IT reflects badly on us.

2012 could not have had a worse start for Tamil Nadu. Mired by controversy, the common man is made to believe that 2012 is indeed apocalyptic. We are in the middle of a power crisis that is becoming close to an existential threat and there seems to be no credible policy decisions to improve the situation and the common man has accepted the situation with the same equanimity that he accepts everything that has to do with the government (only that we have a lot of jobs and even the reputation of the state at stake). So what has led us to this dire straits?

To start with we have policy makers who believe that an investment once made in technology is like building the Brihadeshwara temple, it can sustain itself for a 1000 years (what they forgot is that the temple was very richly endowed for its upkeep) We had very little effort , in terms of money and human effort, to modernize the electrical apparatus of the state. We have a whooping 20 % transmission loss (I read somewhere that it was 30 , im giving a very conservative estimate) . As of 2011 we have an installed power capacity of 16000MW. Which means we loose 3200 MW even before the power reaches the end consumer. So why do we have such a ridiculous transmission loss? I have not made a detailed study on this issue, but I can bet my life on the fact that we stilll use antiquated technology or equipment. The lack of investment has not only bogged down our transmission lines but also our power plants. We are way behind in terms of power generation technology. The power sector until recently has been under the complete control of the public sector. There was very little R&D in this area (for that matter any area at all, in our case the build or buy equation always seems to favor the buy option, anyways we have well wishers like IMF and World bank to fund our buys) Bottom line we follow the policy of build and forget (like the fire and forget) This has landed in this spot of bother.

Next in our root causes would be inability of our engineers to come up with out of the box solutions. The state is so accustomed to solving its electricity woes by simply buying electricity from the central grid that they cannot think of anything from that. The second tool in their kitty would be to unleash the terror of load shedding indiscriminately without any major second thoughts. I guess thats the only thing that comes to their mind when they think of Demand side management ( please read http://www.thehindu.com/news/states/tamil-nadu/article2961150.ece to get an idea of some good demand side management ideas) I had studied bit of energy conservation and management in my UG. I was told by my prof (who happens to be a part time energy consultant) that US had around 2000 (not sure of the number) demand side energy managers, in India there were hardly a handful. We often blame the lack of investment on new power plants as the reason for our problems, but the actual issue would be the lack of initiative and creative thinking on the part of our electricity engineers and managers.

The last but not the least point is we as a public dont realize that there aint no such thing as free lunch. We have been corrupted by our political system. We just want power at low cost. We dont really bother about the quality of our power. We dnt mind the voltage fluctuations which has daunted us for years. Had we protested for those fluctuations probably the system would not have suffered as much. But we only want free power, not quality power. No wonder we have landed ourselves in such a quandary.

On the whole the entire trouble badly reflects not just on the simple issue of strategic policy failure but on our mind set. We dont want to face problems until they threaten to wipe us out, we dont want to think of new solutions , we believe that good time lasts forever and last but not the least we HATE technology.

Sea side suicide

Finally managed to accomplish yet another of my suicidal (ok thats exaggerated) to-do activity, to dive into the Bay of Bengal (with a life jacket). Some genius in CTC had this amazing idea to organise mid sea dives in the Kovalam beach. My colleague Murali and I jumped on to the e-mail and enlisted for this rock crazy expedition. After an uneventful ride from my home till CEG , from where Murali hitched me a ride till Thiruvanmiyur in his dynamically unbalanced Pulsar ( Bajaj engineers need to do something about the vibration I cans still feel the tremor, pity Murali for driving it to work daily) There we met up with the other CTC folks who had enlisted for the dive. There Prabhakar offered us a lift til Kovalam . we dumped Murali's bike at the Thiruvanmiyur MRTS vehicle park and went on in Prabhakar's car.

Ill never forget the drive to Kovalam for 2 reasons. First is 2 rock crazy girls , who were a part of CTC, were riding in their Activa to Kovalam. I guess they should be thankful to have reached Kovalam in one piece. They should have collided with our car at least twice (I dunno how many such near misses they had on their way). The other was a couple of drunken dudes stopping by to make money when the group Had gathered for a head count near Kovalam. Those two fellows were talking in some highly accented english and behaved like a bunch of thugs. We folks had such a laugh after they left. Poor chaps had made fools of themselves.

