KOLLI HILLS

27th oct 2008

20:00

Travellers : Me and Da Souza

Yesterday sometime early in the morning rossi came home from his place near hosur. Went picked him up from sona college bus stop. from the very start it was evident that both of us had a lot to talk bout and tell each other...... bout our carrier options, how ppl perceive our not so normal behaviour and so on.... it was so much fun.... both of were transferred to the viwa days.... laughing at jokes only a viwarian cud understand.... we sent the better part of the morning catching up...then went out for a late breakfast and hogged wat ever was dumped on our banana leaves... came back and chatted some more.... till we realized both of us have not slept the previous night and might not for the next as well... time to catch some sleep... that rossi did I opted to play NFS sometimes I wonder why I do that..... It beats me. After a short nap rossi was up and ready. And thus began our journey to this place called kolli hills or kollimalai as the locals prefer to call it. With all our phone calls and byes and be careful messages from parents we were off to namakkal at bout 1545 which is around 50 km from Salem. The bus journey was ok.... rossi started bitching bout his not so ok new roommate (so wats new.... lol) we reached namakkal an hour later. Now we were really confused... we knew the name of the mountain... kolli hills but there are around 245 villages on top of kolli hills. We didn’t how to get there and which village to go to so that we can reach the waterfalls and the river. After lotta running around we found out that there is a bus at 1745 from namakkal to semmodu a village bout 10 km from our destination..... I was of the idea that the total time of journey wud be around 3 hrs max. it turned out to be otherwise.... rossi was so god-damn pissed. it was fun watching him grumble bout the long journey, even though I tried telling myself it was kinda sadistic, it’s ok it rossi after all.... the bus stops at the base of kolli hills. The driver wanted to take a break before the gruelling climb starts a total of 78 hairpin bends..... Man there are only bends on this road.... I get down and buy some dinner just in case and the dinner is the usual stuff dosa and parottas (yup that’s the spelling)

now comes the series of unexpected events in our trip.... we were going to this place to stay overnight without knowing if there was a place to stay.... but then it was me it had to be that way... and then the bus gets punctured in a village some 5 km from semmadu... so me and rossi were off the bus went hunting for bananas.... for some strange reason rossi Luvs then.... actually obsessed with them.... after eating as much as we can and buying more for the rest of the long journey ahead.... while waiting for the tyre to be changed we see another bus approaching and one of the fellow passengers whom we had troubled by askin n number of questions regarding the place suggested that we take this bus and go to the temple near the water fall and spend the night there. Ok so we had some where to crash for the night...rossi and I hopped into the bus. that bus was packed to the brim and all I cud think off was rossi saying if there is place in your heart then there is place in the cart.... while on the bus I remembered that there was a youth hostel few kilometres before the temple and asked for the directions. the bus conductor was not really forth coming with an answer... finally the bus did stop in front of the youth hostel and dumped us there and vanished into the night.... ok this was our situation then middle of nowhere, on a dark road... in front of a building in the middle of a forest which has lotta wild animals . The good part was that the building had a single light on. I asked rossi to wait outside jumped the gate and go in and knock the door. I heard some voices inside... was appy looking forward to a good night’s sleep. And that’s they way it was. Shared the room with 4 other tribal kids from the nearby villages. Those guys gave a lotta useful information unlike the ones I got from googling kolli. Had dinner the stuff a got from the base of kolli hills good I did that...

The next day we got up at round 0545 and went bout packing our stuff, figured out that the temple is not so far away... and can be reached by walking. Then rossi had to crap for the day and he was appy he got the crappy feeling. I spent the next 45 mins talkin to the guys wonderin why rossi took 45+ mins even after his crappy feeling something I guess shud be left like that and rossi wud be more that appy wid that... hehehe..

We walked up to the temple had chai befriended a huge dog... found the way to the falls. The entrance ticket costed 2 bucks each. The walk down to the falls was ok not as difficult as lotta ppl in Salem made me believe.

I don’t really thing I can do justice by describing the falls. I wud tell you how I felt... this feeling when you come against something immensely powerful and something as old as time itself... I cud feel the forest I was humbled by it only to realize that it was a part of me as much as I was a part of it... I had this sense of belongingness to that place... it was more than just another place to me...I felt at home there... wat an experience... I luved every bit of it... I am appy rite now even to think of how I feel bout kolli hills. Ppl are rite the place is powerful, not without reason that there is so much of myth surrounding the hills. After this clicked some snaps on Rossi’s phone. And rossi posed in his lungi which we picked up in namakkal while waiting for the bus. It was rossi who was posing for the pics need I say any further...

we climbed back up, looked for a place to eat breakfast, found a shop which sold some soup made of this strange lookin tuber had that. Then went on to hunt for breakfast. Didn’t find any took a bus to the next village most of the food tapris we closed for diwali... managed to find one open had to wait for a really long time for them to make the idlis and sambar and chutney. In the mean time had the leftovers from the dinner and a few bananas. Rossi found the chicken shop outside the tapri too repulsive to eat food. He passed it.

