9 Gudda : The way back!

Please read Part 1,Part 2 and Part 3 before reading this.

Okay! There was not bear and I was not hallucinating. Shashi and Deesu who had ventured into the forest were returning. Though they came back together, few feet away from us, they took different paths to come towards us. It was deesu who was wearing dark colored trouser and shirt. He stopped momentarily and at that time he was behind a tree. The tree blocked his face and I could see only his legs and it looked as a bear which stopped near that tree and stood upright. It all happened within seconds. And again no animals were seen till then.

Everyone started gulping chapathis . Shashi and Deesu who went inside forest did not find and any proper way forward. So we decided to finish our ‘breakfast’ and then decide what to do. Post ‘breakfast’, again option to go back was rejected and no one wanted to go back in that thorny grass path again. Though this time thought of going back was much serious than earlier ones. So we were again on our way(?) in search of some way. There was one stretch of small bushes. Had to crawl through that to reach the end of it. From there we were actually seeing the peak we were supposed to reach, but had to cross the dense forest and had no idea what to expect in that forest. Though we went ahead in that direction where we saw the peak, encountered a cliff after few meters and had to come back. Discussion of what to do was happening more and more now, which included going back. It was concluded that since we were able to see the peak, we will take a left turn(right turn would have taken us away from peak) and do climb where ever we see the inclination. Idea was to reach a point where we get proper mobile signal. It was really appreciable aspect of our group that though clear decisions did not happen at times and some cribbing had started, we stayed as a group. Again we set out in the forest with Deesu leading the group. There was a strong feeling (as always) that we were not far from the destination. Actually that was always there, it was only that we did not reach it Physically. We walked for next few minutes towards unknown. Fortunately it was relatively easier. No thorns! No creepers! Only trees canopy was present. And again we hit a cliff and we stopped there in despair. But, a silver lining was waiting for us.

At the place we stopped, our mobile was showing some traces of signal. Nitin and Kummi, both called one of their friends/relatives. Our intention was to know where we were. Fortunately our Garmin GPS latched to some satellites and showed our co-ordinates. But before we could communicate the co-ordinates to the people who were conversing, mobile signal disappeared. But soon it was back and this time before we could communicate the co-ordinates, GPS went blank, but came back after few minutes. Finally we were able to give our co-ordinates. We started getting several information with their help. First info we received was that we are already on grassland!

But we were deep inside forest as we could see. We checked the co-ordinates again. This time it seemed we got different co-ordinates from GPS (perhaps more correction was required on previous reading). The new information was provided to our friends. And this time we got couple of info. That we were on the edge of the forest and grassland is not far and perhaps a walk 30-40 should be enough to reach it. Second info was that if we continue to walk in the same path with which we reached where we were, we could reach grassland and then reach the ‘9 Gudda’ peak from there. But for that we had to go walk through forest again. We were still discussing what to do. Requesting for a Helicopter rescue was also considered. No joke! We actually considered that. We just wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. Another option we had was to reach some plain land and if possible camp there that night and next day either come back or plan to go ahead towards ‘9 Gudda’ peak. But we more or less ran out of water already. Most of us were tense as our watches were telling it’s around 3 PM. And then came couple of calls.Perhaps the most important call in this entire trek. One from Sanjeev(Nitin’s friend) and one from Kummi’s cousin. Both suggested same thing. Travel North! And that we are already on ‘9 Gudda’. All we had to do was walk towards North side for around 30-40 minutes to find grassland and from there we could easily reach the peak through grassland. With the hope that if we reach some grassland(open/plain land), in worst case ,can call for helicopter, without wasting any more time we started climbing the inclined land towards our north side, which had ‘small/medium size plants/trees'. We would have trekked hardly for around 10-15 minutes only to find out that the info we got was WRONG!

Wrong, I meant on the positive side. We reached grassland in 10 minutes. Not in 30 - 40 minutes! Happiness started from our heart, travelled through our throat and came out of our mouth through whistles and shouts and roars. We could clearly see human trail through that grassland which was ending at ‘9 Gudda’ peak. Shashi declared that he now recognizes the place and pointed @ a small tree at a distance where they had rested when they were here last time. We could also see traces of some people camping there. After trekking through grassland for few minutes we rested for a while under shade of small tree. We tried to arrange for a Jeep which could pick us up after we climb down ‘9 Gudda’ peak from other side. But unfortunately it did not materialize. That meant more walking. Over next couple of hours we found ourselves trekking through grassland in visible human trail. Walking without shade was tiring and we took frequent breaks. We reached the peak just in time for sunset. It was one of the most amazing moments of our trek. we finally had reached the destination we planned for. In one piece. Though late by around 24 hours, we were there! View of mother nature from there seemed to heal the pains we went through for past 2 days. After almost 2 days of hard trekking we were set to start from the peak only after spending around 20 minutes ( I was one of the last to arrive and spent only around 20 minutes) as we had to climb down and reach jeep track before it was dark. Climbing down was relatively easier. There was human trail till we reach Jeep track, initially through grasslands and then through forest again for brief period. By the time we reached the forest part, it was already dark. But this part of forest was not dense and it was walk of around 10 minutes. We reached Jeep track soon and had to walk around 8-10 km on that Jeep track to reach the estate house where our TT was waiting for us.

Next two hours was tiring walk. No canopy, No thorns, No creepers, No steep inclination, No way of getting lost and No water as well. We were under the shade of dark sky with stars. Ate some fruit which was still there with us on our way as water source. Couple of guys still had a bottle of water which was shared. With every turn there was hope to see artificial source of light. But it was there where it was and we were the ones who had to reach there. We shared various experiences of college, work and discussed some technology, politics while we walked. When we reached one of the corners, people from our group who were ahead of us, started whistling loudly. They had spotted our TT and artificial source of light was also seen. We reached the estate in 'Hosakere' finally .We(Me,Nitin,Shashi,Deesu,Kummi,Chandra,Vipin,Kartik,Jeevan,Charan) had successfully completed ‘9 Gudda’ trek. We went near that house and drank ample amount of water. House owner agreed to cook dinner for us on request. I opened my 'torn' sleeping mat and slept for a while. Had delicious dinner some time later. It was ‘Chitranna’ with pickles. We thanked the house owner with full heart for the dinner. It was now time to pack our bags and board the TT again. We occupied more or less the same seats. I was deprived of proper sleep again during the journey. So was the case with most of us. It was early morning when we reached Bangalore. We kept the rented sleeping bags and mats at Nitin’s place to give it back later that day. Chandra dropped me to my house. I looked at the clock, it was reading around 6 AM and then I hit the bed.

