*Please excuse for mistakes, I am not so good at English...

Anand Dhama
(A walk on the "bridge" between hectic life and natural happiness)

Morning 4:30 alarm rang up to wake me up, but I was already awake, it happens to me some times that I keep alarm but getup before that, my biological clock is little more efficient I suppose, If you getup normally without any alarm you feel fresh, the same feeling I had on the day. Switched on the hot water coil and laptop, don’t worry, I am not going write about any program or code now, I had to burn a songs CD for listening through the journey (my techlead Baskaran had ordered, so I had to do it!), chose some nice songs and put the CD to burn, and headed for the burning water bath!!!(the water was too hot by the time I selected songs :)).

Sharp at 6:00 I got call from Baskaran, I was ready (some times I doubt whether we are Indians are not, because we’ve so much time sense!), I got into his car at vijayanagar and we picked up Priyanka on the way. After a lot of search for the hotel we had to finish the breakfast in a small hotel which was only hotel open early morning. We joined the team at Metro as decided.

We decided that traveler Murali will lead the convoy, we follow him, and Priyanka shifted to Murali’s car to join Uma, Pratheef, Of course who wants to sit with the boring guys like me(many times I feel bored with myself). Me and Baskaran started of following them quietly; it couldn’t happen that me and him sit without talking about the project we are working, although we had decided not to discuss about it at least today but slowly conversation turned towards the project. We kept discussing the same coding, functionality, delivery hummm! Can’t avoid it.

We stopped for while near Kanakapur, I don’t know the exact name of the place, but the hills were really superb to watch, we took some nice pictures of those sceneries, probably some of those pictures of the farm, farmers will fit into our desktop background. I felt really that life in those farms is better than the life what we have now and the work that we are doing today; at least we will have peace of mind there.

The convoy started again and with short break at Kanakapur, Pratheef bought some fruits, the village market was good with all fresh items, we headed again but this time we overtook all. Those village roads were pretty bad but the nature side by the roads was really good I kept clicking some pics; we reached the Sangam (Place where the rivers merge).The water in the Cauvery River was flooding, thanks to the heavy rain we had some days back. We took some pics; I got interested in some antique items and was clicking some of the statues found there, even flashed at a dog happily sleeping without any worries, I just felt jealous about its sleep which we were missing since from sometime(let me tell you that weekend I also slept like anything(that dog) zzz zzz zzz)…

Anand dhama, as the name tells us its really a place of happiness, surrounded with nature, lots of trees, hills, river, its very nice place to leave out your worries and that hectic city life and enjoy for some time in nature. We were welcomed by Santosh who was instructor for the activities for the day, with the brief introduction of the activities of the day; we had welcome drink (kokum fruit juice). Ranga, Pratheef, Baskaran relaxed for some time.

First activity was trekking, we chose the little hard rock climbing, Arjun, Ravi and Bhatru (Guides) came with us. Ravi and Bhatru lead and Arjun followed us, as we headed through the bushes. Again I started clicking, everyone started have some fun, chit chatting, pulling each others legs. Murali as usual started collecting the information about the place, How about Muttatti? (Another place), how far is that? He was following the Ravi(guide) with many of such questions...

We were near those rocky hills after some 15 minute walk through the greenery, and small water streams. Everybody were really exited, Ranga headed fast with Murali Baskaran and Singanan. Mahesh, Vinay and me were chitchatting about some of such trekking experiences and climbing behind them. Pratheef, Priyanka, and Uma followed us. It was quite nice, Vinay and me talking in some coding languages and Mahesh adding some more fun to it with his kannada vocabulary. We missed Prasad who was not able to make it to the trip.

After climbing about some half an hour we reached a plane and I just fell flat there, relaxed some time and then again headed. We reached the top and by then most of us were exhausted but still Murali climbed little more in that slippery mud hill, he is used to it. Mahesh, me, Ranga and Singanan climbed another big rock and had a photo session itself, while getting down Ranga got injured with ankle twist as he jumped, we had some first aid kit(It is absolutely necessary for such trekking), so he was ok. Uma felt tired there, it happens that, at that height due to lack of oxygen and all, we some time tend to get feel giddiness. She was ok after some time. We started climbing down, we saw a snake you can see some nice pics, it was exiting.

