Trip to remember! Nagalapuram.

Why I wanted to do this trip?

The little knowledge I have today about the galaxies and stars,I owe everything to Carl Sagan. Carl Sagan’s Cosmos was an eye opener to me.  After reading his book I was so fascinated by galaxies that I bought a binocular and indulged in some serious star gazing stuffs which continues till day. All this happened and few weeks back I got in touch with one of my school friend Arun, a well known photographer among our circle.  When Arun proposed the idea of staying in a tent from a far away place(Nagalapuram) to do astrophotography, I made no hesitation to join him.


 D DAY!

Our day started around 9.45 PM. We were to cover 80 kms, Our plan was to be there before 12.

Arun and my other school friend prajul joined me at my home with huge baggage(Tent stuffed in it) behind them . Wasting no time we started and made a stop near retteri  and picked our friend sourav.  We took few minutes break to buy food and all other basic supplies necessary for the next day. Having purchased everything that is required to keep us going for another day, We motored through highway. During the course of the journey I struggled to keep pace with other guys.As the city light started fading away , The lorry  fellows atrocity was slowly coming to light.  Every vehicle approaching us was coming with high beam on, The least I could do was to shout abuse at them(which I did joyfully) but that was of no avail and myself wearing specs only aggravated the problem. 

All this madness stopped only when we crossed the border, and by then we were already close to our place.The place where we planned to stay was not the main Nagalapuram, it was 10 kms interior to nagalapuram, which my friend called somewhere near to arai dam. The road was terrible and it was getting darker, we were marching on and on and stopped only when we hit the dead end. 

We parked our bike in a corner and climbed few yards to find a road which separated lake and paddy fields. With no humans anywhere around we decided to set our tent on the road itself. Time was 12:10. There was no trace of humans. The sky was so clear. Countless stars brightly lit. It was indeed sight for gods.

                                                                          

So many stars!

Now that we found our spot, Our next task is to set the tent. Setting out tent turned out to be herculean task. There was hardly any moon light and the only light we had was a small torch light (similar to the torch light people normally attach to their bike key chain).After struggling for half an hour with the guidance of my amigo Prajul , we finally set our tent. 

Isnt it beautiful?

Window View

 Around 1 am, We set our tripods towards east and were waiting for milkyway galaxies cluster to be visible for naked eye. In the meantime I was stargazing and asking these guys a lot of question.The knowledge these guys have about stars and Planets surprised me. I saw some patterns and asked them what it was and they were immediate to answer it as orion belt. They also pointed me towards a brightly lit star and told me it was Jupiter. I was astounded by their knowledge.

Milkyway behind our tent!

Time was already 1:30AM,We were already busy taking pictures when we heard a noise.We turned around to see what it was. Few hundred meters away a man was approaching us with a dimly lit light in his hand. Shocked! We switched off our lights in tent and observed. More closer we saw that he was holding something in his other hand. 

Little more closer, we were now quite sure about what this man was holding in his hand. Big gun! Similar to one sharath kumar had in suryavamsam. As the guy came more closer we panicked and started to wear helmet. (I still have no idea why we wore helmet considering our bike was parked a Kilometre away).

The moment we thought we were going to die, The guy took detour and went into the fields and started shooting rabbits and other animals. It took us few minutes to comeback to normalcy and then we were back to clicking. We clicked and clicked and clicked until we got tired. By then It was 10 AM.

sunrise

Truly a trip to remember.

PC ARUN SIDDARTH

Dhanushkodi - Trip to Remember.

Having read almost everything about Dhanushodi, My excitement was palpable when I boarded the van which was about to take us to the destination. I had to leave my bike few kilometres before Dhanushkodi because the path to the destination doesn't have a proper road and It can be reached only through loose sand.

                                                     

                                                               MEMORIAL

Once the van was jam packed, our driver started the journey to the lost land. During the course of our journey I posed lot of questions about the land to our driver and he politely answered each and every one of them.

The journey to reach dhanushkodi was long and bumpy, Our first stop was at the tip of Dhanushkodi. By the time we reached the tip the wind was so ferocious that it blew sand on our face. Our van driver who was now a friend to me told me that I was standing on strip of sand which seperated two oceans(Indian Ocean and Bay of bengal). The place was so blue and water was so pristine, On my one side the wave was so violent and the other side it was so calm. I spent half the time gaping at the beauty of the ocean and rest of the time I was hearing to the owling of wind which I took special liking to (strange taste).We stayed at the tip for half an hour and then moved to the lost land.

                                                                         PRISTINE

                                                                      SIGHT FOR GODS!

On reaching the lost land the feeling was surreal, I was running helter and skelter to catch the glimpse of most of the ruined places as the driver told he could not afford more than 30 minutes. On entering the ghost town there was Giant water tank, church, Post office.. all in a dilipidated structure. What was once a flourishing town is now nothing but a skeleton remains which serves as an warning of how an victim of nature would look like. while roaming around the ruined place I met a fishermen whose parents hailed from Dhanushkodi, He told us that the cyclone lasted only for a night but it was so ferocious that it washed away the whole town,somehow his parents saved him but couldnt save his grandparents. He also informed us how the sea receded during the night of tsunami(2004) which exposed them the submerged part of the town for few minutes. While I was there only for few minutes, The time I had spent here had huge impact on me. The ruins was in my memory for the rest of the day.

