Sunday, December 8, 2013

The Long Run


She woke up early in the morning, much earlier today. She put her regular track suits on, and stepped out of her rented apartment, for the daily run – without disturbing her roomie. Where was she heading to? Only she knew.

It was a summer morning, and the sun had woken up earlier – at 5, as if to accompany her. For a change, she chose to have a run across the hilly terrain that was close to a mile away from her apartment (she could view this terrain from her bedside window, and had always wanted have a full run till the peak - dream run – she called it)

****

She was neither an athlete nor a Sports person. Running was a childhood interest that she had picked up again, a year ago. ‘Doctors have asked me to’, she said to anyone who were curious about her regular morning run that she hardly missed, since she had re-started it. It had turned more of a meditation for her than just an exercise – this was the only route that lightened her up and made her feel like a child – everything else – seemed unclear, confusing, undecideable. Of course, she was one among the millions of 25 somethings – who were in the same league!

Are you ready? – she cocked her eyebrows and looked at the highest point –as if challenging herself! This would be the longest run of her life – her dream run! She would be leaving the city in another week….forever.

***** 

After a 5-minute warm up, she started the jog. As she continued the run, her mind started reminiscing memories of the last four years of her life spent in the so-called most happening Industry-hub. She ran, feeling the same feel that she had the first day she had entered the city - her first job, her first steps into a glamorous world, her first pay, her first independence, her first ‘work friends’. This was an easy run, as she passed through a clear path. This path was where most of the folks stuck in groups around, taking comfortable morning walks. There was a slight breeze – birds had started chirping sweetly. Everything was fresh, pleasant.

She continued running further - droplets of sweats oozing out of her forehead pores now. The road further was now little narrow – the place where the walking groups split – people who preferred ‘comfortable’ walks did not prefer accompanying the ones who wanted to go further. This was the only way to the peak.

Here, her run got a little careful, she could see from a distance, that a bushy passage was coming up – while her mind parallely played pictures of the next phase that was filled with a string of lessons on the other side of blind trust, respect, seemingly helping people & money; a phase totally unexpected she had to deal and lead her life with. She started sweating profusely, breathing heavy - her pulse rate got higher. She was getting little exhausted now and she wanted to take a break. A second thought – ‘no regrets later’ pepped up her spirits and she moved on to run further towards that bushy passage - at the end of which her mind had pre-calculated the ‘break time’.

  Just when she looked around to distract herself from the pictures she did not want to remember – she came across a pleasant looking figure smiling warmly at her. There was a déjà vu feeling when she glanced through his eyes. ‘Ignore’ – she instructed herself almost immediately, and passed by him to enter into the bushy passage. She noticed that the bushes around were quite thorny, and she slowed down her pace.

The music player – her running companion – happened to play the lines ‘no man, no cry’ from one of her high-school favorite tunes. Back then, in high-school, it was just for the music that she admired this song; she did not know the line would apply to her in a short phase later in life! The lyrics led her to some other myriad of thoughts – that of judgements and doubts – disturbing her entire purpose of the run. Some kind of an anger crept in her mind. The song was over, and the player moved on to play much better numbers which she had not noticed – yet she was thumping her legs - was she running towards her dream, or running away from something else..all alone? She felt lonely…for the first time. Her run, all of a sudden seemed irrational!

Lost in deep thoughts, just when she was losing her focus; a thorn scratched her hand, leaving a cut and slight bleed. The prick had just brought her back to the present, and a sudden realization of her original purpose of the run. ‘Judgements can do that’ she said to herself…continuing ‘a thorn is very much needed’ as she let go off the string of thoughts that followed. Her aim was to reach the top, not fret over phases of life and doubt her prime goal. She was almost towards the end of the thorny passage. Thankfully, she had not stopped running, despite the disturbing thoughts that took over her mind for a few seconds!

She was out of the thorny passage, her heart beating upto her throat. Drops of sweat were showering down from her forehead. Her moist  limbs now felt the mist and the cool breeze that was blowing as the sun rose further.

