A Photographer’s Paradise – Organizers Trip to Badami!

A Photographer’s Paradise – Organizers Trip to Badami!

To begin with, I’d say that some walks are just about…

…coming face-to-face with timeless beauty,

… watching the power of standing strong even in times of destruction,

…treading those roads which men of strength have walked, but are now, just in our hearts…

     Well, I had been longing since a while – to have a peaceful walk straight down the Historical Heritages. And AihoLe (pronounce : ayi-Ho-Ley) / Badami was on the top of my List (mainly for Line number 3 mentioned above).  Hadn’t shared this thought with anyone though (rather, left it on time to play it), but when one fine day, in between those tangled thread of mails (on Organizers’ trip-locations), when I read : ‘Location finalized to Badami’ – I was like – woaaaah! Life does throw surprises at you…

Train journey: Gang-of-bhukkads

Golgumbaaz express: (16535) : A troupe of 10 bhukkads: Even before the introduction round (ow..we had 2 ex-organizers – Shruthi n Dinesh; and a new one – Raja - too!), we started the ritual of hogging (this time, with a break of 5-minutes after finishing each snack – that went on for an hour and a half, until it was time for dinner). Chaitanya and Shubhroto tried playing the ‘gentlemen’ initially (by pretending as if they weren’t a part of us, the gluttons); but later gave up. Shubhroto joined openly by confessing  – ‘I was not hungry, but after watching you guys I am also feeling like eating something’. While our silent-killer Chaits went a step ahead by quietly snatching the popcorn pack from my hand; when Hiren & I were busy digging into chips.

The night went by – with the game of UNO (that awakened the strategist out of Subbu, and the Babaji out of Hiren); and then some gossips – and finally we wished each other a Good night and slipped into our dreamworld…

Day 1: Pattadakallu, AihoLe:

     Our Day 1 trip started with settling down at a lodge in Badami (we had planned caves visit for Day 2). After a quick refreshment and breakfast, we started out in the auto that Chaits n Channa had hired for the day. First destination was the Banashankari Temple. This temple’s existence is dated back to 7^th Century AD, and is an abode to a form of the ‘Goddess of Forest’. After finishing our ‘darshan’ and a brief photo session near a lake opposite to our temple, we headed out for our next destination, in the same auto. Our Biker guy Subbu seemed so overwhelmed with the temple darshan, that he could not stop asking for his ‘Arati’, ‘Aradhana’, ‘Pooja’ and finally ‘Prarthana’ throughout our travel to the next destination. The next visit was to an Ashrama.

Banashankari Temple

Team at Banashankari temple

Maharatha - at the Ashrama

     The village of Badami, in itself turned out to be a mesmerizing place. When you are travelling from one sight-seeing spot to another, it gives you a feel as if you yourself have entered inside some scenic artwork [reminded me of the regular sceneries we used to paint in school days – with hills, birds flying across the hills, bore wells, women carrying piles of hay (jowar in real), and squirrels and trees around :P].

     Our next visit was at an Ashrama near Banashankari temple. This had a Maharatha – that is built splendidly; and a Samadhi of a Jain priest of those ages. Another round of randomn photography and amazing comments at the Trucks-with-dhinkchak-music-systems; we headed out for Pattadakallu. And Our Real Trip began…

…And our photographers got equipped with their DSLR’s and tripods.

Pattadakallu – This place has a group of quaint temple monuments built during the Chalukyan ages – the main gopuras of which have been strategically destroyed in wars. It also has a number shrines of Shivalingas – each having a nandi facing it – again heads of which have been destroyed. Despite the destructions, the place offered picturesque display of the intricately designed structures, murals and sculptures carved on the columns and walls – that have still stood strong and still stay beautiful. These are basically craft-works on tales picked from Hindu mythology (some of which are known – loads of which are lost down the ages). Pattadakallu is listed as one of the World Heritage Sites by UNESCO.

     While the photographers got busy capturing shots; I had a nice time looking around and feeling amazed at the fact that I was face-to-face with something that was existing even centuries ago – timelessness! [Sculptures, Ancient architecture, Mythology and History had always been a fascination!]. We had loads of time to bask into the place, but suddenly our organizer Chaits started getting a bit restless. After spending sufficient time – we packed up to leave Pattadakallu – on instructions by a bit-restless Chaitanya (we later know why :P)

Pattadakallu-1

Pattadakallu

     It was afternoon (close to 1:00pm). Our next spot was AihoLe. In the morning, it was decided that we would be skipping lunch; however our plans was suddenly changed by Chaits – reasons still unknown. We would be going to a dhaba nearby AihoLe for lunch and then visit the Heritage site.  Nevertheless, we agreed and continued our travel full-on fun with ‘Ae-Raja’; Subrata-turned Shubhroto-turned Subbu-turned Subbanna’s quest for his Prarthana (phew!); some leg pulling session to Shruthi and so on and so forth. We took 2 tables and ordered dry and soft jowar rottis (speciality of the place); along with some other dishes. While we were waiting for the food to arrive and casually chit-chatting; the sound of a very familiar bike caught our attention – and Lo! Here arrives Captain Virander proudly in his Harley, along with  Deepthy. 

     We howled and clapped at the surprise entry (and now understood all that restlessness and sudden-plan-changes made by Chaitanya – hummm..so he was aware of if, and was co-ordinating secretly with him all this while). With the two joining us, there was no derth of the already fun-environment (just that there were more number of PJs now :P). We were still waiting for our food, when again Captain Viru surprised me by handing over the BTC pull over that I had ordered. [Well, this was again a surprise because of the confusion that I had created, over my pullover’s delivery; in the group chat the previous evening. Chaits had forgotten to get it, and poor Viru had to bear the consequences : of dramatically riding all the way  some 500 kms on his Harley and delivering it :P]

     Post lunch – we headed out for AihoLe. And it started pouring heavily. After an hour’s wait inside a lone temple right opposite to our destination spot; we entered the temple complex when the downpour reduced a bit. This place, again, had a group of temples built in Chalukyan era; with Inscriptions and sculptures of the Mythological tales. Inside the same complex, we made a visit to the museum that have preserved some of the sculptures of gods and goddesses; and provides information on the excavated site.

