Kemmannugundi Trip - With P2P Team

It was around mid March: I knew that I would be leaving IBM and also Venkatesh had solid plans for leaving to the US on his H1. Before we all go scattered I wanted to have an unforgettable trip and thats when I proposed for a trip during our lunch time. The response was amazing, everyone supported the idea and we all started planning for the place to go. As most of P2P members had not seen Kemmannu Gundi, we all decided to go there. Mine was 3rd trip to Kemmannu Gundi, but still I wanted to visit again, such a nice place it is. Phanisayee being most experienced in our team suggested that we can also visit Belur and Halebid on the way back Bangalore. That was again an excellent idea.

So we conducted a Wednesday meeting in which every one was given a responsibility. Bharani as usual took finance and started collecting Rs. 1000 from each. I took the responsibility of arranging a vehicle. We proffered Tempo Traveller as our strength was around 10. Phanisayee took responsibility of getting Water cans, Medicines etc, Bharani took initiative to book cottages in Kemmannu Gundi, which can be done in Lalbagh. Those cottages are manages by Horticulture Dept of Karnakata. Likewise it was team effort for preparation. We brought another friend, Sharma who was also an IBMer. So we made a team.

We all started on 27th of April, 2007 Friday night to Kemmannu Gundi, which is around 300 KM from Bangalore in Chikmagalur district. We reached there at around 6 AM in the morning, got the rooms and lied down for few hours. When we got up it was around 7:30 AM.

Had dosa as breakfast and started trekking towards Hebbe falls which is around 12 KM from Cottages. Vehicle can go for 5-6 KM and rest we need to walk. We got a guide, and followed him towards Big Hebbe. Hebbe falls has 2 legs.

The trek toute was quite interesting. I had trkked in the same route for two times, but never had seen the top of leg of the falls. This guide started in a different route. He initially took vehicle for some distance and from there we actually started to trek. Wah! Awesome experience








Ups and Down.. Superb route of Kemmannugundi
















Dila Chata Hai ??


























Mid route. Wanted to shot a group photo. Do you see our Route Guide too ?
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Our guide took us initially to the top leg, where we enjoyed a lot. This place is quite un-touched. Many people don't know this place and don't try to reach also. It was little challenging for us to reach there. Even I had not seen that place in my previous visits.







Beside you can see the top leg of falls as seen during the trek route.




















The top leg of the falls is not very popular as one can not easily reach the water. You need to climb up som of the tough rocks to reach it. Oh my God! its such an awesome place to reach the water and sit under the water which is falling from around 120 ft heigh without abstruction
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After enjoying there, we started towards bottom leg of the falls. Our real trekking started when our guide lost the route. It was on of the life threatening treks that I have gone through. We could hear the noise of the falls but could not really reach there. We had hopelessly lost the route in the dense jungle. Thank God there was not much animals there. At one place we had gone down the hill, and our guide wanted all of us to climb the whole up-hill almost vertically. That was when we all started to curse him like anything. All energy within us had drained out. We all sat at the top hill and rested for some time. But mother nature was not angry on us, there was no rains. If there was any small sprinkle also, we could have got injured like worst. It was very slippery. Both the mud and the dry leaves.




Naveen and myself during second leg trek..





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At last we reached bottom leg of Hebbe falls. It was already 12 noon by that time. With the remaining energy we all played in falls; stayed there for couple of hours and started back to the vehicle. We all were so tired, that we did not want to have any more trekking and we took 2 jeeps to reach the vehicle.









































Topless Group Photo
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Our guide had asked vehicle driver go to a place where we would come from bottom leg. As our route was different while coming back. Our driver was little worried as we were very late to what was planned for. That evening we did not have anything to do other than sleeping. :-)


On the way back towards our vehicle.. We were all exhausted..
















Next day (Sunday) morning, we started to 'Z' point but on the way people decided to have no more trekking and hence we turned our vehicle to another view point called Rajbhavan. We had a nice view from there, took some snaps and started to the room.








By 10:30 we checked out the rooms and started down the hill to Kalhatgiri which is again a falls, but not as big as Hebbe. It was very crowded and also place was not so good, so we decided to head back. From there we headed towards Hasan route to reach Belur.

