Raghu dixit..... A Sunday Evening.....

Let the things happen!!! Believe me this is the thing which i have in mind.

Today(16th Nov,Sunday) me and Paresh went to Garuda Swagath(new one in Jayanagar), to purchase some books also to spend some time. There was this poster of Raghu, being his fans, we first went near it. It was dated 16th November named "Music of the Earth", but because of my screwed up memory i had to check my cell for today's date. Was stunned to see, its today, more interestingly it was 6.31pm in cell. Also show was on the same building at the same time. Wow!!! great thing to happen on an unplanned weekend. Just went there in no time, but it was crowded. Some how got place to stand, where we could see Mr.RD(Raghu Dixit, may be the next RD, if you are wondering about who is the first, then its the Boss R.D. Burman). He was in is typical, most stylish lungi and black T-shirt.
The show started with the song "I still love you". This is the song from his first album. As each and every-moment went on, it started to become crowded. This song is good. I never heard it before. Second song was, "Hey bhagwan". Even though i am an Atheist, i liked it. May be this song says about Raghu a lot, when he was striving for a break.
The show went on with the songs(given below), i noted the songs, so the order was like this:
I still Love you...
Hey bhagwan- In his second Zindagi...
Mysore se aayi- Even he knows about mysore's...
Guduguduiya sedi nodu- May be Raghu's best till now...
Amber- Smooth as silk...
Khidki... Windows should use this as their next booting tune...
Lokadha chinte- his next album. Nice song with a funny tune...
Ninna poojege- Most probably nowadays youths anthem...
Neene beku- My favourite track after the Gudugudiya...
Soruthihudu maniya maligi- Shishunala Sharif's one more track...
Eno idhe- One more wonderful song from Psycho...
I'm in Mumbai waiting for a miracle- Which has been done already...

Was indeed a great show. Hope that he does more shows and even movies like this. Brilliant, Folk-Rock combi, High pitch hypnotizing voice, Passionate and many more makes him special. He is one more reason for me to say "Proud to being a Mysorean".
Recently i missed the chance to attend his show in Jayanagar on Kannada Rajyotsava occasion. But now really happy.
Hey wait a second how can i forget about his sense of humor. His timing is excellent. Few of the things happened in the show are as below.
* After Hey bhagwan, everybody started shouting Pyscho... Raghu in response "Nan makla est jana theatre-ge hogidhri kai etthi (almost everybody raised their hand), mathe yaakro producer dhud bartha illa antha phone maad-thare".
* Somewhere in between crowd started to sing, he "nilsrapa saaku, haadinalli swalpa ragha, shruthi, taaLa ella irbeku... en sumne archothira". This was cool.
* When he was singing Eno idhe, somewhere he was struck since he couldn't remember the lyrics. Somebody in the crowd was singing, so he "aarthi kottu kari beka, lyrics gotthirauru yaaradhru banni..."
* May be the best part of the day. Almost at the end of the show, crowd started shouting "Once more!, once more!!!". In reply "ondhu vare ganTe indha ondhe samane haad-heLtha idhini, haalu-niru kudi antha heLauru yaaru illa, once more anthe once more!!!"


Till now i used to listen to his songs in TV and sometimes in FM and even the downloaded version. But thought of saying good-bye to those and purchased the album. Was a great time. Nice way to end a sunday to avoid monday blues.....

Raghu is a nice guy, who reply most of his scraps. I wish him all the best for every thing he does.

Super Man(junath)

Mullayanagiri Trek

On Friday night(24th October) we left Bangalore to trek the summit of Karnataka-Mullayanagiri, which is the highest peak b/w vindhya mountains and nilgiris with a massive height of 1910 mfs(6317 feet). This is situated in Chikamagalur district, around 12km from city and also part of western ghats.
(click on images to expand) Peak covered by mist..

After a nice journey through great roads, we reached Chikamagalur. On saturday morning after having the breakfast, we reached Sarpadhaari(Snake's path) from where the trekking starts. This is around 12km from the city. With few liters of water, we started trekking, just within 30 mins we started to see the beauty of western ghats. At few places it was steep also bit slippery because of mist and previous day rain. We reached the top of the small cliff from where the photo session started.

