Shimoga - Rafting :)

Hi guys,
This time it is rafting :)
yeah for all those people who like rafting i can understand the excitement, but its not for
long. You are just about to get disappointed.

Let me start as usual by introducing my fellow rafters :)we have some common factors from the previous treks but we just cannot remove them coz they just had a change of character :)

Vagvini - the rebel last time is now the vagging dog.
Pratibha - the wiper last time is the Lab as in Labrador
Jomy - the Othiketa last time is the Milo dog as in the movie Mask
Srini - the fast but not the furious is the Boxer.
Sai - the SLR Sai is the Comatose
Dileep Jose - DJ is the Milo pronounced as Meeelo in the mallu accent (for demo please contact Jomy)
Asha - Popular as the Asses is also known for Assaaaayen :)
Shalu - Not so popular coz of her frequently going into COMA known as Saaaaalu - samose me aaloooo
last but not the least Ashwal - I am an Asshole and i am proud of it :) (for the oeeeooeeee please contact DJ coz its patented :))

After the short but very noisy barking and braying introduction lets get back to rafting.
10pm on the 10th of september all the dogs and the asses had to assemble at the bangalore city railway station. Being strict followers of the IST we all reached in at different times . The winner of the "Best follower of the IST" goes to the lab - pratibha as she reached there at 11:35pm just 10 mins before the train leaves. She was welcomed by the dogs of the railway station and water from the water bottles bought by the Boxer - srini. She claims she was late coz of the Genda - Bharath who was not part of the rafters but played an important role as he had to drop pratibha to the railway station. Even with the barking and the braying we cud hear the train hoot and leave the station towards Shimoga. Yes we are off to shimoga from where we have to board a bus to Hebri which is 120kms away from shimoga. From hebri our Sita Nadi nisarga dhama is just 4kms away where are supposed to trek and raft.

Of course we cannot reach shimoga without disturbing the fellow passengers. So there we were playing bluff and competing with the trains noise. Shaloo the aloo and Lab - Pratibha decided to take the upper berth so that they can cheat but they were disqualified from playing.They took revenge by revealing everyones cards :). Finally the fellow passengers decided that we were the clear winners (as they could not stop the train) of the noise competition and we were crowned to sleep :).

Got up at 6AM and took some snaps in the train and discussed about the heavy snoring by Aloo
the saalu :). Around 6:45AM we reached Shimoga and boarded a bus to Hebri.

It was an usual intercity kinds but luckily with good suspensions (surprisingly we find suspensions even in Pratibha's scooty, so if people want to buy that scooty its put on auction coz of the suspensions instead of the shock absorbers:):)). Better than the bus was the driver who was almost dozing off sometimes while driving. But luckily for us the noisiest among the crowned group, the deadly duo the lab and its Vag were sitting next to the driver and he had no chance of sleeping. The drive was good except for the stinking truck carrying pork in its basic form (Pigs) which kept pace with us :). The driver was wellknow for turning in the ghats, amazing calculations, he never applied brakes, he just was steering along in the steep hair pin bends. Me and Vag had the most scariest moments sometimes as we were sitting just on the edge of the bus.

While travelling we found out that we have to get down before Hebri to go to the Sita Nadi
Nisarga dhama, thanks to the bus driver who stopped right in front of the nisarga dhama :) Walking through the botanical gardens (Mango - Magnifera Indica - courtesy Asses who
remembers the scientific names of some of the plants and trees) we meet Sharath who is eagerly waiting with another group for the followers of IST. He briefly explained us the itenerary for the day and showed us the dormitory where we were supposed to stay. Tired that we were we just jumped on to the beds, not for long, as breakfast (Upma, Kesaribhath, Neer Dosa, Chutney, Curry, Coffee, Tea..... hmmm yummy) was being served and we had to leave for trekking ASAP. Before starting for the trek let me tell you that the sole purpose of going to Shimoga, rafting, was not happening coz the river in which we had to raf was almost dry without any rapids. We were all planning to make it a pleasure trip by visiting Jog falls and Aagumbe, but Sharath had different plans .... Kayakying. I always knew kayakying was lil boring as the last time i kayaked was in Karwar and it was not so good without the rapids. Basically we were all bugged. So we start off for the trek place in a mini bus along with the other group who seemed to be amateur trekkers with all the singing and screaming in the short journey. Trek was pretty boring in the beginning, walking through some mud roads into the forests. But i must tell you that it turned out to be decent enough with steep trekking. The water falls that we reached at the end was all worth it. It was a closed place with water falling from one side and a cave kinda rock closing on the other side. Most of us didnt know much of swimming so we were waiting for some one to tell us how deep the place was. Finally we managed to find out on our own by walking in. Awesome is the word. As we go near the falls the water was splashing at us and it was so difficult to breath. No one managed to go under the falls as it was too scary and getting deeper as we go inside but we had a very good time around the falls. Standing in front of the falls and looking up at it was some sight. Splashing water, singing, cooing and hearing the echo .... Amidst all the fun Sai - Comatose had got hit on his forehead and he was bleeding. It all turned out to be good as later we came to know that Sai came out of COMA because of the accident :):). The guides had to spend around one hour convincing us to leave the place and trek back to the nisargadhama. Before that we had lunch (Vangi bath and Obbattu ... weird combination but not when you are feeling really hungry). We trekked back fast fearing the rains and leaches (very minimal compared to other places of trek). Reached the bus played antakshari with the other group till we reached the nisargadhama. We freshened up and took rest for some time when everyone decided to go to the near by river -- sita river i guess. Took some photos on the banks and on the trees around there. Some stone pitching competition on the river bed which Boxer srini won with his 9 pitches. Everyone could sense the aroma of pakodas cooking and all our senses started working towards finding out when and how to savour them. It was tea time and we were of course served onion pakodas with tea and coffee..... hmm myummy again. After the small tea break we decided to play dumb charades where the actual naming ceremony began :). Saalu had a tough time enacting "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bob" and we had a worse time guessing it :). Pratibha was named LAB when she was trying to enact the "Pans 'LAB'yrynth". DJ was named the Meelo after he tried enacting "Aan Milo Sajna" and with the mallu accent the MILO (the kids energy drink/dog in the movie Mask) become meelo :) and we had a tough time guessing the movie. So the common factor in there was the dog and we decided to have a group of dogs but my name Ashwal as it rhymed Asshole and Asha was popular as the Asses and Shalu called as Saaalu had an 'A' and 'S' we decide to have another group called the asses. So thus were the Dogs and the Asses formed :):). After that we just started naming others based on these 2 groups. Jomy who also has a mallu accent was called the Milo mallu and DJ the Meelo mallu, together they are called the Milos and the Meelos :). Srini was named the boxer because of his sleeveless shirt is part of the dogs. Vagvini with a Vag in her name belonged to the dogs. Sai with again an 'A' and 'S' belongs to the asses :)

