A trip with a friend
I hope that almost all will be aware that Vignesh and myself went into the woods of Yelagiri ( a hill station in Tamilnadu) for a short trip on last friday and saturday ( 29.8.2003 and 30.8.2003). Vignesh and myself where thinking about this trip for a long time, but couldn't make till last friday. I was a wonderful trip and like Vignesh I too would like to share my experinces with you. Kindly note that, I am typing this mail without reading Vignesh's version. So there may be repeated anecdotes. Also, I assure all of you that all that has been typed in this mail are 100% true, particularly the information reg Bala Vignesh.
Having mentioned that we were thinking about this for a long time, you should least assume that we went into the trip fully planned. We went there with 0% planning. Infact, the only information that I gave to my parents before starting was that I had to go through Tirupattur( near Jolarpettai, Tamilnadu) to reach Yelagiri. I didnot have any other information like whether it will be too cold there, whether it is a busy tourist spot or not, where in the mountains we would stay etc.
In the two days of our trip, the first day was spent in Tirupattur ( foothill of Yelagiri) and only on the next day we went to the hills actually. All that happened in these two eventful days including the prelude are listed down.
Day 0 (Thursday 28.8.2003)
At about 6:30 in the evening, I called up Vignesh and asked him if we could go for the trip the next day! I had actually got the call from Verizon intimating me the joining date a few minutes before. Vignesh agreed for the tour. I collected some details from him, like the route etc. Again at 11pm in the night I rang up to him and reconfirmed the tour. Meanwhile my parents were critising me for embarking on such a trip with no preplanning. But I managed to convince them and got the nod as well as money for the trip. I was to wake up next day at 5:30 am.
Day 1 (Friday 29.8.2003)
The time was 6am and I was still sleeping. My amma kicked me and asked me if I was really going for the trip? Aiyo, I was totally thrown out of gear. I thought I could go only to Kothavalchavdi (ex-vegetable market of chennai) now. I immediately dialled to Vignesh. He also had woken only at the same time. So we revised 7:45-8am as the meeting time at CMBT,Chennai Bus Stand. Maintaining my punctual reputation, I went there at 8:30 am. But the clever Vignesh came only at 8:45 anticipating my behavior :-[ ( Oh God! Hope I get rid of this habit soon)
The bus to Tiruppatur started after 9am. We reached Tiruppatur at 2:45 pm. Till then no lunch. We managed to get only solam during the bus travel. It was a hot day, but bearable. Tiruppatur is the place where Vignesh had lived when he studied his 3rd-4th standard. So one of the missions of the trip, for Vignesh, was to revisit his school and friends houses.
Since it was 3pm, we thought we would first go to his school, as it may close down by 3:30pm. Bharati Vidya School, running from quite a old building with a rural house like look was our first destination. The alumni of that school Vignesh, went in and met the teachers there. Within a few minutes he found three of his old teachers and the most amazing thing is that they also recognised him. Amazing isn't it, that those teachers have remembered a boy who went out of their school before 12 years? Really the teaching communtiy requires our humble tributes. They not only remembered him, but also his sister who was in kintergarden then !
The teachers remembered our dear Vignesh as FAT, PLUMP boy with lot of flesh in his cheeks and a pot belly. They showed me a photo of the class of Vignesh when he was in the third class. It seems Vignesh couldn't run in the running races due to his fat stature in those days. He was like Pillaiyar, one of the teachers quipped :-D ( this is what the teacher said , a verbatim report, I swear)
Then it was the time for Vignesh to meet his 4th standard classmates ( His school Girl friends). We met two of his GFs Pavithra and VijayaLakshmi. It seems Pavithra was the competitor for Vignesh in studies. Vignesh recounted how once during a test of maths, he started crying when he didnot know 3 digit division. Pavithra ( Gaurdian Angel) came to his help during that time and helped him solve the problem. When we asked Pavithra about bus to Yelagiri, she commented that if we climbed up the hill on foot atleast Vignesh would grow a little thinner :-D . After their house, we went to a boy's house (hmm, finally a boy's house). The boy's name was Jayamaruthi. Alas he wasn't there. But the point to note here is that, When some one was telling Vignesh about Jayamaruthi, all that Vignesh heard was Jayabharathi. ;-)
By the time we finished all his friends and teacher's houses, it was already past 7pm. After consulting with his parents over the phone, Vignesh told that it would be better to stay down in Tiruppatur for the night instead of going up. So we had our dinner (solid food after almost 13 hrs since I left my house ). We had Tandoori Varieties at a hotel called Ganesh Hotel. It was a pretty cheap one. ( Rs. 51 for 4 butter naans, Alu Gobi Masala and 1 chili parotta. ) We then took a room in a lodge, for Rs.190. The room was furnished with a TV and cable connection. After seeing different channels for some time, we went out for a walk. We bought some grapes and started walking. We went to the house where Vignesh had lived. The time was around 11:40 pm and that fellow wanted to go in at that time ! Some how I dragged him from that place. And then we walked back to the lodge. The lodge was closing the grill gates at time when we entered. Thus ended the first day. The next day had to
begin at 4am...................
