Trip to Wayanad - Day 1

Memories Again!! I should call this ‘Memories!!! Part Two’…

It was the third week of March, 2008 when we finally came up with a final plan for our psenti trip. It was, to Wayanad, The Green Paradise of Kerala. Wayanad is a picturesque mountainous plateau in Kerala. It is close to Calicut, a scenic, quiet place situated on the Western Ghats. Clean, enchanting with a lot of mystery about history and culture, this is located about 80 km from the shores of Calicut. The name Wayanad, is derived from ‘Vayal Nadu’ which means ‘The land of fields’.

We were six of us. The team consisted of Sundhu, Appu, Aishu, VimJo, Deepu and me. We booked our tickets to Calicut. We started on the planned date, the leave application being confirmed. We reached Calicut at 5:00 am in the morning. We were then clueless as to what has to be done next.

We decided to goto the bus stand and then take a bus to Sulthan Bathery which is where we planned to stay. We had booked 3 rooms in a place called Shreya’s cottage, run by Christian brothers, considering safety.

DAY 1:

We reached the spot by 8:00 am, relaxed for an hour. We were getting ready for the trip, when we met our collegemate’s mother, who stays at Wayanad. She came to our place, drafted the plan for all our 4 days, accompanied us whenever possible. She was so helpful to us. This trip would not have been possible without her. She arranged a Commander (jeep) for us, with the driver she trusted the most. We called him ‘cheta’.

Regional Agricultural Research Station (RARS):

This research station is located in Ambalavayal and a part of Kerala Agricultural University. It has a nursery which has rare species of roses and other ornamental plants.

The first day, we set out for our wild journey through the thick forest of Wayanad. We visited a nursery which had 800 varieties of roses. They were the most beautiful rose plants I ever saw.

Heritage Museum:

Our next visit was to Heritage museum at Ambalavayal,which is located 12 km from Sulthan Bathery. The prominent displays are sculptures, ancient hunting equipments like bows and arrows, atone weapons, musical instruments, bangles, ear ornaments and hunting traps. The items have been collected from all over Wayanad region. We spent about an hour at this place, and then proceeded on our way to the Meenmutty Falls.

Meenmutty Falls:

Our next venture was to go trekking to the Meenmutty Falls. It is located 12km from Meppady and 29 km from Kalpetta. One has to trek for 2 km downhill to reach this spot. The trekking is quite exhausting.

It is just not water, but a milky way, tearing apart the dense greenery of Wayanad forests. The Meenmutty waterfalls, gushing down and then flowing down in cascades further down its course is an awesome sight to watch from the Neelimala viewpoint near Vaduvanchal in Wayanad. The following picture was taken when we just started our trek downhill.

Get down, pick your backpack, put on your trekking shoes and of course keep a good camera. On the way up to the Neelimala viewpoint, one would have the company of the coffee plantations on either side and further up, small holdings of ginger and areca nut. The sides of the path leading to the view point is also dotted with small bushes of purple flower plants and also chirping sun birds and other varieties of small birds darting in and out of the bushes. These were the thick bushes through which we trekked our way downhill.

Completing the first part of the ascend, which is about half a kilometer, the trekking path gets narrower and goes down before it climbs up again. Now the vegetation on the sides change to tall, wild grass, including the lemon grass variety. The narrow path goes further up and suddenly opens up into a panoramic view, with the mountain folds of the Western Ghats on your left and a hill slope replete with grass and studded with boulders on the right.

Have a brief stop. Catch your breath. Feel the cool breeze in your hair, as it dries out the sweat. Take a look around to spot some butterflies with rare colour and size, gliding down the slopes and sometimes going behind the mist. As you remain there, your ears slowly get receptive to a rumble down the valley. If you hear it, take the narrow path going down to the left. Make your way through tall grasses leaning on to you. Move gently and watch out for slippery rocks and pits. Meandering to the left, the path would lead you to a spot, where you would find yourself standing behind a rocky spur with the rumbling noise becoming intense manifold.

Carefully make your descend down and move towards the middle of the rocky spur. It would take some time for you to believe the mesmerizing sight that is right before you. Down flows a track of white water, flanked by evergreen forests. A sight you would never forget. Get your best shots and take in its pristine beauty as much as you can. As you watch the unforgettable sight of Meenmutty waterfall, an occasional blanket of thick mist could block your sight. But, do not get upset. Wait for some time and as the mist clears out, and on occasions the sheet of mist would split open to reveal the waterfall, which is yet another delightful thing to watch.

