Showing posts with label Travel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Travel. Show all posts
Monday, October 29, 2007
Friday, April 07, 2006
Good Old Tree
An old, dry tree's skeleton,
Extends its branch to the Sun -
in search of a shower.
On our way to the peak of Kumar Parvat, we came across this tree. It was the most difficult time of the trek, with the Sun spitting out fire at us, with no visible shade along the way. This particular tree caught my attention, and without any delay I captured it in my camera. We didn't stop there to ask the tree about its well being or not, as we had to move on, quickly. Now, after returning to the comfort of the air-conditioned office space, when I look at the photo again, I feel very sad for the tree. The photo in itself, I think, has come out very well. It captures the sun and the overall hot atmosphere, and perhaps the tired mood the trekkers too.
The point is, we passed on, reached the peak ultimately, returned home with all those fond memories. And left the tree back there under the furious Sun.
Well, anyway, we have the photo, that will always remind us of the tough time we had during that one-hour-odd period!
Tuesday, January 31, 2006
The Pelican Brief (part II)
- After a long long time, had a chance to have tea with jaggery. At six thirty in the morning, this tea tasted really sweet - more so, since I had not brushed my teeth also! A real bed tea.
- In front of the house where we spent our night, was a little makeshift place where sheep were kept. I thought the sheep-kid was really cute and decided to take a few snaps. As I went closer, it ran around and went towards its mom. Then we played some kind of hide and seek before I was able to get a few snaps. The other fat sheep was pretty too!
- When these huge birds fly, their wings make quite an audible sound. If amplified it could sound like a flying helicopter. These birds have a similar technique too. As Shantanu correctly pointed out, these guys, on account of their long legs, first decide where to land, slow down, and put their feet forward and then land. It's a quite involved process. It was nice experience observing them over and over.
- Our Hosts insisted that we have coffee at their house and later even invited us for a breakfast. It was too much - and they would not take any money. We felt somewhat awkward and decided to politely decline their request. We had a nice group-snap in front of their house and said good-bye.
- The next stop was a river bank. As it had happened several times on this trek, we first took a wrong route and it was later corrected by passers-by. We had to return about a kilometer before we found the right path. It was fun nevertheless.
- On this wrong route, we saw the birds at work. They were going towards the forest and bringing in the construction material for their nests. We were joking - what if Mrs Stork declares that the material was of really poor quality and sends Mr Stork again on the hunt!
- It was difficult to take a flying bird's snap - they were flying at quite a speed. And all our state-of-the-art digital cameras had inherent delay before they could focus on the object and shoot. I managed to capture on flying bird somehow by the virtue of sheer timing and pure luck.
- The river bank turned out to be a disappointment. The water was green and dirty, and the banks were all stinking of the obvious.
- Sand mining is one major occupation of people in this area it seems. The bowl shaped boats, made of iron were being used to bring sand from inside of the river to the bank. Some of us decided to take an outing in this boat. I should have gone - it would certainly have turned out to be better than only sitting on the bank and shooing away the flies. I didn't go primarily because I thought the boat was already overloaded ;)
- This area is sugarcane rich. Unlike the sugarcanes in Maharashtra, these canes are thin and less sweet. Along the road, people were loading a tractor with sugarcane to be transported to the sugar factory. The load must have been almost 20ft in height! I thought this was nice idea for the next fevicol advertisement.
- By the time the boat-outing was over, it was a high time for our empty stomachs to have a breakfast. And what a breakfast it turned out to be!
- On the way back to the Bellur bus stop, Shantanu, me and Mr Ra Ka had our share of adventure by jumping and climbing a tamarind tree. The fruit was really sour - as we had expected. In between the failed attempts, Shantanu tried to recall the sour grapes tale, but I stayed firm and finally succeeded in bringing down the target. It was really really sour - I still remember the taste! Yum.
- Near the Bellur bus stop is this hotel - or shack should I say. We ordered unlimited dosaas and chutney. It was really hot and spicy but obviously addictive. The trekkers with only exception of Piyush, started digging in. The doasaas kept coming and we kept eating. I guess among all of us we would have literally consumed fifty to sixty dosaas within fifteen minutes.
- Hot (and very much diluted) tea was served and that was the end of a memorable breakfast - not really end. I paid seventy rupees for all those unlimited dosaas. That was memorable too. Only last night we had our dinner for six rupees per plate. This trek was turning out to be a real money saver!
- The next destination was a dam called Iglur. There was a little confusion about this name - Sandeep and I thought it was Idlur first - easy to remember - ref. Idli. The bus to Idlur would come only at eleven and we realised we had about an hour to kill.
- People decided to roam around/catch a nap/ play cards/ and what not. It was the most unremarkable one hour of the entire trek. Especially for me!
- Finally, at the stroke of eleven the bus to Iglur came. Or shall I say, the bus came at eleventh hour. It was one and the same.
- Iglur dam is quite big. Bigger than what I had expected. To our dismay, the backwater was very much covered by weed and it had a stale smell to it. I would have preferred a bath in the flowing waters, but it was not to be. So, I decided to just have a snap and we returned.
- Luck was with us, as just as we were reaching the Iglur bus stand, a bus came by and that would take us to ChanpaTna, on the Mysore-Bangalore highway. It was highly unremarkable journey, as all of us were busy relaxing and catching naps while people boarded and got down the bus at regular intervals.
- After one hour's (or was it more than one hour - donÂ’t quite remember) we reached ChanpaTna. It was already past our regular lunch time - so we decided to have some juice/fruits/etc.
- On way back to Bangalore, the private bus offered a free screening of a Kannada movie, with ultra surround sound effects. I was amazed at how much of the dialogues I could understand. It was a junk movie, to say the least. The music was so loud that it was interfering with my attempts at sleeping.
- Fortunately for us, both the movie and the journey lasted only a little above two hours. By three thirty in the afternoon we were at Town Hall, Bangalore, and at four O'clock I was sitting in a bus that would take me home.
- It was a nice outing after a long time. Really enjoyed it. [Not really, really, but I'll pass that one] And writing this too!
- In front of the house where we spent our night, was a little makeshift place where sheep were kept. I thought the sheep-kid was really cute and decided to take a few snaps. As I went closer, it ran around and went towards its mom. Then we played some kind of hide and seek before I was able to get a few snaps. The other fat sheep was pretty too!
- When these huge birds fly, their wings make quite an audible sound. If amplified it could sound like a flying helicopter. These birds have a similar technique too. As Shantanu correctly pointed out, these guys, on account of their long legs, first decide where to land, slow down, and put their feet forward and then land. It's a quite involved process. It was nice experience observing them over and over.
- Our Hosts insisted that we have coffee at their house and later even invited us for a breakfast. It was too much - and they would not take any money. We felt somewhat awkward and decided to politely decline their request. We had a nice group-snap in front of their house and said good-bye.
- The next stop was a river bank. As it had happened several times on this trek, we first took a wrong route and it was later corrected by passers-by. We had to return about a kilometer before we found the right path. It was fun nevertheless.
- On this wrong route, we saw the birds at work. They were going towards the forest and bringing in the construction material for their nests. We were joking - what if Mrs Stork declares that the material was of really poor quality and sends Mr Stork again on the hunt!
- It was difficult to take a flying bird's snap - they were flying at quite a speed. And all our state-of-the-art digital cameras had inherent delay before they could focus on the object and shoot. I managed to capture on flying bird somehow by the virtue of sheer timing and pure luck.
- The river bank turned out to be a disappointment. The water was green and dirty, and the banks were all stinking of the obvious.
- Sand mining is one major occupation of people in this area it seems. The bowl shaped boats, made of iron were being used to bring sand from inside of the river to the bank. Some of us decided to take an outing in this boat. I should have gone - it would certainly have turned out to be better than only sitting on the bank and shooing away the flies. I didn't go primarily because I thought the boat was already overloaded ;)
- This area is sugarcane rich. Unlike the sugarcanes in Maharashtra, these canes are thin and less sweet. Along the road, people were loading a tractor with sugarcane to be transported to the sugar factory. The load must have been almost 20ft in height! I thought this was nice idea for the next fevicol advertisement.
- By the time the boat-outing was over, it was a high time for our empty stomachs to have a breakfast. And what a breakfast it turned out to be!
- On the way back to the Bellur bus stop, Shantanu, me and Mr Ra Ka had our share of adventure by jumping and climbing a tamarind tree. The fruit was really sour - as we had expected. In between the failed attempts, Shantanu tried to recall the sour grapes tale, but I stayed firm and finally succeeded in bringing down the target. It was really really sour - I still remember the taste! Yum.
- Near the Bellur bus stop is this hotel - or shack should I say. We ordered unlimited dosaas and chutney. It was really hot and spicy but obviously addictive. The trekkers with only exception of Piyush, started digging in. The doasaas kept coming and we kept eating. I guess among all of us we would have literally consumed fifty to sixty dosaas within fifteen minutes.
- Hot (and very much diluted) tea was served and that was the end of a memorable breakfast - not really end. I paid seventy rupees for all those unlimited dosaas. That was memorable too. Only last night we had our dinner for six rupees per plate. This trek was turning out to be a real money saver!
