Gokarn

It was a typical mundane routine till the long imminent weekend. I was just back from a tiresome earlier Nov month with lots of activities in professional and personal space. Mentally I was fine to take a break but was worried on the physical exhaustion it might bring. So in an indolent manner kept procrastinating with lame excuses which ever struck my nervous system avoiding any excursion.

On such an occasion, came the long weekend and just a few days before an invite from Sachin, who I am sure was hellbent on doing a trip over the long weekend. In a rather impassive, incurious and a detached response, I affirmed the availability for the trip more so out of  concern of landing up doing nothing over the long weekend.

Sachin with sheer alacrity went ahead with booking all the tickets and the necessary itinerary. It was all up to me to just give him company till the end of the trip. The D-day did arrive and I dropped my vehicle back home after office and gathered a rather inappropriate backpack and arrived back at office. Sachin drove over to his home through the rather claustrophobic traffic @Mahadevpura, towards his house. We had a quick pit-stop and  gathered the necessary stuff and were on our way to Hebal; luckily we could get another tempo to GovardhanTheatre. The wait kept getting impatient since the bus was late. It was loathsome time we were spending with expletives fulminating from  our tongues (for once we would have beaten ViratKohli at his talent), just when it was beginning to peak, the bus arrived and we settled down not realizing what was to follow.

The bus had a weak seating architecture, to top it all, the Windows were open sourced; somehow we had a somnolent few hours before the bust halted for an early morning breakfast only to know that we were just 300kms from our source, any dog could calibrate the reaching time. Post breakfast the bus began this rather arduous journey which should make even senior citizens proud; well they could amble faster than the bus {There was some technical problem}.. Time just seemed as to not pass at all; Sachin was determined to quench his sleep appetite. A few forlorn hours went past by, with fellow commuters getting restless and irritated. Somehow at some point, barely 50kms before destination, the driver saw a garage, somehow had a temporary fix done, in the meanwhile Sachin was up fresh from his soporific state, we had tea to awaken our fallen spirits. The bus began its final stint before conclusion, until it missed a turn and headed in another way; luckily one of the passengers happened to be alert and observant and apprised the driver early of the incorrect route. It was the tip of the point, and the latent heat of all the passengers was awakened, all the anger was continuously converted to chides and reprimands with the external temperature being constant.

Finally the bus dropped us off at the bus stand and we took a rickshaw to Kudle beach. Since it was the eleventh hour, it was tough to get a shack. We roamed a lot until we found a hut, left with no options we had but no choice zero in on the availability, paid up the shack person (we felt it was expensive) albeit with no trumps up our sleeve, we quickly settled our backpacks. Enough time lost, there was no more left to be expended; we had our lunch quickly and decided to trek as long as we possibly could.

We trudged to the end of Kudle, kept hiking and we reached Om in no time. We just kept up our pace till we reached a gorge which slowed us down. We took a handsome break taking a few snaps and kept moving till we reached HalfMoon beach. Sachin got into his mode having a few selfies and clicks while I was still reeling in exhaustion. Finally we got moving towards Paradise beach. This trudge was uneven with moving stones and slippery rocks; we didnt mind since we got a taste of some trekking. En-route we found people returning since it was time and the Police were clearing the beach camping. It was here we got to know that camping was not permitted at Paradise beach. We kept treading along till we were confounded on the path, we found two foreign girls returning and we asked for directions; they shared that we were close-by. One of the girls had a minor slip and yours truly took no time in giving her a firm hand lest she fell. Pleasantries exchanged we moved on and reached the otherwise desolate beach with a 5 policemen and a few people waiting for the ferry. We decided on our options quickly, we would have to trek all the way back to Kudle in a failing light, which was not advisable. The policemen were fine with us sharing the boat to Om. We waited for the ferry and the light had faded enough for the evening to apparate into night. The ferry returned and dropped us at Om. From Om we decided to take a rickshaw to Kudle but our efforts to bargain with the rickshaw guys failed and we walked our way to Kudle on the well laid out road. At Kudle we had some initial difficulty in locating our shack, but somehow we managed to lock in on the GPS co-ordinates. We freshened ourselves to re-invigorate our drooping energy levels with a handsome dinner. Having our fill, we had a night walk all along Kudle. The beach was welcoming, with a nice breeze and chilled moon light. We returned to the shack to rest ourselves for a long next day.

