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  • “Chaos”-James Gleick

    I want to experiment a bit with this book review and see how it goes so want to write the review of the book chapter wise and then a general description of the book. So here I go…

    Chapter 1 – The Butterfly Effect
    The butterfly effect name comes from to the map that depicts the infinite complexity, which doesn’t run off the page and limits itself within certain boundaries…. the only specialty being that it never repeats itself. Roughly some what like a double spiral in 3D… this graph plot resembles a butterfly with two wings. The chapter begins with Edward Lorenz experimenting and trying to simulate the weather, and though serendipity realizing the non deterministic nature of a lot of phenomenon. Nicely written by the author… generated a lot of interest in me.

    Chapter 2 – The revolution
    James speaks about the change in perspective that too place – calling it a paradigm shift of paradigm shift. He gives an explanation for this shift using examples from pendulum, the big red eye in Jupiter, playground swings… and the kind. He introduces the great scientist Smale and his contribution to the field of Chaos…

    Chapter 3 – Life’s up and Down
    This chapter shows how Chaos got to take a good place into the areas of science.. how scientist realized the inevitability of having and respecting the chaos in life sciences. The field of chaos begins to gain a stronger following and that is what is explained in this chapter.

    Chapter 4 – A Geometry of Nature
    This chapter is mostly regarding the development of subject of chaos. The contributions of Mandelbrot, are mainly highlighted in this chapter. This chapter shows the extent to which the fractals are prevalent in this worlds… the way the universe turns out to be nothing but a huge fractal… all fields.. Economics, biology all these stand a testimony to the great realization of fractals.

    Chapter 5 – The strange Attractors
    This chapter deals with the experiments that were conducted to improve understanding of a few concepts and how they finally landed up being more directive to the field of chaos. This chapter gives a sort of visual understanding of the activities described by chaos.

    Chapter 6 – Universality
    This chapter like others has a bit of repetition in it… the idea is repeated, I think to grant more emphasis on the fact the this is very prevalent… This chapter is a brief summary for me… about all the various observations that were made and the implications that could be derived from it.

    Chapter 7 – The Experimenter
    This chapter is a tribute to Albert Libchaber, who was very instrumental in taking the chaos theory closer to realization and aided better understanding of the theory. This chapter mainly concentrates on the fluid related representation of the chaos theory. The understanding about bifurcations improved by analyzing the spectrum the was sent out by this experiment.

    Chapter 8 – Images of Chaos
    This chapter gives a bit of introduction to chaos theory via mathematical terms… The representation of complex number for understanding and visualizing them as images, the Julian Set and much more is dealt with in this chapter.

    Chapter 9 – The Dynamic System Collective

    Deals with the way an organization was formed by self motivated and interested people to investigate in the domain of chaos… started off with very minimal support from any direction just for the interest of the subject, the contribution of this collective cannot be undermined. Very interesting as to how it developed.

    Chapter 10 – Inner Rhythm

    The human and biological field is investigated in the understanding of chaos through this chapter. The human heartbeat is looked into with much more detail, and interpreted for understanding using the chaos theory… the un-understood problems in biology seem to have some head way using Chaos… much more in this chapter…

    Chapter 11 – Chaos and Beyond

    This chapter is in itself a small summary of the whole book, giving us in brief all the major events and the personalities who contributed to this domain. This gives a brief insight as to how all these major icons went on with their contribution to the field of chaos…

    ————————————————————————————

    Now here is my take…

    In totality, this is a nice book to read… we have got have the patience to read through the repletion of ideas – Gleick just wants to emphasize what he says. I am sure after reading this book a long with turning point we shall not look at nature in the same way… we begin to appreciate the way nature has organized itself….

    Am sure will help change the perspective of a of people… an interesting read over all… just have to be a bit patient some times…