- The next destination was a dam called Iglur. There was a little confusion about this name - Sandeep and I thought it was Idlur first - easy to remember - ref. Idli. The bus to Idlur would come only at eleven and we realised we had about an hour to kill.
- People decided to roam around/catch a nap/ play cards/ and what not. It was the most unremarkable one hour of the entire trek. Especially for me!
- Finally, at the stroke of eleven the bus to Iglur came. Or shall I say, the bus came at eleventh hour. It was one and the same.
- Iglur dam is quite big. Bigger than what I had expected. To our dismay, the backwater was very much covered by weed and it had a stale smell to it. I would have preferred a bath in the flowing waters, but it was not to be. So, I decided to just have a snap and we returned.
- Luck was with us, as just as we were reaching the Iglur bus stand, a bus came by and that would take us to ChanpaTna, on the Mysore-Bangalore highway. It was highly unremarkable journey, as all of us were busy relaxing and catching naps while people boarded and got down the bus at regular intervals.
- After one hour's (or was it more than one hour - donÂ’t quite remember) we reached ChanpaTna. It was already past our regular lunch time - so we decided to have some juice/fruits/etc.
- On way back to Bangalore, the private bus offered a free screening of a Kannada movie, with ultra surround sound effects. I was amazed at how much of the dialogues I could understand. It was a junk movie, to say the least. The music was so loud that it was interfering with my attempts at sleeping.
- Fortunately for us, both the movie and the journey lasted only a little above two hours. By three thirty in the afternoon we were at Town Hall, Bangalore, and at four O'clock I was sitting in a bus that would take me home.
- It was a nice outing after a long time. Really enjoyed it. [Not really, really, but I'll pass that one] And writing this too!
Monday, January 30, 2006
The (Painted Stork and) Pelican Brief
It was a cheerful (not so cheerful, really :( ) week-end and the trek-loving junta started for this small town of Kokkre Bellur which is on the way to Mysore, around 80kms from Bangalore.
Capturing a few thoughts - only as points -
- When I started for Majestic, an HAL helicopter was doing some acrobatic maneuvers - probably some kind of swiftness training was going on. It was worth a stop for couple of minutes and looking up in the sky trying to keep walking towards the bus stop.
- Realised that I had forgotten my sweater/jacket at home when I reached the Basavanagar bus stand. Had to walk back to get it. But it was worth the effort as it was quite cold out there in the village.
- It was heartening to find 95% of the trek members reach Majestic on time :) the remaining 5% was contributed by Mr Rahul Kanchan (referred to as Mr Ra Ka hereafter!), who was waiting for his camera batteries to get charged!
- There is a bus to Maddur every fifteen minutes. It is quite high a frequency, I thought.
- The KSRTC buses are equipped with technology gadgets. The bus conductor was without his leather bag and steel-plate covered bunch of tickets. This gear has been replaced by a sleek thermal-printer cum ticketing machine. No more wrong math for conductors. That's something. I thought this is the right usage of technology. At best.
- Seems like what I have always been calling a masala wada is actually maddur wada, named after the place. It was rupees two apiece on the road, and rupees five apiece in a restaurant. :)
- We had left early aiming to see the sunset at Kokkre Bellur. We realised that we were only one to one and half hours behind schedule to meet the Sun.
- At the Old Bus stand of Maddur (the bus stand is quite new, only the buses are quite old I thought), we had Mr Ra Ka, the latecomer treat us with some groundnuts. They were rupees one a handful of quantity. It was a much needed snack after about three hours of journey.
- After a long wait (of 20minutes) the bus to Bellur finally arrived. It had a wooden frame and almost infinite load taking capacity. I sneaked past a huge crowd and even got a place to sit. Shantanu followed me and handed over his rucksack. The bus was soon overcrowded. Other junta had calmly climbed on the roof of the bus. Even if we desired to go up, there was hardly any place to move, and decided to defend our places.
- The bus contained almost everything - living and non-living - that would be available in this part of the world. After a couple of PVC pipes, a coil of thick plastic pipe (~50kg in weight) was loaded on the top. People inside carried every possible aroma - right from the mograi flowers to acute smell of biDi, from coconuts to two live sheeps. The bus was, well, a haven for all of us. Soon we truly became a part of the crowd, and the bus finally started off for Bellur.
- Bellur is about 10 kms from Maddur. The journey took one and half hours!
- When we finally reached Kokkre Bellur, it was already dark outside, without any signs of a form of energy that is called electricity. Fortunately we had Sandeep, an REC Suratkal pass-out, and having KannaDa for mother tongue. He glibly asked for the essentials - food and shelter for the night. It was quite late in Bellur's clock and all the "restaurants" were already closed for the day. One person offered to cook rice and sambar for us, and we happily followed him.
- This restaurant guy had a couple of helpers who were riding a motorcycle of some sort. He just took one mate from our junta - Shridhar, and left in "Swades" fashion. When another bike came along, we expected another fellow to be "picked" up. But that did not happen. Assuming that the "picking" was rule of the land, obviously (and fortunately!) there were exceptions to the rule too!
- Here Mr Ra. Ka. and the restaurant guy had a lively discussion on the spirit of the small towns, aka arrack and taaDi and what not.
- It took one and half long hours and four plates of mirchi-bhajji before the dinner was set. Boling rice (it was really very hot) and hot n' spicy sambar was the menu for the night. It was ably supported by some aachaar and a paapaD. For desserts, we had a banana each.
- After satisfying our stomachs to brim, we finally set out in search of shelter. There were two options, the school or the Traveller's Bungalow. The TB sounded better, so we finalised on that. Considering the hour of the day and location, it was no surprise that when we asked the directions to TB, we got three answers from two fellows, each not at all in accordance with each other. We decided to walk in the most common direction that these guys had (actually, at best, tried to ) told us.
- After two minute's of walk, we spotted a big tree and the huge birds sitting (or sleeping actually) atop. It was some excitement, and a lot of promise for the next morning.
- We took a left somewhere near a small lake and came to know that we were actually too early, in the sense the TB was under construction. We had better believed the town people and dropped the TB plan after jumbled directions.
- Now, what? Precisely at this thought, we spotted two very tall (unusually tall, for that time of night) fellows following us. I confirmed their humaneness by checking the orientation of their feet. It looked normal.
- It took a couple of minutes of fluent KannaDa from our master Sandeep to get ourselves invited by the Two Tall Fellows at their place. We marched along.
- The accommodation was, well, first grade. The whole front yard of the Two Tall Fellow's house was given to us. They spread a big plastic sheet for the bedding. We took out our bedsheets and shawls and whatever warm clothing we had brought. The sky was starry and our eyes, sleepy.
- It was not at all cold out there at that time. But soon the temperature fell sharply, adding to the discomfort of stiff and rough bed.
- There was a tubelight just outside the house which kept of flickering until what time I don't remember. It was like somebody was taking our snaps every n microseconds.
- Once we had settled down, we started noticing people just coming in and looking at our group. It happened at three-four times. We thought we were already famous, when the next morning people started to give directions without even asking!
- Vishal was all prepared for the night due - he also put on a cap (he never wore it under the Sun, which was considerably hot too). All along, we kept pulling his leg over his "os" - that is due in Hindi.
- The stars were particularly remarkable (no, not my stars per se but the stars as they were visible from out make-shift beds. When the tubelight finally called it a day late in the night, the beauty of the stars was further enhanced.
- Sleep was not comfortable - to say the least. We kept stealing each other's sheets and shawls as the night got colder and colder. There were two primary 'snore'rs while others kept accompanying them with occasional coughs and sniffs.
- The day broke sooner than we expected and we were on our feet even sooner (many of us, in search of a suitable place and water ;)
- The painted Storks and pelicans (few in numbers) were already up and flying. As the day wore more and more light, more and more treetops with these huge birds became visible.
- It is somewhat strange that all these migratory birds prefer to stay in the city as such. Once we left Bellur, there were hardly any signs of the birds.
(to be continued - I leave you with a glimpse of a painted stork here -)
Capturing a few thoughts - only as points -
- When I started for Majestic, an HAL helicopter was doing some acrobatic maneuvers - probably some kind of swiftness training was going on. It was worth a stop for couple of minutes and looking up in the sky trying to keep walking towards the bus stop.
- Realised that I had forgotten my sweater/jacket at home when I reached the Basavanagar bus stand. Had to walk back to get it. But it was worth the effort as it was quite cold out there in the village.
- It was heartening to find 95% of the trek members reach Majestic on time :) the remaining 5% was contributed by Mr Rahul Kanchan (referred to as Mr Ra Ka hereafter!), who was waiting for his camera batteries to get charged!
- There is a bus to Maddur every fifteen minutes. It is quite high a frequency, I thought.
- The KSRTC buses are equipped with technology gadgets. The bus conductor was without his leather bag and steel-plate covered bunch of tickets. This gear has been replaced by a sleek thermal-printer cum ticketing machine. No more wrong math for conductors. That's something. I thought this is the right usage of technology. At best.
- Seems like what I have always been calling a masala wada is actually maddur wada, named after the place. It was rupees two apiece on the road, and rupees five apiece in a restaurant. :)
- We had left early aiming to see the sunset at Kokkre Bellur. We realised that we were only one to one and half hours behind schedule to meet the Sun.
