It all started with Suchit's (aka Konde's) idea to go on a looooong drive with his pals - Varun(aka TK), Vinayak(aka Pot) and yours truly ! We thought and thought with some Internet surfing in between before deciding upon a place called Sangama ( the meeting point of three rivers ) and a 4 km trek to Mekedaatu from there.
April 28, remembered for the 2007 World Cup Cricket Finals made us ( namely TK, Pot n Konde) wake up late the next day - the trip day !! Eventually all got together at Konde's place and got going after a light breakfast. The place was around 95 km from Bengalooru with a lot of greenery, cattle and a few villages along the way. Driving was a pleasure for most parts except the occasional slow-down stretches owing to bad roads. The usually lazy Konde had managed to make an effort and find out about a quiet and removed stretch, by the side of the river just before entering Sangam. This place was totally in contrast to the crowded and noisy Sangam, as we would find out later. TK, Konde and I spent some time finding our way through the rocks alongside the river bank with Pot opting to stay put at the side, clicking a few snaps of the surroundings ( not to mention his frequent claims of giant Crocs being in the water). The volcano-like hot rocks almost burnt our feet but then stepping into the cool streams of water felt like heaven.
After enjoying the surroundings and a bit of leg-pulling of one-another, we decided to carry on towards Sangam and the trek to Mekedaatu. And were we in for a surprise or not...!! It was like the whole of Bangalore was there ... full of cars, people, kids and what not. We had a quick lunch before moving on to cross Sangam, looking forward to the trek ahead. It was humid, with the sun beating down on 4 city-bred souls, ready to test their stamina. TK and I also came up with the idea of jogging down before realizing it was not worth the effort after about half a kilometer. Slowly and steadily we moved ahead with Konde constantly asking me how much more and I would tell him the distance in exact decimals ;) !! Waah Konde !!
And then after an hour's struggle, meeting up with a few monkeys & dogs and feeling jealous of the people going on bikes along the way, we reached a sort of a small shelter. Here is where we had a weird experience......
Under that shelter, was a person with three plastic coins in his hand, one of which had a mark on it. He would constantly juggle these coins, briefly showing us the coin with the mark on it, and then placing the 3 of them face down - we had to guess which coin had the mark. Sounds simple enough if one observes his movements carefully, but here's the catch - like all simple matters this too was made complex by the 'money' factor. Well, it was a game of gambling going on between a few people - they would bet a minimum of 100 bucks on the coin with the mark and get double the amount if they were right. From nowhere, the gambling instincts of our beloved Konde creeped in and he put the "only" 100 bucks we had carried from Sangam as his first bet - and he managed to get 200.!! But before we knew he lost the 200 that he had just earned, leaving us almost high and dry... Thank God that Pot had close to 80 in his pocket, else it would have been a longgggg frustrating walk back again, since we had planned to return on a bus which would cost us almost 80.
Despite the loss, Konde maintained that we would have won if all us were with him and that we should not get too upset about it, and treat everything as a new experience - so profound !! Moving on, we climbed down a flight of tricky stairs , from where one could see water gushing down with great force between two mountains. It was a great sight and put our minds off the money we lost a few moments earlier..:). Then it was time for the bus to arrive and we moved up
to the shelter.
As we moved towards the bus, out of nowhere, we saw two police constables rushing towards the shelter with sticks in hand on the look out for someone. Guess what, the guy enticing everyone into the gambling game was beaten up by these policemen and to our shock a few of the apparent participants were also his aides in getting others to bet higher and higher..!!!
Finally, the bus started and it was funny to have the policemen and the crooks in the same bus with us. Konde never once looked their side( as seen in the snap - Konde is left-most ).. He wouldn't agree but rest of us knew he was a touch worried !!!
It was time to leave, and the guys picked up few beers to enjoy the drive back home. Along the way, we played a few car games, listened to few songs and slept, except for me of course as I was driving, rather racing with the other cars and buses on the road.
All's well that ends well .. and we reached Konde's place in quite good time. It was a good trip and we plan to go on a few more...
