A ride to remember : Mallelatheertham Waterfalls

My life is damn routine is the first thought my mind plays along when I just wake up.  Determined to kill this thought for this weekend, I decided to do a bit of traveling. I teamed up with my good old engineering friend Mr. Srinivas to do something. Inspired by the movie “The Motor cycle Diaries” We decided why not do a bike riding to a distant place together. We decided to go to Mallelatheertham waterfalls which is near Srisailam , Kurnool District and 180 kms away from Hyderabad.

We started at 10.15 am which, i think is not  a good time to start for long journey especially in summers. Armed with only a cap to protect us from scorching heat, we set out towards our destination on our "La Poderosa"- The Powerful- YAMAHA SZR. The journey through the city was slow with traffic piling ahead of us , but as we reached the outskirts of city, our speed picked up.

The travellers ..

On the outskirts of city, we stopped to visit one of the Hyderabad's famous temple by name “Maisigandi Temple” the home of Goddess Kali. The temple attracts hundreds of devotees daily from all over Andhra Pradesh offering their services to Goddess. The Striking part of this temple is that the mere sight of Goddess Kali appearance would just send a shiver through your body and warn you about the implications if you do any sins. On the vicinity of the temple, I also happen to come across the area which is dedicated for sacrifice i.e.,for execution of innocent animals painfully mostly goats and hens. It was indescribably horrible site to watch for me. I don't understand to this date why would God ask us to do something like this and at the same time ask us not kill in His name.

Maisigandi Temple

We moved on leaving behind my unsettling thoughts about offerings to God. As sun reached directly  over  us  , we started to experience his real power. The heat was just dehydrating our bodies and at  one point, we became desperate to have some water to quench our thirst. After 2.00 pm , the climate has dramatically  changed to pleasant cool weather as though to  welcome us when we reached the ghat roads of srisailam. It took one more hour drive to reach the waterfalls by 3.00 pm.

The waterfalls was about 100 feet high , not too tall when compared to what i have seen earlier. The flow of water was not that intense as it was unseasonal. The good thing is that this has better platform to have fun under it. We spend about 90 minutes having fun and exploring the peaceful surroundings.

 

Mallelatheertham waterfalls

A small trek will bring u closer to waterfalls

Srinivas having fun with water

As always serious

By the time we started back to Hyderabad at around 4.30 pm, there was a slight shower of rain which left with a cool breeze of air. The return journey was great as cool breeze of air was flowing through your face, the smell of mud after it rained was very pleasant, the beautiful sceneries around us was just a feast to our eyes and travelling while listening to your favorite songs was just awesome combination.

By the time we reached our home it was 9.30 pm and it was great experience altogether. We never travelled on bike for about 360 kms ( Up and down) along with 10 hours of journey time in a single day as well as never had back pain which will hopefully subside eventually.

I hope this is just the beginning of many more to come in the future …………

The Godfather theme acoustic cover

This is the theme song of my all time favourite movie The Godfather .. Yours comments ,valuable suggestions are always welcome .. hope u like it .

The old man at the hotel

(It was almost a year ago, i.e., Jan 2011, It was customary for me that along with my school friends that we should at least have one tour of India . Accordingly, we planned to visit quite a few places in Goa as well as Karnataka. This incident happened on the fourth day of our tour when we were in search of a hotel, while returning after a daylong of enjoyment …)

Basically it is a very well known hilltop hotel in Gokarna beach, Karnataka (Sorry I don’t remember the name). The route to the hilltop was quite scary with no proper lights and with dangerous curves ready to take you down to the bottom.  There was only one light near gate of the hotel. We happen to reach the hotel in our cab at around 21.30 hrs. In our batch two of my friends, TK and Privinesh who happen to knew kannada, went to reception office which is down the hill to find out the accommodation details, while the rest of us i.e., myself , Arun, venky, & Pavan decided to stay just near the gate. 

As we were engaged in our own conversations, we happen to watch two foreigners emerge from the stairway, which lead to the reception office. There was a small room for security check up near the gate, where there were two persons in the room. One was obviously the guard who is on night duty for that day and the other was an old man, probably in his 50’s.The guard was just standing near the entrance of the security room and the old man was sitting at the entrance of the room. We didn’t care much about them until, the foreigners who were in need of some help asked the guard for directions towards their hut. The guard was trying to help them but the old man intervened and offered his help. The moment he opened his mouth, we understood that he must have emptied a few bottles to get some good sleep.

