Mumbai Trip To Attend Wilson's Wedding

It was the 1st of February. Dawson and I reached kalasipalya at about6.45 pm and we boarded the bus. Finally the bus left at 7.30.. And soonthe first trouble started.. A drunk passenger, who was in his mid 20s Iguess, would ask for stops every now and then for vomitting. Finally,after other passengers persisted, this fellow was asked to go by thenext bus. Once he was out of the bus, the journey was smooth.Then the bus crew played the movie BABUL (starring Big B, Hema, Salman,Rani, John and others). Stopped somewhere outside tumkur for dinner, themovie was not yet over then. There we bought a few lays chips. That"bugger" charged us 3 rs extra, saying that it is their charge over MRP.Such illegal things happen, and we can't even protest.Then the movie continued. I learnt that the moral of the movie is 'donot use your mobile phone while crossing the road' and 'do not cross theroad without looking on both sides and making sure that the road isempty'. Perhaps, if you follow such a rule, you will never be able tocross a road, in Bangalore at least!!!Soon after the movie was over, Dawson and I had slipped into deep sleep.I woke up next only in the morning when the driver stopped forbreakfast. After stepping onto Maharashtra soil for the soil for thefirst time, I had a breakfast of idli-vada with tea.Then the journey continued, with GURU being played... Much more pleasantit was, compared to the movie we were forced to watch the previousnight. The sad thing is, I couldn't enjoy the scenic beauty of thenature (on the Mumbai-Pune expressway) because I couldn't stop myselffrom watching GURU.Finally we entered Mumbai. We alighted at Sion and hired a taxi to DadarEast Train Station. Amogh Gokhale told us that he'd be there in half anhour. True to his time, he came exactly 55 minutes late, and soon wewere on a train to Thane. From Thane station, we hired an autorickshawto Amogh's house. And once we reached his house, we were welcomed by twosleeping beauties: Amar and Kishore.We had a typical Marathi lunch at Amogh's house, cooked probably byAmogh's grandma (and servant Lata, of course!!). We were quite attractedtowards Amogh's niece Anushka (who has just started walking on twolegs). The cute little doll seemed afraid of me initially (so sad, boohoo).Soon (not really!!!) we were ready to go to attend Willy's ROCE. Somehowwe woke up the sleeping beauties and forced them to get ready. We leftat around 7.30 PM for the taxi stand. Amogh and Kishore went together onone auto, while Dawson, Amar and I hired another. Somehow we 3 lost theother 2, and when we reached the taxi stand, those guys were already ontheir way to Jogeshwari (where Wilson's house is). And our taxiwalarefused to take us through the city, citing that he gets pain all overhis body by pressing clutch and changing gears way too often. He offeredus to take from some highway outside the city. Like idiots we agreed.Finally we reached at 10 PM to Willy's place. After getting the firstCHOONA (510 Rs fare for the taxi), we entered Willy's house. The rocewas on the terrace of the apartment complex, so Willy was there. We wereoffered Vat 69 by Willy's brother-in-law (Willy's sister Wilma'shusband). Couldn't resist it. After having two rounds, we went and metWilly and rest of the guys who were at the terrace.As midnight arrived, it was a sweet surprise for Sanveer. His birthdaybeing on 3rd Feb, Willy had arranged a cake for him to cut. The momentSannu saw the cake, a pleasant smile appeared on his face. It lastedonly for a few moments. Once he realised how his next half an hour wouldbe, that smile disappeared and his face turned into a painful one. Andwe sang as he cut the cake. Once the cake was cut, we grabbed him, askedhim to take off his kurta, and celebrated his birthday in true MITstyle, much to the astonishment of the elderly guests..And then we 5 guys hired two autorickshaws back to Thane, to Amogh'splace. After travelling more than an hour on the traffic-less (read andunderstand in the Mumbai context), we reached Amogh's house at around 2AM. Soon we had slipped into sleep, after much argument about who willsleep on the 2 beds, and who will sleep on the floor. Poor Amarrequested us, "please consider me to sleep on the bed man.. US returnedman..".. So he slept right below the A/C. the fan also was turned on tothe maximum.In the morning, when I woke up at 6.30, my nose was blocked. Luckily thefan and A/C both were off by this time. I slept again, to wake up at 10.soon (again, not really!!!) we were ready to go out. It was the time forlunch. We left at 12.15 from the house. We requested Amogh to take us toa place that is neither cheap, nor very costly. Well, I guess we shouldhave mentioned the phrase "for our standards". We didn't. so we landedup at Moni's. For Amogh, it was cheap, but for us,,,,,, not really!!!After having a nice meal, we went for a round into the city, and also toa small round in Sanjay Gandhi National Park. After a susu at suicidepoint, we went back to the house. Dawson and I went to make a fewtelephone calls (to friends and relatives in mumbai). When we returnedabout 45 minutes later, we found the sleeping beauties. Somehow