He hee.....first let me list the things i did for the first time so people don't get me wrong..!!
0. My first trip abroad (big smile)
1. Surfboarding... (Yeah..! it was fun. Strengthen your arms first if you plan to learn)
2. Kayaking in Sea (it was kind of boring)
Ohkk....!!! Here are the details...
I was searching the internet for a proper place to teach me surfing a few days ago.
High speeds always thrill me, such good wind on the face and you can always feel the excitement.
My love for good bikes is for the same reason but you can always imagine the results of the fall.
Then whenever i used to watch these exciting x-games on tv, i could feel my pulse going up.
The adventure involved in those sports is awesome. Imagine a sport where you ride the waves on a nice soft plastic board.
And the natural energy of waves providing all the fuel you need and a nice soft cushion to land (or dive into) when you crash (as long as you know how to float again).
See, if i am not wrong you want to try it too. Right..!!!
The first thing that made me happy when i learned that i was coming to US wasn't the pay or the foreign luxuries involved.
It was the hope that i can try a hand at every adventure sport available. So i thought surfboarding would be a great start.
Rincon is one of the best places for learning or simply surfing or so i heard and as soon as i got company (thank you so much for coming Abhi...!!), i was there.
We were there at 3PM (we started late) and the girl at the surf shop told me that there was no one available to give lessons and i was afraid of wasting the whole of Friday.
Thats when Billy just came back from more than an hour of surfing and he agreed to take us in.
He told us the sea was rash but may be it was the cute doggy (puppy) faced look in my face or the stupid determination in my eyes he came with us in 15 minutes.
He gave us each one of the longest boards he had (long boards can catch up with small waves and are easy to balance your tummies on).
In few minutes we were on the beach listening to the basics of how to maintain balance, how to paddle and how to jump and stand once the board has caught up with the wave.
Then we were warned about the rocky patches in the beach where you can neither enter nor exit the sea. If a wave pushes you that way you can get seriously hurt.
Some of you might be predicting that i might have hit the rocks for sure, you are right but only half-right.
Haa..!! Now comes the hardest part of Surfing....paddling till you reach the spot where the waves are.
By the time we almost reached the place where we could start surfing (a safe 50-70 yards from the rocks at shore) we were completely drained of energy.
Maybe this was because of the heavy lunch we had about half an hour earlier. Anyways, Abhi wasn't able to maintain balance and i too was almost out of breath.
We came back to one of the exits and Abhi scratched his right leg at one of the rocks below.
After about 15 minutes of rest it was time for round 2 and this time Billy left his board and got some padded shoes so that he could swim while helping me learn.
Another 15 minutes, I was ready to try my luck at surfing the first time and we were waiting for a good wave.
As soon as Billy saw one he shouted start paddling and i did and in a few fractions of a second i was floating at great speed along with the wave and i slowly jumped and stood on my feet.
A second or two i was standing and surfing with the wave and the next second i dived into the water.
That was amazing. The experience, the feel everything. I can't even imagine about the levels of various surfers there (as young as 12).
They were like a part of that wave moving, turning, jumping, diving.....!!! Hope i can practice to get to that level.
When i was looking with awe at some small children surfing, Abhi tapped me on the shoulder and preached me the "Cricket Theory" or thats what we call it now.
The conversation below will help you understand the theory better:
Adi: Dude, look at them (pointing towards chidren barely 10 years old) happily riding the waves on a board.
Das: Abey, do you think they can play cricket???
Adi: !@#@#$@}#@}:$#@!?? WTF??
Das: They cant play cricket. We cant surf. Simple.
Adi: (click...click..on!) oh yeah..!! they can't!!
Get it. We saw a father taking his 2 year old (at the max) on the front side of his board and go surfing.
We saw a mother happily getting tanned in the sun when her two twin sons (arnd 5 years old) happily playing in the 4+ feet waves.
Well, in India if you even try to get near a bucket full of water when you are less than 15 year old, get ready for some nicely printed palms on your back.
Like, lets a beacause of a very occasional sea wave touched your feet while you (10 years old) were walking along the Vizag beach.
The mother pulls you off suddenly and runs clear as people do in a hollywood disaster flick and the dad is searching his vocabulary for meaningful terms to give his young son a nice lesson.
Well, my parents didn't allow me to join swimming classes when i was 12/13. They didnt allow me to join karate when i was 14.
They did let me join something when i was 10 and i left that in a few days, Kuchipudi. I was more into break dance then :) .
See. The fear of the unknown is the term for this i guess. Anyways, i waaaaaaaaaaaaaay off topic.
So after two successes with surfing with the help of Billy i thought its time for him to rest and for me to do some learning on my own.
After trying a few more times and letting some huge waves pass by. I was done. I didn't have enough energy in y arms and shoulders to paddle anymore.
I came to the beach and after a safe landing with the help of some hand signals from Das we left the beach for the day.
We liked Rincon and what was planned to be a one day trip turned out into a one night stay.
We had a few rum punches (local specialty) and a few boards of billiards (pool might confuse you) we drove around the town.
Some adventures from here on are not for the blog and somehow Abhi managed to annoy me and he was so happy about what he acheived.
After a nice swim at midnight in the pool at the hotel we stayed we retired.
Saturday, Abhi wanted to go fishing but the rough seas and the day after christmas night meant no locals (boat charterers) wanted to go in.
So we decided we will do some kayaking. Abhi wanted to take a single kayak with two seats but i who knew him from childhood knew what his intentions were.
There was no way there is enough energy in my arms to paddle both of us for around an hour. So we tooks two kayaks.
Abhi's take off (entry into the sea, as the waves were ony a few feet from the beach and you will have to manage your kayak there) was disastrous.
He was completely tumbled and hit the bottom. In the second try he came in fine.
After about 40 mins i was bored and feeing sun-burnt. I decided to go out and take a surboard instead.
My exit was much more disastrous. I thought staying in the kayak, the waves will simply push me off to the shore.
But the completely turned it over and i crash-landed (most probably on my right shoulder as it hurts the most).
Then we went to the other beach and back to Billy's shop after lunch and again after a not so successful attempt at surfing.
We were back on the road and back home after another three hours. We were tired and had a quick dinner nearby and slept.
Thats how my first trip abroad ended with loads of fun.
I had a superb christmas.
Off the topic:
I do remember the way we used to celebrate it at BPL.
The carols holding candles with birth of the christ depicted by school children in a tractor (i cant forget Bhargavi as Jesus).
I also played lots of roles in those nice skits. One I remember very well is "Messiah", the one who gives the message to world that Jesus is coming.
The christmas here is similarly celebrated expect at a larger scale and also with a party atmosphere everywhere.
One problem is that the carols here are sung in Spanish and i just hum if i catch a tune i recognize like Jingle bells or Joy to the world.
PS:
Pictures to be added soon. Sunday we went to a rainforest and a waterfall. The photos will do more talking than my stupid, repetetive words.
So keep watching this blog for links and don't forget to leave your comments.
PPS:
Those who want to know about the details of our adventure on Friday night, contact me or das (or both for 2 versions) personally.
PPPS: One of friends complimented me that my blogs are like reading Chetan Bhagat's novel. Well, thank you but personally i think his novels are boring and may be we are both inspired by the same writers though i 'may' not be able achieve as much as he did.
Another friend commented it is like a personal diary. Well i will keep that in mind too.
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Whats required for a healthy way of life?
If you are expecting a serious lesson on the above topic you are wrong. This is about a very unconventional way in which i got into a healthy routine.
First what my life was like in India:
Wake up at around 1030. Get ready slowly in about an hour and then have a quick breakfast (dosa, poori or mysore bhajji most of the times) and reach office by 12 (i know very late). I am not at all motivated here. Anyways, I have lunch around 2PM and a very heavy meal when it comes to it. Evening arnd 8 i leave home, watch some tv till subhash is home and both subhash and bharat are ready for dinner. After that i wait another 30 minutes till i feel hungry and then go have dinner and return arnd 11. We play cards for an hour and i watch some anime, comics, browse net for another 2 hours and finally sleep between 2 and 3 AM.
If you have observed there is no exercise and you can imagine what my weekends are like. I skip breakfasts and wake up for lunch and parties or movies in the night and junk food all day.
My parents hated this and always wanted me to change my lifestyle but you know the inertia if you are part of the 75% (my guess) of software engineers these days.
Now, whats my life like in the USA last few days:
I wake up at arnd 530AM and get out of bed by 630. Get fresh in about 30 mins and have bread, buttter, fruits and a cup of milk/tea for breakfast. By 830 i am in office and have a lite home prepared meal (little rice and vegetables or a subway). I cant eat out side in Puerto Rico as i am strictly a vegetarian (wish i wasn't). Anyways, by 6 in the evening i am back in the apartment and i either go to gym or pool (both just outside the apartment). At around 8 i cook a small meal and by 9 i am done eating. I browse net for sometime, watch some videos and sleep by 1030.
If you were my parents, you wouldnt be able to read further as your eyes are full of tears and you are so happy that your child is in the right path after all these years.
Well, i tried to analyse the reason for this big change in such a short time.
The first and foremost reason i could find is JET LAG. That set the ticker right in my brain. LOL.
Second the availability of a pool and gym so close and also the number of people using them.
So, i may not be able to continue this once i am back but lets be optimistic and let me continue this while i am here atleast.
Coming up next....few cooking tips for vegetarian bachelors abroad.
First what my life was like in India:
Wake up at around 1030. Get ready slowly in about an hour and then have a quick breakfast (dosa, poori or mysore bhajji most of the times) and reach office by 12 (i know very late). I am not at all motivated here. Anyways, I have lunch around 2PM and a very heavy meal when it comes to it. Evening arnd 8 i leave home, watch some tv till subhash is home and both subhash and bharat are ready for dinner. After that i wait another 30 minutes till i feel hungry and then go have dinner and return arnd 11. We play cards for an hour and i watch some anime, comics, browse net for another 2 hours and finally sleep between 2 and 3 AM.
If you have observed there is no exercise and you can imagine what my weekends are like. I skip breakfasts and wake up for lunch and parties or movies in the night and junk food all day.
My parents hated this and always wanted me to change my lifestyle but you know the inertia if you are part of the 75% (my guess) of software engineers these days.
Now, whats my life like in the USA last few days:
I wake up at arnd 530AM and get out of bed by 630. Get fresh in about 30 mins and have bread, buttter, fruits and a cup of milk/tea for breakfast. By 830 i am in office and have a lite home prepared meal (little rice and vegetables or a subway). I cant eat out side in Puerto Rico as i am strictly a vegetarian (wish i wasn't). Anyways, by 6 in the evening i am back in the apartment and i either go to gym or pool (both just outside the apartment). At around 8 i cook a small meal and by 9 i am done eating. I browse net for sometime, watch some videos and sleep by 1030.
If you were my parents, you wouldnt be able to read further as your eyes are full of tears and you are so happy that your child is in the right path after all these years.
Well, i tried to analyse the reason for this big change in such a short time.
The first and foremost reason i could find is JET LAG. That set the ticker right in my brain. LOL.
Second the availability of a pool and gym so close and also the number of people using them.
So, i may not be able to continue this once i am back but lets be optimistic and let me continue this while i am here atleast.
Coming up next....few cooking tips for vegetarian bachelors abroad.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
The first few days and feelings in the US
It has been around 60 hours i entered the US of A.
