A peek into the highest peak @ Vellore – And Before that!

It was January of 2006, barely weeks into the fourth semester of engineering. Classes and campus had already started seeming boring courtesy the moronic lecturers and lazy people around me. I had been planning a conquest of the highest peak @ Vellore (that’s where my college was VIT University) but could not find company. I didn’t understand guys around me were more interested in playing counter-strike on comp (where you give head-shots to your enemies, hopefully I could give some to these lecturers), some nerds into books, some others running after lecturers for marks, some were under the spell of dim witched girls (non male species @ college) who would drag the guys with money in their pocket to the food-court and order the best dessert (a chocolate Hot-fuzz nut!) or some others were simply lying in their rooms watching all kinda movies!

So I was bored and wanted company to go scale the highest peak @ Vellore. I am a kinda person who loves travelling, trekking or anything that involves moving! I had been to Calicut two months ago with one of my friends Anirudh for a technical paper presentation at NIT Calicut and enjoyed the place. It was so natural with serene calmness and greenery all around and with slight drizzle on. We won the second prize there, and yeah we also went to IIM Kozhikode, it was such a lovely campus, and it was located on hill top, so you actually had to trek all the way up to reach the hostel and the main campus. I was so excited after the trip that I wanted a quick trek some new place. And with little cash in my pocket the Vellore peak was the cheapest and best deal to satiate my craving for a trek. Luckily I had mentioned the above problem to one of my friends Anindya and so one night he turned up at my room in hostel and we decided to finally scale the peak the next morning sharp at 6.

Trek Begins: The next day we started by 6. I could only manage snickers and did not have trekking shoes so it was kinda dangerous because it was raining that day (Vellore receives the rainfall from the retreating or the North east monsoon), the rocks were all so wet and slippery especially with the snickers on. Okay the way to begin your ascent of the hill in Vellore is through the shacks in the foothills near Satuvachari. We took an auto till there from the hostel. We initially had to figure out the right place for the ascent cos there’s no defined way. Luckily we hit the right spot to start. It was a steep 70 degrees slope, and had tough time climbing the rocks amidst all the drizzle and slippery rocks! We somehow managed to reach the point where we could figure where we should be heading. Luckily we found a path which I guess became prominent courtesy people had earlier travelled on it. From there on we just followed the path, we had difficulty at times courtesy some steep climbing of 80 degrees as well, and then all those bushes, with ever looming danger of a King cobra showing up anytime. We somehow managed the trip upwards among all these perils. The hill has a kind of watch tower similar to the one they show in mythological and epic movies, say the LOTR where they light the fire and have bells to warn the city of potential dangers and attacks! It was constructed I guess during the time of King Krishnadevaraya a king who is believed to rule Vellore and surrounding areas. It was fun reaching the top. It was so soothing amidst the drizzle and the cool breeze. We could see the whole town of Vellore and even VIT and CMC. The two premier institutes in Vellore. We spent some great time there, tried shouting as loud as possible at times, trying to warn the Velloreans of the new age dangers! I guess trekking and travelling lets you experience new things and help you get energized and refreshed. After about half an hour we were headed back. It took us approximately 45 minutes climbing up and 20 back. It was a fun experience after all the hectic and boring college life that time!  and revitalizing!

FIRST TIME ROCKING AT JIPMER – A Learning Curve

It was just the end of August in 2006 and it was my first ever tryst with the rock and roll scene in India. I was for the first time playing Bass (please pronounce it as base) guitar for a band in college, and my first ever gig was supposed to be at JIPMER, Pondicherry. One of the most revered Battle of Bands contest in southern India. The show was called Tinnitus (Western Music Competition). It was a gleaming night, with some of the best rock crowd I had come across. People seemed to understand here that rock was no screaming stuff but just another form of music they were so addicted to.

