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Saturday, November 29, 2008

A trip down the memory lane - Trek to Tadeyendamol

found this travellogue from my old collection... thot of putting it here... i went to this trek in 2nd week of Feb in 2005...

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I never thought that I will go for another trek so soon. But when I received the mail from 'Adventura' for a trek to Tadeyendamol, dont know what prompted me but I instaneously send my nomination. The Tadeyendamol peak, at the height of 1745m above the sea level, is the highest peak in the beautiful Coorg region and also the fourth highest peak in Western Ghats. Unlike last time I knew quite a few people & so the trek was fun right from the word go.

So on the night of 11th of February we 11 people left for the trek. We got the bus to Virajpet from Majestic(Bangalore). Early morning we reached Virajpet. There Prasanth joined us who came from Mysore. Then we had to catch a local bus to Armanev which was around 1 hour journey from there. So finally we reached Armanev at around 8 am. From this place we had to start trekking.

After having breakfast we started. But before that due to the courteous behavior of our infosions' girls, Arun had to miss papaya. Now we havn't moved a kilometre we lost Saumya. But thanks to the 'whereever you are' campaign by airtel & good cooperation by BSNL, we managed to find her. Then we moved on towards Nalakaad Palace. When we reached the PALACE, we got to know that it was moved to some other place few days ago ;-). It didnt looked like palace, what can I do. So we moved ahead disappointed.

After trekking for around 3 hours we came near the Boulders from where we had to choose one way. As it happens, we choose the wrong one which might have taken us to Kerala. But then thanks to the efforts of Arun, Prasanth & Dams we were able to get on path, not before spending more than an hour in this exercise. There was an interesting race going on between Dams, Anjali & Saumya. Everyone was striving to be the last to reach the top but in the end it was Dams who won :-). On our way up, Saumya didn't missed anything which was worth shooting, superb photographs. We reached to the top at around 3:30 pm. The view from the hill top was simply amazing. Cant be described in words, just go through the pics, please. After spending around an hour there, we started climbing down towards the place we had to put our tents for night.

Thanks to the efforts put in by KP & Vishal we were able to lit up sort of campfire this time. Had Neha not brought the kadai with her, we might have had to eat cold 'bisibelle bath' (brought by Akshata). Neha has also brought lots of snacks which we munched during whole of the trek. For this we all are highly obliged. We also had the all time trek favourite THEPLAS - Gujrati Roti. In between myself & Saumya were made outcaste by our vibrant leader Neha. Guys whatever we all say, these things are still prevalent, even amongst highly qualified so-called software techies ;-). Then we had antakshari in the night which my team lost (thanks to some highly advanced tactics employed by other team, especially Neha). Even Dinni wasnt able to anythi mng.

Next morning we started to climb down. On way back, Arun picked the gems which he has kept at a safe place while going up. Though it was not raining but still he picked that up. Anjali had stolen some coffee beans from a retired Captain's farmhouse, it was her goodluck that saved her as Captain didn't had his gun that time. She still owe us a treat at Coffee Day for this ;-). Arun made sure that he had papaya at Armanev. But for this the girl party had to miss the home made lunch. Anywayz we got the bus back to Virajpet. I still fell sorry for the guy from US whom we met in the bus. As Prasanth, Dams & Raju were sick of theplas , we had our lunch at Virajpet. They had stomach full of 'mallu' food. Even today Raju gets nightmares, his roomies are wondering who is this 'THEPLA'. Then from Virajpet we came to Mysore & then back to Bangalore.

Friday, November 21, 2008

Year that was...

Long time no see... yeah i know, i have been missing from action for quite a time... and now i know how tough it is to start again once you disappear from stage... anyways, lets hope i will continue even after... looking back, its been a little more than a year when i left infosys... decision to quit infy was little tough though some excitement was for the reason that I was moving to Delhi... Shifting base back to where i belong... what else can I ask for...

So there I joined Sapient in Gurgaon... a new day and a new world... in some ways, it was like infy, but there was difference... Was liking there, though travelling to office was tedious as I had to wake up at 6 in morning, especially with winters setting in... seriosuly, it's a challenge to adjust to new life... all my weekend parties, night-outs, friday nights were curbed... at first, used to feel suffocated when I could not go out on friday night... it was more coz i did not knew anyone in Delhi who was having similar interests... slowly got hang of life here and adjusted to the way of life.... Then I bought a new car... mean machine, SX4... Boy, i luv to drive this around... it zips ahead of everything... The first scratch on it still hurts :(...

Midway I found a match for myself... and in a flash, i was married. chat mangni patt byah... no courtship period as there was no auspicious day later and blah blah... a new chapter in my story... a new partner to go around... a new beginning and end of my precious bachelorhood... though i was enjoiying every bit of it... then dinners at near and dear ones followed... and slowly my pot-belly started to grow in size.. it started to assume alarming proportions... Though the bad news was that the scarcity of project at Sapient started to hurt... no work... then gave a thought to try my hand at someother place... the job marked was showing signs of slowing down... anyways, after few interviews, got some offers and finally i joined Amdocs (again at gurgaon)...

Somehow at Amdocs, i am feeling more at home... there is a feeling that i will be having more challenges and better work environment than it was at Sapient... Anyways, its just a new beginning here and atleast I have not seen the future... I am sitting here as well without much work.. Sometimes i wonder if everywhere its like this or what... Who care!!! I am enjoying my free time playing TT, pool, chatting and now this blog... Hopefully here i will be having time to stay in touch... Till then, adios from me...