It was a Saturday morning, I was checking mails and found a mail from my friend Sandeep. It read “How about meeting today for hw, guess I wont be able to make it from next weekend, reasons will tell you when we meet” .
Before I write more, let me introduce you to Sandeep. He is a new friend of mine. For the first time I met him on the KP trek, later lotz of times on gtalk :-). Of the very little I know him, he is a very nice friend, a great trek enthusiastic, humble and also very helpful. By profession he is a software engineer, but is also a trained handwriting analysist and is now on the way to be an expert of the same!!!
As soon as I read the mail, I called Sandeep and we decided to meet for lunch. Then I called my friend Shubha, and she too was interested to join.
Around 1:00pm we met at Jayanagar, quickly found a nice place for lunch and settled down. I handed over a small piece of paper with some lines I had written on it. Shubha too did the same and Sandeep got to work with them. Meanwhile we ordered food and me and Shubha sat there eagerly waiting for both food and Sandeep’s analysis :-)
First it was mine that he analysed, after spending about 30mins on that handwritten lines of mine he finally looked up and said “So are you ready” …I nodded eagerly. “Before I start off, let me give you some background of HA( Handwriting Analysis) . HA is a science evolved out of observation, hence its accuracy does not have scientific proof, so I expect you to take whatever I say now…in the right sense”, having said that he started off listing his finding about me…
”You are emotionally a very expressive person, but when it comes to decisions you use only your brain ”
“You don’t break rules, ever”
“You a very social person, u make friends very easily”
“You have a very easy flow of thoughts, you can speak on any subject for hours , usually such people make good RJ’s” ( wow… I loved this one…me as RJ…wow…..considering it as a career option now!!!!)
“You are a fast learner, initially you start off slow, but soon you pick up pace ...”
“When it comes to personal matters, you are very secretive“
“You have a strong bonding with your parents, but off late you are trying to break the bond for some reason”
“You respect yourself and compromise on self respect is a big NO NO for you”
“Physically you are a very active person”
“You forgive people, hence possess no resentment”
Wow thatz a lot of good things about me…now the not so good stuff
“No physical activity, frustrates you”
“Will power is a little low in you”
Having said all that he asked me for a feedback on his analysis, I gave him my 2 cents , by then our food arrived, me and Shubha had a great meal while he was busy analyzing Shubha’s hw. Poor Sandeep he did get even a small bite of the yummy desert :-).
Then came the interesting part, Sandeep had got along with him, all the samples of handwritings he had analyzed till date, and he showed them to us and gave us some small lessons of HA. It was really interesting to see so many kinds of people and their characteristics so prominent in their writings.
Thus came to an end our 4 hour lunch and HA session. It was one of the most interesting luncheons I ever had !!!!
Thanks Sandeep !!!!!!
Thursday, March 8, 2007
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Kumaraparvatha (popularly called KP)
It was after a long long time we had planned for a big trek and I was so looking forward for it. It was all planned a month ago and with fingers crossed I was hoping my mom does not come up with some plan and cancel my trek. Luckily for me, nothing came up and at around 8:30pm I found myself with Vidya, Prithvi, Ranjit, HP, KP, VKN, Puneet, Sanjeev and Sharath at KSRTC bus stand all set for the big trek…!!!!!
The drive to KP is surely a memorable one, an experience you surely don’t want to miss. All through it,Me, vidya and Ranjit spent most of the time speaking, rather cracking ourselves up. We were the only trio in the entire bus of 50, speaking and not sleeping. The road to KP is an amazing one. Should be in Guinness book of world records under “Bumpiest road” category. I have decided to give an award to our govt for maintaining it :-). We came up with reasons for the condition of the road, “Meteorite hit”, “amazing engineering” were some of the good ones we came up with. Vidya and Ranjit were only experiencing the bumps while me seated at the window was having a doubly effect, I could see the craters our bus was being driven through. By the end of the journey all the connections of our brains were loose and hither thither :-)..leaving none of us sane. Honestly I enjoyed every bit of this drive.
By 4:30am we reached Kukke, and found ourselves a decent hotel to freshen up. By 7:00am we were at the foot hill of KP, all set to start climbing.
I had done a little research on KP. KP is considered one of the toughest treks of Karnataka. Its summit is 4000 feet above sea level and one has to trek 18 kms to scale it.
KP is situated near a pilgrimage called Kukke Subramanya, in South Canara district. Its abt 9 hrs drive from Bangalore and must say a memorable drive :-)
Equipped with this knowledge, I put myself in power saving mode right from the beginning. No talking, no laughing, take baby steps, only small rests, no huge gulps of water..etc etc.. First 3 hours of the trek was through a thick forest. The trees form a nice canopy, making it easy for trekkers. But the forest is so dense, that is very very hot in there. Hence we named the forest as “Sekhe kadu” .The trek through this forest is however very steep, rather steepest of the whole climb I would say.
After this, is abt 1 hour of trek through partial grassland to reach a place called “Battara mane”. Battara mane is a full fledged house with all basic amenities right in the midst of the mountains. I would call it, “Heaven for trekkers!!!”. The battru who lives here makes his living by cooking food for trekkers. He has a farm on this mountain where he grows rice and vegetables needed for his living. We had a tasty meal at his place and a quick nap and moved on to the peak.
The remaining trek was through plain grasslands. 3 hours of trek from the battara mane was to get us to the mantap. But with the sun burning the hell out of us, it took us 5hrs to reach the mantap. The mantap is just a small roof supported by 4 pillars, and no walls :-) We were to spend our night at this place. Near to this mantap was a small stream where we quickly freshened, re-filled out bottles and settled down to watch the sun fade away into the far off skies. The winds were fierce, many a times I felt like they almost blew me off the ground :-) . I sat there for a long time staring into the fading skies, contemplating. There seemed to be a strange similarity between me and the sky, we were both changing very fast indeed and both did not seem to realize if the change was for good or bad. The deep blue sky was now changing colour, and my deep rooted thoughts were changing too. Thus contemplating the day sunk along with me into my sleeping bag :-).
