From Dusk, Till Dawn

This photograph known as "The Kiss" is famous as being among the classiest shots ever captured by a camera. It was taken on the eve of August 15,1945 after the Japanese surrender to American forces in World War 2, during the celebrations in the famous Times Square in New York city. It’s said that on that day every swabbie worth his bell-bottoms kissed every girl within reach. The pic shows 1 of those sailors and a nurse engaged in a moment of sheer ecstasy.
I love the natural, un-artificial beauty of it. The way her legs are positioned, with the grace of a ballerina, while his legs are firm and supportive. The way she seems to have completely submitted herself to the trustworthy embrace of his arms. The way those lips are locked, unperturbed by the presence of hundreds of prying eyes around them . “A picture can say more than a thousand words.” If the word ‘Passion’ was ever to be described by a picture, then this would be it. I’d been looking for an excuse to use this picture here for sometime, and I don’t think there can be a more apt time than Now.

The time has almost come to kiss another year goodbye. As has been true with almost all the previous years, this year too had it’s own share of ups and downs. Some dreams were fulfilled, some were not. Some really good friends were made, and some were lost. Some targets were achieved, others remain.

Yet whatever be the case, this is the time to look forward to new beginnings, new horizons, crossing new frontiers (maybe a new job ;) ).
This may/may not be my last post for this year, since I’m leaving for a well deserved vacation to Bombay and Goa tomorrow.(Though I would check for your posts). Whoa, I’ve been told Goa is among the top 5 destinations WORLDWIDE to celebrate the New Year’s! Moreover some really good friends have been real nice to forward me a lot of information on what to do and where to go. A Goan friend of mine has even promised to take me along to 1 of those exclusive ‘firang rave parties’ on Goan beaches. Let’s see how all this turns out !

So all you talented souls out there, it’s the time to let your hair down and boogie the nights away! I hope you all rejuvenate yourself and come back with a BANG next year! Here's wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a Fantabulous New Year!!!
So till next year, Adios Amigos !!!

Shame

These are the days of the debauchery of the senses and the death of innocence.

I usually would have avoided writing about a depressing or somber topic specially in this festive season, but the recent news of the rape and murder of a woman that is rocking Bangalore has made it inevitable that I vent my ire on the current state of affairs, especially more so in this case since the victim happened to belong to the BPO branch of my very own organization.
Apparently, around 2 a.m. on Tuesday last week, this lady got a call on her cell from this driver, who told her he had come as a replacement for her regular cab, and who then drove her to an isolated place, raped her, then slit her throat and dumped her body in a nearby ditch, and fled the scene, only to be caught by the police after 2 days.
I shudder to think what would’ve gone through the mind of her husband, (she’d only been married for a few months).
And that’s the reason I hate the Human Right’s activists who’re against capital punishment. The sad truth is that such vile and disgusting oversexed men can be controlled only by fear and sheer terror. I beg your pardon if I’m being too graphic, but I totally support the punishment given under the Shariat law in Islamic countries for such heinous crimes, to chop off the very tool which was the root cause of the crime, and then keep the perpetrator alive in solitary confinement for the rest of his life.
As was expected, the whole organization is now shook up and rattled with allegations and counter allegations, with the police claiming that she might’ve been saved with the timely action of the travel desk staff, since the regular driver had informed them about her absence that night.
It’s tragic that it took such a ghastly incident for the company to wake up from it’s slumber and issue new safety guidelines for all people who might have to stay back beyond normal working hours, be it BPO or the Software employees.
Had this been the U.S., the victim’s family could’ve sued the a** of the organization. Anyways these MNC’s earn more than 10 times their employee’s salaries from the outsourced countries, and the least they can do is ensure their safety and security.
Sadly, nothing can change the harsh truth for her family members, who’ve lost a loved 1 forever.

Even on a broader scale, crimes against women are gradually increasing by the day. Bihar and UP have always remained the badlands,(no disrespect intended), but the recent crime surge in metros like Delhi and Bombay(and now Bangalore) reflects a disturbing trend.
Though we take pride in calling ourselves the 2nd fastest growing economy in Asia, all that growth is meaningless if it’s not accompanied with an equally effective growth in law enforcement and a swift and just judicial system.(Now that’s a distant dream)

The state of a nation can be judged by gauging the state of it’s women. – Jawaharlal Nehru

The Complete Man?

