Mission I'M'Possible

What more is to be done, so that in the glory I bask,

Is it a hurdle or challenge or a task, I ask,

It is none, said I, don't be crazy,

why rake in so much effort, when you can be lazy,

So this is the road I took,

without even bothering to look,

It was never right, was always wrong,

till I got shaken up by the sound of a deadly gong,

Then realization took time to dawn,

It was not the time to yawn,

Wake up, get up, sit upright,

Dont you worry, I will hold you tight,

Who said this to me, was it you God, my Lord,

Or is it myself to me, who gave this word,

Is this a motivation, an idea or a thought,

Is something there really so much for me to be sought,

Yes said myself to me, there is so much to rein,

Get all your energy and blood in your vein,

You are not erudite, that you first acknowledge,

Only then you see light and the road to knowledge,

Yearn always to learn, unlearn and again learn,

For it is best that in light you burn,

Set a pyre in you and put your
              laziness, anger, envy, fear, hatred, pride, obsession, sadness, selfishness

Ignite all these to a huge flame,

For then after you will never be the same,

Then you will see in sight,

Only a bright white light,

That's what will always be your vision,

Intellect and knowledge is my only mission,

Whatever I endure, whatever I materially gain,

Whether I succeed or fail, no matter what my pain,

Never will I be in darkness or despair,

But myself be in light and always emit flare,

Myself will prod me and tell,

All you needed was to ring inward a bell,

May you be always be on path of knowledge is my blessing,

Thanks I say, for this is what myself to me will always sing,

From now on, this will be my karma,

With time this will be my dharma.

Belum Caves, Light in Darkness.

 Belum Caves, Light in Darkness.

It had been a while since, a venture into nature had happened and the restlessness was growing; it then gave way to frustration, partly because of my health deteriorating and more so due to prolonged procrastination of an excursion.

To begin with there were long weekends in the offing, and the moment was perfect for an adventure. It was mid March, and the mercury was slowly rising, bidding farewell to the cool winter. This phase is tricky physically since it especially brings in common-cold virus which till today no antivirus pill can quarantine. The bug got stuck in me and it was sickening and an annoying phase. It was one such Wednesday morning when I was in a prickly mood that a familiar voice fell on my ears: Hari Sir, enna pannindrikungaa (what are you upto). It was Arul at my desk, with his face beaming and in a tone full of alacrity Hari Sir oru trip podunga (plan a trip). Well that was it, for a moment my queasiness and weariness was gone and his exuberance had its immediate effect; Enge porudhu (where to go). He had the solution to that also, how about Belum Caves was his next question. The next few instants were spent on Googling and I had my research about the place satiated, Belum Caves it is. I walked upto Sachin, who was about to go for lunch and asked him if he was interested and he was affirmative; his excitement knew no bounds and he instantly put out an event on FB requesting guys in office to confirm their presence. The date was decided to be on 29th March, which was Good Friday.

As luck always had it, most people were reluctant, partly due to their work obligations, tight deadlines, personal work and for me it was health. Two weeks passed by (weekends too :( ) and it was soon the Ugadi weekend, which i knew was never possible since I was traveling home. Belum Caves kept ringing like a bell in my mind and it soon lost its echo when I was home. I think this weekend was good for all, since it gave people some time off work and especially for me it was rejuvenation. Ugadi weekend passed by and the imminent Monday was as usual routine day with work, specs, scripts and mails. The evening turned different with Sachin organizing a conference in the Cafeteria about the long forgotten trip. I think if ever there was a turning point this was it,( the captain leads from the front in Sourav Ganguly's words.) there was a long deliberating discussion on where to go, should it be Belum or somewhere else may be Srisailam. ChandraSekhar gave his opinions, and a lot others who did not make it to the trip also suggested places. Well it is always the captain's call and a unanimous decision to go to Belum was decided on the imminent long weekend.

So the itinerary finally, finally made its way, the next day noon: 

                                Thursday departure from office and travel to Kurnool.

                                Stay the Thursday night and Friday morning travel to Belum.

                                Roam the caves, visit adjoining places: Yaganti & MahaNandi.

A quick meet at the Cafeteria again around the evening coffee time confirmed the platoon of 10. Wednesday gave way to mode of travel, and after all options Mahesh and Srinivas took up the task to finalize a tempo-traveller of 12 seater that would see us through the excursion and drop us back at office. The wait to Thursday was getting impatient and minutes seemed like hours to pass and finally the day dawned.

