Trekking at Madhugiri Fort 16th December 2007
Who: Aparna, Archana, Shaonli, Priya, Aanchal and Me
Desperation…this is how I would describe the reason for this trek…it was supposed to be a very boring weekend…no specific plans as such…I was to just do some sort….ummm…actually nothing ….but then it wasn’t destined to be that way…got some weird idea of cave exploration…so me and Shaonli decided to look for a gang of people with similar interest …that too desperately…so Shaonli initiated a mail to around 10 people asking if they were interested…but…people here are such lazy bones…the only person who agreed was Archana… ok…so now we were 3 gals….ab thode aur log mil jaaye toh it will be great….so we managed to find three more people….Aparna, Priya and Aanchal…and here we were a gang of 6 gals…interested in cave exploration…but by the time we called up the tour organizer…as usual we got the answer…sorry madam you are late….registration for the trip is full… (after trips to Mysore, Pondy and Goa I am totally used to such kindo responses)!!! So then we decided to surf the net and come up with some cool places… Archana and Aparna discovered this place called Devarayana Durga… all of us instantly agreed as it was supposed to be good for trekking!! So on 5th, Aparna and Archana arranged for the cab and food that we should carry (in and around Devarayana Durga, you don’t get good food…so it was better we carried some)
We decided to start early…so we (me and Shaonli) were at Woody’s by 6.15 (getting up at 5 in the morning and that too on a Sunday morning is urrrrrgh… I am not a morning person at all….but trekking ke liye kuch bhi karega!!!) So off we started towards Tumkur…with Radio One playing good Hindi songs…(one thing we realized that day was that these people didn’t have much choice of songs…deewaangi- deewaangi was played 5 times in a span of 3 hours!!!...even I am a Shahrukh fan but not to this extent!!). Here I would like to thank my sis (on behalf of all my frenz) for giving me that song CD a year back which actually had good songs entertaining us throughout the journey. None of us knew each other really well but after one hour it didn’t seem that we were interacting almost for the first time unofficially!! Gals you see…cant stay mum for long!!!
We had our breakfast at Kamat which was on the Tumkur Road and then after we reached Tumkur, we had to find our way….so we stopped at a place …which was a kind of a local residential school and Archana and Aparna went to ask one uncle the way to Devarayana Durga…but to our amusement, in a matter of a couple of minutes, there were around 50-60 school boys around them eager to know what we wanted…it seemed to be like…ek sawaal poocho hazaar jawaab milenge….poocho toh sahi…hum haazir hain!!!
From there we went to this temple which we thought was Devarayana Durga and was fairly disappointed…the temple was good but we would have been happier if it involved a bit of trekking…but there was none L….but to our relief we soon realized this wasn’t Devarayana Durga, this temple was called as Siddhaganga temple…Here Aparna tried to find the way to DD and that too in HINDI!!!. In this part of the world, the only language which people know is
Kannada…and luckily Priya was there with us….our sole Kannada interpreter. From here we tried to find the way to Devarayana Durga….it was a small temple, of Vishnu and Lakshmi…there was a pond just adjacent to the temple….which seemed to be very shallow…but the pujaari there said that it was 80 feet deep…well we couldn’t believe him….but we couldn’t risk checking it either…so after spending around half an hour there….we were back at our search to locate the trekking point…we were loosing hope and was cursing the website which said that this place was good for trekking….finally we reached a place called Madhugiri Fort…this was situated on the 
second largest monolith rock in Asia and was in a very dilapidated condition…it seemed to be a small trek…so we started our way up the fort….with numerous photo sessions initially….posing at every nook and corner of the “khandar”….we first went up one way which ended in a dead-end….searched a lot for our way up…but in vain…we then concluded that there isn’t any way to go further up the fort…but then we saw some people up and then restarted our search …and finally we found our way…the terrain was tough but we managed to reach a point which was quite high…. As we were 
discussing to climb the cliff further up we encountered a couple of drug addicts (God only knows whether they were really drug addicts or was it only our imagination) whatever it was, we agreed, it was better that we return back…afterall, nothing is more important than safety…isn’t it??
