Paradesi - Review

I really did not intend to write this Paradesi - movie review for two reasons.

1. I wanted either Reddy/MSK to own up this review.
2. Bala fans (including me) will not be impressed with this blog.

But opinion differs for everyone, and I do want to record my opinion about this movie. Hence writing. Anyhow, I still expect Reddy/MSK's take on this movie in their blogspot.

Disclaimer - Before commenting anything on this blog, pls be noted that this is my personal opinion on the movie and may not apply to all. Few of my friends exclaimed the movie was excellent and Bala's best - I respect their opinion as well. Now, my perception of this movie.

A group of people in a village leads a happy life, full of fun and celebration. One fine day, a villian enters their territory and slaves the village people as whole. After a tiresome journey along with the villian, they are sold as slaves to one other big villian. Oops.. sorry, I was just saying first-half plot of the movie "Apocolypto". Paradesi, though inspired by a different novel, the plot is same as that of Apocolypto. I don't mean to say the movie is copied. Similar plot makes this Paradesi comparable to Apocolypto in certain scenes, and I still believe only Bala can make a movie like Apocolypto in Kollywood.

This movie ran for around 2 hours, and still I dont understand why Bala has taken such a movie. In the making trailer, Bala strictly treats everyone to get his output pefect, but is a movie only all about perfection? Whats the use of a six-pack body without life? That's how I felt the movie. Visuals without soul. Again, who said everyone will cry when seeing others cry? Adharva, Dhanshika, Vedhika - everyone cries throughout the movie. Is that emotion? There is absolutely no depth in the visuals (except the last one minute, but that's not enough Bala)

In my Vazhakku En 18/9 movie review, I have mentioned Bala for one thing - "Bala to learn from Balaji Sakthivel on how to make films without commercial compromise..". My mention holds very good for this movie. Bala came close to natural in this movie, but the commercial compromise he made - hell a lot. Being a trend-breaker, Bala should have skipped songs completely out of the movie. Dont he have the guts/talent to skip songs or does he still think that the audience are not matured yet to watch movies without songs? The songs really serve no useful purpose. The movie, as i felt, is just full of songs - and the music, very disturbing at times. I'm not blaming Bala for what he has given, but we expect something big for his cadre. If people go out of a village for their survival, should someone sing "sengaade sengaade....poivaravaa" in the background?  We understand it Bala.. (Remembering the dialogue from Anbe Sivam "idhu enna kaadhala.. asingama appoppo solradhukku.. you need to understand it man.."). Show the emotion in the visual. That's your strength and we expect it too.. And for a movie like this, how do you feel it justified to have songs? Did the novel had songs? Another bad thing is predictable scenes - Adharva and Vedika in the first half sings a duet inside the jungle and enters in a old hut specially left half-built in the center of the forest!?.. We all know its time to drop a one rupee coin on the floor and ask ladies to search for it.. :) Its a hyder-ali period standard template sir... boring....

First half - I could remember only two scenes - One between Vedhika and Adharva, and the other scene where the villagers keep walking, walking and walking. Both the scenes are a song and that's it. Nothing more to say. People will say its character establishment. But how long should the character get established? the first half is gone buddy, and the story hasn't started at all. (In Pithamagan, Vikram's such heavy character will be established in the title song itself). Nothing to say about the Vedhika teasing Adharva before their "nenaikaren". Why drag that teasing too long? Its really frustrating, rather sympathetic. But Adharva's hitting thandora all-alone after the insult is beautifully shot. That's Bala's touch..

Another worst part in the first half, just before interval is where the villagers leave the half-dying guy and drag away his wife alone. Generally, in villages most of the people will be relations, like maama-machan's and share a very good rapport within them. In one scene, a villager's wife runs down to join along his husband at the last minute in his journey. Such is their relations. Even in the first scene, everyone sits together and eats in the bandhi when Adharva alone gets teased. But when one of them faints during the journey, no one even cares to give him some water. They all stay around and watch him die. Everyone goes with the villian words that he is further a dead-weight. Not convincingly shot. Is that all the relations are about? especially between villagers of those times? Similar scene will be there in Apocolypto, where one of the injured guy slips-off from the mountain, but others, though tied together, tries to save them with all their might. Any human being will try to do that, but in our case, even his wife leaves him all-alone to die of thirst. What is she going to do with her earning, without her husband? Is the village running such drought? I really dont know. Even our hero will be there in that crowd, but will leave silently. But when the other lady (Karuthakanni) dies in the tea-estate affected by plague, he will run there to cry.. ennappa logic?. Keeping aside these logic things, the fingers that act before intermission - Impressive. Again, that's Bala's touch.

Second half - When they reach the estate and get allotted of their huts, the in-charge guy asks Adharva to use a hut that is allocated for Dhansika. Is that for any specific reason? Doesn't he know that a lady is already using the hut for years? No answer.  Another predictable visual is where Adharva tries to escape and finally falls down at a point. He lifts his face to see that all the villains there standing in a "straight-circle", breathing heavily holding lights in their hands. Just think of the same chasing scene in Apocolypto. In fact, the second half of Apocolypto is only a chasing scene. And, if one tries to escape, will he use the conventional route? he will definitely use short-cuts inside the jungle. Onnum puriyala.. oruvela naan sariyaa padatha paakalayo?

