Kumara Parvatha Trek

Route : Hyderabad to Bangalore (by train), Bangalore to Gundya (by Bus-7 hours, direct bus to Kukke was not available in the afternoon), Gundya to Kukke(by Car, 30 minutes), Kukke to Peak to Beedahali forest office - Beedahali to Somarpet (by Jeep, 1 hour), Somarpet to Bangalore (by SUV, 5 hours, because we had time constraints, else Buses available regularly) and finally Bangalore to Hyderabad(by Train)

DoJ: 4-8 November, 2011
DoT: 6th Nov(early morning) to 7th Nov (9.30 am)

Important Information about Trek: Take care about Leeches, Dettol, Lime, Iodex, Tobacco are some of the possible solution(not complete, have a look at my album) ... Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner/Nightstay(not sure) available at Bhattarmane (4 hours trek uphill from Kukke, need to pre-order on xxxxxxxxxx - would update when i get)

Link to Album: https://picasaweb.google.com/rathi.rocking/PushpagiriTrek?authkey=Gv1sRgCIuq7rTMhrDcwQE#

My Experience

I went with GHAC for the first time to a trek. We boarded the train from Hyderabad for Bangalore. First time I saw the Railway Station of Hyderabad and use the MMTS. It is pretty good service as you can go to any part of the city in Rs 5 :) . Met the other team members at Kacheguda station. Some of them were very experienced, some quite naive. I was kind of in the middle. We reached Bangalore the next morning, had Breakfast cum lunch and then went to Bus Stand only to find that there was no Bus for Kukke till 8pm. We were disappointed until someone suggested that we can take a bus for Gundya(25 km from Kukke) at 1pm and then take a jeep. We took the busto Gundya and reached there around 8 pm. After that took a jeep to Kukke and found ourselves a decent place to stay.Quite reasonable double room was available for Rs 200 a night. Had dinner and the next morning breakfast at a hotel near the Temple.

We started early from Kukke around 7.30 am, reached Bhattarmane around 11 am. In the mid-way stopped a couple of times to get the leeches off the shoes/socks who inspite of taking preventive measures still managed to suck our blood :( We didnt expect to reach Bhattarmane so early and had pre-ordered Lunch at 12.

So we waited there for an hour during which Me and Vijay went for some sightseeing around. The view was breathtaking and made the effort worth. Finally we managed to left around 1pm(was a big mistake on our part to spend so much time there). In the meanwhile Mallikarjun managed to drop his IPhone in water and then was literally heating it with a lighter to dry/evaporate the water in it :) Never saw an Iphone being treated this way :)

The other trekkers who also stopped at Bhattarmane scared us that it would be now impossible for us to reach the peak today itself and suggested that we should camp at Mandap which was 2-3 hours before the actual Peak. The route ahead was difficult than the route till now. Their sadist comment actually got into 2 of our team members, and one due to leg injury and other due to slow speed and fatigue decided that they wont be able to make it to the peak today and decided to go back to Kukke as we had to catch a train from Bangalore the following day at 6.20pm for Hyderabad and if we do not reach the Peak today, there is no way we could make it for train tomorrow. After going for around 15 minutes, we met another set of around 20 trekkers who again infused some negativism about the peak being too far. This demotivated Prasanth a little bit but we managed to convince him to come along.

This was where the fun and excitement started for me. We were thrown a sort of challenge and we had to achieve it. Our organiser Ankur said that if we had to
make it to the Peak today itself, then the rest of people would have to walk at my speed. I was leading the way until now and this statement was quite flattering especially given the fact that I was the underdog in my previous 2 treks. To my credit I was much more confident and mentally prepared this time, dont ask me how. There is an entry ticket to the forest for Rs 200/- per head. As decided I was leading the way, little bit of self praising I sense here :) , we reached Mandap by 3pm which was quite fast on our part.

We were told that there are two false peaks after which you descent a little and then climb again to reach the actual peak. When I reached the peak(false one), I screamed at the top of my voice that we have done it only to find and realize later that it was the false one. It was around 4.30pm and suddenly it started raining heavily. Luckily for us it rained just for 15 minutes and finally mist cleared for 5 minutes during which we had to decide whether to go for the real peak today itself or camp at the false one and go for the real one tomorrow. At the back of our mind, the catching of train to Hyderabad played a major role I guess for which we had to be at the peak. We estimated that it should not take us more than an hour and a half to reach so we started the journey forward.