Epilogue :

Nitin sent a mail couple of days later that he and Karthik found an insect on their skin which stung them on touching.

There is a plan going on to do '9 Gudda' trek again. This time plan is to start from 'Hosakere' and reach 'Gundya' through the same forest. The trek 'might' happen later this year.

9 Gudda : Lost and Not Found!

Please read Part 1 and Part 2 before reading this

Sleep was expected in the warmth of newly bought sleeping bag. Tiredness from a trek of around 15 km was supposed to push us to deep sleep. But sound sleep never arrived. It was so hot and humid that sleeping bag was used as pillow. Due to some unknown reason, I did not get good sleep at all. May be it was first sign of what was about to come!

By the way I did not get sleep in tent during my ‘Kumara Parvata’ trek as well. When I finally decided to come out of the tent, it was around 5:45 AM. Couple of guys from our group were seen roaming around. Flowing river was next to us and there was no issue for morning activities. By the time everyone got ready to start, it was around 7:30. Jeevan’s bag parted way with the second strap as well on Day 1 evening, just before we reached the falls. Again the bag was fixed with some rope work and the load of that was shared. Stale ‘Rotti’ was disposed there(!). Again this was supposed to be last point where we get water before we complete the trek. So everyone of us filled ‘enough’ water for us. It was to time to enter forest again following in a visible human trail.

Trek on Day 1 was tough. Soon we realized it would tougher on day 2. The forest was denser and tougher was our journey. Shashi was leading us again. With new hope, under the shadow of trees canopy, we were walking on what seemed like a trail made by living beings. Even the path was not straight forward. We had to make our way through some plans which had thorns. Thorns which were not seen till they introduced themselves to us with a mark they made on our palms and arms. Cute looking creepers seems to have liked us. While we made our way through a small tree/plant by ducking or pushing the plant aside, those cute creepers would ‘catch’ our backpack/sleeping bags/us and refused to let go. Those creepers were so strong that they did not budge to our full strength pull or push. Finally we had to surrender to them and take help from someone behind (from our group) to break the deadlock between us and creepers. They had to pull the creepers up or push the entangled person down to free him. At times I had to crawl to avoid those creepers. I recalled creepers catching humans in Hollywood thrillers. Similar was our fate, as most of the times had not noticed the creepers till they caught us. This was the case with young creepers. Old roots/creepers also played game with us. They were few inches above the ground and we had to carefully cross it. Sometimes I felt they were hidden under the soil and whenever we come near, it would come out to catch us. Several times I got my foot stuck in such roots and somehow managed my balance. But on one occasion, I misread the height of a root got misbalanced and fell down and hurt my knees. Pain killer spray got some relief for me. At this time, our group was split into 2 and I was in the group which was behind. After taking rest for couple of minutes we started again and found others waiting for us. Though there was some talks of having breakfast, it was ruled out as we were deep in the forest and were hoping to reach grassland soon(that was what we thought.)

Soon the visible trail disappeared.. We were moving ahead by checking the map , compass and GPS. Map used to come out every five minutes. Sometimes we used to spread the map on the dried leaves to see it clearly. Trek continued in the forest till we hit a road block again! An uprooted huge tree blocked our path this time and the way forward was not clear. Shashi was also not clear if they traced same path in his earlier trek. Nitin went alone little further and did not find proper way and came back. It was almost noon. But again breakfast was ruled out here as our calculation indicated that we were not far from grassland. unobserved by anybody, our stock of water was slowly reducing. We had the option to go back which was not taken at that point. So it was decided we will go ahead. Next few minutes of trek passed by without any major incidents. Trees canopy slowly started disappearing and sun was seen. A Small peak with small plants was seen at a close distance. Normally huge trees will not be there near the peak. Encouraged by the sight of those small plants, almost ran to reach that peak. Grassland was supposed to be there. And we saw canopy of trees again from there.

Someone accidentally checked his mobile and it got successfully latched to some BTS there. Well BTS is too technical, let’s say we got signal there. It was again indication that we were not far from 9 Gudda peak. It was again time to take out the map. Shashi put his hands into his pouch, came to me and said “give me the map” and I replied “where is it”. If the fact that we were more or less lost in a forest is not enough, here was another shocker for us. Map, which was almost our lifeline was not to be seen. we LOST the MAP! or it was map which decided to lose us, it was we who got stranded in a dense forest without knowing 'proper' way forward. (This was our carelessness. Absolute important thing should’nt have been lost). Going back to look for map was also discussed with that chances that we might have dropped map some where, but that was dropped as it would have been like finding needle in haystack.

With no map, we had only compass and Garmin(GPS) to rely on. Which also meant less accuracy!

It was almost like wandering in the forest for next few minutes. With the path we took since morning, we had to do one more steep climb at some point. At the end of that steep climb, We were supposed to get grasslands and from there walk along the grass lands to reach 9 Gudda peak. But the catch was, we had to start the climb the steep part at the right place. With no map, Shashi took the call. A steep inclination was found, which Shashi felt is the right time and spot, and started climbing and we followed. Everything on Day2 was tougher, so was this Day 2’s steep climb. It was loose soil and small plants/trees, which we planned to use as support spread throughout the inclination, had dried thorns. It was so slippery that I had to pull Kartick up using stick (was strong! which I had used for support) while he held another end. He then used the same idea to pull the guy behind him. Not sure if others followed that idea. But it worked great. Several times I caught a tree stem for support and thorns pierced my palm’s skin. I removed some thorns which was found by me over the tree stem so that other do not face the same fate. While it started to feel that this is never ending climb, heard a long whistle from Shashi and his loud shout from him followed it.

“Grassland!” Those words made me feel that this ordeal is over and perhaps adrenaline inside me kicked in. I climbed fast to reach where Shashi was. I could see Shashi surround by grass around 2-3 feet tall. I reached that spot and turned around to see who is behind. And nature’s beauty caught my eye. It was one of the amazing views of nature. Hills around entire area could be seen from there. Dense and green forest through which we trekked was also seen. Our planned original path was also seen. Smiles on our faces were also seen. What the future of next couple of hours holds for us was not seen.

