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  • (a+b) squared

    Hey this is only for better understanding… may be some of those who find it useful can pick it up from here… not my original work, but this is the way I understood it!!

    We have had the identity:
    (a+b)^2 = a^2 + b^2+ 2ab
    Now to understand what this identity means, I used the graphical repsentation,
    Now we can assume safely that ‘a^2’ represents a sqare of side ‘a’

    So as well should (a+b)^2, but then what does the identity mean?
    Well it means that to make a square of side (a+b)^2 just given geometrically to be proven.
    ok that should be simple rt!!!
    a figure with area ab will have to be a rectangle
    so,
    To form a sqare of side (a+b)^2 we have to just add up the geometrical figures 2 squares one each of side a and b.
    But then we have to have the space that can be filled by rectangles with side a&b… we have to have 2 such.. so there fore we have
    (a+b)^2 = a^2 + b^2+ 2ab
    ie
    sq of side = sq of side + sq of side + 2 rectangles of area
    a + b a b a * b

  • Swaminomics

    Swaminomics is a comman man’s economic dosage that is part of TOI editorial. Thanks to “Swami” – Swaminathan S. Anklesaria Aiyar.
    He write all this thoughts in such a simple and clear way that you understand the current policies and strategies in a very clear manner. Its his simple style that makes him so close to all the readers of Times of India. He gives his views in a very clear and intellible manner. Worth reading to know more about the economic state of India, in case you are not a pro but just want to brush across and have a few opinions on them.
    Swaminomics I think not just comes from his name but the purpose seems to be to attract the “common man” called – Swami!!! and the economic policies that impact him.

    The link to the online editions of the articles by Aiyar is : http://swaminomics.org/

  • Tadiyandmol trek (Dec 9th and 10th, 2006)


    I have been trekking from a long time, but this trek has been first in a number of ways. Following are a few:

    • This is the first time I am blogging my experience.
    • Going on an organised trek and not as a solo trekker
    • My cooking food on the trek
    • An innovative plate used for having our tiffin (a huge banana leaf)

    I had heard a lot about the Tadiyandamol trek from my other trek friends, and was in a way craving to go. My last trek before the Tadiayandamol, was to Mulliangiri – back in September.

    This was the first organised trek that I had been to, Arun the person who runs RHM (Rambling Holiday Makers) was my “orkut” friend. This trek had been organised by RHM. We where 10 members for his trek – Arun, Subbu, Saravan, Venu, Srikanth, Shushruth, Praveen, Vinay, Satwik, and myself (Sachi) . We all had to met up on the 8th at the KSRTC, bus stand at 9:45.
    We all where from diffrent places from bangalore. All except Arun were Software Professional. Arun is a Jounalist, and an avid trekker.

    Trek Plan was as follows:
    travel from Bangalore to Virajpet, in KSRTC bus.
    Day 1:
    travel in a local bus from Virajpet to Kakabe (actually we have to get down around 1 km before the actual town of Kakabe)
    trek to base camp some 6km – on the way visit to a old palace.
    then trek to Madanadabbi near Tadiyandamol.
    trek back to base camp
    trek from base camp to Tadiyandamol trek.
    night trek back from Tadiyandamol peak to base camp
    Day 2.
    trek from Base camp to Kakabe
    travel to Chelvara Falls
    travel back to Virajpet
    travel back to Bangalore

    We all reached KSRTC bus stand at around 10 pm, completed our first round of introduction. We went to platform number 6. From here we got into the bus that was scheduled to leave at 10:30 pm. We all set out breaking the ice (most of us did not know about each other earlier.) and by the time the bus set out delayed by 15 min we where in our own deep discussion about our intrests and all those stuff, slowly we all slept.

    The bus reached Virajpet quite early (at 4:30a.m.) We all got our self settled in the KSRTC bus stand at Virajpet. Some of us dozed off for another session of sleep, before sunrise and we start off with the trek, others just held on to crack PJ’s make and then making calls back home. We also finished out daily chores before 6:30 am.

    We started off to have our morning tiffin, we went to a hotel some distance away; had our tiffin and browzed through a magazine that had some pics of the falls, and the trek that we where going to enjoy in the next 2 days. We had some Uppit (its a local version of pudding is it??)
    and Idli (the boiled rice cake), the taste was very nice one.

    Geared up we left the hotel to the juntion from where we get private bus that would take us to Kakabe. The journey is around 45 min to 1 hour, after which we reached a small bus stand. We have a distance diplay board that gives the distances from this bus stop to the near by major towns.

    With a fromal introduction before the start of the trek, and a set of “code of conduct” to be followed in the wild being given we began our trek. We were also given a packet of dates that would serve the purpose of “emergency food” in case we ran out of food and needed an instant release of energy. (Some people had completed this as any other food once they got it – and some also had a nice competition in nibling these away.)

    We started of on our actual trek from the bus-stop, out first stop was to be at a palace, some 3km from the start of our trek. We walked along slowly, and steadily watching the nature, its beauty that doesn’t seem to be present in busy cities. Just this clean and fresh air is enough to make us healthy. We had some photo sessions, some attempts to get the Spider web by me, with the new camera that I had purchased some days back turned out to be flop (I was just trying out the variour options so that I get to know my camera better. ) Vinay on the other hand never gave up, and photographed a spider in his Camera – good pic Vinay.

    This 3km trek was majorly though the road that passed through the coffee plantations that are so very abundant in this Coffee land of “Coorg” (also known as Kodagu). We reached the Palace, which had a school nearby. We found some school children waiting for their teacher there having fun. We entered into the palace, that was under maintenance at that time. We took some pics there and then moved on. I could hear a stream flow near the school, I dont think it was making some huge falls, but ya the sound quite audible from a distance.

    We started off further ahead after the palace, and trekked for about 3km more, before we reachd the forestguard’s house. There are 2 small streams that cross the road after the falls. After the second stream, a little uphill climb along the Jeep track will take us to a Y cross (One to the left, one going staight ahead, and the other the one we came). This junction is a nice sceninc spot. To go to the Tadiyandamol peak we have to take the left road, this is the same route that also takes us to the Forest guard’s home. The forest guard’s home was a small little cottage, which was built in the middle of some mixed varites of trees, I cant say it was just wild growth, around the house but it was nice vegetation near the house ( wish I could stay in such a house 🙂 ). We all rested for some 45 min at that place.