1. till now the food i had was 3 six inch veg delite subs, one veg pizza without meat (as absurd it might sound veg without meat). I have to tell them specifically only vegetables please. One dish made of cheese and pasta. I was sure even a microgram more cheese nothing would remain inside.
2. the other thing bothering me here is NO TEA only coffee or hot chocolate.
3. friends and rice, i miss you the most.
i am waiting to leave the hotel and enter an apartment to cook some rice and vegetables for myself.
the way i am feeling now is very similar to what i felt when i joined hostel after tenth except i am not that homesick now.
one great news i have is that i have a compusa store very close to my office and window shopping so many electronic goods makes my heart warm.
New York was quite cold but i loved watching people at Wall Street. Suits, winter jackets, leather shoes and a very professional expression on their faces.
Puerto Rico is quite opposite. Its quite warm (even its people), they greet a lot and try to help as much as possible. Its costlier than mainland as it is primarily a tourist center especially very close to the peak season. Most of the people speak Spanish here and i cant even catch the words leave alone understanding them.
Anyways, i will keep updating. you all keep watching...Buena suerte y adios..!!!
1. till now the food i had was 3 six inch veg delite subs, one veg pizza without meat (as absurd it might sound veg without meat). I have to tell them specifically only vegetables please. One dish made of cheese and pasta. I was sure even a microgram more cheese nothing would remain inside.
2. the other thing bothering me here is NO TEA only coffee or hot chocolate.
3. friends and rice, i miss you the most.
i am waiting to leave the hotel and enter an apartment to cook some rice and vegetables for myself.
the way i am feeling now is very similar to what i felt when i joined hostel after tenth except i am not that homesick now.
one great news i have is that i have a compusa store very close to my office and window shopping so many electronic goods makes my heart warm.
New York was quite cold but i loved watching people at Wall Street. Suits, winter jackets, leather shoes and a very professional expression on their faces.
Puerto Rico is quite opposite. Its quite warm (even its people), they greet a lot and try to help as much as possible. Its costlier than mainland as it is primarily a tourist center especially very close to the peak season. Most of the people speak Spanish here and i cant even catch the words leave alone understanding them.
Anyways, i will keep updating. you all keep watching...Buena suerte y adios..!!!
Sunday, November 29, 2009
SUICIDE..!! Is it the last resort???
You all must be wondering why i am talking about this topic out of the blue.
This news finally woke me up. The first thing that struck my mind was, "Why?? Didn't he have a choice?" And then i could think of a million things he could do instead of the one thing he has done.
Saturday morning I had a few wake up calls from friends with some very bad news.
One cousin called and told me that her (our) grandfather expired, a few minutes later another cousin told me that one of my uncles had a chest pain and had to go to hospital and finally Aparna called and asked, "Aditya, news vinnavaa??? Oka friend atma hathya chesukunnadata???"
This news finally woke me up. The first thing that struck my mind was, "Why?? Didn't he have a choice?" And then i could think of a million things he could do instead of the one thing he has done.
This person isn't a close friend to me i met him only a couple of times. I know him through Aparna and Srujana (who i also know through Aparna). They were a group of four close friends. Now he is only a part of their memories which will fade away bit by bit with time.
My impression from the last time i met him was jovial, active, intelligent. But i can never guess the circumstances that led him to the extreme step. Today, I was talking to Srujana and she says she can't work. The questions like why, how, what made him, was there no other way and thoughts like i have to kick him once, i have to talk to him out of this and a lot more thoughts and feelings are making her mind dizzy.
As i mentioned earlier one can do a million things instead of dying. The first things that crossed my mind were,
1. leave everything and go for a nice long journey to think all over again
2. rob a bank and become robinhood
3. try to become a film star
4. write a book
5. join politics and work for the poor
6. just don't do anything and sit at home
7. learn fine arts and become an artist
These being the first few. Madhu might say, "kill someone" as an option but taking life is never a good idea.
In one movie i have seen. A person tries to kill himself for all the bad deeds he has done. The hero stops him and asks him, "who will set things right if you are gone? who will you help by killing yourself?" and kicks him till he cant kill himself (he hee..!!).
Anyways, after that the person roams all over the war torn country helping people in distress and in dire need of help. Its a movie story but why can't this happen in real life too.
I just started thinking. If there could be one reason i have to kill myself what would that be?
Its just a minute i allocated my brain for this thought but one thing i am sure of is i wont be able to find one even if i think for years. But if you ask me, "One reason i don't want to?" I can keep talking and getting ideas for the next few days without a break.
I also read or seen in movies that suicide is actually a psychological syndrome and is a mental disease. Well, I can't dig too deep in this topic as my knowledge here is quite limited but i have my doubts. When and how does this start? Can't friends and family help somehow? What are the signs? I guess its time i learn these if i don't want to lose someone close because of the secret inclination he had, never shared and we could never observe.
Finally, all those who are reading this (I may sound funny here) if you at anytime had a single thought about suicide, talk to your closest one and help yourself get out of it. May be people think they have thought everything through before dying but they sure didn't. One can never calculate the human emotion involved aftermath.
Looks like i am finally done organizing my thoughts about this topic. Its time you share yours. Please comment and let me know what you people think.
My impression from the last time i met him was jovial, active, intelligent. But i can never guess the circumstances that led him to the extreme step. Today, I was talking to Srujana and she says she can't work. The questions like why, how, what made him, was there no other way and thoughts like i have to kick him once, i have to talk to him out of this and a lot more thoughts and feelings are making her mind dizzy.
As i mentioned earlier one can do a million things instead of dying. The first things that crossed my mind were,
1. leave everything and go for a nice long journey to think all over again
2. rob a bank and become robinhood
3. try to become a film star
4. write a book
5. join politics and work for the poor
6. just don't do anything and sit at home
7. learn fine arts and become an artist
These being the first few. Madhu might say, "kill someone" as an option but taking life is never a good idea.
In one movie i have seen. A person tries to kill himself for all the bad deeds he has done. The hero stops him and asks him, "who will set things right if you are gone? who will you help by killing yourself?" and kicks him till he cant kill himself (he hee..!!).
Anyways, after that the person roams all over the war torn country helping people in distress and in dire need of help. Its a movie story but why can't this happen in real life too.
I just started thinking. If there could be one reason i have to kill myself what would that be?
Its just a minute i allocated my brain for this thought but one thing i am sure of is i wont be able to find one even if i think for years. But if you ask me, "One reason i don't want to?" I can keep talking and getting ideas for the next few days without a break.
I also read or seen in movies that suicide is actually a psychological syndrome and is a mental disease. Well, I can't dig too deep in this topic as my knowledge here is quite limited but i have my doubts. When and how does this start? Can't friends and family help somehow? What are the signs? I guess its time i learn these if i don't want to lose someone close because of the secret inclination he had, never shared and we could never observe.
Finally, all those who are reading this (I may sound funny here) if you at anytime had a single thought about suicide, talk to your closest one and help yourself get out of it. May be people think they have thought everything through before dying but they sure didn't. One can never calculate the human emotion involved aftermath.
Looks like i am finally done organizing my thoughts about this topic. Its time you share yours. Please comment and let me know what you people think.
Thursday, November 26, 2009
ARYA 2: A true sequel and a must watch
Its been a long time i watched a movie, first day morning show. The last one i saw like that was may be 'Maharadhi', yes Baalaiah's Maharadhi. I can still remember the face of Das from that day.
Anyways, maybe i am the first person to blog about this movie.
I give the movie "Four and a half stars". The missing half is because of the climax (dragged it a bit).
The movie, carried the same theme from its predecessor Arya, even the character names.
Except you can consider this a story about new people and very much new circumstances.
I mean the circumstances are new for Arya to tackle not a telugu movie hero.
Many heroes have tackled similar (very similar) situation in a different (read it as routine) way.
The first half was quite funny with a nice interval. Bhramanandam rocked..!!!
The second half too has some good laughs and i couldn't stop laughing at one scene.
I don't want to spoil your fun but Ajay's character is creation of a genius story writer.
Kudos...Sukumar.
The music was great and complimented every scene to the max.
All the actors were great. Kajal's expressions were more complete when compared to Magadheera.
All in all, a must watch. Will give the ratings tomorrow once i finish watching it the second time.
Anyways, maybe i am the first person to blog about this movie.
I give the movie "Four and a half stars". The missing half is because of the climax (dragged it a bit).
The movie, carried the same theme from its predecessor Arya, even the character names.
Except you can consider this a story about new people and very much new circumstances.
I mean the circumstances are new for Arya to tackle not a telugu movie hero.
Many heroes have tackled similar (very similar) situation in a different (read it as routine) way.
The first half was quite funny with a nice interval. Bhramanandam rocked..!!!
The second half too has some good laughs and i couldn't stop laughing at one scene.
I don't want to spoil your fun but Ajay's character is creation of a genius story writer.
Kudos...Sukumar.
The music was great and complimented every scene to the max.
All the actors were great. Kajal's expressions were more complete when compared to Magadheera.
All in all, a must watch. Will give the ratings tomorrow once i finish watching it the second time.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Fun at an Orthopedic's
Chandu and i were chatting and he asked me if i knew a good Orthopedic in the city. I know most of you who know me will be thinking, "yaa..!! ortho? who else will know better?" I typed yes to get an immediate reply from him, 'Babu! Not Aditya."
Well, Bharat too was looking for an ortho as he sprained his left wrist a few weeks back.
Finally, i too was planning to get a full check up as my left knee aches whenever i trek or walk for more than 2-3 hours. With so many reasons, i got an appointment for last Saturday from G Vijay Kumar. A master orthopedic who we visited frequently for fractures, sprains, ligament injuries during my engineering time and were never ever disappointed.
Saturday 5PM we were there and all of us were hauled into his room. I was the first one to be examined.
Doc: "So, whats the problem?"
Adi: "Well, I have a problem with my left knee."
Doc: "Aaha! What happens?"
Adi: "I go for trekking..!!", here the doctor abruptly cut through my sentence and asks "You are in the deccan plateau. Where and how do you go trekking?". After a quick reply as Sahayadris from me he got more sarcastic and asks me, "you are born here in the deccan and go for trekking in sahayadris..?? hmm..!!"
Doc: "Did you have a fever recently or any other proble with the knee earlier?"
Adi: "A few years back when i was in OU, I came here because i had a swelling in the same knee because of some fluid and an ortho from DD suggested surgery. I got the swelling as i played a lot of basketball in those days."
Doc: "Oh! Basketball", Chandu and Bharat were already giggling like little girls sharing a private joke.
The doc then prescribed some medicines and physiotherapy while his juniors were quickly jotting down some notes. He also gave them some terms for the notes, turned towards me and asked "Anything else?"
Adi: "I fractured my right heel bone last year and my ankle still pains when i play tennis."
I didn't anticipate i spurted out so many key words in a single sentence for the doctor's superb sense of humor to get in action.
Doc: "So you jumped from somewhere, else you wouldn't fracture your heel. Your ankle must have sprained a bit badly at the same time." After a short pause, "You play tennis also. What else do you do? Trekking, Basketball, Tennis...!!"
I could think of a few more activities but you can guess why i stopped. After some notes for the juniors, i was asked to get an X-ray of my knee and Chandu was called for examination.
Chandu with a broad smile on his face hopped on to the cot there and,
Doc: "So, whats YOUR problem?"
