Isn’t it? I definitely think so. So this week has been the week for varieties.
I have been to many a Rangapravesha or Arangantram of Bharathanatyam (BN) dancers – my friends, cousins, father-in-law’s student even (who did it when she was studying MBBS – amazing drive). So when I was invited for a Mohiniattam(MA) rangapravesha – I thought – why not? Haven’t been to one – might as well enjoy. It was my nephew’s senior – a sweet beautiful girl Manjusha. Though my knowledge of the traditional dances is quite poor, i tend to enjoy any form of dance – from Russian ballet to bollywood freestyle to flamenco. Both BN and MA being south Indian dances - the stark difference between them struck me with awe and amuse. MA is a very soft, slow, smooth rendering of the movements mainly with a lot of focus on waist turning and eye brows. Very peaceful and enjoyable. No change of dress with only a small break inbetween. And to top it only 5 performances. Worked fantastic in terms of timing. But you know what, being from Bangalore, I think I am a little bit partial towards BN – let me admit that first. BN I feel, is more vibrant, energetic and a lot to do with eyes, hands and most important legs. One step and that should be heard by even the last guest in the auditorium – amazing power and long story like performances. While as in the MN I could hardly hear the sound of the gajje. But anyway – it was an enchanting evening with lovely performances and simple but elegant speeches. My best wishes to Manjusha.
I had the honor of attending Aditya Nadig’s (one of the finalist in star singer 2 – kannada) very first music direction for a drama. He happens to be hubby’s cousin. So all of us were there in full strength to encourage the young man. I used the word honor because it was such a beautiful drama – Mojina Seemeache Ondooru. Honestly, I had to ask someone for the translation when I first heard it . Roughly translated, it means a place outside the big bad city. It was about 2 robbers who run away from a chasing mob and end up at a place where the people would not have heard of money, robbers etc – in other words, all bad things of today’s world. People there are simple, hardworking and help each other purely based on barter system. Seeing their life, the robbers get transformed. It moved the audience to tears. Simple story, great direction, fantastic music score and excellent performances by everyone in the cast. Thoroughly enjoyable drama which won the 4th place in the state level completion. Great going Aditya – my best wishes.
I had my first disaster in the kitchen yesterday – first and hopefully the last. Till date, all my experiments have been a success with hubby surviving and some of the time, even praising my attempts. Yesterday I felt pretty adventurous and wanted to experiment something new. I had got fresh Banana flowers from the farm. So I dived directly into youtube – saw couple of videos, read the recipes and started off with great flourish. I did exactly like the way they showed it. And I had a great smelling dish at the end of the hour. It looked like the way it did on the videos too. Oh ya, it is a lot of work to prepare the banana flower itself. And I am again emphasizing that I did EXACTLY what they showed. But when I tasted it, oh god, my insides churned. It was bitter beyond anything I had tasted in my life. My policy till now was – looks great, smells great, then has to taste great. Gosh – policy went down the drain. It was looking great, smelling heavenly, but tasting yuck. Had to dump it and make a quickie dinner – which was quite boring :(. Best wishes to me for my next experiment
After a very long time, dad performed a magic show. He picked this up as a hobby 5-6 years back. And does a great job of it I must say. Has a lot of passion for whatever he does – and I appreciate that mainly because of his age. So since, I am sitting at home – without much to do – he asked me to help him. It was at our locality hall and the event was uniforms and bags distribution for the government school children sponsored by a locality resident to be distributed by the corporator. The magic show was an entertainment program for the children. Seeing those small children there (primary & middle) – some of them with dirty uniforms, most of them without slippers but all of them with happy smiles – really jolted me thoroughly. The gap between the ‘Have’s’ and the ‘Have Not’s’ is increasing by the day – and it was so damn evident today when I looked at those poor children. The teachers told me that they had to convince, cajole and sometimes even beg the parents to send their children to school. Sad state of affairs. Personally feel RTE is a great act if implemented properly and the clauses causing concerns are ironed out. They totally freaked out – neat uniforms, great colorful looking bags, chocolates and the magic show – made their day. Seeing their innocent faces, beautiful smiles – made my day :). Best wishes to all the kids and hope they continue their studies.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Beach, Sand and Lots of Tan
It all started in 2004, when our colleague invited us to his marriage at Gurvayoor – little did he expect us to jump at the opportunity with all fervor. That was the first time that we had the ‘Ladies only’ outing – Thankam, Sumitra, Sudha and myself. Kids had come along ofcourse. But with Nishant (Sumitra’s son) a minor, and the only ‘man’ in our group – it was to be discounted. We had such a great time at the trip that we decided to make it an annual ritual. Just us, no hubbies please. So after Gurvayoor, every year we have made it to some place, sometimes just us, sometimes with kids – Mysore, Kodai, Ernakulam (which unfortunately I missed, since I had to choose between anniversary celebration with hubby (at Wayanad, Vythri resorts) and friends), Bandipur, Jaladhama. Since we had pretty much covered all terrain – amusement parks, hill station, wild life, back waters, hills – this time we decided to go to a beach. So Turtle Bay Resort, at Kundapur was to have the honor of hosting us for the weekend.
