CMBT & My bus journeys

Living in Neyveli, and having most of your extended family settled in Chennai, meant you’d be frequently travelling between Neyveli and Chennai. Since Neyveli didn’t have a proper railway station and the closest one was 2 hours away, our travel to Chennai has always been in buses. The buses usually took about 4.5-5hours to cover the 200km distance. Because we had one of our relatives in Tambaram, we usually got down there. Those were the days when the Mofussil buses used to go through the city, and I believe the bus stand was in Broadway, Parrys. 

It was in 2002 (though I had stared at the granite containing the date of opening a zillion times, I couldn’t quite recollect this year and had to google it) that the bus terminus was shifted to Koyambedu, and named as CMBT - Chennai Mofussil Bus Terminus. It was humungous to say the least. The local MTC buses were given a good sizeable space in the front, with multiple shelters and behind them was the actual bus terminus with 6 broad platforms housing buses that ran across the length and breadth of the state, including a few to neighbouring states of Kerala, Karnataka and the then Andhra Pradesh. There were primarly two landmarks to identify the CMBT, one it’s own gigantic brownish dome with a digital clock and the second is the multi-storey apartment complex right opposite CMBT that used to be visible from about a kilometre away too. 

I moved to Chennai in 2008, but I believe it wasn’t until 2010-2011 when I started frequenting this bus stand to go visit my parents in Neyveli. I usually reached the bus stand at about 6-6:30PM after my work. There wasn’t an option to book tickets in advance for the bus to Neyveli, so it was always a waiting/guessing game trying to predict the bus’s arrival. I still remember my routine every time I go to this bus stand. As I’d take a bus at 6:30, I’d be reaching Neyveli quite late in the night, at around 11-11:30. So keep my hunger at bay while travelling, I always go to this Aavin booth right near Platform 2, buy one tetra pack of Pista Milkshake, and then walk over to a food kiosk, and buy an overpriced Lays packet. Not sure if anyone remembers, but the shops in the bus stand always charged prices for their products higher than the MRP, and even when you questioned them, they didn’t two hoots about you and would rather you not buy than reduce the price. 

Oh, how can I forget the mad rush during the peak holiday seasons. The day before the festive holidays begin would seem like the bus stand would burst, with so many people, all around, running to catch a bus to their hometowns. You were considered lucky to even get a direct bus to your town, forget about getting a seat. There were times when I’d had to travel the entire 5 hour journey standing, and would sometimes just flop onto the floor out of sheer exhaustion. We’d be lucky to sit on a seat when the bus stopped midway for a 5-10 minute break.

But these bus journeys were one of my best memories of those times. I’d invariably choose either the first seat at the front right next to the door, or the seat right above the wheels, near the ladder. These journeys were special because of the whole lot of people I met. Everyone had a story to share and it felt only right to lend a listening ear to it. You meet people from all walks of life, right from a girl who was preparing for UPSC exams, a math teacher, a working girl, literally all kinds and age groups. I believe there’s an ease and peace in sharing stories with strangers - there’s no fear of judgement, as there’s almost no way you were going to meet them again unless you choose to stay in touch. Most often, we hardly shared names. The conversations were always about places, education, movies, and just life in general. The stories that I shared, helped me figure out a lot about myself - what mattered the most to me, what are the thoughts that shaped me as a person, who/what are the instances that’ve had an impact on me. I strongly feel it is during these times that I slowly moved on from being an introvert to extrovert. I started to enjoy meeting people and talking / listening to them.

These bus journeys were a standard in my life for about 4-5 years until I finished my education and my parents lived in Neyveli. But slowly as they shifted to Chennai, these journeys and the conversations took a break and left me with void that I only felt when I travelled somewhere. But every once in a while when I do travel alone, and encounter people, there’s always a chance to spark up a conversation and share thoughts. 

Now, coming back to CMBT, because it was located almost in the heart of the city, and it became quite hard to manage the population here, the government opened up Kilambakkam Bus Terminus to manage the buses going down south, and the Madhavaram Bus Terminus for the buses going up north mostly to Andhra & Telangana. Whatever else remained was predominantly Vellore, Hosur, Bangalore and a few other places - these seemed to be the only ones that are currently being operated from CMBT. 

It was after almost 4 years that I stepped into the bus stand last week, and I was saddened to see its plight. What was once a bustling place of activity, now looks forlorn. Of the 6 platforms that used to be fully packed with buses and people, only one is currently functional, and that too with very minimal folks. The rest of the terminus looks ominous, deserted and is mostly used as a shelter by the homeless.  I’m sure there’d be plans to renovate and repurpose this place, and wish they act upon those plans soon before the condition of the place deteriorates even further.

People - Food - Places

Do you associate food with people and places? Not asking about eating in restaurants, but rather about food that’s served with love at home. 

I’m an ardent lover of food, and appreciate deeply when someone cooks food for me. I have a notable few foods that always remind me of the place and the person who’d served it to me for the first time. Invariably, every time anyone talks about that food item, instantly that person and the memory springs up in my mind. 

The first ever item on that list is Akki Roti. A Karnataka delicacy where they make rotis out of rice flour instead of wheat. Well, the first ever time I’d a bite of this was at my Mami’s (A) Amma’s house in Bangalore, probably when I was 10 or 12 years, maybe? We’d gone for a visit early noon, and in 10 minutes she cooks it up and serves it with some amazing home-made Nandini ghee. Gosh, the smell of the ghee, the crispness and the taste of the roti, even after all these years, still makes my mouth water. I still remember the numerous other times I’d went over to their place in anticipation of this, and don’t remember being disappointed ever, as this was always served first, without fail. The other day as my friend was talking about Akki Roti, guess what popped up in my mind - A’s amma and her impeccable roti.

The next one on this list are Methi Roti and Sabudana Khichdi. These ones come from Pune, Maharashtra. As for the methi roti, it came from my dad’s maternal aunt. The fresh tender methis together with a bit of ajwain, turmeric, chilli powder, salt mixed with our usual wheat flour results in this amaze max methi rotis. It’s really versatile in the sense that you could either gobble it up plainly, or with a side of raitha or plain curd or pickle - absolute freaking yum! Sabudana Khichdi coming from the same household, from the aunt’s daughter-in-law. My goodness me, this is literally my all time favourite dish in the whole wide world. Making Sabudana Khichdi is an art, for you to be need careful with the sabudana - they tend to get really sticky when subjected to heat, and become a whole mashy mess. The secret ingredient to stop them from getting sticky is to add powdered groundnut. This recipe by MathuSoundar is a keeper, works like magic, every-freaking-time. I could even mildly (proudly) brag that I’m becoming an expert in making this dish now. Thank you Mathu!