Should I mention anything about the Christian missionary scenes? It appears like our Power-star was the one selected initially for the role played by the dance master Shivasankar, who comes as the doctor. Lucky Power-Star, he just escaped. I partially agree with Bala's views on missionaries, that   mostly concentrated on spreading their religion among poor people. But it was also them who spread education among poor people. Even now, most of the schools are Christian ones. But this scene in the movie was dragging more than required. In the first part, where Adharva goes out to another village for a job and unknowingly sits in the bench allotted for high-class people and gets beaten by the shop-keeper, or when the old man refuses to pay him for his work - it clearly portrays the caste/untouchables issue that prevailed during those days. The missionary scene should have been as crisp as this untouchables scene, but somehow let loose. And that Christmas song, and after it where the doctor and his wife runs to have their peg - Yesappa Kaapathu..!! Even the British (who should obviously be a Christian) points to the doctor and says "he is far more worse than Kangaani who hunts men from villages". Thevaya idhellam?!

Immature acting - Few scenes, the actors didnt carry the role properly. Vedhika's mother acting wasn't upto the mark, especially when she beats Vedhika after knowing she is pregnant. (I adore the climax scene of Nanda movie here. Though the mother character had big scope to shout, scream and justify her side for poisoning her son, she will just keep quiet with tears flowing. That's Bala and his visual magic). Also the discussion between Tea-Estate owners on their labor loss due to flu, the English lady who speaks in favor of Gandhi - mokka scene... and immature acting.  

I watched the movie in AGS-Villivakkam.  Many landscape scenes appeared a bit blurred. Atleast all three who watched the movie felt it. Close-up scenes were clear and perfect, but many long-shot or landscape scenes, it felt like watching a 3D film without glasses. Not sure if its a projector problem or the film itself is shot like that. Whatever it may be, I dont intend to spend another 120/- to confirm this in another theater.

The movie was mostly four or five big scenes. Background music was really horrible. Its 50-50 credits to Bala and GV for killing the soul of the movie to their fullest possible. One review said that Bala had filled the space director Mahendran left. Noway. Let them see Mahendran's Udhiripookal and Mullum-Malarum and say those words again. The final scene in Udhiripookal where Vijayan enters the river or the final scene in Mullum Malarum where Shoba runs back to Rajini - just see it and you will feel the weight of the visual. Bala is amazing in his own way, but nowhere close to the legend, atleast in this movie. I would have really appreciated if Bala has taken this movie as a documentary. Its because, the original novel may not be a fiction, but the real pain the tea-estate labors underwent decades ago, and still going through. Any small piece of commercial element will kill the soul of movie, and that's what I strongly felt has happened here. If Paradesi is made by any other director, I would have said hats-off for him. I read that Aarcharya Ravi was the one who initially wanted to make that novel as a movie.  He was Bala's assistant, and also have directed one movie "Aacharya" starring Vignesh. BTW, that was a flop movie. Looks like Bala said to him that "You will spoil the novel if you direct it, so let me direct this". Ravi gave the movie to his guru and served as Assistance Director for this movie. Bala, who was so careful about not wanting even his assistant to spoil the soul of movie, did the job of spoiling it by himself. 

Naanjil Naadan - I couldnt find him anywhere, except the scene where the villian convinces the villagers to come with him to tea-estate. Otherwise, no big dialogues - but that's better. No GV prakash could have even done better.

Isnt there any positive in this movie at all? Yes, there are -

1. Adharva's acting - Class acting from an entry-level actor like him. Can expect awards.

2. Technical Excellence - Few scenes are captured very well. Color tone of the film sets the right ambiance for a period film. Night shots are excellent, and Dhanshika looks beautiful. :)

3. Karuthakanni - The lady character abused by the British guy in the second half. Excellent acting.

4. Beating scenes - Fighting and beating scenes will be very natural in all Bala movies. No exception here. Scenes where Adharva gets beaten, or the scene where the British guy beats up that man-hunter - pretty natural.

5. Climax - Classic Ending.

6. Perfectionist - Teaser trailer said that all. Its really tough for others to craft movies like this to such perfection. Only Bala can do it.

Overall - Interested in watching a off-beat picture, go for it without any expectation. You are lucky if you really enjoy the movie.

My rating - 2/5

Meluha, Naga and Vayuputras

The blog title may sound unfamiliar, but those words will be something you will not forget after reading the Shiva Trilogy books by Amish Tripati. What the book is all about and what impressed me with those books is this blog. Don't expect too much for I'm not going to reveal any part of the story or break any suspense, but will just state my experience of reading such a wonderful novel.

To start with, its a fictional novel released in three parts (trilogy). Title

1. The Immortals of Meluha

2. The Secret of Nagas

3. The Oath of the Vayuputras

Last year, for one of my colleagues birthday, we planned to gift him a book. While snooping through the best sellers in  flipkart, the cover photo of one book immediately caught my attention. The cover showcased a well-built man standing in front of a river facing us backside, with war-wounds on his shoulders, bearing Jadamudi and a Trishul resting on his spine. As I did, anyone could guess that Trishul and Jadamudi are symbolic representations of Lord Shiva, but the Title of book was something different. It read "The Immortals of Meluha". I never heard about the word "MELUHA", so I thought it could be some other language book, possibly translated to English. After going through the summary of the book, I felt it a worth read. Caption for this book read "THE STORY OF SHIVA. THE SIMPLE MAN WHOSE KARMA RECAST HIM AS OUR MAHADEV, THE GOD OF GODS". In Hindu culture, the clan-god (kula deivam) will sometimes be our ancestors who lived a noble life long ago, protecting our clan (kulam) through their deeds, there by getting the respect of being worshiped as clan god. What if Lord Shiva falls under such cadre, but of higher magnitude to be called Mahadev? SJV usually mentions that Shiva is just another man who lived flesh and blood, invented Yoga techniques and became a Aadhi-Yogi (The First Yogi). 