The place where me and Shashi rested was congested and so Shashi disappeared inside ‘dense grass’ in search of possible path ahead and soon me and Deesu followed him. It was supposed to be a walk in the grass. But it turned out like rubbing salt on the wounds. Literally! Dry grass with tiny thorns on their edges embraced our arms. Inclination was still there and we had to bend our body forward and take support of grass from its root, while our naked sweated arms exposed to grass’s tiny thorns. It was more like sharp edges of grass than thorns. We had to make the our own path through those 3 feet tall grasses. One advantage we had in this climb was the grip we used get over grassed. ‘Sliding down’ part was not there. Without knowledge of how long we had take this grassy path to reach till top and with hope of reaching peak at the end of the grass, we were moving along bearing the pains. Disappointment was waiting for us again. As a bliss, grassland ended, and no prizes for guessing, we found ‘fresh’ tree canopy again. And to add to our woes, we encountered thorny bush beyond which there were trees. We had to cross that somehow to move forward. Without even thinking much, I covered my face and barged through one of the bush, while the thorns caught hold of my sleeping mat and started pulling me back. With full force I pushed myself ahead and may be gave away some tiny pieces of my sleeping mat to that bush and took shelter under a tree. Shashi climbed and tree to check for ‘any’ possible path ahead. Unfortunately no clear path were seen. Deesu and Shashi dropped their backpack near me and went inside the forest to check for the possible ways. I waited to guide the others to push through the bush to reach the place where we took rest. For next few minutes, none of them were seen. But I knew Chandra was near. I could clearly hear his cries of pain while he walked through the thorny grasses.

It took a while before everyone arrived there dropped their backpacks and rested under shade of a tree. It was around 1 PM then and we finally decided it was time for breakfast. It was chapathi with some pickles. And once again idea of going back from there flowed through. At that time I felt that also might be better idea, but the catch was we had to take the same path we travelled since morning for about 5 hours . With time running out, it looked like a bad idea, as it would have been difficult find the river back before sunset. Nitin took the call and rejected the idea of going back. Everyone was sitting facing the direction which we came from. I was facing the opposite direction resting my back on the branch of that tree. I was looking at the ants colony which was next to that tree when I heard sound of some leaves or dry twigs crackling. I looked towards the direction of source of that sound. I was shell shocked with what I saw. May be I did not feel that shock with fear which followed. I felt I saw like something, like a four legged animal walking not far from where we were. I felt it was black in color and had hairs all over its body. I felt like it stopped after seeing us.

Was it a Bear!?

I was about to shout and alert everyone, but stopped and had a look at it again.

Coming up in Part 4 : Conclusion

9 Gudda : Changed plans

Please Read Part 1 before reading this

Being mentally prepared to what I am going to see I slowly removed my socks, there they were! Leeches! 3 blood suckers. SALT, the remedy was used to get rid of them. Though more leeches were latching to our feet, we decided to donate some blood and continue our trek, now through Jeep tracks. Moments later, time arrived where we had to make a decision. The jeep track divided into 2! Shashi suggested we have to take right track there and based on inputs by one of my friend, I wanted to take wrong track! I mean left. The left track was looking more like a walking path than a Jeep track. So it was decided that me and Shashi will walk a bit along the left track and if we see any further Jeep track will call the rest.Though path ahead looked like a Jeep track, wondered how would anyone drive Jeep along that track. With the visible Jeep track we called rest of the guys by whistle indication. Then we started walking in the Jeep track and were introduced to the dense forest. I honestly expected to see some wild animal in such dense forest. Till now we did not see anything else than leeches. Birds chirps were heard but no visual contact happened. A sweet singing bird even responded to our whistles without giving privilege for visual confrontation.

2 GPS is what we had. None were used till now ( I was checking if my Nokia GPS is working without AGPS support regularly.) as Jeep track was leading us. Our first check point was the place where 2 river streams joined. From there we had plans to start climbing a hill. Jeep track was supposed to lead us till that point and from there we were on our own. I mean with GPS. A dense forest bring quite a unique experience of its own. One such experience was, as we were walking along whenever we touch a particular kind of plant around 7 feet high, small insects whose number would be in hundreds would drop from their leaves and fly around without faring away from their group. They were like small mosquitoes. They looked harmless though. But blocked our path. I was really impressed with their ‘team work’. We had to duck below the insects to move ahead. A group of tiny flying insects forced us to bow to them brfore moving furthur. I thought NGC can have an episode on insects colony here. Still no traces of any other animals.

After taking left(wrong??) track earlier, I always had doubt if we are moving in right path. Even GPS In my Nokia was not showing our correct location. And the assumption was that we would not need the other GPS(old Garmin! Our life saver later). But soon we encountered the river junction. It was around 11 AM. Crystal clear water with shining reflection of sunlight welcomed us. Cold water from the river got rid of our thirst. Delicious breakfast was waiting. Akki rotti with Tomoto curry ( yes we carried it) with extra oil! We gulped akki rottis without keeping the count till our stomach was full with our taste buds still wanting more. As soon as we were done with our breakfast, it was time to jump into the water. After spending some 20 minutes in water, it was time to get back to our trail. As per our plan(??), that was the last water source till we complete the trek. So everyone filled ‘enough’ water and kept a separate water bottle with ‘Gatorade’ in it.

Here we did our first mistake(fortunate??)

We continued to trace the path which we found. But as per our plan we had to start climbing the steep hill as soon as we crossed the river. We thought there might be some ‘easy’ way to enter the forest and then start climbing the hill. To our delight, we saw that! When we started climbing the hill, a villager who was passing by warned us that we are taking wrong path and offered help to show us the correct path, which we ignored and continued climbing. Nitin and Shashi went ahead to check if we can actually climb the hill from the chosen path. After getting green signal from them, we followed their trail. Difficult part of trek had just started and hard part was still waiting. It was inclination of around 60 degrees and at certain places we had to make our own path through dried plans with thorns. We used to do such activity in college days in ‘Youth Club’ camps and it was called ‘bush Crafting’. But that was no way close to what we were experiencing. Suddenly my Nokia GPS started showing our location and gave us hope that we are on the right track. We were supposed to reach the peak of that hill in next 30 minutes. People were struggling to climb the hill. Thorns indicated their presence on our arms. To the utter dismay of all, we hit a road block! We had to climb over the rocks to reach the peak. Shashi broke the news to us that one cannot climb those rocks. We did not have climbing equipments as well. After brief search for any path around to reach the peak, it was decided to go back to the point from where we started climbing the hill and take the regular path. Climbing down was much more tedious task. We took more time to climb down and had more scratches on our hands. At the point , our original plan/route to reach 9 Gudda was ruled out. So we decided to take the normal route which is generally used to reach the peak and it was the same way which the villager went by. Was sure if we meet the villager again, he would burst out into laughter first. And we had to learn how to use the second GPS(Garmin). We were Engineers! And so discovered the usage of that GPS. It was small feature which gives current co-ordinates on GPS, but was enough for us.

