Anthargange Journal: An Empiricism

Empiricism? Really?  You bet! I couldn’t think of a better word to describe the day! This trek was supposed to be a simple trek, with no hurdles; a mountain climb to burn some heat off, but, have anything and I am not exaggerating but have anything, ever happened in life that’s planned! Well, sometimes it has, but most of the time it haven’t. There goes a saying “Sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together”, and that’s exactly what happened to us on that day.

And so the journey begins!  3 bikes, 6 people, 50 km early morning ride, trek, cave exploration, ride back home; that was our plan for the day! Did everything go according to our plan; a BIG NO! Did it end well? Heck Yea!

Myself, Poorni, Ani, Ramesh, Kapil and Boo, we 6 were the companions for this day. All of us met near Whitefield Railway station around 6.30 in the morning. After exchanging pleasantries we fired-up our bikes and ZOOM, out ride begun! A 50km drive from WF to Kolar, early morning, when the sun is merciful and the wind is howling at us with compassion; it was indeed a peaceful ride.

Wavering between 50’s 60’s and sometimes 70’s we rode on the long stretched boulevard, shooting pass the other vehicles. We streak passed Hoskote, Malur and some other tiny towns on the outskirts of Bangalore, making our way to Kolar where our destination awaits us. We had to just make this one stop before reaching Kolar, actually 10 km before Kolar, for breakfast at Kamat Upachara, which lies to our left, next to a gas station. We did miss this place in the beginning, in the sprinting ride and rode a km ahead when a friend of mine pointed out the slip. We stopped our bikes on the highway debating on the next move. We decided to take the next U turn and ride all the way back to Kamat, firstly because that’s the only decent spot available for breakfast and secondly, everyone were damn hungry.  This Kamat place is decent enough for breakfast at a location like this. I would give it an 8/10 rating, just for cleanliness and food. Its nothing fancy or top of the world experience, but given the location, this is the best option you got.

We filled our breadbaskets with dosa’s, vada’s and Khara bath’s; washed it over with chai’s and kapeee’s, parceled out our lunch, clicked few snaps here and there, and cruised over to Kolar. We did make few minute stops here and there to click some pics, swayed on the branches of the banyan tree and posed posed posed for tons of pics and finally made it to Anthargange around 9.30.

We parked our bikes and suited up for the trek. We took all the required things: food/biscuits/energy drinks/energy bar/sunglasses/sunscreen/cap/torch/water. At the footsteps of Anthargange, we were greeted by the beloved monkeys :p Beware of these little tail apes. They are smart, witty, and ingeniously notorious, and when I say notorious, there is no hidden exaggeration; you will know it if you come across these creatures especially here in Anthargange. We had this huge tissue bag filled with water and power bars, and atleast 5-6 monkeys tried to snatch it from our hand. Once a monkey, even tip-toes itself towards Kapil (my friend who has this tissue bag in his hand) and before it could grab the bag, another friend cautioned him; and he let out a scream which was quite funny so we all ended up with a fit of laughter. Believe me it was awfully hilarious.

The constant torment from the primates of the Haplorrhini forced us to squeeze all the food into our bag packs and get rid of all covers. 

After a km of walk we made to the first stop point, at shiva temple. There is a small pond next to this temple to cleanse oneself and visit the temple. Its not at all appealing as localities bath here. I just wanted to move on from this place and continue my walk up.

The trek is not over here, this temple is just 1/4th of the entire trek distance. Towards your left, there is a way that takes you up, towards the boulders and caves. A man made path exists, and one needs to just walk along this path till you reach the top. If one decides to take this path, one can complete the trek in an hour. You need to be careful while hunting for this path, because at times, this path is hidden among bushes and chances of losing it is quite probable. As we started climbing up the hills, on this man made path, around 200mts later, we took a track road which we thought was the correct track and which we later realized was the wrong track. The actual track always lies towards your left. Keep going left until you see an actual man made path, where the stones are carved into small steps.

