A world of boulders!

This was the spontaneous trip me and my boyfriend took in November 2013. Hampi always attracted me because of its huge boulders. Whenever I watched ‘Rowdy Rathore’ I thought of going to Hampi. ;-)

It was an overnight journey from Banglore to Hospet. The private bus agency manages the fare from Hospet to Hampi. Frankly speaking, I was little disappointed during the first few kilometres of drive from Hospet. It was no different than any ordinary small village in India, the dirty roads and the smell was the same. Nevertheless, in few minutes we started crossing paddy fields, coconut trees, saw few sights of boulders placed in unbelievable fashion and I was happy. It was a little bumpy ride but was not that long. It was a 45 minutes auto rick drive to Hampi.

We were not totally clueless about the place, had an idea that the Tungabhadra River flows through Hampi , dividing it in two parts. A friend visited earlier had suggested us to stay on the other side of the river; Goan cottage was all we knew. Also, the auto rick driver explained us the map in fluent south Indian English accent, nicely stressing on “T” while pronouncing ‘to’,’tell’ ;-) Later, we came to know that the other side of the river is a village called as ‘Anegondi’

This was the first site of Tungabhadra. To the one side of Tungabhadra, there were many temples, ancient architectures, few ruins and to the other side, all we could see were boulders, real huge boulders.  The ancient terrain, the river was definitely not a tourist site for villagers. Like any other village, villagers were busy in the usual daily chores around the river bank. They did not mind using the boulders as washing boards or use river water for morning ablutions.

Tungabhadra river

Now, it was the time to cross the river.  Ferry ride would cost 20 bucks and coracle 50 bucks. We were not quite sure about the coracle considering the huge luggage we had, we chose the reliable ferry ride to reach the other side.

 (Though it was an unplanned trip, we sort of took everything we had. Just in case you know :-P )

To our surprise, we were the only Indians (apart from the driver) in the ferry with other 20 people being foreigners (I guessed Israelis). I was wondering why my friend would leave actual Hampi and stay somewhere you can see nothing but boulders. I think I had my answer. Foreigners would not settle for any ordinary thing so does my friend! ;-)

We would never have imagined that, amidst the paddy fields and rocky surroundings, we would be offered such private retreats. 3-4 dogs at the Goan Cottage welcomed us and this was it, the place I wanted to stay. Fluffy, Buddy and Buzzo all were friendly. The Goan Cottage was again, packed with the hippy junta. We came to know that people from around the world come to Hampi during August to December for bouldering. We could see the climbing gears and thought we were the only one here who came to enjoy a weekend where there was no place for any effort. :-P

He is Buddy <3 td="">

We had to wait to get the room.  The tariff was reasonable for two, 800 bucks for a night and the room provided all you need, hot water, bed and bonus – pier swing. The next thing which impressed us was the food. The most delicious breakfast I had in ages.

Click click while waiting for the room to get vacant

Abode for the next two days

We got ready and decided to see the temples and ancient ruins on the other side of the river.This time, we opted for the coracle and enjoyed the discomfort of the ride. After reaching to the other side, we hired an auto rick and “Hampa” was going to be our guide for the day. :-D .

Hampi was a former capital of Vijayanagar Empire and the extravagant structures in explained it all. The ruins silently narrated the story of grandeur splendor and fabulous wealth.We visited some beautiful temples, basements of palaces, ruins of ancient bazars, royal platforms, underground temples, treasury buildings and what not. It is a delight for a real history enthusiast.

The Shivling

The ancient bazar

Panaromic view

See the sculpture

Elephant house

Mesmerising view

While surfing on internet to try to understand the history behind the bizarre landscapes, I came across a fable in Ramayana. It goes like this: The place was a monkey kingdom. Two monkey brothers, Vali and Sugreeva, were at war over the throne of the kingdom. The boulders strewn all over are what they threw at each other during the battles.
 Hampi also had some amazing artefacts shops. There were so many things you can take home as souvenirs. The village is nothing but the labyrinth of shops. Shops showcased variety in gems, jewellery, cloths, bags, carved statues. While sightseeing, we found a local artisan carving soaps into idols with intricate design.  There is no way you can price such arts and hence decided to take the soap idol as souvenir at whatever price he said.

 We were back to the cottage by sunset. We were really tired because of the overnight journey and the day filled with exciting surprises.The ambience blended well with the culinary skills at the cottage. The menu card had all the cuisines a foodie can think of. We were just not tired of appreciating the chef!  We were fan of ‘Pancakes’ and didn’t mind having them during each meal. The evening was peaceful and relaxing.