Visible path which was made by people who walked along that path soon became invisible and we had no idea where we were. Tree canopy was such that GPS were not detecting any satellites. So we thought our safe bet is to walk along the river and find a place to camp and since we would come out in open, our GPS can detect some satellites.. With sun showing signs of coming down, smiles also started fading on our faces slowly. Now we know only one path properly. The path to go back from where we started. I thought a silver lining was due for us and was waiting for it each and every moment. The map we took used to come out regularly and we tried to mark our location with co-ordinates we got from Garmin GPS(second one. Thank god we took it). But exact position was not found properly even once. At one point Shashi thought he saw a path and started climbing a small hill only to reach a point from where we could move no further. Then again we came back towards river and started walking by the river over boulders. We were now doing valley trekking. While we were moving ahead, at a particular place, Nitin came to me and told “ This looks like the place where wild animals come @ night to drink water”. And I thought he watches too much of ‘Animal Planet’. We were happy for one thing though. Water was right next to us and we carried good amount of food.

And just when we thought we will camp at the next place we find where we can pitch the tent , we saw the ‘silver lining’. It was whitish and it was flowing. It was a water fall which can be seen at a distance. And above all, there was some movement above the falls. Felt like a man standing and looking at the falls. Since couple others also saw it, it was clear I was not hallucinating. Shashi and Sunil decided to go towards the falls to check if they can find the place where Shashi and group had camped before (Shashi’s earlier trek), while I waited for the rest and gave them the god news. We had discovered the falls! And there came the whistle from Shashi , which was some positive sign. We had to cross the river once to reach the waterfall, which took some time. And 5 min later we were standing right in front of the falls. For a moment I forgot all the worries and enjoyed the beauty of this amazing water fall, which hardly had any human interference. And then Shashi was ready with the good news. The camp site we were looking for was near, but still was 30 – 40 min away. The person whom we saw from the distance was still there was ready to take us to that camping spot. While Shashi and Sunil went towards that camp site, rest of us took some rest near the water fall. We had accidentally discovered a water fall. It was not huge, but it was very refreshing sight. Since this falls was not mentioned in any of the 9 Gudda blogs earlier, we found it safe to assume that we have discovered it J.I was so excited to see that falls that I forgot to ask the name of the person who agreed to help us reach the camp site.

Sun was about to come down and we set towards the camp site hoping for more rest there. Me, Nitin and Kummi were left behind as we were taking more snaps. And the journey towards camp site from there was one of its kind. We climbed rocks, jumped over rocks, ducked under tree branches, hugged rocks to cross it, found a natural swing, found places where one small mistake could have tossed us to the river. All these were on the banks of that river. And finally we crossed the river(yes again!) over boulders to reach our camp site. Chandra had some fears initially to cross the river over boulder. Finally he also crossed and we made use of the rope there for the first time in our trek.

Nitin and Deesu fetched some dry wood for camp fire. I with couple more pitched the tents. In no time we were ready for both camp fire and sleep J. Camp fire took the priority over sleep then and finally we realized, we had only 1 meal that day till then. And then food came out and a shocker was waiting for us. Rotti(jola) which we had bought was stale due to heat and humidity. This was not alarming then as we had surplus amount of chapathi for the night and next day. Ate food peacefully and few guys went inside tent to sleep. Me,Shashi,Chandra,Nitin,Sunil and Kummi slept around camp fire gazing at the sky. Millions of stars were visible that night which would reduce to few thousands in Bangalore. Under the stars, next to the river, with a known place(to shashi) found at last, we decided to drop the idea of going back and start towards our original destination of 9 Gudda Peak. We had new hope in our heart with ample food and water in our stomach. Unfortunately there was no song and dance session and everyone went into their tents to sleep. We carried only 3 tents with the idea that couple of us will give watch for the rest in turns. Even that went for a toss and everyone occupied their places in their tents with their sleeping bags.

We were never able to get our correct location on map as GPS sometimes used to give co-ordinates with some correction. So next day we had to consider that also. Plan was to wake up early next day and reach the 9 Gudda peak by noon. With the hope of getting good sleep and expecting dream of finding ourselves on 9 Gudda, I closed my eyes and thought sleep will sweep me. A more dreadful day was waiting for us.

Coming up in Part 3 : sleeping bags!, sleepless night, late start, missed path, lost path, lost map, lost hope,more Thorns, deadly creepers, Bear!, GPS ,mobile calls, low on water,so near yet so far, night trek, Chopper rescue?

9 Gudda: Beginning

Prologue:

Bharath and his friends reached that point of the river where they cannot go any further. Unfortunately, lack of GPS has hurt them bad. Inside the deep jungle and nowhere to go, multiple suggestions started to come by. Finally they all agreed to climb a small hill next to the river stream and check if they see any path or destination from there, only to find out dense forest as long as eyes can see. Dense and green with thousands of unseen insects and no traces of human interference. They knew only one path from there. The path they had traced till now. Going forward would have been a risk. Just when they were about turn back, one more group arrived at the scene who has GPS. Bharath and friends completed the rest of the trek with other group without much incidents. That was what Bharath thought. Couple of days later, he observed small blisters on his body. One on his leg and one more on his hand. He neglected it. 2 days passed by. Now he saw some black colored object inside those small blisters. When he observed closely, he found out that it was a small insect inside his skin! There were two! On of them dead(unborn) and the second one when touched jumped off and started to inspect the place. Afraid Bharath went to a doctor who assured him he is safe and if there were any more insects inside him, would have come out by now. Bharath thought some insect might have laid eggs inside his skin during his trek of 9 Gudda.

2 years later

Bharath is still doing fine with no more traces of that insect.

With a midweek holiday in last week of Jan, I thought of going for long pending trek. Kumara Parvata was our last trek and more than an year had passed by since the last trek. Shashi had been to ‘9 Gudda’ last month. With lots of accolades heard about ‘9 Gudda’, decided to go for ‘9 Gudda’ trek. Roped in Shashi first to guide our team forward with his experience. And then started recruitment process for candidates for this trek. Mails were sent, phone calls were made, and with initial hiccups, finally there were 11 people ready for the trek. Interestingly @ a point there were only 4 people ready and confirmed for the trek and VK warned me that this kind of trek requires more people(so true).

Two days before the travel date me and Deesu went to Decathlon to check out compass and GPS. Ended up buying tents, sleeping bags and trekking shoes along with compass. But most of did not have trekking bags. Thanks to Moksh and Vijey, we were able to arrange few. Sleeping bags and sleeping mats for the rest were hired.

