acoustic grunge: Dial A for Adventure(also Abhi :P): The Monsoon Assignment 3:

All of us finally breathed relief that we had reached our destination for the day and almost threw our bags. Our bags were all wet and so were all the clothes and bed sheets inside them. Brrr.. It was cold and I was sleeping. I was hating it everytime the door opened. Cursing my wit and luck for the bag and its wet contents, I was lying down. Most of the others went to take a shower under one of the waterfalls nearby. I couldn't even manage to get up. The whole idea of sitting

wearing wet clothes after a cold shower sent a chill down my spine.

Then I was woken up when the rope on which all the clothes were put to dry gave way and fell on me. I almost screamed out aggressively, thanks to my dream (never remembered it!) My sleep vanished. Now it was cold again. It was dark already. Thanks to all my wet clothes, I spent most of the night in my underwear... Soon it was dinner time. By now, we had almost become allergic to chapatis. We had some rice. Santosh had a better meal. He cooked the crabs he had caught and ate it. Me, a vegetarian politely turned his offer down. After heating my hands and feet, we sat down for the team meeting. We had to decide on what we would do the next day. We unanimously decided we'd trek furhter instead of boarding a trainto Khaginere. We slept and slept well. You tend to sleep like a baby in such situations. I was occasionally woken up by the fact that I did not have any bedsheet on me.

KHAGINERE:

The plan was to wake up at 7 and leave at 730. We finally left at 830 after waking up late and getting ready and taking a lot more photographs, we finally started from Yedukumari. The fact is that when you are at such places, even an average photographer can look like a genius. Such is the scenic beauty around! We started walikng and were greeted by a train again. We walked past a tunnel and another bridge. The folks prepared rasna only to realise that there was no sugar! They tried to use glucose but that did not help our cause. The orange flavoured rasna tasted like the oranges in most parts of Bengaluru, sour. After walking a little further, we found the route to Khaginere. We were looking at a small but an intense waterfall. That was our way!

It was an overdose of awesomeness. The plan was to walk (climb rather) continuously and not stop since there were a lot of leeches around. We climbed and climbed and climbed. Then we reached a terrain full of grass and what I saw next can best be described as heaven. There was greenery all around. Mountains in different shades of green and a waterfall looking like spilt milk. We were ecstatic. It was time for a leech check. We had them all over our legs. A couple of photographs later, I heard my mobile ring. Finally signs of network after a day. I was tense about my results and that had spoiled most of my mood the previous day. I would lose a year had I not cleard it and this fact compounded my tension. I was in a dilemma whether I should find it out then or later. I kept the mobile in the bag since the caller had hung up. Five minutes later, there was another call. It was the customer care's offers related call. I was furious. But there were 17 unread messages in my inbox. I breathed hard and opened it. The first message read 'Congrats!' I screamed in joy! Everybody had wuestion marks and exclamation marks all over their faces. Then I explained to them the whole situation. This was the best way I'd ever celebrated my result!

We left again and it was a simpler route. Then it started raining heavily again. We made it to the top and walked through wet grass terrain and finally made it to Khaginere. And god!! It was absolutely beautiful! We got rid of our bags. Vasu pointed to a nearby peak and told me "We ll go to the top of that mountain and come back in 10 minutes", I was game for it but wasn't sure about the others. The bus would be there at 1200 and that would be our only bus for the entire day. It was 1135 and we did make it to the top at 1140. After a few photographs, we thought of climbing another one which seemed to be the tallest. We gave up after realizing that we had to go on a different path. Finally Vasu and Santosh did go there. We kept our bags in the premises of a school building and waited for the bus. In the meanwhile, I took some photos including that of a beautiful well. And finally the bus arrived. We ran behind it and hopped into it only to realize that the driver was in no hurry to leave. Sometimes bravery in such situations can turn out to be useless and senseless.. But that is adventure!!

The bus finally left at 1230. We had to reach Vanagooru to catch a bus to Kukke. We reached Vanagooru at around 130 PM. We had a good lunch and were waiting for the bus to come. Kukke was 24 kilometers from there. The bus would come by 230, so i took photographs. Wanted to take a photograph of a girl who seemed very attractive but could not. Finally the bus did come at 230. We hopped into it. Santosh came up with a plan. He told us that we could take a leave on Monday, climb Kumara Parvatha and come back to bengaluru on Tuesday. The prospect itself made me jump with joy. But it was cancelled, Santosh said he would have done it had it been a good three-four months back. What difference does that make, I wondered. Later, I realised he was married. I was wondering to myself "Couldn't he have got married a little later? All of us could've had more adventure!" All folks laughed aloud when I told them the same thing in the evening.

The bus started. We were finally moving to the last stage of the whole journey. The bus journey was an adventure in itself!! The route seemed no different than the one we were trekking on. Since we were sitting in the last row of seats, every time the bus encountered a speed breaker, we were almost hitting the roof of the bus! We saw Kumara Parvatha in all its glory. That is next on my mind. There were waterfalls everywhere, even on the road as we crossed one. It was one awesome journey. We stopped at one temple. There was a waterfall there. The water was so sweet. After a small break, we were back on the road again. And we finally made it to Kukke at 430!