Temperature started to drop with height. When we reached the nandhi, visibility was hardly 10-15 meters. From nandhi its bit steep, till cave. The priest in the temple told that few decades back, tigers were there. The Cave:
Second cave is pretty long, we could go hardly 20 feet inside, from there on its was muddy, also nobody was interested in crawling. Few more steps from here we reached top, where it was like a heaven. Its a great panaromic view. Lush green mountain chains, looked smooth and curvy. We could see few huge lakes in and around the city. Slowly clouds started to cover the mountains, as a thin blanket.

Bhaanalli oDo megha girigo ninthalle yoga....
We were so close to the summit and wanted to be on it for few seconds at least, started climbing the temple top one after the other....
On the Summit....

After having the lunch we went Ayyanakere (has lot of historical significance),which is in Sakharayapattana (around 18kms from the city). We saw few ponds on the way confusing it with Ayyankere, but once we reached there entire idea changed. It is so huge, came to know its the second biggest in the state. Time was already 5pm, so we couldn't stay for long.
Awesome Ayyankere....

When we came back from the lake it was already dark and had to walk more than 1km because of mist. Visibility was too low, it had rained for few hours more over land slide is common, so we walked and our driver followed us. No stars, not even single light source that we could get other than the vehicle headlights. Had to wake up priest for dinner, by the time we finished it time was around 11pm. To set up tent we took nearly a hour struggling with torches.
Tent and the Track....
It was a shivering night. In recent past this was one of the most coldest night we faced. Since we had our tent at the entrance of the of the temple, crowd started to build pretty early, making hell a lot of noise and waking us up. This is one Sunday morning which i'll remember for a long time. We could get a glimpse of sunrise it was awesome!!!. After having a coffee, we packed our luggage and tents. We took only the things which were necessary for our trek, kept other in the cab and told our driver to come to Bababudangiri.
Sunrise from the peak

Bababudangiri: Walk on the Edge
Just besides the temple, there's a small route which leads to a wonderful walk. We could see the tower, which was our destination. Luckily it was bright sunny day with no clouds. I have read few blogs in which most of them couldn't complete their walk because of mist. While getting down from a rock i slipped had small scratches. After just a few hundred meters, we saw wide range of grass, with small flowers covering wide spectrum of colors. We named it "The Valley of Flower", which were every where from here on.
Harisha and HM took few great snaps here. A couple of hour later we had our breakfast (thanks to MTR) and reached view point. Few kids were there, then went crazy by seeing us, this view point didn't had much for us, since we had seen better than this already.
From here onwards at least for one hour or so journey was challenging, some times we were hardly a foot away from a thousand feet fall or even more. Jumping, rock-climbing whatever we could try, we did but with real care. This was worth the journey. This picture may not depict the complexity...
We reached the towers, sat for while relaxing and watching the peak we came from, eating cucumber(may be the best one till now) it was so cold, the air was pure. Harisha played Pink Floyd n few others. This was really great time i had since ages.
From here we reached, Galikere and then to Bababudangiri. We were so hungry, we had parota and dates. Bababudangiri is spoiled to the core. Wherever you go, you can find plastic, bottles and clothes. Manikyadhara is falls which can be avoided without any regrets. We were a day before to a yearly function, wherein nearly a lakh people will gather for function. This temple looked really great from the viewpoint, with saffron flag waving before clear blue sky.

Beautiful Sunset

While coming back, the sky had a great transformation from blue to a crimson red. For 2-3kms we had great view. We were running short of batteries, hence could take only few snaps.
In mullayanagiri, there's a belief that if you carry a brick to the top of the hill(around 454 steps-Bharath's count) i.e., to the temple, it will bring good. Its a great thing, since some construction is going near temple it will be of great help to the masoners. Where as in Manikyadhara, you need to leave behind one item of the clothing to achieve the same. This belief has ruined this place. What an irony!

Few more wonderful snaps:
Keeping count of the trekkers:

May be the next windows wallpaper:

The Sholas:
Our team: Harish, Bharath, Kiran, Shashi, Manjunath HM, Pradeep and me..

Reference: Few blogs, Karnataka tourism site and wikipedia. Also thanks to Harisha and HM for matured and wonderful photographs, i had really tough time to choose for the blog.
For Trekkers:
Best season- October to Feb mid.
Distance:
Bangalore to Chikamagalur- 250kms
Complexity: Average on a clear day. Not much water sources on the way. May become really tough based on visibility and rain.

