Amidst the wilderness of Dandeli

Well this one is about a trip I had gone couple of months back.. Had written this as a mail.. Time has come to publish this on my blog .Hopefully this will inspire who ever reads this to emprise such adventurous trips ....

24th April, Thursday

The day started with a lot of excitement .We had organized a Santa game (similar to Christmas Friend we used to play in college) among the people going for the trip.. There was lot of fun hiding the gifts in every nook and corner of others cubes, getting out people from their cubes creating stories so that others cud hide the gifts and opening the gifts amidst laughter…A good beginning... At around 7 we – 12 people in AMD – 5 girls( Prajna,Radha,Bharti,Jyoti,and me) and 7 guys(Suhas,Mansoor,Deepak,Krishna,Gaurav,Ashish,Anshul) set out to catch a bus at 8 from Majestic. Well inertia is the part and parcel of the group and risk taking (reaching on time for the bus) is what defines the gang. We had booked tickets in KSRTC’s Volvo to Kundapur. That was the beginning of an adventurous trip thanks to some guys, who took the pain to organize it and understanding managers who gave leave for 12 people on the same day. The bus journey was filled with talking, guessing who gifted whom and some sleeping. Couldn’t afford to talk much as there were other people in the bus.

25th April, Friday

We reached Kundapur around 6:30. Kundapur is town beyond Mangalore. The purpose of going to Kundapur was to catch a train through the Konkan railway route (to enjoy the scenic beauty of the path according to Deepak). There was risk involved in this as buses to Kundapur were usually late and our train to Karwar was at 8:30. We had decided to catch a bus in case we were late. Thankfully we reached well in time to catch the train. After breakfast we headed to the railway station to know that the train was late and would come at 9. We had around an hour there. The station had a lot of vacant space outside. We had carried cricket bat. So we had a 6 over cricket match which ended up in a tie even after bowl out. It was fun to be kids again, howling and hooting, diving to catch a ball which would have otherwise come directly into ur hands. After the match we waited for the train. It was a passenger train but as we had booked tickets earlier we didn’t have problem of finding seats.

The train journey was filled with games – Anthakshari of city/town names, Dumb C, and couple of people sleeping to make up for the sleep lost in bus journey the previous day. One of my all time wish of sitting on the door steps of train was fulfilled with Mansoor giving me the company and support. It was amazing to sit in the steps when the train passed through long tunnels, screaming out into the darkness hoping to hear the echo.. We had a big family of 25 people to give us company in the train. They were singing (could say howling) and dancing in the middle of the train. As we were getting down at Karwar, Gaurav was tempted to throw coins at them and we all had a tough time to refrain him from doing that.

Later we checked into some hotel which we found. We all freshened up, had a nice lunch in two batches and got some sleep .At around 5 we set on to Rabindranath Tagore Beach in Karwar. A beautiful beach – very clean and neat with a decent crowd - not too much not too less. We had a wonderful time there. We played Frisbee, catching ball,throwing water at each other – the usual stuff.. Then was the most exciting thing that happened. Five of us – Gaurav,Suhas,Krishna,Prajna and me just went in with a belief on Krishna to save us (as he was the only one who knew swimming) – Gaurav convincing us its “once in a life time”.. We moved in the direction of ship playing ringa ringa roses in water – till the point when Prajna and I didn’t have our feet on the ground. We were hopping all the way with support of Suhas and Gaurav, we floated in water, did many crazy things until Ashish called us back telling it was time to leave. It could have become an actual once in a life time had Ashish not called us back. We were so excited that we forgot we had moved so much ahead from the shore. We went back promising ourselves and the sea to be back.. Others had done artistic stuff on the beach when we were away. Around 7:45 we left the beach and went to the hotel to change.

After dinner we started to Dandeli in a 13 seater arranged by our Dandeli contact guy. The journey was filled with songs with Anshul leading us with his mesmerizing voice. I have been hooked to the song “Purani Jeans aur Guitar” from the moment Anshul and Ashish sang that.

We reached Dandeli at around 12. We were staying in a farm filled with sunflowers and vegetables. We had two rooms for our bags and 6 tents for sleeping. Again something for the first time – a new experience of sleeping in tent. We slept around 2:30 after another round of chats and bullying each other.

