she held on.. we made it ..

Prelude

I was getting frustrated as the VijayaDashami long weekend approached. My long weekend plans were appearing to get disrupted; with my friend Abhi not able to join me here in Bangalore due to unavoidable circumstances. I didn’t know what to do until I thought about going myself out to some where from the city. I wanted to go out but didn’t know where to until Tanuja’s blog pointed me to Chikmagalur. Chikmagalur was around 240 kms from here, and I needed some one with me atleast as a pillion.

And as I asked around about the place people told me about the places I should see, routes I should take and even about the hotels I could stay. But no one was ready to come. My last hope was my roommate Aravind, but he also had some problems in joining me. On Thursday I came across an article in bike nomads - I was researching through different sites of biking for tips, locations and driving routes - where the author Sachin Rao had emphasized the need of traveling solo on the bike. That along with the teaser of the documentary that won 60kph.com founder Gaurav Jani accolades, acted as the catalyst for me to set out solo. Then there was my hostel mate and batch mate Arun U. R who rides a Thunderbird and most of the times solo. He was the inspiration for me to biking and long rides, and of course getting the Bird. I always have long discussions with him about the bike. And on Thursday night too we had one long discussion about riding solo, things I should take care while driving, spares I should carry with me and other general stuff. He told me to go ahead and wished me good luck.

Still I was not sure, whether to go ahead or not. There were a lot of people discouraging me. Yea, they were true in the sense that I was alone and if I needed any help en-route I had nobody except the nature and the public. And then I have to convince my people back home about why I am going. That was a big task, but I had a way to tackle it.

By Friday morning I was decided, that come what may I am going ahead. I will ask around for one last time in the office, if any one was ready I will get them along, otherwise I am going alone. I went to the Royal Enfield showroom with the bike. They tuned the carburetor for me and showed me how to change the clutch cable and accelerator cable and checked the bike all in all. When I went to the office my teammates were still skeptical about my journey. But I was decided, I am going. I googled and found out the routes, took the necessary printouts for my help and talked to a colleague of mine who have been to Chikmagalur and Kudremukh. In the afternoon I went and bought the Cramster Saddle bags as I didn’t want to carry the luggage on my shoulders.

By evening I drew the final plan. It was like this - Leaving to Chikmagalur on 30^th Sep early morning, reaching around noon, and settling in a lodge. After noon off to Mulyangiri and Baba Budan Hills. 1^st Oct morning off to Kudremukh and spend the day there. On 2^nd to Kemmangundi and return. I left a bit early than normal, went to withdraw money from ATM and filled in the tank to the full. At home I packed my stuff and slept early.

30-Sep-2006

I woke up early, had a quick bath and left by sharp 5AM. I took the outer ring road till Hebbal Flyover and then took NH 4 towards Tumkur. At 6AM I took my first break at Nelamangala, 52 kms from my house, and had a tea. From there I took the NH48 to Mangalore and boy that was one hell of a road. Perfectly tarred with lots of curves and slopes, in some areas you could easily touch 100+ kmph. But I had to keep my bird within 70Kmph as I was in running period. It was really tough from my part to control the speed. Avengers, Pulsars and even Splendors over took me, but I didn’t mind. I kept a constant 70.

After 75 kms I had my second break for a nature call and there I met my boss who also was leaving for Hassan that same day. He wished me good luck and bid adieu before asking me to drop in at his house if I am returning via Hassan. I continued my journey after some time and had my breakfast at Hassan. I was now 60 kms away from my destination. There I called a few friends to talk about my journey and Tanuja told me to visit Belur and Halebid also if possible. They were on the way to Chikmagalur and famous for temples of Hoysala Architecture.

After the breakfast I took the road to Chikmagalur from Hassan and that also was a good road. And now slowly the nature around was changing from the plains to small sloppy mountains with lots of agriculture around. I drove to a small hillock a few meters of the main road and took some pictures. I stopped wherever I could see nature at its best and took pictures. And by 11.30 I was at Chikmagalur. I checked into a small lodge and settled my stuff. I asked at the hotel about the route to Mulayangiri and Baba Budan Hills and left. My first decision was to go to Baba Budan Hills and come back to Mulayangiri. But as I approached the diversion that takes you to Mulayangiri, I stopped and thought and then in a split second I took the left to Mulayangiri. The road up to Mulayangiri was winding and curving. It was understandable as Mulayangiri is the highest peak in Karnataka and stands 1930 meters tall. As I climbed with the Bird I could feel the chillness in the air. The visor of my helmet became moist and I found it difficult adjusting to the different terrain. Sharp curves, narrow road and deep valley on one side definitely made me scary.

