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.

Twilight

A scene from the one of the many Wayanad drives that I made in the past 6 years. The “Land of Humps” is making these beautiful drives to be “only a dream” by blocking all the roads from Karnataka to Kerala one by one. This picture is taken early in the morning before sunrise.

Funny Annoying Elephant Calf

This scene was particularly funny. We spotted the elephant herd at a distance of about 100 meters away from the NH212 Wayanad Mysore Highway. Since we were in a safe distance we could freely get out and watch the herd. The small one’s action disturbed the senior one, and it kicked the small elephant calf behind it. A lot of people stopped by and got down to see the elephant herd. But nobody noticed this funny scene, even me. We noticed the scene only when we watched the movie in full screen in my laptop.

Wild Elephants in Muthanga - II

This scene of wild elephants crossing the Sulthan Bathery – Mysore road was a so beautiful. We watched the scene from a safe distance; We were on the way to Bangalore from Wayanad.

Wild Elephants in Muthanga

The summer rains in Wayand made the forest so green, a happy fest to the wild animals. Spotting wild elephants are now a common scene while traveling through the Sulthan Bathery – Mysore road through Muthanga forest. The above video was captured during one of my Bangalore – Wayanad – Bangalore car ride to my home town in Wayanad during weekends.

Beautiful Evening Sky

I got the snap of this beautiful evening sky while traveling from Wayanad to Mysore (during another Wayanad - Bangalore ride) through Sulthan Bathery – Gundalpettu route. Immediately after crossing the forest, we stopped for a break and then I got this picture.

Another Mysore Wayanad Car Ride

Spotting a wild animal in the Sulthan Bathery – Mysore road is a common thing. The thick jungle in-between Gundalpettu and Sulthan Bathery is the habitat of many wild animals. I have already posted some pictures of wild animals from this place, especially the one picture of a wild bear crossing the road.

The pictures you are seeing here were taken on 2nd of November 2006 while I was returning from Mysore to Wayanad via Sulthan Bathery along with my mother. Inadequate lighting conditions and vibrations of the car in engine running state made it difficult to take good quality photographs without shakes. It is dangerous to turn of the vehicle and get out of it in the jungle, since a wild elephant or a panther can attack us at any time. Otherwise I should have another guy ready in the driver seat so that I can get out and take photographs.

Memories of Another Wayanad–Bangalore Car Ride

This time Binoy and I decided to take the other route from Wayanad to Mysore, the one which starts from Mananthavady and go through Kartikulam, Bavali (the Kerala Karnataka border) and H.D.Kotte. We started around 5:30 and it we reached the Kerala Karnataka border around 6:15. Till then the road was nice. Starting from the border, the road was very bad for another 30 kms. After that we enjoyed the ride as the road is in very good condition till Bangalore.

We occasionally stopped in the woods when ever we saw some tree houses constructed by the localities to protect the crop from wild animals. During the twilight period, we were not able to take good photos, the low light made almost all of the photographs shaken. We some how managed to take these snaps posted here. We got to see few peacocks, deer and bison. But it was almost 7:00 or after that when we spotted these animals, and we just took snaps when we spotted a deer so near to the car. Similarly we got the snap of a bison, it was just 4 to 5 meters away from the car, but we were not brave enough to step out of the car and take the snaps, since we may not notice a panther or an elephant standing behind the car in the darkness.

Any way, the ride was fun, especially because we saw lot of wild animals, but the time and lighting condition didn’t allow us to have good snaps. We reached Mysore around 9:00 pm and had our dinner. It was the peak time of Dhasara celebration in Mysore where the Mysore palace and all other big buildings where decorated with lights in an amazing way, and of course the city faced a huge vehicle traffic that made our car to move in a 5k/h speed. We also saw lot of fire works happening here and there on account of the festival celebration.

From Mysore till Bangalore, we faced a huge traffic on behalf of the vehicles of those who returned to Bangalore after the festival celebration. The other side of the road, (towards Mysore) was almost empty. We reached home around 12:00 am. It came around 250 kms for the total journey, where it would have been around 300 kms if we take the Sulthan Bathery - Gundalpettu road.

Memories of a Bangalore-Wayanad Car Ride

Most of the software engineers working in Bangalore got a long holiday weekend, starting from 12th August 2006 to 15th August 2006. It was very difficult to get bus tickets or train tickets towards Kerala from Bangalore since booking was filled in advance on account of the long holiday weekend.