    We set out from the forestguard’s house to the Falls called Madanadabbi, this is around 20 min trek from the house. We went to the top of the falls, and tried descending as far as we could. We all stoped at the point where we could not descend further the falls. The falls, was a beautiful one. The point we stopped was the edge of the falls from where the falls made a fall of around 200ft (that is my wild guess). The surroungings were very scenic, we rested there for around 20 min, took photographic memories and then where back on the track to reach the forest guard’s house. After around 30 min we where at the house, waiting for our food to be ready, once ready we all where immediately at it :-). After food we took as small nap for aroung 15 min before we decided to keep all our belongings, in the spot where we would spend the night (Arun already had the informed, the forest guard & his family that we would be coming to stay at the small rooms that where there a little distance away from the forest guard’s house). We dumped our luggage here and then did some repacking of the materials that we would need for the trek to the Tadiyandamol peak (this was a 4km trek if I guess it right.) We filled in abundant water, as we knew that we would
    not get water as we neared the peak.

    We all set out slowly an steadily to the peak. The trek was initially via a jeep route, which later converged into a small foot trail. This then continued through some wild growth for a small distance, after which it opened up into a clear plateau. All along the side we (Vinay and me) would have some awesome scenary and where busy taking the pics.

    Ya, one funny part I would like to tell you. Before we started off on the trek we had decided that we would do a late evening-early night trek back to our base camp. We just wanted to ensure that we would not encounter elephant herd while we where returning, so we asked the lady in the forest guard’s home, if she had any information about the elepahant activity reported. There came a funny reply (excuse me if u loose some fun in the translation, but it was just unressistably funny :)) ) – “There are no elephants now, but there is a tiger, don’t worry it will run off if it sees you” [The fun!! do we city hunks look so dreaded??, well not actually, the tiger is a lone hunter and a shy animal. It generally plans its attack (the point is that if it attacked it would attack on the last being as far as possible.) ]. Srikanth was the last person while we where getting down from the trek and we would call his name to ensure that we was not carried away by the tiger :). Subbu was feeling bad that he could not look into the eyes of any tiger all through the trek. The moment the lady made the statement, Vinay was out with his typical “aBbba” and a peculiar face – oh what a moment!!.Thanks Tiger for all the fun.

    Till the open patch my intrest was mostly captivated by the serene and beautiful mountains to the right (on the way up), then slowly the scenic mountainic beauty, shifted to the left. We could hear a stream flow towards our left. There was a large boulder besides which some trekkers do pitch for the night. Its a nice place to camp as it has a natural water source near by.
    Just then we realised that we had a buffalo (domesticated one) staring at us (who are these, crazy ppl tresspassing my territory!!!! – that was the expression). We continued ahead cousiously, ensuring that we did not provoke it to attack us. It realized that we meant no harm to it and went ahead to join its heard.
    We continued out trek ahead, Venu and Satwik where begining to get tiered so we just slowed down our pace (myself and Vinay were at the end as we where trying to get some good photos at each location that we spotted.). At that moment, I dont exactly know why but I recalled some dialogues form a “Yakshagana”(the local folk dance drama of Karnataka) and started giving some entertainment to the group that was climbing. We were left behind by Srikanth, Subbu, Saravan, Praveen, Sushruth who did not wait to take many snaps as they wanted to reach the peak as early as possible, others were with us till then. Subbu, was fatigued by the steep climb that he had to do, so he dropped out from the first team and was waiting to join us, to continue.
    Once subbu joined us there was no dearth of PJ’s we would climb a few steps, wait crack some PJ, and then continue with enthu further. We slowly made it to the top. Srikanth and others were wating for us at the peak.

    Praveen who had joined as first time trekker, was not feeling too comfortable(I guess he had overworked himself during the climb.). He later told us that he used all his dates to reach there – he would move some 34 steps (he counted them literally), then eat a date, then continued. He says he doesn’t know how he made it back to the base. We could read he was completely exhausted.

    At the peak, the sun was not yet low, he was giving off a lot of heat – but the altitude seemed to have been cooling the heat. We found a few stones at the peak, which we used as shade, and had a quick nap. Arun was busy replying queries about the height of various mountains. He had the height displayed in his watch!!!.

    We all had a nice little nap, before we got up, and started munching the food that we had carried along to the peak. We made sure we did not leave back any plastic as would spoil the delicate balance that existed in the place. Just as we had completed our stock of food that we had carried along to the peak, We found another group of 3 trekkers who had come to camp at the peak. They where searching for a good place to pitch their tents, they asked us pointing to an open space that had been used by earlier team. We said we would return and not stay at the peak. We continued our wait for the sunset….

    Slowly, the sun started to descend, towards its home for the night. The temperature began to drop. At a distance we could spot some mist formation — thought for a moment, that we would not be able to see the sunset due to the mist. We just began taking pics of the distant mountains, which where looking much more beautiful now. As the sun move down, the yellow sun began changing into an orange ball, we tried a few “gimiks” with the Camera, – as though we would catch the him, eat the him… ha ha. (We are no Hanumans here)

    We took some very beautiful snaps of the sunset, then having made a camera copy of this beautiful sunset, we decided we would have to get as close as possible to the open plateau region before it would get completely dark. We decided Arun would lead the trek, and Srikanth would be the last person. I was just in front of Srikanth. We had decided that the any person must be able to see the Arun, or atleast his immediate front companion just in case the visibility became very bad due to the mist — we did not find any situatation like that.

    We got down the peak as quickly as possible, but not too fast. We were careful not ot injure ourselves on the way back. We had torches to be used on the way back. As we came down to the flat land (reminds me of the book “The world is Flat”), it was completely dark. At a distance we could some lights, may be some city in the distance. Srikanth and I made some wild guess about the city , then just ditched it. Immediately my attention shifted to the sky that had innumerable stars, being in a city like Bangalore the lights in the city would not let us see such a sky 🙁 . This will remain in the memories of all 10 of us for quiet sometime.

