Breakaway from the routine - an escapade with the GODS

One fine day one of my friends casually asked me if we could go on a day long trip to visit temples of lord Shiva, "Why not?", I said and that is how the plan was made.  We initially decided to visit Chidambaram, Vaitheeshwaran koil, Seerkazhi and Mayavaram.  8th December, the Saturday was chosen as we could afford to take rest the next day.

It was decided that we start as early as 4:00 am in the morning in order to cover all the 4 temples in one day, we requested the cab driver to come by 3:30 in the morning since everyone had to be picked from different locations.  I woke up by 3:00 am, soon after my morning routine, I woke my mom by 3:30 and asked her to prepare some breakfast for the group, the idea was to spare the time spent eating breakfast in a hotel.  The breakfast was prepared and packed by 4:00 am, Amma had already made the arrangements the previous night, the commitment of our mothers are bluntly incontestable.

I received a call from Sangavi by around 4:30 in the morning, she said that they have started from Korratur and would reach Mylapore in a while, though the driver had some difficulties spotting my place, the cab arrived at 5:00 am.  The cab was occupied by Sangavi, Nitheesh (Sangavi’s younger bro) and their mom.  I got into the front seat after waiving a "hi" to the three of them and gestured a "bye" to Amma, she was standing in the balcony to send me off.  We left straight to Tambaram to pick others.  By 5:45 am we reached Tambaram to pick Jaishree, her mom, Chitra and Vijay, pleasantries were shared as we got introduced to each other (since we were meeting for the first time).  We left from Tambaram by sharp 6:00 am, a mighty 2 hr delay from what we had planned.

The roads were covered with fog, there was barely any visibility beyond 10 mts.  Myself and Nitheesh were seated in the front seat and we got ourselves cracking on a variety of subjects.  Building a conversation was never a problem, I have a topic for everyone ;).  We were discussing about Cash Flow statements and their financial implications, we also discussed about the key financial parameters to be scrutinized before investing, while the girls were having a gala time giggling and chitchatting, girls you see ;)..  It must be around 7:30 am, we stopped at a place that read ‘Kumbakonam Coffee’ it was hard for us to resist, we had breakfast and sukku kaapi and left by around 8.  Straight to Chidambaram.

  (Sri Panakatteshwarar temple)

I was sharing my experience about 1,500 to 2,000 year old Sri Panakatteshwarar temple that is located in a small village by the name Panayapuram near Villupuram, I had visited this temple a month before.  As per the inscriptions in the temple, King Sibi Chakkravarthi (the one who offered his flesh to save a dove) had offered his prayers to Panakatteshwarar.  

   (Sri Panakatteshwarar temple)

It is said that Surya Bhagavan worshipped Lord Shiva here to regain his brightness.  A rare feature in this temple is that, in the months of April – May (Tamil month Chithirai) the Sun rays fall directly on the lord as well as Ambal, bathing them from top to bottom as he transits from morning to evening!!  Is it not an architectural marvel??  As I spoke about the temple, it so happened that Nitheesh spotted Panayapuram sign board while we were driving past Villipuram, we thought it was a good idea to stop by and visit the temple before we proceed to Chidambaram.  Do we call it a coincidence?  In my opinion, nothing is coincidental, it is all well planned, orchestrated and executed by HIM.  After the soulful darshan of Sri Panakatteshwarar and Puravammai, we left to Chidambaram by 10:30 am. 

We had to rush since we wanted to cover Chidambaram before 2 pm, else the temple will be closed for visitors.  We reached the Thillai Natarajar temple in Chidambaram by around 11:45 am, exactly when uchi kala poojai was going on.  It was splendid to see the lord of the lords Nataraja in his “Ananda Thandava” posture amidst the ringing bells and deeparadhana.  The “Ananda Thandava” posture of Nataraja represents pancikritya functions of the head of Gods, Shiva is believed to have formed the dynamic force to create the world.  Hara Hara mahadeva.. Goosebumps as I write..  

