బల్లి / తొండ శాస్త్రము (Lizard Science)

బల్లి లేద తొండ శాస్త్రము చాలా ఆశక్తిగా వుంటుంది. నా చిన్నప్పుదు పెద్ద బాల శిక్షలో చదువుకున్నాను. ఇప్పటి తరానికి పెద్ద బాల శిక్ష అంటె తెలీదు కాని మా తరం వారు ఈ పుస్తకం తప్పకుండ చదివే వారు.
బల్లి శాస్త్రంలొ బల్లి లేద తొండ మన శరీర భాగాలపైన పడితే ఏ ప్రభవం వుంటుందొ చెబుతుంది. అలాగె దోష నివారణ గురించి కూడ వుంటుంది. ఇది ఎంత వరకు నిజమొ తెలీదు కాని వినటానికి, చదవనీకి మాత్రం చాల ఆశక్తిగ వుంటుంది. ఇప్పటి తరనీకి పెద్ద బాలశిక్ష చదివే అలావాటు తక్కువ కావున, ఇక్కడ వివరణ ఇస్తున్నాను.

 అలాగే ఈ క్రింది విడియో జత పరిచాను. ఇందులొ కంచి వరదరాజుల స్వామి దేవలయాన్ని వీక్షించవచ్చు.   ఈ గుడిలోని బంగారు బల్లి, వెండి బల్లిని తాకిన వారికి బల్లి దోషాలు వుండవని నమ్మకము.

Hyderabad Weekend Trip: Pillalamarri and Alampur, Mahabubnagar.

Dear Friends,

I am coming back to blog tales after a short hiatus.
I planned to go to a small summer vacation before the school reopens and decided to go to kurnool trip for 4 days. I planned to cover the places of Pillalamarri, Alampur, Yaganti, Belum caves, Mantralayam and Adoni. Since the focus is on Hyderabad weekend, I will cover up the details of Pillalamarri and Alampur and share my experiences how these two places can be planned in a single day.

I know the USP of pillalamarri site is a large banyan tree. I was not sure whether it's really worth to see it because I was under the impression that do I need to travel that much long and spend time just to see a big banyan tree? So I clubbed this in my kurnool trip but found out to be a surprise pleasant site.

Giving the details below how I planned the trip:

1) Mode of travel: Car (hyundai i20).
2) Start time: 8.30 A.M.
3)  Distance : 100 kms
4) Time to travel: 1 hour 45 minutes.
5) Return time: Evening, same day.

We (me and my family) started from Hitech city and took the outer ring road near Gachibowli. From outer ring road it's a traffic free journey till our destination. I switched on the GPRS in my mobile and headed towards Kurnool highway. Near Jadcherla we need to take right turn, so we get down from the highway bridge and took a right turn. From here onwards it is a normal two way lane and there will be no sign boards or milestones showing about Pillalamarri. But my GPRS is showing the same route. I crossed checked with locals whether I am following the right route or not. They confirmed me the route is right.

On the way crossed a railway lane and reached Mahbubnagar. Took a right turn at one of the junction and found a welcome board of Pillalamarri. After few kilometers I reached the spot. There's a good parking place available and I parked my vehicle there and took the tickets at the counter. It was around 10.15 A.M when I reached the site.

At the counter I enquired what places we can see and came to know that apart from the tree, there's a mini zoo and temple. So bit relief to me because apart from big tree there's also other places to see.

After a few steps we were into the park and found the banyan tree. This tree is really big and we were surprised to see how branches of trees are rooted into the grounds and emerged as one more tree thus making it visible as a large banyan tree. Came to know that this is a third generation tree.

We were not alone and saw few families already occupying the places under the shades of the tree. It was a working day but good to see these visitors. We roamed the place and my kids climbed the branches. My kids were very happy to see such a kind of tree, why not? it's a unique tree and we cannot see nearby our localities.

