Hogenakkal - Getting Out for Some Fun

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A fairly green and smooth drive on a Saturday morning, the eagerness to behold water as the element of nature in its glory, the anticipation of a good feed for the camera, and the spectacle itself! The trip to Hogenakkal, situated on the Karnataka-TamilNadu border, could truly be defined by innervations as such.

Hogenakkal, 150 kms (by road) south of Bangalore, is one of the more ideal weekend getaways, especially if the plans are for a good drive there and back home, in time to catch a movie on the telly the same evening. This, if you were to take the road less travelled. Bangalore-Hosur-Rayakottai-Palakkodu-Pennagaram-Hogenakkal. For folks who have more leisure at their disposal and for those from other places more distant, there’s Theerthamalai, around 16kms from Dharmapuri, the district headquarters of Hogenakkal. There is another big waterfall on the Kaveri river, right after Shivanasamudra in Karnataka. Of course, the former is the more spectacular of the two, given the formation of the rocks and the way the water dives down into a canyon.


Any rider is bound to not miss the terracotta statues, brightly coloured and installed at certain points in every hamlet in Pennagaram. They’re known as Aiyanars, the guardian deities as regarded by the villagers. No sooner have you passed them all, than you enter the manned road to the waterfall. It’s a narrow yet nice drive to the fall. The roads aren’t too bad really. In no time you’re there. You’d be nearly surprised at the size of the crowd there, given that you had an almost lonely drive up to the spot. The access to this place is much easier these days in all ways apparently. And here come the boatmen. You necessarily have to take one of those coracles to get across the river and explore the waterfall. Haggle on, and there are chances that you would end up paying at least three hundred quid if you’re fortunate. They call these round boats the ‘theppa’s. And once you start rafting across, the sight that beholds you is something that’s worth all the trouble. Roja, one of the best movies to have hit the screens in the last two decades, had a song sequence canned here. The sight of the waterfall, up close, is an imposing one and at times a bit intimidating too. This experience would be more telling if you were to make the visit soon after monsoon, when the river would be brimming. You could stop at all those vantage positions to click away. The whole ride would take around an hour or so. Once you’re back to the base, you could get a massage if you wanted to, or do a trek in the surrounding Melagiri hills, if you really are up to it.

We’re pretty much done with Hogenakkal this way. Once you do a loop and start homeward, you’re left with some kind of feeling of unrest. The one that conveys that good things don’t last too long and there isn’t much that could have helped either. Nevertheless, it wouldn’t go good to give this place a miss. After all, it’s not without reason that it earns the sobriquet ‘Indian Niagara’!

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Key Info:

Air: Nearest airport – Bangalore (130km)
Rail: Nearest trainstop – Bangalore
Stay: The Tourist Bungalow run by KSTDC, and Hotel Tamil Nadu.
Route: Bangalore-Hosur-Krishnagiri-Dharmapuri-Hogenakkal

Go Easy, You!

“It is the chiefest point of happiness that a man is willing to be what he is”. The legendary quote by Desiderius Erasmus, the Dutch theologian of the 15th century, pretty much conveys what it intends to.

We are living in the jet-set age apparently and, more increasingly than ever, men and women are ruled by the mind more than the heart. Which is fine as far as profession and career go. To close business deals or to succeed in an extremely dynamic work environment, a fair amount of tact and craft is essential, agreeably. But it’s quite remarkable that people are making their lives more complicated than necessary, by trying to be someone they aren’t, in every aspect of life. We could take the instance of people talking about tastes in the arts; though it might sound slightly inconsequential at first go. Haven’t we come across scores of men who profess to know much about music other than pop, and feign interest in esoteric stuff as such? More often than not, they are driven more by the desire to be in the company of a certain class of individuals who enjoy a good bit of popularity by the dint of their acquired tastes, than a true love towards an art form or any such thing. It’s really a waste of valuable time, trying to appreciate something that doesn’t strike a chord with us naturally. Its fine if someone doesn’t understand Beethoven, can’t digest Tom Clancy, or can’t sit through Othello on stage. He could still trip on Rahman’s tunes, devour a Businessweek or catch up on every Bond flick that hits the screens. What’s desirable perhaps is the spirit of enquiry and adventure; discerning the stuff he comes upon is a matter left to his own devices.
Again, if we were to look at the disposition of certain folks to act pretentiously, we wouldn’t be deprived of amusement. Some people try to give an impression that they court no nonsense. This is acceptable, as long as its just nonsense they want to stay from. We all do that, so to say! But in the process, if they appear a tad too rigid in all they do, aren’t they simply missing out on so much of fun? There are some who enjoy a joke privately, but would prefer to maintain a straight face in public. Then there’s the instance of people putting their altruism on display. Well, if they feel they’ve got to do something for the welfare of others, its fine if they’ve done it. Someone who doesn’t do charity is by no means a lesser mortal, is he?

