Kirukupayyan’s Weblog

There is something that gives me pleasure every time I talk about it, that is bashing out at politicians. If you have not realized it yet: the largest democracy in the world is a big joke.

I dont know why I’m writing this, May be with everybody talking about politics in light of the upcoming elections, it has got into my head.

Almost all problems in India can be directly attributed to most politicians and all the good that has happened to a few handful politicians. I’m not discussing who’s good and who’s bad. The point is the system needs redefinition. Given that almost 1/3 of its members have criminal cases pending against them, it is so obvious.

Majority of Indias population can be defined with the following qualities: corrupt, lethargic, indifferent, selfish, feeling helpless, cribbing. And indian democracy, I would prefer to call it “democrazy”, has so many elements that directly stem from these qualities and are meant to protect and preserve these qualities. We act and react in different ways, depending upon which side we are. If we need to get something done, we dont hesistate to bypass law, grease palms, adjust slightly or whatever. If we are the are the ones who are demanding bribe, or being corrupt, we justify it saying that everybody does it, its common. There is no guilt associated with it. If we are the on the side that is watching all this happen, we are either indifferent or plead helplessness.

One thing that Indians learnt from the british raj is divide and rule, and the current political class knows exactly how to use it. Religion, caste, creed, state boundaries, language, money, movies and even rivers have been the basis of which populism has been sought.

The rise of the regional parties has been growing higher and higher, ofcourse one would correlate this to the rising needs of the local populace to get things that they want. This has given rise to the hung parliments and the grand alliances of convenience. Parties that fought against each other, threw mud on each others candidates and jeered at political ideals and achievements are suddenly long lost friends. Absolute disregard to something called “moralilty”.

Political junta knows that its not possible to get 2/3 majority by ones own party, the amount of investment needed and the management is extremely vast; hence alliances work effectively. Todays enemy is tomorrows friend.

Gone are the days when political parties appealed to the minds of the people. Once in 5 years, a 3 month exercise decides who gets to rule, who gets to make money out of nothing for the next 5 years. Mayawati, the current chief minister of UP, is one of the highest tax payers, with almost 26 crore ruppees. Establishments owned by the kith and kin of every politician get a helping hand.

Of the roughly 60% votes that is cast, 40% votes determine who comes to power. Pan India, if you allocate 5% votes to religious minorities, 15% votes to caste based groups, 10% to the poor and illiterate, you already have a majority in the parliament.  Ofcourse, these numbers are heuristic, the Election Commission of India does not publish details of the electorate except something like ” x% men and y% women”.

It has now come down to actually bribing the way to power. I would consider anything that targets an individual or a small group of people as bribe.

While I agree with providing free power (when there is power) to farmers,  incentives to help people grow out of poverty, and lead a decent life. I don’t agree with a lot of policies that are implemented to please a section of society. Lets face it, providing television sets, and free power to watch television sops, for the poor is an insult to democracy.

Save India, cast your vote.

I came across this group recently and joined their mailing list. Soon I realized that this was an enthusiastic group of trekkers. Most of the treks they organize are filled up within a few days. Even before I could figure out what treks are organized, the waynaad trek was already closed for registration. I picked this one randomly, as this was organized by Peter, the groups founder, chairman and commander-in-chief!!

I asked the organizers to let me join them if there were any cancellations. They usually have a waiting list too, so chances were very remote. After initially refusing, they agreed on the ‘if any cancellations on the last minute’ part. And it so happened that there were cancellations and I got a seat.

Arun was the organizer from bangalore, we were joined by Vinod Roy. The three of us were to reach salem and join the main group coming from chennai. We were supposed to carry night food for the chennai group. At salem we met Vinod varghese one of the core organizer for this trek. We finished our dinner in salem and got food for the rest of them.

The total count was somewhere around 63, with some joining us at calicut. We had to get food for some 50 odd people.

We were headed towards calicut from where busses were arranged to pick us up and tranport us to the base camp. The trek was misnamed as waynaad trek, it had nothing to do with waynaad and its chembra peak. The trek was headed towards vellarimala(1800m) and vavulmala (2200m). The mission was to capture the highest peak.

