Dream Vacation

Imagine being in the party Capital of the world, Amsterdam in The Netherlands, staying in the most luxurious accommodation of its kind, surrounded by beautiful ladies all the time, who hold your hands without twitching their eyes, ready to serve you without any expectation 24/7, the bed is a very cozy adjustable bed, the coziest you have ever slept on, room service does not mean leaving the food tray on the table, but feeding you with a spoon, entertainment non-stop with a huge Plasma TV which telecasts all of your favorite programs. You can stay there as long as you can and the vacation is granted by your company. Not just that, the bill for the stay will also be picked by your company. That, my friends, is the epitome of a dream vacation. I have been there and also learnt valuable lessons in the process.

On September 5, 2007, my hopes were sky high and my dreams were larger than life, when I boarded "The mysterious Swan" Lufthansa flight to Amsterdam to work.

Couple of months later, I tried my hands, actually my legs, on ice skating at Winter Efteling Theme park. I learnt very quickly that while Ice skating, one should bend the knees and put the majority of one’s weight forward, because you cannot fall forward.

I quickly learnt how to skate and picked up pace moving my legs in perfect rhythm. It was a brilliant feeling. Right there I had a train of thought. Why was I not heavier? Why did I not learn how stop before gaining speed? Why was the person on a collision course with me heavier and faster than me? When the inevitable collision did happen, laws of physics were against me and laws of gravity were holding on to me tight. It was a heavy duty stress test of the ice versus my left arm. There I learnt my first lesson, Ice though thin, is way too much stronger than a thicker human.

I have always imagined clinic to be dim lit and with an old doctor wearing glasses end and coughing once in a while. There were 4 stunningly beautiful young ladies and the room radiated with vibrant light, I still am unsure if it was their radiant skin or the bulb which lit the room. I could swear that I saw wings on a couple of them and one was even off the ground by a couple of feet (ANGELS!!). All of them took a special interest in me and were taking turns to hold my hand and check if it hurts. The left hand refused to cry in pain and was jumping in joy to receive a royal treatment. They strapped my arm and recommended that I should be taken to Ziekenheus Hospital. Second Lesson, it is lucky to be unlucky and you never know what wonders a bit of bad luck can bring.

Then, came the most wonderful 10 days of stay in the luxurious Zeikenheus Hospital which hosted the most luxurious rooms with cozy, fully adjustable beds. Nurses and doctors, mostly beautiful ladies, giving special attention since, I had not family there to take care of me and company took care of the bills. It was a multiple fracture that my left arm proudly sported to get all the royal treatment and attention of these ladies. To make things lighter, I used a lot of humor to make them laugh. One fine morning, a nurse woke me up with an empty 12 liter can in hand. She uttered two words, Urine test. I responded spontaneously with a laugh. I know I am slightly er em a lot on the heavier side, but that does not mean I need a 12 liter. She also could not control her laugh when she said it was for a specific test where I had to collect urine for an entire day in the can. This taught me the third lesson, A good sense of humor, helps you forget even your tumor.

Friends, if in England, breaking a wish bone is getting lucky, in The Netherlands, breaking your arm in multiple places, just makes you the luckiest person alive. With all the lessons I learnt, wonderful memories and a heavy heart, I left the hospital. Just before I left, I told my favorite lady in the hospital, that their treatment helped me leave with a fixed arm but a broken heart and that I will miss her forever. She winked at me and said not to worry, she can arrange for my right arm to be broken ;)

That was my dream vacation.

“What keeps me going is goals” – January 26, 2013

Medley Toastmasters Club has set a goal of having an education session for every session this year and so far that has kept the sessions going great. Aptly themed 180th Meeting was another example of how wonderful the goals of the club this year has kept it going strong.

The venue was as usual filled with a wonderful blend of Toastmasters and guests, this has become a feature since we moved to the new venue. The meeting started precisely at 3 pm (at least as per Our Club president).