We anyways missed this track and kept going towards our right exploring our options and taking any possible route that takes us one step ahead to the top. Initially we were quite confident about the route, but that started diminishing as we moved further;  the route went steeper, the bushes grew denser, and the trek grew difficult. Anytime we doubted ourselves, we looked up in 360 degree angle and weighed our options. Our only ray of hope was 2 huge boulders on the top towards our right, one painted white and another one painted green, and a few mts away a flag hoisted high up the ground. Our goal was to reach that point of the hills; it may have been a hunch, but we all believed that reaching this point will take us to the right track, and we were absolutely right, which, I would get back later.

When we covered ¾ of our way up, the view was beautiful. Towards our left we could see the road we drove past to reach the base of this hill, towards the center was the way we trekked up, and when we looked towards our right, we realized the mistake we did. We could clearly see the track that we were supposed to follow, and that’s when disaster struck us and we realized the blunder we have done. We were in deep shit, confused and agitated, not sure what to do next, standing in the scorching sun, thinking how stupid we were.

Everyone started brainstorming their minds weighing the options, should we go back down and start again from the right track or could we just keep walking horizontal until we reach the right track or should we just continue the same path as we did till now and move ahead and check what’s in store once we reach that painted boulders. On majority vote we decided to walk horizontal and try to reach the actual path, which believe, me was utter stupidity. After walking few mtrs or so we came across huge boulders which were impossible to cross without a rope. One could try to cross it but it’s quite risky and I don’t think that option is worth anyone’s life. So we decided to keep going further up and take a detour if the way becomes impossible to climb.

We passed thorny bushes, steep paths hidden within thick bushes and huge boulders which were impossible to climb. All of us glued together, walking in sync, making sure the behind person doesn’t do the same mistake, warning when the route was difficult and carrying huge sticks to determine the depth of a route when concealed by bushes. Holding a stick in hand is quite a good option, it helps to determine the depth of a way, it helps to walk break past the thick bushes and keeping the thorns away from hurting, use it as rope to help fellow traveler jump from rocks to rocks and scare away the tiny yet dangerous creatures on the way. Exploring all possible options and just relying on our intuitions we climbed up further and further, praying almighty to keep all of us safe, at times cribbing on how foolish we were, wondering what would have happened if we took the correct path, calculating which friend or family to call if something in case of emergency, and at the same time rejoicing over staying strong and adventurous and not complaining, and the most important part, always clicking pics with a smiling face making it evident that, we will make it out of this alive with flying colors. 

Finally we reached a point where we dint know how to move further. Ramesh went ahead exploring our options, meanwhile Kapil tried to climb onto a boulder to see what’s in store for us further. He was gone for a couple of minutes and came back jumping around asking us to climb past the boulder and come to the other side. We were quite inquisite to know whats happening, so, one by one we climbed the boulder and went on to the other side just to discover a flat green patch of land that’s habituated.  A few feet ahead of us, there lies a trail of road used by hikers to travel to this part of land. We found a farmer walking past this road towards village. All of us screamed to the top of the voice as we tried to contain our happiness and excitement on reaching the top, unscratched. We asked him for the route towards village and bid him farewell. He even passed on some Guava’s made in his farm, for us to taste.

After energizing ourselves with energy drinks and power bars, we started walking towards the village. Why? Because we were yet to do cave exploration and we needed a guide to take us in. After walking for a km, we found this guy in village who was willing to take us for cave exploration. Upon asking the rate he asked us to give whatever we feel was correct. We made our way towards the caves with our guide, hoping for more adventure. We did have quite a lot of adventure for one day; but nonetheless we craved for more. There was a sense of excitement among everyone to start the exploration and take this adventure to yet another level.

Once we reached the cave; we packed all are things into our bag-packs to keep our hands free; our pockets were emptied, and torches were ready. The first step we took was a 7 feet drop from a boulder onto the mouth of the cave.