Second day ( 30-8-2003)
Thank God and the Room boy, I got up at the scheduled time. After taking bath and dressing, Vignesh and myself checked out of the lodge and went to the bus stand at 5:30 am. The bus to Yelagiri came and started by 5:45am. The hills of Yelagiri aren't that high. They are about 1000 mtrs only higher than Mean Sea Level. Yet the road had good number of U-turns, each named after some famous Tamil personality like Kambar, Paari etc. We reached the top in an hours time. As we didnot know the place, we had over travelled and didnot get down at the correct spot. So we had to walk our way back after getting down. In the way back, we found a Murugan Temple. It was our first stop.
The temple is located on a small hillock. A shrine for Murugan and another for Vinayaka. We took a couple of photos there. From the temple, we spotted a beautiful farm. The yellowish green coloured saplings drew our mind to them. The mud there was red and the so the colour match was interesting. We went into the fields. Along the fields, there was a herd of sheeps and a few cows. We took photos in their vicinity too.
Walking down further, we found a beautiful house, a full and full mud house with 2 thinai. So we went and approached the owner and with his permission took a snap there. We also bought Guava ( Red variety and ordinary one), Custard apple and narthangai from him. The fruits were to become our food for the hours to come.
One significant negative aspect about the rustic atmosphere prevalent there is that, the girls are totally conservative. We were walking on a long road in the morning and 2 girls were following us far behind. We stopped to take photos. They too immediatley stopped thinking that we were trying to take their photos. They waited for some time for us to move. When we didnot, they hid their faces with books and passed by us. Even when we told them that we were not taking their photos, as they passed by, they didnot believe it!!!!!. Amma, I felt totally bad.
After breakfast, we went for boating. The lake is an artificial one and isn't too deep. We hired a pedal boat for Rs 50 and the time limit was 1/2 hr. The wind was blowing heavily and the boat was drifitng with it. It was very difficult to row it. The 1/2 hour ordeal almost sapped off all our energies. But we still had a long way to go.
The next destination was Shiva Temple, located atop a hill. Trekking would be a grand finale to the trip we thought. The steps to the temple started from a place called Mangalam, which was 4km from the place that we were there( Athnavoor). The weather althroughout was not chill but sunny!!! The only solace was that it didnot sweat. On reaching Mangalam, we started our vertical journey. Initially it was thrill to go though vast fields of paddy like plants, tiny yellow and white flowers blooming in large quantities. But sooner, we realised that we were going away from the Human world, literally. The path was moving into the woods more and more. And that place didnot seem to have any other 6 sensed being apart from us. The path was similar to the jungles shown in Kadhal Kondaein. The steps were steep at some places and manageable at others. Everytime a curve came, I thought we had reached, but it was not so. Turning we found that the array of steps was still going very strong.
After about a 45 minute journey, I guz , we heard some bell sound. I thought it was coming from the temple . (Aba a sigh of relief). But later I found that they were coming from the bell hung up in the neck of cows. The cow man ( a man atlast), assured us that the temple was near only. We continued. Finally after more than a hours travel, we reached the top.