    http://www.around.com/chaos.html

  • Amedikal

    It had been a long time almost 3 months since my last trek with friends to Kodachadri. I just got a bit off track with some preparations for the interviews and group discussion. Now that it was all over I was eager to get on a trek.
    My last trek with RHM was a very memorable one… Thanks to the co-ordination and their goal. This time RHM was arranging a trek to Amedikal, near Shisila. some 20 odd Kms from Dharmasthala.
    The trek was on the 28th and 29th of April. Arun and Dean had tried reaching to the Amedikal peak some time the year before but the weather was a bit bad for them to continue and reach the peak, so this time they had come up with a group to reach to the peak.
    As usual the assembly point of the RHM group was the KSRTC bus stand enquiry counter. Eight of us assembled for the journey to Dharmathala. From where we would reach Shishila and then on to the trek.
    The eight members of the trek were was follows; Arun, Dean, Vasudhendra, Lohit, Praveen, Smitha, Harish and myself. Arun and Dean were the organisers, Harish was my classmate in school; others were all new to me. Vasudhendra, is a well known author in Kannada, and it was an experience meeting a person like him. Another person Mr. Hegde was to join us in Dharmasthala. The speciality of this group, it had three journalist – Arun, Harish and Hegde; in it.
    We set out from Bangalore at 10:30pm on the 27th of April, to Dharmasthala. After a long journey form Bangalore – thanks to some technical problem the bus had and a road jam in the ghat section we reached Dharmasthala quite late at around 6:00 am. We finished our morning ablutions and were joined by Mr Hegde to get on with the breakfast.
    Once we completed the breakfast we were on with our journey to Shishila. We booked a jeep from Dharmasthala that would take us to the small village of Shishila. Shishila is known for its temple of “Shishileshwara”. In the journey from Dharmasthala to Shishila, it was a random discussion on variety of topics so as to break our inhibitions and get to know about the other personality that all of us possess.
    On reaching Shishila we had a brief intro given about the trek by Arun, and the plan we had for the 2 days. We followed this with an informal introduction about ourselves. Its then that we got to know each other a bit more well. Arun distributed the “emergency food” that was to be used only when we needed it the most. We then booked a jeep to home which would then be our base camp. We asked for a guide and got a very helpful guide – “BalaKrishna”, to guide us on the trek. All of us dumped our bags atop the jeep and sat along to the house where we planned to rest. It was another 20 minutes journey that would take us to the “home” – yes, that’s exactly the feeling all of us got interacting with the house members and the care they took about us. We reached the home, and rested for about 25 minute when “Balu” joined, to guide us to the peak.
    All the 9 of us started on the trek; Balu was on the lead… and followed by us…. He took us on a small foot trial into the forest. Smitha started having some problems and could not keep pace with us, so Arun stood back trying to get her along, but she was finding it very difficult finally, Arun decided that it is better to take her back and so asked the group to move along and took her back home.
    The rest of us – 7 in number and Balu totally 8 continued on the journey. The train slowly got more demanding on us. There was a constantly increasing elevation that would make the trek a bit tougher. We were carrying along our food and water, the luggage felt like an ever increasing one. It took all of us some time to warm up and continue. The humidity was high and all of us were drenched from head to toe in no time. Balu was as fit as ever, we were just amazed at his strength and stamina… From his expression I could read … oh man they find even this so difficult!!! Well he was just too good for us.
    The journey was through a forest cover, the forest had high humidity and was draining out a lot of the fluid through perspiration. Dean and Vasu had an encounter with a pit-viper, and thanks to Arun who was there at the right moment to help them out. Arun spotted it up first and then stopped Vasu from stepping over it. We were waiting for Dean and Vasu a bit further (most of us might have missed it by oversight.) A bit further I found spider that was posing for a snap, took a snap of this big spider and continued further. After about an hours journey we took a small break, and were refueling our-self with liquid. There were a huge scourge of mosquitoes, and were behind each one of us. We competed the break and resumed the journey with renewed spirit. On the right side of the path now we did not have much vegetation covering us and we could see the famous “Ettina Bhuja” (meaning the shoulder of ox) at a distance. From here onwards till the peak we could spot this huge mountain all along the trek course.
    A small distance further we spotted the peak of Amedikal. This was the first time we spotted this on the trek route since we started off from the base. The trek had been in the canopy of the forest, so we had not been exposed to the sun till now, this was the fist opening that we found. The Amedikal was just too beautiful to look at. We for an instant thought we could now reach the peak from there in around an hour and a half. Looking at the rate we walked, Balu with his expertise in the region told us at this rate you will only get back home at 7:30pm. Yes, it was around 745 that we reached the home that day, what an estimation man!! too good ah!
    After this open space we went into a small forest cover, where we had a small water store and we refilled our cans to carry on further. Just a walk of around 10 min from this point I spotted a “green garden snake”. Four of us, watched the snake with apt attention, it was an amazing sight to watch this snake make its move. It just climbed and climbed, we just could not believe it could climb so high on the plants given its lean body. I was just too good.
    We continued further after having the snake show, now we were getting closer to the peak. The sun was a bit too harsh on us during this part of the day. Now we were into the open zone, not much vegetation and no shade excepting some trees here and there. All of us began to feel the heat and strain. Now we were almost at the foot of the Amedikal peak and it was just getting even tougher. We had trekked nearly 3 hours to reach the base of the Peak. The climb was slow for all of us, but Balu did not even show a hint of fatigue, he was just too good (No doubt I became his fan!!!).
    The hot scorching sun had drained a lot out of me, the winds were blowing along the surface of the mountain, some times a cloud or two would give a small shade to these mountains. I could see the natural processes of creation of sod from stone there.
    A small time after the accent began I chose to sit for some time. The blowing winds was enough to push me to slumber, I did get driven off by the winds into the sleepy would a couple of times when I was resting to rejuvenate myself.All of us rested for a while at different places on the way up to get boosted often to continue the upward trek. It was the hardest terk I had done till date, the sun was virtually eating my energy. The previous hardest trek I had done was to climb the KumaraParvatha from the Somavarpet side.
    This stone mountain was, more open and taller to scale. The height and the distance to be covered were making the trek even more demanding. This combined with our lack of regular preparation for something like this was making the trek look more massive than it might just be. Balu lead us to a shady shelter were we rested to take up our lunch. I had been nearly a 4 hour trek till now and all of us were just too hungry to wait. Once we reached there we immediately opened the pack of pooris, and Chitranna that we had carried along. We rested here for around 45 minutes, kept our bags to carry them along when we returned. We carried along only a few water-bottles that would help us quench our thirst on the way to the peak. Balu spotted a wild jackfruit tree and within a flash was down with the fruit for us. We decided to take take time to have a taste of it on the way back.
    We asked Balu what might be the history behind the name of the peak being Amedikal, the told us that in the local language – tulu, Dikel means stove. So that’s how the name AmeDikal comes to be. We see 3 stones atop the peak; it looks like a stove in the village kitchens.
    We advanced towards the peak, and came found a panoramic view once we found our-self out of the forest cover into the open. Another 10 minutes trek from here we reached the peak from were we found our-self atop the world. The view was just too splendid. We rested at the peak for 30 min before we set back. We tried various poses for our camera, and jumped from one stone to another with Balu’s guidance for the whole process. On the way to the peak we climbed a few stones which made the view look very scary. All of us crossed a few tough points, thanks to the expert assistance of Balu, we were able to experience the thrill of such a climb.
    After the photo shoot at the peak we began the return. It was almost a journey of 5 hours for us to the peak, and we set out to the base at 4:30pm.
    We all started off back to the base with Balu again leading from the front. We got down form the peak and reached the shady region, were we had rested for lunch prior to continuing our journey to the peak. Balu got the Jack-fruit and opened it up for us, all of us were up eating the fruit. We enjoyed the fruit and resumed our journey to the base. On the way back the small grass that grew all over the place was very misleading and if it was not for Balu. The grass had grown so symmetrically that we could not find a well defined path back. We continued on under the guidance of Balu to reach the base.
    The light was getting dark and we were gearing up for a night trek. We got out our torches. We took about an hour to reach to the base of the Amedikal peak. We then started on our route back. Slowly but steadily we continued on the trek, and reached the base camp after a trek of 2 and half hours from the peak.
    One of the memorable incidents on the way back was Dean asking us all of a sudden to switch off all the torches, and maintain absolute silence… we were expecting something very curious… and asked him what was the matter. Dean replied….”Enjoy the silence”… and lo all others were on him for this attempt… All of us being tiered just wanted to reach home now… not enjoy the silence.
    Once we reached the home all of us wanted to get to the river nearby and wash off the fatigue. Sunil, the home boy with a lot of enthusiasm took all of us to the river. We spent about an hour before we decided to wind off to sleep. Harish and I slept on the platform that was there near the home, Lohit on a bench, Smitha inside the home and the remaining people in the space that was available in front of the home.
    The hard trek of the day was enough for us to send us dozing off in not time. We woke up early in the morning only to appreciate how well the villagers are used to the saying “Early bird gets the worm”. All day long I was to learn a lot of things about this rustic life… the originality of the life and learn to appreciate it.
    Balu returned to check with us the day’s plans. We initially had thought of reaching “Ettina Bhuja” and Moodigere from there, then to Dharmasthala, but the previous day’s trek had taken its toll on us and we knew all of us could not complete the trek in the sate we were. Balu too suggested the same… so we decided to just keep the second day simple and searched for a place to recline and spend a good amount of time in the river there.
    So that decided we began our trek to the place around a kilometer and half from the home. On the way we spotted a few children peeping out, Sunil was all enthu calling them out to join us to the place. The walk through the mud road was a pleasant one. We had stream criss-crossing the mud road occasionally other times it just flowed silently along the route. We found a wild fruit all along the way till we reached the river, I just threw them to the side of the road… just that the child in me felt like doing it.
    We reached the river and walked upstream to reach a dam that had been built by the locals to harvest the water of the “Kapila” also called “Sudhe” by the locals. Balu just warned about a deep “Gundi” some distance away and let us get into the water. 5 of us got down into the water and had a play there, while the remaining were busy thowing stones into the silent river water and counting the bounce, some times just picking snaps and other times attempting some gimmicks.
    We could spot the Ettina bhuja occasionally but the clouds would hamper our sight of the peak. There is dense bamboo vegetation, Sunil was making a mention that there are elephants down the valley and this location just seemed to be too ideal a place for the huge animal. The serene water of the river, dammed to make it look more beautiful, bamboo vegetation, The mountains and the forest covered slopes that make the scene very picturesque.
    After about an hour and half that we spent in the river we decided to get back to the home. We visited some Deity that had been placed on an altar beside the river, may be it holds a high esteem and has a local folk-lore associated with it. I am not sure about it. After picking up snaps of this we set out on our way back to the home. I was busy clicking pics on the way back and Sunil was even more enthusiastic to try his hand at photography. All of us reached the home and waited for the lunch to be served.
    We cought up into individual discussions on various topics and, it was quite an enlightening experience for me. I got to know a lot of different dimensions to a lot of things. The topics of the discussion from songs, singers, movie review to author/poet styles and the kind. Having a research journalist like Harish along with an established author like Vasudhendra in the group was a great experience. Arun & dean with their wast experience in the trekking domain kept me latched to their discussion most of the time.
    After our lunch we decided to visit the temple of Shishileshwara on the way back to Dharmasthala. Balu called up a Jeep from Shishila to the place and we got it. After bidding the family that had taken such a good care about us, we dumped our luggage on the roof of the jeep and set out on the way to the temple. In about 25 minutes we reached the temple.

