My Earthly Experiences

Mere Brother Ki Dulhan !!!!!!

2012-02-04T19:03:00.001+05:30

It felt like having returned from some other universe. One complete week of no checking mail, no deadline worries, no assignment submission (thanks to my IIM-B team mates :) ), so much so as not even receiving calls or sms's thanks to our accommodation in an isolated village on the outskirts of Udupi. All this for my Brothers Wedding :). Below is my performance on D-day minus one. This took my 11pm to 1am slots every night for over 15 days. Thankfully non of the neighbors complained :P.

This performance was and is dedicated to Bhaiyya aur Bhaabhi :)

P.S> Dialogues in Kannada and Hindi. If the window is displayed as too small click on the youtube icon on the progress bar to directly take you to the site.

Cycling In Bangalore, A Guide

2012-01-01T11:15:00.000+05:30

There is rather a cliched saying that whatever activity you do in the beginning of the New Year , you are pretty much guaranteed to do that for the rest of the 365/366 days. Well quite freakishly that was the case for me in the year 2011, so considering that I am predicting that I will be doing a lot more of cycling and blogging in the year 2012. Who knows I might be giving a blow by blow account of the events leading to the apocalypse of Dec 21 2012 :P.

Anyway here I am trying to list down all the important pointers a cyclist of Bengaluru might require to enjoy cycling in its vicinity. Majority of the pointers are from my experiences and may not necessarily work for others.

Some Pointers For Riding In Bangalore :
1. Maximize your visibility with bright cloths and front + back lights. Even if that means you look like a peacock :P. The more a cyclist is visible , the less the chances of accident. Atleast here in India when you are riding with all your cycling gear, other motorists actually slow down to have a glimpse. So a win win situation for both :P Keep to the left and when riding through the footpaths (not sure whether legal in Blore , but abroad it is) ride slow since footpaths here in Blore will be broken at many places.
2. Avoid riding within the city in the evenings (6-8 pm). This is the time when the streets are polluted the most and cyclists suck in almost 3 times more the polluted air than a normal motorist. If unavoidable wear a face mask preferable with a replaceable filter. Also preferably cover ur eyes, ears , mouth and skin too. In short cover all your openings :P.
3. After a long ride remember to stretch the legs. Even though I found stretching to be maximum effective after a run, it doesnt harm after a bike ride too. After a long ride lie down with ur legs above your body for atleast 5-10 mins.
4. Climbing an elevation with the highest gear ratio doesn't really result in bigger and stronger leg muscles. It just results in straining the legs. Keep changing the gears according to the elevation.
5. Keep the speed limit in the city within 35 kmph. Even though the aluminum framed bikes can go much faster, streets of Bangalore are so unpredictable that its safe to ride along with the traffic speed and not above it.
6. Keep exploring some inside narrow lanes etc for your daily commute. Use google map apps to find out those hidden routes.
7. Keep yourself properly hydrated even if for an office commute. Riders think since Blore's weather is pleasant majority of the time they wont loose much water content.
8. Dogs are another problem cyclists face here in Bangalore. The trick is not to over-react when they come chasing/barking at you. They get attracted the most at the pedaling feet , couple of options would be stop/slow pedaling and/or shout back at them. Works for me all the time :P. Also avoid wearing bright colored shoes, even though this contradicts with Pt no 1.
9. If you are buying a cycle for a first time or after a long hiatus and plan to do atleast some medium distance cycling, then get some tips and advice from the experienced folks.(Here is a good forum for cyclists of Blore - https://groups.google.com/group/Bangalore-bikers?hl=en)
10. Rainy season can be a mess for cyclists. So always get mudguards (either steel or fiber) to cover those wheels even if it kills the looks of your bike. With a already strained drainage system in Bangalore you never know what is getting into your face along with the rain water :P. Better option is get those fixed from June to Oct months (Peak Monsoons) and remove for the rest of year. Also keep cycle properly oiled especially during this time.
11.One trick to reduce the fatigue of cycling against a headwind is to draft behind some bigger vehicles, preferably moving at your pace. Eg tractors, auto(do at ur own risk :P)
12. And last but not the least, keep yourself motivated. The easiest way is to get a GPS enabled smartphone and keep track of how far you cycled and the time you took. At least in my case this keeps me highly motivated to keep on bettering my previous records.

3 External Factors which matter the most for cyclists:
1. Headwind
2. Elevation
3. Weather

So riding against a headwind and climbing a steep elevation in the middle of the day is pretty much the worst case scenario a cyclist can encounter.

Headwind Direction depending on month (Courtesy : Wind Energy Resource Survey Of India - I) :

Climate Of Bangalore (Courtesy WikiPedia)

Elevation Profile Of Some Popular Routes(Courtesy : TFN & Bangalore Bike Rides)

Bangalore - Mysore Highway
Bangalore - Mysore (via Kanakpura)
Ooty - Mysore
Nandi Hills
Chikkatirupathi Circuit

Weekend Rides I have explored so far:
Pearl Valley
Nandi Hills
Turahalli Forest
Hessarghatta Circuit
Bannerghatta Circuit
Chikkatirupathi Circuit
Manchanabele Reservoir

Routes Yet to explore :
Siva's Road
Blore-Maddur-Malavalli-Kanakpura-Blore (Even though having done this n no of times in my motorcycle)

Checklist for a long ride :
1. Special Padded tights. (Even though most cyclists are uncomfortable wearing this, this is a must for long rides. A good measure against saddle sores. )
2. Gloves (you need some cushion for your hands with 1/3 of the body weight supported by it.)
3. Puncture kit (Handpump + Rubber patches + required tools)
4. Full arm t-shirt preferably of quick dry type. (Good for both winter and summer, very good measure against sun burns)
5. Helmet. (for protecting the processor)
6. Sunglasses/clear glasses depending on the time of the day.
7. Front and back lights. (As mentioned earlier more the visibility less the chances of an accident.)
8. Electoral sachets. (You need to replenish the salts you loose at regular intervals. )
9. High energy food, rich in carbs (bananas, energy bars etc) (To prevent hitting the wall)
10. Sunscreen
11. Water, but usually you get bottled water easily at many places along the road. So no need to carry more than 2 lts. Get a sipper + Bottle Cage installed in the bike.

Some Good Shops To Buy Cycling Gear in Bangalore :
1. Decathlon - Sarjapur Road
2. Bums On Saddles Jayanagar
3. RR Cycles near Madivala.

Music That Inspires

2011-12-19T15:45:00.000+05:30

They say music is without any boundaries either geographically or culturally. If this is not fact then how could one explain the fact of Indians shaking their legs for western music in Discos, Westerners doing an aerobic session for a Bollywood item number, or Chinki's gyrating to a Rajnikanth song and so forth. As expected in all the above scenarios the chances of an individual of actually understanding the lyrics right away is pretty slim , but what catches everyone's imagination is the music score accompanying the song.

Being a lazy person who literally finds some or the other reason to skip a workout in a freezing December morning, music that inspires is really a lifesaver. There is nothing more inspiring (except if u have a few extra Kilos accumulated since the Diwali season :P ) for a person to run/cycle in those finger numbing temperatures than a good set of truly inspiring numbers. It wont be surprising if ones performance is actually improved when listening to those kind of music, hence resulting in me and my music player being inseparable during those tough times called "workout". Even though I am not a music person (I cant name all the members of the Metallica band, or for the matter of fact, not even a single person :P ), have come across some great numbers which I have "painstakingly" collected over a considerable period of time.

So here I am trying to list down some truly inspiring songs I have come across (And Kolaveri Song is not among the list , although it gave a tough competition :P). I would also be interested if the readers would recommend numbers which inspires them, hence increasing my arsenal. With 4 kgs of extra flab I have accumulated since the Diwali season it is time to get down to business. Have chalked out a rigorous session in middle of the winter and any help will be highly appreciated. Do some social service people :).

1. Dream On Aerosmith
+ a version by Eminem which is also pretty good

2. Sadda Haq - Rockstar

3 .American Flyers - The entire album is a must have.. A movie which inspired our desi version which is Joh Jeeta Wohi Sikander (The title track of which is also inspirational)

4. Back in The Saddle-Aerosmith (Default first track when I get to cycling after a long time :P)

5. Driving With The Top Down - Ramin Djawadi (A track used in Iron Man)

6. Dum Title Song THe only good thing abt the forgetable movie. Watch with the video :)

7. Final Countdown

8. Right Here - Right Now : Fatboy Slim with some interesting video

9. I want it all/ We Will Rock You- Sucker Punch The perfect mash up of 2 great classics from Queen

10. In the End - Linkin Park . Became a fan of Linkin Park after this song, even though their other numbers are not as good as this except a few.

11. Iron Man- Black Sabbath

12. Just Like You Imagined - Nine Inch Nails (Full heavy metal track)

13. Danger Zone - Kenny Loggins (Figher Jets... Sexxxxyyyy)

14. Kill Bill Theme Song - Wu Tang Clan

15. 3 Doors Open - Kryptonite

16. Numb - Linkin Park

17. Lose Urself - Eminem - Some intense lyrics from Eminem :P

18. MI Theme

19. Not Afraid - Eminem

20. Ride Of The Valkyries --- Variety is the spice of life... Orceshtra for u :P

21. Rock Climbing Music - Lakshya - Some Pretty good Moves and awesome music for an Indian Movie

22. Rock You Like A Hurricane - Scorpions

23. Rocky Soundtrack

24. Separate Ways- Journey

25. Stronger - Kayne West

26. Survivor - Eye of the Tiger : Another great track from Rocky stables.

27. Till I Collapse - Eminem : Yet another track from Eminem. Looks like I get inspired the most when I hear expletives :P.

28. Die Another Day - Madonna

29. Vandemataram- Lata Mangeshkar A Truly inspirational number from the queen of Indian singers.

30. Azaadiyan - Udaan

31. Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana

Mission Impossible 4 : It Gets Better & Better

2011-12-17T17:41:00.000+05:30

THIS POST DOESNT CONTAIN ANY SPOILERS : SPOILER CHECK PASSED :)

All the A-list action stars of Hollywood have atleast one major franchise from which they seem to be making endless movies. Arnold Had Terminator series until he got 'Governorated', Sylvester Stallone has Rocky and Rambo Series, Johnny Depp with his Pirates series, Bruce Willis has the Die Hard series, Jason Statham with the Transporter series (even though his A list status may be debated :P), Jackie Chan does his Rush Hour's with Chris Tucker, Harrison Ford with his Indiana Jone's, Downey Jr with his Iron Man, Christian Bale with the awesome Batman series, Hugh Jackman with X-men movies and last but not the least Tom Cruise with his Mission Impossible series. A kind of fallback safe money earners with minimum risks. Thats exactly what Tommy boy is doing over here , with him even producing the latest MI sequel.

If you don't really want to read my entire review but just want to know how the movie was in 3 words then my reply would be "almost good as the original" (Apologies for stretching my word limit :P ). Hence in short this is one best movies of the series if not better than the part I. Part 2 was the worst of the lot, which felt like a group of stunts strung together to make a movie just for the namesake. So does that mean MI4 is void of any stunts ??!!!!... Well you got to be kidding... MI movies without any gravity defying stunts are as if a body without a soul. The stunts are bigger and better... Especially the death defying free scaling stunts shown to be performed "out" of the Burj Towers (World Tallest in Dubai) and you start to wonder what is the fascination for Hollywood to take their stunts to the worlds tallest buildings (remember Entrapment on Petronas Tower's).

Story wise you got the usual settings of Russians, nukes, save the world kinda scenario which is pretty much foolproof with respect to entertainment quotient, with generous dose of car chases, gun fights, explosions and so on. The director Brad Bird (The Incredible's, Ratatouille, The Iron Giant) does a great job to leave behind his great animation legacy for his first full blown live action movie , which I can easily term as one of the best action movies of 2011. The movie takes place primarily in 3 countries Russia, Dubai and the climax which was supposedly here in India. Tom Cruise is at his best action avatar. Even though in the previous MI movies he seemed like a one man army, in this movie is a part of closely knit group consisting of Simon Pegg (Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead), Jeremy Renner (Hurt Locker, 28 Weeks Later) and the sexy Paula Patton. Simon Pegg's (The only major character continued from previous movies apart from Tom's) character provides some good comic relief at regular intervals of time and Paula Patton provides the oomph quotient. And if by any chance Mr. Tom Cruise is reading this blog, I would advice him not to go shirtless if he is pretty much out of shape. For those curious about Anil Kapoor's role in this movie... well he was absolutely wasted. He was supposed to play an rich Indian playboy , but seemed more like a sexual pervert, with his role not lasting more than 2 mins.

Now coming to FB chatter we had encountered a few months back about how they had created a Bangalore setup in Canada for the movie.. well after seeing this movie I was a bit disspointed. They have replaced Bangalore with Mumbai for the climax but surprisingly at many places you see Kannada signboards. I was like WTF!!!!! Kannada in Mumbai ???!!!... But the attention to detail given for the Indian setting was pretty good, but one word of advice to the moviemakers, if you want an Indian setting , come directly to India... It might turn out to be much cheaper.

Finally I would rate the movie 3.5/5 movie. A complete entertainer and full time pass movie. Go watch it in cinemas :).

The Adventures Of Tintin , Reviewed By Tintin

2011-11-27T11:31:00.000+05:30

Being a huge Tintin fan and having the same as an alias name (for obvious reasons) this movie was something which was not meant to be missed. Before I was caught on by the Harry Potter fever , was hooked big time to comics, with the jewel on the crown being Tintin and Asterix comics. Still remember the day in 6th grade when my friendly neighbourhood library started to stuff 2nd hand Tintin comics. Everyday I would be excited to pick up yet another book of the series paying 3 buck rental (against 1 buck for other books :P, demand & supply gap I presume :P) and when a "not so small" boy started to fantasize about some out of the world adventures (Destination Moon/Explorers on the Moon :) ). Still to this day I enjoy going through the entire collection I have in form of pdf documents, a return back straight to my childhood. Hence in short this movie was something more than any random movie that I was going to watch.

Now shifting focus to the actual movie. Frankly speaking I expected a lot more from this adaptation, and I presume it is the common consensus among Tintin fans. First and foremost the movie doesnt really captures the feel one gets while reading the comic strip. Even though the initial storyline was pretty faithful to the comic book, it was a tad too boring. Only from the 2nd quarter does the pace pick up. But on the other hand it has an awesome viewer experience with respect to motion capture technique adopted by Spielberg which brings life to the comic characters and an equally mesmerizing 3D content. So in short those who haven't read the comics before will enjoy the most as everything is completely new to them (my mom loved it :)), and it is not one of those movies like Harry Potter where you have to read the book before you see the movie to understand each and every angle. As expected Snowy (the dog) was at its comical best, to draw in more children/adult crowd alike.

The makers of the movie have tried to mash 3 books into one (Secrets of the Unicorn, Red Rackhams Treasure and Crab with the Golden claws), with a generous additions of their own to make the transitions seamless. This was done obviously since content of a single book (with just 62 pages of comic strip) was way below the content required to make a movie. So we can expect to get sequel movies for those comics which had continuity into another book (Destination Moon/Explorers on the Moon, Seven Crystal Balls/Prisoners of the Sun etc)

Overall I would rate the movie just above average at around 3.5/5, especially for its visual content than its storyline. But one undeniable fact is "Tintin literate" base is gonna swell and the comic sales is gonna soar because of this movie. A whole new generation is going to discover TINTIN :).

Things To Do Before I Go Kaput !!!!!!!

2011-11-21T09:52:00.001+05:30

What do I want from my life ???!!!!!.... A weekend spent wondering on these things resulted in a Bucket List consisting at present 60 items (present count) which I want/ed to do in my life. Also I included stuff which I wanted to do previously and was successful in doing so, in order to not be unfair on those pointers. Even though inspired from the movie of the same namesake, where a couple of terminally ill old dudes try to live the last few days of their life to the fullest, I would prefer a more balanced approach hence the timing :).

Click Here ----- > My Bucket List

P.S> I would encourage the reader of this blog to also come up with their own bucket list. Its always interesting to know what made into their list.

Mullayanagiri -> Bababudangiri : Traversing through Karnataka's Stratosphere

2011-11-02T18:54:00.000+05:30

This trek was pretty much an unexpected one. Had got a weekend off from college thanks to Deepavali and with continuous holidays we planned for at least a 2 day trek. A bit of googling and the destination was decided to be "Mullayangiri to Bababudangiri" trek on day 1 and trek to Kalhattigiri/Jenukal falls the next day. In short we were having 2 single day treks :). Total headcount was just 5 (Vineeth, Shashi, Jenny, Manju and Myself) and we had rented a sumo (since there is very sparse public transportation available near our trek region) with a psycho driver behind the wheels.

29th Oct 2011 (Sarpadhari-Mullayangiri-Bababudangiri 15kms)

Climb to Mullayangiri via Sarpadhari

Explorers of the Darkness

Everyone was picked from respective stops and we were on our way to Chikmagalur at around 11.30 pm. Night matured and people started to feel drowsy, so much so that all the occupants of the cab were sleeping including the driver :P. Initially we suspected that he was snoozing behind the wheels , but it was confirmed for sure when he banged the sumo to a divider, well at least sideways, waking up all of us with a bang , and with a jolt where I felt I was really done for :P. After this we ordered the driver to sleep if he is feeling too drowsy. And by then I had decided that this is the last time we will be hiring a taxi to travel during a overnight journey. Overall we had an uncomfortable sleep , thanks to the hopeless seats of the sumo and driver playing 5 -6 kannada haunted songs on infinite loop till the morning. Dont know whether that helped him in any way or not, but we surely had a "Halloween Sleep":P.

Some 60 m inside the cave

Reached Chikmagalur, had our breakfast and packed our lunch. It was time to go in search of the starting point of the trek to Mullayangiri , ie Sarpadhari. Started from the Sarpadhari arch at around 8 am in the morning and at this time of the day the entire path was filled with mist. So we were void of any views , but trekking in mist offers a different type of enjoyment. Within an hour an half we reached the famed caves of Mullayangiri, which is just 10 mins walk from the peak. There were basically 2 caves and we decided to explore one of them which seemed to run into great distance. But being a little claustrophobic, I was little hesitant in the beginning , but couldn't resist the opportunity of missing an adventure. So off we went inside the cave system , armed with flashlights and nothing else. With me crawling up first, my first job was to check the ground for any sort of reptiles which might have crawled into this for shelter and later the roof for any sign of bats, and to my utter amazement there were a lot of bats in this cave system. Initially we were scared of the bats that they might attack us, but later we came to know that these are really misunderstood creatures. We crawled for some 60-70 meters deep into the cave and still the end was not in sight. At one point we switched off our lights and there was absolute darkness, unlike anything I have experienced, not a single ray of light seeping in. Not sure how long this tunnel goes, but we decided to return back since we had a long trek ahead.

Mullayangiri peak, at 1930m

The Ridge Path ahead

Went up to the peak, where there is a temple and also a motorable road which comes directly till the peak. We were now at the highest point in Karnataka at 1930 m. Rested a bit at the peak and started to move towards Bababudangiri after taking route advice from the priest. Now the entire path till the Bababudangiri was walking along a mountain ridge, hence a lot of ups and downs along the ridge. Soon enough the mist/cloud cleared and we were getting some beautiful vistas. Greenery everywhere and drops on the either sides. The initial part of ridge walking was not that difficult at all and soon enough we reached a point where we had to cross a road and continue along the ridge. Now this part of the ridge was narrow, had nearly 300 foot drops on either sides and had some scare quotient. At some places the walk was a bit challenging and hence this was not exactly beginners cup of tea. Soon we reached the BSNL tower after enduring sun,rain, mist and some breathtaking views. Beside the tower was a cozy lake where we rested for some time. From here Bababudangiri was 2 kms and at around 3:45 pm we reached the place.

Steep 300ft drops

Had some junk food at the local shops, got some firewood from this place to cook our dinner and by 5 pm we were moving towards Galikere, our camping spot (4 kms motorable road from Bababudangiri). When we left Bababudangiri it was a bright day with very few clouds and at the end of our 4km ride to Galikere the entire sky was covered with rainclouds and it had started to rain. Freaky Nature !!!!!! . By the time we collected all our belongings and walked the last 100 m towards the lake we were literally in middle of a thunderstorm. Wind blowing at nearly 50-60 kmph and having no other option we took shelter inside a concrete structure, built quiet near to the lake. Seeing the intensity of the rain we decided to pitch the tents inside the shelter which can accommodate only one tent and hence we ended up with 5 people inside a 3 man tent.

Carpet of Flowers

Lake near the BSNL tower

Anyway with such a wind gust we still decided to start a bonfire to cook our food, thanks to some amount of petrol we had. But I did a really dumb thing, pouring petrol directly on a open flame and within no time the flames were burning on the mouth of the petrol can , just seconds away from becoming a full blown petrol bomb. I don't know what possessed me, but instead of throwing it away as far as possible I started to blow at the flame trying to extinguish it !!!!!!!!!!!! :P. Thankfully that worked :D. After that have lot of respect for petrol :P. After several attempts to start the fire we gave up and resorted to eating cold bread and jam. Spent some time playing dumb-charades inside the tent when the storm was lashing outside. Visibility was less than couple of meters with no one venturing outside that. Within no time our tent was wet and water was seeping through. We could have only imagined what would have happened to us if there was no shelter :).

Reflection Photography

Bababudangiri

30th Oct 2011( Kalhattigiri/Jenukal Falls)

In Search of the falls

Kalhattigiri/Jenukal Falls

By morning the rain had subsized a bit. But still the entire place was engulfed in mist and it was freezing like hell. We packed our stuff and waited for our taxi who by the way had decided to bunk for the night in Bababudangiri. He arrived and after some scary hair raising moments managed to reverse the taxi. We went directly to Kalhatti falls , with a tea break in Bababudangiri and breakfast at Kalhatti falls.

The destination for today was kalhattigiri/jenukal falls which is around 5 kms walk from the similiarly named kalhatti falls. Took some tips from a local on the route but resisted hiring a guide, to increase our adventure quotient. Initial path of the trek goes through the coffee plantations and gradient gradually rises. There were a lot of crossroads and we literally took a pick among those randomly. We climbed and we climbed. After climbing for some 2 hrs we came to a point where we were in an adjacent hill to the falls, but we were unable to switch between the hills since the path was near impossible. With the path towards the falls having 1/2 foot of bog and it was a tough task climbing on this slippery substance. Now we knew for sure that we were lost and there was no option than returning back. Returned back to a crossroad and took the proper turn and now were in direct view of falls, but minus an hours climb. Anyway we gave up the idea of going further upstream, but still the view of this literally unknown falls from this spot was majestic. Had a half an hour dip in the mini waterfalls downstream of the main falls and returned back to the parking lot at around 3 pm, alighted with our taxi and started the return journey back to Bangalore. Reached Blore at around 9:15pm and reached home at around 10.45pm.

Our Jacuzzi Point

Overall in my opinion this was a very unique trek , with caving, ridge walking,water falls exploring etc thrown into a gravy named trekking. A change which I require at regular intervals, like regular adrenaline shots into my blood stream :).

Trek Details --->

Total Trek Distance(for both the treks) --> 15+8 kms
Difficulty Level ---> Between Easy and Intermediate (Some sections of ridge walking requires experience).
Total Cost Per Head --> 1800 bucks
Mobile Signal Info---> BSNL, Vodafone at many places

Rough Path of the Trail (Follow the Ridge)

Trail Marked in Red, Blue is the motorable route

Snaps Link ---->

https://picasaweb.google.com/117615192470834757069/MullayangiriBababudangiriTrek
https://picasaweb.google.com/104803450757964777769/Mulyenagiri?authkey=Gv1sRgCNqWsPy86vS9ggE

Passage To Home, The Push Of A Lifetime :P

2011-10-04T16:51:00.001+05:30

This post of a satirical take on the recently concluded bike trip to Ladakh, ( Passage to Ladakh, The Ride Of A Lifetime.) with the similar sounding title.

2 weeks of riding in one of the most inhospitable terrains in the world in our humble 2 wheelers and I had pretty much envisioned all sort of worst case scenarios. Puncture's, snapping of clutch wires, getting stranded in snow, rear wheel coming off during the ride, the engine exploding and so forth (U should at least get a hint of what I was expecting :P) and with the greatest fear of getting stranded in some remote location till eternity. But thankfully nothing of such sort really happened and in the end we had nothing more than a few punctures and a clogged carburetor ( in other bikes of course), a very tame scenario when compared to my so called 'Deja Vu' visions and not a scratch on my Pulsar 180, which came out with flying colors.

But an incident back home here in Bangalore put a huge full-stop on the invincible status of my bike.

The Day:
30 September 2011

The Time:
10 pm Onwards

The Event:
Heavy downpour over the city of Bangalore.

I was returning late from office thanks to attending college in morning and then all of a sudden it starts to rain cats and dogs. Since I am the sort of person who likes to ride in the rain, I continued riding after getting some sort of protection for the electronics with me. But as I neared Lalbagh there was a big rain water pool in the middle of the road. Rode through this carefully and was successful in crossing it. But the problem were to descend upon me only after crossing this. Suddenly the engine was dying , sputtering to a stop. I guessed water must have entered the engine and after waiting for some 5 min in the heavy downpour tried to start it again. Still no response. Now the actual gravity of the situation dawned upon me. I was still around 8kms from my home.

First solution that came to my mind was to ditch the bike, get some transport to home and come back the next day for the bike. But thanks to heavy rain and time being post 10 pm there were literally no public transport or auto's plying on the roads. Now I was left to fend for myself. This is something which I had never imagined even in my worst nightmare , getting stranded within one's own city, just 8 kms from home :P. Anyway since having no other option decided to walk the remaining distance and quite wrongly assumed pushing the bike all the distance wont be problem too. So started the push of epic proportions, in a heavy downpour, almost nearing midnight, with the entire road pretty much deserted and occasionally dogs coming out of their shelter to bark at me and go back.

There were pretty huge inclines to climb and pushing the bike is surely a killer combo. The majority of the roads were filled with knee deep water and vehicles passing by were just splashing it left and right, pretty much no place for me to hide :P. And as expected within reaching half of the distance I was gasping for breath, as if I had run a marathon. But surprisingly (when I look back at what I did) I didn't give up pushing the bike. The primary reason being since I had already pushed half a distance and it would make no sense to ditch it after going through all the pain of pushing all this distance (glass half full concept :P). Finally reached home and flashed a "V" sign when my worried mom opened the doors :). "TASK COMPLETED !!!!!". (Took 1.5hrs for the 8 km dash :P )

After this incident I have truly come to the accept the fact that when the luck of the person is favorable, then it doesn't matter if he is in the remotest corner of the world, or among the deadliest people he will come out without a scratch, but if it is not favorable then the garden of Eden surely transforms itself to hell as it did for Adam & Eve and so did it for me. Luck is a bi**h :P.

P.S. Anyway it was a great workout and a super-duper confidence booster having pushed the bike for 8 kms :). Have posted this blog under the label "Water Sports" for obvious reasons :D.

The Alpha Dog

2011-10-01T23:36:00.000+05:30

Recently read an article in "The Week" magazine about how a male of any species can be divided predominantly into 3 categories (these categories are also present in females if not that transparent as in males). Even though this type of demarcation is clearly visible in animals when compared to humans , they have nevertheless mentioned the categories as follows.

1. Alpha
2. Beta
3. Omega

Alpha males are the born leaders, aggressive and other member of the same species literally follow whatever the alpha does. Talking in human terms they are the athletes, world leaders (except our PM :P, who by the way is an omega), army captains etc with testosterone levels running like rivers in their bloods. Of course too many alpha males and world will go into chaos :P. Beta males are the "wannabe" alpha's , but don't have in them to become the alpha. They are in constant competition with the alpha for supremacy , but as expected always end up loosing.

Omega males are the least aggressive of the species. Generally they follow others and keep a very low profile. Talking in human context they are geeks, mama's boys, shy and introvert people. They need others to take care of them, initially their mothers and later by their GFs/wife.High degree of accommodating other types of males, whether its an alpha, beta or omega types. Quite interestingly all these characters were portrayed in the movie UP where the pack of dogs were clearly demarcated, which somehow dawned upon me after reading this article. The doberman is the alpha dog and not surprisingly named as Alpha, the leader no matter whether his intentions are good or bad. All of alpha dog's followers are beta dogs and again unsurprisingly one of these beta dogs is named Beta. The dog named Dug fits into the omega category, sissy, inefficient and bullied by others, with a constant companion being the 'cone of shame' :P.

Alpha and 2 Beta dogs- From "Up" Movie

Omega Dog-From "Up" Movie

Also it got me thinking as to what exactly I am i.e. what category I belong to?. After going back my memory archives, replaying and reviewing several instances, with pretty much my entire life being played before my eyes(black and white videos :P) I have come to a conclusion that I don't just belong to one specific category. There were times when I have shown traits of pure "alpha"ness and in majority of the cases being an omega, but quite surprisingly never a beta.The reason being , whenever I get the feeling that I cannot dominate, I pretty much go to the omega phase, skipping the beta category altogether. Overall considering all the instances of my life and with some amount of approximation I can deduce that the % of me being an alpha and omega is around 35 % and 65 % respectively.

So what does that mean. Is this sort of flip-flop possible only in humans, and I pretty much guess so. In animals an alpha to an omega transformation would surely result in it loosing the top position , usually being the head of the pack. Hence its pretty much like "Macho-ness Unlimited" :P. But in case of humans beings having the traits of an alpha male pretty much doesn't guarantee the top job. Also in case of humans we have something else which comes into play and which being much more powerful than the macho-ness. ie our brains, thinking power (intelligence quotient), intellectual capability, emotional quotient and so forth , making it a very complex affair. Nevertheless cases where alpha males marry/date an alpha female is a sure-shot recipe to disaster thanks to frequent ego clashes and battle for supremacy, whereas an omega man will be more than happy to be taken care and told what exactly to do by an alpha female and vice verse. Hence the phrase "Opposites Attract" surely finds its true meaning here :).

Furthermore the easiest way to go from Omega phase to Alpha phase in humans is without any doubt "sports". Any physical form of sports you take and within a matter of minutes aggression is dripping from the person's mouth. Enough of my personal analysis. Now lets see where the readers of this blog belong to :)

Passage To Ladakh , The Ride Of A Lifetime

2011-09-27T23:08:00.000+05:30

4 years, that's how long I waited for this dream to come true. Almost 1/6 th of my entire lifetime. When the first images of a biker posing by the banks of the Pangong Tso lake filtered through my brain cells , there was born a dream, a dream which initially was thought to be nothing more than one and as years passed started to gain momentum, thanks to exposure to the great Himalayas gained the previous year and the required company brave enough to ride in one of the most inhospitable and beautiful terrains on bikes.

Many people told we were mental , going on a suicide mission :P, but having seen so many brave souls doing this circuit on 2 wheeler and returning alive and unharmed was an encouragement for us. Planning started almost 6 months prior to the trip going through numerous blogs and pieces of info, best time to visit and henceforth. Initially the plan was to do the touring in the month of june-july but by then suddenly something unexpected happened. I got a seat in IIMB, and not to miss an opportunity of 2 dreams coming true in a single year the trip was rescheduled to fall between 2 quarters so as to have a minimum interference on my studies. Finally only 5 guys(Senthil, Vineeth, Pradeep, Prasanna and Myself) were ready to endure 15 days of "pure awesomeness" .

Day 0: 27 Aug 2011, Bangalore

One of the more busy days I have encountered in the recent past. The day started at 4 am thanks to 2 exams scheduled for the day. With the exams lasting till 6 pm in the evening all the packing was left for the n'th moment. After returning from college could start packing only from 9 pm onwards and which extended all the way till 1:30 am in the night. Then it was time for some sleep, but who gets sleep when you are excited and scared at the same time :P.

Day 1: 28 Aug 2011, Bangalore-Delhi (flight) and Delhi- Jammu (Overnight Train)

Humayun's Tomb

Got up quite early in the morning thanks to the morning flight and high degree of unpredictability of landing up in the airport. Reached airport at 9 am after a 1.5 hr journey from home with still some time left for the 10.35 am Jetlite flight. The flight journey was boring and all I did for most of the journey was catch upon my lost sleep. Landed up in Delhi and this being the first time I have been to Delhi after the CWG games was really impressed with the airport, atleast 10% of the sanctioned money found its way to the airport I suppose :P. From airport we took a high speed metro rail into the city centre and this journey was done in 22 mins flat, yet again impressed and this was the last time I was for the day.

It was still around 2 pm and we had almost 8 hrs to kill before we caught the overnight train to Jammu. So first thing I remembered was the UNESCO world heritage site "Humayuns Tomb" and decided to go for it. It took us 2 metros and an auto rickshaw from the city center to land up at this place and coming from Bangalore were there is a darshini or Shanti Sagar in every nook and corner of the city we didnt initially worry about going in search for an eatery. But New Delhi was totally different. Around Humayuns tomb you dont have an eatery within a 5 km radius, a pretty shocking fact, and all eateries are just concentrated in some unknown "utopian" place as mentioned by the auto drivers :P. Another mild shock for the day was there was no luggage room at this world heritage site (unlike Qutub Minar and Akshardham temple which we visited last year) and it was simply an arduous task lugging around completely packed saddle bags, which are not meant to be hand carried in the first place.

Waiting for Anna at India Gate

From outside, Humayuns tomb really looks impressive, a building made of sandstone and nicely maintained surroundings with neatly manicured lawns and landscape. But on the inside it was a complete different picture, it was literally stinking with a stench of bat droppings. After getting tired by the afternoon sun , we decided to move towards India Gate. Directly took an auto and as we landed at this place we were greeted by a huge crowd waving the national tricolor and later it came to be known that Anna Hazare was going to make an appearance later in the evening to celebrate the government approval for the Jan Lokpal bill to be presented before the standing committee. Satiated our hunger by having roadside chats after getting to know yet again that there were no proper eateries around. As the day wore off the number of people swelled in number and people were shouting slogans and we too joined in :). But sadly Anna Hazare was facing some health issues and had cancelled the appointment and we were unaware of that and were waiting in vain till 7 pm. Then we decided it was time to move and started searching for the nearest eatery and google search gave an Andhra mess hall some 1 km. This was not a proper restaurant but a canteen/mess along with accommodation for the MP/MLA/bureaucrats from Andhra on a capital visit. So as expected we were subject to frisking, but conversations in telugu by our telugu speaking members resulted in some leniency shown (ie my bag was not checked whereas all others were .P.S. I dont speak telugu :P). Food at this mess was good , a pakka south Indian andhra meal and the only meal we had for the day. From here we caught a taxi to Sarai Rohilla Railway station which looked like a run down station of a 70's western movie. Caught the train and it was an event-less overnight journey.

Day 2: 29 Aug 2011, Jammu-Patnitop-Srinagar (302 km)

Our Bikes Ready to be unpacked

Landed in Jammu station at around 8 am , and by this time noticed my cell phone had gone dead(prepaids dont work in J&K), eventhough Vodafone postpaid works both in Jammu and Srinagar. We had to travel nearly 10kms to Gati godown to collect our bikes which we had sent on Aug 16 from Bangalore. So started searching for a suitable transport , which came in form of a single auto-rickshaw with all 5 of us stuffed into it like cattle with all our luggage and rears packed to the brim :P. Enroute we collected petrol since our fuel tanks were dried up before parceling. Landed up at the office, collected the bikes from the godown and were really happy with the Gati Agent (near old airport road, Blore) to have done a neat packing job with almost zero damage to the bike.

First View Of Kashmir Valley

Loaded the luggage bags to the bike, with the basic plan being that the other 2 bikes to ride with a pillion and I was to ride solo with 2 extra loads of luggages. Did test runs with the luggages and when we were satisfied, started the bike trip of epic proportions. Of course there were no send-off parties, no breaking of champagne or a more traditional coconuts on the bikes/helmets/riders routine :P, but who cared for such formalities when you have got your bikes, tank loaded with fuel and thousands of kilometers of road in front of you ready to be tamed. But within 10 mins of starting this legendary(i know, i am using all the adjectives possible :P) journey we took a break at Chaudhary Dhaba for a brunch, as recommended by the rickshaw driver and we were not disappointed. So atlast we left Jammu at around 11.45 am and had almost 300 odd kms till Srinagar to be covered on this particular day. But the roads were good and as soon we leave Jammu city start the ghats, an indication that the mighty Himalayas are beginning right away. As the ghats began, so did the deep gorges and drops. It was really unnerving to ride on the edge of the road with 1000 ft straight drop and no protection/barricades whatsoever. One brush by some other bigger vehicles and we would have become yet another statistic to be mentioned in a Govt report. The western ghats in comparison fair very badly in such a scare quotient.

One thing that surely one cant miss in these regions is the huge army presence. Every nook and corner you can expect an army convoy zooming past with a dozen or so army jawans in the backside. But there were no jawans every 100 m on the Jammu-Srinagar highway , as reported by fellow bloggers/bikers a few months prior to us. I suppose peace is finally settling down for good after a long and bloody struggle. The weather in Jammu was hot , but as we started the climb , mercury started to drop and by the time we reached Patnitop it was literally cold in the middle of the day. Patnitop is really beautiful with pine Trees lining up the entire highway , giving a beautiful invitation to keep on riding.

Green Tunnel

Soon we came up to the entrance of Jawahar tunnel , a tunnel build way back in 1956 connecting Kashmir valley with the rest of the world and it was really an awesome experience riding inside the 2.5 km tunnel all alone, enjoying an eerie silence, broken periodically by pattering of the water drops seeping through the tunnel roof and landing on the helmet. As soon we exit the Jawahar tunnel start the Kashmir valley and we took a break at a strategically located Titanic view point. The entire Kashmir valley was brimming with different shades of greenery, a feast to the weary eyes. We continued further and now we had endless fields on either side of an awesome highway, and soon enough it was dark , it was hard to ride and co-ordinate with each other in the dark and added the fact that many including me had no mobile connectivity. Finally everyone assembled and soon enough we were engaged by a broker for house boats. After taking us to a beautiful house boat(Peacock Houseboats) we decided to stay even though the package was on the pricey side, with the entire package of stay, dinner, breakfast and a shikara ride at 3600 for 5 people. Ofcourse this was done after much haggling, such opportunities which we never missed during the entire trip. The houseboat also housed 2 Israeli's, an American and a Korean(Jin-Ho Choi, a musician ) who bonded pretty well with us after getting to know that majority of us worked for a Korean company :P.

Fields of Kashmir

Day 3: 30 Aug 2011, Srinagar-Sonmarg-Zojila Pass-Drass (151km)

Inside our House Boat

Morning was reserved for sightseeing around the city of Srinagar and as expected the first on that list was Dal Lake. The shikhara booked to take us around came at around 8.30 am and all 5 of us boarded this unstable form of water transportation. Thus started the sightseeing or so we thought. Dal Lake is so huge that we came to know that the place we are put up is miles away from the centre of the lake and from here slowly we made our way to the centre. Intially we loved the ride, pretty scenic views with row after row of house boats lined , but soon the actual headache started. Since this was an offseason and with very few tourists we are literally the centre of attraction. So many traders selling items from ice cream to saffron, photographs in traditional clothing to shawls etc chased us down in their boats and literally forced us to buy stuff. After so much haggling only Pradeep got some amount of saffron for dirt cheap price and which we came to know as counterfeit. Now this part of Kashmir I hated the most. There was no calm moment to relax before the next trader would barge in. We were irritated so much so that we literally cut short the ride and returned midway. Eventhough we visited the Dal lake market and some gardens enroute.

Dal Lake

After returning back to our house boats had our breakfast, by this time the korean guy had given a mini concert for 5 of us and it was great. A mix of english and korean songs and this guy has plans of making it big as a pop-star, a sure reality if he taps on his talent :). It was time to leave and the destination for today was Drass, famous both as the town in epicenter of the 1999 Kargil war and as the 2nd coldest inhabited place on earth after a town in Siberia, Russia. When we were leaving Srinagar i could sense a lot of unrest among the people enroute, civilians and cops at many places were having a heated argument, we were not sure what the reason was but it was time to get out of Srinagar and as fast as possible. We didnt want to get bogged down by a curfew and wasting a couple of days so early in the trip. Anyway later came to know that this was a norm in Srinagar.

Enroute Sonmarg

Sonmarg

Roads between Srinagar and Sonmarg are very scenic, gurgling streams, lawned up green grass on either sides of the road, huge intimidating mountains, awesome roads and to top it all a slight drizzle. Sonmarg truly matches its namesake which means "meadow of gold". Also we started to witness snow glaciers high up in the mountains the first sighting for the trip. Just then Zojila pass appeared, our first serious hurdle for the trip. Standing tall at 11,575 ft this was our first high altitude pass to be crossed on bikes. And as expected the road high up to the pass was real bad, having narrow pathway and was downright scary , with bottomless drops. Eventhough this is not as high in altitude as the passes which we had planned to cross such as Khardungla and so on, this really tested our nerves. But slowly and steadily we climbed and crossed it. By now the traffic which was pretty decent had totally thinned out, and we knew that we have entered the gateway to Ladakh, and the landscape around us gave an affirmative nod with greenery gradually thinning out and brown , bald mountains making an appearance. (Reason being Ladakh is in the rain shadow region enclosed between Himalayan Ranges in the south and Karakoram ranges in the North ). We were now in the largest and most sparsely populated district in India.

The shadow of the clouds give an awesome appearance on these brown mountains, an effect amplified when compared to other mountains. After crossing Zojila the roads again became decent and we started to enjoy the unique scenery never having witnessed them earlier in our life times. At one point Prasanna clicked a picture of an army camp and the army guards came running towards us. I sensed trouble, but after checking that we were really tourists we had a nice conversation with them, and one statement by the soldier which I remember is "यह जगह देकने के लिए अच्छा है, लेकिन रहने के लिए बेकार है", signifying the hardship the soldiers have to endure in these remote places. They wished us luck and we moved towards our destination.

Mighty Zojila Pass

First View Of Ladakhi Landscape

Finally we reached Drass in the evening at around 6 pm. There were around 3-4 decent hotels here in drass and after checking out couple of them we settled for Hotel City View who charged us 500 bucks for 5 people. Drass was chilly even in this time of the year and from this town we could view the famous Tiger Hills, the focal point of 1999 Kargil war. During the war the Pakistani's had almost captured this town, knocking at its door.

Food at this place was bad , but you cant really expect more, in such remote places. We had planned to visit the Drass war memorial some 7 kms from the town , but after reaching there got to know that it was closed since some Brigadier was paying visit , else the memorial is open till 8pm.

Drass

Day 4: 31 Aug 2011, Drass-Kargil-Mulbek-Fotula Pass-Lamayuru (165km)

Drass War Memorial, Bimbit

This day was Ramzan and being in a muslim dominated town, we wanted to leave as early as possible so as to avoid witnessing slaughter-fest. Left quite early in the morning and directly went to the war memorial enroute to Kargil. This place is a must visit, a reminder of the sacrifices done by our armed forces to keep us warm and cozy in our houses when they fight with intruders in highly inhospitable conditions. There is an indoor exhibit room and outdoor memorial. An army officer accompanied us explaining the nuances of the 1999 Kargil war. After spending nearly 2 hrs at this place it was time to leave. The destination initially was assumed to be a ride all the way to Leh, a distance of nearly 280 odd km , but as we know everything is unpredictable when touring on bikes. One thing you will notice when touring in J&K is that lot of kids give high fives and one hand clapping , probably a tradition started by westerners who tour a lot in there regions on bikes and we were more than happy to continue that. But nevertheless my first attempt at a riding and moving hi-fi with a school going kid failed miserably. There was a palm to palm contact instead of less sturdier finger contact and it must have pained like hell for the kid, since it surely did for me :D.

Tiger Hill, Focal Point of 1999 Kargil War

Town Of Kargil

After Drass, majority of the roads are in bad condition, with few good stretches in between. Hence as expected the average was low. We had expected to have breakfast in Kargil , but thanks to Ramzan all the restaurants were closed and we decided to move further on. The average was further brought down when Senthil's rear tyre got a puncture. Now it was left to us to fix the tyre, but we failed miserably. Even though I am an expert in fixing cycle tubes, we couldnt even remove the rear wheel which was screwed in real tight and to top to all Senthil didnt have his bikes tool kit. We tried and tried with whatever equipment we had , but all attempts were futile. Ofcourse we were trying to unscrew the wheel nut in the proper direction, but the nut was not at all budging. Some fellow travellers on the road stopped and offered help (good thing abt J&K, everyone is ready to help each other), but still it was unsuccessful. Hence it was decided to ride the bike all the way to the next town, i.e. Mulbek to the puncture shop. Hence after shifting the luggage from Senthil's bike we left in search of a puncture shop and found one in Mulbek. Now this guy took almost 1.5 hrs to loosen the wheel and that too with help of proper equipment and overcompensating manpower (read the 5 of us :P)

Mulbek

Finally after the tube was replaced we started moving forward. Leh still seemed possible even though it was midday and roads were bad.But as it goes without a mention, the view were simply awesome. The river Indus was accompanying us on the major part of the journey and the view of the valley on either side of the river were breathtaking. But as things started to settle down after the initial hiccup, again we got a puncture in Senthil's bike after crossing Hansikot. We had ensured that the puncture guy had checked the tyre for any sharp materials , but after getting a puncture so soon we were wondering what could be problem. Having no patience of again removing the wheel and checking for puncture we decided to go till Lamayuru and look for puncture shops. But we had one small bump enroute, "Fotula", the highest point on the Srinagar-Leh highway at 13479 ft. But the roads till the top were awesome and it somewhat made matter easier for a bike now running on its rims :P. From Fotula it was all the way downhill till Lamayuru , and by the time we reached the town it was pitch dark.

Went directly to the best hotel in the town which was Hotel Moonland and booked 2 rooms for 800 each. Had a pretty decent traditional Ladakhi/Tibetian buffet filled with Momos, tupka, chowmein etc. But sadly there were no proper mechanics/puncture shop in Lamayuru to check the wheel rim which we were suspecting in the first place. So it was decided that we ship Senthils bike in a pickup truck with all the luggage and other's follow it on bikes.

Forula Pass

Day 5: 01 Sept 2011, Lamayuru- Magnetic Hills- Leh (139km)

Lamayuru Town

According to initial estimates this was supposed to be a rest day, a day were we lazed around and did nothing in particular , having covered 700 and odd kms. But thanks to yesterdays turn of events we were still around 140 km short of Leh. The first thing in the morning we went to the Lamayuru monastary eager to take a look inside an age old monastery (the one at Bylakuppe is a recent one), but sadly the doors were locked we had to be content roaming around the main buildings spinning the prayer wheels at every possible opportunity. After coming back from the monastery it was time to leave for Leh, we loaded the bike on the back of the pickup truck and left the place.

Just after Lamayuru is a site called moonscape where the surface resembles the surface of the moon. Frankly speaking I saw the entire Ladakh region to resemble moon's surface and not just this one site in particular. There were lot of road blocks on this route thanks to some maintenance work carried out by the BRO (Border roads organization), but the road condition between Lamayuru and Leh are real awesome. You could cruise non-stop. And the beauty of this land is that the views you get in one place is totally different from views you get at a different section of the highway, so the chances of getting "brown mountain fatigue" is less. In short the views offered in Srinagar-Leh highway are completely different from Leh-Manali highway, so it is always preferable to enter via one highway and exit via another, so as to enjoy both routes.

No:1 in terms of scenic beauty

Enroute we came across magnetic hills. According to the internet this gives an optical illusion thanks to a horizon lined up differently. But we were not seeing any illusion, after spending a lot of time doing circus on bikes we finally gave up. As we neared to Leh, there were a lot of snow capped peaks in the surroundings, a awesome contrast to the brown colored mountains, surrounding it. Also caught sight of Stok Kangri peak. Soon we were entering the town of Leh and as our pickup truck went to a mechanic others went in search of a hotel. Found a decent budget place, Hotel Shanti Deluxe charging 1.6k for 5 of us in 2 rooms. By this the time was 3 pm and we asked the hotel manager whether we can get Inner line permit (required for places near the Chinese border) today itself and he replied in negative and told he can get the permits the next day if we paid some 1800 for 5 people for 6 days permission, which seemed too much since I read somewhere that it cost 20 bucks /person/day coming to a total of 720 for all the 5 people. So decided to give DC office a visit and to our surprise the DC office was still issuing permits and to our great luck we were issued the last permit for the day at 4 pm. and costing exactly 720 bucks :P. (For details regarding ILP go to bottom of this blog) Those who came after us had to return disappointed.

A snow capped peak, probably Stok Kangri

Got our bikes checked for the long journey ahead and by evening decided to do some sight seeing in Leh. Went to Shanti Stupa which gives a pretty decent views of the Leh city and after that decided to visit the Leh palace, but the roads to the palace were so confusing and whenever we asked a person he would send us via a totally different route. Finally exhausted we just dropped any hopes of going to palace since it was already dark and we had to big day tmrw. One more thing I observed is eventhough Leh is filled with more western tourists than Indians, the locals do not discriminate between them and us , as seen and observed in other places frequented by western tourists in India, which makes Leh all the more likeable.

Shanti Stupa, Leh

Day 6: 02 Sept 2011, Leh - Khardungla Pass- Diskit - Hundar (131km)

Today was an important day. We were to attempt climbing the mighty Khardungla Pass, the highest motorable road in the world at 18380 ft. Kinda like Mt.Everest for bikes, even though there is Marsimik La at a much higher height, but it is not termed motorable and more of a dirt track. Day started with us leaving Leh town to climb Khardungla and plan was to cross the pass and go and stay in Nubra Valley. But soon enough all our bikes started to struggle to climb this high altitude pass.

And as the altitude increases your mind starts playing moody and in very unexpected ways. You feel a tinge of depression, headache etc, all this because of lack of oxygen (actually its oxygen pressure and not %) at this high altitude , there is less than 50% of oxygen content at Khardungla (at 5602m) when compared to sea level, so you know what we were facing. Soon reached South Pullu till which the roads were good, after this roads become bad till the top and this part of the road we didnt actually enjoy riding both mentally and physically. There were a lot of girls on a cycling expedition from Youth hostel (YHAI), but as expected majority of them were walking and covering the climb than cycling all the way, but still this requires a standing ovation to even think of attempting such a feat.

Khardungla , Worlds Highest Motorable road, kinda like Mt.Everest for bikes :)

Khardung Village at a distance

Finally we reached the top. This was the highest altitude I have reached (on firm ground :)) at 5602 m beating previous personal record of 5030m during the Roopkund Trek done the previous year. There were a lot of bikers getting their snaps taken in front of the "Highest Motorable Road In the World" boards. Of course we too got those, had some tea, got a souvenir T-shirt and in process we spent nearly 45 mins at the top. This was a big mistake. The army recommends not to stay more than 20 mins at any high altitude pass, be it Changla, TaglangLa or KhardhungLa. And becoz of the extended stay each member of the group was hit by AMS (Acute Mountain Sickness), right from mild headache to severe headache and vomiting (Mr. Vineeth, just check him out in the Khardungla Snap :P ). I too was having mild headache and this headache stayed on for the entire day even after descending to much saner altitudes.

While descending the roads were bad till North Pullu, and after that it becomes good. We stopped and had maggi's (a dish most commonly found in these regions) here. After North Pullu you have officially entered Nubra Valley and man there were some breathtaking views along the way. Deep valleys by the river Shyok, and some towns totally covered in greenery against the brown background giving great contrast views. Every 5-10 mins I would stop and take a snap. This is the prime reason why I decided to ride solo else all this routine would make my pillion rider pull out his hair in frustration :D. After Khalsar village there is a 'Y" fork, one going to Diskit and Hunder and another going to Sumur, Panamik and Siachin Base Camp. We took the former and we had plans to stop at Diskit to visit the gompa/monastery , but somehow we missed the entrance and decided to visit the next day on the way back, since all of us were in irritated state thanks to AMS.

Sand Dunes of Hundar

After Diskit within a few kms start the famed sand-dunes of Hunder. But this high altitude sand-dunes were totally pale and white in color against the much livelier , red/brown sand of Rajasthan. Went in search for a homestay and found Olgok Home Stay. The owner was a good fella charging 800 bucks for 5 of us. Food was lipsmacking :). After dumping all our luggage we went towards the camel safari, with Bactrian camel found in these parts of the region, a reminder of the Silk route legacy of the yesteryear's which passed right through this region. The double humped camels looked strong and healthy hence I too decided to go for a ride, which I usually avoid in other circumstances. The ride was pretty amusing, but the most painful part was when the camel gets up and sits down. Having a tender part pressed against a hump in an incline is pretty painful :P. After the safari spent some time sitting in the sand dunes and by night fall returned back to our homestay, had dinner and slept like logs.

Double Humped Bactrian Camels

Day 7: 03 Sept 2011, Hundar - Diskit - Sumur - Khardungla Pass- Leh (172km)

Diskit Monastary

First thing I noticed in the morning was that the headache had vanished miraculously :). So was pretty determined not to repeat the previous days mistake. Today we were to return back to Leh having a detour to Sumur enroute. Left Hunder pretty early and we directly went in search of the Diskit Gompa. The first thing that catches your attention is the nearly 50ft tall statue of Maitreyi(future buddha) in the Gompa's premises. After paying the required entrance fee we climbed to the Gompa which is situated on the edge of a cliff and requires a steep climb both on foot and on vehicles.

Monks In Diskit Gompa

Finally reached the entrance of this ancient Gompa. There were a lot monks going through their daily morning prayers, chanting them in a very hypnotic fashion I must say. Also surprisingly there was a temple for Goddess Kali, I dint know abt Buddhists worshiping Hindu gods even though there is a lot of similarities between the 2 religions. Spent nearly 2 hrs exploring the gompa , its surroundings and the huge Maitreyi statue. We retraced our steps back to Khalsar and took a deviation towards Sumur. This road goes all the way to Siachin Base Camp, which supports the forward posts on the Siachin Glacier facing both Pakistan and China on 2 sides , but of course they are restricted areas and for civilians like us getting permission is close to impossible.

Entered the village of Sumur and this was cozy little place, surrounded by fields, mountains, trees, rivulets and houses. Decided to visit the Sumur Gompa, which seemed to be much younger than the one at Diskit. There a monk came to talk to us and we came to know that this guy had stayed in Mysore for nearly 4-5 years. We actually found quite a few locals who had been to Mysore for education and probably bcoz of its proximity to Bylakuppe. He chatted with us for quite some time and then it was time to leave.

Slush Near Kharungla, Was an effort to cross this

As we were nearing to Khardung Village, on the base of the Khardungla Pass, it started to rain quite heavily. We were a bit worried since near the top it will be much worse. Anyway we took a break in this village and had a great meal at Maitreyi Open Air Restaurent(were huddled inside a tent for most part thanks to rain :P) and when we thought the rain subsidized a bit we moved. When we reached North Pullu at 16000 ft Prasanna was hit with mild AMS and Senthils bike was having problem with pull. So Prasanna sat pillion on my bike and we started the second assent to Khardungla Pass, it was actually fun riding with a pillion because you had to put full trottle and ride continuously on the damaged potholed roads no matter what , else you will loose momentum. When we almost reached the Khardungla Pass, we had a very close shave. When I stopped by the roadside and to our badluck on the slope side (with deep drop to the left and road to the right) to check whether others were coming or not, Prasanna suddenly dismounted putting all weight on right side of the bike which I didn expect in the first place. So as expected we had a fall (a stationary fall though) on the road, Prasanna on the ground, me too smelling earth and bike on top of me. Somehow with great effort I lifted the bike , which was so difficult at this altitude that I actually felt proud abt it later :P. Thanked our lucky starts since if by chance Prasanna had dismounted in the opposite side (ie to the left) it would have been a much serious case.

After this incident we were shaken up a bit, but we continued on , but nature had put up one more obstacle in front of us. A roadblock in form of a landslide, thanks to the incessent rains the past 24 hrs. It was actually snowing when we were waiting for the landslide to be cleared, with near freezing temp the limbs were going numb with cold. It was our first high altitude slush-fest, both man and machine getting stuck in nearly 1/2 feet of slush, and finally pushing it to safety which overall took nearly 1 hr of our time. Eventually we reached the Khardungla Pass and I didnt even stop there since Prasanna was already down with AMS. The downhill ride to Leh was quick and eventless and by evening we reached Leh.

Entrance Gate of Leh

Day 8: 04 Sept 2011, Leh - Karu -Sakti- Zingrail - Karu - Leh (190km)

Shey Palace

We had reached only halfway of the trip and by this time couple of members of the group (Prasanna and Senthil :P ) were loosing motivation and blabbering plans of ditching the bike trip and directly going home. In short they were home sick, and during all this time I was thinking "What did u expect on Bike Trip? A walk in the park ??" :P. Agreed touring on bikes is not easy as it sounds, it is very demanding and doing it for 12 days continuously takes a toll on the rider, but seeing the bright side it is one of the most exciting form of touring and of course a person needs to be reasonably fit to do that in these regions. We were to visit the famed Pangong Tso lake on this particular day crossing the mighty ChangLa Pass. But we couldnt be more wrong. This day is best remembered as the day were Senthil's bike was determined to give us some more hardship.

Left quite early in the morning in order to reach Pangong Tso lake by late afternoon and we never expected to come back to Leh. The weather didnt seem that favourable with constant drizzling in Leh. We expected a repeat of KhardungLa episode and were quite wary abt it. Around 11 km on the Leh-Manali highway we came across Shey Palace, which looked impressive. Eventhough it was not part of our itinerary we decided to have a look. But sadly on the inside it is quite the opposite of the word 'impressive'. Hence after spending some 20 mins here we moved on. Stopped at Karu for breakfast, a staple diet of aloo parathas and the hotel owner gave us info that it was snowing at ChangLa and a Qualis returned back bcoz of that. Eventhough this made us even more jittery we decided to move on. From Karu we had to leave the Manali road and the beginning itself there is a check post were we have to submit our permits.

A Beautiful Monastary Enroute

The roads till now were good and we reached the town of Sakti and were gaining altitude in leaps and bounds. And suddenly Senthil's bike was having problem pulling both him and the pillion rider. We attributed the problem to high altitude and some dust in the fuel line and decided to move further. But as the altitude increased , Senthil's bike performance went down. We decided to return back to the nearest mechanic for check-up which was all the way back to Karu . So we rode back to Karu and considering the roads were good didnt take much time. The lone mechanic at Karu can be termed as inexperienced as the least. He removed the carbuerator, cleaned , tuned it and fit it back and all this took close to 2 hrs and surprisingly this didn help at all and Senthil again started to have pulling problem when climbing ChangLa the second time. We somehow rode till Zingrail which is the army base/checkpost before vehicles start climbing all the way to Changla (which was around 15 kms from here). Here we had a difference of opinion, some wanted to ride on and others including Senthil wanted to return back and get his bike checked and considering that the mechanic at Karu didn't inspire much confidence in us we decided to return back to Leh.

Leh Palace

So started the non-stop ride to Leh were we covered nearly 80 odd kms in less than 2 hrs. But sadly all the mechanic shops in Leh were closed thanks to it being a Sunday and we had to wait for the next day to get the bike checked. So we had entire evening to spend and so decided to visit Leh palace,which we finally reached after roaming /getting lost within the town innumerable no of times. Similar to all palaces in Ladakh , this palace too was a disappointment from inside even though from outside it looks impressive. From inside it looks more of a cow shed, sans the cattle and the dung :P. After this we went exploring the commercial streets of Leh, window shopping in most of the cases :). With this ended the day where we achieved pretty much nothing, a precious day lost into oblivion.This also meant that we would have to drop one lake destination and with a heavy heart Tso Moriri was dropped from the plan (sniff...snifff :'( ....)

Day 9: 05 Sept 2011, Leh - Karu - Sakti- Zingril - Changla Pass - Tangste - Pangong Tso Lake(Lukung) (155km)

Changla Pass, Third Highest in the world

Today we were to reattempt climbing ChangLa and go all the way to Pangong Tso lake. But first thing we had to do in the morning was to get the bikes checked. We went to the mechanic from whom we had got our bikes checked the previous time around and this guy took just 10 mins to fix the bike. Shocking and surprising at the same time. Got my bike checked out too and we were all set to leave Leh. Our hotel owners wished us success and hoped we would not return back again as we did the previous night :P.

Left Leh at around 10.30 and since the views were a repetition of the previous day the ride till Zingrail was done in least possible time with minimum possible photo breaks. From Zingrail the roads turn a bit bumpy , but when compared to the roads of Khardungla , these roads are much-much better. Finally reached the top and surprisingly there were no crowd/tourists at the top, unlike the K-top even though this is considered the third highest motorable pass in the world (5360m). Lot of army guys speaking Kannada/Telugu/Tamil were present at the top and they were giving us a lot of "gyaan" on how to cope with high altitudes. Spent close to 15 mins at the top visiting the ChangLa Devi temple in process.

After ChangLa start one of the most scenic roads of Ladakh (which is super awesome considering Ladakh in general is simply mindblowing ), mountain valleys, innumerable rivulets, a thick carpet of soft grass flanking the rivers. And as expected on this route we took a lot of breaks, to enjoy the scenic beauty. We stopped at the town of Tangste for lunch which was pretty decent and moved towards our most revered destination for the entire trip.

Finally Pongong Tso Lake, My Dream Atlast Came True

Just some 5-6 kms before reaching the banks of the lake we start getting the first view, and even this first view was much more beautiful than my expectations. Few kms from the lake the roads turn bad , but we were not complaining. The first view of the lake had boosted our motivation to a very high level and we were hungry for more. Finally reached Lukung on the banks of the lake at around 5 pm. There in front of us was the sight to behold , to be remembered for a really long time. Went directly to the banks of the lake (which was actually not allowed and we came to know abt it much later) and were clicking the dream pics sitting on our bikes and with the beautiful lake in the background. One of the few traits of this lake is that it changes colors during the period of the day, Dark blue during the morning and evenings, Aqua green during afternoons, golden during sun-rises and obviously black during nights :). After spending considerable time to our hearts content we went to Eco-tents just on the banks of the Lake for accommodation. Got 2 tents for 1.3K , but on the inside it was nothing like camping tents. It had huge comfortable beds, with thick spreads for protection when the temperature drops considerably during the nights. Also their buffet hall was pretty impressive , even though the food was nothing more than OK.

After dumping all our luggage we decided to take a walk on the banks of the lake and it was an awesome experience. A serene one to be precise. After nightfall we returned back to the tents and spent time playing cards and so on. Went very happy to bed considering my dream of 4 years was finally completed :).

Day 10: 06 Sept 2011, Pangong Tso Lake(Lukung) - Tangste- Changla Pass - Karu - Upshi - Rumste (165km)

Sunrise

We woke up early (only 3 of us) to witness a spectacular sunrise in the backdrop of Pangong Tso Lake. I would recommend spending atleast a day near the lake to enjoy all its forms. Literally I was in love with this beauty. With every other opportunity I would sneak in to meet my love :). There were quite a few signs of wildlife at this high altitude lake (4250m). Ducks and Sea(Lake)-Gulls made the majority of that number.
Just before noon when we had packed all the stuff on the bikes, we decided to ride some distance along the lake towards the village of Spangmik. By now the lake had changed its mood to Aqua Green and a couple of km ride turned to nearly 10 km ride totally. By afternoon we left Lukung after shopping for some souvenirs at Army shop and maggi at Army Canteen. It was time to start the return journey towards home via Manali.

As we started to climb ChangLa, it was Prasanna's bike's turn to give problem . It was now having a tough time climbing up and to make matters worse it had to carry Vineeth on its back :P. So it was decided that Vineeth take lift till the top and we got this within a matter of minutes :). So riding solo Prasanna somehow climbed the pass, and this time we went for free tea offered by the Army for all the tourists who visit this place. Came back to the same mechanic at Karu who had messed up our bike the previous time around (Since we had no other option and bike's condition was not that bad , to ride all the way to Leh). This time around too he cleaned the carburetor (his standard operating procedure :P ) and this somehow made matter a bit better.

From Karu we took the road towards Manali and it was good till Upshi. After that it turns really bad. With a lot of landslides and road cave-in into the river, running alongside the roads. Probably this is the remains of the disaster, Ladakh witnessed the previous year. Reached Rumste and within no time got beds in a home stay for 100 bucks per person. Here 5 of us were to share a room with a Canadian female cyclist , pretty much on a world tour, with an awesome determination. But apart from that what stuck me was her fearless attitude in sharing a room with 5 men who were complete strangers. Slept like a kid after having a very tasty dinner prepared by the home stay lady.

Moonscape

Day 11: 07 Sept 2011,Rumste - TangangLa Pass - Morey Plains - Pang - LachulungLa Pass - Nakeela Pass - Sarchu - Baralachla Pass - Jispa (255km)

Climbing the Taglangla pass

Got pretty early in the morning since we had a long day on saddles. Left the home-stay at around 7 am and man it was freezing like hell this early in the morning. The worst affected were the palms and the fingers, eventhough everyone had protection in form of riding gloves. Soon after Rumste start the climb towards the TaglangLa pass and as we start the climb the temperature dropped making matters worse. We were desperately looking for some spots in direct spotlight of the sun to warm up our bodies. Finally reached the TaglangLa( 2nd highest pass) after getting almost frozen by 2 hrs of riding. Spent some time there and it was time to descend.

Morey Plains

Soon after start the famed Morey Plains. A place having a flat surface flanked by mountains on either side and running for around 40 kms. This high altitude plain has no tarred roads eventhough at many places they have started to build one. You literally make your own roads , and man it was such a great experience offroading in these lands. The best offroading destination I have been to, and it was so much fun traversing the plains at pretty good speed. The most thrilling part was while riding the bike in motocross style to absorb the deep drops and rises in the dirt path (a great advantage of riding solo :P ) . But surprisingly it was pretty hard to stand on ur bikes and ride for more than a couple of minutes in these roads. Respect for motocross riders :).

Morey Plains: An Offroading Heaven

Morey plains is pretty much the highlight of the Leh-Manali route. The other highlights for this day were 4 high altitude passes (TaglangLa, LachulungLa, NakeeLa, BaralachLa) and innumerable water crossings. Just after Morey plains is the Campsite of Pang. We had our brunch in here and soon enough start the climb to LachulungLa pass. The roads were bad again and not as fun to ride as Morey plains. The climb to this pass was eventless and as we started the descend I saw an empty truck taking a sharp right turn and going downhill head-on instead of taking the ghat roads. Observed the truck for some time, and still having an itch for offroading decided to ride this downhill dirt-path after getting an affirmative nod from Senthil who was following me. Yet again this part of downhill riding was equally thrilling with the downhill gradient of almost 45 degrees more than what we had expected :). Somehow everyone reached the bottom of mountain safe and sound and in process saving nearly 5 kms of riding in the not-so-thrilling ghat roads.

'X'-cited

Water Crossing

Soon enough start the climb to Nakeela Pass with the fact that LachulungLa and Nakeela pass are very close to each other. Yet another pass was crossed and we were heading towards the Himachal Pradesh border after crossing the Gata Loops (a drop from 4667m to 4201 m within 21 loops of road). Reached the town of Sarchu by 4 pm and this marks the start of Himachal Pradesh. Affter Sarchu start the climb to BaralachLa pass , our last high altitude pass for the entire trip.

But surprisingly the roads at the bottom were bad and awesome at the top which goes against the norm we witnessed at the other passes. But before we could ride all the way towards the top Prasanna caught sight of a single rain cloud and started to convince others to return back to Sarchu to be better safe than sorry. But nevertheless we moved on and later on this became a point to tease him with the title "Prasanna and the Single Rain Cloud" :P. At BaralachLa top was a gorgeous emerald colored lake called Surajtal. By this time Prasanna was literally speeding for the obvious reason stated above and I was the only one to stop at this pass to enjoy the view.

Downhill ride : we took the path which starts perpendicularly

After we crossed this pass we witnessed the obvious, we had left behind the Ladakhi landscape and there was greenery in all the direction. A pretty sight after 10 days of witnessing just brown everywhere :). Just before the town of Darcha was a water crossing. Eventhough we had crossed nearly 5 water crossings on this day with good success , at thiscrossing Prasanna's bike hit a stone and got stuck in middle of water. So we had to literally get into ice cold water and push the bike, totally drenching the shoes in process. From Darcha we moved towards Jispa , our destination for the night. Searched for some accommodation got in form of a homestay. Forgot the name, but the food and stay was good.

Near Sarchu

Day 12: 08 Sept 2011, Jispa - Keylong - Rohtang Pass - Manali (134km)

View From Jispa

Today we were to attempt the "unpassable" Rohtang Pass, as put by some riders whom we met during the trip. So even though we had to cover just around 134km we left early. The roads were a mix of good and bad roads, but the views we got were real good. Greenery everywhere, innumerable no of falls, with a particularly beautiful one near Sissu, just visible from the main highway.

Eventhough we had heard horror stories of Rohtang pass, the climb upto the pass was nothing out of place when compared to the other passes we had climbed. But the real picture emerges when we start the descend. Since this side of the pass is on the Rain exposed side it was thickly engulfed in mist and in the beginning the entire picture didnt emerge with us encountering few sections of bad slushy roads, bad but manageable. But soon the slushiness of the road started to increase. What began as a couple of inches of slush had turned to nearly 1 ft at many places. The bike was literally struggling to move forward eventhough we were coming downhill. Surprisingly this was very tiring since pushing the bikes took a toll on us , eventhough this altitude is nothing compared to what we had encountered.

A Gorgeous falls near Sissu

There was a huge traffic jam , probably the highest traffic jam in the world - for record sake :P.. But being on bikes we were able to squeeze through the jam eventhough our progress was slow with us stopping every 20-30 m to have a breather. At one point I was ahead of my group and I was deceived by the depth of the slush and my bike literally sank into 1-1.5 ft of slush. Half of the wheel was invisible and the hold of the slush was so strong that the bike was standing without any support :P. Revved the engine, but the bike didnt budge, called for help and within no time a Sikh, a foreigner(a biker too, taking a break :) ) and a BRO worker came and pushed/lifted the bike. Help available just a call away :). We took nearly 2 hrs to cover 5km of these super bad roads. After we crossed the bad roads we were literally thanking our good luck since if I had planned to start the trip via Manali and climb Rohtang Pass , the chances of trip being a failure was pretty high. Even imported BMW offroad bikes weren't able to climb up the pass and had to return back.

Rohtang Top

While coming down saw some people doing paragliding, so we too decided to do so. It cost us 600 per person after bringing it down from 800 with the ride lasting for 2-3 mins and maximum height of around 200 m. The paragliding session was mildly thrilling , with the most exciting phase being the take-off and landing :P. (check the video at the end of this blog). Unfortunately I had 2 bad starts thanks to no wind during my takeoff and only during the third time was able to successfully take flight. After the paragliding session we had food at the nearby "Fouji Dhaba", which was very good. We were still some 35kms from Manali , but the locals assured the roads were good all the way till Manali. So off we started and soon enough it started to rain pretty heavily. Out came the ponchos and rain coats and we were riding in mist filled roads. Pretty good experience. Dog tired after wrestling with bikes in mud/slush we finally reached Manali at around 5pm. Psychologically speaking this was the end of the bike trip, with just a formality remaining to take the bikes till Mandi since Manali didn't have an outlet for Gati , our preferred courier. Went inside the first Hotel we got "Hotel Rohtang View" and got 2 rooms for a total of 700 bucks, pretty much an off -season I suppose. The rest of the evening we did nothing but take rest and sleep.

Slush and Mud: A Nightmare for Bikers

Me Stuck Up and Helped By the Foreigner- Rohtang Pass-----(Image Courtesy--Karthik MB)

Paragliding

Day 13: 09 Sept 2011, Manali - Mandi (109km), Mandi-Chandigarh (Taxi)

Mall Road, Manali

The final day of bike riding had arrived. We were to ride till Mandi to courier our bikes back to Bangalore and from Mandi we were to catch a transport to Chandigarh. Also we didn't want to do any sightseeing at this place since a majority of the places will be frequented by Honeymooners and we didnt want to look out of the place :). Anyway left out Manali sightseeing to be covered with my better half (whenever that happens :D) in a true blue honeymoon fashion :D :D. Roads between Manali and Mandi is in great shape , but nevertheless it started to rain again.

The high point on this road is the 2.8km long tunnel near Aut which again was an awesome experience, reminding greatly of the 2.5 km Jawahar tunnel we encountered during the start of the trip eventhough the latter one has a single carriage way. We spotted the Gati office just a couple of kms before Mandi and our Biking trip came to a screeching halt. Registered the bikes for courier after providing the necessary documents and decided to hire a taxi till Chandigarh instead of slugging out in public transport. Couple of guys went and booked a taxi in Mandi town and after some time the taxi , a Bolero arrived. But we had a surprise in store for us.

The driver of the cab was the most foul-mouthed and rashest driver I had ever come across. Every other minute our heart would pound with fear seeing the reckless state of driving. By this time I was thinking that I was better off riding 1000 more kms on my bike than ride in this shortcut to hell. Somehow we reached Chandigarh safe and sound , although we had countless no of close calls. The driver took us to a hotel called Rajhans in front of the new ISBT bus stand. The area we were in ie sector 52 sucked big time and so did the hotel. Very bad first experience of Chandigarh in short :(.

Aut Tunnel : Manali-Mandi Highway

Day 14: 10 Sept 2011, Chandigarh Buffer

Rock Garden

The most boring and least exciting day of the entire trip. This day was reserved so as to compensate for any unforeseen circumstances during the bike ride and considering that we finished the ride on time , after dropping Tso Moriri, we had to spend a day in Chandigarh. The rooms were pretty much stinking and we were in a confusion whether it was bcoz of us (especially the shoes :P, thanks to Rohtang Pass) or the room. So whichever the case we decided to change rooms and Prasanna and Vineeth were our scouts for this task . But they returned back saying this was the best among the lot and so we decided to stay put. Even the hotel management were surprised and not once but we were asked abt it in 3 separate instances.

Since it was very hot during the afternoon we decided to do some sight seeing post afternoon and left our stinking rooms at around 3 pm. Went directly to world renowned Rock Garden and I must say it was a disappointment. I guess when it was constructed in the 80's, people's idea of entertainment was very simple, this must have caused a rage then, but in today's world I must say it ain't happening. Also we found huge violations to the basic idea of this place... "art created from garbage". Nevertheless we spent close to 2 hrs in this place, thanks to the entire park being shaded and cool when compared to the outside. From here we decided to walk to the Rose garden and man I must say, Chandigarh is India's best planned city (except for Sector 52 where we stayed , which sucks big time) with wide straight roads, cycle lanes, and broad footpaths covered with thick vegetation. Reached Rose garden after a walk of nearly 45 mins and this is projected as Asia's largest rose garden, spent some time in here. From there we moved to the central business sector having malls, shops etc.. Kinda like Brigade/MG Road of Blore. Had a good dinner enroute and returned back to our hotel for the night.

Rose Garden

Day 15: 11 Sept 2011, Chandigarh - Delhi (Morning Train), Delhi - Bangalore (Evening Flight)

IGI Airport, T3, Delhi

The last day of the trip and I was having mixed emotions. Took a morning train from Chandigarh to Delhi and landed in Delhi at around 1 pm, having almost 6 hrs to kill till our flight to Blore at 7 pm. Vineeth and Senthil met with a common friend of theirs and they decided to go to his room for some time and the remaining 3 of us decided to move to the airport, since all of us were pretty tired for any sightseeing. Took the super-fast airport metro and within no time were in the airport. Spent time reading , sleeping and so on till the flights started boarding at 7:10 pm, with a 30 min delay. A handful of flights were also canceled, and considering this day was the 10th anniversary of 9/11 I didnt look for any other possible explanation. Landed in Blore at around 9:45 pm and took an airport bus to reach home. My mom was so happy that I returned back safe and sound that I almost got the feeling that I had returned back from some war :).

Finally the ride of my lifetime came to an end. Now I can say that I have travelled the entire length of the nation from "Kashmir to Kanyakumari" (or my own "Ladakh to Lakshadweep" :)), but of course there are lot of gaps in between which have to be filled. For me it was like a huge climax for motorcycle touring, since nothing can possibly better it at least here in India. Even though this circuit can be done in a "easy way" (ie Flights to Leh, and taxi thereafter), the fact that we did it in "our way", makes it all the more satisfying. This was one of those trips where I felt truly alive. The happiness, the pain, the frustration , the anger, the proud feeling, with the entire body both the physical and mental front on an overdrive. Hence retiring on a high and as promised to my mom (which was how I leveraged for permission in the first place :P ). Now its time to shift focus on cycling as the means for touring after getting inspired by so many westerners in Ladakh, building stamina and becoming 100% eco-friendly. And when you combine cycling and Himalaya's it takes you to a whole new different level altogether and this somehow reminds me of the quote by Abdul Kalam which goes "You have to dream before your dreams can come true.". Ain't I doing that already :).

Waiting for the Sunrise-Pangong Tso Lake

Below is compilation of some videos I recorded during the trip.

-------COMING SOON :)---------

Trip Summary:

Trip 'O' Meter -> 2068 kms

Cost Per Person -> 27 K (including flights, bike courier, shopping prior to the trip,paragliding ,food, accommodation etc)

Snaps Link --->

https://picasaweb.google.com/117615192470834757069/LadakhBikeTrip

https://picasaweb.google.com/100919899222671268664/RideAcrossTheHimalayas
https://picasaweb.google.com/109474193633253188080/Pics_Jammu_Leh_Manali_280811110911?authkey=Gv1sRgCIPPjpXc8tvc0QE

A Special thanks to the members of BCMTouring for being there and guiding us in the right direction.

Some Useful Maps- Click to enlarge (Courtesy BCMTouring) :

Inner Line Permit Form(click to enlarge) (Details to fill Here) :

A Pedal to Pearl Valley

2011-08-01T19:47:00.016+05:30

Gone are the days when I used to plan trips especially cycling trips with just a couple of days into the future. In my present situation of "earning and learning" got to plan everything in advance and for this particular cycling trip to Pearl Valley planning was done nearly a month back after getting to know my mid-term exams schedule. Also this time there were 2 newbies to long distance cycling (Shashi and Ravi), and with Raghu ditching this trip (citing out of the world reasons like bike puncture :P) I was the only guy experienced with long distance biking, hence felt like Dronacharya :P.... Well just a bit :P.

Plan was to start early on a lazy Sunday morning of 31st July, thanks to the overcast weather of Bangalore with a few drizzle spells here and there. A perfect condition for long distance cycling, and this condition was maintained for the entire duration of the ride. So much so that it was not at all required to use any sort of sunscreens which in any other condition would have resulted in a severely sun burnt "Mr. Nithin" :P. Ravi was to arrive from Malleswaram and he left home quite early and Shashi came near my house and the first thing that came to my lips were WTF ??!!!! (the first profanity I uttered for the day :P). He was wearing a full length jeans pant and a huge backpack filled with eatables and other stuff. I on the other hand had my tights on and couple of bananas in my so called backpack. A complete contrast of sorts. A sort of before and after mug shots of a weight loosing ad. :P

Our Destination

Anyway we left my home at around 6.20 am and reached our meeting point in in Outer Ring Road, where Ravi was waiting. From here we moved towards Bannerghatta road and early morning ride was good, well up untill we reached the Meenakshi Temple/Mall. There the true nature of what was in store for the remainder of the day dawned upon us. Shashi who had got a steel framed chinese bike (Trax) had now a completely detached pedal and this early in the morning we didn have the tools to fix it back in. Finally got hold of a Rickshaw guy with a toolbox and got it repaired. So on we moved , with me and Ravi(on his brand new Trek 3700) doing a good pace , but after sometime Shashi was nowhere in sight. After some 5-10 mins he would arrive and then we would start again , and as the day progressed this time gap would keep on increasing and Shashi would arrive appearing to be more and more exhausted. It took a funny turn when both me and Ravi started to bet on the minutes in which Shashi would appear in the horizon :D . Now what made a reasonably fit Shashi to crawl like a crab and answer unanimously is his cycle. His steel frame cycle was not suitable for long distance cycling and I have no idea how he did it till the end , that too on his first outing :P, just shy of a century. So moral the day is : always research properly and be a bit more liberal with ur wallet if you have any plans of long distance biking :P. (No offence meant, Mr.Shashi :))

Ravi with a fan following

At one point I was chased very fiercely by a mad(might be sane too !!!!!) dog and I pedaled like hell creating an "American Flyers" moment :P. We reached Banneghatta and then moved towards Anekal. The entire route to Pearl Valley is tree lined so I suppose the same can be attempted in much brighter conditions too.

Just before Anekal there is a pretty huge lake named aptly as Doddakere and it was quite picturesome riding alongside this lake. Reached Pearl Valley aka Muthyalamaduvu at around 11 AM and went to the parking lot. There a father of 2 hot looking girls was greatly impressed when he saw that we had pedalled all the way from Blore and he was very friendly to us. The only dissappointment we had that we didnt capitalize on this to get the daughters phone numbers :D. But anyway since we were 3 against 2 we decided to stick to the Bro Code of "Bro's before Hoes" :D.

Pearl Valley

After parking the bikes when Ravi was starved of energy and was about to eat a couple of 5-stars chocs a brave monkey scared him by jumping on him and was rewarded with 2 5-star bar, dont know whether it knew how to open the outer cover :P. With just a 10 min descent we were at the base of falls. Well it can be said to be more of a trickle but we didnt have much expectations and our objective was more towards cycling than the final destination. There another family who talked to each other in perfect english arrived. They had a small kid and within no time the mother removed the diaper and threw it into the rocks. I was constantly swearing under my breath after this. If highly educated people cant follow the basic civic sense of not littering the public places what can we expect from the illitrates. :(. Spent some 10 mins and we were back to the parking lot. Had breakfast cum lunch at the nearby KSTDC hotel which dishes out decent fare in the middle of nowhere.

At around noon we were all set to return back to Blore and off we started. The initial journey was slow with Shashi severely exhausted with him mulling a plan of boarding a bus (preferably a volvo) and returning back. I tried towing Shashi in the calmer roads and it was much easier than I had expected it to be, but gave up after reaching the main highway since it was a bit risky. Shashi was very slow and at one point when we were a couple of kms before Bannerghatta got a call from him that he is ditching cycling and coming in bus or any other transport. So I and Ravi started and completed the last 25km within 1 hr and reached home at 3.20 pm. After this got info that Shashi had failed to get any transport and was cycling all the way, felt a bit guilty , but there was nothin I could do at that time. Finally Shashi reached his home at around 6 pm , completely exhausted and hopefully not hating cycling altogether.

Overall for me it was a very relaxed ride except the last 1 hr where I pumped pretty good. The entire route is pretty flat with no killer climbs. For Shashi it was not that pearly and literally a return from hell :P.

Route Taken ->
Banashankari-Bannerghatta Road- Meenakshi Temple- Bannerghatta- Jigani - Anekal - (5kms) - Pearl Valley

Trip 'O' Meter ---> 81 km

Time Taken ----> 9 hrs :P

Career Stats :

100's ----------------------------->2 (150, 104)
50's ------------------------------>6 (70,55,86,91,55,81)

P.S. --> Mobile Phone Snaps

Pics Link ----->
https://picasaweb.google.com/unithinbhat/PearlValleyCycling

Doddakere

Into Thin Air

2011-07-25T15:23:00.003+05:30

One of the more disturbing books I have come across, not that it has extreme violence or such but because this is true life story of the 1996 Mt. Everest disaster which whipped out 8 people from the face of the earth within a single day and that too in the worst possible manner, a slow and painful death. The horror of getting stuck in a blizzard that high in the mountain where you have no strength to move towards safety, nor can you expect someone to rescue you (no helicopter rescues at that height) but watch your hands and limbs getting slowly frostbitten is something which I dont want even in my worst nightmare. The narrator Jon Krakanuer, is a part of a phenomenon in Mt. Everest where a person with a very limited or almost negligible climbing experience is pushed to the top of the world by some very experienced guides(Rob Hall, Andrew Harris, Scott Fischer etc) and off course at a very high premium. The level of commercialization was so much as , that there were nearly 20-30 climbers attempting Mt.Everest peak on a single day and entire narrow route was completely jampacked like the streets of any shanty town . The complete commercialization of Mt. Everest and this is what the author is citing as the main reason for such a high death count in a single day, other than fate and bad luck. It is a known fact that when people go out exploring the mountains and wilderness there is a certain amount of risk involved, and one should be utmost careful since any step could be his last and after reading this any person who is regular to the mountains be it a weekend trekker or a person undergoing a major expedition will be equally shaken up.

Coming to the book the author has done a good build-up initially of the history of Mt. Everest, the time since people starting noticing it and even attempting to scale it. So many distinguished climbers came so close to climbing it such as George Mallory as early as in year 1924, almost 30 years before Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay. Death is not an issue for those seeking eternal glory :). From this detailed background reading the author shifts the focus to their expedition, the buildup to the ascent of the peak and an analysis of where it actually went wrong. Also I loved one quote where he had beautifully illustrated the final ascent of the peak, whereby he explains that a person couldn't possibly enjoy the moment of actually scaled the peak thanks to the high altitude and the thinness of air. All a person would want to is to actually touch the place and get back down as fast as possible and in the end just earning the boasting rights for the rest of his life.

Apart from the narrator's focus on the climbers from the southern side(from Nepal) , there is a chapter about 3 Indian climbers who had tried to scale from the northern(Tibet) side in a true Alpine style expedition (a team carries all its supplies and with no porters) during the same time and met with their death when they got stuck up in the blizzard. Nevertheless after the blizzard these 3 Indians where passed by a Japanese expedition, who found them to be barely alive, with a couple of them suspended from their climbing ropes and severely frost bitten, and quite shockingly the members of the Japanese expedition did nothing to ease their pain, not even a drop of water was exchanged. The Japanese team just pushed on towards the peak and were in fact successful in their attempt. This raises a question of how narrow-minded can one's aim of reaching the top get, so as to not even consider a human life????. Agreed , the chances of a rescuing them at that altitude was close to impossible , but at least not to comfort a person with death knocking on his doors is plain stone-heartedness.

But again when we try to compare the end results of the 2 groups , one of the Japanese climbers and the other group consisting of climbers like Rob Hall and Andrew Harris who had to give up their life in order to save the others , then the decision taken by the Japanese seemed rational, where Darwin's theory "Survival Of The Fittest" comes squashing all other principles. In the wilderness the principle of animals always comes into practise, and not that of humans. This a good read and makes us realize yet again that humans dont really own this planet called "EARTH".

Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara

2011-07-18T20:03:00.009+05:30

The first feel of this movie's title and one starts to wonder whether this is a mediocre title of a still more mediocre movie (a flashback of Hindi movie titles in the 80's and 90's :P ).But that couldn't have been more wrong. This movie is a refreshing change from the normal staple of movies bollywood churns out like the over the top and mindless action movies(read Dabangg) or silly comedy movies(read Golmal Series). And easily this movie makes to the best ones of the year list (havnt watched Delhi Belly yet :( , so leaving tat out from the competition for the time being).

3 lead actors and easily the first comparison is drawn towards the evergreen DCH(Dil Chahta Hai) and considering that this is directed by Zoya Akhtar (younger sister of Farhan) ZNMD can easily be termed as the younger sibling of DCH. While DCH focused more on friendship,relations & love , this movie expands the envelope including stuff like meaning of life, in addition to the subjects of love,relations and friendship already presented in the previous movie. The main message that ZNMD tries to convey is "live life to the fullest", every second, hour,day and year of it. This is something which as far as I know never been tried in Hindi cinema.

Movie starts with Kabir(Abhay Deol) getting married to Natasha (Kalki) within 6 months. So it was time for 3 friends (3 Musketeers) to get together and go for a bachelor trip, a 3 week road trip in Spain where they vow to do some stuff never having been tried by them before. The casting of the other 2 friends is put forth by Arjun (Hrithik), a total workaholic person whose life starts and ends with money and Imran (Farhan) in search of his biological father. This road trip takes them to various high and low points of life and how they come out of it becoming a better person. Of course there are a lot of laughs and gigs enroute and which at times I found to be extremely hilarious, but this is not from any angle bollywoods answer to "The Hangover", but much better.

The way in which Spain is projected in this movie is absolutely jaw dropping, simply beautiful and hence increasing a count in my endless wish lists :P. Katrina Kaif as the sexy scuba diving instructor fills up the glam quotient and one cant simply take eyes off her in the movie. Farhan Akthar in his new avatar as the funny man is real hilarious.

After watching this movie , there was thought provoking question in my mind. "Is it really possible to live one's life to fullest without money ???" and answer to that at least in my case is a big NO. I have to slog at work trying to move up the ladder so that I have enough monetary power to enjoy life, but at the same time it seems like a paradox of life , each chasing the other, and the best solution is strike the perfect balance and which believe me, even god would be happy to strike.

Overall I would rate the movie as 4.25 out of 5 and a must watch for a majority of Indians for whom work is everything. "Work hard and Party harder" should be the motto henceforth since "Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara" .(a very cliched dialogue indeed :P)

Brahmagiri : A "Wet, Wetter, Wettest" Ride

2011-06-17T18:45:00.004+05:30

Along with the change in season, changes the character and the mood of the Nature. And its always fun to explore nature in all its forms and we usually make it a point to have atleast one trek in every season, be it rain, sunshine or chill zones. Within a week of monsoons hitting the west coast and Karnataka we were all set for the 'Monsoon Trek ,2011' (2010: Kumaraparvatha, 2009: Kodachadri), and Brahmagiri (1608 m) was our choice. The reason being this trek is reasonably easy in normal sense(read post monsoon, winter etc) and it has got a forest guest house enroute, a permanent shelter so that we wont have to slog out getting drenched in the rain during the nights. Quite shockingly initially there were 18 people ready for a monsoon trek which somehow in the end normalized to 12 (Prasanna, Manju, Raghu, Umesh, Subith, Prashanth, Shashi, Shravan, Harish, Jenny, Sai and Myself)

Day 1 : June 11, 2011 (Irupu Temple- Irupu Falls - Narimale Guest house ---> 5 kms)

Bcoz of the huge count we thought it was more economical and comfortable to book a private vehicle all for ourselves and we ended with a 18 seater mini bus. Since the distance to Srimangala from Bangalore is just 250 kms we decided to leave quite late in the night and we left Bangalore only at 12.30 am with everyone picked and tucked in their respective seats. Had a not so comfortable sleep thanks to bed bugs. We took the route of Blore-Srirangapatna(Bypassed Mysore)-Hunsur-(Virajpet Route)Gonikoppa-Srimangala-Irupu Temple. The deviation route after Hunsur towards Virajpet was potholed and the bus kept jumping over them like crazy. Reached Srimangala at around 7am and started to wait for the forest officials to arrive. Meanwhile had our Breakfast at a nearby shanty hotel and finished our morning chores at a nearby guest house, where shockingly the bathrooms where humongous, nearly 12*12 feet size :P.

Finally the forest guards arrived at around 9 am and we got our permission , but with one catch : that there is one stream which might be pretty strong in the this season and already 2 teams have previously returned back from this stream this season. This somehow made us to rethink our plan, but in the end we decided to proceed with it, the main cause for confusion being that the entire permission cost and Narimale Guesthouse rent came to a whooping 7.5K. The costliest trek in South India I suppose , but I understood the logic, more the cost, less will be the tourist inflow and only serious trekkers will be interested. Its more or the less the weeding out process. Also we were the only team attempting to scale the peak on this weekend.

After we reached the Irupu temple (9 kms from Srimangala), the starting point of the trek , the forest officials over there started a drama and started to question the Forest Officers at Srimangala as to how they provided the permission in such a weather , but after persistent effort by Shravan we got on with the plan. All this drama was to get some more extra chai-paani for the Forest Official guide who would be accompanying us. After waiting endlessly near Irupu falls for our guide he finally showed up and by this time we were all loaded up on anti-leech stuff(salt,calcium carbonate,tobacco,zandu balm :P). and of started the trek at 11:30 am. Initial path was through dense leech infested forests and these bloodsuckers were clinging on within no time. Soon enough it started to rain, which more or continues for the next 2 days with some small breaks in between for our photo breaks :). Reached the famed stream which was hyped up by all the officials , but surprisingly it was just a piece of cake to cross it, dont know if we were damn lucky with our timing or the forest officials were lying shamelessly :P.

Monsoons In Forest

Finally reached Narimale Forest Guesthouse , a house in the middle of nowhere and interestingly all the raw materials for its construction were carried along same 5 km trek path which we traversed, it gotta have been a very tedious process. This guesthouse has 2 rooms and 1 hall, and lighting based on solar energy. We reached this Guesthouse withing 1.30 pm taking just about 1 hr 30 mins from the Iruppu falls. Since the peak was 6 kms away the guide refused to attempt the peak on this day and we had all almost the entire evening for us to kill. Played some games to entertain ourselves till the nightfall since even strolling out of the Guesthouse was not an option with the entire surroundings teaming with blood thirsty leeches. The entire night it rained and rained. It was quite reassuring that we were inside a warm and cozy structure and not out there getting drenched in the rain water, which we might confuse with something else in our sleep :D.

Narimale GuestHouse

Also the guide informed us tat recently all trekkers who seek to trek from Kerala to Karnataka and vice versa along the Brahmagiri Wildlife Sanctuary are never given permission due to some dispute and therefore permission for Karnataka side to Munikal Caves (in Kerala) is never entertained. Hence out goes our plan of exploring these caves. There is a small rivulet which flows pretty close to the GH, which being the main source of water for the GH.

Day 2 : June 12, 2011 (Narimale Guest House - Getting Lost(2kms detour) - Brahmagiri Peak - Narimale Guest House - Irupu Falls - Irupu Temple -----> 19 kms )

At 6 am our Guide woke us up saying we have to start early to order to scale the peak, since the rain had subsidized a bit. We were leaving back all our luggage at the GH since we had a long day ahead. We had expected the 6 km route from the GH to the Peak to be completely in grasslands and hence we wrongly assumed that we wont be bothered by leeches and hence no one took any precautions and this was probably the biggest mistake of the day. In the end we had a blood bath with some even getting 30 odd bites :P. (read Prasanna :D). Even in the grasslands the leeches were thriving bcoz of the total absence of sunlight.

Kerala Checkpoint In View

The grasslands had become more or less marshlands with such heavy rains. Walking through these marshlands pretty much brought the memories of childhood when we used to splatter water puddles by jumping into it."SPLAAAAT !!!!!". With such heavy rainfall the sun dried grasslands had a transformation to lively green within a matter of weeks , giving us awesome views. At some point walking through the grasslands everyone got distributed with Manja taking the wrong but logical route(hence without a guide) and all of us following him. This route headed towards Kerala border and man this route had both beautiful,breathtaking views and highest density of leeches anywhere in the trek, more or less in "femme fatale" kinda situation :P. When we were wandering in this route like a headless animal our guide appeared from nowhere and pulled us back to the main route. Later he informed that anyone wandering into Kerala Border will be detained and will have to take the motored roadway back to Karnataka and not the trek route. During the time when we were lost and roaming aimlessly the the team which were on the right path caught sight of 2 elephants grazing at a distance, and from the number of droppings we came across it can stated easily that there is a high density of tuskers in this wildlife sanctuary.

The Peak

The Climb

Finally back on track and the we were getting some good views of the grasslands, pretty much to infinity and thus came into view the Brahmagiri peak , which from below doesn't seem that difficult or steep at all. Infact the first impression is that its just a piece of cake , but the last section has the most difficult gradient of the entire trek. A nearly 65-70 degree upright climb and thanks to the incessant rains this part was damn slippery. After 20 min session of struggled climbing we reached the top .....and to noone's surprise there was no views thanks to the mist :P. Infact we were the first team to reach the top since the monsoons hit.... "1st team to successfully scale Brahmagiri peak in monsoons 2011"... sounds heroic :D.

At The Top

Group Snap - Minus Prasanna

The climb down from the immediate peak was much difficult, with almost all slipping and falling down atleast once with Jenny even pulling a muscle. The return journey back to the Guesthouse was eventless apart from regular rainfall and de-leeching activity. Reached the Guesthouse, quickly packed our belongings and started the return journey to civilization. As we neared to the Iruppu falls our guide decided to fatten his wallet and took an extra baksheesh from 2 separate groups , more or less double crossing us :(.

Iruppu Falls

Reached the falls and there we unloaded our trekking gear and more importantly removed our shoes, and seeing the bloodied legs,hands etc the normal tourists to the falls got freaked out and some of them ran helter-skelter without even visiting the falls :D. In the end my leech bites just made it to the double digit mark and for others it varied from 1 to 32. Had a refreshing bath at the falls , in ice cold water and walked the last 1 km barefoot , which believe me is a very painful affair.

[Through the Marshlands.. baccha style :P]

Boarded the bus and started the return journey back to Bangalore. Had lunch at a Kamath Hotel in Gonikoppa which was quite good and reached Bangalore and my home at 11.50 pm. Hence completed the last major trek before my college starts , resulting in no such trek/trips atleast for me in the next 3 months :(. Recently read a quote from George Mallory(1886-1924) when asked why he wanted to climb Mt. Everest and his reply was simply "Because It's There". This 3 letter quote has made itself as the "most famous three words in mountaineering" and more or less our motto to keep conquering more and more peaks :).

The Path To Enlightenment

Trek Details --->

Total Trek Distance --> 24 kms (including the 2 km detour)
Difficulty Level ---> Intermediate (In Monsoons and bcoz of the steep & slippery final section) else Easy in other seasons.
Total Cost Per Head --> 1800 bucks
Srimangala Forest Office Contact No ----> 08274246331, 09481989970
Mobile Signal Info---> BSNL/Vodafone at falls, BSNL/Airtel at guesthouse

Snaps Link ---->
https://picasaweb.google.com/unithinbhat/BrahmagiriTrek
https://picasaweb.google.com/ppr.bms/Bramhagiri?feat=email
https://picasaweb.google.com/manjunathmb.bms/Brahmagiri#
https://picasaweb.google.com/ragupalankar/Brahmagiri_12_6_2011#

Marathon Mania : The Follow Up

2011-06-06T22:34:00.007+05:30

Yet another marathon under my belt. This time it was TCS World 10K, Bangalore 2011. OK agreed the tag "marathon" doesnt suite a 10k run , but the title of "10k mania" doesn't sound that glamorous :P. This was a good follow up of what I had started the previous year and hope to keep on continuing, and probably getting better with time. The ultimate goal being to be placed 1st in the race, and as expected thats a goal for which I really have a long long long way to go. The main problem I had this year was training, after the run last year I have not been dedicatedly following the running regime which I restarted only in the month of March 2011 giving me just a 3 month training window.

Some Stadium Shots

This time the World 10K was organized on "World Environment Day" i.e. June 5 , and being a nature lover I was really upbeat. Also was planning to take my cycle for the commute to and fro the race venue(Kanteerva Stadium) in order to avoid burning any fuel and only fat on this day, but a total of 25km cycling and 10km run didnt seem that encouraging, finally saner minds prevailed and decided to burn fuel with my bike against my wishes :(.

Same as last year there were utter chaos in the stadium. The infrastructure was pushed to the brim. Toilets were flooding and foreigners and Indians alike were getting grossed out, but still people who are in love with the most basic form of transportation available to mankind make it a point to be present and to participate year after year. Thankfully past years experience had me prepared and I was pretty ready for it. Reached at around 7.20 am for the 8 am run (i didn even come that early for any of my exams :D ) and went directly towards the small opening from where all the Open 10K participants were to be let into the tracks. Initial races had the elite mens and women races and this was followed by the Open 10K race. Soon were let into the stadium and off started the race.

The weather was awesome with the monsoon clouds looming above the city of Bangalore, this made matters a bit better than last year giving a few seconds boost, nevertheless running a marathon under shade is also no less of an effort. My run was more or less controlled and I tried to maintain a constant pace, but one thing I observed against last year is that the number of people overtaking me has increased considerably over the year .... guess Bangaloreans are moving towards a healthier life style as a general rule :). Took breaks whenever the going was tough and increased or decreased my pace based on my heart rate. Also came across 3 runners who had collapsed along the sidewalk , completely exhausted from the run, and the onlookers, medics , cops were running to their rescue. Hence running even 10K requires a minimum level of preparation if not that of a full marathon.

When I crossed the 9th Km mark , I decided to push things to the edge and call upon my reserve energy which I usually have during my routine 6.3 K run, but surprisingly at that point it drew a blank :P. Hence there was no ramp-up from my side during the finals stages and could muster the energy only for a blistering run for the last 100 m where I overtook nearly 15-20 people in one shot :D. Were provided by refreshments and surprisingly a finishers medal , which was not there in the previous edition. In the end I had clocked up 55 mins 40 secs (with an overall ranking of 614) which is 4 min 17 sec improvement over the last years 59:57 timing. Great going since at least I improved my timing, but somewhere deep down I was a bit disappointed of not achieving my "sub 50 min" goal which I had set.With that I have already set my goal for next year for sub 50 finish and sub 300 ranking.

Expecting to get yet another souvenir Nike T-shirt for my sub-1500 ranking performance.

Run Summary(Official Timings)

Total Distance : 10,000 m
Time Taken : 55 mins 40 secs
Official Split Timings ----->

Rank	Bib	Name	Category	Category Rank	split @7.5K	split @8.3K	Gun Time / Net Time
614	1744	NITHIN ULIYAR	U40	506	00:42:20	00:46:43	00:56:18 / 00:55:40

The PGSEM Trailer

2011-06-03T16:26:00.004+05:30

Finally we got a taste of a PGSEMers life, a trailer of sorts before the actual movie whose total running length is 2.5 years. A movie which will have sleepless nights, stress, fun, satisfaction, extra curricular activities, competition, learning process and finally the twist ending :P. The orientation program as illustrated above was held for 2.5 days (some pattern connection with 2.5 years ???!!!!! ) from 27 May 2011 to 29 May 2011.

Even before we were to officially enter the college life we were provided a pre-session assignment to be completed and submitted before the orientation. There were just 5 questions , but those 5 questions really gave an insight of what to expect from the management education. Couple of them were number crunching problems such a balance sheets and so forth. The most interesting of the 5 was the question regarding "how would you promote IPL if you are made the chairperson?"... even though having no basics of marketing it was fun brainstorming on those points. Also we are divided into 4 houses and each was to come up with a name , a war cry and a captain. Our house name was "The One"er-sena (combo of matrix and the ramayana :D ), an improvisation provided by yours truly and which somehow won the majority votes even after having some stiff competition.

Landed on 27 May morning in IIM-B campus and thus started the initial session with welcome speeches from the seniors students and the PGSEM director Prof Agarwal. This was followed by official inauguration of PGSEM batch in presence of the IIM-B director Pankaj Chandra and surprisingly my companies VP Dipesh Shah, who incidentally is also a PGSEMer. After an inspiring speeches by all the guests the inauguration concluded and this was followed by alumni interaction and they were damn frank with their answers. The below is the gist of the interaction :

PGSEM doesn't provide immediate change in terms of role or salary. One shouldn't expect a 10x salary hike or become VP of the company after completing PGSEM. For immediate changes one should try PGP rather than PGSEM.
In the long run PGSEM is very helpful for ones growth and the long run here might infer years together.
The chances of a PGSEMer to jump to some other domain altogether such as finance, HR etc is very slim. For that a person is better to opt for PGP.
Not many companies recognize PGSEMers or recruit PGSEMer specifically. If you are competent enough you will get the job.

This insightful alumni interaction was followed by some group activities such as antakshari, dumb charades etc and so on and a midnight blog(go to the end of the page) to finish of the first day. Also met a lot of my fellow batch mates, but to remember every one's name was an impossible task. Could manage just 3-4 hrs sleep which became the norm for the next day too :P.

Majority of Day 2 was filled with CSITM workshop, an event not specific to PGSEMers and we had lot of management gurus out there to present their research papers. Some were really interesting and some were outright ridiculous. It was different world altogether for us engineers having never attended a paper presentation other than technical topics. This workshop dragged the whole day and by evening we had sport competitions(with me representing the team in volleyball and badminton ) between various houses. This was followed by treasure hunt which started at midnight and dragged all the way till 2 am. This was really fun, more or less the unofficial introduction to the entire IIM-B campus which we had to explore in the death of night. Searching gardens, lampposts, football grounds, ATMs and what not. Searching the 100 acre campus with very minimal lighting was not an easy task and both the security guards and the stray dogs (who have made IIM-B as their home :P ) were a confused lot seeing so many people running from one place to another in the middle of the night.

After the treasure hunt we were needed to prepare for a long and lengthy case study, and hence our first official study night out which extended all the way till 3.45 am. In the morning we hurried quickly to attend Prof Murthy's class on how to go through a case study and it really was an awesome class. The entire interaction lasted for nearly 4 hrs and everyone was spellbound and interested till the end. That is the quality of IIM-B prof's, Mr. Sibal :D.

This was followed by some more group activities and in the end our group "The One"er sena had won the house cup by just a very small margin . Great :). Had a 15 hr sleep back home to compensate for the insomniac nights spent in the corridors of IIM-B. More or less it was a stressful , but still a very satisfying experience. Just like my treks or cycling expeditions :P.

Posted below the blog post which we as a group wrote as a hilarious uptake of our first day experiences in IIM-B and also this won the best blog prize in the House Cup. The blog has various grammatical mistakes , highlighting our sleepless plight in the middle of the night. This is the original blog without any corrections or even font change :P.

"

Wanar Sena Diary

Day 1 (27 May 2011)

Disclaimer : This blog is a plagiarized work of One’er sena. Any resemblance to any other blog, living or dead is not a mere coincidence.

The virtual eWaner Sena came into life in the IIMB campus. Wanars were looking around for trees in the sprawling campus, when the kind hearted IIMB administration blessed them with executive suites with bed and cupboard with a mirror.

But the happiness did not last long. Alas!!! wanars were presented with big fat books instead of soft yummy bananas. If that was not enough, even before wanars could settle down, seniors announced the “3 idiots” who secured the highest marks in the pre assignment. Wanars clapped and decided to move on. When their primitive brains were trying to understand the course overview presentations, they faced the daunting task of remembering the names of all fellow wanars. Little RAM and primitive neural networks of Wanars found it impossible to map all the names with their companies and years of experience.

When wanars were trying to get a little rest in the cool air of the AC in the cozy environment of the auditorium, seniors offered a cup of tea and snacks. Wanar sena rushed to satiate their hunger, but alas, only few biscuits were left. Competitive fellow wanars with advanced locomotive skills had already snatched away the snacks.

Filled with disappointment and sorrow on their faces, wanars returned to the cozy auditorium. Hunger was taking its toll. Now SAC (Student Assassination Cell) barged in and bombarded with their intellectual messages on the primitive brains of wanars.

Hunger was building up and rats started playing inside stomachs of the wanars. Good news. Lunch was served under the trees. IIMB made sure every wanar gets a full stomach lunch and to the wanars delight mangoes were served for dessert.

Wanars headed right back to C11 room to meet the chairperson. Their high expectations were shattered when reality finally dawned on them. Poor wanars thought that the course will make them VPs and CEOs, but were told that they will be lucky if they become managers after the tiresome and grueling 2.5 years of torture. But wanars were happy that they will get a chance to go abroad in Wanar exchange program. Wanars were given a chance to interact with the distinguished Alumni. Wanars found out how they can transform to become smart individuals.

In the evening, after a sumptuous dinner, wanars were taken for a fun ride. There were competitions between the wanar groups. Wanar leaders proved their uselessness in front of a larger wanar community. There was passionate participation from fellow wanars. Every wanar was ready to die on a war cry from their leader.

After a competitive memory game, wanars were tested on their singing talent, and movie database. Some wanars showcased their inherent acting and mimicry skills to earn points for the most coveted house cup. When the clock struck 12 and eyes started shutting down themselves, lightening struck and thunder roared. Wanars were given a task to write this blog.

P.S. : Thanks to all our seniors for organizing the wonderful events. This blog is written for fun and no offence intended

Thanks

Group 2 Team

BR & MM Hills : In the Land Of Bandits

2011-05-30T22:45:00.003+05:30

With the advent of summer it was time for us to flee to some hill station for a weekend family getaway, and the first destination in our list was Ooty-Coonoor. But subsequent research made us realize that Ooty at this time of year with summer holidays and flower show in progress was pretty much jam packed. So we decided to head towards some lesser known destinations of BR Hills and MM Hills , a place less frequented by tourists until recently bcoz of notorious Veerappan who dominated these regions. Also this was the first major outing since my brother bought his first car, a spanking new Honda Jazz.

Hence the itinerary was planned and we decided to take the route of Blore-Mysore-Gopalswamy Betta-Chamarajanagar-K Gudi - BR Hills - Kollegal - MM Hills - Hogenakkal (Karnataka Side) -Mettur- Dharmapuri - Hosur - Blore a total distance of 780 km in 2 days.

Day 1 : 21 May 2011 ( Blore-Mysore-Gopalswamy Betta-Chamarajanagar-K Gudi - BR Hills - Kollegal)

Gopalswamy Betta

Got up pretty early in the morning and left home at around 6 am. Initial journey went smooth along Mysore road and the Jazz made it like a dream. From a Maruthi 800 to a Jazz is quite an upgrade and we found them worlds apart. Had breakfast at Adigas at Maddur and reached Mysore in no time. From here we moved towards Ooty road and as expected it still is in very good condition as I had experienced twice during my previous bike rides. Reached Gundlupet and from there the Gopalswamy Betta Entrance gate is just a few kilometers. The roads were quite bumpy , but the Jazz took and absorbed a lot of those bumps. At the bottom of the hill, the forest guards stopped for the entrance fee. Recently read in newspapers that the entrance fee was hiked to 500 bucks and we were ready to shell it out, but we had a surprise here, the hike had been reverted back and now the entrance charge was just Rs 50. As with my previous outing to the same place we were expecting to catch sight of some elephants , but were a tad disappointed. Also since it was nearing noon there was no mist formation at the top which this temple is so famous for. But the weather on the top was awesome, chilly weather in the middle of a day, in middle of summer. Spent some time around the temple and returned back to take our route to Chamarajanagar via Gundlupet. Had packed lunch en route since getting a decent eatery here is close to none
.

BR Hills Temple

View From The BR Hills Temple

Gundlupet to Chamarajanagar route was pretty decent and from Chamarajanagar to BR Hills there are 2 routes , one via Yeriyur and one via ghat roads of K Gudi via dense forest. We took the latter and the initial section of the road was a bit rough, but the forests were very dense and we were sweeping our eyes sight left and right to catch sight of wild animals which is very common in these forests.Reached K Gudi and enquired with a forest guard and he informed that the Jungle Safari starts from 3.30 pm and we still had 1.5 hrs to go and planned to visit the BR Hills temple and return back. The path between K Gudi and BR Hills is really awesome. Single lane road in very good condition and surrounded by some breathtaking forests views and we ended up traversing 3 times along this 20 or so odd kms of road.

K Gudi Safari

There is nothing much to be written about the state of the BR Hills temple which seems to be neglected of late. Lot of people with almost 0 facilities leads to a mayhem. Anyway at this time the temple was closed and we just roamed the temple premises and decided to drive back on K Gudi for the jungle safari. Reached exactly at 3.30 and were let into the first jeep for the evening, with a cost of 400/head. With these forests less frequented by tourists than its neighbors such as Bandipur and Nagarhole and with a tiger density of nearly 30, we had high hopes of catching sight of some these majestic creatures or atleast some wild feline, but sadly we were disappointed. We caught sight of numerous types of deers, spotted deers, sambar, barah singha(best view of the safari) and so on. Also caught hold of langoors, monkeys, Snake Headed eagle. The entire safari took around 1 hr 20 mins from the starting point. Decided to head towards MM Hills via Yeriyur route and by nightfall we reached Kollegal. Since we were unaware of the roads ahead we decided to bunk in Kollegal itself and booked rooms in below average "YepIYes Lodge"(strange name) and had dinner at "Annapoorneshwari Hotel" which was decent. Both of these are quite near to the main bus stand. Had a mosquito riddled sleep.

Day 2 : 22 May 2011 ( Kollegal - MM Hills - Hogenakkal (Karnataka Side) -Mettur- Dharmapuri - Hosur - Blore)

MM Hills

Left Kollegal in the morning after having breakfast and packed one for lunch. As soon as we leave Kollegal and move towards MM Hills, a stunning view greats us. The entire horizon around us is filled with hills, feels more or less like driving in center of a meteor crater with the flat surface in the center. Awesome views. Until the hills the roads are pretty decent , but as soon as they start the roads are quite bad, with very little maintenance.One of the things I noticed about the local population of Chamarajanagar district is total disregard for vehicle traffic. Pedestrians, cyclists and even slow moving 2 wheelers move bang in the centre of the highway and even when we let them know of our presence via honks they don't let go of an inch. Quite strange behaviour indeed :P.

Reached MM Hills at near to noon and went inside to have the darshan. It was a bit crowded but we had the darshan within 45 mins. In MM Hills rooms also can be booked , but it is long process of (Telephone Enquiry + Sending a advance booking request letter via fax). (http://www.mmhills.com/accom.htm). We decided to move towards Hogenakkal falls from MM Hills since it is just 45 kms (Karnataka Side) from here and also i had never entered via this route made it a bit curious. From the MM Hills- Mettur Highway (SH 79) we need to take a 28 km detour to Hogenakkal and return back to SH 79 to move towards Mettur. This single lane road from the deviation towards Hogenakkal is one of the most scenic roads that I can remember of in Southern Karnataka. The entire 28 kms this desolate road skims along the banks of the river Cauvery and further sandwiched between green mountains on the either sides giving awesome views.

Hogenakkal

Reached Hogenakkal and had a boat ride towards the falls and this took around 45 mins. The official rates are 110/head and 6 persons max /boat. But they were loading the coracles to the brim , hence we decided to book a complete boat to ourselves which came out to be 640(w.r.t. 110*6 and 20 bucks discount :P). Had expected less amount of water bcoz this being summer, but quite surprisingly the water level was quite high. Witnessed again the spectacular views of water pouring from every nook and corner of the rocks, last witnessed nearly 2 years back.

Had lunch enroute on the awesome detour road and joined the main potholed highway. But soon the TN border came and roads became from worse to awesome. TN roads really rock. Came across Mettur dam on the way , but frankly speaking this is not worth it and the views which we get just before entering the dam area and after exiting the dam area and climbing the adjacent hill are more spectacular, where we can witness the huge water mass the dam is holding up . Being a Sunday afternoon there was a huge rush of people trying to get into a small park which is the only part allowed for visitors , with the dam out of bounds. The local population had got home made food in huge containers, which they ate under the trees and had a nap after this. This part of the culture is something unique to TN i guess , having never witnessed this anywhere else.

From here we took the Mercheri route and touched the NH-7 expressway some 40kms before Dharmapuri. After this it was smooth ride all the way to Blore with a break at newly opened Kamat Upachar(Just after Krishnagiri I guess) Overall a good drive with nothing that spectacular, but during this time people throng the spectacular places like vultures towards a dead carcass (in fact Hogenakkal from TN side was jam packed), hence speaking in that terms this trip was good.

Snaps Link :

https://picasaweb.google.com/unithinbhat/BRMMHogenakkal#

Trip 'O' Meter : 780 kms

Route Map

Offbeat Movies I Love Part-III

2011-05-17T20:22:00.000+05:30

Here is the 3rd sequel to the offbeat movie series, more or less the bread and butter of my blog with this series garnering the maximum hits. Sequel 4 coming soon :P.

1.Dragon Hunters (French/English)
(Adventure/Comedy)

The creators of this movie surely have got some imagination. This animated movie has floating pieces of land, castles and what not. Story is about 2 lowly dragon hunters who can be hired for any measly sum. They come across a knight who hires them to kill the greatest dragon of all time with a lip smacking offer. So they set on with their journey, joined by the granddaughter of the knight for the showdown with the beast. The finale is really spectacular.

2.In Bruges (English)
(Action/Comedy)

One of the few movies where Collin Farrel is actually tolerable. The main plot has 2 english hitmans lying low in Brudges(Belgium) after their last job had gone horribly wrong and how they lead their life, finding love, compassion and becoming human. Even though the setup is grim the situations and dialogues are very funny. A good black comedy.

3.Sin City(English)
(Action)

The bad"est" ass movie I have ever seen. This movie goes into full throttle from the word go and holds nothing back. It has got multiple stories interleaved and each of lead characters fighting their inner demons. Jessica Alba and her class dance as a cowgirl is really sexy, hard to keep the eyeballs off her :).
Caution : This movie has extreme violence, not for the faint hearted, with me cringing at many instance :P. Waiting eagerly for Sin City 2 due to release soon.

4.Shaun Of The Dead (English)
(Horror/Comedy)

When you have got Simon Pegg and Nick Frost together, there is no need to expect anything other than a laugh riot and this surely is one. More or less a spoof of "Dawn of the Dead" with lots of zombies to be battled by the hero and the sidekicks and with a minor problem of wooing his ex-girlfriend. A non-stop laugh marathon guaranteed.

5.The Man From Earth (English)
(Drama)

If you thought that a movie without any action, romance, comedy,special effects (dependent on different peoples taste) is not entertaining then you got to watch this movie. Heck the setting of this movie doesnt even go other than the living room of a house with all the characters placed within it and they just talk and talk for a whole 90 mins. A very engaging movie and a must watch.

6.Kick Ass (English)
(Action/Comedy)

When you combine a comic book hero with reality then what you get is "Kickass". An action packed movie about how a teenager decides to fight crime with just a divers tights and a few metal screws embedded in his bones. And as expected he gets his ass kicked in most of the cases , but he never gives up. Problem starts when the city's underworld take notice of him and decide to finish him off when things get really messed up. Awesome realistic action scenes except whenever the 11 year girl is kicking butt of people 4 times her size :D.

7.Moon(English)
(Drama)

A movie akin to movies like the The Matrix, Inception which literally plays with your head. Movie has just one astronaut (Sam Rockwell) and mission computer (GERTY) as the major characters of this movie. The astronaut is employed to work solo in a colony on the moon for 3 years. But things dont appear to be what they are, and slowly he discovers the shocking truths. Awesome storyline.

8.Udaan (Hindi)
(Drama)

One of the first Indian movie to address the teenage angst we all felt in those time( I am still feeling it :D) and we could expect nothing from Anurag Kashyap even though he didnt direct this one. Udaan is the coming of the age story when the lead character is pit up against a inconsiderate father whom he meets after 8 years. With the death of his mother the entire father-son relation is volatile and goes ballistic at the slightest provocation. Ronit Roy does an awesome job as a authoritarian father and rightly deserved the filmfare award eventhough many of these awards are given away based on hype and not upon true performance.

9. Cube (English)
(Horror)

A movie which could be said as an inspiration of the much successful "Saw" series but sans the extreme gore and violence, which is there just for the sake of it in the "Saw" series. Six people are trapped inside what seems like a giant maze and they have escape from it to save their life's, apart from the answer to the question as why they are there in the first place. When their life is question all sorts of different behavior start to emerge and we witness a nail biting piece of movie.

10.Brotherhood(Korean)
(War/Drama)

A fictional setup in a non-fictional korean war. Its the story of two loving brothers who are ready to sacrifice anything for the other. Their life of hard yet satisfying life is interrupted when North Korea invades and south and both the brothers are recruited into the army. Slowly there is constant friction between the brothers and it takes a dramatic turn when the elder brother is captured by the North and brainwashed , resulting in both the brothers having a mortal face-off, with a tragic ending as with all the wars.

Aboard PGSEM,IIM-B Ahoy !!!!!!!!!!

2011-05-07T15:11:00.009+05:30

After getting my engineering degree I had sworn I would never get back to college.. All I wanted was to join a cool company and earn handsomely and lead a lavish life. No exams, no assignments, no lectures, no bunking but I had no idea these are the things we miss the most. So again I got an opportunity to lead a college life thanks to a admission offer for PGSEM(Post Graduate Program In Software Enterprise Managment) course at IIM-B, pretty much a dream come true.

Before finally zeroing on this course I had a lot of decisions in front of me. The first was whether a higher education in technology or management, the decision was quite simple. I envisioned a need for management education to have a career boost, with a rapid pace of evolution, technology of today is crap of tomorrow (no offence meant here :)), but the management education remains more or less stable. The next choice was the management options in front of me:

Management Education Abroad

Management education abroad is quite expensive and I am not comfortable taking a loan of 30-40 lacs for the same. Also it didnt make much sense going abroad for the education since I dont have any plans of settling abroad.

Full time MBA's in IIM's and other top colleges

As goes the saying "Its easier to get into worlds top B-school than getting into IIM's", it is pretty much clear how fierce the cut throat competition is. Everyone wants to do it thanks to the brand name and huge pay package afterward. Getting through requires a level of dedication and hardwork, which leaves everything to chance and which I was not very keen of trying.

Full time MBA's at local colleges

I was pretty confident of easily getting in these colleges, but the fact that after completing this I might end up with the same level if I had continued working. So didn't seem like a career boost. Also the brand value is a bit less.

Part time/Correspondence MBA at local colleges

Blah !!!!!.. didnt even consider them.

Executive MBA(PGSEM) at IIM-B

Now finally comes my choice. Getting into this program seemed do-able the competition rate of 25 to 1 seat. Selection process includes written exam which can be CAT/GMAT or the PGSEM specific exam in the month of feb every year. Customized for Software Engineers. With this I would be working and studying simultaneously. After considering all my options this seemed like tailor made for me.

But this program had some negative points too.

No campus placements, since companies wont provide employees sponsorship/permission if there was one.
Since this involves "earning and learning" simultaneously, it will be a tough job to balance both, especially if one has already started a family.
High cost (9.5 lakhs for 2011 batch), but quality management education is never cheap.

Preparations began for the written exam in Jan 2011 1.5 months prior to the exam. It was pretty hard to get back to studies after 3.5 years of lull. Dusting the brains after so long is a challenge in itself. Also while registering for the exam I had to submit the SOP(Statement of Purpose) too, and nothing was more soul searching than those 5 questions which were asked :D

1. How do you see the PGSEM helping you in your goals? (150 words)

2. How would the PGSEM classroom benefit by your presence? (150 words)

3. What are two major achievements in your career? (150 words)

4. What is a major shortcoming you wish to discuss? What have you learned from it?

5. What is one issue dear to you? How do you see it resolved? (200 words)

Took nearly 2 weeks to complete 2 pages of the document with the most difficult being Q 3 & 4 and easiest being Q 5. Anyway I wont be publishing my answers here not bcoz I fear it will be Ctrl-C + Ctrl-V ed, but bcoz I deem they way too personal :P. The exams where quiet easy when compared to the CAT (which I have taken in 2009 and 2010 with zero preparation) standard, but the main thing one has to remember is "its not how easy it was for you, but how difficult it was for others" with only 75 seats up for grabs.

Cleared the written test and was called for an interview in IIM-B campus. Was super excited having never been to this campus and I was greatly impressed with it. It has got a old world charm to it, a campus amid lots of trees and bushes and building oozes a sense of "blending with the surroundings". The architecture being very eco-friendly with maximum flow of light and air.

First we were given to write on a case study which goes something like this "Indian Market Underserved By Indian IT Industry". Initial couple of mins I was blank, but slowly one by one points started to pour in and in the end the allocated space for the analysis was not enough for me :P. This was followed by personal interviews , with my panel comprising of a young alumni and an older professor. They grilled me for about 20 mins ranging from personal questions like "Y I left my first company within 7 months?", "Y I want to do PGSEM ?" to questions regarding what I had written in the case study. Overall I had rated my interview went pretty decent.

After a couple of weeks the results were announced and to my disappointment I was put into waiting-list. I had given up all my hopes and had mentally prepared myself to appear for the same next year. But again luck finally smiled on me and got into mainlist from the waitlist. History has repeated itself with the same back door entry which I had got for my undergraduate seat as well as my present company :).

Finally I am all set for 2.5 years of gruelling and life-changing experience starting from June 17, 2011. It can recalled that I had mentioned in this blog some time back that I felt stuck in one place and that I didnt have any goals in my life. Well this is my first step towards a change and I am happy to have achieved it :).

Karavali Darshana: Destination Uttara Kannada

2011-04-27T14:48:00.001+05:30

It was quite some time since we had a "babu" trip, where we travel most of the journey in luxury and dont raise much of an effort as compared to our biking or trekking getaways. With the onset of the summer, we let go the previous 2 options and decided to do much of the travelling in buses with push back seats and local taxis, an absolute luxury when compared with our norms. The North Canara district was on our radar since a long time and we finally decided to head to this place thanks to the long weekend (22-24 April 2011) due to Good Friday. The total headcount this time was a whooping 8 :P (Loki, PPR, Shashi, Sai, Umesh, Sravan, Manju and Myself). We were supposed to catch the 10.45 pm bus to Dandeli from Blore and Majestic Bus stand was in an absolute chaos and messy state, thanks to long weekend, heavy rain and ongoing metro work. Somehow our bus arrived and we left Blore at around 11.30 pm.

Day 1 (22/04/2011): Dandeli

Kali River

Landed in the Dandeli town after a tiring 11 hr road journey. Had advance booked 2 rooms in the State Lodge just opposite the bus stand. But when we landed there, the manager was saying he didnt have any rooms even though he could clearly see the booking done with my name. But keeping the booking as a leverage and after much haggling from our side we managed to get 2 rooms out of thin air .. voila.. the art of negotiation :D. And we succeeded with this art in not one instance but twice within the 3 day period. From the hotel manager we got contact of the adventure tour operator, which being the main reason why we landed in this town the first place.

Contacted the adventure guy and selected a 1k package comprising of river kayaking, coracle ride, jacuzzi bath and river crossing and sadly no rappelling which we were looking forward the most, bcoz of some migratory bird having laid its eggs in the rappelling spot. Having our breakfast at nearby dingy Hotel Santosh (people who serach for neat and clean eateries will surely die of hunger :D) and proceed to our water activity destination which was the Bison Resort in Ganeshgudi. Also enroute the gigantic man made structure which was Supa Dam captured our rapt attention for the time it was visible.

Jacuzzi Point

After landing in the resort we were taken directly to the kayaking point on the river Kali. Having already been familiarized with this sport there was less excitement , but the fun part was when we were paddling across obstacle courses, squeezing our kayaks across waterlogged tree trunks, gaps amid boulders and so on and the fact that we were amidst very dense jungle was quiet calming. After kayaking which lasted for an hour or so we were taken on a coracle ride which was quite boring and from here taken to the natural jacuzzi point. At this jacuzzi point the rapids were quite strong and we were made to sit amid boulders completely immersing the body which gave a gentle full body massage, so much so that I was feeling totally drowsy after this :D.

Rappelling Point: Check Out The Black Speck

"Stone" Berg

The only activity remaining was river crossing which the resort people canceled it terming it no fun unless the dam upstream releases water. So after poking around we found that rappelling was available at a different location and we agreed to take it up, but we had a problem , all of us were wearing slippers instead of shoes since we hadnt anticipated rappelling to present itself out of nowhere. Anyway not to loose this opportunity we went along and after a 20 min jeep ride we landed at our rappelling spot which was nearly 100 ft drop and this scene literally freezed my senses.After a brief intro the first person was let go and he climbed down effortlessly and then 2nd person attempted and this person totally screwed up our confidence with lot of banging along the stone walls and bleeding legs.

Me In Action: Top View

Bottom View :D

Soon my turn came and apart from the initial scare of leaning back towards the drop and hopeless grip provided by the beach slippers the climb down went pretty smooth and soon got a hang of it. The entire thing took around 1.5 hrs for all 8 of us and by this time we were actually contemplating whether to stay put in Dandeli or move towards Sirsi for the night. Landed at the bus stand to inquire and got the info that the last bus had left some time ago (6pm is the last bus) and the first bus in the morning was at 7.30 am. So we decided to stay in Dandeli town for the night. Our adventure package also included a tour of crocodile park , but majority of us were tired and we decided to ditch the plan.

Day 2 (23/04/2011): Dandeli->Sirsi->Yana->Viboothi Falls->Gokarna

Got up pretty early in order to catch the 7.30 am bus to Sirsi (final destination being Dharmastala) and within no time we were warming the last 2 rows of the bus, not out of choice but the front seats were totally occupied by fellow passengers, and they had a very good reason for their selection. The bus driver and the gas pedal were inseparable like lovestruck couple and this resulted in people in the last rows being thrown in the air like ping-pong balls. But apart from the rash driving the views in the densely forested area between Dandeli and Yellapur is really captivating, and is totally unique in terms of types of trees found here when compared with other regions of Southern India.

After Yellapur the road condition improves a lot and we landed in Sirsi, taking a good 3 hrs to reach this place. We went to a nearby eatery to have our breakfast and from here itself booked a local taxi for 2 days to explore the surroundings. After much bargaining the owner agreed to charge 5k for a 12 seater Trax Cruiser. The taxi arrived at 12 noon and we moved towards our first destination for the day , Yaana. The road conditions between Sirsi and Yaana were pretty decent and we landed at the parking lot of the Yaana caves within 1 hr of leaving Sirsi. From the parking lot the the majestic rocks were just a 10 min walk and within no time we start to get the glimpse of the huge rock formations, which doesnt even remotely tries to blend in with its forest surroundings and totally stands out, not as a sore thumb , but as a beautiful stage performer under a spotlight.

A beautiful rock formation formed due to volcanic activity and unlike anything I have seen before. There are 2 such big rocks formation, first is Bhairaveshwara Shikhara the biggest one and the other being Mohini Shikhara representing Shiva and Parvathi respectively. Near the foothills of the 100 foot Bhairaveshwara Shikhara is a temple dedicated to the Lord and after the darshan we went to explore the huge caves behind it and it may sound cliched but these caves were really breathtaking. Huge high ceiling caves illuminated naturally by rock openings of different shapes and sizes. An absolute delight for photographers. We took more than one hour to explore the 200 m distance of this huge cave, a see it to believe it wonder.

Hogwarts Castle

"Tin" Man :)

From here we moved to Mohini Shikhara but Ppr and Shashi got into "Who Gets There First?" running spree and ended up overshooting the destination by around 3 kms :P. This resulted in a search party to be sent to (me and loki) find and bring back the lost sheep :D. From here we moved to our next stop which was Viboothi Falls. After Yaana the roads deteriorates rapidly and you start wondering whether we are in a so called state highway. After taking a diversion we came to the parking lot of Vibhooti falls and from here the falls is a good 2 km walk. An important point to be remembered when sight seeing in these regions are that no place can be accessed directly via road, there will be some amount of walk required and in some cases pretty steep climbs.

Viboothi Falls

After a 15 min walk we landed at the Viboothi falls which was totally deserted except us and this was a very cozy place, with minimum signs of human activity. The water was clear and some people were lucky enough to attract fishes in the falls and and get a hand/foot nibbled while others were downright unattractive to them. After spending some time we returned back and the state of the highway towards Gokarna improves and we reach the coastline at around 6 pm and we went directly went to the Om Beach where we had booked beach shack for the night at Om Shree Ganesh Cafe after the more popular Namaste Cafe was totally booked. But surprisingly enough the person in charge at the Ganesh Cafe downright refused that he had taken any bookings and that they were completely booked, but what really pissed us all was the arrogant manner in which the manager responded. Anyway we were made to wait for the owner to arrive and 2 of us went in search of alternatives and found a friendly beach shack manager at Jungle Cafe who agreed to rent a couple of beach shacks. But as soon we returned back with the good news the Ganesh Cafe owner was offering 3 shacks which came out of nowhere, but we refused his offer and moved towards Jungle Cafe which was much cheaper (200/hut), more cozy and better than the former.

Om Beach

After settling down we decided to go for a walk along the beach and by this time the beach was totally dark apart from the few shacks/hotels which illuminate the beach at irregular intervals. Had dinner at Dolphin Dive Cafe which was pretty good and this place was brimming with westerners. At one point one middle aged white male came to our table and started cleaning our table and this totally stumped us, one question in everyone's mind was "Was this Guy High????" and the fact that Om beach is a popular hangout for hippies and their freeflowing narcotics reinforced our conclusion that this guy was really high. But again and again this guy came to clean the tables and the ones surrounding us somehow convinced us that this guy really worked here. I guess he was trying to be totally self sufficient at this new place and cleaning tables was the first job that was offered to him. Also whenever he approached our table there was 2 phrases which he repeated again and again which was "How U Doing?" and "Teek Hai?" and we would reply in affirmative.

Our Beach Shack

After the dinner we hanged out on the totally deserted and pitch dark beach only to be disturbed now and then by nervous barking dogs. We stayed by the peaceful beach absorbing the soothing darkness till around half an hour to midnight and then went back to our shacks to have a not so peaceful sleep, 3 days in running.

Day 3 (24/04/2011): Gokarna -> Unchalli Falls -> Sirsi -> Banavasi -> Sirsi

Om Shape Of Om Beach

We were up again early in the morning all set to do the mini trek from Om Beach to Paradise Beach a distance of about 5 kms along the mountainous and rocky coastline. Started the trek at around 7.30 in the morning and started moving towards the southern direction parallel to the coastline. As soon as the Om Beach ends there is a steep climb to the cliffs and this continues all the way to Half Moon Beach, a small deserted beach. Up till the Half moon beach the path is pretty easy and when we move further the path becomes more tougher with huge boulders dotting the path and fact that they were quite slippery made our progress a bit of an effort. Also the humidity was pretty high, drenching us in no time. Finally after trekking for nearly 1.5 hrs we reached the small beach surrounded by mountains on all the 3 sides giving that isolated feeling, called the Paradise beach. Even then there were a couple of shacks/hotels which was operating from here in order to connect with the material world.

Om Beach To Paradise Beach Trek

From Paradise beach we decided to take a boat taxi back to Om Beach. A lot of tourists hire these boats for a 2 way travel from Om Beach to Paradise beach and we decided to hitch a ride back with half the cost or so we thought. While returning back the boats-man decided to do some dolphin hunting. Initially we were able to sight just a lone dolphin and our boat was just stalking this single creature. But soon it was joined by a huge group of other dolphins and we started to witness lot of dolphin dives , which was too good but too random to capture in our cameras.

Half Moon Beach

Reached back to Om beach and by this time it was buzzing with activity. Lot of western girls sunbathing in bikinis and what more could you ask for :). Majority of them had a flawless figure, and we wonder whether it is in their genes??. But one thing I observed that Indians are not used to seeing such sights and start downright staring at them. Agreed being a man its hard not stare at such beautiful forms, but to stare at them with unblinking eyes and bang in front of them is downright creepy. We spent a hour or so playing in the beach and returned back to have a open air shower in our shack under a canopy of trees. Thouroughly enjoyed the shower part too :P.

Finally Paradise Beach

Got ready and by 1 pm we were ready to leave behind the beach and move towards the Gokarna Temple. One general impression I got from Om beach is that its exclusively for westerners where Indians are treated as second class citizens, and by our own country men. Off course westerners bring in dollars , but the attitude the shack/hotel owners have towards Indians is totally unacceptable. Reached the Gokarna Main temple and had darshan after waiting for nearly 20 mins in highly humid environment, and the first thing I noticed was the boards saying "Foreigners Not Allowed", feeling like first class citizen again :D.

Unchalli Falls

Our next destination was the Unchalli falls and after a drive of nearly an hour or so we landed up in near the entrance of the falls. Walking some 500 m we get to the view point of the falls and all of us were surprised at the sight. It was much much more than what we had expected. Water falling from 381 ft is not something which can be termed as common. There was a path which seemed like going all the way to the foot of the falls , but since we were tight on schedule we decided to moved on.

Reached Sirsi and went to the nearly 350 year old Marikamba Temple and the first thing that strikes you is the architecture of the place. There was a great deal of islamic architectural influence in this temple with lot of arches and domes. This resembled more of a mosque than a temple. Also the silver doorway is pretty spectacular and not to be missed even though its highly unlikely any commoner would get a closer look.

Marikamba Temple

Banavasi

From Sirsi we moved towards the ancient temple of Banavasi around 25 kms from the town. This 9th century temple was pretty spectacular and we spent some time exploring its surroundings and by now it was dark and time to return back to Sirsi to catch our 9 pm bus back to Blore. Had dinner at one of restaurants in Sirsi and went to catch the bus in the new bus stand which surprisingly was totally deserted, the main reason being it being in the outskirts of the town. Finally the bus came and went to the old bus stand which was buzzing with activity. Got to know that all buses even if they start from New bus stand go to Old bus stand!!!!!... then y do they have the new bus stand in the first place :P.

Reached back to Blore at around 6.30 am the next morning , much earlier than expected , finally ending our first "babu" trip of the year.

Trip Details :

Total Cost Per Person ------> 3.5 k (including everything)

State Lodge Contact ------> 08284-231 920, 234 920, 233 606

Snaps Links :

https://picasaweb.google.com/unithinbhat/NorthCanaraTrip#

https://picasaweb.google.com/ppr.bms/DandeliYanaGokarnaSirsi?feat=email#

https://picasaweb.google.com/manjunathmb.bms/UttaraKannada_Trip#

mis510proj

2011-04-21T10:47:00.000+05:30

This is regarding a data mining project which my friend is involved in. Please click on the below link :

mis510proj

P.S. -> U might also want to check out mobile range available in US from this website :)

The Nandi Challenge

2011-04-03T16:32:00.005+05:30

The Nandi Hill cycling plan was in offing since a long time, nearly 1.3 years to be precise when I had been to this place in my motorbike. Since then had wanted to conquer this peak in my humble cycle and finally got enough motivation to try it on the long weekend of April 2, 2011, but sadly was all alone in this attempt. Frankly speaking this was less of pleasure trip which I normally have and more of an endurance test of whether I can handle cycling 150 odd kms with a huge monstrous climb in between and in the end I barely managed to pass the test.

Sun Rise - Near Yelahanka

Started at around 5.20 am on the Saturday morning. I adopted an approach of slow and steady pace unlike my weekly ride to work since I didnt want to get tired too soon with blistering speed and considering that I had a long and hard day ahead. The journey in the morning was pretty awesome. Initial estimate of completing the entire ride was 2 pm but seeing the good pace of 23+ I was able to maintain, was pretty optimistic of completing it well before 12 noon, which couldnt be more wrong. The entire distance along the Bellary Road (NH-7) has some decent gradients having neither monstrous climbs nor thrilling downs. And add to the fact that that there are 8 lanes of road so I had one lane completely to myself and no one bothered me at all, which is not the case for cyclists in highways around Blore.

First View Of Nandi- Pretty Intimidating for a humble cyclist

Also there was some construction activity going on (elevated highway) up till the airport but since there was very little traffic this early in the morning was not inconvenienced at all. After the airport there was little or no traffic at all and I had the entire road all to myself and reached the Nandi Hills diversion after some 2 hrs of leaving home and 52 km in the odometer. From here the Hills are at a distance of 22 kms with 9 kms of ghat roads and upright climb. Reached the base of the hill at around 8.30 and from here started the deadly climb and the most strenuous section attempted on my bike ever. Set to high gear, started the climb and soon enough sweat started to flow like some glacier melting into river :P. Came face to face with a couple of professional cyclists going downhill on their road bikes and I could swear that they were doing a minimum of 65+ with them being just more of a blur. One of them was a Indian male and another a Caucasian male and we could just manage a customary smile and nod, shared by fellow cyclists even if they are complete strangers :).

Had to take 2 bigs breaks enroute when the going was very tough. While taking one such break came face to face with a old frail women in the middle of nowhere.... she was deaf and whatever she spoke made no sense to me... directly gave her a 20 buck note , but still she was lingering around me and I had no idea what she was expecting of me. Anyway I moved on and as the destination came within reach the gradient became even steeper with lots of hair pin bents, as if the hills is offering its final resistance to any invaders trying to conquer it. Finally reached the parking lot at around 9.20 taking around 50 mins to complete the 9 kms. Rested at the top for about 20 mins striking a conversion with a guard and a gardener and even posing for some souvenir snaps taken with my new found friends help :P.

Finally Reached The Top :)

Now started the returned journey back home and initial part of this went really well. The downhill ride was really spectacular and thrilling along the ghat roads. Was trying to control my speed within 40 for safety reasons which was a hard thing to do and completed the downhill in about 10 mins, a striking contrast to the uphill time. Soon hit the NH-7 and from here started the exhausting ride back home. The sun was up in full glory and literally there is no shade along this route and to top this there was a strong headwind , bringing down my average to the tune of around 10-12 kmph. I was contemplating a plan of drafting with some other bigger vehicles but on this super highway vehicles were just zooming past and that was something which I could never match even in my wildest imaginations. My best bet would have been to draft behind a tractor or something similar but thanks to my luck I found no such vehicles, leaving me to fend for myself.

When I hit the 105 mark I was so exhausted that I felt that I would bonk over , so took a good break under the burning sun and replenished my body with fluids and carbs and the fact that my bottom had started to get saddle sores did make matters worse. And by the time I hit Yelahanka the traffic was moving at snails pace, thanks to the construction work. But surprisingly I was thanking my lucky stars since this meant breaks at lesser intervals and more importantly no head winds since I could follow other vehicles easily :). This somehow boosted my confidence and by the time I reached Hebbal there was a new vigor in my pedal strokes. From here I had to commute more or less the entire length of Blore city to reach my home, but this section was less demanding thanks to slow moving traffic and shaded streets of Blore :). Finally reached home at around 2.20 pm taking exactly 9 hours to complete this challenge.

In short this day easily makes it to my top 10 toughest days ever(and the nerve wracking cricket finals added fuel to the flame :D :D :D). This was more of a test of mental strength than physical endurance that I initially expected it to be. Its not that as if I would have tried till I would have collapsed or something becoz that would have been too foolish. I always had an option of quitting (airport volvo buses will be more than happy to take me and my bike :P) and I wanted to push my body only till the point it could handle and not beyond it. In my previous century outing I had a feeling that I had still some juice left , but in this ride I have definitely reached my limit. Next stop is 200km mark , but have to ensure that there are no such killer climbs as this one and got to increase my stamina level. Lot of work to do for the next milestone :).

Droid Stats :
Trip 'O' Meter ---> 150.2 km (had to take a round near home to cross 150 :P)
Time Taken ----> 9 hrs (7.5 of cycling, rest resting)
Average Cycling Speed ----> 20.02 km/h :)
Top Speed ----->46.7 km/h (During the Downhill)
Altitude Gained ---> 1.4 km

Career Stats :
100's ----------------------------->2 (150, 104)
50's ------------------------------>5 (70,55,86,91,55)

P.S. --> Mobile Phone Snaps
P.S. 2 ---> Dedicated to Team India for winning the cup and an indirect inspiration for me to reach home quick and catch the 2.30 match :P

Fort Madhugiri : An Impregnable Maze

2011-03-23T22:00:00.002+05:30

With so many multi day bike trips under our belt it was time to return back to the basics, i.e. single day bike rides from which it all began and it was nearly a year since I had one. The destination this time was Madhugiri Fort in Tumkur District, touted as the second largest monolith in Asia and having a climb considered to be a bit difficult. As always with bike rides there were innumerable dropouts and finally we were left with a headcount of just 3 (Jenny, Prasanna and Me), but that didnt deter us and we went with the plan.

First View

Got up pretty early as compared to saturday(19 Mar 2011) morning standards and gave wake up calls to others. Left home at around 6.40 am and moved towards Tumkur Road via NICE ring road. Waited for the fellow bikers at Tumkur road and by around 7.30 am everyone had arrived and we were on our way to Fort Madhugiri. Initial ride was along the 4 lane Tumkur Highway (NH4) a not so enjoyable means for biking, but having no other alternates we were forced to take this route. Had breakfast in one of the Kamat's on NH4 but the service left a lot be desired.

Guard Of Honour

Similar to our initial rides we did almost zero research on this place or the ride, hence had no clue about this place.Not that we wanted to be surprised by this place but no one had enough time to do proper research. All that we knew that we were to take a diversion from Tumkur and head towards Madhugiri. But as we reached Dobbaspet there was diversion marked towards Madhugiri and since we were raring to enter a 2 lane highway, we were in it in no time.

Water Tanks

The initial part of this stretch (SH-3) was really good and I expected the same all the way to Madhugiri. But as we started to get nearer to our destination the roads too started going downhill with the worst section just outside the Madhugiri town. Enroute we came across innumerable lakes filled with clean deep blue water and we couldnt resist riding to its banks and enjoy the view and while returning back from one such lake Prasanna lost control of his bike on a kuccha road and had a fall along with Jenny who was riding pillion with him. Prasanna got some bruises in his leg and this pretty much satisfied his requirement of one accident per bike trip :P. Jokes apart having endured so many falls while biking and still he is game for biking. This is a sign of a true biker, if not of his biking skills :P.

Multilayered Defence: Layer No 5,6,7 and 8 visible

As we approached nearer to the town the entire landscape is covered by boulders and one that dominates and captures your entire attention is the humongous monolith. Truly majestic and intimidating at the same time. Reached the foot of this giant , parked our bikes changed into trek gear and we were all set to conquer this mountain. Long back I had read about the deceptive nature of this fort, and people climbing for the first time will have no idea whats in store for them. Perhaps this was what the original builders had in mind.

The Squeeze

The history of the fort has some of the big names associated with it, like the Ganga dynasty, Vijayanagar Empire, HyderAli-Tipu Sultan, the British and finally the Mysore Wodeyars and I was wondering how the fort changed hand so many times , with the majority of the times it being annexed by force, since I had never seen a fort which had a better defensive structure than this one. Overall there are a total of 10 defensive rings thrown around the mountain and at no time are all the rings visible. So when you start expecting the end is near, one by one the defensive rings start appearing. Imagine the frustration the enemy soldiers would have to endure while climbing, not just physical exhaustion but mental frustration. A prime example of psychological warfare :P.

We started the climb at around 10.45 am , and the initial section has some well layed steps and we expected the same till the end. But within the short distance start the actual means of traveling to the top, a small box shaped step etched into the boulders to give the much needed grip for the legs. And at most of the places the elevation was in tune of 50-65 degrees. But of late ASI has introduced iron grills for support for most of the route which makes climbing this hill not much of an effort even though it looks scary. The weather was surprisingly pleasant for a mid-march afternoon accompanied by heavy winds which increased in intensity as we gained altitude.

Fort No 10: The Final

Inside Barracks

There are a lot of nooks and crannies to be explored in this fort and we went at our own pace absorbing every little detail. And the fact that there were very few people who were game for climbing this mammoth gave us more or less the sense of isolation even though the town is just at the feet of this mountain. There are no guides, or shops anywhere near the monolith making it a completely noncommercial destination.

Landscape

When we started climbing we thought that this trek can be completed within an hour , but as described earlier the climb was never ending. And we took nearly 2 hrs to reach the top , where a depleted temple complex is situated and behind it are some well preserved buildings which resembled like barracks. Also the view from the top is very good, with the landscape dotted with much smaller mountains, fields, lakes and the town below.. picture perfect. The only complain is that there is a lot of graffiti on the fort walls, "Mr A Loves Ms. B"... what is the point of damaging our heritage like this, as if the love is made immortal by such cheap acts.

Nithin Anand Baba :D

After spending time exploring the ruins we returned back and had our packed lunch en route. The downhill was done at a fast pace since there was nothing to explore and we reached back to the base at 1.45 pm , taking a total of 3hrs for the entire trek. Had a refreshing drink at a petty shop, a mocktail of mosambi and pineapple juice, an awesome combo. Soon after this we left the town and started towards Bangalore. Just a few kms from Madhugiri we were stopped in middle of the road by a few stick wielding villagers , and they demanded money on pretext of some tradition and festival on this particular day. Even though they were adamant they were quite respectful at the same time and having no other option we paid up(10 bucks) considering that we were outnumbered 1:6 :P. The much bigger vehicles such as bus and cars didnt even bother to stop at this human roadblock. As mentioned earlier we bikers are more exposed to the elements of nature.

Flower On Rocks

The ride back was good (Nelamangala Corridor Rocks :) ) and reached home again via NICE road at 4.45 pm making it a short and sweet trip , a long time since we had one amid all those heavy weight touring.

Self Shadow Portrait

Ride Details :

Trip 'O' Meter -> 232 kms
Total Cost Per Head -> 400 bucks

Trek Details : (Thanks to my new GPS enabled droid)

Total Distance --> 2.7kms (up and down)

Total Elevation Climbed --> 444 m

Difficulty Level ---> Easy (for seasoned trekkers)

Total Time Taken --> 3hrs (1 hr 43 mins for the trek, remaining for relaxing, photography, exploration and lunch)

Snaps Link :

https://picasaweb.google.com/unithinbhat/Madhugiri#

https://picasaweb.google.com/ppr.bms/Madhugiri?authkey=Gv1sRgCJKKyd23_Z-I6gE#

Route Map

An Addiction Named Facebook

2011-03-08T18:41:00.000+05:30

First there was Orkut, the undisputed pioneer and leader among social networking sites. It dominated the college life of our generation, to such an extent that everyone was literally obsessed with it. Sending requests to friends and unknown people (especially if of opposite sex :P) and increasing the count so as to have more friends than your best friend :P. Scrapping (unusual word :P) with all sort of crap. All this hoopla made the creators of Orkut to think that they were invincible, but a dark horse was brooding somewhere, making itself stronger in places where Orkut was weak and just when Orkut was contemplating what hit them they were pushed to oblivion , soon to be forgotten by everyone.

From the ashes emerged the new face of social networking, "Facebook" the pet project of Mark Zuckerberg. It matched the craze that orkut generated if not more, and within a few months most of the Orkuters had switched camps to Facebook. This is one of the prime example how even the undisputed market leader can be easily dethroned by capitalizing on a single idea. It has come to a situation where people who dont have an FB account are ridiculed and they have no option but to jump on the bandwagon, as it happened to one of my friends. You literally are an outcast if you are not in FB and we thought society pressure and social networking are worlds apart. As on January 2011 there are a staggering 600 million facebook users, nearly 1/10th of the entire human population making it probably the most powerful tool in the entire human history.

Sometimes the term "social networking" used seems like a misnomer, with some people having the friend count in excess of the thousand mark. But the basic question is does a person interact with everyone in that list or is it just a number. Well technically speaking most of our facebook accounts go against the "Dunbar's Number" which limits the social relationships a person can have to a number 150. Theoretically that means in my case I don't interact with 25 of my friends in facebook(present count is 175), but practically speaking it is the inverse of that, I interact on a regular basis a max of 25 people and the remaining fall in group with whom we exchange occasional birthday wishes and nothing more , call me socially demented :P. Thankfully "Dunbars Number" doesn't restrict the number of photos or video posted by others which we can checkout, else would surely miss the daily dose of laughs I get from them :P. All these attractions makes FB the undisputed time killer especially if you have nothing better to do, an addiction of sorts, already given a scientific name "Facebook Addiction Disorder" and quite soon there might be clubs like "Facebook Anonymous" and irony will be when they use Facebook to interact with each other :D :D. Like this one. As goes the saying " Everything in excess is opposed to nature" it would be quite wise to keep the FB usage under control.

In recent times Facebook has not just been a means to expand our social circle but also a tool to bring revolutions in middle east countries ruled by brutal dictators since eternity. As it is known, the now immensely effective and famous "Jasmine Revolution" has its roots tracing back to this networking site. One after the other governments began to fall, while others shuddered in their cozy palatial homes. Even the shock waves were felt in countries as far as China, which famously crushed a similar revolution in the 80's. Soon school kids will start reading these stuff in their curriculum and facebook(along with other networking sites) will be written into the pages of history, to be remembered by generations to come after this.

To capitalize on this craze and to ride the wave, a different set of smart people decided to make the "unofficial" biography of "Facebook" , a largely fictionalized account and look how it turned out to be , a super hit movie and an Oscar nomination , would the same happened if a movie on Orkut is released now ????!!!!!. An idea and its timing are like pillars of a bridge , if we get one thing wrong the entire structure collapses.

On the other hand there has been lot of reports that people have started to use "Facebook" instead of blogging. Of course the exposure is considerably more in Facebook, but will it really enchant people like me who like to write lengthy articles and take considerable time in doing so, and the answer is 'not even in my dreams'. The best option (as I do ;) ) would be to employ the services of both, giving exposure to the blog articles using facebook , an ultimate symbiosis :P. Like all things in this world there will be an end to Facebook too and it will be replaced by something which is better , but the only question is "when???".

Paintball : Game On

2011-03-08T10:14:00.005+05:30

Rival Teams Posing Together :P

Basically I am not a resort person, I do mind a lot paying through my nose and enjoy the shoddy facilities which tries to simulate jungle surrounding and providing luxury at the same time, not my cup of tea. But when an opportunity emerged in terms of a team outing(1/3/11) I was all set since I was not paying from my pocket therefore had nothing to loose. The thing which excited me the most in this resort was Paintball, which was in my wish-list from a very long time but never got an opportunity so far. The destination was Blue Moon Retreat just off Kanakpura road, quite near to my home hence didnt miss the opportunity to ride my cycle on this wonderful tree lined highway (15 kms one way distance).

Our Strike Force- Me In the Centre

Apart from paintball the facilities offered here are rafting in a lake (which is not that exciting), outdoor games like cricket, volleyball, badminton and indoor games like pool table and table tennis. Food was below average (corporate price 950 bucks).

Finally after exhausting all the other facilities we reached the Paintball arena. After an initial briefing we were let into the arena with a full face helmet and a protective jacket and with 4 against 4 teams.The arena is packed with lot of bunkers to duck and fire. Once the game started was an awesome adrenaline rush. Ducking - firing, jumping from one bunker to another to get a better strategic position with bullets (paintballs) whizzing past our ears. It was as though playing Counterstrike in person :). After this I got an opportunity to enter the ring again thanks to some female colleagues who refused to get down and dirty in the arena :P. Totally in both the games got 2 perfect victims , whom I caught unawares and pumped a lot of paintballs into them.. Call me a sadist :P. Also I got a hit to my fingers which pained like hell.

In Action :)

But the sad thing about this is it gets over very quickly just lasting for 15 mins each game, would be really awesome if it lasts for an hour or so, with full of strategic maneuvers. Overall I am now addicted to this form of sport, Game On :).

Snaps Courtesy : Rupayan Dutta

The Count Of Monte Cristo

2011-03-01T00:32:00.000+05:30

"Revenge Is A Dish Best Served Cold"

--Pierre Ambroise Francois Choderios de LaClos (1741-1803)

This is one of the more popular quotes I have heard about revenge & vengeance, but so far hadnt really seen an awesome illustration, until of course after reading this book. Having already seen the movie I was less interested to read the book even though experience has already taught that movies are no match for the books. Finally decided to read it and there was no looking back or repenting.

Story begins with Edmond Dantes, a straight forward youth, who is loved by almost everyone including the love of his life : Mercedes. But even the most kind hearted people would have made enemies in some direct and indirect means and there comes into picture 3 characters Danglars, Fernand, Caderousse who primarily plot for his downfall. On the day of his wedding he is arrested on false charges of being a traitor and sent to a high security prison, a place reserved for the high ranking political prisoners and who literally have no hopes to return back to the civilized world. Dantes is left to rot in those dungeons in middle of nowhere. Initial days of hope is followed by days of despair where he even thinks of taking off his life and finally days of vengeance. The state of mind of the prisoner in those circumstances are illustrated in a very authentic and eerie manner.

In those dark period of his life he comes across a certain Abbie Faria, a mentor , a priest , a fellow prisoner to Dantes, who comes to him quite accidentely by digging a escape tunnel in a wrong direction and leading to his cell. Abbie Faria takes Dantes under his wings and they join forces to escape the prison together.Also the priest tells Dantes of an enormous treasure hidden in the island of Monte Cristo to be claimed by whoever escapes from that place. But unfortunately due to his old age the priest passes away, leaving Dantes all alone to escape. The manner in which he escapes the prison is really spectacular, freedom after 14 long years. The world which he expected to be is not the same, a lot has changed and people have moved on, with his enemies becoming rich and powerful.

From here onwards he starts planning to have his vengeance not just by killing his enemies but making them suffer in the worst possible way. With the power of money and influence he secretly infiltrates into the life of his enemies as a different person, as The Count Of Monte Cristo. As goes the saying that the closest one's can inflict maximum pain than any enemy can. He wants to have his satisfaction and we get to see the man transformed from a straight foward and honest youth to a cunning, cold and calculating person.

Overall a great book and since it is termed as a classic I was satisfied with my expectations. But one thing which really got my nerve was the term "honour" (where they are even ready to die in order to avenge a silly insult :D), followed extensively by all the characters. This is something which people of this age dont identify with and hence it gets a bit irritating :P. But apart from that it can be termed as the ultimate epic of love and vengeance. A must read for fiction buffs.

P.S. The 2002 Movie with the same name is not even comparable with the book. They have even altered the story to such an extent that it almost feels like watching any other revenge movie.

P.S. 2 : My 50th Post... Half Century :D :D :D

Bandaje Trek: Amid Falls, Fort and Forest

2011-02-25T15:14:00.003+05:30

Exploring the world around him(or her :P) is deeply embedded in man's genes , it is his basic instinct (not talking abt the one popularized by the movie :P).With that instinct pretty strong in me it was really a drab for nearly 2 months where I went nowhere other than home and office. Having some personal commitments couldn't find the time off to do some traveling. Finally everything fell into place and it was decided to do some trekking on Feb 19,20 weekend. Initial plan varied a lot from Ombattu Gudda(postponed yet again :( ), Green Route Trek to Mukurthi Peak, but these treks had some or the other problems creeping up and finally we decided to head back to Charmadi Ghats having trekked in these hills some 2 months back. The destination was Bandaje Arbi and Ballarayana Durga, but unfortunately only 3 people (Chandan, Prasanna and Me) made it this time making it a compact yet mobile unit, with no laggers or leaders (since I was burdened with the tent :P).

Forest and Falls :
Feb 19, 2011- Bandaje Village->Bandaje Arbi (8kms..steep climb)

Ray "un-Ban": Bandaje Village

We took an overnight bus from Majestic to Dharmastala. The Rajahamsa bus reached at an unearthly hour of 4.30 in the morning, much much earlier than my expectations (which was 7 am :P). With no other option we decided to rent a room until daybreak and then proceed towards our destination. For 250 bucks we got a room (Gayathri Guest House) and killed couple of hours catching up on our sleep. At around 8 am we finally left the room , had breakfast in one of the hotels nearby, packed chapathi for lunch and caught a bus to Ujire(8kms).

At Ujire we were pretty much clueless in which direction to head to since for this trek I had not researched much and after poking around we got to know we had to head towards Bandaje Village via Idya. The KSRTC operator was very helpful and he gave us all details regarding where exactly to catch the bus and where to get down etc(Idya). As we were waiting for the bus one jeep driver approached us, seeing our trekking gear and all, offering to drop us at Bandaje Village(the beginning of the trail) for a flat 250 bucks. Not having the patience to wait for the bus decided to take the much luxurious means of transport to our destination.

Spring Collection 2011

Landed in front of Narayana Gowda 's house. He is the local contact point for all the treks. Guide or no guide its best to have his number in your contact list.(Considering that nothing is predictable in a trek) He enquired whether we wanted a guide. We politely rejected since we had a rough map and a compass to guide us all the way and considering that in this season the path being well defined (thanks to numerous trekkers before us) Mr. Gowda also supported our decision. I would like to add that even though we completed the trek without a guide doesn't mean the path is less confusing. We wanted some adventure and were even mentally prepared in case we got lost in the jungles :P.

Lost in Time

A Huge Tree Trunk

Off we started in the trail at 9 am . It can be said that the initial part of the trek is the most confusing part. Lots of trials and errors and on top of that numerous paths branching out. When we saw another team (whom we met during the overnight bus journey) behind us we got confirmed for sure that we were in the right path, but we soon overtook their team since they were way too slow for our pace and forest path is a very steep climb.(Considering that we took 4 hrs to cover 8 kms :P )

Also this being the spring season lots of trees where in full bloom with new set of leaves which came up in all sort of bright colours, a treat to the eyes. Even though the entire path is canopied with dense forest the heat started to get to us, imagine if the same climb was to be done under an open sun..phew..exhausting.Soon we reached the Bandaje river, which was lot smaller than I expected. Just 20-30ft wide and can be crossed without a fuss in this season. Also in many crossroads the directions are marked in yellow paint on the nearby rocks which was very helpful for us. We took a break at the river , refilled our bottles (last water point until the falls), removed our shoes and dipped our aching feet in the freezing waters of Bandaje river.... Soothing to feet and soul :P.

Front View Of Bandaje Arbi

Top View :P

After a break of 20 mins we again started towards the peak. There was lot of fresh elephant dung strewn across the entire path giving sure shot signs that elephants had traversed the same path a couple of days ahead of us. On and on we went along the well defined path in this section until we reached a open space, a grassland from where we get the first view of the Bandaje Arbi falls. After so many numerous treks I have understood one thing , the more effort we put to reach the place , even an average looking thing looks really spectacular to our eyes (same with girls I suppose :D ). Had our lunch of dry chapathis at this place. Even though the falls seemed to be well within a stones throw away , the final battle was yet to be won. The afternoon sun was up in full glory and there was literally no shelter whatsoever to shield us and added to that last section is a steep climb. By this time we caught sight of another group of 15 struggling ahead of us. After the grueling climb we reached a platform sort of place from where there we had to climb down a steep and slippery section to reach the falls.

