A Wonderful trip to Antaragange - 1. Getting there

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