Tippu drop की कहानी, Muniyappa की जुबानी - eNidhi India Travel Blog

Tippu drop की कहानी, Muniyappa की जुबानी

Despite staying in namma Bengaluru for 4 years I didn’t have a chance to visit Nandi hills so far. Finally visited this place with relatives last weekend. Since loads of stuff about Nandi hills already online, let me skip detailed descriptions and give you some details about Tippu Drop, one of the attractions in Nandi hills.

Tippu drop is an assassination spot in Nandi hills. It’s said that Tippu Sultan used to kill criminals by throwing them down from this spot. A steep vertical fall ensures that no one will survive the fall or crash landing. When we reached this spot an old gentleman greeted us and started an unsolicited talk giving details of Tippu drop. This visibly aged man, named Muniyappa, was like an unofficial tourist guide there, probably making a living from any small amount tourists cared to give him for his explanation of the place.

This post lists few of his narrations- not sure to what extent they are true.

Sir M Vishvesharayya built this road to Nandi hills- I was a small kid going to first standard then” Muniappa began and pointed to Tippu drop and explained how death is certain if someone jumps from here (At other places one may survive with major injuries due to trees and other obstacles). For the kids in the group he took extra efforts to explain how Tippu Sultan used this place to get rid of criminals (there was no courts or judicial system those days-whatever King says is an order) by throwing them down from this point.

Lots of people come here to commit suicide-I’ve seen many people jumping right in front of me, but I couldn’t do anything. Just by seeing the face of a person I can tell if he/she is thinking of suicide” Muniappa revealed the alternate usage of Tippu Drop. “See this writings- It reads Ravi and Veda-they were young lovers from Shivamogga (a district in Karnataka)-they wrote down their suicide note in a notebook and jumped off from here, before I could realize what they were upto. After their death Govt has set up some fencing” Mr. Muniappa went on.

Rest of Nandi hills was good too. A monkey snatching my sister’s bag (which contained mobile) is a point worth mentioning. Either because of sustained efforts by everyone to scare it or because it realized there’s nothing eatable in it, the monkey eventually threw the stuff down from tree-the robust Nokia mobile survived crash landing. (Remembering a childhood story I suggested that all of us should throw our bags and mobiles away, seeing which monkey would do the same, but no one were ready to listen to me)

Made an attempt to identify Skandagiri from Nandi hills, but failed. Also while I was parking Innova’s driver side power windows started giving trouble. (Got stuck and wasn’t rolling up- Apparently the motor had developed some problem) Various people around gave different suggestions- one gentleman suggested that I should open the bonnet, look for one particular chip and reset it. Luckily after trying various techniques to make it work, little bit of shaking (moving the vehicle front and back) brought it back to life and I could finally roll it up. (Self drive rental from Car Club)

While driving down made an attempt to switch off the engine and drive. Realized that it is just impossible to maneuver Innova without power steering (power steering gets turned off along with ignition)
We also visited Muddenahalli, birthplace of Sir.M Vishveshwarayya, some 15 kms from Nandi hills (5-7 kms from Chickballapur). His house is converted into museum with lots of interesting artifacts belonging to the legendary engineer, visionary and architect. Photography is not allowed inside, which is a disappointment.

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