 Most of the Belum-10 (that's what i termed the gang) had brought their backpacks from home directly to office; the rest would get their packs from home and join at the office campus. People had their task cut out, and yes it was an infallible mission, complete your work hook or by crook before we travel and yes no hassles means no hassles. With digital clock displaying its LED readout at 17:45, it was time to leave. There was a last minute discussion on an imminent project (the details on the project cant be divulged in public space), and it involved 40% of  team: Sachin, Mahesh, Chaitanya and yours truly. Our senior Sridhar got to know of our trip just when we were about to leave, 4 guys of a project team off to an excursion into an underground cave, he was worried of our well-being,  that we make our returns in one piece. With all jocular farewell bids and amidst frolic, the gang made its way into a 12 seater traveller. After a few glitches and wading our way out of the Hyderabad traffic, we had a pit stop @Gachibowli, in order to collect water-bottles and some snacks. I must mention the Captain's strategy, he had made 3 groups:-

Group1: Finance Group:- Balaji, Srinivas, AndHari, (will come to the prefix And Later)

Group2: Event Management Group :- Mahesh, ArulRaj, Ravi, Avinash

Group3: Itinerary Group: Sachin, Chaitany, Yours'Truly (OrHari).. (Will explain the nomenclature later)

Well as it happens in any trip, these hierarchies are never followed; actually who listens to  the captain; this is democracy we elected the captain. Anyways going ahead and after crossing Jadcherla we decided to halt for dinner. All of us had settled into a round table conference, had our fill and headed for Kurnool. Then rounds of Dumb-Charades started, began with everything from vehicles to people to movies. When it started getting out of control a unanimous decision was taken to emote only English movies. That's when Chaitanya got up for his turn and in his skit began pointing to HarikKrishna, it was tough to comprehend when Srinivas exclaimed And Hari!; the whole group burst into a laugh riot courtesy Sachin with his ever ludicrous comments; and then even Your's Truly was christened as OrHari: taking a cue from logic circuits. The dumb-charades was fun since we lost track of time and reached Kurnool by 11pm. Thanks to Mahesh, who had booked the hotel rooms in advance, it was so comfortable that we could crash in our beds. Sachin, Balu and I shared a room, while Ravi, Avinash, Srini & AndHari jostled into an other room; Mahesh, Arul and Chitanya calmly settled down in their cosy beds. Guess was it was good but it was the summer in Kurnool and yup it was hot; somehow our tired bodies had rest. It was morning and the alarm duty to give everyone a wake-up call belonged to Mahesh, who undertook this arduous duty. People had to get up and have their ablutions underway and leave soon for breakfast. A few poses and experiments with the cameras were undertaken, partly to check the cameras and also to wait for the other people to get ready. Once done, we had a team snap before leaving for breakfast.

We enjoyed the breakfast, it was a simple place but served good food at very economical rates unlike the city culture. Then journey began to Belum, we had antakshari rounds to pass our time. It was in 3 hours that we were at Belum. Well to give a brief description about BelumCaves:

Belum Cave lies in Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh. Belum Cave is 3.5 km in length and the second longest cave in India next to 21km long Krem Um Lawan cave in Meghalaya. Only 2km of the Belum Cave is opened for public. To enter inside the cave one should be accompanied by a guide and freely wandering in the cave is strictly prohibited. There are three entry points to the cave out of which one is converted to a main entrance. There are passages in the cave where one will have to crawl to pass by. There are some streams inside the cave. There is a chamber inside the cave where a lot of stalactites and stalagmites (horn like formation of limestone) can be seen. The chamber is called Kotilingalu and the entrance to chamber is called Simhadwaram. There is a chamber inside the cave called Saptasvarala Guha or Musical chamber where the limestone formations make metallic sounds. The deepest point in the cave is called Pathalaganga where a perennial stream is found.

We had to purchase tickets at the ASI counter, and soon found our way into a ring of steps that went underground leading us to the mouth of the caves. Cameras made their way out and soon the photography buffs were found clicking anything interesting that came by. It was complete exploration, since there were lot of narrow pathways that branched, not that anyone would be lost finding their way back, but it was nevertheless a good exercise. Each one was lost into his own climbing up the rocks, posing for the photographer counterparts; it was left to photographers to capture their subjects in various poses, styles and genre. It was breathtaking to see the stalactites and stalagmites, the limestone rocks, the natural etches and rock layers, would keep the geologists enthused. We kept going along the different trails, had our brief halts for our hits on the shutter button. The good thing was there were air blowers for air circulation at various points in the cave without which there could have been suffocation. We have been attuned to see nature's marvels on and above the planet's surface but never had much of an opportunity to see and therefore imagine the magnum opus that nature's been carving right below our feet. We treaded to the various chambers in the cave, especially to the abyss in the cave the Patalganga, had our clicking sessions and made way back to the exit. The conservation work by the ASI and the various institutions were very appreciable but equally appalling was the lackadaisical attitude of the visitors who would carelessly dispose off the plastic bottles to the darkest corners of the cave, lest respecting the efforts and the heritage of our nation.