So here we come ....

We are just a fun loving gang of Dogs and Asses

We like Trekking, Rafting, Kayakking and playing Donkey!

While the people in the next bogey go insane without sleep..

We play Bluff and Donkey with Braying and Barking!!.

The Meelos, Miilos, biting Labs and Boxers VAG their tails

The Asses HeeHaw along with the Milos

While saaalu pops in & out of her COMATOSE world

Sai comes out of COMA saying aiyayyoooo!!!

I am an Asswol, I am an Asswol

I am an Asswol, I am an Asswol

OYEOYEYOOO!!!!

After the dumb charades Chicken was waiting for us on the dinner (Chapathi, Chicken, Rice,
Curd, Kheer, vegetarian dishes i dont know as i didnt concentrate...all i cud see was chicken :):)) table. We hogged enough and we were back in the dormitory. We had other plans ... to play bluff and donkey. Bluff is always fun even when you are losing :). After bluff we played donkey and the loser had to say his name loudly instead of saying "I am a Donkey" ... not all were sporty enough though. We had good fun and finally decided to hit the bed by 2 in the night with a plan to get up at 7 in the morning to get ready for kayakying :). Jomy the Milo gets up at 6 in the morning thiking its 7 and wakes up everyone. Getting up early was fun as we mummified the LAB - pratibha with bedsheets and paste and after that it was mummy escapes and returns :):) when everyone just ran around in chaos. Jomy gets the most with mud water and rain water in tea containers. Lots of fight in the rains. After all the chaos we pack in a hurry and leave to the kayakying spot. It was called the Varahi. We had to blow up the back rest cushions, wear the life jackets and helmets and select one of the oares and walk to the water place. After some brief introduction of how not to drown and how to react when we fall into the water we were supposed to do a demo kayakying and practice before we get into the actual rapids. It was fun with 2 in a Kayak that too with good rapids it was more fun. Everyone had their share in toppling but the undisputed winners were the Meelo and the alooo :) for toppling 4 times ... i hope i have not counted less :):). We stopped in between for some rest. We left the kayak on the banks and jumped into the water for some playing. I saw Lab and the asses playing ringa ringa roses... some doing somersaults ... Alooo trying to learn swimming and i was doing the impossible, teaching her swim :):). The sad part was i had to start from breathing but i over estimated her and started with floating... but realised and taught her breathing (i dont know whether she learnt :):)). Anyways we all start off again kayakying towards the end point with some more toppling and fun. I knew Vag will definitely have a severe hand pain as most of the times i remember only she doing the paddling :):). After reaching the end point it was time for some posing for the photos with all the kayakying attire some toppling others into the water :):).

Food (Parotha, Vegetable pulao, Jamoon, curry, rice, rasam, sambhar ... yummy) was waiting
for us. We had enough and then changed. Guys as usual are animals and uncivilised, so
changed outside while girls were provided tents for the same. After an hour of waiting for the dressing up (you can guess who took more time :):)) we are all set to bid adieu to the
place. Now we had to worry about the RAC seats for the return journey. During the journey to the Shimoga railway station we stopped in a place where the Varahi hydro electric project was setup. Dont worry its not for seeing how it works but we had a superb view of the hills from that place. Some photo shoot again and then we are off to shimoga railway station. sang a lot and discovered the Aiyyayooo Sai when he was singing the "Deewana hua badal" ... now we are more confused as we dont know when he is silent and when he is laughing :):). Then we had requests from everyone and singing them loudly. Finally we sang the "I am an asshole" song with our own lyrics composed by all of us for our gang.