After returning back, we decided to have lunch somewhere on the road, so we noticed one place near a tap of water at the road-side and started to have our lunch which was packed and brought by Archana and Aparna….but as soon as we started, we were joined by a couple of dogs….we were
terrified and concluded it wasn’t the best place to have lunch….so we went again to our ‘sawaari’. Our driver said there is a small pond around half a km where we can have lunch so we decided to go there…and then he stopped….we were wondering where exactly is this pond…and then we realized as to what was the definition of a pond….it was not more than a paddy field….but we didn’t complain as all of us were dead hungry….so here on the roadside we had our lunch at 3.30 in the afternoon….As we moved around a km we saw a broken pipe (I guess it was a bore well pipe) and the water was leaking at a great pace…..so we decided to stop there for a couple of minutes…..Oh My God!!! It was total fun….one thing I realized that day was that we tend to miss out on the smaller moments of happiness while waiting for the bigger ones…but these small moments makes your life wonderful. I will ensure that going forward, I will try to enjoy every moment of life and not just wait for the bigger ones to turn up…coz you never know….Kal ho naa ho!!!!! ….it was amazing….on the side of the road, freaking out with friends, just outside vast 
green paddy fields….just amazing….the only good thing about Bangalore is that it has such a huge number of good places to see around…just incredible!!! So after chilling out in cold water, we were wondering where exactly to head now. Our driver said that there was a park on the way back…an ecological park….since we wanted to play some cards, we were okay with the idea…so here we were….in an ecological park….where we witnessed, unity in diversity…..monkeys and deer drinking water from the same pool of water….Aparna wonders aloud…..when animals can stay together, why cant humans….good question….but I guess no one has the answer to that yet!!!
There were a lot of monkeys creating a menace in the park, and were snatching things from peoples’ hands….I was damn scared. Obviously, I had a camera in my hand, and if that went….I was dead!!! We managed to find a place to sit and play cards….but guess what…as soon as Archana opened her bag and took out the polythene bag…bingo…there came a monkey…. straight to her….cutely took the polythene bag from her and was on his way back…. I tried to act smart and threw a stick at him….but madam Arpita….u shouldn’t act smart in such cases…. The monkey came directly running at me……Aaaaaaaaaaaah!!!! I screamed…and the monkey who wasn’t scared by the stick was scared by my screech…then the other people helped getting our bag back from the monkey…ooof!! What a relief…I was not in any mood to stay back there but the others insisted that they wanted to play cards….so I gave up…and again we searched for a place which we “thought” was away from monkeys’ reach…but after 5 minutes, we heard some sound…and it didn’t take us more than a minute to pack up and get back to our car…
Now was the time to go back home….I mean Bangalore…so off we were on the Bangalore-Tumkur Highway. We still wanted to play cards….even the monkeys weren’t able to deter us from playing cards, so we decided that on the way back just opposite Kamat (where we had our breakfast) there was a Café Coffee Day…we will sit there, have coffee and play at-least one
round of the game…so we ordered some coffee and as soon as we started playing, the waiter came up and said, we weren’t allowed to play cards….reason being…the cops will come and will assume that we were gambling….gimme a break….does playing cards always mean gambling…forget it…there isn’t any point in wondering about such things. We definitely didn’t want the next day’s newspaper carrying the following headlines… “5 Chartered Accountants and an Engineer found gambling at CCD away from the city limits at 5 in the evening”….so dropping this idea….we were back in our car….from there it took us 4 hours to reach home….thanks to the wonderful and the world famous….Bangalore Traffic!!! All in all a wonderful…all gals trek!!!
We decided to start early…so we (me and Shaonli) were at Woody’s by 6.15 (getting up at 5 in the morning and that too on a Sunday morning is urrrrrgh… I am not a morning person at all….but trekking ke liye kuch bhi karega!!!) So off we started towards Tumkur…with Radio One playing good Hindi songs…(one thing we realized that day was that these people didn’t have much choice of songs…deewaangi- deewaangi was played 5 times in a span of 3 hours!!!...even I am a Shahrukh fan but not to this extent!!). Here I would like to thank my sis (on behalf of all my frenz) for giving me that song CD a year back which actually had good songs entertaining us throughout the journey. None of us knew each other really well but after one hour it didn’t seem that we were interacting almost for the first time unofficially!! Gals you see…cant stay mum for long!!!
We had our breakfast at Kamat which was on the Tumkur Road and then after we reached Tumkur, we had to find our way….so we stopped at a place …which was a kind of a local residential school and Archana and Aparna went to ask one uncle the way to Devarayana Durga…but to our amusement, in a matter of a couple of minutes, there were around 50-60 school boys around them eager to know what we wanted…it seemed to be like…ek sawaal poocho hazaar jawaab milenge….poocho toh sahi…hum haazir hain!!!
