Into the Wild

Into the Wild
(Movie Poster)

On a rainy evening, sometime last week, Madhavi (my sister) and I were bored and we were restlessly trying to find something to watch on Netflix. In the TOP PICKS section, we found this movie INTO THE WILD and we randomly choose to watch it.

The movie's based on a true life story about a guy (Christopher McCandless) who gave up his life after graduating from college and went hiking to Alaska! The story's about him and his experiences with different people he met en-route his great Alaskan Odyssey!

In June 1990, after graduating from college, he began travelling under the name Alexander Supertramp! Living a nomadic life and doing odd jobs for survival, he traveled through Arizona, California, South Dakota and finally arrives at the Fairbanks, Alaska by the end of April 1992.

He hikes into the Denali National Park, along the STAMPEDE TRAIL and eventually makes an abandoned bus, numbered "142", as his shelter. The bus was apparently one among the three buses which was used by a mining company to shelter workers who were trying to build a road along the Stampede Trail in the 1930s. The project was later dropped and the bus was left behind in the woods to serve as a back-country shelter for hunters and trappers.

That's Christopher McCandless aka Alexander SuperTramp!
They found this self-portrait, undeveloped, inside
the camera which he'd taken with himself.

McCandless lived in the bus for 113 days and died out of starvation as he could no longer find animals to hunt. His decaying body was found two weeks later inside a sleeping bag in that bus by Moose Hunters who'd come along the Stampede Trail. Another interesting fact about this guy's story is that his family had no idea of his whereabouts from the time he started travelling in June 1990, till they found his body in Alaska in August 1992.

I am completely enamored by this guy's story. This guy priorities were totally different! He gave up all luxury... Gave up his family... Gave up his career... But still lived each day of his life to the fullest!

After watching the movie, I googled about him and read up so many articles on McCandless' journey to Alaska. I even went down to the local library and borrowed a copy of the book, INTO THE WILD by John Krakauer. The book actually gives a lot more details about his life as a tramp while he traveled through Arizona, California and South Dakota.

I have now made up my mind that I too must go hiking in Alaska sometime in my life! I definitely want to hike up along the Stampede Trail and check out Bus Number 142!

This guy's story has received different kinds of comments! Some find it fascinating and appreciate his penchant to live a migrant life! Some call him foolish for wandering into Alaska badly prepared! When I told my mother about his story, she immediately dismissed it and called the guy "irresponsible" for putting his family in such a situation! Nevertheless, I completely admire this guy and his story!

You must watch this movie! INTO THE WILD, Directed by Sean Penn, Starring Emile Hirsch. Also check out the book, INTO THE WILD, by John Krakauer, Published in 1996.

Madhugiri Fort

I kept googling for places around Bangalore which I’d not visited and came across Madhugiri Fort. After going through several tourism websites and blogs, I learnt that Madhugiri Fort is located on a hillock which is Asia’s second highest hillock. After reading all those enthusiastically narrated blogs, I definitely wanted to go there!

For all those hardcore trekkers out there, Madhugiri Fort is one which will not disappoint you. I went to Madhugiri Fort on the 17^th of March soon after the onset of summer. Although we had to trek up in the hot sun, the experience was certainly worth it.

This Fort, located on the outskirts of Madhugiri Town, is approximately 120 kilometers from Bangalore. We drove down in two cars and it took us nearly three hours to reach the place. You’ll have to drive down the Bangalore-Tumkur highway and then take a deviation at Dobbasapete which is 70kilometers from Bangalore. The road till Dobbasapete is a four lane road. But after taking the deviation, the last 50kilometers to Madhugiri Village is a two lane road and it’s somewhat okay. (Actually it’s bad at some stretches.)

We reached the fort around 12noon and started to trek soon after finding shaded places to park our cars. The trek up the Madhugiri Fort is quite difficult and I strongly recommend that you start trekking after each member in your group has a water bottle.

Like the entrance to almost every other fort I’ve visited in India, this fort also begins with huge gateways and a number of steps after. These steps take us only to the first level of the sentry’s lookout.

Thereon begins the rock climbing and you shall reach the peak only after trekking for two more hours! We were nine of us in our group! After trekking for an hour, four of my friends started to lose interest as they were tired. And so, the four of them picked a sheltered place and decided to rest there while the remaining five proceeded further.