- At the Old Bus stand of Maddur (the bus stand is quite new, only the buses are quite old I thought), we had Mr Ra Ka, the latecomer treat us with some groundnuts. They were rupees one a handful of quantity. It was a much needed snack after about three hours of journey.
- After a long wait (of 20minutes) the bus to Bellur finally arrived. It had a wooden frame and almost infinite load taking capacity. I sneaked past a huge crowd and even got a place to sit. Shantanu followed me and handed over his rucksack. The bus was soon overcrowded. Other junta had calmly climbed on the roof of the bus. Even if we desired to go up, there was hardly any place to move, and decided to defend our places.
- The bus contained almost everything - living and non-living - that would be available in this part of the world. After a couple of PVC pipes, a coil of thick plastic pipe (~50kg in weight) was loaded on the top. People inside carried every possible aroma - right from the mograi flowers to acute smell of biDi, from coconuts to two live sheeps. The bus was, well, a haven for all of us. Soon we truly became a part of the crowd, and the bus finally started off for Bellur.
- Bellur is about 10 kms from Maddur. The journey took one and half hours!
- When we finally reached Kokkre Bellur, it was already dark outside, without any signs of a form of energy that is called electricity. Fortunately we had Sandeep, an REC Suratkal pass-out, and having KannaDa for mother tongue. He glibly asked for the essentials - food and shelter for the night. It was quite late in Bellur's clock and all the "restaurants" were already closed for the day. One person offered to cook rice and sambar for us, and we happily followed him.
- This restaurant guy had a couple of helpers who were riding a motorcycle of some sort. He just took one mate from our junta - Shridhar, and left in "Swades" fashion. When another bike came along, we expected another fellow to be "picked" up. But that did not happen. Assuming that the "picking" was rule of the land, obviously (and fortunately!) there were exceptions to the rule too!
- Here Mr Ra. Ka. and the restaurant guy had a lively discussion on the spirit of the small towns, aka arrack and taaDi and what not.
- It took one and half long hours and four plates of mirchi-bhajji before the dinner was set. Boling rice (it was really very hot) and hot n' spicy sambar was the menu for the night. It was ably supported by some aachaar and a paapaD. For desserts, we had a banana each.
- After satisfying our stomachs to brim, we finally set out in search of shelter. There were two options, the school or the Traveller's Bungalow. The TB sounded better, so we finalised on that. Considering the hour of the day and location, it was no surprise that when we asked the directions to TB, we got three answers from two fellows, each not at all in accordance with each other. We decided to walk in the most common direction that these guys had (actually, at best, tried to ) told us.
- After two minute's of walk, we spotted a big tree and the huge birds sitting (or sleeping actually) atop. It was some excitement, and a lot of promise for the next morning.
- We took a left somewhere near a small lake and came to know that we were actually too early, in the sense the TB was under construction. We had better believed the town people and dropped the TB plan after jumbled directions.
- Now, what? Precisely at this thought, we spotted two very tall (unusually tall, for that time of night) fellows following us. I confirmed their humaneness by checking the orientation of their feet. It looked normal.
- It took a couple of minutes of fluent KannaDa from our master Sandeep to get ourselves invited by the Two Tall Fellows at their place. We marched along.
- The accommodation was, well, first grade. The whole front yard of the Two Tall Fellow's house was given to us. They spread a big plastic sheet for the bedding. We took out our bedsheets and shawls and whatever warm clothing we had brought. The sky was starry and our eyes, sleepy.
- It was not at all cold out there at that time. But soon the temperature fell sharply, adding to the discomfort of stiff and rough bed.
- There was a tubelight just outside the house which kept of flickering until what time I don't remember. It was like somebody was taking our snaps every n microseconds.
- Once we had settled down, we started noticing people just coming in and looking at our group. It happened at three-four times. We thought we were already famous, when the next morning people started to give directions without even asking!
- Vishal was all prepared for the night due - he also put on a cap (he never wore it under the Sun, which was considerably hot too). All along, we kept pulling his leg over his "os" - that is due in Hindi.
- The stars were particularly remarkable (no, not my stars per se but the stars as they were visible from out make-shift beds. When the tubelight finally called it a day late in the night, the beauty of the stars was further enhanced.
- Sleep was not comfortable - to say the least. We kept stealing each other's sheets and shawls as the night got colder and colder. There were two primary 'snore'rs while others kept accompanying them with occasional coughs and sniffs.
- The day broke sooner than we expected and we were on our feet even sooner (many of us, in search of a suitable place and water ;)
- The painted Storks and pelicans (few in numbers) were already up and flying. As the day wore more and more light, more and more treetops with these huge birds became visible.
- It is somewhat strange that all these migratory birds prefer to stay in the city as such. Once we left Bellur, there were hardly any signs of the birds.
(to be continued - I leave you with a glimpse of a painted stork here -)
Tuesday, November 01, 2005
Country roads, take me home...
I like train journey. It generally gives a lot of time to complete the backlog of thinking.
This time on my train, there were a couple of policemen from Mumbai. And there was a con-man too! This fellow was handcuffed. The police was not so co-operative with him, but by any standards, was not rude to him as well. He was offered a decent, full railways made lunch, was given a seat and was allowed to sleep (at the taxpayer's expense, I guess).
I was alert for any escape attempts to which I would have been a eye witness. But fortunately for the police and to my disappointment, there was no attempt made. The prisoner on train was a cool fellow, so to say. Or maybe he was too tired of running and hiding.
It was around midnight when the ticket checker arrived with another passenger. It so happened that a fellow traveler in my compartment did not report his ticket to the concerned checker and was roaming in the train. Now, this _concerned_ checker had arrived with the RAC-passenger to offer him the seat. After 30 minutes of heated discussion, the TT had to return empty handed (and perhaps he already had his pocket warmed by the RAC-passenger, and the RAC passenger was now getting warmed up). I had learnt this lesson earlier from someone else's experience. First show up your ticket then go anywhere on the train, go meet the guard or the driver may it be.
After 29 hours of journey comprising of auto-rikshaw, train, bus and then our Indica, I finally reached home.
29 hours is a lot of time to complete the backlog of thinking...
This time on my train, there were a couple of policemen from Mumbai. And there was a con-man too! This fellow was handcuffed. The police was not so co-operative with him, but by any standards, was not rude to him as well. He was offered a decent, full railways made lunch, was given a seat and was allowed to sleep (at the taxpayer's expense, I guess).
I was alert for any escape attempts to which I would have been a eye witness. But fortunately for the police and to my disappointment, there was no attempt made. The prisoner on train was a cool fellow, so to say. Or maybe he was too tired of running and hiding.
It was around midnight when the ticket checker arrived with another passenger. It so happened that a fellow traveler in my compartment did not report his ticket to the concerned checker and was roaming in the train. Now, this _concerned_ checker had arrived with the RAC-passenger to offer him the seat. After 30 minutes of heated discussion, the TT had to return empty handed (and perhaps he already had his pocket warmed by the RAC-passenger, and the RAC passenger was now getting warmed up). I had learnt this lesson earlier from someone else's experience. First show up your ticket then go anywhere on the train, go meet the guard or the driver may it be.
After 29 hours of journey comprising of auto-rikshaw, train, bus and then our Indica, I finally reached home.
29 hours is a lot of time to complete the backlog of thinking...
Tuesday, August 16, 2005
The Sixth Day
It is 3:30 in the night, or very early morning you prefer calling it. The night is over. Yet I do not see the sun up as yet. There are miles to go before I can finally see it. The morning sun, oh how I long for it.
It is drizzling outside. We are a tired bunch, stranded in this unknown area, and we must head for our destination very soon, for we may miss our train home. Delay could be too painful. We are in a desperate situation. And the situation is created by mother nature. The same Mother Nature we came all this long way to see. To admire. To be humbled. We had seen the unimaginable beauty of it. The unthinkable majesty of the most wonderful scenes with which it could come up with. What we had not seen was the fury. We had forgotten everything about it till yesterday.
The fifth day of the trek would be registered as an extraordinarily eventful day.
We take leave of the shabby place where we put up for the night (or a very small part of it). The shabbiness did not matter : we were just too happy to be inside the room, which offered a stable platform to sit on, to sleep on. We do not know if the road is clear till Hrishikesh, or if there are more landslides on our way. After Hrishikesh, the hilly road ends, and it should be a comfortable journey afterwards to Dehradun. I remember the plans we had in our minds some 36 hours ago. I sigh and smile.
I remember the past day clear as the waters of Hemkund Sahib. As per our plan, we started early, at 6:30. The descent was quite comfortable to our feet that were so accustomed to ascents for the past three-four days. The weather was cold yet cheerful. There was no sign of rain, or even dark clouds. Memorising the moments at Ghangriya, the Valley and Hemkund, we were descending by hundreds of feet every ten minutes. The Bhyundar town was waking up, the cattle were ready for an early breakfast, the snow peaks were taking their not-so-routine bath of golden rays. Songs in our minds, we were humming the tunes to the breeze, with able accompaniment of river Pushpavati flowing in the valley. It was quite some experience. One of many to come our way in the long day ahead.