On the way Belur, we found an Alemane, the place where jaggery is made from sugarcane. It was a wonderful experience to see how it is made. We got some fresh jaggery to eat as well. From there we started towards Belur.

Belur and Halebid are the most amazing places we enjoyed. We took guide at all the places. It started raining in Belur initially, but then it stopped until we finished seeying everything. Then again it started raining heavily. By around 5PM we started towards Bangalore and reached home by around 11 PM. I will upload the pictures of Belur and Halebid in a separate post..

ಹಬ್ಬಗಳ ಸಾಲು - ಶ್ರಾವಣ

ನಮ್ಮ ದೇಶದ ಸಂಸ್ಕೃತಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ಹಬ್ಬಗಳ ವಿಶೇಷತೆ ಬಹಳ ಇದೆ. ನಮ್ಮ ಪೂರ್ವಜರು ಮಾಡಿರುವ ಪರಂಪರೆಗಳು ಹಬ್ಬಗಳ ಆಚರಣೆಗಳು ಬಹಳ ಸೂಕ್ತವಾಗಿವೆ. ನಮ್ಮಲ್ಲಿ ಪ್ರತಿದಿನವೂ ಹಬ್ಬದಂತೆ, ಅದರಲ್ಲೂ ಶ್ರಾವಣ ಮಾಸ ಬಂತೆಂದರೆ ಸಾಕು, ಹಬ್ಬಗಳೋ ಹಬ್ಬಗಳು. ಹಾಗೆ ನೋಡಿದರೆ ಶ್ರಾವಣದ ಪ್ರತಿದಿನವೂ ಹಬ್ಬಗಳೇ..

ಶ್ರಾವಣ ಮಾಸದ ಹಬ್ಬಗಳ ಪರಿಚಯ ಹಾಗು ವಿವರಣೆ ಈ post ನ ಉದ್ದೇಶ.

ಹಬ್ಬಗಳ ಸಾಲು:

1. ಭೀಮನ ಅಮಾವಾಸ್ಯೆ - ಆಶಾಢ ಅಮಾವಾಸ್ಯೆ
   ಈ ಹಬ್ಬವನ್ನು ಮದುವೆಯಾಗದ ಹೆಣ್ಣುಮಕ್ಕಳು ಒಳ್ಳೆ ಗಂಡ ಸಿಗಲಿ ಎನ್ನುವ ಉದ್ದೇಶದಿಂದ ಆಚರಿಸುತ್ತಾರೆ. ಜ್ಯೋತಿರ್ಭೀಮೇಶ್ವರ ಈ ದಿನದ ಆರಾಧ್ಯ ದೈವ. ಭೀಮನ ಹಾಗಿರಲಿ ತನ್ನ ಗಂಡ ಅನ್ನೋ ಉದ್ದೇಶವಿರಬೇಕು. ಮದುವೆಯಾದ ಹೆಂಗಸರೂ ಕೂಡ ತನ್ನ ಗಂಡನ ಆಯುಷ್ಯ ಹೆಚ್ಚಲಿ ಎಂದು ಈ ಪೂಜೆ ಮಾಡುತ್ತಾರೆ. ಅಷ್ಟಕ್ಕೇ ಸೀಮಿತವಲ್ಲದ ಈ ಹಬ್ಬದಲ್ಲಿ ಸೋದರಿಯರು ಸೋದರರ ಕೈಯಿಂದ ಭಂಡಾರ ಒಡೆಸುತ್ತಾರೆ. ಭಂಡಾರ ಅಂದರೆ, ಕರಿದ ಕಡುಬು, ಆದರೆ ಅದರೊಳಗೆ ಲಕ್ಷ್ಮೀ ಸ್ವರೂಪಿ ನಾಣ್ಯವನ್ನು ಇಟ್ಟು ಕರೆದಿರುತ್ತಾರೆ. ಅಂತಹ ಕಡುಬನ್ನು ಮುಂಬಾಗಿಲ ಹೊಸಿಲಲ್ಲಿಟ್ಟು ಸೋದರ ಹೊಸಿಲ ಮೇಲೆ ಕೂತು ತನ್ನ ಮೊಣಕೈಯಿಂದ ಅದನ್ನು ತುಂಡರಿಸುತ್ತಾನೆ. ತನ್ನ ಸೋದರಿಯನ್ನು ರಕ್ಷಣೆ ಮಾಡುತ್ತೇನೆಂಬ ಸಂಕೇತ
   