(Natarajar)

After worshipping Thillai Natarajar, we offered our prayers to lord Vishnu who was in the form of Govindaraja Perumal, it is to be noted that  it is one of the 108 divyadesams.  As we moved around the temple we offered our prayers to Shivakami Amman, Ganesha and Murugan.  We were mesmerized and stunned by the architecture of the grand old structure, there were amazing sculptures all around the temple pillars and extraordinary paintings in the ceilings.  It is believed that the temple was originally raised in the Sangam period (30th century BC to 4th century CE) with additions later in similar style in the 12th and 13th centuries respectively by Aditya I, Parantaka Chola I, Kopperunchinga I, Krishnadevaraya and Jatavarman Sundara Pandyan.  Marvy!! isn’t it? to be offering prayers in a temple that was worshipped  before 2 millenniums.   

(Thillai Natarajar temple Gopuram)

The time was 2:00 pm and the authorities asked us to vacate the temple, while we were moving out, Chitra gave an interesting explanation about the mythical creature Yali that is found as stone carvings in numerous temples in Tamil Nadu and across South India.  Since Lion was the emblem of Pallavas, the Cholas created an imaginary character Yali that has the head of a lion with tusks of an elephant and tail of a serpent.  Chitra also shared her spiritual disclosure with respect to vibrations and positive ambiance that she experiences while visiting temples, especially the Ancient ones.  It is wonderful to be on a spiritual tour, particularly with "Like minded" people around, the feeling is simple inexplicable.

(The place where we had lunch)

We started from Chidambaram by around 2:15 pm and headed towards Vaitheeswaran koil.  We found an excellent shady place on our way which was brilliantly spotted by our driver to have lunch.  A huge tree, branch of a river, cool breeze, two cute little puppies around, WOW, we couldn’t have enjoyed such a luxury even in the finest of the Hotels.  Sangavi and Jaishree’s mom had prepared delicious puliyodharai, curd rice, pudina thogayal, chips and pickle.  We relished our lunch and rested for a while, we utilized this time to know more about each other, since most of us were meeting for the first time.  The time we spent was sort of an ice breaker, now we were a more open lot, the journey was filled with fun and frolic as we reached Vaitheeswaran temple by 3:00 pm.

(Vaitheeswaran koil holy tank “Siddha Amritam)

We were told that the temple will open only by 4:30, we used the one hour time to freshen up.  I took a dip in the holy tank Siddha Amritam which is located within the temple complex.  It is believed that the holy tank contains nectar and a holy dip is supposed to cure all diseases.  We were still left with some time, myself, Nitheesh, Sangavi, Chitra, Jayashree and Vijay sat in a circle and were discussing about Lord Shiva and his various forms.  Jayashree and Sangavi spoke about their aptitude to connect with lord Shiva after reading Amish Tripathi’s immortals of meluha while I agreed to disagree.  Nonetheless it was a healthy conversation.

The sannidhi opened by 4:30 pm, we bought archanai tickets and vilvam for Vaithyanatha Swamy and Thayyal Nayagi.  All of us were made to sit inside the prakaram by the priests, I do not know what induced the priest to call us inside.  All of us had fantastic darshan of  Lord Shiva who was in the form of Vaithyanatha Swamy.  During the Ramayana period, Rama and Lakshmana have worshipped the deity in this place.  It is believed that Rama and his brother Lakshmana cremated the vulture king Jatayu (who was killed by Ravana) at this place.  We also offered our prayers to Angaraka (Mars) who has a separate Sannidhi, Murugan and Thayyal Nayagi.  We procured some prasadam from the temple counter, without any further delay we got into our Cab and advanced towards Sattainathar Temple in Sirkazhi.

Sirkazhi temple is just 6 kms from Vaitheeshwaran temple, we reached Sattainathar Temple by 5:30 pm.  Sirkazhi temple is an ancient temple complex where Shiva resides in three different forms, Bhramapureeswarar, Thoniappar and Sattainathar.  First we offered our prayers to Bhramapureeswarar, there was hardly any crowd in the temple, which was like icing on the cake.  We proceeded to Tirugnana Sambandar’s sannidhi, this is one temple that has a separate shrine for Gnana Sambandar.  There is a mythological story that when Sambandar was three years old, Shiva and Parvati appeared before the child that was crying for milk, goddess Parvati breastfed the little Sambandar and that is when the child became Gnana Sambandar and this incident is said to have happened in this grand old temple.

