A WEEKEND TRIP- FINAL PART(4)

A WEEKEND TRIP- FINAL PART(4)

I woke up with a start when I heard the 4 0 clock alarm ring in Sukumar’s phone, it was still dark.  I mumbled that even the rooster don’t get up so frigging early. Surprisingly most of them were up reasonably quickly. Christeen was the first one to get ready, surprisingly fast for a girl I must say. We got ready in another hour or so and were geared up for a quick trek to explore the nearby areas.  We got into our cars to go to the place we were to trek. It was a very bumpy ride; the car speared its way through the army of mud. The roads were very poorly constructed; even Kalmadi could have made better roads I felt. After about 30 minutes of experiencing what it was like to be in a blender we were relieved when the car came to a halt. We got down and started walking. The ground was a bit steep.  Aaseesh was walking right in front of me and I kid you not, I saw it with my own eyes this time, he fell. I don’t know how but he just fell.  But nothing happened though; he just got up and continued to walk to fall another day. There was a set of staircase built, how convenient I thought, to go up to the hill, where there was a view point. When we finally reached up there, we were blown away by the breath taking panorama the view point offered.  The pristine clouds that gingerly draped the vast expanse of the green mountain made my heart skip a beat and when I looked around to see the faces of my friends I found I wasn’t the only one. 

We explored the territory a little more and discovered some wild mushrooms, interesting looking spiders, worms and other arachnids.  We didn’t disturb them as was the GHAC policy-not to disturb any forest inhabitants and not to litter in the forest especially plastic, we were more than happy to abide by them of course.  The little kid Sivam was brimming with energy, we were sure that he could run around the Earth twice and come back and still have more energy left. He could put Mowgli to shame, so it’s not hard to imagine what his mom’s fitness secret is.

When we came back from the trek we immediately went to the breakfast table where breakfast awaited us in the casserole.  I was starving. Shubam opened the casserole and I was glad when I heard him say ‘Thank God it’s not upma again’. When I went up to serve myself whatever there was in the casserole, my hands paused mid-air  and had this incredulous look on my face when I was reaching for the serving spoon. I couldn’t believe my luck, can you imagine what was in it………. It was POHA!!!!  I had this suspicious feeling that these guys were somehow reading my mind and plotting against me or something.  Shubam told me to have it with a little sugar, but I loved those pickles as well, so I had half poha with sugar and half with pickle. I was eating it like a stubborn child eating broccoli forced in his mouth by his mother. The cook was kind enough to make a bread- omelet for me after that.  I could do with the extra bit of proteins and energy.The main attraction in Dandelli is the rafting and that happens only when the damns are open and the damns are open only when the government authorities ask it to be opened and they do that only when there is a power requirement (Simple equation right :p). But to our misfortune there was no power requirement that day (I thought power was required everyday) anyway we decided to make the most of what we could do and we decided to go for rappelling.

Now rappelling, for those who don’t know, to simply put it, is an activity where you go up a hill by yourself but come down using a rope. Sounds simple? Yeah I thought so too.  We were taken to the rappelling site in the car. We were to do a climb a hill of about 75-80 feet and rope ourselves down. We climbed   helping each other out on the way up. Our hands were all black after the climb because of the bauxite deposits on the rocks. Climbing the hill was an achievement in itself.  The view from up there was spectacular and scary at the same time. Suresh, who as usual decided to stay behind the lens and a few others who were down there looked like small stubs on the ground from where I was standing. The instructor was showing us how to go about it. He asked us to push our legs against the rock at a 45 degree angle and at the same time releasing the ropes to make our way down. The assistant showed a demo, he made it look so easy.  He gave us a word of caution to stay away from the ropes while some one was rappelling so that our legs don’t get tangled in there.  Everyone wanted their pictures taken while they were rappelling. So there I was standing right at the edge of the cliff with a digi-cam looking downwards and taking pictures. I just had to make sure that I didn’t make any sudden unnecessary movements and take care the gusts of winds don’t blow me off the edge. I had my share of fear of heights alright, but this trip was all about overcoming those fears. Man, that concoction of excitement, fear and adrenaline hitting you all at once is something else I tell you!!