Yes! Get Set Go!! We were ready for this scenic trekking full of life. We were six of us, Aunty and Cheta started to trek around 12:00 noon. Aunty’s younger daughter Charanya also accompanied us. She was the most impressive trekker since she was used to hillside life. Aunty was doing great with her saree still clean. There were a lot of dangerous spots on the way, which if not taken care of, will have serious consequences. I had a great time as well as a scary time to reach the falls. The falls was gorgeous and enchanting as well. Throughout our trekking experience, we could see dense hilly forests.

The unique nature of the falls is that the water falls to a depth of more than 500m in three steps. We could not go exactly very close to the falls. We were drenched completely even while we were at a distance from the falls. That was a marvelous experience. We then had to climb uphill to reach the top, which had to be done before dusk. We made our journey uphill and reached the top in about an hour’s time. We then had refreshments including fresh plantains, Kerala being famous for it and spiced butter milk. The refreshments were refreshing :P after the exciting and exhausting trekking experience. A few moments in the experience were near-death experiences which took my life out by the time I was out of fear.

We reached home around 9:00 pm in night after having dinner in a nearby restaurant. The big-sized rice that is traditional to the place was a peculiar attraction. First day was the most interesting of the four-day trip at Wayanad because of the trekking experience we had there then. This kind of trekking would not have been possible if we don’t go with friends.

That night, we were pretty tired to further discuss amongst ourselves about how the other enjoyed the day. The next morning we had to wake up early.

There are 3 other days of total fun to be expressed. They follow up this post. Hope you enjoyed this reading.

Favourite Lines from "Eleven Minutes"

I would like to add some of my favourite picks from the book, "Eleven Minutes" by Coelho; most of them are quite valuable as well:

"Really important things are planned by the soul long before the bodies see each other."

“At every moment of our lives, we all have one foot in a fairy tale and the other in the abyss.”

“When we meet someone and fall in love, we have a sense that the whole universe is on our side. And yet if something goes wrong, there is nothing left! How is it possible for the beauty that was there only minutes before to vanish so quickly? Life moves very fast. It rushes from heaven to hell in a matter of seconds.”

“I can choose either to be a victim of the world or an adventurer in search of treasure. It’s all a question of how I view my life.”

“(Don’t) listen to the malicious comments of those friends who, never taking any risks themselves, can only see other people’s failures.”

“If I can walk on my own, I can go wherever I like.”

“Life always waits for some crisis to occur before revealing itself at its most brilliant.”

“Despite her apparent freedom, her life consisted of endless hours spent waiting for a miracle, for true love, for an adventure with the same romantic ending she had seen in films and read about in books. A writer once said that it is not time that changes a man, nor knowledge; the only thing that can change someone’s mind is love. What nonsense! The person who wrote that clearly knew only one side of the coin. Love was undoubtedly one of the things capable of changing a person’s whole life, from one moment to the next. But there was the other side of the coin, the second thing that could make a human being take a totally different course from the one he or she had planned; and that was called despair. Yes, perhaps love really could transform someone, but despair did the job more quickly.”

“Humans can withstand a week without water, two weeks without food, many years of homelessness, but not loneliness. It is the worst of all tortures, the worst of all sufferings.”

“In love, no one can harm anyone else; we are each of us responsible for our own feeling and cannot blame someone else for what we feel.”

“Considering the way the world is, one happy day is almost a miracle.”

“That’s my one great virtue: I refuse to deceive myself of you. Because it’s not worth it, because you don’t merit a lie.”

“As if everything had been ordained by fate, as if it were the most natural thing in the world, as if she had known this man all her life or had already lived this moment in dreams and now knew what to do in reality…”

“If he was the man she wanted him to be, he would not be intimidated by her silence.”

“Love is not to be found in someone else, but in ourselves; we simply awaken it. But in order to do that, we need the other person. The universe only makes sense when we have someone to share our feelings with.”

“I’ve learned that waiting is the most difficult bit, and I want to get used to the feeling, knowing that you’re with me, even when you’re not by my side.”

“Now she was searching once more for her reason for living, or, rather, for the kind of utter surrender by which a person offers his or her heart and asks for nothing in return.”

“Profound desire, true desire is the desire to be close to someone. From that point onwards, things change, the man and the woman come into play, but what happens before–the attraction that brought them together–is impossible to explain. It is untouched desire in its purest state. When desire is still in this pure state, the man and the woman fall in love with life, they live each moment reverently, consciously, always ready to celebrate the next blessing. When people feel like this, they are not in a hurry, they do not precipitate events with unthinking actions. They know that the inevitable will happen, that what is real always finds a way of revealing itself. When the moment comes, they do not hesitate, they do not miss an opportunity, they do not let slip a single magic moment, because they respect the importance of each second.”

