A trip to Kodachadri , Kollur, Marvanthe and Jog, Oct 2 2009 – Oct 4 2009

We had planned to cover Kodachadri-Kollur- Marvanthe-Gokarna- Yana –Jog Falls in 3 days. But because of the heavy rains in North Karnataka we were unable to cover Gokarna and Yana.

When we started the plan, we were only 6 members who were very desperate to freak around. Then we started sharing our plan, Jayaram and  Prahalad joined us. So, we were 8 members which was really very feasible for our pockets. We arranged a Qualis at Rs. 6 per Km and Rs.175 per Bata for the driver. The cost was approximately Rs. 3000 per head for the approximation of 1500 kms. Everybody were happy and started gearing up for Oct 1 2009 to arrive. Because of personal reasons, Giri and Prahalad could not join us for the trip, instead Rahul joined us which was better in terms of our budget.

Our Stays

1.  Simha Farms, Kodachadri

Address :

Simha Farms, Near Kodachadri,

Kollur - Shimoga State Highway,

Madodi, Hosanagar – 577452, Shimoga

Contact : Aditya Biloor : 08185-253738, 254838

Website : www.simhafarms.com

           

2.    Hotel Shalom, Kundapura

Address :

Near Shastri Circle, NH 17

Kundapura-576201, Udupi District

Contact : 08254-232797, 232798, 232791

Our Journey

We started our journey on 1^st of Oct 2009 at 11.00 PM and reached Simha Farms via Arasikere-Shimoga-Hosanagara-Nagara-Sampekatte around 9.00 AM on 2^nd of Oct 2009. We got freshened, had a tasty breakfast and enquired about our guide for Kodachadri trek and a jeep to travel back to Simha Farms. Adithya, the owner of Simha Farms arranged a guide Vijay and a jeep to come back.

We left our cottages around 11.00 AM and started to trek to Kodachadri via Hidlumane falls. The weather was not supporting to us and was about to rain. Most of the people advised us to go via the road way to the peak as it was difficult to trek via Hidlumane in the rain. We were not happy to trek on the road and thus decided to go via Hidlumane. We were all excited to trek as it was the first trek for most of us in our life time. For initial 1.5 kms it was almost like a road way.

 As the guide took us towards the jungles, we started walking in water. The leeches were also excited to suck our blood. Me and Jayaram were most scared of leeches. Nayaz was the first person for the leech to attack. We had not applied salt and lemon as it was useless due to rains. We started removing the leeches using a stick before they sucked our blood. We walked in water which was a small river flowing on the way. We reached a small house where we rested for 10 mins. Jayaram and others were searching whether if leeches were inside their shoes.

 

The way towards Hidlumane was almost like we were walking in a dense forest. We reached Hidlumane falls  at 1.00 PM and we were really happy to the see the falls. We wanted to play a lot in the water. But we could not spend much time there as we had to reach the peak at the earliest. But, we made sure that we played up to our satisfaction. It started raining when we were still in the falls. But it did not matter for us as we were already wet by the water fall. After sometime, our guide called us to trek between the water fall. But, we were wondering where is the way until the guide told us that we should actually climb through the fall. We thought he was joking, but soon realized that he wasn’t when he asked not to look up or down and to just follow his steps. We followed him as there was no other goal. Astonishingly, there were steps and we actually climbed along the fall. That was truly a life time experience. Many of us fell down due to slippery rocks and wet land. But, those were not at all our stop criteria. We took some snaps on the way and trekked through the forest for almost 2.5 km. It was so dark in the forest due to lot of huge trees and bushes. We crossed the dense forest area and reached an area where it was very steep and was only covered with green grass.