Next morning, we were to trek abt 3 hrs to reach the peak. By 7:00am we grabbed a quick breakfast we had carried and started off. After about 1 hour’s climb we reached Sheshaparvatha. The view from this peak is amazing. A dark cliff, off which white clouds seem to fall off like water….honestly I don’t want to describe the scene with words and do injustice to the beauty there. From the past 10 mins I have been trying to find words to describe the beauty of that place but still not succeeded and now I give up. People you need to see it, no words can describe it.
After abt 2 hours more of climbing through some deep jungles, we reached the peak “Kumraraparvatha” and usual photo sessions took over, I too posed for some. My batteries gave way by then. I requested a trekker from another trek group to take some for me and he gladly agreed, this kind person’s was named Naresh. Got introduced to his friends Sandeep and Dinesh, quickly shook hands, welcomed each other to the peak and off we started back.
Trekking back was not an easy one for me. Its always been difficult for me to climb down, and this one was no exception. But yeah we did have some fun too. We made camp fire, and Puneet came up with a brilliant idea of making a toast in it and did some R&D with bread. Vidya had fallen silent by now, guess it was the chillness that troubled her more than the fatigue. Prithvi and Ranjit came up with a protocol to figure out that Vidya was with us, it was called the Bow Bow protocol. Later I, Puneet and Prithvi somehow hit on this topic of Indian mythology and we talked and talked endless till we actually finished climbing down. We shared a zillion mythological stories, and these made our climb down so much easier for us. Later for a while the topic was Nokia verses Motorola and guess who was defending Motorola??? :-) u guessed it right ppl :-) !!! Once we hit the road, we booked the tickets back to Bangalore and then went to seek blessing from lord almighty, Kukke Subramanya Swamy.
We still had 4 hours to be spent at Kukke before we start off to Bangalore. To kill time, I bought a book abt the historical significance of Kukke. Was surprised to know that the place has so much of history hidden. Later while in the queue for prasadam, I overheard a lady say, “Anything wished for at this place, would be granted”. Had read the same in the book too. So, I then asked the almighty there for something I really want, now waiting eagerly for lord Subramanya to grant me my wish :-)
Along with nature’s best form in display, HP’s timely comments, Sharat’s musical sessions :-)(which he promised he would record and get me a cassette of the same), VKN’s cold stares, Ranjit’s trendy look( courtesy Vidya’s cap), Vidya’s hilarious narration of the story of our reincarnation, and many other small things made the trek an enjoyable one.
I want to do this trek again, with a friend of mine who missed it this time. Kumarapravatha, hopefully we’ll meet again soon. So long See You!!!!
The drive to KP is surely a memorable one, an experience you surely don’t want to miss. All through it,Me, vidya and Ranjit spent most of the time speaking, rather cracking ourselves up. We were the only trio in the entire bus of 50, speaking and not sleeping. The road to KP is an amazing one. Should be in Guinness book of world records under “Bumpiest road” category. I have decided to give an award to our govt for maintaining it :-). We came up with reasons for the condition of the road, “Meteorite hit”, “amazing engineering” were some of the good ones we came up with. Vidya and Ranjit were only experiencing the bumps while me seated at the window was having a doubly effect, I could see the craters our bus was being driven through. By the end of the journey all the connections of our brains were loose and hither thither :-)..leaving none of us sane. Honestly I enjoyed every bit of this drive.
By 4:30am we reached Kukke, and found ourselves a decent hotel to freshen up. By 7:00am we were at the foot hill of KP, all set to start climbing.
I had done a little research on KP. KP is considered one of the toughest treks of Karnataka. Its summit is 4000 feet above sea level and one has to trek 18 kms to scale it.
KP is situated near a pilgrimage called Kukke Subramanya, in South Canara district. Its abt 9 hrs drive from Bangalore and must say a memorable drive :-)
Equipped with this knowledge, I put myself in power saving mode right from the beginning. No talking, no laughing, take baby steps, only small rests, no huge gulps of water..etc etc.. First 3 hours of the trek was through a thick forest. The trees form a nice canopy, making it easy for trekkers. But the forest is so dense, that is very very hot in there. Hence we named the forest as “Sekhe kadu” .The trek through this forest is however very steep, rather steepest of the whole climb I would say.
After this, is abt 1 hour of trek through partial grassland to reach a place called “Battara mane”. Battara mane is a full fledged house with all basic amenities right in the midst of the mountains. I would call it, “Heaven for trekkers!!!”. The battru who lives here makes his living by cooking food for trekkers. He has a farm on this mountain where he grows rice and vegetables needed for his living. We had a tasty meal at his place and a quick nap and moved on to the peak.
The remaining trek was through plain grasslands. 3 hours of trek from the battara mane was to get us to the mantap. But with the sun burning the hell out of us, it took us 5hrs to reach the mantap. The mantap is just a small roof supported by 4 pillars, and no walls :-) We were to spend our night at this place. Near to this mantap was a small stream where we quickly freshened, re-filled out bottles and settled down to watch the sun fade away into the far off skies. The winds were fierce, many a times I felt like they almost blew me off the ground :-) . I sat there for a long time staring into the fading skies, contemplating. There seemed to be a strange similarity between me and the sky, we were both changing very fast indeed and both did not seem to realize if the change was for good or bad. The deep blue sky was now changing colour, and my deep rooted thoughts were changing too. Thus contemplating the day sunk along with me into my sleeping bag :-).
