Girl in the City

It’s never easy to know exactly whether the decision you have taken is for your own good or for your worse. Once a decision is made, your life’s path changes its course towards a different direction. Your life’s path is more or less like a navigation point on a GPRS map. The paths and the directions keeps drifting around you and you are left to choose the most suitable path from the numerous rights, lefts and U-turns. And it’ll be even more challenging when you have no idea about the destination!

Most of the times you are bound to take a wrong turn; a wrong turn that is taken intentionally just to see how the path works for your future or the same wrong turn taken unintentionally and later regretted. Either way to move forward towards any direction, you have to take that decision. You have to choose that path and you have to tread on it and experience what the path holds for you.

Ever since the graduation, all I’ve been doing is searching for that one right path amidst the numerous options that are laid before me. But all I did was choose each option and carefully contemplate the pros and cons of each such option. Over the months I started to realise, what I think, see, read and hear about the options in front of me is nothing compared to what I would experience firsthand in case I choose one of them.

You can make all the plans you want. But how much a perfectly laid out plan can actually work out? Even the best laid plans fail and mine is far from being called perfect. But I have choices. Lots of them. But all of them have the same weight age. All of them have their own pros and cons. If I choose one, I have to be ready to face some high roads and always be ready to sacrifice my comfort zone. Nothing ever comes easy for sure.

So here I am. In this big city, away from home. Finally moving forward on to a new path rather than contemplating what the path holds in the future. Am I scared what would happen if things doesn’t work out? Hell yes. I’m scared about a lot of things but I know I have it in me to face them all. And that comforts me to some extent.

Future is always unknown and I’m glad not to know. Makes my life simpler to live and to survive. Yes, surviving. I never actually lived to survive before; I just lived a carefree life. But now I’m surviving to live. And that makes all the difference there is.

Thoughts and Acknowledgments

Okay, the title sounds like I'm about submit an abstract to my project. But the good news is, it's just a bunch of random thoughts from my side and I promise to keep this post short. 

Well, I don't need to say much, the picture below speaks for itself. Yesterday, I finally received my long awaited prize from Indiblogger for participating in Stayfree- Time to Change contest. I was one of the five winners who won a watch. And finally I have a watch that I can wear as a jewellery. It's quite heavy as it's of a broader make. It was tough for me to choose the best watch as there were so many fabulous watches under Esprit and other brands. The reason I chose an Esprit brand is because, when the result was announced that I had won a prize a few months back, I literally googled every watch present under Esprit and just fell in love with the brand. 

I must confess, this is my first win ever in a writing contest. And this is the first time ever I've received a BIG prize. I used to win small prizes for drawing and painting stuffs at school level. But currently, I've lost touch towards painting. But I don't want to lose touch when it comes to writing. I always used to write but never figured that this could be seen as a talent too. No, I still can't completely agree that I'm talented at writing. I have a lot to learn. 

But little milestones such as these, truly helps boost up my perception towards something better in the future.

That's that. And as a side-note, I won't be blogging much for the next week. I'm going to a place where I can access internet only through my phone. So will miss out on a week's worth of stories from fellow bloggers. Hope to catch up with you all when I return.


Cheers :)

Hair Scare and Dove to the Rescue.

I have to admit that I have been a careless teenager. Especially when it came to my hair. 7 years ago, during my prime teen years, I was more of an outdoors kind of person and since I am blessed with long, straight and slightly wavy hair, I hardly thought I needed to take care of it. It was just hair on my head and I used to pull it into a pony tail, without even combing my hair at times, before venturing out of the door.

During lunch hours at college, all my friends talked about was hair-fall sufferings and also show-casing excessive concerns about a few gray hairs here and there that they all seemed to be plagued upon. I usually got lost in my own thoughts during these conversations. The only thing I used to be concerned about during those days was when the class hours would end and what snack granny would have prepared back home. And thus during one of those “boring” conversations, one of my friend brought me back from my “snack dream” with a pin pricking question: “So, Neha. You used to have such thick, lovely hair when you were in school. What happened to it?”

And her words reverberated all around my empty brain as this type of question to moi was a first and I replied to her after two minutes of shocked silence. “What? What do you mean? My hair has always been like this even back in high school.”

“No it wasn’t”, pitched in my other friend to my deep misery, “I bet you can’t put two thick plaits like you used to put during those days.”

“Of course I can, but I won’t. This is college for Christ’s sake. I don’t want seniors to come and rag me for going all “gauramma” here ok?” I replied irritably.

“Ok, then let’s go to the rest room and check out if your plaits are as thick as they used to be.  You can take them off again”.

So off they dragged me to the ladies room and I knew I had gotten myself into a spot I didn’t want to get into the first place. As one of my friend finished braiding my hair, I turned towards the mirror and I was shocked to see how much volume had been lost in those plaits.

“My god, is this some kind of a joke?” I exclaimed.

The other girls tried hard not to giggle but they consoled me and from then onwards even I got into those long and painful conversations of protecting one’s hair by sharing various homemade remedies.

Each week I tried new things. My mom and grandma worked judiciously by applying coconut oil, neem oil, lemon-mix oil et al to my scalp and hair. And as a result, my already oily skin got oilier by the day and my forehead started to house the dreaded pimples. Shampoos are not so good at removing oil from hair and mom always warned me from resorting to different shampoos as they contain a lot of chemicals. As a result, once a week I had to resort to Shikhakai powder and my allergy towards the irritable thing increased. Shikhakai is a really good natural product for hair, but it’s a nightmare for those who are allergic to its smell. My skin used to turn red and itch at the contact of it, and so I had to stop using it eventually.

After 5 months of this horror show, I literally used to run away whenever either my mom or granny used to come to me with a bowl of oil for my scalp. I had had enough of trying to take care of my hair. My hair had definitely grown longer at a faster pace because of these age-old oil therapies but I was definitely not satisfied with the torture I was enduring.

Anyway, with the hectic classes and assignments and other things ruling my life, I barely had time to have a decent breakfast, let alone spend five extra minutes to tend my hair. As this hectic schedule continued, my carelessness towards my already unmaintained hair grew, if possible to another level.

Two years later, I had finally graduated from 12^th and was in my first year of engineering. Two years if carelessness regarding my health due to various factors like hectic college and tuition hours, tensions, eating junk food rather than fruits and veggies and lack of proper sleep had finally taken its toll on me. Obviously I had gained weight and keeping that aside, my lovely hair looked less lovely now a days. And damn those gray hairs. I could see them hiding amidst my tresses, almost evading my notice. And though my hair was long, it looked really thin and dull these days. The dandruff problem was going out of control now and it became really hard to maintain because after every head bath, my hair would get oily and itchy by next day. And I wasn’t even using oil for my hair!