The old man, as though he was on a stage for an auditioning of a Hero role, set out to display his dramatic acting skills. We couldn’t understand a bit except for a few English words which he managed to pop out for his audience, as most of what he was saying was in Kannada with emotions running high. The two foreigners felt uncomfortable and we had to intervene and tried to bring some sense in the old man. At one point, the old man even made us laugh at him. After sometime, the two foreigners left towards their hut, leaving us to judge the old man audition. 

The old man was unstoppable, almost his performance was reaching climax. At that point, he happen to ask us something. We didn’t understand anything. But he came to know through our conversations that we are from Hyderabad and that might have aroused his regional feelings (No offence at anybody). 

Venky immediately replied “We don’t know kannada. We can only understand Telugu, Hindi and English”. 

The old man said something and left us in search of something. Pavan happen to keep a close watch on the old man saved many lives. The old man went near the bushes just a few feet away from us and happen to pick up his most favourite tool. The AXE!!

Pavan cried out “Look guys, He got an axe !! Run for your lives”

 

Say Hello to my little friend

My friends immediately ran out of the gate, into the darkness and took protection near our cab  .I wasn’t  actually facing the old man,  by the time , I turn around to comprehend what has happened, I saw the old man as though to take revenge for some injustice ,came running towards me with an ‘AXE‘ swinging ,as I’m very  near to him. A Sense of fear for my life went through my body. By the time, I started running towards the gate and into the darkness, he came very close to me.  I thought this will be my last day on this Planet called Earth. 

As I came out,   I saw a car parked near the gate. At ones, I decided to take protection near the car. By the time, I reached the back of the car, the old man stopped near the entrance of the gate with his Axe in his hand, swinging wildly and yelling some rubbish stuff in Kannada. The only words we could understand were those that he would like to cut us into pieces.  God saved us all to live another day!!

The Security Guard came for our rescue and immediately took him away .We had a heated argument with management of hotel. They assured us that the old man would be taken care of and won’t disturb us anymore. Somehow we weren’t interested to leave such a beautiful spot. We decided to stay in the hotel.

The next day we left the hotel and were about to take our breakfast in a nearby food centre, when we happen to see this old man with his friend walking along the beach. We were quite sure that he would have not remembered anything. We thought to teach him a lesson for what he has done to us. But the moment, we thought of putting our thoughts to action, the old man took out his dagger to show to his friend as though to warn us. That was instance, we gave up the thought of doing something.

 Dont ever mess with me

 

It was a terrifying event for me, as I came face to face with almost certain death situation. I just cant even imagine the consequences if he had thrown the axe at me. Nevertheless, we continued to enjoy our tour of Western India..

super mario bros theme acoustic cover

This cover is a simpler version of super mario bros theme .. one of my favourite video games that i used to play a lot back in my school days .. hope u enjoy it and feel free to comment ..

Nothing else matters- acoustic cover

Nothing Else matters .. One of my favourite Metallica songs ..I'm a beginner so please forgive me for any mistakes i have made.. Hope u like it .and dont forget to give your valuable feedback..cheers.

Tour Diaries : North Indian Tour

( I , along with my school friend Tk decided to tour North India . This post presents our tour in detail along with pics. ) 

Day 1: The People( Saturday)

It was about 1400 Hrs,the moment we landed in the Srinagar Airport, an announcement was made in the flight “ You are not permitted to take pictures in the airport”.I think that announcement reflected the life scenario in the Kashmir . We took a cab to the office of Kashmir Valley Travels pvt limited. which is located near Dal lake. The journey to the Dal lake made me realize the omnipresence of Indian Army soldiers on the streets of Kashmir. 

The office of Kashmir valley travels was well furnished. We were looking for the person by name Arif to whom we spoke the day before regarding our trekking tour. Arif bhai as we decided to call him spoke very fluent english which surprised me a bit. We made a deal with him for the following things:

1. Day 1 : we will be taken by cab to near Naranag, the starting point of our trek.

2. Day 2 : we will trek towards Gangbal Lake & Haramukh Paravath which is about 3600 mtrs and it would be our finishing point and return back to Naranag the same day.