    Shishila got it name from the temple here. The deity here is Shishileshwara. This temple is beside the river kapila. A lot of folklore may be associated with this temple and the river. There are a lot of fishes in the water here. They are a feast for the eyes to watch. The devotees get along with them rice and puri to feed them (you can get them at the rice and poori in the temple premises itself in case you have not got it.)
    Some time back there was a very bad accident that caused the death of a numerable number of these fishes; some one had poisoned the fishes to increase their fish catch or something like it. In memory of this incident a memorial with the sculpture of fish has been erected near the temple. The fisheries department has also banned any fishing or the sort in the 2 km radius of the temple.
    The last bus from Shishila towards Dharmasthala was at 4:30pm, we thought it might be at 4:00pm and reached the stand half an hour early. We climbed the bus that was right on time and we climbed it with all our big bags and stuff. We reached Dhar
    masthala at 6:00pm, went to the temple after having our evening tiffin. We returned to the bus-stop waiting for our bus, it was destined to leave at 10:30 pm. We reached Bangalore in the wee hours to get back to work, after a couple of days of hard trek all of us got back to work, and our routine.

  • The Green Route – Sakleshpura Railway Line trek

    It has been a long time since I have trekked on this route… almost 2 yrs. I shall try recollecting as much as I can and write down… I don’t recall the exact date of this trek, but just remember the month – Dec, 2005.
    It was just after our last exam of the 7th sem, that we chose to go on this trek. I had a function the day after the trek so wanted to do just 1 day trek, while others wanted to complete a two day one. PJ had just been to this trek around 3 weeks before and had shared the snaps and the route info with us.
    We got a printout of the route, some shopping followed to purchase the food items and stuff. We had enough for store for two days. We set out from our college to the Mangalore KSRTC bus-stand and wanted to reach Donigal.
    We climbed a semi-luxury bus. The seats were rather empty, so it was more than a semi-luxury for us…. some of us stretched ourselves to occupy the full seats and enjoy the luxury of Sleeper coach!!!
    Well after about some 4 hours journey we reached the famous “Picnic” hotel. It was a cold winter night, and in the ghat section it made the cold even chiller. We immediately reached out for a cup of coffee at the road side tea-stall, besides the Picnic. In the cold night we I could see a busy vendor showing off his prowess in swinging the tea/coffee from a tumbler into a bigger container and then back… The passing buses would stop beside the tea stall; the drivers would resume their driving after a cup of tea.
    We were about 9 people in number on this trek. Some first timers some experienced… a nice mix. We had PJ’s blog of the trek with us… and took that as our reference. We asked the tea vendor for directions to the rail station (Donigal Railway station). This was to be our starting point. The blog told us, we had to walk back by the road about 2kms to find a temple.

    We set out form the hotel, with torches in our hand and flashing it up all along the road, we moved towards the destination… a bridge to be more specific from where we could get to the station. We waked around a couple of kms from the hotel and spotted another small hotel beside the road… we continued on the road side to reach a small falls… we got down to feel how the water was in there – shivering cold… eee….

    We then resumed our walk by the road side… we just took note of the distance we had covered, it was around 4 kms so we thought we might have lost the critical turn, it would be better we ask for some guidance… so we walked back to the small hotel that we had noticed. There was no power in there, just some candle light and we got in to have our second cup of tea/coffee.

    He told us that we were on the right track, just that you had to go a bit further from the point were we decided to return, we took a break of around half an hour here and then decided to continue our search, we got to a small temple first after retracing along the highway. We just went a bit further as directed by the hotel owner and we got a mud road, we continued on but that road seemed to go to an estate, so we got back to the temple and two of us decided that we would go a bit further, check if we had some way to reach the rail track a bit further down the road.. We got a bit further spotted an asphalted road that would take us to the railway track, we got back to inform the others,… All of us got back to the road and decided to have a small nap before we would continue the trek early morning the next day.

    At around 5:30 am, just waited for the light to improve, so that we could start off on the trek. We started off at around 6:15 when the light was sufficiently good so that we could spot the rails clearly. A small distance ahead we came across the first bridge, it was my first experience crossing a bridge, I think I had a small problem with heights so chose to cross them slowly and cautiously. Once we crossed the bridge, I gained in confidence and then rest of the journey was not much of the problem. We got down in to the stream that flowed below the bridge, did freshen up a bit; then we got back to the track. We continued on the rail road, some time later, we found the sun making its presence for the day. We were quick to click a couple of pictures and then continued on the track. It was a very nice experience with the morning due just subsiding, the sunlight cutting through the mountains and then getting to the rail track, occasionally spotting other trekkers, who were in a hurry to finish the trek.

