FIFa 2010 continuation ... round 16 ...

Round 16 :

Continuing with my updates on round 16 ….

Uruguay vs South Korea:
The start was good for Pre-quarters with a splendid match between Koreans and Uruguay. Suarez double blow at 8th and 80th minute after Koreans equalizer at 68th minute was a detonation on Koreans.

They fought bravely and swayed the hearts of the people. On the other hand Uruguay is continuing their dream run and entered the quarters and a lot will be expected from their front-run players Forlan and Suarez.


Ghana vs USA:
Ghana won the match after a late goal from Gyan in 93rd minute. USA played brilliantly but it was not their day and lost to Ghana.


Ghana’s win prolongs Africans hope but it will be a tough match for them in quarters playing Uruguay. One more win will make Ghana to enter semis and it will be a pleasure to Africans. So let’s wait and watch whether it is going to be Safari’s ride or South American’s ride to semis.

Germany vs England: Ohhhh!!! This was the most prominent match of this round as it goes back to 1966, where the rivalry started.

Germany’s youth team made a striking statement by overwhelming old rivals England 4-1. The controversial decision by line referee for Lampard’s kick at 2-1 can’t be taken as an excuse after their loss 4-1.

In 1966 World Cup finals England got the advantage from the referee and they won the World Cup. The result haunted Germans till date and this historic win will make England to go home facing the defeat from their old nemesis.
It’s again Klose who gave the initial lead and then by Podolski which turned the tables for Germany. Second-half goals by Mueller were breath-taking for Germany and heart-breaking for England. A lot was expected from Rooney who again disappointed the English people and his supporters.

Argentina vs Mexico:

The result was not a surprise as Argentina made it easy with 3-1. The first goal from Tevez was a controversial decision to not give it as an off-side, but the result was always obvious. Tevez ruled the Argentina’s hearts and became a nation hero.
It’s sad to see Messi not scoring a goal. But riveting to see Argentina’s play and undoubtedly they are the favorites now in this World Cup.
So, gear up to see the quarter final clash between Germany and Argentina.

Netherlands vs Slovakia:

It’s a one-sided match and Dutch won comfortably. Robben’s early goal gave them the lead and they won 2-1 after a last minute goal from Vittek to give Slovakia some relief.
Dutch were comfortably placed in quarters and their real challenge will be to face Brazil in quarters.

Brazil vs Chile:

Again a one-sided match with Brazil winning comfortably 3-0. Chile did not have a clue to break the Brazilian defense and lost miserably. Robinho finally scored for Brazil and gave some relief to Dunga. Kaka’s pass fetched the third goal but yet to see a goal from best player of world.

Paraguay vs Japan:


It was the first match which was decided on penalty shootout. It was a dull 120 minute game until penalty shootout was offered. Japan lost the penalty shootout and ended the hopes of Asians. Honda played magnificently in this World Cup but it got restricted after Japan’s loss.

Spain vs Portugal:

One more interesting match which ended with Villa’s goal paving way to Spain to enter Quarters. Ronaldo’s miserable play in the World Cup ended the hopes of Portugal. So finally Spain entered Quarters to face Paraguay which should be an easy draw for them.

Forecast: Finally the exciting matches are going to start. It will be a revelation to most of the teams to show their powers.
The most exciting match is undoubtedly between Germany and Argentina. It reminds us fifa 2006 when both the teams faced each other and match ended with penalty shootout. Argentina doesn’t want penalty shootout as they are aware of Germany’s record in shootouts. So they would pray to finish the game early.


But the Paulo(Octopus) picked Germany as the winners for the match so lets wait for the result. It predicted correctly all the Germany matches so this pick is very interesting.
The other matches are not tenacious unless there is some surprise in the outcomes. Most probably it could be Brazil vs Uruguay and Spain vs (Arg/Ger) in semis.

So lets wait for 1 more week to get the results ……

FIFA 2010 Group Stage synopsis.

Group Stage:

The FIFA2k10 grandeur was kicked off on 11th June, 2010. The first match was played between hosts South Africa and Mexico. South Africa has drawn the first blood by scoring first goal of FIFA2k10. But the end was not encouraging for them as the match was drawn by a late goal from Mexico.



Group A: It has France and Mexico as favorites to start along with hosts and Uruguay. Uruguay are the stunners as they entered round16 in panache topping the group.