I felt for the first time that if something goes wrong, then I am alone. Somehow I was able to over come that thought and rode ahead smoothly relaxing. I did stop many a times to take some pictures, including at Seethalaingiri, which is a temple en-route. The peak was just 2 kms from there. The final few meters to the peak was not tarred and I was a bit hesitant to take the bike ahead. However I took her ahead and I found a lot of crowd there. I parked the bike and as I started climbing the peak, it rained. I put on my jacket hat and ignored the rain and continued climbing. But at a point it became heavy and clouds came descending. I couldn’t see my way up and so I returned back. It was very difficult finding the steps as the visibility was poor and rain was pouring hard. As I reached the parking area, I took refuge behind a Scorpio and got some respite from the rain. Then the rain subsided and I start my ride back. It was really scary; I started the bike, put on the lights, honked the horn and slowly came down in the first gear. At one point I could see nothing in front and so I stopped the bike. My left leg was shivering, partly due to cold and partly due to the fear. Some how clouds moved away and I could ride back smoothly. I stopped again at Seethalaingiri on my way back and took some pictures. Rain, Roads and ThunderBird – What else you needed :).

As I came back to the junction which takes you to Baba Bundan Hills it rained and I decided to return back to the lodge. I rode slowly, enjoying the scenery, rains and roads. At 3.30 I stopped at a small hotel on the way and had MulakaBajji and 2 cups of Coffee as my lunch. I reached my lodge and slept. Only thing I missed in the night was a drink which I used to have in long rides. I had good Chicken Biriyani for my Dinner and I enquired the route to Kudremukh with Hotel Guys where I had my dinner. They said me to go via Mudigere-Kotogehara-Kalasa. I was so tired, but sleep came late and Dharmapuranam gave me a good company till then.

01-Oct-2006

For the consecutive second day I woke very early and left for Kudremukh at 6AM. As decided I took the earlier mentioned route. There is a junction 10kms from Chikmagalur and I had to take left there. And I moved ahead the road was becoming horrible, the speedo was moving between 15 and 25 Kmph. But the road was again through ghats and coffee and tea plantations.

Even though I enjoyed the ride and scenery, my buttocks were paining and I had to take a lot of pit stops and I finally reached Kalasa at 9.30. That 90kms took three and half hours to cover. Huh!! At Kalasa, I had my breakfast and the restaurant owner there said about the route to Kudremukh and also advised me not to take the same route back. He said I should take Balehennur-Aldur route instead of the one I came. He also said the road to Kudremukh will be the best you can get and it was. It was superb in every sense. Sharp curves, wide and smoothly tarred and lesser traffic. I highly enjoyed that sector of the journey. Kudremukh is famous for its horse-faced hill ranges and for the Iron Ore Mining Company, KIOCL. Even though the company is now closed the township still exist. There is also a Dam, called Lakhya Dam which is used to store the Iron Ore Waste. I visited the township church which was at a height and took a few pictures of the range.

I also went to the Dam and the reservoir was full of the iron ore waste. I thought one could easily walk on the waste. There is a view point at almost the center point of the Dam where you could view the Horse faced ranges at its best.

I drove back to Kalasa and then took the Balehennur-Aldur route and it was much better than the route by which I came to Kalasa. I stopped at Balehennur for lunch and then on the way to Aldur at a Drive Inn Coffee Shop in Bhadra Coffee plantation Estate. By 5PM I was back to my lodge and I decided to drop Kemmangundi from my plans as it would be raining there and added Belur and Halebid as my destinations on my way back. I called up my boss to check if he is there in Hassan the next day and surprisingly found out that he is also visiting Halebid with his family. We decided to meet there.

I was immensely satisfied when I went to sleep. A major phase of my trip was over and I didn’t face any problem and above all I was very much happy with the performance of my bike and me as a driver. It was one of those dreams I always wanted to achieve.

02-Oct-2006

The final day has arrived. I just need to keep the concentration for one final day.

I left a bit late as I had to catch up my boss at around 10 at Halebid. My first destination was Belur which was 24 kms from Chikmagalur. Belur is famous for its Chennakeshava Temple which was built by the great Hoysala Empire. The temple was very magnificent and I spend a good time capturing various pictures outside and inside the temple. Since the temples at Belur and Halebid are under Archaeological Survey of India, photography is not prohibited here.