From there we went to this temple which we thought was Devarayana Durga and was fairly disappointed…the temple was good but we would have been happier if it involved a bit of trekking…but there was none L….but to our relief we soon realized this wasn’t Devarayana Durga, this temple was called as Siddhaganga temple…Here Aparna tried to find the way to DD and that too in HINDI!!!. In this part of the world, the only language which people know is
Kannada…and luckily Priya was there with us….our sole Kannada interpreter. From here we tried to find the way to Devarayana Durga….it was a small temple, of Vishnu and Lakshmi…there was a pond just adjacent to the temple….which seemed to be very shallow…but the pujaari there said that it was 80 feet deep…well we couldn’t believe him….but we couldn’t risk checking it either…so after spending around half an hour there….we were back at our search to locate the trekking point…we were loosing hope and was cursing the website which said that this place was good for trekking….finally we reached a place called Madhugiri Fort…this was situated on the 
second largest monolith rock in Asia and was in a very dilapidated condition…it seemed to be a small trek…so we started our way up the fort….with numerous photo sessions initially….posing at every nook and corner of the “khandar”….we first went up one way which ended in a dead-end….searched a lot for our way up…but in vain…we then concluded that there isn’t any way to go further up the fort…but then we saw some people up and then restarted our search …and finally we found our way…the terrain was tough but we managed to reach a point which was quite high…. As we were 
discussing to climb the cliff further up we encountered a couple of drug addicts (God only knows whether they were really drug addicts or was it only our imagination) whatever it was, we agreed, it was better that we return back…afterall, nothing is more important than safety…isn’t it??After returning back, we decided to have lunch somewhere on the road, so we noticed one place near a tap of water at the road-side and started to have our lunch which was packed and brought by Archana and Aparna….but as soon as we started, we were joined by a couple of dogs….we were
terrified and concluded it wasn’t the best place to have lunch….so we went again to our ‘sawaari’. Our driver said there is a small pond around half a km where we can have lunch so we decided to go there…and then he stopped….we were wondering where exactly is this pond…and then we realized as to what was the definition of a pond….it was not more than a paddy field….but we didn’t complain as all of us were dead hungry….so here on the roadside we had our lunch at 3.30 in the afternoon….As we moved around a km we saw a broken pipe (I guess it was a bore well pipe) and the water was leaking at a great pace…..so we decided to stop there for a couple of minutes…..Oh My God!!! It was total fun….one thing I realized that day was that we tend to miss out on the smaller moments of happiness while waiting for the bigger ones…but these small moments makes your life wonderful. I will ensure that going forward, I will try to enjoy every moment of life and not just wait for the bigger ones to turn up…coz you never know….Kal ho naa ho!!!!! ….it was amazing….on the side of the road, freaking out with friends, just outside vast 
green paddy fields….just amazing….the only good thing about Bangalore is that it has such a huge number of good places to see around…just incredible!!! So after chilling out in cold water, we were wondering where exactly to head now. Our driver said that there was a park on the way back…an ecological park….since we wanted to play some cards, we were okay with the idea…so here we were….in an ecological park….where we witnessed, unity in diversity…..monkeys and deer drinking water from the same pool of water….Aparna wonders aloud…..when animals can stay together, why cant humans….good question….but I guess no one has the answer to that yet!!!There were a lot of monkeys creating a menace in the park, and were snatching things from peoples’ hands….I was damn scared. Obviously, I had a camera in my hand, and if that went….I was dead!!! We managed to find a place to sit and play cards….but guess what…as soon as Archana opened her bag and took out the polythene bag…bingo…there came a monkey…. straight to her….cutely took the polythene bag from her and was on his way back…. I tried to act smart and threw a stick at him….but madam Arpita….u shouldn’t act smart in such cases…. The monkey came directly running at me……Aaaaaaaaaaaah!!!! I screamed…and the monkey who wasn’t scared by the stick was scared by my screech…then the other people helped getting our bag back from the monkey…ooof!! What a relief…I was not in any mood to stay back there but the others insisted that they wanted to play cards….so I gave up…and again we searched for a place which we “thought” was away from monkeys’ reach…but after 5 minutes, we heard some sound…and it didn’t take us more than a minute to pack up and get back to our car…
Now was the time to go back home….I mean Bangalore…so off we were on the Bangalore-Tumkur Highway. We still wanted to play cards….even the monkeys weren’t able to deter us from playing cards, so we decided that on the way back just opposite Kamat (where we had our breakfast) there was a Café Coffee Day…we will sit there, have coffee and play at-least one
round of the game…so we ordered some coffee and as soon as we started playing, the waiter came up and said, we weren’t allowed to play cards….reason being…the cops will come and will assume that we were gambling….gimme a break….does playing cards always mean gambling…forget it…there isn’t any point in wondering about such things. We definitely didn’t want the next day’s newspaper carrying the following headlines… “5 Chartered Accountants and an Engineer found gambling at CCD away from the city limits at 5 in the evening”….so dropping this idea….we were back in our car….from there it took us 4 hours to reach home….thanks to the wonderful and the world famous….Bangalore Traffic!!! All in all a wonderful…all gals trek!!!
1 comment:
Good to see Ms.CA (Cave Analyst!) going mountain climbing and at the same time researching mountains of numbers in office, with equal panache and ease! As far as choice of songs on radio is concerned, how would you expect the FM station to know which is your favorite song?? ( hint! Hint!). “ Cant stay mum for a while” is an under statement. Ms.CA would put Jay Leno to shame! If you take over the 10.00 PM slot on CNN, I am sure TRPs will shoot….
Monekying around with monkeys???? Hmmmm. That’s’ what happens to pranksters! I only hope the monkey survived the screeching and didn’t suffer a cardiac arrest!
You know what.. I did remember seeing the headline” CA+engineers gambling with monkeys!” the next day in the Kannada papers…. Haha.
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