The turnaround match was between France and Mexico when Anelka lost his temper on coach and was sent back to France. Adding to the distress, French team didn’t participate in the training on the next day, keeping their personal ambitions before the country’s pride. This resulted in 2-1 loss against hosts(Africa) and the runner-ups bowed out of the tournament without a single win.
Uruguay and Mexico qualified for the round 16.
Group B: Its Argentina all the way in the group B. Messi mesmerized with his ball passing skills and creating chances for his team’s goals.
.
But the only disappointment is not to see the best player on the planet to not score a single goal
South Koreans impressed with its play and cruised to round 16. It was a disappointing end to Greece and Nigeria.

Group C: It has England (All Star team) to start as favorites.


But USA’s comeback after going 2-0 down in the first half against Slovenia was the highlight. This made them to cruise to round 16 along with England (lucky to sneak through). Slovenia would be disappointed to miss the round16 and Algeria’s dismal performance earned them only 1 point.

Group D: It’s Germany all the way in this group to start as favorites.


They started as terminators outplaying Australia 4-0 but tumbled against Serbia and came back with 1-0 win over Ghana. Klose, Podolski, Ozil, Lahm and Mueller are the turnaround players for Germany. Ghana and Germany marched to round 16 in style.

Group E: This group was on a low profile with Dutch, Cameroon, Denmark and Japan.

Cameroon and Eto’o disappointed Africa with their gloomy play. Japan impressed everyone and entered round 16. It was disappointing end for Denmark. Dutch with Robben (turning late due to injury) had an easy go to round 16.

Group F: This group has champions Itlay without their champion goalkeeper Buffon(injured).


It was a gruesome display by them to stand last in the group stage. They couldn’t even win over New Zealand. Paraguay and Slovakia entered round 16.

Group G : This group has all time favorites Brazil, Ronaldo’s Portugal, Drogba’s Ivory Coast and North Korea. This group can be termed as toughest group. But Brazil was all the way through, Portugal 7-0 win over Nkorea made it easy for them.


The disappointment was for The Elephants(ivory coast) who ceased out after a great display. Drogba’s phone message ended a war in Ivory Coast after they got selected for world cup during qualifying phase. But they couldn’t prolong the exuberance of their football crazy nation.

Group H: Spain, the cup favorites and Chile are the favorites in this group. Swiss amazed Spain in the first match with 1-0. Can we hope such a result in French Open final between Federer and Nadal?? I would love to see it.


But the Spaniards came back strongly with the sublime touch of David Villa who made it for Spain. His 30 yard goal against Chile stands out. It was disappointing that Swiss didn’t qualify after defeating Spain, but Chile made it to round16.

Highlights: The highlights of group stages are :




Messi Messi Messi all the way …. He mesmerized everyone and Maradonna slammed the critics with his passion, tactics and gameplan.
Klose and Podolski impressed with their gameplan along with Mueller, Ozil and Lahm.

Drawbacks:
The main disappointment was France and Italy. The way they were ceased out was a shame to the two nations.

FIFA 2k10

It’s riveting to see the world going gaga over the FIFA2k10. India which is usually a cricket loving nation is also equally driven to this fifa-mania.

The tournament starts with Spain as favorites who amazed the world with their 1-0 win over Germany in Euro Cup 2008 final. Though it was Torres magic in the euro final the names David Villa, Sergi Ramos and Casillas also swayed the world.

Brazil as usual came to the tournament as favorites under Dunga’s management. He led Brazil to world cup victory in 1994. All eyes are set on him who dropped Ronaldinho from the squad. Kaka and Robinho are the pillars of the team.

Argentina, the team hitting most of the headlines is under Diego Maradonna’s charge. Not to forget the mesmerizing Messi who is the backbone of Argentina squad along with Tevez. Can eccentric Maradonna do it again for Argentina??? is the question haunting the people. Pele and other legends already started to castigate Maradonna’s capabilities.

England is always a team of superstars but never find its footage in the recent world cups. Though Beckham is out of the tournament it still has the names of Rooney, Gerrard, Lampard, Terry and Cole. The team is of superstars and is considered as one of the best teams from their performance in world cup qualifiers.

Germany, my favourites are always on low profile and are coming up with the youngest squad in the last 40+ years. Michael Ballack is out of the tournament with injury. Striker Klose, midfielder Podolski and captain Lahm should ride the Germans to further rounds.

Italy, the 2006 champions are in tournament with no expectations from media and people in Italy. So let’s see how the champions fare at the world cup.

France without Zizou can do some magic or not???? is the question in everyone’s mind. Without Zidane France didn’t fare well even in 2002 world cup. They are ousted without scoring a single goal.