AihoLe excavated site

The sculpted columns - AihoLe.

     It started to rain again. The heavy downpour did not show any signs of stopping or slowing down since then; hence we cancelled our further visit plans (that was a bit of disappointment to our photographers) – and decided to get back to our lodge at Badami – now some 30 kms away.  The journey on the way turned out to be out-and-out hilarious: the take-of-the-hour being ‘the cover’ comment that Ritu had made on me! [Hiren and Raja couldnot control falling and laughing about it!]

     After returning to our lodge, we refreshed ourselves; had dinner; and then gathered to play our savior game of UNO. And with the game – all the true colors of the group appeared :P. Chaitanya’s conspiracy to corner me in the game (I had to ensure I did not sit beside him in future rounds :P); our Advocate Shruthi madam’s Liar’ing; Channa and Shubhroto – the strategists (read cheaters); and Hiren’s Babaji avatar with his rut ‘Bhagwan sabka hota hai’  - all this ensured the fun was on till the end. After pathetically losing all the rounds of the game, I finally won one last round – and then we all decided to crash down our respective beds; and get prepared for the next day’s trip.

Day 2: Badami Caves:

     Day 2 was quite a dry and sunny day. It again, began our day with breakfast’n’chai – and then a walk up to the Badami Fort. Our BTC cameramen and women were all in action again with full enthu. Hard core climber Hiren now was little happy that he got to ‘Climb’ at least somewhere :P The Badami hill is an absolutely stunning region to tread into! What makes the place more beautiful is the red soiled region that makes the entire region naturally colored and attractive. 

     I immediately immersed myself into the ambience of the place – my thoughts revolved around a lot of things, as I made my way peacefully through the alleys and steps: people, human efforts, Nature’s way of showing us examples of strength etc etc. With not much public around, we had a great time admiring the grandeur work; and also cracking stupid jokes; clicking loads of pictures and having fun. Ritz and I started our punar-janmon ki katha related to the place, when Shruthi and Viru suddenly realized that they too had been with us in that previous birth (yeah..so some of us BTCians are previous-birth-se-mile-hue jaani dushman hain :P)! The view from the top was vividly attractive; as we could see the entire Bhootnath Cave temple (our next destination) from the top. Our photographers continued hopping and clicking pics (when some of us non-photographers happily posed for them along with the sculptures :P)

Badami - entrance

Walking into the alley  between the fort rocks

Some of  the BTC Marvels - standing on top of Badami Marvels ;)

Bhootnath Cave Temples:

     Located right opposite to the fort, the Bhootnath Cave temple is a perfect epitome of Beauty. Some of our guys – Channa, Hiren and Viru chose to take a dive in the lake, before heading out towards the caves. This is a group of 4 caves, each having a sanctum sanctorum, a mandapa, a verandah and pillars. The cave temples also bear exquisite carvings, sculptures and beautiful murals – a perfect treat for the lenses of both -  photographers’ and story-seekers like me J

Inside Badami cave temple

 
















   
   













 




 


     The walk specifically to this cave temple felt peaceful and soothing – I could not believe I was actually right here – to one of my dream destinations (that was still - just with me!) To add to the feeling was the magnificent surrounding that we couldn’t stop appreciating. Our photographers went zoom with their Visual talents, capturing all that they could out of the place. We spent a couple of hours soaking into these marvels; and it was time for us to push off for lunch.

  Walked down a hotel for lunch, again had a blast of fun-round with the group – sharing previous trek stories, cracking some doubly-meaningful jokes,  and digging into each others’ plates. Back there in our room at the lodge, we did our final packing (some of the folks rested in the time that was left, and the rest again tuned into the game of UNO). Had a small meeting where we discussed stuff, and then headed out for our return journey, calling it a peaceful-weekend-Getaway. So, if you are someone who loves to bask into timeless pieces of beauty, or a passionate Photographer - AihoLe / Badami / Pattadakallu ought to be in your 'must-visit' list - and your quest for that peace and creative urges will certainly be fulfilled ;) :P

     Well, the entire trip was fully-loaded with surprises, yet again fun with people; while accomplishing my personal quest. In the end it was just a : 'some-things-just-happen-perfectly-for-you'...Finding all that we were seeking out of the trip, and loads of memories; we bid each other adieu and continued with our tasks on Monday morning...

Some of the after-effects of the trip:

1. Shubhroto is still addicted to the ‘sounds like’ rule of Dumb charades (this was during return journey)

2.  Hiren & Raja still imagine things when they think of the ‘cover’ story and burst out..

3. Photographers: Channa, Ritz, Chaitanya still admire their photographic skills; and are making        plans for the next appetite for their creative juices..

4.   Dinesh is still waiting with his ‘Application-pending’ status :P [would not like to mention anything further for ‘peace’ sake :P]

       Ahh..yes…and adding to my souvenir collection (be it from our History-making 2-day WOW trip; or the unexpected events at this Badami trip) -  my BTC pullover’s gonna bear the special stamp of this : ‘Delivered via harleydavidson courier services: C & V’… ;)

Cheers!

A traveller...

Theme song of the trip: With no doubt, a beautiful number by my icon Dr. Rajkumar - 'huttidare...' that talks of these marvels of Karnataka :)

Photo credits: Channa, Chaitanya, Ritu

WOW Trek to Rayakkottai - Take 2!

WOW Trek to Rayakkottai - Take 2!