Under any shades of such tree, the primary activities of the visitors is to eat and dine. We too completed our breakfast. Now don't expect any hotels or restaurants in this site. We need to carry our own food and drinks. The toilets are totally unhygienic and I recommend to use the mini zoo toilets as these are much better than near the tree.

Following are few pics of the banyan tree for your glimpse.

 

There's a tomb in the site but I don't see much significance for this one in the site. So after spending substantial time we moved towards zoo. We need to take the tickets again and visited the mini zoo. The mini zoo contains small bird sanctuary and a deer park.

The bird sanctuary has some colorful birds and after clicking few snaps we moved to deer park. We found two deers at the long site and one deer came to us running, expecting some food. We don't want to feed the deer with human eatables and fed some leaves. We were very happy that deer came for us and spent some time for us. Took some close up shots of the deer. 

I am not posting the snaps of birds or details of zoo as I don't want to spoil your fun revealing everything. I will post the deer snap shot which came very near to us.

 

So we completed the site seeing in two hours including the breakfast. Now the time is around 12.00 and we have resumed our journey to our next destination.

Pillalamarri is a perfect destination for a short weekend trip from Hyderabad. In 5-6 hours we can complete the sight seeing and return back to Hyderabad by afternoon.What else, you can plan a movie or shopping in the evening also. If some one wants an extended site seeing one can add Alampur temples which is 2 hours journey from Pillalamarri and 130 Kms.

I switched on the GPRS for direction to Alampur and it showed a different route to Alampur avoiding the Bangalore highway. But I preferred the highway route and returned back to this route and switched on the GPRS again. This time it showed the highway route directions.

We need to take left before 30kms from Kurnool and by the time we reached it's around 1.30 P.M. The parking place is congested but I managed to park the vehicle. We came to know that temple is closed during that time and it will reopen at 2.00 p.m. again. We spent half an hour time finishing the lunch for our kids and checked the dam near the temple. After 2.00 p.m. the temple is opened and we completed the formalities. Following are few snapshots of Alampur.

Nothing exciting in the temple site to me but may be a joyful visit for a traditional pilgrim. We can wrap up the site seeing here in 1 hour and return back to Hyderabad by evening.

Overall Pillalamarri is a good trip and if we go with minimum expectations we can enjoy the site seeing. Add the Alampur temple visits if you are looking for a full day trip.

If time permits I will come up with details of my Kurnool trip.

Hyderabad Weekend Trip: Bidar Site Seeing

Dear friends, I would like to share my weekend trip to Bidar, Karnataka which is around 130 kms from Hyderabad.

Date of Journey: 11-Jan-2014
Start Time: 10.00 AM AM
Return Date and Time: 13-Jan-2014, 1.30 P.M.
Accommodation: 2 nights.
Mode of travel: Car – Hyundai  i20.

Even though I spend 2 nights and 2 days, one can trim the duration of the trip based on their comfort. At the end of this narration I will provide the different options in exploring the Bidar trip.
To start with, I was fed up with routine trips to places where we will visit temples, forts and other site seeing places. So this time I was planning to do something different and searched google if there were any nearby destinations available for an ideal weekend trip. I came across Black buck, Jungle lodges resort located in Bidar. They are offering a forest/nature exploration camp and also the local Bidar site seeing. I am very much interested to visit a forest exploration from long time and preferred to explore this place as it is very near to Hyderabad.

Previously I tried to visit this place during Dussehra holidays but all the bookings were full. So this time I planned to visit during Sankranthi vacation.
I booked for 2 days and 2 nights package in Jungle lodges resorts and started on Saturday, 11-Jan-2014 at 10.00 A.M. from Balanagar accompanying my wife and 2 daughters. Followed the route of Kukatpally à Patancheru à Sadashivpeta à Zaheerabadà Bidar. I used the google maps navigation from my mobile and it made my life easy. No confusion and no assistance from passerby. Therefore I strongly recommend GPRS navigation for car mode of tranport. I chosen the destination as Jungle Lodges, Bidar in google maps and it perfectly guided me to the destination which is located 5 kms inside the forest.