We stopped by at the Old Man's Hotel. On our way up, we had stopped by at this hotel. The Old Man and his Radio got registered in our minds. There was no hurry at all, we were ahead of our schedule. The tea had an amazing warmth, which had trickled into the tea from the Old Man's kind hands and great heart. The place was worth a photograph, and we took one.
As the clock ticked by, we found crowd on the rise. They were asking how far Hemkund Sahib was from here. We could only smile and say, "not too far, keep on walking you should reach there soon". Five days ago we ourselves would believe in such information, but now we knew better. There was no sign of Madhwalji who had vowed to overtake us (on his mule!). We were really far ahead on schedule. Soon we could see buses lined up in the parking lot of Govindghat. And within next half hour we reached the suspension bridge on river Pushpavati. There was still a lot of time till our whole team assembled. I had my time to write the concluding chapter of the trek, my reflections and conclusions ♣. I took my own time and wrote, seated on the bank of river Pushpavati. I did not have slightest of idea that this was not the end of trekking by any means. I removed the trekking shoes, put on chappals, and tried to relax. I called home declaring the 5-day ~50kms trek was over. It was just a matter of taking a bus or a jeep back to Dehradun, then staying in Dehradun for the night before leaving for Delhi. And we would be back to our own world. Soon.
I wish there were means by which it would be "just a matter of" returning. But now, it really does not matter. What matters is the next two-three hours, in which we expect to be in Hrishikesh. My fellows are trying to catch a nap, it has been a very long day and very short night for all of us. Yet, even the cool breeze and vibrating rhythm of our vehicle can't put me to sleep. I stay awake, trying to erase some of the moments of yesterday. I fail miserably.
There was certain delay in getting our vehicle to Hrishikesh. We were six of us, and finally accommodating one additional person, the Tata Sumo finally took off for Hrishikesh. The fellow passenger was from Dibrugadh, Assam♪ as only confirmed by his accent. Tracing our road back, climbing up initially we reached Joshimath by noon. Sun was shining, and there still were no chances of rain. We bought some biscuits to partially fulfill our hunger. Not so surprisingly, the rates of such items had also come down to normal heights! In Ghangriya, we had bought a four rupees biscuit pack for ten rupees. Things were getting back to normal after all. The return journey was tiring. There was not much talk in the jeep, and most of us tried to recharge ourselves with some possible naps. The driver this time was good. He seemed to know a lot of people. Every now and then some taxi would pass, and the two drivers would chat. It was interesting to see that he even knew some of the bus drivers, who generally are considered to be from a rival community by the taxi drivers. Madhwalji did not seem to have any interest in food. He was now concerned about the expenses he had incurred throughout the trek. Well, that was his problem, and couldn't be solved by skipping a lunch. We had our lunch, amidst honks by the irritated taxi driver and Madhwalji's pressure to finish it sooner than what was possible.
There was some talk of a landslide in that town. Soon the traffic came to standstill. We could see the road-restoration work in progress at two sharp bends along the road. The landslide was not very serious and the traffic soon continued. We heaved a sigh of relief. The problem was that as there was no rain since last couple of days, the soil had become loose. That increased the chances of landslide wherever the tree-cover was thin on the hills. We had seen a couple of landslides on our way to Joshimath, but we never were held up.
Leaving coming towns behind, we were speeding towards Hrishikesh, and a late dinner in Dehradun didn't seem so distant at all. The milestone declared we were about 150 kms from Hrishikesh and 18 kms from Srinagar, a major town in this area. Since the morning we had descended about 2000 mts. We spoke of this rather casually, almost disrespecting these heights. I do not know if the nature heard all this, and presented us with another challenge.
I do not believe in all this stuff, but it was not honourable on our part to speak such things. Or even to think. I know it can't be the reason for what happened next, yet it has made its mark on my mind.
The town of Rudraprayag looked cheerful. In the defense area, a game of basketball was going on. The sun had started its descent, and was comfortably warm now. Our driver got another passenger (whom he knew, of course) and was having a lively conversation with him. Everything looked good. Rudraprayag was not too far behind when we discovered a huge line-up of trucks, buses and all sorts of vehicles. Slowing down, the driver exclaimed something about the road block. Soon we found ourselves out of the taxi, trying to get some news about the road block. The site of landslide was quite far from where we had parked. Using the zoom lenses we tried to focus on the place, to no avail. It was just too far. Piyush and Manoj decided they had enough of sitting inside the taxi experience and started walking to find out for themselves. Myself and Shantanu went back to the taxi, and pressed Devendra for a late afternoon raga. He was more than happy to oblige us with Bhimpalas. Outside the window I could see the curious faces of fellow drivers, passengers who were worried about the road block. The drit bandish was soon over, yet there was no sign of speedy recovery of the situation. Shantanu again went in the search of truth and we tried to relax a bit. The driver had announced it would at least take two hours, we had no choice but to wait. Suddenly one large stone came rolling down and almost hit our taxi. We were out of the taxi in a flash. Now things were getting serious. Piyush brought a news that the landslide was still on, and the bulldozer which had started with the work had to leave the place.
I remember how horrifying a sight that was. We were about half a kilometer away, and we could still see the stones coming down with a great speed before falling in the deep valley. That was real. That was so close. And importantly we were now involved in it.
The Tata Sumo continues its journey towards Hrishikesh. The wipers are sweeping the droplets away. I cannot sweep the memories of yesterday that just seem to be pouring by tonnes.
That was not a good news. The continuing landslide meant delay in the clean-up work. More so, it was not predictable when or whether the landslide would stop. We had our train from New Delhi the next evening. We must reach Delhi before that at any cost. Going by what we were seeing, all this was impossibility now. Along the mountain on our left, we could spot a few people walking. They were crossing the landslide site from the top reaching this side. Madhwalji gathered all the courage and proposed that we also follow the route and cross the site. Otherwise, according to him, there was no way the road would clear up before next next afternoon. We believed him, it was evident. There was however still a chance that the landslide may stop, and the work would begin. If we stayed at Rudraprayag for te night and returned to this place early in the morning, we could still reach Dehradun by noon, and then to Delhi before the train started for Bangalore. This was a risky plan. On the other hand, we did not know the way to cross the mountain. Moreover, there was no guarantee that we would get a taxi to Hrishikesh after crossing the landslide. We could see people, even women in their sarees coming from the other side. We asked if there was any way to cross, they answered positively. After much discussions, we decided to take this risk. we brought out the trekking shoes, torches, and some courage as well. It was getting late. Already 6 o'clock - the sun would set soon. We asked the taxi driver to return, which he was just too happy to do.
With tentative minds but hopeful thoughts, we started the ascent. Believe me, it was quite crowded. People coming towards us were in a great hurry to finish the walk. We thought it was aggression, but it was not so, which we later realised. It was urge to be done with all this. The ascent was tough. The path was narrow. The load of the ruck sack seemed heavier and the earth more slippery than it was.
I marvel at how good some decisions turn out to be. All throughout the trek myself and Shantanu had led the way. I don't know how I got the thought, but I asked Shantanu to be at the rear of the troupe. I led the way (actually Madhwalji was leading at the start, but he offered the job to me when going got tougher). This was the crucial decision that helped a lot during the second half of this adventure outing. The first lights of the dawn are visible now. It is 5:30 in the morning. I see thick clouds covering the small towns. The road is still wet. Clouds are blocking the blind corners, yet we have the drive to move on. Thankfully there is not much traffic on our way. Hrishikesh is not so far now. It's like cricket: one never knows on what score a wicket might fall and even a small target would start looking formidable...
After much effort I reached the top. There was thick grass to catch and regain balance. There were some some small trees strategically planted to hold and drag our bodies over a difficult portion. It was tough but manageable so far. I could see Madhwalji following the path I encouraged to take. It was an altogether different experience, the trek leader relying on an amateur like me for directions. On the way up, we crossed the landslide site. It was the most horrifying scene : there was loud cracking sound as if whole earth was giving way, and then we could see huge stones rolling down.
Hrishikesh : 27 kms. I can now joke at the idea of stopping there to take a few snaps. It was the last thing on my mind. Shantanu, I am told did actually try for that, but there really was no place to stand still, take out the camera and shoot. It is better not to capture such scenes on any physical media. They are best left unexpressed, burried in memories...
I thought we were half way through. Distancewise we might well have been, but I guess that was just the start of it all. The nature had just posed another question for us to answer : it started drizzling. The grass became wet, so were our hands and shoes. Walking became tougher when the grass was replaced by bushed with a lot of thorns and sting. Take another challenge! The descent at the beginning looked easier. There were stones to keep foot on and stop on the way. There were enough trees to rely on. But not for too long.
I must admire Madhwalji's physical fitness. We had laughed off his boasting of, "I used to walk 70kms a day when I was your age", yet he showed a great character climbing all the way up till there. The thing that was constantly bothering me was his incessant talking aloud things everyone of us knew. I tried my best to neglect it and keep going. Every alternate minute I was announcing the directions aloud, so as to keep him moving. At one point he even thought of returning to Rudraprayag. This was ridiculous. It didn't make any sense. It was this point where I assumed the lead role and made him give up on this thought.