2. ಮಂಗಳ ಗೌರಿ - ಶ್ರಾವಣ ಐದು ಮಂಗಳವಾರಗಳು
   ಮದುವೆಯಾದ ಹೆಂಗಸರು ಮದುವೆಯಾದಾಗಿಂದ ಐದು ವರ್ಷಗಳು ಈ ವ್ರತವನ್ನು ಆಚರಿಸುತ್ತಾರೆ. ಬೆಳಗ್ಗೆ ಎದ್ದು ಶುಭ್ರರಾಗಿ ಗೌರಿ ದೇವತೆಯನ್ನು ಪ್ರತಿಷ್ಠಾಪಿಸಿತ್ತಾರೆ. ಐದು ಅರಿಶಿಣದ ಗೌರಿಯನ್ನು ಮಾಡಿ ಅದಕ್ಕೆ ಪೂಜೆ ಮಾಡುತ್ತಾರೆ. ಎರಡು ಕಡೆ ಹದಿನಾರು ವೀಳ್ಯದೆಲೆಯ ಮೇಲೆ ಕೊಬ್ಬರಿ ಇಟ್ಟು ಅದರೊಳಗೆ ಹದಿನಾರು ಬಟ್ಟಲಡಕೆ ಇಡುತ್ತಾರೆ. ಅದರ ಮೇಲೆ ಒಂದೊಂದು ಅಚ್ಚು ಬೆಲ್ಲ ಇಡುತ್ತಾರೆ. ಹದಿನಾರು ತಂಬಿಟ್ಟಿನ (ಗೋಧಿಯಿಂದ ಮಾಡಿದ ವಿಶೇಷ ತಿನಿಸು) ದೀಪವನ್ನು ಮಾಡಿ, ತುಪ್ಪದ ಬತ್ತಿ ನೆನೆಸಿ ಹಚ್ಚುತ್ತಾರೆ. ಮಂಗಳ ಗೌರಿ ಕಥೆಯನ್ನು ಓದುವಾಗ ಒಂದು ಮೊಗೊಚೋ ಕೈಯ್ಯನ್ನು ಆ ಉರಿಯುವ ದೀಪದ ಮೇಲಿರಿಸಿ ಕಪ್ಪಾಗಿಸುತ್ತಾರೆ. ಈಸಮಯದಲ್ಲಿ ಇತರ ಯಾರಾದರೂ ಹೆಂಗಸರು ಈಕೆಯ ಜಡೆ ಹೆಣೆಯುತ್ತಾರೆ. ಕಪ್ಪನ್ನು ದೇವಿಗೆ ಕಣ್ಣು ಕಪ್ಪಿನಂತೆ ಅಲಂಕರಿಸುತ್ತಾರೆ. ಕಡೆಗೆ ತಾವೂ ಅದರಿಂದ ಅಲಂಕಾರ ಮಾಡಿಕೊಳ್ಳುತ್ತಾರೆ. ಐದು ಜನ ಮುತ್ತೈದೆಯರಿಗೆ ತಾಂಬೂಲ ಕೊಡುತ್ತಾರೆ. ಈ ಸಂಬಂಧ ಕೆಲವು photoಗಳು
   


