IN MEMORY LANE #7

I had planned to stay for the whole of next day and then leave Udupi back to my native place. I just wanted to enjoy my day out there as that was supposed to be the last trip for me for year 2008. I got up early but things never go as we plan. The reason was we had never planned anything for the day:-)

Things were slow to begin with and by the time we had our breakfast, it was almost 12 pm! Then we concluded that we will go to Malpe beach and Manipal on that day. We got ready and left in the car towards Manipal. It was a short drive of about an hour. I was amazed the way to see the city had developed. Mostly filled up with the students [mostly NRI's & people of abroad] of Manipal university. But it was no way less compared to Bangalore. It was a step ahead indeed. I got the clue why I was not allowed to join medicine there inspite of the fact it was one of the best colleges in the state. Eventually I ended up doing medicine in "THE BEST" college, I am glad.

We reached Manipal End Point at 4 pm. The name is just so, but not a literal one. MEP is a place built up by the main person of Manipal, the one responsible for all the medical boom in Manipal. MEP is a sort of tourist spot in Manipal, an artificial one but surrounded by natural valley and forest. You cannot imagine how a place like MEP can be built! It contains all the possible outdoor grounds in India, right from cricket to football. It was refreshing to see people practicing their game. Also a huge park is made there, which I now realise is mostly inspired by one of these western parks in US, full of lawn with few bushy plants separating the ground. We spent much of our time in there enjoying the nature's beauty around. It is a very good place to visit and exercise:-)

We left MEP and reached Malpe beach by 6 pm. I insisted to see the sunset at Malpe beach. The beach is just like any other tourist beaches of India. There were plenty of people around playing games, swimming and enjoying the rest of beach stuff. We got the opportunity of watching sunset. I feel it is a great experience of nature you could every enjoy. Now my senior found herself drawn to the stalls at the beach where fresh sea food is available. We went there and selected a nice huge 'Baangde' & 'Anjal' fishes. We asked the stall keeper specifically to make a Rava Fry. It is one of the most spicy food you can have at coastal Karnataka. My senior was courtiuos enough to separate the fish bones for a fresh sea foody like me. Thats the main reason I was able to enjoy the hot spicy fish food. Then we were sad it got over so soon. It was already 8 pm and we decided to leave for our place back.