Luckily for us the trip ended with a happy note as the RAC seats were confirmed with a new bogie attached to the train that we were returning in. But we had to do some negotiatiating
to find seats together as all our seats were dispersed in the bogie. Finally there we were in the new bogie all 9 of us in one compartment (thanks to lalu with his new idea of 3rd seat on the independent side for RAC) of course playing donkey and competing with the train's noise :):). This time we had all the non sportive people from the previous day to say out their names loudly. TT threatened us of complaining to the arsikere police station because of the noise. So we all slept at 1 in the night after some unforgettable photoshoot. We reached bangalore city railway station at 5:15AM and crawled back home and slept for half of the day.
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Kodachadri

Hello All,
"Travelling is always good with good company and adventure is definitely a top up".
Good company is one thing we had in lots and adventure was always around the corner. Be it climbing the slippery terrain in heavy rain, finding a "Malabar Pit Viper" or eating chapati with "chatni pudi, pickle, bhujia, mixture ....", it was all part of an adventorous experience. Thanks to the Adventure Community for giving us an adventure and fun filled weekend well withing the ThomsonRetuter's code of conduct.
When i was in college I always used to study just when the exams were in a weeks time coz I have a goldfish memory but i guess this trekking experience is here to change the way memory allocation is done in my brain :).
I was in 2 minds to come for this trek. 1 coz i didnt know anyone except for Jomy ( Vagvini's othiketa :) ) and 2 coz i didnt know that this group is gonna be so much of fun. i would have definitely missed lots if i hadnt joined. so thanks to my perseverance, belief that people who love adventure sports are always fun and born to enjoy attitude :) and belive me i got more than what i expected.
Company is one thing that we had in plenty this time. Initially i thought 28 is a huge crowd for trekking, but i came to know that it works for your advantage, both fun and company. As there were 3 troops formed fast, medium and slow. We could always choose to be in anyone of them. But each group was definitely having fun in their own way. These groups were not intentional and therefore not rigid coz we cud always see people changing them.
Let me start with introducing each person in the trek like i know them. :):)
Vijay who took the responsibility of the trek was always good with his patience and the word "Putta" :). i never heard him speak a sentence without that word. He never gave anyone a chance to breach the ThomsonReuter's code of conduct. He will also be known as Sankaracharya for his meditation skills that we witnessed in Sarvagna katte :). so you remember him as "Vijay Putta" or "Sankaracharya", i think "Putta Sankaracharya" is better. its left to you guys.
Jomy my badminton friend will be murdered in some more days from the same rock that he climbed without me. This is my advance confession so please dont forget to pass it on to the media after you get the news of the murder. Jomy rocked with his trekker spirit and rocking "lajjavatiye" and some more malayalam songs which probably no one else in the trek understood but all against Vagvini, his "nightmare". I saw him get up number of times from his sleep to check whether Vagvini is trying to hit him. --- Othiketa as vagvini addresses him :)
Arun with his coolers and his camera was cool, when from no where we used to hear cheese and a sudden click on the camera, always interested in capturing the ongoings. -- Click Arun
And when we say camera we cannot forget another person who never trekked even an inch without his SLR camera, yes of course it is Sai. i never saw any person in the trek who was so obsessed with his camera and in capturing the best shots of the western ghats. Thats SLR Sai for you.
After talking about Sai we cannot forget his companion. Remember i spoke about a fast trekking group, this person is the leader of that group. Be it making friends with "Seetharam - Cook in Kodachadri" or trekking the toughest terrain, he is always fast and first --- Srinivasa is the guy. hmmm "diesel engine Srini" will cover everything -- vin diesel from fast and furious and diesel engine as all of us know is best suited for long drives :).
Mohan shortly known as "Moni" was well known among the locals of Pinnacle and now known by all of us for his swimming skills. Swimming coach Moni will be fine i think.
Tagged as the "store keeper of the trek" by Chandru, who never lets go any chance to serve food and snacks to people. was "Ambi". No its not rebel star who we are talking about but was no less than a rebel star for us --- Ambika. Store Keeper Ambi or rebel star Ambi
And when we talk about rebel we cannot forget the rebel of the group who says she is unique like her name and never misses a chance to scold Jomy... I think you people shud have guessed who it is .... Vagvini. But towards the end the rebel had gone into hibernation and we saw a very quiet and emotional side of Vagvini...
Thanks to Harish the DJ of the group who made our journey back with his best numbers in his mp3 CD. Till then Harish who was a quiet trekker suddenly gained celebrity status. Sleeping DJJJJ is how i will remember him coz he was sleeping but he kept most of us awake with his songs :)
you guys might have heard of this question "What would you want to take with you if you were lost in an island". Not food, not water, not salt for leaches, not tent to sleep, but if you would want to take a razor and a mirror you are none other than Sandeep :). He who doesnt know any kannada words but "kannada gottilla" shocked us by singing "Ninnindale" and "Minchagi" the recent kannada numbers. - Shaving Uncle
