Mera Trek Mera Peak - A happy hiking experience

While post pandemic has mostly been about missing the Himalayas, "Mera Trek Mera Peak" a beautiful book by Ram Narayanan took me to the Himalayas virtually. 

The author starts the acknowledgements section by thanking self for not giving up. This genuine line to begin the book with was a catalyst to finish reading the book in one go. 

While on a trek, it's very natural to remember older treks, and that's exactly how the book sails us thru. The book is about a less explored peak ' Mera Peak' . It's equally about Everest Base Camp , the trek about which the author gets nostalgic at various places thru his journey. 

What makes the book special is not about how difficult the trek was but, the fact that, it celebrates humans & humanity . Terrains are forgotten over the period of time. The people we meet during a trek stay with us forever. 

Ending my blog ,quoting my most favourite lines from the book 

"Nothing stalled on account of my unavailability - be it family or on my professional front. Often , we tend to give ourselves too much importance and assume that people and activities will not function without our presence or intervention - the truth is far from it."

- Charita Kallihal 

SBI Geleyara Balaga

SBI Geleyara Balaga celebrates it's silver Jubilee by silently helping the financially weak yet talented students achieve their goals. We should be a bridge between the Haves and Have nots is the thought behind the group. Many students who have been supported by the group have achieved great heights in life. They are Engineers , Army Men and much more today.

A small group of 6 friends at SBI Main branch Dharwad  Sri F Ramesh  ,Dr. Gururaj Kallihal, Sri Kishore Bhatkal , Sri Dinesh Khatavkar , Sri K Y Badgandi, Sri Laxman Desai started this group. They  contributed a small amount from their salaries every month so that it can be used for a good cause. Colleagues who got to know about this also joined hands in big numbers. Small amounts that would  earlier have been spent on birthday celebrations, cake cutting, buying Dharwad Pheda for special occasions started getting added to the Geleyara Balaga account so that the needy could be helped. 

Vidyaranya High School Dharwad was the school identified to sponsor kids education. Every year 10 - 20 high school kids are selected and their education is taken care of . This has been happening for the last 2 decades.They have been firm and clear not to take support from any external sources. They play a low key and prefer not to publicise their work much. 

Rastrothana School Garag, Kalkeri Sangeeta Vidyalaya were also choosen to be helped with their infrastructure in-terms of School benches and Steam cooking Kitchen facility.

SBI Geleyara Balaga believes that kids should not be deprived of education and colourful dresses and innocent childhood.

Something that started when we were kids is now a Big family and a Legacy. 

SBI Geleyara Balaga is an inspiration to many and an emotion that's really close to my heart. 

Kindness is infectious. Let it spread throughout the universe. 

- Charita Kallihal

Neel Kurinji - Chikmagalur 2022

Neel Kurinji ( Strobilanthes kunthianus)

A flower that blooms once in 12 years, endemic to western ghats. It blooms synchronously covering entire hillocks making them look blue in colour. 

Neel Kurinji bloom in Chikmagalur ( September 2022)

Chikmagalur district has been witnessing blooms in September 2022. This may last for 1- 1.5 months. Individual flowers as such stay for couple of days only.However, the overall bloom season should last for few months. 

Core areas

Blooms are mainly found in Seetaaleyanagiri, road towards Mullayangiri, road towards datta peetha/Bababudangiri and Attigundi.

There are 2 forest checkposts which shall also guide you towards the blooms.

More details

-Almost every hill is blue, please spot the ones that are trekkable.

-Also please spot the hills where you can climb up and not climb down towards the valley (as downward inclines may be risky) 

-Drones are prohibited and so is plucking of flowers.

-Photography is allowed. 

-The peaks may be covered with fog, you may have to wait for few minutes to an hour to get a clear view for photography. 

-Rain alert! Please equip yourselves with raincoat/ Umbrellas.

-Leech alert! Beware of leaches as it's rainy season and ward them off using dettol and turmeric powder.

Happy Trekking and Tourism :) 

ANAAMADHEYA - The Secret Hero

Vidyaranya High School , Dharwad.  Pre- Independence name Victoria High School. The school holds the pride and privilege of having legendary Da. Ra. Bendre , B. M. Shree and many others as alumni!

Current main building is built by the generous donations of Late Dr. D. Srinivas Dalal who willed half  his property in the name of his dear school. Happened to visit the school to witness a similar beautiful act of generosity .

 ANAAMADHEYA -THE SECRET HERO decided to make a hearty charity. School bag , books , pens and a Bhagavadgeeta donated to 20 female students of the school. Girls from humble backgrounds but shining bright in studies. In addition , a cute 5 yr old from a daily wage workers' family got sponsorship for her school education. SBI Geleyara Balaga, a 25 year old voluntary organisation by employees and retired staff of SBI Dharwad facilitated this. A slice of thousands of events conducted by the organisation. 25th year and the 25th time this particular event repeats as SBI Geleyara Balaga heads towards Silver jubilee .