 

We had almost 2.75 km more to go with this steep green grass area. By the time we covered 1.5 km, we were very much tired as it was very steep. The guide kept on telling us “Still only 1 km”. Though it was tiresome, the scenic beauty was so beautiful which was a mixture of rain and clouds together, that we felt we should reach the peak. Unfortunately, we could not click snaps in this area which was heavenly. The rain was so heavy that we could not take our cameras out. We were unable to see what was there just 5 ft ahead of us. It was all covered by mist and clouds. Somehow, we managed to go another 0.5 km. After that we had Glucose, Chakkuli, Water etc. to get rid of our tiredness. They were really our life savers. Later, it was still more difficult as the area was steep, we were almost exhausted that we could not keep one step ahead and leeches were also more. The guide asked us to walk fast as the leeches could get on to us very easily. We were not supposed to stop anywhere as the leeches were waiting to attack us. But, I stopped for every 5 mins due to tiredness, because of which even Nayaz, Kishor and Nitin also stopped. Vijay, our guide really helped me a lot to trek. We almost stopped caring for leeches as our tiredness was much more. After all the struggles we somehow reached the road way at 4.45 PM from where it was not steep and no leeches. We felt better to walk on the road now. We walked on the road for another 1.1 km. We felt that we cannot lift our legs as the clothes were wet and were heavy. Finally, we reached the peak at 5.15 PM. It was fully covered with clouds and it was like we were almost standing on the clouds. Nothing was seen except clouds. But, within no seconds the clouds got cleared and we were able to see the mind blowing scenic beauty of western ghats. We just felt that it was worth getting exhausted to see that beauty. We did not miss to take snaps and videos there.

It was too chilling and we were also hungry. We were not interested to visit Peeta. So, we found one small canteen to eat something. We had  hot Omlets and Chilli bajji’s. It was really good in that weather.

 

We had our tea and called the jeep to return to our cottages. Till then, we forgot everything about leeches. We remembered them again when we sat in the jeep and felt something was there in our shoes. In fact, for the first time I saw a big leech on my leg which had become really big after sucking my blood. It fell down as its stomach was full. We sat for almost an hour in jeep waiting to reach our cottage, just to remove our shoes and check for leeches. Raghavendra Udupa, who was driving our jeep was a really good driver. Myself and Praaveen were amazed to see his driving and his control on the vehicle in such a bad road. We actually felt that we were nothing in front of him. At last, we reached Simha Farms. We thanked Vijay and Raghavendra for their help throughout.

 Soon, we removed our shoes and checked for leeches. We were badly hurt by them. Jayaram was worst effected by leeches. I got hurt in 5 places. We were bleeding continuously. Everybody started applying limestone to clot the blood. The only persons who were not hurt by leeches were Kishor and Nayaz. Lucky Guys !!!!

God bless the maid in Simha Farms who had kept the hot water ready in the evening for us to take bath. We all had a warm bath and home food prepared in Simha farms. The whole day went on really well and worth for the money we spent. We took rest the whole night.

We vacated Simha Farms  at 10.00 AM on Oct 3^rd after a cool breakfast and turned our vehicle towards Kollur. We had plans to reach Kollur by 10.00 AM but got delayed. Couple of us were upset due to the delay. That delay could have ruined our plan if we had not changed our plan. We finished the ‘darshana’ in Kollur. We had got the news that we cannot get into Gokarna Beach due to heavy rains. And we cancelled our program to Yana as we no more had energy to face the leeches. As we cancelled Gokarna and Yana, we had no point to stay in Kumta. So, we cancelled the booking in Hotel Pandurang International and thought of staying in Kundapura.

We reached Marvanthe Beach at 12.45 PM which was 10 km from Kundapura. We were all happy to see the beach and hear the music of waves in Marvanthe. We took some snacks and tea as we were little hungry. We played a lot for 4-5 hrs in Marvanthe. Our driver was too intelligent to bring the vehicle to the beach. The vehicle got stuck in sand and 10 people struggled for 40 mins to get the vehicle out of sand. Even that was a funny experience.

We left the beach at 5.30 PM and reached Hotel Shalom by 6.00 PM. We settled down in our rooms and relaxed for some time chatting. We enjoyed all dialogues of Rahul. Jayaram and Rahul had been to Jayaram’s brother’s house and returned by 8.45 PM. We had our dinner in Shalom and rested there thinking of next day’s plan. We had a nice time chatting, pulling each other’s legs.