I must confess I used to jump from shampoo to shampoo very frequently those days. In a year, I might have used five to six different brands of shampoos in a vague attempt to control hair-fall and dandruff issues. Obviously it was all those heavy chemicals that were causing all this damage.

I had had enough of all this shampoo business. But there was still one shampoo that had escaped from my notice somehow.

One day at a shopping mart, I was causally walking down the aisle, in search of the Dove soap. I found my Dove Exfoliating Bathing Bar and in the next shelf I found the Dove Deodorant that I had been meaning to use since a month. Then I remembered that the Dove Deep Pure Oil-Cleansing Face Wash I purchased the last time was almost used up. So off it went into my shopping bag. Then in the next row, I came face to face with Dove range of shampoos and suddenly I was hit with a strange epiphany. How on earth did I end up using almost all of the Dove products except the shampoo and the conditioner?

It was like the answer was right there and I had failed to take note of it before. I literally worship the dove soap and the dove deodorants, mainly because of their mildness and lovely smell and the soap really gives my skin a smooth effect. Obviously if the soap and the deodorants worked, then shampoo should work too.

After my last Shikakhai and horrible chemically inflicted shampoo scenario, a new shampoo from a product company that I was already familiar about was a welcoming sight. So I judiciously bought the blue Dove Damage Therapy Shampoo and Conditioner.

This time, I was determined to make things work for me. So it was bye-bye for most of the junk food. And a hello to all the fruits and veggies. I started to feel better health wise and my oily skin condition was finally reduced and my hair was starting to breath now.

And you know what? Within the next two months I could clearly see a positive result on my hair. It was growing long again and hair-fall had reduced visibly and the split-end problem was almost nil. But the grey hair was still there. Shampoos can’t rectify that. So from last two years, I’ve started visiting the salon to get a nice hair colour from a really good brand. And I feared Dove might not be able to help me out with coloured hair, but as it turns out, I just needed to change from the Intense Repair Shampoo to the Advanced Colour Care Shampoo.

And now my hair has more volume, and the colour treated hair looks better than ever before. All thanks to Dove and some common sense to maintain a healthy diet from my part.

And that was the end to all my hair problems. All is well that ends well. What say?

P.S: Technically I can compare Dove products to Google. When it comes to Google, apart from using the Chrome browser and the Google Search, people end up using Gmail, YouTube, Google+ and Picasa web albums. Even Dove is similar to Google when it comes to its universal usage. Women are most likely to end up using Dove soaps, deodorants, body lotions, face wash and of course Dove range of Shampoos and conditioners. 

This post is written for the "Dove Damage Therapy Contest" and my post on Indiblogger can be found here.

This contest is sponsored by:

Money Matters

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Now that my final semester exams are over, the post-exam holidays are not exactly what I had in my mind during the exams. The vacations after any exam is a welcoming gift to any student but the same doesn’t hold good for a final year Bachelor of Engineering student and especially if that student doesn’t have any inkling what to do with her life once the course ends.

Questions... a lot of unanswered and doubtful ones and Decisions... I remember when I was in 8^th grade, I was given the first decision of my future career with respect to which language I would choose as 1^st language: Sanskrit or Kannada? And I know the amount of struggle I have faced within myself to choose the one that is suitable for me. If I choose Sanskrit then that would mean I have to pay more attention to the subject but if I choose Kannada, I would have to struggle with the old dialects that I still find difficult to read and understand. Either way I faced a lot of dead ends. I chose Sanskrit over Kannada by the way and for a few reasons it was a good decision in the end and for a few more reasons it was a bad decision after all. This is mainly related to me, taking double the time I take while reading a Kannada news paper or books as opposed to the English ones. As Kannada is my mother tongue, this is a downright shameful situation for me to be in.

Thus said, I and decisions don’t go hand in hand. And now I have a lot of paths ahead of me and choosing the one that is feasible to my mind set and the one that offers minimal doubts about the future is not at all an easy game-play.

I had long dreams about enjoying my holidays in bliss for a couple of months once my exams got over. But the very day I came home after finishing my last exam, I felt least relieved. There was no “thank god it’s finally over” kind of euphoria that usually greets me after every semester’s exam. Instead, there was a dead-weight in my chest. The reason: a student can enjoy his/her vacation if and only if he/she knows when the college is going to reopen next. Once they know the deadline, they can plan the holiday fun accordingly. But I’m currently stuck in a “stay at home” vacation which is anything but a vacation. I don’t have a two month dead line to enjoy my vacation like I used to do in the previous years of my entire education life. My future right now is so dark and clouded. In fact, I have no idea what will happen from a week from now. I have no idea what kind of decisions I have to face and take up in the nearest future. 

Relatives, neighbours, the grocery store aunty and many more people who know me have asked me the same questions; “You have finished your exams right. Finally you are enjoying your holidays na?”

Enjoyment? I have lost the meaning to that word right now. Everything I do right now, I do because I have to do since I have nothing else to do. I feel deeply unemployed and under-educated right now. Because currently I’m in a phase called “wait for thy results and meanwhile thou hast to look for a job or thou hast to apply for higher studies”. As I wait for the dreaded result which is about to be announced, I have to juggle between looking out for jobs and at the same time preparing for PGCET exams for higher studies.

Uncertainties at both the ends and all because everything depends on my results. If I end up getting a backlog (god forbid), I’ll be stuck in a dead-lock for the next six months (unless I manage to pass in reval or the money-mongering challenge revaluation). Else if I do become an Engineer, I have to decide what to do next. I’m terrible at making the right decision so it’s really unsettling.

Bottom-line: I refuse to sit at home and do nothing. I did not struggle these last few years to just give up and sit at home and end up marrying someone and ask him for pocket money in the future. I’m becoming very aware of the money games that are happening in my life right now. Mom and Dad used to dish out money without a second word or question to me before exams ended. But now, every penny equals to a thousand questions. This has started to drive me nuts. I’m used to spending money without thinking and now I have to restrain myself. I know my folks have their best interest in me and they have never said no when it came to money matters but I guess there comes a point when even they feel like ATM machines. And it has never been my intention to make them feel that way but sometimes opinions clash and words will be spoken rather harshly.