Not sure my colleague will be interested in reading such fictional books, that too when it touch-bases God. Now-a-days many people don't show interest in reading and understanding the concept of God - not mystically but even scientifically. Its always easy for anyone to say "nothing such exist".. :).. Anyhow, not to take chance, we ordered him the biography of Steve Jobs, but I personally couldn't resist ordering the Part 1 and Part 2 of the Shiva Trilogy. (It was around June/2012. Part 3 wasn't released by then. It got released only in March/2013).

Flipkart delivered the two books the next day, perfectly packed. More than the books, it was the cover photo that impressed a lot. Excellent creativity. With great that hope the books wont disappoint me, I started reading.  There is one very good thing about reading books. Your mind will start creating the ambiance and the characters as described in the book. If you watch the same thing in  movie, your imagination will be restricted to what is just shown. In that way, even the cover photo of this book was intelligently designed not the spoil my imagination about the main character of the novel. In the cover photo of all the three books, only the body of a well built man appearing with blue throat will be depicted. The face of him is left for us to imagine. Very excellent thinking...

In the first few pages of the book, the main character gets introduced, set in backdrop of 1900 BC, in the land of Tibet - A man sitting with his friend sharing the chillum - it was more than a perfect start for me.. Next few pages, the book caught me like a magnet. I couldn't keep it down. My mind has already created the required environment to journey with the book further. It didn't want to come out of it. Next few pages, other characters we know as part of the Hindu culture gets introduced - The Nandi, Veerabadra and others... Further reading, I lost myself in the world of Shiva.

Most of us know the Shiva Puraanam, atleast about Shiva, Sati, Nandi, Ganesh, Karthik and other gods with some stories surrounding them. Amish Tripathi intelligently uses the family of Shiva, the stories said around them, but adds his own imagination to knit the stories and present you a wonderful tale to read.

In India, its always a bit risky to write new stories using Gods, let it be any God. We are driven by centuries old faith, and are limited to accept any new thinking. You can always create your own new god, but specifying a new dimension to any existing god is a problem. But this story directly puts Shiva as common man, trying to fulfill his karma like any other character. But this book, I say will fascinate even a hard-core devotee of Lord Shiva. Though its a fiction story, I'm sure the respect we have for Lord Shiva will increase multi-fold after reading this book. Such a wonderful character definition.

Though fictional, this book has the perfect mix of action, romance and sentiment stuff. I would specifically say that Amish has a extra nerve for romance. The love scenes (not the English love, its the real love)  between Shiva and Sati - I was almost into it. Let it be the scene where Sati proposes to Shiva or during the last few moments between them, it created a lump in my throat. I went into such emotional state when reading two books in my life time - One is the biography of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa (where he suffers throat cancer and couldn't eat) and other is the biography of Ramana Maharishi (his first entry to Thiruvannamalai). Atleast the incidents in Ramakrishna/Ramana Maharishi books are facts, but this is only a fictional story. But literally it blew me away.

Not only tearful moments, few other scenes where Lord Shiva will perform a dance for Sati - the way its narrated - and the visuals that my mind projected - Marvelous - Nothing more to say. I can quote many incidents from this book like that - example - in the last part during Shiva's encounter with Parvateshwar who wants to serve Meluha, and Sati's braveness in challenging her enemies till last breath - Spell bound.

The last book was like 560 pages, and when I was reading around 300 pages, I thought to stop reading further. The remaining 350 pages, I could breeze through quickly, but that will end the story right? I really don't want it to end. The beauty is, I could guess how the story will end, because the complete novel is based on existing Shiva stories, but couldn't stop reading to see how the author progresses his imagination to reach the end.

Let it be the suspenses, war strategies, the rise of Neelkanth, Shiva-Sati love, brotherhood between Ganesh-Karthik, the love between Sati and her sons, Kali character, Shiva's anger, Meluhan's novelty,  Daksha's foolishness, Bhrigu's master mind, the Vasudev's, the Vayuputras - I still couldn't believe that an Indian writer can have such a highest amount of creativity and imagination to visualize and present a book like this. Far as I know, Mahabharatha is the only epic that had such a wonderful story telling. I'm nowhere comparing Mahabharatha-Shiva Trilogy, but once you read these books, you can understand why I mentioned the last statement. 

The author should have done extensive research to make sure he uses the right prevailing stories to make up his fiction - for example, Surapadman gets killed by Karthik, but not the way as we have seen in "Kandhan Karunai" movie, where Surapadman imprisons all Devas, while Karthik kills him and frees them up. Amish takes only the core incident here "Surapadman gets killed by Karthik", but throws a different version of story surrounding it. That makes the novel far more interesting.

Does that mean there are no contradictions in the novel? Yes, there are, but not worth considering. For example, Shiva in this novel gets depicted after Lord Ram's period, whereas Ramayana states that Lord Ram himself  has consecrated and worshiped Shivalingam at Rameshwaram. This appears to be contradicting. However the author states a fair assumption that the "Shiva" before Lord Ram's age could be "Lord Rudra", one other Avator like Shiva to destroy the evil of that time. Another good character definition is that he makes Sati a widow, before marrying Shiva. This is completely contradicting with the original Sati (Dakshayini) story we saw in "Thiruvilayadal" movie, however, to justify the birth of Ganesh and Karthik (not through Shiva), he makes this intelligent choice. Also with the flood pace the story moves, the negatives are completely swept.