We met at KBS on Friday night – was meeting Nishant after couple of years – and truly I got such a shock. He was now really and officially the ‘man’ of the group. He towered above all of us, with demeanor full of responsibility – 4 ladies you see. Thankam unfortunately could not join us this time – missed you Thankam.
We reached the resort on Saturday morning – got a good discount, thanks to all the frilly, frolly, flirty things . Freshened up and got headlong into a debate of Murdeshwar vs Kollur vs Udupi – since I had been to all 3 places, sat back and let them decide. So finally it was Murdeshwar AND Kollur AND Udupi. Gods – literally – didn’t know if I could make it – with all the travel in the night as well. But after we went to Murdeshwar and Kollur, all of us were equally tired, and dropped the idea of Udupi and came back to the resort.
Evening was trying to compete with the gen y folks – Suvidha (sudha’s daughter) and Nishant – as if it would be possible – ha ha – on the beach (without getting wet beyond our knees). We had running race – I managed to come second – can you believe, and running race again – when I fell flat on my face – yukkkk, with all the sand in my mouth, Lock & Key, Frisbee, Throwball etc. Oh ya, the next day I could feel all the different parts of my body separately with precision. But that definitely did not stop us from going to the beach to getting into the sea completely. Sudha, on her morning walk, had discovered this small river tributary, which was joining the sea – just off our resort. It was even secluded with a huge rock. So off we went after breakfast – and were there playing with the waves, for 5 hours!!! The water temperature difference between the river water and the sea was just amazing. And the rough sea caught us unawares most of the time, throwing us all over the place. Sumitra’s attempt at meditation was mocked at by the sea, when she was hurtled by the waves. Since the weather was totally cloudy and slight drizzle now and then, none of us bothered with sun screen lotion. You see there is a reason behind why they call it sun screen lotion right – our logic was no sun, no screen. Oh man, how wrong we were, the sea did unimaginable damage that we could even shoot a mini ‘Black or White’ video of us!!!! And I had just got out of my scuba diving tan!!!!
A late lunch, some lame games, and we were ready to head back. The only good part was – ‘No office’ though we were coming back on Monday morning. Mmmmmmm – I am just loving it – my break, quasi retirement – whatever you wanna call!!!
Note: Photos uploaded on facebook.
We met at KBS on Friday night – was meeting Nishant after couple of years – and truly I got such a shock. He was now really and officially the ‘man’ of the group. He towered above all of us, with demeanor full of responsibility – 4 ladies you see. Thankam unfortunately could not join us this time – missed you Thankam.
We reached the resort on Saturday morning – got a good discount, thanks to all the frilly, frolly, flirty things . Freshened up and got headlong into a debate of Murdeshwar vs Kollur vs Udupi – since I had been to all 3 places, sat back and let them decide. So finally it was Murdeshwar AND Kollur AND Udupi. Gods – literally – didn’t know if I could make it – with all the travel in the night as well. But after we went to Murdeshwar and Kollur, all of us were equally tired, and dropped the idea of Udupi and came back to the resort.