Next morning, we were to trek abt 3 hrs to reach the peak. By 7:00am we grabbed a quick breakfast we had carried and started off. After about 1 hour’s climb we reached Sheshaparvatha. The view from this peak is amazing. A dark cliff, off which white clouds seem to fall off like water….honestly I don’t want to describe the scene with words and do injustice to the beauty there. From the past 10 mins I have been trying to find words to describe the beauty of that place but still not succeeded and now I give up. People you need to see it, no words can describe it.
After abt 2 hours more of climbing through some deep jungles, we reached the peak “Kumraraparvatha” and usual photo sessions took over, I too posed for some. My batteries gave way by then. I requested a trekker from another trek group to take some for me and he gladly agreed, this kind person’s was named Naresh. Got introduced to his friends Sandeep and Dinesh, quickly shook hands, welcomed each other to the peak and off we started back.
Trekking back was not an easy one for me. Its always been difficult for me to climb down, and this one was no exception. But yeah we did have some fun too. We made camp fire, and Puneet came up with a brilliant idea of making a toast in it and did some R&D with bread. Vidya had fallen silent by now, guess it was the chillness that troubled her more than the fatigue. Prithvi and Ranjit came up with a protocol to figure out that Vidya was with us, it was called the Bow Bow protocol. Later I, Puneet and Prithvi somehow hit on this topic of Indian mythology and we talked and talked endless till we actually finished climbing down. We shared a zillion mythological stories, and these made our climb down so much easier for us. Later for a while the topic was Nokia verses Motorola and guess who was defending Motorola??? :-) u guessed it right ppl :-) !!! Once we hit the road, we booked the tickets back to Bangalore and then went to seek blessing from lord almighty, Kukke Subramanya Swamy.
We still had 4 hours to be spent at Kukke before we start off to Bangalore. To kill time, I bought a book abt the historical significance of Kukke. Was surprised to know that the place has so much of history hidden. Later while in the queue for prasadam, I overheard a lady say, “Anything wished for at this place, would be granted”. Had read the same in the book too. So, I then asked the almighty there for something I really want, now waiting eagerly for lord Subramanya to grant me my wish :-)
Along with nature’s best form in display, HP’s timely comments, Sharat’s musical sessions :-)(which he promised he would record and get me a cassette of the same), VKN’s cold stares, Ranjit’s trendy look( courtesy Vidya’s cap), Vidya’s hilarious narration of the story of our reincarnation, and many other small things made the trek an enjoyable one.
I want to do this trek again, with a friend of mine who missed it this time. Kumarapravatha, hopefully we’ll meet again soon. So long See You!!!!
Tuesday, December 26, 2006
Mi lista ( My list ) !!!!!
I just wanted to make a list of the places I have visited on my trekking and climbing expeditions.What else can be a better place for this list than my blog????
Bheemeshwari -- white water rafting, trek
Savanadurga -- rock climbing ( this onez my fav)
Kodachadri -- audacious trek
Yedakumeri -- railway track trek
Mukurthi -- great trek
Yana -- small trek
Madhugiri -- rock climbing
Shivanasamudra -- uncle trip :-) ( but surely a treat to the eyes)
Jog -- uncle trip :-) and a very small trek
Chitradurgada kallina kote -- uncle trip again
Shivagange -- small climb, the last part of the climb is truely wonderful
Antaragange -- small climb, beware lots of monkeys on the top
Nandi betta -- small climb
Basti betta -- very small climb
Kumara parvatha -- great trek
Siddarabetta -- small climb, a nice calm place excellent for contemplation
Chunchi -- nice water fall, good place to chill out in summers
Sangama, Mekedatu -- Of the two Sangama is the best, shallow water , nice place to play in water with friends
I guess this will be one post which would have to be edited time and again :-)
Bheemeshwari -- white water rafting, trek
Savanadurga -- rock climbing ( this onez my fav)
Kodachadri -- audacious trek
Yedakumeri -- railway track trek
Mukurthi -- great trek
Yana -- small trek
Madhugiri -- rock climbing
Shivanasamudra -- uncle trip :-) ( but surely a treat to the eyes)
Jog -- uncle trip :-) and a very small trek
Chitradurgada kallina kote -- uncle trip again
Shivagange -- small climb, the last part of the climb is truely wonderful
Antaragange -- small climb, beware lots of monkeys on the top
Nandi betta -- small climb
Basti betta -- very small climb
Kumara parvatha -- great trek
Siddarabetta -- small climb, a nice calm place excellent for contemplation
Chunchi -- nice water fall, good place to chill out in summers
Sangama, Mekedatu -- Of the two Sangama is the best, shallow water , nice place to play in water with friends
I guess this will be one post which would have to be edited time and again :-)
Sunday, December 17, 2006
Me and my brother
I have a little brother, he is the best brother I could ask for. We are always making fun of each other or someone else….on the whole all the time we spend together we crack ourselves up. A few such moments here….
Yesterday, I stepped into the house and saw my brother watching television…
Me: Chittus, u r on study holidays remember!!!
Chittu: I just watched a nice english movie, u missed it!!
Me: o really which one was it?
Chittu: It’s a movie named “Cold Blooded”, let me tell you the story…..
Me: o ok …. (I sat down eager to listen)
Chittu: Hero is a serial killer
Hero meets heroine and they fall in love
Later heroine gets to know abt the hero
Heroine tells the hero that she is leaving him
Hero says, in that case “I will kill myself “, tries but then
Hero says he can’t kill himself, so he will kill the heroine
Heroine says “o u love me so much, letz get together again”
THE END
Me and my brother burst out laughing at this. We wondered what was on the script writer’s mind to write this one!!!!!
The other day, my brother comes to my room and says….
Chittu: I made a song for u
Me: ok….!!!! Bring it on
Chittu: phool sa chehara tera…
Kaliyo si muskan….blah blah blah
(now the imp part)
Height tera dekhake,
Weight tera dekhake
Hathi bhi hairan hi!!!!