BATTLE OF BANDS STARTS:

The battle for the supreme bands started around 8 p.m. after much delay due to rain which had added another dimension to the already energetic and rocking crowd. The bands came, they played and they conquered. Though we did not give a perfect show but we were surely on the learning curve seeing all these wonderful bands around! We played a mix of modern rock, some punk and a hard rock number. The songs we played were: Show me how to live (Audioslave), Virus (Iron Maiden), Flavor of the weak (American Hi-Fi) and Rocking in a free world (Neil Young, Pearl Jam cover). We got a mixed response; to be frank I was so involved in playing (I was a bit nervy as well) that I totally missed out on the crowd thing. Though we screwed up the third song (Flavor of the weak) the response from people after our show was that the second and the last song were pretty good. And for the last song we even got some head-banging, applauses and rock on screams! So that went down pretty well. Though after our performance we went back stage and we were trying to find out culprits as to who screwed up the third song! To be frank I did not say anything that time but it was our rhythm guitarist but no issues cause one can always goof up while playing. It’s only about realizing ones mistake and giving a good show the next time. Another thing with JIPMER’s battle of bands is that the sound system over here is awesome. Apart from that the lighting is so perfect that it adds to the joy of playing. The Light men flicker the lights depending upon the rhythm and the mood of the music being played by the bands. So it is worth appreciation.

Moreover it was my first experience of the rocker lifestyle. People around some engineers, some doctors (JIPMER is a medical college) and rest all jerks (engineers at the most respect doctors rest all guys are unknown clans) from colleges all around Chennai, Bangalore (India’s rock capital), Calicut, Trivandrum etc had gathered for the JIPMER event(it’s basically the cultural and sports meet organized on an yearly basis). There were many other things I got to see. There were smokers and dopers all around. Some frustrated doctors were high on alcohol (one even got on to the stage and did a ramp walk when the bands were playing), some were busy rolling Marijuana joints and the extreme jerks were even snorting cocaine. Well it’s such a shame that such guys bring to the Rocker community, because they set a bad example and the youngsters just blindly emulate them. Actually Pondicherry is the dopers’ paradise. Anyways it was a fun experiencing different cultures, morons and the lovely Pondicherry. It was fun rocking!

The Gr8 Road Trip: NH2, Agra and a tryst with history!

It was the 2^nd of June when I was conveyed that decision on our selection was put in the cupborad due to some internal problems. The whole next week was spent by me in the township of Kendriya Vihar in Gurgaon doing nothing but sleeping and lazying (if this word actually exists, I’m not sure) and of course eating Aloo paranthas (no one @home so had to fill up with that godforsaken stuff!). And yeah I worked on a story which has attracted the maximum traffic till date on my blog site, the gr8 day spent at McKinsey&Co. (atleast something worthwhile came out) It was Friday and my  beloved brother-in-law a driving freak planned a drive down trip anywhere within 200 kms of the great New Delhi. I was naturally excited after a dumb week in the city of Gurgaon, where traveling to cash rich people means driving down to the nearest mall (cause there’s nothing actually around) and wash away a part of their hard earned earnings to these glut mall owners who seem to be wanting anything but money. (If only they read this crude definition of Gurgaon beware I don’t think I should be travelling to Gurgaon anymore! ;-(

So we finally decided we were going down to Agra. Yes the city known for Taj Mahal, which was recently reinstated in the Seven Wonders of the World courtesy the 100 billion Indian population texting! Another of my jiju’s cousin, Sonal had joined us. So we quickly logged on the internet and looked out for the Google’s map for Agra from Gurgaon. God, these Google people come out with some really innovative stuff. A second and it shows all the roads, by lanes from anywhere to everywhere. So we quickly sorted out the route. Okies instead of going to Delhi we can take a road to Faridabad via Sohna rd. and then reach Ballabhgarh and then we are on the great historic NH2 (which in olden times ran from Lahore to Dhaka via Indraprastha) which takes us straight to Agra not before touching Mathura, the birthplace of the our beloved Lord Krishna, the great flirt in his youth but who also gave us the best lessons in our religious scriptures the revered Bhagwad Gita which everyone must abide to. (Or atleast try to)

So our Road Trip was supposed to begin on Saturday, the next morning at 6!

Next morning at 6 everyone was sleeping! It was only at around 8 that everyone gained consciousness I guess, then it was not before 10 that we left, a good 4 hours off schedule. I was naturally excited because I love Road Trips, Travelling or anything you can remotely associate with trekking. So we embarked on one helluva journey in the grey colored Maruti Zen that my jiju owns which was registered in Andhra Pradesh, being run in Haryana and now was gonna go via Delhi to Uttar Pradesh.

For me it also provided an opportunity to hone my photographic skills, which is another of my interests and I was guessing if I would be able to capture some real good stuff. I had always loved capturing nature, routine innovative and artistic stuff rather than humans in my snaps! So what? Nothing. So our trip started, and I was in possession of a relative mean machine a Sony Cybershot.