"Whatever their future, at the dawn of their lives, men seek a noble vision of man's nature and of life's potential." – The Fountainhead

Nah, this is obviously not about the Raymond’s ad or discussing the finer points of Fountainhead. This is about my drive for the pursuit of perfection(?, or is it striving to lead a fuller, comprehensive life, whatever that is supposed to mean), for as long as I can remember.

When I was a kid, a very deep sense of right and wrong were drilled into my gullible mind. I was told to follow an existing code of conduct, by following which I was to have achieved perfect manhood (or adulthood or whatever) one day.
It was all pretty straightforward, until the notion of ‘perfection’ started encompassing more and more prerequisites. E.g. What was an early liking to Tintins and Enid Blytons, soon graduated to Grishams and Sheldons and now Lapierres, was NOT considered at that time to be a manly (or boyish) pursuit, at least by my granny. “Why don’t you stop reading this trash and go out and play with the other boys?”, she would often remark. Anyways, like most Indian boys, I too tried my hands at the only game that drives this nation crazy, and soon realized that I was not to be the next Kapil Dev. (He was the icon from my city Chandigarh in the early 90’s)
And so I started hunting for alternate areas for achievement, and soon joined Karate classes. By the time I’d cleared the White and Orange levels, I didn’t see myself following Jackie Chan’s footsteps either. The same fate awaited Swimming, Horse Riding, BallRoom dancing, Roller Skating, Sketching and God knows what not. I was wild with the passion to discover my hidden talent(If there was ever any). Yet I was just glad that I was experimenting with anything and everything under the sun.
A proper masculine physique had always held a special place in the typical North Indian male mindset ( especially so in my case since my dad happened to have won quite a few Bodybuilding championships in his college days), so whenever his friends would visit, I would always be grilled on when would I start flexing my muscles. So as soon as I reached the 11th standard, I started hitting the gym regularly, shuttling it with my coaching classes. And Yessir, I did manage to pump them up, Sallu style, though when I flunked my Math exam during the mid-terms that year, I was forced to renounce my ‘Schwarzeneggerism’ and start hitting some books instead.

The last and the most enticing bug that bit me during that period was that of modeling. Oh Cmon now, how many of you have not, at one point or another, stood in front of the mirror and wondered if you were the next Brad Pitt(Lol, or Angelina Jolie!), so stop giggling. Anyways I’m digressing. So this real fast buddy of mine who happened to be a cool dude as well as the son of a hotshot IGP, claimed to have some amazing contacts with the who’s who of Bombay’s Glam industry. So one fine day (12th Standard) he tells me he’s going to Bombay for 15 days to get his portfolio done and circulated to his contacts and modeling agencies, and I was invited to come along. When I asked my folks I was simply told that there would be thousands like me already struggling there, and anyways I was not to miss precious days of my coaching classes (entrance exams were drawing near). Now this point struck a note with me( I wasn’t too confident with my dusky looks anyways) and so I somewhat reluctantly agreed. That friend of mine went on to get shortlisted for the final 7 in Grasim Mr. India next year! (Though I have to admit he was a REAL hunk).

So am I disappointed at ending up as yet another engineer in this ocean of techies? Hell No, this is my bread and butter at least for now.

The quest for a fuller life has definitely slowed down now, though not extinct. There are still many things I feel I have to experience before I either burn out or become too occupied – learning French, the Tango, Bungee jumping, biking to Ladakh, Scuba diving, just to name a few.

And the Million Dollar question – Do I feel like a ‘Complete’ Man yet?
To tell you the truth – I couldn’t care less.


Jack of all trades, Master of none?
- A Master can be boring, at least I’m having some fun.
;-)

Keep Walking

So me'z back after a pretty long hiatus.
The truth is I’ve never had such a hectic period in my life as I had in these 2 months. 15 hour workdays for 2 weeks at a stretch are no jokes, yet when you come to know that all this hard work might not cause the least bit of change in either your appraisal ratings or your onsite chances(hence your remuneration), it does cause a little disappointment. To top it all, you’re supposedly given a paltry 100$ reward (!) for all your efforts while your colleagues who haven’t contributed 5 % of what you’ve done, are given 800$ just because they’re your so called ‘seniors’!
Duh, this world reeks of politics. Sometimes it’s disheartening to see the lengths to which some people would go to in order to serve their purpose. Ethics and morals seem to have ceased to exist anymore. I sometimes even wonder if these people have ever had something called conscience in them at any point of time, coz I bet if they did, they wouldn’t be able to sleep at night.
But then sensibility demands that one takes it all as just another lesson of life, and as Johnnie Walker says…”Keep Walking”.

