Me, Yelagiri and Chidambaran
Yaen paer Vignesh. yaen friendu paeru chidambaran. Yanga paer pinnadi
irukara 5 letterdhan (B. Tech) yanga muuchu. Indha lettersdhan yangalukku
companyla velai vaangi koduthudhu. Company pandra aniyayam thanga
mudiyallai. Romba lata joning date koduthan. Adhunaala naanga oru plan
panninom - yaedho adventerous trip polamnu. Yaedho malaiku polamnu mudivu
panninom - Yangalukku bayamna yannaenae thaeriyallai - experiencum illlai -
aazham thaeriyaama kaala vituttom - uuruku kilambittom - vazhila maatik kondu
vittom - naanga aarambich tripa naangalae mudikalamnu mudivu pannom.
28/Aug/2003 - Thursday:
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
2330 hrs:
A decision was made in haste. We finalized our plans to leave for Tirupathur
the next day morning. We didn't plan what to do after reaching Tripathur,
when to leave for Yelagiri hills (some 30 km from Tirupathur), where to stay,
where to eat etc.. etc... Probably in the history of mankind, it was one of
the worst planned tour. We planned to meet each other at Chennai Mofussil
Bus Terminus(CMBT) at 0600 hrs.
29/Aug/2003 - Friday:
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
0400 hrs:
Alarm in my house went off. My subconscious mind commanded my hands to switch
off the alarm without the permission of my brain.
0600 hrs:
My parents woke me up at 0600 hrs to ask me if I was going to leave or not.
The first bomb blasted in my mind when I saw the clock. I called on
chidambaran. Very surprisingly, he picked the phone and proudly said that he
woke a few minutes before me. We changed our plans and agreed to meet at
CMBT at 0730 hrs.
0800 hrs:
I knew pretty well that Chidambaran will not keep up his time. Having faith
on this habit of Chidambaran, I reached CMBT at 0830 hrs. To my shock, he
wasn't there at CMBT. Thinking he hadn't come then, I called on his house to
confirm if he had started by then or not. Inmates said that he had called
there some five minutes before. Finally, found him at 0845 hrs.
0850 hrs:
Made a few purchases. Two batteries for the camera and a "Good Day" biscuit
packet (This good day biscuit was the only species on earth that wished us
"good day" that day). Boarded a bus which was to start to Tirupathur at 0915
hrs.
0915 hrs:
The bus was on time to start. Myself and Chidambaran conversed on all issues
- right from Vajpayee, Sonia Gandhi to road side beggar and temple side
beggar - right from women reservation bill to rain water harvesting issues.
We found the bus still in the vicinity of CMBT at 0945 hrs. We were caught
amidst tight jam.
1445 hrs:
Reached Tirupathur. I had been at Tirupathur for two years. I did my primary
schooling in Tirupathur (my III and IV standard) at "Bharathiya Vidhyalaya"
(1989-90). Memories of my classmates and my school were still afresh in my
mind (unlike a few people on pectium who have forgotten their classmates and
college totally. Eg. Dhivya, Jayabharathi, Indra, Arutchelvan, Joash, Anand
& others). I traced out the way to my school around 1505 hrs.
1505 hrs:
School building konjam kuuda maaravae illai. Appadiyae irundhadhu. But, I
could trace out only 4 of my teachers including the Head of the school.
Others had left the school. Two of them immediately recognized me when I
mentioned my name. The other two recognized me after 10 minutes of kindling
the past. Very nice moment it was. All the four teachers were EXTREMELY
happy to see their III and IV standard student now. My mind was literally
floating in my tears. I took a few photographs in the school along with my
old teachers and then proceeded to meet my classmates.
1545 hrs - 1900 hrs:
I was able to trace out the path to houses of three of my classmates - I
wished to meet many. But time was my enemy then. Two were at home and while
third one was out of station. I felt gliding in the waves of happiness, when
I met some of the OLDEST friends of mine. Both of them were able to
recognize me. A group photo that was taken during our school days brought us
closer. Moments which cannot be expressed over letters/mails melted me. We
had only one photograph to share (the group photograph). This kind of
situation(thirst for photographs) will not happen to us, as pectium CD-I is
to carry over 4000 photographs.
