Rangaswamy hills

Date : 12/04/06

Ajay GN, Ajay Kumar CS, Rajath and me had planned for a trek to Rangaswamy hills. To go to the place and to come back, we decided to use public transport. Rajath and me were looking for info about the trek in the net. Until the previous night, we didnt know exactly how to reach the place!!!! Rajath's friends had been to the place before. In the end, it was his friend Mahesh(my friend too) who gave the exact info about how to reach the place via public transport.

We met at GN's house at 6.30 am. We took a bus to Banashankari bus stand. From Banashankari bus stand, we took a govt. bus to Kanakapura at 7-7.15. We got down at Harohalli around 8-8.30. Its around 40 kms from Bangalore. Then we took a private bus to Maralvadi, which is around 12 kms from Harohalli. From Maralvadi, Rangaswamy hills is around 7-8 kms passing through Devarahalli. We took a auto from there(it proved to be the costliest transport we used for the day!!!) to a place close to the hills. From the place where the auto stopped, we had to walk around 2 kms to go to the foot of the hills.

Along our path, a rabbit appeared , ran straight ahead of us and disappeared . Then, we starting climbing, but after going a small distance, we felt that this wasnt the route, as the locals there had said to us that they would be a clear route, and here, there wasnt any. So we came back to the foothills.

There was another route from the foothills. We went along that and it became clear that this was the route as the path was wide and clear. We climbed for very little time and found a place with some shade. There we stopped for our breakfast. It was around 9.30. We started off again after around 15 mins.

The path was good – wide enough and through the forest. Small and big rocks, tree-roots and some anthills were along the path. After probably climbing half of the hills, we even found dung along the path – elephant dung – heaps and heaps of it. GN told us it was elephant's dung as he had seen it in Bandipur. It doesnt stick to your footwear like cow dung!!! They were probably a few elephants that had treaded the paths sometime back, but as the dung was dried, it was a long time back, I guess.

It was sweltering hot. We took breaks at short intervals and took our own time in rest. We realised that we would defintely have water shortage. All of us had carried 2 ltrs of water each but very little of it was left by the time we had reached the top at around 12.15.

We found a place to have rest for some time, but there was no shade there. We sat there for sometime. My friends(CS and Rajath had mobiles – both Hutch) messaged their friends that we were on top. Then, we decided to find a place with nice shade to eat our lunch. So, we roamed around the top. The area was large. Theres also a temple here. We decided to visit it after our lunch. We found a suitable place, under a huge tree and finished our lunch. We practically finished our water resources too(GN saved just a few gulps). There was no drinking water available at the top(which was worthy of us). Then we went to the temple, but it was closed – we just viewed the idol from the outside.

We started our journey down at around 1.45. We took fewer breaks, as we knew the more breaks we took, the more necessity of water we would feel. The route back was a bit confusing – lost track 2 or 3 times, but were able to come back to the original track. We were almost down when we got the message of the demise of the kannada icon, Rajkumar from Rajath's mother. Around 3, we were down, at a local camp. We drank water there and they showed us a shortcut to reach Maralvadi. Midway through the shortcut, we filled our water bottles with some tap water there. It took a long time to walk. I felt this wasnt any shortcut. We reached maralvadi around 5.30. Even if we our total breaks would take half an hour, then we would have walked for atleast 8 kms in 2 hrs but the auto-man had said while leaving us that the road-route was around 7-8 kms. Hopefully, he was confused with miles and kms!!!

When we were in Maralvadi, we got clues of the protests in Bangalore. There was a private bus to Bangalore from there but he didnt assure us that we would reach our final destination. So we decided to get down at Harohalli and think of what to do next.

We reached Maralvadi around 6. We called up our anxious and tensed parents. We saw a bus whose front window had been damaged by a stone and the driver said that the police are blocking the buses to Bangalore. I had decided then that tonight, we will have to spend the night somewhere other than Bangalore – there wasnt any hope of reaching Bangalore. We tried to find out if any of our relatives lived nearby, but in vain. The bus authorities said they will take us to Bangalore and drop us at Thalgatpura, and we could get our own transport from there. The other option they gave was to wait till 10 and then there might be transport available. Both of it felt too risky to us. It would be worse if we were caught up in the middle of no-where or left with no transport late in the night.

THERES ALWAYS A SILVER LINING.

The nearest place to where transport was available now was Kanakapura, which is farther from Bangalore but where we could atleast find some accomadation for the night. We had enquired about the lodgings there and it was cheap. Moreover, GN's dad works in BSNL and we hoped that we could find the BSNL rest rooms in Kanakapura. So we decided to go there.

We were in Kanakapura by 8. We were trying to contact GN's dad. There were connection problems(more in Maralvadi – got a bit better in Kanakapura), but we were able to pass him the message somehow. He told us to go BSNL office and ask for help. If they didnt agree, he asked us to get their number, and then he would call them up.

We searched for the office and reached there. It was closed but there was some person outside the building. GN always carries his father's visiting card and that helped as a proof. We told our problem and that we needed accomadations. He said that there were no rest rooms there but he would make arrangements for us to stay in the office only. We were satisfied. All this conversation took place next to a BSNL maxi/tempo(whatever u can call), outside the office gates.

The driver was overhearing our conversation and he joined our conversation.

• Driver asked, "where actually do u need to go in Bangalore?"
• We said, "jayanagar or banashankari.."
• He said, "we are going to BSNL WMS compound in Jayanagar"
• The other person added, "but u have to adjust as theres not enough space, if not u can stay here and I will make arrangements here"

We were on the moon.

