I answered that question with bike rides to outskirts of Bangalore. We are currently getting pre-monsoon showers at Bangalore - and the weather is awesome at this time of the year (it usually is when compared to most parts of the country all throughout the year). Cool breezy days, sun playing hide-n-seek with the dense clouds, and slight drizzle every now and then urges you to go out and have fun. Getting wet in the drizzle was never a problem, nor was travelling! So Lopa and I went out on the first instance of pre-monsoon showers on a brilliant Saturday morning in the first weekend of June.
The destination was the Art of Living ashram on the Kanakpura road. It had been raining pretty consistently over the past few days, and I was pretty sure the greenery around the place would be soothing to the eyes. Both of us had no interest in the ashram as such except for the visual treat that could be awaiting us. Lopa had earlier hesitated on the mention of the place - but the weather this time around coaxed her to do something off the beaten track (read visiting malls, eating out, watching movies, or doing nothing!).
We started out from BTM towards the Bannerghatta road, with the idea to catch the ring road on our way to Kanakpura road. But as we chit-chatted along the way, I missed the diversion and continued driving towards Bannerghatta National Park. I realized the mistake only when we saw a constant traffic piling up on the road. I wondered if everyone in town was the weekend getaway mode just like the two of us. We had three options now: take a U-turn and catch the ring road, continue beyond Bannerghatta National Park and go to a small stream-turning-into-waterfall (something Lopa and I researched about only the previous day), and third was to take the NICE road which would connect us to the Kanakpura road.
We chose the third option and after a short while when we negotiated the truck traffic and the toll gate, we were greeted with a perfect wide highway which had minimal traffic. Driving through that stretch was a pleasure as we passed through some scenic views. Soon we erached the diversion point for Kanakpura road, the ashram being a few more kilometers ahead. As we entered the Ashram, we were delighted to see the greenery around the place. Ashrams are usually located in the outskirts of cities/towns for the peaceful and serene locales - probably it helps in all the meditation, and prayer chanting!
We parked our bike and continued towards the large meditation hall (lotus shaped?). Lopa liked the ampitheatre in front of the hall while I insisted on some photographs with the meditation hall in the backdrop. As we clicked along, a security guard started shouting at us in Oriya from some distance. He must have overheard us speaking in the language. The mentor of the Art of Living ashram, Sri Sri Ravishankar was passing through in a golf cart. The guard wanted us to see him as he passed through. Several people were following him, trying to catch a glimpse of the popular man. Our non-chalance with his presence intrigued the guard, for he felt anyone who visits the ashram surely would be eager to see the man behind such a popular vocation of sorts. We on the other hand were amused by the attention given to the man, especially from a devout follower who kept folding his hands and looking through the horizon in the direction where the preacher went. Well, for all his good work, I believe people should differentiate between respect and devotion - and treat humans as they are, mortals and not divine ones!
We continued looking around the campus, had a look at the kitchen hall from a distance. A huge number of disciples emerged from the meditation hall. Apparently some course was being undertaken and probably Mr. Ravishankar was giving a discourse to the group. All of them were headed towards the kitchen hall for lunch and therefore we avoided going in that direction.
We went to the meditation hall and had to keep our footwear at the shoe stand. A senior member of the ashram asked us to wait before all the disciples left for the kitchen hall. We waited for a while, and realizing he was acting as a nagging monitor for everyone, we left our footwear at a particular place he wanted it and continue towards the meditation hall. Since the meditation hall is at slight elevation from the rest of the ashram, it offers brilliant views of the area surrrounding the ashram. There was a little lake visible from the top, and we decided to go near it. Apart from us, there was one more trigger happy foreigner couple who were taking a lot of photographs. The rest, were all "well dressed" disciples of the ashram! Lopa could not help but comment on some very fine clothes that some of the ladies were wearing (she is all for modern fashion - be at home, office, or outings!). I must admit, many of them were dressed in embroidered creams, and starched white - and they all seemed to come straight out of a Bollywood movie. As about the comment from Lopa - relate the following items: wealth, perfect finery in apparel, irritation and a madness in life, ashram, peace of mind, Art of Living. Link all of them and I guess you will fix the jigsaw puzzle :P
We strolled along the campus to reach the lake, but be could not find it. We decided that was it for our excursion in the ashram campus. Lunch was a little overdue and we had picked out some dhabas just before the ashram campus. We returned back and entered a place which was not exactly a dhaba, it was more a restaurant. I forget the name but the place had a good leafy ambience and it looked almost like Inchara at JP nagar. We ordered a few things and most of them came out well. Especially the chilly egg pepper dry, and the chilly prawn pepper dry - or some similar names. Mostly it was the freshly grounded pepper and kadi patta which gave a crackling flavour in the rainy backdrop. Satiated with our hunger pangs, we left for home and had another watch-a-english-movie session (or something like that, the multiplex-Bollywood saga ensured we upgraded our english movie have-seen list). Later in the night, when another urge to go out for a drive occured post dinner, we drove to Lory's (Lopa's younger sis) place at Brookefield. What else could we do - we were blessed with great weather on a Saturday!!