Evening was trying to compete with the gen y folks – Suvidha (sudha’s daughter) and Nishant – as if it would be possible – ha ha – on the beach (without getting wet beyond our knees). We had running race – I managed to come second – can you believe, and running race again – when I fell flat on my face – yukkkk, with all the sand in my mouth, Lock & Key, Frisbee, Throwball etc. Oh ya, the next day I could feel all the different parts of my body separately with precision. But that definitely did not stop us from going to the beach to getting into the sea completely. Sudha, on her morning walk, had discovered this small river tributary, which was joining the sea – just off our resort. It was even secluded with a huge rock. So off we went after breakfast – and were there playing with the waves, for 5 hours!!! The water temperature difference between the river water and the sea was just amazing. And the rough sea caught us unawares most of the time, throwing us all over the place. Sumitra’s attempt at meditation was mocked at by the sea, when she was hurtled by the waves. Since the weather was totally cloudy and slight drizzle now and then, none of us bothered with sun screen lotion. You see there is a reason behind why they call it sun screen lotion right – our logic was no sun, no screen. Oh man, how wrong we were, the sea did unimaginable damage that we could even shoot a mini ‘Black or White’ video of us!!!! And I had just got out of my scuba diving tan!!!!
A late lunch, some lame games, and we were ready to head back. The only good part was – ‘No office’ though we were coming back on Monday morning. Mmmmmmm – I am just loving it – my break, quasi retirement – whatever you wanna call!!!
Note: Photos uploaded on facebook.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Romancing the Fishes - Scuba Diving
Finally my dream came true last weekend – wish fulfilled, done, happy in life… Went scuba diving in Arabian sea off the coast of Netrani island. What a wonderful, fantastic and colorful experience it was. Ofcourse it had a lot of hitches too – I guess that’s what made the trip so realistic and memorable.
We went through BMC (Bangalore Mountaineering Club – www.bmcindia.org) – had heard a lot about them – so thought why not two birds in one shot when they announced the scuba diving weekend. First disappointment was when they did not come to the pick up point on time – we were there on dot by 8 – and that was after quite a few back and forth words (pls read heated tempers and arguments) with hubby and sis – who were taking an eternity (according to me) to get ready and not even helping in the packing, and closing up the kitchen, but they kept reminding me time and again that they were coming only for my sake. We even finished our dinner infront of Lifestyle (oh yes, sitting on the katte on a Friday evening ) and finally we saw that our tour vehicle was actually a cramped tempo traveler – which was a shocker considering that it was an overnight drive.
After couple of long breaks, we reached Murdeshwar around 7 in the morning, freshened up, breakfast – and it was time for the practice sessions in the stimulated environs of the swimming pool. Gosh all of us were quite excited. BMC has a tie up with Dreamzdiving (www.dreamzdiving.com) - the instructor – Mr. Gobor from Hungary patiently gave us the theory and then it was time for the practicals. It was totally cool to put on the gear – fins, face mask, jacket, weight belt, air cylinder, breathing apparatus – the works – wow – all of us looked kewl – really. And one by one, we got into the deep end of the pool and got the feel of the stuff. How to avoid glasses getting foggy, what to do if water enters mask, not to panic if breathing apparatus slips – etc etc. was practiced time and again – till all of us felt confident. The rest of the day was just spent lazing around murdeshwar – temple, beach, ice cream, water scooter, sunset and a walk on the sands. Our horribly tanned (despite layers of sunscreen lotion – you know I think they are just ‘talk talk talk’) bodies was creaking by end of the day - Dead tired – we just crashed.