Club President, TM Guruprasad started the session with the esteemed golden gravel bang and declared the meeting open.

TMOD Santhosh did a thoughtful job of introducing the theme and the word for the day ‘Design’. He also shared how his goals have made him design his life towards success.

The prepared speeches, which was scheduled after the education session, was moved ahead to give time required to sort the technical glitches with projector. Though the education session was moved to later part of the session, it was worth the wait.

- First speech by TM Apurv (CC#3) was based on his experience and his learning which helped him overcome his silent addiction to sleeping.
- Second Speech by TM Alagu Bharathi (CC#4) shared ‘The Secret’ to attain what we dream to attain within 7 minutes.
- Third Speech by TM Chandramouli (CC#4) set the audience on ‘A journey to the Stars’ with a voyager (whose identity is reveled in the end) recounting his experience. This helped him win the Best Prepared Speech for the day.

Then, it was time for one of the best and memorable education sessions so far. TM Dr.Sampath Sowrirajan, one of the founding members of Medley Toastmasters, walked the audience through various strategies, tips and tricks on handling a Table Topics session. The session was a wonderful workshop where the strategies were explained and then volunteers from the audience were called upon to use the technique explained to handle a specific topic effectively.

Then, the evaluations session was conducted by the General Evaluator TM Karthik. The evaluators clearly carried the energy from the education session and provided wonderful feedback for the speakers. TM Badri Narayanan was voted as the best Evaluator of the day. And for his exhaustive grammarian’s report, TM Santhosh was awarded the Best Role Player of the day.

The eventful session came to a close at around 5:10 pm to be followed by a wonderful round of samosas and coffee/tea.

Signing off sharing a few questions that I took home from the session:

- Do we really spend time on what is very dear to us by setting our goals and priorities right?
- What keeps me going? The goals or the journey? Is it the greatness of the goal which leads to the journey being wonderful or vice versa?
- What is that one Goal that defines me and keeps me going?

- Just another curious mind

“Curiousity kills a cat!! But we are humans!”

Start with a Bang!! – January 5, 2013

Medley Toastmasters Club started the year 2013 with a bang, coming from a very successful year 2012. The first meeting of the year (177th from its Genesis) reflected the same; the theme was ‘Start with a Bang!’.

Novelty and energy were evident from the start. A new venue (30 minutes on Lattice Bridge road), a new agenda template (with minutes), a wonderful education session and of course the new executive committee who put in their efforts into making all of this possible.

The New venue was refreshing and was fully packed with a right blend of Toastmasters and guests. The meeting started precisely at 3 pm and stuck to the minutes in the agenda.

Club President, TM Guruprasad started the session with the esteemed golden gravel bang and declared the meeting open. Following which Club VPM TM Sarathy inducted the new members.

The Education session, that followed, by our Area Governor TM Sundararaman infused (which was by the way the word of the day) the energy and enthusiasm while it helped us understand how to conduct the sessions better. It set the stage right for this session and for the sessions to follow.

Then came the Prepared Speeches session boasting three thoughtful speeches:
- First speech by TM Venkatesan (CC#5) was based on three remarkable experiences of his life which made him (and the audience) appreciate the saying ‘As you sow, so you reap’.
- Second Speech by TM Jayanthi (CC#7) was a well researched speech on how to infuse desirable thoughts into ones subconscious mind while in an Alfa state and bring out ‘The Magician within You’.
- Third Speech by TM Rajasekhar (CC#8) was a very interesting and creative use of trash to make very attractive decorative and useful articles, which, infused us to ‘Think Different’. This helped him win the Best Prepared Speech for the day.

This was followed by the Table Topics marathon where the Table Topics Master TM Meenakshi fired 12 questions to invoke thoughtful responses from Toastmasters and Guests alike. The response from Guest Charu on the possibility of having (or not) a New year resolution of avoiding junk food helped her bag the Best Table Topics Speaker for the day.