Barely minutes before ‘take off’ , Kalyan had to drop due to some personal reasons. Now we were 10 people. By the time we reached the starting point of our journey in Bangalore dodging Friday evening’s traffic, it was almost 11. Took some 30 minutes (or more…) to load the luggage to TT. Finally 10 people in TT were on their way from Bangalore for ‘9 Gudda’ trek. Couple of us were yet to have Dinner and most of the ‘Dhaba’ on highway were closed. Finally after checking out several dhabas we found one where we had delicious roti and sabji. It was now time to sleep like good boys in TT. But music in TT and bad road kept most of us awake . Around 6 AM (Day1) we reached Gundya checkpost. It was still dark. We decided to sleep till sun comes out.

Few minutes later, after packing our stuffs, we climbed back our TT to reach our starting point of the trek. After couple of ‘clicks’ our trek started. Fear that my back ache will do the spoil sport was always there. Now was the time for briefing! And introduction to the group. 10 of us. Me,Sunil(deesu),Nitin,Shashi,Chandra,Narayan(kummi),Kartik,Jeevan,Sharan,Bipin. Shashi did a briefing based on his experience. His own words ….

“ The trek is not going to be easy. There might be some wild animals in the forest. On the sight of any wild animal we need to stand still where ever we are (?? Shashi have u seen Jurassic Park movie? Part 3 to be specific). Do not throw plastic and papers. Be careful about snakes (there are some pit vipers there it seems). On the sight of Elephant/s, our trek will end.”

Everyone nodded their heads and Shashi started with his usual speed. He was thin and has less weight to carry apart from the packed stuffs. Same was not the case with all! It was decided that Shashi will be the leader and Deesu will be the sweeper. Initial few minutes of trek(walk??) passed through farms without any incident. Just before entering the forest, there was a small ditch which we had to jump and cross. First four people crossed it without any problems. When my turn arrived, I made sure not to give any sudden jerk to my back. Next to me was Jeevan. When he jumped over the ditch, he stopped at that instant and dropped the backpack on the ground. I thought he hurt his back. His back was actually fine. When he jumped, his back was with him, but backpack gave away. It failed to take the weight and somehow was managing his walk. But when he jumped, physics kicked in and jerk increased the weight momentarily and the one of the shoulder strap of backpack ‘broke up’ with the bag. I thought we should give strap and bag some more time to understand each other and suggested putting the bag back in the cab and pick a new bag, but Deesu played forced cupid and tied the strap and bag with a rope. We would later find out that the bag was really bad in relationships. (Two lessons here! Carry a good backpack where each and every part of the backpack gel with each other very well and keep their relationship intact for entire journey(trek)and be careful while jumping with a weight of 10 kg on your back)

After the minor bag incident, we continued our journey. Moments later I felt something crawling under the socks. Instantly I knew what it was! Surprisingly no one felt that till then. We were under attack!

Coming Up in part 2 : a nice 'swim', a steep climb,bush crafting, 'hoda putta,banda putta', change of plans, learn using GPS, plans to abort, unexpected beauty, camp site.

MIRROR

When I heard it, it sounded so familiar. It felt as though I listen to that music daily and I can never forget it.

Something was strange there. But everything around looked so familiar. Was I there before? Can't recall! It was an abandoned fort next to a sea shore. Something inside me was telling that I was not alone there. I never was! I tried to recall how I came there. Nothing came to my mind. It was as though I was brought there in my sleep. Trying to recall how I came there, I closed my eyes.

It was Dark. There were high rise buildings, well lighted. There were many people around. None of the faces there were recognizable. I walked around a bit. That place looked very unfamiliar. There was a bridge over which a man in fully pressed suit who was looking at the crowd below. No one seems to have noticed him, but I could not help it. He was very far from where I was. Wanted to ask someone the way back to home. Tried to stop and speak to couple of guys there, but hardly did they respond. The walk of each and everyone out there was mechanical as though unaware of the world around. Now I can see the man over the bridge clearly. He was still staring at the crowd below. I felt like I had seen him somewhere. Very Familiar. When I went much closer, I realized he was staring at me. He was an old man in his 60s. Something inside was telling me that I meet him daily and he now wants to tell me something. The way back to my home? I searched for stairs to reach him. Surprisingly there weren’t any! I tried hard to recall his name. Nothing flashed in my mind. I shouted loudly “HEY” waving towards the old man. The old man was still looking at me without any change in expression. But the crowd, who doesn’t seem to have had any clue about my existence there, started looking at me. Everyone out there looked at me once and carried on with their walking. But two men, very identical (perhaps twins) still had their eyes on me. They both almost together, put their hands inside their jacket. I looked at the old man. He turned his face towards his left once and started looking at me again. That looked like some indication to me. Without even giving a second thought I started running towards the way the old man indicated. After running to the end of the road, I turned back to make sure the ‘twins’ are not running after me. And I saw myself standing next to a huge hotel, where some party was going on. Some music was being played. The music which I listen to everyday. From the distance I could make out that the old man has disappeared from the bridge. And suddenly I felt heard a huge noise very near to me and I fell on the ground. Bullet fire? What I saw then was complete darkness.

Complete darkness! I opened my eyes. I saw the same twins standing in front of me in the fort. Was I abducted and bought here? But why?

“Why you guys have bought me here?” No reply.

It was as though both were sleeping with their sunglasses on. I could see the entrance/exit to the fort which leads to the sea. I slowly walked towards that and surprisingly the twins did not move. I did not turn back till I reached the exit. Near exit when I was confident that I can sneak out without any problems, and looked back, found the twins face turned towards me. They let me go willingly? I was about to run through the exit I saw the ‘old man’ again in front of me. He was lot younger this time. How can he grow young? I could say he is the same guy with scar he had in his forehead. It was clearly visible in the street light, when he had turned his face to point out my escape route when he was standing on the bridge. But this time he was smiling as though he was telling “there is no escape this time”. We both stood there for few minutes without any words between the two. Finally he broke the silence. He said “Go Inside”. I took couple of steps back. Saw a wooden log which was reachable to me easily.

When I woke up, felt severe pain in my neck. It was as though someone hit me with the wooden log. I found myself lying in front of a house. I knocked the door hoping not to have the ‘old man’ open the door. But the door opened with my push. A man and a lady were sitting on a sofa and watching TV. A small kid was playing in front of them. The man smiled at me and said “come in sonny”. I observed the man. He looked very much like the ‘old man’ Oh! No not again! And then I saw his forhead. No scar! I drank a glass of water which was kept on the table and sat on an empty chair there. The couple though not looking @ me, failed to restrict naughty smile on their faces. They knew what I went through today? Suddenly I realized, I had seen the before. ‘The twins’?? Unwillingly I turned towards the kid. I was searching for scar on his forehead. The kid looked and smiled at me and turned towards the man who now had remote in his hands and said “It’s time”.