Sun setting on Tungabhadra river

We had missed the sunset view from Hanuman temple on Anajana hill and hence decided to go to see the sunrise next day. Of course Sun did not wait for us when we woke up at 6:30 AM. By the time we reached the Anajana hill, our faces sparkled with the Sunshine. Anyways, we somehow stopped blaming each other for getting up late and headed towards the much talked about lake, Kamalapur Lake.
Oh I forgot to tell you, you can hire bikes/ scooters / bicycles to roam in and around Hampi. The bumpy roads of Hampi are surely a treat for the bikers :-D We hired a pulsar for around 300 bucks for a day.

The bridge we croseed while going to Hanuman temple

The bike ride in the morning was indeed refreshing and the surrounding was again dominated by the huge rocks. We were just crossing the villages and could not see any sign of the lake. Suddenly we ascended a road and saw the huge lake surrounded by rocks. The sight was amazing. Every nook of Hampi was a surprise.  We stayed there for a while and tried to sync in the feeling. Sometimes you cannot always put the feeling in the words. The morning breeze, early sunshine, the site of huge lake, bizarre landscapes and the seclusion, I could not ask for anything more that morning.

The lake!

We were told at the cottage that the paddy fields just ahead of the lake are also worth seeing.  The morning encouraged us to go a little further. When we finally came across the fields and rocky surroundings, they kept us pushing forward. Now when I watch Imtiaz Ali’s Highway, I feel he could have used this patch of road too ;-)

Paddy fields

Boulders placed in impossible formations

The feeling of hunger was sinking in and we made our way back to the cottage. We had to catch the bus in the evening so decided to relax for a while. We enjoyed watching little kids play around in the lawns, a guitarist happily playing guitar in the porch, the couple owner arguing with each other over petty things. There was not a single thing we wanted to change during the stay.

Sometimes we try something new with zero expectations and then experience the magic. Hampi came to us as one of those things. It welcomed us with warmth, satiated us with food and amazed us with the incredible landscapes.

Hampi was the pilgrimage for the devotees, bouldering paradise for the adventurists, and bliss for the historians. For us it was nothing but a weekend gateway which you seek for peace J

P.S: The photos are clicked with mobile camera and we regret not taking the actual camera till today :(

A Walk In The Clouds

Pune is the hub for jaunts. Be it trek to fort,outing at hill station or adventures like river rafting, waterfall rapling, everything is nearby. And thanks to “5 days working” concept, I get complete 2 days to explore the nature around.

Now, this time it was “software professionals of Tech Mahindra” who planned a weekend outing. The discussions and arguments went on for almost a month just to finalize a place. At last me and my (colleagues would be too formal) friends decided to go to Matheran – The famous Hill Station of Maharashtra.

I wasn’t much enthu about this trip at first. In the monsoons and especially at such spots I prefer taking a walk rather than going by a car or bike. I doubted that anyone amongst the group would be ready to do so. However, as I haven’t been to Matheran before, I decided to go.

It was Saturday morning. We were total 14 people. Many of us were from Pune,others came from Mumbai and The One for whom this trip was planned came from Noida. We were very happy to see each other after a pretty long time.

We took Sinhagad Express and reached karjat around 8:30am. Then, took local train and reached Neral in 15 minutes. By this time everyone was starving. So we had a breakfast. Vada-pav and mast chay! ;)

oh! I forgot to tell you the moment we stepped out of train at Neral, it was raining cats and dogs.

It was a drive of ½ an hour from Neral to Matheran. The drive was through winding roads amidst the green blanket covered mountains. Still cherish the memory of going through the ghat. A view from cab window.

We reached atop and bought local raincoats and plastic hats cuz our windcheaters already proved useless. Everybody looked very funny in that outfit.

I must tell you hats were the best option to avoid rains.

We bought entry tickets and started to trek.Yes, I was wrong when I thought that nobody would be there to walk with me. Usually, people take train to reach Matheran from the point where we started. Since it was monsoon, the TOY train( what it is called) was not available and we were left with no option than to walk. There was one more option, horse ride!! As it is, we could sense the aroma from horse wherever we went and it was enough to offend our olfactory organs. So , walk was preferrable ;)

After respective posting at Tech Mahindra, this was the first time we all met. It was not just the 2-3 hours meet at any restraunt but we had a complete day. Here, we were allowed to yell,sing, dance and do all the masti we want. The trek seems never hectic if you have the company like I had ;) On top of this, we were blessed with the awesome weather and scenic beauty. The landscapes were a real visual treat!

It was as good as a Jungle trek with all the woods, fog and dark till we reach Market place.