This was followed by sliding past 2 rocks which are a feet apart from each other, followed by a lot of sliding, climbing and crawling. We made passed the 1st cave successfully without a scratch as such. I am falling short on words to describe this experience. It was thrilling and electrifying yet peaceful; it let goes all the worries and materialist fret. It gets your adrenaline pump up and brings a sense of satisfaction. We excited our first cave with mixed feeling and waited to move onto the next one.

After gulping in some tang and nutrition bars we moved on to the next cave. This cave has this tiny water stream flowing into it. No one knows the exact origin of this water hence the name Anthargange which means “Ganges from Deep”. There is a lot of hype on this water stream, so we had to check it out ourselves. We left our bags out near the cave as the opening of the cave was small and it’s difficult to fit in both humans and bags. The mouth of the cave had a steep drop of 7 feet followed by a very narrow path where one has to crawl like a snake to fit in. We debated for quite a while; thinking if we should take chances and go down as the entrance and exit of the cave is same, so even if we take the 7 feet slide down, how on earth will we climb back up without any ropes.  But the guide showed us the way technique to climb back pushing ourselves against the rock. So we decided to take our chances and go down. Was it worth it? Hell no! This is a very small stream of water flowing from the deep into the caves. The hype created for this stream of water is not worth the talk. But should you go in? Offcourse! Just to enjoy the climb in and climb out; it’s thrilling! As you enter the caves you could hear the stream of water flowing. This cave could hardly hold 3-4 people tops.

We were done with our adventure for the day at anthargange and it was time to descend. We paid our guide 400 bucks for 6 of us and asked him for the return route. We started walking down on the man-made road when we spotted a snake curled onto a twig in a nearby bush. Kapil had this weird wish of spotting snake at anthargange, maybe that’s why we passed 2 snakes later on the way. We ran past those spot and made our way down. We did reach the spot where we took the wrong route and ended up having such a nice time exploring our way. We laughed at our stupidity, clicked few more pics and reached the base around 2.30. We refreshed ourselves with some sip-on’s and sprite’s, enquired from localites the nearby places to visit, took our bikes and retraced our steps.

Plan was to visit some 500 yr old temples at Kolar; but it wasn’t that great of a historic place. So after  spending some time on google and asking few more Kolar’ites we decided to take a 30km ride to KGF and visit Kotilingeshwara.  Kotilingeshwara  is a Shiva temple; apparently a nest for 1 crore lingas. Its quite an historic significance in Karnataka.

The drive towards this KGF panhandle was a serene drive through country side road via bhangarpet. Passing through the lush green path, non-bumpy roads in a rhythmic motion with the wind in our faces, we felt one with the nature around. The trek tiredness was wearing on us, the serene climate was not swaying away the drowsiness our body craved for. But all this dint dampen our spirit. My pillion graced this nature’s love as lullaby as she drifted into sleep sitting behind hitting my helmet as she drifted apart further. We reached Kotilingeshwara in an hour around 4.45.

Parking our bikes at kotilingeshwara, we refreshed ourselfs with some chais and coffees sided with biscuits.








We then made our way towards darshana. An entry ticket of 20 bucks need to paid at the entrance which kinda is ridiculous because it portraits commercialism of temples which is lame. Once we entered this place we walked around the lingas, moving past different gods.

This place might be a bit commercial but the peace and quietness u get receive here is divine. U could just walk around this place and feel the lightness on u.

We wandered around here for quite a while relishing the moment when my phone buzzed and my sweet mother that she is asked me to come back home ASAP because of the jayalalitha issue. 

We had made plans to drive back to my home around 7 at night, eat dinner there and then my friends would drive back to their respective homes. We left kotilingeshwara around 5.30 and drove towards WF. It was a 70 ride back home. We had 2 options: SH or NH road. NH was a better option as it would be traffic free and a good 6 lane road. We retraced our path back to Kolar and then drove straight towards WF.

All of us were famished after a adventurous day and all we had from morning was one dosa and few energy drinks and bars. I called up my mom and told her about 6 hungry flocks of birds coming home to eat, and she was worried the food might not be sufficient for all of us. 