I stop my nonsense here. Overall, its a DONT-MISS story to be read. I strictly recommend purchasing a hard-copy pack of these books for your reading, for the hard-copy itself will add value to reading, and its definitely worth spending few hundred bucks for such a wonderful fiction. For why-to-spend folks, pirated pdf copy of all the three books are available in Net. Ask Google.

Buzz is that, Bollywood film maker Karan Johar has already started the ground work for making this wonderful story into a movie. If he can recreate this story as-is on screen without any commercial compromise, it could surely smash the box-office. Even if it comes in three parts, like the book, its worth a watch.

Velliangiri Trekking - II

...in continuation to my earlier blog - Velliangiri Trekking, posted Tuesday, August 23, 2011...

...But this is not going to drain away our desire to trek the mountain again - if time permits and Shiva wishes we will trek once again to kiss the peak...

Last time Velliangiri throwed us a different experience, but didn't allow us to reach the seventh hill for a Shiv-Darshan. We had to return back. Few months back (Dec/2012), there was a mail from our great Elavazhagan proposing a Velliangiri trek on 23/Feb/2013. Generally we plan few days in advance, but to our surprise this was planned a couple of months earlier.

Though I had my Kumbamela trip planned in the first week of February, I still opted for this trek for two reasons.

1. My First trek to Velliangiri went incomplete

2. There is a two week gap from the finish of my Kumbamela trip to start of Velliangiri trip - If at all my body runs down due to side-effect of Allahabad trip, i have sufficient window to get it corrected.

Generally, we don't call in for too many people when going on a spiritual trek. As a thumb rule  in a spiritual journey, being alone is best, two is good, more than it - its picnic. Being alone gives you the space and time to think over any problems/questions running in your mind without much diversions and helps find answers. That's the very intention of being alone, like a meditation. Being two, is supportive and helps with some suggestions, but more than it - the very core intention is lost. But that's pretty okay, as long as the trek serves a good exercise for the body. Other big issue with more people is about logistics - conveyance, lodging and boarding will become difficult to manage.

Keeping aside all the negatives of a group trekking (as Linga Travels took care of logistics), we called in for few more enthusiastic's who were also interested to join the trek. After last minute additions/deletions, it got shortlisted to a 14 member team prepared to trek the hills.

After my Allahabad trip, for the next one week, my health condition was going good, and I thought I could very well manage this trek. During the week we planned to trek, jitters started. It started with a mild leg pain and spread throughout the  body. I generally avoid allopathy for fever/cold and leave it to the body to cure it by itself, but this time, I didn't have enough time. Its only 4 days left to get ready for the trip. So, went to  doctor, and he as usual suspected a viral. Standard Prescription - One Injection (oh!. for that nurse, I could go for one more injection :)) and colorful antibiotic tablets for next 3 days and come back for a blood test, if symptoms exist. After three days of honestly swallowing tablets on time, nothing big happened.

Whenever Velliangiri trek gets planned, I will run into some trouble. For the first time, I couldn't join the trek due to viral. Second time, we couldn't go past six hills due to rain (btw, its a deadly rain), and this time its viral again. With my body condition, I decided to skip the trip. Friday we need to leave, and till Thursday evening my condition was poor. I couldn't even climb 50 steps to reach my second floor apartment bypassing the lift. Imagine walking 4000 steps just for starter alone in Velliangiri. Mission Impossible. 

Since there were at least six other folks joining from my office circle, I don't want to discourage them by saying "I'm not joining". So, I chose to keep my decision tight till they board the train. Once they board, I know MSK/Ela will take care of them. 

Friday morning I woke up curiously to see how my health is. Mild improvement. Pain showed some kindness to me. It shortened itself from a whole-body pain and started targeting only the knee joints to its fullest. Better than before, but trekking without knees is not that good. I dont have the stamina, guts and devotion like Kaaraikaal ammaiyaar to walk upside-down with hands.

Walking such a path with Fever.. No way..!

Thought hard and hard on whether to join the trip or to inform my no-go decision to MSK and leave it, ended up with a headache. Something inside me was yelling "NO" and throwing all negative reasons (14 hrs walk, 4000 steps etc) and other thing feebly-saying "GO FOR IT". If I start from my house at 12.00am, I could be in Central Station by 1.00, well before to catch the 2.00pm train, but to avoid further thinking and confusion, I started from my house at 11.00am from home and came to central by 11.45 itself. That way, I could relieve myself from thinking too hard. I didn't even care what I packed in my back-pack (just one additional spare dress, tablets, and torch). I purchased two Red Bulls (non-alcoholic energy drink) this time :). It really works when you are deprived of energy, but don't take it too often. Redbull taste really sucks, but it gives you that booster energy for few hours.

After reaching Central, I ended up with two choices - 

1. Once everyone gathers introduce them to MSK/Ela and return back to home. 

2. If possible, join the team till Coimbatore, but skip the trek. Have a Plan-B to visit Isha-Dhyanalingam Temple alone.

After meeting MSK, my decision changed to travel till Coimbatore. I know that would happen, that's why I had that extra set of dress packed as mitigation. I'm better-off with friends, than fighting with fever all alone in bed. After dinner, it was around 11.00pm, we checked-in to the hotel. For next day, conveyance arrangements were made to travel from Hotel till Foot-hills, and instructions was to get ready by 3.00am sharp. (that's more tough than climbing 4000 steps :)), so that we could start trek by 4.00am and return back the same day.