We (Binoy & me) decided to go by Binoy’s car. We started from Bangalore early in the morning at 5:30 am on 12th August. Till Kerala-Karnataka border the climate was little bit cloudy with slight drizzling often. We reached Mysore within two and half hours, stopped in between one or two times for having breakfast as well as for taking some snaps. We reached Gundulpettu within another one and half hour, a three way Junction – one to Mysore, one to Ooty and the other road leads to Sulthan Bathery. The two sides of the road near by Gundulpettu were in red-rose color due to the blossom of “Jamanthi” flowers. (You can see them in the pictures above and below). The top of the mountains and hills in the distance were covered with clouds and was very beautiful to see in the cloudy climate. When we reached the Kerala border it started raining heavily, and driving became uneasy. Unlike the usual trips, we were not able to see any elephants or any other animals while we traveled through the forests. We reached our home by 12:30 pm.

Tree Houses in Wayanad

Many of my friends in Bangalore have asked me about tree houses in Wayanad. Yes, there are tree houses in Wayanad for tourists. You can see them near Kuruvadweep and many other tourist locations in Wayanad. But the above picture of tree house is entirely different, the purpose, the way they are constructed etc. These kinds of tree houses are mainly used for guarding the crops from the attack of elephants, wild bores etc and some times guarding from human thieves. It is a very good experience to spend one night in one of these kinds of tree houses.

I remember, during my child hood days, to guard the pepper plantation from theft during the harvest season of pepper, we used to build such kinds of houses and stay in our plantation in these kinds of tree houses. We use to do the same during the time of harvest of coffee beans. Coffee beans need to be dried in sun for many days, before selling out to merchants. It is not feasible to spread the raw coffee beans on the ground or “KALAM” in Malayalam every day and wipe it together and store in the night. Once the beans are spread on the ground, it will be there for days, still it is dried. So we have to guard the beans from theft during nights and we use to build similar kind of tree huts near by the “KALAM”.

The sounds of crickets and other insects along with the sounds of unknown creatures, which we may have never noticed while we sleep in our home, make the experience unique. However hot the climate is, we won’t feel the heat during night, if we stay in these kinds of houses, which proves that our houses are not eco friendly, or good in controlling the climate.

Ente Vidyalayam - St. Catherine's H.S.S

St. Catherine’s School recreated from my memory as a painting as well as some real photographs of the school with some descriptions about my school (“Ente Vidyalayam”) :

{Thanks to Abins (JoseAbins Joseph) for editing this picture and Kuttan (Sumod Sebastian) for writing this poem on the piece of paper}

St. Catherine's school has a very important role for almost 95% of the population living in Payyampally as well as the nearby locations like Palvelicham, Aarattu Thara, Padamala, Cherukattoor and Koileri. It is the place where most of these people may have completed primary education or till the 10th standard.

The path which I used to go to school during my childhood.

Even Though I was a student of St. Chatherine's only for a period of 4 years(7th Standard to 10th Standard) my family and me was bounded to this school in a deep manner. Because there was a time when my father and mother were working in the school as teachers and my two yelder brothers were students of this school all at the same time.Unfortunately, during that time I was studying in a different school.

The entrance to the school. Students used to stand some where here to watch out which teachers are present and absent to calculate the amount of free time.

One by one, we moved out of St. Catherine's High School. My big brother Biju V mathew first, followed my next yelder brother Babu V Jacob. Next was my father's (T M Varkey) retirement from the school and during the same year, I completed my S.S.L.C from St. Catherine's High School. My father was the head master of the school before retirement. Then my mother (P.C.Mary) was left alone in the school as a teacher. She retired after 3 more years. Even though none of us are a part of St. Catherine's anymore, we feel that we are.

The "Vaka Maram" which stands is the only one left now, two more were there which exists no more; cut for some reasons.

St. Catherine's Higher Secondary School, Payyampally; reached many heights during its evolution from a lower primary school to a higher secondary school. The higher secondary division got added the next year, I passed out of the school, so I didn't get a chance to have my higher secondary education there. The school always stood first in most of the district level "Yuvajanotsav" as well as in accamdemic performance. I wish to go back to those golden days again, and be a student of St. Catherine's Higher Secondary School.

This is the place were we stood in queue for the 10-O-Clock assembly (behind the mango tree) , and we wished for the assembly to last some more time, so that we will be free from the first period.

The mango tree and the "Vakamaram" in the pictures above stands still there holding the memories of past 65 years of life of the school. Parents and grand fathers of the present students of the school have completed there education here in St. Catherines.

The Statue of Saint Catherine. The school is named after her.

The new Plus Two Block, which was built in 2000. (Added on the request of Ashraf Uppy who completed Plus Two from St. Catherine's HSS.)

Update on 2nd Feb 2007

WikiMapia Link of St. Catherine's HSS

As I have promised to all readers of this page and X students St. Catherine’s Higher Secondary School, here are few more photos of our school. I took these pictures during the Easter Sunday afternoon of 2012 (8th April 2012). The summer rain that showered shortly before I reached the school premises gave a relief over the boiling heat.