                                             - from the Organizers words...:)

Life was on a ‘Wake up Swa, saare pal kahe. Wake up Swa, chal kaheen chale..’ mode. There was an urge to do something different, something New, something ‘out-of-the-box’! And suddenly a friend (and a fellow trekker Shilpa) buzzes and talks about a trek  – WOW trek to Rayakottai. With ‘should-I’ , ‘shouldn’t I’; some drama with Shilpa on whether I really should go for it; I finally enroll for the trek, and get shortlisted too! And then unreserved train..and meet our organizer Ajita for the first time..and all new people..and then climb and help each other…and then this and that…and then…well...blah blah blah..etc etc etc…

Waitta minnute!

That was the story of a year back – 13^th July, 2013! My first trek as a participant..my first trek ever, for that matter!

Well..they talk about ‘the Circle of Life’, ‘what goes around, comes around’..and so, the circle that began a year ago, completed on the same weekend this year, as follows [with a different role, this time!]  –

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Life was now on ‘mera falsafa, kandhe pe mera basta! Chala main jahaan, le chala mujhe rasta..’ mode! [Co-incidentally..Ranbir Kapoor again!].  And once again – with a bit of ‘should-I’, ‘shouldn’t I’– I finally opened my own event – WOW Trek to Rayakkottai – as an organizer this time.

12^th July, 2014: WOW Trek to Rayakkottai:

Rayakkottai peak

Were waiting for a couple of participants at Platform 1 of the City Railway station, when DJ bumped in to give us a surprise visit [they were on a BTC Shivagange trip]. With the participants of mom-kid pair, childhood-buddies pair, and a bundle of creative people (who happily used their organizer as a scapegoat for their camera-testing) - the event was gonna be interesting. No last-minute drop-outs, and a kick of motivation with this!

Boarded the train and started the fun with our ‘khaane-ka-drama’. Train was an hour late, which meant we had more time to while inside, and have more fun and munch on more stuff :P . Sushmita turned out to be a great bakra for our pranks & dialog-baazi; and in turn, we (read Yamini, Shaily, Yogi and I) turned into her default models for photoshoot.

Reached Rayakkottai station at around 10.30 am. Weather was little gloomy and windy. Language wasn’t a problem, as some of us knew Tamil [the localites were, in fact, more pleased and co-operative with us because of our language skill:P]. After breakfast and a round of introduction, we got our lunch-packs and began our trek. Divided the group of 13 into 3 sub-groups and started climbing. Well..dint notice this in the past (was more of a follow-the-leader back then); but Rayakkottai is an easy trail with markings on small rocks throughout the path.

The climb – a ‘heavily-windy-trek!’:

The climb was just fun, with nothing else to bother us (but for our photographers who kept experimenting with their new camera, and us). As we climbed further, the weather got even more windy. So after various themes of trekking over the past one year (day-trek, night-trek, rain-trek, 2-day-trek etc..), we had a different experience of a ‘heavily-windy-trek’..at times giving us a dash and push too! With comments ranging from ‘bachchi-sabko-sambhaalo’ [ah..yes..we had a 11-year old rock-climber Vaishnavi among us;)] to ‘organizer-ko-paperweight-dedo-warna-uD-jaayegi’- there was no derth of pulling each others’ legs throughout.

Rayakkottai – despite being an easy level of trek, is an amazing place mainly because of the green view it offers [while many single-day trek destinations will give u civilization-view from the top, this peak will show u a breathtaking view of other hills and green all around apart from mere civilization - as Krishnagiri district is a hilly region in itself]. We climbed further and took a deviation mid-way, to check out a cave-temple where we took a short break.

After a short photo-session, we trekked further in between the broken Fort walls and gates, to meet our destination peak. The last tiny stretch to the peak was a little adventurous [a bush of Cactii that had grown due to rains, had made this stretch little risky..however, with each others’ help we ensured that all was safe, unhurt and successfully made it to the peak]

Peak & E(pic):

The peak, as always, was a stunning experience. The girls again got engrossed in their creative photo session for a while; until I had to repeatedly call them out for lunch (gosh – and realized we have had troubled our organizers much more than this, being on the other side :P). With heavy winds blowing, we had a little tough time in finding an appropriate place to have lunch. Finally we settled down, finished our lunch and started to explore around the peak.

While we were thinking of different and creative poses for pics [my ‘kuch-alag-karo-kuch-alag-karo’ manthra was constantly on], Sumithra (a participant) came up with an idea of forming WOW (woohooo..feels proud to have creative minds amongst you!). And that was it! With a number of different WOW formations, and hilarious trial-errors – we finally came up with this E(pic):D

WOW Formation!

Post the celebrations of this success, the team explored another rock that is located above the peak. Satisfied and all-happy with the view, they returned to the peak for a short chilling session - that turned out to be hilarious again, when our li’l Master Vaishnavi surprised us with handful of chocolates from all of her trouser pockets, and distributed to us [reminded me of my childhood days – difference being – back then – ‘distribution’ concept was non-existant:P]

Bag-pack and return:

2.30 pm. The return train was scheduled at 4.00pm, which meant it was time for descend. To add an adventure-feel to the entire event, half of the team took a muddy road on the way; and realized that was not the trail connecting to our original route. Taking our route back finally gave the girls a ‘trek-feel’, and after reconnecting to our original route, we descended down further to reach the base.

Thus successfully accomplishing the event, we walked towards the station – where we had a feedback session, some closing formalities; and then completion of the remaining snacks [train was an hour late again!].

Train arrived. Team dispersed and gathered again at the City Railway station. With thank-yous and promises of meeting in some other trek, some other time; we called it a treknic and dispersed – to continue the journey of our respective lives…

Once again, a beautiful team-work shown by each participant. Special mention to Yogita & Ashwini for being there. And a big thanks to Captain Ajju and BTC team for their support! The journey from being a non-trekker to turning into a trekker; and then to a Trek -organizer over the span of exactly a year, has had been incredible!

From all that I have seen and experienced about treks over this year - all I would say is : Trekking ain't a passion, it's a Spirit!

Cheers!