But the sight what we saw there was in total non conformity with what we had thought. A small lingam, a pillaiyar statue, some other small statutes inside a cave sort of thing formed by rocks naturally was only there. I had expected a grand temple with what people were telling down. hmm. There was a family there who had come there to worship the lord. They were also cooking food there. I thought, so atleast we could have some food. After pooja and releasing several Deepavali rockets into the air, they all sat for lunch. We too joined. They served Payasam first. It had salt in it !!!!! Next came Sambar. Really I could not figure out what vegetables were there in that till the end. I slowly managed to put inside my stomach whatever they kept on the banana leaf. I was really afraid that I would vomit at any time. Not that their food was bad, but I could not accept their taste. Thats all. Vignesh cleverly escaped the Sambar. Vada and applam was also served and they were good.
After the lunch, I persuaded Vignesh to accompany me for seeing the JONAI, the place in the mountain, from were water that was served during the lunch was taken from. The water was realy tasting like elixir. The path to jonai was worser than the earlier paths we had taken. There were thick bushes and we were guided by one of the members of that family. The Jonai was a shallow leaf shaped water source, beaming with fish population. We drank several handsful of water and returned.
As in life so in mountains also, climbing up is difficult not the getting down process. We started to get down and we were almost flying. During this time a big batch of people were coming up. I somehow thought perhaps BITS people have come here. But we enquired and found out that they were WIPRO professionals on a tour. On seeing the big batch, I had an intitution that I would meet some known person. True to that feeling I saw Madhu, ( our final year senior, when we were in the first year). Imagine such a meeting in the desolated forests of Yelagiri hills. I was really amazed. That guy has shifted from Covansys to Wipro last year.
In the way down, Vignesh's legs were trembling without his control. So we slowed down a bit. Continuing our descent, we reached the plains of the hills and walked back to Athanvoor ( 4 kn from that spot). From there we caught a bus to reach Tirupattur and then after having dinner at the same Ganesh Hotel, we boarded bus to Chennai. The bus started at 11:30 pm. I was madly sleeping althroughout the journey. I reached CMBT at 5:15am and home at 6am. After celebrating Vignesh's birthday, I again started to sleep from 9am and when I got up the time was 2:45pm.
So, that was how our two day trip went about. Before joining Company it was a welcome break for me and I thank Vignesh for accepting the offer in such a short time and giving me a good company throughout. I only wish that WE should always be lucky enough to take such offs with friends and recharge our minds atleast once in every 1-2 years.
Having mentioned that we were thinking about this for a long time, you should least assume that we went into the trip fully planned. We went there with 0% planning. Infact, the only information that I gave to my parents before starting was that I had to go through Tirupattur( near Jolarpettai, Tamilnadu) to reach Yelagiri. I didnot have any other information like whether it will be too cold there, whether it is a busy tourist spot or not, where in the mountains we would stay etc.
In the two days of our trip, the first day was spent in Tirupattur ( foothill of Yelagiri) and only on the next day we went to the hills actually. All that happened in these two eventful days including the prelude are listed down.
Day 0 (Thursday 28.8.2003)
At about 6:30 in the evening, I called up Vignesh and asked him if we could go for the trip the next day! I had actually got the call from Verizon intimating me the joining date a few minutes before. Vignesh agreed for the tour. I collected some details from him, like the route etc. Again at 11pm in the night I rang up to him and reconfirmed the tour. Meanwhile my parents were critising me for embarking on such a trip with no preplanning. But I managed to convince them and got the nod as well as money for the trip. I was to wake up next day at 5:30 am.
Day 1 (Friday 29.8.2003)
The time was 6am and I was still sleeping. My amma kicked me and asked me if I was really going for the trip? Aiyo, I was totally thrown out of gear. I thought I could go only to Kothavalchavdi (ex-vegetable market of chennai) now. I immediately dialled to Vignesh. He also had woken only at the same time. So we revised 7:45-8am as the meeting time at CMBT,Chennai Bus Stand. Maintaining my punctual reputation, I went there at 8:30 am. But the clever Vignesh came only at 8:45 anticipating my behavior :-[ ( Oh God! Hope I get rid of this habit soon)
The bus to Tiruppatur started after 9am. We reached Tiruppatur at 2:45 pm. Till then no lunch. We managed to get only solam during the bus travel. It was a hot day, but bearable. Tiruppatur is the place where Vignesh had lived when he studied his 3rd-4th standard. So one of the missions of the trip, for Vignesh, was to revisit his school and friends houses.