With respect to the road conditions, after crossing the BHEL tollgate road it is two lane road and we cannot go on high speeds. 70% of road conditions are OK but about 30-40 kms road is pretty bad. Finally it took three and half hours for me to reach the resorts.
After check-in we were allotted cottage number 8 and it is the best cottage of entire Jungle lodges. The lodge itself is located in the forest and adjacent to the lake. The cottage number 8 has direct access to the lake and no other cottage has this facility. This is a execute cottage and cost wise it is higher than others.

The forest experience is first of its kind for us and our entire family immediately enjoyed the serene location and ambience of the surrounding. The cottages are located with beautiful scenic places and one has to experience it rather than sharing it.

Jungle lodges have a planned program and they will engage you with various activities. Below is the list of programs –

1)      Black bucks (deer) site seeing.

2)      Coracle boat ride and bird watching.

3)      Trekking and nature walking

4)      Camp fire and star gazing.

5)      Bidar site seeing (applicable in 2 nights package only).  

6)      Cycling and boating are optional and are charged additionally.

I don’t want to give minute details of these programs as I don’t want to spoil the fun and surprises. All these programs are good and none of them can be missed for a first time forest explorer. The package also includes breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks including Tea/Coffee. Alcoholic beverages are also available. The food is good and Hyderabadis need not be worried about it.
Below are some pics of the resort and forest –
       

        
The Bidar local site covers the following –

1) Bidar Fort
2) Barid Shahi Garden
3) Gurudwara Nanak Jhira Saheb and ChowbaraGurudwara
4) Underground temple of Laxmi narasimha

Of the above I liked Bidar Fort and Barid Shahi Garden. Bidar is a beautiful town with lots of greenery. It is also blessed with good and wide roads and reasonable traffic. Below are some pics of Bidar site seeing –



Some of the drawbacks of the Jungle lodges are –

1) Television is not available.
2) You cannot use high power utilities like Iron box.
3) Poor mobile network.
Also be prepared to come with the dress code relevant to trekking and forest walk.

Considering the forest life, solar power generation, and not disturbing the forest life I can understand the above drawbacks can be bearable for 1-2 days.

In the below table I am attempting to provide the various trip options and budget involved so that one can plan accordingly.

Trip option	Trip coverage	Budget	Remarks
Option 1	If someone is interested in only Bidar site seeing, start early around 7.00 or 8.00 A.M. You can complete your site seeing in 4 hours and can return back to Hyderabad by night 7.00 or 8.00 P.M.	Car – Petrol cost for to and fro will be around 2500 rs. For bus travelers it will be much cheaper and one can hire auto for local site seeing. The cost can be wrapped up in < 1000 rs for a 4 member family.	No nature camp is planned here.
Option 2	Book the resort for 1 day and 1 night. Reach the Jungle lodge by 12.00 P.M and complete their packaged program. Checkout by 11.00 A.M. next day and complete the Bidar local site seeing	The travel cost is same as mentioned in option 1. Additionally one need to pay for Jungle lodge cottage. This will be in the range of 3600 to 4500 per person for one day depending on the type of cottage. Children below 5 years are not charges and for below 12 years the cost is reduced by 50%	This will be a hectic schedule. For car mode of travelers the option of two drivers will make the trip easy.
Option 3	2 nights and 2 days program of Jungle lodges	Calculate the charges for two days. For me the entire cost was around 27000 Rs.	Will be leisure and relaxing trip.
Option 4	Skip the Bidar site seeing and plan only forest camp	As mentioned in option 3.	Not a recommended one as Bidar site seeing will be missed. Suitable who had seen Bidar previously.

Overall the trip is exciting and beautiful. Someone who had previously experienced bigger forest camps or wild life camp may be disappointed.  Such people can plan Bidar site seeing. But for the first timers the forest camp and Bidar site seeing will be a unique experience.