The next began with us walking and doing a light sprint at the beach, collecting ourselves, packing stuff and clearing the shack. We had decided it was time for us to be aquatic marines for the day. We trekked forward along the known trail towards Om. Sachin familiarized with a couple of girls on the way and we had a company to trek on the already familiarized trail. Exchanging pleasantries and chit-chatting along we kept trekking till we reached Paradise. Once there Sachin and I wasted no time watsoever in running into the welcoming ArabSamudradev's arms. It was high tide with the previous day being full moon day. Not venturing deep we dipped ourselves, the water tasted too saline as is always the case. Sachin tried his swimming skills: floating, paddling, submerging et-al; your's truly had his own methods, was into his own ritual. Enough time spent, having our fill of water, we caught a ferry back to Om. We proceeded to NamasteCafe for lunch, but heard for the first time that the restaurant was out of resources. Anyways disappointed we hired a rick to the main bazaar and the driver was kind enough to drop us next a hotel so that we could have food. I decided to fill my empty purse and was on the recourse to discover an ATM, but the day was such that not a single ATM was left with any cash cover; too much time gone I walked back to the hotel; We ate our fill and decided to visit the nearby Ganesh and Mahabaleshwar temples. Mahabaleshwar temple had too much of queue that we would have missed our bus getting into the barricaded darshan queue.

We ambled to MarutiKatte the pickup for our bus, where Sachin made a few quick calls to confirm our pick up. We caught up with the familiar faces with the erstwhile trekking company who were also waiting for their buses. Buses were on the way, exchanged farewells, we boarded our bus. This turned out to be better journey and thankfully no surprises and we were back in business no time lost, which is the reason that the blog turned up. It was a nice trip on an account barring the to-way jaunt.

A quick rejoinder would be to book rooms (especially if families/couples are bound), that way it gets convenient. The rest all is fun guaranteed.

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.

Dudhsagar Trek, Track and Trail

It was more than an year's wait for this trek. I had planned it last year in 2011, contacted a lot of people, colleagues, friends, acquaintances, all but destiny had its plans to ensure it would not happen that year long. 

I was disappointed, frustrated and was angry at people, for disowning the plan, at destiny that how much ever I planned it had its ways and last myself for giving in ultimately. I was not the only one let down, there was a shoulder for support from Ravi-sir aka RC. But then this was all soon to vanish and the enduring wait culminated  at the Nirvana, the blissful view of the Dudhsagar falls. 

With the monsoons hitting Kerala by June 1st week, RC and I had already determined this is the  year of the Dudhsagar season, and yes it was karo ya maro; koi aaye naa aaye, hum duno hi kaafi hain.

We had the last years itinerary, planing etc, we brought it out all to the table, contacted very few guys and did not even worry about anyone else's participation. Finally it would be 4 guys for the podium finish; must mention that Sankar was the first to be affirmative that he was in, later RaviKumar joined.

We prepared the itinerary, did not get the train tickets, in the end decided that we will take the bus. We then chalked out the other details, macro and the minute ones and were raring to go on 3rd August. Though I must mention that very few websites mentioned about the travel from Hyderabad to CastleRock (starting point for the trek), most of the websites referred to the train travel or the travel from Panaji to Kulem.

So here is the clarification; Dudhsagar can be trekked from both Kulem (Goa side) and from CastleRock (Karnataka side). These are railway stations respectively and are not easily approachable by buses (public, private and local), hence most of information point to train travel. From CastleRock side, the best option is to get down at Anmodi (On Belgaum-Ponda-Panjim highway) and take cabs/taxi or walk it to CastleRock railway station, the distance approximately being 9 kms.

