"THE DAY"

Oh well. The blogging frequency has taken a drastic downturn. A few factors to that happend in recent days was the reason.

Last week, lot of things changed. I took a major decision of my life, and to say that I am loving it, would be an understatement. The situation is a combination of excitement and nervousness,yea for the first time am running out of words. I was keeping quite busy with phone calls and informing my friends near and far, trainings and meetings. And surprisingly, I have no complains. (Incase you are wondering how I still manage to blog, well, I type posts in my email first *wink*)

Fingers have been crossed, uncrossed and are now getting nervous and happy with evrything that happened. Yes, am getting ENGAGED... So wish for me honey. I know you will.

The shopping started in bits and pieces, and will be done with full gusto this weekend. I promise the post on "The-Day", if am free after that **wink** . If the post don't turn up, we will all pretend we never spoke of it, okay?

There is a lot more I want to blog about... things I have been thinking of, questions I have been asking. But for now, I need to run off to grab a cup of coffee and help my friends to enjoy themselves pulling my leg. Yes, thats their favourite past time from last week....

7 things I miss of Mom's Cooking Menu....

I was tagged by my friend to do this
Filter Coffee...
ummmm....mild coffee...shez got magic in her hand...
Pudina Chutney....
Spicy Pudina chutney, made to withstand for a week or so, but can't last beyond 2,3 days as it gets devoured with a relish.
Mango & Red Chilli Chutney...
One loses count the number of idlis and dosas eaten when taken with this extra super hot side dish. This too is one which I've never tasted anywhere else so far. If one is not very careful with the amount of this taken with dosas, direct consequences which I do not wish to eloborate.... hehehehehe :)
Hal-Bai...
A sweet dish very famous among mangloreans and takes immense patience to prepare..but truly the best among sweets...
Pathrode....
Again the manglorean famous dish...which cannot be got by paying any amount....purely home made...
Neer Dosa & Green chilli chutney....
Not the usual style. A lot different and a killer dish. Many a time, I would just have this and nothing else for the whole day.
Menasu Kaayi....
I love it.Her "Hall of fame" dish...which includes lots of spices and no one can beat her in that.

And sitting down to write this piece, I wondered how things that we take for granted make us miss them when we don't have them. Like mom and her cooking. I am the one who used to make a lot of fuss about taste.I have had her saying that it is better when I stay faraway because I would realise the value of home food.But some things grow on you within the small amount of time that you devote to them.
I don't tag anyone on this topic. It hurt me to write this, living far from home.

Thinking...Once Again...

Despite the fact that there are over hundreds of people around you, there are times you still feel shipwrecked and alone. Times even the most resourceful survivor would feel the need to put a message in a bottle, or on an answering machine.

I feel am playing chess all alone prediciting the move of people around me...uff..I need a break from all these....Break to a place where I walk recklessly...The day when I actually can sing...

I can read your mind,

And say your story,

I see what you are going through,

Its an uphill climb

And I feel it sorry

But I know it will come to you yea.

So not surrender 'coz you can win

In this rain curved road.

Kodachadri Trek (continued)

So here is the detailed post on the trek.....
Friday 30'08

We left office at 9:30 to catch the train to Shimoga.Mr.JK was loaded wit work and this made all of us tensed that will he be able to reach in time.But yea he made it in time for train.The train journey was fun with background score of Mr.PM....He was having a sound sleep( I mean it ,literally a sound sleep).

Saturday 31'08

We reached shimoga by 8 am,2 hrs late as per our schedule.My uncle came to pick us up from Railway station to his home.We had a yummy breakfast n royal treatment...thnks uncle n aunty for all the love and care.

Now starts our trek.....

We took a local bus from Shimoga at 10 AM to a place called Sampekatte...the bus journey was one of the memorable.The driver and conductor took their own sweet time to fill in people.The bus was loaded and it was raining....this made all of us quite worried...Finally Sampekatte....the first point of trek was there....

It was drizzling and to add to the situation no network and coz of lighting all the coin phones were switched off....We could not contact the person who is the in-charge of our staying arrangements...The only option left was take a jeep to the Bhattara Mane...

The jeep ride costed us Rs.800.

But i swear it was worth paying coz to commute through that road was a pain.

...My frend name it as "Disco Jeep" :)

But it was again worth the roller coster ride as the scenic beauty surrounding is just breath taking...

Finally we reached our staying place at 3 PM.... but Bhattara Mane was full of trekkers so arrangement was made for our stay at PWD guest house( well the place is not as luxurious as the name sounds..its like a dormatory). But thats fun...

We were all charged up seeing the beautiful view of mountains so soon after dumping our luggage ,were out towards the peak.It was drizzling and the weather was awesome....The distance of the peak from PWD guest house is about 2 to 3 kms vertical...We reached the peak called "Sarvajnya Peeta" at about 4:30 PM...which also includes lots of stop-bys for photography...

The buttermilk which we get on the way is just yummy.A local hawker said us to take a path downwards... towards the other end of the mountain for a place called "Chitra Moola".I must tell you the place is very steep and slippery.Its just inside the forest...There is the ladder to get inside the cave of Chitra moola and guess what its not hooked up to the rock.If the ladder gets detached from rock then we are into valley of about 200 feet.....Scary isnt it...

It took us around 2 hrs to complete that part of mountain and then we were back to the peak for sunset.As I mentioned in my previous post the sunset is just awesome...it makes you run out of words...

Coming back from the peak was indeed scary as it was dark and luckily we had carried torch.Just a ray of torch light we were following it.Akshay was leading us.I must say "Good Job" buddy...coz next day morning when we saw the way we returned...We all were silent for a minute as it was narrow path with steep valley on one side...one wrong step by Akshay and boom....
In the deep dense forest...
The dinner was yummy...simple rice and sambar but we were all soo hungry that we literally hogged.Dinner was followed by campfire...It was decided that all of us have to wake up early for sunrise view.But that was a difficult task...damn chill morning and waking up at 5 AM was just not right.And half heartdly we went to sleep.
Sunday 01'08
We managed to reach the peak at 6 AM and could get a last view rising Sun.The early morning in Kodachadri Hills is simply heaven....Its once in life time experience.You will be surrounded by mist and fresh air....am seriously running out of words.
We went to the top of a hill and laid down facing the sky.....I just didnt feel like coming back to Bangalore.

It was nearly 8 AM so all of us desended back to our staying place for a hot yummy breakfast.Guess it was yummy coz all of us were damn hungry and each of us had 2 plates of Uppma..
Time to Trek down:"Invade the Leach territory"
Trekking down from Guest house to Karyagatta was fun and a marathon race.The path was steep and slippery and added to that full of leaches...We were running the whole of 3 kms in that narrow path in the jungle with 5 kgs bag on shoulders.At last we reached a road but Pavan,Karthik had few leach bites...
But every experience we had, will always be cherished by all of us throughout our life...

If you want to see heaven on earth then visit to Kodachadri is a must...