Oct 24 4:00 PM…
Hey dude Its raining cats n dogs, you think we’re gonna make it, Rads uttered those words at the other end of the call. “no thinking abt canceling come wat way, no looking back unless that mountain itself is gonna vanish. we are gonna get there, even in the worst rains and thunder. rains cannot scare us frm having fun!” is what I precisely replied back….these text flashed on my screen from Rad’s end “lol what about thunder and lightning? thats the highest point there” for which I replied “we ll fight, we are spartans :)” (I know its so filmy) for which rads sent these smileys “:) lol”
(Flashback: I was so looking forward to Nagal/7 with Peter and group but unfortunately it got canceled as Peter had a costly deliverable at hand (Which I totally understand). So somehow I wanted to make it to Parvadamalai)
Oct 25 00:00AM…onwards
Adventure started for most of the CTC’ians on the 24th itself. Beating the city’s traffic with our mighty motor bikes in the water clogged roads was the biggest challenge and I was no different!! I slept at Kalai’s place that night and we started at 3:00AM to Guindy Rly Stn!! But stars weren’t favoring us!! More adventure waiting for us!! A lorry was parked in the middle of the highway with its side stand ON :)!! We are Spartans, so we lifted the bike onto to the foot path and started riding it!!
There was Suresh and rads in one bike following (Though I haven’t seen either of them before) and Rads shouted “Paravada malai trek?” I was like “Well…Yeaahh…You Radha…..?” in a doubtful tone for which she nodded her head…”We gave a high-five with a wide smile on the drive in total excitement”!! This was my first trek with CTC and I was glad about this cool reception!! Off we started to trek at around 4:35AM, not knowing what’s in store but were so sure that it’s going to be a great day!!
Most of CTC’ians dozed off which is when I started talking to our mighty scientist Rekha. A mycologist, a geneticist, biologist etc etc etc. She was telling me about the myths behind the “virus” shown in the movie Dasavatharam. [Facts guys: The ebola virus doesn’t kill anyone instantly, but it spreads to a radii of about 1 km and kills the infectious person in about 5 days — Courtesy: Rekha :)]. We talked about so many things including the places we have trekked since we were in Karnataka for sometime. We had yum breakfast and started right away to Parvadamalai.
There it was standing majestically right in front of our eyes as we stepped down from the van. We were welcomed at the ashram. Excitement meter was in its high level for all of us and we made no delay in proceeding further after taking our group picture. The initial walk to the mountain base was very pleasant as we crossed several paddy fields and our photographers capturing nice shots. It gave me a chance to get to know everyone, more and it was pleasure knowing every one of them!! Zoom…we started climbing the mountain and the trail signs were pretty neat!! No chance of losing track. A cute little dog joined out trek, though Rekha was freaking out a bit and was scaring the dog :), rest of the gang were enjoying its company 🙂 (You can infact see the dog in our group picture in Nidhi’s album and in mine too). Moments after, 3-4 people came with guns and I my devilish mind started thinking….Off I took the guns from them! (actually requested then to give it to us) we took all the guns from them and took pictures…as we were posing with guns pointed towards the photographer, I said what if we pull the trigger by mistake for which some one was said “Shoot the shooter”…huh, but truly I couldn’t resist the temptation to pull the trigger!! (Barrels were empty though). I showed the pictures to Rads and we started walking. Rads had difficulty in walking as she had a wound in her knee which was bothering her much. We applied band aid and she was all bright with a big smile all set to walk!! That was the last I saw her during ascend 🙂
I and Kalai moved up together stopping by every 10 minutes to catch breathe. It was a sunny day and our lungs were gasping for more air. We pushed our self asking the localities how far the mountain is and them replying that it’s very close. That thought kept us pushing though the destination was miles apart. Took Glucose’s help to get some energy. Somehow reached this store where several others joined. Tangy Goli Soda with Lemon and Salt added to pep it up was heaven. We relaxed there for sometime and off we headed again!!
But energy levels dropped drastically which is when I sought my music player’s help. Eminem came to my rescue when glucose and chocolates failed 🙂
‘Cause sometimes you feel tired,
feel weak, and when you feel weak, you feel like you wanna just give up.
But you gotta search within you, you gotta find that inner strength
and just pull that s@#t out of you and get that motivation to not give up
and not be a quitter, no matter how bad you wanna just fall flat on your face and collapse.
How true are the lyrics!! You gotto search within you and find that inner strength. Wow!!
Till I collapse -Eminem and other songs of Timberlake, Black eyes peas etc were a treat as I was walking, also to mention Hans Zimmer with his electrifying music. Kalai was with me all the while and walking walking we reached the Gadaparai rock in no time! Gadaparai rock was like a giant looking at us and laughing!! So meek we felt. But we ain’t no cowards 🙂 Off we started climbing. Kalai was freaking out but with little push he was all set. What seemed like a 15 minute task took us a good 1 1/2 hr climb. The walk through the slim ladder, metal bridge was truly exciting. Mission accomplished at last!! Yay, finally we reached the mountain top. Our legs were aching so bad that we laid in that hot concrete floor with burning sun singing lullaby!! Sun was merciless and got medieval on us that day!! It got lot better moments after we reached. The rest of the team joined in about an hour.
The view was spectacular. Treat for your eyes. Now here’s the moment. I crossed the fence line and sat on that huge rock facing the blue sky with cool breeze blowing on my face. I was watching the distance mountains and the depths in awe. Solitude is bliss 🙂 It was so beautiful. It was like a moment that you could freeze and live in it for a long time. Radha, Gopi and I had a long chat there. I was endless. Thanks for listening to me patiently guys!! We were sharing our lighter moment at that mountain top, 4500 ft above laughing and chatting!! Life is indeed beautiful 🙂
Now enough of philosophy and sentiments!! Back to business. Anna thanam at the temple was pretty good. When it wasn’t sufficient, out came our breads, jams and chapatis. Our tiff with the monkeys started. I should say they were truly daring. A small cute pussy cat was bothering us on the other side. Keeping them away from our bags and food was a big challenge though we tipped them handsome before leaving :). After spending some more time, off our journey started downhill. Captured some beautiful shots and lied on the lush green grass for some time before getting on top gear to descend. Getting down was tough as well but our funny conversations and stories kept us light and moving. All of us reached down safe and sound. Only thing we missed in the entire day was the rain which finally showed up the very moment we were about 5 mins from the van. Everyone had a great time getting drenched. Rest rooms at the ashram came to rescue for changing. Nothing like hot cuppa tea in that pouring rain sharing the moments about the trek with your fellow trekkers who are all friends to you by now…
You can relate most of the pics to my description posted here!!
It's all in your Mind 