At 12.00pm before going to bed, I informed MSK that I may not join the trek and "requested" him with due-respect not to disturb me at 2.30am. My legs were paining like hell that time. By then, through Balaji (our co-trekker), I got a couple of pain killer tablets as backup.

Next day, alarm was ON at 2.30am, and my body condition seem to be improved a bit. It was like, if I start thinking on the leg pain, it would come back again in full force, otherwise it seems to be waiting like a dog ready to bite. I just got myself ready by 3.00am sharp. Literally throwed all responsibility on Shiva and started :).. It may sound foolish, but sometimes, such faith helps us avoid too much thinking.

Velliangiri - Sunrise through Trees

With one Redbull stacked-up and having swallowed one pain killer tablet (not a good practice though), we reached the foot hills by 4.45am. The mountain was standing dark before us like a night-mare. Just like in any other treks, the Rajdhani express with Ela as engine disappeared suddenly. Few members who are physically fit traveled along with Rajdhani. Due to my physical condition and reduced stamina, I specifically requested MSK to be with my side and trek as slow as possible. Don't care about the time - Shiva wont run away if we are one hour late, so lets go as slow as possible - one step at a time. I personally say, I share a very good rapport with MSK, especially during trek, for we have very similar wave-length and understanding. (purely my opinion, not sure what MSK has to say :)) Also I love trekking as slow as possible - for I believe the benefit of trekking lies in the path, not in the peak. We shouldn't afford to miss any sceneries on the way; the dense jungle with serene views of clouds passing through us, chirping birds, wild-puppy barking along our side for a piece of meat, the breathtaking landscape etc.. Just sit back, breathe, relax and absorb as much as you can. Even if it takes few additional hours, I would go for it. 

With clear expectation set, our passenger train started to creep. There were other Rajdhani's passing-by and we took side-track to let them go. After 1.5 hours, I was really feeling better, for I had sweated a lot, and hope some bad virus has sweated along Around 6.30 am we reached our first milestone; the Ganesh temple at the end of killer steps. Further its going to be a mix of stones and steps for next two mountains. Not too hard, but still painstaking. 

Water Source - Drips from the bamboo stick

In the entire stretch of 7 hills, there will only be three spots where you can find water. Again, water spot doesn't mean a pond or a pool or tap. Its a small water source that runs "inside" of the mountains, tapped through a bamboo stick in the  spot, and the excess water immediately sinks down through a nearby hole back into the mountains (See Picture) . Literally, it is like someone has inserted a big bamboo stick to a hole inside the mountain to get some under-water dripping out. Natural mountain water, its pretty sweet and refreshing. (If you have tasted Qua Mineral Water (Himalayan waters), it will pretty much taste the same as this water. Few days back, been to ITC Chola for an office OC Treat, and water means Qua there. They charged 195/- per 1L bottle :(, and I found this Velliangiri water more tasty, crispy and refreshing than Qua which had a good taste but  felt blunt.)

One step to heaven. Below is the Siruvani water plant

Wind was chill and we couldn't feel that much pain walking for three hours. After reaching the fourth hill, scenes changed. We were literally in midst of passing clouds. Sun has risen up then and started its heat. On one end it was hot and other side the clouds were cool. A perfect combo. Wherever possible, we stood-back to enjoy the nature to its fullest. At one spot, we sat down on a huge rock leaving our legs floating in air. Just one step further could throw us some 2000 feet down into the clouds. In fact, we were sitting above the clouds. Every bit of it, enjoyable. We halted to have our bread-n-jam breakfast on the way in a monkey-free-zone. After a tiresome walk, even a marie biscuit will taste like amrudham. No need to say how bread-jam tasted like.

Ready for a dip..

After reaching the end of 6th hills (the place from where we returned back last time), we took a bath in a small water source there. With clouds floating all over, the water in the pool was literally freezing, and we couldn't even stand in the water for 5-10 seconds. [Remembered Bear Grylls saying "Hyperthermia" in Man Vs Wild]. Such cold was this water. After few mins of acquainting the body to the freezing cold, we had a full dip, that was completely rejuvenating. Body pain accumulated during 5hrs of walking so far literally vanished, and it gave the stamina to climb up the last hill.

Velliangiri Eesan - Self-formed lingam

One good news we had was that Feb/23 was Pradhosham, especially Sani-Pradhosham, which is even special for Shiva temples. After one more hour of climbing through steep rocks (not that steep though), we reached the top. Rajdhani team appeared to have reached there an hour in advance. Mid-day pooja just then started and we caught up right on time. After a good darshan and nice prasadam (they served some lemon rice :)), we took rest under boulders for few minutes and decided to walk back. Seven more hours of trek to reach the base. Even if you are not willing to walk, there is no other way now. 

Rest

As usual, the Rajdhani express departed, and the passenger train (Me and MSK) stayed back leaving all others go ahead. That will give us some space to talk, walk slowly and freely and also take care if someone moving ahead of us falls-back due to sprain or something. As organizers (sari.. sari..), we had that little responsibility to take care of those new trekkers. We don't want to leave anyone behind us bringing bad name to our reputed VTC (Vetty Trekking Club) :)

paavam thambi..