    We continued at our own pace and reached the first common rest place of trekkers, it was beside an old junction room if I am right, A stream flows wide at this point and it looks too neat…think there was some construction work as well at that point of time. We decided to continue a bit further, we notices a net covering the slope of the mountain… typically done to prevent the mud slide down to the track during rains, on the opposite side it was a boulder that was cut through to make the rail line. We tried our hand on some Spiderman like stunts, and then picked up a few snaps of the place. We continued on the track further, we got to meet the first tunnel… this was one of the smallest tunnels that we would get along the trek. Just after the 1st tunnel we get an opening, we have a small opening in the thick bush cover on the right side, we had been informed by PJ that in between the 2nd and third tunnel we could spot a falls, and may be we could get down to the falls immediately after the first tunnel. Through the small opening we got down and reached the stream, a small walk upstream from the point we reached the falls, it was a nice one to visit, not many people come down to watch this falls, so its neat…. Some of us got down to have some fun in the water, while I decided to take a nap on the rock side… after an hour of rest we decided to continue on the trek… we completed our breakfast at the same point and then got back to the rail road…

    Then there was nothing much along the route, it was more of a repetition of the scenic beauty. I for one felt bored by the same repetitive… it was more of the stoned track the killed my interest, I had not got along shoes and was trekking with my leather sandals so it was making it all the more painful. Well all that aside…

    We continued on the journey after the first tunnel….a couple of tunnels and then we were again on some nice clear railroad… Think that spot might have been used for filming some time. Just a bit further and then we decided to take a break again, this time to do some good photography, a neat job by some of our team members… and then we continued on the trek… A nice trek along the railroad with the stream flowing along side… the birds singing their morning raga’s to entertain the trekkers, I felt like paradise in those morning hours… We continued on the trek, initially it was nice to take note of a lot of scenery, along side the track, some nice cool breeze, the walk through the dark tunnels and then back on to the rail road occasionally encounter a bridge over some stream, It began to bore me after some time… The sun increasing the heat was just adding to the already bore trek (personally).

    We continued on the same lines and the only enjoying part for me was the small falls all along the route… it was around 11am when we decided to take a small rest along the road, that’s when we heard the rail blow a horn; We were surprised to hear it, as it was unexpected. As the horn got closer, we were on the on look with high curiosity, it turned out to be a goods train to transport the rail roads for the gauge widening that was being done… The train passed bye and we crossed another bridge, we decided to take a break for our lunch here. An hours break and then we decided to continue the trek. Our team slowly started to feel the heat and we broke down into groups, I was in the lead and in a bit of hurry coz I had to reach Udupi by 8:30pm.

    We all gathered just before a huge repair site along the route, I transferred the food packets to the group which I had carried till then on my back and just collected some chocolates and a water can to continue ahead….

    From now on it was a lone trek for me at my own pace, I was quick when I felt like and moderate when I felt tired, the only point that was in my mind was reaching Edakumeri at the earliest. My deadline for it was 4pm.

    Along the route, I encountered the first longest bridge, It was more that 400 mts in length and much taller than the others that I had seen earlier, I could spot a lot of trekkers along the route, who had broken up to have their lunch and enjoy some time in the stream, I just stood there to pick up a few snaps and then continued on with my journey, it was quite nice doin this part of the trek all alone, I could devout as much time as I wanted where I wanted. A bit further I got to be in the longest tunnel of the journey to Edakumeri, all along the tunnel it was pitch dark, could not see the other end of it, water dripped through the roof of the tunnel. Bats would occasionally fly across, the tunnel was almost empty and I could hear my footsteps and the echo that it generated… All I had was a torch that was to take me through the dark tunnel. Just as I crossed a couple more tunnels, I met the train driver who was busy getting the rails down beside the track to get them replaced. I asked the distance to Edakumeri station… he told it would take at least an hour to reach there, its around 4 kms from there, It was already around 3:20 and I wanted to reach Edakumeri at the earliest. I decided I would not waste time picking snaps and just concentrate on walking quicker to the station. Another 30 min of walk and I found a small stream, may be a falls, just met a an old guy here and enquired about Edakumeri, he told its jut five minutes away, this got more enthusiasm into me to get to the station…

    Edakumeri station is an old station… I could spot an old radio station may be used to get information from else where about the trains reaching on time, some problems and things like that… I just sat down for about 5 minutes, before asking directions to reach the NH.

    Some one showed me a small mud path down the forest and told me, you will find a stream, cross over the stream and you will reach a road, just go by the road and then u will reach another river… cross it and you will get to the NH. I followed the direction and reached the small stream in no time, reached the mud road, it was nice fun, I got meet this road at a bifurcation, one going uphill and the other down hill, I chose the down hill one… just that I could spot some shoe trails on the sod, It was nice guess but a right one… around 10min down an I could spot the river and the NH beside it. I found a couple of trekkers who were crossing over the river – KempuHole.

    I too joined them in crossing over… they were to reach Bangalore, and me to get back to Udupi. I waited for a bus but got to know that there was no bus-stand there and had to go to Gundia to catch one… I was heart broken at the thought that I had to go walking another 10 kms to reach the Gundia stop. I kept waving to passers by just in case some kind soul would give me a drop, my persistence paid off, A mo-bike driver stopped for me and asked my were about and enquired where I had to go… having ascertained that I was no naxal or some thing like it he told me he would drop me to Dharmasthala. I heaved a sigh or relief. He took me to Dharmasthala in an hour from the spot where I had stopped him, God bless the kind soulJ.

    From Dharmasthala I caught a bus to Beltangadi, then another one from Beltangadi to Karkal, it was around 7pm and had a nice nap in these buses, my bus to Udupi was at 7:25 having missed the earlier one by 5 min, It took around an hour to reach Udupi, and I had a nice nap in it as wellJ. Finally I had reached Udupi,

    It was real experience truing to keep up the time… will remember it for a long time to come no doubt about it.

  • “The world is Flat”-Thomas Friedman

    This book is as it claims itself to be – “The Brief History of The Globalized World in the 21st Century”.

    Personally I took a lot of cue from this book. I has helped me increase my understanding of the globalized world and look at it in a much broader sense.

    Thomas Friedman – is an American journalist, Author and a three times winner of the “Pulitzer Prize”. He is an op-ed contributor of the “New York Times”. He also works for Discovery, in making their documentaries.

    Friedman first discussed his views on globalization in the 1999 book, “The Lexus and the Oliver Tree”. In 2004 he came out with his best seller, “The World is Flat”. Friedman’s journey to, Bangalore and Beijing gave him a new in sight into the fast changing world of globalization. He has documented his understanding from there experiences into this book.

