Between Black and White

Today is Holi – the festival of colours. To each one of you I wish a very dazzling and a colourful holi. May all the hues of life make the world surrounding us a wonderful and joyous place to live in.

Between White and Black lie all the colours. And when I think of the colours on this special day, I am reminded of an adventure trip that I had been to a few days back along with the closest of my friends which got back the colours in my otherwise monochromatic life like no other in the recent days. I wanted to share the details of the trip from so many days and what better day to share than “Holi” day? So here goes:

Title of the Trip : White water Rafting in the Black river

Venue : River Kali – between Supa dam and Ambikanagar dams – Dandeli, Uttara Kannada district

How did we get there : Dandeli is 481 km by road from Bangalore. We took the NH4 from Bangalore to Dharwad ( via Tumkur, Chitradurga, Davangere, Haveri, Hubli) and then SH28 from Dharwad to Dandeli via Haliyal. In Dandeli, we went to “Jungle Lodges and Resorts Limited” to book rafting tickets. The car journey in itself qualifies for a post which will be put up shortly.

Date : 28 February 2009

Total Time : 3 hours (1.5 hours travel + 1.5 hours rafting)

The Team : Gunda, Oie, Tosi, Mama along with navigator Kishen

Cost : Rs. 1300/ per head

Photos : at the left side of this page

Verdict : Totally worth it! Must do for any adventure lover.

Description:
The river Kali in Uttara Kannada district is one of those elite rivers in India which defies the normal trend of flowing eastwards. It rises in western ghats and flows westwards towards the Arabian Sea. Kali is the name of a Hindu Godess but the literal sanskrit meaning of the word is “BLACK”. The name is derived from the dark colour of this river attributed to the manganese mineral in these area. The speed of this river is overwhelming and this has led to many dams being constructed along its short course to tap the energy in water and convert it to electricity - Supa, Ambikanagar, Kadra, Kodsalli, etc

The fast flowing river has many rapids at various points across its flow and our rafting trip covered eight such rapids. I was initially very apprehensive about this activity as I have heard rapids are very dangerous. After the trip I came back and did my own research to find out that rapids are divided into classes from one to six, with six being the fastest and most dangerous. Even the most experienced rafters/ swimmers would not survive in such a rapid. I had not known this before. Only thing that I knew then was that I was with a team with whom I was most comfortable and close since childhood. The kind of understanding we had for each other by being good friends since high school days was enough to prepare us for the most dangerous rapids.

We were taken in a jeep to the start point where a raft and navigator was ready for us. They put protective life jackets and helmets and gave us our paddles. We then entered into the river with the raft, little aware what awaited us next. The navigator gave us instructions on how to row forward, backward, get in the raft, sit out, and most importantly – synchronise with each other. We were even pushed out of the raft into the 50 feet deep water for sometime to relieve us of our fear of water and to test the life jackets. We sat in our rafts and rowed towards the first rapid….

Then it came. The first of the eight – the most dangerous, adventurous of them all. I now understand that it was a class 3 rapid. But all I remember of it was the white water gushing in our raft so quickly, engulfing everything in sight and loud, thrilling screams from all of us. This was called Eddie’s beard.

The second rapid was called stitch or division. Stitch because of the treacherous rocks which cause a stitch if we fall there; Division because the river divided into two streams at that point. Did we take the easier stream? We will never know. Then cam the third and fourth – Klaus swim and Stanley’s Squeeze. We just flowed along. It was fun. There was dense green forest on either sides of the river. There were some trees that grew in the middle of the water and our navigator was managing it well by controlling the direction while we rowed. There was this other team of rafters who managed to splash water on us from their paddles. We tried revenge – but could not get it right.

The vegetation got thicker and many bushes started obstructing the flow of the raft. It was here we encountered the fifth rapid. It was called “Garden Gate” and rightly so. The next rapid was truly amazing – “Garden of Eden”. It was in the truest sense of the word – milky white water flowing, lush green vegetaion on either side, just the twitter of birds and canopy all around. Not a single sign of human inhabitation around. This was indeed heaven on earth. It was sad that we had to keep our cameras back. But nature’s miracles had to be enjoyed naturally! The seventh rapid was called “Leopard hole”. All the rapids after the first one were relatively easy and negotiable. This one was no exception. We were again pushed into water for some time to float around for a while. It was here that we learned that crocodiles might be around.