Both of us burst into laughter!!!!! For the next few days whenever he saw me, he used to hum this song
The other day my brother was watching cricket, while I was lazing on the couch…
Chittu: Vikka if you were a cricketer what would u be, batsman or bowler?
Me: all rounder!!
Chittu: (little surprised by the answer)........
yeah yeah round round all round DUMMI!!!
My father who was around, burst out laughing at this, my mom too joined. There were rings of laughter in the house for the next few minutes….
Lotz more to go, but me tired of writing now….
Yesterday, I stepped into the house and saw my brother watching television…
Me: Chittus, u r on study holidays remember!!!
Chittu: I just watched a nice english movie, u missed it!!
Me: o really which one was it?
Chittu: It’s a movie named “Cold Blooded”, let me tell you the story…..
Me: o ok …. (I sat down eager to listen)
Chittu: Hero is a serial killer
Hero meets heroine and they fall in love
Later heroine gets to know abt the hero
Heroine tells the hero that she is leaving him
Hero says, in that case “I will kill myself “, tries but then
Hero says he can’t kill himself, so he will kill the heroine
Heroine says “o u love me so much, letz get together again”
THE END
Me and my brother burst out laughing at this. We wondered what was on the script writer’s mind to write this one!!!!!
The other day, my brother comes to my room and says….
Chittu: I made a song for u
Me: ok….!!!! Bring it on
Chittu: phool sa chehara tera…
Kaliyo si muskan….blah blah blah
(now the imp part)
Height tera dekhake,
Weight tera dekhake
Hathi bhi hairan hi!!!!
Both of us burst into laughter!!!!! For the next few days whenever he saw me, he used to hum this song
The other day my brother was watching cricket, while I was lazing on the couch…
Chittu: Vikka if you were a cricketer what would u be, batsman or bowler?
Me: all rounder!!
Chittu: (little surprised by the answer)........
yeah yeah round round all round DUMMI!!!
My father who was around, burst out laughing at this, my mom too joined. There were rings of laughter in the house for the next few minutes….
Lotz more to go, but me tired of writing now….
Mukurthi emigrar ( trek ) !!!!
Me back with yet another story of my treks. This is THE greatest trek of my life till date, I owe a zillion thanks to Murli san for this one. This is a story I wrote way back in May 2005. In this writeup I have tried to copy the style of one of my friend Raghuvir, whoz a good writer and my trek friend too.
Whatz Murkurthi????
Mukurthi is the 4th highest peak in South India. It is one of peaks in Nilgiris. It’s located very close to Ooty and has lotz of wildlife and hence is a protected by government of India as Mukurthi National Park. The peak is abt 8000ft above sea level. The national park is spread across an area of 78.46 sq.kms. It’s named “Mukurthi” because, the hill ranges seem to take the shape of a sleeping baby’s face where Mukurthi forms the nose. Well this was for the technical details part...as I see it...it was "Nature as wild as it can be, and as beautiful as it can be".
Promise of adventure
Our( me, nirmala, ramya, murli, puvi, santosh, bhavik, arun, pooran) trek began with Big Bang Promise of adventure. It was around 4:00am and we were all( but for our driver) fast asleep in our vehicle. Our driver was the driving us thru the ghat section, where on side of the road was rock while the other was steep cliff. This was when our driver too took the luxury to doze off, and “!!!!!! B - Bang!!!!!!”, our vehicle had hit the rock. ..lucky we, the steering had turned towards the direction of the rock, else we would all have gone deep down the cliff...:-). Not to mention that down the cliff means, good bye world……..!!!!!!
Sree Ganesh
As our trek began, all that fell on my ears was just one sentence “You are lucky to be here”. Mr.Prabhu (the person who arranged for our trek) took the privilege of repeating this sentence over and over again. Like you don’t right now, at that point of time, even I did not understand what this sentence really meant.
It was raining cats and dogs, and so it was decided our vehicle would take us to western catchment-II, and from there we would start off to trek. Like anybody else would be, I was filled with over enthusiasm to trek. But because of the rain, the start was getting postponed, and I was getting impatient. At last we decided to trek in the rain, hurray!!!!!…I couldn’t have been happier….trek in the rain, is like, my long cherished dream come true. But as though somebody couldn’t bear my happiness, it stopped pouring after abt 30 mins we started the trek…..I was disappointed really really disappointed!!!
I met somebody
This is something I cannot miss at any cost. Know what, I met somebody, whom I really really admire. Ppl called him Kashi anna, if I were to give him a name…I would call him Mr.Nilgiris. Can you believe, he is the ONLY man who knows all of the forest? If he’s not with you, take my word, you are lost in Nilgiris. And getting lost in Nilgiris means serving tasty yourself to the wildlife there. To speak more abt him, he is 76 years old, and walks so fast, that none of us could keep pace with him!!!! Kashi anna was our guide for the rest of our trek.
Fishing Hut????
Our destination for the day was, “Mukurthi Fishing Hut”. To reach there, we had to walk thru deep jungles and some small streams. I was loving it all…I spent energy very generously, without the least hint that I would need very it much for the next day’s trek. After abt 6 hours of trek, we reached the hut. To speak the truth it was not hut, it was a big house in the midst of deep jungle, with all the facilities, like a solar light, fire places, bedrooms with attached bathrooms, overhead tank…etc etc etc.
I still don’t know why they called it a hut. And for the fishing part…..fishing was a BIG NO in the forest……so why call it “fishing hut”??? was one of my questions which went unanswered…..
Dawn and Gone
Next morning, must have been a beautiful morning, but I failed to notice it. We were to hurry, freshen up and start to the peak by 6:30am. Last night, I had heard a phrase over and over …it was “Tomorrow you will have a life time trek”. This time Mr.Sham (an advocate whose hobby is trekking) took the privilege to say this. This was another sentence which I did not understand at that time. We grabbed a quick breakfast, and gone we were to conquer the peak. At this point of time least did I know what was ahead…after an easy trek the previous day, I think I underestimated this one.
