Dharmasthala-Kukke Subramanya Trip-15th-16th Nov,2013

I did not know I would be back writing about something so soon. Well this time again its about another trip with my friends to Dharmasthala-Kukke Subramanya on 15th Nov. Actually my Suma and Roopa go every year and I have been accompanying them from last year. So this was my 2nd trip to Dharmasthala-Kukke with them. Though I am not that religious and neither I follow rituals religiously but my maximum number of trips has actually been to temples only. Why I still cannot figure out maybe, the historical background of the temple attracts me to it or perhaps the story/myth behind each deity . In fact this trip was being planned from a long time from the last 4-5 months but call it coincidence we went on the same date as last year. And this time Suma has booked sleeper coaches for us as last time we had booked usual Volvo KSRTC and sitting in one place continuously for 7 hours is extremely difficult. And that too there is no space to stretch your legs the the passenger seat in front would have stretched his seat backward leaving very little space for us to move. And the sleeper coach were extremely comfortable to sleep though I could not sleep that is another thing .But before that I would also want to tell which I still have not shared with even Suma and Roopa. It was basically the number of bus accidents that have been happening in the last 15 day, the first one being Blr-Hyd bus which had caught fire which is still fresh in our minds and the latest being the Bangalore –Mumbai bus which met with an accident and which I read on the day we went. It happened the previous day i.e Thursday 3 or 3:15 am and which really scared me. I was reading about it as to how some alert passenger broke open the bus window using his head and escaped unhurt. It also showed what the passengers should know before boarding the bus the exit doors ,emergency exits, how to open the doors which uses the air suspension technique, and that there is always a hammer to break open the door/window in case it still does not open. In fact the last point gave me this idea. But till that time I had actually been praying to God that we all should go and come back safely to Bangalore and give me a hint somehow or the other whether I should go or not go .Well anyways to be on the safer side I actually packed an iron rod in my luggage just in case it might be required to break open the bus door/window and I did not mention this to both Suma and Roopa fearing my leg being pulled . But there was definitely a fear factor in my mind. In fact Suma was not even aware of the bus accidents that had happened so there was no point in talking to her and I also did not want to scare her just because I was scared and spoil the travelling mood. Well I left everything to God and boarded the Bus .We started our journey at 9:30 Pm on 15th and reached early morning at 4:30 am to Dharmasthala. I had actually thought that the rooms had been booked like last time but not this time. In fact we went to at least some 6-7 lodges that were all booked .Finally we went to the same place where we had stayed last time and luckily got a room.Last time when we had come we had visited Adi Subramanya temple which is some 6 km from Kukke and Durga Parmeshwari Temple which is again within some 5 km range from Kukke. This time also we had planned to visit a new place like last time. We had shortlisted Surya Temple which is nearer to Dharmasthala which Suma had referred to me. So we had to plan our itenirary in such a way that we should leave Dharmasthals by 11-12 pm and reach Kukke by Lunch time ,finish Darshan , have lunch within temple premises ,take some rest and them visit temple once again in the evening and take the bus back to Bangalore which was at 10:30 pm. So we got ready by 7 am and left for darshana in Dharmasthala. There was not much queue as expected and we were able to finish by 8 am after clicking some pictures. We had booked a vehicle to Surya temple which was around 16-17 km from Dharmasthala so finished our breakfast soon and left at 8:30 am towards Surya. I really liked the temple which is a Shiva temple and people who have to make a wish go there and pray and once their wish gets fulfilled have to come back and offer to the deity a mud idol related to the wish you had made and offer prayers. So we prayed and while coming back to Dharmasthala the driver took us to another temple which is a famous Ram temple. Its a huge temple which houses all idols of Gods and Goddesses including Rahu, Ketu, Sai Baba etc. All the idols are made from marble .We clicked pictures there as well and came back to our hotel room at around 11 am .We packed our luggage and left for Kukke. We reached at around 12:30 -1 pm .This time room was booked and we rested for 30 minutes and left for Darshana .We finished our darshana and had lunch in the temple premises. I do not whether it was because we were all hungry or what the food was too too good .We were gobbling up fast everything that was being put in our plate, the rice, sambar, chutney, paisam. We ate to our stomach’s fill. We then went back to our rooms collapsed on the bed and slept off peacefully for an hour or so. Evening again by 5-5:30 pm we went for darshana once again roamed around for a couple of hours , had dinner again in the temple by 8:30 pm. We came back our rooms ,relaxed for some time and boarded the bus back to Bangalore by 10:30 pm. This time I must say, the fear of travelling in the bus was completely gone and I slept peacefully .