Expressing Myself

Revanasiddeshwara Betta Night Trek - 2nd Sep 2011

2011-10-16T21:36:00.001+05:30

I always wanted to do a night trek once the trek-bug had bitten me more than a year ago. But for some or the other reason I couldn't go for one and on one occasion I had booked for the trek but got cancelled. Finally on 2nd September, 2011, I did make it to Revanasiddeshwara Betta night trek organized by BMC. Even this one was after some difficulty as my friend who was supposed to come along cancelled at the 11th hour. I went ahead nevertheless.

Kiran, whom I met in Thirumaleguppi trek, was our guide. Being Friday evening, I was tired but excited about the night trek. I slept now and then until we reached a spot near Ramnagaram. Kiran, as is his wont, had suggested that we do a short forest walk before we climbed Revanasiddeshwara. We reached this spot around 12am. There were small hills around and temple at the base. The forest started pretty close to the road and the temple.

Kiran giving us the prep talk

Armed with torches and cameras, we set forth for the walk. Many of our group were first time trekkers and most certainly all were coming for first night trek. Kiran started with his usual warning that there could be snakes and sloth bears and what not. We had no option but to be careful. The entire walk took us only 15min including a short break in between, but it certainly seemed much longer. Nevertheless, with the night atmosphere, bushes, uneven surface with stones and skiddy mud at certain places, it was worth it. There was a large rock onto which we climbed and rested. We did introductions, some chatter and returned to the tempo. The way back seemed even shorter than 15min. We collected some wood near the temple to use for camp fire.

Halt point inside the forest

Starting for the climb at Revanasiddeshwara Betta

By 1:45am, we had reached Revanasiddeshwara. Stuffing the sleeping bags, we started the climb. The climb was first on road which had some mending work and then for some distance on mountain rock along the outer edge before the steps started for the final climb. Revanasiddeshwara is famous for temples - there were some at the hill base, one along the way and one at the top. It started drizzling slightly by the time we reached the steps. We had to remove our shoes, for the religious aspects, but that helped in our climb too. The slab based steps were only a connector from relatively flat surface to the steep slope towards the peak. Steps were carved on the mountain rock all the way to the peak. There were iron railings to support the climb and we really needed them due to the slope coupled with the rain and wind.

Atop the peak was the temple surrounded by bare rocks. Kiran led us to a spot around the temple where the steps started again, only this time they were leading down. The steps led to yet another temple, not surprising us anymore. This one had a well built veranda and some construction material near the edge. The place was sort of a cave with two big rocks intersecting. It also meant that we had a safe place to rest away from the rain. The climb had taken us about 30-40min or so.

Campfire

Kiran immediately set about arranging for the camp fire. The construction materials meant we had a good spot on sand and the bricks helped in protecting the fire from wind. But still, we needed diesel to get the fire started. The coconut shells strewn around were also helpful. We sat around in a circle around the fire to enjoy the warmth as it was getting really cold. Kiran as usual narrated some anecdotes from his treks, some of which were familiar to me. Sometime later, people brought out snacks which were consumed with relish.

Preparing to sleep

The wind blew hot and cold, sometimes even putting out our fire. The wood and diesel ran out soon enough and most of us went to sleep. It must have been around 3:30am. Kiran woke us around 5:30am only when there was light just enough to walk without using our torches. When we reached the peak again, we were treated with a pleasant view of hills and lakes all around. Rain had stopped, but the wind still made it difficult to climb down the steep slope. After reaching the road, we had a short break. And when we started again, Kiran took a good look of the rocks around and gave us a basic course in bouldering.

One of the lakes around

Memento (The hill behind is famous for bouldering dares)

By 7am, we started to Bangalore. For breakfast, we stopped at Bidadi and had the famous menu of the region - tatte idly. After which most of us slept peacefully until we had to get down. All in all, a nice outing :)

Thirumaleguppi trek - a western ghats treat

2011-10-15T10:48:00.001+05:30

Ah! The lure of western ghats. Irresistible, especially in the aftermath of the worst semester of my academic life. And BMC had just the medicine I needed - a trek to lush green Thirumaleguppi in fading monsoon season. I was yet again apprehensive of rain spoiling the trek in more ways than one. Thankfully I took the risk and heeded to my heart's wish.

Friday evening - 19th Aug, 2011. Time - 9:14pm. I had arrived one minute before scheduled departure from Domlur bus stop. Result - as usual the tempo arrived almost an hour late. We reached a place near Kalasa around 6am from where we had to take a jeep ride to Samse village for our home stay. I must say it was one heck of a jeep ride. For more than half an hour, we climbed the mountain 'road'. The road I mentioned was a muddy one where I wouldn't trust myself to even walk - it was like one of those dirt race tracks. Overnight rain had made it worse. At certain places, the jeep's tyres had made about a foot deep impression. I thank the jeep's manufacturer and the driver for safely transporting us.

Mullodi house - Samse village

Our home stay - Mullodi house, was quite close to Somavathi falls. Coffee plantation was all around along with awesome flowering plants and a big jackfruit tree. By 8:20am, we were done with breakfast. Getting ready for the trek was quite a sight. People had got all kinds of ointments and creams and salt to prevent leech bite. That includes me, I had got salt which I sprinkled on socks and shoes!

As it had rained overnight, we carried a stick to support our footing during the trek. We were a 14 member group including BMC guide Kiran and a local guide. With just one turn around the home stay, we got a larger view of the mountain ranges around. Clouds painted the sky white and grey. To our right was the Somavathi falls with a small temple built very close to water flow. The muddy path was uneven with overnight rain making it slippery.

The picture says it all :)

Somavathi falls

Picturesque

Within 15min, we were into the forest path which goes circularly around the mountain with streams flowing on the inner junction of a curve. It reminded me of the Tandiandamol trek which had similar pattern. The flora was quite similar too, a trait of western ghats I suppose. Our guide Kiran, a hard-core trekker and nature lover, quite easily trekked through the slippery rocks of the stream and had a dip in freezing cold water under a small waterfall! We were conservative and declined his request to follow suit. The local guide had a wry smile. The moses and ferns and other grasses growing everywhere on stones too had an eerie feel like Tandiandamol. The difference was that the path was a bit tougher and leech filled due to rainy season.

The circular path with streams

Soon we were out of the circular path and out in the open grassland. 30min into the trek, we took our first break which was more to allow the rear group to catch up. We had some photo shoots, and then the local guide here asked whether we were interested to do another peak adjacent to Thirumaleguppi (I think it was Irumaleguppi, if I remember correctly as it was two peak close to each other). It was an interesting prospect to consider, the path certainly looked more inviting and steeper than Thirumaleguppi. However by the time Kiran and others had caught up to us, we decided to stick with our original plan. Trek to Irumaleguppi would have meant more time and rain would have hampered us badly. In retrospect, we missed a golden chance :(

First view of Thirumaleguppi

The interesting landscape

The landscape around us was an interesting one. Due to high winds, there weren't trees on the higher slopes of the mountains all around. However, where ever there was enough shield from winds, there was dense forest. All this and the beautiful weather certainly made us feel blessed to be there. It took about an hour or so to cross different valleys before we could set foot on the main climb towards Thirumaleguppi peak. All along it had been a stroll in the park on the grass covered path.

Crossing the vast grassland

Steep climb ahead

Irumaleguppi to the left of Thirumaleguppi

The real climb started as the path became progressively steeper. The breaks became frequent and longer. We had climbed sufficiently high when we had to peep to see the valley to our right. The local guide spotted three deers grazing below and asked us to be quiet so as to observe them without driving them away. It was my first time of spotting a mammal (other than monkeys) in the wild. Being higher also meant that we could observe mist/cloud decorating the valley below. It really did feel heavenly.

Spotting deers in the wild

Nearing the peak

In all it took about 40-50min to reach the peak once we started on the steep section. Thanks to grass, which at some places were knee high, we had good enough grip inspite of loose and slippery mud. At some places, the steepness was too high that it was a bit scary. The wooden stick we had carried came in very handy to support our climb. The view of Irumaleguppi to our left was both scary and pleasing to the eye. The mist covered peak was pleasing, but the steepness did give a shudder thinking if we had gone to that peak instead of Thirumaleguppi.

Reaching the peak was a welcome respite after the steep climb. It had taken us about 2.5hours for the entire climb, so we weren't exhausted. But we weren't complaining. After the customary photo shoots, we found a spot on the other side of the peak with rocks strewn near the edge and giving us a view of the valley below. We camped on the rocks and removed our shoes to remove leeches. I had two bites adding to the one I got in Sakleshpur. But the interesting point was all three were on my right foot. Leeches: anything wrong with my left foot??

Bliss

We decided to have lunch even though it was only around 11:40am. Cloud and mist would cover us now and then. After lunch, some were gossiping and some of us simply enjoyed the tranquility. Around 12:30pm, we started our descent back. It was nasty to put the wet shoes and socks back. As always, descent was trickier than the climb. It took about half an hour to cross the steep portion with quite a few stops in between. And another hour to cross the vast grassland back into the circular paths with streams in between. On the way we spotted locals with their cattle grazing the abundant grass. It was confounding to think how the bulky ones had climbed to these spots.

We had a long break at one of the streams. By virtue of stopping a long time there, we could spot colorful frogs and dragon flies and swimming-spiders and flora. Around 3:15pm, we reached the home stay. Just before the last turn, we spotted a 'dung'-beetle hauling a nearly spherical 'dung' upwards the slope!

'Dung' beetle

Having come pretty early, Kiran suggested that we go have a bath in the Somavathi waterfalls the same evening. For the next day itinerary, he said he will try to arrange for river rafting if sufficient people agreed to come and subject to availability. Initially many were skeptic about it but slowly there were enough numbers. So Kiran contacted and told us that by evening he will confirm one way or the other.

After some rest, we started for the falls. By now, it had started drizzling and temperatures were nose diving. That only served to shrug off our exhaustion. As we were started around the corner from the home stay, people ahead said they spotted a cobra. Now I cannot be sure that was true or false :P. But we sure were cautious. As I mentioned before, the waterfall was quite close. The path was trickier than anything earlier in the day, but we made it to the falls without any trouble.

The fun began near the falls. We had to climb on a wall constructed on the side to reach another man made concrete floor directly in path of the water gushing out. There was a dam like wall constructed with two openings through which water flow was pretty rapid that one cannot cross without huge balancing act. Kiran, the maverick that he is, planted one foot in the middle to allow others to cross. Some of us just climbed the wall and jumped across the opening. And in a final act, Kiran crossed the more dangerous second opening all by himself.

We made it thus far, only to find that we couldn't actually go under the falls and had to settle for the large pool that was at the foot of the falls. The water was too cold that it took awhile to adjust. We played around some half an hour I believe. Some had actually got soap and had bath while some were busy collecting stones.

By 5:30pm or 6pm or so we reached back to home stay. After change of clothes, we sat for what turned out to be mini dinner. One opened a pack of snack and shared it and soon one by one everyone brought out their own. I had brought newspaper, so we spread it out in the middle, kept the snacks on it and sitting around we finished them all, hungry like a lion that we were. Gossiping too had started while we munched and that continued even when the snacks were finished. Kiran spoke about his trekking in Agumbe and techniques for survival in the wild. He started about snakes and leopards and it continued around about dogs and before we knew it eventually reached the topic of God. There was a Psychiatrist too in our group who gave some scary accounts of the patients he had encountered. And while we were at it, dinner arrived much to our relief.

The rain which threatened all day long came with full force in the night. Various colorful insects took refuge in our room, perhaps attracted by the lamps. We even got to see a firefly with two LED like green-glow in its abdomen. Kiran had got confirmation for the water rafting by now. As we had to leave early in the morning, we went to bed (i.e sleeping bags) early for much need rest for the body.

After freshening up and breakfast, we left the home stay around 9:30am. The jeep ride down was lot more bumpy than first day. We could see the effect of heavy overnight rain in form of streams and increased water flow in the river on the way to water rafting spot. We reached there (forgot the place name) around 11:30am. Except me and another guy who had had fever past week, the rest had registered for the rafting. It was some basic level and the water flow wasn't rapid. Plus it was brownish water than the claimed 'white'-water rafting :P. After the rafting had started. the tempo took us to the other end where we waited for about an hour for them to finish rafting. Meanwhile me and the other guy took a nice little walk around with coffee plantations all around.

'Brown' river rafting

Due to the rafting detour, we could have lunch only around 3pm at Kottigehara. Neer-dosa and vada varieties coupled with our hunger made it special. We even got to spot some sparrows. For most of the rest of the way to Bangalore, we slept peacefully. Like I did for Tadiandamol, I promised myself to return, if not for Thirumaleguppi for Kudremukh.

Sparrows - rare to spot them in cities :(

Savanadurga trek - June 4, 2011

2011-08-29T20:47:00.001+05:30

This was a trek I was reluctant to go because of rainy season. However, when my junior, Srini, requested me to come, I couldn't resist. Plus the fact that this one day trek with BMC had also included rappelling and some fun activity in water.

As is the norm in recent days, the tempo from BMC arrived late. Srini and his friend Satish had boarded at wind tunnel road stop leaving me alone at the Domlur stop. At around 7:30am, the tempo arrived, my mood resembling the dark clouds hovering above. However, I was soon gearing into trek mood talking about the nuances of trekking with Srini and Satish. We reached Savanadurga at around 9:45am after having breakfast on the way. Towards the latter half of our journey, Savanadurga teased us, playing hide and seek, going left and right to our view as a result of the rather twisted highway.

Savanadurga and the temple at base

Right at the base of Savanadurga is a temple lending grandeur to the location. The hill at around 1200m high was daunting. It seems, rock climbing enthusiasts can enjoy grades 1-7 on this hill. After customary photo session, we started towards the forest. Our first task was trekking through forest and caves followed by rappelling. When inquired about fun activity in water, we were regretfully informed that it won't be possible due to some reason. So much for bringing along changing clothes for a day trek.

Muthu from my previous Sakleshpur trek along with Rohit were the guides for the trek. Infact Muthu was a localite from that area. Starting around 10am, we reached the entrance of caves in about 20min. The forest path wasn't much interesting, with thorny flower plants covering most of the way. The same thorny plants would become a nuisance later in the afternoon. Once inside the caves, I was immediately reminded of the Antaragange caves. The look and feel were eerily similar, though this one was much darker inside and turned out to be more adventurous. There were trees growing inside the caves using which we climbed a petty steep rock.

The flowery plant with thorns

After about 40min, we emerged outside and reached the rappelling spot. Reaching the top of the rappelling rock was another challenge which was more frightening than enjoying. On the way, however, we climbed onto another rock and spent good time enjoying the awesome view of the hillocks enhanced by the cool climate and wind. Because of the danger in climbing to the top of rappelling rock, I missed bringing along the camera. I hope someday I would go again and capture the beautiful view on camera.

The caves - tricky and fun

Rappelling was fun, though scary for a newbie. One has to climb down perpendicular to the rock with the help of rope which is tied firmly to a tree or rock on the top of the rappelling rock. When my turn came, I was making sure that I was tied securely. But just before climbing down, Muthu informed me that he forgot to put the helmet for me! We nevertheless continued without the helmet. Only initially, it is scary to get our position perpendicular to the rock. After that it is just a matter of continuing to move down with the help of ropes. It was fun.

Rappelling rock

That's me doing the rappelling! - notice the absence of helmet :(

For about an hour or so the activity continued, some of them doing it twice. Afterwards, we trekked back to the temple at the base of Savanadurga. For lunch, BMC had arranged with localites and brought to us in an auto-rickshaw. The food was awesome, each item tasting good and filling our hunger and more. After lunch we resorted to some rest and photo shoots. As it was already around 2:30pm, there wasn't enough time to climb Savanadurga and be back. Added to the concern was looming rain, which never came.

So we settled for a walk through the forest behind the temple and facing both the peaks of Savanadurga - Karigudda (Black hill) and Billigudda (White hill). Like in the morning, the path within the forest was surrounded by thorny bushes, only that this one was worse and gave scratches to many. After about 40min, we emerged out of the forest path and onto the rocks. There was an abandoned temple which can serve as an excellent camping spot. Soon after the temple was a wall constructed near the edge of the rocky platform. Must have been part of the fort which was about half a km to the left of temple.

The illusion of 2D

We rested awhile there gossiping. And then took another round of photos trying to jump high in the air and using 2D illusion to show as if one was jumping from the fort wall to the other side. We started again to complete the rest of trek on rocky base towards the road. On the way was the fort along with a rather very extended outer wall. There was a small pool too formed conveniently between rocky base and small hill rising.

With few more breaks, we finally reached our tempo which had already arrived there. Muthu had cleverly led us on a path which ended close to his home. Thus ended a trek which promised a lot but was compromised because of various reasons. Hope to go sometime again to fulfill my wish of climbing this hill.

Sakleshpur trek - a memorable journey

2011-08-10T20:23:00.001+05:30

It had been nearly 3 months since I went to Tadiandamol. Longing for a trek was at a high and so I couldn't miss golden chance for Sakleshpur, and more importantly a chance to go western ghats again. Infact, in the past two treks, I had heard trekkers praising highly of this place. And so, the journey began on May 20. Little could we have anticipated what followed.

Learning from Tadiandamol mistake, I reached the pick up point (Domlur) 15min early and nearly immediately spotted two trekkers and got in a conversation with them. Slowly I could see others filling up and understood why BMC had closed registration previous day itself. As ill-luck would have it, we had to wait more than an hour due to unforeseen issues at BMC office. We only wished that the trek wasn't called off.

And when the bus did arrive, one of us had gone to get water bottle which meant a bit more delay. I was pleasantly surprised to see Ram as last minute addition as an extra guide (making it three along with Muthu and 'talkative' Satya). After the remaining trekkers got in at the last pick up point, Satya immediately embarked on his 'talking' mission - meeting all of us individually and recalling some of us from previous treks. I was tired but as usual sleeping on the go was proving elusive. That the driver was in a tearing hurry (going in shortcuts to cover up for the delay) and seats not so comfortable added to the trouble.

We reached a spot(3km from Donigal station) around 5am, well before our expected time. We were not going to stay in an accommodation and hence we stopped there till day break and went to a hotel to freshen up and have breakfast. We reached Donigal around 8:15am. Satya, in his inimitable style, gave us the prep talk about the trek and then Ram got us going with a very funny warm-up.

Loading Mini-apartments

After the customary group photo, we started on our 16km mission on railway track, carrying tents and sleeping bags and MTR ready-to-eat packages. It really felt like mini-apartment, as Ram often terms it. But ofcourse, like any new trek or for newbies, the enthusiasm overrode the feeling of heavy-backpack. The Donigal station is about 5min walk from the highway. This was finally our real start to the trek, most of us taking a good look at the station as well as capturing it on camera.

Donigal Station

Walking 16km in itself was going to be tough - added to it was the challenge of walking on ballast (crushed stone) filled track. On many occasions though, the ballast were not filled to level of the pre-stressed concrete sleepers (the railing onto which the track is tied) and provided a sort of horizontal stairway. Walking on it was much preferable even though it had the danger of slipping and getting hurt. But once one gets used to it, it provides relief compared to walking on mix of concrete sleeper and ballast. Also, at few places, concrete walls were in place outside the track which again we took advantage to avoid walking on ballast. But, overall for more than 50-70%, my estimate, we had no way of escaping.

Our large group of 30 split into smaller groups, so the guides separated out into three regions - Muthu leading, Ram in middle and Satya bringing up the rear. Satya, fortunately likes taking care of the back group as he has to match slow pace of the group as well as be doubly sure to not leave behind anyone. The guides had walky-talky for co-ordination and early warning of train approaching from either side.

First few kms went off without much trouble. As is my wont, I slipped twice on the ballast, but escaped with only minor scratches. And very nearly would have damaged my new canon SX130-IS camera. The picturesque houses with mountains on the background made us envy the localities. After about 45min we came across the first bridge. We knew there were plenty to follow, but there's nothing like experiencing the crossing of railway bridge for the first time. A person with fear of heights might have found it tough to cross, but the newly constructed solid and wide-enough side-path of tracks provides both easy crossing as well as safety if a train comes along. Most of us proceeded to capture the bridge in the most bizarre angle possible as well as shooting through the gaps to highlight the depth. And within 10min came our first train 'interaction'. We made elaborate over-acting of reaching a safe spot. But soon enough few of us kept their ears on track to try and hear/feel the vibration. As we were near a curve, some daring in-front-of coming-train-pose were shot too. As for me, I took a video of the goods-train passing from close quarters in HD mode, which in retrospect feels silly.

First Bridge

Excited like a kid on train passing

The monotonous walk continued until about 20min when we came across a stream flowing. We rested to catch breath and relieve our shoulders of the increasingly feeling heavier back-pack. The stream was densely surrounded by thick vegetation and insects were making constant-irritating chirping sound. The chirping became part of the environment for most of our trek. After resuming our walk, we came across a bigger stream and this time with a bridge to cross. It was only 20min since the last break, but with sun-shining, we were getting tired and rested again. There was a jackfruit tree near the end of the bridge and some of us brought one fruit down. One member insisted on carrying the jackfruit right to Bangalore, but eventually sense prevailed and the fruit was left behind.

After about 10min, we reached the first tunnel - 239.20m. The tunnel was pretty nicely shaped and completely cemented on the insides. Muthu gave safety instructions and armed with torches, we excitedly went ahead. It became pitch-dark within few meters and we had to concentrate on the ballast and sleepers to carefully move ahead. There was a small opening before the tunnel ended which gave us good view of the western ghats and a beautiful gorge. We seemed to cross the tunnel too soon for our liking but when inside the tunnel all one can do is cross it soon enough to avoid any remote chance of getting caught inside with train crossing. The noise would have been terrible.

Crossing tunnel for the first time - by walk

Within 10 mins, we had crossed the two back-to-back tunnels including the time of clicking pics from the small opening. And almost immediately another bridge came. Time was only 11am, but we had already seen all variations - bridges and tunnels and bridges-with-streams-under-it. It became a boring routine - so we tried to walk faster with lesser rests and photo-shoots. I went nearly an hour without shooting (not a mean achievement for compulsive-photographer like me :P). At noon, we stopped for a big break and also to let the Sathya batch catch up.