We could all do with so much of natural identity, that our minds are free to pursue interests dearer to us. Don’t we already have enough on our plates? Is it really fun to shock someone after a long time, when he discovers that we are someone different from what he’d believed us to be all the while? That would only make people in general lose faith in fellow men, and at the same time give them ideas to play Jekyll and Hyde!

It really is not a bad idea to stay cool and true to identity, stop being stuck up all the time, and give time a chance!

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Writer's Block - Adding Thought

Writing today is seriously fun to many. Quite a few believe that, expression delivers a deeper impact on the target audience and ideas have a smoother flow, when conveyed in black & white. Arguably so! However, the single most important dampener of the spirit would be the dreaded writer’s block. Contrary to the dismissive nature of the sound of it for the most of the folks, this is something that strikes only to prevent any idea taking flight.

For the uninitiated, Writer’s Block largely refers to either temporary or prolonged trouble with beginning writing or finishing off a work that has been started. It could be just that every time one decides to start on a piece, he’s stumped by lack of inspiration, or a dearth of creativity within or simple procrastination. Though in most cases, the disorder (if you’d like to consider it as one!) is fairly short termed, Writer’s Block has affected people chronically in some. To quote Wikipedia, “the most notable example of this in modern literary history was Henry Roth’s writer’s block which persisted for sixty years and was caused by a combination of depression, political problems and unwillingness to confront past problems”. These kinds of cases, however, are too few and far between.

A person struck by writer’s block, would in all probability, stare at the paper or monitor to the end of time, and yet come up with hardly a worthy line or two, no more. Apparently he hasn’t got his thoughts in flow. Distractions abound, within the mind and without. He finally gives up for the day, and packs up. There’s not much guarantee there won’t be a reprisal of this scenario in the next few days to come. Or imagine a situation where the writer’s desire to write is more than twice as strong as his thoughts in perspective. Fat chances that he’s going to cover any ground in his endeavour! Next is the classic case of procrastinating. One could defer writing that first line, or continuing from where he left, for days on. This is quite closely linked with the case of unending wait for that inspiration. No drive to write would mean no desire to write. Alternatively, the very thought of making literary sense out of all those ideas in mind, would be daunting in itself. We then have the probability of conflicting thoughts in the writer’s head. This could perhaps be observed more in cases where the subject of the article or story is a contentious issue. The deeper one researches on an issue, the more viewpoints he’s likely to see things in. The trouble is when the writer is halfway through in his writing and is still in the process of discovering new perspectives. It’s quite possible that he would end up in an almost hopeless knot and take a while before freeing himself of it. All these lines said, writer’s block in itself is not something of a curse that’d make the writer lament woe’s me. Quite a few people believe that this phenomenon is a part of the natural ebb and flow in the creative process. Accomplished authors, poets, why, even economists, have faced blocks-in-the-pipe sometime or the other in their course of penning revolutionary ideas. I for one wouldn’t deny that such blocks also act as speed breakers, in rare instances, which would make the writer stop, take a step back and look at what’s been etched so far, and decide if he’s indeed on the write (pun intended) track! After all, it is far from advisable that one writes in a maniacal fashion, at break neck speed and call it a day double-timing to finish.

Well, if this is something that’s gnawing at our mind day in and day out, then perhaps we could do something to get around the problem, though not get rid of it body and soul. I wouldn’t try and make a law out of it, but would definitely aver on the following pointers which might attempt to relieve the writer of the block if it’s there indeed. We could always scribble all the random thoughts in our on a scratch-pad. It’s like we have dumped it somewhere, and are freeing up memory space. It also serves well to be absolutely clear about the tone of the article if it is one. In cases where a novel or a non-fictional book is being written, it’s believed to make sense to keep at the conclusion at regular intervals. This holds good for short pieces of writing too, as everyone would agree. Also, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to read through what’s been written from the start, after a measurable length has been covered. Well, if that was about the content, what about the writer himself? He could get into the habit, if he hasn’t, of writing regularly, whether it makes perfect sense or not. If it’s noise that disturbs him, he’d know better then! Reading up books and magazines, watching movies is definitely a fun way of getting back the flow, if it is lack of inspiration that’s proving to be a spanner in the works. Or a well accepted way to overcome the block would be take a break from everything literary, maybe for a day or two, and get back into the swing. Of course, this works largely on psychology, but is a fairly successful practice nevertheless.

The writer’s block need not be approached with trepidation. It is just the use of strategy and thought that would keep us in good stead when there’s seemingly no way out. As long as the writer’s instincts remain intact, this block almost definitely shouldn’t be the one that decides the career of the writer and his ideas.

