SUNRISE AT NANDI HILLS

It was 3 in the morning , my alarm went live and i tried to force open my eyes , i was so tired and i was travelling and exploring for past 5 days ,my eyes was half closed but i could see my friends rushing around busily getting ready to head to nandi hills . Me and my friends was on a 7 days college tour and this was the last day at banglore ,i slowly lifted my body up and thought for a second .. “its just yet another hill just like the ones i have visited in my travel life” …. hessitantly i wokeup and got dressed up and vaccated our room and went down to the bus, always me and my friends are the last one to arrive but this time we were the first to reach ,everybody was getting down to the bus , in a few minutes the bus was unlocked and we rushed on to our seats ,it was totally dark inside and we all dozed off to sleep.

All of a sudden i just opened my eyes ,my friend sitting next to me was trying to wake me up, our bus was climbing up a hill ,its not fully morning yet but still we could see the beauty around , bus stopped at a entrance and we all got out , small vehicles can only go further up from there so we have to walk, the entrance place was filled with small tea shops selling snacks, tea and coffee and there was only a small number of people other than us but there was a huge group of monkeys out there !!! We walked fast because our main aim was to watch the sunrise ,the sun have almost rised ,the rays started to fill the dark sky so we walked as fast as we can .

When we walked upwards through the tarred road there was a entrance point but this time it was not a mordern parking space and coffee area it was huge fort wall and gate which was built almost a few hundred years back during the reign of the Mysore king -Tippu Sultan. Atfirst in the hotel room when i thought of nandi hills all i could think was hill top like ponmudi or munnar with tea plantations and barren grass hill tops but now i understood i was wrong …. the place was filled with lush greenflora , there was also many trees and many varieties of cactus was growing near the old fort wall… and then we moved on and reached a place where tree houses all made of wood was situated ,there was not just one but many and also there was hanging stairs and wooden bridges connecting them..

We walked as fast as we can ,as we moved towards the top the climate become more colder but atmosphere was so refreshing with fresh air and mild cold breeze and the fresh smell of green grass was giving a overall high positivity ..the road went up twisting and curving and branching at some places we took short cuts by climbing the the rocks and grass to reach the upper part of our road ,as the road was branching we also splitted ourselves and went on as small groups.

Finally we reached a spot where we could see the golden sun rising up into the beautiful dark sky , it was a mesmerising veiw i couldn’t take my eyes off it was soo divine ,for a while we stood there watching the beauty then we moved on to explore the place. The place was really huge and lot to explore we didn’t know where to start and where to move ,so we moved on taking random roads and roads that took us to another and another and another.. we were like going around in a circle enjoying the beauty ,on one side there were rocky ground and mesmering veiws of the nearby hills and the sky looked as if it was painted by a expert !!! There were metal benches placed in the rocksfor us to enjoy the overwhelming beauty.

And on the other side it was lush green and there was also steps leading into more lush green , we started to climb those steps..as we moved forward everything became more greener and there was big trees and sunlight slitted through the canopy giving a tindal effect , there were many species of plants which i couldnt recognize, there were more benches made with cement for us to rest and when we moved forward we entered through a arch covered totally with plants and in front there was a heart made of plants placed on a big gardening pot.

The steps and the small roads were now made of stone blocks like the fort wall we saw earlier.when we walked foward we came across a beautiful white building and it had a beautiful garden in front and it contained many white decorative models like swans etc ,it was tippusultans and later british took over the bulding and made it british raj’s summer rest house and now its a hotel but it was totally closed and was prevented from local tourist entering inside the fenced garden. Nandi hills has a big historical importance ,this was one of the valuable posession of tipu sultan and breaking into nandi hills was considered a big victory for other forces. Now this place contains many flora and fauna which belong to rare species and some are endemic to western ghats and the only other place you can find them is nandi hills.

A sudden distraction from the lush beauty came in the form of a phone call, it was my brother he have been in banglore before and have also visited the place before ,when i told him i am in the middle of nandi hills ,the first question he asked was ‘have you visited nandi yet ?’ And thats the moment when i realised that i have missed the major part, the nandi temple !!!! The nandi hills was huge and there was no sign board so we seeked help from Google map,we startedto walk as the map said we walked and walked and walked and atlast there i am standing in front of a 1300 years old hindu temple dedicated to lord shiva ! The name if hills was said to be nandi hills because of two reasons one is because there is nandi temple and the second is because the hill is said to be having the shape of bull. The temple was bulid on a huge black rock and had a large temple pond, there was a man standing outside the temple to keep our footwears and the temple pond was a big one with a lot ancient stories living with it , a lit bit away from the compound wall, outside the temple there is again statue of nandi ,the mount of lord shiva and according to Hinduism if we have any wish just tell that secretly on the ears of nandi and the wish will be fulfilled and we too told our wishes to nandi.

Its almost time for us to climb down we slowed moved in some random path , the sun is almost fully rised

We tried to walk through the road going through the edge of the hills ,there is still the old fort wall going around with high metal fence on them,and there was many look out places created in the fort wall and the veiw through them was pulling me back to nandi hills again

we moved downwards and reached the parking ground , now its filled with people , there were many couples and riders and there was also people who came for thier morning walks and the teashop all became live , we bought some coffee and snacks and sat on some avaliable space , there were a huge group of monkeys roaming around ,some were small some were big and some were even caring babies ,they were searching each and every bin for food and they opened the frooti covers and snacks packets like humans dos and was also chasing some stray dogs ,some where even fighting with other monkeys ,i was too afraid to take out my camera and click a pic of the monkeys because they are likely to snatch my camera if i dare to do that!

After a few minutes of group photo shoot we bid goodbye to nandi hills ,even after this 11 months passing by still i can hear each of this picture speaking and i can feel the cool breeze and natural soothing smell of green grass ,if you like to travel you should surely visit this place one day because nandi hills is a mixture of a history, architecture and natural beauty all mixed in postive vibes !!!.