You can see that the mango tree and Gulmohar tree (Vaaka maram) is intact as it was, but the silver Oak tree that was there in the middle near the steps is replaced with a new planted tree. I remember that the Silver Oak was cut down during my tenure in the school, when it turned old and was about to fall. Old students including my batch mates will find that the step-fence construction around the mango tree and the Vaaka maram is new.

In the picture above, X Students may find at least three new things. 1) The Silver Oak tree is replaced with a new tree planted at the same place. 2) There is a construction around the Vaka Maram. 3) The Higher Secondary school building can be seen behind the old building. The higher secondary division started around 2 years after I passed out S.S.L.C.

In the above picture the stage (also used as a class room) can be seen which was constructed during the golden jubilee celebrations of this school. During that time, I was not a student of St. Catherine’s School, but I was a participant of one of the external program (group break dance) conducted as part of the celebration. My father was then the head master, and my mother was teacher and brother (Babu) studied in the school then.

For old students there is nothing new in this picture above other than the stage constructed along with the golden Jubilee of this school. But the view point from where I took this picture tells a different story. The old LP school building stood at the view point which was destructed as it turned to be too old to sustain. A new concrete two storey building is constructed instead of that which you can see in the pictures below. The students might remember that old building that you can see behind the stage is the hall used for all movie screenings as this was the only hall that could me made dark by covering all the windows and light inlets.

In this picture above you can see that the old LP school building is demolished and that location is converted to a basketball court. You can see the new two storey concrete building constructed instead of the old LP school division standing behind the basketball court. I remember being part of the leveling task force of this basketball court – a program organized on behalf of the organization – K.C.Y.M when I was doing my engineering degree.

The above two pictures does not need any comment, the long corridor of the high school division where the office of the head master as well as the staff room was running turned out to be too nostalgic when the corridor appeared to be deserted as it was summer holidays. I believe that everyone will become a poet or a writer if he or she goes to their old school during such a hot summer vacation.

This building is new to most of the old students. This is the new plus two (higher secondary school) building. The building is surrounded by lush green trees and is a beautiful scene. There was another Vaaka maram (Gulmohar Tree) at the view point of this picture which was cut down at some point of time.

Payyampally; My Village

==>Koodalkadavu

==>Kuruvadweep

==>St. Catherine's HSS, Payyampally

==>Wayanad

WikiMapia Link of Payyampally The map is described at the bottom.

I Live in the beautiful village Payyampaly located near the bank of Kabani, which flows to the east. My village is located in Wayand district which is a hill range area. It does have beautiful landscapes, snowy forests, a fantastic place. I always love to be in my village eventhough I can't because my work place is located in the Garden city of India "Bangalore".

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Payyampally is covered with amazing greenaries. I completed my school from payyampally(St Catherine's HSS).
The village is occuppied with Christians, Jains and Hindus. And we have a great tradition of communal Harmony in Payyampally. The silent nature, greenary and the good people always force me to go back to Payyampally and enjoy Payyampally

Update on 1st Feb 2007

Visibility of Payyampally increased, when the place got connected with Pulpally and Cherukattoor, when two new bridges across the Manathavady River and Panamaram River was established. Kuruvadweep turned to be one of the most attractive tourist places in Wayanad and there is little chance that travelers reach Kuruvadweep without entering Payyampally.

Payyampally is inherited mainly by farmers who do have paddy, rubber, ginger, plantain and coffee as the main cultivation. But there are one or two tea plantations also in Payyampally.

St. Catherine’s HSS played an important role in the development and history of Payyampally. ==>St. Catherine's HSS. The school was the only one for the students from neighboring places like Cherukattoor, Arattuthara, Palvelicham etc to complete their high schools. It remains more or less the same till now.

Two main things that Payyampally lacks are a hospital where patients can be hospitalized and treated and a fuel station. Two banks, (Canara Bank and Co-operative bank), a post office, one Ayurvedic Clinic, a higher secondary school (St. Catherine’s HSS) , one public library (Aikyadeepam Vayanasala and the sports and arts club associated with it) and three or four main junctions were some shops are found makes Payyampally 70% self sustained.

Now the nearest fuel refilling station is 5 Kilometers away (Kartikulam) and the nearest hospital with beds is 10 Kilometers away (Mananthavady)

WikiMapia Description - Update on 2nd Feb 2007
The aerial view of Payyampally given above is from Wikimapia.org. The center part of this map shows Payyampally. The big rectangle you see on the bottom part is Oorpally; the square shape you see to the right most part is Kuruvadweep and Koodalkadavu. The top most part is Mananthavady – Mysore road. And the left part is Mananthavady. Marymatha arts and science college is shown in the North West corner.