Swatz

BTC Organizers Trek - to Tadiandamol [Coorg] - June 21st & 22nd

Will it rain? Wont it rain? What to pack? what not to pack? which seat to catch in the TT? - lotsa thoughts! Finally, gave up on each thought - sought people's help and prepared myself for my first ever Organizers Trek.

June 20^th , evening:

     With a very responsibly packed baggage (ok, so again only some of my friends can comprehend why I the word ‘responsibly’ here :P!), I headed out for Shantala Silk house in my Shikari Shamboo avatar; and met the rest of the BTC organizers who had already gathered at the destination. Must say, it was a confluence of different personalities – again; people from different cultural backgrounds, different mind-sets, different thoughts and views on adventure.

     While we waited for few others to join us, Channa inaugurated the Fun by opening the churmuri packet he had got from his native. We – the bhukkads (I mean the whole troupe, none specific) dug our hands at the poor plastic cover to get maximum share of the churmuri :D. This followed the distribution of ‘lauki-ka-halva’ (took some time to explain gujju bhai Hiren that its duddhi-no-halvo :P) brought by Viru.

     Cracked jokes. Saw Channa, Deepthy, Sangu and Viru’s bag-packing techniques.  Chit-chatted for a while. Had some more of snacks-eating sessions (lonavala Chikki from Sush), and started in our TT that arrived an hour late!

     Journey was more peaceful one (considering that most of us were from IT sector, and had arrived after a week full of facing computers).  Passed our time talking about various things : drink-n-drive cases, signal jump fines, elephant-chasing experiences n blah blah blah. Stopped over for dinner at 11pm (after a hiatus on finding an appropriate place to hog :D). Continued our journey to reach the destination.

June 21^st :Morning:

     Enter Coorg. And our organizer Abhi’s prayers were answered! The place welcomed us with rain showers. Got the TT stopped outside the Virajpet bus stand, for refreshing ourselves. After brushing our teeth (..and i sound utterly insane here!) (on strict instructions by Abhi – else some of us junglees did not really care – it was gonna be a jungle exploration, after all :P!), we headed out for breaksfast. Got our lunch parcelled, and started for our first destination  – Chelavara Water falls. The ambience here already had started to captivate us, as we walked our way to reach the Falls. The falls was even more mesmerizing! Some of us stepped onto the chill waters (thanks to Deepthy n Sush for handholding me); and later gave some work to our photographers – Anthony, Ritz and Channa :P

Chelavara Falls

Chelavara Falls - 2

BTC organizing team

     Took our time to take in all that the place gave us. Finally, we all had woken up completely (after a refreshing experience at Chelavara); and then headed out for another view point – Choma Kunda. Thanks to Sangu’s hilarious music dedication session (Ritz and Sush were the DJs) – our journey from Chelavara to Choma Kunda was much more lively and active :P

Choma kunda viewpoint – a walk into the Clouds!

     Got down from the TT, and again – the rains! The way to the base of this viewpoint was equally beautiful. Throughout this passage, Viru kept his notoriety on, by hopping and splashing water on every possible targets (some of us – Abhi, Hiren, Ritz, Sush n I - literally ran away to escape the brunt – while the rest were attacked :D!)

     Post the fun-walk, we reached the base of the viewpoint and started to trek. The climb to the peak was a bliss – with just the green on our path; and the fog-white and chill winds blowing around. Abhi’s dhyaan-mantra seemed to have really impressed the rain gods, and the showers went on and off all along! From the peak we witnessed the clouds gliding above from the valley below (yes! You read it right! They glided above from below indeed!) – and this was really a heavenly experience! At some points, the clouds cleared out giving us spectacular sights of the dense forest at the valley down below. We howled, clicked pictures and moved to another part of the peak where we enjoyed heavy rains.  By this time – I was totally lost into some peaceful world – with a stream of memories with childhood-buddies enjoying out in the rains, gushing in from no-where and catching hold of my brain! Of course, this lasted for a short period of time, and then we all started out to touch the base.

Walk all the way to choma kunda peak

     

A click from the Choma-kunda viewpoint

     Took a different route for the descend. Had a brief but interesting conversation with Hiren on life as a Gujju, and life as a Bangalorean! The conversation was abrupted by Viru’s intentional attempts of distracting us with ‘yeh duniya kaisi hai’ rut; and the photo sessions mid-way until we reached the base :D Sangu-Channa pair were all time the ‘solo-picture-perfectoss’ :P

     Had no clue about what time it was [we had barely seen the sun since the time we were up, and were too engrossed in the fun and nature], but our tummies signaled that it was time for us to take a lunch break. 

   

     Drove for some more time with another round of music dedication, and cracking more jokes, until we reached a school outside the Nalknad Palace. By now it had turned into a ritual that whenever our organizer – Abhi - stepped out of the TT, it inevitably started to rain heavily! :D We halted outside the school, where we decided to have our lunch. Even post the lunch, we had to wait for the rains to stop – but since Abhi refused to get back inside the TT (oops..i mean since the rains refused to stop :P), we had to postpone our plans of trekking to the forest peak. We explored the palace (that felt more like kannada movie Aptamitra’s haunted house), had a photo session again and wandered around wondering what next to do (rains hadn’t stopped still!)

     Felt like it was dusk (again with no idea of what time it was) and Viru, Channa, Sangu and Abhi chalked out plans on halt for the night. With a bit of investigations, we zeroed in on a place and boarded our TT. We halted on the way near a shop and then came an announcement – ‘We will have an Introduction round’ :D Piyush instant comment – ‘subah se sabko dekh toh liya, ab kya introduction lena hai’ got us chuckling, nevertheless, we had to finish the formality :P. After the formal stuff, we headed out to a house for the night-stay.