The rain God finally decided she had the satisfaction, and let us go. It was almost 7 o'clock now and light would fed quite fast. Keeping one eye on Madhwalji and asking Shantanu to shout aloud his whereabouts, I trekked along. From down, I could only see Madhwalji, struggling to keep his balance. At one point he said that the camera bag was bothering him. I offered to take it, which he happily agreed to. Now I was completely loaded. Because of the bag-strap around my neck, I could not see my feet clearly. At one point, I decided to turn around and climb down as one climbs down a ladder. That was a mistake. Before I could turn around completely, I slipped. I remember my struggle for a support. With all four contact-points, two hands and two feet I was trying to get hold of even a slightest of stone, grass, anything at all. I don't know for how long I ket slipping, neither in time nor in distance. I guess it was around 15 feet fall before I caught one thick root with my right hand. That stopped the fall. I was totally shaken by that incident. After that point I took my time to calculate every factor before taking the next step. That took a lot of energy out of me. But finally in almost darkness I reached a point from where trucks and buses could be felt within a few hundred feet.
I did not have any idea what was happening to the people above me : I later got to know that Devendra escaped being hit on his head by a falling stone. Madhwalji had a great fall, which he described with an analogy to an elephant's fall. (which was something I could not visualise though). Shantanu extended his ever helping hand to Piyush and stop his slide. Overall, it was not easy going for any of us.
The light had faded away into the night. Visibility was extremely poor. After almost one and half hours we had reached a point from where the road seemed to be very near. We were wary of any more of such descent now, and just wanted to get over with it. We tried to hurry in the slippery area, catching hold of almost anything that our hands could find. In this last lap, we had had enough bruises and scratches. At that point of time, we were least bothered about them, let alone the mud-clad outfit.
At around 7:30 we finally touched down on the highway. Predictably, there was a long long queue of trucks, buses, jeeps, taxis lined up, all waiting for the blockade to clear up. People had settled down for the night, some were playing cards, eating whatever they had with them, just passing the time. We washed our hands and faces in a stream on the way. Now it was Madhwalji's responsibility to find and negotiate for a vehicle to Hrishikesh. We were a large group, and clearly the drivers of Sumos were trying to get some real money out of it. We were too exhausted to put up an argument against quite high fare the driver was asking. We agreed to it and without much delay went and sat in the Sumo.
There were other difficulties to take on now. The high-way is closed during the night time. The driver refused to take any chances in the night. He was talking too much and we were not in mood of listening to his endless chatter. What was more irritating was that Madhwalji was trying to make his ridiculous comments about what we had just went through.
I have learnt my lesson that the most important virtue in such situations is patience. Patience with everyone around, patience with myself. It helped me in this matter. I just ignored what he was talking (so loudly). Our driver, Shriram, was telling us tales of the holy land, uttaranchal that is. At one or two places the police stopped us. The driver took care of it by telling that we were going to stay at "Mantriji's Hotel" for the night. That seemed to be some passcode as when we finally reached the hotel, we could nowhere find that name at the entrance of the place.
The plan for the next day was to get up early, at 3:30 that is, and start for Hrishikesh. Our Shriram seemed to be quite famous around here. He managed to get us a room when the person at the reception desk told us, "no way". He was popular among the fellow drivers too. Soon he started talking too loudly. All this matter was growing on us. It seemed too vulgar at times. We were hoping that our lord Shriram would refrain from drinking that night and drive us to Hrishikesh without further incidents.
It was already 10 in the night when we had some dinner and tried to sleep in a room sufficient for only three or four people. We couldn't care less about it at that point. Of course we couldn't sleep, the room being too congested was the least convincing reason for it.
It is morning now. We stop for tea at a highway hotel that is also lighting the firewood for the first tea of the morning. The rain has stopped. Hrishikesh is quite near now, after a long time now we all feel cheerful. A hot cup of tea has its own wonders.
We woke up very early, or simply opened our eyes, should I say. Our warm breaths were visible as we came out in search of the vehicle parked somewhere. We had to wake Shriram. We did not have any wake-up-O-Lord devotional song with us, nor any mood. After politely declining an offer for tea, we climbed up in the Sumo and got ready to take off.
It was 3:30 in the night, or very early morning you may call it. The night was finally over. Yet I did not see the sun up as yet. There were miles to go before I would eventually see it. The morning sun, oh how I longed for it.
After four hours of tense journey, I see the huge waters of the great Ganges. Hrishikesh is in sight. We get down the make-shift taxi. Catch another one for Dehradun. This one is enormously crowded, with some 12 people. We have no choice now, and we do not ask for comfort. The jeep takes us to Dehradun. We have to collect our baggage we kept in Dehradun. Madhwalji helps us in this matter. Without many goodbyes, we take leave of Madhwalji, and head for the inter state bus terminus. We hunt for some filling breakfast. We make phone calls. And board the bus for Delhi. We are all in absolutely dirty conditions, but can't help it. The bus passes through busy and crowded cities of Roorkie, Meerut and the like. After six hours of further journey. We finally step down at the ISBT, delhi. First thing we look for is a bath-room. A bath is a must now : if we miss it here, then it'd take two more days before we reach Bangalore! That would be quite unhealthy. Luckily we find one, get cleaned up in the cold waters of Delhi.
The freshness now is beyond words. The minds are stable and clearer. The sigh of relief is more than audible. We have dinner on the New Delhi railway station, and board Karnataka Express. At around 9:40 the train leaves. The trek is now over. The whole mood has been changed by the last forty eight hours : what an experience that has been. Without such experiences, I guess a trek is not a trek.
After further ~40 hours of journey, we reach Bangalore. The weather of Bangalore is cheerful as ever. We do not feel tiredness now, we are fresh. We are ready to recollect all the memories of the past ten days. I start gathering words to capture those.
I write this.
----
♣ Yet unpublished.
♪This person was traveling with a ruck sack and another handbag. It was virtually impossible to cross the landslide site with such luggage. He had started to climb with us. We do not know what happened to this fellow.
It is drizzling outside. We are a tired bunch, stranded in this unknown area, and we must head for our destination very soon, for we may miss our train home. Delay could be too painful. We are in a desperate situation. And the situation is created by mother nature. The same Mother Nature we came all this long way to see. To admire. To be humbled. We had seen the unimaginable beauty of it. The unthinkable majesty of the most wonderful scenes with which it could come up with. What we had not seen was the fury. We had forgotten everything about it till yesterday.
The fifth day of the trek would be registered as an extraordinarily eventful day.
We take leave of the shabby place where we put up for the night (or a very small part of it). The shabbiness did not matter : we were just too happy to be inside the room, which offered a stable platform to sit on, to sleep on. We do not know if the road is clear till Hrishikesh, or if there are more landslides on our way. After Hrishikesh, the hilly road ends, and it should be a comfortable journey afterwards to Dehradun. I remember the plans we had in our minds some 36 hours ago. I sigh and smile.
I remember the past day clear as the waters of Hemkund Sahib. As per our plan, we started early, at 6:30. The descent was quite comfortable to our feet that were so accustomed to ascents for the past three-four days. The weather was cold yet cheerful. There was no sign of rain, or even dark clouds. Memorising the moments at Ghangriya, the Valley and Hemkund, we were descending by hundreds of feet every ten minutes. The Bhyundar town was waking up, the cattle were ready for an early breakfast, the snow peaks were taking their not-so-routine bath of golden rays. Songs in our minds, we were humming the tunes to the breeze, with able accompaniment of river Pushpavati flowing in the valley. It was quite some experience. One of many to come our way in the long day ahead.
We stopped by at the Old Man's Hotel. On our way up, we had stopped by at this hotel. The Old Man and his Radio got registered in our minds. There was no hurry at all, we were ahead of our schedule. The tea had an amazing warmth, which had trickled into the tea from the Old Man's kind hands and great heart. The place was worth a photograph, and we took one.
As the clock ticked by, we found crowd on the rise. They were asking how far Hemkund Sahib was from here. We could only smile and say, "not too far, keep on walking you should reach there soon". Five days ago we ourselves would believe in such information, but now we knew better. There was no sign of Madhwalji who had vowed to overtake us (on his mule!). We were really far ahead on schedule. Soon we could see buses lined up in the parking lot of Govindghat. And within next half hour we reached the suspension bridge on river Pushpavati. There was still a lot of time till our whole team assembled. I had my time to write the concluding chapter of the trek, my reflections and conclusions ♣. I took my own time and wrote, seated on the bank of river Pushpavati. I did not have slightest of idea that this was not the end of trekking by any means. I removed the trekking shoes, put on chappals, and tried to relax. I called home declaring the 5-day ~50kms trek was over. It was just a matter of taking a bus or a jeep back to Dehradun, then staying in Dehradun for the night before leaving for Delhi. And we would be back to our own world. Soon.
I wish there were means by which it would be "just a matter of" returning. But now, it really does not matter. What matters is the next two-three hours, in which we expect to be in Hrishikesh. My fellows are trying to catch a nap, it has been a very long day and very short night for all of us. Yet, even the cool breeze and vibrating rhythm of our vehicle can't put me to sleep. I stay awake, trying to erase some of the moments of yesterday. I fail miserably.
