A Day In The Woods - Experience of a lifetime

After the heavy showers of the night, the morning welcomed us with some more rain. "The rain has not stopped at all from the time we are here" exclaimed someone. It din't surprise me as I have seen these rains all through my childhood and my teen days, but for someone from Bangalore, it would be a rare sight. I am usually very particular about my morning tea, but this morning, in the middle of this wilderness, I had to cut that thought of having a cup of tea. That means, only one way to avoid the chill, the mighty old Brandy. I was one of very few who were sipping Brandy early morning. Well yeah, it did make a difference as I wasn't going to waste my vacation sitting inside the lonely guest house waiting for the rains to stop to go out. I knew these rains, they wont stop. After a lot of brain storming on whether to make a tiny little walk into the forest or no, all agreed that the grandeur of western ghats should be enjoyed full on. For most, coming from Bangalore or mostly cities, climbing up the hill with leaches and heavy rain wasn't going to be an easy task. And the best part was the mist, it was so damn misty that you wont be able to see anything beyond a radius of may be only a meter. "Its gonna be fun" someone said but little did we know what was in store for a few of us. No one would have imagined in their deadliest of dreams what fun was lying ahead. After the intial photo sessions in the woods, as many gave up the idea of moving further ahead, I tookoff with a quick climb wanting to reach one of the peaks and well may be name one of the peaks after me, if it wasn't named already. I dint know, then, who followed me because of the thick mist around, but I could hear voices which meant I will have company if I got lost. Well, getting lost was not at all a possibility cause we wern't much deep into the woods and it would be easy to track our way back, or atleast that is what I thought. The fellows behind me were pretty much surprised about my speed through the woods and uphill. They thought I was little too fat for some trek. As for me, I have climbed a lot and ran through the forest during my childhood so my feet were moving with absolutely no effort. May be almost an hour into our journey, we were higher and into thicker forest. By then, I knew who all were in the quest for glory. We were 5 brave ones who decided we had to make it to one of the peaks, and well, I had to give up on my ambition of naming one after me. Anyways, we continued our journey. All through this, the guest housekeeper's dog kept following us and I jokingly said that the dog can guide us back in case we get lost. Even at this time, getting lost was still a joke, but we were still unaware of the destiny's joke that lay ahead. As we went higher, the mist was getting even thicker and there was no sign of the rain stopping. Obviously, we were totally soaked in rain, and slowly as the brandy effect was going down, I could feel the chill. That still wasn't the issue to be complained of as we enjoyed the lush green flora of the western ghats shining in rain. We were totally in a different world all together. It was a complete relaxation for our mind, body, and soul. Our eyes which were habituated to see vehicles and concrete in our routine life were tasting and enjoying every bit of nature around us. We kept climbing higher and higher searching for that one special peak which could be called a real good peak. I mean there were smaller ones, but as we reached one peak, the greed to climb another became more. Everyone walked through the woods and kept climbing like possessed souls in search of nirvana. Well, as we climbed higher, we could easily sense the oxygen levels going down, and finally, we decided to halt our climb and have a victory photo session. We congratulated each other for the accomplishment and decided to take some rest.


As soon as we started our journey back down, we realized it was not going to be an easy way down. The ground below us was pretty loose because of the heavy rains, so we had to be really careful to avoid slipping. The angle of slope was pretty steep as well, which meant a slip would set one rolling down the hill sure to result in some broken bones to be the least consequence. Gripping on the roots of the trees we made our climb down. While climbing up, we had to go around the peak and climb up because it was too steep to go straight up, so now on our way back, we had totally lost the sense of direction , and with that we dint know which way to go. Only thing we knew was we had to go down and somehow reach the bottom. Within half an hour of our way down, we knew we were LOST. We were lost in the jungle. For the first time, we sensed the true meaning of getting lost and started thinking of all the bad things that can happen to us. The fear of getting into deeper and thicker forest without any food or anything to drink, fear of being attacked by wild animals, fear of being attacked by naxals, all these feelings making our climb down still slower. We knew only one thing - go down and find the bottom of the hill before dusk.