Next day, 4^th Oct 2009, we vacated the hotel at 9.00 AM, and started our journey towards Jog falls via Bhatkala. We could see some small water falls on the way which made our journey interesting. We reached Jog around 12.45 PM. We enjoyed the divine beauty of Raja , Rani , Roarer and Rocket. It started to rain to ruin our happiness. We stood aside. Within no time, the jog disappeared. We doubted whether the Jog was there before. The clouds were heavy. Fortunately, within 10 mins the rain stopped and Jog appeared like a magic. We took snaps and were watching Jog for a while.

We had our lunch in a nearby hotel and started our journey back to Bangalore. On the way, we discussed about all the experiences we had.  We exchanged and viewed each other’s snaps. We all had the same feeling that the beauty which we captured in our eyes cannot be captured in cameras. Everyone must visit western ghats once in their life time and see the heavenly beauty. Indeed , myself and Nitin had a fight for him deleting some of the snaps. Anyway that did not last as we had enough snaps.

 We discussed all about our forthcoming plans to freak and hoping to happen. All good songs from my CDs were played on the way. We reached Bangalore at 1.00 AM on 5^th Oct 2009. It was a great experience.

I am thankful to everyone who made this journey a memorable experience. Hope we will have the same troop for further journeys. I think Kishor, Praaveen, Nitin, Nayaz, Jayaram and Rahul have enjoyed this. Expecting Giri and Prahalad to join for further journeys.

Smiles,

Meera

Sach ka Samna !!!!!

I am sitting in front of a person who asks me such questions to which neither I have an answer nor I am able to answer. I endlessly think on these questions... but I will have a forcible exit from my thinking/analyzing world and I come out with N LEMMA(like  Dilemma). Mixed feelings torture me. These are the questions haunt answers out of me.

1. What do you really want in your life?

2. What do you do if you fall in love after marriage?

     a. Would you think of your life and go selfish?

                       or

     b. Would you sacrifice your life for your family?

3. What would you like to choose? 

     a. Death  or  b.Life

4. Whom do you want in your life till your death?

5. What is Good & Sane? What is Bad & Insane?

6. Do you think you deserve to forgive anybody?

and so on..........

I am scared, confused, almost to cry.... I think....."Why people have so many things to think? Why people cannot live as they had thought?"........Goshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!! Leave meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.....

I quit....I leave the game...

I earned zero money.

Surprising thing was, how did the host ask me so many questions without me answering any?!!!

Then, I realize... the host was MEERA!!!!!!!

I remember a song..... "Kabhi Kabhi Mere Dil Mein, Khayaal Aata Hai" .... Ofcourse, the first line only.

:) ,

Meera

A heart felt thank you

Anisutide yaako indu............a background haunting music did not allow me to sleep today. It just took me to a different nostalgic world. I remembered a clip of the movie 'Dil Chahta Hai' where our hero goes back to his past and travels to his present to find his loved one. Its like moving in bullet train and stopping on characters who are in heart. I just felt the same and sincerely I have a handful of people whom I want to hug and just hug and say how much 'I LOVE THEM'............Tears rolled out....and of course 2 or 3 people whom I never ever wanna see in my life time.

Here, I present those buggers(Read it as BUGGERS only-with full of love) who have got into , deeeeeep into my heart that even if I wish also ... I can't take them out.... They made 'MY THE DAY'... I don't know.. I just can't imagine how my marriage would have happened without these BUGGERS. They were 'PRESENT' for me and just for me. I still don't understand what have I done to them that they all were 'MINE' to make my day. I sometimes think that "AM I WORTH" for the relationship that they share with me. My family were stunned to believe that I had such a lovely Friend Circle. My fingers were no longer ready to wait to put down the words that I feel for them.... and tears tooo.......... all happy tears.... No words to express what I am feeling now.. Just wanna put one small sentence of each.

Straight from Heart

   Its so difficult without DAD. I lost him before I realize the value of  DAD. But now....though I used to feel that MOM can never become DAD.. that was materialistic. I realized it as a fact when I started preparations for my marriage. I am missing him in each tiny step I keep.

