Turtle Bay Beach Resort

Had been on a team outing to Turtle Bay beach resort near Kundapura a couple of weeks ago. It is a beautiful place, located right on the beaches of Arabian Sea, some 100km north of Mangalore. I particularly like the beaches of Arabian Sea rather than the east coast mainly for the amazing sunsets that one can catch here.

There is a small island where they take on a boat and you get to see a lot of sea creatures like sea urchins, different varieties of crabs, fish. Dolphins and turtles are also spotted occasionally. They also have snorkeling and scuba diving but they need a full day for it. Just relaxing on hammocks watching the beach, listening to the waves is an experience in itself.

Needless to say, you can jump into the waters and stay there forever, getting your skin tanned, experiencing the sea and sun and sand. The best part is they have life jackets which you can use if you are thalassophobic (scared of sea). Even if you’re not a phobic, trying floating on top of the waves with life jackets is a nice experience. You have a stretch of the beach all for yourselves. However, beyond that ‘stretch’ the place gets dirty.
You can also visit the place of confluence of Sowparnika river with Arabian sea. And also visit some islands and villages, like Padukone (he he, the guys in our group went there and just missed an encounter with Deepika!!)
Simply watching the sandpipers on the beach is enough too. There is also ample scope for birding - their website boasts of about 55 species in and around the resort. I couldn’t dedicate much time for it, but I can definitely say there is ample opportunity.
The resort is a mid range place, pretty decent for the amount they charge, though the services aren’t that great. Rooms are clean and neat with basic amenities, food is average, they make you wait for a long time after placing your order and it’ll be mostly cold when you get it. The non vegetarians had a better choice, though. However, the place makes up for all of it!

Accessibility - Buses ply from Bangalore to Kundapur overnight. From Kundapur, take another bus to Trasi, and then a rickshaw for a couple of km to reach the resort. Or fly/take train to Mangalore and hire a taxi from there.

The first showers

It rained last night; the first showers of the year. All the heat that had started accumulating is cooled down now. Everything seemed to have calmed down this morning. The rains had washed away all the dirt, and all the dust had settled down.

The roads looked so clean this morning, and the trees so beautiful and cheerful, in spite of having lost their leaves. Though barren and dry after the fall, the trees now seemed to have got a new hope to grow new leaves. And the birds were cheerfully chirping and seemed to be getting ready to build their nest for breeding this season. There is a fresh look to everything around. Everything seems to have started life afresh, anew.
It was such a pleasure to drive to work this morning.

The wolf and the kid

There was this kid who lived in a cottage in the woods with her mother. When the baby threw tantrums and cried, the mother warned her that if she cried, she would give her away to the wolf in the woods. The wolf, passing by, heard this and stopped out of the door, waiting. The kid soon stopped crying and the wolf heard the mom and kid happily play inside. It stayed there still waiting, hoping the kid would cry again, and that the mother would give her off to him.

The kid did cry again, the next day making the wolf happy and hopeful for a moment, when he heard the mother say the same words. The wait was again in vain, since the mother and kid yet again started playing joyfully inside.

This went on everyday, with the wolf waiting patiently, hoping and losing hope, rather than finding an alternative to find his food and live, while the kid happily grew up on the other side.

The wolf realized it too late that he had wasted his life being stupid to keep waiting with a false hope, for something that was never going to be.

A meaningless wait!

From scorn to smile

I wasn’t in a very good mood this morning when I started from home. When in such state my usual norm is to speed off past whoever possible on the road, and honk the horn loud and long at others who are mis-driving - my way of yelling at people when they’re not driving right and when I’m off mood.

So, today there was this small car in front of me, who I was desperate to over take and was following it at the same speed since the road was narrow. At one point the car suddenly shifted from its lane and slowed down without any signal at all. I managed not to hit it, by slowing down my old active too. Got irritated more and honked loud as usual, cribbing about the guy driving.

Oh well, just at that moment, I saw a small cute little puppy, crossing the road, just in front of the car. It had just missed getting run over by the car, thanks to the mis-driven car! Immediately my mood changed, and my scorn changed to a smile. I wanted to acknowledge the driver for having saved a life, just in time.

I sped faster, and came parallel to this car - turned and smiled at the middle aged gentleman on the driving seat. He too got my point and smiled back heartily.
Well, now I no longer wanted to speed past him, though I could, but instead, followed him at his pace. And I was happy rest of the day :)