Music! The same music which I listen daily and do not ever want to be played again. The same music that wakes me up from my dear sleep. Each and every day! Without miss! Had its laugh once again today. I found myself on my bed. I covered my face with my hands and wished myself good morning and went towards the sink , washed my face and while my towel was doing its duty of cleaning the last traces water left on my face, a scar on my forehead which I got in my childhood in a bicycle crash was clearly visible in the mirror. Time to play the same alarm music again?

The Legend - a Tribute

What a weekend for sports. One of most exiting finish in the history of F1 races where the world champion of 2008 remained a secret for last 5 seconds. England were beaten by Stanford superstars to win whopping $20 million. But one event which every cricket follower in India would remember for a long time would be the retirement of Indian Cricket Test Captain, Anil Kumble!

I still remember the day i became fan of Anil Kumble. It was finals of Titan cup against South Africa! The unbeatable side then. Tendulkar was captain. India were on the verge of victory and Kumble was bowling his 10th over and last man was @ crease. He happened to be Allan Donald. Till then i was fan of Anil Kumble just because he hails from my state. The commentator guy was praising Anil Kumble. For a second i wondered if the commentator was exaggerating a bit. The last ball of his spell changed my view about the Great Gem of India for ever. Sachin took all the time in the world to clean the ball with his handkerchief to remove every trace of the dew. I was murmuring "Just finish the match. It is the last wicket and India will win". And Anil bowled last ball of his spell and little Donald could do! The ball was unplayable and it ricocheted into the wood work. ( India used to lose many matches then ) India have beaten South Africa and clinched Titan Cup. The ball pitched outside the off stump. The batsman came forward to defend. The ball took a sharp turn and it's next stop was the middle stump! That one ball made me realize what a great bowler he is!

There is endless list of his achievements. The Jaw dropping moment when he bowled with broken jaw and took two wickets ( took Hooper off a No Ball ). And who can forget his amazing 10 wkts in an inning feat against Pakistan. He was the lone century maker when India last toured England.

When he called it a day, what a send off he got from fellow players. He bowled first ball of his last innings after shaking hands with Australians. I have never seen any cricket player getting that sort of farewell. It is irony that the person who is going to take over captaincy from Anil's shoulder carried Anil on his should for a 'farewell' lap through Kotla ground. This series was supposed to see grand farewell of our 'Dada' (we'll see it next week). Kumble became 1st of the fab 5 to go! And he signed off with a spectacular catch of his own ball despite injured finger. Hat's off to you Kumble! You are one of the legends of modern cricket. See you in second season of IPL.

No comments

Well, it very long since i wrote anything in this space. Sometimes i lacked subject to write, rest of the times required passion to write was missing. After long time i got a 'perfect' subject to write one.

So, what exactly does 'perfect' mean. Shall we conclude that a person or a place or a picture or a vehicle or a movie is perfect when we feel there is nothing wrong in it or we feel nothing else needs to be added to complete it? How many times we have stumbled across such things? Me experienced such perfection recently. It's the movie 'The Dark Knight'.

As soon as i finished watching the movie, i was dumbfounded and there was 'no comments' to make! It went on to become my all time favourite movie surpassing 'Judgement Day' and 'The Matrix'. Let me confess! i watched the movie forgetting the actual world. The movie took me to that 'other' world as soon as 'The Joker' enters the scene.

Each and every aspect of the movie was impressive. It started from the direction! Boy! what a job he has done! Every movie i watch, i try to find some mistake. I found none in the movie! Even in the legendary 'The Matrix' i was able to make about small rope holding the duplicate from falling down. And in few scenes i was able to recognize the duplicate. Hats off to director and editor who made the visuals look real! All the special effects seen were awesome! Imagine few meters long trunk somersaulting in the middle of a road! The graphics! eyeballs of 'Two Face' moving together when half of the face is disfigured! wow! All the actors did their job well! I wish there was IMAX theatre in my city to watch the sequences which were shot using IMAX camera.

Finally, 'The Joker'. I have seen Heath Ledger's movies earlier. I appreciated his acting earlier too. But his acting in the movie! it's absolutely mind blowing! starting from the scene one, every times he comes on screen, he sends chilling sensation in you! Even when he is smiling or laughing look into his eyes to believe it! I hope there will not be any sequel to this movie with some one else portraying 'the Joker' (It is rumoured that next instalment will have heath ledger's unseen footages which were originally shot for this movie! unconfirmed though :) ). As tipped he might get Oscar for his role posthumously. My opinion is it's a must watch movie and it's not made for kids!

eat it!

Since we are on our way to Chikkamagalooru this weekend for a trip, i wanted to know what kind of local special food do we get there . I asked shashi and he replied,'coffee'. Sarcastically i said " I was taking about eating". His response " coffee powder!".

The Attack!!

The story you are about to read is more than 6 months old. Did not publish it after requests from the victims. Now after taking their permission publishing it. Beware this can happen to you!


Yeah we are. All was well till October. That was when we shifted to our new house. no one had the faintest idea whats in store for us. Everything was normal for first few days. We all enjoyed staying in our new house exception being frequent power problems in the morning hours. That is the time everyone is in hurry to get ready and head to office. Low voltage and our geyser not responding to our urgency ended up us being ready to take bath in cold water. But we thought it is too much to compromise bathing in warm water. There came the idea. GAS!. We hardly used to cook. So we found a way to use the gas stove . Get the water heated using gas stove. The risk was always involved regarding what we would do when gas is over and it would take sometime to get new cylinder. But for the time being the problem was solved. but there was more to come. To watch India play the world cup we got a Tuner card and cable connection to our house. Those were the days we were very happy. Carrom board to play ( to turn the switch as Raghu mama calls it )TV for time pass ( yeah once TV was there Carrom was gone ). Maid to clean the house and wash our clothes.

The day was about to come.

Off late Kummi started complaining about something biting him . Thought that would be some red ant we ignored the same. Perhaps that was a big mistake on our part. We were soon to discover that there was something more ( bigger??) than that. When i was told that i could not believe. All these days i believed that was extinct as i did not see it till now. Then i saw that. One fine day Balchigi called me and showed it to me. That was alive and i am seeing it for the first time. Was 'thrilled' to see living 'Bed Bug' right in the house where we are living. After killing it thought it was over.