There was certain delay in getting our vehicle to Hrishikesh. We were six of us, and finally accommodating one additional person, the Tata Sumo finally took off for Hrishikesh. The fellow passenger was from Dibrugadh, Assam♪ as only confirmed by his accent. Tracing our road back, climbing up initially we reached Joshimath by noon. Sun was shining, and there still were no chances of rain. We bought some biscuits to partially fulfill our hunger. Not so surprisingly, the rates of such items had also come down to normal heights! In Ghangriya, we had bought a four rupees biscuit pack for ten rupees. Things were getting back to normal after all. The return journey was tiring. There was not much talk in the jeep, and most of us tried to recharge ourselves with some possible naps. The driver this time was good. He seemed to know a lot of people. Every now and then some taxi would pass, and the two drivers would chat. It was interesting to see that he even knew some of the bus drivers, who generally are considered to be from a rival community by the taxi drivers. Madhwalji did not seem to have any interest in food. He was now concerned about the expenses he had incurred throughout the trek. Well, that was his problem, and couldn't be solved by skipping a lunch. We had our lunch, amidst honks by the irritated taxi driver and Madhwalji's pressure to finish it sooner than what was possible.
There was some talk of a landslide in that town. Soon the traffic came to standstill. We could see the road-restoration work in progress at two sharp bends along the road. The landslide was not very serious and the traffic soon continued. We heaved a sigh of relief. The problem was that as there was no rain since last couple of days, the soil had become loose. That increased the chances of landslide wherever the tree-cover was thin on the hills. We had seen a couple of landslides on our way to Joshimath, but we never were held up.
Leaving coming towns behind, we were speeding towards Hrishikesh, and a late dinner in Dehradun didn't seem so distant at all. The milestone declared we were about 150 kms from Hrishikesh and 18 kms from Srinagar, a major town in this area. Since the morning we had descended about 2000 mts. We spoke of this rather casually, almost disrespecting these heights. I do not know if the nature heard all this, and presented us with another challenge.
I do not believe in all this stuff, but it was not honourable on our part to speak such things. Or even to think. I know it can't be the reason for what happened next, yet it has made its mark on my mind.
The town of Rudraprayag looked cheerful. In the defense area, a game of basketball was going on. The sun had started its descent, and was comfortably warm now. Our driver got another passenger (whom he knew, of course) and was having a lively conversation with him. Everything looked good. Rudraprayag was not too far behind when we discovered a huge line-up of trucks, buses and all sorts of vehicles. Slowing down, the driver exclaimed something about the road block. Soon we found ourselves out of the taxi, trying to get some news about the road block. The site of landslide was quite far from where we had parked. Using the zoom lenses we tried to focus on the place, to no avail. It was just too far. Piyush and Manoj decided they had enough of sitting inside the taxi experience and started walking to find out for themselves. Myself and Shantanu went back to the taxi, and pressed Devendra for a late afternoon raga. He was more than happy to oblige us with Bhimpalas. Outside the window I could see the curious faces of fellow drivers, passengers who were worried about the road block. The drit bandish was soon over, yet there was no sign of speedy recovery of the situation. Shantanu again went in the search of truth and we tried to relax a bit. The driver had announced it would at least take two hours, we had no choice but to wait. Suddenly one large stone came rolling down and almost hit our taxi. We were out of the taxi in a flash. Now things were getting serious. Piyush brought a news that the landslide was still on, and the bulldozer which had started with the work had to leave the place.
I remember how horrifying a sight that was. We were about half a kilometer away, and we could still see the stones coming down with a great speed before falling in the deep valley. That was real. That was so close. And importantly we were now involved in it.
The Tata Sumo continues its journey towards Hrishikesh. The wipers are sweeping the droplets away. I cannot sweep the memories of yesterday that just seem to be pouring by tonnes.
That was not a good news. The continuing landslide meant delay in the clean-up work. More so, it was not predictable when or whether the landslide would stop. We had our train from New Delhi the next evening. We must reach Delhi before that at any cost. Going by what we were seeing, all this was impossibility now. Along the mountain on our left, we could spot a few people walking. They were crossing the landslide site from the top reaching this side. Madhwalji gathered all the courage and proposed that we also follow the route and cross the site. Otherwise, according to him, there was no way the road would clear up before next next afternoon. We believed him, it was evident. There was however still a chance that the landslide may stop, and the work would begin. If we stayed at Rudraprayag for te night and returned to this place early in the morning, we could still reach Dehradun by noon, and then to Delhi before the train started for Bangalore. This was a risky plan. On the other hand, we did not know the way to cross the mountain. Moreover, there was no guarantee that we would get a taxi to Hrishikesh after crossing the landslide. We could see people, even women in their sarees coming from the other side. We asked if there was any way to cross, they answered positively. After much discussions, we decided to take this risk. we brought out the trekking shoes, torches, and some courage as well. It was getting late. Already 6 o'clock - the sun would set soon. We asked the taxi driver to return, which he was just too happy to do.
With tentative minds but hopeful thoughts, we started the ascent. Believe me, it was quite crowded. People coming towards us were in a great hurry to finish the walk. We thought it was aggression, but it was not so, which we later realised. It was urge to be done with all this. The ascent was tough. The path was narrow. The load of the ruck sack seemed heavier and the earth more slippery than it was.
I marvel at how good some decisions turn out to be. All throughout the trek myself and Shantanu had led the way. I don't know how I got the thought, but I asked Shantanu to be at the rear of the troupe. I led the way (actually Madhwalji was leading at the start, but he offered the job to me when going got tougher). This was the crucial decision that helped a lot during the second half of this adventure outing. The first lights of the dawn are visible now. It is 5:30 in the morning. I see thick clouds covering the small towns. The road is still wet. Clouds are blocking the blind corners, yet we have the drive to move on. Thankfully there is not much traffic on our way. Hrishikesh is not so far now. It's like cricket: one never knows on what score a wicket might fall and even a small target would start looking formidable...
After much effort I reached the top. There was thick grass to catch and regain balance. There were some some small trees strategically planted to hold and drag our bodies over a difficult portion. It was tough but manageable so far. I could see Madhwalji following the path I encouraged to take. It was an altogether different experience, the trek leader relying on an amateur like me for directions. On the way up, we crossed the landslide site. It was the most horrifying scene : there was loud cracking sound as if whole earth was giving way, and then we could see huge stones rolling down.
Hrishikesh : 27 kms. I can now joke at the idea of stopping there to take a few snaps. It was the last thing on my mind. Shantanu, I am told did actually try for that, but there really was no place to stand still, take out the camera and shoot. It is better not to capture such scenes on any physical media. They are best left unexpressed, burried in memories...
I thought we were half way through. Distancewise we might well have been, but I guess that was just the start of it all. The nature had just posed another question for us to answer : it started drizzling. The grass became wet, so were our hands and shoes. Walking became tougher when the grass was replaced by bushed with a lot of thorns and sting. Take another challenge! The descent at the beginning looked easier. There were stones to keep foot on and stop on the way. There were enough trees to rely on. But not for too long.
I must admire Madhwalji's physical fitness. We had laughed off his boasting of, "I used to walk 70kms a day when I was your age", yet he showed a great character climbing all the way up till there. The thing that was constantly bothering me was his incessant talking aloud things everyone of us knew. I tried my best to neglect it and keep going. Every alternate minute I was announcing the directions aloud, so as to keep him moving. At one point he even thought of returning to Rudraprayag. This was ridiculous. It didn't make any sense. It was this point where I assumed the lead role and made him give up on this thought.
The rain God finally decided she had the satisfaction, and let us go. It was almost 7 o'clock now and light would fed quite fast. Keeping one eye on Madhwalji and asking Shantanu to shout aloud his whereabouts, I trekked along. From down, I could only see Madhwalji, struggling to keep his balance. At one point he said that the camera bag was bothering him. I offered to take it, which he happily agreed to. Now I was completely loaded. Because of the bag-strap around my neck, I could not see my feet clearly. At one point, I decided to turn around and climb down as one climbs down a ladder. That was a mistake. Before I could turn around completely, I slipped. I remember my struggle for a support. With all four contact-points, two hands and two feet I was trying to get hold of even a slightest of stone, grass, anything at all. I don't know for how long I ket slipping, neither in time nor in distance. I guess it was around 15 feet fall before I caught one thick root with my right hand. That stopped the fall. I was totally shaken by that incident. After that point I took my time to calculate every factor before taking the next step. That took a lot of energy out of me. But finally in almost darkness I reached a point from where trucks and buses could be felt within a few hundred feet.
I did not have any idea what was happening to the people above me : I later got to know that Devendra escaped being hit on his head by a falling stone. Madhwalji had a great fall, which he described with an analogy to an elephant's fall. (which was something I could not visualise though). Shantanu extended his ever helping hand to Piyush and stop his slide. Overall, it was not easy going for any of us.
The light had faded away into the night. Visibility was extremely poor. After almost one and half hours we had reached a point from where the road seemed to be very near. We were wary of any more of such descent now, and just wanted to get over with it. We tried to hurry in the slippery area, catching hold of almost anything that our hands could find. In this last lap, we had had enough bruises and scratches. At that point of time, we were least bothered about them, let alone the mud-clad outfit.