Then it was time for the most awaited part of the meeting (really!), the evaluations. The evaluators matched the speeches with their insightful feedback. TM Guruprasad was voted as the best Evaluator of the day. And for his exhaustive grammarian’s report, TM Apurv was awarded the Best Role Player of the day.

The eventful session came to a close at around 5 pm to be followed by a wonderful round of Kozhakattais (Steamed Modhaks) and coffees.

Signing off sharing a few areas to feed our curious minds from the sessions:

- Why the idiom ‘Start with a Bang’? Does it have anything to do with the big bang or the gun shots, gongs before track events or ring events?
- What are your experiences that help you appreciate the idiom ‘Start with a Bang’?
- Why at times we let boredom, reluctance, laziness creep in and not carry the energy with which we started something?

Can religion have a scientific explaination? (Part - 2)

Having discussed the divine trinity in my previous post, I also wanted to share my interpretation of Hinduism in this post.


Disclaimer - Before reading the contents below, understand that this is only my interpretation and feel free to disagree with me (I would be happy to have healthy debates).


Devas (Demi-gods)

While the trinity signified the acts of creation, preservation and destruction, Nature played a major role (as in many religions) in finding divine existence in the world around us.

The elements of nature: Wind (Vayu), rain (Varun), Fire (Agni), etc., were considered to be devas (Demi-gods). The head of Devas, Indra is the god of lighting. This is an interesting similarity with a lot of pagan religions, Zeus (the most powerful Greek god) and Thor (God of lightning, Norse mythology), where the god who created lightning was considered to be the most powerful. This could be attributed to the fact that lightning was (and still continues to be) one of the most feared natural phenomenon. Till date a phenomenon called as ball lightning still remains unexplained. No wonder, these gods were treated with a great respect and fear.

Navagrahas (The Planets)

It is interesting to note that, the seven celestial bodies close to the Earth, namely the Sun, the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn were identified to be 7 celestial bodies which influenced the events on earth. Along with two imaginary planets (Rahu and Kethu) that caused the lunar and the solar eclipse. These planets formed the basis of Indian astrology system.

I once asked my granny, why should one believe in astrology? I really liked her answer (though I still do not truly believe in astrology). She replied "Each of these planets are made up of different composition of elements. And as per the law of gravity, each of these bodies exert a certain amount of force on earth. The nature of the influence of this force is determined by the composition of these planets and their relative position with respect to the Earth. For example, the Moon causes tides, during full moon periods, there is definitely a fluctuation in the pattern of our minds (crazy people become crazier) and this is the reason why moon in Hindu astrology is associated with mood swings and things related to mind." She went on to say "So knowing that these planets do have influence on us, Astrology is nothing but mathematics based on the planets relative position and their influence on us."

(End of Part 2)

Can religion have a scientific explaination? (Part - 1)

I have always wondered if there was a scientific explanation for all the religious creations (gods, tradition, customs, etc.). This is my first blog on this area on which I have been thinking for a long time.

I know about Hinduism better than rest of the religions. Hence most of my questions and explanations have come in the same area. I believe that Hinduism has cryptic messages and symbolism in the way gods are described and their mythical stories

Disclaimer - Before reading the contents below, understand that this is only my interpretation and feel free to disagree with me (I would be happy to have healthy debates).

Trimurti - The Holy trinity of Hinduism

Trimurtis, the holy trinity, are the three deities who are considered to be the most important gods of Hinduism. Following is my interpretation of the Trimurtis.