High High and High
For abt 1 hour we were climbing up and down the small hills in the forest, crossing streams and ridges and wading ourselves through the thickest of the forests. I loved it all. As I had just started thinking “Ahh this is easy” the terrain began to get steeper and steeper. There was only high now, I had started getting very exhausted. My body and soul were shouting “No more steeper pleaseeeee...” but ….it was getting steeper and steeper only. The sun shining right on my head was burning out my energy at the speed of light. I carried on….rather dragged on…
A Big Blow
Now we had reached a peak called Amarambalam..(hope I got the name right …if no please pardon my peanut brain). From here I could clearly see our destination of the day (Mukurthi Peak). Good Lord, it was as high and as steep as anything I could imagine. I went crazy at this sight….someone within me was shouting…” No vidi you cant climb that high.. if you try, you will die”. I tried not listening to this someone……but the shouts were getting louder and louder…I could no more hear the sounds for birds and breeze. I told Mr.Nilgiris….. “lets go back”…..he looked at me and smiled. That was the biggest blow every…..I feel deep into the ditch of shame. “How could I say that, I can’t be so coward….” Now I had to climb up the ditch of shame…so I stopped complaining. “I can do it, I can do it..” I kept on telling this to myself. By now we had reached another peak called “Chinna Mukruthi “.
Touched the Clouds
The closer we got the our destination( Mukurthi..thought u might have forgotten by now !!), the tougher it seemed to be reached. I cared abt nothing now, I had stopped admiring nature, stopped smelling fresh air, stopped enjoying the forest noises, all I did was just climb and climb and climb and climb. Later came the toughest, the steepest part ever…we had to climb this on fours. Though this was the steepest, I loved this part the most…The clouds touched passed through me. I was touching the clouds!!!!! I was so excited to be doing it.
By now we had done it. At last we reached the peak.
So long See You
After abt 15 mins on the peak, and one of friend engraving Motorola’s logo on the peak, we started off climbing down. This was an easy climb down.
We were back at the hut by 3:00pm. Grabbed a quick lunch and started again to trek out of the forest. “Good Bye Fishing hut, you couldn’t have been more comfortable a stay in this thick jungle”.
Dinner, a treat to the ears
No No, ears is not by mistake, I really mean it. We reached Ooty, and went to a royal restaurant called “Earl’s secret” for dinner. I don’t know how the food tasted, for I was so busy hearing the adventurous real life stories narrated by Mr.Sham. He spoke abt his treks, his wildest encounters with wild life and I was getting as excited as a baby could be at his “Red Riding Hood” bed time story. I loved his stories. He seemed like a hero to me, who had done all those wildest things which I always dream of doing.
A Treat in the darkness
As we started back the Bangalore, I could hardly sleep, maybe it was the tiredness naa….it was actually the fear that the driver would doze off again. So I decided to stay awake and keep an eye on the driver, my dear friend Puvi offered to stay awake with me. As we both chatted , we noticed a board saying we were driving thru Bandipur. My hopes went high, I wished I could see some wildlife. And know what I did see some !!!. Dozens of deer, stags, elephants etc…I was hoping for a tiger too…but maybe I was asking for a little too much…
The END
Next morning we landed in Bangalore, all of us too happy, we had done Mukurthi!!!!!
Now I understand what the 2 statements meant…”You are lucky to be here”…yes indeed we were, for the trek was not open for everyone, we were in there with permissions obtained with utmost difficulty thanks to Mr.Prabhu and Murli san and the other phrase“ Life time trek” ……yes it surely was !!!!!!!!
Whatz Murkurthi????
Mukurthi is the 4th highest peak in South India. It is one of peaks in Nilgiris. It’s located very close to Ooty and has lotz of wildlife and hence is a protected by government of India as Mukurthi National Park. The peak is abt 8000ft above sea level. The national park is spread across an area of 78.46 sq.kms. It’s named “Mukurthi” because, the hill ranges seem to take the shape of a sleeping baby’s face where Mukurthi forms the nose. Well this was for the technical details part...as I see it...it was "Nature as wild as it can be, and as beautiful as it can be".
Promise of adventure
Our( me, nirmala, ramya, murli, puvi, santosh, bhavik, arun, pooran) trek began with Big Bang Promise of adventure. It was around 4:00am and we were all( but for our driver) fast asleep in our vehicle. Our driver was the driving us thru the ghat section, where on side of the road was rock while the other was steep cliff. This was when our driver too took the luxury to doze off, and “!!!!!! B - Bang!!!!!!”, our vehicle had hit the rock. ..lucky we, the steering had turned towards the direction of the rock, else we would all have gone deep down the cliff...:-). Not to mention that down the cliff means, good bye world……..!!!!!!
Sree Ganesh
As our trek began, all that fell on my ears was just one sentence “You are lucky to be here”. Mr.Prabhu (the person who arranged for our trek) took the privilege of repeating this sentence over and over again. Like you don’t right now, at that point of time, even I did not understand what this sentence really meant.
It was raining cats and dogs, and so it was decided our vehicle would take us to western catchment-II, and from there we would start off to trek. Like anybody else would be, I was filled with over enthusiasm to trek. But because of the rain, the start was getting postponed, and I was getting impatient. At last we decided to trek in the rain, hurray!!!!!…I couldn’t have been happier….trek in the rain, is like, my long cherished dream come true. But as though somebody couldn’t bear my happiness, it stopped pouring after abt 30 mins we started the trek…..I was disappointed really really disappointed!!!