“Now that she had nothing to lose, she was free.”

“And that was now her great joy: to say to reality that she didn’t need it, that she was not longer dependent on what happened in order to be happy.”

“Anyone who is in love is making love the whole time, even when they’re not. When two bodies meet, it is just the cup overflowing. They can stay together for hours, even days. They begin the dance one day and finish it the next, or–such is the pleasure they experience–they may never finish it. No eleven minutes for them.”

“Every human being experiences his or her own desire; it is part of our personal treasure and, although, as an emotion, it can drive people away, generally speaking, it brings those who are important to us closer. It is an emotion chosen by my soul, and it is so intense that it can infect everything and everyone around me. Each day I choose the truth by which I try to live. I try to be practical, efficient, professional. But I would like to be able always to choose desire as my compassion. Not out of obligation, not to lesson my loneliness, but because it is good. Yes, very good.”

“The strongest love is the love that can demonstrate its fragility. Anyway, if my love is real (and not just a way of distracting myself, deceiving myself, and passing the time that never seems to pass in this city), freedom will conquer jealousy and any pain it causes me, since pain is also part of the natural process. Anyone who practices sport know of this: if you want to achieve your objectives, you have to be prepared for a daily dose of pain or discomfort. At first, it’s unpleasant and de motivating, but in time you’ll come to realize that it’s part of the process of feeling good, and the moment arrives when, if you don’t feel pain, you have a sense that the exercises aren’t having the desired effect.”

“The world enjoys suffering and pain. There’s sadism in the way we look at these things, and masochism in our conclusion that we don’t need to know all this in order to be happy, and yet we watch other people’s tragedies and sometimes suffer along with them.”

“As I say, it’s the human condition. Ever since we were expelled from paradise, we have either been suffering, making other people suffer or watching the suffering of others. It’s beyond our control.”

“Why was it that in God’s holy world men were only interested in showing her pain. Sacred pain, pain with pleasure, pain with explanations or without, but always pain, pain, pain…”

“‘I felt that pain is a woman’s friend.’ ‘That is the danger.’ ‘I also felt that pain has it’s limits.’ ‘That is the salvation. Don’t forget that.’”

“That’s why I’m telling you: don’t get used to it, because it’s very easy to become habituated; it’s a very powerful drug. It’s in our daily lives, in our hidden suffering, in the sacrifices we make, blaming love for the destruction of our dreams. Pain is frightening when it shows its real face, but it’s seductive when it comes disguised as sacrifice or self-denial. Or cowardice. However much we may reject it, we human being always find a way of being with pain, of flirting with it and making it part of our lives.”

“Pain and suffering are used to justify the only thing that should bring only joy: love.”

“I need to love–that’s all, I need to love. Life is too short, or too long, for me to allow myself the luxury of living it so badly.”

“Always making plans for the future, and always being surprised by the present.”

“Original sin was not the apple that Eve ate, it was her belief that Adam needed to share precisely the thing she had tasted. Eve was afraid to follow her path without someone to help her, and so she wanted to share what she was feeling. Certain things cannot be shared. Nor can we be afraid of the oceans into which we plunge of our own free will; fear cramps everyone’s style. Man goes through hell in order to understand this. Love one another, but let’s not try to possess one another.”

She made this promise because she knew love’s traps all too well, and knew how easily they can change a woman’s mind.”

“In all the languages in the world, there is the same proverb: ‘What the eyes don’t see, the heart doesn’t grieve over.’ Well, I say that there isn’t an ounce of truth in it. The further off they are, the closer to the heart are all those feelings that we try to repress and forget. If we’re in exile, we want to store away every tiny memory of our roots. If we’re far from the person we love, everyone we pass in the street reminds us of them.”

“The only thing she could do now was to shed a few tears, feeling rather afraid of herself, an intelligent young woman, who had everything going for her, but who tended to make wrong decisions. She just hoped that this time she was right.”

I guess people who have not read this novel till now, will feel like reading this, inspired by the lines above. Wishing you all happy reading !!

My Views on Eleven Minutes

'Eleven Minutes' is a novel by Paulo Coelho that I read recently. I ve done 'The Alchemist' and 'The Witch Of Portobello' by Coelho sometime back. I was then quite convinced that Coelho's works are worth spending time with. I ve started falling in love with his works, of late. Its really exciting and thought-provoking as he takes us to the various dimensions of the human mind and thoughts. I did 'Eleven Minutes' this week, and I was so excited about the real-life emotions he has portrayed. I have a mixed feeling about this work of his, because he has dealt with a subject that was harsh, difficult and shocking, because, it covers the subject that is the most tabooed till today. I guess you know, what the three letter word is, by now.