Then we went on to explore the place found a path which lead to the river. Took a dip and went on to explore the river bed. I was back in my elements. Was there for bout an hour wallowing in the river. Realized was getting late for the bus... got up from the river dressed and left for the temple. While waiting for the bus had some more of the soup and bought the tuber used in the soup. And rossi had to buy some more bananas. Think he spent 45rs on bananas.... which when come to think of it is a lot for bananas. But then it was rossi... how else can it be. Then we boarded the bus came to namakkal and took another bus to Salem. We reached Salem at 1712. Rossi decided to take a bus to b'lore so came home from new bus stand transferred the pics back to my laptop... which rossi has christened appy lappi I liked the name so I let it be. Packed up the bags then dropped rossi in the bus stand. Had our appy drinks. Said our byes and off he was to b'lore thinking the journey wud take him bout 3.5 hrs didn’t wanna tell him that he wud have to spend another 2 more hrs on bus.... actual journey time was 5.5 hrs....

Hahaha.... so much fun.... ciao rossi...

Appy as always

Praveen

YEARCAUD

Date : 13/12/2008

Destination : Yercaud

Travelers: Me & Da Souza

Rossi has made it into an art, traveling from Chandapur near Housur to Salem in about seven buses. It still beats me why he is not taking the damn train, which will save him both time and money. Guess its one of those Rossi obsession, no point putting one's brain around it. Any ways he landed up in Salem this time at about 2330, picked him up from the sona college stop and got him home. He met Nathan, they exchanged pleasantries and then after some time both of them were off to sleep. I stayed up late reading the Hobbit, lost in Bilbo's world of Dragons and Trolls. Got up in the morning at around 07:30 and I thought Rossi was done with his crapping process. He didn't. Nathan left for work, and Rossi and Me lazed around for some more time. It was still too early to leave for Yercaud which is only 28 Km from Salem. Finally we left for Yercaud at around 10:00, after Rossi did what he was trying so hard from the morning to do. OK for those who don't know what Yercaud is, well its a hill station like Lonavala near Bombay. This place is normally filled with IT crowd from Bangalore, who think they can find the meaning of life with just two hours of contemplation over a chai and few plates of fries. Oh by the way both the chai and fries suck big time. I liked the Fig that we got at Lady's Seat( yup thats rite thats the name of the place, trust me you can even Google it ). In fact, the names of all the view point are funny. This is how thy go: Gent's Seat, Lady's Seat and the Children's seat. The Lady's Seat is on top Gent's Seat and we didn't know where the heck was Children's Seat, guess it was way too small for us to notice. Of the three Lady's Seat was the biggest and had the best view. What else do you expect when me and Rossi land up there, we hear these names and we were in splits laughing, and Rossi's brain started working and we came up some more names. Like the skype-e point. The view point from where me and Rossi peed. I even have photographic evidence for that...lol! There were a few more points like the pakoda point.. see i told ya. I guess some wanna be dumb-ass went about naming these places, and I am sure the Tamilnadu Government deputed a minister to do this job.

We then visited a couple of gardens, a lake and some thing that looked like a mini zoo. Normally when people visit Yercaud, they end up hiring a rick or a taxi and just go around seeing these places. Rossi and I decided to walk around as much as we can, and once we were tired we would board the bus back to Salem coz both of us were broke. But this turned out to be good. We got to see the place real well and had lotta fun along the way. We even contributed to the pee river. Ya we peed a lot coz it was really cold and we didn't really bother bring a Jacket along. While walking on the Cock Burns Road, OK I am really not making it up, we saw two quads parked on what looked like a dirt track. A quad is like a beach buggy, only that its more powerful. Then next minute we were on the track racing,but Rossi's engine got flooded half way and stalled. I completed my course with a couple of crashes. It was soo much fun, lotta appiness came. Then we went to the resort near by which owned this place to pay for the ride. We also missed a bus while going for this ride. We continued to walk towards the bus stop. The walk back was nice. The road was empty with forests on both side threating to swallow the road any minute. It was a beautiful sight. There were lotta birds and a gentle but cold breeze. For the first time a thought came to my mind what will it be like to live on the mountains. It was like the birds were trying to convince me to do the same.