The numerous graffiti etched all over the walls of this fort is a very evident sign of the government’s total neglect towards this fort and is a very disappointing sight! Anyway, I came across a blog which mentions an interesting history about this fort. Do check out this guy’s blog... http://rakeshholla.blogspot.in/2012/05/madhugiri-fort-hillocks-galore-2.html. He's written it under a heading called HISTORY.

As we trekked higher and higher, our huffing and puffing increased tremendously. I don’t know about the others but my body was reacting to the altitude! My head started feeling a little woozy and I had a running nose! Nevertheless, we didn’t stop and were determined to go till the peak.

By the time we were done with three-fourths of the trek, three more friends gave up and decided to not go any further. It was only me and my friend Spandana (“Dana” for short) who were still determined to complete the trek whatsoever.

The last stretch of the trek was quite steep. The gradient on the rock makes you wonder if one can actually ascend that stretch. Dana and I were trying to figure out the safest path to take on this last stretch when a group of guys who were already at the top shouted out to us and pointed out the path we should take.

We still had another 45minutes of trekking
at this point. Madhugiri Town is seen in
this picture.

It was at 2.30 in the afternoon when Dana and I finally completed the trek. This was the highest point on the Madhugiri Fort! Madhugiri town could be clearly seen while standing at this point. The peak was really calm and quiet. Dana and I agreed on how awesome it’d be if we could come up here every other day! The only noise we could hear was the distant honking noises of the buses in the Madhugiri Town’s Bus Stand.

Dana and I.. very thrilled after
completing the trek! 

Dana and I took rest till our panting and sweating had subsided. We had absolutely no water to even quench our thirst. We started to trek down at 3 and climbing down was a lot easier than anticipated.

At 3.45 we were near our cars. To our delight, the other seven had already trekked down and had bought water bottles for the two of us. I got my voice back only after chugging a liter of water down my throat!

We started to drive back at 4 and reached the outskirts of Bangalore by 7.

If you're looking for some exciting adventure, you should definitely go here!

Kripya Intezaar Karey...

The final semester of my engineering course began in full force with all the project reviews and seminars. Fortunately for me, as my name comes within the first twenty members of my class’ roll call, I was done presenting my seminar very early. My seminar report was also submitted well on time and consequently I found myself more jobless than my friends!

However, project and seminar hasn’t been my worry for a while now! My biggest concern since last December has been my applications to the six American universities to which I’ve applied to, for post graduation!

I’ve done my research on the universities! Decided which universities I want to apply! Meticulously filled out those lengthy online applications! And posted all the relevant documents well on time! All I have to do now is wait indefinitely for these universities to get back to me! And this long wait is killing me!

The unpredictable decisions given out by the universities only make the situation worse. Those who are likely to get an admission are getting rejected. And those who have a long shot are making it through! And hearing about all this is only getting me more tensed.

With March coming to an end in another four days and still no replies from any university, I’m trying very hard to not lose patience!

I’m reminded of how we’re indefinitely put on hold when we call up the BSNL customer care! Aap kathaar mein hai…Kripya thoda intezaar karey! Even though we know it’s going to take a while, we still hold on to the call instead of simply hanging up! Same way, I can’t stop myself from checking for new emails every twenty minutes throughout the day!

Hoping April brings me good news!

At the BIAL

I’d been to the Bengaluru International Airport two weeks back to pick up my sister who was flying down to India to visit us. While waiting for her to finish the formalities and come outside, I got to observe the different people at the airport. And it was indeed very engaging.

The Airport… a place where you can see many people, is quite insightful about how different people travel. From the multifaceted crowd I got to observe, the ones who appealed to me the most were the aircraft crew.

The pilots, stewards and the stewardesses seemed to walk about the airport completely ignoring the security guards as if they owned the place. Unlike the localites who seemed to have come to the airport straight from their beds and eager to get back to them as soon as possible, the aircraft crew would be decked up in crisply ironed uniforms as if they were ready to go to a party even at 3 in the morning. The nippy weather at 3am didn’t seem to bother them as they lugged along their miniature trolley bags wearing their miniature skirts ;-). It is almost impossible to differentiate between the ones who arrive after a long flight from the ones who depart to host another flight of passengers. They all have the same stoic expression on their faces!

