My Odyssey with Nature-1 (Trek to Kudremukh)

This was my first trek in the year 2013. I had been to many treks before but none of them lasted for more than a day. Of course even kudremukh is a one day trek but we had to camp at the base and then visit a nearby falls the next day. So, I would rather call this a 2 day trek.

 

Note to the people who are looking for directions for their trek: I am very sorry to disappoint you. You are at the wrong place. There are many travel bloggers who give you minutest details about the trek. I am here to share my experience during the trek and not to provide any guidance.

 

The name Kuduremukha literally means 'horse-face' (in the local language Kannada) and refers to a particular picturesque view of a side of the mountain that resembles a horse's face.

 

 

Well, moving ahead. The trek was started on 25/01/13 (Friday night) and ended on 27/01/13 (Sunday morning). I have never been to any treks with a private trekking club before. This was my first experience with an outside club and also first time I went without my friends. It was with a bunch of unknown people I had decided to go with. There were three vehicles to take us.
 

 Before I came to the pickup point, I had spoken to an old friend (Girl :-P) of mine. We were, of late, talking more often and I was scared to make the first move. After the disastrous experiences before, I was now not in a position to get into any kind of relationship. This was a perfect getaway to relax and decide my next move carefully.

  

I got into the bus and found people chit chatting in groups. It didn’t take much time to find out that these people were colleagues/friends. I decided to occupy a single seat; well that was the only one left. And someone called me from behind. I turned around to see a foreign guy. I soon found out he was just like me, feeling like a lone drop in an unknown ocean. He introduced himself and we started a conversation. He was from Czech Republic.

 We started discussing about each other’s countries and we decided to use Wikipedia to aid our conversation. He explained me about his country and I realized there were lot of similarities between our countries and most of the words sounded like Sanskrit, maybe there was some distant connection sometime in the history.

I woke up very frequently while travelling and couldn’t catch a decent sleep. We reached early morning and jeeps were waiting for us to be ferried to the base camp.

 

 It was very cold and I was wearing a sleeveless sweater. It took a toll on me and after this trek I ensured to cover myself completely in the following treks.

 

 

I just washed myself up and saw around 30 people there. Breakfast was being served; it didn’t look good but tasted fine.

 

 

There was a self introduction and most of them were working in MNC’s. There were just four girls, well I was at the wrong place but had no choice. We were divided into 2 groups; I was part of the first group. We were given instructions about the trek, 16km up and down and other safety measures to be followed.

 I met a guy who had left his work and become an Entrepreneur. He was really irritating me with some senseless questions related to work. I told him we use normal excel sheet to make production plans, which shocked him. He spoke at length about the software’s which he develops. I wasn’t keen on his offers. Why pay millions of rupees for software whose job can be done on a priceless excel. He saw a girl and walked towards her. I was happy for her to take the burden of me.

The sun had just risen and the weather was good.

 

 

In no time, it started burning us. There were many amateurs who took breaks very often. I was instructed not to move and just wait for everyone. In a while, everyone split and walked at their pace. Clearly, the instructions were violated. After a while, sun took a toll on me.

 

 I was left with little water and it got over in no time. After a while, I couldn’t bear the heat. I was lucky to find some water flowing down. It was very fresh and I almost had a bath in there. One group was already resting there, like forever. It made me wonder whether this point was the end point for them. I moved on.

 

 

Now, people were scattered everywhere. In another 20 minutes, I was hungry. I was lucky to have no one around me. I ate an apple. It felt like bliss, it made me realize the value of food and thanked god for everything.

 

  I was back on track. It almost felt like I was in the oven. I was going to a trek after nearly 2 years and my work life had taken a toll on my body. I felt to have lost stamina. This was more of a “where I stand” trek as I had planned to conquer Kumara Parvata (Third tallest peak in Karnataka) the following week with my colleagues. I could no longer withstand the cramps and had to rest.