   Its an irony that elders say 'Organize a marriage, Build a house' = 'Maduve maadi nodu, Mane katti nodu' in kannada. It takes our lives out. Sad thing is , I am the key responsible person for everything wrt  my marriage , from Mantapa to Marriage,Gifts to Garlands,Tea to Travel, Jewels to Jaggery, Purohit to People, Cards to Cardamoms...................... Meera before marriage to Meera after marriage :). May be I am one among those few girls who walk around by setting things right in their own marriages. I am proud to say that my MOM has brought me up to become 'Bold & Beautiful'. At the same time, in some corner I cry that I can never become an ordinary girl who can enjoy all the moments of her marriage. For a girl, Marriage is the D day for which she would have dreamt for years. But I fear. Its really hard to imagine that her responsibilities and her dreams give a contradictory scene of her marriage. I am now in a confused state to make a trade off between my strong dreams which I was seeing from years and my hard responsible reality.

   Most of my friends think I am a 'Strong Lady' , 'Bold Girl' , '21 Century Female' and so on.......... probably they would not have realized that there is a simple little girl behind, who will still dream/think like any other girl apart from realities. It hurts when I feel helpless. I feel helpless when I cannot find an alternate. I am badly stressed out of workaholic environment and responsibilities. But, I felt depressed when I did not find a shoulder to lean my head and just cry. I felt lonely when there was nobody to say "ALL IS  WELL". I am not just getting my friends' time to share my feelings...That's where I start to write. I just have reached a state which is making me remain SILENT. Me.. Silent !!!!??? Can you imagine? Expectation reduces Joy......I expected my friends to call me back and just ask how are you feeling? I cannot blame them.. they are equally busy as I am. Worst thing is I want to cry ..but tears are not coming out. I am just feeling " Why don't my dad come back and take away all my grievances?"... Reality calls me back.

   Hey hey.. Wait....I am not the one who accept the defeat so easily..... I have full of attitude to say...."I CAN HANDLE THIS" and I Do.

Smiles,

Meera

Basic vs Advanced

    Probably, this would be my shortest blog. Just to give a brief idea, think of any product which is advanced - Mobile Phone, Computers.... All advanced products shall/will support the basic features for which they are used. Just think, if you have a mobile phone which has supporting features to bluetooth, internet , conferences etc and doesnt have the feature of sending an SMS, would you like it? Unanimously, the answer will be a 'NO'. Similarly,  God has made a lovely product called 'WOMAN' with some basic(of course special) features which defines her greatness. But, somewhere I feel, Advanced Women are products without basic features.

   I feel an woman is complete when she is taking care of her family well. This includes smiling, being patient, cooking, understanding the requirements of family members and taking care accordingly. People respected woman for this as they knew that doing everything mentioned above is very difficult. I strongly feel , these days, these basic features are missing  in their busy schedule. I think these women are missing something by forgetting their actual responsibilities for which they were respected. They are missing the happiness which a wife shall get by seeing her husband eating the food cooked by her, she is missing the happiness of being a good daughter-in-law and her mother -in -law feels that she is good. These days women think that why should they all these things. They feel that they are equally working for the family as men. Hence , turn their faces to take these responsibilities. They never realize that they are incomplete without these. I cannot deny they are working women, but they forget that if they initiate and take these responsibilities, their husbands and family members also join them to help her out. They also become part of her sorrows and happiness. I have asked most men about their choices on their wives. They always expect a homely, simple girl who can take care of them and their parents. A girl who can talk, smile and make the home environment happy. Men always want their wives to own the family as her own and make it beautiful. Women are loosing this power of owning  a family by her wonderful capabilities by just comparing with her career. There is nothing wrong in bending a little in keeping the family in harmony. I wonder why people get into problems without understanding these small things. I think women have to re think on their modernization. If it is the modernization with their basic things in place, then the family is just a heaven.

   Intentionally, I am not getting into details of this as people need to think on these lines depending on their lives. Whatever I write, it might be applicable to a set of people only. "I leave people to imagine", think and act according to their lives. I feel if women become little sensible, that is their success.