Chandu: "two weeks ago i was in Goa..." (the doc again with his natural, sarcastic cut)
"Did he take you there too?? (pointing at me)"
Chandu somehow told no but understood he never cared for the answer and continued,
"i was jumping and landed on a few twisted toes. after that, last week i was playing basketball at office and.."
the doc doing it again: "dont you people have anything to do at office, he goes trekking, basketball tennis. You go to goa and play basketball. Why dont you just sit and work?"
Then he prescribed the medicine, gave some notes and waved bharat to get on the table.
By this time i was done with my x-ray, demonstration of the physiotherapy sessions i need to do daily and was back with the fun. Chandu and i were now laughing out quite loud and were not concentrating on what the doc was asking Bharat. We were laughing just by a glance at the look on his face.
Doc: "SO..! WHATS YOUR PROBLEM?"
Bharat: "Well, Sir! I was playing TT at office and..."
You can imagine what happened next.....
Well, Bharat too was looking for an ortho as he sprained his left wrist a few weeks back.
Finally, i too was planning to get a full check up as my left knee aches whenever i trek or walk for more than 2-3 hours. With so many reasons, i got an appointment for last Saturday from G Vijay Kumar. A master orthopedic who we visited frequently for fractures, sprains, ligament injuries during my engineering time and were never ever disappointed.
Saturday 5PM we were there and all of us were hauled into his room. I was the first one to be examined.
Doc: "So, whats the problem?"
Adi: "Well, I have a problem with my left knee."
Doc: "Aaha! What happens?"
Adi: "I go for trekking..!!", here the doctor abruptly cut through my sentence and asks "You are in the deccan plateau. Where and how do you go trekking?". After a quick reply as Sahayadris from me he got more sarcastic and asks me, "you are born here in the deccan and go for trekking in sahayadris..?? hmm..!!"
Doc: "Did you have a fever recently or any other proble with the knee earlier?"
Adi: "A few years back when i was in OU, I came here because i had a swelling in the same knee because of some fluid and an ortho from DD suggested surgery. I got the swelling as i played a lot of basketball in those days."
Doc: "Oh! Basketball", Chandu and Bharat were already giggling like little girls sharing a private joke.
The doc then prescribed some medicines and physiotherapy while his juniors were quickly jotting down some notes. He also gave them some terms for the notes, turned towards me and asked "Anything else?"
Adi: "I fractured my right heel bone last year and my ankle still pains when i play tennis."
I didn't anticipate i spurted out so many key words in a single sentence for the doctor's superb sense of humor to get in action.
Doc: "So you jumped from somewhere, else you wouldn't fracture your heel. Your ankle must have sprained a bit badly at the same time." After a short pause, "You play tennis also. What else do you do? Trekking, Basketball, Tennis...!!"
I could think of a few more activities but you can guess why i stopped. After some notes for the juniors, i was asked to get an X-ray of my knee and Chandu was called for examination.
Chandu with a broad smile on his face hopped on to the cot there and,
Doc: "So, whats YOUR problem?"
Chandu: "two weeks ago i was in Goa..." (the doc again with his natural, sarcastic cut)
"Did he take you there too?? (pointing at me)"
Chandu somehow told no but understood he never cared for the answer and continued,
"i was jumping and landed on a few twisted toes. after that, last week i was playing basketball at office and.."
the doc doing it again: "dont you people have anything to do at office, he goes trekking, basketball tennis. You go to goa and play basketball. Why dont you just sit and work?"
Then he prescribed the medicine, gave some notes and waved bharat to get on the table.
By this time i was done with my x-ray, demonstration of the physiotherapy sessions i need to do daily and was back with the fun. Chandu and i were now laughing out quite loud and were not concentrating on what the doc was asking Bharat. We were laughing just by a glance at the look on his face.
Doc: "SO..! WHATS YOUR PROBLEM?"
Bharat: "Well, Sir! I was playing TT at office and..."
You can imagine what happened next.....
Monday, November 9, 2009
Train: a small weekend stunt
Hi all. As you already would have read from my november itinerary blog earlier this weekend i have been to Chennai. A lot of people asked me why are you going/coming to Chennai and most of them giggling and a majority of them laughing out loud. "Chennai aaah..!!! he hee (heahahehaheaheha)..!!" something like this.
The little stunt was in my return journey and those who don't care what i did for the rest of my weekend may scroll down till you find some bold text.
Now, back to the post and a little history.
A few years back when i was in my third year, Kiran, a medico from Warangal and a friend of mine suddenly came to my hostel and asked me to pack things so that i can join them for a trip to Chennai as one of their friends dropped in the last minute and the train was to depart in another hour. I hurriedly packed a few things and i regretted getting on the train for the next few months.
I was born and brought up in Bhadrachalam, a place in Andhra Pradesh where the mercury rises above 50 degrees celcius every summer and stays that way for most of May. We used to play cricket on granite surface for hours in the afternoon in that sun and always felt normal. I always thought high temparatures and hot sun will never be a problem for me till i put my foot in chennai.
I have a loads of reasons to hate that place:
1. we could get only one bucket of normal water a day
2. i only felt for 5 minutes that i had a bath
3. food wasn't good at all
4. a very small minority are willing to understand what you want to say in english or hindi
5. they speak to you in tamil and they curse if you didn't understand and so on...
If i start writing my experience during those 4 days, i will have to change the title of this blog and create a new one for what i actually wanted to write about. Anyways, now you have an idea of what my previous experience in chennai was.
Saturday morning, i was trying to lock my eyes and sleep till i felt the train has stopped and i start sweating like my surface pores have become holes and the noise will wake me up.
But, i was surprised when a person woke me up telling, "babu! Chennai aa gaya" and i felt a cold breeze as i stepped out of the train.
I was quickly getting wet in the rain and after some confusion in taking a bus to Adayar and some suggestions in Tamil in which i could understand the bus numbers and area names though i couldn't guess what meaningful sentence they would all make, I took an auto to Swaroop's home. I called him and handed over the phone to the driver who got further directions from him. An hour or two before lunch time i was at his house. We chatted for sometime over a nice cup of tea (thanks Neeraja) and after i freshened up we had our lunch and a very lazy afternoon.
It was raining a bit heavily outside and open windows allowed the cool fresh air onto us making it a perfect rainy day with a cup of tea i my hand. That evening I had a little party with Manohar and Srikanth (engg friends) who stayed quite nearby.
It was raining on Sunday too. Swaroop brought a huge variety of vegetables and the lovely couple started making a big string of items for lunch. I too was bored and struck a deal to cook Baigan and Rasam. Swaroop made dondakayi fry, bendakayi fry and mulankada pulusu with boiled eggs in it.
I completed vankayi kothimeera kharam and tomato rasam. Neeraja set the table and added dal, raitha, salad, fruits and icecream to the menu. Manohar and Srikanth were invited and we had a sumptuous lunch while discussiong an array of topics ranging from Sachin's godly knock, a very bad match going on that day, the vegetables, future trips and many more.
We had a nice evening walk in the beach nearby as it stopped raining and the weather couldn't have been more pleasant. This time the stay was perfect and my opinion about the last two points is still the same though the circumstances have reversed the first three points i hated about chennai.
Now the small stunt,
I felt the train wasn't moving too fast and i could see a few lights outside. I was optimistic that it was a small station near WL and the train would slow down a bit more for me to get down. I went to a nearby door and was on the foot board to see my chances of getting down. I could see a flyover nearby and the train slowed down to a speed i was confident i can get down running and go to the flyover easily.
I jumped and landed slowly and safely. I walked for a minute to reach the flyover and found steps to go above. At the end of the steps a couple were talking and were a little surprised to see me there. I thought "its 5AM! come on give me a break." to myself and asked the guy "Kazipet.." with a question mark in my face. He pointed to my right side.
I crossed the road and waved at an auto. Again i said "Kazipet.." with the question will you take me there on my face. If you are wondering last time it was which way is it face.
He said yes and i got into it. Aroung 100 yeards down the flyover the auto guy stopped and said "idey anna" pointing towards an arch. I was surprised, happy and the first thought that crossed my mind was "ooho so the train slowed down because it was close to KZP junction and i was lucky that i didn't get down at WL".
Anyways, it was around half past five and my train scheduled for departure a few minutes before seven was an hour late. That way, my nice weekend ended with a little excitement and lots of waiting before i am back in office and sharing this with you all.
Luckily, luck was on my side. I mean what are the chances for these two occurrences:
1. Chennai is cool and pleasant
2. You jump from a train and land a few yards away from the station you need to go to and the train that you boarded doesn't go to.
Now tell me, whats the moral of this story...!!
The little stunt was in my return journey and those who don't care what i did for the rest of my weekend may scroll down till you find some bold text.
Now, back to the post and a little history.
A few years back when i was in my third year, Kiran, a medico from Warangal and a friend of mine suddenly came to my hostel and asked me to pack things so that i can join them for a trip to Chennai as one of their friends dropped in the last minute and the train was to depart in another hour. I hurriedly packed a few things and i regretted getting on the train for the next few months.
I was born and brought up in Bhadrachalam, a place in Andhra Pradesh where the mercury rises above 50 degrees celcius every summer and stays that way for most of May. We used to play cricket on granite surface for hours in the afternoon in that sun and always felt normal. I always thought high temparatures and hot sun will never be a problem for me till i put my foot in chennai.
I have a loads of reasons to hate that place:
1. we could get only one bucket of normal water a day
2. i only felt for 5 minutes that i had a bath
3. food wasn't good at all
4. a very small minority are willing to understand what you want to say in english or hindi
5. they speak to you in tamil and they curse if you didn't understand and so on...
If i start writing my experience during those 4 days, i will have to change the title of this blog and create a new one for what i actually wanted to write about. Anyways, now you have an idea of what my previous experience in chennai was.
Saturday morning, i was trying to lock my eyes and sleep till i felt the train has stopped and i start sweating like my surface pores have become holes and the noise will wake me up.
But, i was surprised when a person woke me up telling, "babu! Chennai aa gaya" and i felt a cold breeze as i stepped out of the train.
I was quickly getting wet in the rain and after some confusion in taking a bus to Adayar and some suggestions in Tamil in which i could understand the bus numbers and area names though i couldn't guess what meaningful sentence they would all make, I took an auto to Swaroop's home. I called him and handed over the phone to the driver who got further directions from him. An hour or two before lunch time i was at his house. We chatted for sometime over a nice cup of tea (thanks Neeraja) and after i freshened up we had our lunch and a very lazy afternoon.
It was raining a bit heavily outside and open windows allowed the cool fresh air onto us making it a perfect rainy day with a cup of tea i my hand. That evening I had a little party with Manohar and Srikanth (engg friends) who stayed quite nearby.
It was raining on Sunday too. Swaroop brought a huge variety of vegetables and the lovely couple started making a big string of items for lunch. I too was bored and struck a deal to cook Baigan and Rasam. Swaroop made dondakayi fry, bendakayi fry and mulankada pulusu with boiled eggs in it.
I completed vankayi kothimeera kharam and tomato rasam. Neeraja set the table and added dal, raitha, salad, fruits and icecream to the menu. Manohar and Srikanth were invited and we had a sumptuous lunch while discussiong an array of topics ranging from Sachin's godly knock, a very bad match going on that day, the vegetables, future trips and many more.
We had a nice evening walk in the beach nearby as it stopped raining and the weather couldn't have been more pleasant. This time the stay was perfect and my opinion about the last two points is still the same though the circumstances have reversed the first three points i hated about chennai.