 

 

 I had a tough task. In no time, I stood up and started walking. A few villagers were sitting and enjoying the fun. One of them shouted, “Are you tired, maybe you should go back?” and it was followed by laughter riot from others. I just smiled and continued my ordeal.

In some time, I reached the peak but found a guy still walking further without realizing it was the end. Of course it’s a mad world we live in. He returned after few minutes. Anyway, mission accomplished.
 

It took another thirty minutes for others to come over. Well, I wasn’t bad as I was just the second person to climb up. This made me happy. So my stamina is still good. I heard people couldn’t bear the sun and rested often and a group of people had returned as they couldn’t bear the heat.

 

 

All of us had lunch together. Most of them went to the shades and rested for a while. There was an old ruined church, I went there and explored for a while. I couldn’t find anything worth mentioning, just the picture below.

 

As the rules were being violated by everyone, I didn’t have to tell anyone to get down. Four of them joined me. The downward trek was in the evening and the weather was normal. We just rested once, at a place where water was flowing. We had a water massage (Term given by one of the fellow trekkers) for our legs.
 

 

 The return journey was almost eventless till we found two different paths.

 I analyzed for a while, I could see shoe marks in the opposite direction. So, it had to be the way. It was just common sense. Soon, my entrepreneur friend joined us and told he was very sure that the other path was the right path. Some of them joined him and started walking that way. The foreign guy and the girl (Who had earlier helped me from him) followed me. We reached in twenty minutes and had hot snacks which were awaiting us.

Soon, people started gathering but still there was no sign of the guy. I was too tempted to crack jokes on him but had to control myself. After exactly two hours, his group came. Well, he never spoke to me after this incident. There was a camp fire and a few people played games and some of them were narrating their previous trek experiences.

 

 

 We camped in there, had dinner before sleeping and woke up early morning. We had the same breakfast as the previous day.

 

We were informed that we would be taken to a nearby falls, after we which we would be taken back to our city.

This was the first time I ever entered into waters at a water fall (Well, I don’t know swimming). I was told the depth was not more than 4 feet. I thoroughly enjoyed the time there.

 

 

 After which, we returned back as was told.

 

This was probably the only trek I felt hostile. I don’t blame others but probably the organizers could have handled things better. I was charged probably four times higher than the actual cost. This is when I decided not to go with a private club. It is the journey that matters and not the end result. Overall, it was a nice experience. Well, the only trek I didn’t talk much.

                                                                                                                                                                                                            

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Good World, Bad World

Its nearly been nineteen years since we migrated to a city from a hamlet near the border of two states. Life has never slowed down since then, everything is fast here. People can't wait for more than five minutes for their order to arrive at a restaurant. Sixth minute, a look of despair on their faces and on the seventh minute, they are not to be seen.

People can't walk for more than a few metres, they rely more on motors than themselves. This world is bound to perish when the motor that runs the world stops. I don't understand, why we are so much attached to this timeless world. Nothing stops here. The work comes first and then the  family. The priority is always to work and not rest. 

It makes me feel sad to confess that its been ages since all my family members had dinner together. And no neighbours communicate, which is even more weird.  Everyone is always running around as if the world is never gonna stop.

Is this the purpose of life?

People communicate more on phones than in person. We stay more indoor than outdoor and complain of sun, the moment we step out. Phone is more important than anything else and not to mention, used in toilets too! Younger generation play all outdoor games on their gadgets. Books and pencils are replaced with tablets and styli. Its a bad bad trend we are setting for our future generations.

I feel all alone amidst so many people. I have more virtual friends than real friends and I spend very little time with them. Rest of the time, just scrolling down the affairs of others.

Let me rewind my life and recollect how things were when I lived in that part of the world. I spent my initial few years there and then I never missed a chance to go there every year during my summer holidays.