So dilating back, we took a AC sleeper coach from Hyderabad to Goa, which was scheduled to leave at 5:45pm. Sankar, RC and I decided to hire a rickshaw to the pickup point, and on the way were continuously bombarded with phone calls from the bus guy that the bus would depart. Here the accolades for causing the delay caused must go to the reluctant rickshaw driver, who declined all my suggestions on taking a shortcut, in the end broke a dozen traffic rules before he landed us at the boarding point. Somehow we managed to board before the scheduled departure but without RaviKumar aka RK. I was a touch feeling  pulled down with the course of evemts, but soon RK joined us at the next boarding point, in what was soon to be a Gospel scripted by nature.

We had the banal chitchat going along, with a few taunts at each other,  Sankar bearing the most of it. At the dinner pitstop at Jadcherla, we had a very light food to close it for the night. The next day began with the scenic Ghat sections with chicanes and hairpin bends and we decided to alight at Ponda rather than at Panji. We got ourselves freshened up at Ponda, quickly had a snack and started to look out for a conveyance to CastleRock. It was here we got to know that there would no buses to CastleRock/Kulem. We then got goaded by TaxiDriver, it was left to me to do the coaxing, much of the coercion seemed to give way till the mellifluous Marathi language stepped in and saved the time. The taxi driver then mentioned that we should have alighted at Anmodi, which would have saved us 2 hours of the extra travel, since we would be tracing the same route in the other direction. The distance from Ponda to CastleRock is around 70 kms. 

The taxi driver dropped us at CastleRock and it was 10:30 when we reached the station. We decided to enquire about GuestHouses or Railway Waiting rooms since we had decided to return to CastleRock and stop for the night. It took more than a while to get details for the lodging, but soon found out the Inspection Bungalow (IB) hardly a kilometre from the station. The necessary items such as biscuits, dates, first-aid kit etc were stuffed in a common bag which was to be only backpack to be carried all along the trail. We soon got ourselves going and began on the long flipflop to Dudhsagar.

The trail was all along the railway track from CastleRock station. The cameras were out and we were mesmerized by the caricature of nature. Every single stroke of nature seemed as its magnum-opus which it kept dishing out every time we glanced on it, or perhaps it had decided to ameliorate my sunken heart and mollify my grounded senses for the perilous patient wait for the trek. Every single step in the direction towards our destination was like a process which kept us effervescent with enthusiasm. 

We came across tunnels, the first one being around a 100ms, the second one being around 500m, the torch had to make its way out if we had to reach the light at the end of the tunnel. After a few metres, we made way for a goods train to make its pass, after which we resumed our march. We came across two more tunnels after which we reached  Caranzol station. We were greeted by the hoot passenger train Howrah-Vasco Express from CastleRock. We had a pitstop to give our knees a break, replenished ourselves with glucose biscuits and water, before tugging along.

The next few kilometres were all along the tracks with the streams and the bridges on these keeping us motivated. We had our shutters clicking, but the ephemeral rains would force the cameras back into the kangaroos pouch. We kept chugging along,walking at a brisk but consistent speed with no big stops till we reached the Scarpment Viaduct, where I decided to change into full trousers, and the rest of team got busy in taking the panoramic view of the landscape around.

We kept our "chal chal re naujavan", negotiated a few more tunnels 5 or 6 and were soon greeted by  a goods train at rest waiting for its share of the green. We were exhausted a bit due to continuous non stop walk. RC suggested that we have the dates, which will immediately rejuvenate us. A few of the railway men affirmed our belied belief that Dudhsagar was around a few turns. Soon our eyes laid on the RailwayStation with its proud name Dudhsagar. The last tunnel negotiation and half a kilometre trail gave way for the decibel thrashing water splurge. A few more metres and the breath taking, jaw dropping and the mouth opening magnum-opus nature's caricature aka Dudhsagar right in front of our eyes. The eyelids would not close, the heartbeats were not felt, goose bumps did not distract us, the eyes were in a trance fixed on the grand gushing water torrent.