    We continued our trek down to the base camp, we did get confused for sometime, but some good memory helped us stay on the track. We finally reached the base camp. We already had the food ready with us . So having the night dinner was not a major issue.

    Arun wanted to make a camp fire, and enjoy ourself for some time. Praveen who was completely exhausted, and had his legs paining immediately got into his sleeping bag and dozed off. After Arun, Subbu made a gallant effort to light up the fire – gosh was not lighting up. I tried my hand along with Saravan’s assistance but could not make much good. The fire did burn for sometime but was not as we expected. We finally decided that we leave it aside and finish our dinner. We had our dinner, then a small round of Pj’s then went to sleep.

    Or base camp was a nice one. We had a sound sleep. Arun wanted some assistance to get the “2 min maggi noodles” to be cooked, I voulanteered. The two of us had real good time, cooking the noodles. It was the first time i had cooked using firewood — I will not forget the experience.. (the 2 min noodles had to have hot water which took more than 1 h
    our to boil, thanks to our in experience with fire wood cooking) Having the noodles ready, we wanted to get our tiffin as quickly as possible. Subbu’s presence of mind struck with an excellent idea of using the large plantain leaf that was readily available in the compound. The experience of sharing this large plantain leaf was a great and a memorable one, for all of us.

    Once done with the tiffin we all got ready to have our adventures for the day.

    Arun asked us we where ready for an exploration, for a lot of us it was the first time. Arun wanted to reach a falls called “Baliyedra” trekking from the base camp and then from there to the “Chelvara falls”. Arun would have taken us to the falls if he could have some assistance from the forest guard’s home, unfortunately for us the forestguard and his family had to go out to some other place.

    Arun took us for a trek into the wild, we where very excited. Arun was in the lead, and Srikanth as usual was to be the last person. We walked through the wild forest, till we reached the open side of the mountain. We could see the Tadiyandamol peak from there. Once in the open, we checked to see if any leeches had climbed on. For many of us it was the first time the leeches had bitten us. (Leeches, reminds me that Srikanth was plannig to tame a few. He loved the leeches, and the leeches loved him as well.)

    Then we took a right and started moving, there was no trail as such, just that we tried finding out or own way. As we moved ahead we realised that, we had made a mistake by taking the right at that junction. The right turn took us to the open place near the Tadiyandamol peak.

    We all quickly decided that we would choose to goback to Kakabe and from there tavel by local bus to “Cheyannane” (I may have got the spelling wrong, but its something similar…). At one point we did contemplate about going to Kannor in Kerala, then travel from there to Virajpet, it was ruled out as the village that we had to pass through would be completely blocked by the local function (I think it was Huttari).

    On the way back, I challenged Arun to test if he could hold a “dry grape” in his mouth, for the trek to Kakabe. It was a nice challenge- he could do it. Arun, Shushruth and myself reached Kakkabe first — actually we wanted to see if could reach before a stipulated time that we had set. It finally turned out that we could do it with much ease. We reched the small bus stand and waited for the others to turn up. We rested in the shade of the bus stand. In about half an hour we had all the people come. We had some small, food packets that we had packed, we had them.
    In a short while after our mini lunch, we found a bus that would take us to “Cheyyanane”. Praveen was completely exhausted, and opted to stay back. Arun did some emergency damage control and insted of trekking to the “Chelvara falls” we decided to go by the jeep.

    The jeep journey was exciting, infact Venu was always wanting to stand on the foot stand of the jeep. I calls it “Safari style Jeep Drive” haha this one was no safari drive, though the road was dusty, it was though coffee plantations.

    The driver dropped us to a place from where we could reach the falls. This beautiful falls is inside an estate. The main porition of the falls is around 20-25 feet in height. It forms a nice reservoir, that is very inviting to swim. Note, that the depth of this small reservoir that is formed is not uniform, and not advisible if you are not a good swimmer.
    I took photos of the falls in every possible angle (thatz the way it is called when you take a large number of photos!!! – water falls are my crush). We spent about 1 and half hour at the falls before we set back in the Jeep.

    We reached Cheyyanane, had our lunch in a small hotel there. We then went to the bus stand after our lunch. Sat there and waited for the bus that would take us to Virajpet. In the mean time we all exchanged our experiences about the trek. It was nice noting each others experiences in the trek.

    We waited a long time, finally we climbed the bus. It took around 45 min to reach Virajpet. We spent some time at the KSRTC bus stand, then had a good dinner at a hotel. We reached back to the bus stand and finally waited. Once the bus came in we all climbed. I sat beside Venu. I think I might have given him an over doze of some adventure that I had earlier (I had lost my route on a trek to Bandaje abbi, and had literally survived the night to reach out safely).
    Ok thatz all about this trek, will hit back with some old treks details the next time.

