Do You Want to Trek to DoodhSagar WaterFalls?

Doodhsagar, literally meaning an ocean of milk, is an inviting waterfall in Goa-Karnataka border. Mondovi (Konkani) or Mahadayi (Kannada) river falls from over 1000 feet here, going as wide as 100 feet in some places. There are multiple drops of the fall from the top, and most people enjoy the top half from a railway track, when they take a train that runs right past the falls.

How to get there? But we had other plans. We wanted to see the entire falls from the bottom. The entire 1000+ feet falls! It does take some effort as there are only jeeps, motor bikes or a 15+ KM walk as our only options. We chose to walk.

We took an overnight mini bus journey from Bengaluru to a place called Ramanagara in Uttara Kannada district. Reached Ramanagara (don't confuse with the more famous Rama nagara near Bengaluru) early morning and freshened up. Keep at least 8 hours to get to Ramanagara.

From Ramanagara, we crossed over to Goa state and reached a place called Colem (also Kolem).

From Colem or Kolem, during monsoon you can only walk or take a motor bike ride (one bike per visitor). We preferred to walk. Jeeps are available for parts of the journey, but not throughout as the path gets flooded beyond jeep's safe driving height.

Trekking:  Start before 11 AM from Colem. You must target to reach the water falls before 3 PM. Else your luck might run out if it rains heavy or fog comes over. Remember, you will have to cross the river and streams many times. Even 30 minutes of heavy rain will raise the water level by a feet or two! We experienced over 1 feet difference within 20 minutes at the top. Carry a good first-aid box.

This is the starting point. Everyone in full josh!

The first 3 KM would be below the railway track and thick Western Ghats jungle. Remember, even if you take a jeep for a part of your return, you will have to walk back the same 3 KM stretch in the evening, so plan on coming here before sunset. Don't forget rainproof clothing, specifically for your mobile phones, wallets etc. It rains heavily in this part of Western Ghats rain forest. Torches will come handy for evening.

The path is beautiful. If you start early, you can relax next to streams, enjoy the views.. and if you are very lucky, you might catch a Bison or two from a distance! We saw one bison that was 600+ KG from a safe distance.

The track changes from rough jeep track to beautiful jungle tracks. In some places you can get lush green lawns! That's the best part of hiking during monsoon. Lots of greenery and heavy water flow making your trip worthwhile.

For those afraid of leech bites, you can carry thin plastic covers and tightly wrap around your shoe, socks and lower part of pants (see the left most person in a pic below).

If you go in a big team, you can have lot of fun. Just don't fall behind each much. Also do take a guide. Our guide was excellent. Click 100s of pictures. We had scores of good photographers!

If you don't want to walk, throughout the year you can avail motor bike facility. It would be almost the same price per person as trekking, minus all the fun of jungle trek.

 

The walking path is very beautiful. There would always be a small worry of a bison or leopard, but the guides will take you through safer ways. If you are nature lover, you can observe plenty of camouflaging insects, different types of birds, small reptiles and much more. 

If you give yourself enough time to hike, you can relax and take lots of pictures next to streams and river along the way. It is totally worth it, particularly during intermittent rains. If our youngest champion could trek all along, you can feel assured that this trek can be done by most people, who can walk 15 to 20KM in one day.

 

Our guide spotted some wild mushrooms on the way. He quickly grabbed a few and gave it on the way to a house where our food was being prepared. We had the same mushroom curry, on the way back from falls! As fresh as it gets...


 As we get closer to the falls, beyond the watch tower, the current gets tougher, and crossing becomes difficult. In one or two places, you might have to literally form human chains, or grab onto ropes put by volunteers. Be very careful with footing. One slip, and you might get washed down half a KM over rocks and boulders hurting seriously. Don't try any stunts here. If you feel unsafe, don't attempt any further. Go back to the watch tower and view from a safe distance. Water level here changes by hour.