The eighth and the final rapid was the most memorable and exciting of the lot. It was called “Smuggler’s Trove”. It was a class 2 rapid or so. But the most exciting feature here was we were made to row against the stream – not once but four exhilirating times. Each time with a different combination among we four sitting at the front. What we had to do was tough – row and row fast enough against the stream to counter the speed of the rapid and then jump back into the raft and stay there till the speeding water kicked us back into normal direction. There was a chance that the raft could topple. But we did not care. Each time, we rowed along with vigour and met the water head on and enjoyed the kick it gave us. The time where Tosi and Gunda sat at the front was the most exciting and the raft almost toppled – it was the moment of the trip for us. Somehow we manged to get back. The other team’s raft toppled and nature had taken revenge on our behalf :)

We rowed to the endpoint now hoping to find some animals. It was quiet for a while and all of a sudden, our navigator scared the devils out of us by making a loud noise with his paddle. We thought it was a crocodile and panicked while he had his share of laughter.

We finsihed the rafting adventure trip having had so much fun. We had dared to accomplish one of the toughest and costliest adventure sport. Most people would term it as conquering the river. But it is not the river that was conquered. It was just our fear of rafting in the river which had been allayed. In between the black of the river and white of the flow, we had found so many colourful memories that we would treasure for a long while.

PS: Crocodiles do not live near rapids. They are found only near dams. The whole crocodile story was added by Kishen just for the thrill of it. But you never know until you go and find out for yourself :)

Rare Tuesday Evening

It was quite a surreal experience today. There was some all-day event of our company held at a prestigious hotel in the heart of the city. Fortunately it didn't last for one whole day and I had the privilege of being back home when “suraj chachu” was still around. Now, after working for over a year in a company which requires me to travel close to 4 hours a day, the only time when I get a glimpse of this golden ball of fire is either when it says “hi” in the morning or “bye” in the evening. It will be a really beautiful sight filling the whole sky with its deep orange glow. Sometimes when the work gets very hectic, I miss even these.

When I got down from cab and walked towards home, I immediately realized that this was exactly the time when we used to come back home from school. My mind raced back to those primary school days – I used to walk back home everyday after school. Sometimes I would have friends for company and most of the times it would be my brother and sister. We used have long discussions about what our teachers had told us in school, how we had lost either a pencil or an eraser that day, how we would finish our homework and then play, etc . If I walked back with my brother, I used to hold his hand because mom had told me to. Although he never ran around, it was like a big responsibility to me then. (BTW, he looked cute in an uniform). We used to have other topics such as which chocolate mom would get us, what nice food she would prepare for us and how we both would play on terrace that evening (and end up in a fight hitting each other).

When I thought of those days, my mind was filled with some unexplainable emotion. Those were really the golden days with no worries and work pressures. I wished I could be a school going kid again while all the time aware of the fact that it would only be a fantasy and could not happen for real. I watched the some kids arguing about why India would win today’s T20 match against SL and how one of the boys who had just now got a Tata Sky Connection in his house would watch the match after finishing his homework.

I felt happy that I had been given a chance to come home soon and experience all these nice things. I was thankful to my employers for that as well as one more good news that was announced today. It seemed so long ago that I used to stay back almost everyday to finish the task that was assigned to me. I used to grumble everyday about having too much work, not speak to anyone properly, didn’t have time for anything and was too much frustrated then. Life had come a full circle from there. Now I have finished those hectic tasks, taken holidays, rested and feeling good about everything. I realized it is all interwoven in a delicate cycle. When we get to the bottom of it, we always complain and grumble as if there were no good days; When we are at the top, we rejoice and celebrate as if we never fall down. It was today’s experience that made me feel that mere grumbling will not lead to any happiness in life. We need to always look at life with a positive and balanced perspective. Let us all learn from our very own “suraj chachu” and “chanda maama” that after every hard, sunny and toiling day, there will always be a relaxing, cool night and that after every dark and scary night, there will always be a bright and dazzling pleasant day

Hai Guarantee?

There is a flashy but equally scary word that we hear today in almost every sphere of life – ‘Recession’. Be it the luxurious five star hotels, the expensive airlines, the automobile manufacturers or the real estate developers, every one is facing a downturn in their businesses that were once thriving like honey bees in a flower garden. Its not just these luxury segments though – even the service industry like the banks, the software sector, the call centers, the textiles and garments, small scale industries – everything in sight has been gobbled up by the ever hungry recession. No wonder then that it has not even spared my already receding hairline ;)

Coming to the more serious matters, I personally feel something like this was definitely bound to happen. Not that I expected it or wanted it to happen so badly. But at this juncture, I am just reminded about a small scenario that happened during my college days:

It was during the end of our penultimate year of engineering and the placement season had just begun. All of my friends including me were filling up our details at a big register kept at the placement office. The placement cell of our college (supposedly the third best in the state) had hung up a huge board inside the newly furnished office indicating the number of students who had been placed year upon year. Apart from the few years in 1999-2001, courtesy the dotcom crash, the percentage was almost 100 every year. Naturally we were all thrilled and happy. Going by the industry demand, there was no way we were going to miss the cent percent record that year.