The fear with uncertainities around us actually made the trek down more exciting. The comfort and that of safety was totally gone. For the first in my life, I was in a situation like this. Of course, I have trekked many a times, but those were all like the choreographed ones. We knew which way to enter and which way to move, but here, I was lost without an exit route. We kept moving down and every now and then we came across a dead end, a 90 degree slope down. In those cases, we had to go back up again and take a totally different path. The most exciting thing for me was crossing those tiny streams. The force of water was so strong that it can effortlessly take you with it, so we had to use some sort of support to cross it. Most of the times, we put a tree branch across and hold it and walk, but sometimes where the width of the stream was too wide, we all held hands and walked through. Team work at its best. The water level most of the time was above chest level and none of us knew swimming.


We continued our adventure and finally could sight some tiled roof houses at a distance, which meant we were near to the civilization and that means we were safe again. With the joy of reaching our destiny, I also felt sad that all the thrill and excitement was over, but nonetheless, it was an experience of a lifetime. It has been 2 years from the trip to Malaya Marutha Guest House, but the experience still stays fresh in the minds of all 5 of us. It was my tiny man versus wild moment. I must say we were lucky nothing bad happened to us, as just recently I read an article on newspaper that 4 guys from Bangalore gone in the woods for trek have not returned.


Going into the woods is a risky business for sure, but it was all worth the risk for the experience one can have.


You have any of experiences like this? You can share it in the comments below.

Lets Vote

Bangalore South - yeah that is my Loksabha constituency. It covers a big part of the urban population of Karnataka. Its the techie hub, major part of the population here are young software professionals. Mostly consists of well educated families. Despite all of this, I was ashamed to see the newspapers the day after the elections. Voter turnout of 47%, that is really a shame. Any citizen of India should be ashamed of himself/herself if he/she cannot be a part of biggest event of the country which happens only twice a decade. Everyone has their own reasons for not voting; corrupt candidates - how much do we really know about them? Have we actually done some research on the particular candidate? Do we know his qualifications or his works as MLA? Did we even check on the manifesto he has got for us? I'm pretty sure none of those who brand all politicians as corrupt would do that. Its an easy way out to blame someone. Its our responsibility to make our leaders accountable. The people make leaders and the people should show them that they can break them too. We all blame the system being corrupt, but at the same time, we do nothing, absolutely nothing to change it. Another excuse - I had some important work. How stupid can one get. I have seen what happened on April 23rd. Got an off from office, sleep through the day, search for some booze in the evening, and watch IPL. That is a lot of important work there.

Guys, our country's security is challenged, our economy is getting worse, crime rates are getting real high, our elders are robbed and killed, minorities are attacked, moral police dictating us what to wear, where to hang out, what to do, girls don't feel safe walking on the street, traffic issues; the list is never ending. These are our problems and we need to raise a voice to bring up a change, and a smallest thing one can do for that change is to vote. I know it takes a long long time to change the system, but let us not just watch and crib about things going wrong. The least we can do is educate the younger generation about voting and teaching them to stand up for social causes. A small initiative now may bring up a revolution later and hope we see corruption-free India.

Tomorrow is the next phase of elections, so a humble request to all - please go and vote.

Slipknot - All Hope Is Gone (Review)

Heard of Slipknot, the masked men from Iowa, dressed in jumpsuits. Oh yeah, they also have bar codes on their jumpsuits. They also change their masks with every album, the change is supposed to be an evolved form of the previous one. That is pretty creative, isn't it? and difference in approach from the other bands out there. That is not all, Slipknot is a 9 member band; 1 lead vocalist, 1 drummer, 3 handling the guitar, 2 on percussion, 1 on turntables, and 1 on sampler. With all this, these fellows must a bunch of talented musicians, right? Most of them don't really think so. There are a large group of Slipknot haters out there, but I would give their fourth studio album "All hope is gone" a thumbs up. The album does show signs of maturation in Slipknot's musicianship, with much improved vocals from Corey Taylor and better guitar riffs. Some of songs are Stone Sour-esque slow songs, but overall, the album does sound heavy.

"All hope is gone" starts with .execute followed by Gematria, sounding heavy as ever with good guitar riffs, clearly setting the intensity that you are bound to start headbanging. The following track Sulfur doesn't disappoint you either. The transition from Sulfur to Psychosocial is totally mind blowing, I was out of my mind with Psychosocial. Vendetta and Butcher's Hook show you how heavy Slipknot can get. Gehanna and This Cold Black are also impressive, but the best song of the album for me is the title song, All hope is gone. By the end of it, I'm already yearning for more.

