9980527616....ramachandra speaking

This incident happened few months ago...

99980527616…..This is my no. or should I say othla’s no.

It was early july, everything was usual for me except this call.

I had called airtel customer care to reactivate my number which I surrendered before leaving for japan.

When the CC executive said “hello” I said “ramachandra here” and told about my request.

Then he asked for my(othla’s) home address…ooops…I knew only few details of that…..to which I confidently replied “ vinayaka layout, kempapura, hebbal”

“Sir can u plz tell me ur cross no, house no. etc” he asked politely…

Suddently a neuron in my brain fired, I had one of othla’s docs lying with me…i then ran to my desk dig my inbox for that mail, and gave him the complete address.

Zaaaappppp, came the second question..sir can u plz tell me ur date of birth”

"that is sometime in august”, i said.

He said “date plz”

I said “it is on 13^th aug 1981”…….”the month and year is correct but date is wrong” he said quietly.

Thanks to the reminder set for othla’s bday in my mobile, i said it is on 18^th of aug…

It was very hard not to laugh while all this was going on..

Iste….

Kilakila

I am back...

oops...its been really long since my last post here.
Finally thot will right something..something about me...few words abt how things are.
Lots of things have changed for good and thank god somethings are the way they were(like i am still good at cricket, at cracking jokes and i still love to go out for long drives n on treks with friends)

Over the past one year few more people from SRG have moved to US with various aspirations.
Along with Reddy and Naga, Othla, Kaddi and Late are part of the SRGInternational now.

Glad that i could attend few functions and catch up with friends before coming here.

I am japan for a short visit and here I am writing this post sitting alone in the Chinki land.
Expecting few colleagues to join over the next few weeks.
Had a long weekend here...with no one around it did seem really like a loooooooooooooong weekend.
Dividing my time between books, office work, occasional cooking and lots of sleep.
I am surrounded by lots of quietness, sometimes i seem to enoy it and at times it is difficult to digest.

I was clever enuf to carry some books with me...they really are a good companion and suddenly i m believing in the old saying that "A book is a man's best friend".

ok..now something about my future...in the immediate future i can see only marriage..kind of excited at the thot of having a life partner ;)
The suspense of arranged marriage makes it a little more exciting..:))
waiting for someone who has good sense of humor, likes travelling, who is intelligent and humble...lol. I dont think i am asking for too much, these are few of the qualities which I am made up of.


Will sign off now..
PK

Basic Mountaineering Course - Part 2

On tenth we trekked to Solang Nala via Manu temple and neighboring villages and apple fields.
Even with a 20 kg rucksack it was fun walking on the snake like path. The view was getting better and better as we moved closer to Solang.
On reaching there we were allotted dorms, which were good except for the dust.
Evening we were taken for acclimatization walk. On our return it was already dark. Only few guys had torch. I was finding it hard to walk without falling J.
Next day morning we started for PatalSupi, whose summit is at 14000 ft. We had to turn back after reaching the height of around 13000 ft because of bad weather and also because we had started late in the morning.
On 12th we moved to Bhakkartach which is at about 10000 ft.
The 12km long trek was very exhausting for me. Along with my rucksack I was carrying my teammate’s(who was suffering from a leg injury) stuff as well.
Initial few kilometers were on the tar road(till we reached outskirts of Dundi), but after that, my god, every step felt like that would be my last.

Acclimatization walk to Beas kund, Snow craft and ice craft was what we did for the next 8-9 days. Got to experience the first snow fall of my life.
Felt like some one was blowing cold flour on us. The view was AWESOME!!!!Occasionally we used to have white outs(occurs when the light reflected off the snow equals the light coming through the clouds) and you can not see anything which is hardly few meters away.
On some evenings when the weather was fine we had outdoor lectures on glaciers, ice boots, crampons etc in the chilling cold.

On one fine day we were taken for Height gain. We got up at 2 in the morning and started for KshitiDhar base camp(15500 ft), which was the qualifying height for BMC.
Some even made it to the summit(17200 ft).
The view from the camp was superb!! We could only see ice covered peaks in every direction our eyes could stretch.
The following day we had Snow/ice craft test. Felt very much relived after that.
In the evening we were told to pack our stuff in 20 mins and fall-in, instructors told we were leaving for Solang, but we knew something else was waiting for us !