The novel begins by the line 'Once upon a time, there lived...', which gives us the impression that the author has tried writing a fairy tale. But in course of time, you will realize that it is actually not. I had a mixed feeling after finishing the novel, and I am short of words to describe what I felt while I read the novel. At first, I started feeling a little uncomfortable reading the novel. But as I brushed through more pages, I could really understand what the author has tried to illustrate through his pretty character and the protoganist, 'Maria'. I put aside all my apprehensions and perspectives about the novel and did the novel with a plain mind. This novel I realized, has a great value associated with it. Some or most of us, might not acknowledge the complete value of it, but it is really an interesting piece of work. To better understand what the novel has tried to talk about, you need to have a clear head; otherwise, it will just been another novel that people think is 'tabooed'. 

But its not just the tabooed subject that the author has concentrated on, but on the virtues of innermost human feelings, specifically, those which everyone of us keeps for ourselves. Coelho, through various customers, talks through Maria's customers, what kind of suffering different kind of people can have, and he finally talks about suffering,ie., pain as a kind of pleasure if endured willfully. It is the most difficult thing to digest probably but it gives immense pleasure for people who have learnt to accept it. 

I was taken away by the way he has portrayed the heart of a woman. For a man, I thought it is quite difficult to understand the feelings and emotions of a woman, the way she thought about the unanswered questions of her life. But Coelho has written a woman as though he has penetrated the depths of every woman's heart. Every woman might have similar thoughts in her innermost soul, though she might defend herself from finding answers for it. This book will serve a good reading for both men and women who are willing to accept the complexities of human soul. 

As a plain speak about this novel, Maria is in search of true love, which is when she decides on travelling to Switzerland, where she embraces the most tabooed profession ever, to make a living for a year. She is focussed on her plans to save money, and buy a farm, build a house for her mother. She encounters a variety of personalities in her clientele and thereby understands what the world is like. This descriptions gives an insight into the varieties of personalities who exist in the world. The rest of the novel talks if she has attained the purpose of her search. 

The diary that Maria maintained throughout is an excellent part of her analysis of human beings around her. I guess by now, my long time confusion has come to an end. The confusion was if I have to maintain a personal diary or not. I am convinced that maintaining a diary, not only puts to paper your thoughts, but also makes you analyse everything we put into the diary, thereby getting the most about life out of your experience. Maria, as I could understand did a lot of her analysis as she penned them down. Maria had the courage to take any opportunity in life as it comes. How many of us are that brave ( even for simple tasks) ?

The people who read this book can think of any one of the following :

1. Is it just about Maria, a woman who faced all adversities of life?

Is it about just her happiness (individual) ?

2. Is it about interpreting and living your life which is bounded by our partly understood complexity of life?

If we start analysing ourselves very seriously, we will have several questions in our mind when we finish the novel:

Who am I?

What is my destiny?

Am I going in the path that is destined for me?

As I read through various views of this novel, I discovered that some people did have negative opinion about this novel. My opinion is that those who have negative opinion about this novel, just took the blind form of Maria and did not look at what Coelho has written through her. Coelho has used a character and some incidents of her life to tell us some real facts about life which most of us fail to analyse. Coelho's thoughts and analyses are too much for us to grasp, atleast for me, at this age.

It does not take just 'eleven minutes' to read this book, but the analyses done revolving around the 'eleven minutes' of each one's life is worth a gift to be received from this great Brazilian author/philosophist, Paulo Coelho.

Concluding, I would say, 'Eleven Minutes' is a great inspiration for me which enabled me to think of life from a different angle and look into the depths of life. It has given a new life to my life. Thanks to Coelho for spreading his light into his readers.

Memories !!!

My First Blog !!! :)

Its been 3 long months after four years of college years at Goa. I ve started wondering how I am actuallly allowing myself to stay away from my sweet BITS campus. Its always been fun knowing and learning things. Not just studies, or a degree, something more. Its a lot about life and love and living !!

Today, I am reminded of the memories of campus life. How interesting and how easy things were !! I realized very less the day I left campus, how badly I would miss it. I can still remember the day I boarded the flight from Goa to Chennai.

It was the 13th of May, 2008. I had to leave earlier than what my batchmates did, because I had to attend the Six Sigma Green Belt Certification programme conducted by BenchMark Six Sigma at Chennai. I was high with fever; I knew it was pretty difficult for me to travel and make myself comfortable with the strict training schedule for the next four days.