Then, I realised that it is a typical hill station with hotels,gaming shops and had a proper market.

Matheran was more about strolling,enjoying the walk, the nature, the chilling rain, the green grass, watching people lost in the fog, hear the beautiful singing birds and enjoying the scenes around. It was not like trek to a fort where you have a destination to reach and so it was fun!

It was just a one day trip and so we could cover many points. I would say it was more than enough. All we could see at each point was just three colors white, brown and green. White of clouds, brown of lands and green of trees. Every spot we went we couldn’t have seen the beauty of valleys because the hide-seek of rain and cloud was still on!

Still we got the feel of being on height at Louisa Point. The scenes were fantastic as we saw water drop down thousands of feet below us into the fog.

The next halt, Echo Point was again engulfed in fog and there was no chance we could experience echo. So, we made us happy with a few clicks only ;)

Now came the best part of trip. I did valley crossing. It was actualy a pseudo valley :P The valley was not much deep but it was enough to give a feel of thrill! Valley croosing was the activity where participant has to crawl on a tight rope that is tied on to the two sides and at a certain height. Safety gear like harnesses and carabiners are used. Maza aa gaya!!

A so called valley ;)

It was 2pm now and we were hungry like wolves. We started our journey back. We took a halt for lunch.The chilling rain made everybody to shiver and it was getting impossible to sit in drenched clothes.It was better to change clothes.To the surprise, even the extra pair of clothes everybody had brought was wet and now there was no option but to sit in soaked clothes.

On the way back it was more of a peace walk.Everybody was in trans, wondering about a wonderful day spent together. The nature, the company, the fun had destressed us. We were all glad to get such a nice break from routine life of “TECH MAHINDRA” (wanted to use many words instead of ROUTINE :p)

We again took a cab and reached neral around 5pm. This was our last common stop. Vowing to make such trips together again soon, we parted to our own home sweet home!!! J

A Trek To Remember

It has really been a long since I have jotted down any of my experiences. Yesterday, I got an opportunity to experience something that was worth noting down.

It was 4am, SUNDAY morning and 4 alarms started ringing. Me, Mukta, Sonal and Prachi had planned to go for a trek to Duke's nose and so we all got up without snoozing alarms. It was raining heavily outside and one of us (not so enthu about trek) thought we better stay at home only. As it is, trek would be most probably canceled due to rains. However, somehow we managed to convince her and reached Shivajinagar station around 5:15 am. We were going with “Yuvashakti”- a trek group in Pune. All Yuvas were there by 6am. I could feel the excitement and enthusiasm in all the youngsters present there.

We took 6:30 am train and reached Khandala around 8:30am. The moment we stepped out of the train, it was already showering. People were helping themselves with umbrellas, windcheatres, raincoats, caps etc. But by the time we reached under roof on station, almost everybody was soaked. Then, with some instructions from trek leaders and a nominal breakfast we headed towards Duke’s Nose. It was really a beautiful morning….very refreshing!!

The rain took a break for some time and so we started with a photo session. It is one of the main reasons for me to go for such treks. After all it is the only way to capture moments :P Rainy season is best for sightseeing. We just couldn’t stop clicking. We had reached a place where we were surrounded by mountains and it was greenery everywhere. We could see a mountain peak at one moment and the second moment it was lost in clouds. It was so foggy that after some time we couldn’t even see a person at 2m distance. We were very happy and felt proud of ourselves that we made a right decision to come here ;)

We walked some more distance and then we could hear gargling of waterfall. The sight of waterfall made everybody to go “yippee, oh wow, sahii” :D Trek leaders were as enthusiastic as participants and made everybody to get under waterfall. That was an awesome experience!! It reminded me of all the rainy songs in the bollywood :D

And now, it had started raining really heavy. All so called water resistant apparels proved useless. We were in the middle of woods, drenched due to downpour but still energetic. Every step we took made us to unfold new face of nature. We were amazed by its beauty.

It was very slippery and we had to put every step with caution. We had reached a point where we had to climb a peak. We were climbing it and there was a sudden torrential rain. It was as if we were getting beaten by the rain. We were at such a height that loosing balance for a moment would have leaded us to lose ourselves forever. It was too difficult patch to climb. Even in such position we couldn’t afford to miss to see the scenery. The beauty of nature or I would say “rudra avatar” of nature was breathtaking. It was like we are watching Mani Ratnam’s movie. And I must say Mani Ratnam is missing a lot of locations ;)

Fighting with rains we somehow crossed that patch and now there was something more thrilling in store, we were “LOST”. There was a gap between us and other members. It was quite dark amidst woods and we even couldn’t see the sky. There was no chance to know which direction to go. We were 8-10 members left behind. Me and sonal were at front the “so called Trekkers”. We followed the way through which water was flowing down. This was a true Trekking Moment. We were kind of scared, had no idea of where we are going and still had the spirit to find a way. J

By God’s grace we were on right track and after 10-15 minutes leaders came searching us. We finally reached a safe destination.

