A Stream of Joy

August 2010

Stream of Joy was the homestay we decided to go for a 2 day outing including the travel. I confess that I do not adjust easily and was looking forward to take only a comfortable full sleeper coach. Convincing me was difficult, however, with a great difficulty and not so willingly, I agreed to go ahead in semi sleeper bus and we left Bangalore in the night on 13th Aug 2010.

 Next morning at 5.30am, Kashinath, the owner of the homestay picked us from Kakada and we reached the ' Stream of Joy’. My joys knew no bound when I saw a river flowing just beside our cottages. I am sure this view will be one of the best medicines for life to forget the world of pains. The best part was there was no TV and our cell phones were out of reach as we were in the foothill of a mountain. We could only hear birds chirping and melodious river flowing instead of the noisy mobile phones vehicles around. We had an amazing break from our routine. The food there was quite tasty and is only vegetarian.

We started an early morning trek to a mountain peak with Anand who was our guide. It was a thick forest though there was a regular route to trek and we started climbing. I was wondering and had a couple of questions for Anand as how he manages sometimes to trek regularly if there were many visitors who wished to trek. It was easily 6 km approximately one way. Thick green forest was a festive for our eyes. We reached the mountain peak all tired of trekking for hours and felt on the top of the world watching God’s creation of mountains and valleys. 

Though the species of man has achieved too much in the world, I heard God whispering ‘You are too minute yet’ and I felt nowhere amidst that place.

Before leaving for the trek, though the place was known to be leech free, I insisted to carry some precautions to resist them. I was praying throughout not to come across one but only I did. Maybe they heard me louder and I just missed being a victim and fortunately I was able to save myself from a small pint of blood after a small jump and a loud scream.

Another memorable incident was about my shoes, which started opening its crocodile mouth and fear of leeches mounted again.  I certainly smiled and thanked Anand  for operating my shoes which was with a stem until we reached back. He would otherwise be a great surgeon rather than a guide.

We returned from the trek after a lunch break, Kashi took us to a nearby place called Srishila and Kashi had promised us to show us fishes in the river there beside a temple. I thought it was nothing unusual as I could remember the scene about Sringeri. We were taken to the river side where an army of medium sized fishes were waiting. We had taken along with us rice puff which is their favorite food, I heard. It was one of the marvelous scenes to see hundreds of fish fighting to gulp rice puffs jumping and crawling one over the other.  

We started moving over the bridge to continue feeding and even before we started they came under the bridge as if they were already informed. I wondered and realized how intelligent they are too. It was a unique experience of watching and feeding them as if they were our own pets wanting us to pamper them by feeding.

From the time I saw the river beside our cottage, I was eager to get into the river. But there was quite some force and depth which is why I was restricted not to venture into. Next morning I couldn’t stop myself getting stubborn like a child all over again to get into the water with life saver jackets. I was provided with the floating jackets and a rope tied with around my hips to resist from floating away with the force of water. It was a feeling like a belted vessel in the well controlled by a pulley. What an experience!

Few other interesting parts of our journey included our visit to the calf and cows beside Kashi’s house and his wife gave us kokum juice which was very tasty. Their son was a hyper active boy who knew all about technology we use way back in Bangalore. On the way to Dharmatsala to catch our return bus to Bangalore, we had a quick look at small waterfalls which again was amazing.

I felt so lucky while returning too, as we passed through Sakleshpur Western Ghats. I was speechless to watch the God’s architecture of gigantic mountains protecting the fierce flowing water in their arms like a Mother. I also noticed a couple of power generating stations trying to extract and whatever was around for our selfish needs.

Finally, this is one of the best places I recommend and a reasonable one for a night's stay.