Its times like these I strongly feel like taking up any job and just be happy to spend my own money. But that would mean I have to settle for uninteresting jobs and lead a rather miserable life. And if I decide to do MBA for the next 2 years, I have a promise of landing myself in a better career position (even this is an uncertainty but I’m just going to assume the good stuff here to avoid dwelling on uncertainties). But that would mean I have to depend on my folks for two years worth of pocket money.

Decisions... decisions... Which should I make I know not. All I have figured out right now is to gain something, I have to lose something else. 

EXAM DIARIES

Needless to say, the stress and the apprehension regarding studying the right subject for the right day (it may sound stupid but trust me, sometimes it’s better to keep checking the time table every hour in a day, coz you never know when you might get the dates and the subjects wrong!) and not to mention, clearing one’s mind from all the impending “doomsday” thoughts like, writing wrongs answers for the right questions and writing right answers for the wrong questions... exams... I’ll just come out and say it; it’s just a bloody pain in the arse!!

One day before the BIG EGGJAAM.

Consider me. You have seen my picture on my blog page right? Keep that in mind and now imagine a girl wearing really shabby and ragged clothes, her hair oily and unruly (and even smelly if she decides to skip taking head bath for the fear of falling asleep on her study desk for hours and hours!). Well that ghastly image my friends, is me at my worst during these painful exam days.

Just yesterday, I was in one of my “best” ragged and torn salwaar suit. Weird I know, but these are called as my “shabby exam cloths” and without which I just can’t seem to comfortably sit in one place and even attempt to study! I’m a very careless person. I forget all the dieting I’m supposed to be doing and end up consuming more food than necessary (I call it, “the nervous exam diet”).

So yesterday evening, after waking up from a nice pre-study slumber, I was in the kitchen, all set to prepare my favourite food during all occasions: MAGGIE. While I was shedding tears as I sliced the blasted onions and pretended to be this woman who cries for no reason (one should touch upon one’s acting skills while one is shedding free tears!), I heard the door bell ring and some unexpected guests decided to show up at this unruly time (unruly for me as I was stuck in the kitchen, in my shabby clothes, teary eyed and overall smelling of onions L ). Okay, definitely not an avatar I’d like to present myself in other than my mom, dad, granny and bro.

Even amidst this sticky situation, the first thought that came to me was “Thank god, I didn’t put the Maggie into the boiling water”, because the thought of sharing my precious Maggie (while my hungry tummy growled with rage) with outsiders was more mortifying than going out the kitchen and facing them in my current get-up!

As the guests were being loud and chit-chatty with my mom and granny, I took some time to groom myself to appear like a normal girl and not a complete cave-person. Not much of a progress, to tell the truth. So abandoning the sinking ship I braced myself and walked out to the living room.

An aunty and an uncle were sitting on the sofa and when the uncle saw me, he looked taken-aback for a bit (or maybe that’s how I thought his reaction was, as I would always get a shock to see myself in the mirror during these treacherous times!). But he’s a friendly chap and asked me whether I was done with my education. I told him solemnly that my exam was tomorrow and I was battling for a war at the kitchen. He said, “Good, good, nice food always helps and best wishes for your exams”.

Next I turned towards the aunty and she looked like she would faint if she looked at me again so she didn’t say much to me but instead, showed her many jewelleries she wore to my mom and complained loudly, “You know, we roamed around a few wrong streets until we finally found your "little" house! It’s so dangerous to walk in the night in this area. And the streets are so confusing here. Our (big) house is so easy to spot in Bangalore”. 

While my mom politely nodded her head in agreement, I wanted to get up and rip the woman’s head apart. First of all to any normal person’s eye, my house is far from being called as “little”. It’s no less than a castle to my eyes! And this lady keeps visiting our house with her husband four to five times in 3 months and yet she complains of getting lost in this unholy fashion. But my saner mind warned me to behave and not think like a barbaric cave-girl and so for politeness sake, I sat and listened to her stupid ramblings for 10 whole minutes.

My stomach was growling loudly at this time and my head was starting to ache and I couldn’t bear to listen to her shrill voice anymore (I was thinking on the lines of interrupting her by saying, “Auntieee, shhhh”). And so, when I was sure everyone was happily ignoring me, I got up and literally ran upstairs.

I couldn’t study in an empty stomach. Gah! More wastage of time and I had already wasted a lot of time that day. And so, to while away the time i.e., to wait for the beloved guests to take leave, I opened my MS Word and started writing all these things. I wrote only about two paragraphs and then ended up listening to songs while reading other blogger’s entry to the Lakme contest (But this, I don’t call as a waste of time, never!).

Finally, after an hour and a half, the guests took leave and I came tumbling downstairs and straight to kitchen like a tornado to finish my unfinished business of preparing delicious, steamy, hot MAGGIE. And before my younger brother, would come and ask me to share, I transported all of it to my room and locked myself safely and for next 2 hours, enjoyed savouring it slowly as I watched a thriller movie called “GONE”. So much for wasting my time right?

Once I was done with all these, sudden realization hit me that I had just about 12 hours for the exam next day. So had no other escape but to study and occasionally, check my mail for any more votes for my previous post (really, it’s all new to me, getting so many votes and all... I feel as happy as eating a candy whenever a blogger votes for me!).

On the EGGJAAM day

Two hours to go and still 2 more units to look upon and memorise the important stuff. Time to shed my shabby clothes and get into the even shabbier college uniform (Don’t ask, ours is the one of those engineering colleges that has made uniform as a compulsory attire. Miserable dress to wear!).

Not my best day today. The subject seemed too tough to even memorise or mug-up. In a desperate attempt to add some luck to this doomsday, I scout my dresser for a pair of lucky silver earrings that I always wear during the days I feel everything will go down-town and after 15 minutes of searching, I finally found it. Now mentally I felt a little satisfied but still logically I was still in truck loads of trouble as I hadn’t studied everything completely.

On the way to my college, I passed a temple and every time I pass it, I pray to god regarding something or the other (just to be on the safer side!). During college days, I would pray to god to give some sense to some of my lecturers to behave like adults and leave students like me alone. Other than that, my favourite praying topic is to ask god to keep my mind active so that at least, I can happily write a poem or a story during class hours. But today, as I passed the temple I solemnly prayed to god, to clear my mind so that I can write the best answers possible to the questions I knew and to extend some special ability in me in order to create beautifully carved nonsense on my exam booklet for those questions I had no idea whatsoever what the answer was!  

As accustomed to my constant antics, I arrived at the exam hall 7-8 minutes late (last minute studies, you see!). I caught my friend’s eye and we smiled at each other. And while I was smiling at her, this was what I was thinking, “Look at her, she has studied so much that she has come to the exam hall on time. Am I the only one who hasn’t studied well today?”

And while my friend smiled at me, this was what she was thinking, “Look at her. Always cool, composed and as usual late to exam hall. I bet she got more time to study. No message from her for two days. And no sign of her on facebook too. She must have really gone underground to study well this time.”

But the truth as you and I know, I was just being my lazy, stupid self for the past 2 days!!

The after effects of seeing the question paper for the day!!

When you know you are screwed up and nothing can stop you from it, what can you do at the most? I’m definitely not the type who runs from the exam hall on seeing the semester’s toughest question paper. Nor am I the type that ends up silently crying upon seeing the ugly paper set by an even uglier examiner at VTU. Instead, uncontrollable laughter started to engulf me. For the first 15 minutes of the exam all I did was stare at the question paper and laugh (inwardly) while struggling to control my lips from turning upwards and creating a scene in front of the invigilator.

Once the initial shock and laughter had left me, I got more composed and this time got down to business. There were quite a handful of questions to which I knew 70% of the answer. Fair enough! I can build up passable content for these things. Then my eyes drifted to those questions I had no idea they even existed in this subject. If time would permit me, I decided to use my old tactics: repeat the same answers but twist the words and make them appear like they are new answers. It works most of the time. Whoever corrects an Engineering paper, looks for the amount of content written i.e. how many pages a student has filled in the booklet. If I have managed to fill at least 20 -22 sheets out of a 42 sheet booklet, I'm well on the safer (passing) side. For more details of of my tactics, check this.

From time to time, my eyes swept the exam hall. All my classmates seemed to be writing beautiful answers with energetic composures. I knew then that I was the only person who had a sure chance to flunk if luck turned its back upon me.

But in a strange way, I believe luck is still with me today. As soon as the exam got over, I saw all my classmates (even the toppers!) complaining how tough the paper was and everyone were silently looking up to the sky and praying that they at least get the golden 35 (passing marks).

At one hand I was relieved everyone had performed badly and not just me. But on the other hand I was (and still am) feeling apprehensive that if toppers started to get the golden 35 marks, then would that leave me any passing chance?

Strange how my mind works at times. And even stranger how I’m writing about all these at this time of the night, instead of getting some sleep so that I can study well tomorrow. There’s talks of Bharath Bandth (Nation-wide strike) on the 31^st and if that is the case, my exam the day after will be postponed and I’ll be left to deal with that subject after the other papers.

Desperately hoping for the strike to take place on the 31^st. Else tomorrow I’ll be rubbing my nose in yet another text book.

***

P.S: This is not a figment of my imagination. All the characters, especially the character portrayed by me, are true and very real. Any resemblance to others’ lives is truly joyous and I welcome those people with wide-open arms to join my lonesome rank during these tough times!!

Find yer man, woman!!

I just couldn’t help it today. I had to watch a movie.  But not just any movie, I ended up watching the movie of a spinster who writes colourful tales about her love-life in her small diary and hence, very rightfully it’s a movie that goes by the name, “Bridget Jones Diary”.

Apart from the witty and humorous British dialogues and the many viewings of Bridget’s colourful panty closet that ranged from huge grandma panties to some sleazy animal printed ones, I couldn’t help but appreciate the task a single woman has to handle all her life, just to get the right man.

Is there even such a thing as a right man? Even if there is or “are”, how would one know who that bastard is? They are everywhere- firstly in every spinster’s dreams, then on the various television channels and then there are a few from work, some old college friends or even a few school friends for that matter and not to mention the many handsome faces one eyes on the road in general.

But these men are like mirages. They look too real and even reachable from a distant but if a girl even loses her place and falls for such flashy stuff, she sure is gonna realise that what she “thought” is real, is indeed fake.

Ultimately, such befuddlement would often lead to the usual heart breaks, teary nights, excessive eating and emotionally moronic behaviours that would in-turn lead to some scruffy embarrassments on the outward public eye. But Bridget Jones faced all of it and still found her guy at the end. How Charming!!

If this turned out to be true in real life, I wouldn’t be sitting here and writing this stuff for starters. Yet I’m a fan of the movie. Because not even in the movies these days they show an average looking, slightly fat woman, working in some average job, leading an average life, do her thing in order to finally find and accept her man.

All thanks to the jazzy, flashy entertainment industry, there is really not much of a centre stage for average looking women. Entertainment has its protocols to get their T.R.P’s or whatever the hell they strive for these days. But very quickly even the real life is turning into reel these days. It’s a bummer most of these jazzy protocols apply more to women rather than men. But that’s that and can’t be said or done more regarding this. It’s a pity, really. One woman’s necessity is another woman’s horror show!

Now coming back to Bridget, finding a man is no mean feat. It’s a bloody task indeed. One cannot enact a fairy tale by sitting in some chamber and waiting for her prince charming to arrive coz F.Y.I, they would never arrive!

Bridget Jones (Renee Zellweger), a 32 year old spinster decides to take matters into her own hands and ends up appearing at her work place in vanishing mini-skirts and see-through blouses and as planned, gets her boss (Hugh Grant) follow her around with his heart throbbing at all the wrong places! Funny how the world works! If a woman is “seeing” someone, then other men (who ignored the same woman initially) start to show more attention towards her. So that’s how Bridget unknowingly manages to get her nemesis’s (Colin Firth) attention towards her.

It’s a cute movie and an excellent time pass to watch it but how much of it can be brought about to real life? “How Bridget can you get to nail some handsome guy!” the risk involved in the very task of finding a right guy or just any guy for that matter, is imaginably grave. But heart wants something the mind doesn’t appreciate.

So if one is all set to take matters into one’s own hands to find their man, then one should also be ready to face all the atrocities and humiliations when one has thrown one-self very publicly to a mountainous task called “Find yer man, woman!”.

Now the question is “How much embarrassments are you ready to endure in order to find a right guy?”, “Is it even really necessary to enter such dangerous gamble in one’s life?” ... tough questions, but I don’t like taking unwanted risks in life unless it’s really exciting. I always had a heart towards adventure but that was regarding innocent mountaineering or hiking. Now, this is a very different kind of adventure and I’m not so sure how cut out I am for this, to tell the truth.

But if the end results of entering such unknown duels in my life would lead me to be surrounded by similar versions of smirky Hugh Grants and gentlemanly Colin Firths, then why not?!