I’m reading Dan Brown’s ‘Angels and Demons’ this week, and I’ve been really taken aback by this 1 particular dialogue that takes place between the leading characters in the book, Robert Langdon (the main protagonist who is a Harvard professor of religious iconology) and Vittoria Vetra (a pretty Italian scientist).
Vittoria: Do you believe in God?
Langdon: A spiritual conundrum. Well, I want to believe. (The intellectual suspension of disbelief that was imperative if one were truly going to believe had always proved to be too big an obstacle for his academic mind)
Vittoria: So why don’t you?
Langdon: Having faith requires leaps of faith, cerebral acceptance of miracles- immaculate conceptions and divine interventions. And then there are the codes of conduct. The Bible, The Koran, Buddhist scripture… they all carry similar requirements – and similar penalties. They claim that if I don’t live by a specific code I will go to hell. I can’t imagine a God who would rule that way.
Vittoria: Mr. Langdon, I did not ask if you believe what Man says about God. I asked if you believe in God. There is a difference. Holy scripture is stories….legends and history of man’s quest to understand his own need for meaning. I’m not asking you to pass judgment on literature. I’m asking if you believe in God. When you lie out under the stars, do you sense the divine? Do you feel in your gut that you’re staring up at the work of God’s hand?

Langdon: Well, as a scientist and the daughter of a priest, what do you think of religion?
Vittoria: Religion is like a language or dress. We gravitate towards the practices with which we were raised. In the end, though, we are all proclaiming the same thing. That life has meaning. That we are grateful for the power that created us.


Hmmmm….now that’s surely some food for thought! I’ve always been fascinated with theological history myself and have always been perplexed at why do people have to kill each other over something that has a universally common goal….to acknowledge and thank the higher power that created us. Be it the persecution of early Christians by the Jews, or the bloody massacres of entire villages of Jews and Muslims by the Christian Crusaders who were encouraged by the Roman Catholic church for over 400 years, or the holy war called 'Jehad' started by followers of Muhammad which called for the slaying of all 'Qafirs' or Infidels as the holy duty of every devout Muslim, and which continues to this day, or be it the mindless killings of Muslims in Gujarat by Hindu fanatics justifying it as revenge for the Godhra massacre; all of them are equally deplorable barbaric acts of a few twisted minds who bring a bad name to their entire communities. These people obviously miss the bigger picture, that all of them have been created by the same higher power which can never endorse the destruction of one part of it's creation by another.

Science and Religion have always externally been like the opposite sides of the same coin, with 1 using rationale and reasoning as the basis of all theories, and the other relying on faith, legends and beliefs to try and explain the workings of this world. Yet, these 2 cornerstones of human understanding do often come at crossroads where the postulates of 1 vindicates those of the other.

Every major religion agrees to the basic law popularly known as Karma, - “As you sow, so shall you reap”, “What goes around, comes around” etc. etc.
Newton’s 3rd Law is eerily similar in it’s proclamation – “For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction”.

Even science fails to explain the cause of the “Big Bang”, the cosmic explosion out of a miniscule subatomic particle, out of which this entire universe is supposed to be made of. Who or what caused that explosion and what was there before it, remains unanswered.

“Let there be Light”

E = mc^2

Energy and Mass are interconvertible. - Einstein

Your body is transient, only the soul is permanent. - Ancient Hindu saying

Bulla Ki Jana Main Kaun

Normally i can't listen to a song more than 1-2 times a day no matter how much i like it,since i get bored by any kind of monotony pretty easily; but there's this 1 number which i find myself listening to again and again, innumerable times a day since i read it's translation sometime back.The song is the much popular no. 'Bulla ki Jaana' by Rabbi Shergill, though i doubt if most people take the trouble of understanding the mumbo-jumbo being mouthed by the sardar clad in all-white; they probably just like the guitar or maybe the out of the box video, and lo and behold, the song is a super success! That's the indian music industry for most of us !