I met somebody
This is something I cannot miss at any cost. Know what, I met somebody, whom I really really admire. Ppl called him Kashi anna, if I were to give him a name…I would call him Mr.Nilgiris. Can you believe, he is the ONLY man who knows all of the forest? If he’s not with you, take my word, you are lost in Nilgiris. And getting lost in Nilgiris means serving tasty yourself to the wildlife there. To speak more abt him, he is 76 years old, and walks so fast, that none of us could keep pace with him!!!! Kashi anna was our guide for the rest of our trek.
Fishing Hut????
Our destination for the day was, “Mukurthi Fishing Hut”. To reach there, we had to walk thru deep jungles and some small streams. I was loving it all…I spent energy very generously, without the least hint that I would need very it much for the next day’s trek. After abt 6 hours of trek, we reached the hut. To speak the truth it was not hut, it was a big house in the midst of deep jungle, with all the facilities, like a solar light, fire places, bedrooms with attached bathrooms, overhead tank…etc etc etc.
I still don’t know why they called it a hut. And for the fishing part…..fishing was a BIG NO in the forest……so why call it “fishing hut”??? was one of my questions which went unanswered…..
Dawn and Gone
Next morning, must have been a beautiful morning, but I failed to notice it. We were to hurry, freshen up and start to the peak by 6:30am. Last night, I had heard a phrase over and over …it was “Tomorrow you will have a life time trek”. This time Mr.Sham (an advocate whose hobby is trekking) took the privilege to say this. This was another sentence which I did not understand at that time. We grabbed a quick breakfast, and gone we were to conquer the peak. At this point of time least did I know what was ahead…after an easy trek the previous day, I think I underestimated this one.
High High and High
For abt 1 hour we were climbing up and down the small hills in the forest, crossing streams and ridges and wading ourselves through the thickest of the forests. I loved it all. As I had just started thinking “Ahh this is easy” the terrain began to get steeper and steeper. There was only high now, I had started getting very exhausted. My body and soul were shouting “No more steeper pleaseeeee...” but ….it was getting steeper and steeper only. The sun shining right on my head was burning out my energy at the speed of light. I carried on….rather dragged on…
A Big Blow
Now we had reached a peak called Amarambalam..(hope I got the name right …if no please pardon my peanut brain). From here I could clearly see our destination of the day (Mukurthi Peak). Good Lord, it was as high and as steep as anything I could imagine. I went crazy at this sight….someone within me was shouting…” No vidi you cant climb that high.. if you try, you will die”. I tried not listening to this someone……but the shouts were getting louder and louder…I could no more hear the sounds for birds and breeze. I told Mr.Nilgiris….. “lets go back”…..he looked at me and smiled. That was the biggest blow every…..I feel deep into the ditch of shame. “How could I say that, I can’t be so coward….” Now I had to climb up the ditch of shame…so I stopped complaining. “I can do it, I can do it..” I kept on telling this to myself. By now we had reached another peak called “Chinna Mukruthi “.
Touched the Clouds
The closer we got the our destination( Mukurthi..thought u might have forgotten by now !!), the tougher it seemed to be reached. I cared abt nothing now, I had stopped admiring nature, stopped smelling fresh air, stopped enjoying the forest noises, all I did was just climb and climb and climb and climb. Later came the toughest, the steepest part ever…we had to climb this on fours. Though this was the steepest, I loved this part the most…The clouds touched passed through me. I was touching the clouds!!!!! I was so excited to be doing it.
By now we had done it. At last we reached the peak.
So long See You
After abt 15 mins on the peak, and one of friend engraving Motorola’s logo on the peak, we started off climbing down. This was an easy climb down.
We were back at the hut by 3:00pm. Grabbed a quick lunch and started again to trek out of the forest. “Good Bye Fishing hut, you couldn’t have been more comfortable a stay in this thick jungle”.
Dinner, a treat to the ears
No No, ears is not by mistake, I really mean it. We reached Ooty, and went to a royal restaurant called “Earl’s secret” for dinner. I don’t know how the food tasted, for I was so busy hearing the adventurous real life stories narrated by Mr.Sham. He spoke abt his treks, his wildest encounters with wild life and I was getting as excited as a baby could be at his “Red Riding Hood” bed time story. I loved his stories. He seemed like a hero to me, who had done all those wildest things which I always dream of doing.
A Treat in the darkness
As we started back the Bangalore, I could hardly sleep, maybe it was the tiredness naa….it was actually the fear that the driver would doze off again. So I decided to stay awake and keep an eye on the driver, my dear friend Puvi offered to stay awake with me. As we both chatted , we noticed a board saying we were driving thru Bandipur. My hopes went high, I wished I could see some wildlife. And know what I did see some !!!. Dozens of deer, stags, elephants etc…I was hoping for a tiger too…but maybe I was asking for a little too much…
The END
Next morning we landed in Bangalore, all of us too happy, we had done Mukurthi!!!!!
Now I understand what the 2 statements meant…”You are lucky to be here”…yes indeed we were, for the trek was not open for everyone, we were in there with permissions obtained with utmost difficulty thanks to Mr.Prabhu and Murli san and the other phrase“ Life time trek” ……yes it surely was !!!!!!!!
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Madhugiri Again
This onez Srikar sir's version of the Madhugiri trip. The way he describes is really very hilarious. Read on ppl ....and crack yourself up. For this writeup, I indicates "Srikar sir"
I thought I will share my version of the story too :-). Though its ages since we went by, here is my story...
Madhugiri, I finally have got the name right, I was always referring it to as Chandragiri for some strange reason.... I got to know of the trip from Vidya on Saturday. Our friend Yathish made sure I was there for the trek with the reminder calls. Thanks yaar.
Day started with lots of cursing on the alarm clock for going off so early :-). I hardly slept for 3 hours as I had a rather very late Saturday night.Sleep walked and got ready in next 15 mins. Picked a small backpack, some water and topies (caps). Knew it was going to a very hot day. Our friend Yathish gave a call to make sure I don’t miss the bus [or qualis] sleeping off at home:-).
