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Nandi Hills – The hills of gods

Sunrise @nandi hills

As a tradition, I am gonna include a little history first. I will try to keep it short, so I promise it won’t be long and boring. Skip to the next para if you like. (Thank you Wikipedia)

Nandi Hills or Nandidurg or Nandydroog is an ancient hill fortress in the southern India in Chikkaballapur district of Karnataka state, India. It is approximately 60 km from Bangalore. This hills are nestled between the neighboring towns of Nandi, Muddenahalli and Kanivenarayanapura. During the Chola period (11th century) it was called Ananda giri meaning the hill of happiness (Ananda-Happiness, giri – mountain, hill etc.) It is also commonly called Nandidurga (durg – fort). This for was built by Tipu Sultan. One of my favorite reasons about why this hill is known as Nandi hills is; the hills resemble a sleeping bull (Nandi). There is a Shiva-Parvati temple and a Darvidian style Nandi temple. It is believed that the Nandi temple in Nandi village dates back to 9 th century. It is 1479 meters above Mean Sea Level. Some more fun facts: The Nandi fort (Nandidurga) was traditionally held impregnable This is in London Encyclopedia “Nandydurga is built on a summit of rock nearly 1700 ft high, 3/4th of its circumference being inaccessible”. And that’s it.

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It was Friday evening and as usual we planned a late night party. My roommates Verma and Choudhury were fast asleep by 11:00 PM (they don’t like to party, can you believe it ?). Later that night after the party, I and two of my friends Rahul and Deepak started discussing something about Indian music, then politics, then period movies, then singers… god knows what we were discussing. This idea popped up in Deepak’s head “Let’s head to Nandi hills” he said. I was in the restroom but I heard him loud and clear. I made up my mind in the restroom. We tried to persuade the sleeping ones too, but no luck. Rahul called one of our friends Piyush @ 3:00 AM. Surprisingly he picked and agreed to accompany us. Now we had 2 bikes and 4 guys. Deepak and Piyush were no newbies to the hills, so we followed their instructions and left by 4:00 AM. We were supposed to leave by 3:30 AM but the cops caught us in front of Piyush’s house, thinking of us as goons. They left us after thorough investigation, 20 minutes gone. “Bad Omen” I said, and then I giggled and asked myself “Am I logical computer programmer or what ?”

It was supposed to be a 60 km drive with some busy highways in between, so 90 minutes was the expected travel time. We made our way from Marathalli, to Yelhanka, to the national highway. I could feel the chill inside my head. My furry overcoat failed to abate the cold. I saw like 50 motorcycles on the way, judging by their expression and enthusiasm they were going the same way. After all how many of us drive in the cold streets at 4:30 AM. There was no sign of exhaustion in any of the faces. We didn’t plan, we didn’t rest, we didn’t prepare, we just left with this heavenly place in mind. One of the signboards said “Nandi hills 15 Km”. 🙂

Let me say one thing before I say anything else; If you wanna enjoy nandi hills be there by 5:30, or else you will not find nandi hills worthy of your time. This is where the actual journey began. The roads were so misty that our visible range was only about 2 mts. No sign boards were visible, no more motorcycles, we couldn’t even find Rahul and Piyush, they were with us 10 minutes back, no sign of any life form, no sign of the cops, nothing, just vast emptiness, water droplets and mild vehicle sounds. My face and coat both became as wet as a fish. Deepak was driving at 15 Km/h, any faster would have been suicide. We were following the dim tail light of a car. After like 1 km the mist disappeared, and returned after another 1 km. Strange, isn’t it? The ride was both misty and mysterious.

We rendezvoused at the base of the hills, as discussed on phone. Now all that was left was to go up, the way up is about 5 km. Elevation was scary. There was a police barricade near the base of the hill, they noted the vehicle number and allowed us after checking license. We parked the bikes and ran towards the entry. A midget security guard opened the gates it was about 5:45 AM. We were literally the first four guys to enter that day. Right at the entrance there is a lodge called “Tipu Sultan Lodge”. The magic began when darkness started to disappear slowly. I saw a lot of eucalyptus trees. We quickly climbed to the top of the hills. There was no more mist. The feeling of morning breeze at the top of the hills on our still wet hair cannot be explained in words. Here are some pics:

Piyush, Deepak and me (L to R)

Piyush, Deepak and Rahul (L to R)

That is not the sun, just sunlight. Don't forget the half mist half no-mist place at the bottom

That is not the sun, just sunlight. Don’t miss the half mist half no-mist place at the bottom of hills

Unfortunately digital cameras can’t catch the breeze and my serene thoughts

Soon after that people started pouring in like rats. I saw people moving towards viewing area. There they are:

the “view sunrise” area

We reached the area without any further delay. The scenery was outstanding, irrespective of where you stand. The snow-white mist was still prominent and the breeze consistent. There were a lot of disturbing chants nearby. I wonder how can people talk about stupid stuff when they are at such an awesome place. The intensity of ambient light started increasing, and the chants started to fade. I concluded that the mathematical relation between Intensity of ambient light and useless chants is inversely proportional.

Everyone was staring at the source of ambient light. We were too. That was when we saw one of the most beautiful views of nature. The sun started to peek from below the snow-white misty blanket. I heard no more chirruping, I only heard camera clicks. We took out our cameras and tablet to catch this amazing view. It was looking more beautiful than my computer’s wallpaper. If this complete thing is assumed a software program with GOD as its software developer, then GOD has definitely done the best coding possible with exceptional error handling, I couldn’t find a bug (Sorry!!! I can’t help it. I am a software developer).

peek from mist part 1

peek from mist part 2

peek from mist part 3

After about 10 minutes we started exploring the place. We moved from the viewing area to an open space with no boundaries. If you plan on exploring entire hills be ready to walk 5-8 km or get your car and reduce it to 2-3 km.

can’t assign a title can I… 🙂

$\ / peace$

\ / peace

Come… let us go the other way

We found the actual bull temple of the hills (The Nandi temple of Nandi hills). We found many awesome spots (pics below). The suicide point, the canon hole, the hill summit, the garden, the secret tunnel, the man made reservoir that probably dates back to 10th century.

We picked our bikes around 8:30 AM and left. We reached Bangalore by 11:00 AM, because one of the bikes broke down. But we reached safe and sound, with 234 pics and an unforgettable experience.

Next stop Ooty or Goa.

Some more pics: