A Pedal to Pearl Valley

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

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

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

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

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