At around 7:30 we finally touched down on the highway. Predictably, there was a long long queue of trucks, buses, jeeps, taxis lined up, all waiting for the blockade to clear up. People had settled down for the night, some were playing cards, eating whatever they had with them, just passing the time. We washed our hands and faces in a stream on the way. Now it was Madhwalji's responsibility to find and negotiate for a vehicle to Hrishikesh. We were a large group, and clearly the drivers of Sumos were trying to get some real money out of it. We were too exhausted to put up an argument against quite high fare the driver was asking. We agreed to it and without much delay went and sat in the Sumo.
There were other difficulties to take on now. The high-way is closed during the night time. The driver refused to take any chances in the night. He was talking too much and we were not in mood of listening to his endless chatter. What was more irritating was that Madhwalji was trying to make his ridiculous comments about what we had just went through.
I have learnt my lesson that the most important virtue in such situations is patience. Patience with everyone around, patience with myself. It helped me in this matter. I just ignored what he was talking (so loudly). Our driver, Shriram, was telling us tales of the holy land, uttaranchal that is. At one or two places the police stopped us. The driver took care of it by telling that we were going to stay at "Mantriji's Hotel" for the night. That seemed to be some passcode as when we finally reached the hotel, we could nowhere find that name at the entrance of the place.
The plan for the next day was to get up early, at 3:30 that is, and start for Hrishikesh. Our Shriram seemed to be quite famous around here. He managed to get us a room when the person at the reception desk told us, "no way". He was popular among the fellow drivers too. Soon he started talking too loudly. All this matter was growing on us. It seemed too vulgar at times. We were hoping that our lord Shriram would refrain from drinking that night and drive us to Hrishikesh without further incidents.
It was already 10 in the night when we had some dinner and tried to sleep in a room sufficient for only three or four people. We couldn't care less about it at that point. Of course we couldn't sleep, the room being too congested was the least convincing reason for it.
It is morning now. We stop for tea at a highway hotel that is also lighting the firewood for the first tea of the morning. The rain has stopped. Hrishikesh is quite near now, after a long time now we all feel cheerful. A hot cup of tea has its own wonders.
We woke up very early, or simply opened our eyes, should I say. Our warm breaths were visible as we came out in search of the vehicle parked somewhere. We had to wake Shriram. We did not have any wake-up-O-Lord devotional song with us, nor any mood. After politely declining an offer for tea, we climbed up in the Sumo and got ready to take off.
It was 3:30 in the night, or very early morning you may call it. The night was finally over. Yet I did not see the sun up as yet. There were miles to go before I would eventually see it. The morning sun, oh how I longed for it.
After four hours of tense journey, I see the huge waters of the great Ganges. Hrishikesh is in sight. We get down the make-shift taxi. Catch another one for Dehradun. This one is enormously crowded, with some 12 people. We have no choice now, and we do not ask for comfort. The jeep takes us to Dehradun. We have to collect our baggage we kept in Dehradun. Madhwalji helps us in this matter. Without many goodbyes, we take leave of Madhwalji, and head for the inter state bus terminus. We hunt for some filling breakfast. We make phone calls. And board the bus for Delhi. We are all in absolutely dirty conditions, but can't help it. The bus passes through busy and crowded cities of Roorkie, Meerut and the like. After six hours of further journey. We finally step down at the ISBT, delhi. First thing we look for is a bath-room. A bath is a must now : if we miss it here, then it'd take two more days before we reach Bangalore! That would be quite unhealthy. Luckily we find one, get cleaned up in the cold waters of Delhi.
The freshness now is beyond words. The minds are stable and clearer. The sigh of relief is more than audible. We have dinner on the New Delhi railway station, and board Karnataka Express. At around 9:40 the train leaves. The trek is now over. The whole mood has been changed by the last forty eight hours : what an experience that has been. Without such experiences, I guess a trek is not a trek.
After further ~40 hours of journey, we reach Bangalore. The weather of Bangalore is cheerful as ever. We do not feel tiredness now, we are fresh. We are ready to recollect all the memories of the past ten days. I start gathering words to capture those.
I write this.
----
♣ Yet unpublished.
♪This person was traveling with a ruck sack and another handbag. It was virtually impossible to cross the landslide site with such luggage. He had started to climb with us. We do not know what happened to this fellow.
Monday, August 08, 2005
"Let the world change you,
and you will change the world"
यातल्या दुसऱ्या भागाबद्दल शंका वाटत असली तरि पहिला भाग अनुभवायला काहिच हरकत नाही.
IISC सोडल्यानंतर Intel मध्ये रुजू होईपर्यंत मधे दोन आठवड्यांचा पूर्णत: रिकामा वेळ हाती लागला, आणि मग उत्साहाने त्या दरम्यान हिमालयाच्या trek चा बेत आखला गेला. १९९८ मध्ये मी-आई-बाबा-स्नेहल नैनीतालला गेलो होतो. रानीखेत-कौसानीहून हिमालयाचे दर्शन घडले होते. यावेळेस मात्र Valley of Flowers आणि हेमकुंड साहिब अशी प्रत्यक्ष हिमालयावरच स्वारी होणार होती. संपूर्ण प्रवासाची diary अशी वेगळी लिहिली आहेच.आलेल्या अनुभवांवर काहिशी टिप्पणी :
- रेल्वेचा प्रवास मला नेहमीच आवडत आलेला आहे. प्रवासात जो काही शांतपणा (मनाला,प्रत्यक्षात नव्हे) मिळतो तो फारच हवाहवासा वाटतो. प्रवासात डोक्यात चाललेले विचार हे मात्र फारच volatile असतात. प्रवास संपल्यानंतर फारसं आठवत नाही; मात्र एकंदरीत स्वतःमध्ये फरक पडलेला असतो हे नक्की.
- प्रवासातला सहप्रवासी हा साधारणपणे एक संशोधनाचा विषय आहे. काही जणांना प्रत्येक-अगदी लहानसहान गोष्टींवर comment करण्याची सवय असते. आणि या comments बहुतेक वेळा कुचकटच असतात. माझा अशा लोकांबरोबरचा संयम बऱ्याचदा तोकडा पडतो. बंगलोर-दिल्ली प्रवासातल्या सहप्रवाश्याने माझी चांगलीच परीक्षा घेतली.
- असा लांब पल्ल्याचा प्रवास करतान आपला देश किती विस्तीर्ण आणि विविधता असलेला आहे याची प्रकर्षाने जाणीव होते. एका रात्रीत हवामान बदलते. निघालो तेव्हा बंगलोर आणि परिसरात अजिबातपाऊस नव्हता. दुसऱ्या दिवशी आंध्र प्रदेशात नद्यांना पूर आलेले दिसत होते. तिसऱ्या सकाळी मध्य प्रदेशातही बराच पाऊस लागला. दिल्लीतच त्या मानाने कमी पाऊस होता. २५०० किलोमीटर्सच्या प्रवासानंतरही अजून उत्तरेला हिमाचल-पंजाब-काश्मीर उरलेले होतेच. यावेळेस विदर्भात जाण्याचा योग आला. नागपूर-चंद्रपूर-वर्धा अशी स्टेशने लागली.
- इतके प्रचंड अंतर कापण्याऱ्या रेल्वेला बऱ्याचशा transitions मधून जावे लागते. बंगलोरला काऽऽफी पासून महाराष्ट्रात चहाऽऽ चहाऽऽ ते मध्य-उत्तर प्रदेशात कुल्हड में गरमचाऽऽय अशा आरोळ्या ऐकू येतात. प्रवासी आणि आगगाडी तीच असते. शहरे मागे पडत असतात.
- general, sleeper class ते A/C, first class अशा निरनिराळ्या डब्यांतून प्रवास करणाऱ्यांना आपल्या नियोजित स्थळी पोहोचवणारे engine मात्र एकच असते.engine ला अपपरभाव मुळीच नसतो. माझ्या आठवणीप्रमाणे पुलंनी याविषयी एका लेखात भाष्य केलेलं आहे.
- जगातील सर्वात मोठी organisation असलेल्या भारतीय रेल्वेचा सुरळीत कारभार हे एकफार मोठे आश्चर्य आहे. निव्वळ प्रवासाचे माध्यम अशा द्रुष्टीने याकडे बघितल्यास या कारभाराचीअवाढव्यता लक्षात येणार नाही. मालगाड्या, प्रवासी गाड्या, पॅसेंजर गाड्या, त्यांची आगाऊ आरक्षणे, signaling, आणि रोजची लहानतल्या लहान स्टेशनांवरची 'routine' कामे हे काम नसे थोडके...
- Cloak room ही केवढी उपयुक्त सेवा आहे याची जाणीव दिल्ली स्टेशनावर झाली. तिथे सामान ठेवून आम्ही अक्षरशः जीवाची दिल्ली केली. दिल्लीची metro-rail आवडली. विशेषतःकलकत्त्याचा अनुभव आठवणीत ताजा असल्यामुळे यावेळी अधिकच मजा आली.
- "रेल्वे वेळेवर धावतात" या नियमामुळे किती सुविधा होते याची जाणीव फक्त एका आठवड्यातच आम्हास होणार होती. पंचाईत होत नाही तोपर्यंत एखाद्या गोष्टीचे महत्त्व कळत नाही. चालून चालून प्रचंड थकल्यावर एक सायकलसुद्धा विमानस्वरूप भासते.
