SDLC vs SELC

Traffic Kills

Yes, its been many months now...The new Bangalore International Airport opened! BBMP decided to broaden the roads, make the trip to airport signal free blah blah blah. All we have now is a route complete with bottle necks, traffic signals and pot holed roads. That's not a new problem to we Bangalore's is it.. But lately there has been a traffic boom. Morning 9, you see the roads jammed , traffic cant move an inch a minute. No ones cared if you bump on to some ones car. A small scratch, bumper misplaced is a common thing that gets ignored by just a raised hand "sorry". Pathetic!!!

Is this because of bad roads alone? We, who drive our vehicles in the morning rush are more to be blamed. No one follows traffic rules, no ones cared about signals. All we want is zoom around and reach office on time. What the hell! leave home early..

Whats most shocking is that, its affecting the emergency services like ambulance. Its a common sight nowadays, an ambulance having the beep and trying to make way in the busy filled roads.. most of the times unable to make it to the destination. And those stupid traffic police who stand and stare even with walkie talkie in their hand.. I think some basic training to react in these situations , either by alerting the next police person on route might help. Don't you think so! yes it will!

Busszzzz

After everyday bus fights with the conductor during PU days, and a lonng longg gap of almost 3 years , last week I travelled by BUS. And through out the way I was remembering those days that are gone. Those footboarding days even though the bus is empty, fights in the bus to get down before the stop. Nothing much has changed in that aspect..these fights still go on :) But its when I started to gaze out of the window that I realised, I felt lost!! yes Lost.. although it was the same route that I travelled everyday to office, what I saw now was totally different. I was wondering how have those old 1947 buildings near MGroad comeup newly! It was so different.. peaceful.. far from the speeding vehicles and jammed roads. Thats when I decided its nice to have a bus ride back home once in a while. Afterall we need to get used to travelling inmetro isnt it :) hopefully! :P

Kodachadri Trek

9th to 12th April : The summer adventure!! This trip was special to us for many reasons.. I will get to those details later, but even after coming back to Bangalore I cant help but think of those amazing 4 days at and near Kodachadri.

After a lot of pestering Muneeb finally agreed to come and in style!! He made the trip memorable by making sure he slips and falls at every new place we visited :). It was Thursday evening and karthik was angry that we all came late as usual. We left Bangalore around 8 pm Thursday night. . as usual the forbidden night journey :). On the way to Kodachadri we stopped at a village where yakshagana was going on at 4am Friday morning. Where Arun was ( excited to be precise )surprised when a girl yakshagana character called him to take snap. But after he got to know that all yakshagana characters are played by guys.. the excitement died :P. There is a fort on the way, some 2 hours before Nitur . A nice place to spend some time . We reached Kodachadri around 5am. Kodachadri is the second highest peak in Karnataka and is also a holy place for many as the Sarvagna peetha is present atop the hill.

Kodachadri (Friday Day1) - Nittur : We changed and filled the bags with minimum necessities for trek , left rest of baggage in the car and got read. Had our breakfast in a nearby hotel. Accompanied by a guide we started trekking from nearby Nittur . It was pleasant morning... way different from Bangalore pollution. The trek path has more of forest path.. birds chirping , the early morning breeze kept our spirits high. The afternoon heat was not much of a problem as we were in the shade of trees most of time. Its around 10km trek from where we started to the peak. Most of it is forest except nearing the peak where its around 3km of open grass land. We reached the open land after many timeouts by Muneeb. On our way we enjoyed some time in water at Hitlumane falls. Water level was less but who cares when we are in high spirits :). After resting for sometime and having some snacks we started again.The forest cover began to disappear slowly as we entered the open grasslands . But the view from those plains are a treat. Much to our respite, there is a buttermilk shop on the way , where the galipata set was set up. The experience is unforgettable. 6 glasses of butter milk each and we were ready again. Towards the end , we will have to walk for around 2kms on road. At around 12:30 we made it to the top. There we planned where to camp. After having lunch, it was matter of seconds before we all started snoring. Had a peaceful nap till 4. And when we wole up Kodachadri surprised us. It was fog fog and fog everywhere. The hot sun beating on us at 2pm was not to be seen. The weather turned pleasant and we set out to climb to Sarvagna peetha. A 2 km trek from the IB camp site. Amazing place and an unforgettable experience. Came back after sunset and prepared for the camp fire. Night was crowded unfortunately, as it was public holiday and many had the same plans.

Kodachadri ( Saturday Day2) - We set out to see the sunrise early morning after a good fight for bathroom. Beautiful hills stood covered in early morning mist . The sun began clearing the mist and covered the forest ranges with its golden rays. You have to experience it to know it. After breakfast we started to climb down. We had planned to cover Kollur, St Mary's Island and Malpe beach. It was an eventful trek down hill as Muneeb entertained us with his falls ;). The descent was fast, we took around 2 hours . 11am we left Kodachadri towards Kollur. After a short visit to Kollur temple we left to Udupi where we had lunch. Next stop - St Mary's Island. We have to take a ferry to the place and its around 70 per head. Worth a ride! :) It was high tides and we had jolly time on the deck. St Mary's Island is worth a visit. You will find a lot of crabs and snails . And as usual Muneeb continued his falling spree.It was around 6pm when we left for Malpe beach. It was a lovely evening, shekar scolding not to venture deep in to the sea and we all running against the tides. That night we stayed at Ashwin's aunt's house. We were treated with Udupi hospitality. We visited Mahalingeshwara devasthanam before ending the day with good food good place good stay.. it was time to rest after a long eventful day.

Udupi (Sunday day3) - After early morning breakfast we left to Udupi Krishna temple. A quick visit to the temple and from there to Agumbe - Sringeri. We were planning to visit the King Cobra natural park but could'nt make it. Agumbe ghat was a superb drive. After taking some snaps of the view at sunset point at noon, we reached Sringeri around 1pm. Running to avoid getting our legs burnt, visited the temple . The fishes at tunga are a treat to watch. After a quick lunch at Sringeri we started at around 2:30pm to Bangalore.

It was after coming back from the trip, that we got to know, we had ventured to the most sensitive of naxal prone areas. Well sometimes its better to know things late :P A wonderful joyful trip to remember and unforgettable experiences. And lots of pictures for memories :)

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.