Portugal, Ivory Coast and Cameroon are mostly dependent on their crunch players Ronaldo, Drogba and Etoo respectively and much is not expected from these teams.

South Africa, the hosts should elate the public and football followers of South Africa.

There are other teams who are coming all the way to Africa to show their pride and win the biggest sporting even on the planet.

So this is my preview on fifa 2k10.

I will update my views on the results in future.

Trip To Anatapur with Sarat on Bike.....

This blog captures some spectacular moments of my bike trip to Anantapur with Sarat.

2nd June 2009, 10 pm:
That’s the usual time on weekdays when my room-mates assemble after a hectic office schedule for some chitchatting.
Sarat came up with the idea of bike journey to Anantapur to attend his colleague’s marriage.

3rd June 2009:
Morning: I decided to take part in the journey as it will definitely leave us with some enriching experience. We both are new to this sort of traveling and wanted to experience the fun in biking.

Office hours: The long day in office was spent on net-surfing. It was great to go through different blogs on the road-journeys and their experiences. Team-bhp is the site where one can get blog and discussions on journeys to all corners of India.

Evening: Our initial plan was to start from Maarthalli at 4pm, so that we can reach Anantapur by 9pm or 10pm.
But we started our journey around 5:30pm. I was leveraged to start the ride from Maarthalli on Unicorn (the terminator of the trip). It was the first trip for both of us and it gave a feel of Roadies- Hell Down Under. We are big fans of Roadies –Hell Down Under (Mtv reality show).
It took almost 1 hour to sneak through the Bangalore traffic. Around 6:30pm we reached the HEBBAL flyover. The real journey starts from this point.
Our first pit-stop is Chickballapur which is 70+kms from Hebbal. Anantapur is 220kms from Hebbal.

First pit-stop journey : The journey was fine with cool breeze and less traffic. To make it interesting we started to chase one BMTC Volvo airport bus. It was fun to go on track with it. After 7pm the journey became tough. There were no street-lights after crossing the Airport Road. One more addition to our misery is the construction work, due to which the road was single-lane one.
Its tough to get the sight of the road as the vehicles coming in opposite directions glare on you. So, we reduced the speed to 40kmph and adapted to the conditions. Then one Innova guy came to our rescue. I just followed him and started judging about speed-breakers and vehicles coming in opposite direction by his speed regulations. We were in comfort zone while riding with him on that 1-lane road without any hiccups. After crossing Nandi Hills we gave a 2-minute break to our sneaky race and started the journey once again.
While travelling we started to share some tips on riding as both of us are new to this long journey. Then we came to Chikballapur and started searching for some good Dhaba. We crossed Chikballapur and after some 5kms we got a Kamat Hotel, and we finally gave a break to our journey around 8pm. It was some great 2hrs+ journey for us with some dazzling light and no proper road due to construction etc etc.
We took rest for an hour and started journey around 9pm after some light dinner.
150+kms was still left in our book to reach Anantapur.

Second pit-stop journey: This time its Sarat’s turn to ride the Samurai. I was sitting back and enjoying the journey. There is no traffic at all except lorries, RTC buses and some crazy riders like us. We were doing fine all the way except some construction areas where it is a single-lane road. Then slowly we entered Andhra Pradesh. After some 40+ kms ride from our first pit-stop we crossed Baagepalli and took some rest in a petrol-bunk. That’s our second pit-stop. There we enquired about Anantapur and started the journey after giving a break of 15mins.

Third pit-stop journey: The next pit-stop is Penukonda 46kms away from Baagepalli. In this 46 kms ride there was no traffic at all. We are like ghosts on a bike in darkness searching for a soul. We started to make fun thinking of some unusual things like puncture or etc. There was no way we can come out of some problem as it was a open area with no personage in sight. We reached Penukonda around 10:30 PM and took a break for 15mins.

Destination: We were just 80kms away to reach our destination. We know that these 80kms is tough and tiring. It’s my turn again to drive. We thought of not driving for more than 20 mins at a stretch and to take rest for every 20mins. So we divided 80kms to 3 parts. First and last 20kms were driven by me and the second part was by Sarat. So finally we reached Anantapur around 11 30pm. We started to search for some good hotel and it was around 00:30 am we checked-in to the room. We didn’t do anything other than a small chat discussing our glorious journey and slept.

4th June 2009:

Morning: We woke up around 6AM. The marriage is at 8 AM. So we got ready and reached the marriage hall around 8 AM and had breakfast there. The bride is Swetha, Sarat’s colleague and friend. We spent time pondering the marriage and discussing our over-night adventure. After the marriage we greeted the couple and told them about our journey to attend their marriage. They were shocked and also felt happy listening to our 250kms bike ride for their marriage. We had lunch at 10 30 AM and returned to our room.
We checked-out the hotel around 11 30 AM and started the return journey.