3. Day 3: we will be given a cab to go to a place called Sonamarg.

4. Day 4: Return back to Srinagar which is about 90 kms.

5. All the required gear for Trekking like Food ,utensils, sleeping bags, cook , horses

for transportation of cargo etc along with the Guide will be taken care.

After striking the deal, the next deal was to get a Hotel room to stay for that night. We were able to get a good room for a reasonable amount of Rs. 450/- with help of Arif bhai. After feeding our empty stomach, we decided to take a walk on the streets of Kashmir and purchase few things left out in our list.

The streets are quite busy with people doing their business for living. The Hymns from the Quran were audible everywhere on the streets even as a mobile ringtone as well. I simply loved the way kashmiri people wished us good luck by saying “ Allah ke hawale”. One important thing in Kashmir is that a mobile phone with Prepaid connection wont work, which is a preventive measure taken by the government of J & K for its misuse by terrorists. During the night, the temperature dropped considerably close to zero degrees which made me restless. 

The day ended with me sleeping under a blanket which is about two inch thickness and still shivering violently and cursing my friend for not even feeling a pinch of the extreme cold conditions I was subjected to...

A view of Dal lake along with Boat Houses at Night 

Day 2: (Sunday)

According to the plan, we were to be taken to the Naranag by cab which would pick up at 9.30 am near Dal lake. We started our journey towards Naranag in the cab which is already loaded with the necessary gear for trekking along with our cook Rahim and Arif Bhai. We reached Naranag which is our starting point of our trek at around in the afternoon.

The Trekkers- Tk & Vamsi

It was small trek to reach our Day one’s resting place. ‘The kota’ as it is referred in local language is built by Gujjar, the local hilltop community,for resting.

The Kota from Outside & Inside

After settling down in the Kota, we decided to take a walk into the surroundings and was stunned by the beauty of the nature around us, as it offered breath-taking views of itself.

Nature

We came across an army patrolling team as the border was very close to us. We had a nice discussion with them about various things. They reluctantly agreed to take a picture with us .

With Guardians of our Border

The day ended with a very hot & nice meal offered by our cook and as usual I was shivering to death with cold and at the same time cursing my friend for his ability to withstand cold..

Day 3 (Monday)

As per instructions from our guide Amzad, who is fun-loving guy and very talkative, we left our Kota for Gangbal lake at around 7.30 am. The climb was too steep for us , about 75 degrees inclination and it was really getting tough as time goes-by. Amzad assured us this wont last long and we will find better ground to walk.

The Steep Climb

But, the steep climb kept on coming back at every corner we crossed. But somehow we managed to move-on, until we came across snow. I never happen to see this much huge amount of snow that I think if kept in a boiler and heated can provide water for city for more than 100 years.

The Path to the top

The Snow

What a view to watch

We were completely blown away by the mesmerizing beauty of nature, its hard to put it in words. One must experience it by himself to feel it. 

Unfortunately, the pace of our climb was not as expected and I was completely exhausted by the climb , in a way I felt as though my body was eating itself for survival that lead us into trouble .

1. We were not equipped with necessary tools to stay in the night.

2. We don’t have any food to eat.

3. I was in no position to move my body because of exhaustion. 

Fortunately, there was an army camp near Haramukh Parvath. We decided to ask them for help. Luckily, they guided us to a nearby under construction guest house. We were saved that day by the Indian Army. I was quite surprised to find a guest house at such a place. After having a goodtime with our soldiers, we said our good-byes and left for guest house.

The toughest thing for me in trekking was to survive the harsh weather conditions at night which was below zero degrees. Somehow I managed to survive that night with great difficulty.

I was in need of some help to pull myself upto guest house.

Day 4 (Tuesday )

In the morning, I was happy to find myself regaining my strength. Amjad was anxious to show us the Haramukh Paravath in the morning and insisted us to come out. This is what we happen to see.