My health was soo bad that I could not even sit in the class idle the whole day. I left late from college, still not bidding farewell to the most important people of my life. I left the campus in silence, strictly controlling all my emotions. I was late for my flight, and there was just 15 minutes left for the departure. I rushed into the Airport, and fortunately the Airport Authorities were good enough to let me in. I finally was in the flight. I had no time to think about my last minute on campus or the people I should be meeting before I left the campus. And now I was in the flight, my college and my friends far behind. I wished there was some time left for my emotions to take over me ! It was too late then !

The flight had taken off! Suddenly the realization struck me and my eyes were filled with tears. I can still remember and feel those moments. I just could not accept the fact that I am leaving my sweet campus forever in my life. My mind also thought of doing an M.E in the same sweet campus of mine though I knew it was impossible. I could not take my mind off the thing. In another hour, I am supposed to be meeting my parents, with all energy, which I knew was impossible for me. I could see my Alma-mater BITS-Pilani, Goa Campus as a small piece of land from above, as I was travelling. I could not control my tears then. I was listening to the song "June July Maadham" from the latest movie "Kalloori" (Tamizh), then. This song had captured me during the last few days of mine on campus. The words in it are too true to be ignored. It was great indeed to have the lines heard all the time. I am sure every other friend of mine realized the same. 

I was thinking of the multitude of emotions I need to go through in a short while, when I land at Chennai. I had to face my parents; my health was pretty bad; I had to control my emotions about leaving the college atleast till I reached the Guest House. I then thought of the unforgettable moments I had on campus. The late night chats, the shopping centre (SC) visits, the hostel grounds, the birthday parties, the bumps, the dance nights, the hostel nights (DJs), wing celebs, late entries to lecture halls, late night exam preps, Vasco visits, beach majja with friends, trips to beaches, meeting with Mitra mam and with Prof. Jagmohan Singh, frustration about Maths II, the zugs in Physics I and II, the D grade counts ( :P, tho there were not many in my grade cards), the festival time fun parties, the horror movie time at Deepu's room (my close friend), mischiefs with Appu, trip to Wayanad, etc, etc, were all wonderful incidents in my life. There were lots of nights when I thought about all these and had tears fill my eyes while emotions overcame me. They were I should call 'the golden moments at BITS-Goa'.

The campus had taught me a lot of things, apart from 'Electronics and Instrumentation'. I always have a feeling then on, that going farther from our home town is better for an individual's growth. An individual becomes more mature when he/she is let to stay away from parents for their college education. It teaches what life is and how to face troubles and make ourself better. Every single incident teaches us about something important in our life. I learnt a lot of what sucessful living is at Goa.

Fun, love, loss, laughter, pain, learning, interests, etc. - Lots of words like this started gaining the appropriate meaning in my life. I am really happy to have had my education at BITS. I am delighted about my life at BITS.

Memories are always the essential part of our life. And I can quote a few interesting lines about memories, that I feel are really true:

"Memory is a way of holding onto the things you love, the things you are, the things you never want to lose."

How often do you forget the things that are the closest to you? There will be almost nil chances that the incidents with close ones be ever forgotten. I would say all the wonderful moments I had spent at college can never be forgotten as long as I live.

"Nothing is more memorable than a smell. One scent can be unexpected, momentary and fleeting, yet conjure up a childhood summer beside a lake in the mountains; another, a moonlit beach; a third, a family dinner of pot roast and sweet potatoes during a myrtle-mad August in a Midwestern town. Smells detonate softly in our memory like poignant land mines hidden under the weedy mass of years. Hit a tripwire of smell and memories explode all at once. A complex vision leaps out of the undergrowth. ( I would also include 'Music' to 'Smell' )"

A smell or a little of music is enough to conjure up your past memories and rethink the whole incident. I can remember the feeling I had whenever I listen to certain songs. The same feeling I can refeel when I listen to the songs again. Smell also has a similar effect.

"Things that were hard to bear are sweet to remember. "

There could have been incidents which are really hard to accept and understand and bare. But they would be the sweetest moments of our life or they would have been the moments which taught us the most about life.

"To look backward for a while is to refresh the eye, to restore it, and to render it the more fit for its prime function of looking forward. "

Everytime we look back at our life and remind ourself of the past, we restore the vision and thereby take all the good things, prevent the bad ones from recurrence, and hence make our life more fruitful.

Memories can teach us a lot of things for our future,'Memory" is !! I am bewildered !! It has got infinite people's emotions, thoughts and what not ! No one can live without memories, when it helps us cherish the most wonderful moments of our life. An unwritten diary stored in the form of smell, music, momentary glance, etc. It allows us to live life the better way.