Return Journey: This time it is Sarat’s turn to start the journey. The road was very good and it is NH7 connecting Bangalore-Hyderabad. After the first 60 kms drive we took rest for some time and its my turn to drive now. Day-journey is so cool with full sun-light, no glaring or etc. We were driving around 80kmph and it was an awesome drive. The previous night drive was challenging, but in the morning it is like a drivers paradise.
There were some instances where we crossed 100kmph mark also. The drive was very smooth and entertaining. Around 3 pm we reached Hebbal and went to Sarat’s cousin home and took some rest there for an hour. We again started at 4pm and reached to our home around 5 30 PM. It was one of the special moments in life, first time to have a bike trip this way. I don’t know whether I will be again a part of journey like this or not, but it is always special to do something new in life.

This journey was an instant trip with no planning at all, and it was very successful with not even a single problem. A great thanks to GOD for this to happen without any problem. I told to my father about the trip before starting it. My mother doesn’t know about it. Sarat also hid this with his parents. So after the journey we called them and told them about this journey.

Sarath:
A crazy idea to begin with.... a crazy friend supporting it.... a crazy escape considering what all can go wrong.... was it worth it all??.... well, we never thought of it.... after all there is always a first time n what we got was an adventure to cherish and a bum-bursting bike trip to boast off.... jet-set-go... vroommm.....

“It is in the compelling zest of high adventure and of victory, and in creative action, that man finds his supreme joys.”


JAI HIND !!!!

coorg trip

Adding one more page to my blog. This time it is Coorg that was destined by us. This trip was special because after so many initial hiccups we finally made it happen. From a long time, trip was being planned by chandu, jana, ashok and Sudhakar(thatzz me) and it came into reality on 24-Jan-2009. It took 1 week for us to plan and schedule it , and thanks to Chandu for making it finally.

The main priority was given to vehicle by Ashok and we sticked to Innova 5 seated+ driver. We are 4 and our search for 5th member ended with Jana's brother. But our search engine ws so strong that it also flagged 6th member as Jana’s Cousin, and finally ended with 6.

The trip was kick started on 24th Jan early morning 4. A bit surprising, but that’s the best time to start with no traffic and no tensions of night travel. We booked a innova with the capacity 2 + 2 + 3 seated and LCD display for movies.

Manju is the driver and guide for the trip. He is one of the best drivers I had came across and a big thanks to him for his superb control on the vehicle and also for some wonderful edge of seat turns. On the way we had breakfast around 8 AM after Mysore. We slept for some time and the other time was spent to discuss on recession (idi chala hot topic guru or sakkathh hot topic maga).

Around 10 AM or so on the way to Coorg we went to a Tibetian Temple. We spent around 30-45 mins there, the temple is well sculptured and a good way to start trip from temple. Then we started to Coorg. Coorg is around 250 kms from Bangalore. Our next halt was some park near Khushala-Nagar. As it was a long weekend every place is crowded. There was a boating camp in a small lake in the park. All of us are eager to do pedal boating and did it in 3 groups. We got a 2 seated pedal boat, and went in 3 groups. First myself and Ashok, then it is Jana and Chandu's turn and finally Jana's brother Balakrishna and his cousin Upendra’s turn .

It’s time to say about the other people in trip. We all are friends through PMC, all 4 of us joined PMC at same time. Jana's brother and cousin are good fun in the trip. Jana's brother completed his engineering and Upendra is pursuing his 3rd year of engineering. We used to make a lot of fun of them and they used to give it back hard to us.

And after the boating halt we started once again and started to think about accommodation and reached a place after Khushala-Nagar and 20kms before Madikeri alias Coorg. There we found a Coorg County Resort and enquired about the stay. The manager told each cottage is 3.5k per day for 2 people which includes stay, breakfast and games(Swimming, Billiards cricket badminton etc). We were 6 and he agreed finally for 7k for all 6 for 2 days. It might sound as a surprise but its true and we took the resort option finally after some more enquiries on other resorts.

Then we went to Abbey Falls and came back to resort and had lunch around 3 PM. Then it is pool time and we tried to swim. Ashok is good in swimming so he had more fun, I and Chandu know some basics of swimming@IIIT so had fun in recollecting them, did a bit of swimming and had fun pulling each other legs. Then we played cricket for some time and after 6 we went back to Cottage. As everyone was tired we took bath and went for campfire and dinner. We had dinner near campfire which was good and different. Then slept giving the day a break after having a long journey and loads of fun.