We finally reached Kovalam and after parking our cars in a graveyard the group ventured towards the sea. We were provided life jackets and we boarded the fishing dinghies and made towards the sea. We expected the fishermen to take us at least a km into the sea and were quite disappointed when he stopped about 500 m from the shore. Nevertheless it dint dampen our spirits. We dived into the sea.

The time in the sea made the effort truly worth it. I felt like being in an abyss of water. The water was just throwing us around and people were drifting apart. It was initially very scary. Once i realised that the fishermen were around having an eye about for us it put all my doubts and fears to rest. I simply lay around the water enjoying the view of the horizon and the sky. It was an amazing experience. With people cracking random jokes and pulling everyone's legs (literally) it was on the whole fun.

After about 45 min the water got really bouncy. The fishermen told us that the tide was on the rise and that we must get out. We all boarded (with a good amount of difficulty) and the fishermen allowed us to jump back into the water about a few metres of the shore. We all drifted happily to the beach.

I saw a really funny thing here. I drifted to the beach and removed the life jacket. I was just watching the sea when a lady came drifting to the beach. She was unable to get up and she just kept going back and forth with the waves. It was a bit humorous for me to watch , i guess the lady would have been petrified. I pulled her out of the water the next time she drifted towards the shore. Only to be asked if I was a northie (my tamil core writhed with a sense of righteous self indignation :P ) and the next question was if I was a tambrahm (as if it was written on my face!!) Had my Don Quixote moment :P

After a nice little photo session we were on our way back home. On the way back when Prabhakar was feeling a bit sleepy it was suggested that he should smoke. Then a question raised as to who else smokes and even before I could make my reply the rest of the group declared "nee lam dhum adika maata un munjileye ezhidiruku" with such a startling unity!! man I need to go for a plastic surgery to make it less obvious to people.

On the whole an awesome trip with loads of fun.

Retrospection and Introspection

Looking back at 2011 its a classical year of mixed feelings.2011 was (cannot use a past tense yet but still) a wonderful year without any doubt. The best part of the year being spending almost 3 full weeks with my sister (something which I had longed for 8 never ending years) athimber and little manas. I would love to remember 2011 for the amazing treks. 4 wonderful treks with really awesome people. Most times we did not reach the end point. The treks made me realize the importance of the enjoying the journey rather than the end point. The next best part of 2011 would be my year in the factory. For long I had imagined myself to be the exact same as the character Anbarasu portrayed by Madhavan in Anbe Sivam. I overcame my taboos and learnt to look at people beyond their fake accents and smart dressing. This one year I spent with the welders of Caterpillar India's fabrication line. I made a bunch of amazing friends among them, though Im not sure if I will be ale to stay in touch with those folks.

While talking about the best parts of 2011 I cannot afford to miss the Summer of 2011 (had I had some talent I should have written a song) . Left to fend for myself this summer, I had a whale of a time with Charu, Anand, Mukund and Srikant aka Thenavan. Those crazy eat outs, night outs, beach outings and alll sorts of crazy fun made the summer among the most memorable and crazy ones till date.

As previously stated 2011 was not without its share of woes. The biggest being the fact that Adith, Anand and Charu left for US, within a months span of each other. A fellowship which lasted close to 20 years was broken. First time ever I actually felt sick about being in Chennai.

Apart from this random vexatious incidents like seeing extremely undeserving people taking very responsible positions at work and having to suffer the agony of travelling a 100 kms everyday defined the low points of 2011.

On the whole 2011 was an amazing year where i made and lost friends.

looking forward to a more crazy and fulled 2012.

The trek that almost dint happen

The Green route trek from Donigal to Sribagilu had been my dream for the past 2 years. After many false starts Smrithi, Madhulika, Anirud, Aswin and Nithin volunteered for this fool hardy venture.

For this trek we did one of the most detailed research taht could possibly be done. Conventionally people start from Banglore (on buses which go via Kukke ) and get down at a tea stall near Donigal Railway station and start trekking from there till Yedakumeri railway station. They halt at yedakueri for the night and trek till Sribagilur railways station the next day and take an exit which comes 4 kms after Sribagilur and reach the highway. From there they manage to get buses Kukke. Otherwise people manage to get the train which passes through YEdakumeri at 430 in the morning and reach Kukke. The third possibility is taking a forest route out of Yedakumeri and crossing the Kempehole river. The trek is walked in this route spans a distance of 20-45 km (depending on how you exit). There was a possibility of getting kicked out of the trek by Ralway employees as well.