3. ನಾಗರ ಪಂಚಮಿ - ಶ್ರಾವಣ ಶುಕ್ಲ ಪಂಚಮಿ
   ಇದೂ ಸಹ ಸೋದರ ಸೋದರಿಯರ ಹಬ್ಬ. ಸೋದರಿ ತನ್ನ ಸೋದರನನ್ನು ಮನೆಗೆ ಕರೆದು, ಉಣಬಡಿಸಿ, ಬೆನ್ನು ತೊಳೆದು ಉಡುಗೊರೆ ಕೊಟ್ಟು ಕಳುಹಿಸುತ್ತಾಳೆ. ಬೆನ್ನು ತೊಳೆಯೋದು ಅನ್ದ್ರೆ, ಒಂದು ಹೂವಿಂದ ಹಾಲನ್ನು ಬೆನ್ನಿಗೆ ಸವರಿ ತೊಳೆಯುವುದು. ನಂತರ ನೀರಿನಿಂದ ಸವರುವುದು. ಸೋದರಿಯರ ರಕ್ಷಣೆ ಸೋದರರ ಜವಾಬ್ದಾರಿ ಅನ್ನೋ ಸಂಕೇತ. ಬೆನ್ನು ತೊಳೆಯೋ ಹಬ್ಬ ಅಂತಾನೂ ಕರೀತಾರೆ. ಮನೆ ಮುಂದೆ ತುಳಸಿ ಕಟ್ಟೆ ಹತ್ರ ನಗರನ ಚಿತ್ರ ಬಿಡಿಸಿ ಅದಿಕ್ಕೂ ಸಹ ಪೂಜೆ ಮಾಡ್ತಾರೆ. ಹಾಗೆ, ಮನೆ ಮುಂಬಾಗಿಲಿನ ಪಕ್ಕದಲ್ಲೂ ನಾಗರವನ್ನು ಬರೆದು ಪೂಜೆ ಮಾಡುತ್ತಾರೆ. ದೇವರ ಮನೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಹುತ್ತದ ಮಣ್ಣಿಟ್ಟು ಅದರ ಮೇಲೆ ಬೆಳ್ಳಿ ನಾಗಪ್ಪನನ್ನು ಕೂರಿಸಿ ಹಾಲು, ನೀರೆರೆಯುತ್ತಾರೆ. ಅಕ್ಕಿ ಹಿಟ್ಟು, ಚಿಗಳಿ ತಂಬಿಟ್ಟು, ಕಡಲೇ ಕಾಳು ನೈವೇದ್ಯ ಮಾಡುತ್ತಾರೆ. ಅಂದು ಮನೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಶಾವಿಗೆ ಅಡುಗೆ ಮಾಡುವ ಹಾಗಿಲ್ಲ. ಬಟ್ಟೆ ಹೊಲೆಯುವ ಹಾಗಿಲ್ಲ. ಮತ್ತೆ ನಾಗರನಿಗೆ ಅಕ್ಷತೆಯಿಂದ ಪೂಜೆ ಇಲ್ಲ. ಅವನಿಗೆ ನೋವಾಗುತ್ತದೆ ಎಂಬ ನಂಬಿಕೆ.
   
   ಬೆನ್ನು ತೊಳೆಯುವ ಶಾಸ್ತ್ರದ ಒಂದು photo:
   
   ಸದ್ಯಕ್ಕೆ ಸಾಕಾಯ್ತು .. ಮತ್ತೆ ಬರೀತೀನಿ .. ಉಳಿದ ಹಬ್ಬಗಳನ್ನು ಸುಮ್ನೆ ಪಟ್ಟಿ ಮಾಡ್ತೀನಿ..
   
4. ಸಿರಿಯಾಳ ಷಷ್ಠಿ - ಶ್ರಾವಣ ಶುಕ್ಲ ಷಷ್ಠಿ


5. ವರಮಹಾಲಕ್ಷ್ಮಿ - ಶ್ರಾವಣ ಮಾಸದ ಎರಡನೇ ಶುಕ್ರವಾರ


6. ಉಪಾಕರ್ಮ - ಶ್ರಾವಣ ಶುಕ್ಲ ಚತುರ್ದಶಿ/ಪೂರ್ಣಿಮಾ


7. ರಕ್ಷಾಬಂಧನ - ಶ್ರಾವಣ ಪೂರ್ಣಿಮಾ


8. ಅನಂತ ಚತುರ್ದಶಿ - ಶ್ರಾವಣ ಕೃಷ್ಣ ಚತುರ್ದಶಿ


9. ಶ್ರಾವಣ ಶನಿವಾರ - ಶ್ರಾವಣದ ಪ್ರತಿ ಶನಿವಾರ


10. ಸಂಪತ್ ಶುಕ್ರವಾರ - ಶ್ರಾವಣದ ಶುಕ್ರವಾರ


11. ಗೋಕುಲಾಷ್ಟಮಿ - ಶ್ರಾವಣ ಕೃಷ್ಣ ಅಷ್ಟಮಿ


12. ರಾಘವೇಂದ್ರ ಸ್ವಾಮಿಗಳು ಆರಾಧನೆ -


13. ಋಷಿ ಪಂಚಮಿ - ಶ್ರಾವಣ ಕೃಷ್ಣ ಪಂಚಮಿ

ಇನ್ನೂ ಸಾಕಷ್ಟು ಹಬ್ಬಗಳು ಇವೆ.. ನನ್ನ ಪರಿಮಿತ ಬುದ್ಧಿಗೆ ತಿಳಿದಿದ್ದನ್ನು ಗೀಚಿದ್ದೇನೆ. ನಿಮಗೇನಾದರೂ ಇನ್ನೂ ತಿಳಿದರೆ ಹೇಳಿ update ಮಾಡ್ತೀನಿ..