1930 hrs - 2130 hrs:
We had our dinner in a vegetarian Tandoorian hotel. Superb dinner. After
both of us filled our stomach, the bill shook us. It was only Rs.51/- (for
both). We were very happy to give the waiter a Rs.4 tips. :-)
2130 hrs:
We comforted ourselves in a very decent lodge. Made up our minds to start by
0530 hrs bus to Yelagiri hills.
2200 hrs - 2300 hrs: I along with Chidambaran, strolled to the place where I
lived. Same flat - Hardly a few changes (though we didn't go inside as it
was too late) - My eyeballs floated in tears. Later we went back to the
lodge and had a nice sleep.
It was a day which really kindled my memories. Probably Chidambaran had
nothing much to do that day. Though my mind was very happy I had a bit of
guilt of wasting a day that belonged to my dear friend.
30/Aug/2003:
^^^^^^^^^^^^^
0400 hrs - 0530 hrs: Chidambaran & myself woke with service boy's call,
finished off our morning duties, settled bills and checked out of hotel and
marched to bus stand.
0545 hrs:
We boarded the bus to Yelagiri hills. We literally didn't know what to do
after reaching the hills. Only information we gathered was that Yelagiri
hills had a boating lake.
0730 hrs:
We reached Yelagiri hills. Full 360 degree, complete silence other than
chirping of birds. Excellant morning weather. Supera irundhadhu.
0745 hrs - 0830 hrs:
We learnt of the presence of a Murugan temple in the hills. We visited the
temple and had a few photographs taken by the auto camera everywhere on the
way.
0830 hrs - 0900 hrs:
We had our morning breakfast. Very decent light breakfast. Guess the bill -
It was Rs.41/-. Compared with the Rs.51 dinner which we had last night, this
was too much. We learnt that there is a place called "Swamimalai" about 9 km
from the bus stop - 4 km of walk across a plain stretch and 5 km walk uphill
trecking.
0915 hrs - 1100 hrs:
We found our way to boating lake and hired a boat for 30 mins - probably the
biggest mistake which we did in the trip. The boating experience which
relied on our pedalling skills absorbed every bit of energy that was
generated by two session food (last night dinner and that day's breakfast).
When we came out of the boat, we realized we hardly had any energy to move
further.
1100 hrs-1130 hrs:
We slept in a roadside park for sometime and decided to proceed to Swamimalai.
1130 hrs:
We asked a few people for the way. All of them warned us to carry eatables,
drinking water etc...We took it very lightly and proceeded with nothing in
hand except hot cash. We marched towards the basement of Swamimalai called
Mangalam, some 4 km away from the boating spot. By then, FIRE god SUN
decided not to show any kind of mercy on us. The SUN was sitting on our top
and weather conditions worsened though it didn't really sweat.
1240 hrs-1420 hrs:
We reached the basement "Mangalam" of Swamimalai. All we could see from there
was a big stick, which the people called as "TEMPLE". We fixed our eyes on
it. We started with a high target & the path too started good. Green
fields, white flower bed, yellow flower bed made us to click the camera very
often. At the same time, we realized that we were running out of energy.
After some 1 km of steep stretch (not stairs), we sat down unable to move
further. Broken stair case like structures were seen later. Each step
carried us 15 cm upwards. We had to lift our legs to keep any step further.
Each and every step we kept ahead increased our pulse rate. Along the entire
way, we couldn't find a single living being - no humans and luckily no
animals - though frequent bear encounters were reported by the local people.
Time was striking 1330 hrs when I broke down. Chidambaran was also looking
very tired. We sat there for about 10 mins and finally gained mental courage
to move further.
At about 3 km from the basement, around 1350 hrs I was almost making my mind
for a return, when I saw a old man in the opposite direction. He said only a
few turns away. We never knew that we had to walk some 30 more mins.