Here came the most difficult part of the trek. We had to climb up a waterfall where the way became even more slippery due to rain. Somehow we managed to climb up only to find that we have lost the trail and are in the middle of nowhere. Ankur went across the waterfall to find some route from inside a forest which earlier looked like a dead end. We took the way and were extremely elated when we saw the yellow arrow on the path confirming that we were now on the right track. We reached the Peak around 6.30pm where we meet another group of trekkers who were camping alongside. We somehow managed to camp using torchlight by 8 and tried to cook ready to eat meal for sometime after due to mist and chill above, the effort was in vain. After which we just ate it like that only. The worst part was even though we had leeches on our shoes, socks, bags, clothes , everywhere we had to forget the pain and camp first since it could have started raining anytime. Lucky for us it started raining around 9.30pm by which we were done with the arrangements.

I did not carried a sleeping bag and until the rain came it was quite warm inside the tent and I thought my shawl would be enough. But then it started raining heavily non stop for 5 hours and that is a complete ball changer. The water flowing underneath your tent takes away the heat and I could not sleep whole night, shivering at times, trying to find a position to lie down to minimize heat loss. The other group who camped alongside us were in a even worse situation than me. Somehow they messed up in the setting of their tent and their tent was drenched in the rain. But to their spirit, they started singing songs,gossiping around 1 am in the night and since I was anyways not able to sleep, I decided to enjoy that. You somehow learn to make the best out of every situation, I guess :)

The next morning Ankur waked us up at 4.30am since we had to reach the Beedahali asap. After all that happened on the previous night, the first thing Mallikarjun asks about after getting up at 4.30 am is, "yaar! kisi ke phone me network aa raha hai kya"(team joke, dont worry if you dont get it :) ). The other group, which climbed from the Somarpet side, told us that it will take us atleast 4-5 hours to descent down and there was around 150 ft slope. We didn't paid much attention to that and packed our tent and were waiting for the first stroke of light so that we could move forward. Since we already lost our way the previous night, we requested them to show us the place from where the trail started. Around 6.30 am we started our march down.

After around 15 minutes of walking, we encountered the first slope which was not that steep but became extremely slippery due to the continous rain on the previous night. We somehow managed to cross it only to find the bigger one sometime later. This was very steep and damn big and to cross this one was going to be no mean task. Ankur and Vijay had some experience with rock climbing and were crucial in their guidance. Even the big rocks on the slope were very unstable and the odd one on whom you were trying to take support kept falling down and you warned the guy down then to take care as it might hit him. Just to cross those 150 odd feet slope, I think it took us more than 30 minutes. If the leeches were problematic on the way from Kukke, here it was even worse. One just cannot stay at one place for even 30 seconds without 3-4 leeches getting on him. I must have easily thrown around 30 leeches off me. For those who have not gone there might feel that to be an exaggeration but I guess the people who went there would say that this might even be an underestimate.

We were very fast during our descent as we had to make give ourself enough time to reach to Bangalore before 6 pm. We did not stop even once. Anyways the leeches would not have allowed us to. Since the route became very slippery due to the rain, we were slipping a lot. I fell around 4-5 time but on the back where due to bag did not suffered any injury. We reached the Beedahali forest office by 9.30 am, yes !!! we did it in 3 hours :) where we called for a jeep to take us from Beedahali to Somarpet. Although the forest guy was nice enough to offer us amazing tea and called a jeep for us, he charged Rs 900 for 26km :( and the jeep also came at 11.15 instead of the promised 10 am which meant that we could not catch the bus to Bangalore at 11.30am from Somarpet. We finally reached Somarpet around 12.30, it took around an hour from Beedahali to Somarpet, and finally took a Tavera to Bangalore which dropped us at Bangalore station at 6.00 pm just in time to catch the 6.20 train. Finally when we approached our coach, we were in for a pleasant surprise as our tickets were upgraded to 3 AC :)

All in all, a moderate trek became a difficult one for us due to the time constraints and rain. I didn't expected rains in month of November but the climate can change any moment up in the mountains. My suggestion would be to take it as a 2 full day trek. The leeches are menace but I guess that will be so round the year. In my opininon climbing from Somarpet side would be an easier option but that depends on you which route you want to take.

M.Sc Economics @ IIT

Hi

I have been receiving a lot of queries regarding M.Sc Economics programme at IIT Kanpur and M.Sc Economics in general.

First reaction of all the people who see this in the brochure or to whoever I tell is that how come there is an economics programme at a technical institute like IITs.

You can go through the brochure for stuff like it is a perfect blend of technology and economics and similar stuffs, half of which is crap. Some will even try to portray it as a substitute for B.Tech+MBA which is not a very true picture

COURSE DESIGN

In the first couple of years, out of nearly 20 courses, 15 are like same for all streams of science and engineering, there are 2 electives and 3 department specific courses.