(Sirkazhi Sattainathar temple)

Since most of them were visiting the temple for the 1st time, I kept saying that everyone will be taken by surprise when they climb up and take a glimpse of Sri Thoniappar who resides at the second level.  We were ‘awestruck’ by the gigantic figure of lord Shiva who was in the form of Periyanakar with Periyanayaki sitting on a Thoni, no one could utter a word, as we were completely swept off by HIS magnificence.  I could ask for nothing but thank him for this wonderful life he has bestowed me with.  Lovely parents, very good education, a decent job, wonderful set of friends and most importantly a heart that is content..  What else could one ask for in life?  The priest explained us the sthala puranam, it is said that after pralayam (world coming to an end) in the treta yugam, Shiva and Parvati came on a Thoni and hence the name Thoniappar.  We further climbed upwards to worship another form of Shiva Sattainathar through a small window, we were told that the shrine will be open only during specific days in the year.  Sirkazhi temple remains very close to my heart for numerous reasons, it is said that those who visit this temple will get their mind purified and get over ignorance, true in fact.

(The team)

It was around 6:30 pm, we packed ourselves back into the cab, despite waking up as early as 2:30 in the morning, continued by tireless travel, everyone were so enthusiastic and overwhelmed.  We were extremely satisfied on how the day was spent.  The fact is we did not plan or organize the trip as such, things just fell in place, HE made the plan for us.  Had we planned, I am not quite sure how the outcome would have been.  It reminds me of a quote, “Surrender to the Cosmic plan, don’t be a victim of your personal agenda”.

Our way back to Chennai was really entertaining, we cracked a lot of jokes and pulled each other’s legs.  We had some confusions with regards to the route but it was later sorted out.  It was 10:00 pm when we stopped for dinner, everyone had almost lost their desire for food.  It was a usual highway restaurant, as suggested by Jaishree we all sat outside and had dinner in moon light, again a lot of jokes were cracked on a variety of topics.  Sangavi was sharing her experiences about a wild life tour that she had been with her office colleagues.  Though the food was very average, we didn’t bother much since the fun element made up for the bad food. 

At last we reached Tambaram by around 12:30 midnight.  Jaishree, Vijay and Chitra who were in deep sleep had to be woken up to be dropped.  From there I was dropped in Mylapore by around 1:15 am, and lastly Sangavi, Nitheesh were dropped in Korratur by 2:00 am.  600 kms and 22 hrs of assiduous journey had worn us out (and enriched our souls).  All of us went back home carrying sweet memories of the day long road trip..  Om Nama Sivaya!!!

Andhaadhi - My Emotions and Experience​..

The below post is all about my emotions and experience with Team “Andhaadhi“, well to know what “Andhaadhi” is all about, please follow the link  below.

http://hari-bala.blogspot.com/2011/02/andhaadhi-search-and-wait.html

Read this post when you are are relatively free.

WOW WOW WOW.. What a TEAM, what a sense of accomplishment, what a collective sense of responsibility, what sincerity and amount of dedication, what an amazing involvement, my goodness.  I still remember, it just stated from nowhere, it feels so great to the extent that I am falling short of words to express my state of mind.  I could just feel the rush of adrenalin when I look back the work we have been doing since we conceptualized "Andhaadhi".  The biggest take away from a personal standpoint is that, “if we are sincere in what we do today, eventually, tomorrow by design shall get better”.

Well, I have been getting mixed response since we released Andhaadhi, most of them being positive.  To be extremely frank, I am just indifferent, the feel of having been a part in itself makes me feel on top of the world.  Yet another learning happens to be, "When we do something for the sheer pleasure of doing it, the end result and response actually doesn't matter".

I, beyond doubt, believe that I have made a handful of friends for life.  Usually, I kind of build a wall around myself, till today my best friends, with whom I am actually myself (without a mask), with whom I am as comfortable as I am with myself are my high school buddies, which necessarily means that close to a decade I haven't let anyone to break into my wall.  Never imagined in my imaginable dreams that I could get so close to a bunch of few, I mean, I am just unable to assimilate.

How many sleepless nights with Aadi, Yesh and Thenga.. It just happened, it cannot get better guys, the genuine attitude and truthfulness in our expression is what in my opinion, drew us close.  It is a unique chemistry that we share as a group and with each other individually which is unexplainable.  There were times where we had strong views, on the endless list of topics we discussed, yet I could sense honest respect for the other person’s point of view, in-spite of the fact that we agreed to disagree.  Man, this just does not happen with anyone and everyone, I say, we were destined to meet, necessarily for a cause, which I (We) are yet to discover in full.