On the way back a bus crossed us, with all the walking we were a little directionally disoriented. We thought the bus was going to Yercaud. Then we heard some yell that that's the bus to Salem. Rossi and I sprinted and caught the bus and also managed to get a Seat the Men's Seat....lol!

We were on our way to Salem. As usual there was a movie being screened on the bus. But this time there was this unusually irritating movie which throughly pissed me and Rossi. I was thinking to myself Humans and their choice of movies are more dangerous than the slippery mountain slopes and the wild animals put together. So much for civilization. We landed up in Salem and then came home to freshen up ( read Rossi wanted to crap). Then went for a ride on Nathan's 50cc bike. We tried to get lost in Salem town. But we some how managed to figure our way out. Then we went to Coffee World, I had a Belgian coffee and Rossi had a Belgian chocolate. We were wondering what's the name Belgian got to do with a coffee and a chocolate drink. Didn't make sense, the drink was too good to bother about the origin of its name. It was a beautiful day.... :)

KanyaKumari

Date 13/11/2008
Right now when I am writing this I am on a train to Pune beginning yet another journey but I am going to write about one that happened a few days back, the one which I embarked on, to find that joy and peace which comes only when you are alone. This time the journey took me to Nagarkoil and Kanyakumari. There are lotta interesting stories that made me take this trip. I’ll leave that for some other time. On the evening of 7th November I kinda bunked work for half a day wid out informing the GM, I am beginning to make it into an art form. I boarded a train, and guess what it was infested with cockroaches. They were every where, always scurrying about totally ignorant of my kind who were sharing their abode. They had a way to irritate even the laziest human into action and may be even laugh at his/her failure to vanquish the fellow roaches. There was always one to take the place of a dead comrade. They took particular interest in a Girl who I think has a phobia for cockroaches. Every two minutes she would jump and they yell real loud. I made a mistake I helped a damsel in distress and after that I think I became her knight in shining armour but exchange the sword for a can of HIT.
The girls family became really friendly and I figured out they are from Pune. Gave them directions told them they would have a great vacation. They got off at Madurai; my destination was Nagarkoil which I’ll reach at 3.30 am the next morning. Informed my co passengers to wake me up at Nagarkoil station. Went to sleep then I get a call at midnight and it was Roanna, I pick up the call and like wazzzzaaa and she says appy birthday. Only then it struck me that it was 8th November and my b’day it kinda completely slipped off my mind. Then a series of phone calls followed and lotta people wished me. Good all the more reason to celebrate. I was woken up in the morning by a considerate co passenger it was 3:15 in the morning of 8th of November and the train was early. I get off the train and I was greeted by lightning and the entire night sky was lit up. It was like Zeus himself wanted to welcome me and wish me. I walked bout 3.5 Km from station to the bus stand there I waited for the first town bus to Kanya which was at 5 am I had some time at hand so clicked some snaps had my morning chai made small talk with the locals the most striking thing about them was their language, it was Tamil in its purest form with a ring to it. Not that purity of a language makes it any better, but it definitely sounded great. There was something poetic about that language. A bus came in to the bus stand, voila it was the bus I needed to board. Took the bus and realized that the tickets on the town buses were dirty cheap. It cost me 6 bucks to travel the 18 odd kilometers. Half way to Kanyakumari it started drizzling, I realized I might not be able to see the sunrise from the horizon. Never the less I ran to the ocean on reaching Kanyakumari. Not that I was late, it was just that I was too excited to walk... and guess what the beach was packed with people. Man it was just 4.45 in the morning and there are already hundreds of thousands of people thronging on the beach to catch the glimpse of the famous sunrise from the southernmost point on the Indian mainland. But no one was venturing into the ocean. That was funny. I folded my pants up and ran straight into the beach... it’s an experience neither a hundred photos nor a million words can explain. I lost myself to the experience. Clicked a lotta snaps and made a fool of me in front of a lotta people. They must have been wondering wat the heck was I doing there alone on the beach and jumping around like a mad man. So much fun. Then came back to my senses went back ashore started looking for a room to stay. Realized people don’t give room to single men, apparently most of them end up doing stupid things. Like getting themselves killed. Still managed to get myself a room for a few hours, dumped my bag walked straight to the ferry jetty and took a ferry to Vivekananda rock. That place was beautiful, a huge chunk of rock surrounded by the ocean. There I acted like a sane tourist coz there nothing much for me to do there. Took a ferry back to mainland. The round trip on the ferry costs 25 Rs. And another ten to climb up the Rock. The architecture was astounding.
Once in back on mainland I wanted to have a good breakfast after all today is my b’day. Looked for the most expensive place ordered a typical south Indian breakfast with masala chai. While chatting up wid the waiters and the manager they asked me to visit Thiruparappu water fall some 75 Km away. But they were not sure of the amount of water as this was not the peak season. Then they showed me a pic of the water fall. Back to room I packed up a few things that I might need,took a bus to Vadacherri from there took another bus to Thiruparappu. The moment I land at Thiruparappu it started raining, and then starts the thunder and lightening. I was caught in a tropical thunderstorm for which Kerala is famous for. Tried to wait it out but got half drenched in the process. Didn't see a point in waiting then I started walking towards the falls in the pouring rain. All I could see was couple of houses scattered in the dense jungle all along the road. I saw a couple of semi wild elephants along the way to the water falls the mahout accompanying them asked me not to take snaps as the elephants might get wild. Listen to him I did. Reached the water fall and the rain increased its tempo. Ran straight in to the water fall fully clothed didn't even bother to change. The force was mind boggling I went numb for some time. Came out of the falls took some time to get bearings rite.
Explored the place around water fall and realized there has been a flash flood and all the surrounding places are flooded. So I decided to climb on top of the water fall. Man what a sight it is, this beautiful rubber tree forest surrounding the river and a small foot bridge right across the river. Hiked up to the footbridge figured out that there is a boating outfit where I can hire a boat. I hired this small two seater cycling boat (that’s wat I call it) it was for 50 Rs for 30 mins. Here I was in a middle of a forest in a river far from everything and everyone I know. I started to laugh, it’s this high to live life on your terms living and executing choices based on your whims. No one to explain to no one to convince. No questions no answers no plans no advance bookings no chains NOTHING.I for the first time felt completely liberated nothing holding me down. I shouted, did a small jig on the boat, careful enuf not to topple it. I can’t swim that well. Didn’t feel like coming out of that place. Felt at home.
From Thiruparappu took a bus to this place called thakalai and from there took another bus to Kanyakumari. Crashed into my room realized it was pavi’s and praj’s B’day on the 9th. Messaged pavi, tried calling praj knew she will not pick up my call. Tried anyways. With that done I went off to sleep had to get up at 5 am for the sunrise. This time I went to the watch tower to see the sunrise. Climbed on top of it and I realized I was the only one there and it was still very dark. Went bout clicking snaps in night mode. It had rained like mad the whole of last night. The sky as overcast. The sunrise goes for a toss... still i clicked some good snaps. Walked down and went back to my room at about 6.30 am. Then there is a knock on the door, I answer it. It’s the manager and he wants me to take a up a tour organized by his hotel. I realize I cannot take up the full tour offered by him. I opted to travel up till Padmanabapuram. I wanted to see this palace Nathan was talking about. But before that the driver takes us to Suchindaram temple. It was a beautiful place very intricate south Indian architecture. Was there for about 30 mins. Then we proceeded to Padamanabapuram Palace. There I spent the better part of the day lost in the splendor of that palace. I love buildings coz each has a story to tell, so far i have never seen a building like that. It was more than a building it was like a poem carved in wood and sculpted in stone. It was a very deep experience, I was moved from with in, some thing very sad must have happened between those old teak walls. Time seem to have done little to eraze the sadness.

