Chickmanglur Trek

Go to any online dictionary and you will find the meaning of "TREK" something like this .

Trek Meaning and Definition

1. (n.) To travel, esp. by ox wagon; to go from place to place; to migrate.
2. (n.) To draw or haul a load, as oxen.
3. (n.) The act of trekking; a drawing or a traveling; a journey; a migration.

For us , it had a completely different meaning all together:
To (v) enjoy , shout , laugh , tease , run , wander .
Those were just very few words, but it expresses all that happened in our eventful, fun filled trip to Chickmanglur. Unlike other trips , this was planned!!! :) Although, all 7 of us were free, Ayub made some reasons and dropped out of trip.We did not force him much as he was just married and Well well ( Shekar told me during the trek that he was complaining of vomiting sensations and stomach pains, although I don't know compleatly what it means :P).


The Plan : First stop Belur, Halebidu, from there to chickmanglur.To cover the highest peak in Karnataka Mullyangiri, from there a (approx)11km trek to Manikyadhara falls. Cover few other places and be back by Monday evening as we had promised at home that we will be back by monday morning ;).

Day 1: Saturday 25th October 2008
We left Bangalore ,at 5am Saturday morning. Breakfast at Kamat Upachar then directly to Halebedu and then to Beluru. Truly amazing creativity and carvings . You just end up gaping open mouthed at the carvings . Although we had that effect during many other occasions :pWe spent around 2 hours each in these two places. We left Beluru by 1pm , to chickmanglur .Our next pitstop was Muthodi Wild Life sanctuary . Unfortunately we missed the official safari vehicle because of which we had to come back in vain. Not completely though. On our way back we took a route, quite challenging I must say :) Well it was the feeling when you feel you are in the right path and
suddenly you realize you are at top of some hill, overlooking at the sheer vastness and green nature in its raw beauty. Yes, the view of the peaks, clad in mist as if creating a path from heaven.You cant express it, you have to experience it.

Day 2: Sunday 26th October 2008

We were up early, or u can say , bit early ;) . Today we were heading to Mullyangiri. From there the trek to
Manikyadhara. We had a guide accompany us . It was nice bright morning, luckily no rains. We thought we would catch the sunrise but we were late. Mullyangiri, is the tallest peak in Karnataka at around 6400ft. Atop the hill, is a temple of Mullyappa swami . Once you reach the top, you feel the vastness of nature, humbled before its glory. There were two natural caves on the hill. Believed to be used by sadhus to meditate . We were not able to wander deeper in to those caves as we did not have enough light source and air got damper as we moved deeper. We spent some time on the peak and headed towards another small peak from where we started our trek. It was a mesmerizing experience . We even found tiger tracks on the way! From Manikyadhara we left for Kemmangundi. About 9-10 km ahead of Kemmangundi is a deviation taking to Kalahatti falls. It has religious significance , there is a temple at the place and the water falls between the heads of two rock carved elephants. This is a place just to sit in water, stretch your legs and rest after a hectic trek.Beware of broken glass bottles though. Its a pity that people ruin such beautiful places.From here we headed back to Chickmanglur.

Day3: 27th October 2008
We did not have any exact plan in mind. There were few places near by that we were considering. Went to a nearby lake, then left for bangalore. On the way back, near hassan, a deviation and around 15kms a place called ShettyHalli. Remains of a church, submerged in water can be seen. A beautiful place. Although Ashwin and me tried some stunts with the nearby abondoned boat, we got no response from others who were followers of Karthik :P so we decided to leave that idea alone. From there we left for bangalore.

It was an awesome experience. Sometimes you wonder if there is a great power that is looking after you. That has the final say. After experiencing the nature, its vastness and sheer beauty, you must admit, there is a creator, and he reigns supreme, making everyone else feel humbled in his presence.

An Unforgettable Experience

There are sometimes when you feel a sense of accomplishment , a feeling that makes you proud , a smile on your face because you made someone else smile . Those moments are priceless . Its something I felt after I met and interacted with the kids of APSA Nammane(our home) . Dhanya asked me whether I would join her along with her team members to visit Nammane and spend some time with the kids there. It was Friday evening and as expected it started drizzling by late afternoon . We had planned some activities to be carried out there. The plan was to sponsor a days ration for the kids . And so we did , in fact for 2 days . I am glad there are people who are ready to contribute for a noble cause .