Left early morning the next day after a little heavy breakfast (I guess that was my first mistake – knowing fully well that there was a 2 hour boat ride to the island – and I get horribly seasick). By the end of 1 hour, I was queasy, another 20 minutes and I was clutching my tummy (inspite of taking motion sickness tablet) and another 10 – reached the peak and fed the fishes!!!!!. When we reached the island – another shocker – we were marooned on the waters – there was no way we could get on the land – it was just rocks – that’s when I realized that I had to spend the entire day either in the water or in the boat getting seasick!! Water obviously was a better choice and I just jumped in – did some swimming and snorkeling – shoals of fish and I was just waiting for my chance to get into the deep waters. 4 instructors – and 1 person for each. So we could just go in batches of 4. I went in third batch – put on the gear, little tensed, dived in – yes, its always a back dive – because of the weight of the cylinder. Oh my god – what an out of the world experience. The instructor took me deeper and deeper. Till that point I was like – if you cant reach the floor, any depth of water is the same. But I was sadly mistaken. As we went deeper, ears started hissing in pain because of the pressure. I realized by trial and error that my limit was 10.5 mtrs. Just before I got in the instructor said ‘Enjoy the show’ and what a show it was – all shapes and sizes of fishes – and all colors too. Any combination with yellow – including ‘mera wala yellow’ and any combination with blue – amazing colors – pastel, bright, dark, deep, fascinating – big fish, small, smoky ones, sea anemones, jelly fish everything – and we were going right in the middle of them. Such gentle creatures - and they are as inquisitive about us, as we are about them. They were swirling around us – hazy, lovely, divine, blindingly colorful…. Totally regret that i did not have an underwater camera :( Though it was extremely tempting – I stuck to the instructions – no touching. We saw some nice corals as well. 40 minutes of pure bliss – I just wanted to float behind those fish – but unfortunately my instructor as well as my ears did not agree. However, there was a baby fish – light blue and dark blue stripes – which kept following us everywhere. An escape to freedom, an escape from reality, an escape into the arms of the nature – that is what it was.
Highly recommended for water babes and nature lovers. Will provide more information if required. Getting back to Bangalore was another experience – best saved for a separate blog – we actually had dinner at a shady bar and restaurant – since everything was closed – it being a Sunday!!!! Though my ambition of getting PADI certified – went down the drain – because of my stomach and ears, I am still a little optimistic – so lets c. Will keep you folks posted. Despite everything - totally worth the money, time and effort. The experience will be cherished for a lifetime. Though I hope and wish that this is just the beginning of more such scuba diving expeditions.
We went through BMC (Bangalore Mountaineering Club – www.bmcindia.org) – had heard a lot about them – so thought why not two birds in one shot when they announced the scuba diving weekend. First disappointment was when they did not come to the pick up point on time – we were there on dot by 8 – and that was after quite a few back and forth words (pls read heated tempers and arguments) with hubby and sis – who were taking an eternity (according to me) to get ready and not even helping in the packing, and closing up the kitchen, but they kept reminding me time and again that they were coming only for my sake. We even finished our dinner infront of Lifestyle (oh yes, sitting on the katte on a Friday evening ) and finally we saw that our tour vehicle was actually a cramped tempo traveler – which was a shocker considering that it was an overnight drive.
After couple of long breaks, we reached Murdeshwar around 7 in the morning, freshened up, breakfast – and it was time for the practice sessions in the stimulated environs of the swimming pool. Gosh all of us were quite excited. BMC has a tie up with Dreamzdiving (www.dreamzdiving.com) - the instructor – Mr. Gobor from Hungary patiently gave us the theory and then it was time for the practicals. It was totally cool to put on the gear – fins, face mask, jacket, weight belt, air cylinder, breathing apparatus – the works – wow – all of us looked kewl – really. And one by one, we got into the deep end of the pool and got the feel of the stuff. How to avoid glasses getting foggy, what to do if water enters mask, not to panic if breathing apparatus slips – etc etc. was practiced time and again – till all of us felt confident. The rest of the day was just spent lazing around murdeshwar – temple, beach, ice cream, water scooter, sunset and a walk on the sands. Our horribly tanned (despite layers of sunscreen lotion – you know I think they are just ‘talk talk talk’) bodies was creaking by end of the day - Dead tired – we just crashed.
