Seven travelers, one 14 hr train journey, one scary fainting stint, 1381 km crossed,

Two hand sanitizer bottles emptied

Four complete days and nights, three hotels

Seven temples, one free humble lunch at one temple

20 Dosas lovingly wrapped/served in banana leaves, each anywhere between Rs.10-15

One kg. mangoes, one kg. Mysore bananas, 12 fresh coconuts

Zero beers, Zero worries

One heartiest veg. thali

One beach, one bag of ashes submitted to the sea

Four stores with my surname, three bungalows I liked one belonging to a very hardworking cousin, one inspiration to own one just like that, one spontaneous retirement plan made

One ice cream parlour called ‘Ideal’, three ‘gadbads’, one litchi ice cream, one duet, one dil kush, one chocolate dad

One dog of course, one hungry cat, two lizards corresponding to two sub-standard hotels

Zero cow dumpings on roads !!

Zero taunts about my improved Tulu

One paisa-vasool shopping spree at Hakoba

One day’s breakfast, lunch and dinner under 500 bucks per head

Four villages visited – Mulky, Ullal, Kapu, Monkey Stand

Five express bus trips to these villages that were honestly ‘express’

One five yr-old girl whose mother claimed to have caught a snake by its tail

One day-market, one meeting with a fisher woman with impressive marketing skills for selling dried fish, seven bags of dried fish for about Rs.1000 in total

One masala dosa the best I’ve ever had EVER

One lunch of 7 for under 2000 bucks, three dishes of fried fish, one disgusting bite of bondas or masala fried squid

One Taj sweets and no other sweetmeat shop comes even close, 2 kg halwas, 1 kg melting Mysore Pak, three bags of banana, sweet potato and jackfruit chips each

One long bus journey back

Two blackbirds, Two signs that Dad was watching over us…

Six satisfied, cleansed souls

One guilty soul

One beautiful place – fit for retirement

One trip worth making again…