- रेल्वेचा खूप लांबचा प्रवास करूनही प्रवासाचा थकवा जाणवत नाही. बंगलोर-दिल्ली ३२ तासांच्या प्रवासानंतर आम्ही लगेचच देहरादूनच्या गाडीत बसलो - खरं तर झोपलो. सकाळ झाली तेव्हा भारताच्या विविधतेचं आणखी एक रूप समोर आलं. क्षितिजापर्यंत एकही डोंगर किंवा टेकडी नाही, हिरवीगार शेते आणि त्यांना छेदून जाण्याऱ्या फेसाळत्या, प्रचंद नद्या असं रूप आता निसर्गाने धारण केलं होतं. मका आणि उसाच्या शेतीत पॉपलरच्या झाडांनी नेटके plots पाडलेले दिसत होते. नदिच्या पात्रात नर्मदेतल्या गोट्यांसारखे रंगीत गोटे प्रचंड प्रमाणात दिसत होते. single trackअसल्याने आमच्या train ला देहरादूनला पोहोचण्याची काहीच घाई नव्हती. आणि बाहेरचं द्रुष्यपाहण्यात गुंग झालेल्या आम्हालाही!
- देहरादुन हे अपेक्षेप्रमाणेच एक थंड (हवेचं) शहर निघालं. थोडासा पाऊस पडत होता, हवेत गारठाही चांगलाच होता. हॉटेलमधल्या कर्मचाऱ्यांनाही थंडी भरली असावी - सगळी कामं थंडावली होती. थंड हवा आणि त्यात पाऊस यामुळे सगळीकडे हिरवाई होती. दक्षिण भारत आणि उत्तर भारत आणि आता उत्तरांचल यांच्यातले फरक आता पदोपदी जाणवत होते.
- खूप मोठ्या break नंतर करायला मिळणारी आंघोळ हा सुंदर अनुभव असला तरी तो काही असा break घेण्यासाठी उद्युक्त करत नाही, ही एक चांगली गोष्ट आहे :)
- एखाद्या व्यक्तिचा आवाज आणि बोलण्याची लकब यावरून त्याच्या दिसण्याचा- पेहरावाचा केलेला अंदाज किती चुकू शकतो याचा प्रत्यय आला. आमचे गाईड मधवलजी यांच्याशी फोनवर बोलणं झालेलं होतं, त्यावरून ही व्यक्ती बुटकी, सफारी सूट, पान चघळणारी असावी असा आम्ही तर्क केला होता. प्रत्यक्षात मधवलजी सहा फूटांहून जास्त उंच, धिप्पाड आणि चक्क jeans मध्ये वावरणारेनिघाले!
- IISc ही मी आत्तापर्यंत पाहिलेली सर्वांत हिरवीगार Institute होती. देहरादूनमधल्या Forest Research Institute ने सगळे निकष बदलून टाकले. नजर पोहोचेल तिथपर्यंत हिरवळ आणि क्षितिजावर शिवालिक पर्वतरांगा! प्रत्येक व्रुक्षाचा निराळा हिरवा रंग, अत्यंत सुंदर आणि देखणी इमारत ही आणखी वैशिष्ट्ये सांगता येतील. मुख्य रस्त्याच्या बाजूला प्राध्यापकांची घरे आहेत.प्रत्येक घरासमोर बाग -नव्हे, चक्क शेती आहे. एका घरासमोरच्या शेतीत भाताची लावणी चाललेली आम्ही पाहिली. प्रत्यक्ष institute मध्ये पाच वनसंग्रहालये आहेत - त्यात सामाजिक वनिकरण, इत्यादी संशोधनावरची बरीच माहिती प्रदर्शित केलेली आहे. लाकडांचे उपयोग, वनौषधी, झाडांना होणारे रोग, वनांची शास्त्रीय पद्धतीने तोडणी, पुनर्लागवड, वनांतले कीटकजीवन इ. अनेक गोष्टींवर संग्रहालयात विभाग आहेत. सदैव computer-electronics वर डोके लढवणाऱ्या आम्हांसहा अनुभव सुखद आणि थक्क करणारा होता.
- या अवघ्या परीसरात लक्ष वेधून घेतात ते क्षितिजावरचे डोंगर - पर्वतरांगा. नुकताच पाऊस पडून गेलेला असल्यामुळे हवा स्वच्छ होती. पांढरेशुभ्र ढग हलक्या झुळुकेबरोबर तरंगत होते. एकूणच वातावरणातला तजेला आणि चैतन्य वर्णन करण्यासारखं होतं - आणि मनातलही!
- डोक्यावर कुठल्याही प्रकारचं ओझं नसण्याचे ते काही दुर्मिळ दिवस होते. आणि तिथलं वातावरणही असं होतं की, नजिकच्या भविष्य/भूतकाळातल्या दगदगीची आठवण होणं शक्यच नव्हतं. अधूनमधून जाणीव होत होती की हे सारं क्षणिक आहे. थोड्याच दिवसांत काम-नोकरीच्या पसाऱ्यात आपल्याला हरवून जायचं आहे.
- मी काही फार साहसी आहे असं नाही. मात्र माझ्या मर्यादेत मला स्वतःला test करायला आवडतं. आता मी train/बसच्या प्रवासाला कंटाळलो होतो. डोंगर मला खुणावत होते, माझं उत्तर येणाऱ्या प्रतिध्वनीत मिसळून जात होतं.
- देहरादून ते जोशीमठ हे अंतर रस्त्याने पाहिलं तर ३०० किमी आहे; पण नकाश्यावर trace केलं तर माझी खात्री आहे, सरळ रेषेतलं अंतर त्याच्या निम्मं असणार. ९०% रस्ता म्हणजे एक अखंड घाट आहे.
- लहानपणी - लहानपणीच काय, अगदी आत्ता-आत्तपर्यंत हरीद्वार, ह्रुषिकेश, केदारनाथ-बद्रिनाथ ही ठिकाणं फार म्हणजे फार दूर आहेत असं वाटायचं. मात्र उत्तरांचलात पोहोचलो आणि ही सगळी तीर्थक्षेत्रं फारच जवळ आली.
- गंग नदीचं खरं रौद्र स्वरूप दिसलं ह्रुषिकेशमध्ये. उगमापासून त्या मानने खूपच कमी अंतरात गंगानदीचा विस्तार प्रचंद वाढलेला दिसतो. पुराचं प्रचंड, गढूळ पाणी वेगाने वाहताना दिसत होतं. एक नदी एखाद्या देशाच्या अर्थ-समाज आणि संस्क्रुती कारणात केवढी महत्त्वाच्यी असते हे विचार करण्यासारखं आहे. एक गंग नदी जर नसती, तर केवढा फरक पडला असता याचा अंदाज गंगेचंहे विशाल दर्शन घेतल्यावरच आला.
- हिमालयाच्या या पायथ्याजवळच्या पर्वतराजीत रस्ते बांधणं हे एक महाकठीण काम आहे. एक तर डोंगरांच्या size मुळे बोगदे काढणं economical नाही, त्यामुळे घाटरस्ते खूप जास्त लांबीचे बांधावे लागतात. नद्यांवर पूल बांधणं अशक्यप्राय आहे - त्यामुळे नदी ओलांडण्यासाठी उतरत उतरत नदीच्या त्यातल्या त्यात चिंचोळ्या भागाजवळ यावं लागतं. त्यानंतर छोट्या पुलावरून नदी पारकरून मग रस्ता पुन्हा डोंगर चढू लागतो. रस्ते बांधतान विविध प्रकारच्य वाहनांचा, त्याच्या क्षमतेचा किती विचार करावा लागत असेल हे इथं जाणवतं.
- देहरादून ते जोशीमठ सगळा रस्ता उजव्या बाजूला दरीत नदी आणि डाव्या बाजूला उंचच्या उंचडोंगर-बहुतेक झाडांनी आच्छादलेले असा आहे. महाराष्ट्रातल्या घाटांशी तुलना केली तर अतिप्रचंड उंचीआणि सगळीकडे जंगल अशा दोन गोष्टी हिमालयात प्रकर्षाने दिसून येतात.
...क्रमश:
Thursday, August 04, 2005
Photos
Some of the Valley of Flowers Trek photos can be found here.
Shannon's sampling theorem asserts that if a signal is sampled at twice the highest frequency which constitutes the it, the signal can be reproduced from only the sample values. First I tried to capture the Valley of Flowers experience in my words, I am sure, I have failed miserably and in fact, I never aimed to be successful at it. I knew it was futile.
These photos may have increased the sampling rate, but it can never be enough, as the original signal had all the possible frequencies and colours in the world!
Shannon's sampling theorem asserts that if a signal is sampled at twice the highest frequency which constitutes the it, the signal can be reproduced from only the sample values. First I tried to capture the Valley of Flowers experience in my words, I am sure, I have failed miserably and in fact, I never aimed to be successful at it. I knew it was futile.
These photos may have increased the sampling rate, but it can never be enough, as the original signal had all the possible frequencies and colours in the world!
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