We had stopped right before a bridge - this one longer than most others. There was a train scheduled to cross around that time. So in small batches, we crossed quickly, each time checking if train was near. The train seemed near but yet took an eternity to come. By then we all had crossed and in position to shoot another round of pics. This time it was an express train - most people waving their hands seeing us and we too waved back in earnest.

We soon reached Kadagaravalli - the only station between Donigal and Yedakumari. I was by this time at the front of our group and we were going past the station when the guides asked us to stop at the station. I thought lunch was to be taken - it was 12:30pm. But that meant we won't be having it near a stream. Soon it became clear that we were only resting again. There was an open water tap and we refreshed ourselves. Some of us took off the shoes, the walking had taken toll and it felt good by simply removing the shoes. The hot water from the tap helped too.

Refreshed from the break, we re-started the trek earnestly. For more than an hour we crossed a series of bridges and tunnels with more sightings of trains - this time a petroleum goods train. We came across perhaps the largest bridge with large stream flowing under. Peeping from the bridge was real scary and with wind blowing one had to be very careful. As with long bridges, there were railings on the side to stand incase of train passing. We spent lot of time taking snap here with different poses for our wallpapers. Just after the bridge came the largest tunnel of our trek - 569.18m. It was real thrill to cross more than half a km in darkness. Being accustomed to crossing inside tunnel, we trusted our brain to place our legs onto the next sleeper, while we focused our eyes on the small circle of light from the torch at 3-4 feet in front. Those 10 minutes were once-in-a-lifetime experience (unless ofcourse, I do this trek again :P)

Pretty long bridge - and a bit scary

After crossing the tunnel, we began searching for a bridge with stream under it. It had gone past 2pm and our stomachs were growling. We spotted a bridge with seemingly a manageable path to the stream but proved false. Meanwhile others had crossed the bridge to try from that end, which was successful. Heaving a sigh of relief, we reached a spot with rocks around to have our lunch. Some had bath in the stream, while some of us teared away at MTR packets. While they tasted awful (as we had no way of heating them), our hunger made it possible to eat them. There were large rocks from which the stream formed a small waterfall. This helped people like me take bath who didn't know swimming. The water was refreshing and the pounding of water on the body was a welcome massage for difficulties ahead.

We must have spent around 1-1.5 hours around the stream. We had a rough estimate of having trekked 10km and 6km to go. The Sun had started to play hide and seek and we were worried of reaching before possible rain. With no idea of how far the station was, or perhaps the guides purposefully didn't tell us, we were walking longer with less rests. Finally, just before 5pm, we sighted double train tracks - which meant the station was nearing. The tracks were taking a turn and when we finally sighted the station, Kumara Parvatha too came into view. Yedakumari was actually named as sister to Kumara Parvatha :D. (A valuable hint to whoever goes for this trek having read this blog - follow the milestone markers - it is roughly 51km at Donigal and 67km at Yedakumari..)

It was around 5pm. Relief and joy engulfed us. I was elated to see myself finishing a 16km trek. We dumped our back-packs unceremoniously on the platform and started photo-session with cloud-covered Kumara Parvatha in the back drop. I soon felt the tiredness creeping, and like others, laid down on the platform. My legs felt like ship anchors, I wondered if I would be able to trek the next day. After everyone had assembled, Satya mentioned that there is a nice stream further down the tracks. So after some rest, around 10 of them trudged to the stream. I was in two minds whether to go or not, as I was feeling really tired. But when few others started around 6pm, I couldn't resist and went along. It turned out that the stream was more than a km from the station. I half thought of returning mid-way, but that would have meant a bit of embarrassment :D. Reflecting back, it was rather well that I didn't go back midway.

Well earned rest

Kumara Parvatha ranges

The path to stream was tricky and steep. I slipped for a third time that day, and yet again escaped serious injury. In the process, I think I broke a tree branch that was there for support. Darkness was starting to creep in, but there was enough light for half-an-hour or so. Like the stream where we had our lunch, there were rocks which formed a mini waterfall with water gushing with enough speed for massage :D. It was a nice time spent gossiping in one of the most serene location with occasional train passages.

Around 7pm, we started back. The tracks were hardly visible in the twilight. And then the fun started - we had a running race on the tracks! And, even now astonished that I was able to run few 100 meters after all those tiring walks that day. Passing through a tunnel was really really dark, but the path had only a small tunnel. For rest of the way, I jogged/walked-fast to finally give my body an extended rest.

Tents for sleeping - another first

By 8pm, we had set up tents on the platform. It was a first for me. For dinner, the remaining MTR were consumed. But I really couldn't have eaten them - the snacks I had brought along were the saving grace. There were hundreds and thousands of fireflies twinkling on the mountain rocks opposite the platform. They made such a beautiful sight that one could watch them for hours. But along with them, were irritating and loud insect chirping. Though we were used to them throughout the day, the noise level was really high here.

We had to get up early for the next day trek, but sleep was hard to come by. There was cloud cover which made us sweat inside the tent. Keeping the tent open was not an option due to snake scare. It was one heck of a troubled sleep. Tiredness got me through to around 5am, but no more. A train/engine had passed which woke me up. I came out of the tent, but the cloud cover still hovering meant that it wasn't cool even early morning. With time to kill, I started trying different modes in my camera with Kumara Parvatha.

For breakfast, it was bread - with very little butter/sauce. I had few more of the snacks and saved a little for day ahead. Around 7:30am, we started our trek - this time through the forest adjoining the station to reach highway. What a trek it was!

The forest known by Bisle is one of the famous rain forest in Western Ghats. Surrounded all around by mountains and Giri river separating the highway, it is one of the favorite among trekkers. The forest starts almost immediately behind the station. The path is small enough to allow only one person at a time. It was steep, slippery and bushes often coming in the way. But with frequent trekkers, the path in itself was clear cut. The station being at elevation, we were actually climbing down until first contact with a stream. Most of the vegetation was bamboo and elephants often 'climb' up for food. Muthu expertly watched for signs and soon enough found trampling of one as well as dung which obviously wasn't more than few hours old. We trekked with caution and as for me, I wished both not to be confronted and be confronted with elephant :P. While we were examining foot marks, someone near me showed me a leech - another first for me.

We took a short break at the stream. After which, we had to climb up a path which was wide enough for jeeps. It was the start of, well I am bored of writing it again and again, one of the memorable trek ever ;). Fallen leaves covered entire pathway filled with moisture. It is where the leeches thrive. At the start I didn't spot them and I didn't care about it. After awhile, people stopped and were busy checking their shoes and socks for leeches and removing them - that is when I checked mine and saw one merrily drinking my blood. I hastily removed it only to hear someone saying that I shouldn't have done that. My action left the wound opened - blood trickling. The leech when it bites, injects anesthetic and anti-coagulant. Anesthetic prevents us from knowing the pain - and thereby the knowledge of leech on our body. Anti-coagulant is what causes blood to trickle if we forcibly remove the leech. If the leech goes by itself, it will seal the wound, or if we apply spray like moov or salt-water we can force the leech to leave. One can push trouser end inside socks to prevent leeches from climbing up.

We were tired both from previous day's trek and meagre breakfast. We tried to cover as much as possible and stop at relatively dry areas to remove leeches sticking like glue to shoes and deftly moving to bite. The irritating insect chirping followed us here too. With elephant risk still looming, we had to keep the entire group within calling distance. But with leeches around, some of us wanted to finish the trek asap. Eventually, a pattern emerged, the ones in the front would cover some distance, stop till the group behind catches up and then move on. While waiting, we would tend to the leeches. Fatigue was creeping in, but thanks to the leeches, we kept walking. Along the way, we spotted colorful spiders, some of them even flying few cms and some group even spotted a young viper!

After covering about 3/4 the distance, we spotted an old tree broken and blocking the path way, which as I said before was wide enough for jeeps. Now, near the broken tree was a path going downwards which was the shortest route to reach the highway, but with enhanced risk of elephant. After much deliberation, we took the longer route. We must have covered around 1-1.5km along this path, when the guide told us that the path was much longer than expected and that we would have to retract. It was almost unbearable - tiredness, leeches, hunger, elephant risk, lack of water, heavy backpack and so on. With no choice, we walked back to the broken tree. And tell you what - in any trek, walking back a path is the most difficult thing to do. Somehow, our spirits are good enough as long we 'feel' that we are 'moving forward' in the 'right direction', no matter the distance. And it didn't help that some of the groups were only just reaching the tree spot after some of us had done a 2-3km detour.

The short-cut was worse - narrow, slippery and steep path with wetter leaves and fallen trees. We were back walking among trees (or forest if you like, somehow forest evokes an image of trees 'and' animals not 'insects and leeches'). Red-ants, big ones, got added to our growing risks :D. Being narrow path, we had to doubly make sure all groups were together - and so more frequent stops among the leeches! This route must have been another 2-3km. Halfway, we could hear the vehicles on the highway and we saw sunshine too. But it made humidity worse and our thirst increased.

After crossing another small stream, we finally emerged outta the forest to the leech-free stone-filled river bank. We removed our shoes one last time to free ourselves and washed our legs in the river. But water re-opened the leech bite and blood started trickling again :D. We gathered at the river crossing place after quite a bit of walking around the banks. Now came the best(most risky) part of the entire trip - crossing the river.

Due to the rains, stones in place to cross the river had washed out and steady inflow of water meant walking/swimming across the river was not an option. For more than an hour the three guides searched for a nice path where water won't be more than knee deep. During that time, we rested nicely under the shades of trees, applying dettol or skin ointments to the leech bites. Finally Muthu found a good spot around half-a-km from our resting place. But twist in the tale wasn't over for us... yet.

The crossing was about 100m or so and water was relatively still compared to earlier spot. Muthu showed to Ram how to cross and went off in search of our bus (as mobile tower was nil). Being satisfied, Ram took charge and Satya as usual brought up the rear. The idea was to form a human chain with Ram guiding after midway. There was a tree midway of our crossing and that is where the depth increases. The tree's trunk wasn't wide enough to walk freely on it and being under water, it was slippery too. Some of us boldly walked on it and others who were tall enough used the tree as support and went inside thigh-deep water. After crossing that section, one needed a little more support to pull one-self up to the bank as it was on a higher platform and the backpack/wet-heavy-trousers made it all more the difficult.

However, first half of the group could cross it without any alarms as the water level was still below our waists and water wasn't flowing fast enough. And then the problem started. There was sudden inflow of water raising both the water level and increasing the speed of flow of water. For some it became chest high. Backpacks were first passed on and one-by-one there was human chain formed near the tree trunk too. When only 3-4 were left - it happened. I was on the bank helping the ones reaching the bank to climb up. I saw Satya losing his footing and literally carried away by the water flow. I didn't know swimming and others had climbed up from the banks to highway. Ram left the ones near the tree trunks and swam to help Satya. Fortunately for Satya, he could get hold of another tree and waited till Ram reached him. What happened was Satya was carrying lots of baggage and one of the tents had got loose. Satya tried to catch it and in the process lost his footing. The water flow did the rest. Even though he knew swimming he would have found it tough to control his body movements unless he caught that tree. I was only thankful that I wasn't the unlucky one. But to his credit, Satya kept his cool and his presence of mind helped him. And he laughed off the incident saying it is another addition to his long list of misadventures!

River crossing - everlasting memory

And now the wait started for our bus to arrive. With no mobile signal, we were in principle crippled. With nothing to do, we changed clothes right near the highway :D We no longer cared for what the world thought - we had had a life changing experience :P. We kept our bags and towels and shoes and socks near the highway for drying. And talked and talked. For a brief time we even considered hiring a vehicle. But patience paid and our bus finally arrived. Both the driver and Muthu displayed their own presence of mind - the driver, seeing that there was no tower at the agreed spot where the guide had said would meet, went to another spot where he could get signal. Muthu, for his part, brought with him bananas for temporary relief from hunger. I can vouch that those were the most tastiest bananas I ever had.

After lunch, we settled nicely for a nap. But the driver had more in store - he put an excellent video/audio quality movie : 3-idiots. What a timing. For one, we laughed throughout the movie, even though most of us had already seen it. For another, the theme of the movie advising to pursue our interests fit very well with our trek experience. A particular dialogue which resonated was the one related to fooling our hearts - what is difficult is only relative - I am used to around 3km walk everyday for office, however I was also able to do 18km trek on a day - just because I love it! Looking forward to more such treks ;)

Tadiandamol trek and Chelavara falls : Feb 25-27, 2011

2011-04-28T16:11:00.003+05:30

Its more than two months since the trek to Tadiandamol and I have been the bitter lazy self instead of sharing and immortalizing yet another unforgettable experience. I kept fooling myself that I will do it today and 'today' never materialized - until now that is. I forgot the most basic lesson that any trek teaches - 'It all begins with a single step'.

Tadiandamol

Chelavara Falls

For more photos, click here.

It was my first two-day (ad)venture with BMC and it was memorable every moment. Started on friday night - Feb 25, was supposed to reach Domlur bus stop by 10:15pm. 10:10pm at CMH road and not a bus in sight. I wasn't worried though, as in my experience, it was always a late start at pick-up points. My phone rang even as I was contemplating to take an auto. It was Ram, the guide for our trek. He said that the van had already arrived at Domlur and waiting for me. Thankfully the first auto-wala I asked was ready to ply the 2km distance. I wondered how could they have arrived earlier. As I reached the stop (must have been around 10:15pm) it became clear that the van had just arrived and trekkers were arranging bags in the dickey. Good ploy by the guide.

My bag was too bloated, but somehow fitted in the cramped space behind the driver. Ram called it as 'apartment' :D. As always, I found it difficult to sleep while traveling, which wasn't helped by the fact that we were getting to know each other and that I couldn't hide from bright light from oncoming vehicles. Also, Ram had to constantly talk to the driver to keep him awake. Around after 1AM, I woke from my disturbed sleep due to thirst. I kept myself busy with my favorite past-time of window-watching. And slept and awoke, the pattern never ending like an infinite loop. As we neared Kodagu (more commonly known as Coorg) district, fog showed up intermittently. Where there was no fog, it was pretty clear and I enjoyed the many stars I had perhaps not seen before. We went through so many twists and turns as we climbed up (lowest area is 900m above sea level in Kodagu district), I wondered how the driver and guide Ram remembered these (I could hardly see any sign boards). It was only when we were closing our homestay I realised from the talks that there was huge mix-up in finding the route.

However, we made it before 6AM. The house was typical of the district, with women in charge of the estate surrounded by coffee plantations. The various flowers in the house garden were a treat and subjected to intense clicking by us. We rested for awhile, freshened up, had breakfast, packed lunch and by 9AM, we were on our way to base camp. The picturesque landscape with tall trees and coffee plantations and view of western ghats throughout our route (5-6km I suppose) were a sight to behold. No one can forget them for years. We reached base camp at 9:35AM, which is the farthest spot van/bus can climb up. Stream of fresh water from waterfall flowed nearby. My excitement had no bounds as I geared up for my longest and tallest trek.

Tadiandamol - (broadest and tallest in Malayalam acc. to wiki) is the highest peak in Kodagu scaling to 1748m. As I pointed out earlier, the point from where we started itself must be 1000+m above sea level. But to reach the peak, its about 6-7km from the spot we started. We were lucky in two aspects - it had rained two days back making the area cooler and it didn't rain during our climb.

As is my wont, I clicked at everything and anything. The variety of flora awed me and I had to force myself to stop clicking and climb. Two liters of water, snacks and heavy bag slowed the pace. But that hardly mattered with such a beautiful setting for a trek. After about 5min climb, we came out of the tall trees and got first glimpse of surrounding peaks. To our right, the valley was thick with trees and misty cloud cover hung around the far mountain range. The path diverged here and we took the inner path (the outer one seemed to go down)

The path was wide enough for a Jeep to travel. And like other mountain roads, it went on the outer edge of mountain and spiraled about 3-4 times before the path became too narrow and climb became steep. On each of those circular path, one can enjoy the beauty of surrounding peaks and the trickling waterfall on the inside curve surrounded by trees. Variety of flower plants and trees adorned the entire stretch till we moved out of the circular path and began straight walk towards our destination.

What followed was a flat valley for a stretch of about 500-1000m. Near the end of this stretch, one could see thick tree vegetation below the Tandiandamol peak. An opening of free space was nearby beyond which the mountain ranges formed a formidable V-shape. On the other side was the path to climb towards our peak and to its left a thick grass and small sized plants leading to the last reachable spot of the waterfall stream. Some of us stopped for pics with the V-shaped ranges as back-drop, others took rest on big rocks around. While we were shooting pics, an army of atleast thousand bees alarmed us. Felt as if an helicopter was in vicinity. We all stooped to on our knees, thankfully bees didn't find a distraction and went ahead. By that time, our guide Ram and some had gone to the water stream. We had not noticed the path they had taken and at that time we didn't know about the stream. We had started along the clear-cut climbing path when we realised that the guide wasn't visible on the trail ahead. We stopped, asked everyone to stay close and started shouting Ram's name. After anxious minutes, we heard them reply and heaving a sigh of relief we started towards the stream.

The place around the stream was pretty cool and surrounded by tall trees. The water was cold, clean and sweet. Some filled their water bottles, rested on rocks and chatted for about 10 mins. It had taken close to 1:15min from our start point and there was no sign of tiredness. Perhaps because of the easy path and the fact that all along it had been pretty flat path. Also as we were more than a km above sea level, the heat wasn't a trouble. I had taken perhaps only 2-3 sips of water upto this point.

As we started our real climb, we could see clouds building up at the peak. Cloud's shadow were upon us and we braced ourselves for the difficult climb ahead. We could also see another group of trekkers far ahead of us, giving us an idea of the distance and the breadth of Tandiandamol. After about 10min, we came across the first real steep path which was full of light-green or brown grass intermittent with rocks. It was then we felt the pinch of heat and exhaustion. The key in such situation is to let our body acclimatize by not resting often. I was starting to feel difficulty in breathing but I went through the steep stretch until reaching a big rock to rest. I was thankful of having brought a 200ml fruit-drink.

The trail continued to be barren with dead grass with few trees. But the steepness was gone. And there were thick tree cover on nearby mountains. After about another 10min, we reached the forest region. I was pretty excited as it was my first trek inside a forest. Well ofcourse, no animals could be seen, but seems elephants are spotted from time to time. It was humid inside and I got drenched with sweat. I can't remember when that had happened last to me. There had been rain 2 days back, but thankfully no leeches were there. We rested at a spot with tree trunks criss-crossing across the path and holding the soil. The sweat dried and with wind blowing lightly, it felt great. But the forest path lasted only for 15 min and we were back on the open.

Clouds had fully hidden the sun and climbing felt pleasing than the expected accumulation of exhaustion. By now, we had caught with the other trekking group (who actually had taken wrong path leading to 30-45min extra climb). The path was barren again but thick trees were close-by. Now started the teasing peaks of Tadiandamol. We could see a steep peak, climbed it only to see another peak. This steep peak is a bit dangerous, what with the mud moist and soft. If it had rained (dark clouds were hovering), it would have been impossible to climb (atleast as I perceived it). But with every climb, we felt refreshing in the cool weather and our legs were ready for more action.

The view of the surrounding peaks was stunning, and I was very very glad to have made the trip. I also decided that I would come back to experience it all over again ;). As we climbed higher and looked back, the trail was clearly visible and the cloud shadows tricked our eyes to perceive as dark green trees. Finally, after 2hr 20min of climb, we reached the top. It was not even noon time, which meant we had climbed with good pace. 3 hours is the norm for casual trekkers :D. I actually wished there was more to climb to experience the sheer exhaustion of reaching the top, which clearly wasn't the case here.

Sun had completely disappeared with cloud and mist mingling and wind blowing steadily but not threatening. The mist cover is something I won't forget in a hurry. The open space around us looked all white while sunshine at far away mountains looking unreal. Sunshine did eventually break once in a while, but predominantly we were sitting inside the mist and cloud cover. We felt as if we could touch the dark clouds hanging around us. We rested, chatted and clicked pics at various angles and different poses trying to show the open space behind.

After about 15min, a dog showed up and we continued our shooting with it. At around 12:30pm, we went further to another corner of the peak from which we could see western ghats extending into Kerala. We met a 50+ aged English guy who likes trekking in India. He asked Ram about possible routes to reach Kerala from the peak. He is a core trekker and it seems he had climbed in 1hr 15min!

We settled around to have our lunch. There was content in having food - perhaps the farmers and laborers feel that with every meal? Like in Rangaswamy betta, we fed the dog. Perhaps that dog was used to receiving from trekkers on most days? It was very calm and well behaved :D After lunch, we had more shooting sessions and rest. After about 40min, we started our descent.

As with any descent, it is faster to trek down than the climb but at the same time tougher and fraught with danger. The moist and softened mud didn't help either. The little grass cover held the mud and we were able to descend fairly easily once we got into groove. For about 20-30 min, we trekked down non-stop covering most of the steep paths. We had a short break and again did 30min at a stretch. Looking back, we couldn't believe ourselves that we had climbed that far and come down. We took a long break this time, settling near the stream. There was sense of achievement amongst us.

It had been the longest trek for me, yet the exhaustion wasn't showing. Which was good as well. There was another hour of climbing down. We had split into many small groups as the trail was fairly simple to follow. But at one point, the path diverged. We took the path going down only to find it wasn't the one we took in the morning. As we trekked back to take the other route, we started feeling weariness and just wanted to reach base asap. It didn't help that the sun was shining majestically.

Finally, after little more than 6 hours from start of trek, we reached back the base. We waited under cool shade of the tree for others behind to join us. I washed my face in the refreshing cool stream flowing beside us. And what's more, I was surprised to see that I had survived the entire trek on 1 liter of water + 200ml fruit juice (apart from food and snack ofcourse :D). I shared the remaining liter of water with others who were in need.

We had told our driver to expect us back around after 5pm, but it was only 4pm when all of us had gathered. So we started another walk for about 2km. Walking on the steep road was more difficult than our entire trek. Some even started to walk backwards. I kept myself going by watching the coffee plantations and various kinds of flowers on both sides of the road. It took half an hour I think and we reached a bakery near Nalknad palace. Again we waited for everyone to gather as well as waiting for the driver who had been sleeping when we called. When he eventually reached, thoughts of winding up for the day had crept in only to find out that we were going to the palace!