We reached Agra around 3 in the evening. On the way we halted mid way near Mathura. Had a quick lunch. Took a few snaps from the car itself. Explored the great Mathura refinery and took a few snaps (hoping these were not the last snaps of a working refinery, because the way these oil marketing companies are losing money, it may not be very long before they might close down!). We did touch the holy city of Mathura but only from the outside. Though we could see the Krishna Janmabhoomi (Lord Krishna’s birthplace) and a mosque next to it from the highway, soaked in a serene calmness and perfect example of the secularism that prevails in our country no matter what people say or think.

It was soon afterwards we touched the capital of the Great Mohammed Jallaludin Akbar. The first historic place we hit was his tomb itself, Sikandra. Took a few snaps, yup did have a look at the tomb also! It was the great Akbar’s idea to order his peers to keep his grave to the simple, the way he lived and brought about peace and brotherhood during his rule. On the way we decided let us drive back home the same night unlike what we had earlier planned to stay a day and start next day. So we quickly had to finish Agra fort and of course the Taj Mahal. Soon we reached the Agra fort, to make it clear it was not my first time in Agra. I had earlier been to all these places during my class X tour and had another helluva trip that time.

Yeah and the last time I came to Agra, one guide (it’s a major lucrative employment taken by the youth over here, who would drive you nuts with their crazy history stuff! Which could possibly be way off mark, and more importantly they will give you some raw and hard to digest spicy trivial tidbits about the city) told me that AGRA got its name from AA- GIRA meaning come and fall, because in olden times it was famous for Pick-Pocketers, so you come and your wallet falls, oh ho now I get the logic. (This fact may be untrue for above stated reasons).

Moreover if these guides drive you crazy and insane then you have a world-class place to get yourself treated in Agra the Agra Mental Hospital!

Jodha-Akbar, seen that movie twice I guess. It was so fresh in my memory that I could relate to all the stuff this time more easily.

At the Agra fort: hey! Look this is the entrance where Aishwarya Rai went through when she first came to Agra after getting married to Hrithik. Hey look this is the place where Hrithik pushed MahaManga’s son after he got nuts and killed the WAZIR! Hey look this is the place where he wooed Ash by flaunting his muskills (muscles). And yeah that’s the court house, Diwan-e-am, now I see… So we quickly went through the Agra fort. We came out by 6, had exactly half an hour before we could reach Taj Mahal before they let in the final batch of people and close for the day.

Yeah had one helluva time there. Because they don’t let in any polluting vehicles near the TajMahal, we had to take a camel cart till the entrance about a kilometer from the parking. So I could not imagine the frail looking camel buddy pushing four of us (jiju, his cousin, sis, and me) and the master around. Strange medieval ride in Modern times, surely cutting down global warming but lame and against animal rights, to be honest I’m against such practices.

No wonder we reached Taj Mahal, it was the worst I’d seen of it. It was not as beautiful as was on my previous trip, had turned blacker than ever, courtesy Ms. Mayawati, Mathura Refinery and all the brilliant people around in our country holding top positions. However it was good. I could see people involved with guides more keen on remembering that Babar was Humayun’s godforsaken father, whose great son Akbar had ruled this place and brought to India the concept of secularism and brotherhood, his son Jahangir who went against his father to woo Anarkali, and then came Shahjahan who’d spent a billion bucks constructing this magnificent building and many more, completely draining the Mughal’s budget on his beloved (citation required) and then his dim witched moron son Aurangzeb who would plan out complete capture of India and see the downfall of the Mughal empire. Between all this we were taking a lot of snaps (before TajMahal white marbles turn into Grey marbles).

I rushed towards the back side of the TajMahal to catch a glimpse of the great Yamuna River, which seemed to attract me more than Taj Mahal! It was a lovely sight; I just wondered how wonderful it must have been, when there would have been greenery all around, and the river flowing to its complete freedom, unhindered by dams and pollution. No wonder Shahjahan though a spendthrift had a great penchant for artistic and natural beauty and planned a perfect place to build a tomb for his wife.

Finally we were outta that place, and headed back to Gurgaon via Delhi this time. We had a great time driving back to Gurgaon. Overall it was a memorable trip.