Anyhow,this song was originally written around 300 years ago by the highly revered sufi poet called Bulleh Shah who lived in Multan(now in Pakistan),in Saraiki, which was the local spoken language of that time.His poetry usually reflects the eclectic fusion of the various cultures which made Punjab the most diverse region in the entire Indian sub-continent...from acting as the gateway of India for early Aryans to the Turks,Mongols and Mughals, and from acting as a breeding ground for Hinduism,Islam and the newly founded Sikhism.Even though the language is somewhat similar to Punjabi, yet i had to go through the translation to understand the meaning of each and every word penned by the great poet.Below is the translation i picked from a website:

Na maen momin vich maseet aan
Na maen vich kufar diyan reet aan
Na maen paakaan vich paleet aan
Na maen moosa na pharaun.
Bulleh! ki jaana maen kaun
(Not a believer inside the mosque, am I
Nor a pagan disciple of false rites
Not the pure amongst the impure
Neither Moses, nor the Pharoh
Bulleh! to me, I am not known)

Na maen andar ved kitaab aan,
Na vich bhangaan na sharaab aan
Na vich rindaan masat kharaab aan
Na vich jaagan na vich saun.
Bulleh! ki jaana maen kaun
(Not in the holy Vedas, am I
Nor in opium, neither in wine
Not in the drunkard`s craze
Niether awake, nor in a sleeping daze
Bulleh! to me, I am not known)

Na vich shaadi na ghamnaaki
Na maen vich paleeti paaki
Na maen aabi na maen khaki
Na maen aatish na maen paun
Bulleh! ki jaana maen kaun
(In happiness nor in sorrow, am I
Neither clean, nor a filthy mire
Not from water, nor from earth
Neither fire, nor from air, is my birth
Bulleh! to me, I am not known)

Na maen arabi na lahori
Na maen hindi shehar nagauri
Na hindu na turak peshawri
Na maen rehnda vich nadaun
Bulleh! ki jaana maen kaun
(Not an Arab, nor Lahori
Neither Hindi, nor Nagauri
Hindu, Turk (Muslim), nor Peshawari
Nor do I live in Nadaun
Bulleh! to me, I am not known)

Na maen bheth mazhab da paaya
Ne maen aadam havva jaaya
Na maen apna naam dharaaya
Na vich baitthan na vich bhaun
Bulleh! ki jaana maen kaun
(Secrets of religion, I have not known
From Adam and Eve, I am not born
I am not the name I assume
Not in stillness, nor on the move
Bulleh! to me, I am not known)

Avval aakhir aap nu jaana
Na koi dooja hor pehchaana
Maethon hor na koi siyaana
Bulla! ooh khadda hai kaun
Bulleh! ki jaana maen kaun
(I am the first, I am the last
None other, have I ever known
I am the wisest of them all
Bulleh! do I stand alone?
Bulleh! to me, I am not known )

Confessions of a Wandering Mind

If there is 1 thing right now that i'm sure i feel too strongly about, then it's missing my student life; or more precisely, life at IMT.The 3 golden years spent at the campus have undoubtedly been the highpoint of whatever life i've seen so far.No wonder they used to call IMT 'The Resort'; life was all about eating,drinking,movies and partying.Studies used to happen only when semester exams got too close for comfort.

One can never forget the hostel life - absolutely no holds barred pure freedom.No wardens around to tell you whts right and wrong, no1 to stop you from playing blaring music at 2 am.Like they said-life in IMT started at midnite. And those ragging sessions - 1st year when v were the 'futchas'; thank god for those senior babes who hid me inside the girls' hostel on the pretext of 'ragging' me when the rest of my not so fortunate batchmates were being stripped and made to run around the campus by the senior guys.And the 2nd and 3rd year, when we enacted the roles of the mighty 'Seniors' pretty easily and undertook that oh so great responsibility to uphold the grand old tradition of the college. My first roomie, who i renamed 'grassie' for his marijuana addiction, and who i had to kick out of the room since i cudn't stand the overpowering stench of the 'weed'.Sorry for that bro, cudn't help it though.

And of course parties,parties and more parties. How can anyone ever forget that amphitheatre , which turned into a dance floor on many a Saturday nights, and which was a witness to the many flings and romances which blossomed under that intoxicating atmosphere. The same amphitheatre which got transformed into a swimming pool on Holi, full to the brim with colors of all hues.The fun we had pushing off friends into it who were already high on bhang,all laughing and crying at the same time.And that holi of 2002 when i had a full 2 litre bottle of Bhang and then passed out in my room for 2 whole days !
Or for that matter, how can 1 forget the annual college fests:Passion and Chakravuh, when the best crowd from all the best B-scools of India used to converge onto our campus. 3 days of non-stop fun, those babes participating in double meaning skits(lol), the fashion shows which v choreographed on our own. All those events which were organised a 100% by the students, with absolutely no interevention by the college authorities, resulting in a mad-mix of non stop fun.