This was the image that we had gathered by reading all the blogs and by talking to people.

Our trek adventure is an anti thesis to all these examples and experiences. The trip started for Anirud , Aswin , Nithin and myself from Chennai. We drove Anirud's car from Chennai top Banglore. A very event ful drive where we were chased by the rains where ever we went.

Amid liberal breaks for photographs we reached Banglore after a gruelling 8 hour drive ( 4 of which was within both the cities) only to find it raining cats and dogs in Banglore (it is not supposed to rain in Banglore in November) We were informed that it had been raining very badly in Sakleshpur area for the past 3 days. On hearing this news I totally freaked out and felt that it was a very bad idea to actually trek during/ immediately after rain (Falling half a dozen times in the slush in the Himalayan trek was still fresh in my mind). I was booed and threatened by everyone around me and was dragged to the Majestic bus terminus.

There Smrithi and Madhu joined us. It was one of Smrithi's brilliant ideas to trek from Kukke rather than from Donigal . The idea was quite simple. We start from Kukke and walk till how much ever we can depending on the terrain and turn back to Kukke. The advantages of this idea was that your exit from the trek is simplified. You dont ahve to wait at desolate highways for buses (which would be the case if u exited from Sribagilur or Yedakumeri) or wait till the morning for the passenger train. We simply walk till we are tired and then turn back. Everyone liked the idea so we grabbed it. We got into the bus and started our adventure towards Kukke.

The bus drive to Kukke was not very bad except for very bad jolts towards the end which will sort of rattle you. Mumbaikar (Nithin) had a contact in Kukke and he manged to get hold of a nice lodging. We refreshed ourselves and finally started for the trek. We grabbed a jeep from Kukke town to the station (a 13 km distance jeep driver dropped us for Rs 200) We started trekking around 845 AM. We maintained a good pace and manged to reach close to Sribagilu in 4 hours time (13-14 km distance) . This was amidst really funny experiences while crossing bridges and tunnels, not to mention Madhu getting caught in a tunnel while a train was passing by (must have been a terrifying experience). It started raining when we were close to Sribagilu and the time was around 1230. We thought we must be turning back to Kukke.

It was on our way back taht we met a a very nice railway linesman. He orally guided us through a couple of exit routes. We tried one of those only to find it infested with leeches. We all ahd to run for dear lives (with poochi (Aswin) crying that the leeches were taking even the little blood he had and Gerrard (Anirud) mumbling that his was a very rare blood group) We all amanged to get the leeches out of us (after generous "helpings" of salt (thankfully pepper was not there) .

It was then decided that we will walk all he way to Kukke on the track rather than venture into leech infested areas. We were walking down the track when a lone engine was chugging by. We waved at the engine (amidst my mumbling that it will never stop) and the engine did stop!!!!

we all jumped on to the engine which was driven by a couple of really nice gentlemen who were inquiring about our trek (must have thought that we were all a bunch of jack assess).They dropped us near Kukke station (they would have got into trouble if they were spotted giving us a lift) we happily thanked them and caught a jeep back to the hotel.

We refreshed ourselves in time to catch the bus out of Kukke which started at 430PM. After settling (uncomfortably) in the bus we realized that we were n for a 8 hour roller coaster ride. The driver happened to be a mad man who had the scantiest regard for road safety. He overtook LPG carrying lorries and inched so close to the gorge that we weer scared out of our wits. After very long breaks we finally reached Blore.

Arrangements had been made to stay the night at my cousin Surya's house in Koramangala. I had promised my aunt that I would come by 1230. When we did finally reach there it was around 130 Am. We managed to save a lot of time in locating that house because Smrithi and Madhu lived right opposite to their house.

After a long chat with my cousin I finally crased at around 330AM and got up at like clockwork at 630 Am. We all got ready by 930 in the morning and after having breakfast we moved to Mumbaikar's cousin's place to pick the car. We decided to search for Poochi's mysterious girl in the streets of Jaynagar (thats a very long story which deserves a separate post) After not finding the mystery girl, we were guided by Nithin's cousin to the Jaynagar market to buy honey for Gerrard's mom.

We finally started out of Blore at around 1230 and after witnessing a very unfortunate accident we finally made it to the buzz of Singara Chennai. Once again it was a wonderful trek with an awesome gang of people.