ವಿಚಿತ್ರಾನ್ನ ಪುಸ್ತಕ ಬಿಡುಗಡೆ

ನಿಮ್ಮಲ್ಲಿ ಬಹಳ ಮಂದಿಗೆ ವಿಚಿತ್ರಾನ್ನ ಗೊತ್ತು ಅಂತ ತಿಳಿದು ಈ ಬ್ಲಾಗ್ ಐಟಮ್.
ಶ್ರೀವತ್ಸ ಜೋಶಿಯವರ ವಿಚಿತ್ರಾನ್ನ ಅನ್ನೋ ಪ್ರತಿ ವಾರದ ಅಂಕಣ ಬಹಳ ಪ್ರಸಿದ್ಧಿ. ಆ ಎಲ್ಲಾ ಬರಹಗಳ ಸಂಗ್ರಹವೇ ವಿಚಿತ್ರಾನ್ನ ಪುಸ್ತಕಗಳು. ನೆನ್ನೆ ೨ ಪುಸ್ತಕ ಬಿಡುಗಡೆ ಆಯ್ತು. ಇದಕ್ಕೆ ಮುಂಚೆ ಒಂದು ಪುಸ್ತಕ ಬಿಡುಗಡೆ ಮಾಡಿದ್ರು. ನೆನ್ನೆಯ ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ರಮಕ್ಕೆ ಜೋಶಿಗಳು ನನ್ನ ವೈಯ್ಯಕ್ತಿಕವಾಗಿ ದೂರವಾಣಿ ಮೂಲಕ ಕರೆದಾಗಲೇ ನನಗೆ ಬಹಳ ಸಂತೋಷವಾಯ್ತು. ನೆನ್ನೆ ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ರಮದಲ್ಲೆ ಆ ಸನ್ತೋಷಕ್ಕೆ ಸಾರ್ಥಕತೆ ದೊರೆಯಿತು.. ಅಬ್ಬ ಅಬ್ಬ ಅಬ್ಬ .. ಅದೆಷ್ಟು ಚೆನ್ನಾಗಿತ್ತು ಗೊತ್ತಾ .. ಡುಂಡಿ ರಾಜ್ ರವರ ಅಧ್ಯಕ್ಷತೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಪುಸ್ತಕ ಬಿಡುಗಡೆ ಆಯ್ತು. ಡುಂಡಿ ರಾಜ್ ರವರ ಡುಂ ಡುಂ ಡುಂ ನಮಗೆಲ್ಲ ರಾಕ್ ಎನ್ ರೋಲ್ ಮಾಡಿತು. ಜೋಶಿಯವರು ’ಪನ್’ ಗಳಿಗೆ ಬಹಳ ಫೇಮಸ್.. ಪನ್ ಗಳ ಫನ್ ಧಮ್ ಧಮಾ ಧಮ್ ಆಗಿತ್ತು.

ಅವರ ಮೂರೂ ಪುಸ್ತಕ ಕೊಂಡು ಓದೋದಿಕ್ಕೆ ಶುರು ಮಾಡಿದೀನಿ. ಬಹಳ ಚೆನ್ನಾಗಿದೆ. ನೀವು ಕೊಂಡು ಓದಿರಿ ..

Soul Weight - Does human weight depend on his consciousness ??

History: I was discussing about 'mass' and 'weight' with my wife, Sowmya and my brother in law, Sunil. It came up when physics topic regarding acceleration due to gravity was being discussed. Near earth's pole our we weigh more and near equator we weigh less. It suddenly struck me and asked 'Why dead body weighs more as compared to when he was living?'.

Sowmya: Air goes inside body and air weight increases the body weight.

It made lot of sense and it was a consensus.