The ride back home was mesmerizing. Amazing traffic free road, lushing greenary, sun setting down turning the sky to red, crescent moon showing up right above us. It was finding peace within onself. My pillion gave me company talking about random things. She knew I wasn’t a fan of riding at night her talks entertained me and time flew by. We reached Kolar and then took the flyover towards Bangalore. We quivered between 60’s and 70’s, driving steady and made it to Bangalore at 7.30.

We drove back to my home, freshened up and wolfed down a lot of rice sided with sambar, sabji and papad, marking the end of a wonderful day in a perfect note.

Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living

                        - Miriam Beard

The Epicurean Rider: Cruising over to TK (tottikallu falls) & Heritage Winery.

Riding is my passion! I could cruise away on my bike for hours together lost in my thoughts. Riding always clears my mind, let's me process the information in my brain, weighs them, highlights the pros and cons, and helps me make decisions.

It's been a while since I went on a long drive, that dint include taking my mom around for shopping or listening to Anju going over her wedding plans or helping out dad. I needed this ride to happen more than anyone else for my very own reasons, and when I need something I could be stubborn and persuasive. Hehe, well that’s me!

 I had this whole thing planned out on Friday. Wipro had its run scheduled on Sunday and I knew all my friends would attend it; who says no to a fun filled day ;). I opened my communicator, pinged Gomathi and Esanya and asked them about their plans for Sunday, after the run. As I expected they had no plans, which pumped my excitement to another level. I immediately pinged back and said "let's make some plan" and kudos to my 2 dear friends, they were sport. Now the first hurdle was crossed, which took us to the next hurdle, were to go?

Well for a person looking for a ride, the destination is not as important as the ride itself, which means we could go anywhere in a 100km radius. As usual google was a life saver. The search engine responded with replies for places around Bangalore that could be covered in half a day. Out initial plans were to go to Hogganekal, but that meant riding for 300 km in half a days’ time which was a little difficult, thus we moved to our next option which was TK falls. This place is not that great, but again the destination wasn't important, but, the problem with this place was the area, it’s not very safe for ladies! That got us into rethinking for another destination, and my friend came up with Ramnagar for trekking. I was a little reluctant to go here coz this place is meant for trekking and I wasn't sure if I could trek after a 5km run, thus dropping out Ramnagar. Our next option was Bheemeshwari, but again it meant a ride of 200km. We could have covered this place, but I found another place I was dying to go on Mysore road, and if I choose that place, I could go to TK falls, play in the falls for a while, relax and then make it to my main destination, which means 2 birds in one row. Moreover Bheemeshwari is a place which is meant to be gone with an adventure club so that we could make maximum utilization of that place. After lot of insistence and pleadings my friends did agree to come with me to these places. Yayyyyy!

The D day arrives, Sunday the 21st, I get up at 5 in the morning, got ready, pumped my bike into life and rode till Wipro EC, meanwhile my other friends arrived. We ran the run, finished the concert and finally met near Wipro gate around 12. We had 2 bikes, CBZ and Activa, the latter being mine. Since we were 3 of us I wanted another person to join. We asked couple of out friends but everyone had plans, so, at last we decided to go by ourselves.

There were a lot of snags when we started from nice road. It would sound crazy but we actually dint know if we were supposed to take the toll pass, to Mysore road or Kanakpura road. We searched on google map but it just showed few village names which we weren't aware of. That's when Esanya proposed a plan of asking the toll guy himself. So, with great confidence we stopped near the toll; Esanya asked the guy and the toll guy being such a gentlemen tried to help us. Unfortunately he hasn’t heard about TK falls, which meant we dint know where to go. That's when the toll guy asked E ( that's what we call Esanya) to show him google maps; well, I cannot stop wondering how much this world has moved ahead in terms of technology that every folk these days use google map. After looking into the map the guy recognized the place and immediately gave us 2 tickets to Kanakpura road. So folks if you plan to go to TK falls you take kanakpura toll ;).