We reached the place around 4:30 . Heavy rains had gutted the place around the building. There was a visible demarcation , next to big posh flats , there were low huts, gutted in water . Evidence that rich get richer and poor much poorer.

Once we reached there, we were welcomed by the poem that they were taught in the previous visit. Kids do touch your heart don't they :) may be thats why kids are close to gods . Their smiles and energy, their enthusiasm made us forget ourselves for few minutes . It gave us an opportunity to become kids amongst them .To realize the kid within us far from the office life . We played around, enjoyed with them like small kids . That evening I spent one of the most memorable evening till date :) I wont get into details of what we did , what we arranged as these doesn't matter . What matters is that we were there with them , shared their joy . And mind you ,they are no less than us . Great minds who can prepare and enact a skit in 10mins , who dance like Hritiks and prabhudevas , can challenge anyone in singing . It was great to see them fearless to express themselves , something the "urban"kids often lack.

All this while I have been thinking of words to express my feeling , so that I can pen them down . But seems like those feelings cannot be expressed in words. Its a feeling to feel . A feel to remember , remembrance to be cherished in to memories . Memories that will last long :)

Do visit http://www.apsaindia.org/
http://www.apsaindia.org/projects.htm#nammane

Booting thru GRUB command line

Lately I have come across many questions , related to GRUB . Most common of the problems are
1. Installed windows after installing Linux , so there is no GRUB to boot to linux . How to get the grub ?
2. In case of GRUB failure , on a machine that has multiple OS , how to boot ?

Well in most of the cases , you have the #grub-install command that will do the job for you . But in order to run the command you need to be in linux env . And in case , where you are not able to boot in to linux might cause problems .

A simple solution for this is to have a grub floppy , that will help you boot in to required OS .

Or if you have a sloaris bootable disk , you get the grub along with it . So no need to try the floppy stuff. Boot from
cd/dvd , enter grub command line .. try the below options . .

ex: In this case if you want to boot into windows

grub> rootnoverify (hd0,0)
grub> makeactive
grub> chainloader +1
grub> boot

If you have more than one OS(in this example lets take Linux and Windows).
Then the kernel needs to be set  : boot to linux (in my machine Linux is at (hd0,4) so
grub> root (hd0,4)
grub> kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.15-8-i386 ro root=/dev/
grub> initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.15-8-i386
grub> boot
 (Change the text in red to suite your system )

 Happy Booting :)

Brahma Kamala (Selenicereus grandiflorus)

The night bloom, or ratri rani in kannada . The Brahma Kamala of India or Selenicereus grandiflorus . Its a treat to watch the flower bloom . The speciality about this flower is that , it blooms only once a year , and only at night . Was lucky to catch it bloom at my place :-)

Belongs to cactus family and has pleasent odor . The milky white flower when in full bloom , is a beauty . It unfolds its petals as if to form a chakra . Usually when they bloom , they do so in numbers . 10's 20's of them , all in full bloom.. just a treat to watch . And a festival for photographers :)

You can find more on this flower at "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selenicereus_grandiflorus"

1 year Experience!

July 23rd 2008 , i updated my resume : Years of experience : 1 :)
Well its been a long , eventful(lots and lots of events ;)) year . Same time last , probably a day or two earlier , i was thinking what to do . Confused as to which company to join . Then the mind of a CS student from Bangalore kicked in " Obviously a PRODUCT COMPANY" , for all those 4 years of engineering. So there it all began, NOKIA SIEMENS NETWORKS , MG Road Bangalore .

U got to be lucky to have office in MG Road. Lots of restaurants , nice crowd in Brigade ;) and lot more . Best part of all , just 11kms from home . With all the anxiety and fear . . and enthusiasm , thinking what to answer when seniors ask me questions ... man.. isn't it memorable.I have been lucky in many ways . Made good friends , part of the coolest team in the company I should say . Its these small matters like , your comfort in the work , and the team , that matters in your long term relation with the company . Ill surely feel bad in case I have to leave this team .

Well lots of trips , making movies , birthday parties , team outings , and little bit of work :) ....
Its 23rd July 2008 . My 1year in office :)