As expected, one of my colleague who moved ahead of us lagged, and we accompanied him all the way down. Last three hours, MSK teased him like anything, that he should have felt his sprain better than our mokkai. During the regular chat he touch-based on the "GOD" topic without realizing that he put himself into a hot-cake discussion trap. (namma onnum illadha vishayathukke kaatu kaatunu kaatuvom, idhula lead eduthu kudhutha... paavam payyan.. moonavadhu malaila "kadavul irukku"nnu sonnavan, keezha erangum bodhu "irundha nalla irukkum"nnu solla vaendiadha pochu.. appadi oru ottu..).. [BTW, remembering SBK here - SBK, our 5+hrs debate on Raamayana during the Thiruvanamalai trip still holds the record]

After a successful trek down, we reached the foot-hills by around 7pm. Though wanted to avoid stating an incident, just narrating for the sake of others who are interested in trekking. 

In the clouds..

During our trek down, we met one other guy who was also from Chennai and have come alone for a Velliangiri trek. He joined one of our sub-group who moved ahead of us and trekked  down with them. When we reached foot-hills, we came to know he has fainted soon as he reached the base and others were trying to give him some water/glucose things. Regaining his conscious for a while, he requested us to take him to our hotel for the night and again he fell unconscious. His body was getting cold like ice, and one of our group member who is a nurse (male-nurse'pa. During our travel he said narrated some of his experiences as a nurse. Most of his incidents turned out to be stomach-burning things for us), was giving him some first-aid. We took hold of the fainted-guy's mobile and after a quick discussion, we decided to get him to hospital for further treatment. We don't want to take him to our room. That's risk for us and more risk for him. We straight away drove to a hospital, and Ela with his friend located a good hospital just opposite the hotel we stayed. Me, MSK and Karthik (Ela's cousin) took charge of this hospital part. We don't want everyone to be in hospital. His BP was running pretty low, and the doctor started "her" first-aid accompanied along with two sisters. (I don't know why should we call them sisters. I prefer calling them Nurse..).. 

Okay, kadhaya kelunga. In between our guest regained his conscious and informed that he didn't have any food for last 18 hours and he started trekking without any supplies. More good, he didn't inform about this trek to even his better-half. Though he had trekked Parvathamalai before, he really has under-estimated Velliangiri. Then we got hold of his room-mate number and informed him of his case. We don't want to scare his wife for the moment (he preferred not to inform), and since we were sure he is running a severe dehydration problem and possibilities of him to recover are good after injecting a couple of glucose bottles., we skipped calling his wife. Also the doctor gave us some hope that he is recovering.

A part of our group.. Others already started..!

I stayed with him in hospital till 12pm and asked MSK to take care of staying overnight, since my leg-pain started again and I'm going down by then (by 11.30pm, while I was curiously watching the colorful LCD scopes charting some live BP/heartbeat graphs, parallely wishing him to recover in next few hours to catch the return train the next-day, a nurse came in and tweeted - "anna neenga paduthukonganna.. naanga paathukarom..". My mind voice grunted "adhaan anna'nu sollitalla.. mathadha naanga paathukarom, nee po thaayi. eppadiyum MSK anna dhaan night thanga poraru.. avara venumna nallaa paathukko..."). With MSK taking charge, I left for the hotel and had a good sleep in the A/c double-bed room and MSK more comfortably slept in hospital along with a couple of cute little --  mosquitoes. By 7am, the next day, MSK informed that our guest regained his conscious and doctors gave the go-ahead to get him discharged. MSK, after bidding a personal bye-bye to specifically one nurse there (naane paathen, naeradiya paathen. ivan ta-ta sonnan, aana andha side'la perusa onnum reponse illa.. 100% ping loss), we took him to our room for some rest. Since we had an extra train ticket, we accompanied him till Chennai. Good that he called us back the next day to tell that he is fine and doing good. Stating this incident here since nature is very raw and wild in its den and never under-estimate the power of it. Again, don't ever start any trek based on what is scribbled in internet like this blog. (Ex. Nurse in all hospitals may not be as good-looking as mentioned in this blog. Oops... did i mention "good-looking" anywhere.? :)). Always have a supply of your prescribed medicines, water, spare dress and necessary food for your travel. [Alternately, you can get in touch with professional trekkers like us for any clarifications.. konjam over dhaan.. but..]

Velliangiri - Done :) :) :)

Overall, it was a very satisfactory and enjoyable trip and most of "my places to visit" is nearing completion. Few places, I still wish to visit are Palani, Rameshwaram and Kailash-Manasarovar. While the former doesn't require big planning, the latter requires better planning, medical fitness and most importantly financial support. Isha has already opened their registrations for this year Kailash programs, but the per-head cost seems to be beyond affordable for the moment. Let me wait to see what Shiva has in for me :). Till then, I'm planning a logical break from trekking (how long?), enjoy week-ends at my home (that's a lie!) and watch some good movies.. (in fact, yesterday I was thinking on where to trek next, but finally went to Vishwaroopam movie.. paravalla.. :) )..

Trip Album - https://picasaweb.google.com/114643271152565647128/Velliangiri

PS - It took 6 hours for me to write this blog - Sorry Extreme..!

Holy Trip - Benares and Kumbamela

It was around 2003 timeframe, I first read about Kumbhamela, a gathering where swamis, yogi's, muni's and all cadre of spiritual personalities gather at Triveni Sangam, to take a dip in the holy union of Ganga, Yamuna and the mystical Saraswathi rivers. More than just a gathering, it was more of a meeting for those very high cadre of Saadhu's after a elongated period's of time. As stated in Autobiography of Yogi book, Kumbamela is where Mahavatar Babaji chose to meet his disciple  Sri Yuktheswar Giri and gave him instructions on spreading Yoga to west through his disciple Paramahamsa Yogananda. A rough fact is that there would atleast be one enlightened being in midst of one crore common man attending the gathering, and his presence is what the gathering is all about. Generally those enlightened don't care to come down and meet common man, and this festival gives them a chance to bless the common man. 

