The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Hooray, Hooray! It’s a holy holiday

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Wednesday, Oct 01, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Hooray, Hooray! It’s a holy holiday

Bangalore Bureau

People are making the most of the extended festival break and with some manoeuvring, it is possible to get a two-week break

KSRTC plans to deploy 450 extra buses for Mysore Dasara alone
Many people are preferring destinations in Kerala and Tamil Nadu

— Photo: S. Ramesh Kurup

Destination wayanad: A file photo of Banasura Sagar Lake in Wayanad. Wayanad, Munnar and Thekkady are among the top destinations for tourists this festival season.

Bangalore: The rainy season is behind us and there is a slight nip in the air that suggests that winter is round the corner. Also in the air is an unmistakable joie de vivre that foretells the beginning of a long holiday.

Schools have either closed after the mid-term exams or are on the verge of closing. Thanks to a string of festival holidays, which have fallen conveniently just before and after weekends, adults caught in the workday world are also in an ebullient mood.

The first holiday of the season was Mahalaya Amavasye which fell on Monday, bringing an extended three-day weekend. A day’s break and it is time again for holidays, Id-ul-Fitr followed by Gandhi Jayanthi. The week that follows brings more happy red letters on the calendar with Ayudha Puja and Vijaya Dashami. One Friday in between, it is again the weekend. For those who can convince their bosses to grant them a couple of casual leaves in between, it could virtually be a two-week break from work.

Gone are the days when a festival meant a contented full meal at home and a luxurious nap. Instead, work-weary Bangaloreans are busy making plans to head out of the city, preferably to a place where they can escape mobile connectivity too.

Heading out

Sanjay S., a corporate trainer in an IT company, is planning a weekend visit to Wayanad and other places. His itinerary includes Mysore too. “After many months of stressful work, we are looking forward to a long and calm weekend in Wayanad. Since Dasara festivities are on, we plan to break our journey in Mysore,” he says.

S. Keerthi, area sales manager at 3M India Ltd., is heading to Mysore and Ooty. “Hotel bookings are hard to get, and we are planning to stay with relatives in Mysore,” he says. Many prefer destinations in Kerala and Tamil Nadu apart from those in the pristine coastal belt of Karnataka.

This has kept those who run travel agencies awfully busy. According to H.B. Subramanya, who manages Sri Balaji Travels, enquiries for long weekend travel were coming from tourists planning vacation in Kerala and Tamil Nadu besides Karnataka. He says that the big demand is for Wayanad, Munnar, Thekkady, Alappuzha and Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala and Kodaikanal, Kanyakumari, Ooty and other places in Tamil Nadu.

In Karnataka, most enquiries are for circuits that offer both leisure and pilgrimage tourism. “The coastal belt, including Murudeshwar, Gokarna, Kollur, Udupi, Karwar and Yana are popular,” Mr. Subramanya adds.

There has been a huge demand for public transport too. The Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) plans to deploy 450 extra buses for the Mysore Dasara alone and press into service 200 extra buses to other destinations across Karnataka from Bangalore. Apart from Mysore, Dasara is celebrated at Sringeri and Kollur, and KSRTC will operate additional buses depending upon the demand from Bangalore, said a KSRTC senior official. Also, it will operate extra buses to Hubli, Belgaum, Shimoga, Davangere, Gulbarga, Karwar, Mangalore, Dharmasthala, Kukke Subramanya, Bellary and other towns.

South Western Railway has introduced special trains which run on weekly and biweekly basis from Bangalore to various places to decongest the festival rush. Special trains are already running to Kacheguda (Hyderabad), Chennai, Hubli and other places.

Those untouched

However, small pockets of this city will remain untouched by the festive spirit. Anything that is not Christmas or Halloween is not applicable to this demographic. While the elite section of the “IT crowd” or the software professionals will go home, plan holidays or laze around for the better part of the fortnight, the BPO and outsourcing-based industry will rough it out. For Mahesh S. it will be business as usual. In fact, work will be tighter and tougher considering some of his colleagues have pre-approved leave and are dashing off to their hometowns.

“Most of us want to spend time with out families. Those of us who belong to Bangalore have decided to take on the work load so the out-of-towners can rush off to their homes,” he says.

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