  • The Bandajje Abbi – a memorable experience

    The first time I saw this beautiful falls was from GadiKal fort. It looked beautiful and immediately generated an interest in me to go to the falls.
    This is beautiful falls, near BeltangaDi. The name “Bandajje Abbi” literally means Bandajje falls. This falls is some 4 km into the forest from the last house in Bandaje village. Its known for a lot of trekkers getting lost in the wilderness.
    I wanted to see the falls, so 4 of us – Gopi, Muddu, Naveen and I… set out on the 2 motor bikes from our college at an early hour – 6:00 am, of 26th Jan 2005, to be more precise. We made our journey from our college to Beltangadi via moodubidre, we had out morning Tiffin here. We then set to reach Bandajje once we finished our Tiffin. From Beltangadi we have to move to Ujire, from ther we have to go to a village called Mundaje, take a left turn here and then we go to Bandajje village.
    We reached Bandajje at around 9:30 am. We parked our bike at Mr Narayan Gouda’s home. He is a very nice person, gave us some necessary information to proceed. In case you can get a guide from his home there is nothing better than that. We could not get one so we proceeded to go to the falls on our own.
    Just some time after his home we get a deviation, most of the trekkers get lost in their route as they take a wrong deviation here, a assistance from the locals set us on the right path.
    We then thanked the person who came till the last house on the route and continued on in the direction shown. Its around 2 and half hours of trek to the falls, from this point. We started off on the trek expecting we would reach the falls in some 1 and half hours, we continued trekking though the forest we found a peaceful path, there was no disturbance, occasionally we could hear the sound of the waterfall… some birds singing all the way; thatz all we heard and nothing else.
    On the way to the falls we find a lot of small streams criss crossing our path. We don’t have to worry about these. Just continue walking further. We reached the main stream at 12 noon. We took some rest before we started some rock climbing along the stream to get as close to the falls as possible, we did this climbing for some 45 min then we reached a small distance away from the base of the falls. We could see the falls majestic an beautiful right in front of us. All except me had their bath in this stream that was flowing, form this falls on the opposite side we get a panoramic view of Beltangadi, GadaiKal fort and the surrounding areas. We savored this for a while, and then decided to take some rest before we would start trekking back.
    We started to trek back at 1:30 pm, after descending some distance we realized that, none of us recalled the route back to the village. What till then seemed to be an easy trek to do all of a sudden turned into a night mare. We spent some time searching to see if we could get some path in the forest, but when we turn back… it was like – “there is no path, how did we come here then? All the directions look the same”.
    After some time we decided that we can’t do it this way, let’s choose the opposite direction in which we came and expect we reach before dusk. We tried this, but then we only seemed to reach into the deeper part of the Jungle. I was now getting dark (thanks to the tall trees there is a lot of shade, but now the same trees where making our return almost impossible.)
    The other thing that was troubling us was our food reserves, expecting that we could make back by 2pm we had not got packed food along with us, we had 2 liters of water with us when we started back from the falls, but the humidity of the forest was just too high to contain the water within our body… So this was exhausted in no time.
    We realized in some time that it would be impossible to get out before dark, with all the resources we had – the mobile lights!!! (Ah what an alternative???). So we resigned to the fact that we had to spend our night in this dense forest. We came up with a contingency plan… we had to first find a place where we could rest for the night, then have a good sleep so that we could conserve our energy for the next day.
    After some small quest of half an hour, we reached a spot; which we thought was safe (don’t know if it was actually safe.); Gracious God! it was safe at least for that night. Now when I think back upon it.. I look at what all possibilities where there that night (snakes? poisonous scorpions, what about elephants? wild animals like tiger! leopards!!). Our survival that day was a pure chance – no doubts about that.
    It was a full moon that night; we all slept quite early that day 6:30 pm. I am sure we were so tiered that we had to rest; we went into deep slumber almost instantaneously. The location that was chose was a slope region, so we used to slide down and then rest on some plant’s root that was down there. I used to wake up when I hit the root then would realign my position, this continued on till morning 6:00 am.
    I was done with my sleep, and waiting for the other so wake up. I could hear a bird or some thing —> that blew a whistle very close to the way humans whistle. Slowly the sound got more distinct an clear; slowly all of us woke up; for some time all of us believed that, some one had come searching for us… thinking about this we started whistling back, to guide the sound in our direction, the sound came more close, got more clearer. Assuming it to be a human, we shouted out… Its then that we realized it was a bird (definitely non human!!!).
    We waited for some more time at the same place, just to ensure that we had sufficient light to move ahead. Around 7 am we had sufficient light to see around clearly. We not sat for some time and thought what was the option that we had to make it out of this forest maze!( ya a maze, thatz what it was almost – you know you have to get out, but don’t have the route, all sides you find only trees.).
    Naveen was an ace tree climber, we asked him to climb and look if he could spot any village in the distance… No result… So then we had to brainstorm again. We decide that we would go to the nearest peak and try searching for a village from there; once we spot it we would just go down in that direction… come what may!!! (ya, thatz important for us, we don’t want to confuse with the direction.)
    We trekked for some time towards the peak, and lo all of a sudden we hear a phone ring (ah!! at least now we have this hope!!! in case we get lost we can call for help from our friends back in college.). Well we wanted to put in our effort. Ones at the peak we spotted the Bandajje village – having seen it, we said to each other. We know we have the village in that direction, we just have to make sure we follow that direction so that we reach the village.
    We started walking down, some times running down in the slopes, some places we had minor ridges which we slid down, at other places we got down with some creepers that grew around, all the while ensuring that we maintained the direction of the village (we thought this was the only way of our immediate exit from the forest.)
    After 1 had half hour of such a trek down the ridges and slopes we spotted cow dung!! oh and many of them, we continued a little further and found a few foot-routes on the ground, still not worrying about the routes we just continued in the route that was in alignment with our direction.
    At 9:30 we reached a house beside the mud path – we asked them for water, they gave us water but ah!! What is this? We could not swallow even a single drop of water!! yes we had been without water for 7pm the earlier night, so our thoughts were all dry, making it difficult to gulp even water, still we were very thirsty. We just had some water, asked them for direction and then finally landed at Mr Gowda’s home at 10:30.
    We just had some rest and when we told them that we would leave now, they got us some idlis and tea. My thought was almost gone so could not eat many idli’s, but the tea – it was simply superb. I don’t know it was the
    way in which they prepared it or was it because we were damn hungry – It just tasted superb. I have never tasted a much better tea than that one till date.
    After this we, thanked them for all the food and place for parking and bid them adieu.
    We reached college at 1:00 pm. We had missed classes that day, but were happy we reached the hostel safe. After this we had a lot of queries from our friends, about our experience.
    Now when I look back on this incident, a mild shiver runs though my spine… I appreciate the guts we had, the cool head on the shoulders that we maintained, Its a lesson for life. I leant, “how ever sophisticated man might be, he is insignificant in front of nature”. – You just can’t deny this.

  • Kadambi, Sutanabbe(Hanumanagundi), Shringeri, Sirimane and Chatnamane falls

    Kadambi, Sutanabbe(Hanumanagundi), Shringeri, Sirimane and Chatnamane falls

    After Virasat-2004 we were all in a mood to enjoy and so planned a trip to Sirimane and Shringeri. The places for this trek were common spots for the class trips and so the population of our members was minimal. We were around 30 members.

