hyderabad blues ...

<yes, and after a long time i went to hyderabad … it is the place where i started my career … it is the place where i got my first hard earned money … it was the first time i came out of my state, first time i heard somebody speaking the same language which i heard only on sunday afternoon regional movies in our good old dooradarsan days …
somebody said me earlier, sounth indian languages are like omegas and north indian languages are like pie … i saw them for the first time written in buses, in cinema posters and in walls… that was the year 2000… very very dull IT market, world trade centre just collapsed after we started our career … however, we used to enjoy a lot … we used to book ticket in sangeet for night shows … i remember, it was nuvve kaavaali , the first telugu cinema i saw at one of the rtc cross road cinema halls …
those are the days … we used to spend time at neckless road… we used to have midnight icecream over there … new year bashes.. so full of life … later on i shifted to bangalore … its been 4 years now, i am here in bangalore … and since then, i could not revisited the place …
and suddenly i got a chance to go back … hyderabad is no longer the same … there are lots of flyovers now… lots of shopping malls , housing etc … i can not even imagine how kondapur has been grown up … it was really surprising to see a new face of the city …
but when i went back to charminar , i saw the real crowd … the life over here is just the same as i saw it last time … so vibrant, so lively …nothing really changed … people are still so friendly … so co-oprative … i wish, every one would be like this forever…

mystic journey and horror hunt ...

so finally we are back for searching a movie named “Howrah Bridge pe latakti huyi laash” in google … suggested by Rohini first while playing dumbshalarts at night after having the dinner … we were at m g resorts … oops at winter green … nobody told us that m g resort was renamed as winter green long long back until we were totally lost while searching the resort at the outskirt of Chikmagalur …

… so finally we organized trip at Chikmagalur on 29-30 march 2008…

though we got things wrong at the beginning , it was a team effort to make it a success… We were supposed to start at 1 AM night, and we were almost ready to start, but we found the bus which was booked had less seats than wanted … first wrong this for us … by the time we called up the travel desk person and arranged for the right bus, our guys had one innings of cricket match played in front of the cognizant office at BTP … imagine, it was night 2 AM and drizzling all over …

and all set hereafter, we thought… when it was morning and we woke up at Kemmangundi hill station, we expected a guest house to be available for all of us at the top of the hill… and believe me it was planned that way … but sometime, when you are sure about something, you actually welcome something unexpected… something else … however, we did manage to get a pwd bunglow for 2 hours for 21 people along with Poha as a breakfast …

... and then the real fun began… Nishant arranged 3 roller-coaster zeeps to drive us to the hebbe falls … approx 14 km one way to go and then 2 Km walk inside the jungle… there was no proper road, Kumar, our zeep driver, was taking us through the stone roads and river beds… it was really a roller –coaster drive for all of us… but we forgot all these while treated by the scenic beauty of the place … it was like heaven for us …fortunately he knew hindi and we were not able to shout him at all L … we all seven sitting in the zeep would agree that, if Michel Schumacher also would had come and seen this road, he would have not agreed to ride … kumar won the race with out any competitor for him … even though the roads were not good, but the scenic beauty of the place was awesome…

Walking was not so horrible as the ride … but as it was within the dense jungle we were afraid of leaches .

There were small rivers we had to cross on the way … under passing current on the river and the slippery stones made it very difficult for us … taking shoes in one hand we were trying to keep the balance while crossing the rivers … and then kept on going… suddenly we heard the roar of water … just after taking a turn, we found the falls … hebbe falls … it was beautiful … the trekking was worth of… free falling water from a high of 170 mtrs…

we were looking so small infront of that falls… everybody jumped in and started playing with water… some of us even went ahead for fishing … we were so much engaged in doing all the activities that, we even forgot everything else… it was lunch time and we were starving … so then again restourant hunting began in the jungle … nothing except tea stalls were available on the top of kemmangundi … so it was the time to come down to chikmagalur …

i won't forget the town canteen in r g road for several reasons… it was first time the tiffin centre owner gave me 100 bucks extra in return… it was the first time i had to have butter masala dosa in lunch, and also it was first time to get so much of butter in a butter masala dosa …:)

searching m g reasort was a real mess as i said you earlier; it was renamed a long back and none of us had the information… it was already evening and finally when we found the resort ,
there was nothing you could see within… we were led by the resort people to take us in the huts… it was looking like a no-mans land initially … no water, no light and no airtel signal …next day morning the resort turned to be nice one… full of greenary , two hanging brigdes etc etc… lots of tamarind and amla tree ( girls enjoyed those a lot.. you know why !!! )… the place was really good and as good as the charges !!! Zeera rice, Dal, rasam, Roti and Aloo Zeera for 175 bucks …

no worries, we were there to enjoy anyway … and so we did … and we named Rohini as Don, as she was the only girl who knew that there was a movie named "Howrah Bridge pe latakti huyi laash"…

day 2 started with a plan … 8:30 morning we were supposed to start off the resort for Mulayangiri … we had a plan that around 9:00 -9:45 we will have breakfast and then we will climb up … but we failed to execute the plan… plans are made to be failed it seems… guys were playing cricket at the resort till 8:45 morning … and then breakfast happened at the same "town canteen" once again …

…and then we headed off for Mulayangiri … as soon as we approached the ghat roads, the rain started heavily… we knew, we were game whatever it might come…


i forgot who started dancing first, but certainly it was Brajesh who nourished it to the core with kaajra re … Deepa, Rohini , Shewta ,Deepanjan and Niwratti were amongst others who actually made it a big sucess i must say … the bus was climbing slowly to the top and we were waiting for the destination to reach… it was a real fun altough … and when we reached to the peak we were spell bound … we were at the top of karnataka… it was heavenly … whereever we looked at ,it was the western ghat…some peaks were entirely surrounded by clouds, somewhere we saw the sunlight … like a hide and seek game for the nature … and we were barely the visitor of this terrestial phenomenon…

we climbed up to the top and finally achieved it… and suddenly it started raining again… and this time it was so heavy… along with the rain, small pieces of freezed water droplets were falling from the sky… Nishanth and Pushkar removed their shirts and got wet fully … i hided inside a small temple and kept their belonging … it reminded me a song by colonial cousins … rain…

sunddenly i got a phone call … wow, i thought, airtel network was still here at the top of the peak … it was my wife on the phone … i was not able to describe the situation … for the first time, i thought i must get drenched !!!