 She slowed down to walk and then stopped for another warm-up. This was an illusionary peak of the terrain. She closed her eyes and stretched her arms to feel the waves of energy that the run so far had brought into her. Just then she sensed the déjà vu feeling again. She opened her eyes and found the same figure, giving the same warm smile as he entered the same passage, from where she was just out.

She glanced back in confusion, ‘twins maybe’ and at once turned to look at her distance-meter that displayed 1.5 miles – she had covered three quarters of the terrain. Coincidentally, this was the latest target that she had achieved, from over a year of practise, no wonder, she managed to accurately time her ‘break’ rather instinctively!

The peak looked close to another mile of run. It was this ‘extra mile that would bring a whole new difference to her life – her dream! There were hardly a couple of people around. The thorny passage had filtered down the number of people from coming up..

She finished her final warm up, and changed the music to a meditation tune to stay as focused as she could be. She did not try to answer the thoughts that asked her ‘will u be able to do it?’. ‘One leap of faith, at a time’ – she had prepared herself mentally as she leapt her way to the peak..

The ‘extra mile’ was the ‘I,me,myself run. Her focus was neither on the peak, nor in the last four years she had spent in the city. It was just in the ‘present’ that she focused on. Her breathing got heavier, as she marched forward step-by-step. Her body felt a sense of exhileration. Nobody had chosen this peak for her, it was her run – her lone determination – her own dream. As she reached close to the peak, a strange sense of joy sprang out of her, a joy that was lying as an undercurrent for a while. She felt as happy as a child would in her very first run of life.

Victorious as she felt – the peak invited her blessedly as if waiting for her since eons. She slowed down again at the peak, and finally stood still, her palms holding her her knees..her eyes scanning the ground. She was again sweating profusely, the drops that mixed with tiny droplets that trickled down her eyes. She felt at peace, when she sensed every cell of her being beating out in glory. She felt a strange sense of belonging here – the feeling that shed all of her inhibitions and doubts her own mind had, about her dream run.

After basking in the glory of reaching the peak, she stood up took a view of the world that looked tiny now, held her hands on her waist and said to herself – ‘What next?


She felt the same déjà vu feeling that now was somehow in sync with the feeling of peace she felt within herself. She looked around…


Hi. Varun!’ – it was the same tall figure, who walked upto her this time and extended his hand to her, looking straight into her eyes, with a warm smile.

She stared – blank, with eyes wide open, like a child – thinking what to say.

‘Aage saath chalen? – he continued, continuing his smile too.

Her heart was already beating faster, droplets of sweat were already trickling down from her forehead. Her breath had already gone heavy. She just had run the longest run of her life - all by herself….or was it because of the tall figure standing right in front of her?

Will he try to change the direction of my run further? Or be my company to the way I choose further?she had to play the balance.


When in confusion, trust your instincts’ – she assured herself.


She was just about to smile back, when something felt like gnawing the prick on her cut hand..

__________________________________________________________________________________


…'Eeeks'..She woke up, startled, with slight pain in her hand. It was her phone vibrating, the edge of which was touching exactly the spot where the thorn had pricked her the previous day, on the hilly terrain.

 The screen displayed, ‘Varun calling…

She received it, letting out a sigh...looking outside from her bedside window...talking nothing.

Wake up, kiddo. Dreams again!’ – there was that same old warm smile at the other end, she could sense.

Hmmm..good moorningg..i’m awake – she dragged; slowly waking up from her dream. A draggy morning note with a sigh - invariably meant that she had had a dream – he knew that, he knew her.

Get up, get ready..go to office. Just one more week to go..and then saath chalna hai’ – he tried to flirt.

hmmm’ – she replied and they continued the mushy conversation , till she was fully awake and he, asleep.


With close to 12 hours of time-zone difference between them, they had this unsigned pact of waking up the other, when one was winding up the day – that continued daily for almost seven months now, ever since they were engaged to each other. The wedding was just a month ahead. This was her last week in the city she had spent four long years of her career – her first four years after college life; and was returning home to get married, and settle down to where her husband would..