If you are a married girl, lucky enough to have a mother in law who doesnt say come back home from the trek immediately but is as caring as a mother and a driver (husband) who calls to say he misses you, then you are none other than bhavana.
When we were playing antakshari we saw "nagavalli of Aapthamitra" with the horror number "Rara" jumping up from her place, hanging on to the support in the bus to make her team win. We wish Jyothi all the best with her matrimony photos with a background of best lanscapes of the ghats. Hope you get a driver and mother in law like bhavana - Nagavalli
How would you feel if you were trekking fast to reach the peak and you find a "Malabar Pit Viper" just as you are about to put your foot down on a rock? Please ask Bhaskar who was both excited and terrified at the sight when he came running to all of us to take us back there to show the Viper.
Just with a small spelling change of Viper we can have another word with the same pronunciation and different meaning, homophones --- "Wiper". Everyone would have guessed the person - Pratibha. Probably if we had a mismatch day in the trek Pratibha would have been the undisputed winner with her slipper on one leg and shoes on the other. But i like her spirit to trek even when her shoe sole peeled off. That being the reason for the mismatch is no way going to deter her confidence to trek. Thanks to Danny whose Fevi bond came to rescue for the trek down. -- lots of names, each one can choose their own. :)
Shortly named as "Suzi" and who always thinks she wont go back from the trek when she is climbing the toughest part of it is Sujatha. I hope she has reached the dhaba for dinner :). - Daring Suzi or Dhaba Suzi is all i can think of
"Jeeta tha jiske liye, jiske liye marta tha".... no no i am not sining this. Probably pratibha will know who is singing. I dont know whether Trimurhty is truly madly deeply in love with this song or is singing this song for someone but i have always heard him humming this song and alas he gets a chance to sing this loudly in the antakshari session. I was scared that he is definitely gonna jump off from a cliff when he started singing this song standing on the tip of it. Nothing else other than the song i can think of
Next we shall talk about Salman of our group. No he never took off his shirt but he was always in his sleeveless T shirts and dark coolers. This trek for him must be jujubi in rajini style. Yeah its none other than our macho Kumaran - Myiiind it. - Salman Kanth :):)
If you are an amateur the best person to take along for a trek is Ramesh. He is every ready for anything. Keeps trekking with you and as a bonus you get all gyan about trekking. Not to forget, he is also a spy from the opponent antakshari team. So next time people be careful, always make sure you are on his side :). Spy or Gyani Ramesh
Ajith was a silent killer. You can say silence killer, coz after he speaks people laugh so much that you will forget that silence reigned for so long. He has the art of dialogue delivery. From no where he cracks a joke on Pratibha and she wont know whether to hit him or laugh at it, especially the "To" in the invitation card :) . He with Santosh will make a useful index to a never ending list of songs. Silence killer :) or index Ajith
After talking about the silent killer lets talk about a person whom i thought was most silent. I was again wrong. Bavya will be happy to know that this is the 2nd time i am supporting her. He makes people laugh with his short humorous scripts. He made people laugh when he enacted the short scene from "Babruvahana" during the camp fire. Nick named as "Round Neck Pandu" it is Chandru alias Chandrashekar. I hope he will find a producer for his directorial debut "Thu Kitaki mucchu - i hate bill gates". Sorry for renaming the movie but these days we have an english translation in all the movie names. -- Round neck director Pandu :))
The right person to ask what is the movie about is not Chandru but his Counter part. Most of the people might have guessed who it is but still let me give you a brief "shocker" of an introduction. Why shocker you have to ask Chandru coz its confidential. I am sure that Chandru will be answering too many questions in the court of law for the offense of Child marriage. Ok lets bring the screen down even if it is transparent, its --- Bavya. her biggest enemy will be Bill Gates coz she makes sure all the windows are closed even if they are not open. -- Kitaki :):)
I hope with such an introduction Chintu alias Santosh hasnt called Bavya to help him for his exam. Guys 3 cheers to Chintu who trekked with us even if he had an exam to attend today. Or we can say 3 cheers to him for taking up an exam even if he knew that he will be trekking with us. Cheer him for whichever you find is a reason to cheer. But you have to be careful coz he might drown you in water or bomb you with an infinite looped time bomb. -- time bomber or terrorist.
Who is not familiar with Lalooo's accent when speaking in english and Pratibha was the 1st person to catch that in one of the trekkers but it was while we were on our return journey. He gave us some glucose in the form of fivestar when we reached the lunch spot. It is Swarup. Couldnt think of any nick name as he was very silent. We can call him Mr Silent-1 - lalloooo ji or even fivestar king
Last but not the least we come to literally the most silent guy of the trip. Dont know much about him to put in here. i just know that he had the best sleep in the return journey. am i right Rahul :). the happy sleeper is all i can think of, dont know much about him. We can call him "The Silent"