 Moving on, once we entered nice road, the ride was smooth with no hurdles. Goms (that’s what we call Gomathi) was my pillion and E was riding alone. Since his bike was geared one, he could easily manage a speed of 100+. But mine was Activa, which meant I cannot ride at 100, the max speed my bike takes is 70-80, which is kinda sad, when u have a long stretched tarred road to drift. I still raised my accelerator to the max and to my amazement; my bike actually touched a speed of 90, which was a relishing movement by itself. E was dumbfounded  when he saw me riding at this speed on my Activa, and it got him thinking, “what speed will she drive if she gets a geared bike”; well for that I reply, it's something I am yet to explore.

I know I know what you guys must be thinking, isn't it risky to ride at 90 on Activa given the size of the tire, the shocks and etc etc, well, I got this lecture from my dear friends who sits in London and advices me on Whatsapp ;). As much as I want to ignore it, it's quite true so I pledge on not reaching that speed again, moreover it's not fair to my Black Bird (that's what I call my Activa). Anyways, moving ahead, we reached kanakpura road in sometime. E handed over his google maps to Goms, who was our official talking map for entire ride. TK falls was around 11 km or so, at least that's what I recall, from the Kanakpura toll gate. After few km's there was a left turn towards Banarghetta road, and a few km ahead was this falls. The ride on Banarghetta road was beautiful. Lushing greenery on both sides, curvy road, smooth ride. I got the biggest compliment from my friend on my driving skills and ability, which meant a lot as it was coming from him. After few km there was a right turn we were supposed to take, and this road was terrible. A muddy road with lots of unevenness and potholes and stones. This was a 2km ride and it took a while to reach the destination.

As we reached the destination, we were disappointed. The water was drained out, instead of a waterfall, I could stagnant water, and to make matters worse there were a group of men seated under the shade of the tree drinking. This did dampen our spirit but we decided to go ahead and explore the place anyways. As we started walking ahead there were 2 old ladies sitting on a stone; as they saw us they started demanding money in Gods name. Frankly speaking I hate such folks, I will donate money if I want to, I don't want someone coming to me and asking for it. I refused to shell even one penny into their kitty, but my sweet friend as he is paid them few bucks. Heads up here, if u happen to visit this place and if u happen to come across these aunties beware of what to reply. When these aunties got money they told us that there is no water here due to lack of rain, but there is a huge rock up there if u are interested to  trek a bit and you click few photos. After weighing the pros and cons we decided not to go there, 1. I could c only guys there, and we wanted to avoid any sort of problems given the fact that this place is not meant to go with ladies 2. It meant walking a lot in sun which is exhausting and difficult after running a marathon 3. I was super hungry and wanted to eat  4. I was excited to go to my main destination. We started walking back to the parking area chit chatting with each other, when these old ladies snapped at us for speaking in English. I was super pissed, coz it's not anyone's goddamn business which language I speak in, even if I know Kannada. But I let it go as they were old ladies and I dint need a problem for my own safety.

                                                                      TK FALLS

I would recommend this place only for those folks who are interested in ride and not for the destination.

We took our bikes and retraced our steps till we reached kanakpura road. We google mapped for our next destination which lies on Mysore road, a 60km drive. There is some inner route that passes along the country side road connecting Mysore road to Kanakpura road. This route for most of the parts, was good and involved good roads. But there were places where the roads were terrible and it took a lot of effort to ride.

                                                       BANARGHETTA  ROAD

We passed Dirt Mania and saw couple of folks trying on dirt biking. I always wanted to try one of these, and I would very soon. Adding this name into my todo list for future references we made our way to Mysore road. We passed across a lot of agricultural land. At one particular point they had a huge field of babycorns. I dint realize it until E plucked out one babycorn and we all took a bite, I wasn't even sure if we can eat it raw, but I tried it anyways, I donno if it was my hunger or the baby corn actually tasted yummy. This made E, pluck around 5-6 baby corns more and I put it in my bike to prepare baby corn manchurian later that week.