    As usual we chose to start out around 6 am and left NITK in a luxury bus (2+1 seater). Our first destination after the breakfast was Hanumanagundi. We had our breakfast at a hotel in Padubidre were we spent around 45-50 minutes and then headed towards Hanumanagundi. We received the information that the falls would open at 9 am at the forest check post.

    The Kudremukh range has a splendid view of the South Canara district while we were climbing the winding roads, till we reached S.K. Border where we have a sight seeing spot. We could not get down here as parking vehicles there was prohibited(you can always do if you have a 2 wheeler). We then took the path which leads us towards Kudremukh to go to Hanumanagundi. When we reached there we were early, so decided to go a little further (approx 7 km) from here where we had a road side falls namely Kadambi. Here no one got down to enjoy at the falls, all of us stood on the bridge picking up photos to keep this road side falls in memory for longer time. The bus in the mean time went a little further and came back having changed its direction. Kadambi falls is used by people for trick photography and few of us gave a try at it. Meanwhile, one of our members had got along with him a special invitee who was too hungry (leech). This leech is a parasite which sucks in blood and then slowly falls off, but its saliva prevents blood clot immediately and the person looses a lot more blood. Then after spending a total of 35 minutes here we got into the bus and went towards Hanumanagundi. The entry fee here is Rs 30/- per head. A few of us did not get down here as they had already seen the falls. The others got down here. The people who got down enjoyed themselves for about 45 minutes without realizing the leeches trying to feed on them and finally when they came up to the bus they had got along with them a lot of leeches. The people who remained back took a stroll of about 2 km down the road and reached a place with very good scenic beauty. They did not have a camera with them and hence could not get any snaps. The bus took off from Hanumanagundi at around 11 am and on the way back we tried taking the scenic snaps from within the bus. We reached Shringeri around 12:15 pm. We spent some time around Shringeri before we had our lunch at the temple. We were joined here by our guide who would lead a few of our interested members to a new falls (Chatnamane) for the NITK trek freaks. After having our lunch at the temple, we left Shringeri towards Kigga (around 10 km from here) from there we would trek 4.5 km to reach Sirimane falls. We reached Kigga around 2 pm and started our trek. When we reached Sirimane it was around 3:15 pm and a lot of batches came even later. Almost all of them got into the water to refresh themselves after this long and tiring trek. Few of us even tried climbing the steep walls of the falls to reach towards the top of this falls. Another family had also come in to enjoy the falls. We played along with the tiny kids who had come with them. Few of us had nasty falls trying various pranks and stunts. We had nice photography club member using a camera with improperly loaded photography film. This proved most of our stunts a waste of time. We took snaps before trekking back to the old temple at Kigga (of Ramayana fame). Some of us took a break with cool drinks, tender coconuts before getting all the members to climb the bus.

    Two of our members who had seen Sirimane earlier and interested in finding the new falls went along with the guide towards the Chatnamane falls (around 4 km from Sirimane). The remaining people enjoyed themselves at the Sirimane falls taking snaps, playing in water, fighting with leeches. The two members and their guide spent another 1 hour searching for the falls which they finally reached by great difficulty (thanks to the marshyness of the forest and almost a galaxy of leeches). They reached this new falls around 4:15 pm. This new falls is used by locals for their drinking water supply. The falls is about 1.5 times the height of Sirimane and is narrower than Sirimane by say 50%. They took snaps and started there trek backwards. We reached Kigga at about 5:45 pm with day light fading and a majority of the trip people being bitten by atleast 2-3 leeches. We then set on our journey backwards. Two of our members got down as one of them had to go to Bangalore and the other accompanied him to the bus stand. The remaining of us came back to Padubidre where we had our usual Sonu Dhaba dinner.

  • Trip to Yana, Murudeshwara and Unchalli falls

    Trip to Yana, Murudeshwara and Unchalli falls

    We had this trip after Aradhana-03. We were very enthusiastic to go for a trip after working as a unit during Aradhana-03 to make it a memorable one.

    We began the trip to Yana around 2:30am in a luxury bus. We were around 30 people including 6 girls for the trip. This was our first trip with SPICMACAY (we were in the 2nd year at that time). We went to Murudeshwara at around 6:00am, our first destination which is an island in the Arabian Sea. It has beautiful temple and large Siva idol along with a few others. This island it has a road connecting it to the mainland and sea elsewhere. After spending about an hour here, around the temple clicking photos and enjoying the scenery. We left Murudeshwar around 7:00am – 7:15am towards Kumta, where we had our breakfast at the Kamat Hotel. We packed the food for out trip here and around 6 members stayed back to carry it when it was ready. The rest were guided to the bus stop from where they went towards Yana in a KSRTC bus which would take them to the point around 4km before Yana. The 6 people got the food packed and left to Yana in the same luxury bus, the bus being too big had to stop around 8kms before Yana. We had to then trek the remaining distance, which took around 2 hours. We reached the temple at Yana in various units depending on our speed. It was then around 11:45am. We went into the temple and the cave behind it.We could not shout around because of the wild bees around the temple. We then picked up snapshots while few others were told the story about the temple’s past. We had our lunch brought along by the food committee which was sufficient to satisfy a small part of our massive hunger.

    We took rest for around half an hour and then started walking back. All along the way we had a tiny stream of water flowing by the road. The nearest hospital was 30kms away so we had to be very careful in playing around. The walking back seem to be more tiring than the earlier one thanks to the sun above our head. Finally we walked back the 8kms (no KSRTC bus at this time) and reached the bus around 2:30pm. After a long walk we refreshed ourself at a small shop near the spot where our bus was parked. We finally left Yana around 3:00pm.

    Our next destination was the Unchalli falls(lushington falls) from here which was around 2 and a half hour journey from here. In the mean time some of us fell asleep after the long trek. We reached the falls around 5:45pm and so could not get down into the water, as it would take a lot of time and the place being isolated had to be left off early. We viewed the falls from the sight seeing spot near the falls, picked the snaps and left the falls unwilling to the bus. Then we came back to the bus and resumed our fun.

    We had our dinner at Kamat Restaurant in Sirsi at around 9:00pm. Resuming our journey after dinner we reached our College around 1:00am with some of us feeling uncomfortable due to the winding roads.