Left early morning the next day after a little heavy breakfast (I guess that was my first mistake – knowing fully well that there was a 2 hour boat ride to the island – and I get horribly seasick). By the end of 1 hour, I was queasy, another 20 minutes and I was clutching my tummy (inspite of taking motion sickness tablet) and another 10 – reached the peak and fed the fishes!!!!!. When we reached the island – another shocker – we were marooned on the waters – there was no way we could get on the land – it was just rocks – that’s when I realized that I had to spend the entire day either in the water or in the boat getting seasick!! Water obviously was a better choice and I just jumped in – did some swimming and snorkeling – shoals of fish and I was just waiting for my chance to get into the deep waters. 4 instructors – and 1 person for each. So we could just go in batches of 4. I went in third batch – put on the gear, little tensed, dived in – yes, its always a back dive – because of the weight of the cylinder. Oh my god – what an out of the world experience. The instructor took me deeper and deeper. Till that point I was like – if you cant reach the floor, any depth of water is the same. But I was sadly mistaken. As we went deeper, ears started hissing in pain because of the pressure. I realized by trial and error that my limit was 10.5 mtrs. Just before I got in the instructor said ‘Enjoy the show’ and what a show it was – all shapes and sizes of fishes – and all colors too. Any combination with yellow – including ‘mera wala yellow’ and any combination with blue – amazing colors – pastel, bright, dark, deep, fascinating – big fish, small, smoky ones, sea anemones, jelly fish everything – and we were going right in the middle of them. Such gentle creatures - and they are as inquisitive about us, as we are about them. They were swirling around us – hazy, lovely, divine, blindingly colorful…. Totally regret that i did not have an underwater camera :( Though it was extremely tempting – I stuck to the instructions – no touching. We saw some nice corals as well. 40 minutes of pure bliss – I just wanted to float behind those fish – but unfortunately my instructor as well as my ears did not agree. However, there was a baby fish – light blue and dark blue stripes – which kept following us everywhere. An escape to freedom, an escape from reality, an escape into the arms of the nature – that is what it was.
Highly recommended for water babes and nature lovers. Will provide more information if required. Getting back to Bangalore was another experience – best saved for a separate blog – we actually had dinner at a shady bar and restaurant – since everything was closed – it being a Sunday!!!! Though my ambition of getting PADI certified – went down the drain – because of my stomach and ears, I am still a little optimistic – so lets c. Will keep you folks posted. Despite everything - totally worth the money, time and effort. The experience will be cherished for a lifetime. Though I hope and wish that this is just the beginning of more such scuba diving expeditions.
Monday, April 19, 2010
What a Thrilling Experience…
The moment my nephew told that he had bought the tickets for the RCB vs MI match at Blore – I was totally excited with the prospect of seeing the IPL match live in the stadium. Since we had bought the tickets online, we had to get the actual tickets at the venue. The million dollar question was the logistics – cos we knew that parking would be a nightmare. Since I am no longer in Wipro, we could not bank on the Wipro parking on mgrd either. After dilly dallying quite a bit, we thought we would just risk it and went in the car itself – luckily for us, we found a slot on rest house road. Btw, only people who have done extremely good karma in their previous birth have got houses on that road!!!
The crowd had already started to gather. We decided to split due cut short our waiting time. Me and nephew at the entrance queue – gate 11 while sis and hubby went to collect the tickets. All of us went through the gate without much hassle. As expected, the police were frisking all bags etc and edibles were not allowed. We could see red red red everywhere – tshirts, caps, flags, bandanas, face painting….. Slowly the players started coming out - and the screaming of the names just went on and on, till the player was forced to look at us and wave. Hats off (literally) to Utappa, who did the customary hat bow to the crowd as soon as he came to the ground. And for me it was just pure ecstasy as I saw the most handsome hunks on the ground Simon Toufel and KP as well as the local heroes Anil Kumble, Manish Pandey, Utappa, Vinay Kumar and Dravid. There was a unified scream of pure adulation when Sachin made his entry for the net practice. Just as we settled down we heard a loud blast – which we conveniently dismissed as someone doing a dry run for cracker bursting later on – how naïve!!! But the players just vanished inside within minutes and that’s when the smss started pouring in – generator burst, bomb hoax, bomb blast / blasts– variations. Siddarth Mallaya (my god, he is so fair) and senior Mallaya too did the rounds when things started getting a little chaotic. But all of us stayed put – despite the large screen proclaiming that the match was delayed. It was just as well, that they did not make an official announcement – avoided a certain stampede and loss of lives. Imagine a crowd of 30K trying to get out of the damn stadium with another 10K already there who were trying to get in!!!