Now the small stunt,
Since i felt Charminar was a bit too early to leave on Sunday. I booked my tickets in GT (departs and hour later) till Warangal and for Sampark Kranthi from Kazipet to SC. GT reaches WL at 5AM and i set the alarm to 445AM and slept after having a cup of tea in Ongole at around midnight.
I don't remember the details but i woke up from some stupid dream suddenly and took out my cell hoping its not five yet. The time was 515. I jumped from the upper berth and took my bag, wore my sandals and took my specs praying that the train is a few minutes late and we havent crossed Warangal yet. I asked the person in the nearby side-lower whether we crossed WL and he replied, "Haan! dus minute pehle ruka tha wahan pe. Ab tho Ramagundam mein utharna padega."
I felt the train wasn't moving too fast and i could see a few lights outside. I was optimistic that it was a small station near WL and the train would slow down a bit more for me to get down. I went to a nearby door and was on the foot board to see my chances of getting down. I could see a flyover nearby and the train slowed down to a speed i was confident i can get down running and go to the flyover easily.
I jumped and landed slowly and safely. I walked for a minute to reach the flyover and found steps to go above. At the end of the steps a couple were talking and were a little surprised to see me there. I thought "its 5AM! come on give me a break." to myself and asked the guy "Kazipet.." with a question mark in my face. He pointed to my right side.
I crossed the road and waved at an auto. Again i said "Kazipet.." with the question will you take me there on my face. If you are wondering last time it was which way is it face.
He said yes and i got into it. Aroung 100 yeards down the flyover the auto guy stopped and said "idey anna" pointing towards an arch. I was surprised, happy and the first thought that crossed my mind was "ooho so the train slowed down because it was close to KZP junction and i was lucky that i didn't get down at WL".
Anyways, it was around half past five and my train scheduled for departure a few minutes before seven was an hour late. That way, my nice weekend ended with a little excitement and lots of waiting before i am back in office and sharing this with you all.
Luckily, luck was on my side. I mean what are the chances for these two occurrences:
1. Chennai is cool and pleasant
2. You jump from a train and land a few yards away from the station you need to go to and the train that you boarded doesn't go to.
Now tell me, whats the moral of this story...!!
Thursday, November 5, 2009
NOVEMBER, a month turning out to be quite interesting
After the long one week trip to the north in the end of October, i always imagined that November would be quite boring, slow and without any pace. I had no plans for further trips and thought i would be spending most of the november days at home.
First i will have to go back to the mid of October when i was struggling with a new map that was turning out to be quite hard and the date for my journey to north was nearing and i had to finish this before i leave. There was no schedule of new work coming up after that and blah blah. The thing i want to convey here is i thought i will be quite tired by the beginning of this month and will have nothing to do most part of it and hence was planning may be single weekend trekking trip near pune.
Then i came to know that Das is coming to India on November 15th and will be landing in Hyderabad.
That came as a blasting news and it means some serious partying during that weekend. So 15th and 16th are party days.
My office people were discussing a colleagues birthday plan and they are planning a big party including funds from the two other colleague who got married recently and its going to be some friday or saturday before 20th.
Then, Madhu my dear engineering friend calls me and tells me that his elder bro's marriage is fixed on 22nd at our home pitch, hyderbad and it being a sunday most of my engineering friends will be landing here in Hyderabad on 21st and its going to be party time on 21st and 22nd.
So the only weekends left for me to plan a trekking trip were 6th and 28th.
Soon, i got a call from one of my old friends asking me to come to chennai and i have been planning to visit him for a long time. So i changed my plan and am leaving to Chennai tommorow (6th). So this weekend too is booked. Also, my chennai friend has got a project in his mind which he wants to get offshored from US and i thought i would discuss this with him during my visit.
In the meantime, a friend at hyderabad has setup a new software company when i was touring the north and he wants me to join and help. In case the project from my friend works out well, its going to make my weekdays a bit hectic and happening after 8th.
So the only weekend remaining for a trip is the last one November 28th but again i already have some long term big plans for December and would like to rest the last weekend.
But, my guess is the last weekend too will turnout to be something nice as that too is part of the most happening month in recent times.
One more twist that came recently is that one of my cousins who got married in august is shifting base to hyderabad and my parent are accompanying her. They will be here from 12th to 16th. Ooops..!! Thats coinciding with the dates das visits so looks like my life is going to be much more fun than anticipated.
So what i thought would be calm after the storm is turning out to be a hurricane of fun.
First i will have to go back to the mid of October when i was struggling with a new map that was turning out to be quite hard and the date for my journey to north was nearing and i had to finish this before i leave. There was no schedule of new work coming up after that and blah blah. The thing i want to convey here is i thought i will be quite tired by the beginning of this month and will have nothing to do most part of it and hence was planning may be single weekend trekking trip near pune.
Then i came to know that Das is coming to India on November 15th and will be landing in Hyderabad.
That came as a blasting news and it means some serious partying during that weekend. So 15th and 16th are party days.
My office people were discussing a colleagues birthday plan and they are planning a big party including funds from the two other colleague who got married recently and its going to be some friday or saturday before 20th.
Then, Madhu my dear engineering friend calls me and tells me that his elder bro's marriage is fixed on 22nd at our home pitch, hyderbad and it being a sunday most of my engineering friends will be landing here in Hyderabad on 21st and its going to be party time on 21st and 22nd.
So the only weekends left for me to plan a trekking trip were 6th and 28th.
Soon, i got a call from one of my old friends asking me to come to chennai and i have been planning to visit him for a long time. So i changed my plan and am leaving to Chennai tommorow (6th). So this weekend too is booked. Also, my chennai friend has got a project in his mind which he wants to get offshored from US and i thought i would discuss this with him during my visit.
In the meantime, a friend at hyderabad has setup a new software company when i was touring the north and he wants me to join and help. In case the project from my friend works out well, its going to make my weekdays a bit hectic and happening after 8th.
So the only weekend remaining for a trip is the last one November 28th but again i already have some long term big plans for December and would like to rest the last weekend.
But, my guess is the last weekend too will turnout to be something nice as that too is part of the most happening month in recent times.
One more twist that came recently is that one of my cousins who got married in august is shifting base to hyderabad and my parent are accompanying her. They will be here from 12th to 16th. Ooops..!! Thats coinciding with the dates das visits so looks like my life is going to be much more fun than anticipated.
So what i thought would be calm after the storm is turning out to be a hurricane of fun.
Monday, September 7, 2009
Godavari - Fierceness, inexperience, fear and luck
From my childhood, i heard stories from my mother about a few of my mother's uncles who swam across Godavari from Rajamundry to Kovvur. During those years i thought they should be something near to superhuman to achieve a stunt like that as the river in that area has a width over two kilometers and is deep enough. I started learning swimming when i was in my seventh standard, thanks to BPL which helped me learn a lot about sports and life.
First, i am going to tell a small story about how i started learning swimming.
We have a nice small pool (about 25 feet long) in our colony which brings a coach during summer months (May - June). I was in my seventh class (1996 or 97) while most of the friends i play with were one or two years older. I asked my parents for permission to join it but they straightly refused it as they were worried about my health (wasn't that stable then), my mischievousness and a lot of other factors only they know and i can't nearly guess. Anyways, after a week of bitter fighting from my side they agreed half heartedly. But when i went to the pool, i found that the coach already taught basics and he is screening few people for the next stage. The test was to swim from the deep end of the pool to the other end. I too gave my name and opted to dive. After a few seconds of very frantic movement similar to swimming (which i only saw earlier) i reached the other end and that was the start of my swimming lessons.
After many years now my basics are good, my strokes are technical though not at a pro-level.
A few weeks back, on August seventh, i was there in Rajamundry to attend my cousin's marriage and after three hectic days of roaming, working, doing favours (i was on the bride's side) here and there, i accumulated a lot of stress and felt a good swim in godavari might/will/should wash it away. I, my brother and another cousin started swimming at the Pushkar ghat above which the oldest and the newest rail bridges pass.
The pillars of old bridge are a good scale for you to know how far you swam. I went to three pillars and came back relieved and with a new determination to swim across like the old legends my mom mentioned. That's how the plan started. I calculated 2 weeks would be fine to gather people and finalize a plan and also we would get a little time for rest and physical preparations. I didn't want to delay the trip as the water flow was good and anything less wouldn't make it fun enough.
Finally, after i returned to Hyderabad, i put a mail across a few friends who in my view were good or better swimmers than me. After that we had to postpone the plan for two weeks as one or the other had some other plans. Finally, it was three of us who agreed to swim. Aditya (item raja), Madhu (my engineering classmate and a very energetic dude and an item) and Kranthi (a fantastic guy from Vizag NCC Navy and Microsoft, who thinks a lot and an item). Prem (another engg mate) joined us but we didn't allow him to join the swim-across-godavari-adventure as i wasn't sure of his skill. Only later we knew we over-estimated ourselves.
Thursday (September 3rd 2009), the CM of AP suddenly went missing in what seemed to be a helicopter accident and it was the breaking news. Friday morning i woke up because of a call from a friend telling me the news of CM's death. I was sad as we lost a good leader, he just gained a lot of strength and trust from his followers recently and it was almost time he served people with good power. We got news that most of the offices were closed and it was declared a state holiday. Madhu arrived that morning and we left to Rajamundry that night while speculating the chances of a bandh there the next two days.
Luckily, Rajamundry was quite normal unlike Hyderabad on Saturday and we got into a lodge early by 5. By 630AM we were at Pushkar ghat with a nice wind sweeping the place and i wasn't that surprised looking at the river as much as Kranthi who was stunned by the width and graciousness of the river which was almost full because of heavy rains in the last two weeks in catchment areas upstream. We had a little warm up and went to the first pillar which is like a base for the start.
Our plan was to get a feel of the river and its flow and to come up with a plan to swim across it.
We swam near that pillar for around an hour or two and were stopped and totally discouraged by the locals (godavari swimmers club) not to swim to the next pillar. We, as any other young guy would be after listening to old uncles, were quite annoyed. I already warned the guys not to seek advice from the locals as they would add a lot of drama to the facts to show off, which i already did (as rajamundry is my native too) though at an optimum level (a level which doesn't incite fear).
At the end of this trail round, Madhu and Kranthi lowered their target to 4 pillars and i to 13 pillars after which there is a small island.
Finally, we were out, broke our fast (he hee..), rented a car to see the places around. I showed the other guys the pure awesomeness of godavari and most of the places i have seen from my childhood. I really wanted to take them to my place of birth, Ambajipeta, but there wasn't enough time. Kranthi was awe-struck after going across Sir Arthur Cotton Barrage from Dhowaleshwaram to Vijjeswaram. Then we bought a few plants at one of the never ending nurseries in Kadiyam. Kranthi and Madhu enjoyed a long walk around the group of temples at Dwarapudi which host almost every known god of hindu mythology.
It was lunch time when we came back. We took the much needed nap (for two hours) after that, then went for a ride over the KK Bridge (rail-road) to Kovvur. We roamed the main road of Rajamundry and had some local specialties like Appaji nimma soda and jeera soda, Rose milk, various bhajjis at godavari gattu (literally godavari river bank), sweets and khara at Devi chowk. After that no one had appetite for any thing other than curd rice which we had and retired for the day.