We started trek from a place called sampige katte --- where we find a board called "Hotel Kodachadri - Veg and Non-Veg". We were led by a professional trekker - Kitty sir alias Krishnamurthy. Vijay explained rules for the trek before we started. We filled around 3 litres of water in bottles as adviced. Packed the luggage that was required for 2 days. Tent and rest of the luggage was transported thru jeeps that were available near the hotel.
People who might think that we went there only for trek listen to this. Just before we started the trek we see 3 of our trek mates helping out some old woman near the well, as it may seem, to draw water :). So we start off the trek with some warm up.
It was a pleasant weather for trekking when we started off. Although people in a near by village had already warned us of heavy rains we thought we were lucky, but not for long.
We started off with walking on the trek path which starts off with a small stream, which all the trekkers thought was clean except for me and Vijay who had dirtied it when everyone else was busy packing - the usual morning walk :). Carefully crossing the stream avoiding stepping inside water, though not all were able to :) we get into a small trek path where we found the 1st leach waiting for someone to hang onto for an afternoon brunch. It took sometime to explain to everyone that leaches are non poisonous and no one has to be very scared about it and blah blah blah (for more information about leaches use google)... :):)
Then we get into a lil tough path in the trek with a lil more leaches and slippery pathway. i did the honors of slipping. I saw someone avoiding a path and the heroic and adventurous part of me said i dont have to avoid such a small hurdle and paid the price by falling right into slippery mud. :). Luckily for me there were no stones and leaches of course.
We kept walking thru the slippery path avoiding as many leaches and slippery stones as possible. Then we reached a place where we can check for any leaches. After a small check and plucking off the leaches we followed our kitty sir into the dense ghats. Before that as i have already introduced you, the trek gyani - Ramesh had a small tip to remove leaches hanging on to us. you can use deodrand to spray on the leach and then easily remove it from where it is sticking. Apart from that our fast and not furious srini had salt which also can be used.
NOw we are in the dense ghats following the calm and composed kitty sir to reach the destination before the sun sets. Like the hutch dog we had someone else following us and it was none other than Murphy's laws. The laws stated that when everything is going fine there has to be something that makes you realise that things are not fine and that was weather. Yes rightly as you might have guessed the rain gods decided to bless the leaches with some of our blood. As vijay had already instructed thru mails and personally just before starting the trek we had carried out jackets, rain coats, caps, umbrellas (might seem funny but it helps Raj Kapoor and Narigis when they go on a trek). So off come the jackets and coats and caps and Umbrellas.
We were wrong when we thought the rain gods blessed the leaches. They had blessed us with an adventurous experiece of trekking in rain. Awesome is the word. the forest was so dense that even when it was pouring cats and dogs we cud just feel the drizzle. Such is the beauty of nature. Save forests and inturn trees is all i can say. Ok enough of environmentalist talk, 1st things 1st. And next thing was another pit stop along the way to check for leaches. one pit stop after every 5 minutes is the right way to put it. We had to hunt for deodrands when we find leaches happily savouring our blood. Luckily some still on their way to our skin. Some on the shoes, some on the lowers, some on socks, some on jackets and raincoats. Some leaches were faster than our fastest Srini, We found them even on necks :):).
Then comes the sad part. After trekking for around an hour we came to some path where we cud see jeeps and some civilisation - sighs of relief around. Even if everything in there looked similar, just a min this was a place that we had already seen. O no the forest was so dense that we had come back to the place where we started from. Sad but we were actually happy that we get to do the trek again. Our guide had different thoughts though. It was raining so heavily that he decided that we take an easier path to the peak :(. Since some of us were fast and all pumped up to trek Kitty sir asked Gyani Ramesh to join us to a place where we decided to have lunch. So some of us were off to the lunch spot.
It was a beautiful place, the lunch spot. Jomy was badly attacked by a leach. We cud see blood on this knee part of the lower that he was wearing, that is when we realised. Looking at that all the others started checking for leaches. But no other leach was as blessed as the one that enjoyed Jomy's blood. Blessed is not the word coz Jomy killed it :). We had to wait there for the rest of the group as lunch was with the guide and he was with the rest of the group. By then our Bihari babu had five stars which got over before we even some of us came to know about its existence. Some one opened biscuits which had the same end as fivestars. All of us were just enjoying the nature when the others started joining us at the lunch spot.
Thanks to Ambi and Vijay for sumptuous lunch -- Chapati and so many things that we hadnt tried till now. Chatni pudi, pickle, mixture, bhujia ...
After pet puja we thought we will climb up the small peaks around and get some snaps. We tried all kinds of stunts for photos. standing on the tip of the cliff with a titanic pose, thinking men pose, group photos, jumping photos .... All this while Sai was busy taking snaps of the landscapes with his SLR. He has his own wonderful way of enjoying the trek.
