Scandagiri.... the Unusual trekk.~~~

"This trek is dedicated to Nikki... Between the clouds, i shall remember Nikki and Nikki only...." was the last SMS that i sent to my friend before starting my trip.! Who is Nikki ? How would that matter anyway, We were going trekking, while few of my friends were watching Ghajini at forum, I preffered trekking over Ghajini. What so exciting about the trek? Me, being a little overweight, may lose few pounds and I was said, the clouds would be covering you early in the morning and you would not be able to see the person even standing beside you., that sounded great..!! 7.40 pm and Hari still nagging me, "Chal oyyee.. chalte hai.." Arre dost... "Raat mein trekking ki baat hue thi..., abb se nagg kyo karr raha hai..." I replied... "Tu dekh, waha pahuchte pahuchte.... raat kaafi ho jayegi..." he answered back.. But dude, it was only a 60 Kms drive from here, which means, the max it would go about is for one and half hour and stop over for dinner would be another 45 mins max., But comeon, stop being lazy and get ready to move.!!

Clock struck 8.20 pm, I'm geared up, My jogging shoes, my trekking bagpack with a torch, a blanket, hari's sweater, few first aid and BRANDY (i was told that its going to be freezing cold in the morning and hence, i had to keep myself warm), If brandy, then why not some snacks to keep company with ? Finally, a heavy looking bagback on mine and hari's even bigger than mine, started our ride from Indira Nagar, Bangalore, sorry Bengaluru....!

The destination was Chikballapur, beside Doddaballapur (chik means small and dodda means big), the same as the difference between Nano and the truck maybe! This route wasn't familiar to me, but had been on that road a couple of times, when going to the Sri Satya Sai Ashram, Puttaparthi, AP. My observance was finally being paid, as i always used to take the window seat on those bus rides and had noted the places. This was my first long ride, a 60-65 kms ride, pretty small when comparing to the big ones that my friends had been without asking me for a ride and i forgive them :-), The first few minutes of the ride was boring with the usual Bengaluru traffic and the honks. Within few minutes, We were on the new airport road!, Devanahalli was trying to cope up with the publicity that it was getting off late because of the new airport than it had been the old little village few years back.

The best of all, the road had no potholes, very smooth and luckily found few signals. The bike was constantly running on 80-90 Kms/hr, It was low by bikers standard, but not as per my bike. That was the maximum that it was offering me. With many vechiles buzzing past me, it looked like, there were almost pointing a thumbs down on me.., "Saalo... mera bhi din ayega..., jabb mein Yamaha R15 loonga.., tabb dikaato hoon, speed kya hai..." Wish this doesn't just remain a dream, Recession bhi tho chal raha hai.....

Dhinu!!, Rubbing his eyes.., 9.20pm ho gaya.... pet pooja karr le ? Theek hai... Screech as soon as we seen the board.. "Friend's Dhaba". "Hari., I think we shouldn't have a heavy dinner, We are supposed to be trekking in an hour..., isn't it ?", I asked... "No..., You moron, You're gonna trek for quite long, dont you think you need to eat well ? " Not a bad idea, so why not go along with a beer too..., Takaan mehsoos nahi hogi...., Great, so the order was 1 Kingfisher Strong, Mushroom Kadai, Dal Fry, 2 Rotis each and 1 steam rice... Ek dum tagda... :-). We gulped down the beer so immediately that hari was itching for the 2nd. I stopped him saying, "Saale... Brandy muje akela peena padega kya ?" It was only about few kms away from the Dhaba that the airport was., we could hear and see the aeroplanes landing and taking off from the newly built international airport.... Hari wanted to try his hands on how best he could get with photography and tried clicking as many pics as he could while the planes landed., but at the end of it all, I wasn't sure, if he has clicked the landing or the take off.....!!

Back to the ride, Many a places, there were "Take Diversions.., Work in progress..., Go slow.." Boards, which reminded me of slow internet connections when downloading the best of movies., Obstacles tho part of human life hai..., Kaha nahi hoti hai.., However, rode for another 45 mins, at times, hari's head hitting my back and it made me ask him, " Abbe Moron, Tu beer peeke, bike pe baita so raha hai ? " for which he replied, " Nahi.. Dust ke against, apna face cover karr raha tha.... " so it be.... Varna we are close to saying a hello to nurses... Woh bhi koi village waali hospital ki... We finally were about to hit the destination, With not much of people around and few open shops and a little bit of enquiry, we got to know the Scandagiri..... Just came across one board on the way which read.... " Scandagiri... The mountaineering Expedation", "Oh, We've not lost way for sure...", i told hari. An Old temple and end of the village is where this mountain started...