Sunday morning the real adventure began (though it ended very fast). We were at the Pushkar ghat by 8AM. I felt the wind blew much faster (varada godavari's number one sign). We argued whether to hire a boat for support (madhu and kranthi) or not (me). There were two reasons i was against hiring it. One i was sure we will be back from pillar one after looking at the flow and two the boat guy was demanding 800 for two hours. After nearly half an hour we reached a consensus when the boat guy agreed to lower his rate to 600. This was the best decision of the trip, to hire him.
Finally we were at the base pillar or pillar zero and our primary target was now pillar one which was approximately 75 meters away. The bridge above was to help us not to loose direction because of flow and after fifteen minutes in water and once we thought we were accustomed to the flow and the support boat was ready (not ready enough as it was upstream when it should have been downstream). "OK..! GOOO..!!", i shouted and started quickly followed by madhu and kranthi. I quickly crossed halfway and found that i was being taken away by the flow in '<' direction. I quickly turned to back stroke and increased the speed of my strokes and crossed the two thirds mark when i suddenly heard madhu shouting for the boat. I steadied my stroke to stay there and turned back to see what was happening and found that madhu and kranthi were very quickly being taken away by the flow and the boat (prem was in it) was quickly going in their direction to pull them out.
I turned again and saw that i was a few meters away from the pillar and accelerated to reach it. After around 30 strokes i found that i was only one foot nearer. I could still hear madhu shouting for the boat. The energy in my arms and thighs was fading. Then it crossed my mind that even though i spend rest of my energy in reaching the pillar, i might not be able to get a hold of it . So i decided i would use the rest of my energy to get to bank/boat which ever is easier.
I changed my position to floating on my back and was carried downstream at the speed of the river while slowly changing my direction towards the bank. I was totally out of breath and was calculating when and where i would be able to reach the bank. By this time, i was a bit relieved to see that madhu had got in to the boat. It was kranthi's turn next. But, a few moments later i found that i was nearer to the boat than Kranthi. I quickly grabbed the rope thrown towards me and got into the boat and a few seconds later Kranthi too was in it.
Well, there may be a lots of questions, thoughts, emotions on what could/would/might have happened but I never ever think about that. You may say we are stupid, reckless or anything else. I will say we are simply adventurous. We like to take our chances.
Anyways, Kranthi was totally down with thoughts of what could have happened, madhu (i am not sure what he was thinking), and me. I was thinking. Lots of thoughts were crossing my mind. Would i have made it to the bank if there was no boat, i calculated my chances at 70%. The unknown factors (a, b, c, d, e, f) other than x, y, z that are already in the equation turned out to be not negligible but more important than x, y, z.
After we hovered at the bank for few minutes. I called off the adventure (actually postponed) and asked the boat guy to take us to the island where we will relax for some time. Kranthi's spirit was totally crushed by godavari and madhu was trying to talk to him but he wanted to stay quite. Prem was almost clueless as he was expecting a bit more from us and our talks and calculations from before.
The island turned out be lot of fun and our spirits were back in no time. We found the best reason for our failure. We were simple, lazy software engineers with no exercise. That was it. We will come back again this time with much more preparation.
On the island we vented our frustration in the form of creativity and took some awesome, funny videos.
On our way back, we tried some dives (i always wanted to dive from a speeding boat and i did). And after swimming again for some time, we were back in our hotel rooms. We finished our lunch and now were free for the rest of the day (about 6 hours from 3 to 9PM). I was out of ideas for places to visit. Finally, we decided to go to Kasthurba Ashram at Seethanagaram, 30kms away.
We reached there and found it to be a calm and peaceful place with a small hut (a special one), a few buildings and fields around. My mom's aunt works there and is quite respected at that place.
The special hut i mentioned earlier was the place created by Kasthurba gandhi in 1925 for the uplifting and education of women and girls. It was visited by Mahatma Gandhiji in 1929 and he also planted a tree. The hut has a very rare collection of his photos/paintings of his lifetime divided into four periods roughly. We enjoyed looking at them. I had a brief chat with my great-grandmom over a cup of tea. I and Kranthi wanted to donate but we were out of cash. So we thought we can do it once we reach hyderabad.
Thats how this simple trip turned into a fearsome adventure and then back to a happy ending. I always tell my friends, my life is a comedy and there is no place for extra drama in it...he hee....!!!
I will be adding the pics to this blog soon, also the links of the videos. Bye for now.
First, i am going to tell a small story about how i started learning swimming.
We have a nice small pool (about 25 feet long) in our colony which brings a coach during summer months (May - June). I was in my seventh class (1996 or 97) while most of the friends i play with were one or two years older. I asked my parents for permission to join it but they straightly refused it as they were worried about my health (wasn't that stable then), my mischievousness and a lot of other factors only they know and i can't nearly guess. Anyways, after a week of bitter fighting from my side they agreed half heartedly. But when i went to the pool, i found that the coach already taught basics and he is screening few people for the next stage. The test was to swim from the deep end of the pool to the other end. I too gave my name and opted to dive. After a few seconds of very frantic movement similar to swimming (which i only saw earlier) i reached the other end and that was the start of my swimming lessons.
After many years now my basics are good, my strokes are technical though not at a pro-level.
A few weeks back, on August seventh, i was there in Rajamundry to attend my cousin's marriage and after three hectic days of roaming, working, doing favours (i was on the bride's side) here and there, i accumulated a lot of stress and felt a good swim in godavari might/will/should wash it away. I, my brother and another cousin started swimming at the Pushkar ghat above which the oldest and the newest rail bridges pass.
The pillars of old bridge are a good scale for you to know how far you swam. I went to three pillars and came back relieved and with a new determination to swim across like the old legends my mom mentioned. That's how the plan started. I calculated 2 weeks would be fine to gather people and finalize a plan and also we would get a little time for rest and physical preparations. I didn't want to delay the trip as the water flow was good and anything less wouldn't make it fun enough.
Finally, after i returned to Hyderabad, i put a mail across a few friends who in my view were good or better swimmers than me. After that we had to postpone the plan for two weeks as one or the other had some other plans. Finally, it was three of us who agreed to swim. Aditya (item raja), Madhu (my engineering classmate and a very energetic dude and an item) and Kranthi (a fantastic guy from Vizag NCC Navy and Microsoft, who thinks a lot and an item). Prem (another engg mate) joined us but we didn't allow him to join the swim-across-godavari-adventure as i wasn't sure of his skill. Only later we knew we over-estimated ourselves.
Thursday (September 3rd 2009), the CM of AP suddenly went missing in what seemed to be a helicopter accident and it was the breaking news. Friday morning i woke up because of a call from a friend telling me the news of CM's death. I was sad as we lost a good leader, he just gained a lot of strength and trust from his followers recently and it was almost time he served people with good power. We got news that most of the offices were closed and it was declared a state holiday. Madhu arrived that morning and we left to Rajamundry that night while speculating the chances of a bandh there the next two days.
Luckily, Rajamundry was quite normal unlike Hyderabad on Saturday and we got into a lodge early by 5. By 630AM we were at Pushkar ghat with a nice wind sweeping the place and i wasn't that surprised looking at the river as much as Kranthi who was stunned by the width and graciousness of the river which was almost full because of heavy rains in the last two weeks in catchment areas upstream. We had a little warm up and went to the first pillar which is like a base for the start.
Our plan was to get a feel of the river and its flow and to come up with a plan to swim across it.
We swam near that pillar for around an hour or two and were stopped and totally discouraged by the locals (godavari swimmers club) not to swim to the next pillar. We, as any other young guy would be after listening to old uncles, were quite annoyed. I already warned the guys not to seek advice from the locals as they would add a lot of drama to the facts to show off, which i already did (as rajamundry is my native too) though at an optimum level (a level which doesn't incite fear).
At the end of this trail round, Madhu and Kranthi lowered their target to 4 pillars and i to 13 pillars after which there is a small island.
Finally, we were out, broke our fast (he hee..), rented a car to see the places around. I showed the other guys the pure awesomeness of godavari and most of the places i have seen from my childhood. I really wanted to take them to my place of birth, Ambajipeta, but there wasn't enough time. Kranthi was awe-struck after going across Sir Arthur Cotton Barrage from Dhowaleshwaram to Vijjeswaram. Then we bought a few plants at one of the never ending nurseries in Kadiyam. Kranthi and Madhu enjoyed a long walk around the group of temples at Dwarapudi which host almost every known god of hindu mythology.
It was lunch time when we came back. We took the much needed nap (for two hours) after that, then went for a ride over the KK Bridge (rail-road) to Kovvur. We roamed the main road of Rajamundry and had some local specialties like Appaji nimma soda and jeera soda, Rose milk, various bhajjis at godavari gattu (literally godavari river bank), sweets and khara at Devi chowk. After that no one had appetite for any thing other than curd rice which we had and retired for the day.
Sunday morning the real adventure began (though it ended very fast). We were at the Pushkar ghat by 8AM. I felt the wind blew much faster (varada godavari's number one sign). We argued whether to hire a boat for support (madhu and kranthi) or not (me). There were two reasons i was against hiring it. One i was sure we will be back from pillar one after looking at the flow and two the boat guy was demanding 800 for two hours. After nearly half an hour we reached a consensus when the boat guy agreed to lower his rate to 600. This was the best decision of the trip, to hire him.
Finally we were at the base pillar or pillar zero and our primary target was now pillar one which was approximately 75 meters away. The bridge above was to help us not to loose direction because of flow and after fifteen minutes in water and once we thought we were accustomed to the flow and the support boat was ready (not ready enough as it was upstream when it should have been downstream). "OK..! GOOO..!!", i shouted and started quickly followed by madhu and kranthi. I quickly crossed halfway and found that i was being taken away by the flow in '<' direction. I quickly turned to back stroke and increased the speed of my strokes and crossed the two thirds mark when i suddenly heard madhu shouting for the boat. I steadied my stroke to stay there and turned back to see what was happening and found that madhu and kranthi were very quickly being taken away by the flow and the boat (prem was in it) was quickly going in their direction to pull them out.
I turned again and saw that i was a few meters away from the pillar and accelerated to reach it. After around 30 strokes i found that i was only one foot nearer. I could still hear madhu shouting for the boat. The energy in my arms and thighs was fading. Then it crossed my mind that even though i spend rest of my energy in reaching the pillar, i might not be able to get a hold of it . So i decided i would use the rest of my energy to get to bank/boat which ever is easier.
I changed my position to floating on my back and was carried downstream at the speed of the river while slowly changing my direction towards the bank. I was totally out of breath and was calculating when and where i would be able to reach the bank. By this time, i was a bit relieved to see that madhu had got in to the boat. It was kranthi's turn next. But, a few moments later i found that i was nearer to the boat than Kranthi. I quickly grabbed the rope thrown towards me and got into the boat and a few seconds later Kranthi too was in it.
Well, there may be a lots of questions, thoughts, emotions on what could/would/might have happened but I never ever think about that. You may say we are stupid, reckless or anything else. I will say we are simply adventurous. We like to take our chances.
Anyways, Kranthi was totally down with thoughts of what could have happened, madhu (i am not sure what he was thinking), and me. I was thinking. Lots of thoughts were crossing my mind. Would i have made it to the bank if there was no boat, i calculated my chances at 70%. The unknown factors (a, b, c, d, e, f) other than x, y, z that are already in the equation turned out to be not negligible but more important than x, y, z.