The next day we got ready by 10AM in the morning attended the photo-shoots of Jana and Ashok, had breakfast, played billiards and started again to visit some more places. The next point in trip is river rafting. It was crowded as usual and waited for some 45 mins for our turn. Then finally we were given one boat and we were accommodated by one more family(4ppl) and started rafting. We rafted the boat happily finished the onward journey and started the backward journey. Now it has been so much in the trip and there was no twist or no happening, and you might have got bored reading it. So its time to add some sansani khabar(Aaj Tak style) to it. So after starting the return journey Ashok's watch costing around 5-6k slipped into the water. He is a good swimmer, so he dived into the lake and started searching for it, and the remaining batch on boat started to guess the whereabouts of watch and gave him different directions to search and the operation failed and we came back to shore without finding the watch.

But still we are not happy and felt bad about the watch and wanted to give one more try, so we went along the shore to the place where he lost and then Ashok again started searching for the watch(obviously as it costs nearly 6k), and we failed once again and went back in despair with defeat on our faces(of not founding it). But we learnt one thing that from next time leave your valuable belongings behind and go into water. Good point to learn in a 3 day trip :).

Then we had lunch and went to Talakaveri(birth place of kaveri). In between we went to one more place Bhagamandala where there is triveni sangamam of kaveri, kanika and sujyothi rivers. Talakaveri is a very beautiful place and the sight from top(1350mtrs altitude)is superb. It is the border of kerala and karnataka on western ghats. So the view from it was simply awesome and refreshing. After that we went back to our resort ordered for dinner and to our luck it took 2 hours to get the order and in the mean time we played billiards and had fun with Jana and Upendra(who fell in love with a girl near talakaveri). And as usual ended the day with a good sleep.

The final day started with some small adventure from Ashok, Chandu and me. We went deep into the resort and had some fun and feel of adventure. Then got ready, had breakfast, then billiards and finally photo-shoot of our resort and started the journey back. We started around 11 AM, had lunch near Mysore and again started back to Bangalore. We reached around 5 30 PM to Bangalore then Chandu bhai went to a movie while others went back to their den. I reached home around 6 PM then went to a Jain temple in Jayanagar with Jaya, had dinner and slept with some good memories of the 3-day coorg trip.

This is one of the trip where we spent the time more in leisure in resort by playing than seeing all the places around in a hurry, that is the specialty about the trip and had a great time with everyone who are part of the trip. We had lot of funny sessions and a big thanks to Jana who could bear us for 3 days and also the hell time we gave him. So finally these are the few words I had spelt on the trip from my pages of memories on this trip.

Have a great time and take care of your belongings when you are going for rafting or swimming. Small precautions will be of more benefit than overlooking them.
Thanks for reading this .... Comments are invited ....

savanadurga trek

Hi all,

This is a small story of my wonderful experiences on my trip to savanadurga. I with my office friends planned for a small trip to Savandurga, 60kms from banagalore towards mysore.



The day started on morning 5 45 A M. I woke up at 5 45 am and to my surprise chandu also woke up at 5 45 am which he doesn’t do usually( that’s the magic of the trip I guess). We are ready by 6 30 AM, which is the time we have to go to UDUPI GARDEN stop where Sandeep is waiting for us. According to the plan Ritvik and Krishna should reach our place by 6 25 AM and we have to meet sandeep at UDUPI GARDEN 6 30 AM. But as we are very punctual we followed the timings strictly with a 10 minute delay. Ritvik and Krishna came to my room arnd 6 45 AM and we left with bags containing water, fruits(apples oranges bananas), biscuits and chocolate and tropicanas for the trip. We met Sandeep at 7 AM and started the journey in his new Santro car.



Then we called Vijay who is coming in koramangla route with his family(wife and child kushal), Devendra, Keshav, Sashank. They are coming in a Palio.



We started journey 20 mins late but it was good that we started. We switched on FM 94.3 and enjoyed the ride with songs, chat and snaps. As it was a Saturday morning the road is free, no girls to watch and have fun as a normal weekday. None of us know about Bangalore well. But as Vijay is from Bangalore they drove happily without any confusion. We got confused even to go to Majestic after staying in Bangalore for more than 18 months. But finally we went to Majestic and then took Magadi Road which will take us to Shavandurga. We are just following the magadi road and after crossing Vijayanagar, I donno why we took a left and went inside thinking it is magadi road. Then we saw vijays car which is stopped aside and we crossed them. Then we stopped and saw them, they took a U – Turn and started back. As we donno anything we also did the same but we cant keep track of them and we started searching for them.



