Many of us have Déjà vu feeling (a feeling of having already experienced the present situation) when we watched the series “Malgudi Days” based on stories written by R. K. Laxman. Much part of this series was shot in the hill-town of Agumbe in Konkan belt of Karnataka. I had read about Agumbe when I visited Mangalore for a conference a year back when I was searching for nearby attractions. I could not go to Agumbe at that time but I had a dream of visiting that place. Fortunately I could plan and visit this place a few days before. The best way to reach Agumbe is from the city of Udupi which is on Konkan railway line on northern side of Mangalore. Udupi is also famous for its sub-urban area of Manipal, which is a hub of medical education. Agumbe is at just 60 km distance from Udupi and one can reach there by taxi or bus. The ride by bus would be more thrilling as drivers drive very fast on narrow winding roads with full speed and full confidence!
The bus for Shivmogga (Shimoga) from Udupi would pass through Agumbe. Signboards on the bus are
written in Kannada script and though Hindi is understood, communication is not very smooth many times.
(Though Kannada and other south Indian language are called Dravidian languages by many people insisting that they are very different from North Indian languages. But India; i.e. Bharat is a nation with ‘unity in diversity’. Though the Kannada script is different from Devanagari script, the sequence of consonant and vowel alphabets is essentially same as Devanagari. E.g. it starts with ‘ka’, ‘kha’ and so on..)
Sloping and winding roads, green coconut as well as supari (Areca nut) trees and forest trees are seen on both sides of road from Udupi to Agumbe. On the way, you come across small towns like Someshwara and Hebri. I saw the “Nature stay at Sitanadi” after Hebri, run by Karnataka government and recalled what I had searched and seen during my internet surfing to decide places for visit and stay. After Someshwara, the ghat roads had very steep turnings and there were monkeys all around to welcome us. I think monkeys are the species who have adapted to human interventions in forests, while other animals remain in deep forest only, away from hustle and bustle of human activity.
We reached the town of Agumbe and before the bus stop, we passed by the famous Doda Mane, the house of ‘Swami of Malgudi Days’ by R K Laxman. We reached the bus stop and got down from the bus. Just in front of the bus was our hotel ‘Mallya Residency’, where we were to stay. There is a nice, old signboard of the city in front of the bus stop. The name or surname ‘Mallya’ reminded me of Vijay Mallya but this is just another surname in Konkan region in Karnataka (Mallya is a surname from coastal Karnataka in India. It is found among Hindus of the Goud Saraswat Brahmin community, especially of Madhwa Section following Gokarna Matha: https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Mallya).
The hotel is decent but need to improve cleanliness and tidiness of the rooms. The hotel has a beautiful picture depicting the village, Malgudi on first floor. There are a few homestay in and near Agumbe but generally meant for bigger groups.
After freshening up, we started walking towards to Doda Mane. We saw some small shops and fruit sellers on the way. One shop also sold gulel (slingshot) which is my wife’s favourite toy! She recalls her childhood time-pass of preparing this tool on their own using V-shaped branch of tree and tube of wheel. She wishes to hit pigeons with this tool who often encroach into balcony of our house (though she may not do that finally). I had read about Kasturi Akka, who is the owner of this house (Akka means sister, perhaps elder). We first met a young lady at Doda Mane, who is granddaughter of Kasturi Akka. The house is maintained as it was may be a hundred years before. I had heard praises of traditional food prepared by Kasturi Akka and inquired whether we can take lunch there. The reply was positive.
We met Kasturi Akka and eat the lunch prepared by her. It has delicious items like methi pulao, red rice, rasam, vegetable made from jackfruit, bittergaurd and various pickles made from Tamarid, raw mango; curd, masala chhas (buttermilk) etc. Kasturi Akka is a smart lady and can speak Hindi and English in addition to native languages. When requested for a click with her, she asked me to take a Selfie. The most distinguished part of the experience is that they don’t charge for the food. It’s one’s own choice how much one wish to pay for that. They also offer stay at this house on the first floor.
Later in afternoon we also visited a temple, which was built a few centuries ago during Hoysala empire. The ground in front of the temple and the surrounding houses were used in shooting of Malgudi days. All in all, we had a great experience of this old, traditional town of Konkan. More on places around Agumbe in next article…
Dr. J R Mehta's Blog 