Water Dance

Finally we reached the falls and it was literally an oasis in the middle of a desert. Easily one of the most beautiful camping spots I had been to. So many small and beautiful waterfalls before the giant one at 200ft. The flowing water offered such a soothing cadence. We explored a lot of spots upstream and also went and sat near the 200 feet falls and had a spine chilling peek of the drop. Awesome View :).

After exploring around and we decided to take a dip in one of the natural jacuzzi. Even though the water was near freezing we couldn't let go of an opportunity to take a dip in such an awesome settings (resulting in a terrible cold 2 days later :P ). After bath we decided to start looking for our camp spot, since the camp spot just behind the waterfalls was completely occupied by the 15 member group we had to look for an another one and got a flat ground , but completely exposed to elements.(Winds are terrible during the nights). But having no other option the 3 brave souls decided to pitch the tent and collected firewood for the bonfire cum stove. This was followed by a great sunset, which I cannot get enough of even after watching them for countless number of times.

Beside Our Jacuzzi Point

The Glow: After Sunset

This was followed by us cooking maggi noodles (consuming a lot of smoke in the process... blaaaah :P. ) our dinner for the night and followed by some high pitched singing around the bonfire , the most popular being Sheila Ki Jawani :D :D :D. Finally at around 9 pm we were into our sleeping bags , taking in the much needed rest.

Full Moon Peeking Behind Trees

Fort and Grasslands:
Feb 20, 2011- Bandaje Arbi->Ballarayana Durga->Sultanpet (16kms.. easy gradient)

Had a deep sleep of nearly 10 hrs and woke up when the first rays of sun fell upon our tent. Since the sun rises from behind a mountain it was no use trying to catch the sunrise at this spot.Finished our morning chores and having a quick breakfast of bread and jam we were ready to leave for the fort. Since the entire path from the falls to fort is covered with grasslands we had planned to leave early in order to avoid the sun's gaze , but managed to leave the camp spot only at 8.30 am.

From the waterfalls one has to start climbing the grasslands in the left flank of the falls(i.e. North direction). Once the topmost tree line is reached there starts a well defined route all the way to the Ballarayana Durga. The initial climb is quiet taxing , but apart from the that the remaining part of the trek can be termed as a stroll. The entire path is filled with sun dried grass lands,offering a completely different scenery than with their greener counterpart. Within some 45 mins from the falls we start to get the first view of the fort at a considerable distance, perched snugly on top of a mountain. The entire path is surrounded by some awesome mountain views.

Barren Landscape

We moved towards our destination at a leisure pace, taking a lot of snaps, absorbing the scenery around us and reached our destination within 2 hours of leaving the falls. The fort as such has nothing remaining and is in a completely depleted condition, but the views which we get from the strategically placed fort is simply mind blowing. Also this is a good camping spot with lot of protection from natural elements but the only thing missing is the water source.

First View Of The Fort

From the fort we now had to move towards Sunkashale. Were again a bit confused with the path down, but with a bit of scouting from me and chandan's side we were able to find the path (well defined path starting from the south of the fort and takes a 'U' turn along the mountain ridges to reach North). We started from the fort at around 11 am and started to climb down and within some 15-20 mins we heard 2 gunshots :P. Now my imagination began to run wild since this region has reported some Naxal activity in the past. But anyway we decided to move ahead and check it our ourselves.

Soon enough the trek trail ended and we joined a jeep track . Moved along this path and came across a pickup truck , a couple of trekkers and localites and soon we came to know the reason for the gun shots.
The localites had heard some wild elephant cries and they had fired the shots in the air to scare them away. They told us to wait some time since they predicted that the beast might be along the jeep track. Also they told a story of how a villager was trampled to death a month back. So having no other option we waited and waited and waited some more.

3 Wild Idiots : DCH style :P

Finally a hour later a villager came from the opposite direction and he confirmed that there were no elephants along the path. Feeling happy we are finally moved and came across a small village. Now came the real twist in the tale, when we informed about the elephant cry to a villager. He told that its not any elephant but his cow which cries like an elephant and it indeed does when we went near it :D :D .

From this village we tried to take a shortcut towards Sunkashale , but the path was very confusing so we decided to take the motorable road itself and walking in this road was not that enjoyable. Finally we reached Sultanpet some 4 kms to Sunkashale and decided to take an auto from the local grocery shop. While waiting for the auto to come we devoured a couple of tender coconuts, some fried stuff and some chocs(per head).

The auto driver dropped us in Sunkashale and from here we caught a local bus to Kottigehara. Since the time was already 3 pm we decided to break for lunch here and had a good lunch at a totally deserted Kottigehara Hotel (visible from Bus stand). Coming back we tried to catch a bus to Dharmastala , but whichever bus came was totally packed to brim , and our tired souls were least interested to travel in such conditions. The reason for such a rush was the majority of buses had been diverted to a political rally ... Damn You Political Parties x-( . Finally having no other options we decided to travel in a jeep, i.e. in cattle class, where they stuff people till people start complaining, but at least we had some real estate for our bums, which was all that mattered to us :P.

Reached Ujire and from Ujire we took a bus to Dharmastala. Yet again Dharmastala was jam packed with pilgrims and after a lot of searching we finally got a room in Saketh Guest house for a measly 70 bucks , which we used just for getting freshened up. Had a good dinner at Tripti Hotel and caught the 9pm bus to Bangalore. The bus reached Majestic at around 4.45am and when I went to catch a local bus to my house was in for yet another shock. Buses were packed to the brim with people, even at this unearthly hours. Traveled the majority of the distance standing , swaying right and left in my drowsy condition. Since the ratio of people inside to outside was close to infinity, reached my house within 30 mins. Finally Home sweet home.

Overall a good trek with a lot of varieties thrown in .We had dense forest, rivers, water falls, grasslands, fort, mountain views, and even an elephant cry :P. I had not seen so many varieties in a single trek apart from the Himalayan trek. Also this is the last trek of this trekking season before the summer sets in, waiting eagerly for my next in the month of June, perhaps a monsoon trek :). As is the norm with my other trek blogs ending with a funky quote :P.

"Nature is my God and trekking is my pilgrimage" :P

Group Snap: Prasanna, Me and Chandan

Trek Details --->

Total Trek Distance --> 24 kms
Total Cost Per Head --> 1500 bucks
Narayana Gowda Contact No ----> 9845693661, 08256274231
Mobile Signal Info---> BSNL and Vodafone at falls/fort (Yet again no airtel :P.. Vodafone rocks :P)
Useful Map ----> http://www.dreamroutes.org/dreams/hemant_bandaje.html

Snaps Link ---->

https://picasaweb.google.com/unithinbhat/BandajeTrek#
https://picasaweb.google.com/ppr.bms/ArbiBandajje?authkey=Gv1sRgCK-3m-LLh6uKowE#

Oscars 2011: The Hitlist

2011-02-22T23:53:00.003+05:30

With the Oscar's just round the corner , just had enough time and patience to watch all the 10 movies nominated for the best feature film category. Doesn't mean that the nominees are the best (American and British) movies for the entire year , but these satisfy a quality benchmark. Had watched 7 of the movies prior to the announcement , that gives me 70% coverage of good movies. Below is the brief description of the famous ten and my favourite to win.

1. Black Swan

"Good Girl Gone Bad" should have been the quote of this movie. Jokes apart this is one of the darkest movies I had watched during the recent times. It is more of a psychological thriller and no way is it a movie for the masses. The story begins with Nina(Portman) who is a goody good , innocent ballerina performer. When there is a casting call within her ballerina school for the title role of "Black Swan" which requires a performer to portray both White Swan and black swan. She is selected , on the grounds that she is perfect for the white swan part but has to find her inner darker self to play the alter ego. She finds those grey shades of her personality but with disastrous consequences.

My Rating -----> 4/5

2. The Fighter

From the title one would assume this to be an action movie, but this is far from it. I had expected to see some "David Vs Goliath" (which never gets boring even after watching n number of movies :P) kinda movie such as the Cinderella Man, but this more of a family drama than a boxing movie. This true story starts with a local boxer Micky(Walberg) who has the chance to make it big in boxing , but for that he requires the help of his elder brother(Bale), a pot addict ex-champ. And the movie is all about their relations. The saving grace is the one and only Christian Bale. This guy is so versatile as an actor and to fit to his role he has lost tons of weight(Not as much as The Machinist) .Walberg on the other hand gives his usual expressionless acting once again. The family squabbles did get on to my nerve. An overall average movie.

My Rating -----> 3/5

3. Inception

Every now and then comes a movie which is so out of this world that people just watch it 3-4 times just to understand it, a movie which requires a different level of imagination altogether. In the 90's there was Matrix now we have Inception. "Dream within a Dream" has become one of the most popular phrase of this year. One of my favourites to win the oscars.

More detailed review here
http://nithinu.blogspot.com/2010/07/inception-nolan-does-it-again.html

My Rating -----> 5/5

4. The Kids are all Right

This post-modern tale is an interesting take on the present family values (at least in US :P). The main centre of focus is an unconventional family headed by two lesbian women and 2 children born via donor sperms. The twist begins when the children decide to meet and get to know their biological father(Mark Ruffalo). Both the kids and the father open up and begin to grow closer. But the problem starts when one of the mother (Julianne Moore) falls for the guy. Even though the father has some questionable motives , the audience cannot resist sympathizing with him. Overall a good hatke movie.

My Rating ----> 4/5

5. The Kings Speech

A movie which everyone would identify with, after all who is comfortable with public speaking (still remember my sleepless night before my first, in front of school assembly in 7th grade :P). Movie starts with how spectacularly the Duke Of York(Collin Firth) fails to deliver a speech in front of a live audience, partly because of his nervousness and other being his stammering problem. But that doesn't bother him much until is pushed ahead of his elder brother to be Englands new King.With World War II in the horizon King is expected to rise to the occasion and inspire the entire Kingdom and to achieve this goal he is helped and supported by the Australian speech therapist (Geoffrey Rush). Amazing acting by Firth who surely deserves an oscar for this performance.

My Rating ----> 4.5/5

6. 127 Hours

After "Slumdog Millionaire", Danny Boyle had become "our guy" and there was so much expectations from his next which happens to be this "127 Hours". In short I was a bit disappointed, the major reason of which could be that I was expecting too much. This true story starts with Ralston (James Franco) going on a hiking trail in an isolated canyon range. Pleasure soon turns to despair when he gets his hand stuck under a huge rock. Trapped, he is forced to make some serious decisions which a person in normal circumstances wouldn't even dream about, as time starts to pile up odds against him.The initial scenes are just too good including the biking across the desert. Scenes like these in movies would encourage more people to take up biking than any ads would even dream of. Overall the flow of the movie is good except the part where he starts to see hallucinations which I thought to be overstretched a bit.

My Rating ----> 3.5/5

7. The Social Network

The movie about the latest craze of the recent time, "Facebook" and its creator "Mark Zuckerberg". While the director seems to have taken a lot of artistic freedom , we do get to witness that having a great idea is not good enough, but its how you capitalize on that idea to make it super big. Story starts with Mark(Jesse Eisenberg) who is grad student at Harvard and a complete computer geek who implements some cool ideas even though it pisses a lot of people. From one idea to another he keeps jumping until he comes across the idea of Facebook and the ensuing story after that. The major part of the movie is occupied by the legal suit proceedings that the co-founders file on Mark. Overall a good movie which has to be taken with a pinch of salt :P.

My Rating -----> 4/5

8. Toy Story 3

Being a great fan of both Toy Story and Toy Story 2 , I had high expectations from this movie and I was greatly disappointed. After watching this I feel its time to wind up the franchise so as not to mess up with the memories of the previous 2 movies. The main skeleton plot is more or less repeated, with the others toys in danger leaving Woody and Buzz to rescue them. Andy is ready to go to college so he donates his toys to a daycare. This daycare is controlled by the evil soft spoken Teddy Bear, and the toys have to fight back to earn their freedom. The jokes are not so funny, it might be said that I am too old for movies like these , but as I said the first 2 installments still tickle my funny bone :).

My Rating ----> 3/5

9. True Grit

A watchable western movie after a long time. Even in western genre there are 2 categories, one is the straight forward "white hero vs black villain" and nothing in between and the other category which has some new story to tell like the Unforgiven(1992). This movie belongs to the latter category. After the murder of her father by a bandit a 14 year girl looks for vengeance, an highly unlikely candidate for one. She hires the services of the best gunslinger in town Rooster(Jeff Bridges) to see the job done. This unlikely group is joined by a Texas Ranger (Matt Damon) who is after the same bandit and the movie is about their journey capturing the bandit for their own means.

My Rating -----> 4/5

10. Winter's Bone

The least publicized movie of the lot and no hype whatsoever associated with it. Also the last movie I saw in this list. Movie begins with Ree in search of her missing father in order to save her house and property. She digs around to find any info regarding him and faces stiff resistance everywhere. One by one she starts discovering the truth. More or less the pace of the movie is pretty slow and the accent of the characters makes it tough to understand the dialogues. An average movie with no chances of winning the coveted prize , which I was wondering how it got nominated in the first place.

My Rating -----> 3/5

Finally I would be routing for "The Kings Speech" and "Inception" to win the award, but with all probability "The Kings Speech" has better odds of making it all the way, having already won the BAFTA awards. Also got to check the movies in the foreign language category which are generally more interesting than the above listed nominees. But the main problem are the subtitles which makes one concentrate just on one part of the screen leaving the other parts to escape our vision :P.

Ethina Bhuja : Taming The Wilderness

2011-01-01T00:06:00.005+05:30

Year end and trekking usually dont go hand in hand for me. The major reason for a trek is to enjoy the solitude and spending quality time with the nature. I wouldn't prefer to be shocked by 200 chatterboxes on top of the peak which is usually the case with popular trekking spots at this time of the year. Hence we decided to go for some lesser known trekking destinations and Ettina Bhuja was the first in that list. The name means "Oxes Shoulder" in kannada, taking into consideration the obvious shape of the peak.

After an episode of postponing ,dropouts, cancellation of tickets and frustration, the dates were finally decided to be 25, 26 Dec. Total number of people were just 5 (Prasanna, Vineeth, Nutan(his first ever trek), Sai and Myself). Due to the mad rush on the night of 24th Dec for people to get to their hometown we could only book our seats in Karnataka Sarige buses and that too in the row towards the rear, destination being Dharmastala. Majestic was pretty much jampacked. The bus arrived amid lot of confusion and left Majestic only by 11.50 pm, a good 1 hr delay. The seats were super crammed and congested for my frame. Spent the night with very less sleep except the Shirdi Ghats(In pathetic condition right now) where I slept like a baby... (craddle rocking effect maybe :P)

Day 1 : 25th Dec 2010 : Mounting the Beast
Trek Distance -> 3+9 = 12 kms

First View Of The Peak

Landed in a small town Kokkada at 7.30 am, a good 16 kms before Dharmastala. This was informed by the De Facto contact point for any treks around these regions, Gopu Gokhale . Hired a jeep to Shishila village the last point for any provisions and the house of Mr. Gokhale. When we entered Gokhale's house premises where a little worried with the sight of nearly 50 trekkers reading themselves for the trek, but our doubts where put to rest when we came to know very few of them where moving in our direction with a majority of them heading to Amethikal and Ombatthu Gudda(the alternate and easier route compared to Gundya).

Initial Trek Route

Completed our morning business at the trekker friendly premises of Gokhale. Had our breakfast of idlis and where provided with packed lunch by Mrs.Gokhale. At this time our guide for the trek Lingappa arrived and we started from Shishila at around 10 am. The distance between Shishila and base point of Ettina Bhuja trek is around 5 km through a motorable path. Of which we walked 3 kms and got a "paid lift" in a jeep for the remaining 2 kms. The walk on the motorable-tarred road was pretty much a walk in the park and within a few minutes we started to get the first view of the Ettina Bhuja peak , and the ascent seemed intimidating. Eventhough the height of the peak is just 1299 MSL , the starting point is at much much lower point and degree of ascent is what makes trek somewhat an effort.

Soon we exited the road and entered the dry shola forests, lots of dry leaves are strewn along the entire path, and hence it is advisable to get a guide along since it can be quite confusing. There is a proposal to build a road all the way to Ettina Bhuja hence there is kuccha road in the initial part of the trek, but thanks to the efforts of Forest Department and environmentalists this has been stalled. Soon we came across a river crossing. This river is around 100 feet wide and shallowest point around 3 feet deep... So not sure if the same can be crossed in the monsoons. Removing our shoes and folding up our pants we started crossing this remote , untouched, crystal clear water of this river. The water was ice cold and within no time we had decided our dip point while returning.

After the river crossing for a good couple of kms the river accompanies the trek route giving an awesome gurgling sound along with the chirping of the birds and other forest noises which gives an impression of a forest which is truly alive. The initial part of the trek is canopied by trees so even when the sun was out and temperatures started souring , we didnt feel any discomfort. Every now and then we used to get an opening and would get a view of the peak closing by. By noon we decided to stop by and have our lunch of chapathi's and cabbage sabji and they were delicious. Along the way we came across one more group climbing and they were just struggling with the climb. Was having doubts whether they will make it to the peak , but they finally made it , a good 1.5hrs behind us.

Also in our group initially Sai had some problems, but soon he got used to it and kept his pace. Towards the end Prasanna lost his steam and he started moving very slowly. As we moved closer and closer to peak, we entered a region fully infested with elephants grass almost 6 feet tall and totally swallowing us up whole. These dried up grass and the peak in background was a scene to witness. Also by this time we were pretty much below the hump and had to take a circuitous route to reach the peak avoiding the nearly 500ft vertical climb which I suppose Bear Grylls too wouldnt dare to attempt :P.

View From The Top: Charmadi Ghats

Finally at around 3.45 pm we reached the camp ground a good 20 mins to the peak, taking almost 5 hours to reach this spot. Infact this can be done much faster by seasoned trekkers, but what were we supposed to do at the peak under the afternoon sun (the top is totally exposed to the elements of nature) , hence we took our own time. Rested a bit near the camp site waiting for the sun to be a bit more bearable. At around 5 pm we started our final assault towards the peak minus our backpacks and tents and within no time reached the peak. The final section might seem like a bit tricky and steep , but again for a seasoned trekker it is just a piece of cake. In the last section both Sai and Nutan had a hard time dealing with the drops on either sides and literally crawled on their fours. Difficulty wise of this trek, I would place it somewhere between easy and moderate.

Amethikal and Ethina Bhuja

The views from the peak is truly enchanting. We can get visuals of lots of peaks of the Charmadi ghats including the Amethikal, Jain Gudda and even Ombatthu Gudda at a considerable distance. The view of Amethikal greatly reminded me of the trek to that peak nearly 3 years back(my first serious trek) when we were lost with no water and had come across a unclimbable steep section and could proceed no further. At that time the views of Ettina Bhuja Peak was the one which had kept us company for the entire time. And 3 years later it is the opposite, but sans the "getting lost" and "without water".

The Glow

The sun had started to set and views of the setting ball of fire without any clouds to hinder gave some awesome views. After the sunset, went down to our camp site and started the bonfire and cooked our dinner for the night. "Maggi Noodles" under the starry sky :P. After killing time with UNO cards we were into our sleeping bags at around 9 pm and slept for 9 hrs straight.

The "Maggi"c Potion , Stirred by PPR

Day 2 : 26th Dec 2010 : The Dismount
Trek Distance -> 2+9 = 11 kms

Was woken up Nutan at around 6pm all excited to witness his first sunrise among the mountains. Gathering up my thoughts went outside to witness the miracle of nature. After having some doubts regarding the direction of the sun-rise decided to climb the peak for a better view. No one else were interested in that proposition and I went all alone. As was climbing caught sight of the first rays of the run rising from behind a mountain and within no time we were witnessing an awesome sunrise. There was a layer of mist at a much lower level and the sunrise made them appear as if they were on fire. Truly an awesome sight to witness.

On Fire

After the sunrise we returned back to our base-camp, had a breakfast of Bread and Jam, gathered our belongings and started the return journey. Between there is a small stream just about 10 mins from the basecamp which is a source of water and I doubt whether that still flows in summer considering its size.

With Our Weird Shaped Tents : Samurai Style :P

In one section of trail which was pretty much damped were attacked by leeches. Nearly 4 of the bloodsuckers had managed to climb onto my leg , but a stop to tie up my shoe lace revealed the sneak attack and quickly removed them, else would have been a bloodbath considering that we were 100% sure of no leeches in this season and I would never have bothered to check :P. Another minor incident during the descent was when Prasanna "accidentally" hit Vineeth with his stick and then ensuing bloodbath :P. This happened when we had stopped to collect gooseberry's which dot these landscapes and pretty delicious when eaten with salt.

Water Source Near Peak

Since the entire path is strewn with dry leaves the descent was loaded with lot of slips and falls. I too had a lot of slips but thanks to the bamboo stick was able to keep my balance and avoid any falls. Finally at around 12 noon we reached back to the river and decided to take a dip. Unfortunately my clean record was broken when I had a fall and this happened after the "Do or Die" bamboo stick gave in under my weight :D.

Spent nearly 45 mins in the cold waters of the river. Our guide showed us a good spot where there were a lot of small rapids due to the boulders. So we just went and sat on the boulders and enjoyed the "jacuzzi" effect of the nature. After the dip reached the main road again and reached Lingappa's house. From here we caught an auto to Shishila. Were greeted by spiced buttermilk at Gokhale house and we had had the second bath of the day and a lip-smacking lunch.

Finally at 4 pm we caught a bus to Kokkada and from there we took Jeep which was filled to the brim. (18 adults and 1 kid). The driver was driving with half his body out of the jeep and with so many people in that single vehichle I think my body would have surely collapsed under that pressure if my body was any softer :P. Reached Dharmastala at around 6 pm and went directly to the temple after depositing our luggage at the luggage counter. Here we took nearly 2 hrs to get darshan which was more frustrating than any trek I have undertaken. Imagine taking 2 hrs to traverse 300 metres. At around 9pm we moved to the bus stand but literally no one knew where the new bus stand was. So strolling for some time we managed to reach it which is around 1km from the temple. This time we had got Rajahamsa seats so slept the night without any problems right till we reached Bangalore.

Dip Point

As I got down at Majestic was witness to a strange sight. There were 2 Indians who were urinating up against the wall and seeing this a caucasian white male having a huge bag-back decided to do the same. Was totally stumped, didnt know whether to smile or frown. Probably he had heard a phrase "when in rome do as the romans do" :P. Finally the memorable trek came to an end. Even-though it was not as tough as we expected, the views we got were superb. A fitting finale for the year 2010, which is and probably will be my best travelled year for a long time to come.

Trek Details --->

Total Trek Distance --> 23 kms
Total Cost Per Head --> 1.6 K (150/head charged by Gokhale for Breakfast and 2 Lunches)
Gopu Gokhale Contact No ----> 9483211246
Mobile Signal Info---> BSNL and Vodafone at peak (and no Airtel :P.. surprise!!! surprise!!!)

Snaps Link ---->
http://picasaweb.google.com/unithinbhat/EthinaBhujaTrek#
http://picasaweb.google.com/ppr.bms/EthinaBuja#

P.S. -> Lot Of Sun Photography in this trip :D.