Then Ritvik called vijay asking them to wait for us and their whereabouts. Vijay got frustrated as we are not able to track them he left telling us to ask anyone and come to know where we have to go. Then after some time a old man of 60 years age came to our rescue and showed us the way to shavandurga. Then we started happily once again and after 1 hr journey we all met at outskirts for breakfast. So all 11 of us had a very nice breakfast and started towards our destination.



Its around 9 30 we reached there and started. Everyone of us carried bag with bottle of water, fruits, biscuits and chocolates. We started together after 2-3 mins I chandu Krishna ritvik devendra and sashank started to climb the hill.



Ohhhh !!!! I forgot to tell about the place savanadurga. It’s a place famous for a temple and 2 hills. The hills names are Karibetta and Bidibetta. Kari means black and Bidi means white. As every place White has some preference so we are not allowed to Bidibetta it requires some permission from forest rangers. So we followed our way to Karibetta.

We also hired a 15 year old boy to show the route. He is a real warrior. You will come to know about it later in the story. First the boy accompanied vijay and his family , Keshava and Sandeep. Rest 6 of us went in other way. By climbing the hill which is 70 degrees slant. There are no trees nothing its simply a rock. After getting up for some distance sandeep told us to come in their path which is simple. So from 100 ft high we all started going parallel to ground to reach other people. That’s the most tough thing to do when ur climbing a hill. Climbing is a bit easy but going sideways after climbing is very tough that to where it is 70 degrees slant and no exact grip( thanks to my adidas shoes with which I could do it ). Then after coming to a place near to sandeep’s place we found another route to climb the hill. Sandeep insisted us to follow them not to try anything new. But we didn’t listen then sandeep send the guide boy to us and they followed the normal route. Chandu and Krishna also followed Sandeeps route as their shoes doesn’t have gud grip.



So finally I ritvik devendra and sashank decided to go in the way which we found and the guide boy is happy that we are following it. We asked him twice before we start and he said its simple and we could reach easily as it is a shortcut but tiresome to go in this route and its not tough.



Then we started climbing it up with a bag back of us. I started first, leading them then ritvik , sashank and devendra followed me and the boy is coming last to see everything goes fine. Then after going up for 15 minutes its becoming very tough for us. And the boy is saying from down just 10 minutes and everything will be fine. So we started moving up keeping 10 minutes in the mind. But I didn’t know at that time really what 10 minutes mean. So after going 10 more minutes up, its getting really tough for us no proper grip, thanks to the climate it is really cool and no sun that day. There is a water path aside which is wet and its not safe to step on it as we will slip. Slowly we completed 1000 feet and we are out of form wanted some rest and fully tired.



And adding more excitement to our life we are not getting any grip to go up. We are like lizards on a wall and not getting any grip to go further and its getting tough to be in the same position for more time. And we are nearly 1500 feet up. Then I and ritvik started bugging the boy to come and help us. He came up gave some support to ritvik and ritvik went a little bit up and he did the same for me and again we are back to climbing. Then there is a hurdle. There is a path to go up and it is wet to go up. We cant step in water as we will slip. So the boy came up he is not having any footwear so he went up and started pulling ritvik up. Just imagine a 15 year old boy pulling 23 year old ritvik up. I thought of not troubling the boy and started going in other route i.e., side of that wet path. Then there is a hill I have to go up the hill to reach top. I tried my level best to get over the hill bit I couldn’t. Then I gave up and asked the boy to help me. Then he told me to come in normal way and he will help me in wet path through which he took ritvik up. I was shocked to hear it. 1500 ft above the ground how could I move sideways and go there. I took god’s name and started sideways and luckily by god’s grace reached there and he pulled me up, he pulled 69kgs(me) up. I was shocked and there is some place for us to take rest so I and ritvik just sat there and took some rest. In the mean time the boy is also taking rest. Sashank and devendra are also taking rest down the elevation which we crossed we couldn’t see them and they couldn’t see us as there is some part of the rock between us. After taking rest for 10 mins I and ritvik thought of going up. Then the boy told me to wait and he started taking ritvik up by showing him the way. They both left up. And I was sitting pretty happily thinking I got some more time to take rest but didn’t thought it is the most frustrating time.