After the Bush craft, we were given some Halwa and were informed that it was our survival night, in other words we had to spend the whole night under natural shelters without any cooked food(but we were allowed to eat dry fruits).
Me and Mahesh found a nice shelter. Avinash, Juley, Circuit and Raj had gathered sufficient wood to keep the whole night alive.
Next day we started our trek back to Solang. We were singing all the way.
I could feel the taste of spicy Omlet served at the dhaba at Solang!! Hmmm Yummy!!!
Washing hands with hot water, taking bath all seemed like a luxury after the horrendous climate we were in.
Called home after a long gap of 10 days.
We were told how to make stretchers using Jackets, rope, bamboo etc in the afternoon.
It was Rock craft test the following day. I did well considering the wounded finger.
Mean while Othla told me that I was one of the contenders for the “Best cadet” honor!!!
Thank you, Thank you!!!
Trekked to Manali the next day!!
Reached Insti around lunch time. Were told about the Written test we had the next day!
Written test was ok kind….Since in HP they were celebrating Dasara(which is their famous festival) the thinking hats of the insti decided to finish our course one day in advance.
We had the closing ceremony in the afternoon.
Felt great when we were awarded the badbges by army personnel.
I didn’t get the “Best cadet” award…but that’s Okay!!
I had a wonderful month which was packed with so many victories and wonderful moments that I would cherish forever!!

-PKK

Basic Mountaineering Course - Part 1

I thought I should share my(our) experiences of BMC with friends.
But u know it is quite a difficult task to write a month packed with fun, pain, excitement and expectation in few sentences.
Ok, let me give a shot at it.
The idea of doing BMC was in our(SRG) mind from a long time.
We decided to do it in October finally. Kaddi and Late dropped out due to personal reasons.
I and Othla were the one in the field.
Sometime during mid August we started with our preparation, jogging, exercise, reading blogs etc etc.
Ate Anand’s head a couple of times, even my friend Pravin wasn’t spared.
Anand was very encouraging; I should say he was the one who encouraged us the most.

We left for Delhi on 29th of Sept. The journey started in style. Our Spicejet flight was cancelled in the last moment. I troubled Othla who was in
the middle of his TOEFL test by calling him a couple of times. It was already 10 am then. We decided to go by 12:30 spicejet plane.
The way me and Othla reached airport, I think we would never forget that.(Thanks Late for dropping me in-time.)
We hadn’t booked our tickets from Delhi to Manali in advance, so went to ISBT, got a seat in 7:30 bus to Manali.
It was an ordinary, dagda Himachal transport bus. We could hardly sleep during the whole journey. Our butt, back and neck were crying for some good sleep.
Finally reached Manali at 11 in the morning, the next day.
We had to share the Dorm with 7 others.
It was a good mix of guys, from KA, HP, MH, Ladakh, GJ.
Some people came b’cos mountaineering is their passion, some because it is their bread and butter and some because they were sent by NCC.

Had our first fall-in at 8:30pm. Jagadev sir briefed us about the discipline we had to adhere to. We were also warned not to waggle our tails seeing the beautiful girls who had come for a trek.

First day: got up at 5:30, had PT at 6. Warmup exercise, which was enuf to leave us panting for breath. They took us for a run in the adjacent jungle. I enjoyed the run. After breakfast finished some official formalities; had a visit to museum.

Second day: During fall-in it was raining heavily, but instructors did not show any mercy. The run increased to 5km.
It was our first day of rock craft. The field area is very nice. Good mix of boulders, rocks in here.

For the first few days we had jogging in the morning followed by exercises and then Rock craft.
Evening it used to be “Obstacles”
If u have ever done NCC you would know what it means!!We would celebrate if on some days the Obstacles were cancelled.

We were taken to Hadimba and Sharavari temples to prepare us both mentally and physically for the treks with heavy loads.
We were given a day off to shop gloves, dry fruits etc etc required for high altitude camping.
We went to Vasistha on that day and relaxed there lying in the hot water springs.
The place is very calm and spiritual, there are Sadhus in the temple premises who can give u instant Moksha if u wish to.

(contd...)

Little joys make big difference

Just returned from a visit to my Sister’s place.
It is a quiet place close to Kundapur, called Koteshwar.
Was there for mouth watering 3 days. It was totally refreshing, ate lots of food(which included both Sea food delicacies and veg treats) prepared by mom.
I reached there on 16th morning after about 10 hrs of journey from blore, after the wise last minute decision.
It was drizzling, clock was ticking 7:30, when I reached Koteshwar in the morning.

I was welcomed by my niece, who was very excited about my arrival.
The day was spent eating delicious dosas, mouth watering lunch and dinner and also playing with my niece.

On 17th I went to Aanegudde Ganesh temple with mom and Pinku. Darshan of the Lord Ganesh left me spiritually lifted.
It was getting dark due to the black hovering clouds.
Soon it started drizzling and then a very heavy shower.
We were drenched in rain from head to toe by the time we were home.

It feels great to watch the Dakshin Kannad rain pour from within the comfort of a cozy home.

On the final day we had been to Shani temple which is very close to my sis’s home followed by a visit to the sea shore, got to see the agitated sea.
It was full of waves till the point our eyes could stretch, a view I will hold for long in my memory.
I was trying my best to answer questions my niece was shooting about the disappearance of sun behind the clouds and then in water, in words she could understand.