At salem it was quite a reunion for the folks who had already met each other in some other treks. Some were very keen on the food and it shifted hands within minutes

We landed up on calicut exactly on time, only one bus had come. There was lot of enthu and group photos were taken after we all squatted right there, just outside the railway station. We had to wait for ‘10 minutes’ before the other bus would come. That ‘10 minutes’ status never changed for next couple of hours. Someone discovered a hotel inside the station that served yummy upma. Soon the crowd started thining over the next 20 minutes and the upmas were getting over very quickly. Finally when the bus arrived, the organizers had to pull people out of the hotel . Me and VR (vinod roy), downed 2 plates of upma and a by two Tea. We slept off during our journey to the base camp. Somewhere (I’m bad with names of places) we stopped for breakfast, so that people who didnt get to taste the upma could eat something. I felt it strange to see that almost the entire group was hogging!  Guess the reason was that during the trek we were supposed to be on ration for food!! 

Conversation revolved around treks people have been to and what they experienced. There was very few questions about where one works and the sort. The bus soon stopped unable to ascend the narrow roads further. We gave up on the bus and decided to walk our way to the base camp. The food was distributed: maggi, soup, some fruits, rusk, squeeze jams, pickles, some parathas and even sweet polis. The basecamp was a someone’s place, it was small. We dumped excess luggage and started on the trek right away.

We walked quite some distance through farms before entering the forests. The plants were becoming taller around us and the path was becoming narrower. Soon we were deep into the forest and our trail was taking us higher up with each step. Walking on sliding stones, jumping or climbing over fallen trees was quite tiring mainly because of the steep climb, and we were sweating like crazy. Our first long break was at olichuchattam falls. The water was running down an inclined yet steep face of the mountain. We could not reach the water from this place. The guide told us that we can reach the falls from further up.

After walking for somemore time we reached the top from where the falls started. Most took quick baths in the spine chilling waters

Taking enough breaks we managed to reach our base camp before the sunset. The guide insisted on us camping even further up, closer to the water, but we liked the place and Peter decided that we’d camp right ther

A camp fire was started with huge logs brought from the woods. Reaching the water was a problem we had to trek for 15mins downhill to reach the water point. We collected enough water for the night’s cooking. By this time the mist started settling down and the place was becoming cold.

Our cooks settled down and started with soups. There were all kinds of soup packets so they selected tomato soup. But soon we figured out that it was not enough, a lot more soup and even more soup was prepared People kept drinking soup and came for more. Finally maggi preparation started. The first pot of maggi was over within a minute, it took almost 20 minutes for the water to boil and the noodles to cook

More maggi, more maggi, more maggi and even more maggi. Every grumbling stomach was put to rest . People rested around the fireplace, some went to sleep. There was a group that had brought chicken and were happily roasting it. I was too tired to wait and taste it, went to sleep. Next day morning I heard that it wasnt cooked well and a lot was wasted. I dont know if that’s the truth or a story told to avoid jealous looks

Next day morning we finished our early morning responsibilities, (Real Freedom ) and started on the trail to reach vavulmala. My knees for some reason gave way and started paining like crazy. It was the same pain I got during my trek to himachal, and I forgot to take my knee gaurds   I was limping soon and the guide scared me saying that the remaining trek to the peak (about 300m) was quite tedious and suggested that I stay back with him. He was going back to the base camp. It was extremely disappointing for me, I knew that all I needed was a few hours rest and I should be ok, but I cant delay the entire group. So with huge disappointment, I agreed to return back to the base with the guide.

He took to me a rocky viewpoint nearby and we sat there for about an hour. The first group appeared further up on the way to the peak as tiny tots, with my 18-55mm lens, I could not snap them. We reached base camp and I slept for a while. On the way the guide was talking to me in malayalam about his ‘great achievements’ in the forest, about sandeep who’s blog had got all the attention to vellarimala and how he served his customers. I guess he had never seen a big crowd as our group, so he was quite skeptical. I soon realized that I just had to say ‘hehehehe’ and let him do all the talking, otherwise he thought I didnt understand ‘becos of my poor understanding of malayalam’ and start explaining the whole thing again

Later I heard from the group that the climb to the peak was nothing at all, they had reached the peak in less than 2 hrs and had spent a good 1 hour on the peak before returning back!!!   I guess, it was in written that I shouldnt be able to reach the peak, given that I twisted my angle and had to work on it for an hour, to get it back into shape on the day of travel.