     Sushma’s Takeshi-castle act was a super funny one :D (poor thing had confidently got out of the bus without rain cover, but the moment Abhi stepped out, again rains started showering, and I had to quickly wrap her inside the rain cover that I thankfully had handy – well.. letting only her head sneak out of the cover :D. Wonder how did she manage to walk all the way from the TT to the house with even her hands wrapped inside the cover – or did she manage to pop out her hands on the way?? :D). Thanks to Subrata who threw the light on our way (while we were struggling to get our torches in those heavy rains, reluctant to open our bagpacks!)

in-house camping (uncaptured in photos) :P

     Ok! So we are different! And so what if the rains tried to spoil the sport..we dint blame it and still made our way to camping – inside the house :P the owners were kind enough to let us set up a camp fire (mainly to cook our dinner).  We 4 girls urged our organizer to set up a tent inside our room – one of the craziest decisions made (just wanted to have a tent-feeling, as we had missed it), and our organizer set it up with no complains :D

     Had a nice sharing-n-caring dinner, cracked jokes, countered Viru’s ‘ye duniya..ye duniya..’ saga, watched Abhi’s fun chase and shooing away the owner’s cat out of the tent; and then called it an adventurous day…

    Everyone retired, we girls retired into the tent – the suffocation that Deepthy and I felt inside the tent, led to a series of comedies (ok..not blaming the other 2 :D), and we both decided to sleep out of the tent (wanting some fresh air) letting Ritz n Sush have a peaceful tent-sleep :P. it felt more like Dip and I were guards to the queens resting happily inside their palanquin :D![yeah..guards..because the next day morning we realized we and our sleeping bags had got all wet due to water dripping down from the roof :D, the tent-ers were spared of this...hmmm...;)

Day 1 – the end…

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Day 2:

     Rains hadn’t stopped still! It had been a continuous pour since the previous evening. Again after some brainstorming, the organizers tweaked the day’s plans that felt safer - considering the weather conditions. After thanking the house owners (who were really sweet and all smiles at us), we packed and set out for our first destination of Day 2 – Talakaveri.

     Day 2 was a more active one in the TT – when even Subrata and Piyush (who were more of silent spectators the previous day) joined in the fun by discussing stuff about biking [and later paired up with Viru - to pull Ritz, Dip’s and Sushma’s legs by calling them ‘Indicator’ :D]. well…i was busy pulling Hiren and Abhi’s legs [Anthony, Sangu and Channa had nice entertainment, I guess :D]

Talakaveri – a nice rainy walk till the entrance reminded me of Diddy’s song – Home Coming. Anthony was at his comedy best. :D As soon as we entered the place – Dip, Hiren & I turned into kids and started splashing water on each other (yeah…insanity inside the temple). The weather was all gloomy and on-off rains.

The series of 'mannat-buildings' :P

BTC folks with their 'wishes stones'

loved this pic!  return from Talakaveri..walk towards TT

     Peak was an amazing place. Its believed that this is a place for asking ‘mannats (wishes)’. You have to lay pieces of stones one over the other and ask for something, and it shall be granted. Sush, Ritz and I – sparing no chances – busied ourselves by constructing stories of stone buildings with wishes :D (not only for us, but for others too :P). In the end, we realized that my ‘mannat-building’ had disappeared. Concluding that someone up there had really picked it up, we returned to join the rest of the folks (who were busy taking pictures)

BTC (mock) Family and Abbey Falls:

     The journey from Talakaveri to Abbey falls was hilarious. With all intentions of ragging Abhi to the core; we created a nice BTC (mock) family – with Abhi, Sush, myself, Hiren, Deepthy and Viru as characters [keep guessing who’s who – I mean ‘wild-guessing’ :P]. Anthony – the all-silent chap in the team opened up with little dance jig :P

Abbey falls somewhat reminded me of Iruppu in terms of its aura. Again, the casper in me played up its prank! Had a gut feeling since the beginning of the trek that I was gonna bump into a known face somewhere in the journey, and lo! Bumped into a friend’s friend! The Falls in itself was a beautiful sight (the rains adding to the experience). Channa diligently managed to ask for umbrellas (to capture the moments even in those rains) :D

Abbi - The Falls

Click with Abbhi - The organizer :P

Mandalpatti :

     The return from Abbey falls again indicated it was time to fuel ourselves again.  After lunch, we journeyed again with some travel music on inside the TT. Realized that we actually had good singers in Hiren and Sangu :P ([and thanks guys for letting me listen to ‘hosanna’ – never spared any gang / group from the song :P] Reached the start point to Mandalpatti.  The bikers viz Piyush, Subrata n Viru chose to stay at the base for some reasons; while we set out to explore. After an arduous 4km walk, we took onto a jeep ride on awesome roads to meet the viewpoint.   

Climb to the Mandalpatti Viewpoint

Blissed out - on the top of the tower

The spooky (Ritz term), mystifyin (my term) spot! reminded me of Kung fu panda set up and Master Oogway!

Viewpoint – was equally scintillating as the previous one (except that nothing was seen but for the white clouds :P – it was the weather that did the magic!). We chose to experience this chillness and the cold rains on the top of the tower; and again clicked nice snaps. Hiren did a brilliant ‘Sholay-wala-Veeru’ act from the tower (when the rest had got down); until we had to accept Dips as his Basanti :P [ok..i spill some beans about the BTC mock family here :P]. The jeep ride back to the base was again hilarious – the heads of BTC mock family (Abhiyum naanum :P) had got silent; when the rest (Dip, Sush, Sangu and Ritz) continued commenting. Sushma’s comment ‘bechaara beta baap ko nahi pehchaan paa raha’ – was the ultimate one :D

Coorg monstery [The ‘WOW’ memory]:

     Again, it felt like dusk after we had returned from Mandalpatti. With no other places in mind, and lot of time left to return, we went to the Coorg Monastery. Ritz and I instantly went down the memory lane reminiscing the first ever BTC WOW 2-day event :D [just that this was evening time we were inside the monastery]. Missed Captain Ajju big time here! However, had a great time with the troupe. Did some nautanki, again clicked pics [Anthony, Channa and Rits – got too technically deep into photography – and the rest of us happily posed:P].