Saavan Durga

My trip to Saavan durga is an example of how bad starts could end up amazingly well. It all started at a very short notice (unlike our other treks where we plan for months before it finally happens) I still cannot figure out how the idea of trek originated , but we(Smrithi and Charu with Andy and yours truly shaking our heads like bulls) had zeroed in on Saavan Durga. This time our around Adith was not able to make it as he was starting for US (the Use no Sombu land). As is the tradition the plan was simple, we go, we trek and we return. (we dint bother to ask how we go wat we eat and such mundane stuff)

Andy had some prior business so he kicked off to Banglore ahead of Charu and me. Smrithi , who was in Banglore , planned to join the 3 of us there. We decided to go trekking on a Saturday which meant that people from Madras had to be in Banglore in the wee hours of Saturday. So Charu and I decided to catch a bus on Friday night. I returned from work (ya people it was yet another very long day at work im a hard working citizen you know) and came home and immidiately started for Koyambedu. Our first mistake was to underetimate the number of people who would be mobbing Banglore during the weekends. We being noobs were lost in the crowd. We finally allowed ourselves to be mugged by a conductor so that we could get a couple of extremely uncomfortable seats. Charu (who was a Kumbhakarna in his previous birth slept like a log) while I was not able to bat an eyelid.(this is what will befall all those who dont book themselves a ticket, when travelling to Banglore in the weekend) We finally reached the Sleepy city of Banglore. We alighted opposite to the Total mall (and Andy heard it as Dodol mall :D ) Smrithi and Andy picked us up from there (in the car which Smrithi had managed to hire somehow)

We started our road trip , in the dark and desolate land of Banglore. We we plagued illegible road signs and confusing roads. We finally managed to make it to the Old Mysore road. From there we enquired our way to the trek spot. The trouble was Smrithi (who was our Kannada expert) dint know if people were actually abusing us with bad words or giving us directions (though she did try to convince us by telling couple od kannada words). Somehow we did reach the trek spot.

As usual we started the trek with high spirits and energy. The weather was extremely pleasant. We initially walked following the Electric cables (this time it was neither the stream nor the white rabbit). 10 mins into the trek we discovered a bunch of signs directing us through an easy path to the top. Some good samaritan had painted it for others to follow. We happily followed it and kept trekking. Apart from Andy's nuiscane to take his pictures in every possible position and angle the trek was simply marvellous. The view was nothing short of mesmerising. The only unfortunate incident would have been Charu's trouble with his asthma, which he eventually managed to overcome.

We struggled hard and manged to make it to the "mandpam" at the top and we took a few minutes break there. After that we managed to reach the pinnacle(marked by a Nandi) amid great difficulties (required us to do some miniaturised rock climbing) , If we had thought that the view from the mandapam was amazing then the view from the Nandi was breath taking. It took us a good amount of self determination to pull ourselves out of that place. It was nothing short of legendary. I can still remember that view even though im writing this post after almost 3 months.

We uneventfully managed to reach the base of the monolith after spending about half an hour at the top. If you had thought our adventure ends here thats a mistake. Just like Shahrukh said "Picture Bhakhi hai mera dost" our adventure starts from here. We (due to a twist of fate) decided to trust in the driving skills of one Ms. Smrithi. That would have been the last mistake of our lives had it not been to twist of bad luck (or probably good luck to us) After witnessing 10 mins of road rage (I can remember a streak of fear even in Andy's face imagine that!!!) due to a leg cramp Smrithi was not able to continue driving. Charu took over from here and it aws an un event ful trip till we reached the outskirts of the damned city of Bengaluru. I thought Chennai traffic was bad , after seeing BEngaluru I tahnked myself for being in Chennai. Blore is chaos. It took us some 3 hrs to traverse some 5 kms!!

We were starving and all of us were eagerly looking out for a decent eatery. Finally we spotted another Total mall and we jumped into it (Charu was so eager to eat that he came without slippers as well (hunger is a bad thing u know) ) We finally had some pizzas and we moved on to first drop Smrithi in her place and then the plan was to take the car to Andy's place and then after refreshin ourselves Charu and I planned to start for Chennai taht night itself. The traffic in that crazy city was so bad that after dropping Smrithi we were already really late and we decided to drop the car first and then catch an auto to Andy's place. Unfortunately for us it was raining (not very heavy) and the orads were flooded. The auto drivers of that city dint bother to even stop when we waved!! after getting immensly pissed off and havnig cursed Blore t o our hearts content we did finally get an Auto (they use meters there!! that was the only good thing i noticed abt Blore) we finally go to somewehre near HAL. By then Charu and I decided to catch a bus to the Bus terminus and find our way to Chennai. So Andy parted us there and we finally found a bus (the buss tehre dont have proper boards conductors shout like in some moffusil bus stands) we got a bus. With great difficulty (we were totally tired hungry and our legs were tearing apart) we found ourselves in a proper bus with a decent seat. Finally on SUnday Morning we managed to reach the beautiful city of Chennai.

