Mysore Bangalore Highway Robbery Attempt

I urge all my readers to spread this and give warnings to as many people, especially those who are in Bangalore and similar metro cities, those who drive late night, or even during day time, AND ESPECIALLY TO THOSE OF YOUR FRIENDS WHO TRAVEL TOWARDS WAYANAD, MYSORE, CALICUT, KANNUR, OOTY OR KASARGOD BY CAR FROM BANGALORE.

Location: Just after 1 kilometer from Mandya towards Mysore
When: 12th April 2011 (Tuesday) at around 10:30 pm
What: An unsuccessful car robbery attempt/or a robbery attempt on us

The door beam which was damaged by the stone thrown at us

This unpleasant event happened to me and my friends on 12th April 2011 (Tuesday) at around 10:30 pm, while two of my Friends (Binoy and Nirmal) and me were driving towards Wayanad to cast our Vote on the next day for the State Assembly Election in Kerala. We started from Electronic city in Bangalore at around 8:00pm, and just after crossing the city of Mandya, this event took place. Binoy was sitting behind and Nirmal along with me on the front seats. As soon as we crossed the city of Mandya and reached a place outside the town where there are no street lights or buildings or anything nearby, the rear window glass on the left side shattered with a loud bang noise, the safety glass granules got spread all over the rear cabin seats and on Binoy.
The place was very lonely, and nobody is in visible highway section in the car light. I on the driving seat could not understand what really happened, because the road was pretty clear and straight with two lanes on each side with no chances of hitting anything and no vehicles in rear and forward 1 kilometer. When we understood what happened and when I slowed down the car to stop, Binoy asked me NOT to stop the car and told that he is OK to be in that condition to travel a few kilometers until we reach a well-lighted safe area.
We traveled another 5 kilometers towards Mysore and stopped in front of a Petrol pump with enough street lights and people nearby. We checked the car and could not find anything other than the glass broken. We speculated theories that either it happened due to the harmonic vibration of the glass at around a speed of 80~90 kilometers at that time, or the glass got broken because of a manufacturing defect itself, but why with such a big noise? We called our friends an asked if Ford does have any such bad history. I remembered about a review that I read 3 years back before buying this Ford Fiesta, where somebody wrote that his Fiesta’s rear glass broken and shattered all of a sudden without any reason.

We cleaned the glass particles using some extra cotton floor mats that were kept in the boot of the car, and decided to resume and cast the vote and come back, but not to cancel the trip and go back to Bangalore.
Later we stopped for refreshments at Hunsur, just before taking a turn towards Gonikoppal (Gonikuppa). When we again inspected the car, I found the mark of something hit on the beam of my car where the rear door wind shield is fixed. Then we understood that it was a big stone thrown against the wind shield, to make us stop and to make a victim of another sad robbery. We remembered about a couple of news articles about high way robbery in similar manner on Mysore – Bangalore state highway.


Few good things that happened:
1. The stone did not hit on the front wind shield which could have made us stop the car for sure.
2. A hit on the front windshield may cause me to lose driving control which may cause a severe accident on such high speeds.
3. Binoy asked as not to stop, until we reach a safe point far away from the location.
4. I was not traveling with my family alone.


Few bad things:
1. We could not alarm the police (100).
2. The police system is not an easy approachable thing at the location.
3. Even though my brother asked me to log a complaint in Mandya Police station, I hesitated to do that thinking of the unnecessary problems that may be created along with it.


A few things that we learned:
1. Never stop in such highways on any dark areas for anything
2. If possible, never stop the car on such situation, and try to reach a safe destination if possible.
3. Carry a small weapon like a knife.
4. Carry a pepper spray in you r car and keep in in the shelves on the door easily accessible to the driver and not seen by others.

Sunset @ Bangalore-Mysore Road

This sunset picture was taken during my ride to my home town in Wayanad from Bangalore via Mysore on February 29th of 2008.

Survival of the fittest

The tree has already shed it leaves as a preparation towards the boiling heat of the summer. You can see that there are no big trees in the surroundings, wonderful that it survived all these years and grown up. The photo is taken from near Gundalet, on the way from Mysore to Sulthan Bathery. It was a bike trip from Bangalore to Wayanad; I started at 6:00 am in the morning and reached my home at Payyampally by 1:25pm. It was a fun to have such a long ride of 300 kilometers in bike.

Solitary Bike trip to Shivanasamudram

Panoramic view of Shivanasamudram

Shivanasamudram also know as Siva Samudram or Sivasamudram is 120 kms from Bangalore and around 60 kms from Mysore. River Cauvery splits and falls down through the rocky steep to create two magnificent waterfalls – Gagana chukki (A dot in the sky) (height – around 100 meters) & Bhara Chukki (height – around 80 meters). The two water falls are adjacent to each other, but to reach from one of them to the other location by vehicle, a distance of about 10 – 12 kms need to be covered. Asia’s first hydroelectric project is set up in 1905 very near to Shivanasamudram.