Aadi, yaen machan da nee, never thought Andhaadhi would drag us so close than ever before, I have always enjoyed your company, it has become an addiction I must say :P, but as said, not every addiction is objectionable.  There is absolutely nothing on earth that we hadn't discussed as yet, if you still feel that something escaped our radar, drop in right away :-).  Economics, Politics, Philosophy, Music, Movies, Girls, Relationships, Life, Love, Lust, Finance, Investments, Higher studies, Career, Cricket, Cooking, Eating, Bull shitting and damn what not.  Love you dude.  I am sure our relationship would travel places.  I am just myself when I am with you, I feel exceptionally comfortable while sharing my thoughts with you, I could speak to you as I would speak to myself :-), read it once more if you didn’t get. 

Yesh, you are such a casual guy man, I find you extremely sincere but never serious.  You just came close to my heart on the day when we had a brief chat at my terrace, on listening to what you had been through in life to be where you are today.  I have never seen you saying NO to any suggestion, you have the patience to listen to people which makes the other person feel so important which eventually increases his level of importance and commitment.  You are full of fun even otherwise; I could not hold myself back from laughing even now when I think of the late night walks with you and Aadi :D, Aadi, you know what I am saying right :D.  Yet another remarkable characteristic in you is that, you happen to be an extraordinary motivator, you can just get the motor running even when the batteries are completely dried :-), you never let us down.  You stood by my side to take full responsibility for the criticism and didn't hesitate to give complete credit for the appreciation, and such are the traits of an astounding leader I see in you.  Buddy, it was sheer pleasure, for having worked with someone like you, in your future projects, even if I have no role to play, just call me, without a thought I shall join you to do whatever I can :-).  

Karthick, well, if I have to explain Karthick in one word, I would call him a GENIUS, you are gifted with super-high intellect man.  Your intellect, coupled with the inquisitiveness to learn across fields, drives me nuts, you have an extreme eye for detail, and I will have to learn hell a lot of things from you right from Economics to Movies to philosophy and what not.  As you quite often say, there are a lot of factors which drag us close, a special mention to our interest in Economics, I was quite taken aback when I saw an Engineer speaking the language of an Economist and I was extremely excited for the fact that I have got someone to discuss, share, research in the field of Economics.  Well, not to mention, your poetic sense is something to be treasured and nurtured, there are a few lines which I would like to quote here which induced me to fall in love with your words.

பாவையின்  பேரெழிலே - எந்தன்

ஆவலை தூண்டியதால்

காதருகே காதலை சொல்லி

கன்னத்தில் முத்தம் இட்டேன்.

நாணத்தால் துளைக்கப்பட்டு  - வெட்கத்தை  உடுத்திக்  கொண்டாள்.

கனியோடு பால் கொண்டு வந்தவள்

உடலோடு உறைந்து என் உயிர் கொண்டு சென்றாள்.

Oh my goodness, what an amazing aesthetic sense you possess.  We coming together for Andhaathi, shared interest in economics & politics, geographical proximity, Temenos & Azure strategic partnership, I don’t feel all this could happen without a "Specific Mandate".  Miles to go before WE sleep :-) let me just repeat your words “we both, working together on Andhaadhi & Temenos and Azure working together on Banking... Something is in store for this partnership.. Let’s move forward”.

Any day, anything, just count me in.

Sriimathy, what an amazing girl you are, just loved your casual attitude, the manner in which you gelled with the team is just amazing, and I have absolutely nothing to complain.  Most of the girls are irritable, especially when surrounded by gang of guys, and a selected few would always want to be pampered (cry for attention), I have come across such instances not once, but many a times, but you proved to be different from the rest.  Though we hardly have any interest in common, though we have not been talking much, though we have been pulling our legs throughout ;-), though we really don't know each other much, we do share an excellent rapport and mutual respect.  Loved your calm, composed, good-natured attitude and not to mention, admired your flawless singing.  Unnoda kannathula anda kuzhi, avlo azhagu :-), myself and Adi used to discuss, oru ponnu epdi irrukanum nu oru payyan aasa paduvano, nee apdiye irrukae.  I hope and pray the almighty that you must get an excellent man in your life, who deserves you in true sense.