End of Journey…

     Thankfully the rains had stopped on day 2 evening [finally saw some stars on the sky]. We set out for our return journey, post a fulfilling dinner. Reached Bangalore the next day morning, had a feedback session, and then bid each other adieu and returned to our abodes….The 2 days had been awesome, yet another feather in the BTC cap!

Credits:

     Well..with BTC – the word ‘thanks’ is losing its lustre (need to find a similar term with bigger magnitude!)! But anyways, a big thanks to Abhi for organizing this trek. There was a lot of learning from this trip. Kudos for planning it!

     Hats off to core BTC folks for establishing such a diverse team of weirdos :D Looking forward for learning and contributing in the weirdness :P

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Note by ‘the-blogger-at-heart’:

     Well..i would have loved to name this post as a sequel to my previous posts ‘How-do-we-meet-them : Part 3’ [the first 2 parts written way back in 2010]. It had always been a wonder on how we bump into people and places (we have had really no clue of); and picks up experiences and lessons outta them! The entire event reminded me vividly of childhood days and BBSR folks [KE4 was always in my mind].

     Sealing the post with a quote – “For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move” [Robert Louis Stevenson]

Exploring more – thoughts, people, experiences…

For now, signing off..

Truly,

A Wanderer – in resonance with ‘Life’!

The blogger’s theme song for the event: ‘Dekha hai aise bhi’ from Lucky Ali.

 P.C: Ritz and Channa

Madhugiri Hills - A trek covered right on time!

Trek. Drama. Action! – an all-in-one package this event was – with a bunch of 12 enthusiastic women out on an adventurous spree to the Madhugiri Hills.

The wowie' 12! 

The 12 shortlisted girls (including organizers) gathered at the Shantala silk house at the specified time, and started out for the destination ‘dot-on-time-at-7.00 am’ (yeah…the participants did impress us with their sense of sharp timing! Kudos!). After picking up our Annadaatas (Asha n Shalini duo), we started our Introduction session. This time again, we had a mix of first-timers, and experienced trekkers – all equally excited about the trip. The intro round succeeded some gyaan sessions by Ritz and me – about the place, the trek level, and to the first-timers on how to handle themselves while trekking. Kept the gyaan session short-n-sweet (for obvious reasons:P), and then we shared stories on how Ritz and I had met as stranger-trekmates and happened to team-up for organizing a trek this day; Ritz ‘king-kong-lady’ title (this has a connection in the later part of the trek:P); our Annadaatas; Wow-ki-basanti-who-never-danced; and other WOW experiences that brought smiles to our participants faces. This was followed by a short dance session and then the ever-hilarious game of Dumb Charades.

The rest of the hour (until we reached our destination) was full of laughter with hilarious acting-and-guessing talents displayed by each participant. [Well..where else can you imagine the movie ‘Gladiator’  turning into ‘colgate’,  ‘we-ate-yesterday’, ‘fridge-me-rakha-hua-khaana’,’omelette-kaise-banaate-hain’…!!! Well…2 and a half hours of our travel  passed with this ice-breaking session, and by the time we got down at our destination for breakfast, we were kinda no-more-strangers ;)

Our destination peak..at a distance

Post the breakfast, we started the climb at 10.30 am.

The beautiful gateway to Fortitude:

Madhugiri Fort : Entered the Gate, climbed the initial stretch of steps, and the place already started giving an ‘out-of-the-world’ feeling (probably because this is one of those rarest places that have the Fort remnants standing strong right from the trek-base! In many cases, you find the remains only at the hill-top!). Half of the trek path is a clear steppy way (a stretch of steps with railings as well), with beautiful view- points and a couple of doorways (that was apt for breaks, to beat the heat). The rest half of the climb, is a challenge that defines the ‘moderate’ level of the trek (steep terrain – no support – help each other - rely on your own confidence :P!)

Trek base - right outside the Fort Gate

View-point

The steppy region with metal railings

We cleared the first half of the trek cracking jokes, pulling legs, finishing others’ snacks, helping a lone trekker from Netherlands with first-aid (proud of the WOW team for this!), exploring viewpoints and photo sessions with our Wow models :P

The next half was when we had to pull up our socks – as organizers, as participants, and more importantly – as Trekkers! Surprisingly, with each others’ support and a bit of hand-holding here and there, the girls cracked this stretch down more easily than expected! The scenic view and the hovering clouds played motivation factor for this stretch.

Peak, Adventure, Monkey-business, Lunch:

The place, being a real epitome of fortitude, has a complete stretch of fort wall remnants intact along the boundary, at the peak – which means its a great fun for tree-climbers, fence-climbers, gate-jumpers (basically, people good at monkey businesses:P).  After taking a nice walk across the Fort wall, we got down the fort wall like some ‘chipkalis’ (lizards) under expert supervision of Ritz and Jayashree – and this..was truly one of the ‘thrilling moments’ of our adventure – doing something differently! The cheer on everyone’s faces was worth all the hand-holding and supporting one another. And what more – I got an additional line to pen down in my blog, on request by participant Shaily, quoting here – “its all about daring to do what you thought you cannot” :P

Walk across the fort wall

Experts climbing everywhere they could!

After exploring the other parts of the peak and photo-session rounds, we landed to a shaded place (the peak’s entrance) and opened our lunch packets (Thanks to our Annadaatas who had packed nice sandwiches, appam and sweets..they have always brought a ‘special’ feel of our treks with their love – this time it was truly unconditional love :P  – oops, I mean, we ate away all of the food they had brought for us ruthlessly and later felt sorry for it L!)). It did not take too long for the girls to figure out that the organizers are really ‘bhukkads’; from the way Ritz and I were fighting over our food-parcels :P

A pic post lunch :P

After lunch, we had another round of climbing-activity (well..I gave up..and tried my hands at photography, while Ritz took care of the climbers :P!), and then we started to descend.