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

WOW Trek to DevarayanaDurga

December 1, 2013

WOW Trek to DevarayanaDurga

     After crossing the Intermediate levels of treks (with my past 4 WOW events), somewhaat, this experience was gonna take me back to the very first Trekking experience of my life [Rayakottai]. Devarayanadurga is an easy-to-moderate level of trek, but I still wanted to participate - this time as an 'Experienced trekker' - just to know much have I learnt and developed my adventurous traits so far :P [U need to go  back to the Basics just to see how far you have reached, and what more can u learn outta it - that's my Philosophy , and hence the reason for enrolling this event too!] And moreover, Fun has no levels :P

About the Place - Devarayanadurga:

     Devarayanadurga is yet another hill located near Tumkur. While Shivagange [a trek destination] comes to the left of Dobaspet, this one is located to the right of Dobaspet (if you come from Bangalore). A major part of the climb consists of just steps ( and monkeys accompanying you :P) until you reach the Yoga Lakshmi Narsimha temple towards the peak. The path henceforth [1/4th of the climb until the Peak] - though a short distance - is quite challenging climb over small steep rocks, and narrow passages inside thorny bushes.


The Journey Begins..

     This was Krupa's 2nd Officially organized trek. The team of 12 had a proper mix of WOW newbies and experienced members. The WOW newbies seemed to have heard and read a lot about previous experiences - and so we, the senior WOW members had to live upto the Expectations (and get them into the groove too :P). We had a brief, casual round of introduction; and then wasting no time we started our very important rituals - 'Dance and song-change-every-two-minutes'. The only song that we let completely play was - 'Aa ante Amlapuram' - which we all later religiously titled as WOW's Anthem :D

     Masti & energy instantly started sprouting up, when almost everyone participated in the 'Sheila ki jawaani', 'Shree Salman Khan ka dabang' and our routine 'cork-bottle-opening' dapangoothu styles :D. And since almost everyone has seen the term 'BBB' on the Facebook, wild guesses started happening then and there...:P  This was a complete ice-breaker :P

     Soon, we reached Dobaspet, had our breakfast there, and then travelled further to reach the base of the Devarayanadurga Hill. At the base, the 12 girls were split into 6 pairs of 2, and after a short photo session, we started climbing the steps alongwith our partners. After a few minutes of climb, we came across large  sculptures of Lord Hanuman, along the sides of the rock, that have been now turned into an unenclosed temple. After a brief round of photo-session and 'Mohabbaten poses' we decided to climb further.

Trek - base



Trek ki 'Shoe'ruwaat':
 
   The lead pairs marched forward, and had just crossed this temple when we hear a yell from behind - 'My Shoe, My Shoe. My 4000 Rs Shoes' [ I remembered the 'price-tag' from the movie - 3 Idiots :P]. Turn around, and found out it was the same WOW miscreant - Viji (who has done utpataang harkat before too :P :D). Apparently, she had removed her shoes (forgetting to ask someone to watch them) to get inside the temple and pray, and before she could grab her shoes back, a monkey had taken it and zzzzoom thrown it somewhere down inside the bushes, without an aim :D. It took sometime for our Heroes - Krupa, Shilu and Viji herself - to figure out where exactly the shoe was thrown, descend down and get it back from the bushes.


This was the Shoe-Start!!


     While this drama was happening, the rest of the gals (who were waiting near the temple) got creative and started giving me ideas for my blog [and this is how this 'Shooeeruwaat - story' finds its place here, in this post - on public demand :P]. What a start ('Shoe'ruwaat) of the Trek! :P


Further Ascend:
   
     After successfully finding the 4000 Rs. Shoe, we climbed further. Climbing the steps did not feel boring as we passed the time and stairs, cracking jokes, and narrating the Unwritten stories of previous WOW treks - getting thrilled and laughing over them :P eg: Krupa's fall in the Iruppu falls origin, Shree's Bday special midnight - (uncut version) at Brahmagiri trek, the whole History behind the title 'King-Kong' lady, interviews on my 'Leech-bites-experience', WOWs Annadaata's etc etc - to mention a few. Was surprised that the newbies were so curious to know more about the previous treks. They even joined the league by giving me the name - 'Leechi' :P [see..WOW is not only creating History, but also Historical characters and moments :D]


Yoga Lakshmi NarsimhaTemple, Sreepada teertha cave:

     Baaton baaton mein, we reached the temple near the peak. We first entered a small cave right adjacent to the temple,  called as 'Sripada Cave' [which was a little scary], and then some of us had darshanam inside the Lakshmi temple and a nice View from the temple's balcony behind.