Brahma

 Brahma - The creator

According to Hinduism, the Universe was conceptualized and created by Brahma.
My interpretation is that he is the abstracted form of every creator, designer, the prime-movers of the earth (as put by Ayn Rand), and thinkers. To create something, one needs to think, needs a wealth of knowledge. The knowledge drives creation. It is so apt that his wife is Saraswati, the goddess of knowledge. My interpretation of Hinduism makes me say that Hinduism believes that women always were the drive force and male were the acting force. Evolution is the best example for the same. Two factors which were primarily responsible were to survive and to impress the female species. The female species drove male species to evolve, but the male species changed, over a period of time, evolved. Even if Brahma is a much respected god, it is hard to find temples for Brahma (I know of just one dedicated temple for Brahma - at Pushkar, Rajasthan). Lord Brahma is conceptualized with four heads (powerful thinker), white beard (wisdom), seated on a lotus and travel on a swan (Hamsa). The swan is symbolized to be living on nectar from the blooming lotus of knowledge. I relate Lord Brahma to the people of mind, who create, invent, innovate, etc., who do not enjoy the status of a businessman or a warrior, however, is regarded with a great respect.

Vishnu with his wife Lakshmi 

Vishnu - The Preserver

Vishnu is looked upon as the god of sustenance, the one who took many forms (avatars) to save the world when needed. I see the power of Vishnu in every person who help people in trouble, save people, people who run business (needed for business to survive), in good leaders. To sustain or to preserve, one needs good leadership skills. Also, wealth is a driving force for survival. Wealth here is not just money, but also spiritual wealth, health, courage, luck, etc. It is apt that Goddess Lakshmi, the goddess of Wealth (8 forms of Lakshmi for different forms of wealth), is his wife. Since, Vishnu is the Preserver; there is a huge amount of people who worship Vishnu. Lord Vishnu is conceptualized to wear beautiful attire, sleep on a lake of milk, on top of a 5 headed snake(Aadi-seshan). I read a blog of a friend of mine which linked the 10 avatars (dasavatar) to evolution of humans. Found the idea to be very interesting.

 

Shiv with his wife Shakti

Shiv - The Destroyer

Everything that is created needs to live and then eventually come to an end once its purpose of existence ceases to exist. It is like letting a program to loop even when what is supposed to achieve in the loop is done, or, saving your clothes even after you grow out of them, or, keeping the remains of what was food after everything is juiced out of it by our body. Everything created, needs to be destroyed eventually, gracefully, timely and ONLY when its purpose ceases to exist. This is the job of Lord Shiv. I see Shiv in anyone who does the above function. To destroy, one needs power. Hence, Shakti, the goddess of power is his wife. Lord Shiv is conceptualized to wear attire made of dead animal skin, cover body with ashes which are obtained by cremation of the dead, covered by snakes all over the body and use a bull (Nandi) as his vehicle. Since human fear death the most, Shiv is one of the most worshipped god in Hinduism.

(end of Part - 1)

Are we independent yet?

When British were ruling India, they were exploiting our resources and taxes were sent to England.

Now we are still exploited and the taxes make its way to the Swiss bank accounts of Powerful people (not just politicians).

Is there truly a difference?

Yes there are differences in the external way in which the setup looks.

We elect our leaders and people who represent us in the parliament. If they are truly our representatives, then why is the government in favor of the minority and not the majority? Are they truly our representatives? Do we really have the power to elect our representatives and leaders?

We have freedom of expression, at least as per constitution, however, movies against government gets banned, media needs to support the leaders in order to survive, the truth is conveniently forgotten and voice is suppressed. Do we still have a freedom of speech?

In the other countries, censor board views the movie and rate them for the minimum age group for viewership, not remove scenes from the movie, and yet they do not claim to have freedom of expression to be their right in constitution. Isn’t this hypocrisy?

And we are happy to celebrate 65th Independence Day. Do we have the independence yet?

Where did it all go wrong? How did British who ruled India for their profits bring about more development in India than the politicians for the last 64 years? What happened to all the people who stood up to throw British out of India, have they slept once India got freedom?

I learnt that the preamble to our constitution was changed from describing the state as a “sovereign democratic republic” to “sovereign socialist secular democratic republic” in 1976. What an irony? There has been more reservations everywhere ever since. Then, why do we proclaim ourselves to be secular?