Argument:
My theory was: Human weight depends on his consciousness. By mind's power he can generate a force against gravity and thus he weighs little less than actual weight. When he dies, the weight immediately increases a little, i.e. before even air occupies the body. This also gives a support for those stories where we hear people can sit and walk on water.

Sunil: Body's weight is not at all dependent on consciousness.

Very interesting topic huh !

Your thought ??:

Please do let me know what you think in this theory??

Googling:
Today I was googling on body weight and related topics. Did not get anything on these lines, but I got another very interesting article, which tries to prove that Human Soul has weight :-)

Reference: Urban Legends Reference Pages: Religion (Soul Man)

In the above link, Dr. MacDougall tries convey following on the basis of his experiments with dying people:

1. Human Soul has a weight of 3/4 of an ounce
2. Only human beings have souls and no other animals do. He tested on Dog and he draws the verdict
3. He also tries to captures Soul's photo using X-Rays
4. He claims Soul to be a Physical substance

Hindu Philosophy:
As we all know Hindu philosophy has explained a lot on 'Atman' - The Soul. Some of the points derived from Hindu Philosophy which contradicts Dr. MacDougall's theory:

1. Atman is niraakaara (Formless), nirvikaara (unchangeable), nirguna (No Attributes), anaadi (Birth less) and ananta (Endless). This contradicts that Soul has any weight, colour, visibility, Form. So this completely contradicts, that soul is a physical entity

2. According to Dwaita siddhanta Atman has 2 forms, Jeevaathma and Paramatma. Jeevatma is the one which gives life. Or it can be considered as Life. So it clearly contradicts, that animal does not have soul. All living beings has Souls

Please share your thoughts..

Around Kanyakumari - Sucheendram and Thirparappu Water Falls

.... Continued from Previous post





Monday early in the morning, after watching the Sunrise, we had got ready by around 10 AM and visited Devi temple again. It was very beautiful. Finished our breakfast and looking some way planning the rest of the day. At this time, an auto driver approached us and offered to take us around Kanyakumari. I had in mind to visit, Sucheendram temple, Thirparappu and Nagercoil temple. He asked Rs. 1000.. Oh my God. It was very costly for an Auto. But I never expected, that I can cover all these places in Auto rickshaw. I always had in mind to take the a taxi, which would have costed me around Rs. 2000/-. Thanks to Auto driver for the idea.




So, started negotiation, and he came down and we fixed for Rs. 600 for the entire days' program.



First of all we went to Sucheendram. The temple of Brahma, Vishnu and Maheshwara. Very big temple. You also find very big idol of Hanuman.

From there, we started to Thirparappu water falls, on the way our driver took us to a bridge, which is used to carry river water from village to another. Amazing idea and superb construction. Look at the pics.

We had some snacks and juice and started towards falls. This falls was not so huge, but the water force was too much. We enjoyed there for about an hour and headed towards Nagercoil.

Visited nagar temple and it was also very calm and beautiful. Came back to Kanyakumari at around 5 in the evening.

It was very successful trip for us, it went very well according to our plans. :-)

Kanyakumari

..... Continued from previous post and Previous to Previous Post



Our journey continoued. We checked out early in the morning on 11th Feb 07, Sunday. This time to reach Kanyakumari had understood that train is the best mode of transport. We found from resort folks that there was a train from Varkala to Kanyakumari at around 7:30 AM. We called for an Auto and reached Varkala from Resort, which is around 4KM. This time he took Rs. 40, which was ok, unlike Rs. 100 while coming to Edava. :0



As we did not have for breakfast, I bought some juice, biscuits and other eatables from Train Station itself and took an unreserved ticket which I remember to be Rs. 40 per head. Train got delayed for 30 min. At around 8 AM we got in and reached Kanyakumari at around 12 noon.


Took an auto to a Hotel very near to beach and temple. Had lunch at Sharavana Veg, which was pretty good. Hotel was pretty decent and got it for Rs. 800/- per night. We had lot of time. So planned to finish places inside Kanyakumari and wanted to reserve Monday for around it.


We started to Vivekananda Rock and Tiruvalluvar statue through ferry. This is the snap from our room. We could see Statue and Viv. rock from our room.















Vivekanand rock is one of most beautiful man made structure and very clean and systematic. Thress oceans meet there with roaring sound and flashing waves. Very nice place to visit. Ferry will take you to the Tiruvalluvar statue. Its very big, to reach statue's feet itself, we need to climb 4-5 stories.

