After all that fun we decided to move up to the peak. We decided to do some more trekking and ended taking a longer route that what others took. But we were rewarded with a better and higher view of the sunset -- thats what we claim coz we took the longer route :):).
Then we reach the temple which is the stop for the night. There we meet Mr Seetharam the cook who made delicious dinner for us. The palya was the best part of the dinner which everyone of us had at least 4 - 5 servings. Not that tired everyone thought of having a Camp fire. So people setup up a camp fire and we sang around it. Some more gyan -- deo can be used to light a fire too i came to know from rebel vagvini as i wasnt there when they setup the camp fire. Vijay with his janapada geetegalu was all pumped up. Then we had the babruvahana scene enacted by Round Neck Pandu alias Chandru. We had old classic songs by Meshtru alias Ramesh and 1st time we got to hear "Jeeta tha jiske liye..." by Trimurthy. Then we decided to take a small walk around in the dark with torch. All the while singing Kishore Kumar songs. Suddenly our rebel star Vagvini thinks of putting on " Bheegi Bheegi si - Life in a Metro" on Pratibha's mobile. All of us in the middle of no where were trying to sing "Na jaane koi kaisi hain yeh zindagani ...". It was superb. All of us sang our hearts out screaming out lound in the midst of the night putting off all the torches. Then we got to hear "Mile sur mera tumhara -- Old DD1 song if anyone remembers". Unforgettable experience.
We decided to wind up for the day so that we can get up early for the Sunrise. All of us decided that we will sleep in Mr Seetharam's house as it we were scared of the rains. As the place was not sufficient for all of us Vijay, Mohan, Kitty sir, Meshtru and Danny sir decided to sleep out in the tents. Just then Suzi realised she had leg pain. My volini gel and massaging techniques came to her rescue :). Thats what i claim :). We crash on to the sleeping mats that we have. We hear the usual giggles from the gals room which i came to know were Vagvini and Ambi cracking some jokes. Some carried their blankets so were warm and cozy. May be some of us thought we should enjoy the cold weather on top of the hill but it was a bad idea. It was very cold sometime in the night and our Sandeep -- Shaving Uncle came to my rescue coz he got the unused tents and we used them as blankets.
Getting up early was the only thing that didnt happen and actually we came to know that the sunrise was not visible coz of the mist and the clouds around. It took a long time for Suzi who got up late to find out that no one went to see the sunrise. By then Mr Seetharam was ready with coffe and tea. Some had got biscuits which were good with coffee and tea. Jomy took our puppy Vagvini for a morning walk and then gave her biscuits. Dont tell vagvini about my whereabouts coz she will be searching for me to kill me for putting this here.
Then we decided to trek up to the "Sarvagna katte". One group had already left for it by the time we got ready. We decided to go to some other peak before going to the Sarvagna katte. The path was amazingly scary. there is just place for 1 person to walk and if we slip we go down thousands of meters. Uff thats when Suzi said that she always thinks she wont go back from the trek when she is going thru such paths. hmmm i agree with her.
The effort was rewarded by the scenery at the peak. Every place was beautiful in its own way. There we had the photo sessions with the ThomsonReuters banner. We had water abhishekam on Bhaskar by Kitty sir. Luckily we didnt have to come back the way that we went up. Thats the reason why i am writing this blog today.
Coming down from this peak we started trek to the sarvagna katte. On the way to sarvagna katte Bharkar and Ajith took a different route from us. Bhaskar found a "Malabar Pit Viper -- as told by our snake expert Danny sir" just under his foot which Ajith had missed just before bhaskar. They came running to us when we were in the Ganesha Guha offering some puja to Ganesha. Kitty sir, Meshtru and Danny sir rushed to the place to meet the viper and click some snaps which are really amazing. Later i came to know from Ajith that the viper is very poisonous and gives a slow death to its prey roughly about a week which includes renal failure. We continued our trek to Sarvagna katte. I was there with Trimurthy, Pratibha and Suzi. From Sarvagna katte there was another peak that looked good to us. Pratibha immediately started climbing down from Sarvagna katte to the other peak which a lil difficult. Suzi decided to stay back. Here starts the mismatch day for Pratibha -- her show sole peeled of while getting down the sarvagna katte and she had to borrow Suzi's slipper to trek ahead, amazingly she decided to wear slipper on one leg and shoe on the other.
It was all worth for Pratibha when we saw the view from the other peak. Small rock which cud hold one person on it was the place where Pratibha chose to sit. The view and feeling there is difficult to decribe, you just have to feel it. We could form a plane with the clouds around there, amazingly even the wings and the rudder. Believe me it resembled a plane that a kid can draw :). We regret not taking the camera to that place. Trimurthy started off with his "Jeeta tha jike liye". Thats when thought he is gonna jump from that peak in memory of his sweetheart :). Sai joined us in a lil while. We took some snaps and started back from there whereas Sai chose to take some more snaps with his SLR :). On the way back we saw some guy with lungi climbing the cliff, i dont know how he managed. you can guess that it was a mallu by the lungi :). We met Rahul, Arun, Swarup on our way back who were now going to witness the beauty that we had witnessed a lil while ago.
On the way back we saw a small mantapam built in memory of guru sankaracharya who is believed to be meditating there. It was a very calm place best suited for meditation and thats what Vijay chose to do. Amazing concentration this guy has still we managed to disturb him. :)