Drove to office, Yathish was the first to be there. slowly the rest of the gang assembled. Our margadarshaks [Viditha, Smitha and Basak] came in the gaadi. Vidya came in with a big tank. Vijayendra came in with his Chimley kit [Cigarettes]. We all started the trip with a jai ganesh and a snap at office. The Gang [Amitava, Smitha, Srikar, Vidya, Viditha, Vijayendra and Yathish] started the journey.
First break was a spot, where our ancestral instincts [read as monkey instincts] got a recall and we all climbed trees :-) to kick start the adventure. Vijayendra was elected the King Monkey for going to the highest point. We all had a lovely breakfast, thanks Viditha...
We reached the Madhugiri hills after a good drive. The hill looked small [coz I saw only part of the hill]. We were discussing how high the hill could be. The max anyone guessed was 1200 ft. but later I learnt it was 3930 feet phew. Proof people http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/july292004/metro14.asp
Some of the people started their beauty care activities [layers and layers of some paste]. Some people had their dose of cigarettes. We started the trek, went through some interesting incidents on the trek. We thought that we reached the top on three occasions mid-way and fun part was, did not realize that we were at the top when we reached.
The fort is a small and interesting one, though its not well maintained still we had fun exploring the structures there. One sad thing I noticed is, people destroy our ancient structures by writing their names, love messages and stupid graffiti. People should respect these monuments and try to retain its actual state instead of spoiling this way. Sad that most people think otherwise.
While climbing up, we found it difficult. But coming down was easy and we guys managed to go down very fast.
The surprise element of the trip was the ease with which our Mountain Goat [Vijayendra] climbed the rocks, he even carried people along. bhai aap thoo chagayee... He was there to support anyone who was crawling LOL. Vidya did some good adventures enroute and showed she's a pro at trekking and climbing... She also got some interesting names enroute. The final one that got maximum ratings is Al Qaeda and Jayalalitha.
Viditha at most times was busy applying some creams, lots of stuff from US of A were also demonstrated :-) [goggles, watches, camera]. Need to mention here about the trails of the USA watch. Viditha lost her watch from US of A and luckily for us, got it back too :-). Her shoes from India had quite an adventure too. They decided they wanted to create their own route and tumbled down the hill.
Vijayendra was put on the mission to retrieve the shoes back. Rest of us were infact holding tightly to the bricks and poles around to make sure we dont join Viditha’s shoes and create more retrieval missions for Vijayendra :-)Yathish, was the silent warrior on the mission to complete the climb. He made sure that everyone was there for the trek and completed it too. True Manager in the making :-)
Amitava, was there on the mission to pollute the serene atmosphere there with his beedi breaks and he was supported well by another beediwala Vijayendra. Between them, they made sure they added some more nicotine clouds at Madhugiri. Hey Basak, btw the new cap was great...
Smitha, she was nicknamed mountain lamb. She surely owes Vijayendra a treat for the many rescue missions he carried out for her LOL.
I, realized that I need to get back to at least little bit of workout, was huffing and puffing all the way...
On the way back, Our driver Srinivas showed us how not to drive. He can get a wild card entry to car racing events. I was next to him and was ready to jump out of the window at any moment :-)
Thanks once again guys for the invite. We should do this more often. Let’s plan for another adventure...
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
Kallina Kote
Me back again with another of my trip stories…this onez short….like the trip itself. I actually wrote this in September 2006…
This time it was Chitradurga….it all started on Friday evening….all of a sudden we started planning and for once things materialized…Till Saturday night we were just 5 ...ready for the trip…and then Bhavik’s friends joined …and we were 8 now…big group ahha….:-)
Sunday morning….my alarm went off…..and very reluctantly I dragged myself off my warm bed……and within an hour I found myself sitting in the vehicle with 7 other guys …and feeling really weird for being the only girl in the gang…L . Rest of travel I spent convincing myself...that its fine to be the only girl...the trip would still be enjoyable… and believe me it really was!!!!
Our first stop was the Vani Vilasa Sagara dam!!! This was a dam build during the reign of the queen named Vani Vilasa (1652 to 1682 AD…I guess I remember these dates right) hence the name Vani Vilasa sagara dam. This is also called Mari kanive dam. It’s built across the river Vedavathi. The dam does not have any guards and we took advantage of this and spent an hour wetting our feet in Vedavathi …
From there we started off towards the kote…meanwhile I was getting comfortable with the gang …….. On the way to the fort we saw lot of windmills…and the rest of the journey we discussed nothing but them ... The techies of the group started off with torque, rpm and other technical jargons…..while I was too busy just admiring the windmills…truly I was really amazed to see so many of them…and they were really huge too
Next stop was the kote……we had a quick look at the map and were off to the kindi…” Obavvana kindi”…meanwhile I took the pleasure to narrate the story of Obavva and Madakari Nayaka to a couple of guys of our gang…. On the way to kindi, Bhavik met his ancestral friend (a monkey). But I guess Bhavik was more scared than happy to see him... he quickly waved good bye to the friend with a packet of groundnuts. Thatz bad Bhavik…thatz no way to treat ur good old friends!!!!!!!