I would like to include a comical incident which Andy was telling us. Andy had gone to pick up the car on Friday night, from the travel operator's place. Andy had caught an Auto and the Landmark given to him was that the place was 2 buildings from a prominent looking rock on some road. Andy and the auto wallah had reached that road and Andy was struggling relly hard to translate rock for the auto driver. After having failed to do so in Kannada and HIndi he was vexed and muttering to himself when the driver asked "neenga tamilaa??" (Andy facepalm!!!)

This trek I will remember for many reasons. This was among the last treks with a group of amazingly awesome gang. This trek marked the culmination (and the end i should say) of one of the best ever summers! I woudl always look back at it with nostalgia. Thats one reason I took it upon myself to write this post even though its 3 months since I actully went for the trek. I dont want to forget one single moment of it......

All That glitters is not gold. The only thing that gold does is glitter.

After the recent surge in gold prices I began wondering what made gold the last bastion of hope for all investors. Not even crude oil earned this respect. First ill start off by analyzing about gold. What is gold? Its an element with an atomic number of 79. It shows metal like properties. Its highly malleable and ductile. Its lustrous and its chemically nonreactive with most common chemicals and its quite rare (probably these might be its greatest and only virtues). It has no other worthy properties to extol about.

So what made this such a sought after commodity? Probably to answer that question we might have to go back in time. Since time immemorial man has been fascinated by gold (dont ask me why its been only gold and not anything else) Basically this fascination led man to start decorating himself with gold. Gold started to become a commodity of desire for mankind. The kings and queens of long gone dynasties began fancying gold and diamonds. Since they were like the rockstars of that era there was no questioning about the beauty or the awesomeness of gold. This fascination simply started to grow over time. Its rarity and chemical inertness ensured that it continued to be out of reach (hence the aspiration) of the common man.

This made gold (and silver) the choice of kings for minting coins ( with all the royal paraphernalia stamped on it) . We might recall how valiant attempts, by ingenous idiots like Muhammad Bin Thuglaq , to mint coins with copper caused serious counterfeiting problems. This made the sovereign(the monarch to be precise) to loose control of the economy , which means they loose a lot of tax and they have no money for their opulence and to fund their armies. Thus as previously stated its rarity proved to gold's greatest asset.

The practice of gold coins were prevalent in many civilization based on the amount of trading they did and the availability of gold. For instance if gold was a very very rare resource (even by normal standards) then the people saw it fit to use paper currency which was backed by gold. If the particular area relied a lot on foreign trade then gold continued to be a standard medium of barter (which is quite evident from the amount of gold which was found in the Padmanadhaswamy temple in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala being one of the most ancient trading posts of the world which traded with almost every civilization in the world)

Finally due to a huge restriction in the number of gold coins that could possibly be minted with gold and the huge trouble of transporting gold for minting caused governments to move to the gold standard. Where in the government holds gold backing and prints currency equivalent to the value of the gold it holds. This system allowed people to redeem their cash to gold when ever they choose. The value of the currency in gold was fixed by the government. This caused huge problems of smuggling (legally smuggling , you could take with you a thousand pounds from London to Hongkong or Singapore which was a part of the British Empire and exchange the cash for gold, this was as good as smuggling) . Due to the this countries kept switching on and off the gold standards during war and peace times.

