at it and tried their best to drive the tiger away. The tiger stayed put, and the monkeys were never seen again
When he first bought a few cows, he was conned – the cows weren’t giving anywhere near the amount of milk the seller said they would give. So he started breeding his own cows using the best quality insemination. So most of the cows he has now were bred on his farm

In parting

So what are some learning that he could share (with anyone who wants to get into farming)? Here are a few:

You need to plan for at least 3-to 4 yrs of sustenance money before you can hope to start living off farming alone.
Don’t just go by the trends, and what other traditional farmers are doing. Experiment with the techniques.
Read up/ research. There’s a lot of material on the internet.
Expect delays in schedule. If you estimate something to take 6 months, it usually takes double that. So be prepared for that.
Getting into farming is really a change in lifestyle.

“Isn’t is a bit lonely here? Don’t you ever miss your old life?”, I asked him. He said: “I am so far away from my old life that a return is no longer possible. I do not want to return to that. This is what I want to do in life”.

Shankar seemed content and happy. He has his plans well laid out and is moving ahead one milestone at a time. I have no doubts that he will soon be very successful as a farmer, and as an agri-tourism entrepreneur.

He saw me off with a 2.5 kg yam; so I know what I will be eating for lunch and dinner for the whole of this week.

Postscript

Further reading on Natural farming can be found here (based on Shankar’s inputs):

If you or someone you know have switched careers (from a tech job) to do something different and interesting please do connect with me. I would love to chat up and feature the story on this blog so it could inspire all of us.