After the breakfast I left to Halebid which is 16 kms from Belur. There are three temples there. The main Hoysaleshwara Temple, then the Jain Temple and the Kedareshwara Temple which is partly destroyed. Only Hoysaleshwara temple attracts crowds. My Boss reached a little late there and by that time I had covered all the temples. I met him and after a small chat decided to leave. I took the Hassan road from Halebid so that I do not need to come back to Belur.

As I reached Hassan, I checked the tyre pressure and hit the NH. The ride was getting a bit boring because of the sudden change of the terrains and at times I was losing my concentration. And more over the traffic had increased and KSRTC buses were giving a tough time to me as they pushed me out of the road a couple of times.

I stopped at an Andhra Dhaba to have my lunch. I left again and cruised and reached Nelamangala at 4PM. I had a tea break there and left to my home. When I reached the home and parked my bike, the odometer showed 862 as the trip kilometers.

862 Kilometers is what I covered in 3 days riding solo on my Red Bird from home to Chikmangalur – Mulayangiri – Kudremukh – Belur – Halebid and then back to home. It is a just small step to start with and I now have the confidence to ride any where alone. Just me and my bird and my loneliness.

Drive Safe Buddies and Check out My Motorcycle Diaries when you have time :)

observations of a 'studious' mind at a fine great school

5 years and 3 Months after I wrote my last educational examination, I wrote another set of exams last weekend at a prestigious school in this Garden City. Not that I didn't attend other kind of exams during this time. I had in fact wrote numerous amount of them during my job search period from 2001 to 2003. My sister even reminded me that I wrote one in April 2004 and that was the Kerala Public Service Exam for Lecturers. But all these were job oriented tests or competitive examinations like GATE, where I had to find out the summations of the arithmetic progressions, full form of DOS (This was actually a question in Kerala PSC for Lecturers), Worst Time Complexity of Merge Sort or a simple train and platform puzzle ;).

This time it was different. I had to WRITE answers to the questions given in a question paper onto the answer sheet provided by my university. Yes, I was attending the First Semester Mid Semester Exam of my MS course from BITS. It took some amount of time to realize that I no more have the speed of writing that I possessed 9 years ago. And all I had to do was just WRITE. Some of the questions were problems, and I found the equations on the fly and calculated the results. But some of them asked me to explain with lucid examples how CMMI model is affecting my daily livelihood of coding and development and even asked me to step into a Project Managers shoes and visualize how you would schedule the Project Roll Out in 90 days Agile Processing. Huh!! Writing was tough, after all these years, what I used to write was the scribbling I made in my personal diary and a few letters I used to send to my best friends. How times have changed, I even forgot the grip I used to have for my pen. TOTAL DISASTERRRRR!!!!!

I was writing the exams back to back - 4 exams in 2 days. The last time I wrote exams that way was in 1995 March when I appeared for the SSLC exams. And that was the last time any kid in Kerala wrote SSLC that way - 12 exams, 6 days back to back from one Wednesday to the next FN 10 AM -12 Noon, AN 1.30PM-3.30 PM (Friday 2pm to 4PM). That was really terrible. This is all about some observations which I made during my two days at the school.

• Being in a school environment always brings back nostalgic memories of how you spend your childhood and schooling. The ground always beckons you to play a game of football or cricket. The desks and benches tells you the pranks you played, the name markings you made on the desks with the compasses in your camel instrument box and the way you wrote the whole essay in a short way on the desk, benches and even sandals for copying during the forthcoming exams. But sadly I didn't find any desks or benches. Instead there were individual tables and chairs. Gone are the days where you rested your back on the desk behind you only to find out that a Pratheesh's or a Rajesh's chalk markings on the edge of the desk would have coloured the backside of your shirt.
• Students of these schools speak English lot better than me and they don't even hesitate to threaten you. A big fat boy, who might have been in his 6th or 7th standard told a few of us, who were sitting behind the goal post, to move away as they are not responsible if we get hurt by the banana kicks they were taking. Entammachchiye.. Athu Enganum Kondirunnenkil..
  