So it's pretty obvious that work life here seems to be overwhelmingly bland and mundane when i compare it to the fun i had till just about 2 years back....IMT rocked !
I always associate the following song with IMT ;it's called Teenage Wasteland(Baba O' Reily) by The Who:

Out here in the fields
I fight for my meals
I get my back into my living

I don't need to fight
To prove I'm right
I don't need to be forgiven

Don't cry
Don't raise your eye
It's only teenage wasteland

Sally ,take my hand
We'll travel south crossland
Put out the fire
Don't look past my shoulder

The exodus is here
The happy ones are near
So let's get together
Before we get much older

Teenage wasteland
It's only teenage wasteland
Teenage wasteland
Oh..yeah
Teenage wasteland

They're all wasted

Musings on Attitude

Though I don’t fancy myself as any kind of a philosopher, yet my mind has time and again ventured into the intricacies of human behavior and understanding their psychology…Lol I do wonder sometimes if I should have opted for Psychology rather than Computer Applications as my choice of career !

Anyways, I have often felt that the most decisive factor in determining the quality of our life is our Attitude towards people and situations.
The way we think and feel about things can imprison or liberate us from the captivity of our minds.
An aware mind, devoid of the illusion of success, is the one that can be called truly liberated. The fear of failure and the pleasure of success would pale into insignificance before such radiant awareness.
Our attitude determines the nature and amount of our suffering. It’s not developed overnight, but slowly, as the pearl in an oyster, through an analysis of other’s thoughts and philosophies, by keeping the company of more such ‘liberated minds’, through contemplation of the nature of things and through thoughtful suffering. Once it has taken shape, it helps us to view the world in a fresh and lucid way.
Such attitude would definitely empower us to cultivate a disinterestedness in the fruit of action.
There are examples aplenty in the legends and lore from all over. The 2 that immediately come to mind are:
1st forms the very foundation of The Geeta – Lord Krishna giving this exact sermon to Arjuna who is waivering on his task at hand – to go to war against his cousins and relatives. Here the act of going to war against his own kith and kin is regarded by scholars as a metaphor for the constant struggle between the mind and it’s inner evils.
The 2nd is that of the Greek king Sisyphus who had been condemned by Zeus to push a rock to a hill’s summit until it stayed there. Each time he tried, the rock would come rolling back down – but instead of despairing, his awareness led him to transform his struggle into a game. He realizes that his sense of duty and the unavoidable nature of the assignment leave no room for emotions.

The essence of all these ‘deep’ thoughts seem to be to “ Live life to the full and Let NOT the fear of pain deter you from the pleasures ! “

A Trek To Coorg

The endless monotony of a routinely drab Bangalore work life compelled me to look for a weekend retreat away from civilization. The idea germinated on Wednesday(1st Jun,05) and any trek had to be done by the same weekend before the pending monsoons(due to arrive on 7th) made it impossible for the next few months.
So I contemplated a host of destinations, each 1 of which got cancelled due to some reason or the other – BR hills and Bandipur due to the inability to camp out, and then Kudremukh had to be cancelled due to Naxalite combing operations in full swing; just then on Thursday night a very helpful Mr. Madhusudan from Woody Adventures (woodyadventures.com) came to my rescue and suggested Tadiyandamol peak in Coorg.
Though the original plan was to catch the last Volvo on Fri night(as most ppl do), yet the unavailability of tickets for Fri turned to be a blessing in disguise, since it saved us from starting the trek in the hot early afternoon, and making to the top with the sun blazing with it’s wholesome fury.
So on Sat morning me and my 3 friends- Ratnakar Sinha, Jeetendra Melwani and Anantha started off at 5:45 am sharp.
We reached Virajpet at 12:00 and spent the next hour shopping for Bread, biscuits, booze etc. (we could not find butter anywhere here ! ) then had our lunch, and then caught a taxi to Kakkabe. It’s important to note here that you should buy whatever you need from from Virajpet itself, since hardly anything is available in Kakkabe.(mercifully water was available)
We saved 4 worthless kms of steep road climb as the taxi dropped us right to the foot of the trek at the palace lodge. We decided to drop a few unnecessary things in a house just next to the lodge(the old lady was really helpful) and then finally started off on the trek at 2:45 pm.