Well team, I know this is quite a long mail; by my conscience didn’t allow me to remove a single word.  Once again, I thank Yesh and Karthick for the once in a lifetime opportunity, I feel extremely proud and privileged for having been a part of this fabulous team and for having accepted me with all my limitations.

P.S - I am half asleep, please excuse me for mistakes if any, romba naal kazhichu, yen manasu vittu pesirkaen.  

Love you all.

With tons of Love,

Hari

"Andhaadhi​" - A Search and a Wait

Hi Friends,

 

I would like to share the link of our short film "Andhaadhi". Would like to have your honest reviews so that it will help us improve.

http://vimeo.com/19628645

Alternate Link

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xgx3op_andhaadhi-a-search-and-a-wait_shortfilms

About the movie

Weekend Productions presents "Andhaadhi"

 
The title 'Andhaadhi' is inspired from Abirami Andhaadhi written by Abirami Bhattar.  Andhaadhi is a form of poem where the last word of a stanza is the same as the first word of the next stanza. Our protagonist's journey starts with a wait. This wait ends in a search. The search again ends in a wait. Will this wait again end in a search?

Please share the link with other like minded friends as well.

Friend..

WOW, I got my friend back!!

It is not that I have lost something and have got it back; she, my friend, was within me all these days, it is just that I saw her reciprocate the feelings which I had for her. She is a friend of mine who has found a very special place in me, so deep to the extent that it is not possible even for me to dig her out, even if I want to.

Well, so much has happened in my life in the past couple of years, it has been more of my mistake and I have to confess.

I tried by various means to get in touch with her, now this is what irony is, I lost my mobile phone with which I lost her number as well. After being used to cell phones and phonebooks we have lost the habit of remembering numbers haven’t we? I wrote to her 5 to 6 times, all my mails went without a reply, how can she not reply to my mails? Wherein I had expressed how much she means to me and how much I miss her. Is her heart made of stone? I asked myself, NO was the answer given by the other me.

Somehow my instinct kept telling me that she is not such a cold-blooded person who is stonehearted who would not respond to my mails in which I had apologized a million times for all the blunders I had committed. Either my mails have not made their way to her inbox or she has not checked her mails or the mail id is no more active. I tried to reach her in Orkut, Facebook and thru’ other networking sites but all my efforts went in vain. Might be she had no account in these networking sites. It’s crazy that I could not reach out to my friend in the current era of Facebook, Twitter, etc! But that was the harsh reality.

It has been two years since we had an interaction, two full years have been wasted without my beautiful friend, let me tell you, its very hard in this self-centered world to get a selfless friend like her, I did get, but lost her in due course. It is like you own a BMW and you chuck it just because you didn’t know how to drive it!! Funny isn’t it?

Well, it would be bit of an overstatement if I say I thought about her every day, no I didn’t, to be frank enough, but whenever I spend time alone, whenever I think about my high school days, whenever I feel lonely, whenever I spend time alone at the sea shores, whenever I am at my terrace gazing the lighthouse, whenever I listen to Sathiya songs, whenever I roam around Kutchery road & Santhome, whenever I pass by Sankara Academy, whenever my friends ask about her, whenever I realized my mistakes, my mind would be occupied by her thoughts.

The time & days that I had spent with her were so beautiful to the extent that it would bring a small drop of tear from my eyes; the droplet of tear would stagnate inside my eyeballs and would struggle to flow through my cheeks, rather I would not let them flow.

One fine day, when I was preoccupied with her thoughts an idea struck my psyche. She had sent me a lot of forwards (Chain Mails); I searched my inbox for such mails and found one such mail which she had sent to a group of recipients. I was quite sure of the fact that the forwards were sent only to her near, dear, close ones, I could see their mails id’s as well. I drafted a mail to one such close friend of her asking about her whereabouts. Whenever I check my mails I would await a reply, this continued for quite a few days but my efforts failed to bear fruits :-(.