Standing Tall: Haramukh Parvath 5300 mtrs with Sunrays embracing it

Unfortunately, our attempt to see Gangbal lake which is about some 500 mtrs away was foiled by snow which was varying from 1 feet to 1 metre. Amzad decided seeing our conditions not to go further and we decided to return back to base. The descend to base was easy compared to climb and we reached our Kota at around 3.30 pm.

Our descending route

According to our agreement with Arif Bhai, we were supposed to be taken to our next stop Sonamarg in a vehicle. The arrangement of vehicle was impressive, the movement we came down to our base, a vehicle was waiting for us with all our gear already loaded in it. We said our goodbyes to our guide & cook and started towards Sonamarg.We reached Sonamarg at around 7.30 pm asked the driver to come back at around 2.00 pm as we were supposed to be taken to Srinagar.

Day 5 (Wednesday)

Sonamarg is one of the most beautiful tourist locations in India, surrounded by mountains & glaciers on all the sides along with our army camps all around. I was stunned to see huge number of army camps spread across the valley of Sonamarg. Sonamarg is known for its glacier by name ‘Thajiwas glacier’ . We made an attempt to go as close as possible to the glacier.

Before Thajiwas glacier

Zojila pass is our next stop which is at the entrance road to Leh, the splendid rooftop of the world as it is described. We just made an attempt to go Zojila pass but was stopped due to a scheduled blast for newly under construction road. We decided to return back to Srinagar.

We reached Srinagar at about 9.30 pm and decided to stay in boat house instead of a room. The inside view of boat house was quite stunning.

Inside a boat house…

Day 6 (Thursday)

The next stop was Gulmarg which was some 80 kms away from Srinagar. But before leaving Srinagar, it was time to have some fun in the Dal Lake. In local language called as “Shikara” a special boat takes u for a ride on the Dal Lake which happens to be the home of quite a large number people as well as different species of birds. If u go to Srinagar it’s a must to have Shikara Ride .The residents on Dal lake created a colony to stay and shops selling from household items to fancy items. I was wonderstruck by the way people made the Lake as their home.

Enjoying the ride on Dal lake

Inside a On –Boat Clothes Selling shop

After having fun-ride on Dal lake, We started towards Gulmarg and reached around 1.00 pm. We stayed in Hotel called Hilltop which is quite famous in Gulmarg as it burned down to ashes by fire not once but thrice. But I had to mention the hospitality was quite impressive.

Gulmarg is famous for its Gondola ride . It was unfortunate for us that the second phase of Gondola ride was down that very particular day. But atleast we had Phase -1 of gondola ride. We enjoyed the ride to top but we felt it was Phase-2 that offered stunning view of Gulmarg.

Gondola ride

Gulmarg is also famous for itself Golf Course which hosts quite big National level tournaments. We decided to have some with fun with Golf. Seriously we enjoyed playing it as we challenged each other as to who would put the ball in the hole first.

Day 7 (Friday)

As per our plan, we were suppose to return to Delhi and attend a Live concert performed by one of the greatest Rock bands in the History- The Metallica. We landed in Delhi in the afternoon and reached the Concert venue at around 4.30 pm which is already filled with all metal-head fans. The total event was handled very poorly by the organizers. Organizers cheated public by selling more tickets than the venue can handle, thereby leading to utter fiasco of the total event. This led Metallica band to cancel the concert itself. The already raged fans have become unstoppable bulls, tearing apart anything that came in their way. We were just lucky enough to make our way out of the venue before the destruction began.

Fans about to take down the Innova in front of them..

Day 8 (Saturday)

I’m a big fan of Formula 1 racing and It is scheduled to have its First Race in India at Buddh International Circuit, Greater Noida. I decided to attend this event a long time ago (may be the moment it was announced that F1 is coming to India in 2010). The sound of F1 engine roaring was always so soothing to my mind when I used to hear it on TV. Normally Saturday’s is dedicated for deciding the race positions of the race drivers according to their performance. We reached the circuit a little late and quickly made our way to our designated seats to catch the action. The first thing that shocks you about F1 is the roaring sound of V8 engine of F1 car. Wow. I’ll the never forget the sound. It was so thunderously loud that we had to close our ears. We did not take our camera as we were skeptical as to whether they were allowed or not. Our doubts were cleared the moment we saw cameras on the people around us. It was quite an amazing first encounter with F1 race car.