Since it was 3pm, we thought we would first go to his school, as it may close down by 3:30pm. Bharati Vidya School, running from quite a old building with a rural house like look was our first destination. The alumni of that school Vignesh, went in and met the teachers there. Within a few minutes he found three of his old teachers and the most amazing thing is that they also recognised him. Amazing isn't it, that those teachers have remembered a boy who went out of their school before 12 years? Really the teaching communtiy requires our humble tributes. They not only remembered him, but also his sister who was in kintergarden then !
The teachers remembered our dear Vignesh as FAT, PLUMP boy with lot of flesh in his cheeks and a pot belly. They showed me a photo of the class of Vignesh when he was in the third class. It seems Vignesh couldn't run in the running races due to his fat stature in those days. He was like Pillaiyar, one of the teachers quipped :-D ( this is what the teacher said , a verbatim report, I swear)
Then it was the time for Vignesh to meet his 4th standard classmates ( His school Girl friends). We met two of his GFs Pavithra and VijayaLakshmi. It seems Pavithra was the competitor for Vignesh in studies. Vignesh recounted how once during a test of maths, he started crying when he didnot know 3 digit division. Pavithra ( Gaurdian Angel) came to his help during that time and helped him solve the problem. When we asked Pavithra about bus to Yelagiri, she commented that if we climbed up the hill on foot atleast Vignesh would grow a little thinner :-D . After their house, we went to a boy's house (hmm, finally a boy's house). The boy's name was Jayamaruthi. Alas he wasn't there. But the point to note here is that, When some one was telling Vignesh about Jayamaruthi, all that Vignesh heard was Jayabharathi. ;-)
By the time we finished all his friends and teacher's houses, it was already past 7pm. After consulting with his parents over the phone, Vignesh told that it would be better to stay down in Tiruppatur for the night instead of going up. So we had our dinner (solid food after almost 13 hrs since I left my house ). We had Tandoori Varieties at a hotel called Ganesh Hotel. It was a pretty cheap one. ( Rs. 51 for 4 butter naans, Alu Gobi Masala and 1 chili parotta. ) We then took a room in a lodge, for Rs.190. The room was furnished with a TV and cable connection. After seeing different channels for some time, we went out for a walk. We bought some grapes and started walking. We went to the house where Vignesh had lived. The time was around 11:40 pm and that fellow wanted to go in at that time ! Some how I dragged him from that place. And then we walked back to the lodge. The lodge was closing the grill gates at time when we entered. Thus ended the first day. The next day had to
begin at 4am...................
Second day ( 30-8-2003)
Thank God and the Room boy, I got up at the scheduled time. After taking bath and dressing, Vignesh and myself checked out of the lodge and went to the bus stand at 5:30 am. The bus to Yelagiri came and started by 5:45am. The hills of Yelagiri aren't that high. They are about 1000 mtrs only higher than Mean Sea Level. Yet the road had good number of U-turns, each named after some famous Tamil personality like Kambar, Paari etc. We reached the top in an hours time. As we didnot know the place, we had over travelled and didnot get down at the correct spot. So we had to walk our way back after getting down. In the way back, we found a Murugan Temple. It was our first stop.
The temple is located on a small hillock. A shrine for Murugan and another for Vinayaka. We took a couple of photos there. From the temple, we spotted a beautiful farm. The yellowish green coloured saplings drew our mind to them. The mud there was red and the so the colour match was interesting. We went into the fields. Along the fields, there was a herd of sheeps and a few cows. We took photos in their vicinity too.
Walking down further, we found a beautiful house, a full and full mud house with 2 thinai. So we went and approached the owner and with his permission took a snap there. We also bought Guava ( Red variety and ordinary one), Custard apple and narthangai from him. The fruits were to become our food for the hours to come.