Every one of us is responsible for the failed India that we have seen over the last 64 years. India has grown around the hurdles of the political system. We just crib about the failure and do nothing (continuing the tradition I do the same here). We like to blame others for the failure. The blame is on every one of us. We are the biggest hypocrites, biggest racists and still we call ourselves secular. No other country in the world sees so much of divides within themselves. We never look at a fellow Indian as Indian. Rather we look at them as Madrasis, South Indians, North Indians, Marathis, Punjabis, Bengalis, Biharis, and what not. We call Europeans and people in US to do racial discrimination. We do that within our country for our own people.

We talk of being culturally rich country and respect women and make fun of the family values of some of the western countries. Yet, we have so many rapes (mostly by known people), prostitution (people are proud of having gone to one), murders for various reasons including religion (when did god ever ask you to kill for him?).

We talk of corruption, supporting Anti-corruption bill and yet, we would rather pay Rs. 50/- as a bribe to the Traffic cop rather than taking the pain to pay the fine of Rs. 200/- at the court not just for the money but also for the time spent on doing so. We try to find a “jugaad” out of situations by paying bribes in various forms and yet we expect our politicians to be clean.

We would elect someone only if they manage to convince us with their “promotions”, they give us good offers for voting, they spend well on elections and yet, we expect them to take a salary of mere Rs. 30,000/- and be happy with it after having spent Rs. 20 crores in the election campaign.

We are big fools to follow without knowing what we follow. Best example is following Anna Hazare. 90% of those who follow do not know how’s, what’s and the feasibility of the bill, yet blindly support it, just like the support given to Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. Once the bill is passed, everyone will go back to sleep for another 50 years, only to be woken up by reality.

I am not a political mind to think of a solution for this problem. But I can tell you that the so called selfless structure of our government is flawed. We expect the leaders to spend money from their pocket in crores to sit in the position of power, get a very small pay and be very happy with it. Why is it not run like an organization where we pay the top management a lot to keep the company profitable? They take shares in profit and hence work towards the success of the organization, not because they are selfless and would work for a salary of Rs. 1.

Just some random thoughts, not in any sequential order, however, these have made me wonder for a long time, is it just me feeling this way? Is everyone else very happy with the system? If not, they why do we wish everyone a very happy Independence day? I am not truly happy because I feel I am truly not living in an Independent country.

I wish I would see a day when I would be truly happy to wish people for Independence Day. Till then, hope is all that I have.

“Hum honge kaamyaab... Hum honge kaamyaab...

Hum honge kaamyaab... Ek din!!”

A Journey to the stars

At the very beginning, it was exciting to be a part of the journey aiming to reach the stars. There were many of us passing through a passage in a fluid, uniform line. When I looked around, I saw that there were a few young ones as excited as I was and a few indifferent faces least excited about the journey to the stars. This made me wonder why. We marching together arm to arm, had to have a uniform movement to keep our movements fluid. To be truthful, it was hard at first; I then played the tune of my favorite song “Rain drops keep falling on my head” inside my head and marched with the song. I was as smooth as I could be.


It was not too long before I was in front of the giant circular device accelerating those ahead of me at lightning speed. In a single sling, thousands were set on their journey. Looking at this, I was feeling both excited and uneasy. It was worse than my first roller coaster ride; it was my first journey to stars. This was the first instance I heard people next to me point at the giant device and say that it operates on the basis of the principle of centrifugal force, I could recall the class on centrifugal force I had a couple of weeks ago came to my mind. Yes, how could I have missed it?

It was now my turn, by now our movement was very fluid and purposeful. Within seconds of entering the giant device, I realized that I was already on my way to the stars. I was feeling proud and excited. Goodbye earth, hope to see you soon. I was feeling weightless as we still were moving in a very well defined path. I looked at stars with the best of hopes.

The hope was shattered when I realized that we were slowing down and started to move towards the earth, it was scary. There was an experienced voyager next to me who said ‘Relax, everything is going to be alright’. I could feel the force pushing me downwards with a greater force every ticking millisecond, I now realized the power of gravity for the first time in my life. It was a free fall. I did not want to die, at least not this way. Before I realized, splash I fell into the pool, and slowly got pulled to the bottom of it.

