Nishani Motte trek, Madikeri

Lots of treks I did in 2014, one to remember was Nishani Motte. This trek started late in intense heat, then proceeded to leech territory then in the middle, the sky opened up and it rained cats and dogs.

Believe me, we were drenched, totally drenched, with no where to go in the middle of the forest, that too being an elephant territory, could not open the camera to capture what was happening due to the rain. There was no shelter. But the scenery which we got to see was explicit, no second thoughts on that.

This was a monsoon trek, so leech bites were expected, but so many leech bites, there were way too many of them. It was totally tough. Plucking each one of them from the shoe, was indeed a tiring experience.

All in all nice trek, first day was around 15-16 kilometers, second day was mere 6 kilometers and then it was Bangalore,

Cheers,

Some good news

At the end of the day, there is one such good news, one person whom I really respect, gets to continue with work at our office. This is really like a light at the end of the tunnel.

But good news comes with its own share of things.

Just today itself, I had written our team had reduced from 3 developers to 2 developers. Looks like it will now be reduced to 1 developer. Yes, the other guy who had taken a 3 day vacation, is all ready to beat retreat!

But I am happy because of the first cause!.

Cheers, 

Bad day!

Yesterday was not such a normal day at work place. I boarded the cab just to hear a very sad news. And owing to it, the whole day put me into retrospect, thinking thinking and more thinking.

Our office cab was diverted and we reached office a bit late, throughout the day, we could speak entire office people were down, many of them quietly talking, many of them consoling one another over what had happened.

I could not work the whole day, I was pretty upset at what had happened. But I had no proper sleep too since last two days, sleeping late, waking up early, it had taken a toll on me.

The day was so long, I was wondering if it would ever get over.

I managed to sneak in 40 minutes of sleep in the resting room but it was no good, then there was a hail storm, still it did no good.

The day ended with one more poor news. The entire team of 15 which has been disbanded and told to leave at my friends workplace, retorted to the last dirty trick in the book.

They started speaking ill about their lead and the lead whose a friend of mine, told me how bad he felt after hearing them speak!

Sometimes, if a management takes a decision to end a team, stop the work to India, what can the team lead do? Ranting against the lead for poor updates to the stakeholder will never get them anywhere. Now the lifelong friendship is destroyed.

So I asked him if they still continued talking or totally stopped after this incident, he told me they no longer were on talking terms.

I personally felt very bad, when an experienced person has to deal which shitty people like that team, its nothing one can do.

Cheers,

Lonely!

I happened to be lonely at office for 3 days infact. Not that there were no people at all in office, but I am speaking with people surrounding my place.

We were a 4 member team at office, 3 developers and 1 lead. All of the 3 developers joined in 2013 almost around the same time. Since then we have been going for tea breaks lunch together. I mean 3 people.

One person from this 3 member team of ours resigned a month back and now we are reduced to 2 dev + 1 lead, though a new developer has joined our team, we still cannot manage to fill the void over tea breaks left by that person.

So what happens if the other developer takes a leave of 3 days. I happen to be alone at the office, sitting all alone in my cube. Its not that, I do not talk to my lead or the other developer. But you know, establishing a personal rapport is a one time activitiy, if not done initially, can never be done at all. So its the case with the latter.

I ended up almost 3 days not talking to anyone during office hours, for 3 full days, here and there I spoke to couple of people as I made my way to rest rooms, but all in all, I was lonely!

Cheers,

Mountain stroll - Day 3 and Day 4

The last two days were more of an adventure. Trekking through the deep jungle of Sharavathy valley, getting cuts because of thorns, carrying entire load into the deep forest, was an adventure in itself. We were guided by the GPS and we lost the trail and as a result, ended up not making it to Kodachadri peak.

Camped at an unknown place, followed dried river streams and on Day 4, exited through the Chakra dam after walking through the backwaters of Sharavathy.

Thus the 4 day trek came to an end. While coming back to Shimoga, we checked out, Nagara fort built by Shivappa Nayak.

Cheers,

Beach trek ILvekodi to Bhatkal - Day 2

After we decided to abandon the beach trek at ILvekodi, we took a dip in the water. Then we retreated towards the main road, not before passing through the Sri DurgaParameshwari Temple at ILvekodi. We had told our van pickup to be at the temple entrance itself.

Our van came and we proceeded towards Bhatkal for night's dinner. Veg people chose one restaurant and non veg people chose another. Once done with the lunch, we chose to buy around 18 packets of bread and jam at a Bakery in Bhatkal. This was all opposite to the KSRTC bus depot at Bhatkal.