We reached a small water fall; guys just jumped with some life jackets provide by Arjun (guide), I was feeling little bit shy to jump in(keep it secret, I had short frenchie inner ware and girls were around hummmm!) but as soon as I saw short pant there, no one could stop me ha ha ha.. Mahesh and me were splashing the water on each other, Singnan was kidding... I really enjoyed, it was the activity which I liked the most, I would have loved to be there through out the day but we were really hungry, but I was the last to come out of the water. God if I have another life make me a fish.

We had walk towards bank of the Cauvery river, again I was ready to jump with life jacket, but it was not allowed, ptch!. Food was ready, Bhatru called us, the lunch was delicious, and I like these foods in this kind of resorts rather than the costly hotels with the big menu.

The second session started, the first activity was free fall in the net. We need to stand on the edge of the wooden platform and just freely fall on back side. It seems to be simple but we had tough time doing this, only Vinay was somewhat successful in doing it, I was just plainly jumping rather than falling, I had some pain in neck next day, may the faulty fall caused that.

Next we headed for catwalk!!! hummm! interesting right, we had to balance on the logs and walk on it, the game was that there will be two teams with captains, captain is engine and rest are bogies of train, we have to hold each other and the two teams will come in the opposite directions and the trains have to pass each other!!! If engine falls all of us need to start again, if bogie falls that person can join the train again at the end. We got split into two teams, it was just like walking on the ground for Uma, she had very good balance, I was falling always and Ranga accompanied me. We were in the same team then you imagine, I fell almost seven times I think, ha ha ha…the final fall was bit accidental, we all fell at a time and Priyanka got bit hurt, but was fine little later, she is bit more adventures and was again all ready for another game!

Then comes the Tarzan jump, we were given a rope and we had to jump and reach other side of the ground. I tried but was only successful in reaching the other side but was not able to come back to the place from where we jumped. Baskaran even offered that he will take a tricky module which I am working in the project if I succeed in it, but unfortunately I didn’t.... he knew it, otherwise he would not have taken such risk by giving such offer hee hee heee!!!

Archery, Mahesh’s favorite was the next activity, we were given three shots. If we make it to the inner circle on the target we would get another bonus three shots, only Pratheef was able to hit the inner circle as he says Aim at the right target, he was quite successful, I hit all around except the circle where we had to hit, Ranga also had a nice shot. (Singanan) Singh is king but, king was happy with his kingdom hence didn’t hit the target to win I think.

I had opted to be out of this game but finally entered and got totally wet, the game is that we have rope, with that we need to jump and cross water and reach other side, all of us fell in the water, Singanan really entertained all of us, Vinay fell front faced in the water and totally got wet having all over the muddy water. Murali tried hard but with his height and weight it was bit hard to do it. Girls kept themselves away from it.

We had to have bath after this muddy water fall, we were served nice evening coffee after the bath. Had a photo session and checked out… it was heavily raining on the way back; as usual me and Baskaran were discussing some coding logic again in his car, better nobody joined us.

We reached Bangalore little late, headed for dinner, after some starters some had some drink and then the real party started, but I really don’t like eating in these kinds of big hotels, many times I pretend and keep my self away from parties. Uma has to leave It was getting very late, I had to drop the girls safe to their homes It comes to my head many times as I don’t drink, so me, Vinay, Uma and Priyanka left, I heard Pratheef had a nice time in party after we left, it was very late by the time I reached my home after dropping all of them. I was so tired, I would have slept anywhere, even on the ground… that’s the day of happiness in Anand dhama…

Let me write out some tips about trekking, and such trips and update it soon with the details about the place…if you had a nice time reading then, write your views…

Prabhuraj Moogi
14' Aug 2008