Finally, when it was time for the toss, the stadium was reverberating with the shouts of RCB. And guess who got the highest decibel applause – it was the cheer leaders – 6 sets of 3 each running around the stadium waving at the crowd. The guys were just openly drooling. On the sidelines, Deepika was as ever looking stunning and again crazy screaming when she was focused on the big screen. It was truly thrilling to watch the match amidst a strong crowd of 40K. The stadium jockey – or the anchor – or MC or whatever they call him, was just superb, making the crowd go alive and bursting every now and then. The constant chant of RCB and the music and the kannada songs made the crowd go crazy. But when the play started, we realized to our dismay that there was a generous splattering of MI supporters. As well as, the RCB supporters who crossed the border and cheered the sixers and the fours from the MI team– just for the love of the game. The shoddy fielding, the dropped catches and the full toss bowling – was just too much to bear during the MI onslaught. But when our batting began and the parade of the batsmen started it was just total frustration. When Utappa left the crease, it was just a question of time before our total doom. Yes, Virat tried to do his bit – but too little too late.
After the 13th over, the exodus from the stadium started slowly though – but built up quite fast. By the time we were at AK circle, we could see reds everywhere again – very disappointed though. But all in all – it was truly a very very thrilling experience to watch the IPL match live in a stadium.
The crowd had already started to gather. We decided to split due cut short our waiting time. Me and nephew at the entrance queue – gate 11 while sis and hubby went to collect the tickets. All of us went through the gate without much hassle. As expected, the police were frisking all bags etc and edibles were not allowed. We could see red red red everywhere – tshirts, caps, flags, bandanas, face painting….. Slowly the players started coming out - and the screaming of the names just went on and on, till the player was forced to look at us and wave. Hats off (literally) to Utappa, who did the customary hat bow to the crowd as soon as he came to the ground. And for me it was just pure ecstasy as I saw the most handsome hunks on the ground Simon Toufel and KP as well as the local heroes Anil Kumble, Manish Pandey, Utappa, Vinay Kumar and Dravid. There was a unified scream of pure adulation when Sachin made his entry for the net practice. Just as we settled down we heard a loud blast – which we conveniently dismissed as someone doing a dry run for cracker bursting later on – how naïve!!! But the players just vanished inside within minutes and that’s when the smss started pouring in – generator burst, bomb hoax, bomb blast / blasts– variations. Siddarth Mallaya (my god, he is so fair) and senior Mallaya too did the rounds when things started getting a little chaotic. But all of us stayed put – despite the large screen proclaiming that the match was delayed. It was just as well, that they did not make an official announcement – avoided a certain stampede and loss of lives. Imagine a crowd of 30K trying to get out of the damn stadium with another 10K already there who were trying to get in!!!
Finally, when it was time for the toss, the stadium was reverberating with the shouts of RCB. And guess who got the highest decibel applause – it was the cheer leaders – 6 sets of 3 each running around the stadium waving at the crowd. The guys were just openly drooling. On the sidelines, Deepika was as ever looking stunning and again crazy screaming when she was focused on the big screen. It was truly thrilling to watch the match amidst a strong crowd of 40K. The stadium jockey – or the anchor – or MC or whatever they call him, was just superb, making the crowd go alive and bursting every now and then. The constant chant of RCB and the music and the kannada songs made the crowd go crazy. But when the play started, we realized to our dismay that there was a generous splattering of MI supporters. As well as, the RCB supporters who crossed the border and cheered the sixers and the fours from the MI team– just for the love of the game. The shoddy fielding, the dropped catches and the full toss bowling – was just too much to bear during the MI onslaught. But when our batting began and the parade of the batsmen started it was just total frustration. When Utappa left the crease, it was just a question of time before our total doom. Yes, Virat tried to do his bit – but too little too late.