Nalknad Palace is a brilliantly built structure around 1792 where the king sought refuge when in danger. The hideout room was pitch black. The building is in good shape even now. Some paintings inside were damaged, but overall one would definitely be awed at the brains which created the design.

After reaching the homestay, we were served tea/coffee and snacks. Needless to say we wanted it so badly. Some of us slept, while some had bath. We played dart and carrom and by then it was dinner time. We watched Pak-SL match and actually cheered Pak! We had to get up early the next day, but went ahead to watch till the end with intermittent sleep. I slept peacefully that night :)

Got up around 5am the next morning and enjoyed the morning chirps of birds. Dew had set all around and I took to another round of photo-shoot. One of the servant took us for a walk around the plantations and explained about the coffee plants and the other crops normally planted within the plantations like pepper, jackfruit, etc. A coffee plant normally lasts 100yrs! Its flower looks fit to be used in decorations. Again the various kinds of plants/grass were a treat for the eye. After the walk, we had Coorg special - steamed rice ball (named kadumbuttu, if google is right) for breakfast. Around 9:30am, we took leave and left for Chelavara falls. The stay was every bit pleasant and enjoyable.

As we left for the falls, I tried to recollect as much as I could of the previous day to cherish the memory forever. The tall trees and greenery will stay forever. But for the moment, I was excited about the falls. We had to walk only about 100-200m to reach the base of the waterfalls after getting down from the van. I had no intention of getting drenched fully and I rued not knowing swimming or that there was no life-jacket.

But I wanted to simply stand in knee deep water and walk around. After sometime, when I wanted to climb back onto dry rock, I slipped. I knew the rock inside the water was slippery and I had actually taken care to climb, but I slipped. The dread hanging over me for past two days of when I would slip came true, but thankfully, there wasn't even a scratch. Only my trousers got wet. The rule was broken, I had to drench now.

The water was pretty cold even though it was around 10:30am. Even as I went chest deep, I found it difficult to breathe. I took two-three dips for the body to adjust before I went ahead. And I did so only on the assurance that I wouldn't go below water level and that people who knew swimming were guiding me from the other side. There were rocks just below the water gushing down which were a bit rough and not slippery. Anyone who doesn't know swimming can easily reach that spot and stand on the rocks without fear. And enjoy the full force of water falling on the heads. I was so glad that I had slipped :D. But only disappointment was that I had run out of memory in camera - I had taken 518 photos and 4 videos!!

And so, after wonderful one-and-a-half-days, it was time to leave. There was a sense of happiness of having visited this beautiful place but also disappointment that we were going back to normal life with its tensions. I decided I would come back for sure. Perhaps this year itself. On the way, we stopped at Virajpet for coffee purchase. I got some cookies too which were pretty good. It was too early for lunch, so we went ahead and stopped at the next town (I think Gonikoppal). Veggies among us had it in Kamath restaurant, which is pretty decent and not costly. On the roads, we could see people dressed in Coorgi tradition, which was nice to see.

Attempt to pass time by playing movie inside the van failed, so we stuck to music/sleeping/viewing-photos/cricket-score. On the way we passed Rajiv Gandhi national park and then caught the Mysore road towards Bangalore. By then we were discussing more on cricket as Sachin was nearing his 100. We stopped at a hotel to catch glimpse of match only to find no TV :D. Just as we were happy that traffic on Mysore road wasn't that bad on Sunday evening, we were stopped in between for a diversion. Seems some domestic fight led to violence and strike!! Any hopes of watching England 2nd innings were fading away fast. The diversion route (towards Kanapura, NH 209, soon got crowded and within the diversion route we took another diversion on suggestion of villagers. Now that seemed to turn ugly at a junction but ultimately proved to be our saviour. And the route was in itself good with various hills in vicinity. Some maniacs were even trying to overtake on the narrow road, and again somehow that did not lead to blockage. At a long curve, the parade of vehicles could easily have been shot and placed in a film. The strike must have ended, as we didn't face oncoming vehicles and soon we reached Bidadi. Now we faced another problem - how to cross the NH!! Thankfully there was a U-turn about a km ahead or we would seriously have gone mad. The light beam pointing to sky from Wonderla was visible and along with giant wheel, it surely is a great marketing gimmick. The road was virtually empty in our lane, but tragedy had stuck the opposite lane at a junction where a lorry was involved in an accident. The traffic behind must have stretched more than 2-3km! We thanked heavens that the accident wasn't on our side. After stretching our legs on a petrol pump, we waded through the bangalore traffic and I reached room to catch last 7-8 overs of the India-England clash. I was again thankful of the memories from Coorg and was able to accept the 'tie' verdict of the match.

Trek to Rangaswamy Betta - 19 Feb 2011

2011-02-24T09:46:00.003+05:30

Am on good trekking form, Rangaswamy Betta this time. My 4th trek with BMC. I decided to do this trek just for the variety of easy trek and as preamble to Tadiandamol trek on Feb 26-27.

There were only 7, including the guide Satya for this trek. Chetan from previous Antaragange trek had also come. After having breakfast at Krishna Sagar and crossing city limits, we hit the NH 209 towards Kanakapura. The road was fantastic with trees on either side forming archway at certain places. Satya is very talkative and throughout the journey we discussed about our trek experiences. Which meant, I had very little opportunity for my customary window-watching.

Wonderful NH 209 with archways

To reach Rangaswamy betta, one has to take a left turn from NH 209 (don't remember a landmark). Throughout the 6km stretch, one can enjoy the brimming village life. The farms, the huts, broken red-brick walls, villagers working in veranda of their houses, their enthusiasm of watching vehicles go past them, etc etc. By 10am, we reached the base of Rangaswamy betta. As is my wont, I was clicking away at anything and everything around when Chetan brought my attention to some sort of growing on a tamarind tree. I clicked a snap and saw that spiders were moving around on that hairy growing on the tree. I presumed that spiders were hunting for food. Then Satya came and exclaimed he has seen nothing like it and asked me to take a video. It was then we realised that infact the hairy growing was perhaps a nest built by the spiders! At the base of the tree were like millions of spiders. When Satya went close to the nest, spiders moved as if to attack him!

The Spider nest

Satya then brought us into a huddle and gave a brief of our day's itinerary and some note points to follow. It was sunny, hot and I regretted the decision to have only 1 liter of water despite Satya's insistence on 2 liters. I was arrogant on the fact that I did Madhugiri trek in searing hot conditions with 2 liters and hence I should be able to manage with 1 liter here. After about 10 min walk, we started the climb. There's a clear cut path for almost the entire trek path. The path is a mix of black sand, tree trunks/roots and stones. Workers from the village were ahead of us. As I mentioned before, our talkative guide Satya kept us interested with his experiences and his memorable incidents. During one of those talks - related to Kumarparvatha, we were rooted to our spot for about 5 min of his narration.

Lion King anyone?

The pattern repeated itself throughout the climb - some or the other topic was discussed, we stopped - for the discussion/photo-shoot and continued. It meant too frequent a stop, not suited for a climb through arid conditions. I wasn't panting initially, but was sweating profoundly. By halfway, it seemed all too easy - nothing challenging courtesy the clear cut path. Some enthusiasts had even finished the climb and were returning. Satya stuck a conversation with them too! And so we stopped again for him to join us.

By now, we started feeling difficulty in climbing. So, our resting became even more frequent. Discussion had now moved to Cobras and Vipers and Black Mambas. As we neared the top, we met more trekkers returning. An old-aged worker caught up with us, and on seeing us resting said that the peak was just around the corner. And he kept climbing with ease.

To our frustration, lots of ice-cream covers showed up. The last part of the climb was like - trek 1 min and stop 2 mins! I was panting and puffing and not wanting to climb. But I did finish it and on reaching the flat peak, my relief knew no bounds. Cool breeze was flowing and the view from top is just awesome. Hills all around and farming fields of villages at the base could be seen. Also visible was a long trench on the work at the base. A dog followed us for a while. There were painted rocks (mainly of elephants) besides the Rangaswamy temple. We settled on a large rock sheltered with a mango tree's shadow nearby the temple.

Peak. The temple is on the other side of this rock

Luckily, got the macro-shot right ;)

It was around quarter to 1pm. I was yet again with my camera clicking away the flowers and hills on the horizon. As I turned to the group relaxing on the rocks, I saw that people from the temple were distributing 'prasadam'. It was a mix of rice, coconut, banana and jaggery. One of the best I have had and the exhaustion only added to its taste. Having to eat the oily masala dosa after the prasadam was more of a pain. Satya liked the prasadam so much that he didn't have his pulav, keeping it to give to some laborer. But, they were the ones giving us prasadam and later pongal too which only Satya and Chetan had. And the old-aged worker was kind enough to fill a water bottle - twice.

Our resting spot, the old-aged worker in the background

We relaxed for about an hour. To me, the amount of discussion among 7 of us was surprising, perhaps Satya's talkative behavior seeped into us as well ;). Around after 2pm, we took a walk around the temple. There are couple of nice spots for the camera enthusiasts to take pictures of the valley below and hills around. Clouds were dotting the sky and their shadow mixed with trees in the valley betrayed the eyes to be a chunk of dense forest. Only after few minutes of deliberation did we realise it was cloud shadow.

Cloud shadow

There is road connectivity from other side (relative to the trek path) and hence the peak is self sufficient with amenities like water. When we were leaving, some sort of ceremony was going on outside the temple. And at the far end of the peak, some were cooking meat. We met another group of trekker there! There's a small pond too with green water and plenty of frogs. The view from this 'edge' is stunning. I could spot atleast three big water bodies around.

Burger anyone?

The faithful

Around 3pm we started our descent. The dog magically appeared in front of us and started following again! We thought it would leave us around the trek path, but no. It followed us all the way to the base. The descent was a bit tricky and we had to climb down sideways. But once we got used to it, we kept going at a good pace. We stopped after about 20-30 mins and by now we were sure the dog would come with us to the base. Was it following us or leading us will remain a question. When we stopped and having water, we thought the dog might need water too. Now the problem was how to feed it! Chetan tried to pour directly which the dog shooed away. We saw a rock with some capacity to hold water and poured there. The precious water just flowed off and the dog did not even make a move for a sip. Satya had got his benefactor for the pulav but decided to give it to the dog only after reaching the base. At some point after, the dog ran off and came back with its back drenched in green-pond water. So much for our concern.

We reached the base in less than an hour. I was fully exhausted, wanting no more than to rest peacefully. And zillion liters of water. I finished my last drops just before the base and had to borrow two sips from the others. Pretty embarrassing. And a lesson learnt. We had about 10 min break, having snacks and water. Satya, as promised, opened his pulav and kept it for the dog which was gobbled up in less than a 1 min I think! We also gave the dog a biscuit as dessert ;)

The dog still didn't leave us and came upto the car as well. After some tamarind hunt and group photo, we left for Bangalore around 4:30pm. The faithful animal ran behind the car as well. The memory of the dog running seen through the window glass adds to my ever increasing unforgettable experiences on treks :)

India Aus warm-up match Feb 13, 2011

2011-02-16T20:06:00.003+05:30

After countless refusals, my friends convinced me for a WC match. The swaying point for me was India-Australia and warm-up match. And perhaps a chance to see Sachin from close quarters - hence the Rs 500 ticket (plus Rs 66 in tax) in D stand rather than Rs 250 (plus tax) in 2nd tier stands.

The match being a day-nighter starting at 2:30pm, I didn't have to worry about my friends getting up early in morning. But inevitably, plans of going early went awry. Eating 'heavy' lunch had to be canceled and instead me and Thiru cooked mixed-vegetable-rice (Anyone wanting the recipe can contact me or Thiru - absolutely free :D) Poor Yokesh, tired from roaming on Saturday and Sunday morning as well, had to gobble it :D

Around 1:20PM, we left for the match and any last minute chance of buying chart dispelled as the only nearby stationery shop was closed. Fortunately, the very first autowala was ready to come at meter-charge! Nearing the stadium on MG road, we could see crowd pouring in through various gates. Must have to applaud traffic management for not allowing too much jam and by 1:40PM we had reached gate no. 5. To our overwhelming surprise, there was NO QUEUE!! Going through the security was 5-min and by 1:46PM, we had 7 seats secured and I had taken my first photo.

Clear blue sky

Reaching well before toss was the only consolation, as Team India were practicing on the other side :( (In 2008, when I had gone for India-Australia test match, Team India were practicing on our side of the ground). We could make out Ashish Nehra and Sreesanth bowling and there was huge cheer when the Indian captain arrived in blue jersey. MS Dhoni miraculously won the toss (and predictably chose to bat) but the big news was that Sachin had minor niggle and rested. By 2:20PM, our juniors had also arrived. A local band played before the start of match. The big screen was thankfully functional and the loud-speakers were well placed (but hard to make out what was said, thanks to 35K+ crowd)

The crowd were momentarily silent as it dawned upon them that Sachin wasn't going to play, but immediately started cheering as Brett Lee came steaming in to bowl at Gautam Gambhir. Despite maiden over, we cheered and let out oohs and aahs. Brett Lee's run-up was just awesome. When the over ended, it was like did we wasted our time and money for this? But it was Sehwag to be on strike now and everyone started chanting Sehwaaaaaag Shewag followed by clap-clap-clap. And when Bollinger's first ball full-toss was dispatched disdainfully, the crowd went delirious. We were sitting in the cover area (mid-wicket from other end) and expecting Sehwag's booming cover drive which never came our way.

Gambhir fell early and by 4-5 overs, the cheering was down to the odd boundaries by Kohli and Sehwag. The 7 of us were making too much of cheering that the viewers behind us couldn't see the play on field properly. We didn't stop our dramatic cheering much though and they permanently left the seats :D. Kohli and Sehwag put on semblance of a good partnership to keep us going but once Kohli and Yuvi were out, it quickly became a bore, what with MSD coming to crease. Around 14th over, I asked Srini and his friends to check out what the catering services were and to bring water. He came back empty handed and before I could reprimand him, he explained that nothing can be brought inside. What an idea Sirji! Reduces litter and potential throwing of bottles onto the ground! So, me, Thiru and Yokesh went (as it was only Dhoni batting). Prices and food items were reasonable whereas bottled water free and overall lot cleaner than my previous visit. And there's verification of ticket to get back in!

After we came back, our frustrations grew as Dhoni dragged onto his stumps (after a change of bat :D). Sehwag's sixer to reach his fifty brought crowd onto their feet again, but very next ball Sehwag got out draining our hopes. Raina and Yusuf were on crease now (the ground announcer kept saying new batsman comes into 'attack' :D) We were hoping that these two can drag on to atleast 40 overs to get to a respectable score. To bring some excitement, we started "We want Sachin" chant and very next ball Raina was out!

I kept reminding my friends about the 2008 test match against Aus where India had lost quick wickets and Bhajji and Zaheer played good knocks. Bhajji came and immediately dispatched Brett Lee for a four. But yet again, our hopes were dashed as Brett Lee's fiery ball knocked Bhajji's middle stumps. Piyush Chawla was next and I said that he is not bad as a batsmen. He was out for a duck :D (After previous wickets, I had said that atleast no duck so far :-/ ) I repeated the same for Ashwin saying he has scored 100 in Ranjis, and this time I got lucky :P With each run, crowd cheered up and our hopes for 175+ score grew. Yusuf Pathan showed great restraint against the pacers. When Bollinger came back into the attack and threw the ball back at Ashwin, the crowd got all worked up and roared. Few viewers to our left had chart. They made a loud-speaker kinda shape out of them and started boo-ing (which continued intermittently till end of the match, inspite of police patrol very near them)

As partnership grew, we wondered why hasn't batting power play been taken. Then as David Hussey came on to bowl the 39th over, Yusuf Pathan cut loose. 2 sixes and the stadium roof was threatening to fall off. 2 consecutive wides were cheered raucously, but when Yusuf fell next ball trying for another six, the silence was deafening. And the next over, batting power play was taken with Ashwin and Viv Richards incarnation Ashish Nehra on crease. But Nehra must have somehow known our distaste - he hit a clean cut shot befit of top order batsmen and soon the partnership got India past 200, which at one stage looked improbable. During the 39th over, the big screen showed 38.9 overs!

Arun had gone for refreshments and came back with hardly believable news that Bisibellabath+curd rice were being served free. Someone explained that D-stand had a tradition (or was it because the ticket was 500+?) for serving free food. So, except me and Srini went to have it to avoid rush at innings break. Nehra hit two more fours and Srini wondered if we would end up batting all 50 overs. I said Nehra would try a sixer and get out which soon proved true.

After the innings ended, Tait came to practice. He initially took just two steps and bowled, which looked liked 140+ :D Soon he was in full flow, sending down balls with fiery pace. Srini and me then went to see if could get a bite or two. There was huge bottleneck at the doorway, with people going in both directions. When we finally got in, there was probably 1% chance of getting a plate and rice. So we got lays and a plate of watermelon, which actually filled our needs for the moment. Again, I liked that the workers actively cleared out used plates.

The lights had fully bathed the stadium as we went back. The sky looked grayish as if covered with rain-clouds. But in truth, not a single cloud hovered. The gentle breeze was cold enough for people to put on jerkins and sweaters. But we hadn't brought and kept ourselves warm by being active all the time. The local band assembled again just before the Australian innings start. They had done well with their beats and dance throughout Indian innings and did a brief one on the ground.

The local band

Soon the Aussies innings started with Dennis Lillee incarnation Ashish Nehra to start the proceedings. Shane Watson promptly dispatched the first ball straight down the ground, hardly breaking a sweat. I clapped, not mocking Nehra, but enjoying Watson's batting B-). Sreesanth started from the other end and surprisingly bowled well first few balls. So out came the Sreesanth chant all around the stadium and Tim Paine promptly hit a four. That put an end to our cheering for a while. After 3.1 overs, both Watson and Paine had identical score of 9* and we had a laugh at it. Munaf Patel replaced Nehra after two overs, only to leak more than him. I guess thats when people starting leaving or started contemplating leaving early.

Sreesanth bowled pretty well, but gave away the odd boundary as soon as we started cheering for him. Then the miracle happened - Sreesanth got Watson's wicket, that too Piyush Chawla holding onto a good catch. Though we thought there's not even a remote chance for an Indian win, we cheered so loudly that Ricky Ponting coming onto bat must have wondered if India was on the verge of world cup final win. Ponting was obviously boo-ed to the crease (unlike the TOI reporter from corporate box within closed wall reporting that there was no boo-ing). We said to ourselves that, if even one ball hits Ponting on the pull, it would be worth our ticket cost. When Sreesanth returned to his fielding position, he was more willing to respond to the crowd's call, as well as punching his fists in the air.

But Ponting and Paine set out to kill any tiny bit of expectations after Ponting got lucky start with edges missing the fielders in Ashwin's first over. We started discussing when to leave and resorted to seeing how run-rate was dropping, making fun of Ponting and laughing at a peculiarly odd sound made by the loud-speaker-charts. We targeted a particular cameraman looking like an Aussie with Merv Hughes like mustache. All seven of us pointed our mobile phones at various angles and clicked (or simply made action of clicking) whenever he seemed to point his camera in our direction.

The aussie looking cameraman whom we mocked

After a while, Yokesh and me started discussing on how effective Yuvraj was and he got a wicket as his is won't these days. But what was astounding was the one-handed running catch by Munaf Patel. Perhaps Aussie players went into a shock state seeing that catch? :D The crowd let out a loud cheering for the wicket, but by that time some had started leaving. The Pup and his master were on crease now.

Chawla picked up Clarke next over for a duck, but 120/3 and 95 to get from 27 overs hardly looked a case for Indian win. We thought we'll leave after 25 overs. Thiru said 30 overs. And Chawla then produced his magic - White and Hussey dismissed in consecutive deliveries. Crowd were well and truly onto their feet now, creating ear piercing decibels. Mexican waves started doing rounds (very very nice seeing the raising of hands passing from one stand to the other), I think there were 1-2 rounds in the Indian innings. Every ball was cheered and we were egging on with chants of "India Jeethega" And when Chawla dismissed Ferguson, the match had become irresistible to miss anymore. Somewhere between the wicket carnage, I was so confident of Australian win that I gave my word to Thiru to pay his ticket cost if India won. (See, ultimately, this bet on my part only won the match for India :D) And sometime during this carnage, the police doing rounds found viewers in front of us using camera and confiscated the batteries (perhaps for their use or to sell it :-/ )

Our expectations had grown out of bounds, so when wicket didn't fall for 3+ overs with Johnson looking confident to give company for Ponting, thoughts again crept to leave the stadium. Around 55 was required with Lee and Hastings to come. It was 35th over, and I said that we are definitely leaving after this over. But Bhajji ensured that we would not leave without witnessing an Indian win by stumping his bunny Ponting. The celebration for Ponting's dismissal must have lasted around 5 minutes (including the 3rd umpire referral). Johnson's big hit seemed to threaten a comeback for Aussies, but Bhajji effectively sealed the deal for India next over with two wickets. In Ashwin's last over, so much was happening so quickly that I failed to get a look at the final wicket, but who cared. The outbreak of victory with hi-fives all around will always stay in mind.

Some events which am not able to place in chronological order:

Zaheer going across and coming back was cheered throughout, he acknowledged for a while too.
Justin Langer moving around, but not turning around for our calls x-( :P
During the initial stage of the Indian innings, a lady in front row just stood like a pillar! After several calls did she relent and sat down.
Throughout the match, one of the cameraman came very near to the barricade to show people sitting/standing there onto the big screen. As he used the camera below the barricade height and horizontally, we had no chance of coming onto the screen. We thought of going near the barricade just for the camera, but never did.
One of my junior had brought head phones (of Nokia mobile), the security didn't allow them inside, took it from them and asked to collect after the match. Both the security and head phones were missing after the match. The place where the security had collected them had batteries and other stuff thrown around. Advice: Don't take anything other than wallet and mobile to the stadium

One of the best experiences to date for me (am I using such words too often these days? blame it on cramped busy life :D) The way we shattered invisible wall of restriction around us by dancing, cheering, boo-ing, mocking, shouting our throats sore(it still is sore) and what not. Felt like true freedom. And yes, an Indian win - icing on the cake :)

Arun's blogpost on this match can be read here.

