Trip to Wayanad May 14-17 ,2013

Around 300 Kms from Bangalore. Took a hired Innova. Could have done with a better driver. Arrogant , glum fellow who when told that he needs to follow signals explained no one in Bangalore follows rules , in fact he challenged me to show one driver who follows rules.

Apart from that the trip was great. Only when we go to a place, you do a bit of research and the confusions and our own wrong notions about the place get cleared. To start with Wayand is not a town, it is a district which has a few towns. When we go from Bangalore, the first place in Wayanad that you cross is Sulthan Bathery, nest Kalpetta and then Lakkidi . We stayed in Upavan resort in Lakkidi. Kind of hill station or shoud we say hill district, picturesque , beautiful. Lakkidi is at a good elevation, should have been around 1500 Mtrs , we realised it only when we got down the other side down to some town in  Kozhikode district going down a 9 hair pin bends through ghats and hill sides 

The resort is located very well, bang on the main road but tucked in slightly to ensure that the traffic does not affect the occupants.The first day, we had the resort almost all to ourselves. Spent time in the games room located at a good height within the resort , close to the cottages . 

Next day  (15 May ), we made a trip to the Pookkote lak , located very close to the resort ( just a couple of kilometers ) , went for boating , from there proceeded to Thushargiri falls ( about 30 kms ) down the ghat secton and through some rough terrain also. With some effort got to the place. Hardly any water. Falls or false ? not sure. There was some pretense of falls. Should be good after the monsoon.

Really enjpoyed the baoting. Taken around by Surendra, the boatman.

Vishaal spent time on the small swimming pool, Enjoyed himslef

Later went up to the recreation room , played TT etc. Very enjoyable. 

My impression was that in this kind of a place ( height above sea level was around the same as Yercaud or could be a bit lower also) ,one thought , coffee and pepper only are grown

Was told and in fact the next day (16 May ), also saw , on the way to Banasura sagar dam, few tea gardens of Harrisons Malayalam ( Achoor estate) and in fact on the earlier day (on way to Thushargiri falls) saw several rubber trees with pots tied to collect rubber fluid.

Banasura sagar dam was quite hot, ( around 20 kms from the resort) , pretense of water and some boating (speed boats unlike Pookoote lake which has only row and pedal boats )

Wayand has Tea, coffee and rubber and some pepper also.

Cool in Lakkidi. Came to know and partly we ourselves realised that , staying in Lakkidi was the best thing since that appears to be the coolest.

Stay was excellent, well maintained and reasonably large rooms , food was average , not bad at all

On our way back had food in Kamath Madhuwan. I recall that we had one earlier in the same place. They serve North Karnataka food. Place best avoided. We would have been better off eating inside the city in a place like Siddharth or President.

Takes aorund 6 hrs and add the break of 30-60 mts , total could be around 7 Hrs

Drive through the forests was great. You pass through some parts of Bandipur, Moole hole and Muthangi wild life sanctuary.

Route from Bangalore to Chennapatna to Ramnagar. Mandya, Srirangapatna, Mysore, Nanjangode, Gundipetla,Sulthan Bathery,Kalpetta, Lakkidi.

Cricketer of the Century - Sachin Tendulkar by Vimal Kumar and Warne by Gideon Haigh

The book on Tendulkar by Vimal Kumar is just a rehash of so many things already written or said about him. Vimal Kumar has made the effort of getting some write up from people who either have not said much about him or where he wanted elaboration. Obviously he is a big fan and admirer of Sachin Tendulkar. Most of such books including the one I read a few months back by Mani Krishnaswamy are more a chronicle of events , Tendulkar's innings or rehash of what has been already said.

Not that the books are bad, they are readable but do they bring in the man behind .his struggles, his emotions, pressures, critical nature of some of his innings, etc no is the answer  . Tendulkar as a person has always been what they call an enigma wrapped in a riddle. People know that he had conquered odds and made a terrific comeback after injuries. People also know, as one of the Physios mentioned, was it John Gloster ?, that the whole nation got down to learning what a tennis elbow meant , what kind of stress can cause back or shoulder problems. Sachin Tendulkar's injury is prime time discussion. In our ordinary and relatively pressureless life , where we are not under national scrutiny , we have our own personal problems and are trying to cope with the same. There is always desire to know the champion's mind or someone to tell us what went through his mind during his best years and worst years, how he planned , whether he targeted some bowlers, (recall Olonga) , how he coped with failures, why he is still playing inspite of the fact that he is way past his best, who advises him ?????.Not saying for a moment that all these have to be dealt with, but some of it atleast should have been dealt with. It is quite possible that , Tendulkar is so well protected or has insulated himself that journos can never be privy to such information. These days reading a book on Tendulkar is like a re reading a newsreport , nothing more nothing less.

As against these, book by Gideon Haigh on Warne, though  not an authorised biography, has dealt with the champion, his cricketing ability, his personal struggles, weaknesses, his mentoring etc.Of course one has to concede that Warne's life has been like one of those TV serials , always in public glare/eye, with great on field achievements, spicy off field conquests etc. Haigh has dealt with and analysed  the physical , that is the purely cricketing aspects of the success, how he kept the art simple with few variations but being on top of such variations, how competitive he had been. The author also brings out how Warne was genuinely appreciative of great performers like Tendulkar and Lara and generous with even his so called bunnies like Darryl Cullinan.He also talks of the rivalry for captaincy between Warne and Waugh , literally making Warne declare that Waugh was a much lesser batsman than many, in fact the author delcares that at some stage, Warne thought that Waugh was even better than Tendulkar and Lara.This was a turnaround which the author  substantially attributes to their personal rivalry . Warne's captaincy ambitions are put paid by his off field advetures including a hobnobbing with an Indian bookie through Saleem Mallik.

Good book.Better than a racy TV serial, which was how Warne led his life. The author also talks of how Warne has kept himself relevant even after retirement.