My bike just warned me "RESERVE" as we were few metres away from the foot of the trekking mountain. We were the first ones to reach the trekking spot at around 10.30 pm. None of them insight, except few people, who called themselves guides. "Shayad, Off season hai......" The people around did wrap a shawl from head to toe. We bargained for Rs. 100 for him to help us reach to the top most point of the Scandagiri mountain. The first 10 mins was a walk on a muddy road, thankfully it hasn't rained off late and was just about dusty. Hari in the meantime had his camera adjusted and "Click" position already to shoot anything intresting, I was amused..., what the hell is he going to shoot in this dark night ?... " Mere Camera mein flash hai...." God, yeh koi 5G camera hoga.... He clicked a lot of them on the way, Most without knowing, what he was clicking!! Thankfully, The mobile still had range and so thought, incase we need help, we would be having a cell atleast to reach people.! "Beep Beep..." My cell beeped while we were trying to catch up with our guide... the SMS read.. " Nikki has approved you as a potential groom.." abb yeh potential waali baat hai..... so I can't really let you know what happend next., but however, can't even hold much from you as i am quite in need of a fan club following me... I replied.., " Please respond when she is in "drawing semi circle with her toe" term.., We can fix up the " Penne Kaanal chadenge...!!" Thats when the groom officially goes to see the gal for the first time (As per customs in kerala).

"Keep up pace with him... or we would lose way..." Hari yelled.... I finished the SMS and kept walking to catch up with the rest. Almost a kilometre into the mountain, It was surrounded with bushes and plants, luckily nothing that was thirsty of human blood was around. Few more metres up and it was just rocky, and one had to really take big steps to climb the mountain. I had already had a big tummy with the amount of beer and food that we ate, Gosh, why the hell did i eat so much.., why did i ever listen to this stupid hari... Every 10 mins, I would yell...., Rest for 5 mins pls.., the guide used to be like, Sir... Please walk for 2 more mins and there are rocks to sit on which are cleaner than the mud., I had to trust his words in the light of torch and short of stamina by every bit. In between, I managed to post few sms's like "Trekking is terrible...", "I think am dead....", During the rest on the rocks, some 2.5 - 3 kms into the trek...." Lying on the rock, completely sweating, I called my friend... " Tu muje raat ke 12 baje phone karr raha hai..... mein tho bass sone jaa rahi thi.... " The phone answered... "God, I'm dead meat yaar...." I never thought trekking would be so difficult... " I expelled..... "Stop saying that..., I hate when guys use such words.. Anyways, I wont be of any help to you my dear friend....., I hope you make it to the day tomorrow...." and the call was hung up!! All I asked was for a little sympathy or rather empathy.., So did i realise once again... "Whatever comes, at the end of it all,... You are alone"
With almost hitting the top of the mountain, and i asked our guide for the last break, he said, sir just 2 more mins and you will be on the top, and guess what.., There is a setup hotel on friday and saturdays at the top of the mountain..., "Oh cool.., They are going the mallu way..., I murmured (No wonder.., i was in no position to talk as well)." It was 1.20 am and as windy as it could be..... we were at an open place., having hardly anything to hide yourself under/behind/above/anywhere. We were welcomed by a strong hot tea that those setup hotel had, Hari had an omlette, while i was still trying to hold my breath together. I just need some water to drink..., thats all i want at the moment. Luckily we had wrapped our brandy bottles in newspapers, which turned out to be our make up mattress, on which i lied down for almost an hour!! I slept off snoring to glory, without taking a note of the place that i was in!, very soon, i heard noises where a gang of 10-12 made in, They were the 2nd group to the mountain top after us and all of them had powerful flash lights and was using it like a little child would play with a new toy that they found. "Wholesale mein torch lene gaya tha kya woh log...", I asked Hari.... "Hmm... tu yeh kyon nahi bolega.., woh logo ne tuje neend se jo jagaya....." he replied. " Yaar... yeh sunrise kabb hoga...., aur kitne ghante baaki hai...." I enquired..., " Enjoy the chill buddy..., its only 3.20 am.... another two and half hours to go...." tho hari.... lets start off.... Brandy would be feeling lonely yaar.... " Lets go for it.... " hari said.. Hmm.. No paper/plastic glasses... so what do you want me to do ? Mix water into Brandy or Brandy into water ?? (thanks to our doodh walla bhaiyya..., have learned the importance of milavat...) I said... neither of the two., I wish to have it raw... ON THE ROCKS... Felt great...., It was as if we ate a fire ball, that it went down from the chest to the stomach and soon followed it up with the lays that we had carried in our bagpacks.. :-)