Awesome Antaragange caves - Jan 26, 2011

2011-02-11T15:31:00.001+05:30

After my last trek to Makalidurga, MS classes and other things kept me away from treks. So, as my sem exams approached, I started planning for trek. Jan 26 was the first holiday available and BMC had a trek to Antaragange on that very day. Being Wednesday, I knew some of my friends would be available and I was pretty much desperate from 1st week of Jan for the trek. After all, Antaragange was my first trek and the place where I found my love for trek.

Initially, I had 5 of my friends convinced for the trek with possibility of further additions, but finally came down to just two - my room-mate Prakash and colleague Thiru. Still, better than none in my previous two treks. But come Jan 25 evening, I wasn't much excited about it. Partly because of the exhausting and physically draining open book test I had given on Sunday. Or perhaps my longing for so long quenched the thirst. I went through the previous trek on my blog to get a feel, but was more like a chore. My room-mate's enthusiasm was a welcome relief and I started feeling better.

Woke up at around 5:35am (what will we do without alarms :-/) and got to the bus stop around 7am (Me and my room-mate were the only ones in the BMTC bus from cmh road to Domlur, talk about freedom on Republic day ;) ). While we were waiting for the BMC cab to arrive, 4 trekking enthusiasts arrived on the opposite side of the bus stop. I knew most likely they were coming with us, but I thought let the cab arrive before letting them know the right direction. My bad luck, the cab arrived shortly in the direction they were standing! The cab was late and had not yet picked others from Life-style stop on Magrath road. But since, all 7 of us had already arrived, we saved the round-about trip via Domlur.

By the time we picked up all of them, traffic had built-up steadily and took a while to escape city limits. Me and Thiru tried to recall landmarks from our previous visit, along with prepping Prakash up. The one thing that me and Thiru agreed upon fully was the road widening work still going on (from Aug 2008! ). But I wasn't yet looking forward with eagerness of previous treks. The prospect of possible rain (as it was cloudy) assured me that everything was right - there was rain all 3 times I trekked before. When the hillocks became visible, I picked the tallest one and told Prakash that we are gonna climb it. Thiru understood my pun and joined in casually. We drew nearer to the hillock so close that Prakash must have started thinking about how we were to climb it :D

Around 9AM, we reached the Sagar hotel to have breakfast - the same one we had in 2008, with perhaps few more letters of the hotel's sign board missing. The 3 of us conversed with Arjun - the guide for the trek, he is a final year student but looked more like a 25 year old working professional! Antaragange is his speciality, which was evident during the trek.

We reached Antaragange around 10AM and after brief intro, we started our climb via the steps (I was disappointed a bit that we were not going via the other path). The most visible change from last time were the increased eateries at the base. And no. of monkeys. We climbed the steps leading to temple at good pace dodging the attacks from monkeys (a particularly vicious monkey scared the hell out of two kids, God knows how long they cried).

We had a brief stop watching the kids bathing in green pond below the perennial water source from rocks near the temple. It seemed all so very familiar, as if I had come there just a week before. The weather was perfect for climb - cloudy and little windy. As usual, I frequently troubled my camera (magically still working after the drop at Makalidurga) often so much so that the count was 224 pics by end of day! (800Mb). The trek felt pretty much like walk in the park and I was drawn rather to blooming cacti than enjoying the trek.

We reached a fairly large monolithic rock and stopped. I couldn't recall that place from previous visit. There were large boulders few paces in front, some of us went to click pics and came back to ask Arjun (our guide) if there's a way through it. Thats when he said it is the cave entrance and we were to go through it! What followed is a 3 hour experience I will forever cherish.

I am sure I won't be able to describe how we passed through the narrow, irregular, low, dark and tricky and put-your-own-adjective pathways. I will however strive to do so with pics! After all a picture is worth 1000 words ;)

Click on the images for larger view

Cave entrance

Thiru is obviously enjoying ;)

Prakash too!

Am too tall :(

Pretty 'cool' place

Notice the use of torch - it was very dark

Around 12pm we reached the lunch spot

A pleasant rest in ac like weather (which is conspicuously missing in Bangalore these days). My friend Kathik called me (Airtel, good tower strength even inside caves :D) and asked where I was. I said 'inside a cave'. He was trekking at Kodachadri and stuck somewhere. He asked me how to proceed, but to his dismay I had to reply I had not trekked there yet :D He and his friends did eventually find their way and had a great experience. Now am wishing for a trek to Kodachadri :-/

After lunch and rest, we climbed atop the cave

Clouds had thinned out Sun's warmth was pleasant

Can you spot a group climbing? It looked pretty

dangerous to us

Time to go

Out of the cave - relief! But Arjun wooed

few of us to go through that gap!

Here's how they went!

We were out of the caves and had good rest. But it was only 2pm yet. In Arjun's experience so far in guiding here, it was one of the quickest. As we had enough time left, I suggested to visit the fields to which everyone agreed! It was around 20min climb. It's a pretty flat space with land used for agriculture. There is even road connectivity beyond the fields as well as power lines.

Around 2:30pm, we started our long climb down with blazing hot Sun hovering over us. Surprisingly, we reached the temple within 30mins in one stretch. My legs were badly aching for fairly short-trek and I wondered how would I do Madhugiri trek again! After watching more monkey mania, we were on our way to Bangalore. Stopping at Sagar hotel again, we had snacks which were very tasty, thanks to our exhaustion.

Alternating between sleep and watching through window, I noticed a two-line rhyming 'sentences' written on a Lorry:

गाड़ी चलती है तो उड़ती है धूल

दुश्मन जलते हैं तो खिलते हैं फूल!

So, yet again a wonderful and memorable trek. Hoping for more in the coming days. And probably it will be Kodagu next ;)

A note of caution: Please do not attempt these caves unless there is someone well versed with the cave routes - it is very tricky and full of dead ends.

Weird or Coincidence

2010-12-21T11:33:00.010+05:30

Yo! Writing a post here after a long time :)

I wanted to do this post for a long time now. Better late than never. I present few of my experiences here which are unrelated but with a common theme.

Image Courtesy: Link

Incident 1:

Cannot recollect the exact period, but probably 10-14 years back. Our school was on Kangayam road (Tirupur), and everyday on the way to school, we used to look with awe at Velan hotel (a popular hotel, where film shooting has also taken place). How we longed to go inside! One day (night I should say) I got a dream of visiting Velan hotel. The only thing I remembered after waking up was a wooden model of a ship with glossy finish. Sometime later, I got a chance to actually go inside the hotel! It so happened that one of my father's friend was blessed with a boy and Velan hotel was chosen for treat. Man, I was so excited. And guess what, there was a wooden ship model with glossy finish!

Incident 2:

This happened in college. Coming out of exam hall, I was quickly moving towards my department to check score of India's cricket match. I remember moving pretty fast as I wanted to check the scores and rush home to prepare for next day's exam. Suddenly I felt as if someone was calling me and turned back. I remember that I pointedly looked in a particular direction. It happened to be my classmates who were discussing about me (or perhaps trying to get my attention) and I distinctly remember I used my thumb to question what it was! The distance between us was large enough that I couldn't have heard their call with all the chatter from students coming out of the exam hall. Later when we met, the classmates were perplexed as well as to how I turned towards them.

Incident 3:

On an industrial visit in train. We were playing dumbsharads. After many rounds, I had been thinking on a difficult movie name. I stuck on one and had in mind to be asked. The opponent team had given one and one of our team mate was about to act it out. Wonder what prompted me, before any acting was done I guessed the right movie name. And it was the same I had in my mind. For the record, the movie name was 'Billa'.

Incident 4:

In my workplace this time. I had gone to my supervisor's cabin to discuss something. He wasn't there and I started walking back. My supervisor at that time was coming from pantry. He saw me and wanted to draw my attention. My back was turned to him and he hadn't voiced out my name. I felt as if he was waving his hands (though I didn't ask him later if he did wave his hands) and turned to acknowledge him. At the time I turned to him, he was definitely looking in my direction and hence the assumption that he was trying to draw my attention.

Incident 5:

I was going through the meaning of Gayatri Mantra one day. I was very intrigued by its wordings and different interpretations prevalent. This scientific explanation caught my attention the most. It says that 'Om' is the sound produced because of the rotation of planets, solar systems, galaxies etc. That night I had a dream where I 'felt' the rotating sensation.

What to conclude from these incidents? That we have some powers buried deep inside which arise in little incidents and pass almost unnoticed? A couple of books I have read ('God is not Dead' by Amit Goswami and 'The Intention Experiment' by Lynne McTaggart) provide answers for all of the above.

These books bring to light about scientific experiments conducted and verified by different researchers around the globe. I am presenting below a gist of some the interesting ones. (Details may not be exactly correct, as am writing off my memory)

We can anticipate future incidents, or atleast our mind prepares to forth-coming event. There is something called random event generator which uses electro-magnetic noise. Its output has high degree of randomness. When the 2001 twin tower tragedy happened, this device reading ceased to be random two hours prior the tragedy and continued to be so for around 2 more days. There is a more fool-proof evidence that time as we know isn't one-way.
A random event generator is set so as to produce either a '0' or a '1'. A computer logs them all and produces a final result of % of '0' and '1'. They are printed, sealed and kept locked, without 'anyone' having the knowledge of the result. A group of people are then asked to meditate, focusing on trying to bias the already generated result of the computer to one of the values, say '1'. Now the sealed print-outs are opened and checked to see if they biased to the number tried. And it was! This experiment has been repeated many times to rule out coincidences.
We know that brain activity can be measured as it involves electrical signals. Two people (with close relation) are seated in different rooms with electro-magnetic noise shield so as to record only the brain activity. One of them is asked to 'send' a thought to the other person in his mind. The other person was given some random activity and had no idea when the first person would send the 'thought'. When the thought was sent, similar looking brain patterns were registered instantaneously for both. And this was the case even when the two of them were separated by half the world distance.

To believe that the above experiments are true is left to us. 'The Lost Symbol' by Dan Brown also has reference to some of these experiments, though I believe he has exaggerated some of them. To me, they are fascinating. More so, as I could correlate them with my experiences. As Amit Goswami argues, can we bind 'consciousness' to materialistic body? The true extend of ability of our brain may never be found. And perhaps, that is not relevant. Because, there is so much that we do not know, or perhaps we know nothing at all, as to why we exist.

Update on Jan 21, 2011:

I am sending this post as an entry for a contest, Find details below:

‘Get your story published in The Chicken Soup for the Indian Soul – A book of Miracles at BlogAdda‘

Those four years...

2010-09-16T09:33:00.001+05:30

I joined PSG college of Technology instead of Anna University for two main reasons: I could avoid hostel (with its not-so-good-food) and believing many who said faculties would be better in PSG (which I can say is true to an extent from what I heard from my friends who went to Anna Univ). Now, the first reason held true, but with an added hardship. The distance between college and home was a small matter of around 55kms.

Image Courtesy: Link

Well of course, my elder brother was himself studying in PSG and day-scholar too. So, it wasn't a tough decision to up-down everyday. There were two options for commuting: train and bus. Like my brother, I settled for a mix of it. From Tirupur to Coimbatore, it was by train. But to railway station being 3-4kms from home, we had to first use town bus :P. And not always, on reaching Coimbatore could we get down at Peelamedu, the local station from where we could walk to college in 15mins.

Classes for first year in college started at 9:30am and 8:30am from 2nd year onwards. My bro being in 3rd year when I was in 1st year, had to catch the first available train - 1013 (Kurla Express) whose arrival time at Tirupur station was 5:40am. First few days I accompanied him in that train. That meant waking up at around 4:30am, getting ready by 5:10am. It being an express train, it had no stoppage at Peelamedu, but due to single line connection, there used to be frequent crossings at local station. And many times it would be at Peelamedu. Sometimes, if the train stopped after Peelamedu, we would catch another passenger train going towards Peelamedu! But on occasions, we had no option but get down at Coimbatore junction and catch a bus to College. There was another train around 8am (Erode to Coimbatore passenger train). So, for most part of 1st year, I used the passenger one. And it had stopping at Peelamedu, but the risk was if it reached beyond 9:15am, I would be late for the first hour. But thankfully, it was rare and I kept 100% attendance for the 1st year :)

Return from college was again via the same passenger train. For 2nd year, I had no option but to catch the 5:40am Kurla in the morning. Ofcourse, I couldn't get ready always to reach in time and those rare cases I resorted to using bus to Coimbatore. But, it being Indian railway, mostly train would arrive after 6am. So, even if I was late, I would first confirm the departure of train instead of directly using bus. It so happened a handful of occasions that I would reach the station in time, but train would be late and when I reached the station late, the train would have left on time :D. But, thankfully, for the whole of my college, I never missed the return train from Peelamedu to Tirupur. If I had missed, it would have meant a painful 15min walk back to catch a bus service. During 3rd year, railways dept. conspired against us! They changed the timing of Kurla to 5am! That was too much and morning travel was mostly by bus.

The train travel meant I had ample free time. I would mostly read text/story books and even write lab observation/record in train. And very rarely (like after some festival holidays) did I not find a sitting place in train. I especially used to like climbing to the top berth and situation often warranted it. And believe me, this set-up of up-down everyday was what enabled me to work hard.

Now, why am I relating all this? Well, think about traveling for 4 years in train in India. Don't you think I would have met with an accident? Well thankfully, I never did. But there were close misses.

Incident #1:
Cheran express plying from Chennai to Coimbatore. It's time was around 1 hour before the Kurla express. One coach (general compartment, at the back-end of train, which is where I used to sit in Kurla) of it burned when someone committed suicide. It could easily have happened in Kurla too. That day, I was traveling in Kurla as usual when it had to stop midway at a local station. I then reached college by bus, but to think of it...

Incident #2:
Happened this time in Kurla on Tirupur station itself. Apparently, a woman slipped after the train had started moving and came under the wheels. I didn't see as I was at the back and this happened in front. As soon as I got the word, I fled from the station, not being able to digest it.

Incident #3:
This one while going in passenger train in the morning. The train had halted two stations before Peelamedu as usual. But then there came an alert that someone had cut the train-track at some point ahead! We had to walk some 2km to catch bus to college.

Incident #4:
Again passenger train, this time while returning in the evening. The train was nearing a local station, when we heard a loud metal clang and immediately the driver brought the train to a halt. Some metal-rod like part near the wheel had come-off. I didn't wait to gather the details. As we were near the station, I could walk some 1-2km to catch bus.

I am not able to think of any other unwanted incident. Sure there were many other interesting incidents in those four years of travel, but perhaps another day I will pen them down :)

This day...

2010-08-23T20:52:00.002+05:30

Long back, when I was still learning maths tables (among few that I didn't mug-up), I tried my hand in writing a story. First in my mother tongue hindi and then in english feeling it would be more comfortable (we had the rule of speaking only english in school). It was utter disappointment. I even tried to just translate a story from Champak (remember anyone? It is still among the popular kid's magazine in hindi.) to english. Which left me with more displeasure and depressed.

Now, I feel satisfied. Immensely. Not just one, I could write SIX. To me that is a HUGE achievement. And none of it would have been possible without you. Yes 'you'. Its not just the customary thanks but a truly heartfelt one. I keep coming across articles that say that most (if not everyone) of us are in constant longing for praise. Someone who genuinely appreciates our work. Its true for sure in my case. Most of what we do is taken for granted and we are left with no one to recognize the hard-work we put in. When I started blogging, I got all the appreciation in various forms. Some left a comment, some pinged me and some said it when they met me. I was initially sad that the response was slow and insufficient but when I thought about it on the whole, I realized that many did visit my blog and came back which I ascertained from carefully noting the visitor counter. And that, to me was very essential in keeping up with blogging.

I started blogging as I couldn't resist sharing the wonderful first trek with my colleagues. It was meant to be a launch pad for me to start the blog. I had a vague idea of sharing some of the interesting happenings in my life. And also, it meant I could cherish those moments again & again whenever I wanted in greater detail. I started visiting other blogs to improve my blogging skills. It was a great learning curve, as well as got to be friends with some of them.

And inevitably, it was suggested by many that I write a story. It took some time to convince myself that I could write one. And one fine day last November, I got a theme, which I felt good enough for a short story. But for a lazy guy like me, it would take nearly four months to complete and publish on my blog. And in large parts thanks to Karthik & Srini for their inputs on the story. I would spend many a hours contemplating on the characters of the story and events to move forward the story. But when I would sit in front of my lappy to write it down, words would conspire against me to put down as I would like it. Worse, it would take so much thinking to get the right word I wanted. I can assure you that had I written all that I thought of, it would have amounted to no less than 20-30 pages. And even before I could finish the first one, I struck upon themes for next story and many a small ideas which lie tucked in some draft in my gmail account. Thinking about the next story would draw more attention than finishing the first one. I even got good ideas for the second one when I had gone to Rajasthan in February. But as I published that trip events, I got into good writing mood and finished the first story soon after. And lo! What a relief it was. I believe it would remain the one story where I put so much effort.

As rightly said, "the first step is so important". It fills us up with confidence of having done it before to do it again. Writing on a different theme for every new story has kept me going thus far. While that results in some not-so-good ones, it atleast gives me the satisfaction of having tried it and learned from its outcome.

I hope I haven't bored you with my emotions. I owed a post on this. And what better date than today, August 23, when I started with my first post last year. I love writing, but without you to read and appreciate/criticize I wouldn't be able to convince myself to write. So, until I see a rise in visitor counter every time I write a post, I hope to continue it :)

This and That

2010-07-31T18:51:00.006+05:30

Entertainment is always welcome, especially so when one is weary on a Friday evening in office. And so it happened that yesterday at 5pm, we left our cubicles to congregate at the pantry. The fun club (as I call it :D) at our office had organized for some interesting one-minute games. We stood roughly about in a circle, a ball (the size of a football) was to be passed around and whoever had the ball in hand when the music being played stopped is chosen to participate in the game that followed.

Against my best of hopes, I was to play the first game. The game was thus: In one minute, myself and my opponent had to bring one balloon at a time (kept at the other end of the pantry), sit on it to burst it and repeat the max. no. of times! Easy though it sounds, the balloon kept slipping from umm... underneath. Initially I had the lead, then a fumble had my opponent take an unassailable lead. I said myself to just go through the motion when I heard a loud cheer from my team (read project team). My opponent's balloon had slipped to cause considerable delay and I won! :) In all I succeeded seven times, winning by fraction of a second.

The other games that followed were:

Plate filled with flour and coins hidden inside. One had to use his mouth to search and place it aside as many coins as possible.
This one had four players. Two girls and two guys forming two pairs. The guy in each team had to apply nail-polish as fast as possible! It so happened, one guy was married and the other was bachelor. No prizes for guessing who won :D
Again four, but all guys. Two teams. One had to lift the legs of his teammate such that he could use only his hands to move forward.
Back to girl-guy team. Have to bring one straw at a time from other end of the room and insert in the girl's hair!
Final one with two players. Squeeze cut lemons into a cup.

So, in the end I was only too happy having played the first one and not the ones that followed :D. And a Cadbury-temptation for my 'efforts' was just as pleasing :D.

Tempted?

While it was fun alright, my weekend has just got shorter. This week, after two-and-a-half month wait, BITS finally announced the short-listed candidates for MS course in Micro-electronics. Specially designed for corporate world, the course is normal four-semester one with classes held on either a Saturday or Sunday for 16 weeks a semester. I didn't care if I would be selected or not, but now that I am short-listed, I am not sure if it was a good-idea to have applied :D.

