Karnataka Pilgrimage Day 1 : All’s well that ends well (including two ‘pots’ of ‘gold’)- Part I

          After two successive sleepless train-borne nights, if one had to wake up so early that one is ready to be road-borne by 5.30 a.m., it is a tough start, to say the least.  If one was ready and eager to leave by the designated time and had to find another vehicle and a driver as the one supposed to turn up, did not, one knew what kind of day was in store.  This was the beginning of the Day 1 of our Karnataka Pilgrimage recently.

          We wanted to cover two places and pray at the temples and reach another temple town by the evening.  The one who planned it out for us had spent a decade in the Western Ghats, and specifically told me that the course of the journey and the serenity in the temples would compete with each other for the resultant peace of mind and the bliss of the soul.

Ullala Beach and Netravati : Sagara Teeram, Nadi Samuttaranam, Suryastamayadarsanam

          One evening in Mangalore, we decided to visit the seashore.  We reached the Ullala beach (the place Ullala being famous for a dargah) and walked around.  May be I was not in my elements, I only greeted my friend Samudra from a distance and not by touch.  I noticed that there was a slope in the landscape.  Even if the waves seemed to be low, one could never accurately gauge the depth of water so it appeared improper to venture into deep water (not that it was a valid enough excuse to keep away from Samudra).  A true friend understood silence, it was said.  Samudra did just that.