And the view after all this effort? Priceless!
Many of our team members wished we reached an hour earlier to spend more time here. By the time we got here, it was time to pack up due to the risk of flash floods and more heavy rain. But even the 15-20 minutes we spent here were totally worth it!

This is the actual viewing tower, if you don't want to take a risk during the final stretch. It is safe to view from here in any weather.

 


And we did something we hadn't done before, after eating sumptuous lunch served by the guide's friend's family.
16 people in one jeep!! Because our second jeep to return was parked 3 to 4 KM down the road, and no one wanted to walk that much. So we had lot of fun with 16 people in one jeep :)



We decided not to travel back 600+ KM overnight as you will be damp, tired and really need a good shower and sleep. We headed to the nearest big city, Belagavi on the Karnataka side. It took us about 2.5 hours to get here from Colem. We stopped at Khanapur for a nice paav bhaji, Dosa and other dinner items.

Rest well and then the next day would be a lot of fun.

Military Mahadev temple, Belagavi. There is a beautiful park with miniatures of all of Shivaji Maharaj's forts here to see.

Belagavi's Durga temple, fort and lake opposite to the fort.

Suvarna Soudha about 15 minutes south of Belagavi. Massive structure for assembly building and you can get a great view of Belagavi from top of this hill. 

Then the historic Kittur fort and museum. You can spend hours listening to the guides explaining how India's first female freedom fighter fought the British army from here.

Overall.. Doodhsagar is in the middle of awesome attractions. Either you can head west after the falls to see the beautiful beaches of Goa, or head east to Karnataka for what all we saw, or head south again to Karnataka to more wilderness in the Western Ghats. Everything is within 2 hours of drive.

Go out there and enjoy!

My Visit To Prabodhini School - A Perfect Indian School

We live in a world, where talking about Hindu culture or tradition is usually frowned upon by the self-declared progressives. I know many people who think Hinduism is full of superstition and upbringing children in a solid Hindu environment is impossible. I also know a few of them blindly aping Europe and America, with an unapologetic message that if the future of a kid has to be bright, a westernized education system is a must, keeping away the ಗೋಡ್ಡು ಸಂಪ್ರದಾಯ (useless traditions) that a primarily Hindu traditional school would offer. Let's not even get into the medium of instruction, as English medium education right from the start is more preferred than Indian languages, in most cases.

Don't get me wrong. I love English. I strongly believe that there are lots of good western values that should be inculcated into a child, during the growing years. Things like charity, cleanliness, social involvement, scientific temper are great things. But aren't there schools which get all these into children, while giving education in a local language, and deeply sustaining the rich Indian (primarily Hindu) culture and tradition?

To my surprise, I was invited to visit one such school for their annual function, as a chief guest. My friend Guruprasad Bhat from Mumbai, got this arranged as his family runs a school called Prabodhini, at a gorgeous place called Kalasa, tucked in the beautiful ಮಲೆ  ನಾಡು (western ghats) area of Karnataka. And to put it simply... I was blown out! The school is run by RSS volunteers, deeply rooted in Indian tradition, and the quality of education is outstanding. Yet, the school treated students from all castes, languages and religions equally, preparing the best batch of future citizen of India.

The family and friends who run this school. 

The serene setting of absolutely charming greenery, where the school is located.

This school is run so well, in spite of no money coming from the government, that it has scored 100% result year after year, this century! In fact, it was started by Mr. Raghavendra Bhatt and family, for a few really poor kids whose parents were busy throughout the day on daily labour. It has expanded now into nearly 800 students capacity!

Coming to the function we were invited for.. They greeted us with traditional Hindu Vedic prayers.

Then we witnessed top class meditation and discipline.

The chanted Bhagavad Gita and other Vedic Shanti mantras. Crisp, clear and fully involved prayers for the ಸರಸ್ವತಿ ವಂದನ (Saraswati Vandana) part. Traditionally students are expected to always begin any major function with Saraswati prayer, invoking the Goddess of education. But off late I see lot of resistance to this citing secularism, which for me is a meaningless argument. How is praying the deity of education against secularism? This Prabhodini school surprised us pleasantly!