Smiles,
Meera

Does Ram/Seetha exist even now?

     The most troublesome question that I always have is the above. I always have a doubt that can anybody in the current world be like "Pativratha" Seetha or can anybody really be like "Eka patni vrathastha" Ram? Most of the men who have only 1 wife or the women who are dedicated to 1 one man would blindly say "Yes, there are many". But, I seriously doubt that whether they are really Ram/Seetha from their soul? Because, the term "Pativratha" does not only mean that a woman should be dedicated to 1 man. But, it means that you should not even think of any other person other than a person whom you are committed to. Similarly, the phrase "Eka patni vrathastha" does not only mean about a person who has only 1 wife. But, says about the committment of a man to one lady wrt body , soul and mind. I feel its really impractical to be like Ram or Seetha. Though, I do agree that we are proud be Indians who still try to follow the culture of Ram and Seetha.

    Most of my friends disagreed and said some statements like, "Why do you think that way, me and my husband are fine", "Hey, come on, you know me, I love my wife so much, I just cant think of any other lady" when I asked the same question. But, I am sure that they would have asked the same question to themselves and they would have agreed with my argument that its difficult to be committed at the soul level. This is because of a fact that we always think logically and we tend to compare.

   The defined art of current generation is to think logically. We accept things easily when proved they are logical before even thinking whether they are ethical or not. Take a scenario where both husband and wife are not at all happy with each other even after years. When people get into details and find no way out, they simply say " Its time to think logically/practically than thinking emotionally and take a divorce". The funniest part of the logical thinking is comparison, of course, even in maths, logic is comparison ( < ,>,<=,>=). That is what we do in our daily life.

   Our life will be cool, happy and in an equilibrium till we tend to compare. When we compare and find a better thing, then the fight starts. Our mind will say "Its quite logical to go for a better thing" when we have better  choices. I don't know whether the readers agree with me or not. But, I can fearlessly say that a man/woman gets fluctuated atleast once in his/her life time. Its also because a person likes or has multiple personalities. We tend to like a person who has similar personality of our's. Only thing is that, all these hidden desires do not come out just beacause of the fear of society. Though we all are "pathivartha"s and "Eka patni vrathastha"s outside, inside we know our story. Sometimes, we enjoy those feelings going to a entirely different world forgetting the reality. But, soon we come back. I cannot deny that it is still better that we commit ourselves to one person in life overcoming all the fluctuations that happen in our inner mind. I can say commitment comes by choice. When we compare a person wrt all possible things that we like /dislike, somewhere we feel, "One person cannot be perfect and the person  I have got is the best suit for me". That is what I call, LOVE. If we don't get this feeling, there comes the break in relationship. I have heard many couples telling that they are best friends. May be those are the couples who understand these fluctuations in each other and forgive each other, still live together happily. I always appreciate those who really have the maturity to think on these feelings, discuss and forget than fighting in terms of possesiveness. Because, we just cant avoid some feelings that come and go. But, can assure that all these are temporary. Possessiveness is really beautiful when taken on a positive note.

   I always wonder what can satisfy a person? Its always been a confusion for me that why we get deviated so easily even after being happy, having no worries and being matured enough. Please don't ask me the answer. I don't have any. But, I can say that those who are happily living( from heart) with each other overcoming the ups/downs and deviations from normal track, they are still Rams and Seethas. Because, it is not so simple to overcome a strong feeling and still live happily from heart. That is called the real commitment. If you ask me the same question in the title now, I would say, "Yes, there are many". But, the definitions of Ram and Seetha are little changed.

Smiles,
Meera

What does a woman want?

   This is the question which arises to almost all men in the world. Universally, men feel that it is really difficult to guess the reaction of a woman in different circumstances. Though they are little different from men's thinking, it is not difficult for men to understand what woman wants, if they can understand the basic psychology or if they have basic analyzing capabilities. Precisely, the points brought out below would let men think and get reasons behind her behavior. Of course, there are exceptions where these might not hold good. But, those are rare.