Once out of that place I boarded a bus to Thakkalai then from there a bus to Nagarkoil. Once in Nagarkoil i booked into one of those run down lodges for a few hours. I had a train to catch the night. Caught on my sleep for a few hours and again boarded a bus to Kanyakumari. Didn't carry much with me this time. Went for a long walk on along the sea shore clicked a couple of good snaps. Felt real good, to be alone with ocean all for myself. After sunset i boarded a bus to Nagarkoil went to my room packed up my bags and got to the station just in time to board the train.

DREAM

Waking up from the dream
a dream where gods walked amongst us
the wind was a gentle caress from the lovers lip
a dream where death was but a myth
pain and sorrow seemed far and distant
where every day was like the first day of spring
at first light the sun shining right through us
a single glance can bring a smile on a stranger's face
the world stopped to listen to a single flower blossom
blood was split only to save lives
where people forgot the sound of gunfire
no more bombs ripping through flesh gut and ceiling
where a child's smile gave the world all its meaning
where humanity was one
wakin up from the dream rubbing my eyes
i step out side, the Indian sun beating down
the blue mountain glistening
i wake up to reality
a reality much different from my dream
but just as beautiful with all its imperfections
coz each day we are moving ever closer
closer to the world of my dream
how many ever times we fall
we get up with a hope stronger than before