Bugle Park and the other temples

Having finished with the main attraction, we walked quickly across to behind the Doddaganapathy Temple where there is a small cluster of temples dedicated to Valmiki, Hanuman and Kalahastishwara (form of Shiva).

The Valmiki Ashram is a small two storeyed building, whose function is still quite a mystery to me. Outside is quite a nice statue of the sage Valmiki meditating. The inside however, is a small hall with a black board with a list of donors and the amount they donated as well as a small altar with a framed print of Sage Valmiki. A stack of plastic chairs lay on the side by narrow stairs going upward.

Next we peeped into a tiny little Anjaneya temple. This tiny little temple has a fierce priest who really scared me by pouncing on me for almost taking a picture of the temple shrine. It was beautifully decorated, and entirely covered with garlands of beetel leaves and flowers, exposing only the small benign, orange coloured face of Lord Hanuman. I can only assume that it is another monolith carved out of the local rock but much smaller than the other more famous temples in the same complex of Ganesha and Nandi. The priest was terribly angry with me and so I really couldn't ask him anything. But why he was upset with me I simply cannot understand? I meant no disrespect.

Opposite the Anjaneya temple is a shrine dedicated to Shiva. Here the priest was friendlier, but my poor Kannada skills and his own shyness prevented me from getting any story out of him regarding this somewhat interesting shrine. At the altar are three simple carvings on granite of an Elephant (Hasti), a Linga, and a Hunter (Kala).

The patient priest explained that it was a replicate of the famous Sri Kalahasti temple near Tirupathi, but gave me no more information on it. I repeatedly asked him for a story that explained a somewhat interesting scene that appeared to be portrayed on the rocks, but he didn't seem to understand me. He kept pointing to each image and would repeat slowly (convinced that I was a little bit of a tubelight)- "Kala is hunter, Hasti is elephant, Eeshwara is Linga". I gave up and was sure that Google would help me, but it has confused me further because it says that Kala is a snake. I didn't see a snake in the temple - I saw a hunter. And the priest repeated it to us so many times, I am sure I couldn't possibly have got it wrong.

Anyway, the Anjaneya temple priest really put the fear of God (haha, isn't that funny!) into me and so I didn't dare ask about taking a picture of the temple.

We came out and sat down by a Mommy cow and her little doe-eyed calf who were tied outside the temple. I pulled out my notebook and wrote down what I saw in ugly little short hand (which I couldn't understand later anyway) while Prashant tried to get Pranav interested in his first cow-experience. Of course, Pranav doesn't care for any animal unless you tell him its a dog. If you call it a dog, then Pranav perks up and comes eagerly cooing like he has suddenly come upon an old long lost and beloved pet. "Dawwwgggggiiiieeee" he called shrilly,tottering towards it, narrowing his eyes till they were almost invisible. Prashant tried in vain to try to explain how this was a doggy that mooed. Then we walked down into Bugle park where we came upon a small little surprise shrine to Renuka or Yellamma just at the entrance (I think the park has multiple entrances - we entered from the Bull Temple side).

Who is Renuka, you might wonder, if you know as little about the Hindu pantheon as myself. Well, ask wikipedia when in doubt. Here's the answer

Bugle Park was really beautiful from the first - oh! 20 feet that we saw. On entering the park we made the big mistake of putting Pranav down to let him walk. He was so well behaved all this time, we really felt he needed a reward. But this sudden freedom was too much for him. He went out of control, and it would have been alright if there weren't so many red ants everywhere. And even the red ants would have been alright if Pranav was not feeling so inquisitive - because after a short mad dash forward, and a quick run around in a circle, Pranav promptly bent down and started to chase the huge red monsters intending to perhaps befriend it and take it home. So he was scooped up, and we dodged the flailing arms, ignored the loud crying and shrieks of protests, avoided eye contact with all peaceful Basvanagudi residents and park-regulars whose walk was being interrupted by this little tantrum and quickly walked out in search of Bugle Park Kamat for some grub.

We didn't really look very hard for the famous Kamat hotel, because right opposite the park was Halli Thindi - a tiny little fast food joint serving authentic Kannada food. It was really yummy food by the way. We tried the bread dosa, ragi dosa, some pathroda, some funny sounding payasam and akki roti and all this other stuff which I can't even remember cause it was so chaotic over there. Anyway, it was really good. ESPECIALLY the bread dosa. Try it.

Here is how you get there from MG Road
Parking is on the street around the temple and park, although I can foresee major problems on festival days.