    Friedman in his efforts to get people to understand globalization in the most productive way has been successful a great deal. He has concentrated on the journey of this huge levelling process.

    He takes note of the factor that lead to the opening and the flattening of globalization. He then moves on to a discussion on how the different factors went on to create convergence, and there by make the playground more open. He then discusses the implication that flattening of the field has on the American society, and how well it can accommodate/ adjust to get the maximum form the phenomenon.

    I loved the chapter on dreams the most… I picked a lot of points form that chapter to improve my thought process. I loved the way he emphasises on creating dreams from a situation rather than just creating memories. I love the concept…

    Its a must read to understand the phenomenon of globalization even better…. go ahead and read it… may not please those who have been following the phenomenon very closely. Over all a very informative book. This book has made me a fan of Thomas Friedman….

    some more info can be got from…

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World_Is_Flat

  • Malgudi Days

    This one a set of short stories form R. K. Narayan. I love his style no doubt about it.

    I had seen the serial – “Malgudi Days” that used to be aired on the DoorDarshan when young. I could recall the different episodes as I read through the book. I would commend the Director of the serial – Late Shankar Nag, for his fantastic picturisation of the stories. A applause is a must for him to get the narration that RK gives, realized.

    This book is not a complete collection but a set of selected stories from the different short stories collection that RK has written. There is a hidden pun in some of them, in some there is nothing but a lucid narration of the events…. over all a very nice book to read… Each story different from the other and all narrated so well that it captivates the readers interest. A nice read to enjoy when you feel bored.

    I have been motivated by RK and his short story collection, an plan to write some stories…. will put them up some times…

  • Study

    A lot of people of late have been asking me, how should you study? What are the different ways to study so that we remember? And so on. I am no expert to reply to this question, but yes, I think I can contribute a little bit so that the person who has these questions feels better.

    I will be dealing with the questions as they strike me, and may be if we have some query we can clear them and discuss so that we get different opinions and may be even device new mechanisms to study!!!

    I have concentrated more on the students who are studying for their graduation. May be some of the methods and queries that we see may be common to a lot of other students, in such a case just go ahead and pick up the technique, if you feel it’s worth it.

    You may find me idealistic in some of the answers but, that’s the way I have preferred doing things. I am open to criticism; I like people being critical about what they read or learn or anything.

    AND LAST BUT NOT THE LEAST, there is bound to be difference of opinions, just post your views on the topics what you think is a good way forward? May be you have a better technique to remember or recall and things like that, just share it so that it’s of some use to other as well.

    Let us begin with understanding what study is first?

    Study is application of the mind to the acquisition of knowledge, as by reading, investigation, or reflection. This is a time consuming process, requiring a lot of patience and effort to attain knowledge.

    The knowledge that you obtain would be in deep understanding of the subject of interest. It’s only through study that we understand the minute details that are missed out when we just browse through the topic that we “intend to study”. These minute details when understood completely, gives a competitive edge over those who have not “studied” the particular subject.

    It is study of the subject that is the marking difference between the Master and a novice. A novice to start off with a lot of committed study of the subject develops into a master of the subject.

    Study need not be always mental; it is a combination of mental and physical activities. The theory learnt would involve a majority of mental effort, but it’s through the physical examination i.e., through practical experience that we understand this better, “to understand” is component of study. That is why we have “practical sessions in labs” during college days.

    The scope of study essentially involves understanding of the subject, practical and theoretical parts just form a path to achieve better knowledge of the subject.

    So the basic purpose of study turns out to be mastery of a particular field of interest.

    Now the next question is why should I study something?

    Well not every thing is to be studied in detail, you can just be happy by knowing what the topic means!!

    But what interests us we have to study it in detail, else we are just like an encyclopedia reference (not detailed, just a glimpse of the topic), so can you tell some one how it actually works, what it actually is? Can you reply to any query in that regard based on just this minimal knowledge? This will lead us to a position where we are in a situation – “Jack of many, King of None!!!”

    We seem to know a lot of things, but don’t understand all of them. This is what generally happens when we go to an interview. Let me take up the example of a campus interview: Invariably we are asked the question – “Which is your favourite subject?” and then the interviewers start off asking questions on it. The Idea behind this is simple – if you like a subject, you would definitely learn the subject well (This is intern a reflection on the interest you have). They then evaluate you based on their understanding, how well you know the subject – this is just to know how thorough you are on the subject that you like – reason, if you have shown this interest and understood some subject really well then if you are given a handsome pay and incentives you would definitely learn what they want you to, and perform well in it. This is so simple isn’t it?

    So it’s important that we “study” at least one subject well, if we do learn more than one subject well, then it’s an added advantage.

    If we study some subject thoroughly, it reflects on our understanding of other subjects as well. If we are a master of some subject, its easy to underst
    and another just by mapping one to another, an example may be – understanding equations in algebra helps understand matrix related problems, this is with maths… but will definitely hold true with other subjects as well I am very sure. So, EASE OF REMEMBERING is another factor why was need to study.

    What is it, which makes study different form a “go-through” or a “browse”?

    Well as I see it, it’s the understanding of the subject. While a “go-through” or a “browse” will just keep things in memory for a short term and then forget it, without understanding the essence of what was read, heard or seen.

    I know that its difficult to study, its so easy to get behind marks but always remember … what is understood becomes ours for life, what is just kept in mind with say the intention of an exam, or something will not remain with us though out, and needs constant rehearsal.

    To understand we have to spend time with the subject that we wish to master, to study. With time, the time spent to study a subject goes on reducing.

    Time wise it can be said that “studying” in the long run is faster and more rewarding than just a “browse”.

    I attempt to study, but I can’t recall a thing when I am asked about it. What should I do?

    Well, study can be done only if we work on any subject in our mind, so we have to retain and get the association right.

    Retention of what we study is very important, without that it’s like we have no data to study when we have time. To retain data, we have to have the art of association (actually this is a study technique that we will look into some time later). This association is what gets the continuity of thought. This guides us how one of the topics is related to the next topic, how one sentence is linked to the next and so on.

    The flow that is seen is what helps us retain the subject related information in our brain. When we associate a line of information with the next, we derive a sort of flow in the thought process that helps us recall. Just by thinking “how this sentence leads to the very next sentence?” we can associate and there by remember the topic. So all we have to do is just read, and then take some time to understand the particular sentence, and then read the next sentence, associate the two of them so as to form a chain, which can be pulled out by holding one end.

    While trying to think of the various associations that are needed to get to the flow, you can actually use your own experiences so that you can remember them better. You can also think of the associations that are funny, or those which rake up a lot of emotions, these associations tend to stay with us for a longer time in memory.

    How should I study? Is there any particular method?