Sashank and Devendra are down shouting my name and asking how to come up. I told the boy and ritvik went up he will be back in 10 mins then I will send him down. From then for every 1 minute we are shouting each other names to know everyone is fine. And this is happening at 2000 ft above. It is frustrating to sit there. The boy is not coming down, we started thinking the boy and ritvik went up and they will not come down. We have to make our own way to go up.



Then shashank started coming up and he came to my level. I went up and gave shashank my place to sit. Devendra got frustrated sitting thr for long time and we are shouting about the boy to come and help us. Then Devendra decided to go down. But I and sashank cant even do that as we are a elvel high and to go down to reach devdendra will be really tough. Then after some time the boy came back to us and he took devendra back to the starting place the ground. In the mean time I and shashank got frustrated and feeling bad as devednra left us. We are discouraged, for 1 minute we thought we should have followed sandeep s way. We are half way up thinking what to do cant go down or go up. Then I thought myself this will be the most adventurous thing I could do in my life and thought not to give up. I gave some energy and boost to shashank. Then Shashank took his N73 phone and started playing songs. He played Aditi song from jaane tu ya jaane na. It cooled us and we are happy to sit above 2000 ft in middle of the rock and to listen songs. And we heard some thunder noises thinking it might rain after some time, then it will be hell for us. But for 5 mins we just enjoyed rehmans number. Then after some time the boy came to us dropping devendra down. And after giving some rest to the boy we started our journey back after 45 mins break to me the hell time.



I started freshly with lot of courage and confidence that I could male it. Shashank was a little bit dull but seeing me he also became and happy and we started going up. It has become more tougher for us now. No proper grip and at times we thought we will just fall from there. I started taking god name and shouted for the boy in crisis times he gave me support and took me up. There are points when no support to hands and legs just applying heart pressure to ground and stick to it so that boy will come and gives us support to go up. I cant forget those moments in my life. Then we both started to encourage ourselves and started moving up. We could find some small trees and started taking their support. Once shashank tried to take support of a branch and to our surprise it got broken. Then we even stopped to take support from trees. We are moving ahead and the boy as usual is saying 10 more minutes. We have no energy to go up and fully tired that 45 minutes stay took hell out of us. But we are giving everything we have. Shashank started to move taking his shoes but its tough to walk barefoot on the rock his skin came out and it started bleeding on both his legs then again he wore his shoes and we started again. Hestarted to take more rest as he his bleedeing. I told the boy to be with him and started gong up myself. I though its near to the end but after going up for 20 more minutes I was totally exhausted and started taking rest.



I waited for shashank to come and once he came after 5 mins we 3 started once again and this time the boy told this is last 10 mins and he showed us the top. But we are totally exhausted not even to climb a single step. But we started up. I was thinking after coming to top if I slip then again I will be reaching down. I looked back and confirmed that I cant go till the bottom and 50 ft down thr is a small tree so that I could take its support though I could slip. It gave me some energy and I started moving up fast by saying “ I can do it “ ….. and after some 15 mins we are finally up. And I could see all my fnds up thr shouting our names ……….. I felt happy to see all my fnds once again which I felt doubtful in midway. It gave me shashank all the energy we lost and we just ran towards them and told them abt the experience and scolded ritvik for taking the boy with him leaving us behind. Then ritvik told that he was frightened when boy told him to wait up so the boy accompanied him till some more distance from where he came alone. Then we could understand his feelings and gave him a thumbs up for making it. And in mean time devendra also came up in normal way.And then we spend some time on the top nearly 1 hr. Took snaps and ate the fruits biscuits and chocolates and then came down in normal way which every1 followed.



The up journey took 3 hrs + for us and down journey took just 45 mins …. We came down and started back … and then it was the puncture drama. Our back tyre got punctured then to our luck we got it done in 5 mins from some autowallas thr and started again for lunch. We ha gud lunch at dhaba. I donno how the food is it is tasty or not but I had it happily as I was fully hungry and ready to eat anything.



Then we took a 10 min break and started back to Bangalore. After getting struck in banagalore traffic we reached home around 6 30 in the evening.



This day is the most memorable one as I did the most adventurous and thrilling ride on the hill. I donno whether I could do it once again but I could say that I did it atleast for once. I came with some minor injury other than that everything is fine. So at the end as our SRK dialogue ….. End main sab kuch teek hi hota hain ………..