I found myself back on the passage to the giant device. It was only then that an experienced voyager said ‘We are a part of what humans call a fountain, we go through the same cycle every moment of our day from now on. The humans stop the fountain only on days they call GO GREEN days or SAVE ELECTRICITY days. On all the other days, be it burning summers or freezing winters, the journey continues. During summers, the older folks burn away as they separate from the pack, the humans call it evaporation’. At this point I asked, ‘why do they do that? What do they gain from it? After all they call us the elixir of their life!’ ‘They somehow find it entertaining and enjoyable to watch us getting our hopes shattered, going high up and falling down. It is always a part of them. They laugh at a person slipping and falling over a banana peel and call it comedy. It is tough to understand them.’ Clearing his throat he continued, ‘It is up to us to make the best of the time we are over here.’

Those words have kept me going for a long time now. Soon I will evaporate as well. I wish humans would learn harmless ways to have fun. I wish they could show some respect to their life giver. After all they are the ones who complain about the scarcity of water. It is ironic to see what they do when they have water. Hope there is a human who listens to this hopeless cry of just A DROP of WATER!!!

Irendaayirathi pathu (2010) - oru kannottam

Chatena chendrathu irendaayirathi pathu (2010)
Yen varudam yenavena yoosikka
adhuvum idhuvum kalandhu nadunilayay mudigirathu.

Iniya nanbargal dhooram viraindhida
Sila pudhiyavargalludan natpu malarndhida
Dhukkamum Swargamum kalandhey irundhadhu.

Padhaiviyil uyarvem thooka kuraivum
Padipiley neraivum padaipil sarivum
Vettriyum vaatamum velai kandathu

Udan pirandhavagal pakkathil irukka
Uyir koduthor (pettror) thoolaivil nirkka
angum ingum panmurai chella payangal kondathu

Uttroor Uravinar palarin (thiru)manam kaana chella
Keralam Tamizhagam Karnadagam Andra'vil ulla
Pala idangalukku chendra naatkal neraindhathu

magizhchiyum valarchiyum thalarchiyum varatchiyum kandu
pala unarvugal negazhchigal ullam muzhumaiyai neraindhu
Idhu anaithum konda manam neraidha aandaaga idha varudam irundhathu!!

The Winner Stands Alone - An impression

The Winner Stands Alone - Paulo Coelho

A book that stands alone among Paulo’s works. I did not want to miss this book even if there were a lot of mixed reviews about this book. One thing for sure, you either love the book or hate it.
It did not take a real long time for me to find out that I love this book. This is new Paulo, from Magical reality (many call his prior works Idealistic or even Spiritual Fantasy) stepping closer to reality (and a few steps beyond as well).

Three wonderful characters – Igor (Powerful, rich, intelligent, cold yet holds his values and his god close to his heart), Ewa (Words are not sufficient to explain her, just wonderful) and Hamid (Achiever, Conscious, Loving).

In this book, Paulo has used wonderful and strong expressions which linger for quite a while after the read. Nice depiction of three people who hold different values struggle for what they believe is right.

I liked the cold nature of Igor and the brilliance of his mind. Even if he destroys many worlds(expression from the book) for his love, I never felt that he was evil. I was able to relate to each of the characters in a better way that any of his prior books. That is the reason why I liked this book.

Either you will love the book or you really hate it. There is just one way to find it out. Just read it.

My trip to Hebbe falls

This is my first effort to write a blog on my travel. I moved to Delhi for work recently. Before this I had been based in many cities. Bangalore was one of them. It was good to find company for trekking during weekends, which made my stay in Bengaluru very special. One of the weekends, we went for a trek to Hebbe falls.