    Well to frankly say there is no particular method, I have used a few of them, I think this will help in studying a subject. I discuss in here two different techniques:

    1. The first technique is what most of them can easily follow. It’s what is called “repetition”. This is a very time consuming process, but very easy to follow. This can be done my even a dull head who doesn’t even have a bit of imagination. All we have to have is abundant time at our disposal. Just sit in front of the material, and repeat what is to be learnt, after a lot of effort it automatically gives a flash of understanding and then we have to look at all things again with that as our torch light. This is one of the crude ways to study, but is very time consuming.

    2. The second method needs nothing but a bit of imagination, i.e. I mean the capacity to visualize things. All we have to do is just read a sentence, and let the mind think freely on this particular sentence. Let it imagine and get as many Ideas as possible (In turn the mind gets happy because, we are giving it sufficient work that it like – imagining). Now read the second sentence and so the same imagination exercise. Once this is done, think about the two sentences in tandem; try associating the two sentences (again an imagination exercise.) Keep doing this exercise, from the first line of the paragraph to the last line of the paragraph. Once a paragraph is complete, go to the next, once 2 paragraphs are complete, associate one paragraph with another. This will give the flow of the content in the topic chosen. Try it out and see how long you remember what you have learnt (you are sure to be amazed at your capacity!!!)

    Well this just did not end the study, now we have most of what we learnt in our brain and this is the most important part. Once we have all this data into brain, we have to keep thinking about it when we are free, this will help us understand better, and once we get that understanding we have studied the subject. The more you think, the more diverse the meaning of what we have studied is go
    ing to be; this makes us more studied… and eventually the masters of a subject.

    Once we are masters of a subject, we can easily understand other subject just but drawing parallelism between the subjects in case we feel so, else we can use the above technique to study them.

    Hey what do you think is the essence of the above method that you have told? If I know what I have to do it would be helpful as I can device my own method for it?

    The basic essence of the methods that I mentioned above is “observation”, through repeatedly letting the mind ponder over and think about some thing that it just read helps us observe the subtle and an hidden information that will not be available on just reading through. This is important in order to improve the understanding of the subject that is under study. Observe every single thing that you can, the more you observe, the more you understand what is being talked off – what is that that each of the author thinks is important, what does he emphasise, what is that which will give me a better analogy of what I learn. All this is possible only if we observe and then try looking at the subject of study.

    Oh All that’s fine, but I don’t get time to do anything? how can I give so much of time to master a subject?

    Well, friend I think 24 hours in a day is all each of us have to do all our activities. We have our own priorities in life no doubt, but as a student its our first priority to study and make a mark for our self. I personally think as a student study has to be our first priority, all other things can hold back (some 20 yrs down the line we should not feel sad for not having studied something which might be needed).

    The basic reason why we always complain about shortage of time is our bad time management. All of us have the same 24 hrs but some can do much more than others in the same time frame.

    Most of the time we waste our time because we don’t know what the next job that we want to do is? We waste a lot of time thinking what to do next, this is to be avoided, and then we will be managing our time better.

    How do I manage Time?

    Managing time is simple as far as I think; we have to follow the following steps to manage time:

    1. Identify what are those things in which you waste a lot of time.

    2. Think if I have to do some work, what would be the shortest time that I can give to this, in case we fail to finish it on time what would be the longest time frame?

    3. Now list down the things that are static (routine) for the day, and ones that are dynamic (ones which change day to day based on sudden priority works, we can at least make a guess rt!!)

    4. Think which of these things can be clubbed to gather in one go? (Say once we go out of the house for getting some books just check to see if you need a pen as well). Avoid repetition of work.

    5. Now to the most important part of time management, decide how much time we should give for each of the subject that you want to study? Say you decide to give 30 min to each subject and you have 5 subjects, so we have to find a slot to fit in this 2 and half hours. May not be in one continuous stretch, but may be with time gaps in between. But the basic point is you should do this regularly.

    6. Once this much is decided, we can plan a time schedule that, which gives us the time for all that we want to do within the day. Now that we have the schedule we just have to follow it, that’s all we have to do to manage our time.

    If you have a calendar based reference to what you would like to do, what are your engagements for the next 6 months? And so on… it will help do the time management even better.

    Well this should help us do off our problems with time management, but still I personally feel we can improve up on this, when we have scheduled a job to be done and that is postponed or is completed much before time we have to put some things else in the place so as to use that time and may be if we feel relax later on!!!.

    I have studied as much as I can, but I get nervous when I get to the time I have to perform – Exams. What do you think is going wrong here?

    I think this is a problem with t
    he confidence of facing an examination. As the saying goes – “The proof of a pudding is in eating it.” Any amount of information that is there in the mind will be evaluated only on the way its been presented.
    1. First of all we have to isolate the reason(s) for the lack of confidence. For this we have to look at our-self and analyse where we might be missing the crux… that is making us feel lower in confidence?
    2. To improve confidence it is important that we practise really well, practice facing the opposition that we might be exposed to, i.e. answer more question papers, and answer the questions which in the increasing order of difficulty as you may think to be.
    3. Also self suggestion techniques, like speaking to your self about your strength will help a lot, suggesting your self by saying “I am confident of performing well” will also help.
    4. Getting to revise very often will help out, the frequency of revision may keep on increasing. say initially you start of revising every alternate day then once in 3 days then once in 5 days and then 7 days, fortnight and so on…

    Is there any suggestion that you would like to give while we are about to write exams?

    Definitely there are some things to be kept in mind while writing an exam. The most common mistake that we do it – once we get the paper we just have a quick glance at the questions and immediately start writing it, this is a wrong thing to do. Once you are in the examination hall and you have received the paper, we have a few things to note:
    1. Read through all the questions completely and realize which questions you would like to answer as you think they might be easy.
    2. Once you select the questions you want to answer, read them again and look at what the paper expects you to write.
    3. Once you know what is being requested for, note down the point in the corner of the answer sheet, else you may forget what is to be written, or you may realize a few points while writing the answers.
    4. Once you have written the points, think of organizing them in a very presentable manner, point wise presentation is preferred over paragraph presentation. While presenting ensure you write down the points as much as possible in the order of importance that you would like to associate.

    There are so many things to remember, can you suggest a few things to aid the process of remembering?

    As already discussed while mentioning about how to study? I have made a mention of the link based system of studying. This alone should go a long way in helping remember things. To assist this method further:
    1. you can make small set of notes, as summary of all the topics, the main points under each topic etc. This will help save a lot of time towards the end of the academic calendar.
    2. If you have a lot of diagrams to refer to, then it will be better to make the diagram on a sheet of paper and stick it over the wall so that it keeps reminding u about the functionality.
    3. Make comparative notes, this will help remember with much more ease… a typical example would be the comparison of the various hydrocarbons in organic chemistry… you can compare the method of generation, the chemical reactions and things like it. If you have a sheet ready like it, you can stick it out and keep comparing with it.
    4. And try associating things that you want to remember with some thing out of proportion, something that is exaggerating something really funny, this will help you remember things for a long time.