26h April,Saturday

Radha, Prajna and I were the first ones to get up at 6:30. We started waking up others pouring water, poking tents with long sticks. All were up b4 7 even though we were cursed.. There were some photo sessions of tents.
We freshened up and had a good breakfast and headed for our first adventure of the trip – White water rafting in the Kali River. An awesome experience – We were first given training on how to raft and how to float with the jackets.. I loved the floating part and wanted to do more. As if granting my wish, I fell down from the raft and managed to get back with the help of Suhas and the raft guy. Then again we were all allowed to float, we rowed back against the river current – drenched ourselves from top to bottom –water getting everywhere it could – eyes ,ears, nose.
We returned to the farm and played Seven stones (stacking up stones and trying to hit them with ball) for sometime before lunch.

After lunch we set out for Rock Rappling – Climbing down a rock with ropes for the uninitiated. Well I did it all wrong, nervousness getting up on me as usual ending up in bruising and swelling my hand. It was dark when we left. And believe me night without any light is exhilarating. It’s so different from our usual nights which are filled with all artificial lights. On the way back I had Anshul‘s company and he ended up teaching me new games and singing with me.
Later we went back to the farm for campfire ,a round of musical chair and dancing with each of us teaching others a new step – Ended up in learning again how to fix bulbs, pluck fruits, open and close taps – all at the same time…
After dinner we went on a night trek to the jungle – walked for around 6 kms but ended up seeing only jungle cats…A long tiring walk. Later we headed to our tents to sleep …

27th April,Sunday

Radha and I got up at 6:30 and Ashish too got up and we set the dog of the farm to other tents to wake everyone up. Mansoor’s and Deepak’s faces were worth watching. Kodak Moment.

All of us got ready and after breakfast went on hiking. Around an 8 - 10 km hike- very strenuous mainly due to the weather. We had a stop in a small water place in the middle which had waves. So we continued our Karwar games there.
We hiked back again to a resort where we had a coracle taking us to an amazing place – to the rocks in the rapids. We were made to stand against the water flow to have Jacuzzi bath. The water came at a huge force and was s damn refreshing and beautiful- it was as if we were in heaven. We reached back around 4.


Had our lunch and started getting ready for our departure. We left the farm after settling our bills (that guy was very rich that day. Should have send someone to rob himJ) to Hubli from where we had our train.On the way we had huge discussions. Each person was made to tell what we felt about others. It was fun on the whole .
We reached Hubli on time for our train. After dinner (thanks to Suhas and Krishna who ventured out to get some food) and some rounds of Dumb C in the train, we slept off at around 1:30.

We reached Blore Monday morning – back to usual routine of work and life…

On the whole a wonderful trip and ended up doing many things that could be branded “Once in a Lifetime “.

A heart breaking story

This is my first attempt to do a Book Review. Kite Runner was an eye opener to me. It made me accept the fact that there were many a situation in life where you wouldn't want to accept the fact that what you did was wrong. Its hard to confess your mistake and its even more difficult to behave in the same way as before when you know what you did was wrong. Its worse when you know what the person in front of you has done is unpardonable , still you have to behave as if nothing has happened. Its as though living in another world where all your feelings - of indignation , displeasure has to be quelled and you are forced to put a plastic smile on your face just for the sake of keeping relations .. Huh what an irony.

Here is a small tribute to one of the heart aching stories I have ever read. Hope I have done justice to it.

Set against the backdrop of Afghanisthan, Kite Runner is the narration of his life by the protagonist – of his childhood, his friendship, betrayal and above all the greatest truth of his life. The book unfolds with the narrator receiving a letter from his father figure who expresses his desire to meet him once for the last time. As the author sets for the journey he rewinds all those years in Afghanistan- His Baba –One of the richest man the village had ever seen .Hassan – his friend whom he grew up with though they belonged to different social strata. He remembers those long walks and talks they had, the kite tournament, the kite runner and eventually the disaster- the betrayal, his unwillingness to confess.

The story then moves on through the Russian invasion, the narrators escape to California, his new life there, his marriage and his rise as a novelist. He then comes back to the present – meeting his father figure from whom he learns about the death of Hassan and his father, Hassan’s son and the greatest truth of his life. The author then takes us through present day Taliban controlled Afghanisthan where the protagonist finds Hassan’s son and his success in taking Hassan’s son along with him to California. The story ends with another kite tournament that unites the narrator with the child.

On the whole a very powerful story that takes you through all kind of emotions making you realise the importance of friendship, betrayal and the price you pay for loyalty.