1420 hrs - 1615 hrs:
Finally around 1420 hrs, we saw a group of 4 people doing some cooking. We
asked them on the whereabouts of the temple. They said that, that was the
temple location and we, contrary to our imaginations, could find some 10-12
statues which were very very small. We asked them for water - truly the
elixir of life. I haven't ever tasted that kind of water(given by them) in
my life. The water had the lightest shade of yellow and yet tasted sweet and
great! I would have drunk around 1 litre of water in a single gulp. More
people joined them (3 kids and good number of women). We learnt from them
that they were residents of Mangalam and it is a custom that families from
the village has to do pooja to the temple each taking turns. We realized
that they were tribals. I was fearing if they would kill us in the name of
"Narabali". But fortunately, those people were of very good nature that they
asked us to take lunch there (lunch is nothing but prasadam after pooja).
All were moving with us very nicely. Wonderful experience and interesting it
was to move with those people. (A Tamil song featuring Rajinikanth "Aasaiya
kaathula thuudhu vitu...played across my mind). We had our lunch.
Menu:
Porridge (Salted)
White Rice
Kuzhmbu like water with vegetables (as claimed by tribals - Chidambaran tasted
this - How was itda?)
Appalam
Vadai
I had to really kill my taste buds in my tongue to take that porridge. The
contents of kuzhmbu threatened me. So, I didn't touch it under the pretext
that it was too hot to eat. I took white rice with vadai and appalam as
sidedish. The tribals spoke among themselves that we would not like their
food. Though it was very true, we never showed this feeling to them as we
didn't want to disappoint them. Very very good people.
Chidambaran wanted to explore the source of sweetest water on earth. Granting
his request, one of the tribals took us to the source of water. The path was
worse than even before. We had to clear the bushes to find the path. The
tribal was moving very swiftly but we measured each and every step. I was
cursing chidambaran for his risky wish. Finally he showed us a cliff and
said pointing downwards "That is the jonnai. Go there". Yanakku uyirae
poeiduthu. But chidambaran was daringly proceeding and I followed him
blindly. A very small step would take us to the basement within seconds, but
without life. Fortunately, we reached the source of water, tasted and came
back to the temple. Till I came back to temple, I never felt it as an
adventurous and wonderful trip. The tribal who took us to the water source
asked us money for drinking and we gladly parted Rs.20 with a warning note
against drinking.
1620 hrs-1730 hrs:
Later, we started our downward trip. The downward trip was plesant. The SUN
had gone down and weather was cool. On our way down, we saw a group of
people in the opposite direction (around 35-50 people). Enquiries by
chidambaran revealed that they were people from Wipro technologies, Bangalore
+ Chennai who were on a joy trip. The group contained one of our college
alumni (Madhu, 2000 passed out, EEE). After a good number of snaps in the
mid way we reached the basement around 1730 hrs.
1730 hrs - 2200 hrs:
We slowly crawled to the bus stand from Mangalam. Waited for the bus for
about 30 mins. Boarded the bus to Tirupathur at 1930 hrs. We had to stand
all the way till the basement of Yelagiri hills in the bus. Reached
Tirupathur around 2030 hrs. We went to the same lodge and he gladly spared
one of the rooms for refreshing ourselves (as we checked out under 12 hrs
earlier). Had a one hour dinner in the same hotel. But this time the bill
was much lower - only Rs.44/-. Both of us were almost half dead after the
adventerous trecking.
2230 hrs:
We then boarded the bus to Chennai at 2230 hrs. The bus was to start to
Chennai around 2315 hrs. Before I kept the luggage in the upper raft,
Chidambaran was in a deep sleep. We don't know what happened then. I
remember conductor waking me up and giving tickets.
31/Aug - Sunday:
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
0530 hrs:
When I woke up later, I realized that the bus was at the stop where I was
supposed to get down. Pulling the luggage out of the rack, I got down the
bus. Chidambaran was to get down in a later bus stop. I then reached home
around 0545 hrs only to find virii and birthday wishes flooding my mail box.
Though this trip was not at all planned, everything went on as if it was
well-planned and executed.
2350 hrs:
After 3 hours of composing this mail, I ask myself "Why did I type this mail?
Why did I want to share this with everyone?". May be now, I feel too tired
to answer these. Answers may follow in the next mail.