In the evening, we met Rajesh, one of old friends of tk who happen to stay in Delhi. We decided to spend the rest of the time by watching the Movie “Ra-one”. It was such a non-sense movie to watch. But the interesting part was the ride in the Metro rails.

Day 9 (Sunday) The Race Day

As Sunday is Formula 1Race day which is scheduled at 3.00 pm in the evening , we decided to take small tour of Delhi and went to Jantar Mantar, which is quite an interesting monument which is about careful measurements of celestial objects. Its really amazing to see the accuracy that was achieved in predicting the time& positions of celestial objects in 18^th century.

Jantar mantar

It was lunch time and what place could better to have lunch than AP Bhavan. Before going to AP bhavan, we met Rajesh at India Gate and together had our Lunch.

India gate

It was race time, we went to Circuit using the bus provided by the Organizers. I must say F1 event was quite impressively organized with over 90,000 fans attending the Race.

Unfortunately, the traffic was too heavy and it was jamming all over the highway. But somehow we managed to reach the Circuit by about 30 minutes late. We were disappointed by this as the race would be quite interesting in the start itself.

Parking lot & BIC

It was quite amazing to watch as well hear the roaring F1 engines competing with each other .I thought if I had come 30 minutes earlier and watch the Race from start to finish, I would have definitely become deaf. The Race lasted for about 1(1/2) hours completing 60 laps with Red bull Race Driver Vettel emerging as the Winner.

Ferrari fans

The Redbull Racer Vettel led the Race all the way to victory

Overall it was quite an amazing race to watch, we enjoyed the race a lot .Hopefully return back next year in 2012. 

Day 10 (Monday)

Back to Hyderabad

The tour was awesome . We had great fun in these 9 days. Hopefully we wish to have more fun in the next upcoming tour in 2012..

Led Zeppelin- Stairway to Heaven ( Acoustic Cover)

Hi guys check out my acoustic cover of Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin.. Its one of my all time favourite song. It took me a while to learn this song .. Hope u like it and dont forget to comment. suggestions are always welcome .. Have a nice day ahead..

A Sprint to Remember

It was during my engineering days, I had the opportunity to visit Ramakrishna Math along with one of my engineering friend Naga Karthik. It was not at all a new place to me as I had been there earlier. This Math aims to transform the society by all-round development of a individual’s character, which it has clearly put into action by organizing various programs .It was for my friend I had to visit Math to purchase some good books for motivation as well as revisiting this place brings peace to any restless mind.

We did shopping for some good books in the books section. By the time we finished our activity and came out of Math, it was already night. The bus stop was about one kilometer and we stroll down the lane talking about Math and its activities. To reach the bus stop we had to cross the road. My friend did it quickly as he has realized that our destination bus has just arrived at the bus stop.

He yelled at me “Come on, its our direct bus”, after crossing the road.

Hyderabad is known for its 400 year old Charminar, for its communal harmony, for its biryani and last but not the least for its heavy traffic on the roads too. Crossing the road is the most daring activity in a daily routine life of Hyderabadi. Perhaps it is easier to do skydiving rather than crossing a road!

I collected the left out courage in me to cross the road. I made few attempts, but in vain. I can clearly see my friend already boarding the bus and yelling at me as it started to accelerate. I said to myself now or never and plunged into the traffic. I narrowly managed to cross the road and checked whether I was in one total piece. I did it. My heart rejoiced as though I have cracked IIT entrance examination without any preparation!

By the time, I crossed the road, the bus was about furlong distance from me and fast accelerating to its top speed. I still had a chance if I could cover a furlong in less thirty seconds. I was confident enough as I was good at running right from school days. So I thought to give it a shot. Meanwhile my friend yelling at me caught the attention of crowd standing at the bus stop as well in the bus too.

Now having the full attention of the crowd on me, it was like a National Athletics Championship where the crowd is cheering the local boy. I sprinted with all my strength towards the bus like a desperate cheetah towards its prey. By the time I reached my top speed, the bus has reached its top speed too. In a last attempt, I tried to push hard myself, but failed miserably to catch the bus. The sight of bus disappearing made me to realize that I was a loser.