Once at the exit of the cave, the team proceeded to the Andhra hotel inside the campus for lunch. The lunch was in traditional Andhra style; in no time we were into gorging the food and gulping barrels of water. After a few team snaps, as per the itinerary marched into the traveller to proceed to Yaganti.

 PS: For cynics who say that India is undeveloped, we found a Google product in the heartland of our nation.

It was afternoon and the sun was at its peak and in no time the heat was beginning to  get unbearable, upon which the complete realization dawned that the AC was not working at all. All this while the travel was during the calmer evening, a windy night and a cooler morning: the noon drew upon us to unfold an evil truth about the AC. Obviously it was tough and the guys got queasy and restless; it was through these moments of latent heat, Mahesh and Arul got together in their act to obviate people's senses. Hat's off to Mahesh, that he had googled the lyrics, rehearsed a tamil song just to play it in live performance; Arul gave him the much needed company. In no time the two of them had the entire team in spirits, which rubbed on the captain forcing him into a small jig.

This got us going and did not realize that we were at the door step of our next destination. Yaganti has a beautiful temple of Lord Uma & Maheshwara in one stone. This temple is inside a cave. Adjacent to this temple there is cave that homes a very old of  Lord Vishnu. The main temple has a ShivLinga which is broken as per legend. The statue of Nandi is known to grow, which is scientifically confirmed by the ASI also. Once can google for more on the legendary mythology of Yaganti. Yaganti is also home to a few springs which flow as streams down from the hills. It was astonishing to see these streams in peak summer, since, going by the normal expectation these would have been defunct and dry.  We had our darshans, ate our prasads and satiated our thirst from the spring waters. There was one last place to visit on the itinerary plan Mahanandi.

All of us made a tired gait to the van, Mahanandi was not too far from; we reached our final destination by evening. Chaitanya guided us that was a flowing waterhole within the temple premises, where a much needed dip can be taken. In an  instant the team got ready with the essential baggage: towels, inner wears etc and got in the queue for darshan . Chaitanya led the way into the temple and we were soon at the snactum santorum of the temple. All of us had our silent prayers and in no time accelerated to the waterhole. We had to keep our impatience in check and had to wait for a few precious minutes which seemed like eons; the never ending wait in no time transcended to exuberance and we got into the waterhole, immersing our burning bodies in the cold water. Water had its calming effect which was evident from everyone's relieved face. The water was chest high, crystal clear that one could see his feet at water bed. Every iota of a moment was imbibed, and people were lost into themselves. This very moment metaphorically drew a flashback on the poem in ZNMD movie. It took a lot of effort for the team to pull out of water, the credit goes to time, since it was getting late.

Fresh and energetic, it was a dash to Kurnool and checkout from the hotel. There was a quick unanimous decision to have dinner on the way back to Hyderabad. Sachin kept on vociferously iterating on a Punjabi Dhaba by name GuruNanak Dhaba which he claimed to see en route to our  way to Kurnool the previous night. A few halts here and there were made to check the same name, but it was futile and soon we did find a Punjabi Dhaba by a different name. It was a exhaustive wait for our dinner, though it was delivered in 15-20 minutes. Dinner rejuvenated the gang only to find Sachin exult and show GuruNanak Dhaba barely a kilometre from our dinner pit stop. In no time the exhaustion paved way to a much deprived sleep. Most of us were in  khayalon mein" when we were broken from our slumber by a sudden braking. There was nothing just that the driver had gone into his "khayalon mein" . The effect was startling, enough to jolt us from somnolence, when Chaitanya read 9kms to Jadcherla on the milestone. In 15 mins we had our tea time, especially for the driver to get his senses back since it was still a good 90 kms to our resident city. The next events were dull and boring that we kept looking at milestones aimlessly and dozed off to sleep. As the time had passed we found ourselves in HitechCity and soon at our office premises. After settling accounts with the driver, the gang meted to bidding farewells.

It was 3am in the morning and the much needed excursion was realized; not that it satiated my lust for a trip, but nevertheless it drew me closer to new people, people who were strangers: in terms of knowing them, their likes, genre of music, movies they frequent to, the principles they adhere to; most importantly the effort they put in to keep the person next to them comfortable. This was the people with whom I would have had project and technical discussions, it had a different bend from this excursion. There will be more trips to come, that's a deal.