Solid Smoke

I've never been an ardent temple goer. Till recently, my visits to the temple coincided with my birthdays. Yup, that's almost once a year.. So, I was not too enthusiastic when ma family planned a trip to Sri Mookambika temple. But the promised trip to Kudajadri wooed me in. My sister and her husband did all the planning and route preparation. I did absolutely no research or enquiries on the planned route or the destinations.. lazy me! അതെ, നാണമില്ല എന്ന് തന്നെ കൂട്ടിക്കോളൂ.. ;-) We reached Kollur (that's in Karnataka) one evening, and the very next morning had a visit to the temple. The temple near the Sowparnika river is quite serene and peaceful (thanks to proper crowd management). No photos to publish though.. എന്നാലും, ചെരുപ്പിട്ട പശുവിനെ കണ്ടിട്ടില്ലെങ്കില്‍, ഇതാ ഒരെണ്ണം! Murudeshwar After the temple visit, we hired a Scorpio and sped off to Murudeshwar . Murudeshwar is a new generation temple-cum-tourist spot! There are impressive constructions around the small tem

The Mahindra & Mahindra Jeep is a very popular vehicle around here. The Police use it, and so do the Miltary (at least they used to). The M&M Jeep can be found almost everywhere in Kerala (and throughout India, I'm told), and is a hot favourite in high-range areas. I had a trip to കുടജാദ്രി (Kudajadri or Kodachadri) a couple of days back, and now the Jeep has a new ardent fan - me! The Jeep is a famous off-road vehicle. I've been impressed by it's performance and the so called hanuman gear (in the 4x4 version) during our trip to Paithalmala last month. But this was a whole new experience for me. The road was virtually non-existant, and our 2x2 Jeep did the 10km climb with ease. It was rocking journey, quite literally. Dinesh, our driver (ഒരു നല്ല മലയാളി), told us that the Jeep is quite rugged and the only maintenance it requires are the occasional broken leaf springs and pierced fuel tanks. The previous day, we had asked the driver of a Mahindra Scorpio if he