Lastly on this series, is something that my friend used to bring for lunch in during our internship. Vegetable or Peas Pulao/fried rice with some Vazhakkai cutlet. Good god, I’ll never get over this dish ever. The fragrance, the taste, the way it looks, everything about this dish is just perfect. We used to literally hijack her entire lunch box and hand over our boring rasam or sambar rice or most often some juice to her, as we hog all of her lunch. It’s been more than 10 years now, but the memory still lingers. I really do have to go to her home once to relish this dish all over again. 

Well, that is all for now, and I’m signing off with a lot of fond foody memories.

Until next,

G!

Athi’s Alapparais

Incident no.:1 

I think invariably each one of us would have atleast on distinct memory of something we did / something that happened to us in our childhood, which we wouldn’t have forgotten even till now. It might be of bravery, forgery, happiness or sadness or anything. I think this incident, that happened to Athi, would probably go down into his memory as one for his bravery and calm! 

So, this is what happened. My amma and Athi were playing with the bedroom door lock. Well, you can never guess the kind of things that’d excite a 5-year-old. It can be very random. This was one such thing. Apparently, he had just found out that the room can be locked from the outside using a key and can still be opened easily through the knob on the inside. No points for guessing who was inside and who was outside. Of course, Athi was in, and amma was out. As the boy was trying to understand this wow of an invention, he gets carried away and pushes another lock in the room, which is strictly an inside-only lock - meaning, you can’t unlock/undo it from the outside. And poor fellow doesn’t know how to undo his actions, a.k.a open the door. My mom tries asking him to unlock a few times, but he shouts back that it’s really hard and he isn’t able to do it. Oh, I completely missed to tell you about this - he’d just got one of his hands completely covered with Marudhaani (the boy is surprisingly quite fond of it and whenever someone brings them home, he’s all the more happy to get his hands adorned with it). So, imagine a little kid trying to unlock (which he is clueless about) a door with just one hand with all his might - perfect recipe for panic! My amma comes rushing to me trying to explain what happened. All of us assemble right outside the door of the room talking to him, asking him to try a little harder to get the door unlocked. Thankfully for him, the room had a bathroom. So, we instruct him to wash the Henna off his hands and then try with both the hands. Still no luck. Outside we were losing our calm, but inside, the boy is still all put together. He doesn’t shed a drop of tear, patiently trying whatever that we ask him to do. By the end of 15 minutes, we surely knew this wasn’t helping. Luckily my father’s phone was inside the room, so we tried to video call him, but gosh, android settings couldn’t find a better time to request for camera permissions to attend the video call. Because he’s barely used mobiles, he isn’t able to figure out why he couldn’t attend the call, and thus goes our last chance of trying to get him out of the door without having to break it. 

Just as we were thinking what can be done, my dad comes to the rescue with his absolute presence of mind - he decides to make a rectangular cut in the door near the lock by drilling holes. We instruct Athi to go and sit on the bed, while we try to unlock the door, and he promptly listens. Meanwhile, V contacts the maintenance folks and get someone from their team to fetch a ladder and try climbing to the window attached to that room. Thankfully, we live in second floor, so it wasn’t too much of a hassle. But Athi is too small to open the window to let him inside. As the maintenance anna tried to talk to him, asking him to stay calm, Athi replied back to him coolly, telling - “Uncle please wait, my thatha is drilling holes into the door and is going to open it for me”. Such calm and clarity, I sure don’t know where from he inherited them - definitely not me. 

After about 25-30 minutes, Appa had managed to cut out a rectangular portion, and the door is unlocked. Oh boy, we were so relieved. As soon as we get in, we ask him how he was trying to open the door, and as he shows it, we realize the poor thing had been trying to push the lock further inside on the same side, inside of pulling it out to unlock. No wonder it was very hard. A little while later, we question him if he was afraid / cried while he was stuck inside, he replies bravely - "first light ah azhuga vara madiri irundhuchu ma, aana aprom ellarum enna suthiteengala la, aprom enaku bayam pochu" (initially tears did well up in his eyes, but then once we were all right outside the door trying to talk to him, he started feeling much better and didn't feel the need to weep).

Quite an adventure it was, especially for my mom - because she felt she was primarily responsible for the whole fiasco, and dad - because he had to the hard work of drilling out the holes on a super strong door. An experience that shall forever be etched in our memories and be talked about for ages to come.

The hole in the door which was finally sealed yesterday with a patch of sheet

Incident No.:2

This is nothing unlike the previous one. This is more on how kids stump you speechless through their actions. We decided to enroll Athi for a Parkour Summer Class. It was the first day of the class and there's this huge slide in there made of wood, quite unlike the normal slides in the parks - this one is super steep at the top. Definitely looked a bit scary to me, at first sight. After a couple of other activities, the boy climbed to the top of this slide (through the ladder sort of thing), and the instructor asked him to slide down. He seemed pretty nervous and scared, and said he didn't want to do it. The instructor tried talking to him slowly, offering to help / hold him as he got down, and I did try to talk to him too, but he was quite unprepared and didn't want to do it. After about 5-7 minutes of trying to talk to him / making him slide, he was just lifted off and put through in the middle of the slide. He didn't protest much but didn't want to do it again, and continued with the rest of the activities for the day. As the day progresses, whenever he had a break, he'd climb up the slide from the bottom (instead of taking the ladder at the top and sliding all the way down) and reach a certain height and slide down from there. He kept doing it again and again, for God knows how many times - trying to get a hang of how the slide felt when he slid. As the class comes to an end for the day, guess what he asks - he walks up to the instructor and tells him he'd want to climb all the way to the top the slide, and get down on his own. I was quite stumped. Just about an hour ago, we were in the same place, pleading with him to slide down and here he was now, wanting to do on his own. Well, quite a transformation in an hour's time. The biggest take away for me in this whole episode was - you can try to push your kids to try the things that they might be scared off at first, but you really do have to give them the time and space to explore it on their own, without too much interference. Keep providing them that opportunity to explore things at their own pace, and don't forget to enjoy the beauty of how they figure out a way around it/through it.

The wooden slide

🚂magaluru (Chikmagaluru)

I have always gone on trips with friends from school / articleship / Ctc, but never with people from work. It started quite on a whim between me and a couple of colleagues, and before we knew it we had a group of 14 people readily agree to join. And thus went the first office trip, to Varkala in 2023. Like every other gang, after a couple of months since that trip we’ve been going around in circles trying to plan something similar once again - in an attempt to make it a yearly ritual. But as it always happens, the trip kept eluding us - time, budget, choice of places - each one of us wanted to do a different destination. The conversations kept happening now and then, but nothing materialised for 1.5 years.

Finally, by the end of February 2025, about 6 of us sat together and finalised the dates and destination for the trip - the Good Friday long weekend - Chikmagaluru. As we opened up the option to rest of folks at work, we arrived at a total of 9 confirmed interests (8 of us from Chennai, and one guy from Bangalore). Accommodations and travel tickets were booked. We were to take a bus from Chennai to Bangalore and then hire a van from Bangalore to Chikmagalur. 