we wokethem up and got them ready for marriage. Dawson and I got ourselves intofullfledged suites, while Amogh wore a blazer. Kishore and Amar wokeformal clothes, and we left from the house at 5. The nuptials weresupposed to be at 5.30 at Vidyavihar. We managed to reach there 10minutes later, to find that the mass hadn't started yet. Soon the massstarted, and Dawson and I were into praying mood. And mass went on.. Itwas kind of boring for other guys until a lady (bride's 2nd cousin, wegot to know later) wearing a backless gown and an artificial tattoo onher right shoulder, came and sat 2 rows in front of us..From then onwards, we had one heck of a time. Amar, who was carrying asony cybershot professional camera, zoomed to the extent possible,taking the photographs of her uncovered back and her tattoo..After the mass, we had to wait for an hour for the party to begin, asthe next mass (the regular Sunday mass) had started in the church. Andwhen the party began, again it was boring time. It was time for thebridal march and the bridal dance.. And none of us 15 odd guys had anyfemale partners.And none of us morons were even bothered to ask the ladies around.Probably because we were already discouraged by the fact that the mostbeautiful lady in the party hall (another lady with spaghetti straps)was already married.. Of course, she wasn't with her husband, but shewas with her in-laws.. So discouraging!!!And there were other ladies too, and even the MC was asking us to goahead and ask for females... We didn't bother.. We ignored the MCbecause that @@$%#$@# had called us "lonely single boys" earlier.. Allof us were planning to whack the MC..After the bridal dance, it was the time for the bride to change fromwhite to red, and it was the time of us to get some tonic.So we went to the bar near to the church.Unfortunately, no place in the bar.Fortunately, the bar belonged to mangaloreans.. Tulu speaking..Still more fortunately, there was space in their attic.Unfortunately, the attic was their storage area..Fortunately, there was a table and a few stools and a table fan.Unfortunately, the fan didn't have grills.Fortunately, none of us were interested in the fan.So whiskey and beer flowed... In fifteen minutes, we were back to theparty hall..Just as we reached, the 'baila' began with the song 'maria pitaashe' ofremo being played first..Then we started off suddenly, and went on and on and on.....And then when the bride returned in red, again another small dance, andthis time that 'bouquet throwing' happened..It is the usual trend during weddings that groom and bride are encircledby ladies moving to the left and gents moving to the right in 2different circles (get the picture?).. Then the lady throws her bouquetand whichever lady catches it is considered as the next bride.. Samething is done with guys when groom throws the bouquet.. Not bouquetreally, but a small piece of flower that the groom wears on the leftcollar of his suit (guys don't carry bouquets during weddings!!!)..So this lady, pamela joseph, caught the bride's bouquet and me, rohanjohn fernandes, caught the guy's flower..So the MC anounced that we are the next couple.. And asked me to kissher..I did!! (on her cheeks though ;-) )..Then there was one birthday boy among us.. So we made him cut the cakeright in front of the whole crowd. And then gave him bumps..Our cameraman (the guy with professional camera) also kicked.This actually irked one of the ladies (the mother of another guy amongus) there who couldn't understand why a meagre cameraman was kicking..The kicking part should be done only by the friends.. Apparently, sheeven wanted to go and shout at him!!!(she told all this to her son the next day and he told us this)..The problem was, the camera guy being a hindu, wasn't wearing a suit,while all of us were wearing.. And his professional camera added fuel toher ire!!!After the party, we went back and slept off..Sunday morning I got up early and with another guy, went to borivli..From there, the other guy went his way, and I went mine..We 5 guys actually left from home together.. Went to some kunjvihar inthane and had misal paav... It was so spicy that its after effects arestill there in me!!!Dawson had already left for his aunt's house in dombivli.And I went to my aunt's house and she served me with rice, fish curry,fish fry, veg cutlets, and soup..Then she took me out to a shopping mall, and bought me a pepe t shirt, apepe jeans and a t shirt for my bro.. And also she bought short pantsand sweets for me.. (she is my dad's elder sister, and has no kids.. Sowe are her kids ;-) )..Bindaas ;-)Meanwhile, dawson and another guy kept on informing me about the delaysof our flight (which ultimately departed two hours and a quarter laterthan scheduled).At 9, I left borivli for airport with another friend who stayed inborivli itself..Reached the airport, and met another 2 guys also.. Including dawson, whonever went to dombivli even after his uncle went to dombivli trainstation to pick him up!!! Apparently there were no fast local trains, soslow local trains were overcrowded and delayed too.. Got out of the airport at 2, after our luggage took over 20 minutes to reach us..