The first leg of the journey was from Bangalore to Chikmangaloor, actually called Chika-Magaloor - Kannada for the town of the younger daughter. The bus was at 10:45 PM. Promptly started from the office at 45 min in advance cause I have a real bad luck in finding auto in Bangalore.. Luckily, this time I got an auto after a wait of just 10 min.. It took another 10 mins to reach the KSRTC ( read Karnataka State Road Transport Corp.) bus stand. My fellow travelers, 2 of them, were having dinner at a restaurant by the KSRTC bus stand. As we boarded the bus, I was happy that our seats were in the front. So almost immediately went to sleep.

We reached Chikamagaloor at around 5 AM. We got a bus from there to a place called Lingadahalli at around 6 AM. In Kannada Halli means village. This place is interestingly the home town of our Manager. We had to wait for 2 hrs for a bus to Kemmangundi (means hill of red soil). So, we opened our photography kits and managed to take a few pics.

We reached Kemmangundi at around 10 AM. What a beauty she was.. Thick clouds cover every bit of landscape, rich soil, rich vegetation, beautiful flowers, fresh smell of wet soil, pleasantly cold climate, little bit of drizzle all the time. I couldn't hold any longer from taking out my camera and clicking a few pics. The first pic is just outside the Kemmangundi Horticultural society, where we stayed. This place is very good and cheap too. Except for a few months, one can find a room here without any advance booking.

I was really thrilled by the view I had from just outside our room. I couldn't hold myself from clicking at the trees covered with clouds (It's not fog). I was standing there and just watching this scenic beauty.

I almost forgot we had come here to trek. And the route to the Hebbe falls was going better than this. One of my fellow trekkers reminded me that it was time for us to leave. Quickly, I took a bath and was all set for the trek.

Our cameras, rain protection for the cameras, breads, water, extra pair of dry pants and tees, mobiles and a torch.

We started out at 12 noon. We had to trek almost 13 km and had to return back.. We were almost sure that while coming back it was going to be dark!! I was really thrilled by the thought of trekking in the dark!!

As we started towards Hebbe falls, we realised two things.. one good and the other bad. The good news first.. Hebbe falls was just 11 km and not 13 km. The bad news.. we forgot to take salt from the room.. which means we will have a little bit of difficulty if there are going to be too many leeches. I personally don't mind just a few leech bits on me. Too much would mean a lot of itching after a week.

As soon as we started walking we took out our cameras and were continuously shooting. We were walking through the clouds. No words can explain the great feeling I had when I walked through the clouds. The clouds were showering fresh droplets of rain... within the first few miles, we were drenching wet.. The only disappointment was the fact that our cameras were not waterproof.. so we had to put them back in our bags before we got drenched in the rain.

We continued walking and the trek became interesting.. nature blessed us with many beautiful sights. I was able to capture only a few with my camera. I then realised.. How beautiful our eyes are.. It works in all the conditions.. Auto focus, every object in focus, auto aperture adjustment, the best quality lens in the world, macro capabilities!! Phew.. I only wish I had a camera with these capabilities!!

Then there we had a wonderful dog which followed us and was with us for the last 3 kms of the trek. It was guiding us at times when we were not sure how to go, otherwise was just behind us most of the time. There was a stream of water which we had to cross and we took almost 5-6 minutes to cross it. Once, we managed to reach the other side, we turned around to see that our companion was crossing the stream with very little effort. We could not stop to admire him abilities.

We finally reached the fall just to be amazed by the beauty of it. The sight was worth all the efforts we took to reach the place. We stood there and watched as long as we could. After an hour or so, we finally decided to return.

The four of us had some food and were all set for the return journey. We wanted to see if our four legged companion would follow us all the way till Kemmangundi. Unfortunately, he decided to stop at the exact place from where he joined us. We were now down to 3. So had a more relaxed walk and reached the resting place and were so happy to be back.

We frisked ourselves for leeches, had a wonderful bath in hot water and walked to the canteen to have our dinner. We were really tired, my legs were shaking, I was bleeding in quite a few places (leeches), but went to sleep with the feeling of satisfaction. Cheers to Hebbe falls.