Shivanasamudram

I was eager to visit this place from the point of time I heard about these waterfalls from some of my colleagues who visited it during the monsoon time, when the waterfall was in it peak strength. It got postponed many times due to unexpected reasons, at last I made it on 17th of September 2006. Yes, I made the trip long back ago, but was not able to blog about it till now, since I lost the pictures, but I got it back after a long time, from the PC of one of my friend.

Paddy fields on the way to Shivanasamudram

I thought of having a long bike ride alone, and instead of taking the trivial route - Bangalore - Kanakpura - Malvalli – Shivanasamudram which accounts for 120 kms, I took the Bangalore Mysore Highway till Mandya (100kms) and from Mandya I took a left turn and reached Shivanasamudram by traveling another 55 kms. I started from Banashankari 3rd stage at 8:00 am, reached Mandya by 10:00 am and had my breakfast. It took another one hour for me to reach Shivanasamudram.

My companion for all picnic

I truly enjoyed a bump free 100 kms ride in Pulsar 150 cc through Bangalore – Mysore highway. But there after the road was not in that perfect condition, but still good. The sight scenes on both sides of the road were amazing. I am proud to say that my Bike never ditched me in any of the long rides I have done for the past two and half years.

Lotus seen on the way

Many a places there were ponds with lot of Lotus bloomed. I saw people of the locale plucking these flowers and arranging it in bunches ready to be sold and waving at on going vehicles for selling them. I felt a little bad about that, since it was something like reaping the harvest without any work. The only effort spent by these people were that of getting into the water and plucking the flowers, which was not grown by them and from the land of some one else. The funny thing is that the flower will be out of shape before returning from the trip, still travelers buy these flowers, instead of enjoying the natural beauty of thousands of lotus flowers bloomed pond.

1. Scene near the hydroelectric project. 2. An old tree near the water falls.

Even though I had traveled many times through the route, riding though the Bangalore-Mysore highway was very nice, especially in the morning when the sun rays are not scorching. When I took a left turn from Mandya towards Malvalli, the geography changed a lot. The road went in midst of lot of villages where both sides of the road were full of green fields, small lakes with lotus bloomed, and sugarcane plantations. Far away from the chaos of Bangalore city, the view of these villages reminds me about my child hood days in Payyampally.

Different views of Shivanasamudram

When I reached the Shivanasamudram, to my wonder I found a Malayalee tea shop, run by a Man from Kannur district. My experience in Karnataka taught me that where ever I go for a trip, even it is in Bangalore or outside Bangalore; I will find a bakery run by a Malayalee, or a tea shop by a Malayalee. Most probably he will be from Kannur district and in Kannur from Thalassery. To reinforce my observation, I met with the new security of the apartments where I am staying now. He is from Andhra Pradesh but he knows Malayalam. He said he learned Malayalam while working for eight years in the past for a Malayali in Andhra. I just asked whether the particular man was running a Bakery and is he from Kannur. I got a ‘yes’ from him as I expected.

Clouds formed by tiny water droplets from the splashing water fall

As I mentioned earlier, even though the two falls were pretty much close, it takes about 10-12 kilo meters to reach from one fall to the other. I advice all travelers to have packed lunch while you go to Shivanasamudram. You won’t find hotels nearby. The time which I went to Shivanasamudram was perfect, Cauvery River was flowing in full fledge, making the two falls so elegant and powerful. I was afraid to go near the fall; the water gushing down was so huge in volume creating a thunder voice and created a big cloud of water sprinkled in the surroundings. When the water fall is it in its full fledge, if somebody accidentally slips into the flow, then I think no parts can be collected back.

The blue sky over the waterfall

One of the warning boards was so funny and truly conveyed the message. It just said – “Don’t swim, this is not a swimming pool, this is a water fall”. Yes, nobody can imagine going into the fall. But locale people said that in summer, when the water flowing down is so little, one can actually cross the river through the valley and reach the other fall. One another interesting location for picnic – Talakkad is pretty close to Shivanasamudram. If I had started very early in the morning, I could have visited both the places.

Cloud Desings

I started back from the place around 3:00 pm; the returning journey was not that too good, since it rained occasionally and I had to stop riding three four times. When I was about to reach Bangalore, sun was about to set and created a magnificent red and yellow colored sky, but it lasted only a few minutes, the clouds put a curtain on the beautiful scenery.

The Bangalore Mysore Highway