The initial stretch is relatively boring as it took us through a km of road upto a fork from where a jeep track began. Here we took the right side of the track which again led to a 2nd fork some distance ahead. This time we took the steeper left track and from here the foliage got more dense and definitely more interesting. We hardly took any breaks and carried the heavy tent by taking turns among each other.
Now at 5:30 pm we reached a really beautiful landscape with open grassland on either side and a huge rock on the left, and from here the track again forked into two, with the left going inside thick jungle and the right going further uphill. We decided to take the left this time to discover a bit in the jungle, and lo and behold, we reached a fresh water stream! Since our water resources were already almost depleted, we decided to drink to our fulfillment here, as the water at this height should be free from any contamination. Beware of the blood sucking leeches inside this forest trail – there were hundreds of them on the sides. An excellent way to get them off is to either sprinkle some salt on them or spray a Deodorant.
So after refilling our bottles we got back on the track and trudged further up the previous trail, but at around 6 pm there were clouds all around the area so we decided to pitch the tent for the night in an open area nearby and to reach for the top in the morning.

Now this part was the most exciting for me, since this was the 1st time I was staying out in the wild. Jeetu was the only 1 among us who knew how to put up a tent so the rest of us helped him with it. As soon as it was done we threw our backpacks inside to prevent it from being blown away in the wind. Now we all started off to hunt for some firewood, luckily there was a bush nearby and we got enough to last us 2 hours. Starting the fire could’ve been a problem due to the intense dew in the air (our hair looked thoroughly gelled) , had we not had the foresight to buy some diesel from virajpet.
Now we 1st had sumthing to munch – a few packs of biscuits and chocolates, and then decided to have the vodka near the bonfire.
As the sun set it got really cold with clouds covering us all around….the bonfire was very helpful 2 warm up now…..and getting ‘high’ in such an environment is a different feeling altogether – no words can do justice to it’s description.
After about an hour and a half of boozing and chatting aimlessly, it started to drizzle outside so we decided to get in. The tent was so cozy that it completely stopped the wind and cold out (though the space was a little cramped for 4 people) and we lit a candle for some candlelight dinner. Since we had 2 loaves of bread and some local namkeen (neither branded namkeen nor butter was available at Kakkabe), we decided to use the namkeen as the stuffing for our sandwiches. Jeetu’s spicy and delicious sauce saved the day here as we used it to garnish our dinner. After some more healthy banter we decided to have the lights out at 10 pm. Sleeping was a little difficult because of the uneven ground underneath and the a little leg space, yet the day’s efforts sent us all into a deep slumber in no time.
The funniest part was when one of us(let’s not say who :-P ) had to take a leak at night and had to wake the others up, since it was pitch dark outside( it was a moonless night- maybe amavasya) and the other person had to hold the torch while he relieved himself.
The next morning we got up at around 7:30 am( too bad i missed the sunrise but according to anantha it was cloudy earlier) and decided to leave our bags in the tent and climb to the top.
What we had anticipated as a 15-20 minutes climb turned out to be almost an hour more of tough trekking.
We started at 8 am and almost immediately we entered a very dense patch of forest. We tried to cover this part non-stop since it would surely have been full of leeches. As soon as we crossed this we were again in the open grassland and now was the steepest climb of the trek.
Finally at around 9 am we reached the summit and we all felt as if we’d climbed Everest or something! We spent half an hour admiring the scenery all around as we could see clouds and all other peaks at a level lower from us.
After taking in those beautiful sights we started downwards and reached our tent in about half an hour. Here I discovered 2 leeches on my socks and immediately removed them with the salt while Ratnakar had already been sucked on by a leech and his foot was still oozing blood – he used some Savlon and Bandage to cover it.
Anyways we packed the tent, collected the empty bottles and plastic wrappers, bid a goodbye to the peak and started our way down. The trek downhill seemed easier than the way up, though we had to be more careful to control our pace since one could easily slip or sprain an ankle.
As we reached the big rock we again stopped and refilled our bottles from the stream in the jungle. Then we paused by the rock to have breakfast with the remaining bread.
When we started again we met a hunter carrying a rifle and some wild hunting dogs, and he told us that there were tigers and wild animals in the jungle, though they rarely came out. I don’t know if he was telling the truth but it surely sent a chill among us.
Anyways from here it was an uneventful trek down to the foot of the hill where we decided to stop at one King’s lodge for some tasty Coorgy lunch.
After this we were told there were no more buses to Virajpet for an hour, so we took a bus to Madikeri. Even there the buses to Bangalore were full so we took a bus to Mysore and then reached Bangalore at 1:30 at night.
All in all it was an amazing trip and I would highly recommend it for anybody looking for a refreshing weekend break from Bangalore!