Months Later:

Months later when I was driving to my office, I received a text message, normally I do not read, reply SMS or pick calls while I am driving, not that I am geeky or something, it’s just that am not too comfortable handling mobile phone while driving. But on that particular day when I was stuck in a signal I picked up my phone from my pocket to read the SMS, WOW, I couldn’t believe my eyes, it was SHE, my lost treasure who had pinged me, the message read -

“Hi Hari, its XYZ here.. My friend told me about your mail last night.. Just tears are coming from my eyes.. My heart is fully loaded wid happiness.. Jumping.. No words to express my happiness :-)”

Any clues, the way I would have reacted after reading her SMS? Well that’s left to your imagination guys :-). I do not find enough adjectives to explain my state of happiness or pleasure at that point of time. In a traffic signal where I was waiting for a Green light, the Almighty had signaled GREEN light by bringing my beautiful friend back in my life. It was peak summer, the temperature was more than 35 degrees and I felt as if I am driving through the hills of Ooty, that too on a rainy day :-).

WOW, I got my friend back!!

Thus I realized that it is not just me who missed her; she was even more desperate to reach me, she had missed me more than I missed her. Later I came to know that she had even come to my home once in search of me!! Now I remember a saying “Everything is prewritten and nothing could be rewritten”. That’s the power of DESTINY.

Note – Since I do not want to make my friend’s name public, I have mentioned has XYZ in the write up; nevertheless she has got a beautiful name ;-)

MADras by Night - Funny Night out

It was a Friday night, the time was around 10 P.M and I had decided to spend the whole night with my best buddies. Thank god Saturday was not a working day!!!! Luckily the company where I work did not expect me to be working on weekends :-).

I called my friend Anand and conveyed (convinced) him about spending the whole night roaming in the streets of the Singara Chennai city, well he was reluctant in the beginning but was fine with it, cool I was able to convince him.

I was not really happy of the fact that just we two of us are going to spend the night around the streets of Chennai without any specific Agenda, so I decided to rope in Kishore as well; the first reaction from Kishore was ok machi, suthallam :-) (Ok dude, let’s roam) He is really an awesome guy, never says NO to such stupid attempts :-).

I was pissed of waiting in my terrace for these guys. Kishore works with an airlines company in the customer service cell, he has to come all the way from the airport to Mylapore after his evening Shift, I killed time by listening to music in my ipod, finally Kishore came by 12 sharp, and the other lazy one came by 12 30 after our continuous perusal in spite of the fact that his home is just a five minute drive from mine :-(

So all set, we were three of us with two bikes without any explicit plans. Finally we decided to spend some time in Marina Beach. Beach is one amongst very few places in Chennai where you could spend ample time without spending even a single buck :-). The beach was just 15 min drive from my place, we managed to find a good place to sit and get pleasure from the sea breeze talking all extraneous things :-) there was hardly any topic which we didn't browse through - movies, gossips, state, central, office politics, our funny bosses, and of course GIRLS and life in general.

All of a sudden we all started to feel hungry, the reason could be that we talked and laughed so much so that we had completely exhausted all our calories :-). So the hunt started for a good restaurant to have our midnight meal, I must be crazy to expect a good hotel, we would have been more than happy to see a roadside shop open by that time (It must be around 2.30 A.M).

Kishore suggested that we will manage to find some good hotels inside the Central Railway station, if not inside at least in and around the Railway station. He was so damn sure that Hotel Saravana Bhavan inside Central station would be open but I was not too certain. So we started our bikes and headed towards the Railway station. It was just a ten min drive from beach to the station; we parked our bikes outside the station in an unauthorized place to have delicious, mouthwatering, finger licking food in Saravana Bhavan, but as I had anticipated all hotels were closed and we couldn't even find a tea shop in the nearby locality :-(. I and Anand yelled at Kishore for being so bombastic, made fun out of him, pulled his leg for some time and started our bikes in search of a tea shop. We eventually found a small roadside teashop which was located in a place where people come to pee :-(, but left with no other choice, we asked the shopkeeper to prepare 3 cups of special tea, we relished every sip of the tea with a couple of biscuits to munch. The midnight special tea in a not so good roadside shop was indeed SPECIAL.

After having some fun, we started driving towards my home where all three of us had planned to sleep. Finally we reached home early morning around 4:30 A.M, well I was in no mood to sleep, so convinced the other two that we would play cards till 5 and they agreed (since they were left with no other choice) :-). So we played a couple of games (Rummy), enjoyed our game thoroughly since winning or losing didn't actually matter, it’s the spirit of the game which held us high :-)

We guys disbursed by 6:00 A.M to sleep at our respective places, of course with lots of memories to cherish :-). Madras by Night was filled with loads & loads of fun.

