Belman and the glorious Pinto Couple!!!
We have now come to the second leg of my holiday. Having completed the first leg to celebrate my 73rd birthday, here I was on my way to meet my ex colleague and family friend Gerald Pinto who has bought some land and settled down to do farming post his retirement from a very successful career in the United States as a SAP consultant. His charming wife Loretta is also a personal friend. It is often said that "A Friend in need is a friend indeed". The Pintos proved that having helped me during my difficult times and for which I am forever indebted to them.
Gerald unfortunately has no kids. GOD had hand picked this couple to do much more than mundane things like raising a couple of kids like we all do. All the poor and suffering were theirs to look after. Having made some money in his overseas assignment and with no kids and a heart of Gold the Pintos decided to settle down at their native town Belmannu near Mangaluru where he had some ancestral property.
Belman(nu) is a small town in Karkala taluk of Udupi district. It is also called Belman. The place derived its name from the Tulu word Bolman which means white soil. It is famous for Shree Durga Parameshwari Temple.
He has also started a free charitable hospital for Alzheimer & Dementia patients on their own land donated for the project. This land was an ancestral property and could easily have fetched them more than a crore per acre. For more about the Trust click on the link below.
More about SUSHEG Charitable Trust
Now let us come to the second leg of my glorious holiday.
Day 1
We reluctantly checked out of the resort at Karwar and boarded the train to Udupi. As is wont in these areas as we were told the train was 90 minutes late and arrived at 11 30 AM instead of the scheduled 10 00 AM.
We were met at the Udupi station by Gerald Pinto and another family friend Austin. We were driven to Belman a distance of around 35 kilometres in Gerald's Honda automatic transmission. The drive was through lot of greenery thanks to the just concluded monsoon and we thoroughly enjoyed the same.
Suddenly we were engulfed by forest like trees and we got the first sight of the Pinto's residence. We were welcomed by loud barking of a pack of seven dogs welcoming their master after a short absence from their midst. My wife who is mortally afraid of dogs was as white as a bed sheet hearing them approach. Pinto considerately packed them of in a room and we were allowed to enter the premises unharmed.
Now started the introductions. The disciplined dogs were asked to form a queue and were introduced to us one by one. Each canine as per hierarchy approached us and we were inspected by smell and a wag of the tail accompanied by some growls before we passed their tests as a species harmless to their masters. After the initial inspection our presence was accepted albeit with a grudge except for occasional show of affection and a desire to be petted during our rest of the stay. It was indeed an experience by itself.
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| In the Drawing room |
We freshened ourselves and were treated to some very welcome hot tea and snacks. The lady of the house Loretta was away on a visit to Mangalore. It was dusk by that time and the Sun was setting when in walked Loretta and soon filled the silent rooms with her chatter and non-stop conversation.
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| Lunch Time !! |
After a quiet dinner we were shown to the bedroom allotted to us and we settled down to a good nights sleep. What intrigued me was that each dog had its own place to sleep and followed it like a military group of soldiers.
Day 2
After a good nights rest we woke to a chatter of birds and the barking of the pack of dogs. We started on a morning walk of inspection of Pinto's farm. The overnight rain had made the weather very good and a cool breeze welcomed us. We took more than an hour to cover the area in front of the house. The drizzling started and we took the opportunity to finish our breakfast.
After breakfast we finished the rear of the house and went up the slope to view the water storage tanks.
We set out for a tour of the surroundings. We visited the site of the Charitable hospital, a temple of "devi Annapoorneshwari"and an ancient Jain temple with a thousand pillars know as the Dakshin Kashi. We had lunch at a restaurant courtesy the Pintos and after buying some essentials were back home in the evening, We were welcomed by the dogs who showed immense pleasure on arrival shown by a vigorous wagging of their tails.
After a sumptuous dinner we retired for the night.
Day 3
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| With our Hosts |
It was dawn once again and sadly it was time for us to go back to our concrete jungle in Navi Mumbai from the present greenery surrounding us.
We were dropped at the station by Loretta and on our way we also visited the famous "Sri Krishna temple" at Udupi.
I am giving some links to some of the photographs we clicked below.
I have also earlier in the blog given a link to my blog on "The Susheg Charitable Trust" with an appeal for all of you to read and contribute your might to a worthy cause.
With that I wind up my present blog.
Click on the links below for the photo album.
At Home at Belman
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