Perspectives

Yesterday was a day off for dasara. Sameer promptly called me for a trek to rangaswamy betta. I was in two minds. I had a dandiya call from ankit and I was quite eager to shake my ass a bit. But got caught with work , and these folks had decided to get there a bit late. So, I decided to chuck it for this trek the next day and boy! wasnt it a wise decision.

The drive wasnt too long (and this bit was a bit disappointing). After a stop for not_so_bad idli/vada/coffee and bit of raving, we were already where we wanted to be.

Even as I was driving, M and I were wondering what folks in this part of the world do. But, inventively, there was a grand old lady at the base camp (well, it almost was! ) who was magnanimous enough to send her (grand ? ) kid for a pack of creamy biscuits and 100 bucks ( Indian rupees). Well, he did his bit, I must say.

This was by far the longest/ highest/ biggest I have been through. And my poor lungs didnt have much left to take it all suddenly. The initial walk through the plains was pleasurable. There were a coupla places where we crossed over a small channel of water ( I dont think I can call it a stream) and that kilometre walk to the lap of the hill was quite relaxing.

Bangalore has been proving too naughty this past week. Miss Rain God never gives up on Bangalore and keeps pouring all the time. But we were quite fortunate, and infact there was a point ( not the altitude) in time when I wished if it would rain. Ok, Now we start climbing.

Sam had a friend , and he had about three other friends (and more, ofcourse). So there were 7 attendies , a car, 2 bikes and good amount of food and company. The climb was about 30 to 45 degrees at most parts, and sometimes, steeper. God knows who made the pathway, but there was space enough for just one ass and it gave you the impression of a very wild place ( and hence all the fun associated with it. At one point of time, there was a aeroplane flying up there and one of us thought it was a Tiger ( duh! there are just a 400 remaining in entire India ) or a Lion somewhere around.
The path kept winding and going and so was our guide ( Mr. Venugopal with big lungs to take it all). He would make these statements once in a while – “salpa” – ( only a bit). His half-an-hour lasted a full 2 hours. We met another group en-way and even they claimed we have almost made it. ( There was about another 20 mins climb.) So mebbe it is something to do with the place and not people.

After about 2 hours of climb , we made it. I, for a moment , felt I was better off down there. But the sight took my breath away and I did not even care that the temple up there was locked up. ( Well, who went up to visit the temple anyways ). Despite , we had to tip the pujari anyways.

Mr Venugopal ( Lemme give him the respect for his lungs, though he was a school kiddo) tried to tell us where the route we took was, where Kanakpura was, and where Bangalore isint). I felt closer to the skies, and wished they a parachute to jump down. People had got certain things to munch ( Thanks! , it was amazingly tasty ). The vadas, though dreched with oil, which were served half way were panacea-tic.

After relaxing and wiling time away a bit. It was time to get back. The descend was not as demanding as the climb was, but nevertheless , it wasnt easy either. I could feel a shift of pain from my lungs to my toes , thighs and shoulders. And when I was down, I felt like I had a rebirth.

After somemore biking and lunch and tea and other techie talks with folks from Intel, We finally reached Bangalore.

Here are pics from my Cam.
Here , Sameer’s
Here , Praveen’s.

Praveen , Get to Flickr. You’d hate for not having done that before.

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