  • Competition – Natural versus prepared!!!

    Competition – Natural versus prepared!!!
    ———————————————-

    Well this is just one thought that I got while I was walking back from the cafeteria after my lunch. Some of my friends were talking about writing exams like GRE, CAT, GMAT ans things like it. Even I had given CAT and got GDPI calls for 3 of them. But this thought which I got – naturalness versus competitive preparedness, is not one that i am used to.

    This is a competitive world no doubt about that, we see competition right from school days till we find job, and even after that. We see children in pre-university colleges, going to tutions after theirs long hours of class through out the day. Especially when the students are in 12th I see that they don’t have a break, the preparation starts some 2 months before the actual college classes begins, the students are made to go through a rigorous schedule and don’t find time for anything else. Then there are the competitive exams which these students write. They are get to compete on much larger scale and those who will make it though these exams gets a graduation course of his/her choice.

    In all this process of preparation for the exams, we are continuously strained by the time bound process. We have to say, wake up at 5:30am, then slog the whole day and then get back to bed at 12 mid night. We do this for one year and then we get into a graduation course that would later on guarantee us a job, and a profession. But in all this we find that we just prepare our-self for the competitive exam, and just get trained for the particular purpose. We don’t follow this system further until we have another competition else where.

    Well when I say “natural” in the above sentences, I only mean not being explicitly prepared for this purpose, but this naturalness might be a result of long term effort. What this means is, you work continuously, not concerned about the course of events/competition etc., you work to increase your skill set and there by just make it natural – liking what you do.

    Here are a few things that curtails me and get me thinking as to why its better to make the thing natural than just be prepared for it is the effect this preparedness gets in. Assume you enter into a prestigious institute like IIT with a solid preparation that was overlooked & guided by a coaching class. When you enter into such an institute and find all the people coming in there with just some prepared course material and not naturally good in the subject (he has not understood the subject on his own and just come in with some knowledge about how to solve what is given), we cant find a lot people getting into to understand the subject of the course and the basis for innovation – science, takes a hard hit. We find today a lot of people who could not make it into the engineering colleges for their graduation go and join the pure science stream. The result being that we have very few innovations in the pure science related field of late. We have to emphasise on naturalness and ensure that this be the path that people follow, so as to benefit the long run objectives of improvement rather than immediate gains.

    After all these though, i am slowly getting into being more bent towards the natural process. I don’t want to be spontaneous for success alone, I feel like relishing what I do. I want to make my gamut of capabilities large enough to encompass the challenge of competition more easily. I believe in sharpening the axe even when I don’t have to cut wood. Working toward making life and the challengers that I face be just a process of evaluation for the much larger concept of making things natural.

    If I have to explain what I mean to say in the above paragraph, I would get it clear like this. I am generally work with words, solve crossword puzzles, and try all the games related to vocabulary, just because I like the language and want to know more about it. I work on this continuously. If some day choose to write GRE, the preparation for the vocabulary section of the exam would not need any extra effort. Its just natural for me to answer this. I would be in a much better mental state to answer the questions, than if I had prepared specifically for this purpose – in which case, the pressure of the exam can get me to mark a wrong answer even if I know the correct one. If you read regularly to improve you G.K and not for any competitive interview, you are definitely more better off.

    Though the natural process of preparation, which takes time and effort, and doesn’t seem to give immediate results, except that you do it for your own satisfaction. In the long run, this naturalness give lot more preparedness to face situations, a better understanding of the subject, making it more rewarding.

    Well I don’t mean to rule out that small term preparation is bad, or not useful at all. All I want to tell up is that, this short term is a good short cut to success but it will not carry a long way until we convert this short-term preparation to be more expanding and encompassing. We don’t get to like all that we do, true, but we have to prepare our-self for the situation… in such cases we have to take to the short term preparation. But we can keep doing this short preparation but have to make it natural if the same situation recurs. The basic point is we have to strike the right balance between the two.

    The most important way of converting this short term preparations into naturalness is by converting them into hobbies, this is the easiest of ways. Other than that we can start off continuing with the same routine that we would have developed in the days of intense preparation, and then blossom with the same routine to experiment and know the beauty of the each of the subjects that may be involved. These are the smoothest way to transform from the short term preparation to long term natural preparedness…

    Well I see that for quick gains and results in the fast paced world of today, there is little that we can do to prevent short term preparedness towards competition. We are happy being able to perform on the particular day and not care about how well we understand and perform. But the only point that is repeatedly coming to my mind is, how long can you survive on something that is manipulated and not completely integrated and made your own feature? I don’t disagree that there are people who follow the short-term progress but understand the subject as well but those are very rare cases.

    Personally I still advocate being on a “natural” course rather than the gimmicks of a short term preparation… I have decided that I will adopt this system from now on…. may be the turning point of my life… cant say…. I still see sense in this method… What do you think?

  • “Probabilities of the Quantum World” – Daniel Danin

    This Mir publication book is one of the first books I read about Quantum Physics outside the curriculum. This book is exactly as I like it… a combination of history and quantum physics.
    This book is about the Odyssey of the modern physics. The author starts off with an attempt to obtain as many resources as possible, at a time when most of the torchbearers of modern physics were leaving this each on their heavenly abode. He starts of with visiting archives, meeting the remaining war-lords (I mean those who were the fore runners in making the theory of the sub- atomic world.)
    The author of the book has a very different narration style, he starts with the need for a documenting the experiences of the great people who had started this race, and why it was already late for them to start…
    The book greets us with a lot of anecdotes from the lives of these great men, making the journey all the more interesting…. The various people who started off this journey, what their individual thoughts were, how the interacted with each other, the various situations that got them to think in the way they thought to make a theory and much more… all these keep the interest on the high throughout.
    Its starts of slowly not revealing much in the beginning, but as it goes on the story of the quantum theory’s birth keeps us engaged through out.
    If you are a little patient to see through the first part of this book, its a wonderful book to read. Very informative… Go ahead and try out…