Another sort of people who caught my attention were the ones who always seem to move about with an irresolute look on their faces. Whether it was leaving their homes for a long time, or anxious to sit through a crammed flight, or just the encumbrance of the unyielding airport trolleys, these people definitely didn’t seem at ease.

Like all the others who were fervently staring through the glass doors at the ARRIVALS section, I too spent half an hour leaning on the metal railing trying to spot my sister emerge from the crowd. Meanwhile, it looked as if one of the big hotels in Bengaluru was accommodating a large group of foreigners arriving by the British Airways flight from London (the same flight as my sister’s). The airport representative for that hotel was certainly having a tough time as the guests were arriving one by one but their chauffeurs had still not reached the airport with their respective placards. Tensed as he was, to bear the brunt of the impatient foreigners, he irately spoke into his cell phone to one of the chauffeurs…

“Yellidhira??”

…

“Innu Hebbal Flyover-mela??”

…

“illi guests aagle bandhidhare… bega chechkondu banni!”

As the chauffeur’s commotion began to subside, I finally saw my sister coming into sight pushing her trolley towards the exit, putting an end to my restlessness and much to my parents’ delight. I was glad to get away from the freezing outside weather and enter the warmth of my car.

Goa Trip Part 3

Our activities the previous night went on late into the night and consequently we woke up late the next morning.

On our third day in Goa, we had little to do apart from catching a bus to Ramnagar in order to reach Dandeli. After asking around in Panaji City Bus Stand we found out that there’re buses which leave to Ramnagar every hour.

We decided to go to St. Francis Xavier’s Church as we had sometime at our disposal. Xavier’s church is located in Old Goa and is approximately 15kilometers away from Panaji city.
The ride to the church is pretty intriguing as you can observe the newer buildings of Goa slowly starts to fade away while the old red-tile roofed buildings of Old Goa begins to show.

St. Xavier’s church which was built in the 16^th century holds the mortal remains of St. Francis Xavier in a casket. The chapel is huge with intricate designs on their walls. I found a notice in this church which read something like… ‘take photos of the church but not of people’. Weird! But anyway, I adhered to it and took pictures only of the relics inside the chapel.

The Casket which contains
the relics

It was already 3 in the afternoon by the time we were done with St. Xavier’s church. We headed back to Baga to our guest house which was 20 kilometers from Old Goa to pick up our luggage. After settling the guest house bill and bidding adieu to Mrs. N, we drove back to Panaji to return our Activas and board our bus to Ramnagar.

Departing Goa gave me a feeling of sadness as I was getting away from ‘The City of Night’! The beaches, the energetic night life, and the serene forts are some things which definitely call me back to Goa!

Our bus to Ramnagar left at 4.30 in the afternoon. Luckily for us, the three hour journey to Ramnagar was quite engaging. The conversation between the conductor of the bus and a guy who wished to relieve his bladder kept us entertained for quite a while during our journey. The bus driver finally agreed to stop the bus for 2 minutes and the entertainment ended.

We reached Ramnagar Bus Stand at a nippy 8 o’clock in the evening. The owner of the home-stay which we'd booked at Dandeli picked us up from the bus stand and we were 'home' after an hour's drive. There began the Dhandeli part of our 6 day trip. Little did I know then that Dandeli would surpass the fun we had at Goa!

Goa Trip Part 2

I see your hair is burnin'

Hills are filled with fire

If they say I never loved you

You know they are a liar

Drivin' down your freeways

Midnight alleys roam…

Cops in cars,

The topless bars

Never saw a woman...

So alone,

So alone,

So alone,

So alone

Motel Money,

Murder Madness

Let's change the mood from glad to sadness… 

The first thing we did next morning was to return the Santro which we’d gotten as a replacement for the Swift. We exchanged it for 3 more Activas.

At Emmanuel's

We had brunch at BAGA beach in Emmanuel’s Beach Café and the food was yummy. The vegetarian sizzler, the tomato and cheese pasta, the spaghetti bolognaise pasta were some delicacies which were appetizing. Although the food is similar to what we get in Bangalore, the Goans sell their food with a heavy price tag! The brunch at Emmanuel’s costed us approximately 300bucks per person. But I shouldn’t be complaining because the food and service was appreciable.