Descend – the ‘rain trek’:

Again, with an awesome team effort, we descended the challenging stretch by applying techniques at certain places, and supporting each other. It started to get a bit cloudy, when we reached the steppy terrain. At a distance from our hill, we watched rains pouring down the civilization – a spectacular view it was!

View from the top

View from the top!

Just when we reached the stretch of the metal-railings, we realized that the rains that we were enjoying from the distance was actually approaching us – and throughout this steppy stretch – our trek turned into a de facto rain-trek :P [technically, my first ever rain-trek:P]. This added to our challenge, nevertheless, we faced it and, managed to descend down till one of the doorways all safe! Again surprisingly, the rains stopped exactly when we reached the end of the railings-area (which made our further descend more peaceful!) Met our annadaatas who were waiting for us at a doorway, and continued our further descend.

The continuation of the ‘king-kong’ story:

Post all the thrill and adventure we had had throughout the day, the final stretch of descend felt rather peaceful! [it was truly like the Jab we met scene – ‘hey bhagwan, ab life thodi si boring bana do:P’. But it did not last long. I was sweeping the team, when suddenly few girls stopped and remarked in chorus – ‘Swatz..your story was right!’ Well..the girls had really taken note of the ‘king-kong-lady’ story and giggled looking at Ritz and me when they spotted a bunch of monkeys preceeding us on the last stretch. We had to wait, until the monkeys finally settled down at their adda (making a way for us to descend down) :P. Reached the base safe and sound, and explored an old 'us-zamaane-ka-jail' and headed out for chai.

Base, refreshments, Feedback and return journey:

Finally, after completing the series of adventures, experiencing all the three climates in a single day, we took our much deserved chai-break. Quickly, we wound up and got into our TT for the return journey. With whatever energy we were left with, we took the Feedback session (and  re-named ‘thumbs up’ to ‘Facebook-Like’ impressed by the comments that we got :P) and settled down our seats for a nap. This time again, I was the first one to get down on the way. With a promise of meeting in some other trek, some other time, got down from the TT and took my way to my abode.

Thanks to Ritz for planning such a wonderful place and trek (yayyy! BTC and WOW covered one of the most beautiful trek destinations Madhugiri right on time (before the ban was implemented) !). Congratulations on your first trek as an Organizer :P Special thanks to Yogita for helping us out in all aspects, you were a great support indeed! J

Thanks to each team member, it was individual effort and each other’s support that made the event fun, adventurous and memorable! :D

A Special mention to Asha-Shalini duo for being an awesome sport and as usual our annadaatas J WOW is all about knowing yourself, your confidence, and making the right decisions! Hats off!

Well…and..this post cannot be complete without thanking our BTC Team for having believed in us on orgainizing this event!

Cheers!

P.C: Ritz, Shaily, and self!

A year’s journey with BTC-WOW

It's unbelieavable to think that we are a year Younger now! Even more astounding is to think 'how' it all happened. Well, before my trail of thoughts put me into a different world, I collect myself to pen down the memories in as plausible way as I can - splitting this post into 2 parts. 

One: About the Actual Bday event: Trip to Ramadevara Betta:
Two: A brief on how WOW took its journey to a year: A year’s journey through BTC-WOW: straight-from-the-heart!

Read on...

Trip to Ramadevara Betta:

     It was a huge group – of 39  BTCians aka Wowbies ;). Many first-timers, and a dozen 'highly nostalgic souls' who have had been with BTC-WOW since its early days. Boarded the bus at Shantala Silk House. It felt nothing less than a school picnic. Everyone was looking forward to see how was the day gonna be like!

The troupe of 39 - at the trek-base

     Enter the bus – and we find our ‘first’ surprise : Shree – the WOW storyteller {and the SRK of WOW :P - another 'nostalgic' soul who had joined all the way from Chennai to be a part of this event} After a loud drama over her presence, some hugs with known faces and random ‘hi’s and hellos’ with the new ones, we settled down in the Big 45 seater – all set to take our road towards WOW’s first Birthday celebration! J

     The journey started with a lively introduction round. With mother-daughter pairs, same-name pairs, the mysterious-girl Mukul (that broke Monu and many others’ hearts), Martial arts expert – every participant was interesting in her own way! Considering the huge count, we spent almost the entire commute time in the introduction round, some leg-pulling sessions here and there.

Highlight of the Introduction round:

     Well, well – I still maintain that no matter how adventurous or outgoing a woman can get, her life ultimately revolves around just 2 things – Family & Foooodd!! Living upto this (while many wondered about who started WOW, who is Ajita etc etc..)  – our Captain Ajju – very lovingly gave her Introduction with the lines – “He is into Social Events. He is also a trekker. We met through friends. He works in …and so on and so forth..” ;). Some of the Wowbies got really curious about ‘Him’, well, and the rest of us wondered ‘watta-change-over-mama’ and had to remind our Captain to introduce herself as the Founder of BTC-WOW :P [they are thaaaat down-to-earth, you see :P]

     Somewhere in the Bidadi highway, we had a stopover for breakfast. Despite the crowd at the tiffin center, Ajju-Kriba duo managed to get food for the 39 of us within no time! Kudos to their tactics! After breakfast, we landed the base where we were divided into groups and started climbing at around 10.00 am

About the trek path: Ramnagara:

     Well, Ramnagara (Ramgadh of Sholay), makes a good trek-place for beginners (more of a treknic spot). Half of the way (till the temple) is steppy, and the rest of the way till the peak is rocky. The last stretch (of a bit of rock-climbing) serves a good challenge for trekkers, thanks to the railings! Various smaller peaks here and there, make a good view point (and break-points too:P)

Somewhere near the temple, beginning of the Rocky terrain

The final stretch of the Peak!

     The climb till the peak was very smooth sailing – making masti, having sufficient breaks at various viewpoints, taking hilarious pics, cracking corrupted versions of the famous ‘Sholay’ dialogs, exploring more fellow-trekkers – and we reached the top within just 2 hours!