Finally we made our way back towards Sharavathy valley, not sure which village we chose to sleep at a helipad which was kind a flat land. Laid our tarpaulins and slept for the day. Time was around 10 30 PM

Cheers,

Beach trek Murudeshwara to ILvekodi- Day 2

Beach trek from Murudeshwara resumed at around 2 45PM. The sun was its best, but we too had now got a hang of the beach trek and proceeded quite nicely.

Non stop for around 2 hours and we made it to Ilvekodi. At this place the river meets the sea and we had to cross over using a ferry. Instead we chose to end the beach trek as it was turning dark and we wanted to take a plunge in the water once more.

Hence called off the beach trek at Ilvekodi around 10 kilometers before Bhatkal I guess.But thoroughly enjoyed the beach trek this time. It was fun fun all the way.

Cheers

Beach trek Manki to Murudeshwara - Day 2

Started the second day around 8 AM, We did not have breakfast, infact the entire team of 26 was split into two. Team 2 comprising of 6 guys would bring in breakfast for us. So me in team 1 headed out of Manki village towards Murudeshwara.

Early morning walking along the beach was fantastic. There were fishing boats, fishermen sorting out their catch, lots of colorful scenes plus the waves, it was indeed soothing.

We reached this place, where there rocks and could not continue unless we moved on to the land instead of the beach. Over here we waited for team 2 while we plunged into the water. The waves were good, had loads of fun for around 30  mins. Then the other team arrived with packed food for all of us. Had breakfast and once again took a plunge in the water. Then crossed on to the road and couple of minutes again came back to the beach.

This time we had a clear sight of the big statue of Lord Shiva @ Murudeshwara. Indeed we were nearing Murudeshwara beach. But still it was a long way and the sun was beating very hard.

It was around 12 30 in the noon when we reached Murudeshwara, since being a holiday the crowd was like crazy.

Slowly the entire team gathered in smaller groups. We tried searching a hotel to eat, but all hotels were crowded. We were lost in the crowd. Finally could locate a hotel and eat peacefully, even though it was crowded..

The next leg of the trek started from Murudeshwara at around 2 45 PM. We took plenty of rest infact!

Cheers,

Manki village Day 1 - Beach trek.

Our day 1 place of halt was Manki village. We descended through the road which lead us to the church and then to the village, The christmas celebration was on at the village, we made our way directly to the beach over there.

On the way the villagers were very curious about the new found visitors/strangers to the village. Almost everyone knew each other guy in the village. So now when our new faces entered the village, people started inquiring as to where we had come from what was our intention where we are going to sleep tonight. Most of them readily agreed to help with water and even accommodation.

We were mostly interested to sleep on the beach itself, but the waves were so high, that onlookers warned us not to sleep on the beach. But we sat at the beach for a good 20 minutes watching the wave and talking and relaxing as well.

We did not have sufficient food for all, and as a result, few people chose to move to Bhatkal highway in search of food. Rest of them ate the ready to eat food.

I was one of them and I was part of the second batch of guys who made a move. The first set of guys went and the second set of guys started late and that too in the opposite direction.

We were all lost taking the wrong route. In the end asked a stranger who accompanied us to the main road and then we could find the way to the highway. The road to highway seemed to be long. We walked around 1.5 kilometers extra in search of a hotel.

There seemed to be no hotel in the Manki village or it was shut down. Upon reaching highway found a hotel where I ate Kushka rice and few others ate Chicken Biryani. Only that was available and believe me it tasted not bad at all. All this adventure happening at night 10 30, whilst all shops were shutting down.

Found our way back to the beach and slept around 11 PM in the front yard of a fisherman's home. That  brought to an end, one more awesome day.

Cheers,

Beach trek Honnavara to Manki via Apsara Konda - Day 1

We started late on the previous day and reached Honnavara at around 11 AM. But before that, we checked out Jog falls and the descend via Ghat was way too slow than anticipation.

Made it to the Kasarkod beach on Honnavara where we had to start our trek

It was 11 30 AM when we started our trek towards ApsaraKonda beach. The sun was intense, the humidity could not have gotten more. We were in walking in peak sunshine. The camera settings was difficult to control. All the pictures now had high brightness. The only soothing effect was I was walking on the beach bare foot, with every now and then the waves washing up my feet! Amazing experience I must say, Pleased to do it second time in two years!

Managed to reach Apsarakonda beach where we took a break, had a dip in water and sat out for lunch. The lunch was Khakra and some other snack. We then took time to explore Apsara Konda fresh water fall. The place was like a tourist place with lots of visitors including school children.

After the fresh water fall, we did move on to the cliff since we could not continue on the beach trail, there were rocks. Hence moved on to the land. It was quickly turning dark and we landed on a private beach. There were few people building huts kind of thing for foreign visitors. We were not supposed to stay over there. Instead chose to move to Manki village which was our stop for day 1.