After googling through Kumbamela related information, I chose Feb/10 (Mauni Amavasya) to take part in the event. There are around 7 to 8 auspicious dates in to take bath in Triveni during Kumbamela ceremony that stretches for 55 days starting Jan/2013 ending March/2013. I chose 10/Feb based on my convenience, but didnt know that this is holiest day in the full stretch and crowd will gather to their fullest on this day.

Things generally dont go as planned. Sometimes it goes more exciting than planned. Such a thing happened during this trip. That's Mahesh babu volunteering to attend the event. Till now, as I write this blog, I couldnt believe he joined me for this trip. But, if it is his (the almighty) wish, that Mahesh has to take part in this event, there is nothing to get surprised about :). More unexpected, that Mahesh proposed a change in plan to cover Benares during the trip. It was SJV's blogs that impressed me to visit Benares (Kaasi) atleast once. Though Benares was in my list to visit sometime, I initially didnt plan to cover Benares during the kumbamela trip. But through Mahesh's plan my wish to see Benares also got fulfilled.

Feb/7th morning, we started our pilgrimage to Kaasi. Our plan was to go to Kaasi first, stay there for a couple of days and take a train to Allahabad to attend the Kumbamela and then proceed to Lucknow to catch our return flight. Things moved very smooth than planned. Landed in Kaasi (or Benares or Vaaranasi) on 7th evening, we proceeded to check-in at our hotel. (Thanks MSK and his Linga Travels for booking us hotels @ Kaasi). We didnt expect a miracle waiting for us.

After checking in at the hotel (9pm), and taking a quick refreshment, we went out to have our dinner. Though the hotel had restaurant we chose to have our dinner outside. After dinner, it was around 10pm, we decided to walk around (roam through the streets) for sometime before getting to bed. The great Kaasi Viswanath temple was around 1.5kms from the hotel we checked-in. The road we walked was leading to the Kaasi Viswanath temple. Though we knew it, we didn't plan to go into the temple, but just was walking along the way, just to take a look at where the temple is, so that we can walk-in tomorrow without struggling to find the way. We just kept walking (after a full dinner, lassi and sweet pan) and finally reached the entrance of the temple. I was imagining the temple to be something like our Tanjore Temple, as Kaasi Viswanath is such famous deity, but the temple in real was even smaller than Thirumullaivoyal Eshwaran temple. Temple was about to get closed by 10.30pm, and a police guard near the entrance of the temple was asking us to rush into the temple to have a Darshan. He might not have seen someone like us who comes till the entrance of the temple and return back like us. He thought we have come there for a Darshan. The policewala and a shopkeeper nearby was close to yelling at us to get inside. Though we had a choice to return back (in fact Mahesh wanted to, since we didnt even take a bath after a tiresome journey), I personally go with that moment. Incidents around us was pushing to have a darshan and why should we miss it. In fact, thats why we have travelled so long, and why delay further when everything works in our favor. We can anyway come back tomorrow for one more Darshan if needed. 

The shopkeeper literally seized my DSLR to his safe and gave us the pooja set with garland and other stuff. I need to say, Mahesh was completely unhappy with what was going on. I could very well sense that. But things were happening beyond our control. The police closed to "jargandi'ed" us inside temple, and we were near the deity with pooja set in our hands at 10.30pm. For the first couple of minutes, we were searching where the lingam was, and finally found him inside that small room, just few feet away from us close to ground level. The poojari inside snatched some 100Rs to perform pooja and it was a nice darshan. We were atleast near the lingam for 3 to 4 minutes. Then we went around the inside the temple comfortably (and freely) and came out. We never thought he (Shiva), planned to give us a darshan unexpectedly. Mahesh was really frustrated (atleast thats how i felt) about what has happened, and I honestly couldn't convince him. In fact, i too didnt expect that we will enter in the temple, but then things were just happening. We actually thought of having a dip in Ganga before visiting the temple, but things took its own course. Other frustration is about the shopkeepers  who charged us around 300 for Pooja set.

Next day (Feb/8), after refreshing, we decided to visit Sarnath, the place where Buddha delivered his first sermon to his five disciples. Its around 12Kms from the hotel we stayed and we took cycle rickshaw's and share auto's to reach the place. These mode of transport will give us some space to explore the city. After visiting Sarnath, we went to Kaala Bhairav temple, one of the most important aspect of Kaasi. We had a very close darshan, within just a touching distance away from the Bhairavar deity. 

So far, we haven't seen the most important aspect of Kaasi - the Maa Ganga. After visiting Kaala Bhairavar, we moved to the Dasaswamedh Ghat, where Ganga pooja was performed. The first glimpse of Ganga River was - WoW. She was not very fierce (as the Hoogly River I saw once in Dakshineswar - Calcutta). She was soft, wide and moving calmly. Who knows how many secrets this lady was carrying. Ganga pooja was something we shouldnt afford to miss visiting during a kaasi trip. A long-down tradition where we celebrate and worship the river that fertilizes our lands, in-turn helping the human survival. The conch blown during the pooja literally scared me away. The sound and rhythm of conch, and its echo the river reflected - its more than amazing to hear it. Feels like I'm standing before an infinite space.