We continued progressing in the rains which was getting very irritated. We reached our “Lakshya”around 12pm J still there was no sign of “noon”. We couldn’t see any view from such a great height as everything was covered with clouds; it was all smoky, foggy! All we could see was a temple of Shiva .We were supposed to have lunch at this point but heavy wind was blowing along with rains and we couldn’t even open our lunch boxes. I would have flown off due to such wind if I was a little thinner :p. After sometime, we had our soaked lunch and headed towards base. We took off from Khandala and descended in Lonavla. Trek wasn’t over yet, we had to travel or to be precise WALK a long distance to reach to station. But this was a simple road and it was just drizzling so we were chill!

We enjoyed this route. We chitchatted, sung songs, pulled each other’s leg, and again had photo session. We were feeling very cold. Also, we were hungry by now so had tea and bread-omelet at a thela on the way. We reached station by 4pm. The train was at 5:30pm. Now we were eager to go home as we were completely wet and each limb was aching.

We reached home by 7:30pm. THIS WAS IT!!

This trek made me realize my limits. It made me test my will power as well as stamina. Most of the people enjoy going alone or with their friends for treks. I prefer going with a big group where I get to meet variety of people. Many of which are amateur, some are professionals and some are like me, just nature lovers ;)

It is a great feeling to walk with a stranger… give a hand of help…. Take a hand and climb….. Share a same goal of reaching the zenith!

I am really looking forward to have such experiences in my life. Wish me luck for that!!! J

Good Morning!!!!!

25th jan....Monday..7:30 a.m....Misty morning....Road gng towards karve statue..... sweepers clean roads and make that typical (ghiss hiss) sound..... A little cute boy, must be in 3rd/4th standard waits for school bus, so excited to go to school after a weekend... Some distance further, a little girl with chubby chicks sits in her mother's lap and still feels sleepy....
Aajji-ajoba buying flowers for pooja while returning from a morning walk... Uncle waving his hand to a friend while watering plants.. A melodious song is sung by a lady(mst be riyaaz)....
And here I am at a chay tapari enjoying first tea of the day and observing all these things arnd me... Mornings are beautiful..aren't they??? :)

Blogs!!

I have been in this world of blogging since long time but only as a reader or an admirer. It always amazed me that how a person writes, what is the thing which inspires him and he wants to put his thoughts into words.

I have read blogs of many of my friends. The blogs were about their latest adventure or about the new brand car or about the politics or about love or about new movie and what not. I wondered how do a person is able to collect thoughts and put them in nice words with sensible meaning.

Why do we need blogging??? This was my next question to myself. In school, when we were made to write essays or stories , many of us used to find it the most boring thing. Many of us also felt it to be the toughest thing. And today I see amazing blogs of the same people. People who used to hate writing and found it very difficult to put thoughts into words are todays wonderful bloggers. They just impress me with their thoughts, expressions and most of the times with writing skills. The words used, the phrases used, the expressions used are just mind boggling.

I have seen these people since childhood and these blogs make me realise that they are grown ups now. They have their convictions, principles, values and they are matured enough to decide how to express them. This might sound that either I am old or I am not matured. But the thing is I could not express my thoughts in writings and I am just 21.. he he he :)

It is said that "The pen is mightier than sword" and it is absolutely right. In this era, may be a keyboard has replaced the pen and "keyboard is mightier than sword". But still, till today written matter or facts can make you laugh or cry than any other medium. The written matter remains with you forever, the spoken words fade away with time. Nice thought na!!! :)
That is why till today we are crazy about cards,(at least i am) irrespective of what gifts are received on birthdays, cards are still precious. Anyways, now I am digressing from the main topic, Blogs!!

May be this is it. This is all I had to say, sorry.... write.
I have a "TO DO" list. I want to play a musical instrument (preferably guitar), I want to drive a car, I want to speak french,I want to do sky diving , I want to write and list goes on. May be this is my first step towards fulfilling my wishes!!!!

I am new to this world and this is my first post. Whoever reads this post, I request you to give your suggestions. I don't know about the flow, the writing skills one should have while writing a blog. I just went on writing as per flow of thoughts.
And here I am with a blog.... while wondering how people write blogs!!!!! :)