Things got worse when they started to emerge out from our bags and shirts in our office. Once kummi's colleague saw it on kummi's shirt and some other time it was raghu mama's turn to face the embrassment. Frustrated by this kummi declared all out attack war on those. One of the room in our house was decorated with dead bodies of the bed bugs. All the credit goes the great bed bug hunter kummi. Should get bravery award. Seeing that i remembered movie 300 where few Spartans resist millions of Persian soldiers. kummi is our Leonidas. I too got my chances to kill some. Especially when some got in my bag and started to come out in office. I had to kill the bugs secretly and was successful in that without letting any of our colleague's know about that. Vinnyk accepted that he hides the bag once he takes that to office fearing anyone would see our brothers ( they have shared our blood now ). Even one complete CAN of bug killer spray did not help us. Felt sorry for raghu mama when he got hit on his leg by belt buckle when he was attempting to get rid of possible bug's from his pants before wearing it.

We bought one more CAN of bug killer spray but soon we had to use that for one more attack. This time it was ants. That day after coming back from office saw our house's floor was filled with ants. No body's bed was spared. We had to clean each and every inch of carpet area in our house and soak that with the spray to sleep happily amidst fragrance of the bug spray. The latest is that raghu mama found bug's nest in the books vinnyk had collected with many eggs. They had to face raghu mama's fury. A litre of bug spray was poured on them. And as of now it is not over yet. Here we are with our eyes open in search of any bug. Now we have challenged them to come out in the open if they dare!!!!!!

EPILOGUE :

The Result -- we are defeated
What followed will be updated soon

BARgained

One of my friends wanted to buy a new mobile. We went to mobile shop, selected a mobile and asked for the price. shopkeeper said the price of the model. My friend seemingly alarmed said the price is too high and others are giving it for less. The shop keeper asked who is giving that mobile for less price. My friend's reply "need to check".

Indian Wonder !

Few Years back, Allan Border surpassed Gavaskar's record of most runs scored by an individual in Test Cricket. Around about same time, Team India was playing a ODI ( i think so ). Amidst the crowd , some one was showing this message written on a drawing sheet.I still Remember each and every word in that message. I had thought that would be too much to expect. That message was for the whole world and was very clear. This is what it read, " Congratulations Border, But Don't worry, Tendulkar is there".

Sachin Tendulkar is now just few matches away from becoming highest run scorer in Test cricket. Similar feat has been acheived by him long ago in ODI.

Life Style

our lives have become so mechanical. just check this out. couple of weeks back when i was walking on the road, wanted to check if any vehicle is coming from behind. i tried and failed to locate a 'rear view mirror'. couple of days later ( again while walking on the road ) was very disappointed for not being able to locate 'indicator' switch before taking left turn.

Chak De!

Victory for Team India!. What a way to bring back the lost glory in Indian cricket. Win the world cup after 24 years. What more!. Win it in the same year in which we were shown exit early in the waorld cup (Another format). No comments on the T20 World Cup final match as every one knows about that. We got the result we wanted for which we waited for years. Team India has finally come out of the tag 'Chokers'. Now there is long line up of matches coming. Hopefully with the confidence gained, Team India give us more to cheer.

Interestingly, it's glorious period for Indian sports. India emerged as champions of Asian Hockey, India won Nehru cup in football recently, India is winning in Chess, Billiards and more. The Chak De! factor is truly rocking for India. Hope to see India in new heights in all aspects in near future.

And started a friendship

I am an engineer. I had shown traces of this skill when i was a kid. i don't remember, but my grandpa used to say i had once pressed all the buttons of his tape recorder together. Well, no wonder my dad did not bought tape recorder till i was little older. The time was about to come.

My Grandpa hated TV. He used to scold us always we might damage our eyes watching TV continuously. He cared a lot for us. i remembered him once telling me to be careful of this new virus ( computer virus). He had heard from Radio that this virus is spreading fast across all the computers.

Well, back to our main story. I was waiting for the tape recorder to arrive. My grandpa had given me the good news. Dad and grandpa will get new tape recorder for our house. The night before i would have dreamt of switching on the tape and WOW so many buttons to play around with. Finally it came. I rushed towards that and searched everywhere. There are no buttons at all. What will i play with this boring thing. After some explanation from my dad i realised it was radio. I was not happy at all. Soon it was decided to return the radio and buy a tape recorder. Couple of days later, the tape recorder came. I thought this is what i call a real player. Yeah there are many buttons to play around with. Boy i loved the 'pause' button. So easy to press. I had been given freedom to play with that button. More over it listens to us. Press and let it be in that state as long as u want. Not like 'fwd' or 'rev' button which used to come back to it's original state with a huge thud when they get tired. For me pause button was never tiring warrior. There was one more interesting button called 'record'. Boy! it was so hard to press. I complained my dad that this machine is not good. i can not press record button at all. Even my dad tried to press that and failed. So far he had seen record button (usually) as part of play button (there used to be a small red button for record which used to be part of play button in some corner). dad applied little more pressure on the record button. Suddenly!. I never thought 'play' and 'record' used to hate each other. As soon my dad pressed 'record' with force, with a huge thud the play button jumped from it's place and fell on the ground. 'Record' kicked 'play' out of the tape recorder. Wow! i said 'record' will be my friend. Dad inserted the button back to it's place. I felt bad for 'play' also was angry with shop keeper who sold us defective tape recorder. Next day the shop keeper explained us that 'record' and 'play' are not enemies but are very close friends. We had to press them together.


The tape recorder was very strong. It dodged all my attacks successfully. Not even a single time it complained to my dad. it became my close friend. A friend who plays music and sings whenever i wanted. He was even a good mimic. sometimes he used to mimic the songs which i sang ( !!????!!**%). This is how a new friendship between me and my ex-tape recorder started.

These changed the way men live - 1

What were the amazing inventions/discoveries made by humans?. There are thousands of onventions and discoveries made, but some changed the way people live . Here is my attempt to lis such discoveries which changed the people's lives.

1. Fire : Go back to Human history few thousand years back. Man was living in caves. say some where during the stone age. There is an interesting story about the fire that i read some where. Once while cave men were hunting an animal, it accidently fell in fire ( may be forest fire ). They pulled out the animal which was cooked now and found it tasty to eat. Before that he would have thought fire is dangerous now he discovered a way to make use of the same fire. of course fire gives heat which helped men to get rid of cold. And then he found out there are multiple advantages by fire when it is controlled. Man eventually discovered many things which can done using fire which mad him enter age of industry. of course he discovered he can hurt some one with the fire. . Man used the same fire power to attack his neighbour which started then and has not stopped yet.