After the 13th over, the exodus from the stadium started slowly though – but built up quite fast. By the time we were at AK circle, we could see reds everywhere again – very disappointed though. But all in all – it was truly a very very thrilling experience to watch the IPL match live in a stadium.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Escapade from mundane life - Dandeli
My love for water is slowly turning to be an obsession to the utter dismay of my hubby. So when my friend suggested a long weekend out, Dandeli was the obvious choice. Me was dying to try the white water rafting there. An uneventful train journey to hubli and a short drive to Dandeli in a borrowed car took us to the Jungle lodges – where with the same enthu as a small puppy, I was jumping around the tent that we had booked. Whats great about that – you would say.. but the location was just superb and the tents were ‘different’ – remember maggi sauce – same thing. It was very spacious with mesh windows and sliding door – little hi-fi for outdoor camping taste. But worked out fine for my better half.
After the sumptuous lunch, we changed gear for the rafting. No jewelry what-so-ever, meant that I do away with all matching accessories. Floaters / shoes were a must. A short drive in the open jeep and we were at the spot. A beautiful place where river Kali was in full flow. The big rafts carried 8-10 people, while the one which we were in had 6 of us, including the guide. Once we started rowing in the water, the guide started the instructions – pretty simple. Move forward, move backward, Hold on, sit down – in which sit down was the toughest for me – rather the get up after the sit down was tough what with me and my weight!!! Then I volunteered for the water dip (I was the only one in our raft – apart from the guide ofcourse, who knew swimming.. can you beat that) – which was mandatory for everyone. Getting down in that water was a fantastic experience – we even had a swimming stretch – but what with the life jacket, helmet, floaters etc – swimming was next to impossible. A total of 8 rapids with innovative names like ‘Adi’s beard’, ‘stanleys squeeze’ (excuse me :D ), ‘garden of eden’, ‘the stitch’ ‘smugglers’ cove’ – which is so named cos of teak wood and rose wood smuggling which happens there. Me says – if police knows where the smuggling takes place, then what is the big deal in catching the smugglers :roll: . The first rapid was by far the best – and everyone’s screams of glee as we hit the water was something to remember by. As we went further, we were able to steer into the rapid with a much faster and stronger pace – got nice compliment from the guide as well … the more fun it was. And in the last rapid, we went against the current – this took the cake – it was nirvana when we hit the rapid against the current and the water kept hitting us. Just too good. Me says – take up career as white water rafting guide…
We were dead tired when we got back to our lodges, a nice hot bath, bon fire, drinks, dinner, a nice dreamless sleep – got us through the night to the pristine morning. Since I am a very early riser– thanks to EC and the EC bus which comes at inhuman timings – went to the lake. Dipped my legs in the water and sat there soaking the pleasant sounds of the birds, the peaceful flowing water, the gorgeous locale, and a nice fish massage for free :) I even spotted some rare beautiful birds, before a couple came and scared me saying that they had spotted some crocs quite near by – then I started eyeing every ripple suspiciously – for only a few minutes though – then I gave up and went to my tranquil state again.
After breakfast, we went to Sintheri Rock – an awesome place with a cavernous rock mountain, water and a water falls. The fish there were as big as me – and fishing was prohibited. And just when I announced that it would be enticing to get into the water and caves – I saw the sign ‘Swimming is fatal. Total number of people dead this season: 13. Please don’t add to that count’ – shivered and gulped. The second half of the day was reserved for trekking to the sunset point. After a not-so-grueling trek of half hour – we reached the highest point. The view was just breathtakingly beautiful. We had a birds eye view of the huge water body – where waters of 4 huge rives congregated –Nagi, Naashi, Kali and Pindari.
Next day early morning we were blocked for ‘Birding’ – gosh, we rotfl when we saw this on the ‘activity board’ – what next? Hatching? So we went with the guide for a long walk in the forest for bird watching – some exotic, some colorful, some very small (was a challenge to see them even with binoculars). Post breakfast we went for the coracle ride for crocodile watching – we saw 2 baby crocodiles – the guides claimed that they were babies – though they looked quite huge to me. But what life – come on the small isles and sun bathe with closed eyes and open mouth….
