Two Weeks ago, Chandra (Chand) had a dream, a rather daring dream, to convince the team to participate in a trekking expedition to Shivagange (A wonderful trekking spot 70Km from Bangalore). Most of us were not used to trekking and were miles away from a proper exercising routine. The plan was communicated to the team and was received with a lukewarm response. We were skeptical of our mountaineering capabilities. But, being a typical marketing man who is able to make a mountain of a molehill and sell climbing equipment, Chand was able to convince most of us into signing the dotted line and accepting the challenge.
14 brave souls assembled on in HTS campus at 7:45AM on the 10th of March, 2007, ready for the big challenge. It was a rather hot day, clear skies with no predictions of rain.. all good for that perfect trekking experience.
The trip started off to a banging start, with the vehicle making a brief stop to fix some minor issue. Once that was done, we were on our way a noisy group of 14 employees, who had let their hair down for the ultimate party. Anthakshari, PJ’s and of course Chand’s non-stop talk about processes, six sigma etc., (Guess this guy really works!), and threats from Amit and others stopping him for brief intervals, made the journey quite amusing.
Our first stop was at Vijya Vittala temple, also known as the Bhagvat Gita Temple. The temple is an architectural masterpiece, with wonderful sculptures of the Gita upadesh and of course the massive idol of Lord Krishna, in his Vishwa roopa. The temple authorities did allow us to take a few pictures with which we could capture our awe for eternity.
After this we were off to Shivagange, driving through the “crazy as usual” Bangalore traffic. We reached Shivagange at 12:40PM and headed off to the Shiva temple. This temple is special because the ghee that is used for the abhishek of the Shiva lingam, turns into butter. Beats logic and is absolutely awesome to see it happen in front of your own eyes. Despite the fact that the temple was built inside a cave and was terribly hot and sweaty inside, the divine presence made a big difference. We returned from the pooja full of wonder at what we had witnessed.
We decided to take a quick break for lunch before heading for the peak of this mountain. The “quick” lunch break was not that quick, and we were finally ready to climb at 2:15PM. The initial stages were not bad, but got progressively tougher as the height increased. The guys, Chand, Ravi, Amit, Kishore, Darwin, Sanga and Sudhi, could have reached the peak in one hour, with their prior experience and the extra fitness levels that is genetically inherent in men, but they were willing to slow down for the sake of the ladies.. Ranbir, Harini, Sambhavi, Reetha Nalini and myself. After what seemed to be a Herculean task, we were able to reach the first stop, another temple, Olakallu Theertha. Here, there is a small opening which contains water (believed to be holy). It is said that when a person puts his hand into the opening and is able to get water out of it, he is a “good” person. The reality is that the water is deep and only people with long arms can get to the water. So we returned from this temple as all “good” guys and all ‘bad” gals!!
Already tired from having walked (read climbed) for nearly an hour, some of us decided to stop from climbing further. The guys rubbished all our thoughts and egged us on with words of motivation, promising that the end result would be worth every drop of sweat and every ache of the body. So, although we were not really convinced, we decided to move ahead.
Songs, jokes, Chand’s promises that we were “only 10 minutes ” away from the peak, kept us good company as we sweated it out rising higher and higher. At many places the rocks were too steep and slippery. Every time we looked up, the peak seemed to get higher and higher. What really kept the women going was the loud motivation from the guys. They kept telling us that we should not give up and kept cheering as we crossed each milestone, slowing down to reach out and offer a helping hand whenever we needed it. After what seemed an eternity and with at least 4 breaks in between and 3 hours behind us, we finally made it to the peak!
What an amazing sight awaited us!! The absolute freedom that is experienced from such heights cannot be restrained with words. The joy of having achieved coupled with the sheer excitement of the view around us was absolutely exhilarating. We spent a good 30 minutes at the peak, visited the Shiva temple there (yes! There is another small temple here too), before we began our descent.
The descent was much less stressful, and took us a whole hour less than the ascent. Isn’t it so true that to climb high in life is really tough, but it takes much less time to slide downwards!! Nearly 6:50:PM by the time all of us set foot on the flat ground. We started off from Sivagange towards Bangalore at 7:00Pm. The journey back home was less noisy, but still enthusiastic. Thanks to this wonderful trip, we learnt two important lessons: Nothing is impossible… it may just be a little tougher and secondly, Team work always Works!!
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