One Night @ Forest

Fear, loneliness, boredom, irritation, ecstasy…. How do you explain if these five different feelings put together dwell in !!!!! That’s how I would explain my Nagalapuram trekking experience. We were a group of 45 trekkers all set to explore the forest range near Nagalapuram (Eastern Ghats). We started our trek Saturday morning and had planned to return by Sunday evening.

On our way myself and a few fellow trekkers had lost our way and was in search of others. I decided to find some way out so that we do not lag behind, in the process I was LOST all alone, now that I could not even find my fellow trekkers who were lost with me. I am quite aware that the most important thing to survive during a Trek is WATER without which you cannot survive, so I started to hunt for a stream or a pool where I could Camp till my fellow trekkers find me.

Finally I managed to find an excellent pool by following a thin stream. I decided to stay back in the pool for two reasons, one, I would not run short of water, two, other trekkers have to cross this pool to get out of the forest. I was completely in control of whatever decision I took initially.. But….. sooner I realized that it was a BAD idea (But it was too late then) to stay in the forest for more than 30 hours ALONE…

Well, things were not so bad for the initial couple of hours, I walked around the pool, took a dip, clicked some photograph to kill time.. but left with nothing more.. I desperately wanted a Book, iPod, newspaper, something or the other to keep myself engaged, but unfortunately nothing was with me… I was resting on the rocks evaluating options to destroy time till it became dark…

Now it was getting darker, the fact of the matter is that I had to spend the whole night alone… and that thought in itself killed me… I started to hunt for a good rock where I could sleep, selection criteria was quite simple, it has to be plain enough without much of curves and safe enough to the extent that even if I slip I must not fall and get hurt, and yes finally found some place to sleep and got settled to spend the night which was first and probably the last of its kind.  ;)

Now it was pitch dark, I bundled myself into my sleeping bag to stay safe without being bitten by a snake or any insect for that matter… It was 9 PM, the sky was filled with stars, the moon was at its best, lot of glowworms around me, well all I wanted was a good sleep, not that I was tired but that’s the best and only way to kill time, but God was not kind enough to bestow me what I desperately wanted for the moment..

Now I started to sweat, it wasn’t too hot, later I realized that I was SCARED, and that made me sweat.. Trust me, I was scared.. A mild sound was good enough to upset me, the movement of leaves, sound of breeze, rolling stones, the strange noise made by the frogs, insects or whatever, irritated me to the core, it was a feeling of anxiety and frustration put together, I could not explain my state better..

At some point of time, even without my knowledge tears started to roll out.. Not just because I was scared or alone, thoughts of my loved ones were haunting me.. how many times I would have ignored them when they wanted me the most, how selfish I had been throughout, all such unwanted, unnecessary thoughts breezed through my mind, my heart became very heavy and that was the cause for those drops which rolled out of my eyes…

Why such thoughts are haunting me, why that too now, I could not sense the reason behind, might be God wanted me to spend some time thinking about my past, my relationships, breakups which I had almost forgot for quite some time, that could be the possible reason why I was left alone in the mid of a forest for close to 30 hours… Well that is how I spent the whole night, realized my own mistakes I had committed and reassured myself that I am not going to repeat them again (Constructive isn’t it)..

It was morning by then, I was relaxed, at last the lonely night came to an end, now I knew that I just need to kill time till 5 or 6 pm (which I know is not so easy) till my fellow trekkers find me and take me out of the haunting jungle.. Took a dip in the fresh water pool by which I was refreshed.. Since I didn’t sleep much the whole night I decided to sleep, and yes I did sleep indeed, in fact it was a sound sleep.. It was around 1:30 PM when I got up, I was hungry as I did not eat anything since last night, luckily had some fruits with me (apple, orange and berry) which I munched for lunch..

A local tribe named Munusamy passed by that way, since the place was located in the border of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, he managed to speak fragmented Tamil which I struggled to understand, nonetheless I was happy to see a Human face after a long time.

I was asking him about his occupation, family, livelihood etc to pass time and poor fellow he responded to all my questions happily. I requested him to take me out of the forest which he accepted to, we both walked our way back to the dam. I thanked him and waited for other trekkers to join me, in the meanwhile informed the organizer that I am near temple which is in the foothills and not to search for me inside the forest.

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