Then every part of the day long function fascinated me. The 10th standard children were asked to bring their parents and do ಕೃತಂ ಸ್ಮರ (felicitating the parents, Kritam Smara). The literally worship the parents, thank them for all the support to get them educated till this level, and get their blessing to continue their study further.  All this happens right in front of Goddess of Education, Saraswati.

 

And, caste or religion is no bar. I saw even Muslim women in their burqa and hijab, participating in this function, happily blessing their sons and daughters for a bright future! The self-declared seculars would get a heart attack seeing this :)

Then the outgoing students (10th standard) are made to take a oath that they would keep up the good tradition, behave well in life, and make their parents proud.

Not only that, the outgoing senior batch is made to hand over ದೀಪ (Diya) to the next batch, asking them to safeguard the tradition and future of the school. Great camaraderie!

The cultural aspect of respecting the elders by touching their feet after award ceremony, was quite visible. I even saw the Head Master following this tradition himself.. Here is the head master taking blessings from the generous Guruprasad Bhat, who has served this school even when away from the town of Kalasa for decades.

Saraswati Mata, the primordial ಪ್ರಣವ (Om) and Bharat Mata were prominently visible in the school, along with 100s of pictures of pictures of great Indian educationists, freedom fighters, spiritual gurus and so on. Students get an overdose of the feeling of nationalism and dedication to Indian society in such a school.

And the dance and cultural event after all the speeches and prize distribution was so special. They covered so many folk dances, story telling, inspirational events... I was overwhelmed as to how deeply the students are rooted in the Indian culture and tradition, while keeping a very good scientific and mathematical temper!

The more interesting part was the boys and girls equally performed in various events, keeping 100% gender equality.

And how can any event happen in coastal and western ghat area of Karnataka, without the colourful ಯಕ್ಷ ಗಾನ - Yaksha Gana costume?

How can they miss Ishwara and family, when they are from a Kalaseshwara town?

Cute girls showing village costume from Karnataka.

And some nice energetic village dances.

And their patriotism..

Their energy levels of drum beating..

Their Karate..

Bhuvaneshwari.. the Karnataka mata.

Ever loving glorious Bharat Mata..

Outstanding acrobatics involving pyramids...

 ಮಲ್ಲ ಕಂಭ - Malla Khambas..

The display of energy, culture and tradition was so overwhelming that I had to think about it for days after that..

Such a school also exists in today's world where children are mostly forced into rote learning, with very little physical activities making them obese, in the highly polluted cities with very little green nature around them, stripping their cultural roots for most part in the name of westernization and/or secularism??

That too in a location which is just one hour walk from this gorgeous hill near ಅನ್ನಪೂರ್ಣೆಶ್ವರಿ - Mata Annapoorneshwari temple at Horanadu!

They are just 10 to 12 KM from a gorgeous trekking spot, high above western ghats.. so high that most vegetation disappears. It's called ಗಾಳಿ ಗುಡ್ಡ or the windy hill.

And when they are just 30 minutes walk from this beautiful ಅಂಬಾ ತೀರ್ಥ - Amba teertha area of Bhadra river..

100% results.. great science education involving computers too.. dedicated staff giving an all round modern education... deeply rooted in India's glorious 5000+ years culture and tradition.. and amidst one of the heavenly locations of the planet next to big mountains and lovely rivers, plus moderate temperatures throughout the year!

I wish you all studied in such a school.. if not, at least your children or grand children. This is as close to the ancient Guru Kula education that you can get in 21st century, as possible :)

Two notes:

1) If you have more time, browse through nearly 300 pictures here:  https://plus.google.com/photos/110981894709471519856/albums/5978739794695073985?banner=pwa

2) Since this amazing school caters to some of the lowest income families, and completely supported by private donors, you can also sponsor children for their studies. Contact @gbhat_ or @KiranKS on twitter. Or just leave a comment and I will have the school management contact you.