                                                                   WATER TANK

                                                                     CHURCH

While moving from the town they were stones laid to our left for few Kilometers, The driver informed that those were the track trail. Prior to the 1964 cyclone there was boatmail operating between chennai to colombo, where the train would halt at Dhanuskodi and transport the passengers in ferry to Mannar, from where another train took them to Colombo.The tracks was destroyed during the cyclone.

Moving forward we spotted a place where they were large number of stones stacked at one place, I was informed that this was the spot where on that fateful night a passenger train carrying 115 passengers was washed away by huge waves.

Dhanushkodi might not be a place of everybody's liking but it left a huge impact on me. One thing I had learned on visiting this place is How much ever we have evolved in the last few hundred years we are still at the mercy of mother nature.

Road Trip to Valparai-Athirapally-chalakudy

On 3rd april with much excitement I embarked on a road trip to Kerala. Little did I know then that the next three days would turn out to be the best days of my life. On this three days I covered 2000 kms, negotiated 100's of hairpin bends, Spotted animals which are hardly seen in any other part of world and did so many adventurous stuffs which I had never even dreamt of.

 This blog is all about my trip from day 1 to day 3. I know, I cannot do justice in a page to what I experienced in the few days I was on road, But I will try my best here to make readers understand the feel of it. 

Why Kerala?

Initially there was a tossup between Rameswaram and Kerala, But the beautiful mountains lured me to make decision in favour of Kerala. With its scenic mountains, Curvaceous but smooth roads,moderate climate, Kerala is a perfect getaway from Chennai's scorching heat. 

Why Road Trip? 

 I always wanted to do something adventurous, A bike ride can be adventurous in itself, because you never know when one would get stranded in the middle of Highway with tyre punctured. Plus I always wanted to go to these places in my RE. So there wasn't any second thoughts on this one.

Day 1 - Chennai - Salem- Coimbatore:

With all my provisions  neatly packed in my backpack, I started at 4:00 AM from my house and picked up accomplice near guindy.

Stop near dindivanam

The plan was to start early morning from chennai, reach salem around 11, take a detour to friend's house for a couple of hours break and then start to Coimbatore during evening. We were quite conscious about not travelling during noon because the heat gets quite unbearable in this part of world. 

Everything went according to plan, We reached salem on time, then went on to meet college friend of mine and spent the noon in his house reminiscing about college days.

As dusk settled in we started our journey, Racing through the empty roads we reached coimbatore in three hours and halted for the night in some random hotel near Coimbatore Railway station.

Day 2: The plan was to reach the top slip and spot a tiger.

We started early morning from our room and took friends car to reach the destination(two wheelers arent allowed in the route). Topslip is located about 800 ft above sea level and 80 kms from coimbatore, The road that lead to Topslip was quite bumpy and that was one moment where i felt as though I was in Kolathur. On reaching Kerala checkpost we had to leave behind our car, and get into a govt owned tourister which took us into deep forest, The driver stopped vehicle whenever he spotted animal, The three hours ride would have been  more adventurous had we spotted a tiger. But nonetheless we had fun

Day 3: The best day of our Trip.

Valparai- athirapally- Chalakudy.

We wokeup at 5.30 in the morning and started our march towards Valparai. The journey towards valparai was quite challenging, the road was treacherous. We had to negotiate far too many hairpen bends to reach the place. The problem  we faced driving towards valparai was we wanted to stop every few minutes, Surrounded by coffee estates on bothsides, Valparai was breathtakingly beautiful. In our brief stay in Valparai we took as many snaps as possible. At 11, we decided to bid adieu to Valparai and filled tank before starting to Athirapally.(as the  the nearest bunk was 100 kms away.) 

Valparai plantation

After riding through the deserted roads we stopped by sholayur dam, The sholayur dam can be quite a spot if filled with water but unfortunately we chose the wrong time as there was hardly any water. Still the dam looked quite beautiful. Then we moved few kilometers from dam to reach kerala checkpost where the rangers did comprehensive check of our bag and gave a notebook  and asked me to write my name and bike number. 

Beautiful sholayur dam

Enter Athirapally forest, The route is open only during morning to evening. The 65 km dense forest has the highest tiger and elephant population in the country, This is the place where the elephant migration happens. The forest can be covered in 3 hours, But the three hours was eons to me. The reason why rangers write down people's name is, to conduct rescue operation if in case they went missing.

My Deivam Royal Enfield

Photographer's paradise

Sholayur - Athirapally route

peek into the woods

The 65 km ride sent chills down my spine, Elephant's turd was everywhere. whenever there was a bend, I tilted my head so widly to check if there was any animal on the road.  The ride was the most adventurous I had ever been on. At the end of the stretch It was a mixed feeling for me, On one hand I was quite relieved that I came across the forest unscathed, On the other I was sad that the adventure had come to an end.