Our organizer, Sukumar, who was experienced in rappelling, was standing there, guiding and giving us the moral boost.  Soon people started going one after the other. One of them lost balance and was on one side but Sukuamr said “I have seen this happen, nothing to worry” and it went like that for almost everyone, with Sukumar reassuring it was perfectly safe and he had seen it happen before.  And now came the turn of Aaseesh, he was among the guys who decided to go early on.  Now when Aaseesh decides to do something everyone instinctively takes their cameras out, zooms in, focus and are ready to click because rest assured something is going to happen. But now he was suspended with a rope and a safety rope, so there was no scope for him to fall . . . Or so I thought. But boy did he prove me wrong! He pulled a stunt that gave all of us a heart attack.  He was so focused and determined he would not fall this time around  that he did not move his legs at all, but even then  released the rope, as a result he was hanging upside down now holding the rope, very much like spider man, with his head facing downwards  and both the feet pointing up in the sky. If it was in water, since he knew how to swim no tension but now since he did not how to fly full tension, but Sukumar  reassuringly said “I have seen this happen, nothing to worry” and so I started taking pictures of him in this precarious position (This pic is uploaded in facebook :P). But he stayed calm, regained position after some time and completed his descent. Nobody was more relieved than us to see him on the ground (not that he was any safer there, but still :- P) When his feet safely  touched the ground ,  we gave him an applause so  thunderous  that we made him feel he was the first person to  land on the moon. I kinda admired that dude because everywhere we went he showed us the worst possible thing that can happen:-p.

[ I even made a PJ after him, it went something like

 *Knock Knock* Whose There?

Aaseesh!

Aaseesh who?

Aah! Sheesh! I fell] :-p

And so people started rappelling one after the other.  But when there were around 6 or 7 of us left it suddenly started raining, it was pouring down heavily and we decided not to rappel and started going down the hill. But the instructor told us it would be dangerous if we went down the hill as it would be slippery. The safest way being the ropes we decided to rappel. (Great! my first time rappelling and that too in rain, but I was up for the challenge). We waited for the rains to slow down and show mercy and when it did after sometime we continued our rappelling. As a result of this delay we had taken more time than we had anticipated. We planned to reach back at the farm house by 5 and head to the depot to catch the 7o clock bus back to Hyderabad.  It was already 4:30 so those who had finished left for the farm house to freshen up and be ready.  It was Satish’s turn now, he geared up and all but pulled out at the last moment as he said he couldn’t do it, he was too frightened of heights so he unbuckled and I geared up. I wanted to finish it off fast as we were getting late, and as a result I ended up doing something stupid which made even Sukumar say “Ok! I have never see THIS before” and trust me everyone’s hearts were in their mouth when I rappelled.  When  I was at the edge of the cliff and was about to push myself back from the point where the rock jutted out…..I slipped, but this was not the ‘Oh my God! Part’.

Ok before I tell you what happened after I slipped let me tell you what was going through my mind. First, I wanted to finish it off as quickly as I could as we were getting late. Secondly instead of holding the rope to regain my position I thought ‘Well! I have to go down anyway so instead of going toing- toing karke why not go straight down, it would save time na, so I went straaaight Down!!! :-p. Sukumar up there when he heard the hissing sound of the rope going down at a speed it wasn’t supposed to go, had a heart attack. The instructor tried to stop my descent, but couldn’t take my weight; Suresh had a tough time getting me into focus of his camera, but in spite of the speed fall he could capture a frame or two of my fall (even this is uploaded in facebook:p). I locked the rope and brought myself to a halt just a few feet above the ground. I ended up scraping my elbows, cuts weren’t that deep though. No one was happy with this stunt I pulled especially the instructor as he ended up with a bruised hand because of me. Well if not anyone, I’m sure if Rajnikanth was my father, he would have been proud of me right now: p. Ok jokes apart rappelling is a serious sport, and should be done carefully under proper supervision.