What do you think on this long mail? Your
inferences/criticisms/suggestions/comments are requested. Whatever you think
on this mail, please send them. Atleast for the pains I took in sending this
3 hr long mail, dormant people like Indra, Jayabharathi, Anand, Arutchelvan,
Thiruvengadam, Dhivya, Joash can wake up and others can pour in as usual.
irukara 5 letterdhan (B. Tech) yanga muuchu. Indha lettersdhan yangalukku
companyla velai vaangi koduthudhu. Company pandra aniyayam thanga
mudiyallai. Romba lata joning date koduthan. Adhunaala naanga oru plan
panninom - yaedho adventerous trip polamnu. Yaedho malaiku polamnu mudivu
panninom - Yangalukku bayamna yannaenae thaeriyallai - experiencum illlai -
aazham thaeriyaama kaala vituttom - uuruku kilambittom - vazhila maatik kondu
vittom - naanga aarambich tripa naangalae mudikalamnu mudivu pannom.
28/Aug/2003 - Thursday:
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
2330 hrs:
A decision was made in haste. We finalized our plans to leave for Tirupathur
the next day morning. We didn't plan what to do after reaching Tripathur,
when to leave for Yelagiri hills (some 30 km from Tirupathur), where to stay,
where to eat etc.. etc... Probably in the history of mankind, it was one of
the worst planned tour. We planned to meet each other at Chennai Mofussil
Bus Terminus(CMBT) at 0600 hrs.
29/Aug/2003 - Friday:
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
0400 hrs:
Alarm in my house went off. My subconscious mind commanded my hands to switch
off the alarm without the permission of my brain.
0600 hrs:
My parents woke me up at 0600 hrs to ask me if I was going to leave or not.
The first bomb blasted in my mind when I saw the clock. I called on
chidambaran. Very surprisingly, he picked the phone and proudly said that he
woke a few minutes before me. We changed our plans and agreed to meet at
CMBT at 0730 hrs.
0800 hrs:
I knew pretty well that Chidambaran will not keep up his time. Having faith
on this habit of Chidambaran, I reached CMBT at 0830 hrs. To my shock, he
wasn't there at CMBT. Thinking he hadn't come then, I called on his house to
confirm if he had started by then or not. Inmates said that he had called
there some five minutes before. Finally, found him at 0845 hrs.
0850 hrs:
Made a few purchases. Two batteries for the camera and a "Good Day" biscuit
packet (This good day biscuit was the only species on earth that wished us
"good day" that day). Boarded a bus which was to start to Tirupathur at 0915
hrs.
0915 hrs:
The bus was on time to start. Myself and Chidambaran conversed on all issues
- right from Vajpayee, Sonia Gandhi to road side beggar and temple side
beggar - right from women reservation bill to rain water harvesting issues.
We found the bus still in the vicinity of CMBT at 0945 hrs. We were caught
amidst tight jam.
1445 hrs:
Reached Tirupathur. I had been at Tirupathur for two years. I did my primary
schooling in Tirupathur (my III and IV standard) at "Bharathiya Vidhyalaya"
(1989-90). Memories of my classmates and my school were still afresh in my
mind (unlike a few people on pectium who have forgotten their classmates and
college totally. Eg. Dhivya, Jayabharathi, Indra, Arutchelvan, Joash, Anand
& others). I traced out the way to my school around 1505 hrs.
1505 hrs:
School building konjam kuuda maaravae illai. Appadiyae irundhadhu. But, I
could trace out only 4 of my teachers including the Head of the school.
Others had left the school. Two of them immediately recognized me when I
mentioned my name. The other two recognized me after 10 minutes of kindling
the past. Very nice moment it was. All the four teachers were EXTREMELY
happy to see their III and IV standard student now. My mind was literally
floating in my tears. I took a few photographs in the school along with my
old teachers and then proceeded to meet my classmates.
1545 hrs - 1900 hrs:
I was able to trace out the path to houses of three of my classmates - I
wished to meet many. But time was my enemy then. Two were at home and while
third one was out of station. I felt gliding in the waves of happiness, when
I met some of the OLDEST friends of mine. Both of them were able to
recognize me. A group photo that was taken during our school days brought us
closer. Moments which cannot be expressed over letters/mails melted me. We
had only one photograph to share (the group photograph). This kind of
situation(thirst for photographs) will not happen to us, as pectium CD-I is
to carry over 4000 photographs.