You let down yourself .All your efforts have gone in vain. When I heard a scooter horn, then I realized that I was still on the road. A scooterist came by my side and simply said “Come” as I was still trying to catch my breath. I still don’t know why I took the back seat of his scooter without asking any question. He could be anyone trying to kidnap me for money!

As we drove together, I could not make out anything of him except that he looks like a old man probably in his fifty’s. I could see my missing bus trying to make a way ahead. I said “There goes my bus”, pointing my index finger towards the bus as though a child pointing towards his favorite chocolates in a candy shop. He said nothing.

He accelerated his scooter and overtook the bus. He stopped it in front of the bus so that the bus is forced to halt. He said “Go on”. At once, I jumped from the back seat of the scooter and boarded the bus. I realized that I forgot to thank the old man for his help, I came out through the window to say thanks to him. But he vanished.

I was moved by this act by the old man. I must admit he did not help me to win one crore in KBC or donated blood to save my life. But his small act of helping changed my perceptions of the world around. People who are completely strange can also care for you. I really felt strange as to why would someone help a stranger? Then I realized that Hyderabad is not only known for its heavy traffic but also known for its people with a helping heart..

As Swami Vivekananda correctly puts it in single statement the whole summary of entire preaching of different religions in the world.

“To be good and To do good. That is the whole of religions” …

Green Day Time of your life Acoustic Cover

Hello everyone. This is our second acoustic cover. We had lot of fun making it .. this was just made for fun ..Hope u like it and don't forget to give your valuable suggestions .. have a great day ahead ..and i hope you all are having time of your life ..

Cheers to life ..

Music

(Its been quite a longtime since I have posted something on my blog, though here and there I keep updating, but the frequency of posting has drastically reduced. Its really getting increasingly difficult to post something new. I almost feel like there is nothing to write about as the life seems to be so routine and I’m hating it the most. Perhaps the only thing that keeps me going is music…so just want to share something about it. )

Music has really a special place in my heart, infact it fills my entire heart and leaves no room even for blood to enter! My association with music started in my school days where I was fascinated towards how musical notes were played on keyboard for our morning prayer and concentrated on the musical notes. To be more specific I love only instrumental music in a song rather than lyrical part. It doesn’t mean that I don’t like lyrical songs but it just doesn’t appeal to me as much as only instrumental music does to me.

Instrumental Music has changed the perception of my world. It was just the right ingredient to bring a flavor to my boring life. Music has magical touch upon me. It just inspires me, makes my heart resonant with joy, fills my heart with pride and sometimes even makes my eyes wet. I love listening to it a lot as well as love to watch people play music. Its just amazing as how musicians enjoy it while they play it. My particular interest is towards guitar. I just love to listen the vibrations coming out of the strings from a guitar.

I’m totally addicted to guitar music. I can listen to a guitar based song for entire day without getting bored and continue it the next day and so on. My regular day would be something like this.

Work

Music

And of course sleep too.

That’s it. This is how my day normally ends. My favourite guitarist is Trace Bundy. May be you never heard of him, but such a talented guitarist. For the first time in my life I have purchased a CD of his songs rather than downloading it freely using internet. His version of “Sweet Child Of Mine by Guns N Roses” is by far my all time favourite.

Though I don’t play it the way I want to, but I love it the most when compared to other musical instruments. I even made an attempt to learn it by taking classes but in vain. I was lucky enough to watch Bryan Adams perform live in Hyderabad. It was just mind blowing experience and since then I put an effort to learn it myself using youtube.

I know the fact the probability to have a girl friend in real life is zero for me, I thought why not to explore in the musical field and found not one but two. Before you say Wow! good Job Vamsi way to go buddy etc . Just have a look at the picture of them.

Let me introduce you to the one on the left is Ms. Acoustic, always soft, elegant and melodious and on the right is Ms .Electric, the hardcore rock fan. Each representing two sides of me. In the company of these two, I would like to continue my journey of life towards its end. There's a huge playlist of songs that I wish to learn and play them all. I hope I can do it before I kick the bucket.

Music is just like a shadow that never leaves me and keeps following me . I think even God would be proud of this wonderful creation apart from us…