  Woman has a basic character of getting attached to her family, people and things around her. Knowingly or unknowingly, she will develop possessiveness on each and everything around her. She always tries to make things around her better and better, hence she cannot accept things/criticism which let her surrounding down and her enthusiasm in making them better as well.

Tiny Things: She can get upset even for a small piece of talk which is negative about her things. In parallel to this thinking, she expects people whom she love, to support in her activities. For ex: She is interested in keeping her home clean and attractive. She does expect her husband/brother/father to support in these activities. She likes when her husband takes interest in choosing the color of the curtains. She loves when her father gets her things to decorate the house. Similarly, there will be n number of tiny things which she is interested in. She feels happy when men give importance on those. She sometimes feels secured when she is given importance.

Observation/ Remembrance: Women's natural character is to seek attention. She observes a lot and tries to change accordingly. She takes a lot of effort to keep her loved ones happy by changing herself. But, if the change in her is left un-noticed or is not acknowledged, she can easily get upset because she feels that her efforts are not cared. She tries to look beautiful to make her spouse happy and tries lot of things. At the same time she expects her spouse to support / notice those efforts. For ex: She feels happy when her husband observes her dry feet and asks her to take care. She feels happy when he observes the change in nail color or a lipstick. She feels that her spouse cares about her and thus observes her. Lack of observation and acknowledgement might upset her any time leading to her mood swing without any trigger. She expects her close ones to remember special occasions like her birthday, anniversary, first date, friendship day etc and acknowledge/ greet her for her existence. She will be hurt when she knows even the close ones doesn’t remember those. She feels that she is not important and no one cares for her. She feels lonely.

Expression of Love/ Care: Men always fail in expressing their care and love they have towards their wives. They feel it’s unimportant and expect women to understand that they love her. But, ultimately women is again not a fairy or a goddess to understand unspoken/ unexpressed things, though she tries to. It becomes important to show her the love, care for by means of actions. It may me a simple thing like giving a rose, may be a kiss of care, may be a hug, and may be getting her favorite snack. It might be a support/ care given to her when she fails or when she is down. She loves small surprises. It need not be always costly to express love. Of course, costly jewels and clothes brings twinkle in her eyes, but that doesn’t always keep her happy. Tiny things keep her happy as said earlier.

Habits/Attitude/Romance/Conversation: Most of the women quarrel with men for their bad habits. But, there is one other side of women. It is not always true that women cannot accept bad habits. It’s only that she cannot accept when it goes to extremes. She does enjoy manly habits in her spouse when she is confident that it is limited and doesn’t trouble his life. In fact, sometimes she likes the style of men when they smoke. She expects her man to be rough and tough too. She doesn’t like when he is very mild, agrees to whatever she says. She likes him to be aggressive and manly. It appears to be contradictory. But, over a period of time, men can analyze when they can be rough and when they can be mild. She likes her man to be possessive on her. But, not over possessive that it restricts her to be free. She loves freedom at the same time she loves to be under control also. Most women get attracted to a man because of his manliness. Manliness wrt body or may be wrt attitude. Woman feels happy when her beauty is observed and appraised. She expects her man to be romantic, to like her beauty. This is the reason for which she asks about her dressing n number of times. She expects her man to give comments on her dressing. She likes if her spouse gives suggestions on improving on her figure and be beautiful. She thinks that she can keep her man happy by her beauty. Sex does keep her happy as it proves that the man is interested in her. She always feel secured when her man is interested in her.

             Apart from all these, casual conversation with her on any topic will make her feel that she is valued. She likes when people listen to her when she is expressive. It might be really boring for the person who is listening. But, understanding her enthusiasm and interest in being detailed  and listening to her makes her feel she is important, thus making her feel good. Conversations on her interests and disinterests will give her pleasure.

            On a whole, she is happy when she is valued and cared. Though this is a small try to tell what a woman expects/wants, there are many untold things which women want. This is just a try to dissolve them all into major categories. There will be specific example for specific persons. Hope this was helpful for men and supporting for women who are trying to make their relationships better. It would have been a write up on "What men want?" but that isn’t tough as most women know and that is never been a haunting question. Wish you a happy life. Take care.

Smiles,

Meera