Walked into the restaurant inside the airport. I had mixed fried rice, and the rest had chicken biryani. After sharing and rekindling MIT memories, we hired a prepaid taxi and went to our respective houses.

THE END........

A bike ride to Coorg and back

Another long weekend was coming up and I didn’t want to stay in Bangalore. I didn’t want to go to Mangalore because I had just returned from there 5 days ago after a 2 week vacation. So, as usual, Ramesh and I thought we'd ride somewhere. Our options were Coorg, Madumalai, Yeracaud and Wayanad. When I asked everyone I knew, 2 of my other friends, Shivanand and Ashith (who stay together and work together), said they'd join. Then Shivanand's colleague Bala too joined us.Bala and I stayed at Shivanand's house overnight. Though our initial plan was to leave the house at 5 AM, it was past 7 AM when we really got out of the house!!! I had got up at 5 AM itself, after a short 2 hour sleep (note: I had to attend a bachelor's party the previous night). Made some egg bhurji. There were a few dried chapatis which we somehow managed to swallow with egg bhurji.I had to leave my bike at Shivanand's place (though I had a full tank of petrol) because of Shivanand's Pulsar 150 DTSi and Ashith's Pulsar 180 DTSi.We joined Ramesh at MG Road-Kasturba junction (as he had to come from Kundalahalli). As we were waiting for Ramesh, Ashith went ahead to fuel his bike. As he rode alone, leaving the 3 of us, when Ramesh arrived, we 4 went to Shell fuel station to catch up with Ashith. Because we 4 had settled in 2 bikes, Ashith's bike became the good carrier for the rest of the journey. Each of us was carrying a backpack. Ramesh had a rope, and so we tied up 2 bags on Ashith's bike, and carried the rest.We crossed Hudson circle at 8 AM. And we were speeding on Mysore road. Bala riding pillion with Shivanand, I riding pillion with Ramesh, and Ashith riding alone. I would say that the bike Pulsar is very unergonomically designed for the pillion rider. The seat is narrow (to give sleaky looks), giving lot of problems for people like me who are most graciously and most generously blessed by our creator. Luckily, so far no bad roads, and not much traffic. Except a lot of trucks going on the rightmost part of the road with high speed (relative to trucks, of course!!), and of course the numbness crawling into the pillion riders behinds, we had no problems.So we stopped somewhere in between. 3 of the guys wanted to take leaks. And I, the evil guy, took their photographs. Bala decided not to take a leak because of me :-)). Then we stopped at the usual stop-point, Kamath Lokaruchi. Refueled ourselves and continued further. And reached Srirangapatna soon. After enquiring with some people, found the bypass (to go to Coorg without entering Mysore city) and continued on it. When we reached Hunasur, we realized that we have no place to stay. We were too lazy to arrange one so far. I had a few numbers given by a couple of colleagues. When we contacted them, they said they don’t have space for 5 guys, but gave further contacts. One person had space for us, but at the cost of 3,500 Rs per night!!! Forget it!!! Then Ramesh called up to the place where he had stayed 3 years ago (what was he doing so far!!! He was thinking that we wouldn’t like that place.. Which we proved wrong later). As this man, Mr Poonacha, had space for us, we decided to go there. He said he'll give a dormitary kind of area. It didn’t sound impressive, but we thought it's ok for 1600 Rs per night for 5 people.We couldn’t take the Nagarahole route, as bikes are banned from going on that road (idiots!!! Just because the route goes to forests, they don’t want bikes to go). So we went through another route (I don’t remember the order in which the places came, so I am not going to tell you. If you want, I have the visiting card of the landlord at whose house we stayed :-D). Bought DSP Black on the way, as we couldn’t get any Scotch or even malt whiskey (for those who don’t know, it is a whiskey). We stopped for lunch (at Gonikoppa I think). Had little bit beer, lotsa pork chilli and chicken (awesome it was!!) and continued further. Soon we arrived at Iruppu falls. We decided to go to the falls before going to the house, because we knew we wouldn’t have energy to go out of the house. We had to purchase the tickets from the forest office there (some minimal fee). The forest officer was nice enough to let us leave all our baggage there. After walking .75 km (it is written there, and the path is not good at all. I mean, they've put cement and all and have made a nice path. I wanted those natural, stone and grass filled paths that tear your exposed skin), we reached the falls. It is very shallow and you can easily play in the water. You don’t even have to fear about getting drowned. But none of us had any mood to get into the water. After spending some time, we went to our guest house.And lo and behold!!! What a suite we got!! A huge hall with a sofa and 8 well-cushioned chairs, a big table, lot of books (who cares!!!) and decorations inside. The 3 sides of this room were filled with windows, through which we could see Mr Poonacha's estate