Time to get back to Bangalore – to day-in day-out routine. But overall a wonderful trip with the white water rafting being the highlight of the entire trip.
After the sumptuous lunch, we changed gear for the rafting. No jewelry what-so-ever, meant that I do away with all matching accessories. Floaters / shoes were a must. A short drive in the open jeep and we were at the spot. A beautiful place where river Kali was in full flow. The big rafts carried 8-10 people, while the one which we were in had 6 of us, including the guide. Once we started rowing in the water, the guide started the instructions – pretty simple. Move forward, move backward, Hold on, sit down – in which sit down was the toughest for me – rather the get up after the sit down was tough what with me and my weight!!! Then I volunteered for the water dip (I was the only one in our raft – apart from the guide ofcourse, who knew swimming.. can you beat that) – which was mandatory for everyone. Getting down in that water was a fantastic experience – we even had a swimming stretch – but what with the life jacket, helmet, floaters etc – swimming was next to impossible. A total of 8 rapids with innovative names like ‘Adi’s beard’, ‘stanleys squeeze’ (excuse me :D ), ‘garden of eden’, ‘the stitch’ ‘smugglers’ cove’ – which is so named cos of teak wood and rose wood smuggling which happens there. Me says – if police knows where the smuggling takes place, then what is the big deal in catching the smugglers :roll: . The first rapid was by far the best – and everyone’s screams of glee as we hit the water was something to remember by. As we went further, we were able to steer into the rapid with a much faster and stronger pace – got nice compliment from the guide as well … the more fun it was. And in the last rapid, we went against the current – this took the cake – it was nirvana when we hit the rapid against the current and the water kept hitting us. Just too good. Me says – take up career as white water rafting guide…
We were dead tired when we got back to our lodges, a nice hot bath, bon fire, drinks, dinner, a nice dreamless sleep – got us through the night to the pristine morning. Since I am a very early riser– thanks to EC and the EC bus which comes at inhuman timings – went to the lake. Dipped my legs in the water and sat there soaking the pleasant sounds of the birds, the peaceful flowing water, the gorgeous locale, and a nice fish massage for free :) I even spotted some rare beautiful birds, before a couple came and scared me saying that they had spotted some crocs quite near by – then I started eyeing every ripple suspiciously – for only a few minutes though – then I gave up and went to my tranquil state again.
After breakfast, we went to Sintheri Rock – an awesome place with a cavernous rock mountain, water and a water falls. The fish there were as big as me – and fishing was prohibited. And just when I announced that it would be enticing to get into the water and caves – I saw the sign ‘Swimming is fatal. Total number of people dead this season: 13. Please don’t add to that count’ – shivered and gulped. The second half of the day was reserved for trekking to the sunset point. After a not-so-grueling trek of half hour – we reached the highest point. The view was just breathtakingly beautiful. We had a birds eye view of the huge water body – where waters of 4 huge rives congregated –Nagi, Naashi, Kali and Pindari.
Next day early morning we were blocked for ‘Birding’ – gosh, we rotfl when we saw this on the ‘activity board’ – what next? Hatching? So we went with the guide for a long walk in the forest for bird watching – some exotic, some colorful, some very small (was a challenge to see them even with binoculars). Post breakfast we went for the coracle ride for crocodile watching – we saw 2 baby crocodiles – the guides claimed that they were babies – though they looked quite huge to me. But what life – come on the small isles and sun bathe with closed eyes and open mouth….
Time to get back to Bangalore – to day-in day-out routine. But overall a wonderful trip with the white water rafting being the highlight of the entire trip.
will be more frequent - honest
In the midst of taking a big decision of giving up my high profile (??) IT job and just chilling at home, my blog took a back seat.
but now that i am home with nothing much to do - you will surely see more frequent postings!!!
but now that i am home with nothing much to do - you will surely see more frequent postings!!!
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