    We had enough fun in the entire bus journey. We were playing antakshari and dancing. We had some mimickries of Upendra, mimickries of some of our lecturers and some famous actors. We tried linking some couples and had fun of it. The josh was everywhere.

  • Dondole and Alekan falls

    Dondole and Alekan falls

    This was the second time in our experience of three and a half years with Spicmacay and its trips that 7 girls had come for the trip. The second years after a successful Aradhana-05 where very enthusiastic to go for a trip.

    Trips are not just a means for enjoyment, they mean much more. Trips work essentially as a team building factor. It helps us understand each other in much informal way and removes out any misunderstandings. It helps the new members to understand the way the senior members coordinate (with each member taking up a special responsibility and performing it so as to make any event a success) among themselves be it interacting with people or searching for something new or even guiding people. Our main aim in organizing this trip was a better 2nd year and 3rd year interaction.

    The Aradhana josh of the second years made around 30-35 people raise their hands when initially the idea of the trip was proposed. This made us organize a second trip in the same academic year. When most of the ground work was done for the trip we found a much lower crowd, probably because of improper communication of the information among the second years. But we later had around 13 boys of second years coming up for the trip. Totally for the trip we were 37 people. Our initial plan was Kemmanagundi but due to administrative problems of the GB warden we had to change our destination to Dondole falls, Charmudighats and Alekan falls.

    We set out from our college at 5:45 am (amazingly with a delay of just 10 minutes). We had a long bus(54 seater, the one out of fashion) with a higly experienced aged driver not willing to go at a speed greater than 40kmph. We had planned our breakfast at Belthangady (at 7:30 am), but thanks to our driver we reached there at 8:15 am where we had breakfast at Hotel Samatha. In the meantime during our journey we were desperately trying to get the cassette player to work fine which finally came true in the hands of a psycho (electrical engineer). Then he was put into complete incharge of that 1942 modelled cassette player. After about one hour we set out towards Dondole falls, along the Ujire-Shimoga highway. At a place called Kakkinje we took a deviation and went in for about 12 km. The remaining approximately 8 km had to be trekked (could have also used a jeep which didn’t strike us initially). We set out on the trek which would last for about 2 hours before finally reaching the stream which made the falls. As soon as people found the water and a little falls sort of thing they started getting into the water and enjoying, till one of our senior member ran all the way and found the actual Dondole falls. Then the other members were lead till this falls via trechorously slippery rocks and sharp boulders. Some of our members were reluctant to go to the main falls considering the danger involved in moving over the rocks (thanks to some handsome suggestions by another member). But most of our members not just reached the falls but also went to its top. Few of our members had nasty falls along the way thanks to the high erosion by the fast currents of the stream during the rainy season. The falls is a splendid one if it was seen during early winter. One sad fact about the falls is that more than 80 percent of the water is deviated by the estate owners against the government rules to utilize it for their individual needs. We picked up snaps of the falls and its surroundings. It was around 12:30pm when we decided to walk back to our initial enjoyment spot where we planned to have our light snacks carried along. We rested after snacks for a while before a quick group photography session. Then decided to walk back and reached the bus it was around 3 pm after a long trek with the midday sun staring from above. When the last group reached the bus it was around 3:30pm. We set out from there without any further delay towards Charmadi. Charmadi range is one of the most scenic in the whole of the Western Ghats. We picked up snaps from the bus of these scenic spots all along the way. Our destination was basically the Alekhan falls. This is a road side falls. It was 4:45 pm when we reached the falls. The driver was very upset for having brought him this long. He was also not willing to let the members get down to the base of the falls, sighting the delay to get down the ghats as a reason. This brought in a difference of opinion between among the senior members and finally a few members (highly interested) got down to view the falls from its base. Finally when we set out from Alekhan it was 5:30 pm. We reached Charmadi at 6:15 pm when we took a small break for tea. We finally set out to Mulki at 6:45 pm. When we reached Bittu it was 8:30 pm.

    All along the way (though with initial delay) we enjoyed the trip, some of us cracking PJs, doing stunts, playing antakshari, overacting.

    The main motive of the trip namely, interaction between the meager count of the 3rd year members and the highly enthusiastic 2nd year members so as to let them function in a better manner during the next academic year was successful to about 80 percent (in a final year members perspective). We final years had a lot of interaction informally with the participating members.

  • Trip to Karkala, Sita falls, Vonakeabbi falls and Agumbe

    Trip to Karkala, Sita falls, Vonakeabbi falls and Agumbe

    This was a unique trip with the 3rd years pleading the second years to come to the trip with a lot of members giving a lot of insensible reasons. We had booked a mini bus for the trip as the numbers were less. We were around 24 members without even a single girl.

    The planned takeoff of the trip was at 5:45, in which case we would have got a good sunrise at Karkala. Unfortunately, the day being Shivarathri we had to wait for two members (almost infinitely) for about 1 hour and finally began the journey without them at 6:45 am. We then set out towards Karkala on the way we saw the sunrising near the bridge at Mulky. We reached Karkala around 7:50. We visited the Gommateshwara Statue there, picked some snaps had a nice view of the Western
    Ghats     and surrounding villages. We then had our breakfast at Sagar Hotel.

    We left Karkala around 9:00 towards our next destination viz Sita falls(Koodluthirtha). We had to take a deviation from the Hebri Someshwara road and from here go around 8kms to the last house before the falls. A large bus would have made us walk around 12kms up and down but the minibus left us having to walk only 2kms up and down. Just before getting into the forest to walk through Sita falls we see a splendid falls far away in the forest(ie not our destination). We walked through the forest and reached Sita falls in 20 minutes. The water there was shivering cold and all the members had a dip in the water and played in it. People enjoyed for around 45 minutes in the water and then started walking back reluctantly. It was around 12:00pm when we reached the bus.