Our college used to charge some money as placement fees for each offer that a student got. Most of my friends had a problem with that. I asked them, “Isn’t it a good thing that we are all getting employement? What is wrong if we pay a small part of that as fees?” But they dint think so. “These days, if you join an engineering college and score decently, employment is guaranteed. Since we are in one of the best colleges, it is just how much you get as your starting salary that matters. These authorities just want to make money out of us. Look at other colleges. There are no placement fees. Then why are we the only ones paying for it? Placement is not a favor – as students of a reputed institute, it is our right”

So those were the times then. The season started in july and within a week, almost everyone in our batch were placed in reputed companies. Even then, there was discontent and disappointment in most of us. Just a job was not enough. Students had to make sure that their package was the highest in the college and studied day in and day out to get placed. In other colleges, there used to be instances where the students carried offer letter of one company to the interview of other company and bargained for a better salary. I had once asked a friend of mine, “So now that you are placed in xyz and have the best package among all of us, arent you happy?”. He replied,”Yes I am. But my ultimate target is company abc. I will use xyz for two years to get experience and then jump to abc! You see, theirs is the best pacakge available right now”

How quickly have things changed since then. Getting an engineering seat no longer means that you have secured a job. Not even the prestigious IITs can assure you a job right now. Students don’t bargain for jobs neither do they complain about colleges charging fees for placement. Students just want a job. Both abc and xyz and many companies in between have now bitten the dust. There are many more getting bankrupt almost daily. It is a scary world out there.

If there is one thing that this recession has taught the youth of today, it is just that life does not come in packages. What goes up has to definitely come down sooner or later. Nothing is guaranteed in life. The enginereing seat, the high paying job, the luxury apartment, the costly sedan, the platinum credit card - you have to earn each one of this slowly and with hard work. Not everyone becomes a millionaire by 30 and starts living in palaces. Most of the youth of today have just seen the good things in life and have had it easy – naturally they are drawn to mindless consumerism and unrestrained spending. They just want to have everything in sight whether it is of use to them or not. Atleast this slowdown has made everyone of us realize the true value of things.

Ultimately what matters in life is what we learn out of it. What matters in life is how our learnings and how well we adapt to the situation – be it happy or sad. This recession has taught us some nice lessons till date and there might be more to come. The situation is going to be tough. But let us face these tough times with renewed enthusiasm and work hard to find a way out of it. I am sure when these dark days end, there will be jolly days again. Wish we see them soon :)

New year Post 2009

I am back writing a post after a very long time. To all the readers of my blog, I would like to wish a very happy and prosperous new year 2009. I know it is too late to wish but isn't it always better late than never?

To me, the year that went by was very bad but it didn't do much good to others either. There were a lot of significant events that happened during the past year in my life. But the one thing that just stays when I think of 2008 would be just frustration and boredom - all the expectations in life just went with the wind leaving me with just stress and exhaustion at the end of the year.

Globally too the year 2008 didn't do anything good either. Though we saw the glory of the Chinese hosting the Olympics, the big-bang recreation hype, Obama's landslide win in US, the Indo-US nuclear deal coming through among other nice things, the bitterness it offered were in gigantic proportions- the economic recession grounding almost all countries into a halt, the job-cuts, big companies biting the dust, sensex crashing and all that left a lot to be desired.

When I think of 2008 as a year from a global point of view, one nice Kannada proverb comes to my mind - ella banna masi nungithu. It means all colours were engulfed by the dreaded black. It is often used to describe the one bad thing that just weighs down all the good things that one has done similar to how a nice painting with so many rich and brilliant colours can be spoilt in a second by greasing it with black. So what are those dark black incidents that the past year was engulfed with?

Yes, it was indeed terrorism. Just like one bad deed can undo all the good that the person has done, the acts of terror and war have definitely charred all the good things that the past year got with it. Those dastardly acts in the name of religion and country have just created hatred and tarnished the year 2008.

2009 has a lot to look forward to. Lets hope this year brings happiness and prosperity to everyone. I know the economic recession is here to stay, but now that we know that times ahead are tough, let us all stand united and face it than keep complaining about it. I wish there will be no more bad incidents that tarnish the year. On the personal front too, I have planned to make this year a significant one in my life by sticking to my plans and resolutions. So I wish that happens. Once again, I wish you all a very happy and fantastic year ahead. I plan to post more articles this year. So keep watching this space for more.