You get to know the value of slow moving time incase you are waiting for something., That morning was no different, I was badly badly waiting for a sunrise so that we could see the clouds all over us and i wanted to know how it feels to be between clouds, and can i be only thinking of Nikki and Nikki ( As i had SMSed someone that it would be only her....), but ain't that a big ask... so many beautiful gals around and can i just stick to thinking someone whom i had just seen over an MMS and exchanged only about 4 sentences ? Whatever it may be.... the time had to be spent, When i checked around, I found many people sleeping at each and every corner of the temple, few of them had made camp fires and sat around between them joking, boosing, singing and almost every possible thing to entertain themselves. The gang of 10-12 which had come after us found way into the temple for some shelter as well. They were medical students and were coming from Mysore and were originally from Delhi. It was soothing to hear the Delhi hindi, after being used to the hyderabadi hindi that people speak at bangalore with all the south indian accent..

They were emoting the news reporters and the way they lose communication in between to come back and forth and it was really exciting, atleast that was something that i could keep my eyes on to murder time till sun showed up... Finally it started getting brighter.... although the sun had really now come up., I observed a little by little that the little town which was visible from the moutain was losing the street light one by one. The much awaited guest came up, but with lots of stuff missing...., yes, there were no clouds formed... It was a little foggy, which we usually find even in the streets of Bangalore on a chill morning. Be it a terrorist attack or a Free ride to the zoo., we Indians adapt too quickly with conditions. (only the cricket team dont to the bouncy pitch), I was grumbling inside me for seeing no clouds, but was making myself happy that i seen the sunrise much more clearly. I grumbled and thought about a little fact.., the beach at chennai was as close as 5 kms away from where i was put up, and even then never made an effort to wake up at 6.30 in the morning and be there to see the sun rise over Bay of Bengal, Which would be much more clearer than the trek in the midnight!! Be it so.., I would have to now travel down like the way i climbed up.. Climbing down was relatively easier than climbing up, but was getting tensed when i seen the view from the top to see tiny people at the bottom of the mountain..., gosh i would have to walk that long and the trek below did not seem to be ending itself !, A one and half hour down treak and we found close to the muddy track, on the way i greeted few trekkers by morning to have a good luck with the sun and cloud and be there to see anything that they desired!! Few thanked, few carried on, Few on the way asked, How long do we have to trek.., and i never used to tell them if they were half way up or quarter way up, just used to smile at them and say " You have little more to do..., All the best buddy..."

Down at the bottom, we were welcomed by our ancestors, trying to do what they do best...., I was afraid to click them as they would try to snatch the camera and moreover hari's camera was with a "Flash". On the way i said hari..."dude, this was the trek of a lifetime, I never want to be here again...", "Whats the height of the mountain ?" I asked.. "3 Kms Vertically.... he replied... but, we walked for 8 kms to reach the top for that 3 km vertical mountain..." " W H A T T T T T T T T ?????.... Had you told me about this in Bangalore, I would have never come..." I felt i was cheated, but i really wasn't... He had just hidden the truth from me, but never lied... Next came a "Tender Coconut Seller", He was having a business of his life.., I was wondering, does he need license to sell coconut water, after all thats the only water on earth in which frogs must have not peed..

We both finished one round with the coconut water and Hari insisted on having the next one, I denied. I went to pull up the bike and this is what i see..... someone has torn the bike cover and removed the air of the front tyre. "Shits...., who the hell on this earth is so mean to do this... " It was just not my bike, but all the bikes in the front row., When enquired with the local people, it seems that the area where we kept our bike is a "NO PARKING ZONE", but there was never a board stating it. So there were many bikes and few cars which was the early morning victim... Had no choice, than to find the nearest tyre repair shop and fill some air... and moreover had to find out a petrol bunk as the bike had already warned "Reserve" last night. In a matter of 10 minutes of ride, managed to find a petrol bunk, also filled some air in the front tyre and was set to ride back to Bengaluru... Once again, an amazing ride back to Bangalore, This time instead under the moonlight, it was in the bright daylight.

Dont know how did i reach bangalore, But just had one break for breakfast and i was home by 11.50am dropping hari somewhere close to his place! After a long shower, I and bed stuck on for hours and hours. A sunday was wasted on the bed... But i feel a little sorry for Nikki..., I could not just remember NIKKI and NIKKI only, thats partially because there was no Cloud...

Till Next time,
Lost of Luv, Dhinu!