The weekend was surprisingly exciting, as always the planning for this one was ON from the last weekend itself but somehow I was not so confident about this particular plan! So what was this plan that I was not so keen in taking part? (As you would be aware now that I am very sporting kinda fellow. still) Well, to start – it involved exercise plus driving all the way to Lalbagh then walking & enjoying the nature and birds chirping etc (I don’t know how you enjoy anything empty stomach?). But then we (Aditi, Vikash plus we 2) realized that there is a restaurant right outside Lalbagh! MTR – one of the oldest and still the best place to eat real Karnataka food. The lunch here is so awesome that the waiting period sometimes runs into hours as well. But we planned only for a breakfast, after the so called morning walk.
All of us reached there at 7am, the walk was more of a lalbagh darshan (and as expected I was only day dreaming about badaam halwa). This also gave our ladies to plan another outing. For all you know 2 thing are given the utmost priority – Food and Travel (in this group). Others items in this list is not much of my botheration till the time food is there. So after a heavy show of health consciousness all of us dived into ghee laden baadaam halwa, rava idli and masala dosa. Ah…so much so for the healthy morning walk!
It was decided that we will get up at 6am and leave by 7 for Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary, Srirangapatnam. We left at 7:30am, not much delayed and as confessed in the last paragraph I stopped at the Shivalli Restaurant for some pongal, idli, wada and kesari bhaat (suji halwa with 5kg ghee). Once I refueled myself (the driver) and the car, we reached Ranganathittu at 10:30am (134 kms from Bangalore). There we started the process of bird watching…were not that lucky so had to stare at the real birds onlyL. Everyone here thought he/she is a professional photographer and repented not having a SLR camera, we infact bought 1 each (virtually). Am attaching few such captures.
Then we also went to the Daria Daulat Bagh, summer palace of Tipu Sultan. It was a very soothing place, we infact relaxed also on the lawns and did our favorite timepass – Gupshup. Left the place at 6:15pm then reached home by 8:30pm. Thanks to me for a very skillful driving.
Well, the story does not end here – the day ended with a biryani each at Hyderabad Biryani. Wherever there is food I am on for that plan. Hence proved.
Adi dear, what do you mean that you 'realized' there is a restaurant outside Lalbagh???? You agreed to this plan in the first place because of MTR. And yes, in this happily active group the 2 boys live to eat and the 2 girlslive to travel and see the world!
I dunno how you'll look at this. But this trip was so much fun, that soon me and Juhi shall be making fresh plans. However, you're lucky boys..cause Indian food is as diverse and exciting as is the geography, history and culture of this country. Jai Hind!