But I do hope these questions below will now leave me for a while :D

Click on the image to see an enlarged version

I am sure many of you would have asked at one point or the other, but they keep pounding my head very often :(
Lemme finish this 'short' post by,

Wishing you all a Happy Friendship Day :)

Jab They Met

2010-07-25T20:58:00.010+05:30

~~~ Every Love story has an interesting beginning ~~~

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Hi, am Vignesh aka Vicky. Am in a bus excited to be going to my friend's place. And as with each of last seven days, like a song playing in infinite loop, I look back to the fateful day.
That evening's happenings are fresh as though it was only yesterday. The more I play it in my mind again and again, the more I am convinced of an enigmatic feel to it. There I was with my luggage and Maaza in hand, trying to find a place to sit on platform no. 3. Thankfully, a passenger left the rectangular seating arrangement around a pillar I was nearing. I placed my travel bag on the dirty platform and sat closer to the male crowd. To my left was a girl in blue churidhar, talking on the cell oblivious to my presence. She turned a little when I placed the Maaza bottle beside her. Acting as if I wasn't interested in her, I dialed my friend's number, only to find it busy.
As always, Kanyakumari express had not left until five minutes past its departure time 9:45pm. It would be another 10-15min for Kurla express to arrive. So I started looking around. I saw a boy and a girl talking happily, their hands brushing each other. I wished. I wished I too had someone to care for, to shower my love and to be loved. I dialed again. Busy again. The blue-churidhar girl was still talking. I noticed a movement and felt indecisiveness to do it myself or inform her. I settled for the latter. I was building up courage to call her when her hand moved to her right sleeve. I thought she had found out herself. But her fingers stopped before reaching the target. I stood up, moved closer to her and called out - 'Excuse me miss, there's a big insect near your right slee.. shoulder...'

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I pride in maintaining my daily-diary notes. For the past week, I keep visiting to the entry dated Friday, March 12 - 2010. It was an eventful night journey. So much so that perhaps it will be the longest account in my diary. And without actually intending, it took a story form.

Internship finally got over and I eagerly was looking to meet Sameer the next day. He had promised to take me to a nice location as well! Though my train was supposed to leave at 10:10pm, I reach the #3 platform by 9pm, not risking on the Bangalore traffic. I had loads of music on mobile and a book to read. But I couldn't have known that talking to Sameer would last more than an hour. Another train was already standing and stinking toilet smell irked my nostrils. I spray copiously from the scent bottle I always carry to be able to sit and talk in peace.

Though immersed in the conversation, I look around every now and then. Writing habit generates a desire - to observe anything interesting. I see a guy with IBM bag accompanied with a gal in black dress chattering away past me. I am sure they were more interested in accidentally hitting against the each-others fingers. Sameer & I laugh our heart out. So much so that I had to adjust my sleeves. And then suddenly, the guy sitting nearby speaks to me.

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She turned, looked at me as if I had committed a sin speaking to her. I repeated the words and it took a while for her to register what I meant. I half-expected her to freak out. But she calmly brushed off the bug and resumed talking on the phone!

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I am shocked not that the guy spoke to me, but that he seemed familiar and I couldn't place him either. He repeats that there is a bug on my right shoulder, I register the meaning, my hands take the appropriate action and I confusedly relate it to Sameer. I had even forgotten to say a courtesy thanks. A while later my intern friends arrive and I persuade Sameer to end the call.

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I was wondering if I should have even bothered with it. The bug was probably harmless as well. Whoever said we should try to help others. I couldn't shake off the look she gave me. Presently the 'insect' girl went off with her friends. As well she should for my sake, I thought. I took another sip of Maaza and put-on the music gear. Nothing soothes like melodious songs.
I felt an offensive smell. And undoubtedly it was coming from the restroom opposite the platform. Perhaps that is why she went off? And I could detect a faint trace of perfume where she had been sitting.
It was 10pm by then and train no. 1013 arrived. Finishing the last drops of Maaza, I took my baggage, found a dust-bin to dispose the bottle and leisurely walked to coach marked S9. I knew pretty well that it would be atleast 30-45min before the train departed, so why bother rushing through the crowd of passengers trying to walk past the aggregated ones near the door? It took around five minutes for the crowd to clear. Whom do I see when I reach my seat? Yup, you guessed it. The insect girl! I double checked my seat no. It did not change from 29 and she was sitting on the opposite side. Someone tapped on my shoulder and informed that the middle seat was his. I thought perhaps I had come to the wrong coach when the insect girl spoke!

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We had coffee and talked about how our internship was over so soon. I tell them the bug-incident. Reeta said I should have apologized and Renu said the guy had no business watching her shoulder in first place. Sameer had said whatever the case, the guy was trying to help and I should have acknowledged that. I half thought of going back to that place when I heard the train arriving. As we walked past that place, I find him missing and give the matter a rest. Reeta and Renu had their seats in S11 and mine in S9. They were being accompanied by their boy-friends, so I bade them good-night and reached my seat #28. I take my headset to bide time, when I see that guy walking past the window facing the platform. I rise and then sit back. I couldn't leave the luggage and go. I needn't have. He comes to my compartment! He seemed to verify his seat no., looked at the three aluminum plates with numbers 28,29,30 printed on them and sat down. He had obviously seen me. I look away, debating if I should apologize. Then I hear someone telling the guy that he was on the wrong seat. He looked at the ticket again and I seize the opportunity to speak to him. I said, "The numbers printed are wrong. These are the right ones" and pointed to the numbers written with a marker near the windows.

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It didn't take long for me to realize that she was right. Sometime back, a middle berth was added to the side berths too making it 9 berths in a compartment. Public pressure made the railways remove the berth, but the numbers stayed put. And my bad luck, no. 29 means a middle berth in either case.
The insect girl had pointed that out. Saying 'thanks', I continued sitting opposite her as the no. 26 guy had left to meet someone. She was sitting near the window which meant she had lower berth and mine the middle one above her. On the side berths were two more girls, their mouths exercising rapidly.
I took out my cell to resume listening songs and I remembered that I hadn't spoken to my friend yet. He picked it this time and before I could shout at him, he apologized saying he had been busy. He seemed pretty happy and enthusiastic. I asked him just to be sure if he was indeed coming to my hometown tomorrow. He assured me and said to expect a surprise, but he would be coming only by evening. I said fine and bade him good-night, assuming the happiness was related to the surprise in store.
The ticket inspector came by. Looking up his record as well as the tickets, he called out the girl's names loudly as if to confirm. So without asking, I knew that the insect-girl's name was Nisha.

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I expected him to strike some conversation so that I can apologize for the earlier incident. But no, he purposely looks away and gets busy with his mobile phone. To my surprise, the TTR came even before the train starts. He is well past 50, but such a flirt! He reads my name aloud while checking but not the guy's one! Wonder what pleasure did he get from such a ritual.
Now my curiosity rose to know his name, but he is head bent-down seemingly enjoying music to the core. A black kid came by sweeping the floor. I didn't have change and perhaps neither the other two girls.

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When a sweeper boy came, none of the girls offered money and I found it strange. The boy looked pitiful and I gave him a two rupee coin. I looked up the time to find it was 10:30pm and the train firmly at Bangalore yet. Another girl now came, looked at the numbers on aluminum plates and placed her bag on top berth. I presumed she too was mistaken (for seat no. 30) and informed her the same. Nisha confirmed it too and she changed to the top berth on the opposite side.
I felt Nisha wanted to apologize about the earlier incident and funnily I felt I should deny her the chance. As if that would have offended her. It looks idiotic now, but my ego wouldn't make sense at that time. I continued to droop, my right hand on cheek and sat inclined to the side berth. The train finally moved and after about five minutes I turned towards Nisha.

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I feel happy that the guy helped the poor kid. After what seemed an eternity, the train started its journey. I wait for the other girl on my seat to climb to her upper berth. Shortly, she stands, bends down to remove her slippers and pushes them below the seat. At the same time, the guy on the opposite seat lifts his head and turns towards me. He wanted to sleep. And so, finally around 11pm after the middle berth was lifted and secured in its place above my berth, I stretch my legs to sleep. I make a mental note to offer my apologies the next day, if at all he too comes to Coimbatore.

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Normally I find it difficult to sleep while traveling. But not that day, I was tired and fell asleep almost immediately. But fate was conspiring against me. I had a dream. And for no reason it was the insect girl Nisha in it! I was on the beautiful landscape of Ooty, chasing her with enthusiasm! And then suddenly we found ourselves at some cliff edge. To top it all, she slipped and I rushed to the edge for help.

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I was sleeping pretty soundly, when I wake to a shrill baby cry. The train had halted for crossing and the baby must have cried when a speeding express passed on the opposite line. I take my mobile phone to check the time when to my horror a hand appears. It proceeds to tug my bed-sheet. I shake the sheet vigorously and immediately the hand disappears. I am shocked that the guy in the middle berth could try such an outrageous act.

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Gosh, how can I control dreams and my subconscious mind acting on its own? I had dropped flat on my stomach in dream and reached out for Nisha clinging onto a rock just as shown in numerous Indian films. And in reality, my hand had gone to the lower berth and touched Nisha! My conscious mind had somehow woken up and I had retreated the hand. Nisha did not scream out as I expected and so I thought she must have been asleep well. But that was little consolation. It was 3:12AM, and I couldn't sleep for the rest of journey.

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As if on cue, the bug-incident comes back to mind. Renu was right, that guy shouldn't have been watching my back in first place. Bloody-bugger I curse him. And then another thought hits me. Why did he turn exactly when the girl next to me was bending to place her slippers? Must be to take a peep. I grit and curse him again. And that money he gave to the kid must be fake kindness to impress those two girls on the side berth. I become so distraught that I didn't sleep again that morning.

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March 13: Coimbatore Jn.

Sameer heard the announcement of Kurla Express arriving on platform No.1. He swore that the train had to arrive on time at 6AM. As he was climbing up the subway stairs, Nisha greeted him with bleary eyes. Have you been crying, he asked with concern. Lets reach home first, she replied in a grave voice. Seeing she was serious, Sameer picked the luggage and hurried with her to his home.
Vicky hadn't budged until Nisha had left the coach. He didn't want to risk his chances and any explanation wouldn't have helped. And so, when he neared the subway, he stopped seeing that Nisha was waiting. When she left with a guy, he felt relieved. He bought a coffee, finished it leisurely and went downstairs to get the ticket to Palghat. He rued not getting the ticket straight to Palghat on Kanyakumari express.

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I keep silence while Sameer drove to his home. I manage to greet Uncle and Aunty with a smile and went with Sameer to his room. And what do I find? The picture slide-show on his laptop shows Sameer and that guy from train smiling with Sameer's college in the backdrop. I almost scream. And then realize it was indeed Vicky I met. Sameer had praised in heaps and bound about him in the past. I must have been gaping too long. Sameer was saying something which I couldn't register. I stand there confused in all that had happened and what Sameer had said about him. Aunty brought coffee and I gulped it fast. And then I say it all to Sameer.

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I was waiting for the passenger train to leave, listening to music when my friend Sameer called. I was surprised that he was up so early in the morning. The train had moved by then. And giving no warning he cursed me.

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March 19: Coimbatore

Vicky entered Sameer's room. Sameer was about to fling at Vicky but Nisha told him that she had invited Vicky. And went on to describe how Vicky had written an email explain what had actually happened, that she had read and deleted it, called Vicky, apologized and asked to come.
Before Sameer could process the meaning of it all, Vicky embraced him and asked him to forget the past. Nisha, standing behind Sameer, gave Vicky a playful wink.

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Thanks to Srini for his help.

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I am participating in the WeBlog's Sleepy Sunday contest! You may read other participating posts HERE

Perspective

2010-07-06T22:06:00.003+05:30

My first attempt at comic-strip!

Courtesy: http://www.toondoo.com/
My toon on that site: Click here

Mishap at Makalidurga

2010-06-27T17:44:00.018+05:30

Don't get alarmed by the title, I just had a small accident on the trek :D. Unlike my previous trekking posts, I promise to stick to the main details ;)

It was Saturday, June the 12th of 2010, that 20 enthusiasts and two guides from BMC embarked to climb Makalidurga, around 70km from Bangalore. Four of them I knew from the trek to Madhugiri. A cloudy and windy day, most of us were prepared for rain (some like me wished for downpour :D). After an awesome ride via new airport road and beautiful country-side we reached the scarcely populated village of Makalidurga. We chattered away for most of the ride and my customary penchant for enjoying the window-view noted just the one odd - a resort named something like 'Ramanashree - California' Resort!

Makalidurga - 1350m

There is a railway track at the foothills with a station close-by. One could even take a passenger train to reach Makalidurga. Just before we started our ascent, a train passed by and I craved for another train to pass which could be seen from top of the hill. The hill has a large base covered with vegetation and surrounded all-round with other hills. With Sun playing hide and seek with clouds and the relatively easy climb, I enthusiastically clicked away pics of the greenery all around. But pretty soon, the heavy back-pack (rain-coat and umbrella to go with snacks & water bottles) and increasing difficulty in the climb meant I had to slow down and take frequent rest. Had a energy-packed peanut bar and enjoyed viewing the lake which had begun to show.

Large base with greenery and rocky top

Multiple pathways posed a problem initially. And despite the cool weather, perspiration slowed us considerably. Bare, big rocks showed up much to the dismay of first timers. I tried to assure them that this is relatively easier compared to the one I has 2 weeks back. The slope being not so steep, it was like walk in the park. The rocky climb ended with a flat surface and rest of the climb to the top was greener bushy path again. After a rest on the flat surface and taking copious snaps, we started for the final flourish to the summit. And lo! we heard the unmistakable chugging of the train at the foothills. Took videos and snaps and the sight is still etched in memory. :)

Flat rocky surface with a view of railway tracks below

Can you spot the 'Train'?
Suit yourself to name it :)

Willing myself to go on without stoppage, I reached the summit which held a broken fort. The summit was 1350m above sea level, but the climb had been much shorter than Madhugiri. You gotta see to believe the wonderful view of the surrounding landscape dotted with hills, lake and farmland. Tranquility of the surrounding would have been a blessing experience but for the constant honking of the vehicles below. It was around 12pm and too early to have lunch. So, 4-5 of us started to explore the summit. The fencing was tattered a bit, but still strong. There was light drizzle too :). I had initially thought it would be some 10-15min walk. Little did I know the breadth of the fort. It would be some acres! Not that I complained, the summit is pretty flat, and the walk was never tiring. Infact I felt very fresh! And looking back we could see the rain approaching :). A lifetime experience that. One of them had a binocular - we tried to make out the color of shirt worn by the two-wheeler riders :P. We walked along the circular fence with rain starting to get heavier. We tried to find a shady place to have lunch when we saw the temple. The veranda was open space and we couldn't have gone inside the temple to have lunch. So we searched again. Search because, as I said the summit must be in acres . Presently we saw a man-made arrangement of rocks with a small passage. A fellow trekker was already there having lunch and the protected place was too small to hold us all. As we ventured further, we saw the remaining lot perched under a big tree. Rain had ceased a bit, so we resigned to have lunch on the rocks. It was wet but we had no choice, had we? To our dismay, some of us had not got the spoons from the co-ordinators :D.

Much of the fort is just the fence

Lake view from the summit

A different Angle :)

Within few minutes, rain hit back as though angered by our presence. We ran to the rock arrangement, and this time we managed to fit ourselves :D. While we had lunch discussion moved to 'bats' and how it's excreta could be dangerous! All along, rain was incessant but not heavy. On the stone walls that extended beyond the passage, there was a small space like a window. We wondered it's purpose. A tree's branches reached the window and one of us noticed an empty, small bird-nest. It was so well constructed and looked so cute when placed on the palms. The rain had stopped and one of the co-ordinator came searching for us. We were to start our descent in a short-while.

We explored around the fence again from where we had left. At one point, tree's branches blocked about half the path of two-feet wall. I got scared a little, but did not show externally and mustering courage crossed it. It was easier than expected, but I was relieved nonetheless. What lay ahead was something of a surprise, but we should have anticipated it. We had circled a full 360 degrees of the fort! We had agreed to the co-ordinator of coming back to that big tree and climb down all together. Instead, we called them (after two-three tries) to inform our location and waited.

Seemed an eternity before the group arrived and we reached the flat rock base to rest. Rain droplets on the grass blade were beautiful to look at and so were the purple flowers growing between the rocks. As like the Madhugiri trek, there was a photographer amongst us, clicking away the beautiful scenery all around us. I wasn't far behind in clicking and then I caught the sight of a chameleon, all still, head raised on a medium sized rock. Calling the photographer to come ASAP, I hurried to the rock, sighting well its slippery surface. It wasn't the usual rock wet by the recent rain. It was kind of the rock one could spot near a waterfall. I do not remember well enough, but I must have tried to put my right foot to test how much grip I can get. Before one could blink - there I was down, having slipped as I made contact with the slippery rock. Well of course there was flat base below the rock, or I wouldn't have ventured. But as with most uncontrolled falls, my right leg twisted and I landed on it. Within moments, the fellow trekkers were besides me asking have I injured myself. I felt pain, but I was sure it wasn't fracture. I was more interested to the fate of my camera - a small tapering on the cosmetic surrounding the lens which wouldn't allow the lens set to shut properly. With a little push with fingers, I was able to close it properly. And only then did I remove my shoes to inspect the injury. Talk about caring for oneself :(

One had fast-relief, which I applied all around. Somehow managed to put on the socks and shoes back again. I realised that I would have to keep going without rest if I had to reach the foothill. The co-ordinator now came with his spray. This time around it was even more difficult removing the shoes. There was a small-apple sized swell big enough to cover the Calcaneus bone. After applying the spray, the co-ordinator rightly suggested to put on the shoe without the sock and tie the laces tightly. Even now I wonder how was I able to put my leg into the shoe!

Everyone had gathered by now on the flat rock and time for group-photo. After what seemed an eternity, it was taken and we started to move. Only for the photographer to discover that the settings were not right! So again we stood for the pose, myself seething with pain. As we started the descent again, they offered to carry the back-pack for me. But that being a non-issue, I politely refused. They offered bodily support too. While that was generous of them, I knew that they would feel very difficult to support my weight. Yes, although am very lean, the pressure we put for supporting the body is not easy to manage. I wasn't that bad in a position to be not able to walk. I could place my right foot and apply as much pressure needed to lift my left leg and move forward. But, it being a descent through the rocks, I resorted to crawling most of the way, using my hands to place on the side rocks for support. It was Madhugiri revisited, but for all the wrong reasons :D. Where necessary, I used the generous hand supports. One thing I realized later is, at no point did anyone talk about my carelessness. And am largely thankful to them for it.

Slowly and steadily I reached (or rather, crawled to) the large base of the hill, from which it was more of a walk than climbing down. The rain Gods seemed to have waited for me to reach this point, as the rain returned and this time, it was outright downpour. Cannot imagine if it had occurred right after I had slipped, or for that matter, if it had been a fracture. Gives me the creeps thinking about it.

Rain in the air :)

It was half an hour or so, that we walked through the streams guiding us to reach the cab. My wish for rain had been granted, but I paid a price for it :D. Although I had put on my raincoat and my back-pack water-proof, I was drenched and water had found its way through the tiny gaps of zipped fabric. As I entered the cab, they asked me how did I feel. And I replied, 'Great'.

Thus ended another unforgettable trekking experience, for all the good and bad reasons. What followed was my visit to doctor (aided by my room-mate and his friend), plastering and realizing how uncomfortable one would be even though the swell in itself wasn't that painful. And oh, by the way, I did honestly think I would be doing much shorter post before the keyboard led my fingers to...

PS: Last Friday, i.e. 25th June, myself and some of my company colleagues had gone to a school-kit distribution near Bypanahalli, organized by YFS (http://youthforseva.org/) . I experienced the 'Joy of Giving' :)

Eagle luck

2010-06-11T18:50:00.008+05:30

A tea-time casual talk with my colleagues on Eagles took me back to those days in school which are etched forever in memory. One led to the other and particularly the events of 4th standard stood out. The exact happenings are hard to recall 14 years on, hence I have attempted to weave out a story based on whatever I could.

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Image courtesy: Link

Mithun had finished 3rd standard in the primary school and was thrilled to be going to the main branch. Big grounds & more sections meant more fun. His family too shifted their sweet shop near the school for his convenience. The very first day was eventful. Mithun saw fellow boys running hither-thither clad in khaki shorts, half-sleeve white shirt, black belt, navy tie with 'JMHS' printed slantingly in bold yellow at the bottom, black shoes with navy socks & knees looking white-washed. Of-course the dress code varied from 6th standard onwards, lets stick to 4th standard throughout the story. Running here and there, playing, shouting, I now wonder how the teachers bore the noise of us all which amounted no less than 2-3 thousand students or perhaps more. Reaching the class was a herculean task. One had to trod through the big auditorium surrounded by classes 7-12, then through open cemented veranda surrounded by classes 5-8 along with some of the kindergarten classes. Then came the canteen & toilets. The open space ended with hostel in center and paths to classes on the left and the big play-ground on the right. Backside of the hostel was a smaller open space with few trees & surrounded by more classes. The 4th standard classes started left of the hostel. 'A' and 'B' sections were to the left of the pathway leading to other sections behind the hostel. The pathway being roofed, the two classes felt like dungeon.