:-(

While I was still contemplating about entering the water, my friends had already entered the sea deep enough that I could only see their heads from the shoreline. The number of beaches I’ve been to during these 3.5 years of my college life has made me weary of them and therefore I decided to sit this one out. I sat down on the sand on a shaded spot and I was left with no choice but to guard my friends’ footwear!

The racist Lifeguard's stool

As I sat there in my vantage point checking out some bikini clad women, I noticed that a wide part of the beach had only foreigners swimming in the water. The lifeguard who sat on an elevated stool would shoo away anyone but foreigners, who went to enter the water. And this, he would determine only by the skin tone of the people entering this part of the beach! Outright Racism!! The ones who were shooed away had to swim in the remote and more crowded parts of the beach. Helpless as I was, watching this bigotry, I was ticked off by how people sellout so easily just for a little money! We weren’t allowed to swim at a beach in our own country! Disgusting!

An Interesting side story – Four of my friends were put up in a guest house which was let out by a lady by name Mrs. N. And the remaining three of us (my twin, one of my friends, and I) were put up in a guest house which was a stone’s throw away from Mrs. N’s guest house. This guest house was also rented out by a lady...I’m gonna call her Mrs. Uncooperative. The guest house which Mrs. N had given us was much more spacious and cleaner than the one which Mrs. Uncooperative had given us. Hence, the 3 of us wanted to move in to Mrs. N’s guest house to join the other four. But Mrs. Uncooperative, as her name suggests, wasn’t willing to refund our deposit so that we could move into Mrs. N’s. So we were literally stuck at Mrs. Uncooperative’s guest house for 3 days.

On the second day, when we got back to our guest houses after playing at the beach (luckily for us) we found a used something in our room (probably left by the previous occupants of that room) and I’m not sure if we were sickened or delighted more! :-D We used this as a reason to coax Mrs. U to refund our money and we gladly moved into Mrs. N’s ten minutes later.

Mrs. N's guest house

It was 3.30 by the time all of us returned from the beach to our guest house and got ready. Meanwhile, our (new) landlady, Mrs. N, a very garrulous but good-hearted woman bored me for half an hour with her subtle but cutthroat business principles and how she never wished to offend the other landladies in the area. This conversation sparked off only because I’d gone downstairs and knocked on her door requesting her to fill up the water jugs in our rooms. Clearly Mrs. N didn’t believe in the principle that a conversation must have equal contribution from both parties. Nevertheless, it was a nice chat!

Chapora Fort

Our next place for sightseeing was the Chapora Fort. Located strategically high up on a hillock, this fort overlooks the Chapora river on one side and the Sea on the other side. The Chapora fort, though mostly in ruins today, gives a spectacular view of the Vagator Beach and the Anjuna Beach. Two of my friends discovered a pathway and trekked down from the fort onto Vagator Beach. The rest of us reached Vagator beach by road. Vagator beach doesn’t have as many cafés and restaurants and it’s more tranquil than any of the other beaches.

Trying to trek down Chapora
Fort onto Vagator Beach

At 5.30 in the evening we were still jobless and didn’t want to head back to our guest house this early. Therefore we took up a wild-goose chase to find this pub by name CURLYS (on my brother’s insistence… sigh!) located on Anjuna beach. After maneuvering our Activas through narrow alleys, a Tibetian exhibition, and someone’s private land, we made it just on time to CURLYS, to gaze at the setting sun while we enjoyed a drink.

Curlys pub definitely gives an answer to the question why foreigners from all over the world, leaving all their luxuries behind, choose to put up in beach-side shacks and holiday in Goa!

After all the eating and drinking we’d been doing throughout the day, we decided to eat something light for dinner. We ate at a budget hotel by name “Spicy Idlys” at Baga. Although we were glad to meet a Kannada speaking waiter, he stoically asked us “yen order thogoLLi” in a heavily accented Hubli-Kannada. Dinner was ok.

What we did the rest of the night shall remain untold!

City of Night! (Goa Trip Part 1)

“Well, I just got into town about an hour ago

Took a look around, see which way the wind blow

Where the little girls in their Hollywood bungalows?

Are you a lucky little lady in the city of light?

Or just another lost angel

City of night

City of night

City of night

City of night

Woo, c'mon”

-LA Woman (The Doors)

This song (one of my favorite) can be precisely attributed to Goa! The night life of Goa is truly exhilarating.