My bus was at 8:30pm, it was pouring in buckets when I was leaving home.
Yeah, the rain didn’t want me to leave you know!

Turhalli-A tale of pinch and jug holds and lots of skids

Adventure time again.
Bouldering (is a type of climbing undertaken without a rope and is normally limited in respect to the height the climber ascends the route so that any fall will not risk significant injury.) is what we decided to do this time.

Turhalli, a place about 6 kms from Banshankari bus stand, on the way to Kanakapura is a great place where you can test your bouldering skills. And we did just that. It was on our minds from the time we had our first taste of Rock climging at Ramanagar, under the able guidance of Srikanth and Anand(KMA member).

I was very happy when Anand told me that he and Srikanth were going to Turalli on 3rd of Sept.
Othla, kaddi and late geared up for the event on hearing the news. On Saturday we came to know that Anand won’t be joining us because of his other commitments.
On reaching Turhalli on 3rd morning around 9 o’ clock we found that even Srikanth wasn’t there, we thought our hunger for something exciting would go unserved.

We then decided to do it on our own. Rock climbing basics learnt during our first date with rock climbing in Ramanagar came to our rescue.
The first rock was bit difficult, because:
a. Our canvas shoes were slipping a lot.
b. I was not mentally ready
c. And because it was really difficult

After that most of us were able to climb all the rocks. Well done guys!!!!!
Thrill of conquering every rock was amazing and was different for every rock, don’t know why.
Except the first one I was able to get on top of other 6. Last climb of the day was very satisfactory, it was tall and we did it without any safety gear.
Rock climbing is not about physical strength alone but to a great extent about the genius within as well.

Couple of Bruises, finger pain and a memory of a great day was what left behind.
We have decided to go there as often as we can to improve our bouldering skills and try different routes on the same rocks.


Turhalli return,

Pakya

Life "Rocks"!!!!

Savandurga!!!
We decied on Friday to go to Savandurga on Sunday the 2nd of July.
Let me give u a brief info abt this place
Savandurga is 60kms from Bangalore and is very near to the historic town of Magadi.

After watching the disappointing clash between Brazil and France I slept around 2:30am to getup at 7:30 in the morning.
According to our plan we were required to assemble at 8:30 at Jalhalli cross, but later v found that that is actually very far, so we decided to assemble at KHB colony bus stand.
It was around 9 o’ clock when all the HCTs(Hard core trekkers) arrived.
After some chit chat v decided to quench our hunger en route.
The road to Magadi in parts was not in proper condition, but we didn’t expect much either. The ride on the bike in the strong winds was very pleasing.


It was around 11:30am by the time we reached Savanadurga after some pit stops on the way.

The rock was this biiiigggg Monolith.
There were a couple of routes leading to the top ranging from medium to very tough difficulty levels.
Most of the ppl were going through the common route, But we decided to go by the tough one.

The climb was awesome. There were some spots on the rocks which gave us a good seat whenever we were tired.
The view from those points were superb, we could see the black sloppy rock stretching beneath us.
We had covered almost 60% of the rock and noticed the other group coming down. They told the wind was blowing fast at the top and it was difficult to climb further. We decided to climb down against our desire of conquering the rock. L
Climbing(sliding) down was fun as well until the incident that took out breaths away.
We had almost gotten down, as usual Mr. Late(Harsha) was leading us and he was in full enthu(as usual)
Don’t know what struck his mind suddenly he started running towards us. To our shock the sony Cam popped out of its bag(may be in excitement to see why Late was running) and bang on the rock it fell and started rolling towards the base.
All of us were sitting hoping that it would stop but it didn’t.

When Harsha got it back and signaled that it was functioning normally we were relieved.

Once v got down we had some bananas and started moving towards the top by the other route.
There was some flaw in our planning, we had decided to have food after finishing the trek. It didn’t take us much time to realize our fault. Ours tummy was crying out loudly.
We finally made it to the top. The scene on the top was completely different. The strong wind was making us believe that even we could fly..
The sound of the wind was as if it was the mixture of thousands of voices ….but still smooth.

After spending some good amount of time we finally decided to descend. It was around 4:30 when v got down. We ate some stuff and then got on the back of bikes. The weather was such a relief, it was slightly drizzling, cool air and a calm surrounding.
We decided to visit “Venkataramana” temple on the outskirts of Magadi.
We realiased that the temple has some historic value as well. The temple was renovated by “Chelas” 1000 years ago.
It was around 7:30 pm when we came to KHB colony.
DJ had a flat tyre(thankfully we were in city limits then), after some search we got the patch done.
We had a fantastic dinner and a good chit chat in Parkview in Vijaynagar…..Great end to an equally great day!!!

Dream and Reality

"Dream and Reality are strangers to each other, until u make them meet"