Mithun was just about to enter the class, when he was joined by his friend Ramanujam Iyer. They joined two boys in a four-seater bench. Deepak and Vikraman had been shuffled from other sections to 'B'. In a matter of seconds, the four became friends and got engrossed in exchanging pleasantries. And within minutes they vowed to be always together, like a gang. Vikraman became the undisputed leader after he showed the biggest nails and most dirt than the others. But that afternoon, Ramanuja left the gang. The gang had gone to the big playground for lunch under one of the many trees. Vikraman had brought an egg for lunch and Ramanujam being a Brahmin found it intolerable. But Mithun would not leave the gang saying he couldn't imagine leaving such wonderful company. In a spur of moment, Vikraman teased Ramanujam as 'Rama, the Brahma'. From that day, Brahma stuck as Ramanujam's nickname and he hardly ever spoke to Vikraman again. In course of time, Vikraman assigned nicknames for others too, notably for the gang: Deepak was christened Dubukku (as Deepak frequently called others 'stupid fellow' whenever he got angry :D), Mithun as Lalakada Halwa (as he brought sweets from his father's shop). And chose Vicks (after the Vicks product) for himself.

All three living near the school, the gang used to assemble about an hour before classes started and almost always first to reach the class, even before the hostel students. Dubukku and Vicks considered themselves lucky to have been shuffled to 'B' section. The rule was that all hindi students (which is only around 10-12 students) were assigned the 'B' section. Mithun would be pestered with questions on the hindi girls. All three would write their 'favorite' girl's name on back page of textbooks. Am here not gonna describe what they further used to discuss apart from writing the names :P. Vicks re-instated his leadership when one fine day he impressed the class-leader and topper hindi girl Nikita. I forgot how the trick was done, but using fingers, some kinda scratching brought blood on tongue without pain!. The trick spread like fire throughout the 4th standard including Nikita. As ill-luck would have it, a teacher found out and the entire 4th 'B' bore punishment. But that only increased Vicks' image.

Being a christian school, there used to mass every Friday. As entire school couldn't assemble in the church, there would be turns standard wise. And the rest would be in their classes listening through speakers, head bent-down in almost a sleeping posture on the benches. Many a student would sleep soundly. The unfortunates who got caught would get beatings in stick/wooden-scale or have to kneel down the entire day on the floor (or sand for the other sections) outside the class. Vicks got intrigued by the church. There were different statues along the walls with candles burning. The sight of crucified Jesus gave him an idea that again won him reputation as the leader. The idea was to make a cross on the left palm using molten wax. He explained it as a means to get God's grace by experiencing pain. However, they kept the idea within the gang to prevent others from sharing God's grace!

A favorite and most dangerous past time of the gang was to play Raja-Rani game while the teacher took class. To much surprise of everyone, they had never been caught yet. They limited the characters to four - Raja, Rani, Police and Thief. The fourth player was a dummy which was always kept for Brahma. If the 'police' thought that thief was the chit kept for Brahma, he would point it out showing three fingers as sign for the Nammam. In teacher's absence, they would blurt it out - Braaaahmaaaaaa in chorus with Raaamaaaa. Nikita always found it hard keeping the class quiet. She would cite Brahma as the ideal student who would read or do some exercise questions. Not that Brahma was lonely now, but very afraid of getting sticks. The gang would mock saying something was between the two or sing the then very popular song 'mukkala muqabla'. The entire class would laugh, sometimes leading to punishment from the teacher taking class in the neighboring 'A' section.

It was march and summer was already approaching. Mornings became a torture for the students. Most teachers would not allow fan during morning sessions and the morning interval was the sole solace. Especially the first period would be difficult as students would have been playing Masa-Masa (game where one having ball would hit the others) or cricket or just running. A new craze started among the students during lunch hour - to 'catch' the shadow of eagles. It was believed that eagles brought luck while the crows bad-luck. While most students tried it, our gang were adamant in not following others. They would say they have a more powerful source for luck and refused to follow the mob.

On the fateful March 14 - 1996, the gang were playing cricket and surprisingly, Brahma had joined the play. But not surprisingly, he was in the opponent team. It was last ball of the match with one to win and Vicks on strike. Brahma was fielding in the square leg region and saw Vicks eying the empty mid-wicket region. And so after Vicks had turned to face the bowler, Brahma moved to the short mid-wicket region and lo! the ball came straight to his hands. He spilled it, but picked the ball quickly and threw it at the non-strikers end. The ball bounced before going over the stone seeming to have hit it. Vicks was ruled run-out and match declared tie, but to this date, one cannot confirm if that ball hit the stone-stumps!

Brahma vented out his venom for Vicks, describing the run-out at every opportunity that morning. Vicks could bear no more during the interval and challenged that he knew better cricket than him. Brahma was in some flow that day, unusual to his quietness in the class. So he said, "Oh yeah, I bet that today WI will beat AUS in the semis of cricket WC" Vicks was also supporting WI but he had no choice than to accept the challenge and put money on AUS. They settled on betting all of 50p.

That afternoon, Vicks and his loyal followers went to the church and used the 'cross-with-molten-wax' for praying an AUS win. Brahma took to the eagles for his luck. He had a great time by 'catching' two eagle shadows and avoiding any of the many crows. Just when he started leaving for the classes, his eyes fell on a glittering object. He stooped down quickly to pick. When Brahma reached the class he looked too pleased. The gang though looked a bit uncomfortable, having applied more than usual wax for the cross. The cricket match was a day-night affair and the entire class were eager to know the result. Few others including the girls too started betting on the outcome using 'fake' currency notes.

As you might know, AUS prevailed in a low scoring encounter. The gang were ecstatic and were planning how to use it. They decided on 'thaen-mittaaye' (rose-colored honey-made sweet which then used to sell for 5p I think). Brahma came just at the stroke of first bell looking pleased as if he had conquered the world. The first hour was 'science' and it was a combined one for 'A' & 'B' held in the pathway outside the class. The gang, still savoring the win, played Raja-Rani. As usual, one chit was kept for Brahma. The teacher suddenly caught Dubukku looking down and not listening. She shouted and threw the wooden scale at him. Caught in a fear, Dubukku blurted out Brahma (Dubukku was the police and guessed that Brahma had the thief chit). She gave him a nice thrashing, asked him to kneel outside for the entire day and inquired who Brahma was. Ramanujam stood up and said that he did not do anything, shaking all over. The teacher scolded him nonetheless.

At he stroke of the morning interval, Brahma went straight to Vicks, gave him the 50p for the bet and congratulated him on his victory. The entire class were astounded. All the fun was lost anticipating a verbal duel. They got their answer that evening. While the gang were purchasing their 'thaen-mittaaye', our pleased kid Brahma took out the remaining Rs1.50 and got the envied eatery of them all - the 'coconut+groundnut' mixed ice-cream bar.

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PS: I know about the 'cross-with-molten-wax' as I was part of the gang!
PPS: It is a fictional story as I mentioned at the start.

Madhugiri Trekking Trip

2010-06-01T22:11:00.016+05:30

It was only last August that I embarked on my first trekking trip to Antaragange. Seems long ago and no wonder am so pleased to have had another - Madhugiri on 29th May. And for that, I thank wholeheartedly to BMC (http://www.bmcindia.org/). Click on the images below for larger view.

I will try to keep the narration short, but my penchant for writing mundane details might prevent doing so. Let me begin with how to register for an event with BMC. My office being near to BMC office, I called them up and Krishna (guide for this trekking trip) obliged by collecting the fare at my office premises itself. Isn't that convenient? And then they sent a confirmation email.

Friday evening and I was really thrilled thinking about the trip. With much enthusiasm I brought snacks and water bottle, much needed for a trekking trip. Curbing my liking to read about the place, I took to dusting off the bag to carry the needful. And thankfully I recharged my camera batteries. I watched a movie and cooked too. Yes you read it right, I 'cooked' :).

I tried to sleep early as reporting was 6:45AM sharp at Domlur. But believe me, the excitement meant an intermittent sleep. I groaned each time I woke up to see that 5:10AM was still far-off. And when it finally was time to wake up, power-cut greeted me. That did not deter me getting ready by 6am. Had a cup of tea (to prevent headache) and reached Domlur by 6:25AM! I saw a buddy there, in jeans and t-shirt with a backpack. My guess was right that he (Rajendran) too was coming for the trek. And lo! I wasn't the only one coming all alone. Presently a group - an elderly man and woman with daughter, arrived there. They were joined by a foreign lady shortly. Rajendran observed that BMC must be very popular indeed.

Starting at 6AM

Right on 6:45AM (ok, 6:46 to be precise) the cab arrived. Krishna ticked-off the people assembled and to my surprise, the elderly couple were coming too! The next pick-up was at Lifestyle (7AM) and here we waited about 5 mins for others to arrive. I engaged myself observing the vehicles passing by and was amazed to see so many at this hour on a Saturday morning. At one point it looked to be all white - cars, jeeps and buses alike and immediately came a procession of varied colored ones! By this time the last of the 12 member party came. So that made 'unlucky' 13 including the guide Krishna, but I would say 14 to include the driver, who had a good part to play in our very pleasing experience.

Bangalore is really very big and traffic flow is tedious just about everywhere! After evading through the morning traffic, we reached 'New Agarwal Bhavan' on the Tumkur road around 8:10AM for breakfast and packing lunch. We bought water bottles and cold-drinks too. Soon we left the highway behind and villages started to show up. The narrow 2-lane road was good enough for a smooth ride. Like I always do, I was sitting near window seat and enjoying the view outside. Among various interesting things I saw, two stood out. Near a police-station in one of the villages, there were lot of trucks and vans and autos dumped for good covered largely with ivy. The other being a 'BSNL OFC' stone-mark surrounded by barren land.

Other vehicles passing was so infrequent, making me wonder where they got petrol/diesel from and however they coped with breakdowns! The roads started deteriorating and large number of hillocks became visible. Many of them had temple on the top. Or some scribblings in large white fonts. They were just too many of them that it seems by chance was this space available for road connectivity. Around 10:30AM we were nearing Madhugiri. I saw a very steep hill, higher than the surrounding ones and started taking pictures. I wondered if anyone can climb this one. Little did I know that it was the very hill we were headed too. And indeed, the climb was from the other side which is not so steep as the side I had seen.

Krishna assembled us in a circle and we introduced ourselves. Our elite party consisted of an ex-army, his wife (the elderly couple) and their daughter, a photographer (from the equipment he carried), a foreigner and other enthusiasts like me :P. We were to climb 3930 ft (perhaps lesser, as the height base from sea level is not known) which is more than Tirupathi and approx. half the height of Ooty.

And so, we started our ascent around 10:45AM. The fort entrance and wall-fencing were still in good shape. Initially it was all steps and easy to climb. On big rocks, small steps were carved out for convenience. The fort is centered near the base of the hill and circular towers few hundred feet above. A large flat surface below the towers was well fenced and a pool built which was completely dry. After these towers, it was all bare mountain with few resting places in between.

A bit scary for first-timers

Having fun ;)

The ascent was quite easy for most part except for the hot sun. Continuous breeze dried our sweat leaving crystallized salt on face and neck. We had to frequently rest, drink water and continue. About two-third of the hill upward comes the most dangerous climb. Iron poles were rooted along the path which were around knee level and not much of use. For inexperienced trekkers like me, one had to lean on the hot-rock with bare hands to feel a bit safe. The heavy back-pack made it worse. Thankfully they had built a fence near the steepest portion above to reach an entrance. I felt very very relieved to have make it. Taking a break there, the climb was resumed. Now it all seemed easier after the steep climb, but exhaustion meant more frequent stops. We did not mind sitting on the hot rock for it was nigh impossible to move on more than 2-5 min at a stretch. Ofcourse, there were large rocks here and there providing cool shade.

Very relieved to have climbed up the steep slope (fence and entrance can be seen)

After what seemed an eternity, the summit came in view. I say 'came' as I never felt like reaching the top. Ruined temple greeted us with scattered vegetation. Beyond the temple, one could go down to reach large rocks strewn on relatively flat surface. We chose a big rock providing shade all around to camp and have lunch. Grass, flowery plants and trees had somehow found their way to grow there. Whats more, we could see clear signs of goats having come there.

The veg-biryani from 'New Agarwal Bhavan' was very spicy but to our growling stomachs, it tasted sweet. After lunch, the ex-army gentleman shared his experiences in Infantry, 1971 war, snow-blindness, beauty of Ladakh, exported apples and so on. The foreign lady too enthusiastically shared hers. And to my surprise, the mobile signal strength was very good there!

Lunch time :) :)

Around 1:45PM, we started our descent. (But logically, we had to first climb to reach the summit again and begin the descent :P - to quote the ex-army gentlemen). The descent was faster compared to the climb, but one had to walk sideways for better grip. As in my first trekking trip, my legs started shivering, for reasons unknown. And the thighs too started paining. Somehow, I managed to climb down steadily, and sometimes running down small stretches. The steep slope I mentioned during the climb proved too tricky way-down. Mortal fear took control of me that despite good advice from the guide to do it easily, I did not turn my bodily-position. I was leaning on the rocks and nearly crawling along. The rocks were too hot by now. The forceful drag with palms resulted in two burn-like bubbles. Anyone watching me without knowing what went through my mind would have laughed relentlessly. I cannot describe what relief I felt on crossing that dangerous path. And to top it all, the ex-army gentleman just walked freely through the steep section! Of course he had 37 years of experience, but goes to show that perhaps it is only the fear that makes it very dangerous. The shivering and thigh pain increased and I took an extended rest. The rest of the climb was all about pushing myself to go. I kept the pace sedate and talking with the fellow trekkers helped a lot.

Not gonna forget in this lifetime (the ex-army gentleman is too happy to walk casually!)

Apparently, we had finished the trek well ahead. Replenishing with water and cool-drinks, we started around 3:45pm. Some wanted to have another trek, but most including me were not upto it. Here came the driver's role. Apparently he was a local guy and knew the surrounding area pretty well. He suggested to visit 'Sri Yoga lakshmi narasimha swamy' temple on a hill which could be reached via road. We reached there around 4:45pm. The temple closes by 5pm, so a guard placed at a diverging road halfway up the hill was going to stop us. But the driver got us through. The hill is populated with 'wild' monkeys. Lots of hills surround the place and this one had a provision for guest-house too. We had cucumber and tender-coconut and proceeded for the temple. Monkeys were on the lookout to snatch anything. They even 'attacked' the shoe stand near the temple. Some of them showed acrobatic skills hanging by the tail on trees, other monkeys or water taps. One intelligent monkey was peeling off a tender-coconut! And the skin which it tore were in other monkeys' mouth!

Atop the hill to visit the temple

Isn't it beautiful?

It started raining and the mist cover on the surrounding hills was a great sight. We hurried to the tempo, took a group photo with some missing and started our way back to Bangalore. But hold on, we were not done yet. There was another famous place 'Namada Chilume', around 2-3kms from the temple. Here again our driver got us permission to go through. It was light drizzle here and the climate too good with cool breeze. Apparently, during Rama's Vanvas, he visited the place and pierced a hole on a rock to get water. One story goes that Sita was thirsty and according to wiki, Rama needed it for his Thilak which is how the place got the name. Whatever be it, water continuously flows out of it throughout the year. Whats more, we saw for ourselves the water flow increasing when coins were devoted.

Perennial source of water - from a rock!

Finally, we started our way back to bangalore. Rain had picked up here too. Both the path we came for the temple and the one we took to Bangalore is surrounded by thick forest. Wild animals are supposed to be living there, but we did not cross any. After a while, I slept due to sheer exhaustion and when I woke up, we were on the Tumkur road jammed with traffic. It would be around 9pm when I reached home. Took a hot bath and slept peacefully.

What a day it was. Climbing more than a km tall hill, and two bonus visits to beautiful places among the hills with rain in the air.. oh inexplicable pleasure indeed. Antaragange was fun with friends, this was personal satisfaction. I am far-off from becoming a good-trekker, what with my legs giving way to fear. But it is one step forward in right direction. Both in the Antaragange trip and Madhugiri one, I had trouble while descending. And both times, it rained while coming back :D. All in all, another day added to unforgettable ones :)

PS: Some of the photos from Madhugiri posted here courtesy Rajendran :)

Five words

2010-05-08T20:18:00.002+05:30

A humble request, am just trying something different, it is meant for fun. Hope I succeed :)

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Meet our hero of the story. As always, heroes are different, in this case, very different. Hold on till I try to create some suspense. Curious and intrigued to explore, he now was standing a few meters from a wall. A wall he wished to reach but always held back by the command of his chief, the villain in our story. Today was the ideal opportunity for our hero to satisfy his thirst. It could spell disaster for him. But heroes are meant to risk danger. He looked yearningly at the five-foot compound wall on north side of the house. He scurried like a squirrel through the lawn which was oddly sloped upwards. His heart was pounding as he looked around to see if any one was watching him. (No no, he isn't trying to escape) Assured of no activity, he shaped up to jump instead of climbing (stunt for hero, hehe). He managed to cling on to the top of the wall. And lo! The sight before him was too good to believe that he forgot his footing and fell flat back on the lawn. (To make the story move forward, our hero had to fall.. poor him)

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"He has been showing his churlish side lately" chief said to the only other soul in the room.
"He is behaving like a nerd" his wife opined.
The chief thundered "How many times I have stressed the importance of not letting anyone near the curtilage" (oh, I used 'thundered'.. for effect)
"We should not procrastinate the verdict. He should be given a stern punishment immediately without a chance for disputation" (ooh, harsh words indeed from a female.. will our hero escape?)
Before the chief could announce the verdict, the doctor arrived to announce that the prisoner had regained consciousness. (aa ha, here comes a twist)

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The squirrels had all assembled near the fallen brave. (Yeah, you have read it right - squirrels.. I did mention that our hero 'scurried like a squirrel')
Our hero was delirious. (He had seen a guava tree. And it was not visible from within the curtilage due to the upward slope)

The villain, oops, the chief arrived fumingly. Our hero cannot fight, so he ran to the wall and this time jumped beyond the wall!
"Oh no, he will be drowned" exclaimed the chief and revealed to the assembled for the first time that beyond the curtilage was water all around.
His wife's heart melted for our hero and asked the chief to do something.
"It's over, we cannot help him" said the chief almost in remorse but nevertheless 'climbed' the wall.
He couldn't believe what he saw. Ok no more drama.
Our hero was swimming merrily towards the guava tree surrounded by water.
A small flashback now.
The chief had fallen in this pool when he was young and just managed to climb back without knowing that he could swim too.
That was very short perhaps.
To end our story happily, the chief and other squirrels joined our hero and had a good time eating the guavas.

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PS: Wondering why the odd title? Notice the five words I have italicized in the second part of the story. New words that I learnt this week and thought of sharing it in the form of a story.

Red Herring

2010-05-02T15:43:00.001+05:30

Rahul was anxiously drumming on the dinner table of some hotel. His irritated friends asked him to stop the umpteenth time. Rahul looked at the black screen of his cell phone. No SMS or call yet from her. Whatever is taking so long. He did not try to call her as it may show his impatience. They had known each other only the past week. It was as if they were born for each other and both had fallen in love at first sight. Just like the movies. He had never imagined it would happen to him.
And then she arrived. She had an innocent, apologetic look. Before Rahul could say anything, she embraced him in a tight hug. The wait was worth it after all. She gave him a chocolate and said she couldn't come sooner.
Rahul was about to introduce his friends when he felt like falling. Soon the back ached and his eyes opened. He was on the floor. It was a dream and Rahul felt like kicking himself for having fallen down. The hug was still vivid and he couldn't stop himself from calling Sheetal at the wee hour of 2am. He was thinking of twisting the hug part.

He was surprised to hear her clear voice 'Hi sweetie'. What was she doing at this hour?
"Hi She, you know I had a dream just now"
"About me? Tell me all about it" she too had something to say but as always wanted to know his first.
And so, Rahul explained it but changed the hug part to kiss.
"I kissed you? Hmmm... aren't you lying? was it not a hug?"
Rahul couldn't believe his ears. How did she know? Is this a dream again? He pinched himself and he blurted out Ouch
"What happened?" Sheetal asked anxiously.
"Oh nothing She, I wondered if I was dreaming again. How did you know it was a hug?"
Oh it was hug only. "I also know that you are sitting on the floor right now" she said not believing herself.
"Sheeeeeeeeee, you are amazing!" He looked around to see if somehow she was there.
"Huh? did you fall too?"
"What do you mean you too? Don't play with me She, the hug is still floating around my eyes and don't spoil my mood"
"You won't believe it sweetie. I had the same dream and am on the floor. I was about to call when you did" and she applied moov happily cherishing the kiss Rahul gave in her version of the dream.

The Story

2010-04-02T14:57:00.004+05:30

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I published this story as part of 'Katha Sagar' contest. 71 stories were published and I am happy that my entry could get a place.

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The cell-phone was ringing and showed his favorite picture.

"Hello"
"Is this Mr. Rakesh speaking?". An old-aged woman asked despite recognizing his voice.
"Sister!. What a surprise. How have you been? Put on more weight?"
"You naughty. Ok listen. We are going to have a fund raise next weekend. You can come?"
"You know I cannot refuse"
"Thats my boy" she said with a smile that Rakesh could sense. "Should I send someone to pick you?"
"How can I forget the way?" Rakesh's eyes fell on a toy kept on his TV.
"Its been many years my boy" she said with a sad tone.
"Sister, remember yours words when we last departed?"
"I know I know. But I have been longing since to see my boy again"
"Oh come on Fat lady, I will be there in a week. We'll have our usual sessions. Give a smile now"
"Naughty boy" and she smiled.

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Rakesh was excited. It was very hot here in Bangalore and wondered how would it be in Pollachi. Fan at full speed and windows open, yet it was hot. He was lying on bed but unable to sleep thinking about his childhood days. The moonlight was enough to see fan rotating seemingly without gap between its four blades. Ha! four blades is outta fashion.
He had read in a book that keeping mind blank helped to get sleep. So he now imagined himself surrounded by endless space. Slowly the eye-lids drooped. The four-blade fan started making odd noise as if a blade had become loose and about to fall. His eyes opened, saw the rotating fan. His ears heard the sound and his eyes started to bulge. Breathing became heavy. Unbearable pain shot through his nervous system and a crashing image floated around his eyes. He passed out and then there was peace. Heaven like.

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"I passed out for the first time"
"You sure?"
"Guess so". Rakesh was fiddling with an aircraft toy in his hands.
"Anything else different?"
"Same as usual. I wasn't able to sleep"
"You were remembering you early days?"
"Yes"
"Perhaps you should consult a Psychiatrist"
"You are one"
"Was. I am happy creating unusual problems for fictional characters of my books"
"My fat lady is my best remedy. I am going there this weekend"

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Bus to Coimbatore was at 9pm. But Rakesh started two hours prior to avoid traffic. The bus conductor gave him a daily pass (worth Rs. 32) instead of Rs.10 ticket. A fellow passenger explained matter-of-factly that it is a used daily pass. He went on to explain that conductors sometimes do not issue ticket for a lower fare from the passenger. Rakesh found it interesting and asked if it wasn't unethical.
"Both passengers and the conductor gain from it. Government anyways doesn't spend all for the public." replied the passenger.
After an hour of travel for about 12km distance, Rakesh got down at Majestic. A laborer asked him if he had a pass. Rakesh very happily passed on the "used" pass.