April 28, remembered for the 2007 World Cup Cricket Finals made us ( namely TK, Pot n Konde) wake up late the next day - the trip day !! Eventually all got together at Konde's place and got going after a light breakfast. The place was around 95 km from Bengalooru with a lot of greenery, cattle and a few villages along the way. Driving was a pleasure for most parts except the occasional slow-down stretches owing to bad roads. The usually lazy Konde had managed to make an effort and find out about a quiet and removed stretch, by the side of the river just before entering Sangam. This place was totally in contrast to the crowded and noisy Sangam, as we would find out later. TK, Konde and I spent some time finding our way through the rocks alongside the river bank with Pot opting to stay put at the side, clicking a few snaps of the surroundings ( not to mention his frequent claims of giant Crocs being in the water). The volcano-like hot rocks almost burnt our feet but then stepping into the cool streams of water felt like heaven.
After enjoying the surroundings and a bit of leg-pulling of one-another, we decided to carry on towards Sangam and the trek to Mekedaatu. And were we in for a surprise or not...!! It was like the whole of Bangalore was there ... full of cars, people, kids and what not. We had a quick lunch before moving on to cross Sangam, looking forward to the trek ahead. It was humid, with the sun beating down on 4 city-bred souls, ready to test their stamina. TK and I also came up with the idea of jogging down before realizing it was not worth the effort after about half a kilometer. Slowly and steadily we moved ahead with Konde constantly asking me how much more and I would tell him the distance in exact decimals ;) !! Waah Konde !!
And then after an hour's struggle, meeting up with a few monkeys & dogs and feeling jealous of the people going on bikes along the way, we reached a sort of a small shelter. Here is where we had a weird experience......
Under that shelter, was a person with three plastic coins in his hand, one of which had a mark on it. He would constantly juggle these coins, briefly showing us the coin with the mark on it, and then placing the 3 of them face down - we had to guess which coin had the mark. Sounds simple enough if one observes his movements carefully, but here's the catch - like all simple matters this too was made complex by the 'money' factor. Well, it was a game of gambling going on between a few people - they would bet a minimum of 100 bucks on the coin with the mark and get double the amount if they were right. From nowhere, the gambling instincts of our beloved Konde creeped in and he put the "only" 100 bucks we had carried from Sangam as his first bet - and he managed to get 200.!! But before we knew he lost the 200 that he had just earned, leaving us almost high and dry... Thank God that Pot had close to 80 in his pocket, else it would have been a longgggg frustrating walk back again, since we had planned to return on a bus which would cost us almost 80.
Despite the loss, Konde maintained that we would have won if all us were with him and that we should not get too upset about it, and treat everything as a new experience - so profound !! Moving on, we climbed down a flight of tricky stairs , from where one could see water gushing down with great force between two mountains. It was a great sight and put our minds off the money we lost a few moments earlier..:). Then it was time for the bus to arrive and we moved up
to the shelter.As we moved towards the bus, out of nowhere, we saw two police constables rushing towards the shelter with sticks in hand on the look out for someone. Guess what, the guy enticing everyone into the gambling game was beaten up by these policemen and to our shock a few of the apparent participants were also his aides in getting others to bet higher and higher..!!!
Finally, the bus started and it was funny to have the policemen and the crooks in the same bus with us. Konde never once looked their side( as seen in the snap - Konde is left-most ).. He wouldn't agree but rest of us knew he was a touch worried !!!
It was time to leave, and the guys picked up few beers to enjoy the drive back home. Along the way, we played a few car games, listened to few songs and slept, except for me of course as I was driving, rather racing with the other cars and buses on the road.
All's well that ends well .. and we reached Konde's place in quite good time. It was a good trip and we plan to go on a few more...
4 comments:
He he he, Konde was scared like hell. ask pot if u want pal
well well..the supposedly lazy person actually planned and literally pulled everyone on this trip..but unfortunately the crowd was not game or enthu enough to try out anythin new(except talli tk who just wanted to drink anythin old or new as usual!!) and such unexpected events according to me make a trip spl....but i realized later tht my views were not shared .. :( and also why did we carry only 100 bucks??? maybe a 100 rs note is too heavy to carry on a trek :) is it my fault that i wanted to play with MY money(the loss was not meant to be shared nor was it).and i dont even want to comment on the scared part..some one forgot tht i didnt win any money nor did i want to..oh does everythin revolve arnd money!! but everyone is entitled to his or her opinion, u see thts democracy and freedom of speech has its faults too..
Somebody was talking about 'tongue-in-cheek' comments some time back.. Tit for Tat huh !!
konde was juz scared.
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