                                                          E STEELING BABYCORN

The ride after this was cumbersome; the awful ride on city roads on Saturday, the marathon run, lack of food was taking a toll on me. All I wanted was something to energize me and I still had around 45km to ride. It's true, if u have will power to do something u can achieve anything u want and I m a strong believer of this. I strengthen my will power and drove that 45km without complaining. There came a point when I started regretting on suggesting this trip, but I heightened my spirits and drove. The 40 km ride on Mysore road to my destination was quite good. It’s a highway road, wider, and traffic free. We had to slow down only when we were passing thorugh town roads, but comparatively the traffic was bearable. We passed Ramanagaram and Chanapattna,  finally reaching the destination around 2.30.

                                                              KANAKPURA ROAD

This place comes after Ramnagar District, Channapattna. It's a vineyard known as Heritage Wineyard. These guys conduct wine tours for interested folks, followed by wine tasting. They also have this quaint eatery joint named Epuol, that's serves both Indian and continental cuisine. I wouldn’t recommend this place if I had other options, but since all of us were super hungry, we ordered like a king, filled our bellies, relaxed for a while enjoying the pleasant calm environment, went for the wine tour followed by wine tasting. Both of my friends are non-wine drinkers so it was only me excited to taste. But since I had to ride back home by myself and there is no spare rider, I had to contain my alcohol level to as minimum as possible. I was super careful not to consume more and had mentioned this to my host as well.

 My friends were really worried if I would be able to ride, but truth be told I was fine, the wine dint hit me nor I was high, I was perfectly fine, plus I was extra careful. Around 5 in the evening we started back to Bangalore. Our target time was 7.30 and mine was 8 as I had to drive to other end of Bangalore. We started off thinking no more hurdles; it's just 2 hrs drive to blore, what could go wrong? But destiny had something else planned for us. I had be cribbing my entire life on living adventurously, and may be that why the almighty decided to shower some more adventure into my life in form of heavy rain. We were near Ramnagar when it started drizzling which later turned out to be a heavy rain. We stopped for a while but the rain was no were near to end so we decided to start riding, moreover I wanted to ride in daylight rather than in streetlights. We started our bikes, I drove ahead and E was behind me with Goms, throughout the ride I was chanting "Narayana", riding at 70, on a highway, with heavy rain, breezy climate, slippery roads, obstructive view, it was quite challenging and I needed an extra sense of protectiveness to know I would be safe, hence the chanting; it's something I believe in.

My friends had concerns coz of my wine tasting and that it would somehow effect my judgements, but believe me, when the disaster struck in form of rain, any effect or residue of wine in my blood just evaporated into thin air, all my senses were on high alert, and I was as fresh as I could be, but this doesn’t mean I support drink and drive, it’s totally against my policy, so folks never drink and drive; its unsafe for you and for others driving on the road.

As much as chanting helped me feel safe, it definitely dint help the rain to calm down, and I was drenched completely. There is this recent joke I came across that says “ When someone says it is raining in Bangalore, be sure to ask them which area, which main and which cross”; it might sound insane but I was hoping for the same. And it did happen, once we entered the outskirts of Bangalore, moved past Wonderla, there were no traces of rain. It looked as if it never happened.

From this point on, the ride was smooth. No more surprises were in stored for us. We took nice road towards Banarghetta, i bid my friends adeiu and drove back home; and E dropped Goms home.

I had a splendid evening, even though it got scary sometimes, I learnt a lot if things, I freeking drove in heavy rain. This ride definitely gave me confidence, that no matter how bad situation gets I will eventually make it through.  

Proud to be a rider

Manju

Ready to Fly: Bike ride with gal-pals to Hesaraghatta Grasslands

The same monotonous life of mine was beckoning me and I was desperately looking to reinstate my lost biking spirit, when a post for a bike ride on BTC caught my eyes.

It was a women’s biking club meet up, which meant I could meet some of my old gal pals as well as connect to, new faces.