    We then went to a small hotel were we had booked our lunch before itself(a day earlier). It was around 1:15pm when we reached the hotel. We had our lunch there and few of us went around Hebri drinking cool drinks, eating sweet pan etc. Then we started moving to Someshwara for our next destination from where we had to trek to Vonakeabbi falls (relatively new falls to NITK considering we were the second team to visit this, this is a very popular destination for trips now). The falls is around 3kms into the forest from Someshwara. We asked for a guide from a shop near the temple who would lead us to the falls. We started our trip from here at 3pm with strict guidelines to everyone who was coming along who walked back from where ever he was at 4pm (so that we do not miss the sunset scenery from Agumbe). The trek to the falls was a real tiring one with people having to climb steep hills of around 60 degree(approx) from the ground level. While climbing we met a few trek enthusiasts who had taken a full day for the trek. We continued our trek and a few of us lost our way in between while few others decided against climbing (seeing the steepness) and the remaining reaching the stream. We get a very beautiful first glance of this falls which is along the Udupi Chickmagalur border from here. Then we started climbing, walking through the rocks along the stream to reach the base of this divine falls(gives you the divine happiness). Again we reached here in various groups depending on speed. It was around 4:15pm by then. We started walking back after taking a few snaps towards our bus. We reached our bus around 5:10pm.

    We had a small tea break before resuming our trip to Agumbe sunset point. On reaching Agumbe sunset point we were greeted by clouds covering the sun, monkeys and few other tourists. It was 6:00pm by then. The journey atop the Agumbe ghats is itself an experience. We get around 14 hairpin curves along while climbing. We get a breath taking view of Vonakeabbi falls(the one just visited) from 2 points along the road. On the other side all along the road we get a splendid view of the plains of Udupi district covered with a majority of forests and paddy fields. The clouds covering the Sun seem to have decided not to let us have a view of the sun setting. So we waited for around 15 minutes and then started moving down in the bus. Just as we had negotiated the second hair pin curve from the top, the sun came out of the clouds. All of us started shouting and asking the bus driver to stop the bus, who agreed reluctantly. He stopped a little further after the third hair pin curve. We got down took snaps had a view of the sun setting down and then got back into the bus to resume our journey back to the college. We had our dinner at Sonu dhaba and returned to college at 9.30pm.

    The amazing part of this trip was time maintenance.

    The enjoyment was as usual with Antakshari, Cassette Player, dances.

  • JamalaBad Fort

    Jamalabad fort also called GadiKal kote (more polular amongst the locals) is a old ruins of a fort located off Beltangadi. This fort is around 10 kms from Beltangadi town. The fort is atop a hill, and the trek is all about getting to the peak of the hill.

    We were four people for this trip/trek. It was the first time Anand Pai had decided to try himself for a trek. The other two people for the trek/trip were Naveen and Kotresh. Naveen was an experienced campaigner while Kotresh was a novice not his first trip/trek though.
    We started off as usual from our beloved college (Which is ideally located for a lot of treks) early after “jugad” of 2 bikes.. We left early from college at around 5:45 am with the intension of reaching BeltangaDi for our morning breakfast. Our usual route for treks near BeltangaDi was via HaleangaDi, and then the route to go to MooduBidre then to BeltangaDi. It is a route though some winding roads some nice scenery.. not much of traffic, mostly though villages. A pleasant ride through the road will take us to the main town. Some places the road gets bad due to heavy rains but still a nice journey.

    We reached BeltangaDi around 730 am then had our Tiffin in a hotel – I think the name is “Hotel Samatha” then spent around 1 hr there with some food packing, some fruit juice.. and then back we were on the bikes to continue our journey.

    The fort is around a drive of 20 min or even less, from the town of BeltangaDi. We reach the base of the hill where we have to pay a minimum amount of Rs 30/- to the forest dept who are maintaining the fort… maintain I don’t know what is there to maintain!!!!
    Well the trek is more of a climb on steps rather than any serious climb. The total number of steps is around 1000, but you won’t realize all the steps you just think its ruins or its just rock. Humm… leave that aside… all that matters is the climb.

    The climb starts off with some well maintained steps, and then we slowly start climbing steeper and steeper domains. We see a rock face after some time; we get a nice view of the Kudremukh mountain range from this open rock face. We took some rest here. Anand who was doing his first trek was almost worn out and was making it very slowly this early. Kotresh was also in a similar state. We had some lemons along with us, just gave one each to Anand and Kotresh (Lemons help us conserve our energy…. I don’t know what exactly it does). Kotresh having received the lemon and tasting it was on his feet and running to the top!!! You now know what energy it gives ha ha!!! He did not stop till he reached the peak. After some rest here we enter into a shrub laden region where we just climb following on some foot trails that were left by earlier trekkers. This trail follows though some fort walls, we have to look carefully to realize these things. Some places the rock walls are on the edge of this hill.. you can peep down and you see some place nearly 500ft deep.. If you have vertigo be careful this is just the starting point for you, there are many more to come down the lane. Just don’t worry about the taking pics for now… you will have many more nice spots to take on the peak. Continue on the trail it opens up into another set of steps.. which will take you to the peak. The height of these individual steps is much more than you can expect. On one side you have the rock surface of the fort while on the other you have nothing except a small cut out of the same rock surface… well you see on to you left in the climb and you will have your vertigo no doubt. It’s just that thrilling to go out there. Just imagine what if I slip!! Oh it’s going to be a fall of nearly 900ft to the base of the hill… That thought is surely going to come.

    The specialty of this hill is its isolated from other ranges stands tall and dominant even from a distance. It gives a good view of all the villages in the surrounding. This is the reason why Tippu would have like to build his fort on such a strategic location. On once side you see the Western Ghats, on another you see the vast plains of South Canara. It’s a very panoramic view.

    Continue on with this steps and you will get into the “fort palace” I think this what it is. At the peak you have a small shelter I think served as the palace for Tippu. You also find a have a small pond…guess for storing water from the rains for the palace in olden days.. You can’t get water from the pains no doubt about it. You have an antenna I don’t know which service provider it belongs to… nice thing to have at the top. We had been to this fort just a few days after the rainy season… so the grass had grown to be tall and it was really hard to find any path to look around the fort. We just had some open space and shorter grass at a place so it was mostly there that we spent our time.