• Where ever you go, in an examination center you will find a section of studious people who are glued on to their books, brushing the portions last minute and even trying to by heart it walking across the corridor all the time. Some will even find time to check the slides on their Thinkpads!!!. And someone including me will be pretending to study, but will be keeping an eye on all the 'beautiful objects' that move around and also on those studious people.
• People come on the Ford's, the Toyota's, the Chevy's and even on the Maruthi 800s. Others have their Scootterets, Bikes and ThunderBird :) . An odd guy will come in a Moped or a bicycle too. But one thing most of them forget is a proper parking sense.
• Poor Husbands who come with their wives will have to sit in the car for the whole day listening to Radio City, Mirchi or One and even will have to buy lunch for the wife who is studying during the lunch hours. Some one can be even seen playing games on their laptops. ;)
  
• Some people still approach the exam hall with a bit of tension filled faces and will barge into the exam halls without checking if they belong to that hall. On knowing that they do not belong there they get more tensed and run to find the actual seat.
• The exam invigilators are the main stream students of BITS and they don't have much to do, apart like the normal college invigilators, who have to give supplementary papers and also have to have a check on the copying. Here the main booklet is so huge and I never noticed anyone asking for a supplementary sheet. Even though people were copying using various means, the invigilators were not interested in it. Either they might not be skilled enough to catch the culprits, who are anytime elder than them and have enough experience in copying, or even after seeing it they might have just left it thinking "Poor Old Chaps come here to get an MS by distant learning, let them pass". Anyways it was a pleasure for me to see people getting chits from their pockets and hiding it in between the answer sheets. If there were single supplementary sheets, I might have just tried it exchanging with a Joju or TP ;)
• Even now attending a post-graduate course some people don't forget their age old habit of drawing margins on all the answer sheets and finding time to draw the block diagrams with a pencil and scale. Then there is still the habit of being in a meditation till the question papers are distributed and praying after they get the question paper, but before looking at it.
• And finally after all these actions when the people look at the question papers, one can see the facial expression changing from the concentrated look to "From which Timbuktu did this question came from? " kind of look. Then with the little knowledge they have people tend to become a new Veda Vyasa on their own if it is a subject like Software Engineering & Management or else they will invent a formula that can be made using the data given in the question and will get the nearest possible answer and leave. I don't think any of us would have sat the whole 2 hours.

At the end of the day, I should say I enjoyed it. Being part of an educational procedure of writing tests and that too after 5 years. And while driving back I felt pain on my hands and fingers, due to long writings. I also realized that my hand writing had gone from bad to worse. Now for the next 2 years this cycle is going to continue and I hope to come good and observe a lot more.

Who knows when the lightning will strike ?? (Hmmm ...Idithee Veenu Kattapokayaakandirunnal mathiyarunnu ... *sigh*)

ചില ഓണചിന്തകള്‍..

ഉത്രാടരാത്രി കഴിയാന്‍ ഇനിയും അല്പം മണിക്കൂറുകള്‍ കൂടി. അമ്മ ഇപ്പൊള്‍ അവസാന വട്ട ഒരുക്കങ്ങളില്‍ ആകും. നാളെ , തിരുവോണത്തിനുള്ള ഒരുക്കം, പായസത്തിനുള്ള സാമഗ്രികളും, സദ്യക്കുള്ള ഉപ്പേരിയും എന്നു വേണ്ടാ, നാളേക്കുള്ള പൂവു വരെ സുസജ്ജമാക്കി കാണും ഇപ്പോള്‍ . അതിനായി ഒരു ചെറിയ പാച്ചിലും കൂടി നടത്തികാണണം. ഞാനും ഒരു ചെറിയ പാച്ചില്‍ കഴിഞ്ഞുള്ള വരവു തന്നെ. ഈ നഗരത്തിലെ തിക്കിലും തെരക്കിലും കൂടി എന്റെ, ശകടത്തിന്‍ പോറല്‍ ഒന്നും എല്‍പ്പിക്കാതെ വീടെത്താനുള്ള ഒരു മരണപാച്ചില്‍. മരണപാച്ചില്‍ തന്നെയാണത്‌. ഒരു നിമിഷത്തെ അശ്രദ്ധ മതി ജീവിതം ഈ ഐ. ടി നഗരത്തിന്റെ വീഥികളില്‍ അസ്തമിക്കാന്‍.