It was very hot and he had tickets for KSRTC's Rajhamsa executive bus service. He wondered what was "executive" in the bus? 2+2 seats (in a row) cramped up the space and a pale bluish light gave an eerie look. Thankfully push-back provision was there. It was 8:30pm and Rakesh couldn't find am empty chair to sit as it seemed a small town was gathered in the Kempagowda bus stand.
But unlike the other private buses, KSRTC buses start bang on time. The conductor came to check if all passengers were in. He found the seat beside Rakesh empty. On questioning, Rakesh answered that his friend could not make it due to an urgent project creeping up. Mumbling that there are many passengers wanting to go, he left as it was time to leave. Rakesh smiled on his triumph.

After an hour of evading through the traffic, the bus hit the outskirts of the city. The full moon was shining brightly and a cool-breeze ruffled the leaves. Rakesh wasn't getting sleep. He wondered how people were supposed to sleep in sitting posture. And though he got a window seat, it was on the right side and not to his preferred left side. He cursed the railway department for not having enough trains on a busy route. A special train for weekends is needed. He consoled himself by realizing that it was an opportunity to enjoy a night ride. No curtains as well in the "executive" bus. He opened the window enough for good view. Some childhood habbits are hard to break. Like watching out of a window seat. Looking out for what lies beyond with an yearning feeling. Be it a lonely shop on the roadside of highway, or a cyclist (most always a villager) carrying on his work in his own unassuming way, or sometimes a car horribly out-of-shape reminding the horrors of accidents. He thought why anyone has to drive so fast? But then it is their choice and their perspective.

Around 1AM Mysore arrived. The Mysore Palace (Wodeyar's Palace, not Tipu Sultan's as is common misconception) was glittering brilliantly. The bus stopped for some time in Mysore. Rakesh was feeling weary. He looked at other passengers who were sound asleep. Perhaps they are accustomed to bus travel. Road work was in progress, but the state of the roads were extremely poor. Such a bumpy ride. Presently the bus began ascent on the mountain road. And Rakesh's mood immediately got better. Oh! How he wished he could go for a climb then and there.
The climb wasn't steep. But the descent was and the hair-pin-bends looked pretty dangerous. Looking down, a sea of lights adorned the valley.
At a hair-pin-bend, lorries were coming from the opposite side and the bus had to stop until they passed. Space was wide to take the turn, but narrows afterward leaving perhaps a metre or two from the edge. The queue was pretty long and it seemed it would take an eternity for them pass. Rakesh sat back and closed his eyes. The trucks seemed to form a big chain and fly and suddenly crash. Rakesh woke up with a start when the bus started its descent again. And now he didn't seem getting sleep.

Looking back at the mountains, Rakesh could see specks of light emanating from the moving vehicles. He looked around again to see if anyone seemed awake. The light inside the bus wasn't good enough to see, but if anyone moved, it would be visible. All seemed to be happily sleeping. Back to sight seeing for Rakesh. The bus was starting to turn right when Rakesh saw a blaze of fire. It seemed like a vehicle burning but it was spreading slowly. It was a large waste garbage dump. A small explosion (perhaps of a battery) triggered Rakesh's phobia. He did not pass out this time but pain was unbearable nonetheless. He was perspiring and the flashing images of a crash kept floating around his eyes. He was happy that the empty seat he booked was useful. The wind slowly dried his sweat and he slowly relaxed and feel asleep at last. Peacefully.

It was 5:30AM and Coimbatore was about 30min away. Rakesh seemed oblivious to the cold wind. Coimbatore arrived and someone tapped on his shoulders to wake him up. Rakesh dreamt that someone huge was lifting him up. He woke up all soaked up when shaken forcefully. He let a wry smile about the dream which surprisingly had come after a long time. Sister Philomena would be happy to hear it.

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He took a town-bus to Ukkadam from where buses to Pollachi start every five minutes or so. Luckily he got a government service bus ready to leave. Private bus would have had those ear deafening music.

Rakesh took to sight seeing again. It was more than 4 years since he had left the orphanage for under-graduate studies.The diverging roads near a lake, traffic at railway crossing and lots of trees gave him a nostalgic feeling. He was waiting for the giant structures to come. And not to forget the ship-shaped marine college. The childhood memories were coming thick and fast. The fights, the pranks, the beatings, the phobia attacks. Why had Sister restricted him to come these four and a half years? Ofcourse he knew the answer.

The giant structures came and inevitably the discussion came flooding back:

"I found it I found it." said an excited Rakesh.
"What you found" asked his fellow 5th standard student Muniyappa who was imagining himself as superstar Rajini.
"I found from where the wind comes!"
"Where?"
"See those huge fans over there"
"Oh ya.. I see..."
"Am gonna tell this to Sister"
"Waitttttttttttttttttttttttt.. Why are some of them rotating slowly and others are stopped?"
"They are taking rest.. You know they rotate faster in night and take rest in day. Few are strong enough to rotate in day time also"
"But why are they...."
Before he could finish the question, Rakesh went upto Sister excitedly to tell his discovery. Sister was dumbfounded on hearing it. She did not know how to explain it to him. She patted on his back and said she will buy him a chocolate in the picnic.

-----------------------------------------------------

12 years later, now, Rakesh found it amusing. He wondered why a windmill did not trigger the phobia attack but a ceiling fan did. May be that 'discovery' had something to do with it. He started feeling weary now and slumbered for a while. The sight of dense coconut trees meant Pollachi was about to come. Finally around 7:30am, he touched down on his favourite place in the world. He went to the auto stand and asked for Saranalayam. A young lady who was standing there recognized him. She asked Rakesh to come along with her.
"What's your name and do you work there?"
She stammered "Sangeetha. I teach there."
He asked why she chose to teach at this young age. She said she believed in service, and no better than to be in an orphanage.
She was feeling at ease now and asked him whether it was true what was said about his phobia?
"I suppose you already know all about me."
She nodded and asked how he coped with it.
He answered, "You should know it. Our Sister keeps telling us to be not apprehensive about the future and live in the present. Compare the short time I feel pain to an hour. Or a day. It is very less. It just is difficult during the attack, but there is no physical pain afterward"

-----------------------------------------------------

"What a surprise my boy! I thought you are coming tomorrow"
"Oh come on Fat Lady. You told me to come this weekend"
"Saturday is working day for you. isn't it?" quipped Sister Philomena.
"Ya, but you said weekend. So I took leave. I called yesterday night to inform you, but your mobile was switched off?
"I was with God the whole night praying for you my boy"
And on and on they kept talking. Sangeetha, despite herself, was envious.

-----------------------------------------------------

It was evening time and all the kids were assembled around Sister, Rakesh and Sangeetha. One of them asked Rakesh about the giant fans. Rakesh couldn't help smiling, but wondered how that came about to the kid's knowledge? Another asked if it was true that Sister came in his dreams often as a giant lifting him up.
Sister was smiling sheepishly. Rakesh took the opportunity to start their usual session. He wanted Sister to start telling a story and promised to tell about his journey last night. The aircraft toy was in his hands. Sister saw it and understood.

She began:
"There was this plane carrying Rakesh & his family that crashed near a mountain...."

Retrospect - A Short Story

2010-02-22T21:23:00.006+05:30

The Sun's beautiful evening rays fell on his numb face. It had no sensory effects even as he watched its progress until the sky darkened. His Dream was shattered!

***********************************************

Jan 1996
Gurpreet Singh was a happy man. Got married to his childhood love Gurneet and managed to get an unlikely gift as dowry. A brand new Videocon 21" colour TV. He had a compelling reason. Prepared to buy him a motor-bike, the in-laws were dumb-founded at this unusual request. 15-20km from his village (Khera Gajju), he had a bakery-cum-dabba shop opposite the - "Punjabi University" on the outskirts of Patiala. A truck driver, who frequently visited his shop, famously nick-named him "Gajju". Indeed, the traffic passing on the NH-64 created more opportunity for his shop than the college goers. It would all change in a month's time.

*************************************************

April 2009
Today had to be his most awaited day. Sachin Singh showed no signs of nervousness/anxiety. Neither had he contemplated if he can fail. His coach never missed an opportunity to remind him: "All fail by fearing and also shivering".

Much as he would have liked his father to have accompanied him, he was content having his mother for company. Presently he could see her doing a silent prayer.

*************************************************

Gajju was deep in thought over the preparations for the evening. Very cleverly he had acted ill to force Sachin leave without him. 'Got cold. Go with mother'. After-all the occasion demanded extravagant celebrations. Something unique & graceful that would envy the neighbours. Something that Sachin would just love it. His chain of thought suddenly hit upon an excellent idea as he remembered a TV show.

*************************************************

It was time for glory. Sachin grew in confidence seeing other contenders flop. His chance seemed to come after an eternity. Running in to bowl at him was a gentle medium-pacer. The ball hit the turf ever-so-slowly and bounced. He was readying to smack the ball to long-on when the ball moved slightly before reaching the bat and took the edge instead of flying over the ropes. Not overwhelmed by the miss, he adjusted his stance to counter the swing. But next ball swung the other way and took the top-edge of the bat. Tension started to creep-in now despite being groomed to be confident. He told himself to see the ball and then swing the bat. A quick look towards his mother gave him assurance. He marked a middle-stump stance to counter whichever way the ball-swung. The bowler too thought over what would be going in the batsman's mind. He produced a gem - the ball just pitched and went straight ahead, knocking the stumps. The selector had seen enough and crossed against Sachin's name. Glory had ended before it had begun. His mother sensed what had happened and quickly reached her son to take him away. The Saree was soon wet with tears.

*************************************************

The age of cell-phones meant that Gajju received the fatal SMS immediately - 'Sachin not selected in the under-13 district cricket team'. He had been to the roof to ponder upon the preparations. He was so sure that his son cannot fail. His dream had come shattering down. Despite himself, tears rolled down his cheeks. He wondered what could have gone wrong with his coaching. Yes, he had never played cricket. But did his best to teach his son. Everyone in the village had praised his son. The other boys feared his batting.
It was getting dark and he seemed to realize it now. After being confused and heartbreaks, there was clarity now. Our brain has this interesting potential of giving hope after complete despair. But for hope it is nigh impossible to live. Once hope settles in, we take things all-together in a different prospective. The setting of sun had epitomized itself in his mind as "end of dream" without himself being aware of it. Now suddenly he found the optimism - there is sunrise after a sunset. A thought now disturbed him heavily. He began tracing why his son was playing cricket. Was it not because of his passion rather than his son's? Against his father's wishes, he had named the child Sachin, breaking away the tradition of naming with "Guru" variants. He asked Waheguru's pardon. Better late than never. Important arrangements had to be made...

*************************************************

Sachin, I will try explaining to him. Failing doesn't mean end of world. He will understand. Just be with me when he speaks.
"He will beat me up... The other day I got severe scoldings for coming one minute late to practice." More tears flowed...

*************************************************

Gajju soon reached his shop (Gajju Bakers) & ordered for cakes to be delivered in certain shapes. He had to personally go there to show the shapes he cut from newspapers and some of his son's paintings.
There wasn't time to waste. He drove fast in his 'swift'. He let a smile thinking back on how the master-stroke of getting a TV as dowry helped his growth from an ordinary shop to one of the biggest in the locality. He had timed the marriage to get ready for the 1996 cricket WC. He now had plans to open branches in Patiala and Rajpura.
A bus-stopped in front and silhouette of a woman and a boy appeared. He cursed his bad-luck as he drove towards his wife & son. Sachin was almost hidden in his mother's arms. It did not help that his lie was now out in open. They drove silently to home and Sachin immediately went to his room and shut himself up. He wanted to atleast drown-out the thunderous scoldings he was expecting.
Gajju started talking in broken english to catch his son's attention.
"You interested in music also... studies also you good.. cricket you can try next year also.. we go to Patiala, you will also get good coaching. I also know.. you like cricket as I also like cricket... you also tell what u like... I won't force you to play cricket also..."
Sachin was surprised. He suspected it to be trap but could not ignore the passion with which his father had said it. He felt grateful to have such a father. He opened the door without being asked for and hugged his father.
"Sorry"
"I also should say Sorry"
Soon the tears gave way to smile and then excitement - for now he can spend more time playing guitar. He was having a large guitar shaped cake which was strikingly similar to his drawing leaving aside the cakes in shape of cricket equipments.

****************~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~****************

Thanks to Karthik and Srini for their kind help.

Author's Note:
Although this is purely a fictional work, the books I've read, my personal experiences, social interaction, etc. have all helped me in penning (or rather blogging) this story. So, if you find something familiar, pardon my liberty in using it here and in my future stories. And not to forget, thanks to Google - Patiala
This being my first attempt at a story, I would be grateful if any short-comings are pointed out. :)

Lonely journey, lost camera, lots of love...

2010-02-17T22:38:00.004+05:30

Feb 10 and I had reason to be anxious. After all, I was late by around 30min and no signs of bus to airport for around 25min. Never before had I even gone near an airport. Was contemplating for auto when the bus finally arrived at 6:25am. Though I reached an hr and half b4 my flight to Delhi, I got only a middle seat and that too beside the wings. My first take-off was smooth and cleared a few concerns hovering in mind without reason. Two business ppl seated either side of me greeted each other, ignoring my unkempt outlook. The one near the window put on the sun-shade to shut the partial view completely. With nothing to do, I penned for the first time about my experience including such mundane details like number of exits and trolley counts. And, atlast the flight mode of my cell had a use for listening music & playing games.
The flight landed half an hr b4 the scheduled time. Delhi temperature was 17C and fog had moistened the wings. Soon enough my cousin arrived and we "snailed" through the Delhi traffic. What to say about Dwaraka? Apartments, apartments and even more apartments..big ones.. and all occupied.. areas there named as: sector-1, 2, etc!! Placing a foot on their marble floor made me realize why ppl in North use slippers inside the house. It was ice cold :(. My cousins children greeted me "uncle" and soon enough I realized that I had attended this cousin's marriage! Now, 10 yrs later, I had come to attend another cousin's marriage. Phew..
My family (father, mother and elder brother Arpit) coming via train got delayed. So, had to go with my uncle to Loharu (a place in Haryana, 6 Km from my native village - Bhawtari in Rajasthan). So much crowd in bus. Wonder how they ppl manage to get in and get down. If that's the case in relatively outer region of Delhi, wonder the condition in main city? Three buses and 5-6 hrs later reached my uncle's (bride's father) place.Not a min passed, and the cousins gathered there were all over me. Though I remembered only few of them, everyone knew me! Had dinner with five others in one plate and shortly afterward my family members arrived. I was damn tired but my 'beloved' cousins would not let me sleep. To keep them involved, I did a few hand tricks and they made a mini circus out of me. Dance program started and I had some respite only after about an hr. A thermo-coat and 2inch thick blanket saw me through the ice-cold night.
Early morning on Thursday, I got a rude shock. My camera was missing. Someone had opened the side zip, cut the intersecting cloth and taken away the camera. Seeing the handiwork it was concluded that this was done during my bus travel the previous day. It seems there are hand-held x-ray devices for such works! I had little time to moan as we got ready and around 5:30am, we reached a temple where we had to go bare-footed and bare-handed :(. An hr later we started back with imperceptible hands & legs. The same multi-persons-in-one-plate policy was followed for breakfast.
Shortly, the various ceremonies for the bride started. With my camera lost, Arpit's camera was the only option left. And his batteries soon drained out. We searched in vain for compatible batteries, even trying out the ordinary ones which lasted only 3-4 snaps. Finally, we got rechargeable ones for rent from studios! Around 4pm, we started to Bhiwani where the marriage would take place. It gave me an opportunity to catch up with sleep and around 5:30pm we reached the marriage hall.
We had snacks and got ready for the occasion. Traditions seem to be changing for good. The arrangement is that relatives/friends (not so close to groom) of the bridegroom can arrive before the 'Barat' (Barat is procession of family, relatives, and friends of groom that accompany the groom to bride's home for official wedding ceremony). Food, seating & dance-floor had been arranged for such guests. I have to mention about this kid (from the groom side) who went on the dance-floor. He stood firmly at a place, and just kept swaying back & forth!
We had dinner (again following multi-persons-in-one-plate to save cost :D) and the wait started for the Barat to arrive. Around 10-10:30-pm, I could see them arriving with big band & bursting crackers. They would arrive at the gate only after 12:00am! The couple were Garlanded on a circularly rotating platform and lead to hall. Photo-session with relatives followed which took almost an hr!. I was damn too tired to stay awake anymore and went-off to sleep. Thankfully the 2-inch thick blankets were in place here too.
Woke up around 5:30am. The last rites of the marriage ceremony were still going on, mostly about giving money/clothes to relatives and gold jewelery to the groom. We helped to bring down the bride's things which would fit only in no less than a mini-van! And the painful moment arrived - of that of sending off the bride. An interesting ritual took place after that - a women from our side would dip in mix of "kumkum" and paste on both sides of shirt of men from the groom's side & hand over a 50Rs. note.
Its already a very long post. The rest of my stay included visiting my native village Bhawtari and my Mom's sister place in Jhunjhunu. On Sunday morning, around 3:30am, we started to Delhi in Wagon-R. The cab was booked so that I can reach in time for my flight to bangalore at 9:40am. It was so foggy that it was difficult to see 2-3m ahead. But the journey was safe and we reached the airport by 7am itself. I bid good-bye to my family and embarked on another lonely flight journey. I added few lines to my flight experience. And yeah, I forgot that notepad in aircraft itself. So much for penning for the first time.
It was gr8 experience to visit again those places, walk down same lanes of the yester-years, those rooms & terrace we played, that well we bathed, the banyan tree, mouth-freshener "Chutki", the railway stations, the warmth of relatives & cousins & their children and many more. Something to remember and cherish forever.

To complete the title of this post,
"...Life is a Journey, Life is a Lesson."

A weekend in Pollachi

2009-12-12T12:06:00.005+05:30

I finally agreed to go to my friend Thiru's home in Pollachi last weekend. Actually, I accepted it willingly as it was another chance to avoid the same boredom in Bangalore. Journey to Pollachi itself was a different experience for me (not for Thiru though, who does it every week these days :-o). We first got a bus to Hosur on the friday evening. We had dinner there and fortunately got bus to Tirupur (saved us from going to Salem and then Tirupur). Usually, I do not get sleep travelling in bus. It was made worse by 2 movies being played and rough roads. With no other choice, I watched the movies, which wasn't boring thanks to wonderful songs from our great Illayaraja :). And Lakes shining in the moonlight along our way had a pleasing effect. Somewhere between Dharmapuri and Bhavani, the bus briefly took the mountain roads - gave us a beautiful glimpse of dazzling lights of village/town below. The cauvery river in Bhavani brought back some college memories(Me and my friends had come for IPT during 2nd yr). Around 6AM, we reached Thiru's rented house in Pollachi. (It had taken roughly 12 hrs from Bangalore)

We had breakfast (ofcourse puries, idlies and dosas :P) and went to see Thiru's own house which is under construction. It was amazing to see Thiru explaining nook and corner details of the house as I was taking snaps. We then went to "town" for some purchases and came back around lunch time. Needless to say, I was very sleepy after the insomnia-like 1hr sleep during the journey. Evening was spent on preparing for next day's "engagement" (Thattu Maathu) of Thiru's sister. Thiru again amazed me with his rangoli skills. With good old tamil songs in the back-ground and myself engaged in taking snaps of the rangoli, it is a day I would rather like to remember. We had a walk under the moon-light and believe me, it was absolutely fantastic... How many of you have walked in absolutely calm place(except for the chirping of nocturnal insects) surrounded by lots of trees and a wonderful large & bright moon for the company? If you haven't, you have missed a good experience...

We got up early on Sunday morning to make everything ready before the relatives arrive. Presently, one of Thiru's relatives came along with his grandson. With nothing to do, I engaged myself in watching a black caterpillar roaming about near the rangoli. It's legs got colored when it crawled across one of the rangoli.It looked as though its legs rotate 360 degrees like those of war tankers when it crawls! The grandson too got interested in its movements when his grandpa warned that it would bite him. I couldn't believe what happened next! The grandson took a slipper to kill the caterpillar and innocently claimed that it will not be able to bite now! :-o

One by one, the other relatives too came and finally the would-be-bridegroom arrived with his relatives in a big van. The function began & I resumed my post as photographer :P. I was finding it difficult to take snaps in the crowd, when one of the kids offered to take the snaps! And, much to my surprise, he did a fab job in understanding the controls and taking snaps! After the function, we went about serving lunch to the guests. It seemed a never ending process to serve around 70-80 people gathered there.

After the guests had left, I took leave from Thiru and reached Coimbatore around 7:30pm. I had dinner with my friend Vivek living there and embarked on another laboured sleep in bus to Bangalore. When I look back at the trip, I know I made the right decision.

An attempt at Poetry

2009-10-31T11:18:00.007+05:30

कोई काम नहीं है ऐसा जटिल,

जितना तेरा वर्णन है मुश्किल |

कविता लिखने के लिए सोचूँ
तो शब्द नहीं पाऊँ |
यदि नहीं लिख सका,
तो भी में पछताऊँ ||

कैसे करूँ शुरुआत
कैसे कहूँ मन की बात?
कहने को है बहुत कुछ
लेकिन यही तो है मूसीबत||

Image Courtesy: Link

सच को कहना
हरेक का हक है |
और उसे लिखना
मेरे जीने का मकसद है ||

इतना लिख लिया
लेकिन कुछ ना बता पाया |
लाख कोशिश करूँ
तो भी ना कह पाया ||

अरे... नहीं समझे?
यह तो सिर्फ़ बकवास है...

I will try to put it in English for those who do not know hindi:

No work is as difficult,
As that of explaining you .

When I think about writing a poem,
I do not get words.
Have plenty to say,
But that is the difficulty.

To tell the truth,
Is everyone's right.
And to write it,
Is my life's mission.

Have written so much,
But couldn't explain anything.
Try hard as I may,
Couldn't put forth anything.

Hey.. did you not get it,
This is just rubbish..

Coincidence!!

2009-10-25T19:21:00.005+05:30

My favourite instance for coincidence is from my own life! Owing to our father's constant pressure from very young age of our life, we (myself, and my two elder brothers) always strived hard to get good marks in studies. My eldest brother, Anup, took to getting 1st rank as a habit. Due to different schooling structure in Rajasthan & Tamil Nadu, Anup had to forgo 2 years of schooling. As a result, he and my other elder Arpit studied in same class from 1st standard onwards. But, this difference of schooling structure did not hamper him from getting the better of Arpit in studies. This paved way for constant competition between both my elder brothers. Try however hard, Arpit couldn't beat Anup until the 4th standard. It was 2nd mid-term tests, and Arpit outdid Anup by a whisker! getting 468/500 with Anup getting 467/500.

Image Courtesy: Link

Now starts the funny part! I wasn't so good in studies right from LKG. Anup took to being the mentor for me. He instilled in me the habit of getting up early in morning for studying and also guiding me on various aspects of life. I improved in studies and even getting 2nd rank in 3rd standard, but still couldn't get the elusive 1st rank. It became almost a feverish wish to achieve 1st rank somehow. And then it happened! I got the 1st rank in 4th standard. Guess what! It was in 2nd mid-term. It doesn't stop here. Yup, you guessed it.. I got 468/500 and beat the 2nd rank holder by 1 mark! It doesn't end here too! The 2nd rank holder was my relative, who used to get 1st rank often just like Anup!

Goodness of Gulkand

2009-10-09T14:31:00.005+05:30