Sigh, dreams I tell ya, they ruin you!!

P.S: With exams just a few days away, this is what I end up blogging about!! Guilty! ;) 

Internally Vexed!!

     In a few days, I’m about to take the last internal test of my Engineering education. It’s always been a battle for me and my friends. Out if a 125 marks per subject, the last 25 marks is in the hands of the lecturers handling that subject. And it’s with these 25 marks that they play all games possible to make our lives unbearable during each semester. But sometimes they misjudge our capabilities. I’m not really talking about us students showcasing our legitimate hard work. I’m talking about our hard work in pulling off illegitimate stuffs. Where there is internals, there is always copying. With such undue dedication we students spend sleepless nights in preparing chits and other thievery weapons without whose help our internal marks would ever be possible. I’ve never carried chits to class since I’m too lazy to even prepare chits. But I’ve given in to temptation when one of my friends sitting beside me took out a neatly written chit from her pocket. Naturally I had to “borrow” her chit!!

    I’m more of a last minute mugger. I’d rather fail than get caught for copying. Mugging used to be easy in my school days but in those days I was actually studying my subjects as I had genuine interest in them. But that’s not the case here. There’s just so much information one needs to hold on to that one tends to study for the sake of passing and nothing else. Now days I waste so much time on the day before each internal test that I won’t be left with enough time to mug up the subjects. So what do I do? Only other option is to spin “believable” lies. As long as I know what the concept is, I can gladly spin yards and yards of lies. But this rarely happens since I mostly suffer from writers block. But once or twice this has worked and left me deeply amused. It’s not every day a lecturer awards you marks by believing the lies you have written in the bluebook!

    So here’s an account, the likes of which is usually faced by me during one of these memorable internal tests;

Day 3: Still 3 days to go for the internals, lots of time to sleep and Facebook!!

Day 2: Too early to start mugging, I might forget what I’ve studied!!

Day 1: 24hrs to study two chapters... I don’t need that much time. I need more sleep though...Zzzz

D-day (3 hrs to go): Ok, which book is this chapter (scrambles through a few wrong books until…”found it”)... Ok how many pages…”God dammit, 120 pages for one chapter??”…Ok what might REALLY be important in these...? (Narrows it down to one question)... An attempt for study for the next one hr…

1 hr to go (Tensions): Crap, I’m gonna flunk… unless I twist and write the same answer for all the questions?! Not a good idea, but this is do or flunk moment!!

An hour of nonsense later…

Friend:”How did it go? I think I might pass... I studied the whole night…

Me: You studied the whole night and you’ll “just pass”?? (Actual fear hits now…too late!)

Friend: Yeah and I bet you’ll get above 20, the way you were writing today…

Me (trying on my best modest expression): Oh it was nothing… (It really was nothing!!)

The Result day…

Friend: Hey I scored 18/25, I just can’t believe it, that’s 3 marks more than a pass... More than I ever expected... what’s your score?

Me (confounded n baffled): Um, I got a little less than u, got 15/25… I PASSED? (Self question!)

Friend (clearly concerned mistaking my bafflement to misery): Hey don’t worry, there’s always next internals… I don’t know what’s wrong with these lecturers; you clearly deserve more marks... I saw you writing with such energy!!

Me (recovering from the initial shock n replacing it with amusement n laughter): Yeah, damn right I did. Indeed I spent a lot of energy in articulating that believable crap! Clearly something is indeed wrong with the lecturers! Thank god, it works in my favor!!

Friend: Don’t tell me you didn’t study again...

Me: Hey, I studied enough to make them see I deserve a pass… who am I kidding? I literally wrote the same answer for all. I guess the lecturer likes my words.

My friend rolls her eyes in disgust and dismay before saying, “If I knew they were giving marks for filling the sheets, even I wouldn’t have stayed up and studied the whole night!!”

***

Dedicated to the Engineering years and my friends and all the rule breaks we did!!

The Mandalpatti Adventure

Disclaimer: This post has been written for Mahindra XUV 500 "Incredible Stories". 

The post is really long. So I do hope you give it a read, even though this might test your patience!! :P

I've written it in the form of chapters, to make it sound more interesting and in the process of writing I became an owl (Coz I stayed up the whole night to finish it off!). So for those kind readers who would leave me a feedback, I would ever be gratified by your gesture. And here's the link just in case you'd like to vote for me.:) 

So, Enjoy the READ!!

Prologue

Years from now, when I can’t turn back time and the still photos of the past doesn’t narrate the scrupulous tales that lie behind each of the picture taken at some point in time; I can always go back to the old days by just turning a page. Or in this case, I can just click a link and find this post on my blog!

I’m going to narrate about a particular road trip that took place in my life on October 22, 2010. Two years ago, my school friends and I planned an extravagant, never before attempted road trip. Just planning this trip gave me the goose bumps and quite an adrenaline rush because:

 a) We were about to break a few rules by lying at home and

 b) We (me and the other girls that is) had never travelled out on bikes all night long and that too to a place called Mandalpatti whose road was a challenge to travel in the first place.

But the whole adventure and the risk it displayed was totally worth it. Every minute of it, every second is etched on my mind like it happened just yesterday. And in the future, if in case I lose my memory I want to keep this in the digital format so that I can re-carve it on my erased memory what exactly I had experienced in one of my college days.

Some of the things one needs to be prepared for and gear up during a long bike trip:

1.  Keep your scarves, cotton balls and helmet prepared coz the speed of the bike brings about crazy wind, crazy enough to give you a head ache and almost makes you go deaf.
2.   If you are going out on a bike in the middle of an October night, it will be damn cold, so be prepared with your jackets and gloves.
3. Being a back seat rider you’ll have nothing much to do other than let a million crazy things cross your mind and also entertain the rider with crazy songs and quips (so that they won’t fall asleep, just in case!)
4. Finally, the scenic beauty of Madikeri (whenever the early morning mist decides for you to get a glimpse of what it’s hiding from you that is!) will make you feel like you are sitting on a bike that is riding through the paths of a paradise called heaven.

1. The Text

It was yet another boring day in my life. I had nothing to look forward to and had pretty much resigned to listen to my boring lecturer drone about a particular topic on Software Engineering, a subject so dry that it physically makes you want to crave for a cool beverage in the middle of the class. As I was fighting hard my natural impulse to fall asleep, I was woken up from my stupor when a text message from my friend Apoo flashed across my cell phone: “We are having a meeting at adda today. Be there, 5 pm sharp. You can go back to sleep now! :P “.