My eyes were moist and a look at RC sir confirmed the sentiment, a year long wait had ended and how, it was divine and the divinity seemed in an ethereal way to reach out to us to give the words, "jab sach, ichha aur sahas ho man me, anth mein jeeth usi ki rahe".

We pounced on every single take the camera could capture, videos and snaps alike, waited for a few more divine moments to feel ourselves with Dudhsagar; satiated to our fill,  started the way back to Dudhsagar Station. Away from the falls, the first human sense of hunger interrupted us to have our lunch which was Uppittu and Kande-Wade. After a brief inquiry at the station, found that there was an imminent train towards CastleRock, which we all boarded in no time. We were ticketless and found wanted by the TC, who gifted us generously with a receipt till CastleRock, when we decided to calm ourselves with tomato-soup. We kept our eyes out of the window for the track and trail, recalled our nostalgic moments just hours ago and soon we were at CasleRock by 6pm. The train took just 40 minutes against our 260 minutes. A word of mention, there is no ticket counter at Dudhsagar station, one needs to buy these at CastleRock itself for the return.

We inquired about trains for the next day and trudged to IB. We got oursleves freshened up, had coffee and waited for the dinner to be served. The dinner was a simple one with chappati, bhaaji, dal and rice, nevertheless we gorged on the food and tucked ourselves in blankets. The early morning greeted us with the train hoots and the splendid view of the mist, mountains and greenery alike. After a few minutes of babbling, we got ourselves going, got freshened up, had our breakfast, waived farewell to the bungalow manager and set out to the station to catch the Pune-Ernakulam Express due to arrive at 10. The train was late and we had no problem in settling down.  This time we had our tickets, and as it is with Murphy's law no TC's. We patiently waited for a final pupil-fixation at the waterfalls till it it was out of our sights. After a couple of hours we alighted at Madgaon, and post  a long deliberation, booked a prepaid taxi to Panaji, since we had to board our return journey via bus. 

At Panjim, post a 45 minute drive, we had our lunch at Kamat's where the waiters would get appraisals based on amount of food saved during serving. We had our fill and proceeded to purchase dry-fruits which are known to be inexpensive at Goa. We took a few formality snaps for evidence at Panjim and proceeded to the bus-stand to board our bus. We got to our rake, quickly settled down and in not much time, commenced our return journey. We enjoyed the bends, the mist , the mountains every spec that our eyes could itself upon, got back to the mundane banality, and to a quick power nap session. In a few hours we were at Belgaum, for dinner, after which we all cozily pushed into blankets for a sleepy jaunt into our dreams. The next day dawned itself with the noisy conductor waking us all at Jadcherla for leak-break, which we all relieved ourselves after which we resumed our soporific state. In a couple of hours we were at Hyderabad with heavy bodies but a light but a satisfied heart of a purpose achieved.

All in all, a patient enduring penance had ended, which bore the fruits of satisfaction and calm in our minds. The gushing torrent of Dudhsagar had flushed out the disappointment and resentment in its current and left behind placidity and tranquility. This was indeed a penance that had unfolded.

I, Me and Myself

pushed into a corner , i found myself
no light , but only shadows to stare at

all my knowledge seemed to have surrendered
and the might of fear seemed to overwhelm my faith

for my defeat looked inevitable even to a fool
and my existence one with darkness

for a volcano of emotions burst out in my heart
a few of anger , lots of hatred for those who gave this dark gift

i burnt in my anger , and hatred; one with the gloom around me
i was transforming into the very same darkness i disowned

a rude awakening one may say when my broken knowledge woke me up
it was astonishing how far i had walked away from where i wanted to be

with a pat on my shoulder " lets do it, not try " said my knowledge
from that day till time bid me bye , i stare the darkness in its face,
for that's why they call me a STAR

Genius, they say, is infinite patience. But it is first of all an intuitive grasp of something beyond the scope of will - or, for that matter, skill.

... (these have been picked from somewhere, not my words exactly, however liked it so much, that published it here)