    The place is really nice and am sure is a paradise for photographers in case you want some real nice views. Guess the sunset would just be too good. But you have to have nice lights to get down. Early morning gives another nice view with the Sun rise behind the Western Ghats… all this will only make any photographer happy. The Clouds generally kiss this hill and that would give some more nice scenes for them. The white clouds that try to scale the Kudhremukh peak also are a sight to watch. Just too many snaps to click with your camera….. I love it.

    We spent some time at the peak, we had taken nearly 1 and a half hour to climb it… it can be much faster if you have people who have the stamina to climb it in one go. Anand Pai considered this an achievement, this is the first time he had done something like that and still remembers it to this day. He was all high the whole day. We took another 45 min to get down and were at the base of the hill.

    We had completed a nice trek a memorable one for the photographer in me.. I will go back at least for the photos…. Don’t miss it if you are a photographer.
    With all these in memory we set back to college.. it was a fun day out for we four. We came back to our hostels and had a nice nap.. the day’s trek/trip was over and now it was in our memories that all this remains.. Cherish it when I think about it.. Just cherish it……

  • Kumaraparvatha

    KumaraParvatha affectionately and passionately called by trekkers as KP, is one of the most common trekking spots. This is one of the tallest peaks in Karnataka and towers at around 4000 ft above sea level. This peak is on the border of two very beautiful districts of Karnataka namely – South Canara and Coorg. So this peak can be scaled from either side… the Kukke side or the Coorg – Somavarpet side. We chose the Somavarpet side to climb and the Kukke side to getdown.

    We were a group of 5 trekkers – Naveen, Purusha, Siddu, Muddu and myself; we managed to make it a one day trek.

    We set out from college on to do this trek on Friday night from Mangalore. We caught a bus that would take us to Somavarpet.. We reached Somavarpet quite early 6:45am.. ditch the details here. We had a local bus that takes ut to a village that is around 45 min from Somavarpet, it was scheduled to leave at 7:15am we just did some quick breakfast and then a purchase of fruits before we boarded the bus.

    After we complete a 45 min journey, we reach a small village from where we have to start our trek. I don’t recall the name of the Village now!! Well some distance form here we had met a stream this is the “KumaraDhara”. This stream has its origin in the Kumara Parvatha. During our trek a bridge was under construction…, we had to take a make shift bridge to cross over. Then there is a wide mud road which takes you over to another village. It is from this village that we get to see the KumaraParvatha for the first time.

    Joys walk through the paddy fields and we were near a temple. We just took a break here and then continued on our trek. It was very sunny and a walk in the dusty mud road was killing our interest… after a small distance covered in this way we get to see a forest check post. This is the where we enter into the actual trek. We have to pay some nominal amount as entry fee for the trek route. The route after this is through dense forest and is a real fun to trek. There are tall shady trees all along. No noise, all that you hear is just the chirping of birds and sometime the wind. I am sure in rainy season there would be a lot of leeches here.
    Some trek through the forest and a few steep climbs we will come to a good sight seeing spot were we can hang on for some time and have nice pictures taken, we did exactly that. Continue on further from here and another climb we will come to a nice spot, a good resting place. You will find some cement seats and some sort of shelter here. You can take a small nap in case you want to here. Continue on the same trail, you will reach a small falls (I was completely dried when we went, so we could not appreciate it much) . A little further and then you can see a deviation. One way is pointed toward the Heggademane while the other is toward Pushpagiri (KP) peak. We did not want to waste any time any were and wished we reached the peak as early as possible, so we chose the route towards the peak. A small distance from this diversion we get to see a steep climb, its rock surface and I am sure it’s hard to climb if you don’t have good grip, not undoable though. Just wait for a small time and look around, you have a very nice view for yourself. The peak is not all that far from here and so you can spend as much time as you want to take the snaps. Once this session is over you can continue with the trek, just a small trek through the short shrubs again and you will be at the peak, some sign boards to indicate the direction, one indicating towars Kukke and the other towars Somavarpet.
    We reached the peak ar around 12 noon!!! oh what a time to reach the peak, no shade over there, jus a few temples, some stone heap, and a flag. When we reached the peak, we met a family that had trekked from the Kukke side, and were planning to get down from the Somavarpet side. They had a small kid think it was around 1yr old, carring it on the back was its mother, her husband was there along, there was another person .. he seemed to be their giude and was carrying all the luggage of tents and stuff for trekking. It was an ispiration for us to see this family; they had even brought their little kid for this trek!!! After some enquiries and hai/bye stuff we parted ways.
    We spent some time picking snaps and looking at the view around. We were also searching for a suitable spot for our lunch that we had carried. We spent around half an hour at the peak and the continued to descend on from the Kukke side. We received the information from the family that there was a small stream of water a lil further on the other side.. it was not too good to drink but could be used for other purpose in case you needed it. We were searching for this spot and found it in no time. We just sat there in the shade for some time, had our food and took a nap for 30 min. It was a nice sleep that we had, not much of a problem at all. We set out from the spot at around 2:15 pm.We continued on our trek, now slowly the sun was moving west and was really nice to see the distant villages and the route that we would follow to go to kukke.

    We moved on slowly though the huge stretch of the mountains, looking back sometimes at the Peak, some times at the path we followed to reach the peak. I looked at the vast stretch of the mountain… and just got lost in some philosophical thought. After a small trek this way, we reach a nice water source, generally called “Mantapa” by a lot of people. There is a small pond near by that stores water. It’s a nice place to rest. You will get very nice photographs from this place.
    We continued our trek and the
    n reached the forest check post on the other side; some distance away you have the famous “Battara Mane”… a nice resting place for the trekkers. We had some tea here and then continued our trek to Kukke. It was a nice time to do the descend trek. We just wanted to reach Kukke before it was late and hence did a hurried trek. It was though winding path and dense forest, high huminidity would sack all the energy that we have. We continued on with the trek and finally reached Kukke at 5:30pm.
    We then caught a bus to GunDia then to Mangalore and finally reached college in the last bus to Surathkal. It was a memorable trek for us. Wish I make a more planned and leisurely trek to this place some time again to spend the night at the peak.
    For Photographer it’s a very nice place to pick a lot of snaps. I bet the towering KP has a lot in store for the SunRise and sun-set. It’s definitely worth spending one cold night at the peak.