ഓണത്തിന്റെ ആദ്യ ഓറ്മ്മകളില്‍ ഒരു ഇരുപതു വര്‍ഷങ്ങള്‍ക്കും മുന്നെ അമ്മയുടെ വീട്ടില്‍ നിന്നു അച്ഛന്റെ വീട്ടിലേക്കുള്ള യാത്രയാണ്‍. ട്രയിനില്‍ കേരളത്തിന്റെ ഒരറ്റം മുതല്‍ മറ്റെയറ്റത്തേക്കുള്ള ഒരു നീണ്ടയാത്ര. ഓണപരീക്ഷയുടെ ചൂടാറും മുന്നെ എന്നെ കൊണ്ടു പോകാന്‍ വരുന്ന ചെറിയച്ഛന്‍ന്മാരെ പരീക്ഷകള്‍ തുടങ്ങിയ നാള്‍ തൊട്ട് ഞാന്‍ എന്നും കാത്തിരുന്നിരുന്നു. പിന്നീടു എപ്പോഴോ ഓണത്തിന്നൊപ്പം ഞാനും വീട്ടില്‍ സ്ഥിരതാമസമാക്കി . എന്നും പൂവിട്ടും സദ്യ ഉണ്ടും കൂട്ടുകൂടിയും തിമിറ്ത്തു നടന്ന കുട്ടിക്കാലം. വളറ്ന്നപ്പോള്‍ കുട്ടിത്തം മനസ്സില്‍ സൂക്ഷിക്കാന്‍ ഞാന്‍ മറന്നു. എങ്കിലും കുട്ടിയായിരിക്കാന്‍ മനസ്സില്‍ സ്വകാര്യമായി ആഗ്രഹിച്ചു.

ഇന്നിപ്പോള്‍ ഓണം ഹോട്ടലില്‍ നിന്നും ആക്കണ്ട സ്ഥിതിയൊന്നും ആയിട്ടില്ലെങ്കിലും സ്വന്തം വീട്ടില്‍ ആഘോഷിക്കാത്ത ഓണം ഒരിക്കലും ഓണമല്ലാല്ലൊ...!!! ഓണത്തിനെപ്പൊഴും അതിന്റെതായ ഒരു സുഗന്ധമാണ്. സ്വന്തം വീട്ടില്‍ മാത്രം കിട്ടുന്ന പൂമണം. ഒരു പാലട പ്രഥമന്റെ മാധുര്യമുള്ള പാല്‍പ്പുഞ്ചിരിപോലെ അതു നമ്മോടൊപ്പം എന്നും മനസ്സില്‍ തങ്ങി നില്‍ക്കുന്നു. ഹ്രുദയത്തില്‍ സൂ‍ക്ഷിച്ചു വയ്ക്കാന്‍ ആ പഴയ മധുരമുള്ള ഓറ്മ്മകളെങ്കിലുമുണ്ടാവണമല്ലോ. സ്വന്തം വീട്ടില്‍ അല്ലാത്ത ഓണവും വിഷുവുമൊക്കെ ഒരു വേദനയാണ്. മനസ്സു നോവുന്ന നേറ്ത്ത ഒരു വേദന.

വീട്ടില്‍ ഇന്നു എല്ലാവരുമുണ്ടെന്നു അമ്മ ഇപ്പോള്‍ വിളിച്ചു പറഞ്ഞു. എന്നെ വല്ലാണ്ടു മിസ്സ് ചെയ്യുന്നു എന്നു അനിയത്തിയും. മനസ്സില്‍ അവിടുത്തെ ഊണുമുറിയില്‍ അത്താഴവും കഴിഞ്ഞ് വെടി പറഞ്ഞിരിക്കുന്ന ഒരു കാഴ്ചയാണ്‍. മനസ്സവിടെയും ശരീരം ഇവിടെയുമായി ഒരു ഓണം.

ഉത്രാടരാത്രി നാലാം യാമത്തിലേക്ക് കടന്നു കഴിഞ്ഞു കാണണം... തിരുവോണം പുലരട്ടെ. പുലറ്ച്ചെ അമ്മ വന്നു വിളിച്ചുണറ്ത്തുമായിരിക്കും .. അല്ലേ...

P.S: I wanted to write this in Malayalam Only, for this was feelings from heart and to write from heart I wanted it to be in Malyalam. Anyone finding it difficult to read please forgive me :) Happy Onam.

തിരുവോണാശംസകള്‍ | Thiruvonaashamsakal

വീണ്ടുമൊരു പൊന്നിന്‍ ചിങ്ങമാസവും പൊന്നോണവും..

എല്ലാവര്‍ക്കും ഐശ്വര്യത്തിന്റെയും സംബല്‍ സമ്രുദ്ധിയുടെയും

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എന്റെയും .. :)