Evening, we visited temple and went to the beach for watching the sunset. We felt very bad, as it was too cloudy and could not watch the sunset.











Next day morning Sunrise was one of the beautiful scene I had ever seen

To be continued ...

Kadaltheeram Beach Resort

-- Continued from Previous Post

We reached Kadaltheeram Resort at around 4PM on Friday, 09 Feb 07. We were dead tired of taking 2 different buses from Trivandrum. We ordered food for lunch and found the room for rest. By first look, the resort is amazingly beautiful and roaring waves of Arabian sea was audible to the room. Its 100 mts from room to the beach, never had seen such a beautiful place in my life.

All our tiredness was gone in few minutes and finishing our lunch we started enjoying the sunset like never before. Beach of Edava was a kind of private beach and other than we two I could npt see any one else.

Sky was very clear and we enjoyed Sunset. we played a lot with the beach sand and it was very very romantic.

The restaurant was good and most of the workers were from Mysore and we found them very friendly, we could converse with them in Kannada.

We were very happy to hear kannada even after going so long and remote. Food was also very nice. After the beach play, we came back to restaurant to have some resfreshment, we also got the signal to call our homes.

It was really REMOTE. Real cut from busy life. Wah! superb.

To be continued --

Trip to Trivandrum Kadalateeram Kanyakumari

I had taken Artha Health option's travel tickets last year, which gives you two holiday stay free. You have to choose one among the destinations they are having. Timmi and I decided to goto Kadalteeram beach resort which is near Trivandrum. Idea was to make an extended to holiday and visit Trivandrum and Kanyakumari as well. Plan was made sometime in Jan 07 and booked with Artha also. One of my ex-colleague, Madhavi stays in Trivandrum.. She helped me in planning my trip. Thanks to her.

Plan was:

1. Reach Trivandrum, visiti Padmanabha Swami temple, Ravi Varma Art galley and some more places inside the city and head to Kadaltheeram beach resort by evening which is around 70 KM north from Trivandrum, rest for the day

2. Next day Saturday enjoy the resort, beach

3. Check out early on Sunday and head towards Kanyakumari which is around 70 KMs south from Trivandrum, and visit some of the places on the way like: Padmanabha puram palace, Sucheendram etc reach Kanyakumaru by afternoon, have lunch, visit temple in the evening, sunset, rest for the day

4. Next day get up visit more places: Thirparappu Water falls and head towards Nagercoil to catch bus back to Bangalore at night.

It went almost as it was as planned.. Feb 9th, Friday early morning 6:30, we had the fligh to Trivandrum. Deccan Airlines, it started and reached as planned. We reached there by 8:30AM. temple. Madhavi had told best way of commutance within city is by Auto, but we need to negotiate as they do not use meters unlike Bangalore. He initially asked Rs. 80 to Padmanabha Swami Temple which was not even 4 KM from Airport. As per strict instructions by Madhavi we negotiated for Rs. 40. Peculiar thing about this temple is, everyone has to wear Dhotis or Sarees. Even some women wore dhotis :-). This temple is vert huge and we spent around an hour there and looked for a restaurant for breakfast. Had some dosa and watery coffee we started towards another Devi temple called Attukal Devi temple which was not too far from there. Again commuted by Auto for Rs. 20. Being Friday, it was very crowded there.

From there we headed towards Zoo. We did not know Zoo and Ravi Verma Art gallery (Actual Name is Sri Chitra Art Gallery) are in the same compound. We reached Zoo at around 11 AM and found a place to keep our luggage. Then we went to Art gallery. By looking at Amazing paintings of Raja Ravi Verma, we felt as if we visited some other world. Finishing Art gallery, we went to Zoo. Zoo is not that great compared to our Mysore Zoo. Crocodile were really attractive. But there was an explicit reptile park which was an attraction. Just beside Zoo complex, a Palace was there. We visited that too. It was around 12:30. Had some refreshments and started towards Verkala.