Last weekend, I had gone to a shopping mall with my friend. We were looking for Landmark, when my friend saw an Ayurvedic shop and went in. I was simply looking at different products, but my friend inquired specifically for "Gulkand". I had heard of it, but could not recollect where. Anyway, I too bought 250gm of "Gulkand". Out of curiosity, I googled it for more info. After reading about it, I was surprised to know that "rose petals" have medicinal value! And also, came to know why the name sounded familiar.. it is used in "sweet pan" ("beeda" in tamil). Along with "betel leaf", gulkand makes a good combination.

Image Courtesy: Link

For comprehensive uses of Gulkand, visit http://www.niam.com/corp-web/Gulkandinfo.html

For past two days, I am having a teaspoon of gulkand in morning and evening. Its effect is easily perceptible, especially for eyes. I am getting the benefits of "Gulkand". What about you?

Of Dreams & Nightmares

2009-09-21T13:43:00.007+05:30

After all my exams finished in 7th semester of college (November 2007), I was quite happy that I would be freed from preparing for an exam again! Atleast for the foreseeable future.. But I was wrong.. I have since given countless exams.. all types of crazy ones.. and guess what.. without an iota of preparation! Mind has got an ingenious way of making me give it.. yes, I am speaking of my first recurring night-mare I have known.. to those who have known me in school or college, they would scarcely believe me.. but it is true.. Even today morning around 6am, I woke up in fear of writing a hindi exam where I was damn slow to answer the questions!! I have always had fear of exams which made me, to an extent, to study hard and attend the exam with gr8 confidence.. Now I am unable to quell away this recurring night-mare :(.. I guess, my fear for exams is still deeply imprinted in my mind..

Anyway, these night-mares got me to again think on the subject of "dreams".. Like you would all have done, I have spent many hours contemplating on "dreams".. One thing that strikes me is that most (if not all) of the times, dreams have the characters/objects known to me.. only these known ones are vivid enough for recollection, rest of them are hazy.. also, when a book I am reading interests me very much, or sleeping after an uncompleted cricket match I like, with astonishing consistency, they have appeared in my dreams.. with all kinds of crazy events happening related to it.. mostly it takes the form I do not desire to happen..

Image Courtesy : Link

It is not like dreams always make us anxious.. sometimes, they tend to help us in clearing our thoughts/understanding.. I do remember a dream I had in 1st yr of college.. I had written few C/C++ programs required for the assignment.. in my dreams, i discovered that I had made a logical mistake in one of the programs.. which proved correct when I reviewed it the next day!!.. and recently, I have had similar dreams related to my office work which helped me..

I do believe, that in our dreams, our reactions are close to what we would have done in reality.. an example: few weeks back, i had watched die-hard2 before sleeping.. in my dream, I am taken as "prisoner" along with many others... each one is being checked for weapons.. and those who lied are tortured... interestingly, I had a bomb with me which I was entrusted with before being captured..to kill the enemy... now, when my turn comes for inspection, instead of blowing the enemy (along with me, ofcourse) I fear for my life and give it up.. (and, as with dreams, the scene later changed dramatically to my college!! )

And a final thought on my night-mares... they have atleast united both the schools I attended, college and the friends I had there... they all get mixed-up in a bizarre sequence.. changing from schools to college or mingling my school and college friends in the other location... and, few of them do not involve the exam-nightmares.. they become a treasure to be savored for the day...

A Late Realization

2009-09-03T20:28:00.009+05:30

Today morning, I was reflecting on my corporate life which lead to comparison with student life... paid to do what our manager demands, but find listening to the lecturer difficult... office timings are flexible but strict timings for student... have to pay from pockets to go for a tour(officially IV), here the company arranges... leave letters or scoldings for bunking, but paid leaves in office... internet access all day in office, but scarcely in school or limited in college.. at home, watching as many movies as I like, listening to music I like, buying things which I dreamed off.. and so on...
Suddenly the corporate life seems much better!! but hey, am I not missing something? where are my little dreams of achieving big in life? where is my motivation hiding? where is my desire to get something? When stacked against odds, I excelled, worked hard, had my dreams and motivation, had desires to invent something great.. but now that the life is easy going, I find it difficult to live that way... the freedom I yearned so much for, seems to have enslaved me...

(Image Courtesy: Link)

Why can't I go back to my ignorant days with wild imaginations and fantasies... perhaps the answer lies in not being able to adapt to my freedom... those little dreams, goal-setting, anticipation of results, etc used to be my world... all joy within the soul and less dependent on outside world... but all these are absent for a long time now.... hope I can wake those dreams all over again...

Tipu's Summer Palace

2009-08-30T18:09:00.004+05:30

Just to avoid being all-day in front of Laptop, me and Thiru decided to visit some beautiful places in Bangalore. I googled and Tipu’s Summer Palace looked inviting. It is walkable distance from City market bus station. Situated near Chamrajpet, Tipu’s Summer palace is no short of architectural wonder. Made of stone, wood and sand, this palace has been used in paintings by the Europeans. As a tourist attraction, the Palace has an art gallery depicting Tipu’s life, achievements and visions. A model of a Tiger eating a British soldier is also placed there, believed to be a favourite of Tipu. Tipu used to envision himself like a Tiger!! Another interesting artifact kept is a model of rockets used by Tipu in his wars. Our own rocket specialist, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam has studied the exact science of the rocket in England and praised its simplicity and effectiveness.

(Click on the image for larger view)

There is a well maintained Garden around the Palace. At Rs.5 entrance fee per head, the Palace is worth a visit.

Antaragange Trip - 4. Trekking it the second time

2009-08-27T21:23:00.010+05:30

Around 1:15pm, we started our climb by steps to the Shiva temple… we noticed another path which might have been the one taken by Neeru’s friend!!… someone started to count the steps… first few counts were met with chorus sounds… and then it was laughed off… I had read in net the day before that there were around 300-400 steps… only to find that it would be have near about 100-150!! :P… there were lot of monkeys on the way.. and we took of safety of not taking any snaps till we reached the temple… the temple looked like carved from rocks…. There was a small pool with virtually no water.. there seemed to be a built shower over the pool where ppl were taking bath… it might have been the one referred in the net saying that the source of shower is unknown! Spiritually believed to be coming from ganges… which is why the place might have got its name… Antara-gange (ganges in the deep)…

Mohan wanted a decision again!!.. we were feeling a bit tired.. and he wanted to reach Bangalore b4 sunset… we decided to climb until 3pm and then to come back… that way we could start by 4:30pm on way back home… after the temple.. there were steps carved out of rocks… which were quite easy to climb.. especially in light of our trekking experience of morning :P…. we climbed for a while.. the steps guiding us…

( On our way up )

( A wonderful view from the hills )

After the steps vanished.. we found large rocks on either side of path… it was like easier version of morning’s trek trip!! We were grateful to Neeru now :P… we would have missed all the fun had we not taken that path in morning… shortly, we started climbing huge rocks.. taking snaps,, and taking rest frequently… water supply was also depleting rapidly… from this hill, we had a better and wider look at the other hills.. and the beautiful valley below.. we could even see the road by which we came… we took snaps of them.. and like the cactus in morning, this time we took snaps around a flowery plant…

( rare flowers!! atleast in these parts :P )

We kept climbing not sure of where to stop and return back.. we saw another cave and decided to explore it on our way back just like it happened in the morning… after many breaks, we reached a flat ground.. we promptly found a shady place near trees and sat on the rocks to rest… we decided to have a prolonged rest there…and return back… we could see a small hill in front.. me and thiru decided to climb.. it was tricky and difficult… I found the climb adventurous and led the way… shortly after, Isli joined us.. and we climbed pretty difficult rocks… now and then we would stop, shout to the others to take snaps of us.. we had fascinating urge to climb further and further.. it made us climb pretty difficult ones and feel happy about it…

( Me, Thiru and Nitin on top of the small hill )

after we could climb no further, we took another path to come down… after the hill ended, there was agricultural land.. we walked on the very sides to prevent damage to newly growing plants and re-joined the others… while we were away, they had fun swinging on a tree’s branch!! There were big rocks under the tree which they used to climb onto the tree itself!! Thiru enthusiastically joined them too!!.. I too tried, but no space left :P… so started taking their snaps :D…

( resting on rocks!! )

We all rested then on the rocks.. some of them lying down flat on the rocks… shortly, discussions started on different topics.. it went on for a while.. and then it was time to go back…

( time to leave :(.. )

I took few parting snaps of the landscape and of us leaving the place.. As decided earlier, we went to the cave on our way back… this one was lot trickier than the one in morning.. some of them ducked under the rocks, while some climbed onto steep rocks to enter it… Thiru was giving live commentary on phone!! :D.. the rock on top of cave was very large and inviting for a climb.. but it seemed very dangerous to climb.. dunno what came to mind, I decided to have a go at it..ignoring good advices of not to climb… I just leaped onto it and climbed with the momentum of the jump.. it was definitely dangerous, had I slipped I would have got heavy bruises.. I stayed for a while and came back.. climbing down was very slippery and once again I jumped down with momentum to reach safely… then I went in to join the fun of watching Mohan taking baby steps (to quote Aish :P) to climb :D.. we took video of it and it is a must watch!!! :D…

( Inside the cave again! :).. see carefully what Thiru is doing :P )

After the cave exploration :P, I again decided to take a different route (buoyed by my morning’s success and feeling of thrill :P).. others kept calling me.. and I kept replying.. when I was nearing them, I came across huge rocks blocked by thorny plants.. I yelled to say that I couldn’t cross it.. they asked to follow the path back and come… that would have very tough and time consuming… so, I just had a go at climbing the rocks.. which actually proved to be not difficult :P… then my legs started to tremble and shake while going down the path.. perhaps I got scared a bit.. or may be my legs were tired… and then came Neeru’s moment of madness :P.. she just ran down the slippery-rocky path!! Thankfully thiru didn’t get knocked off and Nikhil was below to hold her!!.. phew… she gave us the creeps :P… I wanted to rest.. but others were thirsty and wanted to reach as soon as possible.. dunno how I managed, but I was feeling very difficult to climb down as my legs were shaky… there was still a bottle left in my bag which no one had checked!! Thiru was still talking on phone!! :D… me, thiru, mohan and neeru shared the water.. others had gone ahead and were having cup of tea from the lonely shop in front of the steps… we too ordered and lo!! It was tasty and refreshing after the tiring climb…

Shortly afterwards, we were on our way back to Bangalore… we stopped to get water bottles… all were hungry.. so we decided to stop at CCD near a petrol bank we had seen on our way in the morning… all of us washed our faces after giving the orders… we ate leisurely as there was enough day-time left :P....

On the way back, me and thiru pointed out different shops and colored houses we had seen in the morning.. thiru took some photos on the move to capture the hair-styles with wind blowing on our faces :D… then mohan and prakhar couldn’t resist driving fast :P.. it was my first time on a bike with someone driving at 80+kmph.. it was a bit scary to me :P… prakhar and rakesh went directly to their homes.. rest of us assembled at mohan’s home.. had a chat about the trip with his friends there.. Aish, Neeru, thiru, ravi, Nikhil and me then took the bus to indiranagar.. we scanned through the photos to see how good they had come out…. It started drizzling and by the time we got down it was getting heavier.. me and thiru said goodbye to others and were on our way to room… I had brought the umbrella while thiru decided to enjoy the rain!.. we had hot bath and slept early… thus ended one of the most memorable day in my life!!

Antaragange Trip - 3. Tricky Way down

2009-08-26T21:29:00.008+05:30

(A view taken while coming down )

And so we started our way down.. Mohan and Aish found it a bit tough to climb down… the thick vegetation with thorns gave many scratches this time for most of us… Aish got one even inside her right ear!!.. we were worried abt the finding the right way.. but we had little difficulty… as it was mostly straight – forward.. I broke away from the rest of the group to reach them following a different path… while I enjoyed it and proved to be a shorter path, I got many scratches through this path.. thankfully, I found and removed the small thorns sticking to my fingers.. I realized another thing.. I started to like trekking!!

( Light n funny moments like this help a lot...)

Isli & Prakhar were in front and others followed them.. after a while, they had gone too much in front… we saw a cave and went that way, while those 2 had gone towards car… rakesh and me went ahead to check if we could enter the cave… a steep rock had to climbed to get into the cave… which was almost impossible… there was another way around the rock… but blocked by a cactus and the entrance to cave was very narrow.. so I said that we cannot enter the cave… and should go back.. thankfully Rakesh made a way… he broke down the blocking branches of the cactus (with his shoes ofcourse :P)… we managed to enter the cave through the very narrow path… me and Rakesh then climbed the steep rock from the inside of cave… it was all then taking photos with different poses and different views… there were two very large rocks on the rear side with little gap between, enough to walk… but blocked at the end preventing from going out through that way… mohan asked ppl to balance between those rocks without touching the ground.. and he took photos taking a view as though those ppl climbed between the rocks :P :D…. it was real fun… and in middle of all this, the other group(Isli n Prakhar ) found us missing and called us using mobile :P.. thankfully tower strength was very good.. we told them that we were in a cave… they came back and said that they were near a big rock arrangement.. we replied that we were underneath it :P… we all shouted to catch their attention.. and they replied back, which we could hear.. and shortly they found us and joined inside the cave..

(Rear and front view of the cave)

Few of us came out of the cave while Isli n Prakhar went in… Rakesh got badly stuck while trying to come jumping down from the steep rock… somehow he managed to come through after lot of scrambling … we started again in direction of car… easier for us as Isli n Prakhar had gone so far as to see it… and thus we finished our first of trekking efforts…

It was decision time again to decide what next… not surprisingly, we decided to have our lunch and then take the steps to go to temple and beyond… it was around 12:30pm.. so there was enough time left… near the car parking there is an old abandoned temple… and a broken guest house… it had a verandah with no one around.. ideal place for us to have lunch… we opened the parcel.. only to find the bisibelabath spilled all over inside the plastic bag!! … so we threw it besides the temple where there was a garbage dump.. a monkey went near it and skillfully opened and started eating… Isli took videos of it :P… few other monkeys were watching us, but none went near the one eating the rice… thankfully for us, the dosas were well packed…. We shared it among us… along with snacks I had bought.. when we threw one dosa pack after eating, a monkey went to it and looked through it for food… I decided to lead them to the rice pack by showing a dosa pack… and suddenly all hell broke loose… the monkeys started fighting and screaming!!! Somehow, we were not attacked.. phew.. it was scary…

After the light meal, prakhar and ravi went to get water bottles and cool drinks… and we took much needed rest.. few inside the car.. few on a closed well near the car… the surrounding was a nice shady place and with light breeze blowing… after they arrived back, we immediately finished the cool drinks… partly due to hunger.. partly due to thirst… It was time to embark on our second climbing session…

Antaragange Trip - 2. First tryst on Trekking

2009-08-24T21:04:00.006+05:30

We started climbing the steps which lead to the temple… I was enthusiastically clicking away photos with my new Sony – W210 camera… when suddenly Neeru said that there is a path through the rocky mountain to reach there..her friend had tried it.. so we reluctantly :P started that way…and what a experience it would turn out to be.. :)

Most us being first time trekkers, we were naturally enthusiastic about climbing through the unknown…which ultimately proved the factor in enjoying the climb as well as in taking the daring decisions :P… So with gr8 anticipation, we started our journey… the path was full of rocks… we were amazed by the arrangement of the rocks… we could see few weeds in between the rocks… and trees and plants and thorns where there was enough ground for sand… Initially it was an easy path.. with very easy climbing rocks… few scattered glass pieces were visible here and there… all the while I was clicking away snaps… to the right of us, we could see large no. of trees and hills beyond… we were on the assumption that we had to reach those hills ... We then came across a little steep climb to a rock which was surrounded by big rocks… there were two possible ways to go on top of it… one ducking a little to top… the other a steeper one.. which required a helping hand (though one or two of us climbed without help :P)… while few of us were at climbing the rock.. few others were looking for a possibility of alternate route.. which was found easily.. and we took that path… we had to continuously avoid thorns.. which was easy in the beginning… but became harder as we progressed.. at few places where large rocks were on top of a rock, we posed as though we were pushing those rocks/ preventing from fall :D..

(On our way into the unknown)

We then came across a large & relatively flat rock looking as though dangling on the big rocky base… few climbed on it but found no way ahead :P… we had to take the thorny route between the rocks… around the corner one had to duck to knees to cross unscathed from thorns… then came our first moments of indecision… we could not see any signs of path leading to the temple… and we had no idea where the path lead to… Isli was pointing to those hills beyond the forest to be the place to reach… Mohan was telling that Neeru’s friend would surely have not taken this path :P…. while we were deciding on further course of action, it was our first refreshment break.. just water :P… Isli reminded us that climbing down would be very difficult, if not impossible, if we failed to find the path to temple… most of us were not ready to back-off so soon on our first trekking experience.. and so, we decided to go ahead, no matter what lied ahead :P.. much to the satisfaction of all… we joked that we should use GPRS to find a way :P… while some said we would need a helicopter to bring us back.. :D…

(Rough Path.. second difficult hurdle)

There was another group of trekkers ahead of us.. which increased our hopes.. as we climbed further, we took pictures of the beautiful landscape around.. sometimes posing around the cactuses… then came our second hurdle… huge rocks and thick vegetation in front… the group in front of us had gone through it and offered help to come.. :).. the path was full of thorns and many got scratches.. one had to hold each other’s hand to cross the thorny and slippery path and then climb onto a large flat base rock.. few snaps were taken on that flat rock.. few daring ones went near the edges of the rock and leaned backwards for a pose!!... few even climbed (including me :D) on a little dangerous looking rock nearby:…. Neeru fell both during climbing up and way down from that rock :P.. we took a break there.. resting and enjoying the beautiful landscape all around us.. we had an excellent view of the valley below... we could climb only little further.. as the rocks became very steep afterwards… though the group ahead of us climbed a step further, we realized it was way-too much for us… and Mohan had started to find it very difficult to climb… we also realized that this path was only for trekking.. and not the one to lead to temple :P.. but what an enjoying experience it was to trek through this path.. :) Rakesh was the lone man to climb a little higher than us… we were now concerned on getting back as climbing down is always tougher and tricky…

(On top - Rakesh)

A Wonderful trip to Antaragange - 1. Getting there

2009-08-23T19:45:00.009+05:30

First things first: We went on August 8th, 2009. It was a trip organized by my colleagues in office – the joinees of 2008. The one who could make it to the trip are – Me (Sundeep), Thiru (Thirukumaran), Neeru (Niranjini) & Isli (Nitin) – DD office, Aish (Aishwarya), Ravi, Nikhil, Prakhar, Mohan Karthik and Rakesh – RMZ office.

I will have to start from previous day of the trip to give a larger picture. It was quite boring at office for me and Thiru while Neeru had lots of work that she couldn’t even go to Airtel office for transferring her internet connection. And why was she transferring the net?.. She was leaving the office (and all of us :( ) on August 14.. and the trip was infact organized by her as her last trip..(ofcourse, only as an employee of AD.. :P) Me and Thiru spent most of the day on Googling about the place (Antaragange).. And also were seeing trip photos of our college class-mates on Orkut.. which gave us the place for next trip - Hogennakkal… I asked Thiru to come to my room as my room-mate was out-of-station. We bought ready-made chappathis and parottas for dinner. I did the cutting work of baby-corn, onions and palak. The curry was awesome thanks to Thiru :P.. We had to assemble at 6:30am sharp at Binnamangla stop.. so we slept early and kept the alarm at 5:30am… while trying to sleep I kept thinking on the things to be taken for the trip… and I realized that I had to get up earlier than 5:30am to reach the bus stop by 6:30am… In the morning I got up b4 Thiru… and inspite best efforts, we reached few minutes late to the bus-stop.. only to see that we were first to the bus-stop… Neeru called up to inform that she was going with Isli to Mohan’s house (meeting place…) I told Thiru that Neeru would wear something different.. like something modern and stylish :P… Thiru predicted “Jeans and sleeveless” :P…While we were waiting for others to join us, Thiru scolded me for having come so early :( He then told me about a secret saying not to tell anyone… the secret had started like this and now so many ppl knew!! :D…. (The Picture was taken while me and thiru waited at the bus-stop)

We were joined by Aish, Ravi and Nikhil at around 6:45-6:50AM… Aish knew only one bus no. which goes through that route and fortunately we got a bus soon…. I got a window seat and was seeing the progress of Metro-rail project on Old-Madras road… I kept Thiru busy by pointing out different places along the way like bypanahalli station, big bazaar etc… We crossed KR Puram and in a short while, Aish informed us the bus stop using mobile :P…. We got down and reached Mohan’s house… Rakesh had come with Prakhar, Isli and Neeru were already there… His Mom welcomed us warmly and gave us all the precautionary advices… We needed a torch for gng inside caves :P but no one had it… Thiru said he has one… but in mobile :P… Mohan’s mom scolded him for not buying one :P..

Finally we started our journey.. Ravi and Nikhil in car as drivers and Aish and Neeru as passengers for them :P… 3 bikes…I sat behind Mohan’s 200cc Pulsar… Thiru went with Isli’s 150cc Pulsar (but only 40kmph speed limit as it had not been yet to 1^st service..)… Prakhar drove with Rakesh…Poor Mohan, found it very difficult to drive at 40kmph :D… Ppl in car took photos on the way… We stopped twice on our way: first to have tea and snacks and next at a Sagar hotel for breakfast (after failing to find Kamat hotel as mentioned in guide to Antaragange on wiki :x..)… Thiru had his camera battery charged at the hotel.. while we were waiting for the food to arrive, Isli took a nap… He had woken up at 6am!! :P.. I then told that I woke at 5:10am much to surprise of Thiru :P… We also ordered parcel for lunch… when the bill came, Neeru commented on how cheap the bill was!! (she is used to pay so much for herself :D) Less than Rs.500 for 10 ppl for breakfast n light lunch :D… we asked for directions while leaving the hotel :P… (The Picture was taken outside Sagar)

After much of slow driving and frequent asking of directions, we reached kolar… Antaragange is 4km from there.. there was a big shady place for car parking near an abandoned temple, while the bikes were parked near the road… It was finally time to start our wonderful trip.. we took few pictures b4 starting… Can you see a yellow car hidden behind the ppl below?

L2R: Nikhil, Ravi, Aish, Thiru, Prakahr, Isli, Neeru, Mohan n Rakesh

A few details on Antara Gange

2009-08-23T15:18:00.005+05:30

Antara Gange is a mountain situated in the Shathashrunga mountain range in the southeastern portion of the Indian state of Karnataka. Antara Gange literally means "Ganges from deep" in Kannada. It is about two miles from the town of Kolar and seventy kilometers from Bangalore.

Antara Gange is famous for the temple situated on the mountain. In the temple is a pond which gets a continuous flow of underground water from the mouth of a Basava (stone bull). There is a steep, narrow path to the top of the mountain. There are seven villages on this mountain, including Therhalli. The mountain contains volcanic rocks and lot of caves around.

Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antara_Gange

Tip for going to a trekking trip there: http://trekwiki.wetpaint.com/page/Antaragange

If you happen to be in Chennai/Bangalore and like Trekking, you may like to join here: http://www.chennaitrekkers.org/