So, Thursday night, 17 April, we take the overnight bus from Koyambedu to Bangalore. The excitement that we are actually doing the trip kept a few of us wide awake for a couple of hours, in which we ended up playing a couple of rounds of Uno and some random Youtube music quizzes. We managed to get about 3-4 hours of sleep, as the bus dropped us off at Majestic at around 5:45AM. Our van was scheduled to arrive at 7:00AM, so we had almost an hour to kill, and decided to find a place to refresh, but couldn’t find a proper place and ended up sitting outside the Metro. As we waited for the van arrive, we explored various reel options for the trip, and finalised on the cross clap transition thing (the final output was definitely worth the effort - the insta savvy trip youngsters definitely did an amazing job at editing)

Sharp at 7 AM, the van arrives, and along with it the last man of our trip, the guy from Bangalore arrives as well. It’s an AC van, having a SmartTV and all - orey luxury only. As we start to move along, the van inches forward really slowly, and guess what could be the reason - the infamous Bangalore traffic, as always. Gosh, even at 7AM on a Friday morning, the roads are jam-packed with vehicles. We stop at this beautiful and serene looking place called “Krishna Kesava” for breakfast. The place was vast and crowded, but we did manage to secure a table quickly and place our orders. To mark that we were in Karnataka, we did go about ordering Benne Dosas and Thattu Idlis. The food was mostly served quickly and turned out to be delicious. The only problem we faced was, the waiter annas never served drinking water - you stop them ‘n’ number of times and ask for normal drinking water, it never came. Sort of forced to use the bottled ones - not really a great thing! And we off continued to trod on.

Krishna Kesava’s entrance

Thankfully, the traffic thinned out a bit, but it continued to peek out at the toll gates. Doesn’t every office trip always have this one guy who’d act as the Music DJ? Well, we definitely had one, and our DJ fellow was so true to his DJing that he’d never play a song for more than one and a half minutes. Any song you request would invariably be played, but before even the charanam starts, the boy skips to the next song. After a while of trying to stop him from skipping songs, we decided we were better off not playing any music and resorted to Mafia and Dumb Charades. Mafia was quite entertaining, sort of brought back memories from our previous trip (to Varkala) when we first played this game. Dumb Charades never loses its charm  ever, right? Googling to come out with the most weirdest movie name ever (e.g. Kekraan Mekraan, Athipatti Muthupandi) it was super fun to see everyone try to act out the words and make their team find out the names.

Phew, thus flew another 4-5hours, and we were close to Chikmagalur. As we settled down to have our lunch, we started to discuss on where we could go that day. Honestly, our itinerary was quite blank. We just had a handful of places to go, and never really planned out much. So, we decide we could go to some view point for the sunset and then go back to our hostel at night. But our driver anna - I’m not really sure if he was helping us out, or was just trying to minimise his time at the wheels, definitely had other plans. He outright denied to take us to a view point for sunset, saying we didn’t have a lot of time, and the places would close their entry by 4:30-5PM, and we had no chance of reaching there by that time. But, he offered to take us to a lake, Hirekolale Lake, which was enroute to our place. Apparently, the weather outside didn’t look really promising - it was rather a bit too sunny. All of us were a bit dejected and worried about what’s the point in going to a lake in Motta Veyyil? We grudgingly agreed to his offer - but in a surprising turn of events, 5 minutes into the drive to the lake, the weather completely changed. It became much cooler and breezy. As we reached the lake, there were mild drizzles. The lake in itself was stunning - pristine waters, surrounded by peaks on either sides, a neat sidewalk - we were floored, atleast, I was. We spent a while there walking around, trying to see who could throw a stone into the water farthest, taking pictures, and not to forget, take that 3 second clip for our transition video (Yes, in continuation of the one we took at the Metro). It felt a little too awkward to request people to take that video for us, but the promise of the final output made us go for it. 

Hirekolale Lake

From the lake, we drove over to our stay, the Hosteller. Well, nestled amidst coffee plantations, this place was definitely a gem of a find - a nice outdoor common area, dorms with cool balconies, an open play zone. We freshened up a bit, and headed to the town for dinner. Dinner was at Town Canteen, another round of Benne Dosas - we were starting to get a bit tired of it. Came back to the hostel, and spent a while playing Uno, Geistes and chatting about and retired for the night. The night was cool with occasional rains.

Hosteller

The next day, we started off at about 7:30AM to go to Z point trail walk and Hebbe Falls. We reached the entry point to Hebbe around 8:30AM after having a breakfast of idlis and pooris enroute. Z point was a little further from here and we were confused for a while trying to decide which one to do first. Ultimately, it was decided that we’d do Z point and then go to Hebbe. Z point trail walk had an entry fee of Rs.118 per person (well, that’s 100 + 18% GST - ingeyuma GST moment). It’s a 3km walk one way with almost 75% flat terrain and about 25% incline. The first half of the walk was inside the forest cover and felt cool. We did encounter a small waterfall even. After this, we were almost at the top of the mountain, and directly out into the sun. And the sun wasn’t kind that day, it did get a little too hot as we ventured forward. After about 20 minutes of walk, we reached the peak. I definitely missed the monsoon greens. The grasses and the forest beneath were quite dark and dry, owing to the winter and the summer that followed it. This place takes its name as Z point trail owing to the trail resembling the shape of the english alphabet Z. The walk down was fairly easy, but quite draining because of the noon sun.

By about 11:30AM, we were back at the entrance of Hebbe Falls. To reach the Hebbe Falls, you had to take a 40-minute jeep ride and then walk down for another 15-20 minutes. The ride costs about Rs.590 per person, and each jeep had a capacity of 13 people. Unless you’ve 13 people, or you agree to pay Rs.7,080 to have a full jeep for yourself, the jeep wouldn’t start. Luckily for us, we were a group of 9 ourselves, so we quickly got another 4 people to join us. This jeep ride was just like every other jeep ride ever, jostling you in all directions, but much better than the one we had to take in Kudremukh. After a while, we reach a spot from where we are to walk down to the falls. There’s this mild drizzle in the air as you get near the falls - that feeling of water spraying in your face is something I’ll always love and never get tired of. The falls is magnificent. It pours down onto a big rock, so you are barred to go really to close it. But as it flows there are multiple little pools that you can get into and enjoy the water flow. We spend a good one hour there and are back at our jeep, for the return ride. It was almost 3:00ish by the time we are back at the entry point. We grab a late lunch enroute back to the hostel. 