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Check The Following Link Out

Hi,

The following link leads you to an article that got featured in The Hindu - Metro Plus on Oct 30, '07!

http://www.hindu.com/mp/2007/10/30/stories/2007103050490400.htm

Thanks,

metafore

Taxi? Scoot!

All the great metros of the world are faced with a problem that we can immediately associate to. You know, the kind, when someone broaches the topic, you are prompted to say “tell me about it!!!” Teeming population and an ever burgeoning traffic. People drive to work wary of traffic snarls. The schedule for a day, for a chap with a desk job even, however well planned, and however packed, would have at least a couple of hours set aside for the road. London, New York, Paris, Tokyo and the likes. The situation isn’t palpably different between these cities. Well, population … I wouldn’t wager on the names I mentioned above. Save for New York. The erstwhile borough has remained almost true to the saying which goes the way that, a person standing in the Times Square for a reasonably long stretch of time is likely to meet everyone on earth!!! Going by the averages, every household would have a minimum of two cars, regardless of the strength of the household. Bah, it’s not for us to discuss statistics of vehicle ownership in the western hemisphere and the Far East here.

But what really is beating many is the fact that Bangalore is getting notorious by the day for the same reasons I talked of above. And it’s overtaken the big ones by a mile already when it comes to traffic mayhem. What’s annoying is that it’s all happened not too gradually, and the entire state machinery is reeling under the onslaught. A township that was aptly named as a pensioner’s paradise, and more so, a garden city, has on record, the highest number of two-wheeled vehicles in the country. Well, this phenomenon isn’t really inexplicable. We’ve read reams of paper on the sudden emergence of Bangalore on the world map. IT, Biotechnology, Pubs, moderate climate and what not. So we shall steer clear of that realm of argument. Right then, with justly factoring in bad infrastructure for our purpose here, what exactly is it that makes commuting a nightmare for Bangaloreans today? Agreed that the cityscape is tiny compared to all the biggies in America and Europe. But again, it would be unjust make any comparison, given the sheer scale and size of business and economy in the latter.

I for one would zoom in on what happens in the gradual movement of mass on Bangalore roads. That kind of conjures up an image of Earth’s revolution around the Sun! Get an aerial view and something catches your eye almost instantly. Thousands of yellow hoods inching their way slowly in the narrow lanes of the metropolis-to-be. Yes, the ubiquitous auto rickshaws. And over the last half decade, the indigenously made Indicabs (the hatchback from Tata Motors’ stables meant for hire – you could know the pale white from a mile away!) Indicabs transport the hundreds of thousands of folks in the IT and ITeS industry. BPO/call centre gaadis as they are more conveniently referred to. And of course, they also ferry countless weekend trippers, wedding party guests and the like. Any one who gets to move around town, say for around a little more than a fortnight, could easily tell you what’s causing more than half of the chaos on the roads. Auto rickshaws and taxis together, as a matter of fact, are more than notorious for their role in peak hour confusion and wee hour accidents. The lesser said about the accident rate here, the better. There’s no great theory to account for this. For starters, the proliferating number of rickshaws and cabs are just the result of an opportunity to make a quick buck. Just as IT and outsourcing have created scores of employment opportunities to the educated workforce here, so have they for the logistics business. Youth with minimum education but no industry recognized skills to speak of, turn to taxi driving for an alternate employment option. Just think otherwise. The rising costs would have relegated millions to a state of abject penury. That should partly explain the numbers. Two. The cab drivers are literally in a race against time. You’ve got work timings round the clock in call centres and other BPOs servicing clients in different time zones. The executives need to be at their desk IN time, to get ready for service requests. This results in increased pressure on the drivers to drop the passengers at their destination in double time. We know what follows. And quite appallingly, the traffic cops seem to target everyone other than taxi drivers when it comes to penalty for flouting rules.
Did we talk of education? Not all rickshaw and cab drivers are educated even to the basic qualifying level. Leave alone, getting relevant skills for the industry, their lack of education would even speak volumes about their indifference to rules and regulations, and insensitivity to public convenience. That’s most visible when you see the yellow hoods gliding aimlessly, without sticking to a single lane, apparently due to an empty backseat. Isn’t that criminal enough?

There are loads more to keep on rambling about. But to what effect? I’m not really here to offer any suggestions, as I am no expert in traffic management, and neither am I a hard right winger to oppose influx of aliens into the cosmopolis. Its just that I’ve begun to feel more strongly than ever that, education, if not imparted with the preparedness for the coming wave of growth in the country, and just goes through the motions, might pretty much lead to a doubling in the number of call centres, and an equitable rise in the number of Indicabs and dirty yellow rickshaws unmindful of the thousands of others around them. Its after all, the new wave you see, and money is what rules, as money is what gives all. Anyone fancying a swell job with a bank in London, or big bucks for countless lines of code, written from California?