Then finally after to WW2 the Brettons Wood system was introduced by US among the Allied nations in order to build the accelerate the growth of the ailing economies. This is essentially like all the economies of the world will not back their currency with gold but with US dollars while US while follow the gold standard. (once again gold)

This put such a huge pressure on the US economy to maintain gold reserves. Nixon during his presidency kicked out the Bretton Woods system and made the dollar a FIAT CURRENCY. A fiat curency is a type fo currency which ahs no backing in gold or anything but just the promise of the federal government to honor the currency. (thats why there was a huge huge furor when S and P downgraded US treasury bonds (which is as bad as downgrading the dollar) ,its just a question of trust)

Well you might wonder to what purpose this boring lecture on economics serves. The bottom line im trying to drive is that Mr.Gold manages to survive and sustain as mankind's most favorite muse for the entire period of human evolution. Well I can understand it if the folks back in the bronze age admired gold the fact that people continue to admire it is simply amazing (given that currency is completely decoupled from gold). This admiration is probably forcing investors to still see gold as a very safe investment. (as gold has no other intrinsic value)

Think of it, money which could be used by investors to fund R and D and to fund new industries , because of the uncertainties in the economy is being transferred into GOLD!! What is adding value to gold?? not its use in the industry, not its ability to generate electricity, not its ability to feed the millions of starving people and definitely not its ability to be beaten into wafer thin chips. The thing which is adding value to gold is the fact that human beings covet it.

After having said all this, what I still dont understand is WHY IN GOD'S NAME DO PEOPLE STILL GET ATTRACTED TO GOLD? ! Can someone please tell me why?

Nagalapuram

Nagalapuram, a forest range doted with ponds, waterfalls and streams , was the target destination for the Fellowship of Foolhardy Trekkers (core constituents being Adith, Anand, Charunethran and yours faithfully) for about 2 months. We were collecting information on that trek for the entire period of these 2 months meeting nothing but dead ends. This place had very very little information on it. When enquired the CTC folks warned us against going on this trek by ourselves as it was quite risky. Born brave fools, we decided not to be deterred by these petty issues and decided to go ahead on this trek with the amount of info we had. The primary reason for this post is to ensure that people , who plan their treks to Nagalapuram, are better informed.

Route to Nagalpuram

Follow this map till Nagalapuram village .

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?doflg=ptk&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=204146848897547296467.00049cf6c79579594a6dc&ll=13.215882%2C80.031281&spn=0.359631%2C0.676346&z=11

Once you reach Nagalapuram ask for a village called TP Kotah. You have to take a narrow tar road to TP Kotah. Its about 10 kms from Nagalapuram. Once you get to Kotah ask people for the way to the "picnic spot" thats wat they call the trek route. The "picnic spot" has a temple too. So you can ask for the route to the temple near the dam if u feel bad abt using the words picnic spot. you will be pointed towards a very very littered mud road. We were highly sceptical about that road but there was no choice but to take that road. That road will stretch for about 2-3 kms through very rough patches of mud roads(thanks to Adith's diligence the car survived) and you have to keep driving till you see a temple. The car can be parked near the temple and from this point you have to start trekking.

The first thing you will see is a decently sized reservoir. you have to take the path which leads into the mountains here. Once you start trekking you wont see any streams/water bodies for almost half an hour. You need to keep taking the path which leads you downhill (and i think towards north im not very sure though). There wont be huge confusions till you reach one particular point where the path will fork out. At this point we thankfully found a arrow marking the direction we had to take. So look out for such arrows when you are confused. You will bump into a stream after about30-45 mins (depending on your pace) Once you reach this point you might think its very easy and that you will just need to follow the stream. This is where you will get realllly lost (we got lost so i assume you will make the same mistakes) . The path in this trail (unlike that in Tada) is not very well trodden upon. So most times there wont be a clear cut path. So you have a high chance of getting lost or mislead. So you will have to remember the points where you took wrong turns and retrace to that point and try the other road.

Our Story

We started at around 530 AM and made it to the parking space near the temple at about 930 am (all thanks to a damn traffic jam at Koyembedu which took us 30 mins to cross). We got hopelessly lost about 2 times on our way to the fabled Nagalapuram Pool 1. All thanks to our crazy perseverance to get to the pool against all odds we managed to somehow reach pool 1. This took us almost 1.5 hours. Exhausted and a little freaked out by the pathless jungle we decided to be contended with the 1st pool. We spent about an hour there. Finally we decided to trace our way back to the car. Ironically we managed to take a wrong turn even on our return journey. We somehow reached our car (which was in perfectly safe state) and found our way back to Singara Chennai.

This trek was a very very exciting(and a little scary) experience for us noob trekkers. We realised why CTC junta adviced us against going alone. To completely enjoy nature's beauty you need to go with CTC. To have an awesome and adventurous experience you must plan and go by yourselves.