Adda is what we call for our regular hang-out place. It’s near my house, at the churmuri gaadi. This is the only place where all we school friends hang-out and just chill out, relieving the old school days and gossiping and teasing each other. School friends are the best to hang out with. Especially for me since my life at my college will never be as colourful as my life outside the college and it’s only possible because I hang out with a bunch of super-cool idiots like my school friends. Our group consists of me, Apoo, Anoo, Shash, Rabbit, Sach, Shanku and Yash (all nicknames used here!). Occasionally the other 3 or 4 guys from my school hop in at the adda for a quick hi, but we eight meet up frequently, always planning for future excursions.

But the thing is, every time we plan a trip, due to many factors it fails predominantly. So after our Ooty trip about 8 months before this trip, I had pretty much lost faith in any form of plan execution when it came to a trip plan. Nonetheless when I saw Apoo’s text, the old spark started to light up my insides and I was restless for the rest of the day while I tried to figure out what possible discussion today’s meeting would unfold. I kept looking at my watch and just couldn’t wait for 5 pm to arrive.

2. The Plan

After 15 minutes of listening to the plan while we all gobbled up mango churmuri, I spoke: “So on Friday, we are going on a bike trip to Mandalpatti, that’s near Madikeri. Not only that, but we are going for an all night ride, not by car, but by bikes... BIKES!? And to top it off, we need to start our journey at 10 pm in the night. Quick question: How the hell are we supposed to leave the house at 10 pm. You do know our parents will come to know if we step out of the house at that time, don’t you?”

Apoo shook her head and giggled at my seemingly sumptuous question: “And I thought you were a writer. It’s a simple plan dumbo. Me and Suppi (her college friend) came up with this” she said proudly and continued; “We each leave our houses at 9 pm telling we are going to be staying at the other‘s house for the night for a slumber party or whatever and we’ll all meet up at adda and finally start our journey. We can have a nice hot cup of coffee at Hunsur road’s CCD (cafe coffee day) too” she beamed at us and said “So, what do you think?”

I was dumbfounded and silently kicking myself for not thinking something this cool in the first place but we all were very impressed at the plan. So the plan was finally in execution and for real this time. The guys got busy servicing their bikes the next day, since healthy bikes were at most important for our journey and we girls got busy shopping for snacks, chocolates, scarves and other small stuffs that would come in handy for our trip the next day.

3. Almost Caught

It was 8 pm that night and I was busy packing my backpack with all the stuff I would need: flash light, scarf, gloves, jacket and even managed to smuggle some homemade snacks without my mom or granny knowing what I was up to. At 8.35 pm I came down stairs with my backpack and both my granny and mom looked at me with raised eyebrows. “Oh I forgot to tell you, I’m going to be staying at Apoo’s house tonight. Nobody is in her house so giving her company” I said easily as I’ve told these types of lies many times before but never for something as exciting as a night out bike ride. Both mommy and granny nodded in unison and told me to ride slow as it was dark outside. As I was wearing my sports shoe, my granny asked me suddenly, “Why are you wearing shoes at this time?” and another lie easily flowed through my mouth; “Ajji, naale betta hattivi, adhike”. Granny, tomorrow we will climb betta (a 1000 steps of Chamundi hills that’s in Mysore), that’s why the shoes.

No more question followed me as I happily took out my Dio from the garage and rode to the Adda. I was soon joined by Anoo, Apoo, Suppi (we were the 4 girls) and Yash. While we were waiting for the other guys to arrive, we had an unexpected encounter with Apoo’s relatives. We had totally forgotten that her uncle’s family lived nearby the Adda and they had come for a casual night-walk. Seeing them, Yash stealthily disappeared because if they saw us with a guy at this time of the night, they would obviously get very suspicious. So it was just us four girls and when they enquired Apoo what she was doing here, she said (while attempting to cover her panic) that they were all going to my place just now for a sleep-over. Her Aunt and Uncle looked at me and my get-up (I was wearing double jacket and a scarf and shoes) and at Suppi, Apoo and Anoo who were also in the same get-up as me and slyly smiled at us. “Ok you girls enjoy the “sleep-over” and don’t worry we won’t tell you mother that we met you tonight”, her Uncle winked at her. As they walked away, the four of us sighed in relief.

Yash called us just then and told us to come to the nearby petrol bunk as that’s where all the other guys were waiting.

4.  The Night-Out Begins

After parking mine, Apoo’s, Suppi’s and Anoo’s vehicle somewhere safe we were finally set for the bike-ride of our lives. So totally we were a gang of 4 girls and 10 guys with 7 bikes. For me and the other girls, this was an exciting trip as we had never done this before but the guys had already visited Mandalpatti just a few months back. According to them, Mandalpatti was about 15kms from Madikeri and Madikeri was about 120kms from Mysore. So all in all, from Mysore to Mandalpatti, it would take about 4 hours at the max. Since it was a long journey, we had plans to rest at Hunsur’s 24/7 CCD, which was a 2 hr ride from Mysore.

So I and the girls chose our riders. Let me tell you one thing, going on a bike trip with childhood guy-friends is the best thing. Since we were friends for a long time, there was no any awkward feelings like “Oh, I’m sitting behind this guy kinda thing”, and the whole time I was sitting behind Rabbit, I got to know more about his recent endeavours at his college, his recent girlfriends and we both had a good time teasing each other openly. Apoo was riding with Yash and Anoo with Sach and Suppi with Shash. My first choice would have been Shash since he’s my neighbour and my best friend since we were 5 years of age but back then I had a slight quarrel with him about some silly issue and hence, as I climbed on rabbit’s bike I showed Shash my tongue like a kid which was returned by him and made the ever-realistic Anoo to shout “oh! Grow up you two!”

It was 11 pm in the night before the journey finally began with excited whooping from all of us. It was exciting to travel the empty roads of Mysore which I usually travel at rush hour. The night air was cool as it had recently rained a few hours back and it was soothing to my face. It wasn’t that cold but I knew it would get worse once we got near Madikeri. Once we were on the Mysore-Hunsur Ring road, the actual fun began. The road was flat and smooth and at times when there were no other vehicles except ours, Rabbit would give me a heart attack by speeding up the bike to a vicious 120kph making me yank his jacket and yell at him to slow down. He was having a laugh by the way, since he knew I feared over-speeding. So the next time he speeded his Karizma to 120, I decided to have a laugh myself by yanking his skull cap off his head and making it fly behind us like a feather. That made him stop speeding and by cursing me, he turned back and headed back the empty road in search for his cap!