After watching pooja, we decided to move close to the truth. To Manikarnika ghat where corpse are burnt. I heard a lot about this ghat. One of the holiest place like Harichandra Ghat. Manikarnika ghat is where one of the disciple of  Mahavatar Babaji, the Lahiri Mahasaya was cremated. In fact, it was through Lahiri Mahasaya the wisdom of Pathanjali's yoga was spread into this world during last century. Someone said that this place wont stink despite burning corpse 24/7. Though its a walkable distance from the place where Ganga pooja was performed, we hired a boat (over the Ganges) to go to this Ghat. Like what was heard, the place wasn't stinking even a bit, but bodies were burning all round the clock. We stood  there to watch the burn for some 30 minutes, and it was more than enough a visual for this lifetime. Just next to the ghat is a free-lodge, where people who are in their death bed, and wants to get cremated in this ghat can stay for free. I somewhere read Ramakrishna Paramahamsa visited this ghat and said, "I could see Lord Shiva standing aside every burning corpse and liberating the soul". Such a powerful place, and so is the complete Benares. Its around this cremation ground, the whole city appears to be built. Generally cremation grounds will be located in the corner of a city/town, less accessible to public. But here, death being realized as ultimate truth, the cremation ground is placed in the center of city. 

Next day (Feb/9), before proceeding to Allahabad, we planned to take a dip in Ganges and visit Kaasi Viswanathar and Visalakshi temple. To our surprise, there was almost a 1km length queue waiting to see Kaasi Viswanathar. It would atleast take 3 to 4 hours solid to get a darshan if we have stood in the queue, and definitely not sure we could have seen the deity for even few seconds. We then approached a guy, who asked us 500/- (or 1000?) per head to bypass the queue. I was just thinking of the adhoc, but comfortable darshan we had that mid-night. If we have missed that, we should have waited in this queue for long hours. We planned to skip waiting in this mile long queue (as we already had a darshan), and straightaway headed to Kaasi Visalakshi temple. It  was again a very small temple, not even the size of our street-corner amman temple, but considered one of the auspicious Shakthi Peedams of Hindu culture. (Kaanchi Kaamakshi, Madurai Meenakshi and Kaasi Visalakshi, the three main Shakthi peedams, though there are many more (~50+) in India). After a good darshan, we headed back to hotel to check-out to Allahabad for the mega event - Kumbamela.

Took a train from Benares to Allahabad. Our plan was to check-in our luggage's in railway cloak room and reach Triveni Sangam. Train was already running late by four hours, and we suddenly saw  people getting down the train. We thought we reached Allahabad, and rushed down half-sleep (in fact, the train moved before we got down). Later we realized that we got down at Prayag, a station before Allahabad. Though this station was closer to reach the Triveni Sangam, it was not worth checking in our luggage's. We hence had to take our luggage with us. Soon as we exited the station, we heard that transportation is completely blocked within city (even rickshaws) and one has to only walk to the Triveni Sangam that was around 15kms from the station. What to do? We kept walking with our strolleys, back packs in midst of the wild crowd for around 5 hours. By around 10.30am or so, we reached the Triveni Sangam and had the dip for our life-time. Water was damn cold, and within seconds our body gets frozen allowing us to stand inside comfortably for some more time. By then, I had all my energy sucked-out, and more frustrating - we need to walk back 15kms again to reach Allahabad station. 

After a really tiresome walk, we reached station by 2.00pm, and our train to Lucknow was scheduled to be at 6.00pm. But railways, as usual, couldnt manage the crowd, and the trains were running indefinitely late. Delay of trains was inturn stacking up more and more crowd into the platform, and we couldnt even get a place to stand. We were waiting on Platform-9, and the stampede happened at Platform-6 killing 30+ people. Heavy crowd and noise, we didnt even know such an incident happened in the opposite platform. With our train delayed already by 3hours, and no signs of arrival further, we decided to void the train option and try a bus to Lucknow. We took a rickshaw to bus-stand and adding more frustration was the news that buses was stranded outside the city and to reach there, autos charged 700/-. It was around 11.00pm and we both of us were damn tired and frustrated by the crowd and happenings. We didnt know any concrete plan on how to proceed, for we had a flight to catch at lucknow the next day at 1.00pm. Any delays further can make us slip the flight and that will cost a lot. Finally, Mahesh had a plan - lets check-in to some budget hotel (his plan by default will have a hotel check-in option :)) for the night and take a cab to Lucknow by morning. We queried a local hotel and he wanted 3000/- (in fact after seeing Mahesh he said 4500/-, but seeing me he got down to 3000/-) for few hours of stay. We then asked a rickshaw guy to take us to a nearby budget hotel and after querying a couple of hotels, we found a hotel who charged 1300/- for overnight stay (in fact the room-charge was 3000/-, but Mahesh negotiated it for 1300/-. Good Management skills.). The next big problem is booking a cab to Lucknow. We had no contacts and nothing. Finally googled from mobile and got a list of cab operators in Allahabad. We dialled the first number and to our shock, he asked 12000/- for a drop to lucknow (~450kms from Allahabad). We kept him as last option and then tried one other cab who generously charged 4500/- for a drop to Lucknow. Without next word, we booked the cab by 1.00am, and asked him to pick us at 5am. Just 4 hours of sleep, but a peaceful sleep, for we have completed a big trip, walked 30kms that day without much food, survived a stampede, roamed wild to find a hotel, and could manage to book a cab somehow... 

What else, the cab came, and we were in Lucknow airport on time to catch our return flight to Chennai. The trip started smooth, throwed us some miracles, showed us a glimpse of truth, tested our stamina, filled us with horror, but ended smooth like it started. Varied colors, but every event is worth remembering for years to come. 

Trip Album  - https://picasaweb.google.com/114643271152565647128/Kumbhmela