Somewhere beyond the roads..
If you take National Highway 7 for about an hour south of Bangalore, and then take a few unexplored lanes, you will stumble upon a lesser known destination, the Krishnagiri dam, a lush green site for any sore eye from Bangalore with its expansive water spread and distant blue hills. This majestic landscape is in an unfamiliar class of its own. It has a fort-like structure built of dark red bricks and a low-rise boundary of sorts one can easily jump over to get near the sprawling expanse of water. There are a few dense trees in sight. The location is neither sunny and hippie-like nor exotic and tropical, instead, the terrain’s signature fog holds court over the skies, rough winds will lap at you, and it's likely you might not see another soul for miles around.
I would’ve never known about this place had it not been for a wrong turn made many years ago by an ex who had intended on taking me to the tip of our native state of Tamilnadu to eat real Pongal, pained by my constant tantrums about eating the runny gooey version of Pongal one could find in Bangalore, topped with coconuts, and sided with an orange chutney that made me sick to my stomach. So, one Monday morning, we decided to drive the exact opposite way to work in search of Pongal and some sanity. Even upon realizing his mistake, he kept on driving in the wrong direction anyhow, which, to be honest, unnerved me–at least initially. As we drove further and further after taking an unknown right from the highway, however, the more lush and breathtaking the scenery became. I no longer cared where we landed. The drive itself was mesmerizing and the long stretches of the road felt liberating, especially after months of being accustomed to the suffocating confines of Whitefield.
We finally came to a small town and stopped into a store to pick up provisions–a glass of salt lime soda, some butter biscuits, and a very very cold water bottle. “Where are we?” I asked the shop owner. “Krishnagiri,” she replied. “If you take a turn and go down that road there, you’ll find lots of water.” So we followed her advice and took an endless road that wove its way through miles of towering trees dotted with grazing dairy cows before finally arriving at what felt like the ends of the Earth.
As we sat on the low-rise wall with our goods, watching a gorgeous sunset sink into the abyss of blue waters, with a few school children giggling around in the open park behind us… I remembered thinking: Krishnagiri. I must return here one day. I suppose I was afraid that I might never find myself there again because it was a relatively obscure place and of course I would forget the way.
While my travels thereafter took me to many many places in the country, I’d never forgotten about the magic of humble Krishnagiri and that carefree cloudy day.
Two days ago, I dreamt I was in that very spot overlooking the sunset and every little detail of that place came alive in my memories. The breeze, the blue tinge of the water, the orange skies and the way it made me feel. Truth be told, I don’t care much for anything else at all. It was a special feeling to visit this very place again that I happened upon many years ago…
It occurs to me that, sometimes, the memory of how you discovered a place loses its meaning over time, especially when you’re there creating new moments with the person you’re with, in this case (Myself). What was past faded into a misty backdrop; what was real was before me (in my dream)… Until that fades away too.
The lyrics to that Beatles song “In My Life” encapsulates this sentiment perfectly:
There are places I’ll remember
All my life, though some have changed
Some forever, not for better
Some have gone and some remain
All these places have their moments
With lovers and friends I still can recall
Some are dead and some are living
In my life, I’ve loved them all
But of all these friends and lovers
There is no one compares with you
And these memories lose their meaning
When I think of love as something new
Though I know I’ll never lose affection
For people and things that went before
I know I’ll often stop and think about them
In my life, I love you more
Though I know I’ll never lose affection
For people and things that went before
I know I’ll often stop and think about them
In my life, I love you more
In my life, I love you more
Originally published by Dhivya at http://travellinganaconda.com/2017/06/01/somewhere-beyond-the-roads/
