Adventure-Travel

31st March ‘10. A few days back, I was mentioning to a friend of mine – Kerala is actually not ‘Gods’ own country’ during summers. Today as I sit by the window of a state transport bus bound towards Ernakulam from Munnar, I take back my statement. The cool gusts of evening breeze from the omnipresent coconut and Banana trees, the winding roads cutting through the Western Ghats, the narrow age old over-bridges on the canals and water-ways, the yellow haze of the sun as dusk sets in and the distinct architectural splendor portrayed by each of houses round the corner - Cruising in 80s on the barely twenty feet wide ghat roads, I realize there’s something ethereal about this place as I’m left to the mercy of the short mustached man behind the wheels. ...

It’s about 04:30Hrs and there’s not a single soul or bus in the stand. At about 05:00hrs, a tea vendor rides in on his bicycle. I check with him if there’s a direct bus to Pallavur to which he responds in affirmative stating the first one should be leaving at about 05:30hrs. He even obliges to get me on to the right bus once it comes in - Buses in Kerala are mostly marked in Malayalam and unless you know to read the language, It becomes a bit difficult in boarding the right bus. I’m amazingly pleased and gulp about three glasses of his hot masala tea.Buses start rolling into the stand one by one. It so appears that this gentleman is quite popular in the Bus stand and all the Drivers seem to know him by the name. He individually goes about handing over tea and flower garlands[For the deities in the buses] to each of the drivers. Slowly the Bus stand comes to life with newspaper vendors and the omnipresent ‘Lottery ticket wallahs’. [I’m amazed at how the Lottery fever has struck Kerala. You’d find folks selling tickets at any given point of time at any given nook and corner of the state (religious places included!). Some day I should get back and try figuring out how this whole system works!] ...

Well, today is the ninth day as an ‘Outfoscion’ and despite the initial hiccups the transition has been real smooth. It took me a couple of days to let the feeling really sink in and to get adjusted to the relaxed carefree schedule of my self imposed ‘break’ before I join TFI. The first two days were probably the most demanding in terms of getting ‘acclimatised’. I wake up at seven in the morning and I already have a feeling of not having done anything. Preparing a relaxed breakfast [ as much as I was looking forward to] for some weird reason looked quite boring.12:00 at noon, I realise there’s no company for lunch. And at about six as I sit before the lappy after a long siesta, the peace seemed to be even more troubling than the incessant honks from the traffic that my ear has got accustomed to from the past three years. But after a couple of days it was as if the sea had calmed down altogether. I could swiftly alter my body cycle to adjust to this ’new phase’ of my life and the days are no more ‘boring’. Every other day I’m reminded of some job that I’d long left unattended and to see them being closed out one by one by itself gives me some kind of an achievement…Well, Now is when I guess I best appreciate when people say It’s kinda nice to slow done every once in a while… ...

The first time I got to hear about the Junglethlon through facebook, I RSVPd blindly considering it to be yet another event and planned to keep it as a backup option. My year end outdoor escapade then was to either ride through Kerala in the second week of December or ride to Araku over the Christmas weekend. Eventually November and December turned out to be pretty hectic, with very little time left to put forth an action plan. With all plans crashing I hesitantly decided to head to Pench for the Junglethlon. Activities abound, days flew by and it was already time for the Pench visit. The event was for three days starting December 25th. Ram and I had initially decided to reach Nagpur a day in advance and visit the Kanha Wildlife sanctuary. A bit of googling and we realised this plan was not really feasible as Kanha was about 255kms from Nagpur. A day before we depart from Hyderabad, I check with Pradeep on ‘places to visit’ around Nagpur and jot down a couple of locations. ...

One very common question that I’m asked when I meet people in person who’ve come across my blog is how and why I travel so frequently. Today I received two e-mails from people whom I’ve not even met asking me the same question. I’ve never really given much thought to this per se, so I thought I’d chalk this out here. Passion: I travel because I need to! Ever since my graduation, I’ve trained my brain to reject monotony in any form. And travel happened to be one major part of it! As you start venturing out, you realise how much you’ve missed and that there’s a lot more to ’living life’ than the regular 8 to 5 job. Travel in a way gives you a different perspective to look at things and believe me, solutions at times too! ...

The milestone reads - Sojha 1Km. The three of us are literally panting for breath. The altimeter on Bala’s digital watch states 400 more meters is yet to be covered. Far ahead we see a state transport bus inching its way up the curves of the road. A gust of wind gets the thin air moving and suddenly from somewhere I get this sudden urge and energy to pedal the last km of upslope. I bluntly retort to Bala that his altimeter was wrong for some self motivation and crave for my calf muscles to stand with me. Every revolution on the crank seems to sap the almost drained out energy. I just didn’t want to push my bike up the slope in the last one Km! I close my eyes and pedal almost oblivious of the steep valley to the left, give it all I have and in that seemingly endless five minutes and finally reach the next milestone which hazily reads - Jalori 5km. ...

Anirudh revs up the Dicor’s engine one last time to get the huge stone that’s stuck beneath the chassis. The tire only slips further into the loose gravel and refuses to budge from the stone incine that we’ d created. 13:30hrs. Scorching 45 degrees outside.No sleep, no breakfast; Five hours of non-stop walk in the highly de-forested wildlife sanctuary, a dried up river bed on the right and two highly dehydrated people from the team yet to make their way to the car. Anirudh swings the car’s door open, hurls himself to the drivers seat, switches on the AC and escapes into oblivion. I follow suit. ...

14th Mar ´09 18:15hrs. We´re half way up the first stage and my cell beeps with a message - ´Debi has a fatal fall. Critical. Call ASAP´. Limited network on the hillock just does not allow the call to fall through. Debashish and a couple of his friends had been to Kerala and were scaling down the Chembra peak that Saturday.evening.We´d just started hiking up Kalsubai. I had met Debi,Roy, Manas and Rahul during one of my regular visits to Hyderabad when I was posted in Pune. They were then backpacking and exploring little known places in the country during their break. A down to earth group and you could easily fall in sync. with them in minutes. Last week Debi called me asking for places to visit in Kerala and I suggested Chembra peak. Little did I know how drastic a turn this would be for them. ...

07th Feb.- Saturday 23:25hrs. It’s damn chilly out here and every breath you take in brings out just another sore cough. We careen round the corner and happen to sight a couple of lorry drivers gambling on the roadside by the moonlight. Mallik and I park the bikes and venture ahead to enquire how far we were from Thangaon. 18Kms is what we get in response. Almost instantaneously I spurt out - Give it a damn! I lose my patience and decide to quit. Quit a race that I’ve been mentally preparing for close to three months now. I believe in my instincts and truly live by it!Another look at Mallik and Trupti only reconfirms the decision - I was not alone. ...