One significant negative aspect about the rustic atmosphere prevalent there is that, the girls are totally conservative. We were walking on a long road in the morning and 2 girls were following us far behind. We stopped to take photos. They too immediatley stopped thinking that we were trying to take their photos. They waited for some time for us to move. When we didnot, they hid their faces with books and passed by us. Even when we told them that we were not taking their photos, as they passed by, they didnot believe it!!!!!. Amma, I felt totally bad.
After breakfast, we went for boating. The lake is an artificial one and isn't too deep. We hired a pedal boat for Rs 50 and the time limit was 1/2 hr. The wind was blowing heavily and the boat was drifitng with it. It was very difficult to row it. The 1/2 hour ordeal almost sapped off all our energies. But we still had a long way to go.
The next destination was Shiva Temple, located atop a hill. Trekking would be a grand finale to the trip we thought. The steps to the temple started from a place called Mangalam, which was 4km from the place that we were there( Athnavoor). The weather althroughout was not chill but sunny!!! The only solace was that it didnot sweat. On reaching Mangalam, we started our vertical journey. Initially it was thrill to go though vast fields of paddy like plants, tiny yellow and white flowers blooming in large quantities. But sooner, we realised that we were going away from the Human world, literally. The path was moving into the woods more and more. And that place didnot seem to have any other 6 sensed being apart from us. The path was similar to the jungles shown in Kadhal Kondaein. The steps were steep at some places and manageable at others. Everytime a curve came, I thought we had reached, but it was not so. Turning we found that the array of steps was still going very strong.
After about a 45 minute journey, I guz , we heard some bell sound. I thought it was coming from the temple . (Aba a sigh of relief). But later I found that they were coming from the bell hung up in the neck of cows. The cow man ( a man atlast), assured us that the temple was near only. We continued. Finally after more than a hours travel, we reached the top.
But the sight what we saw there was in total non conformity with what we had thought. A small lingam, a pillaiyar statue, some other small statutes inside a cave sort of thing formed by rocks naturally was only there. I had expected a grand temple with what people were telling down. hmm. There was a family there who had come there to worship the lord. They were also cooking food there. I thought, so atleast we could have some food. After pooja and releasing several Deepavali rockets into the air, they all sat for lunch. We too joined. They served Payasam first. It had salt in it !!!!! Next came Sambar. Really I could not figure out what vegetables were there in that till the end. I slowly managed to put inside my stomach whatever they kept on the banana leaf. I was really afraid that I would vomit at any time. Not that their food was bad, but I could not accept their taste. Thats all. Vignesh cleverly escaped the Sambar. Vada and applam was also served and they were good.
After the lunch, I persuaded Vignesh to accompany me for seeing the JONAI, the place in the mountain, from were water that was served during the lunch was taken from. The water was realy tasting like elixir. The path to jonai was worser than the earlier paths we had taken. There were thick bushes and we were guided by one of the members of that family. The Jonai was a shallow leaf shaped water source, beaming with fish population. We drank several handsful of water and returned.
As in life so in mountains also, climbing up is difficult not the getting down process. We started to get down and we were almost flying. During this time a big batch of people were coming up. I somehow thought perhaps BITS people have come here. But we enquired and found out that they were WIPRO professionals on a tour. On seeing the big batch, I had an intitution that I would meet some known person. True to that feeling I saw Madhu, ( our final year senior, when we were in the first year). Imagine such a meeting in the desolated forests of Yelagiri hills. I was really amazed. That guy has shifted from Covansys to Wipro last year.
In the way down, Vignesh's legs were trembling without his control. So we slowed down a bit. Continuing our descent, we reached the plains of the hills and walked back to Athanvoor ( 4 kn from that spot). From there we caught a bus to reach Tirupattur and then after having dinner at the same Ganesh Hotel, we boarded bus to Chennai. The bus started at 11:30 pm. I was madly sleeping althroughout the journey. I reached CMBT at 5:15am and home at 6am. After celebrating Vignesh's birthday, I again started to sleep from 9am and when I got up the time was 2:45pm.
So, that was how our two day trip went about. Before joining Company it was a welcome break for me and I thank Vignesh for accepting the offer in such a short time and giving me a good company throughout. I only wish that WE should always be lucky enough to take such offs with friends and recharge our minds atleast once in every 1-2 years.
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