We were welcomed by a programme at Manki village, it was Christmas day and people at Manki were celebrating.

We chose to halt for the day in the front yard of the home of a person whom we be friended!

Cheers,

PS  - Will post about the Manki village experience in another post.

Beach trek December 25-29, 2014, Honnavara to Bhatkal

One of the best things to happen on an year end is a long hike.
That too spread across 4 days was way too much than I anticipated.

Recently I was rejected for a beach trek and I was waiting to do a beach trek during 2014. Opportunity came calling when there was a call for a 4 day trek 2 days beach trek and 2 days into Kodachadri. I took it with both hands and believe me, I came out totally a better person and spent loads of quality time as well.

Some pictures from the beach trek

Beach trek posts shall follow shortly!

Def Leppard

One more Def Leppard song, and yes from the same 2013 concert.

Here it goes..

Somehow these days I am in no mood to follow any latest bands or music. Still sticking on to 70's/80's/90's. Undoubtedly they made quality music then!

Cheers,

Yet another crazy day,

Started the day at 7 15 AM. I generally wake up early, but today was an exception. I had a long day waiting ahead for me, it turned out to be extra long.

I had to reach HDFC bank, Electronic city branch @ Konappana Agrahara, to get a sign and seal on an official document, then had to hand over the document to someone in Kormangala, Jakksandra, then from there to office @ Cessna Kadubeesanahalli.

Its the first time since I opened the account @ HDFC bank (2006), I have physically approached this branch.

Left home at around 8 40 AM and could manage all these tasks and reached office at around 12 noon, only 30 minutes late by cab standards.

Today there was a pizza party at office, hence everyone were indulging in the medium size veg pizzas and kinda lame cornetto replica (lazza) icecream.

I opted otherwise, chose not to eat pizza, instead chose to eat Kerala boiled rice meal @ Kidilam/Fidelis.

Evening had one more long exercise. Our office cab which is a Toyota Innova had a new problem today. Last time it was failed brakes, this time, the head light refused to turn off!

Apparently some connector switch had failed badly in fact burnt itself out. Neighboring company driver offered a spare, but due to the complications involved, our driver could not replace it himself. Instead he chose to break the circuit and as a result we were without headlights on ORR.

We tried to locate a shop near to Cessna business park, but the time being 9PM all shops were shut. Instead one of my cab mate managed to buy 5 Samosas and 200 gms of Pakoda @ Hari OM Samosa corner! I did not eat either of it.

It was kind of very tough driving without headlight, since oncoming traffic was directly headed to us in the absence of headlight.

Took a detour at HSR Layout towards Kudlu gate and luckily we could find a garage who identified the problem. He had a replacement spare connector switch too. But setting up the entire circuit was so so complicated for the mechanic itself that, he had to read the instructions on the panel 2-3 times after a failed attempt.

Imagine all this happening at 9 30 PM. All was well by 10 20 PM and we were ready to move on. No sooner we crossed Jayadeva Hospital it started to rain. Rain, rain and more rain all the way till Uttarahalli.

I got dropped the time was 11 30 PM after dropping each one at doorstep due to the rain.

What an adventurous day today. By the way I had to pay Rs 400 out of my own pocket for the Innova repair, since the driver had no money :)-

Cheers,

PS - I told about this incident to my parents and my mother was quick to mock me, since I myself am in the lookout for a used Toyota Innova!

PPS - Need to write about the other instance where I had paid Rs 500 for our cab fuel and to my surprise the driver absconded the very next day!

Def Leppard

Def Leppard has been one of my favorite bands. Right through college, I listened to them. After I started working, I ended up listening to pretty much everything nothing in particular.

Now after checking out Live performances of many artists, I tried out a song by Def Leppard, and believe me, they are simply the God's of Rock. (They are British too!)

I am not able to get over the fact that, they sound so so good while performing live. While others look crap while performing, some people just make me take a bow. Here is one such band and below is the live performance! (in HD too!).

Here is how old bands rock!

PS - Kind of coming out of my semi-retirement stage. I mean I kinda stopped writing, so its semi-retirement stage!

Its high time, I kept a tab just for writing about music videos,

Also revealed my blog address to about 6-8 people. This is the max # of people to whom I have told my blog url in the last 8 years, else its hardly 2-3 people who know, what I write!

cheers,

Posts to write

I am not updating my blog these days, as I happened to lose interest in writing, plus occupied with loads of other stuffs. Though I am very much interested in keeping this blog updated, I am unable to do so.

Never mind, Loads of topics to write.

1. Trek/trips this year.
2. Beach trek of last year.
3. My Goechala trek of 2014.


Cheers,