Open for Comments,

Super Man(junath)

Few memorable bowling actions!!!!

Article written on a funny note:
As a 11 year kid, i became addicted to Cricket. Since then i have seen few bowling actions which i remember may be because they were kind of Unique, Weird and always attracting crowds attention....

These are the few:
Paul Adams: Mr.Weirdo...

To start with the most wonderful action of all.
Many people would have tried this and would have laughed at themselves. Also known as Gogga, was a rare chinaman bowler. I still wonder how he aimed at the stumps!!!!!!


Carl Hooper: The dancing doll...


I wondered what made him to go back a step in the bowling crease. He would have confused many batsmen in his early days. Carl had a rhythmic smooth bowling action, which resembled some dancing style. Probably the most easiest action to identify, when somebody is mimicking him. A good all-rounder though, who did his best against India in most of the circumstances. Decent cricketer...



Shaun Pollock: Mr.Bow....

Real consistent with unrealistic style. Action which seemed cress-cross while delivering never had any problem with the line and the length. A great all rounder...


Shane warne: Who Caresssss.....

He walked as though he never cared for any body. Not more than six steps. Most easiest bowling action to mimic. Even a kinder-garden kid can copy this style. He was a great purchase for Rajasthan Royals, but was tested during second season.


Anil Kumble: The Jumbo Hopper...


Being most successful bowler for India, jumbo used to hop twice or trice before reaching the bowling crease. Fast uncharacteristic action for a Leg spinner, still made wonders for us. I wish him all the best for his retired life. I am sure he'll be a great coach. Any team would be lucky to get him as a coach.... Still he is not done yet, waiting for IPL season 3.



Muttian Muralitharan: Ooohhhh!!!!!

Batsmen would have had really tough time in identifying the ball behind those two eyeballs, which were larger than the ball itself. Though the most controversial, has almost all record in his name. May be "The Bowling Bradman".

Fannie de villiers: Mr.Hook..
He had weird way of holding the ball, which made me to call him Mr.Hook. I don't think any other bowler troubled Sachin as much as he did. He had a short and crisp cricketing career....


Sohail Tanvir: Standing tall...

Who thought him the bowling. This is what happens if you practice alone. Commentators consider him as a wrong foot bowler, rather he has a quick arm action. Unique and tough to read, but not the difficult one.
His action reminded me of Steve jobs line:

"Stay foolish, stay Hungry" or "Bowl foolish , pick wickets!".




Mushtaq Ahmed: Arm roller...

A flying leg spinner, with an action started by licking the finger tips. I really don't know how far it helped him in picking up so many wickets. He used to roll his arms together, which probably is tough thing to do. He had a great career till Saki's entry. Look at the pick, may seems like he is doing some sort of yoga...




Few more:
Will update when i remember more...

Super Man(junath)

Kumaraparvatha (Pushpagiri) Trek

I am writing this blog bit late, but still this trek is fresh in my memory. At a height of 1712mfs (second highest after Mullayanagiri), this is considered as one of the toughest trek in Karnataka.
(click on images to enlarge)
On the way to mallallai falls

Nine of us set to trek the Kumaraparvatha on mid of november, 2007. We planned to climb it from Somwarpet(North Coorg) and descent towards Kukke-Subramanya.

The Team KP
After around 7 hours journey from Bangalore, we reached the Somwarpet bus-stand. We took the only bus to Biddhalli(point from where trekking starts) at 7.30AM along with an young energetic team from Bangalore. People on this side call this Pushpagiri(pushpa-flower,giri-peak). With in 20mins into journey we started see the wonders of nature. We got down 2km before biddhalli in order to see Mallilli (ಮಳ್ಳಳ್ಳಿ) falls, its around 30 mins walk from here. After an heated argument about to see it or not with harisha and convincing him, we started walking towards the falls, where we met our first enemy the LEECH!. Srikanth was the first to notice or being bit by it. Its one of the beautiful falls i have ever come across.