1930 hrs - 2130 hrs:
We had our dinner in a vegetarian Tandoorian hotel. Superb dinner. After
both of us filled our stomach, the bill shook us. It was only Rs.51/- (for
both). We were very happy to give the waiter a Rs.4 tips. :-)
2130 hrs:
We comforted ourselves in a very decent lodge. Made up our minds to start by
0530 hrs bus to Yelagiri hills.
2200 hrs - 2300 hrs: I along with Chidambaran, strolled to the place where I
lived. Same flat - Hardly a few changes (though we didn't go inside as it
was too late) - My eyeballs floated in tears. Later we went back to the
lodge and had a nice sleep.
It was a day which really kindled my memories. Probably Chidambaran had
nothing much to do that day. Though my mind was very happy I had a bit of
guilt of wasting a day that belonged to my dear friend.
30/Aug/2003:
^^^^^^^^^^^^^
0400 hrs - 0530 hrs: Chidambaran & myself woke with service boy's call,
finished off our morning duties, settled bills and checked out of hotel and
marched to bus stand.
0545 hrs:
We boarded the bus to Yelagiri hills. We literally didn't know what to do
after reaching the hills. Only information we gathered was that Yelagiri
hills had a boating lake.
0730 hrs:
We reached Yelagiri hills. Full 360 degree, complete silence other than
chirping of birds. Excellant morning weather. Supera irundhadhu.
0745 hrs - 0830 hrs:
We learnt of the presence of a Murugan temple in the hills. We visited the
temple and had a few photographs taken by the auto camera everywhere on the
way.
0830 hrs - 0900 hrs:
We had our morning breakfast. Very decent light breakfast. Guess the bill -
It was Rs.41/-. Compared with the Rs.51 dinner which we had last night, this
was too much. We learnt that there is a place called "Swamimalai" about 9 km
from the bus stop - 4 km of walk across a plain stretch and 5 km walk uphill
trecking.
0915 hrs - 1100 hrs:
We found our way to boating lake and hired a boat for 30 mins - probably the
biggest mistake which we did in the trip. The boating experience which
relied on our pedalling skills absorbed every bit of energy that was
generated by two session food (last night dinner and that day's breakfast).
When we came out of the boat, we realized we hardly had any energy to move
further.
1100 hrs-1130 hrs:
We slept in a roadside park for sometime and decided to proceed to Swamimalai.
1130 hrs:
We asked a few people for the way. All of them warned us to carry eatables,
drinking water etc...We took it very lightly and proceeded with nothing in
hand except hot cash. We marched towards the basement of Swamimalai called
Mangalam, some 4 km away from the boating spot. By then, FIRE god SUN
decided not to show any kind of mercy on us. The SUN was sitting on our top
and weather conditions worsened though it didn't really sweat.
1240 hrs-1420 hrs:
We reached the basement "Mangalam" of Swamimalai. All we could see from there
was a big stick, which the people called as "TEMPLE". We fixed our eyes on
it. We started with a high target & the path too started good. Green
fields, white flower bed, yellow flower bed made us to click the camera very
often. At the same time, we realized that we were running out of energy.
After some 1 km of steep stretch (not stairs), we sat down unable to move
further. Broken stair case like structures were seen later. Each step
carried us 15 cm upwards. We had to lift our legs to keep any step further.
Each and every step we kept ahead increased our pulse rate. Along the entire
way, we couldn't find a single living being - no humans and luckily no
animals - though frequent bear encounters were reported by the local people.
Time was striking 1330 hrs when I broke down. Chidambaran was also looking
very tired. We sat there for about 10 mins and finally gained mental courage
to move further.
At about 3 km from the basement, around 1350 hrs I was almost making my mind
for a return, when I saw a old man in the opposite direction. He said only a
few turns away. We never knew that we had to walk some 30 more mins.
1420 hrs - 1615 hrs:
Finally around 1420 hrs, we saw a group of 4 people doing some cooking. We
asked them on the whereabouts of the temple. They said that, that was the
temple location and we, contrary to our imaginations, could find some 10-12
statues which were very very small. We asked them for water - truly the
elixir of life. I haven't ever tasted that kind of water(given by them) in
my life. The water had the lightest shade of yellow and yet tasted sweet and
great! I would have drunk around 1 litre of water in a single gulp. More
people joined them (3 kids and good number of women). We learnt from them
that they were residents of Mangalam and it is a custom that families from
the village has to do pooja to the temple each taking turns. We realized
that they were tribals. I was fearing if they would kill us in the name of
"Narabali". But fortunately, those people were of very good nature that they
asked us to take lunch there (lunch is nothing but prasadam after pooja).