From third year onwards, the focus shift towards economics. We are required to take 5 courses per semester inclusive of the electives. One kind of electives is H.S.S. i.e. Humanities and Social Sciences where you take courses from Philosophy, Psychology, Sociology, Literature, etc. It may sound very attractive but its going to be find very boring and dont think of high sci-fi stuffs. The M.Sc(int) Economics programme comes under Department of H.S.S.

Before I go futher let me explain concept of electives. In IITs(at least Kanpur), you have an option of doing courses of your liking from any Department you desire. In the M.Sc economics programme there are around 7 open electives(courses from any department) and around 6 departmental electives(courses from economics itself...though there are not much choices available within the economics department due to lack of Professors)

The course structure is very good and I find the subject interesting as well. But the problem is the quality and number of Professors although both have been improving lately with new recruits. I believe the courses detail could be found on the net, if unable to find, drop me a mail. You can read all the stuff like Micro economics, Macro Economics, Econometrics, etc although whether you will read them or not is highly questionable once you get here :) This is very new Programme so there are ample of scope of improvement.

COMPARED WITH OTHER DISCIPLINES

Another question which I am asked is, "I have rank around 3000, should I take Maths or economics." I would say that has to an individual decision. Maths department at IIT Kanpur is very good but its very very tough also. What you are going to study here is going to be very different from JEE. Based on your interest in Maths in High School, if you decide to take Maths, you may find yourself at the wrong place. I would recommend that people who have ranks around 2000 should not blindly follow into the foot steps of last year pattern and end up in a stream of not their liking.

BRANCH CHANGE & CULTURE

Everyone in IIT comes with a thought that I will study hard in first year and change my branch to Computer Science and Electrical. Mark my words,"Don't count on that." You are not going to have the same enthusiasm for studies like you had at time of JEE. Most of us for the first time will be exposed to a plethora of activities which happens in campus. Be it sports, cultural or technical, you are sure to find something that suits you. There is a high probability that you will be diverted from studies although if you really interested, you will get very good oppurtunity to study anything you like. The institute has a huge library and has access to many online journals.

PLACEMENTS

The first batch of Economics graduated this year. All the 13 people who sat for placements were placed and at a package much better than the institute's average. People have mostly opted for investment banks, consultancy although some are going into research institutes. A couple of people are appearing for Civil Services Examinations. Further options include going for PhD, MBA, none of which should matter to someone who has just cleared JEE. People don't figure that out until their last year so you need not be concerned at all at this moment of time.

If you have any other queries, feel free to mail me at rathi.rocking@gmail.com . I am genrally very lazy to reply, one of the reason why i wrote this, but I would try to reply at the earliest.

The above was my opinion and you may get totally different perspective if you come in contact with some of my friends from economics. I would actually recommend that you try to get in touch with other people as that will help in getting a broader view

Regards,

Hemant Rathi

SarPass Trek

Hi all

I decided to start writing blog with the craziest thing i have ever done in my life. Went for trek to SarPass with the adventure club at IIT Kanpur. We were a group of nine mostly from my batch and a few juniors. There is so much to write that everywhere I had to cut short on so many things. We started at Manikaran, I guess.

Day 0 :

We just walked for just 1 km or so and pitched our camp for the first time as we had talked to Porters and decided to start the journey next day. The place where we pitched our tent was awesome to say the least. Beautiful and might lush green mountains all around and we were there in the middle. A stream of water was falling from the mountain and I knew cud spend hours sitting aside it. We ate Poha(prepared by Ankit) which was almost like Halwa and nthing neither salt or ny other masala was in rt proportion but we like it. Fortunately there was a tea specialist in me ;) who prepared wonderful tea in the cool weather

Day 1 :

It was the first time we had to shit in open :) I dont think I can share that experience here but it was....i dnt know how to describe it;). We started our trek at around 10 in the morning and within the first 15 minutes I realised this wasnt going to be easy. I was afraid within that I may ruin up everyone's trek and I might not have it in me to complete the trek. After 30 mins or so, I got behind everyone and there was Ashwani(our group leader) who was pushing me through. We took few breaks and around 12:30, the porters said thats enough for today. We all were prepared to walk atleast twice more than this but in trek an important constraint is water source which was nt there in our Journeey ahead. It was YHAI camping site. After pitching tents etc, we lit a bonfire and started playing cards while some of us were helping the porters to prepare lunch. It seemed like the ideal holiday. Sitting in the mountain jungle with no one around you, playing cards, having a nice time with frens, awesome food prepared, trust me life couldnt get better than that

