Transit

Its 6:30 local time when we hit the Singapore airport. Just 4 hours previous I was sent off at the Bangalore airport and Singapore seems like a place totally out of the world to me. Well this is the first foreign country that I am visiting and I guess this is the 'First-Time-Visitor' syndrome! I am yet to get to Singapore city, but seeing around the airport, I have just the word for it - AWESOME! The place is huge and fully carpeted and clean and well lit and full of shopping points and lounges and eat outs. This is like one larger than life Mall which also handles the arrivals and departures! I guess I am not yet prepared to face the reality that is Singapore city. But let me try.

A perfect holiday

It is 5 PM. And the rain is coming down in tatters. The Pollachi weather is always known for its gentleness and it is quite unusual that the rain is coming stronger than usual. By the usual what I mean here is that when it rains, it is not a downpour but droplets of water carried in the whiffs of gentle breeze that blow across your face!

I am having a perfect holiday here. I have here that what is called a place that is far ‘Far from the madding crowd’. A software life in a leading company at Bangalore keeps me busy most times of the week. And an active social life takes over my weekends with friends and girl friends!

I am alone at home and there is music screaming from the computer system with its sub-woofers and bass speakers. The song is not to my liking and I am changing it. Yeah now this song is perfect to set the tone to the mood of the hour. A time for relaxation and perfect bliss and peace!

Watching the rain from the window gives my soul a calm that it has been missing for some time now, the drizzle is getting heavier and the droplets splash across my face through the netlon mesh over the window. You have confusion here on what is more light. If it is your heart that is going eons with jolly or it is the water fragments that are beginning to wet your face.

Mom will be back in a few minutes and that will end the time that my solitude had shown me how I am so good in spending time with myself. The peace and music is so soothing and my mind plays with me in creating illusions and transporting me back to times where my heart has soared as much as it now. I am reliving everything that I have been proud of having lived so far.

My feet are tapping and my legs are swaying to the beats. I do not know how many of you love dancing to yourself, but it has been one of the pleasures of my life. These days the numbers that these new band of musicians are making have such great drum and guitar sequences and it is quite impossible to stay on your feet. An imaginary partner joins you and then you have the waltz and the samba and the jive. Yeah right here in your living room.

A day at Muttati

I had never heard of such a place till the previous day. Ramp called me on the evening of 28th April 2006. It was a Friday evening and I was looking forward to his call. The whole day, there had been a chain running on orkut about a proposed day's trip. But where to and how I had no clue. It had been some time since I had been on a trek and my soul was longing for a good one. Then came the fateful call, Ramp told me we were going to a place called Muttatti, past Kanakkapura. I just hoped it would be amazing. I think God did hear my prayers!
I woke up at 5:40 AM, somehow the alarm did not scream as it usually does and I was half an hour late, I was supposed to be at Ramp's place in Indira Nagar at 5:30. I was already 10 min past the deadline and I was just up and out of bed. I called Ramp. My break that day from the start... Those people were also just getting ready and I still had the time. A quick brush and a quick wash; it really helped that I had my bag packed with all the equipment needed. I had done that before I went to bed the previous night.

6 AM on the morning of 29^th April 2006, a Saturday morning, I was out on the road and was speeding on the freeway that connects Koramangala and Indira Nagar. I reached in good time and it was some time later that the guys there got to the road. I was meeting some good pals after quite sometime. I had met Juci a couple of times after my relocation to Bangalore, but I was meeting Muppy for the first time after college. A good three years! Then there was Ramp and KP, we guys do meet often, I stop at their place every now and then. There were some friends and roommates of my friends in this trek that we were embarking on.

There was a car and two bikes.

Muttati was about 100 km from Bangalore. The drive was off Kanakapura. The route was Bangalore - Kanakapura (55 km) - Sathanur (35) - Muttati (10). The road is not great, but you will be able to make it to Kanakapura with ease. To Sathanur the road is not so good, it is different in different times of the year and its luck if you find that road tarred and good. But the drive gets excellent when Sathanur is done and you turn left at the arch to Muttati. The road is not a ghat section, but its a terrain drive and gets incredibly exciting.

Muttati is all about the river and activities are surrounded around it. Further up is the fishing camp at Bhemeshwari a popular destination for techies who want to unwind. Muttati is no sophisticated and so has an unspoiled charm lingering around. Go an a trek in the adjoining hills and get tired and head down and straight into the cool and refreshing waters.

It is very important that you bring your lunch, for an incredible appetite takes you head on after your river play time. We found that a few local people had come ashore with supplies and a huge cauldron and gathered wood for a fire and cooked right at the river side. It was super aroma from those fires, but we had taken a packed lunch of rice bath and gobbled them with nothing to spare.

So that's Muttati for you, a rustic getaway not very far from the city, it will embalm you with its charm and want you to visit over and over again.