We decide to explore the town of Chikmagalur in the evening and walk around the market road, buying some coffee and eating some chaat. The dinner that night was quite an experience - we waited for almost an hour at a hotel only to know that they haven’t even started preparing our orders. Eventually, we were forced to walk out and eat off a quick dinner at Domino’s and reach the hostel at 11! We’d wanted to start off early next day to go Bandekallu Gudda, but the chances of us making it there the next day seemed very unlikely after this whole dinner fiasco. So, we call it off and decide to have a slow morning. 

A slow morning, we did have the next day, strolling about the roads around the hostel. These lavendar blooms that lay strewn on the road right outside the hostel were so beautiful. Of course, some photos were taken. I even posted myself a photograph of that from the Chikmagalur Post Office. 

We bid goodbye to the hosts at the hostel and start our journey back to Bangalore, stopping enroute at the Belur Chennakesava Temple. Though a little blinding and hot, the temple’s carvings and architecture never failed to charm us. Having visited this place earlier, I tried to flaunt around the little knowledge that I’d gained previously. We wind up from the place in less than an hour and continue to trod on towards Bengaluru. During our pitstop for lunch, we were surprised with a kutti spell of rain showers which felt quite refreshing after the day’s heat. As always, as we near Bangalore; we could feel the traffic building on, and the van inching through the maze of vehicles. 

Even the ceilings had intricate carvings

Dinner was had at Bangalore Cafe, a fancy vegetarian (alas!) restaurant. Their menu had some really cool pictures of various food items and we were tempted. The mushroom noodles were really yummy. But the star of the day was the dessert - Tres Leches, and the Rishta Pucca (which was gulab jamun with vanilla icecream with a very generous drizzle of nuts on top). With this dinner, the trip officially came to an end, as we walk along to the bus stand and board our bus home!

The amazemax Tres Leches

It’s definitely a trip to cherish - the people and places, with lovely memories, for which I shall forever be grateful.

How much does Happiness weigh?

On an otherwise dull Friday evening, this impromptu question by a friend got me thinking for a while. Can happiness be measured? My mind immediately, without a second thought, came back with a "YES" and started making quick notes on what all makes me happy? How much of something makes me happy?

So here goes the list -

• 1 medium French Fries (Because its always food first :D)
• An evening spent in Beach.
• An hour long phone call with a dear friend after ages.
• An all-nighter at home with my Girls Gumbal (Remember the night before R's Wedding)
• Solving (read, trying to solve) the Crossword Puzzle in Vaaramalar (its a weekly supplement of a Tamil Daily)
• First sprouts of the seeds sown
• Late night movie watching at home, during weekends
• Meeting up someone I know all of a sudden in a random place. Gosh! Every time I met someone like this, I would be beaming the whole day for no reason.
• A run along the 200ft road stretch!
• One night's peaceful sleep
• Sunrise!
• Crescent & Full moon
• Petrichor - the smell of soil from the first rain
• Balloon shooting at Bessy
• Staring at the horizon from the peak of a mountain / hill after a trek / run.
• Bread Omlette from Metro Juice Park
• A good run with the CTC folks.

This post that stayed in my draft for 2 long years. But even now, most of the above still continue to give me happiness. A few more that I'd add on now -

• The smile of Athiboy
• Vacation trips with a girlfriend
• Harvesting home grown food. 
• Late-night conversations with the brother man. (Remember the nights we'd spent talking about random things when Bul didn't let us sleep)
• Reading while eating
• Gulab Jamun mix
• Daily calls with Appa
• Sleeping baby
• Communicating with Paati through actions and expressions, as she has trouble hearing clearly.

Most of my current list revolves around family, because just like everyone I'm also staying home in this COVID-19 Lockdown. 

This list might need updation over time, but the items mentioned here would surely continue to make me happy anytime. 

5 May 2025 - Made this post see the light of the day by posting it in the blog after 5 (or rather 7, I suppose) long years of being the draft. The list is still very valid. 

My Stint with Baking

Ever since Covid, and the whole baking saga all over the internet, I have been itching to try my hands at them. I have always been a fan of any sort of pastries / baked goods and seeing all the baking videos and pictures of cakes and biscuits, and what not, had me drooling. So, when our good old microwave oven broke down, I convinced the husband man that to get a convection oven to satisfy my baking thirst. Poor fellow fell for my words and tada, a convection oven comes home. Well, this was in 2020. But the moment the oven came, my interest waned off and I kept procrastinating baking. Had tried a banana cake and some sweet-bread once, both of which turned out very okay-ish, causing my interest vanishing off into thin air - poof! I decided that baking wasn’t going to be my cup of tea and stopped dreaming about baking my own cake. 

Fast forward to 2025. As it always happens (is it only me?), I taste some biscuits baked my cousin, and suddenly all my interest (the one that I considered vanished but had apparently been only bottled up) is out all over again. I knew my brain was tricking me again and deliberately procrastinate this time as well. I get the recipe from my cousin, and read it a hundred times, watch another fifty videos in YouTube, think of all the various substitutes I can use instead of the actual ingredients mentioned in the recipe. I even end buying a couple of ingredients, but I’m still a bit skeptical about taking that plunge of actually doing the baking. 

After about a week of staring at the purchased ingredients I decide to do it over the last weekend. Why does baking need so much of crockeries and utensils? A whole set of measuring cups, spatulas, whiskers, sieve, bowls, rolling pins - man, how many stuff to wash. As soon as I started the task, my mind started calculating the amount of time it’d take to wash and clean the powdery mess I’d create all over the floor. But then, I had already started, so I decided to complete it in peace.

I begin by whisking the butter in a bowl. In another bowl (see, already 3 utensils), I sieve in some flour, milk powder, salt and baking soda. Then I combine the ingredients of both the bowl into one, and go for the star ingredient of the dish. Sugar. Now, this is where I was completely flabbergasted - for approximately, 2 cups of flour and butter, I use one full cup of sugar. I know, sweets/biscuits are supposed to have sugar, but seeing the size of my dough and the quantity of sugar I was going to add into it, caught me quite off guard. I go ahead, and mix it all together. Trying to follow the recipe instructions into the T, I gently keep kneading it, but the dough refused to fully bind. So, resorted to some jugaad by adding a few drops of milk to help with binding. I guess it worked, because the dough binded after that - I still wasn’t sure what this would mean / cause to the final product. And next, I commit the biggest mistake of tasting the dough. Oh god, it felt a little too salty and way too sugary. By this time, I had lost all my hopes on how the final product would turnout and started assessing the amount of money I’d wasted on this, and thought I should have left these to experts and simply enjoyed the biscuits straight out of the packets or from bakers. Attempting to make my own biscuit was going to be only a cost in my books, with nil return / revenue. 