I went to Goa with my friends last week and the trip was quite eventful. Me along with six of my friends set out by the 5.30pm bus from Bangalore and after a 15 hour bone-shaking journey (thanks to KSRTC Rajahamsa), we reached our destination, Panaji city, at 8.30 the next morning.

Fort Aguada

As we alighted at Panaji City Bus Stand, we were welcomed by a group of touts asking if we wanted to rent cars, bikes or get accommodation. We randomly picked one of those agents and rented a Maruti Swift and an Activa for ourselves through his agency.

After looking around in Mapusa and Baga, we found a guest house in Baga, which was rented out by a lady who lived in the ground floor of her building. The place was very spacious and the price was reasonable.

Once we were done having brunch at a café in BAGA, we set out to AGUADA FORT. It is a common misconception that the movie Dil Chahta Hai was shot at AGUADA FORT. I found out that the movie was actually shot at another fort by name CHAPORA FORT which lies on a hillock in northern Goa. Aguada Fort is as big as a football field and is surrounded by moats on three sides. The fourth side overlooks the Arabian Sea. There is nothing much to this fort except for the serene location and the scenic view of the Arabian Sea.

Asked not to look at the camera!

The day had been going on fine so far. But after our visit to Aguada Fort, we were duly reminded of the ill luck which people usually connect to Friday the Thirteenth. Yes… our first day in Goa was on the Friday the Thirteenth. Our first misfortune was a exasperating encounter with the Goan Police. We were stopped by the police (just when my brother took over the wheel :-P) for “over speeding” when we were driving only 10kmph above the 40kmph speed limit inside Panaji City. The stupid cop wouldn’t settle for a bribe amount less than Rs. 2300 and kept threatening that he’d “compound” the Maruti Swift which we had rented.

Deciding what to tell the cop

We lost an hour trying to negotiate with the retard who was endeavoring to read out some traffic offences and their penalties out of a book on traffic offences. Luckily for us, some guy who was passing by knew the owner of the car and he came to our rescue. He spoke to the cop in Konkani and convinced him to not “compound” the car and we were free to go after paying a bribe of Rs. 1000.

Sunset at Kolva Beach

Not being sure if we should continue using this car, we half heartedly set out to Kolva Beach which was 50 kilometers away from Panaji. An hour’s drive later, we reached Kolva beach just in time for sun set. Kolva beach, according to me is a replica of Juhu Beach of Mumbai. The place is buzzing with a lot of activity. You’ll find bhel puri vendors, people who draw temporary tattoos, cool drinks sellers and anything else which you can amuse yourself with while you are at a beach!

I'm asking in my butler Hindi if
he's fixed all the buckles properly

The seven of us decided to amuse ourselves with Parasailing. The boatmen would take us into the sea on their motorboats. We’d be harnessed to the parachute through belts and then we’d be sailing in the air as the motorboat tows us at a high speed. I had never done parasailing before and had high expectations of it.

The Parasailing ride we were offered here was a slight disappointment. The parachute took off into the air as the motorboat gained speed, and we were in the air for hardly 30 seconds when he started retracting the rope and slowing down the motor boat. Clever way to rip off 500 bucks from you!

If not by parasailing, we decided to raise our spirits by drinking Fenny... a Goan spirit brewed from coconut or cashew apple! Fenny... according to me... tastes like highly acidified vodka. Atleast vodka has a palatable flavor to it. The Cashew Fenny I drank had a bitter after-taste to it. My spirits didn't go any higher! :-|

The unlucky Maruti Swift which we
pushed for more than a kilometer

At 8pm when we decided to leave Kolva Beach, our Maruti Swift refused to start whatsoever. We spent three hours searching and picking up two mechanics one after the other to repair our car to no avail. After countless exchange of phone calls, our agent finally sent us a Santro as a replacement at 11pm and it was midnight when we reached Baga. Reaching Baga came as a very big relief to the seven of us as we weren’t sure how we’d come back 50 kilometers from Kolva with just one Activa and no public transport.

The amazing part of Goa is that even late in the night, the streets are crowded with pedestrians (I’m talking about pretty looking women ;-)) in their best attires, holding a bottle of alcohol in one hand and walking down to pubs and discos.

We decided to hit one of the beach cafés for a drink and an hour later we went back to our guest house and crashed on our beds.