I’m pretty sure, that the first place that comes to any Bangalorean’s mind when thinking of a day trip is Nandi Hills. It’s a place I’ve visited innumerable times, but still doesn’t fail to catch my interest every time. There’s just that one view or that one tree that’ll catch my fancy and make it yet another special visit.
I remember the first time I went was with my parents, siblings, and a bunch of cousins and uncles and aunts. I was in middle school then and the archeology bug had bitten me bad. Nandi Hills seemed full of possibilities. I knew it had something to do with Tipu Sultan, and he used to push his enemy soldiers off the rocky cliff there, but that was just about it. Once there, I saw the very old temple there, and I was fascinated. I roped in my cousin into my plot to analyze the secrets of the temple. We went about collecting pebbles strewn around the temple, in the hopes of “analyzing” them once we got home. I think we even tried to pry off a piece of stone or two from the pillars just outside the temple, but got scolded by my extremely perplexed dad. I prefer to block that part out of my mind. Nevertheless, we still had a plastic bag full of stones. That night we reached my house and immediately proceeded to wash the pebbles and scrub the dirt vigorously out of it in the hopes of finding some inscription or other. Nothing emerged, so we gave up. I vaguely remember the bag full of extremely clean pebbles lying around at home for a few days, then grandpa spotted it and threw it away after a lot of grumbling about wayward grandchildren who filled the house with dirt.
Anyway, after that trip I have been to Nandi Hills several more times. With family, with friends… and every time it has been interesting.
This time it was no different. Not to worry, there was no archeology involved, and I didn’t collect any rocks this time. It was the gorgeous clouds, trees, dew-soaked leaves and grass that caught my eye.
Aren’t the clouds absolutely gorgeous? All brilliant blue sky and fluffy white clouds suddenly turning into badass grey and further into menacing black…
The (in)famous temple seemed to be blending into the sky.
This monkey jumped on to the roof of our car as soon as we parked. It had a packet of food which it began to eat. We were amused at first at its antics, especially the kids. But when we came back from our wanderings we saw it had left its poop all over the windshield. Ugh. Bad monkey.
Just a sample of the plants that I found interesting. Look how green and soft that grass looks!
That wild, untameable hair! It was really windy up there.
I thought these iron grills looked very pretty!
That’s about most of us…
I really loved these colourful benches. They weren’t here the last time I visited.
Oh these trees! So beautiful, graceful. Despite, or maybe because, they’re so old and gnarled, and moss covered.
I HAVE to talk about this dahi vada we had at the restaurant just before turning off the highway. It was yumm!