After we hovered at the bank for few minutes. I called off the adventure (actually postponed) and asked the boat guy to take us to the island where we will relax for some time. Kranthi's spirit was totally crushed by godavari and madhu was trying to talk to him but he wanted to stay quite. Prem was almost clueless as he was expecting a bit more from us and our talks and calculations from before.
The island turned out be lot of fun and our spirits were back in no time. We found the best reason for our failure. We were simple, lazy software engineers with no exercise. That was it. We will come back again this time with much more preparation.
On the island we vented our frustration in the form of creativity and took some awesome, funny videos.
On our way back, we tried some dives (i always wanted to dive from a speeding boat and i did). And after swimming again for some time, we were back in our hotel rooms. We finished our lunch and now were free for the rest of the day (about 6 hours from 3 to 9PM). I was out of ideas for places to visit. Finally, we decided to go to Kasthurba Ashram at Seethanagaram, 30kms away.
We reached there and found it to be a calm and peaceful place with a small hut (a special one), a few buildings and fields around. My mom's aunt works there and is quite respected at that place.
The special hut i mentioned earlier was the place created by Kasthurba gandhi in 1925 for the uplifting and education of women and girls. It was visited by Mahatma Gandhiji in 1929 and he also planted a tree. The hut has a very rare collection of his photos/paintings of his lifetime divided into four periods roughly. We enjoyed looking at them. I had a brief chat with my great-grandmom over a cup of tea. I and Kranthi wanted to donate but we were out of cash. So we thought we can do it once we reach hyderabad.
Thats how this simple trip turned into a fearsome adventure and then back to a happy ending. I always tell my friends, my life is a comedy and there is no place for extra drama in it...he hee....!!!
I will be adding the pics to this blog soon, also the links of the videos. Bye for now.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Magadheera....not bad..!!!
First of all...'Sorry.! Rajamouli..!', 'Not bad...' are the words that came out of my mouth as i was walking out of new screen that recently opened in one of the biggest malls in Hyderabad. I donated mine and SP's share to the movie already.
Now, a little flashback. This paragraph is about how i, a sincere, hardworking, very very routine software engineer turned out to watch a movie at 10AM on a weekday in a week where production moves have made every beautiful night of mine quite busy and laborious.
August fifth being rakhi, i thought i would take my cousin sister to a movie as she always likes to watch one along with me and wanted to suprise her by booking tickets for Magadheera which turned out to be a blockbuster and everyones looking for tickets. Souji is quite a busy girl with lots of friends and commitments all over the city, french classes, gate classes, designing some vehicle for a presentation at IIT, cousins, other cousins and so on....of course her college classes being the last priority. Somehow she has to go to college because of some imp work and i had to bug Praveen to come instead of her and he agreed after i started swinging (u can guess).
Yaa yaa...i understand even i wanted to keep the story short.
My expectations were...'it will be fine..!!'
I already saw Gladiator and 300 n number of times and The Myth once.
The trailer made me believe most of the action sequences and sets were picked or atleast the theme was picked from one or all of these. I was proved wrong most part of it.
The story is quite Indian...hero..heroine...somehow some incomplete love story and revenge from the past and and a new bout of life with memories from the past to finally get a happy ending. Alls good till here.
The title graphics were quite good giving us an idea of what happened in the past and an opening scene that was quite good. Most part of the first half is in present day and is a bubbly love story with a not so good comedy track. I have a doubt i wanted to clear from a long time. Why does everyone laugh when Brahmanandam gets slapped? Well, maybe its his face. I am getting bored of that kind of track, i would call that Ram Babu track. Where a middle aged uncle gets hit by young men because he has been troubling them. The movies it worked quite well are Anandam, Venki, Dhee, Krishna and most recently Kick and King and i don't find it as funny anymore. Anyways, back to the review or whatever s**t i was writing.
I dont want to spoil the mood for those who havent watched, all in all, i liked the movie.
I could see a lot of hardwork put in by the whole team. Hats off to you all. The fights choreography was quite good and the locations (i guess it was some dried up salt lake) were quite good. The background score was quite good though i should say i heard a few tracks in some english and chineese movies. I guess Keeravani exhausted most of his resources there and couldnt make up for nice tunes for the songs. The songs were all below par except for two of them which were okay.
Bangarukodipetta...ha haa this song was fun...i enjoyed it and i too whistled when i saw my favourite childhood star, MEGASTAR. His presence on the screen and his grace are huge and Charan will take, may be, a decade to reach that point. Pawan Kalyan too has that kind of presence but not Charan and Arjun (allu) for sure.
I know i sound like every other critic but i must say these were my observations. Charan has some uneasy face expressions in the middle of the scenes and has to sort them out to succeed in being a better actor though it isn't needed for getting a bigger hit. That said..best of luck Charan.
The last song during titles was fun too.
Now, a few observations on the direction and editing departments. The flow in the story in first half wasnt that good. They should have taken one more step further and they could have made the blockbuster more fun and gripping to watch.
Well, what did i miss?
Yes...the reincarnations. After watching all the characters (hero, heroine, villain, hero's admirer and other king, the circumstances, love and enemity) from 400 years ago incarnated today i felt like i too was there 400 years ago and this movie was a street play/burrakatha then and the director was SSS Raja Rajamouli..he hee....
The other funny part was a different climax i and SP discussed where the hero misses the heroine and this time the villains jumps the cliff with her praying that the next turn heroine should love him and smiling at the hero to wait for another 400 years showing him his finger. The sequel would be something like starwars and not an epic from Udaigad...ha haa...
One more big joke was this dialogue, "Maharaja..!! vaallu inka raavatledu ee lopu manam 7 express aadadaama Rummy veyyamantaaraa..??"
My final opinion (i am no one to judge):
A nice movie (could have been better: a feeling most of us generally get these days after watching any movie), good technically and visually. A refreshing break for the telugu movie buffs and the heroine was very beautiful, i couldnt take my eyes off her. Charan's dancing and fights were good (songs were not that good). Chiru's entry was wow..!! (you should be a fan to feel this).
By the way, i got tickets for another show tonight :)
Here are my ratings:
1. Story 6/10
2. Direction/Screenplay 8/10
3. Songs 6/10
4. Background score 8/10
5. Cast 9/10
6. Acting 7/10
7. Art and Graphics 9/10 (for a telugu movie)
8. Choreography (songs) 7/10
9. Choreography (fights) 9/10 (for a telugu movie)
10. Camera work 9/10
TOTAL 78/100
I am waiting for 'QUICK GUN MURUGAN' now.......'MIND IT..!' ha haaa......
Now, a little flashback. This paragraph is about how i, a sincere, hardworking, very very routine software engineer turned out to watch a movie at 10AM on a weekday in a week where production moves have made every beautiful night of mine quite busy and laborious.
August fifth being rakhi, i thought i would take my cousin sister to a movie as she always likes to watch one along with me and wanted to suprise her by booking tickets for Magadheera which turned out to be a blockbuster and everyones looking for tickets. Souji is quite a busy girl with lots of friends and commitments all over the city, french classes, gate classes, designing some vehicle for a presentation at IIT, cousins, other cousins and so on....of course her college classes being the last priority. Somehow she has to go to college because of some imp work and i had to bug Praveen to come instead of her and he agreed after i started swinging (u can guess).
Yaa yaa...i understand even i wanted to keep the story short.
My expectations were...'it will be fine..!!'
I already saw Gladiator and 300 n number of times and The Myth once.
The trailer made me believe most of the action sequences and sets were picked or atleast the theme was picked from one or all of these. I was proved wrong most part of it.
The story is quite Indian...hero..heroine...somehow some incomplete love story and revenge from the past and and a new bout of life with memories from the past to finally get a happy ending. Alls good till here.
The title graphics were quite good giving us an idea of what happened in the past and an opening scene that was quite good. Most part of the first half is in present day and is a bubbly love story with a not so good comedy track. I have a doubt i wanted to clear from a long time. Why does everyone laugh when Brahmanandam gets slapped? Well, maybe its his face. I am getting bored of that kind of track, i would call that Ram Babu track. Where a middle aged uncle gets hit by young men because he has been troubling them. The movies it worked quite well are Anandam, Venki, Dhee, Krishna and most recently Kick and King and i don't find it as funny anymore. Anyways, back to the review or whatever s**t i was writing.
I dont want to spoil the mood for those who havent watched, all in all, i liked the movie.
I could see a lot of hardwork put in by the whole team. Hats off to you all. The fights choreography was quite good and the locations (i guess it was some dried up salt lake) were quite good. The background score was quite good though i should say i heard a few tracks in some english and chineese movies. I guess Keeravani exhausted most of his resources there and couldnt make up for nice tunes for the songs. The songs were all below par except for two of them which were okay.
Bangarukodipetta...ha haa this song was fun...i enjoyed it and i too whistled when i saw my favourite childhood star, MEGASTAR. His presence on the screen and his grace are huge and Charan will take, may be, a decade to reach that point. Pawan Kalyan too has that kind of presence but not Charan and Arjun (allu) for sure.
I know i sound like every other critic but i must say these were my observations. Charan has some uneasy face expressions in the middle of the scenes and has to sort them out to succeed in being a better actor though it isn't needed for getting a bigger hit. That said..best of luck Charan.
The last song during titles was fun too.
Now, a few observations on the direction and editing departments. The flow in the story in first half wasnt that good. They should have taken one more step further and they could have made the blockbuster more fun and gripping to watch.
Well, what did i miss?
Yes...the reincarnations. After watching all the characters (hero, heroine, villain, hero's admirer and other king, the circumstances, love and enemity) from 400 years ago incarnated today i felt like i too was there 400 years ago and this movie was a street play/burrakatha then and the director was SSS Raja Rajamouli..he hee....
The other funny part was a different climax i and SP discussed where the hero misses the heroine and this time the villains jumps the cliff with her praying that the next turn heroine should love him and smiling at the hero to wait for another 400 years showing him his finger. The sequel would be something like starwars and not an epic from Udaigad...ha haa...
One more big joke was this dialogue, "Maharaja..!! vaallu inka raavatledu ee lopu manam 7 express aadadaama Rummy veyyamantaaraa..??"
My final opinion (i am no one to judge):
A nice movie (could have been better: a feeling most of us generally get these days after watching any movie), good technically and visually. A refreshing break for the telugu movie buffs and the heroine was very beautiful, i couldnt take my eyes off her. Charan's dancing and fights were good (songs were not that good). Chiru's entry was wow..!! (you should be a fan to feel this).
By the way, i got tickets for another show tonight :)
Here are my ratings:
1. Story 6/10
2. Direction/Screenplay 8/10
3. Songs 6/10
4. Background score 8/10
5. Cast 9/10
6. Acting 7/10
7. Art and Graphics 9/10 (for a telugu movie)
8. Choreography (songs) 7/10
9. Choreography (fights) 9/10 (for a telugu movie)
10. Camera work 9/10
TOTAL 78/100
I am waiting for 'QUICK GUN MURUGAN' now.......'MIND IT..!' ha haaa......
Monday, July 27, 2009
Harishchandragad...a refreshing trek full of adventure and fun
The Hype
A week before the trek, i was putting mails across lots of friends telling them to get ready for this trek. I had never been to this place before and had to gather some information from the net. The information from the net implied that this was a very tricky and risky one. So, the anticipation and expectations for a nice adventure were very high. My brother was acting weird. He was afraid of coming as i told him that this was a harder trek than Ratangad and Bhimashankar (shidi ghat). He perturbed a few other people too.