Peak: 

     It was quite sunny when we reached the top. The big team of 39 dispersed into groups at various spots - some under the cactii shade, some under their umbrellas, and few of us feeling the real blaze of sun out in the open! As the sun was really scorching; after half an hour, we chose to descend down to a little shady peak for some activities.

wowbies - soaking up the sun - on the Peak :P

Breathtaking View

View from the Peak

Fun and another ‘Surpriseeeee’!!!

     Once we were at a little shady spot, we started out with the games that Capt Ajju had planned for us. The first one was purely a child-like fun, where we were given stickers of Alphabets and had to pose according to words - ‘Trekking’, ‘cycling’, ‘mountains’, ‘running’ and ‘wow-rocks’ [reminded me of ‘fire-in-the-mountain-run-run-run :P]. Somehow, this photo session turned out to be funny [the ‘mountains’ girls still make me guffaw at them, for no particular reason:D]

     After this, we played the game of ‘kalla-police’. And our Winking specialist – Jayashree – brought in full enthusiasm in the first round of the game itself, with her ‘killer-winks’ as the murderer! We started wanting for more rounds :P The game turned out to be lively and hilarious, with the girls randomly walking around and getting killed by winks :P All the rounds further turned out to be equally hilarious, not to forget, bashing up Ritz for finding the murderer pretty early:P. The last round - the most memorable one - with only the Murderer and Detective left out in the end!

Someone's getting bashed up there! Somewhere at a peak! :D

     Making fun out of the game, we took a short 'chill-madi' break. Post this, Captain Ajju announced ‘Time for cake-cuttaaiiinngg’ – the Celebration moment of the event! The youngest of the lot – Chandana, a 12 year old, did the honors and with a loud ‘Happy Birthday to us’ song,  we enjoyed the Plum cakes that Captain had got for us (the leftovers were, needles to mention, grabbed by us WOW bhukkads, ahem, Ritu n myself :P)

     The cake-cutting session was just making us a tad emotional, when Ajju threw another surprise at us with a speech on how WOW took its journey of one year, followed by a very humbling award-ceremony for some of us – Joe, Ritz, Vini and myself. The entire surprise got us speechless, and post this humbling experience, Ritz and I, chose to silently focus on the leftovers of plum cakes – rather than making the scene more emotional with our speeches:P

Descend, Lunch and Return:

The descend was far quicker and less straineous – considering that the clouds had started to show up, and weather was slightly pleasant than that at the peak. We stopped over again for lunch – had nice sharing-n-caring food at a restaurant, and boarded the bus for the return. The return bus journey was now a cool dance performance by our Sheila, Yogi, Neha2 and few others. Once the dancers settled, we had a hilarious feedback session – with Shree and Kriba as the ‘orators’ to ensure that everyone heard everyone’s feedback (and that no one slept):D. the feedback session was almost over, when we reached Bangalore [at around 4.30pm], much earlier than the planned time!

The group - Safe, Sound, Successful - to the base after trek:)

The Big group hug:

     Offlate, trek events have become a look out for that one particular experience that even pictures cannot capture, but only felt! [mean no offense to photographers :P]. And we had that one moment towards the end of our trip.

     Just when the group (that alighted at Majestic) was about to disperse; Joe suddenly cried out – ‘we missed a group hug’. And, nopes! We hadn’t. Instantly, we started connecting and called back few other wowbies (who had just walked off); leading to a huge circle of a Big-WOW-Hug, right outside the majestic bus-stand [yeah..did invite few onlookers who watched us in awe, and confusion, but then – who cares!]. This was a lovely moment, feeling of it undescribable. There was a silence for a few seconds, everyone felt! We broke out of the hug with a loud laugh, when Ajju suddenly commented – ‘hum log koi cricket team lag rahen hain’. Thus, accomplishing the big group hug, we walked towards the main Bus stand, to reach out to our home-sweet-home – Yayyy! We are One Year Younger now! WOW!! J J

A feather added to the cap of WOW - this was the first ever BTC Trek event with the maximum count of participants - 39!  Thanks to every participant for the helping each other, and making the event fun-filled and successful \m/

Hats off!

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A year’s journey through BTC-WOW: straight-from-the-heart!

     Well, for any 'good' thing to substantiate – the right set of attitudes, the right support and a huge amount of patience is required. If you question our Ajju Madam, you will learn that the idea of starting BTC -WOW was incepted sometime in the month of April, 2013 [when BTC itself was just in its nascent phases]. And WOW opened up its first event in June, 2013 – with just 6 women making it to the top of the Ramadevara betta. {u can imagine the amount of planning, mental make-up and hard work gone into substantiating it!}

     We met as strangers in the subsequent events, and from the kind of experience we have had from WOW and BTC – we kept meeting again and again; participating in events; watching WOW grow in terms of organizers, participants and events count - and unbelievably reaching to a milestone of a year’s Birthday! 

     Personally, the most beautiful thing about Wowbies has been that  – these are no people born with silver spoons! In fact, these are just among those ordinary women juggling between family, work, academics and various other commitments – and yet dared to take that extra step to make a difference – personally as well as socially. ‘Fun’ doesn’t discriminate people, after all ;)

     Kudos to Ajita Madan – the Big brain behind this group, for the wonderful Initiative; and the ones who supported in its inception - Joe, Vini, Swetha and Kiruba. A year, is just the beginning.....Wishing many more such milestones to come.

     Thanks to all those who turned ‘nostalgic’ on WOW’s Bday event!! ;) - it was your help and support as well! Thanks to the extended BTC Team, who supported the idea on starting WOW!

Cheers!

Swatz

P.C: WOW Photographer : Ritz 

Proud that my 10th Blog contribution for BTC turned out to be a special one! :) [just the way my 10th trek was (first as an organizer!) :P]