When the D-Day finally arrived, I got up early and took a nice shower after a sleepless night full of excitement and got ready to join the first mammoth women’s group ride of my life. One hell of a group ride this was supposed, the first women’s biking club formed by BTC thus taking their first baby step embarking history, marking the first footprint into a new era of women’s biking, with 6 bikers planned to arrive! After putting on my armor and packing small necessities for the ride, I turned on the ignition and pat came her reply…she was ready to take me to my first group ride of the year!

After leaving home at around 6.00 AM, I cruised to the meet-up point. It is a clear morning after a long spell of rain at night. The moment I rolled my bike I felt the chill wind gushing inside my helmet and jacket, making my adrenaline pump up! So badly I needed this rejuvenation, I thought! As a part of the habit, I started with a 50-60 km’s per hour, even though the roads were ultra smooth and traffic free. I got my bike tank full of petrol to feed her and cruised towards the meeting point.

The gang from Bangalore was scheduled to meet-up near Hebbal-esteem mall around 7.00 AM. I, Jyoti and Ritu were supposed to meet near Tin Factory-Hebbal flyover and then drive together to the meet-up point. Around 7.05 AM we were near Esteem mall, with Deepthy and Juby already waiting for us. 10 min later Rajalakshmi shows up with her 11 year old daughter Vaishnavi which was quite a surprise but a delighted one. A few meters ahead, surprises awaited us in form of Piyush and Viru, who accompanied us through the entire journey. I was glad to meet Deepthy, Ritu, Viru and Piyush, the gang leaders and after we were done with the intros, the briefing came into surface!

Piyush briefed us about the etiquette of group riding and trust me they were invaluable! I never cared about formations or hand signals, being mostly a solo rider. All this was so-so new to me! The signals for slow down, stopping and hazard indication were shown and I was extremely excited to see them in practice.

We had a lead and a sweep and the rules were pretty simple:

• Don’t overtake your lead.
• Don’t fall behind your sweep.
• Make sure you can see the one leading you in front and the one tailing you in the Rear View Mirror.
• Take care of the one behind you, if you don’t see him, slow down. In this way, the whole group will slow down!
• If you need to stop due to any reason, get out of the pack, reach your lead and ask him to stop!

All this new rules made me a bit apprehensive. I am used to driving at 60-70 speed solo and overtake any one blocking my path. But riding in a group and acting like one is bit difficult which lead to tiny-winy mistakes.  Nevertheless, a beautiful sunny morning scooting through the country side road, breezing by, is a great way to start your weekend. 

Around 9.00 AM we stopped at a small hotel for breakfast. After fueling up on puris, idli vadas, pulav and tea/coffee we jumped back on our bikes and headed towards our destination. After asking for directions from the localities towards Hesaraghatta Grasslands we finally reached Nrityagram around 9.45ish, parked our bikes and had another round of formal intros. 

Around 10.00 AM we went into Nrityagram had a look around, watched few Odissi dance steps, clicked a zillion pics and exited around 11.30 AM. We then made our way towards Hesaraghatta Grasslands, but unfortunately the place was prohibited due to some naxalites issues. 

Sadly we all turned our bikes and made it back to Hesaraghatta Lake which unfortunately was dried up, but we ended up clicking few pics anyways. Around 1.00 AM we started back to Bangalore, reached our meet-up point, had a feedback session, thus ending our journey. 

I end this journey by quoting “Because its not the destination that is important but the road towards it…."

The Language of Trekking - Madhugiri Fort

Trekking with a bunch of strangers was definitely not my cup of tea till now, but 2nd Feb changed all of it. I couldn’t possibly pen down the fun I had with a bunch of strangers that once I dreaded to trek along. This small outing definitely changed my insights on a lot of perceptions that I made on assumptions in my life. Well like someone said “Change is the only thing that’s constant” and this change is definitely most welcoming. 