outside. The sleeping room had a double bed and a single bed, had attached toilet (western)/bathroom. What more did we want? Nothing. We didn’t want the tv, we didn’t want to be connected to the external world. All the guys except me had Hutch connection, so were completely eliminated from the rest of the world (most obvious, isn't it?). I had a range of just 1 stick.. Just in case, you know...Chandru (the servant for Mr Poonacha) served us with tea. I don’t want to talk about its quality, do I? (of course, we were charged for the tea!!). Chandru said dinner would be served at 9 PM. So we got refreshed and opened our DSP Black. Chandru got us some Haldiram's snacks, Kinley soda and glass tumblers (only the last one was free :-D). As the whiskey started mingling with our blood and go into our brains, our brains returned to normal. We got a few bright ideas which would help the langauge of English and also the world soceity in a big way. For example, we replaced the word EMPLOY with that "four letter word dreaded by our elders, but is most common during swears" and made sentences. Words such as employment, employee, employer, unemployed, employable were all twisted and turned to give new meanings. Ideas such as having one employer with many employees and all were twisted beyond your wildest thoughts!!! Can someone help us put our thesis over the internet, please?Then Chandru called us for dinner. Oh man!!! Did we ever dream of having such a food?? First of all, everything that's on the table is unlimited. Pork in Coorg style, chicken masala, some peas curry, cabbage curry, sambar, chapatis and rice!! Everything more delicious that the other. We had thought that we'd lose 1 or 2 kgs during this trip, but now we realised that we would gain so much!!! After a sumptous dinner, and payasam (unfortunately, was the last one to have, so I got only 1/4th of a cup), we retired to sleep (but not before discussing further on the topic).Next morning, it was poori, dosa, bhaji and chutney for breakfast, with tea/coffee. I think we 5 guys ate 50+ pooris and 10+ dosas easily. I actually lost count of pooris after 12 :-)). Then Mr Poonacha suggested that we go to see the Tata's tea estate. He gave directions and soon we were in front of Tata Tea Estate. This part is called Glenlorna Estate. As the main gate was closed and no one was there to open the lock, we had to walk about 2 km to reach the factory. After getting permission from the factory manager, we went into the factory. A worker there took us all around and explained the process of making tea powder from the leaves. It is such a simple process, I didn’t expect this!!!! Then we bought lots of tea powder from there and went back to our guest house for lunch.We had asked for simple veg food for lunch. And there was simple veg food: 4 types of veg curries (cabbage, okra, dal, beans), chapatis and rice. And kheer for dessert. And then after lunch, we went to Nagarahole. We went till Kutta by bikes, and hired a jeep from there to go till the safari point. During safari, we started discussing about deer and mathematics (deer being so common there). I mentioned that there are so many deer because deer multiply very fast. Someone said, then we'll ask the multiplication table. Then I said, it is difficult for deer to calculate 1234 X 9234 because they don’t have fingers, unlike humans. So Shivanand came up with this bright idea that deer have only hooves and they can't move their hooves. So they calculate everything on base 4, one for each leg (hope you guys remember base 4, base 8, base 16 calculations and all). Then the disussion continued and we were laughing until the bus driver screamed at us and asked to to keep quiet.After a useless safari (got to see 2 peacocks, a few bisons and lots of deer; the deer there was like the street dogs of Bangalore, except that the deer bite only the vegetation and not the small children), we returned to our base. On the way I got this bright PJ: what do you call the waterfalls inside Nagarahole?? NAYAGARAHOLE.. HAHAHAHAHAWe reached our guest house at 7 PM, much earlier than we had thought. We had only little bit of whiskey left. Mr Poonacha suggested us to try the grape wine and banana wine prepared by his wife Beena. We tasted it and immediately purchased a bottle of each. Within a few minutes, we were drinking that in our rooms, together with chilli bhajji and tapioca chips (of Komal's Mangalore. They gave this to us probably because they got to know that 3 of us were Mangaloreans).Then time for dinner. Just like the previous day. Only the vegetarian curry was different. This night we had energy to roam around. So we stayed outside the house for some time, enjoying the cold weather. We wished we could stay there longer, but we had to return the next morning. And so we left that place after a breakfast which was very similar to the previous one, except that there were no pooris. Only dosas.We went to Balamuri on the way. Had some beer and fish and some bhelpuri. And then stopped at Kamath Lokaruchi and then reached Bangalore at around 8 PM, after riding 604 km all in all.Thanks to God, nothing went wrong seriously throughout our journey.