2. Wheel : Ancient man led nomadic life used to migrate from place to place on his foot. eventually he learned to tame some animals like horses and donkeys and used them to travel from one place to another. Horses and Donkeys became means of transport for him. But something was missing. only one or two people can travel on a horse back. Perhaps initially he built a wooden plan which can carry few people and made horses drag the plank, but turned out to be tiresome for horses and time consuming as well. Then came 'Wheel'. Discovery of wheel scores more points than discovery of fire. the reason , Fire is natural phenomenon. Ancient man might have seen forest fire and used it. but was there any natural wheel ?. we find very minute number of instances in nature which resembles wheels. may be rolling stone from a mountain. may be that inspired man to use stones wheels and later it got evolved . stone wheels were replaced by wooden and finally metal wheels took over. got a cushion of rubber which were eventually filled with air. Today the use of wheel is seen everywhere. even in machine parts. There would be hardly any day one spends with out seeing a single wheel.


Coming up : likes of TV, Mobile Phone, Internet.

Million Dollar ??

While i was in Bristol , this was one of the day we went out for lunch. Had a very good day at office till then. had a great lunch and the person who had come with me was in a merry mood. we chatted with the guy who served us food through out the time we were there. best conversation was yet to come. just before paying the bill, the restaurent guy came and asked "do you want anything else sir". as said earlier, the person who had come with me was in a very good mood. he decided to make us all laugh. he said " we would like to have a million dollars" but the guy who served perhaps did not heard peoperly what he said. with out any change in expression, he replied " we do not have anything like that here sir " :-)

Absolute nail biter!

Imagine a situation in a cricket match. last bowl to be bowled. last run to win the match and last man standing at the crease. a Tense situation. Batting team stands more chances of winning. a spinner is bowling the last ball. the person who is facing the ball is not at good batting.all the fielders are inside the circle. it was 1 run in 3 balls earlier but the batsmen could not clear infield in last two balls. bowler starts his run up. when he is about to deliver the ball, he sees batsman coming down the track. he throws the ball wide of the batsman who misses the ball completely. keeper collects the ball neatly and knocks off the bails. the batsman is stumped out!. all the fielders are jumping in joy. they held the match. but wait. umpire has given it as wide ball!. Now what would be the result. we have seen strangest things happen in cricket, this is one of them ( though i do not remember such a thing happening ). The result might go in favour of batting team and might trigger a controversy and may force to introduce couple of new rules in cricket but would be really exiting to watch such a nail biter. all the blame would go the bowler.

now say 2 runs required of last ball and same batsman and bowler are in picture. all fielders inside the circle. batsman could not score off previous two deliveries. batsman comes down the track to hit the ball, bowler bowls a wide, batsman stumped out! match drawn! :-).

Cute.....

Recently heard ineresting conversation between a small girl ( about 6-7 years old ) and one elder guy ( may be her father ) . Perhaps the girl was asking him about his principal ( dunno exactly what she asked . we heard only the answer given by the guy ) and he answered ' we do not have pincipal's we have managers :) '

The smile.

11 PM onwards was the time usually i come home then. Was very busy @ work during those days. No time for any other personel things . i remember i missed many movies i wanted to watch during those days. Did not even visit my home town for weeks. there was stretch of period where i went to work for weeks (including weekends). All these things happened before i went to onsite. when i came back, every thing had changed. No late night stay in office. no more working on weekends. i was very glad to welcome these changes. but....
One might think i missed so many things being in office for hours just for the sake of more money and recognition. guys wait! here comes my answer. i agree i had missed many things in life while i was in office. but i used to stay late and work in weekend because i liked every bit of it. i did that because i was very much interested in what i was doing and was very keen to learn more. most of the times no one used to force me to stay back late in office . Got recognition and money that's fine . More improtant than that for me was every day i used to go home being satisfied with whatever i did that day. Every night before i sleep i used to see myself smiling and felt fresh by the thought that i utilised one more day of my life doing things which bring satisfaction to me. that satisfaction would drive me to work late next day.
It has been long time since then . Now a days, my work is not that hectic. i have lot of time for other things. of course i am enjoying this part of my life being little free, but that smile..... is sort of missing :-) .

A journey! The way back.

Din knew how long we slept, but that was nice sleep we had. wake up only to realise we were hungry. reluctant to go by the same path we had come thinking it would take too long and we might die out of hunger, decided to use a 'shortcut'. the path looked pretty easy and directly we could have been to the place where our car is parked. but, raghu never agreed to take that path. he tried hard to convince me n raghu mama to take the clean path though it will take lil more time. but we were adament. in fact din even allow him to make choice by climbing down a distance and calling him there saying "see the place looks so near from here". cursing us raghu finally started following. now we were making our own way. raghu was little tense, especially after he got call from home. no no it was not his girl friend. finally we reached a place from where we had to decide which way we should move forward. raghumama, the captain, took the responsiblity immediately. he asked us to stay back and went in search of the easiest path from there onwards. few minutes later we found raghumama gone from our sight. is he lost or something. after few agonising minutes, finally we heard voice from raghu mama. but still he was not seen. all that happened was we heard his voice from somewhere. he was asking us to come down. but where is he ?. as we walked down, we saw plain land getting disappeared and dry bushes in place of plain land. we had to make our way through bushes now. bushcrafting??? . we saw a small temple there and found raghu mama resting there. had to eat 'jam' to get energy to traveling furthur. now there was no path at all from there. we had to walk through the bushes now. reached a point from we cannot move further at all. some how we managed to cross that and found a huge boulder. from a distance it seemed that the boulder was the end. once we climb down, we will reach plain land from where we can easily walk to the place where we had parked the car. a shock was awaiting when we reached the end of the boulder. after the boulder, there is steep fall. it is impossible to climb that down with out some broken bones. we had to search for some other way. again through bushes. and finally we saw some people there. with the help of them , we crawled through bushes for finaly few meters and successfully landed on plane land. we were no less happy than columbus when he found new land. no one said anything. we simply started running. as fast as we could. forgot how tired we were. ran through the field as though we are running for the first time. i did not remember when was the last time i ran like that. ran till we got tired and finally a water tank. we drank water as much we could. and headed straight for the car. raghumama swore he will never come to that place again. even had doubts if the snaps we saw was from this place. but now were heading back to bangalore insearch of some good place to eat. raghu called his home and told he will be back soon.

Now let me tell something about the place. actually it is really a nice place. very good for trekking. very calm and windy on the top. there is easy path as well to reach the top. and right time to visit is just after rain has stopped, sometime in november when it is lil cooler. me planing to visit the place again sometime in future. also trying hard to convince raghumama to visit the place again