After being a part of BTC group for almost a year it was definitely a shame on not being part of even one trek till today. I had to change this part of mine and take that one step forward to participate in one of the treks that would be the ice breaker. After constant debate with my conscience to join a trek atleast once, I juggled through my options every week right from the Karwar trek to Nandi hills to Shivagange, finally deciding to put forth my name for Madhugiri trek, and BINGO, Madhugiri won the lot. Even after nominating myself for this trek, I was having double thoughts on weather I should go ahead with this trek or withdrew my name till the very last moment. Glad I didn’t do any such dramas to backout.

How to I start to explain my amazing experience, I could go on and on and on about this trek and one can just get exhausted reading them. So I would try to keep it short and simple  so, here goes my gaga about my trek. Let me start with Sangamesh, our organizer who arranged this trek very smoothly without any issues. Well, for an organizer, I could say he was the sweetest person, a  very calm and patient guy, who constantly picked our calls at nights (on 1st Feb one day prior to the trek) and reassured us that we could do this trek. We were supposed to be in majestic by 6.45 in the morning and leave to Madhugiri by 7. Almost all the trekkers were in majestic by 7 except me, yeah I know that’s quite unimpressive, but believe me I am usually not a unpunctual person, but as fate decided I was late that day not by a mere 5 or 10 min but I was 40 min off the grid, so let me first apologize to each one for being late and a word that this wont happen again. So, back on track, about Sangamesh, I thought he might leave me and go ahead with the trek, but, like I said, he was definitely nice to me on that context, and so was the other folks who didn’t crib about me being late. GLAD!!

Once I reached the pre-decided place for meet up, I hopped into the bus and quietly went and sat in one of the free seats. I met Vanati and her school friend Swetha, two school buddies, who had so much to share with each other, that I let them be in there own world. Next I met Priyanka, and chit chatted with her till we reached Madhugiri, and as amazed I am now priyanka turned out to be the most famous person in the trek. I met Lucy next, an American, she was awesome at trekking, one of the three folks who reached the top of the fort when we were just half way to the top :D 

We reached Dabaspet, had our breakfast at one of the mess joint, packed our lunch and left to the destination. Once we reached Madhugiri, we had a formal introduction with everyone and then started out trek to reach the fort, a walk that was 4 km away. When I first saw the path we had to trek and the height of the fort, I thought it was a baby’s walk to me, gosh, wasn’t I wrong, it took every bit of energy in my system to reach the top. First 15 min I walked with an attitude that, I would reach the top in half an hour without any issues, but reality struck me after 15 min when I was panting so bad that every 5th step I make I was forced to rest for atleast 5 min to catch my breathe. To be frank, I was glad my stamina wasn’t that great, coz once I knew I cant reach the top by continuously walking, I decided to stick with my group and follow there strategy of walking for few min and then resting for few minutes. This cycle worked perfectly for me, there was a scream of encouragement when you doubt yourself if you could make it to the top, there were atleast 4 pairs of hand that comes forward when you are stuck at a particular place, there were atleast a dozen of food items to eat and energize oneself, there were times when we had fun pulling each others leg especially Priyanka’s . I, Ankit and Jyothi had so much fun together I couldn’t say I met them for the first time. Prabhakar was constantly encouraging me to pursue my fantasy in cycling along with Jyothi, Vishnu was always silent, Priyanka always giving witty looks to Sangamesh and Ankit. 

Chit-chatting, posing for photos, acting like monkeys by climibing over walls or huge stones we finally made it to the top in couple of hours. We spend sometime up on the fort, had our lunch, took more than a zillion photos and the finally started descending. I thought ascending would be a difficult task than descending, oh boy, wasn’t I wrong again, ascending the rocks just caused panting effect, but descending was more gruesome, it’s a really challenge to your legs especially your thighs and ankles, and believe me I am still in pain, while I write this blog, my leg rest over my CPU and scream at every inch I move.

Nevertheless, the pain or the panting, nothing stopped me from enjoying this trek. I am glad I was part of this trek and I am looking forward to many more treks with BTC in future. Thanks to our amazing 3 photographers who were so enthusiastic to clicks snaps and we were always ready to pose ;) 

For now, its me Manju signing out. Bye-bye.