In an era of selfies, self marketing, social media flaunting, THE SECRET HERO and SBI Geleyara Balaga choose to play low key. Name may have been under wraps. But, kind deeds cannot be hidden. For, kindness is contagious, it shall spread and flourish and inspire many many souls creating a generation of generous people. It shall continue to make world a better place day by day. 

Prahara - A Musical Novel by Pt. Pravin Godkhindi

Couple of decades ago, a novel TV Program by 'Musician' Pt. Pravin Godkhindi on classical music called "Raaga Ranjini" set a new benchmark in terms of imparting classical music knowledge in an interesting way. 

With similar expectations, this time from 'Author' Pt. Pravin Godkhindi, I started reading the novel PRAHARA.

Prahara is a time slice of 3 hours. Musically,  different Raagaas are associated with different Praharas (best time in the day to practice/perform). A day has 8 Praharas, so does this book. 

The book starts with a lucid imaginative description of a singing clock. The imagination is a blend of science and musical knowledge and is interesting too. The very concept of the singing clock is an opening sixer for this book.

The book has musical details systematically printed at the bottom of the page. For non-musicians, this is useful to understand technical terms and raagas. For musicians, I am sure this section will transport them down the memory lane to the time when they first learnt/ heard the raagaa/concept mentioned in the section. 

Interesting narration about artists, their way of life, dressing style, stage behaviour, mutual interactions. Importance of TIME - RAAGA relationship is subtly explained. Fun filled conversations between characters seem very natural. Keeping students away from film music looks very relatable ( reminded me of getting warned by my guru for asking which raagaa ashiqui 2 songs belonged to!). Reference to real locations and names from Dharwad brought in lot of nostalgia.

 It's very nice to see a beautiful concept of music therapy and healing being a major theme of the book. The book sails you through various raagaas, shades, emotions and finally leaves you in a state of tranquility. 

Looking forward to see this on audio visual medium (OTT series / movie) as mentioned by the author in the preface. Also looking forward  to seeing the author change his signature from "accidental writer" to "accidental writer turned professional"

PANI PURI .... AN EMOTION

There is Bollywood where Pani Puri is hyped to be larger than life. Proposals over pani puri in Mary Kom to Pani Puri competition in Rab Ne Banaa Di Jodi , to the unforgettable cycle ride to eat pani puri in RHTDM.On the other side, there are comedians who troll people ( especially girls) for brainless eating pani puri just because it is trendy.

And then somewhere between these two worlds are people like me, or rather us(including all my childhood friends) who neither see pani puri as larger than life, nor blindly eat it. We have genuinely grown up with Pani Puri, gradually liked it , eventually made it an emotion. 

There is a beautiful Tamil movie called "Kaaka Muttai" where kids crave for Pizza. Their grandmother prepares a spoof pizza( modified dosa) which the kids don't approve. They finally end up eating Pizza but feel that their granny's dosa spoof was much better. 

Our initial experience with Pani puri was the same too. Cousins and siblings tried to make Pani Puri for us at home which we did not approve. We finally found a place which served Pani Puri. It tasted like jal jeera and we didn't quite like it and marked pani puri as our most disliked food.

Early 2000s marked the entry of Pani Puri Thelas to our city. This slowly built street food culture in Dharwad. Pani Puri served here was grand . Peas and Potato mashed as hot Ragda, Pani , sweet pani, spicy chatni , finally garnished with sev, tomato and onion. Most importantly it's served one by one as shown in the movies. Back then , we entered this world with just one 5 rupee coin which would give us 8 pooris . Don't remember if we loved the taste of Pani Puri or the concept of street food or a sense of freedom that we now have our own adda where we can hang out, but Pani Puri slowly started turning into an emotion. 

Any new friends made where brought to our Pani Puri shop as a ritual. We almost became brand ambassadors of Pani Puri to an extent that my friend's grandmother had named us friends as Pani Puri, Sev Puri, Masala Puri , Dahi Puri.

Celebrating exam results, winning a volley ball match, getting fast output in lab exams, celebrating getting first job offer letter, our Pani Puri Thela saw it all. 

Even after we left Dharwad, Pani Puri was our reunion spot. In Bangalore, went to 1000s of Pani Puri shops and finally found 2 spots, one near U B City, one V V Puram which were almost near to our childhood .

( Not that the other pani Puri shops don't serve good pani puri. I realise that, when it comes to food and music , everything is good. But what we like is what we have tasted since childhood) 

Lockdown happened. I came to Dharwad. But our favourite place had vanished. Waited for few months and almost forgot about it. One fine evening , our thela was back. This time with more hygeine. Gloves, purified water and same old taste. There is also a branch very close to home now. Me and my childhood friend go there frequently. When we go there, we feel that we are surrounded with hundreds of childhood friends and hundreds of emotions, memories we have made there. 

Few years down the lane, looking forward to write part 2 of this blog cos I am sure we will continue making memories here . 

Special mention- Savariya Thela and Bhaiyya for learning fluent Kannada and making us Proud