I think i wrote a lengthy story though I didn’t mention abt some other funny incidents. I hope u enjoyed it else sorry. Thanks for the patience.

devarayanadurga trip

This blog is on devarayanadurga trip. It was a small trip planned by shravan. It was initially planned by shravan with his office friends. But was finally done by us. The trip was on sunday 20th dec. On saturday we all friends met in our room and went to rab ne bana di jodi. Initially shravan, sarat,jaaysimha,sai and shravan's offc fnds are in the trip plan. As I was not feeling well i was out of the trip. But Sunday morning raghavendra, vijay and me joined the trip.
The speciality of the trip is it is planned on bikes. This was the first bike trip for most of us. It is only 80kms+ but going on bikes is a good experience. Finally 10 ppl made to the trip. I and sai on sai's pulsar, shravan and subbu on shravan's splendor, jaya and vijay on activa, ragha and sarat on new unicorn GP, then narendra and ramamohan on their pulsar.
All the 4 bikes started from BTM and met ragha and sarat at yeshwantpur railway station. The on-route to yeshwantpur railway station itself was funny as no one of us know the route. But we made it finally after some hiccups. Then from yeshwantpur the real journey started. I was driving the bike. So it was a good fun for me as I never rode for such a long distance.
In this blog I can explain more on our's journey(myself and sai) as most of the time in journey we are on bikes and each bike has its own experience. From yeshwantpur railway station when we started. Sarat's bike is leading the route. It is followed by me and others. After some distance we lost track of sarat. He is very much ahead of us.
Coming to the route, we googled and got some places in between bangalore and devarayanadurga which can lead us to destination. The main point is tumkur b/n these places. Before Tumkur we got a call from sarat to take a right turn from main-road. So I stopped in between the road at some petrol-bunk enquired about it and waited for other 3 bikers to come and join us. Then in the enquiry we came to know that we are on correct track and sarat-ragha took a wrong path. Then we told them about the correct route and waited for them to join us at the petrol-bunk. In this break time we had some bananas and took some rest after a long drive.
We waited for a long time but sarat-ragha are not coming. Then we thought of going back and trace them. We are calling them but they are not lifting the phone. Then finally after a long time they called us and then we came to know that they are at tumkur. Then we started our journey again to tumkur, but this time sai started to ride the bike and i enjoyed the ride sitting back. Then we all met at tumkur once again. And started to the destination-Devarayanadurga.
We took a road which goes through some villages then to the devarayanadurga hill. The road is good with no traffic and this time we are going first and others following us. Sai was drivng in 90's and the cool breeze is awesome. And this time its our turn to miss the route. There was a board on the road showing a left turn to devarayaandurga, but i and sai didn't noticed it and went some 6 kms ahead and found other board(one more way to devarayanadurga) and started waiting for others to come. No signal to call them. We waited for a long time and after that we started back again thinking we missed the route or there is some problem for others. In the back journey we came to know that there is one more way, and then we are happy that other bikers might took that route and there is no problem. Then we went back 6 kms and took the same route so that there will be no confusion later.
We started the trip thinking there will be a trek. But later came to know after reaching the place that there is no trek to do it is a bike-trek(climbing the hill on a bike). Then after reaching top we all met, got some scoldings for missing the route. On the hill there is a laxmi narayana swamy temple. So we had darshan there and there is a small hill near. So to add some trek to our list we climbed the hill, had some fun there and started back the journey.
In the return its my turn to ride the bike now. All the bikes started and when we are about to start the bike gave a problem. Its not starting, and by the time we thought of calling others they already left and no coverage to call anyone. Then after some time(by god's grace) it started and we are happy to go back. Then we started the journey back and all of us came to a understanding that who is going first should see for a dhaba for lunch and should stop others.
Sarat is going first with ragha and sai n me are following them. The back jounrey was good and special as there is no much traffic and everyone are enjoying ride in 70's and 80's kmph. I took some sharp turns and unnecessary overtakes, which made sai furious and he started scolding me. Then finally we found a dhaba and had lunch at 4 in the evening. All of us are tired and are hoping to go home as early as possible and go to bed.
After lunch we all dispersed according to the routes. Narendra-rammohan and sarat-subbu started on their bikes to go to BTM directly. Sai-me,shravan-vijay,ragha-jaya started to go to yeshwantpur then myself and jaya had to take bus to BTM, as vijay shravan sai and ragha routes are different. Then we went to malleswaram. From there I and jaya took a bus to majestic then from there to BTM. To our luck we got seats in bus to sit and go. Then after reaching BTM we had some light dinner and went to room around 9 called everyone about their home return and slept.
As it was a Sunday we had to sleep early and take rest because again the next day the usual routine starts(go to office).

The trip is not adventurous but has its own speciality as it was a trip on bikes. And for the first time in my life I rode for more than 100kms on a single day.