• GN stays in WMS compound. The previous times our group has gone out, the starting point had been my house and my friends' vehicles were parked here. However, this time it was GN's house and look where the vehicle now had agreed to take us to!!!
• It was just the 4 of us. Even if it was 1 more, it would have become difficult to accomadate in the bus.
• The person whom we talked to, had stayed late due to some problem in the office – if not, we would have met only the security and he couldnt have helped us much.
• Some senior officers from Bangalore had come to sort the problem in this office and the BSNL vehicle was for their transportation. They would have left if we were around half an hour late.

All these things show that luck or god (whatever u might call) was on our side and we caught our silver lining.

We called our parents again to inform that we would be back. The vehicle left around 8.45. It was comfortable – no need for adjustment and all. We were at GN's place before 10!! I took my vehicle and was back home around 10.15.

All in all, in short :
A wonderful trek
A great adventure
Once in a lifetime experience

Savanadurga

i love this place.. i have trekked this hill for 4 times, thru 3 different routes, one completely different from the other two and in this route, i have gone twice.. but still i would love visiting this place.. the best place for beginners in trekking… i cant recollect all my visits here.. but i will try my best to recollect everything about the last time i had been there…

it was around a year before… 1st sem holiday perhaps.. i suggested the idea of trekking to my pals Ajay Kumar CS, Ajay GN, Rajath and Harsha.. Harsha couldnt make it but i persuaded the others finally.. this was our first outing, outside Bangalore… i was the one who had been there before.. so i had to take the responsibility… GN had been to treks before while the other two werent used to it.. and Rajath’s fren Mahesh who was my school classmate also joined us.. he liked trekking too..

there r very few buses to this place, none from Majestic, just 1 or 2 govt buses from Market… there were 1 or 2 private buses too.. but the govt bus supposed to leave at 6.15am was the most suited to us.. so we all met in my house around 5.30 (sorry, the time might be half an hour here and there – my long term memory isnt too good)… around 6 we were there but the bus didnt turn up.. it only came around 7 and we reached the place around 9.30…

we had our breakfast and started our trek… our route was the one which we could go without guides.. it was thru the steep hill surrounded by rocks and not much greenery.. that is, we didnt go thru the forests.. it was quite steep sometimes.. but it was easily manageable.. and the scenery was beautiful.. CS was a bit worried about the steepness… he was always thinking that how he was going to get down… we had to keep motivating him.. it was real fun.. and since no one had been there before, i used to tell fictitious percentages of the complete trek.. 50% comp.. 90% comp.. at one stage, i said 95% comp and we still had quite a long way to go…. it was fun though and they realised i had been just trying to motivate them when we reached the top.. yeah, it was that too but more that i wasnt able to recollect the exact %, asthe last time i had visited this was 1 or 2 yrs before – so again the memory glitch…
we spent some time at the top.. discussing our I sem percentage… we had all taught about the possibilities of scores – the least and the average score.. a look now into this says that i got atleast 5% less than what i had said would be my least possible score and 10% less than what i had said would be my average score… che.. i would like to forget that…

the way down was as easy or difficult as the way up.. its not that easy to come down a steep slope.. CS had overcome his worry… we took little time to come down, btw we didnt take much time to climb either.. so by afternoon, we were down and we had our lunch in a nearby park… it was told to us that the last and only bus(govt) would be around 5 or 6… we had still around 2 hrs to go.. so we had played in the park and explored the place.. and we decided to drink something as our water supplies had finished. so we came out of the park to drink yelleneeru (coconut water)… as soon as we had finished drinking we saw a bus go thru.. the road was around 25m from us… we ran and screamed.. thank god, he stopped around 50m far from us.. when we climbed it, we came to know that this was the last bus.. but it was still 4.. they had left early as there seemed to be no one coming at that time.. we were lucky…
in the end.. when all of us think about it.. we feel that we had a gr8 time..

gr8 place.. highly adventurous and safe.. i wish to go there again.. i would recommend it to all beginners in trek.. like a ncc trip(that was how i had gone there 2 times), school trek, frens wanting a day’s outing…

Mysore – Art gallery

DESTINATIONS:
The world is full of beautiful places

i had been to Mysore with my uncle last week.. he had some official paperwork to get done and i accompanied him since it was my holidays.. i hadnt seen Mysore for many years and we taught of going to some splendid places.. but we could find very little time inbetween the official work.. and with that little time, he asked me where we could go.. i hadnt seen any art gallery (as far as i can remember).. he said it was good and so we went there…

the gallery was beautiful.. i will describe them in the order in which i liked them…

GLOW OF HOPE painting was the best… the painting is of a woman who is holding a candle but concealing the candle from us with her hands… the lighting effect is so natural that u actually think light is coming from a candle which is there behind her hands.. gr8.. its a treat for the eyes.. i havent seen ‘mona lisa’ painting.. but for now, i think no painting can beat this..

the musical clock was gr8.. at that time they had done such a marvellous clock… they had rice grains on which art was displayed… again gr8…

the oil paintings were very good.. from displaying kings in their grandeur to the history of gr8 people, everything was spell bound…

along with all the wonderful paintings, musical instruments which look very artistic, plates on which art has been engraved and gifts from other kingdoms were being diplayed..

all in all, when i came out, i was left wondering about the grandeur of the mysore kingdom.. i spent around 1 1/2 hr there (only due to the lack of time), though i felt that u could spend double that amount of time there quite easily.. probably that was one of the best worth of my time i have ever got…

along with this, i got some interesting info about the mysore kings from my uncle who was there when the last mysore ruler ruled mysore.. he said…

the mysore king’s dynasty was cursed.. no king would ever have his own children.. the story goes that some women was chased by the mysore soldiers after a war and she drowned herself in a river and put that curse on the dynasty.. so each king would adopt his son from the public.. sometimes he would adopt the kid to whom his elephant would put a garland upon..

how much of that is really true?.. i dont know.. but i believe my uncle..