I come from a big joint family consisting of grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins and relatives. The neighbours too are our extended relatives. All of us have our meals together and no one misses out. Grandmother always tells us bedtime stories and guards me from my mom whenever she hits me for my mischievous acts.

The day starts early morning and just after breakfast, all of us go out to the fields. While the elders work, kids play in the sun and pretend to be working like them. My home is surrounded by a garden on all four sides and I just love watering the plants. Plucking the weeds, making a good canal for water to flow through and making it reach all plants is a very satisfying job. We are engrossed in playing cricket in the evenings, followed by snacks and listening to prayers.

I just love the evening breeze there. The chirping of birds and the long walks with my grandfather is always fascinating. Listening to his stories and understanding the values in them, makes it even more interesting. We never slept inside the home, we always sleep outside gazing at the skies. My uncle shows us the constellations and tell us stories associated with them. The sense of togetherness is always there and each of the family member plays a pivotal role in shaping our lives.

Any festival or a family function is always celebrated together in a grandeur. The whole village feasts and the celebrations continue all day. People respect each other and care for the well being of one another. It always seems to me this as the ideal place to live. We have abundant time here and always the world seems to move slowly.

This is my small world and the world which makes me happy. People are bonded by love and affection and its a never ending relationship with nature. Atleast I wish to spend my last days here, if not my whole lifetime.

In the meanwhile, I am patiently waiting for my next summer vacation.

(Note: All the pictures are for representation purpose only and has nothing to do with my family)

Goal- The Story of My Life

What's your Aim?
What do you want to Become?
What's your Goal?

The most frequently asked questions in our school days.

Everyone had an answer for this. If you didn't have an answer then even God cannot save you. The aftermath goes like this- teachers, relatives and neighborhood aunties would lecture you for hours which would worry your parents. So in order to avoid all of this high end drama, better answer that you want to become an Engineer or Doctor. Rest assured no one will trouble you.

Any answer slightly deviating from the above two would again go back to "Even god cannot save you" phrase. One of my friend answered he wanted to become a teacher, it made the teacher happy but not his parents. Eventually he had to retract his goal. We live in a society wherein we are suppose to make others feel good at the expense of oneself.

Few exceptions from the above either become heroes or zeroes in their fields but not mediocre.

When I was a kid my dreams were wide and big. One day I wanted to become a Scientist, next day a Lawyer, then a Gardener, Pilot, Archaeologist, Cricketer, Tennis player and so on and on. Each of them relate to a phase of life. I was inspired by many greats in the respective fields or it just featured in one of the courses in school. But I had to keep these things close to my heart and not tell anyone.

(Artist- Naveen)

I spent my childhood dreaming about the future. These dreams knew no boundaries. Every day was a special day. As I grew up, these dreams started diminishing. Partly, the society to be blamed and mostly myself.

I never had a perfect road map after school, rather never had a road map at all. I just went with the flow and what others desired me to do. But at no point of time I stopped enjoying whatever I did. Although these things  had nothing to do with my initial goals. Over time, I redefined my goals. I was more practical and got more confidence in myself.

Although I sometimes wondered why I took a different career apart from the ones I had wished to. The possible conclusion I could arrive at was I always dreamed over then but never took a decisive path to achieve them. Now, I look at the hurdles or practical difficulties which come in my path to achieve the goal and work wisely towards it. Probably this was lacking initially.

And then came a phase wherein I really wanted to achieve something but couldn't. So I had to take a detour towards my goal. The goal is there to achieve. It might happen in a few weeks or months or years. Just don't give up. The purpose of life is to achieve what you want. It might even take a lifetime but the feel of achieving it gives more satisfaction than anything else in the world.

The desire to achieve might come anytime in life but to pursue it without giving up defines the life we lead. This is the story of my life and am working every moment towards it and there are many a times where I let down myself and succumbed. I remind myself that it doesn't end when you fall but its a new beginning when you pick yourself up.

Many people come to support us during this period but if it doesn't come within,

then "even God cannot save you".