Meanwhile our gang was reduced to 7……”hey…where is the other guy??”?…someone shouted….!!! …”He is on phone with his girlfriend “some else answered… Now the gang started narrating this interesting story of last night. The gang had been to garbha last night and this guy had met a girl there…. (luckily …as per Brijesh) and within an hour and a half…the other side got serious...…and now our friend…was busy considering the option Starting from this moment till we went off coverage…this friend of ours was doing nothing but considering the option . I would say he was doing stress test on Razr
We reached the kindi….and now again I recited the story of the kindi…and we also enacted it.. I played the Obavva and the others played the soldiers of Hyder Ali.. But there was small change here…Obavva herself comes in thru the kindi and then kills the soldiers following her…not with the onake(pounding stick)..but with her leather bag
From here we moved on to reach the top of the fort…caught on to a wrong path, and reached a dead end…I was too determined to reach the top…so tried a little amateur rock climbing here…and also convinced others to do so ….but we reached no where so had to return without reaching the top. I was dead disappointed. Subbu proposed the other route to reach the top…but by now Mr. Sun had started his work on me…I had a terrible headache …..so we dropped the plan….and decided to return…
With me being a little ill…another interesting story surfaced. We can call it “The making of the doctor”. The gang narrated stories of the doctor with us…who was “actually” a s/w engineer and was nick named as doctor and he seemed to luv to be called so. Well guys this onez a hifi doctor, his prescription for my headache was “pray to God Almighty to cure u”!!! Thank you doctor
We were done with our trip to the fort…grabbed a quick lunch and started back to Bangalore. First half of this journey was dead and quite…everyone was sleeping. Our doctor seemed to beat everyone in this, he slept every minute of our journey . “Doctor, is this some mantra to good heath????”
After the first half …we all started off with a blast. It all started off with me describing my manager. From then on talked and talked and talked till we actually got off the vehicle….we talked abt managers, projects, movies, novels…literally everything on earth. It was great fun.. We had loud music playing in the cab…but none listening to it......and we were shouting off our lungs to make ourselves be heard …to each other . In the process I hope I haven’t damaged my neighbor’s eardrums…sorry Yusuf!!! All thru the trip there was one thing I really missed, my friend Arun’s hilarious stories…this time he did not seem to be in mood…….
Thus ended the trip…it was short and nice one…I am not sure of others…but truly I had a nice time.
This time it was Chitradurga….it all started on Friday evening….all of a sudden we started planning and for once things materialized…Till Saturday night we were just 5 ...ready for the trip…and then Bhavik’s friends joined …and we were 8 now…big group ahha….:-)
Sunday morning….my alarm went off…..and very reluctantly I dragged myself off my warm bed……and within an hour I found myself sitting in the vehicle with 7 other guys …and feeling really weird for being the only girl in the gang…L . Rest of travel I spent convincing myself...that its fine to be the only girl...the trip would still be enjoyable… and believe me it really was!!!!
Our first stop was the Vani Vilasa Sagara dam!!! This was a dam build during the reign of the queen named Vani Vilasa (1652 to 1682 AD…I guess I remember these dates right) hence the name Vani Vilasa sagara dam. This is also called Mari kanive dam. It’s built across the river Vedavathi. The dam does not have any guards and we took advantage of this and spent an hour wetting our feet in Vedavathi …
From there we started off towards the kote…meanwhile I was getting comfortable with the gang …….. On the way to the fort we saw lot of windmills…and the rest of the journey we discussed nothing but them ... The techies of the group started off with torque, rpm and other technical jargons…..while I was too busy just admiring the windmills…truly I was really amazed to see so many of them…and they were really huge too
Next stop was the kote……we had a quick look at the map and were off to the kindi…” Obavvana kindi”…meanwhile I took the pleasure to narrate the story of Obavva and Madakari Nayaka to a couple of guys of our gang…. On the way to kindi, Bhavik met his ancestral friend (a monkey). But I guess Bhavik was more scared than happy to see him... he quickly waved good bye to the friend with a packet of groundnuts. Thatz bad Bhavik…thatz no way to treat ur good old friends!!!!!!!
Meanwhile our gang was reduced to 7……”hey…where is the other guy??”?…someone shouted….!!! …”He is on phone with his girlfriend “some else answered… Now the gang started narrating this interesting story of last night. The gang had been to garbha last night and this guy had met a girl there…. (luckily …as per Brijesh) and within an hour and a half…the other side got serious...…and now our friend…was busy considering the option Starting from this moment till we went off coverage…this friend of ours was doing nothing but considering the option . I would say he was doing stress test on Razr
We reached the kindi….and now again I recited the story of the kindi…and we also enacted it.. I played the Obavva and the others played the soldiers of Hyder Ali.. But there was small change here…Obavva herself comes in thru the kindi and then kills the soldiers following her…not with the onake(pounding stick)..but with her leather bag
From here we moved on to reach the top of the fort…caught on to a wrong path, and reached a dead end…I was too determined to reach the top…so tried a little amateur rock climbing here…and also convinced others to do so ….but we reached no where so had to return without reaching the top. I was dead disappointed. Subbu proposed the other route to reach the top…but by now Mr. Sun had started his work on me…I had a terrible headache …..so we dropped the plan….and decided to return…
With me being a little ill…another interesting story surfaced. We can call it “The making of the doctor”. The gang narrated stories of the doctor with us…who was “actually” a s/w engineer and was nick named as doctor and he seemed to luv to be called so. Well guys this onez a hifi doctor, his prescription for my headache was “pray to God Almighty to cure u”!!! Thank you doctor
We were done with our trip to the fort…grabbed a quick lunch and started back to Bangalore. First half of this journey was dead and quite…everyone was sleeping. Our doctor seemed to beat everyone in this, he slept every minute of our journey . “Doctor, is this some mantra to good heath????”
After the first half …we all started off with a blast. It all started off with me describing my manager. From then on talked and talked and talked till we actually got off the vehicle….we talked abt managers, projects, movies, novels…literally everything on earth. It was great fun.. We had loud music playing in the cab…but none listening to it......and we were shouting off our lungs to make ourselves be heard …to each other . In the process I hope I haven’t damaged my neighbor’s eardrums…sorry Yusuf!!! All thru the trip there was one thing I really missed, my friend Arun’s hilarious stories…this time he did not seem to be in mood…….
Thus ended the trip…it was short and nice one…I am not sure of others…but truly I had a nice time.
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