Finally, I booked tickets for 5 of us from Hyderabad to Manmad (the plan was to reach sangamner as early as possible).
Three people from Pune were to join us at Sangamner and three more from Mumbai were to join us at Rajur (they came via Igatpuri). The plan was to climb from Panchnai on Rajur side and get down the next day towards Malshej ghat via Tolar Khind.
There were discussions all over on what to carry and how much to carry. We finally decided on a nice big plastic sheet (like the ones we use to cover cars), a small kerosene stove (and some kerosene of course), a litre of milk each, a few nutrition bars, 2 kgs of rice, a blanket, two pairs of dry clothes, a towel and a few polythene bags (to save your dry clothes), a nice strong rope, 2 utensils, a few bottles of water (you will need more if it isn't raining), disposable plates, some salt, mirchi and spices for cooking.
The adventure begins
If you thought our adventure began at the base village you are completely wrong. Our adventure began in Hyderabad itself. I was waiting at my office for one of my friends to leave early on Friday as the train was at 6PM.
Suddenly, i get a call from him telling that he is in a hospital and one of his friend's cousin needs B+ve blood urgently and he is of the same group. I finally managed to get him out of there telling him that we will manage to get some other donor somehow and he should come this time (Praveen = he, missed the last two trips because of some stupid reasons). Finaly he was at my room and we had to take my bike to the station as we werent sure we would make it in time if we took an auto. We were just on time and we started making call everywhere, even to friends we werent in touch for a long time to get a B+ve blood donor. We could find three donors and haa...we are free of that responsibility now. We relaxed, played cards, shared some stupid jokes, ate some bajjis and vadas in the next stations and slept.
We got down at Rotegaon and took an auto to Vaijpur where we thought we could get some easy transport to Sangamner. But we couldn't, so we had to book a tavera which dropped us in sangamner by 9AM. The pune guys were there by 1030AM (they had their own half of adventure as they had a flat tyre on the bus they were travelling and had to take a cab). The eight of us met the mumbai guys at Rajur. We had our brunch there and went to Panchnai (the base village) in the jeep we booked from Sangamner.
The Trek
Panchnai (Paachnai), 27 Kms from Rajur, itself was a village at a nice altitude as our jeep had to go through a small ghat road to reach that. We were dropped at a small bridge near a nice waterfall.
Once stretched our bodies a bit and taking a tip or two from the locals about the route (we didn't take a guide), we started our trek. A small hike for about fifteen minutes has brought us to a point from where we could look at the village below and a nice waterfall in the background.
It was already 2PM by now and i was worried as the info points out that this is a 3-4 hours trek and we had to reach the temple/caves before the sun sets. We thought we couldnt afford big breaks.
We sped up a bit and were hiking, resting for a few minutes, taking snaps here and there whenever it wasnt raining.
We went through a rock patch forming like a shallow cave along the route.
Then we reached this beautiful waterfall where the route split into two, but we were saved by the arrow marks in white pain on the rocks every few hudred feet.
After trekking from here for nearly 30 minutes, we met a few energetic guys coming down from the top.
They told us that the top is just one and half hour at the max. I was totally surprised at that.
I thought we had to go through some tough patches and it would take atleast 3 more hours. We continued and met another group who said we were just 15 mins from the top. Finally, we made it to this spot which had many remains of some old temple and clouds were all over the place creating a thick fog.
We took a left turn from here and continue climbing. We were told the caves were near the temple, you will have to climb along the waterfall that flows near the temple. In case there is no fog, you will be able to see them clearly.
We continued climbing for some time and after a short discussion decided that we were going the wrong way. I said we will continue as it was just 4PM and we had lot of spare time in case we got lost and we can always return to the stone remains we saw earlier.
We reached a place where it looked like it was a peak and everyone agreed that it was one of the three peaks, Taramati. We came back to the stone remains patch and there we met a guy who took us to one of the caves.
Most of the caves and the temple were occupied and we needed a big one as we were 11 people. So he led us to a big cave, which we all decided was the best of all the places available. It was quite warm inside and we all put our heavy bags down and relaxed our arms and back a bit.
There were three persons there already in the cave who are all from a nearby village and they serve the needs of the tourists for a little cash. They serve tea (not at all recommended), poha (good) and dal. But, there was smoke everywhere inside the cave because of the wood they were burning for cooking food. We were all irritated because of the smoke and left our luggage and came out so that we can utilize the time (around one hour) left before it gets dark.
We went for a semi-naked (as freedom from now on) bath and then had some freedom run to the temple, freedom trek and we tried meditating in the cold rain on some distant rocks for sometime to see how it feels. It felt very good. We tried to play some games had some fun and finally returned to cave once we were quite cold.
We got ourselves into some dry clothes and used the rope we brought to hang the wet clothes and socks. Some of us rested, some started playing cards while i, gopi and madhu started getting things ready for cooking our dinner.
We realized the three mistake committed later, the rice we took at the local village couldnt be cooked in our style, I tried to cook the rice in a very unconventional way which later made me the BUTT OF ALL JOKES, we put everything we had at the first go.
After three and half hours of waiting, everyone was hungry, frustrated and finally we had to order poha from the local guys. Maggi could have saved 3 hours 28 minutes of our time and frustration.
Can you even imagine having glucose, salt and some half boiled potato and beetroot pieces as food (and stuff for people having whisky)? I am sure you cannot but thats what we experienced.
Finally we were completely tired, half hungry when we slept at around 12AM. The rock floor was quite uneven at places and was the hardest bed you can imagine. I wasnt able to sleep very soundly and was checking the cave out again and again with the torch everytime i woke.
At around 4AM, Praveen strted talking in his sleep things like 'drrrrrrrrrrr....', 'adi...no...vaddu...' and some senseless things. I pushed him hard and he burst out laughing telling me he too was awake. Madhu and Bharat too woke up and we were chatting nonsense that early in the morning. The fog formed a thick white door in front of our cave and it was quite cold and drizzling outside. Siva wanted to pee but was afraid and cold to go outside. We had a final bout of sleep after a disappointing hike and sleep on saturday to have a very beatiful and exciting Sunday yet to come.
We were all up by 7AM and i started boling all the milk we got with people again sharing jokes on what i would/can/will/might do with the milk. The sugar we brought wasn't enough but the tetrapak milk was good enough and helped us get some energy in the morning.
Madhu got us all into implementing his idea of a having a cold freedom bath in the morning and visit the siva temple nearby. The water was very cold and the first shower felt like needles shhoting through our skin. By then we were accustomed to the temparature and felt very fresh.The silhoutte of the temple can be seen in the pic below.
We were back into our warm and dry clothes and started our way back with a guide as we wanted to cover a few ponts and didnt want to miss our way in the tumultous (assumed again) trek on the way to Tolarkhind.
The guide was quite agile and we had to quilckly follow him to see both the temple nearby and then took our route to Tolarkhind.
This route is a hike thorugh 7 hills before we reach the base village Khireshwar.
The first three hills were quite easy and we were clicking snaps at most of the places whenever it stopped raining. The fog was quite thick and it formed droplets on the beards and eyebrows.
You can easily go by yourself most of the part except at one hill where the route splits into two. The left route goes to some village or that was what we could make out from what he blurted out very fastly in marathi (very localised). So the right way is the one to the right. So we continued our trek through some beatufil patches like below.
And some tough patches like this,
And three risky patches like one of the below. (we couldnt take pictures at two spots because of rain).
At one of the very tough patches we found a group of a few guys and gals climbing up and most of them were quite afraid of the slope and were being pulled by their braver friends. We gave the rope we took with us to them as we hadn't used it and though it would be of some good use to them.
Here i would like to share some tips about trekking though i am an amatuer myself. I think that trekking is more about balance and the way you place your steps at tight spots. You musn't panic about losing balance and try to coolly counteract the motion whenever you are slipping and a shoe with a good rubber grip will always help.
Well, i tried to teach a few tips to my brother all over the way while climbing down to help him over come the fear. Most of my friends were dragging their asses against the rocks when they could have got down with a little confidence and strength in their legs.
Anyways, we saw two snakes on our way and carefully walked further not to step on one of them. A dog too followed us from mid way all the way back to the village khireshwar. The patch of forest with trees overshadowing you will be over once you are quite near the village. It was already 3PM here and the guide was in a hurry to go back as it would get dark and he has to return. So, we asked hime if the route was straight and assumed his blurting to be a straight yes and came back on our own from there.
Here are a few pics on our way back,
We reached the base village by 4PM. It was a very scenic village and i wanted to spend a life at a place as beautiful as Khireshwar. The village,
We were quite tired already and my left knee was hurting like hell. We still had to walk 4-5 kms along the waters of Pimpalgaon-Joga dam to reach Kubi phata. Luckily we got a force traveller another group, who went up, left. We did some bargaining and he left us at Sushant Dhaba (3 kms from Madh village, 62 kms from Murbad) which was a few hundred meters away from the road to khireshwar towards Ale phata.
It was already 5PM and Mumbai people got into the first ST bus they waved for.
Abhi adventure baki hai mere dosth...
The trek and adventure must have ended for the Pune and Mumbai people there but the people travelling to hyderabad have another interesting story to share.
5 Maharashtra ST buses sped past us and they didnt even care for 5-6 people waving their hands. Finally at 530PM a bolero with a carriage in the back stopped and dropped us at Hotur which was 15Kms from Ale phata.
It was 615 by the time we reached Alephata and there was no hope for us to reach Manmad (approximately 150 Kms away) to catch our train at 9PM. I asked others to decide if we should go to Pune and catch a bus (almost next to impossible to get 4 tickets on a sunday night all of a sudden and would cost upto Rs 1000 per head extra) or should we take a bus to Ahmednagar (88Kms) and then one more to Aurangabad (115Kms from Nagar) and catch the train we missed at Manmad.
All of us agreed on plan B and said good bye to the pune guys and took a bus to Nagar. I still wasnt sure about the timing of train in Aurangabad but guessed it would be after 12 anyways and we can reach convinently.
We took a bus from Nagar to Aurangabad at 9 and thats when i called chandu to get a hint at the correct time of the train and thats when our hopes faded minute by minute. The train's correct time of arrival was 1035PM and it departs five minutes later. We had to go 110 Kms in 95 mins. Subhash went and told the bus driver the same and requested him to go as fast as possible. The highways was quite good and the driver was best. We made it to the petrol bunk in Aurangabad from where we had to take an auto to the railway station by 1045PM. Our hopes were quite low and in 5 minutes we were scramming out of the auto in to the station.
Luck was on our side and the train was late by 20 mins and the scheduled departure was 2305 hrs. We had some mosambi juice while bharat and praveen got us some idly and vada parcel. We relaxed and also thanked god and the bus driver for getting us into the train.
We had no dry clothes left except for the half dried shorts and tees we were already wearing. They dried up some time later when we were sound asleep and thats how our adventure came to an end and everything worked out well.
The trip wouldnt have been comepletely successful either if we couldnt have got a blood donor or if we couldnt catch the train. We were quite happy to find some dry and a bit sunny weather in Hyderabad as we could dry up everything in the bag including the bag itself.
This isnt my first adventure but first blog about one of my travels.Well, so see you all later after my next adventure.
You can find me in orkut as Aditya M. Keep in touch.
A week before the trek, i was putting mails across lots of friends telling them to get ready for this trek. I had never been to this place before and had to gather some information from the net. The information from the net implied that this was a very tricky and risky one. So, the anticipation and expectations for a nice adventure were very high. My brother was acting weird. He was afraid of coming as i told him that this was a harder trek than Ratangad and Bhimashankar (shidi ghat). He perturbed a few other people too.