When I came down I told Satish I was ok and nothing had happened to me, told him it was easy and there was absolutely nothing to worry about, I did not want to dissolve his already fragile confidence. I walked up to Suresh where he was patiently taking pictures.  Then Cristeen followed, she did it without much difficulty and finally after receiving a lot of pep talk Satish agreed to come down the rope. He looked like Sylvester Stallone in Cliff Hanger with those huge biceps. What few of us were left, cheered him on and when he made it safely down all of us were glad he got over his acrophobia. We knew it was a big thing for him. After the rappelling we looked like mine workers coming after a shift, covered with mud and dirt all over. We quickly headed for the car to take us back to the farm house. I sat at the back gingerly placing my bruised elbows on the seat and talking to Cristeen and Sukumar about the whole free-fall episodes, I so wanted to do this one more time when I got back to Hyderabad. Then all of a sudden out of nowhere there was this torrential rain beating down on the glass of the car threatening to break it open. But what worried me was when I looked at the driver’s windshield, the rain was pouring down so heavily that I couldn’t see a squat. I just hoped for all our sakes that the driver was able to see. Even though he might know the roads like the back of his hand the streets were filled with more cattle than motor vehicles, so I had every reason to be worried. But he took us safely to the farm house in one piece, which was good enough for me. I had a quick clean up shower, packed my bags and came down for lunch. Word gets around like fire, when I reached the table all people were talking about was my ‘free-fall’. I guess Aaseesh was not the only one who could show the worst thing that can happen, ahh well he needed a break once in a while too ,lol.

We all finished up our packing, did a last minute check to make sure we didn’t forget anything-Clothes, phone chargers, cameras, valuables, memories. Yep we had it all. We had to hurry now as we were running a bit late, the normal laid back drivers suddenly transformed into Schumachers and Lewis Hamiltons and raced us to our bus depot. We cheered them by singing old Govinda songs to the driver on our way back. Had a super blast even in the car, lotta fun man!  Even with the good driving we were late by a good 45 minutes, but the bus guy kind of new the GHAC guys plus he couldn’t leave without 19 of us, so he was waiting. Once we reached the depot, we quickly hurled our luggage into the luggage compartment of the Volvo, thanked the driver for waiting and gave him a nice warm GHAC smile and quickly took our seats. I sat there in my seat, my heart still beating briskly, trying to soak in the moments of that day; must say it was one eventful day for me.  It’s been ages since I had this much fun, met some nice people, wanted to capture every moment of this trip and hence was conceived the idea of writing it down and  I promised myself that as soon as I get back to Hyderabad I’ll write about it no matter how indolent I felt.

On our way back in the bus even though we were all drained we did not sleep early, we sat there checking out all the pictures taken by everyone, and having a laugh of hilarious moments we had because we knew some of these memories would be etched in our minds for a long time to come J After a lot of talking and laughing, more of a courtesy to the other people on the bus, we went to our respective seats, sitting in silent contemplation. I could sense that everyone was thinking about their special moments of the trips, as I could see smiles pasted on many of the faces. As for me, I enjoyed every passing moment of it. I don’t know when I fell asleep but when I woke up it was morning with the sun shining in my eyes welcoming me back to Hyderabad. Ever had those mornings when you woke up with a smile on your face because you had a bunch of happy memories but you look around only to realize that it was just a dream, well this morning was something similar to that, just that it wasn’t a dream. This trip was fruitful as whatever we wanted to achieve, be it overcoming our fear of heights, fear of waters, taking some interesting pictures, learning new things, just getting a new experience or just making new friends I think all of us found something or the other we were looking for from this trip.

I got down at MGBS, bid adieu to everyone and took a bus back home from there. I knew where this bus was taking me had no river streams, no tall trees, no place where you could feel as one with nature. It was with a heavy heart that I resigned to the fact that I was back to the heavy traffic, pollution, deadlines and rat race, back to the concrete walls of our home where you seldom find beautiful stars to gaze at night. I felt like I had left behind a very dear friend of mine L

I’m glad I wrote this, as it gave me a chance to recollect and relive those moments. I don’t know if my next trip is going to be as memorable as this one, but I won’t know it if I don’t try, can’t wait for my next one. J

As for you I thank you for taking your invaluable time to read my humble writing. Don’t be so busy working all the time that you forget to live your life. Even a winning race car needs a pit-stop to refuel without which it’s of no use having even the most powerful of engines.