Since mission vavulmala was completed in less than expected time, there was confusion about what to do next. Three ideas floated and there were supporter for all the three. One group wanted to trek to all nearby view points, another wanted to stay back and rest, yet another wanted to trek down and reach the water falls. In the middle of all the confusion I decided to join with the group treking down. So you will not find any notes about what happened to the other two groups…

I should thank Cherian, who help me a lot during the trek down. Initially he moved along with me sweeping the group. He later insisted on carrying my backpack so that there is less stress on my knees. He carried my luggage for half the journey while the pain killer tablets I took were trying hard to kill the pain. Someone lent me their walking stick, and I really felt taken care of in this group. I just had myself to curse for forgetting my knee gaurds!!

The way down was extremely treacherous as the sand and rocks just kept on slipping down. Most of the people had to either run down and sit and slide slowly. We were worried about reaching the base before it became dark otherwise treking in the dark would be the only option left. Treking in the dark is fun but with people dead tired, it was the last thing one wanted. Some folks in the group were cursing the guide saying that he was taking us through a bad path

Half way down the trek, we crossed a small stream. The first set that came to this stream was happily bathing. By this time my pain killers had started working and I was able to walk better. I felt relieved to be able to carry my own backpack

Our camping site was a rocky clearing, sloping down, just next to a gushing stream. It was a wonderful place to camp.  Our cooks were generous with MTR ready to eats and soups to drink.  But some grumbling stomachs still needed maggi

Next day morning we took bath in the falls, someone had discovered while exploring upstream. A neat 15 feet falls with cascading water, was amazing to just look at. The water was extremely cold, but who cared. There were couple of deep, deep circular pits. Must have been the force of the water in raining season that created these pits. We were careful not to slip into the abyss while having all the fun. Our kind cooks had made black tea. After a bath the tea was really wonderful to have.

Our group packed up and started moving in small sets. Suddenly we see Vinod varghese and his friend cruising down. We were curious to know what time they had started, since it was only 830am, and if the remaining group had already come. The two of them had left earlier so as to make the return arrangements.

Our group started the downhill trek to reach basecamp. Our set was the last, we were extremely slow taking photos here and there, getting lost and walking further down to reach the trail, it was all fun. Nobody complained.

Soon we saw the first batch of the remaining group that camped uphill overnight come down with a vengeance   They were literally running down. so we let them past us.

Shankar and me were walking precariously slow. After reaching the village we walked and walked and walked and walked, there was no sign of the base camp. We walked even further wondering if we had really walked all this way when going uphill. May be we were excited at that time or may be we are lost this time…

And finally we decided to ask some locals. They were helpful in terms of saying that some people with backpacks walked this way…  We were on the right track….  and would have walked hardly 10ft, we saw the base camp

There was supposed to be a small stream behind the house, we treked there and took bath. There was a small fall less than 3 ft high but the water falling on the body felt like “nature-cure” massaging. Someone remarked, “you are limping but still going everywhere…”.  I missed the peak, didnt want to miss anything else

After changing clothes and getting back our dumped items, we started towards the meeting point to board the bus. I turned around and saw the mountain standing tall and proud, said to myself “I will be back”; thought I heard the mountain say “Oh no! not a crowd again”…  Thinking of how the trekkers were hogging, there could be a reason for the mountain to say so

Waiting for the last group to pack up and some confusion on which way to take delayed our departure by a few of hours as the groups was stranded between two meeting points

We were extremely hungry and stopped at the same hotel where we had breakfast on the first day, to have lunch. People were eating and eating and eating. The ice creams were over, the juices were almost over. Non-veg went out of supply, more veg food had to be cooked!!

The bus journey was a good to pick up some sleep, almost everybody slept. We reached Calicut station in the evening, with quite sometime for the chennai folks to catch their train. Bangalore group decided to reach the calicut beach, soak in the sunset and then get the bus to bangalore later that night.

A wonderful sunset, an extremely funny, picky, poky conversation on the beach, followed by a nice dinner got us ready for a good sleep in the bus. The next thing we were aware of was that we were already inside bangalore and the trip had come to an end.

Peter sent a mail saying that another trip will be planned, this time taking the path along the stream. I decided that that I’ll be part of that.