With no hopes whatsoever, I pulled out the dough into small balls, and pressed them down into circular shapes. Because I had zero hopes, I didn’t even bother to shape them uniformly and ended up making them in various sizes and thicknesses. The first batch went into the oven. Slowly they started turning golden brown, and rising up. That felt really good to watch, but I was still worried about the taste. In about 10 minutes, I see the biscuits on the edge of the plate starting to burn and decided to take them off the oven. I take them out only to realise the ones in the middle haven’t completely cooked yet, while the edges of the ones in the end were starting to burn. I decided to put it back in for another 4 minutes. Once done, I took them out, and impatiently let them cool for a little while, and tasted one biscuit.

Well! Well! Well!! My efforts were not all in vain. Though the biscuits had a tinge of saltiness, the sugariness had settled well. The sugariness of the baked biscuit wasn’t as bad as the sugariness of the plain dough. But I still wasn’t convinced that people at home would eat them, and decided to take off a bunch to office to distribute and get it over with. It took me another 3 batches of baking to finish off the entire dough. I still didn’t have the patience to shape them out perfectly, so the biscuits ended up being in different sizes and thicknesses. I now had two small boxes full of my homemade biscuits, and went to bed wondering how to get them sold (a.k.a make people eat) 

The real shocker came only the next day when the boy and the husband man tasted them and told it was actually nice. Well, all that butter hadn’t given up on me and actually saved my biscuits making them melt in the mouth. The biscuits had a bite to it, but once bitten melted effortlessly - and before I knew it, one box had vanished off in a day. The aftertaste of the biscuit was its biggest highlight for me - the butteriness combined with a sweetness definitely left me weak and I ended up having a couple more than I should. They felt sinfully good. And thus, ended my baking saga.

Would I bake biscuits again? It depends on two main things. One, I need to find an alternative for sugar - the amount of sugar I put in that mixture got me super scared. Two, I need a foolproof plan to use minimal utensils or have a helping hand washing the utensils. 

That’s all for now, folks. Happy biscuiting! 

My home-made marvel, lol!

Twenty Twenty Four, I LOVE YOU!

Ha ha ha! What a way to name a year end post, but honestly, I absolutely loved 2024. Can't be grateful enough for all that I managed to do this year! It's been a year of experiences, meeting new folks, reconnecting with old ones and balancing the relationships with the existing crowd.

First and foremost, the year started on a foreign land - I was out on a vacation to Srilanka with my articleship gang. It was my first trip with them, and there too many firsts in that trip - my first longest vacation without V & Athi (8 days), first casino experience, first pagoda visit. Srilanka, nature at it’s best, is a beautiful country filled with lush greens and waterbodies all over. The Madu River mangrove boating in the rains was one surreal experience. The snorkelling in Bentota beach, the majestic Ravana Falls, the picturesque Nuwara Elliya with its oldest Post Office, from where we sent out post cards to our dear ones. The train ride from Ella to Kandy, through the myriad mountains and innumerable waterfalls. The Sigriya rockfort - gosh, the kings here really did live their lives king size. The Minneriya National Park elephant safari where we spotted more than 4 dozen elephants. And lastly, the Lotus Tower, Colombo. Such an eventful trip it was.

The next couple of months flew by with the whole family moving into the RPG community. I have always yearned to live in gated communities (thanks to movies like Ramana, the VijayTV famous Shakalaka Boom Boom serial). It still feels a bit surreal that I’m actually living in one now. Foremost thanks to Ranju for finding this gem of a place, and introducing us to this. If there’s one song that could describe this phase of my life, it’s Thirumana Malargal Tharuvaya from Poovellam Unvaasam. 

This year gave me a lot of travel with different groups of people - the Master Nationals in April at Goa was an extended into a vacation with V’s cousins and Bullu tagging along with us. It was quite laid back, and the girls and I bonded really well over movie nights, cooking our meals and random chit-chats. Next was kutti weekend trip to Yearcaud with my GMCS gangmates, the first ever with them, but one that I’d remember for a long time - so much catching up happened in that trip, for it had been more than 4-5 years since we even spoke leisurely. Another international trip came my way in September - this time it was Australia. Man, what a beautiful country, I was floored. Would definitely love to be there again. Next one was the Kudremukh trek, with an office colleague as a part of trekking company. Perfect timing, right after the monsoon. Quite a luxurious trip, if you ask me, who even gives you hot water, beds and blankets on a trek? Nevertheless, the trek and the views were awesome, and the visit to Chennakesava temple (an architectural marvel) on the way back home, came as a pleasant surprise. Lastly, the JHU at Jawadhu Hills, a dream of a trip, where each one of us had our own best times, ever. CTC is always joy. 

Oh, a lot of breaking the self constructed barriers also happened this year. I’m always very conscious and shy of dancing in public - be it on a DJ floor or a practiced sangeet performance, but this year, I went all out. Shunned out all the inhibitions and danced my heart out both on the DJ floor and sangeet performances. It was so much fun with the girls. Definitely looking forward to more in the coming years. I think a tiny portion of the credit needs to be attributed to the Cult Dance Sessions, they have been so much fun and joy. 

Book reading. I think I can say this year has been super good in terms of reading books. I have ventured across different genres and enjoyed reading everything. I haven’t really maintained a proper log of how many books I have read, but I guess I could have surpassed the goal of 12 books a year. The bookclub group at work has also had its influence, and I loved the sessions that were hosted as a part of it. 

Lastly, I’m glad I continued journaling this year and that really helped me be grateful for everything in my life. Looking forward to an amazing year ahead with more people, travel, joy and whatnot! 

Happiest New Year 2025!!

Fun Five!

Don't get fooled by the title, I was just trying to have an alliterative one. I'm rather tired of starting every birthday post with a "Phew-I-can't-believe-you-are-already-five". So, I'm putting this one as "what-an-amazing-year-it's-been". Hands down one of the bestest. I definitely loved all the time I spent with you and cherish them so much, because this shall never repeat. The innocence, the curious questions - why, when, what, how, the joy of living in the present, the pride of being able to do things on your own - both for yourself and for others.

The year started off with a Snake Walk weekend - and this time it included a friend from your school, Kavin. After we had him over for your birthday, and he had us over for his (apparently, both of your birthdays are 5 days apart, albeit you are a year younger) - we asked him to join us for this event, and oh boy, you guys had crazy fun running around the paddy fields, spotting touch-me-nots (this is where the touch-me-not obsession started) bathing in mini waterfalls, and by the time the event actually began, you guys were half exhausted, but nevertheless enjoyed the show.  This was your third time in the walk, and you quite knew how it worked, and enjoyed the whole thing. Kavin being there with you was a cherry on the top! 

And then it happened - something we never dreamt of, even in our wildest dreams - just landed in our lap, like it were literally waiting for us - we moved into CDS, right next door to my parents. It's a dream life for you (of course, for me too!) having both thathas and paatis to shower unconditional love and all their attention whenever you are around. You took to the transition quite happily, as this was place you were already familiar with (my parents & V's cousin have been living in this community for a while now). There were hardly one or two instances in the last 10 odd months since we moved here, when you said you missed the Ram Nagar house. 