Day 2 :

We started early as we were hardly tired after yesterday and had to cover a lot of ground today. The most important thing was that there wasnt going to be any water source in the way. Soon after we started, I was once again left behind others and Ashwani was pushing me through. At around 1 we had our break where we had glucose, etc. After that everyone was distributed around 150 ml of water for the rest of the day. I was finished with mine by 3 and pretty much exhausted and couldnt move ny further but couldnt stop as you can only camp near water source. Finally Ashwani gave me some water from his bottle which wasnt much. He literally saved my life and almost dragged me through out the trek. That day nothing in life seem significant. I would have easily paid Rs1000 for 1 litre of water that day. Around the end half of our group was lost as some of us were ahead(oh yeah!!! this time was in the group moving ahead) and some left behind but finally we all figured out. Around 4.30, the porters finally congratulated us for doing exceptionally well as they are not used to see people covering so much in a single day and the final destination was just 30-45mins away. The water source was so feeble that it took almost 1 min to fill a water bottle. Imagine how could a flow so small be there in the mountais. It was like God especially created that for us. My roomie(Raghvendra) was not feeling well that day and was willing to go back but there was no way back and especially when you are stuck somewhere like that where you dont even find a single living creature. I will not describe the natural beauty which was there as I dont think i would ever be able to do justice with that. I will probably share the album with this.

Day3:

Our confidence level was at an all time high after accomplishing what we had done on the previous day. But on the third day also, I was trailing behind again. I find the first hour of the day the mst difficult. It was a good slope on which we had to climb and I was feeling breathless after 30 mins or so and this time to my rescue were Ankit and Praveen(Beti) in addition to Ashwani who I could see was in a situation like me. They all pulled me, setting small targets for 5 mins, and then 30 seconds rest and like that. Somehow after the first hour life was relatively easy. At one place again there was good slope where I was not able to make proper grip and I couldnot afford to slip through. These guys took me through. Luckily there was no water shortage today and there were streams in between. At one place where there was grass, rather than walking down, we just allowed ourself to slip through and get to the ground That was fun but immediately after which followed wasnt. It was sort of rock climbing which got even more difficult with the 15 kg bag on shoulder. All the exercise of shoulders, push ups came into play. And then to add to the drama, weather was getting unfavourable and the Porters asked us to hurry through beacuse if it rains, it would become very difficult to walk through. We could not spend much time at the summit and my findness of snow was lost on the second day itself so I didnt wanted to stay much either. And it did rain. We took out the flyer and everyone got underneath it. All our foof items,clothes, etc are always kept in big poly bags and you find the reason 4 it on tht day. That day it was bit senti nite since it was the last camping which we had to do and tomorrow we will be back to the old world again. There was Karthik's masala which he especially got from home and carried all the way through the mountains made the food even more delicious. Whenever we used to stop, you will find Roopesh drying his underpant, Senthil in his own world of photgraphy and Devendra was the quickiest of us all reaching ahead of everone. He has amazing stamina and I dont think he found the trek difficult at any moment of time.

Day 4:

It was raining outside while we got up. It was pretty chilly so I was inside my tent in my sleeping bag ony for another 30 mins or so. When I came out, I saw snow at the side of tent and all I could think was to get away from that place asap because if the the weather is harsh, the journey downhill could become as difficult as uphill or even more. Finally around 9, the Sun God smile and we were bit in a procastination mode. The last breakfast to be prepared, the last time we had to fold our tent, the last...of many things :( The view from the 3rd day camping site was heartening to say the least.

We started journey down and after every half an hour or so, I(we) looked back at admiration of ourself of how much we had actually covered in the past few days. And today was also not the day where I could walk down easily. I was afraid of slipping initially and soon my hunter shoes were biting into my toes and I had lot of problem. Finally after few hours of tiring effort, I took out my sports shoes and kept hunter shoes back. And boy!!!!!!once I was on my sports shoes<>

For the first time when you see people after 3-4 days, you really feel good and this life seems so much more easy compared to Trekking. I was so happy to get back alive. I had two dairymilk and other chocolates I had in my pocket gave them to Children. Generally I am not that benevolent ;) FInally as some of us were putting our bags on the jeep, I was lying on the ground trying to comprehend the crazy things and the amazing places I had been to in the past few days

As I finish writin my first blog, all the memories of the trek have become fresh and its like living your life twice :) Thanks for patiently reading through. I had so much more to share but i have to stop somewhere. give your comments, suggestion, etc to improve on my blog.

Cheers

Hemant Rathi