So don’t forget to refuel yourself every once in a while J

Cheers,

Kandathil Easaw Alexander.

A WEEKEND TRIP- PART3

A WEEKEND TRIP- PART3

There were several interesting people in our group but let me introduce you to this one very interesting guy named Aaseesh. I don’t know what’s with him and gravity but the latter (gravity) seems to have a peculiar propensity towards him as he keeps falling all the time, no matter where he goes.  There was a Mom and kid too in the group. Namisha was worried about her hyperactive 12 yr old son, Sivam. But then we took care of him like our little brotherJ. You’ll get to know the others as you read along. Anyway there we were making our way into the forest; we had to be a little careful with the footing as it was a bit slushy and slippery.   We were taking pictures of almost everything-See a flower *Click*, see a huge tree *Click*, see a spider *Click*, see a bird *Click*. Nature must have felt like a celebrity being dogged by paparazzi.

After a cautious walk of about 10 minutes or so we came to a level ground with a small clearing with a few small houses here and there. I saw kids in school uniform there jumping and frolicking around .It was good to see that these kids went to school. When they saw us they were like little bubbles effervescing and when they saw me they wanted to have their picture taken with the 'Bade Unkul' :-p, I was more than happy to oblige. After a few pictures with the kids we moved on, continuing our journey into the wilderness through the slushy path. Soon we could hear the sound of the steady flow of the river. After a long walk, finding a river in the wild, I came to know, was like finding light at the end of the tunnel.  I pictured a beautiful, crystal-clear river with lots of fishes in them (Thanks to watching all those Travel n Living episodes, now TLC:-D), but boy, was I in for a rude shock.  The river appeared to be an outlet from a chocolate factory; it was absolutely muddy!!  We lined ourselves near the edge of the river, looking at each other. We were hesitant because God knew what was in there. The little guy Sivam was in his swim shorts in 5 seconds flat but the firm hand of his mother prevented him from going in; he was like a wild horse waiting to be freed.

But the silence and hesitations were soon broken when one of them said “I didn’t come all this way to be stopped by some muddy river from having some fun” and off he went trudging into the river.

We exchanged silent glances which said “What the heck!”  And then all hell broke loose, almost all followed suit, splashing into the river like there were some hidden treasure inside.  This guy called Satish, took some time to get into the water as he was hydrophobic, but after a lot of egging he mustered enough strength to get into the water.

All but two of them didn’t come into the water-Reshmi as she was afraid that she would get skin allergy and Suresh our dedicated and passionate photographer. We tried to persuade him into getting in but he preferred to stay behind the lens and take some good pictures of us (We didn’t mind that awfully too much actually, he he).  Those who knew how to swim crossed the river and the remaining guys formed a human chain and crossed it. And Aaseesh while crossing the river slipped and fell, but he knew how to swim, so no tensionJ. By the time I reached the other side my tracks were completely drenched and heavy as it had absorbed water. We sat on an old fallen tree on the other side and were just dangling our feet in the water, which wasn’t as bad as it had first seemed.  Some of the girls saw the mud as some sort of a beauty product and started applying them on their legs. (Even in the wilderness all they can think about is makeup, Sheesh! ) I tried it on too thinking a little more dirt wouldn’t make much of a difference (plus it was free) and must say, it felt nice and cool with the mud on: P. Suresh meanwhile was having fun finding us in this state and was clicking our ‘dirty’ pictures . After the mud bath we headed back towards the farm house where lunch awaited us. It was a simple homely lunch consisting of white rice, daal, cabbage, pappad and the savior pickle.