Coming down from the Sarvagna katte we found a guy who was selling majjige -- butter milk, biscuits and ground nut. Dont know how he managed to climb the peak with all that. He made us feel so useless coz we had nothing and still found it difficult to climb up. Anyways self realisations apart, we had butter milk courtesy Danny sir as no one had taken money. Suzi chose ground nuts :) - as she was feeling closer to nature and our ancestors :). Ajith while coming back gave some gyan on the Viper which he had got from Danny sir.
While coming back we saw Jomy and Ramesh being cheered by the other group while they were upto rock climbing to the other peak. This is why Jomy is going to be murdered as he didnt wait for me for this adventure. I and Trimurthy still decided to go ahead with it and climbed half the rock when we heard Kitty sir screaming its getting late and we had to come back all the way. Some snaps here of jumping from the rock took some time as Jomy had to pay for doing the rock climbing without me :).
After this we came back for breakfast -- Upma and Avalakki with sugar, mmmm my mouth is still watering. Mr Seetharam is really an amazing cook. Vijay is always different in his approach and he decided to have rice and sambar for breakfast and we all decided that that was definitely any time better than what we were having. half the way everyone decided to have rice and sambar. Vijay carried a big plate full of rice and sambar and what we know as "Kai thuttu" was happening outside. :). Suzi gave "Kai Thuttu" to me after some tutions from Kitty sir :).
Then we all decided to leave from there. But this time we had to carry the tents with us. hmmm it was heavy. Way back was not that exciting coz all the fun and adventure was coming to an end for that weekend. It was time to go back to office the next day morning :). Many people were on leave but i had to go to office and that very fact was more bugging for me :). Anyways 1st things 1st.... coming back down the cliff was really fast. Didnt take much time for us to reach the base and it was not that tiring too.
When we were leaving Pratibha was busy with her sole sticking using Danny sir's fevibond and everyone had their suggestions of sticking it. Some had the idea of tying with the rope, some stitching it with a needle and thread and of all she chose sticking it with the fevi bond which turned out to be the best one :). In that hurry she found a cover with some clothes in it and she gave that to Jomy thinking that some one has forgotten as many people had left by the time she her shoes was ready to wear. Jomy after carrying it for some time realised that it wasnt belonging to anyone and we all accused him of stealing it from Mr Seetharam's house :).
With all heavy tents and slippery terrain it was lil scary coz we didnt know when we are gonna skid. As usual our fast and not furious srini left with sai in his diesel engine :) and of course the SLR camera :). Surprising fact was that They took even the Wiper even when it wasnt raining :). Yes Pratibha was with them this time in the fast group. Gyani Ramesh was carrying the sleeping mats and rolled it down a certain distance looking at which Danny sir also rolled the other baggage he was carrying. For his luck he found tooth brush, paste and a towel which he thought was part of the baggage that he was carrying. He had to carry for some distance until he realised after enquiring with everyone that it wasnt ours :).
We had many pit stops this time - courtesy kitaki Bavya :). She was more heroic and adventurous than me when someone adviced her not to walk the path that is slippery. she fell 5 times :). Ajith the navigator this time in front of her took the pain of telling her to be careful before stepping almost 5 times and she fell all those times :). Its amazing right but still she manages to do the impossible :). After lots of walking down and falling down for bavya we reached a small hotel where we thought we can have some juice or butter milk. But the hotel guy said there is nothing except coffee and tea. Now who on earth will feel like having coffee or tea in the hot weather.Thanks to Kitty sir who managed to convince the hotel guy for butter milk :).
In the mean while our Putta had marbles and people started playing with it. It as fun to watch them miss from a very close range. :):). They started like professionals and ended it like amateurs :). After the pit stop for butter milk we started off the trek down. The trek from here was not difficult it was just walking on plain mud road so we cannot expect bavya to fall anymore :):). This time she was fast ahead. I am sure many people would have put case on Round neck pandu for child marriage :). Bavya agrees to it without any hesitation. Seriously they resemble Pandu and his wife Srimati :):). They are good in their own way --- Funny couple :).
From there i was walking with Danny sir who told me about his sedative - Butter milk and curd. He said he will definitely sleep off if he eats curd. He even gave me an example how he dozed off in his students house when they cheated him to eat curd rice :)). We spoke about travellers and rythm of the footsteps when walking together. He is an amazing personality.
Then i got a chance to share Kitty sir's luggage. The one that Gyani Ramesh had rolled down earlier. They were carrying it in turns. So we started walking holding the luggage from either side. Singing and talking about snakes we walked the way with ups and downs. We used to realise we are walking up when bavya found it difficult to walk. :):). We had 2 pit stops on this way -- courtesy Bavya :):). Kitty sir told me his experiences in trekking in snow mountains and in dense forests. He told me how they used to trek with just onion and potatoes for 3 days. sleeping without tents in forests. Another amzing personality.