Rating : 8.5/10

Why do we read books?

Ever wondered, why we read books? With the new technology giving so many other ways to get information, like the TV or just googling, we still read books. Its not just the information that drives one to read. I used to read books before 2000, but stopped after 2000 until now. I dint read a single novel for the last 9 years. The reason being simple that I just dint feel like reading, but now I feel like reading again. I was in this confusion what exactly makes people read or not read. What exactly are the stimulants for reading. I actually used to believe that people who used to hold a book all the time are trying to show off to be more intellectual, but now I realize that I was really stupid to think so stupidly. Well, I forgive myself for that and hope you guys also forgive me for that. One question that kept stimulating my neurons is "why the hell do people read books?" I don't really know why I wanted to read books now again after I had stopped it, so I started to pop this question to many of my friends. I just sent out an email to all my friends and acquaintances with certain questions regarding novel reading. The results were pretty much interesting.

In the world of book reading, there are 2 broad categories; one group of people who read books and the other who doesn't. Let me start with the latter one first. Why people hate reading books? Almost all of them had only one answer, waste of time. They considered there are lot many things they can do instead of reading books. Some of them had no time to read at all.

Coming to the first group of people who read books. Most of them read for enjoyment. They considered reading as refreshing and relaxing. Most of them who used the terms like refreshing, relaxing, see different perspectives of life, etc, to describe their book reading were in the age group 20 to 30. The ones below age 20 mostly used "just for fun" to describe their reading. The elders, age 35+, had a very descriptive answer on why they read books, like "to get away from reality of life" "to understand the life better" "to succeed in life," One thing common in these is life. Guess, we get a little serious as we grow up, or at least we try act a little more serious. So this gets to my next questions, Does one's reading change with age.

My 3 groups here surely had different reasons to read. The 3 groups were also different in the kinds of books they read. Below 20 ones read mainly fiction, comics, romance, murder mystery, etc. The age 20 to 30 ones read fiction, nonfiction, personality development, drama, success stories, etc. The age 35+ ones read fiction, political, drama, etc. Now, I do feel the reading and interests change as one grows. I used to love reading The Hardy Boys during my childhood days, not anymore. The changes I feel depends on the individual's influences and interaction with situations.

While the nonreaders find it difficult to give a reason why they don't read and the readers have lots of reasons to read, reading is certainly enjoyable. With age, the reasons for reading and the kind of reading might change, but the reading goes on. Its always said that "a book can change one's life" Books are always the best source of inspiration and motivation. May be to change our life and expand our thinking to a new level or to experience someone's experiences or just for the sake of entertainment, reading does give your mind some much needed change in this routine mechanical life.

As a leisure activity or to improve my emotional and intellectual well being, I am going to do some reading for sure, at least 1 book a month. Happy reading.

Note: My sincere thanks to all of you who replied to my mail. God bless you. Those who couldn't reply or who dint receive my mail, can use the comments section below to express their views.

Trivium - Shogun (Review)

Trivium Line up:

Mathew Heafy - Guitars n Vocals

Corey Beaulieu - Guitars n Vocals

Travis Smith - Drums

Paolo Gregoletto - Bass n Vocals


Shogun has come as a bitter truth for most of the metal critics. After all the fun the critics had labeling Trivium as "Metallica Imitators," they are found speechless now. Shogun is Trivium's 4th studio album. I was pretty much impressed with their second album Ascendancy, but was equally disappointed with their 3rd album, Crusade. With Shogun, these Florida metallers have come stronger than ever, learning from their past mistakes and improving upon their strengths.

Shogun is an awesome blend of the good works of their previous albums. Quick tempo changes and choruses still persists, but the guitars solos are much improved. Heafy sounds much better in Shogun and I was very happy to see him get back to his screaming.

Shogun starts of with Krisute Gomen and clearly sets the tone for the album, and with every song, the listening experience gets better, better, and better. I was really impressed with solos with all 3 men with guitar coming out with great riffs; Gregoletto in "torn between Scyla and Charybdis" Beaulieu in "Insurrection" and both Heafy and Beaulieu in "into the mouth of hell we march" sounding very impressive. The album ends with an almost 12 minutes of masterpiece title song, really shows the maturity in Trivium's work.

If you dont wanna hate Trivium and listen to Shogun with an unbiased mind, this album is pretty much enjoyable.

Rating: 8/10