5. The dash and the chase

What a night we had chosen that day. It was a full moon. The spherical moon shone directly above our heads. For ten continuous minutes, I had my face towards the sky as I took in the beauty of the night sky in the middle of the road. The beauty of the moon and the stars that lit the sky filled me with a sense of mystery and awe. 

It had been over an hour since we left Mysore; the traffic was starting to get thick in these parts. The road was mostly taken by Lorries and buses and a few cars. There were hardly any two wheelers apart from ours. We were riding at the side, almost near the road curb and quite slowly as we were playing Antakshari and singing songs at the top of our voices. Shash and Suppi were riding just beside us and suddenly it happened. A bus came speeding up from behind us and even though we were completely at the road side, since the road was quite curvy, the bus driver lost track of the distance and the back of the bus hit Shash’s pulsar, making  the back of his bike, hit our bike. Although Rabbit didn't lose his balance, Shash did. Shock engulfed me as I saw the whole thing in slow-motion.

Shash lost his balance due to the impact and both he and Suppi toppled over to the right and fell off the bike. My heart was pounding gruesomely as I jumped off the bike and rushed to their aid. Suppi was already on her feet and seemed to be in no danger but Shash was still face down on the ground. Even though he had hit his head, the helmet had protected him. My throat was constricted and I couldn’t speak a word but was shaking him with both my hands. Thank god, nothing had happened to him except a light sprain on his wrist (which he didn’t tell right then since he needed to ride the bike).

As we made sure nothing had happened to him and Suppi and then checked if the bike was okay, the other guys were already behind the bus. That bloody driver hit us and had speeded up in an attempt to escape. Five minutes later, we caught up with the bus that was forced to park at the side of the road. A van that was right behind us when this incident took place saw what happened and had chased and stopped the bus for us. A huge crowd had gathered around the bus by the time we reached. Though I hate getting involved in a brawl, I was out raged that the driver didn’t even had the courtesy to stop and apologize for his mistake. All in all the guys fought with the driver with raised voices and after checking the bike (which had some severe scratches on its side) the driver consented to pay 500 Rs as compensation. The guys weren’t happy with the small amount but we girls wanted to end this as it looked like it would get ugly and because we were there, they didn’t want anything nasty to happen and thus we resumed our journey in silence.

6. Refreshments and Alleviation

We finally reached Hunsur’s CCD around 1.30 am. We entered the deserted place. The place was brightly lit and warm. We ordered hot coffee for everyone and settled down on the soft couches and relaxed for some time. Suppi had a bad bruise on her right knee and her jeans near her knee cap was slightly bloody and worn out. She was shaking from shock and we concentrated on cheering her up by clicking her photos and as she loves giving poses she soon forgot about the incident and was back to her cheerful self.

But I saw Shash get up and go outside and sit. He looked far from happy. After a while I went outside to see if he was okay. He was feeling bad not for his bike but because of him Suppi had to endure a bruise too. I told him to forget about it since accidents happen and it wasn't his fault anyway. “Are you sure you are okay?” I asked him again. “Uh, yeah but I think my wrist might be sprained” he said, gingerly turning his wrist and wincing. “Hey, I don’t think you should ride the vehicle in your condition, let one of the guys ride it”, I said in concern. But he insisted on riding anyway. “Thank god it was just a small mishap. Imagine if the last thing I spoke to you was by showing you my tongue, you’d be cursing me from hell right now”, I said by punching him. “Hey, I was born to go to heaven, unlike you”, he guffawed.  

7. Foggy path to Madikeri

By the time we left CCD, it was around 3.30 am. It would take two more hours to reach our destination: Mandalpatti. Rabbit knew the way to Mandalpatti and he was leading the whole troupe. When we reached the Ghats section to Madikeri, the surroundings had gone so misty and foggy that we could barely see the road that was ahead of us. We could only see what was there, five feet ahead from us and after that, it was obscured by a thick wall of foggy mist. Since there were many curves we had to be utmost careful. We constantly blared our bike horns while turning every bend and thankfully the other heavy vehicles that we encountered at these nasty curves were equally careful.

After about an hour and a half we had reached Madikeri. The middle of the circle was brightly lit and so we got down to stretch our legs. Riding on the plain ring road was easy but riding through a curvy mountain was really tough. All our legs were paining from the extra balance and pressure that we had to maintain while sitting on the vehicle.

It was 5 am and it was still pretty much dark out there. Rabbit informed us that Mandalpatti was about 20kms from here and the road would be a horror show to ride upon. So we resumed our journey and braced ourselves for some rough terrain ahead.

8. Wrong turn

I had no idea where we were headed. I had only heard about Mandalpatti but I had never seen what it would be like. As the bike bumped up and down the uneven, muddy road I just hoped over and over that the place better be worth all of this. And I was right.

It was pitch black and we had entered the rough uninhabited areas of Western Ghats. The path weaved through thickly segregated trees which dispersed the fog and we would have had a better vision except it was pitch dark. At some points the road was so horrible that the pillion riders had to get off the bike. It was really hard to balance. And at some points the bike’s headlight wouldn’t suffice to see further and luckily I had brought with me a flash light which came to its full use that day.

We reached the first deviation and we took the right fork as the left fork had a sign post that pointed to Abbi falls, which is a beauty of its own. After 15 more minutes of our journey on the rough terrain, we reached the second fork. This was trickier to figure out which path we should take as there were no signs. Rabbit thought for a while and said “I think it’s the right one”. The other guys had their doubts with his decision but nonetheless consented and after half an hour of riding aimlessly we figured out that we had taken the wrong turn.

Getting back to the fork was quite a challenge. We had taken a lot of turns in between. By this time it was light again and we were surrounded by beautiful green trees as we reached a road that was actually in the middle of a valley. It’s good that we lost our way else we wouldn’t have seen such a sight. Unfortunately I couldn’t take any pictures at that moment because I had safely kept my camera in my backpack due to the rough ride I was enduring.

We then passed a river which we had heard while circling aimlessly through the lost track and so now we knew that we were on the right path.

9. Tea Stall Saga

Finally after taking the left fork this time, we made our way to Mandalpatti hills. 10kms to it, we arrived at a tea stall. By then it had started raining heavily and we were all drenched. A nice hot tea was a welcome down our throats. Everyone ransacked my bag for snacks and for the next hour we talked and laughed happily while we waited for the rain to simmer down.