Finally we reached the place where our transportation was waiting for us to leave to bangalore. I witnessed a strange incident -- dejavu is what we call it.I felt i have seen it earlier and i was waiting for it to happen from alomst 2 months. cudnt believe it.Anyways thats a different story all together - with Pratibha's explanation for the same.
Return journet started at around 6 in the evening and we went a nearby lake in Kollur thinking of taking a dip. Though we thought we are gonna get more dirty after dipping in we cudnt resist the temptation of getting inside the water. I had a strange problem of getting in and swimming which i solved by wearing the track pant :). Everyone got into the water but later realised that we have another good place to play around. We had to walk for some distance in the lake where the water was knee height. We witnessed many people drowning in 4 feet water :):) like it happens in the movies. People played breathless inside water and JOMY was the undisputed winner with 50secs inside water. Vagvini his nightmare was the umpire so no doubts that he stayed in water for 50 seconds. Then its time for Moni swimming camp. Coaching people who already know half swimming is the toughest part -- right moni :).
Pandu and terrorist chintu are lucky not to forget swimming in the process of teaching Kitaki. :):) Nagavalli was trained to swim by Putta Vijay but i guess she might save herself at the cost of someone else :). Gyani Ramesh had the best coaching in the joint venture of Kitty sir and Jomy.It was fun watching all this from a distance. :):)
After all the crazy coaching work people decide to dress up for some reception :) and get back to the bus for the return journey. Before that we have 2 more stops. 1 for kollur mookambika temple and 2 for some food. Temple is beautiful but we cudnt have darshan for long as we had to move fast in the queue. For this reason some people decided to take 3 rounds of the temple :):) while we were busy eating prasadam. After the prasadam people get some gyan by putta Vijay. Gyani Ramesh got some gyan about slokas and their significance by Vagvini and putta Vijay which he was not ready to accept.So its time to have some food. We decide to go to a nearby hotel and order some Dosas and Parothas.Some chitchat where we found out that its been one year of nightmares for Jomy. Yes it was his anniversary of working in Thomson. His party is still pending which we will enjoy in the nect trip :).
After some pet pooja we decide to wind up and leave. Near the bus some photo shoots were happening. Mr Shaving Uncle was trying to take nagavalli Jyothi's photo and Kitty sir was trying to tame nagavalli Jyothi to stand for the photo. you all must know that nagavalli after leaving Soundarya in "Apthamitra" is on Jyothi now - that we came to know on the return journey in the bus. :). Then according to Jomy we saw a pregnant calf, ask Jomy for more details.
Just when we thought its time to pull down the shutters someone started antakshari. It was a fish market in there. Fighting screaming and everything else except singing was happening :):). It all started with Jomy singing some Malayam numbers against vagvini as a reply to Vagvini's threatening. Jomy got all josh mainly coz someone told him that Kollur was full of mallus and he has full support :):):). So he starts of with the "Lajjawatiye" and ends up singing some songs which no one understood, i can bet my life on that. The show stealers were "Rara" from Jyothi after which she becomes Nagavalli. Our Shaving Uncle Sandeep singing "Ninnindale" and "Minchagi". Just before we boarded the bus we were teasing him about talking in kannada and he knew only one thing "Kannada Gottilla". So definitely standing ovation for Sandeep. "Jeeta tha jiske liye" from Trimurthy who was waiting for a chance to sing it loud. Cant believe it but we sang for almost 2 n half hours. We stopped in a petrol bunk not to fill the tank but to empty our tanks :):). We decided to get back to antakshari after the break.
After the break it was all Vijay and Mohan's show with their old classic kannada songs, both foot tapping and melodious. There were Trimurthy and Sandeep in the opponents team to answer with some good hindi numbers. Gyani Ramesh and Arun to sing some good kannada numbers. Our bihari babu had some romantic numbers to throw at us which everyone enjoyed.
After all this it was time for dinner which Suzi was desparately waiting. Suzi had to wait until next day night to have dinner i guess. We came across no restaurants which served food at 10:30 in the night, so we had to adjust with some sweets, bread, bhujia, mixture .... and other snacks. When we had stopped in some place searching for food, we didnt know that we were disturbing the locals who were sleeping until we saw someone come to the door and check and give us a stare. :):).
After a small brunch we start off again towards bangalore. We decided not to continue antakshari as everyone was exhausted after singing for almost 3 hours. Here comes the DJ Harish's CD which did the impossible. Our rebel Vagvini was hit by some wave that came from coorg :):) courtesy Harish's CD. Till then Moni who was enjoying the footboard all alone had company in the name of Vagvini. To add to the mood was a slight drizzle which made the weather lil chilling. Ok now i dont want to send vagvini back to that mood so i stop the description here.
While Vagvini was busy with her thoughts, Pandu who was silent until now started off with his scripts, of course to tease Wiper and Kitaki. This time his scripts were accompanied by Ajith's unbeatable dialogues.
Anyways all good things should come to an end and so did our trek to Kodachadri.
I have jotted down all that i remember about the trek. Going forward this is how i will remember my trek buddies. Thanks for a wonderful weekend and trekking experience.