Finally, I booked tickets for 5 of us from Hyderabad to Manmad (the plan was to reach sangamner as early as possible).
Three people from Pune were to join us at Sangamner and three more from Mumbai were to join us at Rajur (they came via Igatpuri). The plan was to climb from Panchnai on Rajur side and get down the next day towards Malshej ghat via Tolar Khind.
There were discussions all over on what to carry and how much to carry. We finally decided on a nice big plastic sheet (like the ones we use to cover cars), a small kerosene stove (and some kerosene of course), a litre of milk each, a few nutrition bars, 2 kgs of rice, a blanket, two pairs of dry clothes, a towel and a few polythene bags (to save your dry clothes), a nice strong rope, 2 utensils, a few bottles of water (you will need more if it isn't raining), disposable plates, some salt, mirchi and spices for cooking.
The adventure begins
If you thought our adventure began at the base village you are completely wrong. Our adventure began in Hyderabad itself. I was waiting at my office for one of my friends to leave early on Friday as the train was at 6PM.
Suddenly, i get a call from him telling that he is in a hospital and one of his friend's cousin needs B+ve blood urgently and he is of the same group. I finally managed to get him out of there telling him that we will manage to get some other donor somehow and he should come this time (Praveen = he, missed the last two trips because of some stupid reasons). Finaly he was at my room and we had to take my bike to the station as we werent sure we would make it in time if we took an auto. We were just on time and we started making call everywhere, even to friends we werent in touch for a long time to get a B+ve blood donor. We could find three donors and haa...we are free of that responsibility now. We relaxed, played cards, shared some stupid jokes, ate some bajjis and vadas in the next stations and slept.
We got down at Rotegaon and took an auto to Vaijpur where we thought we could get some easy transport to Sangamner. But we couldn't, so we had to book a tavera which dropped us in sangamner by 9AM. The pune guys were there by 1030AM (they had their own half of adventure as they had a flat tyre on the bus they were travelling and had to take a cab). The eight of us met the mumbai guys at Rajur. We had our brunch there and went to Panchnai (the base village) in the jeep we booked from Sangamner.
The Trek
Panchnai (Paachnai), 27 Kms from Rajur, itself was a village at a nice altitude as our jeep had to go through a small ghat road to reach that. We were dropped at a small bridge near a nice waterfall.
Once stretched our bodies a bit and taking a tip or two from the locals about the route (we didn't take a guide), we started our trek. A small hike for about fifteen minutes has brought us to a point from where we could look at the village below and a nice waterfall in the background.
It was already 2PM by now and i was worried as the info points out that this is a 3-4 hours trek and we had to reach the temple/caves before the sun sets. We thought we couldnt afford big breaks.We sped up a bit and were hiking, resting for a few minutes, taking snaps here and there whenever it wasnt raining.
We went through a rock patch forming like a shallow cave along the route.
Then we reached this beautiful waterfall where the route split into two, but we were saved by the arrow marks in white pain on the rocks every few hudred feet.
After trekking from here for nearly 30 minutes, we met a few energetic guys coming down from the top. They told us that the top is just one and half hour at the max. I was totally surprised at that.
I thought we had to go through some tough patches and it would take atleast 3 more hours. We continued and met another group who said we were just 15 mins from the top. Finally, we made it to this spot which had many remains of some old temple and clouds were all over the place creating a thick fog.
We took a left turn from here and continue climbing. We were told the caves were near the temple, you will have to climb along the waterfall that flows near the temple. In case there is no fog, you will be able to see them clearly.We continued climbing for some time and after a short discussion decided that we were going the wrong way. I said we will continue as it was just 4PM and we had lot of spare time in case we got lost and we can always return to the stone remains we saw earlier.
We reached a place where it looked like it was a peak and everyone agreed that it was one of the three peaks, Taramati. We came back to the stone remains patch and there we met a guy who took us to one of the caves.
Most of the caves and the temple were occupied and we needed a big one as we were 11 people. So he led us to a big cave, which we all decided was the best of all the places available. It was quite warm inside and we all put our heavy bags down and relaxed our arms and back a bit.
There were three persons there already in the cave who are all from a nearby village and they serve the needs of the tourists for a little cash. They serve tea (not at all recommended), poha (good) and dal. But, there was smoke everywhere inside the cave because of the wood they were burning for cooking food. We were all irritated because of the smoke and left our luggage and came out so that we can utilize the time (around one hour) left before it gets dark.
We went for a semi-naked (as freedom from now on) bath and then had some freedom run to the temple, freedom trek and we tried meditating in the cold rain on some distant rocks for sometime to see how it feels. It felt very good. We tried to play some games had some fun and finally returned to cave once we were quite cold.
We got ourselves into some dry clothes and used the rope we brought to hang the wet clothes and socks. Some of us rested, some started playing cards while i, gopi and madhu started getting things ready for cooking our dinner.
We realized the three mistake committed later, the rice we took at the local village couldnt be cooked in our style, I tried to cook the rice in a very unconventional way which later made me the BUTT OF ALL JOKES, we put everything we had at the first go.
After three and half hours of waiting, everyone was hungry, frustrated and finally we had to order poha from the local guys. Maggi could have saved 3 hours 28 minutes of our time and frustration.Can you even imagine having glucose, salt and some half boiled potato and beetroot pieces as food (and stuff for people having whisky)? I am sure you cannot but thats what we experienced.
Finally we were completely tired, half hungry when we slept at around 12AM. The rock floor was quite uneven at places and was the hardest bed you can imagine. I wasnt able to sleep very soundly and was checking the cave out again and again with the torch everytime i woke.
At around 4AM, Praveen strted talking in his sleep things like 'drrrrrrrrrrr....', 'adi...no...vaddu...' and some senseless things. I pushed him hard and he burst out laughing telling me he too was awake. Madhu and Bharat too woke up and we were chatting nonsense that early in the morning. The fog formed a thick white door in front of our cave and it was quite cold and drizzling outside. Siva wanted to pee but was afraid and cold to go outside. We had a final bout of sleep after a disappointing hike and sleep on saturday to have a very beatiful and exciting Sunday yet to come.
We were all up by 7AM and i started boling all the milk we got with people again sharing jokes on what i would/can/will/might do with the milk. The sugar we brought wasn't enough but the tetrapak milk was good enough and helped us get some energy in the morning.
Madhu got us all into implementing his idea of a having a cold freedom bath in the morning and visit the siva temple nearby. The water was very cold and the first shower felt like needles shhoting through our skin. By then we were accustomed to the temparature and felt very fresh.The silhoutte of the temple can be seen in the pic below.
We were back into our warm and dry clothes and started our way back with a guide as we wanted to cover a few ponts and didnt want to miss our way in the tumultous (assumed again) trek on the way to Tolarkhind.The guide was quite agile and we had to quilckly follow him to see both the temple nearby and then took our route to Tolarkhind.
This route is a hike thorugh 7 hills before we reach the base village Khireshwar.
The first three hills were quite easy and we were clicking snaps at most of the places whenever it stopped raining. The fog was quite thick and it formed droplets on the beards and eyebrows.
You can easily go by yourself most of the part except at one hill where the route splits into two. The left route goes to some village or that was what we could make out from what he blurted out very fastly in marathi (very localised). So the right way is the one to the right. So we continued our trek through some beatufil patches like below.
And some tough patches like this,
And three risky patches like one of the below. (we couldnt take pictures at two spots because of rain).At one of the very tough patches we found a group of a few guys and gals climbing up and most of them were quite afraid of the slope and were being pulled by their braver friends. We gave the rope we took with us to them as we hadn't used it and though it would be of some good use to them.
Here i would like to share some tips about trekking though i am an amatuer myself. I think that trekking is more about balance and the way you place your steps at tight spots. You musn't panic about losing balance and try to coolly counteract the motion whenever you are slipping and a shoe with a good rubber grip will always help.Well, i tried to teach a few tips to my brother all over the way while climbing down to help him over come the fear. Most of my friends were dragging their asses against the rocks when they could have got down with a little confidence and strength in their legs.
Anyways, we saw two snakes on our way and carefully walked further not to step on one of them. A dog too followed us from mid way all the way back to the village khireshwar. The patch of forest with trees overshadowing you will be over once you are quite near the village. It was already 3PM here and the guide was in a hurry to go back as it would get dark and he has to return. So, we asked hime if the route was straight and assumed his blurting to be a straight yes and came back on our own from there.
Here are a few pics on our way back,
We reached the base village by 4PM. It was a very scenic village and i wanted to spend a life at a place as beautiful as Khireshwar. The village,
We were quite tired already and my left knee was hurting like hell. We still had to walk 4-5 kms along the waters of Pimpalgaon-Joga dam to reach Kubi phata. Luckily we got a force traveller another group, who went up, left. We did some bargaining and he left us at Sushant Dhaba (3 kms from Madh village, 62 kms from Murbad) which was a few hundred meters away from the road to khireshwar towards Ale phata.It was already 5PM and Mumbai people got into the first ST bus they waved for.
Abhi adventure baki hai mere dosth...
The trek and adventure must have ended for the Pune and Mumbai people there but the people travelling to hyderabad have another interesting story to share.
5 Maharashtra ST buses sped past us and they didnt even care for 5-6 people waving their hands. Finally at 530PM a bolero with a carriage in the back stopped and dropped us at Hotur which was 15Kms from Ale phata.
It was 615 by the time we reached Alephata and there was no hope for us to reach Manmad (approximately 150 Kms away) to catch our train at 9PM. I asked others to decide if we should go to Pune and catch a bus (almost next to impossible to get 4 tickets on a sunday night all of a sudden and would cost upto Rs 1000 per head extra) or should we take a bus to Ahmednagar (88Kms) and then one more to Aurangabad (115Kms from Nagar) and catch the train we missed at Manmad.
All of us agreed on plan B and said good bye to the pune guys and took a bus to Nagar. I still wasnt sure about the timing of train in Aurangabad but guessed it would be after 12 anyways and we can reach convinently.
We took a bus from Nagar to Aurangabad at 9 and thats when i called chandu to get a hint at the correct time of the train and thats when our hopes faded minute by minute. The train's correct time of arrival was 1035PM and it departs five minutes later. We had to go 110 Kms in 95 mins. Subhash went and told the bus driver the same and requested him to go as fast as possible. The highways was quite good and the driver was best. We made it to the petrol bunk in Aurangabad from where we had to take an auto to the railway station by 1045PM. Our hopes were quite low and in 5 minutes we were scramming out of the auto in to the station.
Luck was on our side and the train was late by 20 mins and the scheduled departure was 2305 hrs. We had some mosambi juice while bharat and praveen got us some idly and vada parcel. We relaxed and also thanked god and the bus driver for getting us into the train.
We had no dry clothes left except for the half dried shorts and tees we were already wearing. They dried up some time later when we were sound asleep and thats how our adventure came to an end and everything worked out well.
The trip wouldnt have been comepletely successful either if we couldnt have got a blood donor or if we couldnt catch the train. We were quite happy to find some dry and a bit sunny weather in Hyderabad as we could dry up everything in the bag including the bag itself.
This isnt my first adventure but first blog about one of my travels.Well, so see you all later after my next adventure.
You can find me in orkut as Aditya M. Keep in touch.
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