 After lunch we just sat  there talking, cracking all kinds of jokes one can imagine and there was no mobile signal there so no one was disturbed by any sudden  and ’important’ calls . We put Satish in the spot light. Apparently that dude has been religiously working out every day in the gym for ten long years, and the result was there for everyone to see.  His biceps were 10 times bigger than mine; soon everyone was comparing their biceps with this guy. When girls put their arms beside him it was like comparing a 200ml coke bottle to a 1000 liter syntex tank.  We jokingly called him Johnny Bravo aka muscle man. We all had a good laugh, for once no one was racing against time, in fact we were mocking time to go on its merry way and we didn’t have a care in the world.  All of us were just having a pleasant time, when we suddenly heard a shriek.  We rushed to see what it was. It was one of the girls, Harini staring down at Shubam’s bloody feet. He was bleeding from the web of his toes (It was hardly a few drops of blood, girls I tell you!!) On closer observation we found a baby leech lodged there. It must have got there from the river.  We carefully removed it with a stick and put it in the floor, for all to see as if it was some exhibition piece.  Soon we noticed the leech puking out blood. We then started teasing Shubam that his blood was so polluted that even the leeches don’t drink it :p.

After lunch and a little bit of relaxation we geared up to go for kayaking (It’s a small one-seater boat where u have to row with a peddle). I was a bit excited as it was my first time.  We reached there in about 30 minutes in a couple of cars.  The name of the river was ‘Kali’, I gulped, not a very encouraging name for a first-timer like me, I thought.  Going by the name I thought it would be a river with strong and violent currents, but to my relief the river was very much placid with normal currents. The river cut across the forest.  We reached the spot where we were supposed to get on the kayaks.  The brave ones volunteered first. Aaseesh was the one among the first who went.  He confidently sat on the kayak after securing his life jacket and off he went and not to our surprise within seconds he toppled his kayak over and was neck deep in water, but luckily he knew how to swim,so no tension J  I now learnt that  this thing should be done with poise, if you shift  your weight  a bit to either side then you’ll inevitably find yourself in the water.  This little stunt by Aaseesh did little to improve my confidence, but I was adamant that I would try it no matter what.

After most of them were done, I mustered enough confidence and decided to go for it. I precariously got onto the kayak after putting on the life jacket; I prayed I wouldn’t have to use it. My legs were too long for the kayak, but somehow I adjusted.  The guy just have me a little push and I was off. I was now on my own with nothing but my paddle, life jacket and the little common sense I had. I was so focused on maintaining my equilibrium initially that I dint notice I was peddling wrong, I was going in a zig-zag pattern, but it dint take long to get the hang of it. You had to row at 90 to the kayak to get it to go straight, but if you rowed in a wide arc then you would be directing the kayak to change direction. It was fun once you got the hang of it J. I rowed and rowed focusing on not to fall, soon the kayak bay was completely out of sight. I was so engrossed on maintaining my balance and making sure of my rowing technique that I almost missed the breathtaking scenic beauty that lay around me .I stopped rowing to take in the surroundings, I was surrounded by water on all sides. But the river felt like a royal carpet laid down with the forest on either side welcoming you. I dint feel like a King, far from it, I felt humbled and privileged just to be there. The tranquility that one gets to experience there is something else; I wished everyone could experience this, at least once in their life time. I didn’t want to go back to the deadlines, rush hour traffic, materialistic, egoistic society that we live in, I just wanted to stay here and not go back.  After spending considerable time of bliss in nature’s lap I reluctantly started rowing back to the bay; the return was a bit easier as you were going with the current but still fun never the less. Should give it to the guys, they were there waiting, they were clicking pictures and cheering as if you were a hero returning from war. We encouraged and appreciated each and everyone. But unfortunately our friend Satish (Johny Bravo) didn’t try out as he was dead scared of water.