Kumara Parvata Trek

Date: somewhere towards the end of September 2006.

The excitement started when Prasad sent an email to us informing that KMA would be conducting a trek to Kumara Parvata from 30th September 2nd October. Well, a three day weekend. So 5 guys agreed. And then 2 guys dropped out, including Prasad.But by then Prasad had taken us (Ramesh and me) to KMA office and got us trekking backpack,a sleeping bag and a mat.So we gathered at Majestic at 9.30 PM on Saturday night (30th). Well, Ramesh was there an hour earlier. I, struggling in the BMTC route 171 from Koramangala, arrived in shape exactly at 9.30 PM. Raghu joined us there.Altogether we were 21 people, including 3 ladies. We left Bangalore by 10.30 PM inside a tinbox (that is, a 3+2 seater bus) of KSTRC. We reached Kukke Subramanya at around 7 AM, stopping twice for tea and bonda on the way (hmmm... The food at first pitstop was awesome!!)..After breakfast and a brief introduction, we started the great expedition of 5 km through the forest, with leeches all around. For me, it took about 3 hours and a half I think. By then, most of the guys, including Ramesh and Raghu had reached to BHATTA's house. Yeah, I forgot to mention about this house before. This house is at half way to Kumara Parvata peak. So, you have to trek for 5 km to reach this house. This place is called GIRIGADDE (meaning mountain field in Kannada). If you don’t expect any facility here, then this place is damn good. You have toilets (Indian style, of course!!!), a bathroom, and some place to rest your head.And yes, they serve food as well; breakfast, lunch and dinner. It costs them a lot, so they charge you. They have to carry all the ingedients for food all the way from the bottom (Kukke Subramanya) in the same path that we trek on. Since I know the Tulu language (the local language around there), I spoke to them. Apparently, the demand for food is so much that, during peak seasons they have to carry 25 kg rice every morning from Kukke to their house!!!! And they do it in 1 hour!!!!!!!!!!!!! And we struggled with our "less than 10 kg" backpacks!!!! Beat that now....Though they serve just rice and sambar, when you have trekked for 5 km, that food is manna for you (for those who don’t know: manna means the food that God gave the Israelites during the exodus). Yessssss.... You are closer to heaven at this point. At about 800 to 900 meters altitude, you are really almost a km closer to your maker!!!!After food, we stayed there itself. Most guys used "pakistan", as I found all of them occupied for long times. Unfortunately, there is no water in the bathroom. You'll have to bring from the toilet taps and fill in the buckets. Still more unfortunate, there is only one mug for all the toilets. So, if you are using one toilet, others will have to wait for you, even if the other toilets are free!!!!And at this evening, Ramesh decide to smuggle out the two quarters of DSP Black he got from Bangalore. So Raghu, Ramesh and I crept to a nearby hillock and finished off the two bottles in about half an hour. We drank directly from the bottle as we had to glasses. Nope, I had no problem, I am used to it (though it was always a malt whiskey I consumed this way before). Usually I put ice, but here it was cold enough and so ice wasn’t required!!! Raghu and Ramesh would have found this a bit uncomfortable. Nevertheless, the trio enjoyed it, I must say.It was evening by this time, and I took cold water bath immediately (to get rid of the smell of this grain whiskey with additives). Water was chilling, and I was shivering all the while during my bath. Then all the guys (and the 3 ladies) sat inside the BHAT's house and had some chats (=take the English meaning of CHAT here). Before this, other blokes were playing anthakshari all the while. I think some of the blokes were sitting elsewhere and chatting.Then came the part where the BHAT's family's male members sang some hymns for Hindu Gods (as this was the festive season). Then dinner, and then sleep!!!Oh man, what a sleep we had. Well, I could not get sleep quickly because we guys really had to squeeze in to accommodate all the blokes and so I was "compressed" between two guys. Also, a few guys had fallen asleep already and where snoring so loudly that our man Ramesh lost his mind, and turned to sleep upside down, with his face at the feet of Raghu!!! Here, some of the guys were unlucky, they had not gone to KMA office