We reach the falls, it was full. We thought of crossing the top of this falls rather than walking back 3km. After crossing the river, we had our breakfast on the bank. We spent some time here to figure-out the route. After some struggle through itching leaves, we got the path which took us to the road. By around 2pm we reached the check point, after convincing the forest security(since official time to trek is within 11.30am and they are not supposed to allow people after this time)and paying them Rs.115 per head as entry fee we started. Around 100mtrs from there was river, we thought of having our lunch here. But it rained badly, delaying our trek by an hour or so. So we started trekking at 4pm, but the forest guards had a different dialogs this time. So we started with a brisk pace.
While walking through jungle


We reached the view point, that was great view but leeches were there too....

Around 6pm, it started to became dark since sunsets on other side of the mountain.
Seventeen of us somehow managed with 6 torches. Most of us had an opinion of why we came here. The walk was too long, in darkness along with leeches, believe me none of us wanted to be in this situation again. Still in darkness we walked for 2 more torturing hours to find a place where we can have our tent set. We faced four slippery steep rocks, when we were near third rock prasad and others insisted to stay on that till morning, since it was too dark and we didn't get any place to tent. One of had bsnl phone(which is the only way to contact security office), they guided us which was of great help. But it was too cold, so Chinmay(who was still energetic, along with one more guy) went to find some place for tent. They came back after few
mins saying there's a place.
The place where we had our tents set

It was hardly 20X20 feet but was enough. Few of us were busy with setting up tents, others tried setting up fire which failed.
Night was not that smooth, wind was blowing creating a wide variety of noise also it rained. Unfortunately our tent didn't had top cover so my blanket was wet. I didn't sleep, somehow most pathetic night got over leading to a great sunrise.
The sunrise

BG told me, he heard some wild bores roaming around our tents. We saw peak, it was hardly few meters away from our tent. There's a small temple of lord Shiva. After having breakfast, We informed bhatru that we will be there for lunch. He told us some shortcut, but i didn't work, since chinmay(was good trekker among us) slipped in that path, so we took the same path were climbed in the dark.
On the peak


I still don't know how we did it in that night. We saw many fallen trees may be because of nights wind. Just within an hour we reached the mountains covered with lush green grass. Only one guy had a twisted ankle but was not that serious.
Everything here looked great, we could see bhatru's house. Took some snaps near mantapa. Just before bhatru's place there is a forest check-post(show ur entrance ticket here). After finishing the lunch, we started walking and reached forest after an hour or so. On this side, its too steep but kind of easy since forest is not as dark as on the other side.
Mantapa:

Reached Kukke-subramanya, took few hours of rest plastering the wounds caused by leeches. Took the Mysore bus, saying bye to the most wonderful and really colorful mountain chains of western ghats. I think we walked 36-38kms in two days. But don't believe in localities distance, they says it near-by and you may walk for hours to reach that place.
These are few snaps while getting down:



View point while getting down:

A photo dedicated to leeches:


Flora and Fauna:
We didn't see much of animals, but as the name Pushpagiri indicates there were few colorful flowers. Also there were few different insects, snails, scorpions and snakes(all of them were rat snakes).
Our plan to trek from Somwarpet and descending towards Kukke paid us and may be the best path. We never had much problem with water since it was still raining, we could find stream on most of the places.


We walked on almost all mountains in around that place and thats how the route is. Even though it tested us, we saw its beauty...... Hoping to trek again in years to come....

Our team:
Naveen(benne), Prashanth, Pavan Rao M.R., Harish K.L., Manju B.G., Manjunath H.M, Srikanth, Prasad and me.
Reference:
Wikipedia, many blogs and few friends from Somwarpet(which is my birth place)who guided us. Also thank to Harisha, Benne(Naveen),Pavan, Srikanth, Prashanth and bangalore boys for the wonderful photos they took.

For Trekkers:
Best season- November to Feb mid.
Distance:
Bangalore to Somwarpet- 260Kms
Bangalore to Kukke-Subramanya- 386Kms
Bhatru phone no- 9448647947
Beware of- Leeches and snakes. Detol, salt or snuff are the few things to avoid leeches.
Complexity- Medium to hard. Hardness depends on rain, darkness also on loosing the track. Whatever happens follow the main path there may be few confusing paths(made by localities for wood and others). A team of 5 or more is always safe.

Open for Comments,

Super Man(junath)