Come April, we did another vacation to Goa. Yes, 2 Goa vacations within a span of 2 years. This time though, Ultimate Frisbee was the reason. We had our Masters Nationals in Goa, and thought we could extend it to make it a family vacation, and took along 2 other cousins, who were too kind to take care of you while we were at the games. And in those 7 days, you doted on them so much, and vice versa. This was also the trip you unleashed your boredom as hunger chiming an "I'm hungry ma, I'm hungry ma" at the slightest hint of boredom. This was also where you finally agreed to eat Dosa with Sambhar, and eggs in burji form rather than being boiled. We had finally bade a goodbye to carrying quick foods for you. Phew! That's a definitely a game changer - because it's been pushing you to try new foods, which you eventually ended up liking. 

Once back home from the trip, and with 2 months of summer holidays ahead, we enrolled you for swimming classes. Swimming has been one skill that I strongly believe every person should learn - a life skill it is, and opens up so much of the world for exploring (given 70% of earth is covered in water, lol). It was an hour long class every day of the week except Sunday, at 3pm in the noon. You really enjoyed the class, thanks to the master, and started picking up the skill slowly. By the end of June, you were able to jump into the 3-4ft pool and swim its width on your own without any support. I was definitely proud. But things took a turn, once school reopened. The class timing didn't fit as you were quite exhausted from school and it was bang during your nap time, and the distance was also a factor - 20min drive from our home, you'd sometimes doze off right halfway through the drive. We felt it was too much of a stress on you, and decided to give the classes a break, and we still continue to be on the break. I've been meaning to check another pool nearby, but keep procrastinating - may be by the next summer vacation, all over again. Let's see! 

Your energy levels are insane and it's quite hard to manage you inside the house and hence, we have enrolled you in a music class (our neighbor has been kind enough to take you in as his pupil) and some karate and yoga in a small play school right behind our apartment. You love the music class because a handful of your friends from the apartment are there with you and basically you enjoy singing a lot. Your music taste is super varied, right from Carnatic and Devotional to cinema/album folk / kuthu songs, you enjoy them all - with the same love. Oru Naalil and Poren Naa Poren are the ones that we have named as practice songs, and you have either been hearing or singing them almost every other day and know them by heart now. Your Kaathu Mela Kaathu Keezha singing in a recent family wedding garnered so much of fans within the family. I'm so glad you enjoy music.

Your first movie with your school friends - Inside Out 2. It was mommy and kids day out with 5 of your classmates. The movie, I felt, was a little overboard for a 4-year-old, because this one was mainly about teenage and the emotions associated with teens. But you guys nevertheless had a ball of time wrecking the theatre, hogging buckets of popcorn, and running around with each other. Phew! It was quite a task to watch the movie with your constant questions and distractions. 

With September, came our (V & me) Australia trip. Yes, it was just me and V travelling for 15-21 days without you. You were in the custody of your grandparents and boy, you were stunning. You got through those 15 days like a breeze, except for an occasional 'I miss you ma, I miss you pa' - thanks to the weddings in the family that happened during this time, you got to meet a lot of cousins and relatives to spend time with. Honestly, I did miss you too, more than I would care to admit, and we definitely understood we can't go out on another such long trip without you, you'd definitely bombard us with a lot of questions together with a very convincing answer as to why you should be taken along as well. I still remember the way you asked me "enaku en ma Australia ku visa edukala?" when we said we were gonna go to Australia

Another place that I'd been taking you quite a few times is the Anna Centenary Library - hoping you grow to enjoy books as much as I do. The fact that you are able to read stuff is making you curious much, and you try reading a lot of nameboards, vehicles, posters, anything and everything. Writing is also on the cards, but you ain't really keen about it and find it very boring. Thankfully though you are able to decently write, and we are trying to make you write about your day, a meek attempt at journaling. It's fun reading what you write, given you rely heavily on phonetics for your spelling. Takes us a while to figure out what that word means, but honestly, we are in awe at the ease with which you are writing.

I had wanted to introduce you the world of jigsaw puzzles, and thanks to my friend who gifted you one late last year - it was a 30-piece puzzle, and I could see you intrigued ! We slowly ventured into 35, 40, 60, and 100-pc puzzles. You love our trips to Untangled, the house of puzzles. We also got you some board games, and you are now hooked to it and want to play it with anybody and everybody that comes home for a visit - akkas, annas, chitappas, chitis, any one trying to have a word or two with you ends up with Forrest Run (a board game that we recently got) laid out in front, before even they know it! 

You enjoy the late evening / night cycling around the apartment, and until about a month ago, you rode the bicycle with the balance wheels on. We had removed one of them, about 3-4months ago, but you weren't quite sure and okay to remove the other one. But one fine weekend, hit with a little boredom, we decided to remove the other one too, and booom.. in 15 minutes you started riding like a pro! I was stumped at the speed with which you were able to adapt to cycling without balance wheels. Great job kid! 

You really know your people well, i.e. whom to go for what. On things that me and V wouldn't normally approve of, you conveniently reach out to the grandparents and get it done. But I can also sense that you do not abuse this option. You happen to be quite smart in picking your battles and when to use the trump card. You are quite strong willed and unless you genuinely believe you had made a mistake, it's super hard to get you to apologise. If you inadvertently cause a physical hurt to someone while you were rushing through something, you promptly chime in the apology without any nudge from anyone. 

I'm really glad for all the people you have and share a bond with in your life. You are such a people person. It's been an absolute pleasure seeing you grow kiddo. 

Happiest 5th birthday! Here's to more growing up, exploring new places, and of course, loads of music!

Love,

Amma

Athi's first volunteering!

The Jawadhu Hills Ultra (JHU), a trail marathon, comprising of 30km and 60km distance, was organized by the Chennai Trail club (CTC) in Jawadhu this weekend. Being part of CTC, we naturally opted to volunteer for the event and decided to take Athi along. We have been wanting to take him to one of the CTC events for a long time now, but somehow it kept eluding and this time we decided we have got to do it. Because we were taking him along, we opted to volunteer at the start/finish point - that's the one place that has people flowing in and out all the time, unlike the aid stations that are deep in the trails, with very minimal people around other than a few locals and the runners passing by. 

Up until now, every time we take him out for trips, we'd always been carrying some quick food, and a couple of his toys. But this time, given he is almost 5 years old and this whole trip was going to be mostly outdoors (the school ground), I took a bold call that we are not carrying food - he'll have to eat whatever he's being offered, and a strict 'no' toys!

With a kid, preparation always helps - be it doctor visits, trips, friends' playdates, visiting people, anything and everything. When they are suitably prepared, they'd be ready and acceptive of changing surroundings / environment. So, every time we plan for a trip, we always ensure to tell him atleast a week in advance on where we are going, with whom, by which mode of transport, what are we going to do there, etc. and when the actual day comes, he is more ready than us and excited about the whole thing! 