 Peak, Fooooooood and Peace:
     After the temple is where the actual trekking starts. We went further the temple and started climbing the rocks. Along the passages, you will find dry thorny bushes and need to be careful (protect your face - eyes especially) as the thorns are low-lying (no danger though, just a caution :P !). After a brief climb, we reached the Peak spot.

Peak - our Lunch place


     Strangely, as soon as we reached the peak, the hot-sunny-humid climate turned into a mild-cloudy-breezy atmosphere [though there were sun beams now and then, but not as hot as it was while climbing throughout]. We decided to have lunch at the peak . As usual, our Annadaata's got food for the entire group [this time with sweets too, since they recently celebrated their Bdays:)]. After having hogged the nice home-cooked food, it was time for some relaxation.  Some of us chose to take a short nap, and the rest of us just scattered ourselves around the pillars at the peak, contemplating  Nature's beauty and the weather, all by ourselves.

    After sometime, we even meditated (in our own ways), when one of our Annadaatas Shalini, played a Chinese meditation music [co-incidentally, I have had been searching for this music off-late, and was thrilled that she had it :D]. The music just added to the peaceful ambience that was already present. Experience!!


Descend and the short-cut!

     After spending a wonderful time at the peak, we started descending. Had a short-funny, photo session at an illusionary peak, and then descended further down. Just when we thought we were done with the descend and it would be just a walk along the road, our organizer brought a kahaani me twist. Rather than making us walk along the road turnings to reach the base spot, she made us trek down at the short cut between the roads (apparently that's how goats take short cuts!). The short-cut was quite a hell of a trek (toughest part of the whole adventure..and organizer ne hum logon ko hi finally bakra bana diya...) :S. Nevertheless, we accomplished this too successfully, and then wandered and ran along the main road, like some Roadside romeos...until we found our TT, thus completing my Fifth High! [fifth trek of my life!!]

Record breaking event was: This was the first ever Trek of Krupa without a fall or even a tumble! [And the minute we realized this, and I opened my big mouth to her about this, instantly her 18k camera slips down from her hands gracefully and then a dialog comes - 'at least something has to fall' :P


Naamada Chilume:

     A little further to the Devarayanadurga hill, there's a Deer Park and a natural water spring called 'Naamada Chilume'. It found its name from a short story of Ramaayana and is of mythological importance. Again, had a peaceful stroll inside the park, walking, and more story-telling, and expressing our fantasies with Indian mythology; until it was time for return..


Return:

    After the Deer sanctuary visit, we had a tea break, and then set out for Bangalore. The newbies now initiated Antakshari - and we had full-on fun singing new-old-older songs [we ensured our opponents get only 'na' at the end of the song..and kept them wondering till the end as to how did we manage to do this :P].

     This also followed with much more crazier expansions of BBB - the most sensible and most apt of them being - BTC Birthday Bash [now that BTC is gonna complete its 1st year soon], which also triggered ideas of Goa visit, Beach visit, a big Bday bash etc etc...and much more crazy ideas (that I cannot jot down here :P)[Are the Organizers Listeniiiinnnnnng????? :D]

     Thus we called it another Sunday, and with a promise of another blog, I got down first at the nearest point. As usual, this was an awesome experience. An icing in the cake was - the wonderful deep conversation I personally had with Shalini, on totally out-of-the-world topics :)

     And another point to note - WOW is maintaining a track record of Sagittarians majority, since the Rayakottai trek :P [that doesnt mean you start shortlisting participants based on their bdays in future ;)]

Once again - Congratulations to Krupa for having organized very diligently (and without letting yourself fall:P). Thanks to the group who were equally Fun and amazing. Look forward to see you guys in future..:) B-)



Cheers!
Swatz

P.C: Shailini , Asha

WOW stands for BTC World Of Women