All were moving with us very nicely. Wonderful experience and interesting it
was to move with those people. (A Tamil song featuring Rajinikanth "Aasaiya
kaathula thuudhu vitu...played across my mind). We had our lunch.
Menu:
Porridge (Salted)
White Rice
Kuzhmbu like water with vegetables (as claimed by tribals - Chidambaran tasted
this - How was itda?)
Appalam
Vadai
I had to really kill my taste buds in my tongue to take that porridge. The
contents of kuzhmbu threatened me. So, I didn't touch it under the pretext
that it was too hot to eat. I took white rice with vadai and appalam as
sidedish. The tribals spoke among themselves that we would not like their
food. Though it was very true, we never showed this feeling to them as we
didn't want to disappoint them. Very very good people.
Chidambaran wanted to explore the source of sweetest water on earth. Granting
his request, one of the tribals took us to the source of water. The path was
worse than even before. We had to clear the bushes to find the path. The
tribal was moving very swiftly but we measured each and every step. I was
cursing chidambaran for his risky wish. Finally he showed us a cliff and
said pointing downwards "That is the jonnai. Go there". Yanakku uyirae
poeiduthu. But chidambaran was daringly proceeding and I followed him
blindly. A very small step would take us to the basement within seconds, but
without life. Fortunately, we reached the source of water, tasted and came
back to the temple. Till I came back to temple, I never felt it as an
adventurous and wonderful trip. The tribal who took us to the water source
asked us money for drinking and we gladly parted Rs.20 with a warning note
against drinking.
1620 hrs-1730 hrs:
Later, we started our downward trip. The downward trip was plesant. The SUN
had gone down and weather was cool. On our way down, we saw a group of
people in the opposite direction (around 35-50 people). Enquiries by
chidambaran revealed that they were people from Wipro technologies, Bangalore
+ Chennai who were on a joy trip. The group contained one of our college
alumni (Madhu, 2000 passed out, EEE). After a good number of snaps in the
mid way we reached the basement around 1730 hrs.
1730 hrs - 2200 hrs:
We slowly crawled to the bus stand from Mangalam. Waited for the bus for
about 30 mins. Boarded the bus to Tirupathur at 1930 hrs. We had to stand
all the way till the basement of Yelagiri hills in the bus. Reached
Tirupathur around 2030 hrs. We went to the same lodge and he gladly spared
one of the rooms for refreshing ourselves (as we checked out under 12 hrs
earlier). Had a one hour dinner in the same hotel. But this time the bill
was much lower - only Rs.44/-. Both of us were almost half dead after the
adventerous trecking.
2230 hrs:
We then boarded the bus to Chennai at 2230 hrs. The bus was to start to
Chennai around 2315 hrs. Before I kept the luggage in the upper raft,
Chidambaran was in a deep sleep. We don't know what happened then. I
remember conductor waking me up and giving tickets.
31/Aug - Sunday:
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
0530 hrs:
When I woke up later, I realized that the bus was at the stop where I was
supposed to get down. Pulling the luggage out of the rack, I got down the
bus. Chidambaran was to get down in a later bus stop. I then reached home
around 0545 hrs only to find virii and birthday wishes flooding my mail box.
Though this trip was not at all planned, everything went on as if it was
well-planned and executed.
2350 hrs:
After 3 hours of composing this mail, I ask myself "Why did I type this mail?
Why did I want to share this with everyone?". May be now, I feel too tired
to answer these. Answers may follow in the next mail.
What do you think on this long mail? Your
inferences/criticisms/suggestions/comments are requested. Whatever you think
on this mail, please send them. Atleast for the pains I took in sending this
3 hr long mail, dormant people like Indra, Jayabharathi, Anand, Arutchelvan,
Thiruvengadam, Dhivya, Joash can wake up and others can pour in as usual.
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