And thus, our preparation for JHU with Athi began a month ago, telling him about the place, the running, what were we going to do there, how is it going to be, etc, and as the day neared, he kept popping us a variety of questions getting curious about a lot of things. As we neared the actual day of departure, we also told him about the no toys rule but promised him that he'd have other kids and an open ground to play. Although a bit reluctant at first, he agreed.

The whole of evening before the day of the departure he couldn't contain his excitement and kept asking more questions and begged us to start packing and offered so much help with that - choosing his clothes, remembering to take his toothbrush, offering to carry his bag. 

We started off on Friday morning, after breakfast and had lunch at Polur and reached the school (in Jawadhu) at around 3pm. The preparations for the event had started the previous day, and there were people all over the school ground. The Shamiyana and the chairs and tables and bibs and banners were getting set up - the energy and josh all around was palpable. Athi walked around a bit, saw other kids, but didn't really interact right away - felt a bit overwhelmed, I suppose. Venkey then took him along for a dip in the well and the boy came back rejuvenated and all ready! And that's when the bromance started between him and Aegan. Somehow (believe they conversed and understood what the other was saying) the boys figured out that they were of the same age and could as well play amongst themselves, running about the place or walking around or pulling out leaves or feeling the sand in their hands and building sandcastles. Any moment you could see them holding hands, walking around together or hugging each other. Wouldn't say it was all rosy all the time - they did have their fair share of disagreements, but nobody interfered with them and that totally helped, because before you knew they were fighting they were already back to holding hands and hugging - so adorable. Occasionally some volunteer would engage a play with them, or mind over them when they were trying to run into the dark. The whole afternoon until night, he would have hardly talked to me for 5-10 minutes - and most of the conversation revolved around me calling him to eat something, or him coming over to just check where I was and update me what he was upto. The ground was bit rocky, and he tripped once and got his knees slightly hurt, but he managed fine. A quick wash and pat later, off he went, to wander again. He came over to me excitedly post dinner appraising me of the fact that he and Aegan shared their dinner on the same plate. 

Bromancing bros!

As the night fell, the boys wanted to sleep together and dozed off as soon as their head hit the floor, even though there was so much of light and banter in the surroundings - the sheer exhaustion from all evening of play. Finally, as everyone dispersed off to sleep, we took them and put them in tents to continue the sleep. 

The race started off at 5:30AM next morning, and we were all up by 3:30-4:00AM to finish off last minute checks and set up. Athi woke up at 6AM, all excited that he had woken up early and enjoyed looking at the morning sky before sunrise. Slowly the other kids started waking up and the gang was all up again roaming around. 

After breakfast, as they were loitering around spotting monkeys, touch-me-not plants and blowing their whistles (yes, the runners were given a whistle to blow in case they were stuck somewhere in the trail and needed help), the first runner arrived. Seeing all the volunteers getting excited cheering for the runner, the kids rushed over to the finish line and were handed the medal to present it to the runner, and boy, they really loved doing that. And that is how it started - every time a runner came, they would rush over to the finish line, take their turns to give the medals. As time went by, they started running to the moment they spotted a runner running to the finish line, held out their hands to the runner, paced along with them and crossed the finish line and gave them their medals and congratulated them. Imagine someone doing all this, a 100 times over. That's what all the kids there did - the event had close to 350 runners, and these kids would have easily done this to the atleast more than half of the runners. The runners, initially surprised at seeing the kids running around, slowly started embracing them and were glad to receive their medals from them and clicked pictures with them. It was such a joy watching the kids run about happily with no worry and enjoying the event as much as we did! 

Both V and I were really glad we took Athi along for this event and are immensely grateful to other volunteering parents who decided to bring their kids along, for all this wouldn't have been possible without those other kids. Teamwork, definitely! We are pretty sure this event would be as memorable to Athi as much as it was to us. It is so true that kids learn a lot of things from observing those around them and the spirit of volunteership that was demonstrated by each volunteer out there, definitely got to the kids. 

Forever thankful to CTC for everything that it has given me :) Proud to say, Athi is also now part of CTC!

The pacer gang!

Meiazhagan

I am not someone who can write a book or movie reviews - but I want to write down a few things about this movie that I enjoyed.

The first scene and the song that followed it, had me in tears. The lyrics, the voice - everything about the song carried so much of emotion! The heaviness you feel when you are forced to give up something that has been your entire life - the song captured that emotion completely. Vijay Narain, the primary singer, had done a brilliant job. But as if, that wasn't enough, the finishing touch in Kamal Hassan's voice definitely left me in goosebumps. 

I so loved the scene that showed the hero looking at his erstwhile home, after almost 22 years - it really struck a chord with me, as it's one thing that I was able to relate to myself - a feeling that I have every time I go to Neyveli and catch a glimpse of D63.

Watching the movie felt like watching a part of our own life on screen, the scenarios and the emotions were so relatable. The way the characters were portrayed, and the story being weaved alongside it, ever so subtly, that you wouldn't even realise it, was really good. 

Ok, I think this is all I can manage, without giving away the entire storyline (guess I already gave way too much of it). But the main reason for me to write out this post was that first song - dropping a link to it here, for my very own use!

https://youtu.be/UkYbuiKEWak?featureh=shared

Kudremukh!

Western Ghats have always been my most favourite. I have only been to Kumara Parvatha and Kodachari until now, and both of them have been really beautiful and challenging. I certainly have a thing for lush greens - the kind that you see right during and immediately after monsoon. So, when the office colleagues decided to plan a trip, I jumped up with glee suggesting Kudremukh as the destination.

 I have been wanting to go to Kudremukh for a long time now, ever since I finished the other two K's, but the dream couldn't crystallise into a reality. I went all out and convinced everyone about how beautiful Kudremukh would be and how this was exactly the right time to visit that place, showing all the innumerable photos on the internet. But as with every other trip planning and every other office gumbal, we started off with about 10 people showing interest for the trip, but then when we did finalise the actual date, unfortunately most them backed out due to various reasons. Finally, it was just me and one junior fellow who were the last men standing - and we decided to go ahead and do the trek. One, because I was really desperate to go there, and two, I wasn't sure when I would be handed such a perfect opportunity again, I didn't want to miss this. 

We decided to do this trek with a group called "Native Trekking" - who had an itinerary for the whole weekend, covering one / two places enroute after the trek. They pretty much got you covered for everything, transport (from Bangalore), food, stay and the trek. 

The bus started off from Indra Nagar in Bangalore at about 8pm Friday night. I was to board at Yeswanthpur. As I waited for the bus, I was stumped to see so many people around waiting about for a similar bus, for their weekend getaway. How I wished my life is one such. I chance upon a conversation with a bloke thinking he'd be in the same bus as mine, only to find out that he was headed elsewhere. Nevertheless, had a nice chat about the various places you could trek to in the Western Ghats.