Then we started off for the river Jacuzzi. I didn’t exactly know what it was but I was soon going to find out.  The guys who had finished kayaking earlier were already there. When I reached the Jacuzzi spot I saw the guys sitting there in front of the mini waterfall like thing. I was all excited, and quickly took of my shirt and went in. You had to be a touch careful as the rocks were a bit slippery. It was nothing but the place where the river changed the levels because of the step like formation of the rocks. I went in and sat there. So this was what river Jacuzzi felt like I thought……and it felt NICE!!!  The cool river moving past your body was like a nice water massage to all parts of your body (and I mean ALL- it went where no man has gone before, even women for that matter, lol :-p ). It blanketed our entire body when we lay there looking at the evening sun set. It felt like paradise on Earth. Usually there is a time slot for this, but since there was no one else there, it was all ours!  Even the hydrophobic Satish came in after a lot of persuasion and he felt at ease with everyone around. Someone told me one of us fell and I had missed that when I was kayaking. When I asked him who had fallen he gave me a stare as if I had asked the most retarded question ever. His look told me  that it was none other than our little gravity loving buddy Aaseesh, but he knew how to swim, so no tensionJ. By the time we came out of the so called Jacuzzi we were drenched to our sinew and our hair was surprisingly soft, thanks to the mineral rich river water I guess.  We returned to the farm house exhausted but exhilarated.

Once back we had a nice refreshing bath and got ready for dinner. Dinner was again with roti, rice, potatoes and there was chicken as well this time. Post the palatable dinner there was a bon fire and we all sat around it. We decided to share some interesting/embarrassing/frightening experiences of our lives. We came to know each other a little better after this. We came to know how Satish developed his hydrophobia, he and his friends had gone for an outing when he had slipped and almost drowned.  Reshmi shared her experience of her horrifying accident where her jaws were fractured and both her jaws had to be stitched together (My stomach churned when I heard this line). She couldn’t talk for months and she could drink only fluids. The doctors gave the most excruciating news to her parents saying that she would die if she sneezed anytime those few months. But due to God’s grace she was among us today having fun like any of usJ.  After this story there was a stark silence, the crackling of the wood in the fire was the only thing that could be heard at that moment. I wanted to change the mood and lift up the gloom, so I said something on the lighter side and shared an embarrassing incident of mine when I was in engineering after which we all had a good laugh about it. Of course I’m not going to write it here :-p.  Soon after that many others started sharing their memories with us one by one.  But the most hilarious of them was by this guy called Rajesh. He shared his stories of when he was in hostel, about his roommate. They were absolutely hilarious and had us all in splits when he was narrating the funny incidents. (This is not the appropriate forum for me to share them.  But if you do want to hear them or even my embarrassing moments may be, you can always give me a call or over a coffee may be J )

We had to wake up at 4:00 clock in the morning so many of them retired to bed. Our organizer thought it would be a good idea to sleep right there in the open air, and I had to agree, it looked very enticing, the only question was whether we would be able to withstand the freezing cold late in the night, but we decided to brave the cold. We wore our warm clothes and slept outside, around the fire and on the mat. Soon many others decide to join in and almost half of us were there with our sleeping gear settled cozily around the fire.  Unfortunately for Cristeen, the curly-haired girl who I l almost ran into, she ended up between me and Rajesh. We were firing Pjs after Pjs and jokes after jokes at each other. She must have felt like digging a big hole right there and going inside it.  The clouds soon cleared up and when they did, almost in unison all our rambling stopped. The beauty that lay sprawled in the vast expanses of the November night sky captured all our senses.  I have seen a sky in the night with stars, but nothing came remotely close to this one. The number of stars that I could see studded in the dark velvet sky was unimaginably huuuge!! I mean we were playing a game of finding out alphabets, several geometrical shapes in the sky, and we would find it with some difficulty.  I could see almost all the constellations. As if seeing this plethora of stars  wasn’t a gift  in itself,  I saw something that night which I thought happens only in Karan Johar movies and  I never got to see it  in my entire mundane life- A shooting star…and not just one but FOUR!!!:-)  This was a cherry on the cake for me and it outright made my day, a day which I was not about to forget anytime soon.

The fire that was once burning nice and bright like us, was now going to sleep along with us. Staring at this celestial wonder in amazement we slowly drifted off to sleep with a completely de-stressed mind and a smile on our face. And the day finally ended with the hope of a better tomorrow…..To be Continued.

PS: If u have read all the way through and reached here, then congrats, you now know you have this rare trait known as patience J