  • Mulliangiri – 2

    I had other trek plans, but did not find company as all others quit at the last minute. I asked Rajesh if I could join them at the last minute. Fortunately I could get in with them. It would be my second trek to Mulliangiri.
    I met up with Rajesh and co. for the trek at the KSRTC bus stand. We got a small intro about each other before we got into the bus. Once in the bus, we started interacting with each other and then went on to sleep. The bus was to ChickMagalore. We reached ChikMagalore at around 4:30am. I recalled that the first bus was at 7:00 a.m. (from the last experience) and told it would be better searching for an alternate mode. We had our coffee at the hotel in the Bus Stand and then finished our morning wash there.
    We then set out in search of a mode of transport, some suggested taking auto’s to the place… but all of us wanted to go together, so we searched for a Jeep or a Sumo. We finally got one, and after some discussion over the price, the driver agreed to drop us at the “SarpaHadi entrance.”
    We unloaded our luggage… just looked around and then after some 15 min started our trek from the Sarpahadi. This time over the climate was much better. We started some time after the sun rise and it was a nice time to begin with. Once on serpentile route to the peak… take most of the turns to the left than the right this will take you to the peak more easily. We did loose our route for some time but then we got back to the main foot trail that would take us to the peak. We climbed slowly but steadily.
    As we trekked to higher altitudes, the view got panoramic; we could spot villages in the distance when clouds did not cover them up. Just a bit higher and we found the milk white clouds came in to speak with the mountains; it looked like a sea of milk. We were fortunate enough to be above the clouds so it was clearly visible for us. The sun was just above these clouds as well – it was like the sun had opened the door of the cloudy house and just come out to do his days duty. This view is sure to make anyone happy – a really good one.
    As we continued our uphill trek we found the rain clouds gathering nearby. We reached the peak in about 1 hours climb. The rain clouds were making the winds chillier. Some of us were a bit quicker than other and so we reached a small shelter where we waited for the others behind.. All of us got together and then we continued again till we reached the “Nandi temple” We took some food there and then continued till we reached the caves – yes caves just below the temple at the peak.
    The last time I had been to the peak I did not attempt entering deep into the cave, this time I had company and so decided to explore them. We split our self into 2 teams and went exploring with torches in our hand. One of the caves is deeper while the other one is not all that deep. We found bats in there. We picked up some snaps there. The caves had patterns of sediments that had gathered in over the years. They looked really beautiful. For a moment I felt I had seen then patterns of Jupiter there, they were so similar in look.
    After the cave expedition we got out to have our breakfast. We find water in the temple premise so we can use this place to wash our selves… but its going to be very cold out here. One of our companions Raghavendra had brought chapattis with him, and we were busy eating them. We got our FM mobile hand set and we could here the FM channels from Bangalore… in fact more clearly than we can hear in Bangalore. We took some time off before we continued.
    We resumed the trek after a break of about 1 hour. The clouds got denser now, but not yet like the last time I had been to this peak. The course was the same; we wanted to reach the road, as I had done this trek earlier… I could guide them on the correct path. I remembered the place where we had faltered the last time and so could easily trek the correct route. We got down from the peak and walked through the small flowery plants. There plants were purple in color and bloom once in twelve years, we were very happy to get a sight of the vast mountains in the surrounding all of whose peaks were covered with these flowers. We stood in between these flowers and picked up some real nice snaps and then continued on our trek.
    We reached the Vivekananda Statue View point at around 12 noon. We took a brek here and looked at the awesome surrounding view. All of us decided to continue on to BabaBudangiri (DattaPeetha) form here.
    Now comes the most exciting part of this trek for me, we had heavy luggage along so when we hat to get into the bus that was bound to the BabaBudan Peak, we had trouble getting in… We chose to get over the top of the bus and enjoy this ride. All of us got over the bus with the entire luggage. It was a first time for all of us and it was just so thrilling.
    The winding roads, the view we could get of the valley, the far off peaks, and the people on the way, the turns the bus used to make on the winding roads all this increased the excitement of being on the top of the bus. We almost fell off the roof at some of the curves but it was still some excitement in all that.
    Around 30 min of roof top journey from the bus and we reached BabaBudanGiri. BabaBudan was instrumental in getting the coffee seeds to this coffee land -> great work man!!! Well now this is a controversial place… This place is held sacred by both Hindus and Muslims so generally there is tension that prevails during the functions… When we reached this place there were some preparations for “Datta Male” functions.
    We reached this pace some and had our lunch packed at a small hotel there, and carried on our trek futher. From this place we decided to go to a nearby falls – “Manikya Dhara”. We decided to trek till the falls, and may be spend the night there and trek the next day to “Kemmangundi”. Well but as God would have it, he decided to make the weather bad. It started raining really heavily and we decided to cancel the trek to “Kemmangundi” and get back home.
    We had carried along the tents to pitch for the night as well and erected them, but then all that went a waste. We had to pack up. We had pitched the tent beside a tree, and a lake… The bad weather just made the look very beautiful; it’s been a memorable scene. I think the lake had some special significance, a lot of devotes used to come there and dropping something in to the lake and then leaving it… We had our lunch besides this lake and then some of us went further to look at the “ManikyaDhara Falls” from the lake. When we reached there we were struck by the changes that had been done to this Natural falls.
    All the naturalness of this beautiful falls seems to have been lost, there are steps built to get to the base of the falls, some sort of reservoirs to hold the water that falls so that people can have a bath there – Another surprising custom I found there was that, the dress in which you wet yourself at the falls is thrown out into the deep abyss that is in front of the falls. I don’t get the point as to how these clothes get disposed? Are they burnt are they left as it is? I don’t know… I some what was not happy with this setting. We have a small view point on the way to the falls from were we can actually get a nice view, but unfortunately due to bad view we could not sight anything. The place has been commercialized a lot – a lot of shops, a lot of plastic all around…. don’t feel comfortable some how.
    We got some water filled front he waterfalls and started on our way back, we reached the camp that we planned and then decided we would get back. We reached the BabaBudan stop in at around 5:15pm. The bus started at 5:30 pm and we reached ChikMagalore in about
    an hour and a quarter.
    Surprisingly the climate of this town was normal, when compared to the bad weather of the BudaGiri Peak… Well it may be due to the altitude. We rested in ChikMagalore for our dinner and then set back to Bangalore….
    This was a memorable trek for me considering the But roof ride, the climate change that occurs, the cloud and sun view that I got in the morning, The serene lake – beside which we camped for some time… really an everlasting memory.

  • “Ignited Minds”-APJ Abdul Kalam

    This is one of the inspirational books by our president.. APJAK. I have read this book some time back and was impressed by the vision he shares with the younger generation.
    He has dedicated this book to a girl – Snehal Thakkar… He has shared his vision so that many more people can share it and work towards achieving it. He gives clear messages to the people though his assertion on Dreams and the message it has. He highlights the importance of having a role model, the effect that teachers have on the students the way they give the initial casting to the life of the students during their initial.
    He give something to pic for every individual in this book. If you like reading APJ don’t miss it…