A couple of men in gumboots arrived at the tea stall. While they sipped tea and smoked beedi, I observed them with interest. I had seen a movie with similar settings where, during a rainy day a man in gumboots who would be a Naxalite would arrive at the teastall and kidnap some guy. My over active imagination got me all excited and I relied this to Apoo about who I thought those two men could be. Apoo got a little scared and started telling everyone that they should get going. Rabbit had heard what I was saying and he came to me and whispered to me “Neha, I think they might be really Naxalites and you should interview them and write something about them” he told me with utmost seriousness making me go, “Really? Even if they are, I don’t think they will reveal their identity to me...” I said taking his words seriously. “They will speak to you. Just have a go. I’ll be with the others near the bike to give them some privacy to speak with you and we’ll be waiting for your return”, saying so he went off.

I had eaten his words and I approached the men with caution. Getting my authoritative voice on I spoke with them and luckily they knew Kannada and this was the conversation that took place; “Hello, you are from here? Is this you native place?” They nodded in agreement and told me that their whole family was from here. Since I had already assumed they were Naxalites, I didn’t ask them what they did for a living but said, “Do you like your job?” and for that they said they were very happy with what they were doing. Since childhood it’s the only occupation they knew. I was shocked to hear that even children were trained for such a job in these parts. “But don’t you know what you are doing will bring harm to others?” I was bold enough to ask them. The two men exchanged quizzical looks and replied “We are actually helping others. It’s very hard to get hot water in these areas, so we cut the wood and sell them...” ”Wait a minute. You are wood cutters?” I asked in surprise. “Why yes, what did you think?” one of the men asked.

I was about to open my mouth when Rabbit came to me by saying “Hey, we are getting late let’s go!” and so I left them in a confused state of mind. “They say they are wood-cutters. I told you they wouldn’t reveal their identities” I told Rabbit in dejection. Rabbit started to laugh uncontrollably, “Of course they are wood-cutters. I saw their truck. I was loaded with wood. I just filled your head with a possibility to have some fun” he said with an evil glint in his eye. “And you are still thinking they might be Naxalites under cover, aren’t you?” he pulled my leg even further.

I fumed in anger at getting tricked like this, “That was not a joke Rabbit. I was about to ask them directly you know and I would have been in so much trouble for that you moron.” By that time the others had heard what had transpired back there and were having a good laugh. “Relax yar, I knew what you were about to say and that’s why I rescued you from further fooling yourself. This one is for pulling my hat off back there!” he winked at me. “Oh, I’ll get you back for this Rabbit”, I growled at him while he continued to laugh at my naivety.

10.  Destination Mandalpatti

We had resumed our journey and it was just a half hour ride from the tea stall to the greenish mountain ranges of Mandalpatti. I was still fuming at him but at a particular turn, we were introduced to this beautiful, misty landscape and I completely forgot about the incident back at the tea stall.

 Mandalpatti: If there is a true heaven on earth, it’s this. This place was recently discovered to the larger audience of Karnataka ever since a shot in the Kannada Movie Gaalipata was released. Since then, there has been an increase in the number of tourists who are brave enough to ride to this place by facing its rough terrain. I just cannot describe its beauty in words. The lush green grass either side of the road that snakes its way through these mountain tops looked mesmerizing to my eyes.

Unfortunately I couldn’t see the farther mountains as they were obscured by the thick mist. But still, the misty effect made it look closer to heaven. When we reached the top there was a lonely car parked atop the mountain. Other than us, there were no inhabitants. The bikes could go only to some extent and had to be parked since the road ahead was filled with huge chunks of rocks and from there we had to walk for a few minutes. We reached a cottage where the security was stationed. We asked them a few questions about the surroundings and they said, except for the old Mantap atop that hill, there was nothing much here except the nature in her most natural self. 

We reached the Mantap. It had started to drizzle continuously and we were all drenched to extremities. Nonetheless we were so happy to be finally at this place. It was windy, misty and raining and greenery all around us; what more could we have wished for? We started singing and dancing on the mantap top and our hands were as cold as ice cubes.

11. The return

It was about 12.30 pm by the time we reached our bikes. With a heavy heart, we bid adieu to this beautiful place. I wished I had more eyes to capture that moment. I wanted to take in the entire 360 degree view at once. By the time we crossed that famous path that was shown in the movie Gaalipata, another shooting crew had arrived and I learnt that the hero standing under the umbrella, whom we passed by waving hi to him was the guy from the Telugu movie happy days. So this place was getting more and more popular by the day.

The mud path that was quite dry when we arrived a few hours ago was now drenched to the core. The path was so slippery that two of the bikes slipped through the loose wet mud and the riders fell off. Luckily for me, Rabbit was an excellent rider and we crossed the path without enduring any mishap. Finally bid goodbye to Madikeri and her scenic beauty and we started our journey back to Mysore.

Before Hunsur, we stopped for a quick lunch at a restaurant in a small town. And for the next 1 hour, heavy rain (heavier than the one we witnessed at Mandalpatti) followed us all the way to Hunsur. The rain was tormenting us like pin pricks. But we didn’t stop as we were already drenched to the core. After Hunsur the rain started to ebb off.

By the time we reached Mysore, it was 5.30 in the evening and the wild wind had blow-dried our clothes to such an extent that we couldn’t find any traces of wet marks on our clothes. We were extremely tired and weather beaten and so without further ado, we bid good-bye to one another, promising to catch up at the adda the next day and made our way back to our homes.

When I entered my home, granny was as usual watching TV and seeing me she asked “Betta hathdya?” Did you climb the betta? (The lie I had told her earlier if you remember!).

And smiling wryly I said “Yes, I did and it was the best climb ever!”

P.S: That was two years ago. Last year, again I gave a visit to Mandalpatti with my college friends (This time, we went by a rented vehicle and so I didn't have to lie this time!). The day was hot and totally a different experience. Now if you want to travel to Mandalpatti, there is no way you can go there by bikes or cars. Heavy vehicles like Safari, Tata Sumo or Tavera Chevrolet can go till the Tea Stall. The once small tea stall has now expanded to accommodate more customers. Business is booming at Mandalpatti. Due to recent landslides, the road from the tea stall to the Mandalpatti mountain ranges looks treacherous. Hence they have provided jeeps for rent. It costs 600 Rs per jeep (or may be the price has gone even higher now!) and the diver will drop you off near the Mantap and you can tell him the time you want him to come pick you up and he will be back for you at that time without fail!