My bus arrives an hour later, and mostly full. The junior had boarded earlier and had warned me about this. So, we settle down for the last row seats. It took us nearly an hour to exit the Bangalore city, and the bus is stopped for a quick dinner, for those who wish to grab something. After this, we start again, and the trek organizers give us all a briefing of the itinerary and the plan for the next day. They try their best to get to engage the crowd by playing some music and inviting people to dance. A few do, but most of us are engrossed with our own little group and barely budge. It takes another hour or two for most of the folks to doze off. I manage to get about 3 hours of barely there sleep. 

We reach Mullodi at about 5:30AM. From there, we were escorted to our homestay, which was about 4-5kms from Mullodi, in a jeep. Everybody was excited to go on the open jeep, and hopped on very enthusiastically. But mind you, the excitement died down in flat 5 minutes. Gosh! So much of jostling, and we could literally feel our hands/ribs crushing against the railing. Possibly, one of the most adventurous jeep ride I have ever taken till date. We longingly stare at every homestay that we pass by anticipating that it'd be ours only to be driven past it as though it didn't exist. After an excruciatingly long ride, we finally reach Rajesh Homestay. Phew! Everyone is relieved we've reached in one piece, and quite a few are already rethinking their idea of this whole trek.

We are pointed to our stays - two separate houses - one for men, and another for women. Dumping our bags in the room, we quickly refresh and head out for breakfast. After downing a breakfast of Idli, Chutney-Sambhar with some sugar-overloaded tea, and a packed lunch dabba, we head to the start point - a.k.a the forest checkpost. They have a strict rule of no single-use plastics to the peak, and check your bags thoroughly to ensure the same, before letting you begin the trek. At the forest checkpost, they check your booking details, ID and give you a lanyard with an ID for entry, and assign a local guide for every 15 people or so. 

The instructions were simple - the entire trek distance is 9km one way, you start at 8:30 and get to climb up until 1pm, and where ever you are by 1pm, you start your descent right away - if you manage to reach the peak by then, well and good, if not, it's your loss folks - you better up your fitness game! This is to ensure that everyone is out of the trail before it gets dark. 

We begin the trek with slight incline, and keep moving up. There is so much greenery all around - lush greenery - exactly like the ones that I have written about in the first line - absolute gorgeous eye soothing greens. As we gain more elevation, and see the peaks and mountains that surround us, covered with cluster of clouds, I feel so much peace and happiness, that I can never explain through words. The greenery, the blue sky, the white clouds - a scene that shall forever be etched in my mind, and bring forth the same calmness and peace every time I think of them. 

I'm not sure how many hills we climb and descend, but the valley (?) where the base of each hill meets the next, is usually a dense patch of forest with very minimal sun. After almost an hour into the trek, we started craving for these forest patches as the sun was becoming a little too hot for our liking, and there was no breeze either. And oh, there were streams all through, and every time we crossed one, we made sure to quench our thirst or rather just splash some water on our face with the ice cold water that felt really good. 

We reached the Lone Tree, which had an amazing view and spent a few minutes there. And then we reached a spot, where the clouds just moved into us, enveloping us with misty drops. As we climbed ahead, some inclines were brutally steep and made me wonder how am I even going to make it down in this route. Rightly about 10 minutes before we reached the peak, it started raining, and for the first time since we started climbing, it felt cold. Thankfully, we had raincoats. Wear them and move on. 

And yayyy! We made it - we reached the peak at 12:15. The rain had temporarily stopped. Peak views and I, are never a thing, I believe - especially in treks. Every time I climb up a peak, the surroundings are always covered in clouds and I end up feeling like I'm floating on a cloud, instead of feeling like I'm atop a mountain. Kudremukh peak wasn't an exception either, as it was entirely surrounded by clouds. Definitely not disappointed, but slightly curious to know what lay beneath the clouds. We had our lunch on the peak, strolled around a bit, took a group picture with our entire gang as it started raining all over again.

Spot us!

At 1pm, as advised, we started our descent. I have always strongly believed that ascents take the most time, and descents are usually fast, and haven't been proven otherwise until now. But this trail was hellbent in defying my belief, and it did. The trail was already super steep making us think twice before we took the next step. Add to this, a steady stream of more-than-a-drizzle-but-not-heavy rain, resulting in slippery paths. It literally brought back the memories of my KP trek descent, where I lost count of the number of times I fell face first into the water flowing through the trails. Everyone had their fair share of trips/falls on the trail, and to my credit, I had 3 (junior would want to count it as 3.5, but I disagree. By the way, he had two - which he wouldn't accept either) - thankfully nothing major for anyone.

Three things that kept us moving without too much of a worry was - one, music - me and the juni apparently seem to enjoy similar genre of music, so we kept singing random songs and kept quizzing each other on do you remember this song, do you know that, have you heard this line, did you like that tune, that pretty much kept our minds in bay. Second, the random chats that we had with people who climbed / descended alongside us - we met a paediatrician who had recently taken a liking to trekking and came solo, a boy who interned in Bangalore who was here with his colleagues, a Madurai girl settled in Bangalore who was here on the trek with her friends, two Class XII kids and, last but not the least, a CA (of course, we had to meet one from our clan right - else the trip isn't considered complete) - each sharing tidbits about their life, their experiences and any random stuff. Third, the views - I guess I'll never get tired of describing the views that we had - telling the same thing in different words as I feel I'd never be able to do justice to that with whatever words I use - the simplest way would be to urge people to go visit the place to experience the beauty and the joy.

We reach the checkpost at 5pm and with that the trek ends. I feel both exhausted and exhilarated at the same time. Self pat on the back for making it to the peak, and finishing it on time before dusk. 

As we enter the homestay we are welcomed with pakodas and tea. We bathe, hog on the snacks, and then gobble up the home cooked dinner of rice, veggies, dal, egg, payasam and decided to call it a night. All the previous night's missed sleep, the exhaustion from the trek caught up with me super quick and I doze off as soon as my head hits the bed.

The next morning, I'm all rejuvenated from a good night's sleep and wake early and watch out the mountains surrounding our stay, as the sun rises. We pack our bags and take the rib-crushing jeep ride one more time and board our bus back to Bangalore. The route is scenic with a winding roads, and tall trees and soon changes to widespread farmlands with raincloud backdrop and cool breezes as we descend from the mountains and enter the flat terrains. 

We make a quick stop at Belur Chennakesava temple before heading straight to Bangalore. 

All in all, this whole trek was one absolute paisa vasool and was exactly like what I wanted it to be. So glad that I was able to make it. And this shall forever remain etched in my mind. Special thanks to junior for his company - without which it wouldn't have been as much fun as it was!