We never knew reaching verkala was so tough. The final destination was Kadaltheeram resort in Edava. Edava is a small Village in Verkala. In the bus station we understood that, direct bus to Verkala is not available from Trivandrum. We should reach a place called Attingal and from there we need to catch another bus to Verkala. Oh my God, we had already tired. We took a bus to Attingal but could not get a seat. After say 30 min we got seats. Reached Attingal and boarded another bus to Verkala and from there reached Edava and our final destination. From Verkala bus station to Resort its not more than 4 KM, but he took Rs. 100. Uff.. we were so tired and it was already 4 PM. Once we reached resort, we got know the best way to rech Verkala is through Train. Anyway it was too lare :)

--- To be Continued

IBM vs Systech

Hi all,

After a long stay in IBM for five and a half years, I finally decided to quit and join a smaller organization. IBM was my first company. It made me a professional from student. I learnt lot of things from IBM. It was very difficult for me to take a decision, as IBM was stable, no risk, my work was good and it was flexible. But thinking "Comfirm Zone" and my career options I ahd to make my mind and I did. I put my papers around first week of April and stayed in IBM till 10th May. Joined ACS-Systech Integrators from 14th May.

Systech is a very small, young, dynamic, energetic and aggresive company. It has around 200 employees in India. It would be very challenging for me to take up oppertunities here and meet the expectations. You believe it or not, Paper work was over in 3-4 Hrs and we were introduced VP and other managers. I was given a seat and a laptop on Day 1. In IBM it would have taken at least 15 days ! I was given my project on Day 2 and was asked to start work on some presentation next week. Oh my God never seen thigns happening so fast before. People are filled with "Josh" here. Sometimes it scares me. But I need to take up the fact and go forward.

Post more about it later.

PS: I need to post my Trips to Trivandrum - Kadalateeram and Kemmannugundi

Catch you soon.. Hope to continue blogging more frequently

After a long time..

Busy Busy Busy ... Many things un-blogged .. Where am I ? I am Lost.. Some one help me finding myself!

Trip to Goa - 2

Continuing from last post:

Londa to Madagao Train journey:

As mentioned in earlier post, we went to Madagao from Londa by Pune-Ernakulam express. The journey is completely through western ghats and the scenic beauty is unmatchable. One has to just take this stretch to enjoy the nature. This is part of Konkan railways.



Dhud Sagar:

There is a huge, beautiful, mindblowing waterfall called Dhud Sagar just beside railway track in this route. We had got this information through net. It was amazing experience to see the falls through moving train.






The falls look as if milk is flowing down from heaven. "Dudh" in Hindi means Milk. There is a train station called Dudh sagar station. One can get down there and have a small trek towards the falls. It would be life time experience.





Amazing journey, Superb scenic beauty, Excellent greenery.








This boy must be appreciated a lot. He is dumb boy. He was the one who alerted us just before the falls was reached. We could have missed the view of falls if this guy was not there. Thank s a lot boy..






Rest in next post ..

Trip to Goa

It was all decided in the September monthly meet. We all wanted to go somewhere out of Bangalore. Proposals came in for Kanyakumari and it was almost decided. We were 16 and could not get train reservation, as the we did not have much lead time. Then plan was changed to go to Goa. The plan was to have the trip during Dussera holidays. As some of them had to attend office Ayudha pooja on 30th Sep Sat, we had leave Bangalore on Saturday evening and come back on 4th Oct, Wednesday. Monday was public holiday for Vijayadashami and we had to apply leave only for 3rd Oct.


We did not get through train till Panaji. The itinerary was something like this:

Bangalore to Londa - Rani chennamma Express
Londa to Madagao - Pune-Ernakulam Express
Madagao to Panaji - Cabs




We all had home made dinner in the train. Everyone had prepared delicious food items. Once train took off with full speed towards Londa we placed ourselves in berths and had peaceful sleep.




We did not any booking from Londa to Madagao/ Panaji.










It was too tiresome when we reached Londa at around 7 AM. Had home made breakfast while we waited for Next train Pune-Ernakulam express. It was sceduled to depart Londa at 9:30 AM towards Ernakulam. It reached Madgao at around 2PM. From there we went to Panaji. We had our accomodation booked in Hotel called Nova Goa.



Nova Goa is in mid of Panaji City and its a 3 start hotel with facilities like Swimming pool, pickup and drop from Bus / Train station, Airports. They also provide complementary breakfast and a free half a day sight seeying tour. It was pleasant staying there.





I will continue the post tomorrow..