Having reached athirapally, We took few minutes rest at the falls and then started to chalakudy. The drive through chalakudy was super fun. The roads were simply the best I have drove on(akin to the one you see in F1 racing). After driving all through the day we finally halted in Thrissur.

My Ten Favourite Books.

1. The rise and fall of Third Reich - I have read quite a few books about Third Reich but this is the most comprehensive of all. To my knowledge the author has covered everything which is to be told about the Third Reich.


2. To kill a mocking bird - To kill a Mocking bird is my bible. If ever I wanted to live like someone that would be Atticus Finch. This book shows the dark side of Racism which was very much the part of America in the early 20th century. I dont think there would ever be a book which would deal with Racism, Prejudice , Bigotry so eloquently as this one. Remains my favourite novel by distance.



3. The English August-  Funniest book authored by an Indian. The story is about travails of Agasthya Sen an young Civil servant who is posted as trainee in a remote Indian village, Madina. If you are really bored with your life then this would be an ideal book to read. Dark humour at its very best.


4. The fountain head- Ayn Rand's finest.


5. Sila Nerangalil Sila Manithargal - The last 20 pages of this book was shattering. Brutal. Such was the effect of this book that some of the characters kept lingering in my mind for months. If you can read tamil, then you should grab this book and start rightaway. Sila Nerangalil Sila Manithargal is not something which you should give a miss.



6. Vellai Yanai by Jeyamohan - Depressingly Morbid. True story about the famine in 1876-78 which exterminated half of dalits population in the state. Vellai Yanai is a depressing book and it only gets more depressing as it progress.


7. A Fine balance- Rohinton Mistry's A Fine Balance is one of the best book about the Indian emergency. It shows the plight of poor people and how severely they were crushed by government during emergency. Do read. Fantastic novel.



8. The cosmos by Carl Sagan - This book is the HOLYGRAIL.


9. O'Jerusalem - Wrote in the year 1972, Nothing has changed yet. This book is a well researched and an unbiased history of Israel. 


10. Inside the Third Reich -  Albert speer was the armament minister of Third Reich. Inside the Third Reich is a fascinating memoir. The author takes us to the close quarters of Nazi world and gives us a poignant view of how those mad politicians worked. Wonderful book, It would have been touch better if the author had discussed about the extermination of Jews and his part in it. Nevertheless this book is a magnum opus if you are an avid reader about Third Reich.

planned obsolescence

Planned obsolescence boon or bane?
Could you believe that there is a bulb in Livermore(CALIFORNIA) which has
been glowing for the past 109 years? The bulb has seen the world war 1 ,the
great crash,world war2,Montgomery bus incident ,abolition of jim crow laws,jfk
assassination, Watergate scandal everything…epic isn’t it????While the reason is
simple ,GE or PHILIPS those days produced filaments which is strong enough to
withstand ages!!!
The MOTIVE was common from bulb to nylon ie LONGEVITY. While products
with longevity helped the cause of the consumers but it did hit hard with the
producers and the labour force. Because of the products longevity the consumer
purchasing power decreased to a great Deal .once they purchase a product ,due
to its longevity they don’t purchase it again for some years in future … when u
purchase once rarely ,the production process and all other process will come to a
stand still and will give a great beating to the labour force and the owners… this
puts the company BIG WIGS and labour force in DIRESTRAITS.
This paradox brought the barons to gether and they came up with a new strategy
that is called PLANNED OBSOLESCENCE. Planned obsolecense (as defined)is a
decision by a company to make consumer products in such a way that they
become out-of-date within a known time period the main goal of this type of
production is to ensure that consumers will have to buy the product again and
again, rather than only once. This naturally stimulates demand for an industry's
products because consumers have to keep coming back again and again. This
also keeps the labour force and industrial biggies moving and satisfying..Planned
obsolecense is higher in the monopolistic and oligopolistic markets where the
competition is very low, when the competition is very low the sellers get an
advantage and produces product of poor quality and longevity . so if the planned
obsolence helps the labour force it also degrades the product quality which in
a way is considered to be a consumer exploitation…they are lot of present day
products which are guilty of planned obsolescence …apples have always been a
pioneer of planned obsolecense. As they always think “Why to give a customer
the full range of options and features by selling one phone ,when you can bring
out features bit by bit through new releases and updates by selling several
phones”????? that’s smart strategy for you…..apples increasing use of tamper-
resistant screws is a form of planned obsolescence….poor ipod battery is also a
form of planned obsolecense….
While the planned obsolescence has lot of banes ,it seem to be very inevitable….it
is very easy to pan it but it is very tough to move on with out it ….planned
obsolecense balances consumption and production…it helps the labours while
it also exploits consumers …BOON OR BANE ,in this modern economy it is highly
inevitable to avoid planned obslocense