in Bangalore before the trek, and so they had no sleeping bags and sleeping mats. We somehow adjusted our sleeping mats, but they had to sleep without sleeping bags.And then I fell asleep somehow, thanks to the tiredness. Then I heard some noise around. I woke up and saw the clock: 5.45 AM. Duh, I wish I could sleep longer, but no, we had to trek another 5 km to reach peak. So got up and had CHITRANNA (which our BHAT's family prepared for us, so early in the morning!!), and then started our trek to the peak. Neither I nor did Raghu or Ramesh carry any water, as we did not want to carry any burden.The initial part of this trek was easy, going through not-so-steep path. Then as the path started getting steeper, my mouth started to get dry. And some guys mentioned that I might because of previous day's DSP Black. How the hell did they know??? Obviously, they all had got the smell from my mouth. My bath hadn't helped me :-((Then most of the guys left to come slowly and went on. Well, I had no water, I was accomponied by only one person and I was thirsty. I had a brilliant idea, I started sucking the dew from the plants!!! It really helped me. I also should mention that some guys gave me water.And so after climbing for hours, we reached a place where there was a small MANTAPA. A couple of ladies decided to stay there itself and not climb up. We somehow managed to convince younger lady (who is a student) to come. The other lady had problems with her foot and decided to stay back. By this time, I had gained full energy and I started off with Ramesh and Raghu. All this while, the path was surrounded just by grass, and so there were no leeches. And now we had to enter the forest again. We did, and got "leeched". In between, found a stream, drank plenty of water from it, got rid of the leeches and climbed up the stream for some time (mind you, this was dangerous!!!), and reached THE PEAK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OH MAN, WHAT AN ACHIEVEMENT!!!!!!!!!!Here we had some more food, which some good guys had generously carried all the way for all of us. And me the great, took off my shirt in that cold cold misty mountain peak while many others were still shivering!!!!We could not spend much time there, as we had to rush back to BHAT's house, lunch and return to Kukke to board the night bus to Bangalore. So we left from there. In between it was just Ramesh and myself together, and most of the other guys had disappeared. Some had gone ahead and most were lagging much behind. Ramesh and I were just looking for that MANTAPA we had found while climbing up, and expecting that once we find the MANTAPA, it will be just another hours journey. And then........... We reached near BHAT's house!!! HOLY SMOKE!!! WE NEVER GOT THE MANTAPA!!!!!! WE HAD LOST OUR WAY IN BETWEEN WITHOUT EVEN REALIZING IT UNTIL WE REACHED THE DESTINATION!!!!!!!!!!! THANK HEAVENS, WE WERE SAFE!!!And then we had our lunch, packed our bags and started the next journey: 5 km downward trek to Kukke. Before leaving, I went for a long long TAPASYA to PAKISTAN and spent a lot of time there. Only after I returned, Ramesh went for his TAPASYA. He too took a long time. So by the time we were ready, most of the guys had already left. The time was 4 PM, and the darkness would crawl into the forest by 5 PM. So finally 5 of us left: Reshma, Sujan, Raghu, Ramesh and myself. In between, Raghu and I picked up speed and even overtook some guys who had left from GIRIGADDE some 20 minutes before!!! We two reached Kukke and got to know that in one particular lodge, they let us bathe for 25 Rs. We sat in a small hotel and had tea. By this time we were in full range of mobiles, and could call up home. By this time Ramesh too arrived and we went to Anugraha lodge for bath. We also bought slippers and it we knew we could not wear those wet shoes any longer.After bath, Ramesh and Raghu went to the temple, and then we 3 guys had dinner separately (as other guys were still waiting for a few more people to return). And then we joined the crowd, boarded the KSRTC RAJAHAMSA bus to Bangalore. I fell asleep soon, and got up once in Sakleshpur to visit the pakistan there. The next time I got up, we were near Majestic. And finally I reached home at 8 AM, and slept for two hours. Then I left from home at 11, and due to the non-availability of buses, reached office at 12.30, and did some work, and started typing this travelogue. And I finish it now.