BTFYA6 - To be or not to be in love :-D.

5 years ago, the song "Mujhe Pyar tumse nahin hein" from the movie Gharonda by Runa Laila was constantly on my mind for a long long time (love it btw).

Tumhe Ho Na Ho Muj...

Enough said :-D.

BTFYA 5 - Self-doubt is the best doubt ;-).

5 years ago, around this time, I was in full panic mode. I think it was the worse I've ever felt in my life. I didn't know what to think, what to feel. I'm pretty sure, my parents, especially mom can give you a better account of how weirdly I was behaving. I was questioning myself, my judgment and there's nothing worse than that - to not be sure whether what your heart is telling you is right, to think of the what-ifs and lose the confidence you had when you actually made the decision. Maybe some of it was due to PMS, but that excuse is rather convenient according to me and so I would like to place the blame sorely on a girl who was trying to make sure that her decision was for the best, in this case myself.

I don't know if every girl goes through this phase, atleast I haven't heard any of my friends talk about it - the phase of doubting the decision of marrying a guy once its been said out loud. Usually a girl knows that the guy is the one and thats it. No second thoughts, no self-doubts, only them and their happily ever after. Well, I was different to say the least. The second thoughts started only hours after I said "Yes" (I said it straight to Sri) and as time passed it grew steadily into total panic. I literally remember how I went from "Oh my God! I finally said Yes and he is the one" to "Oh my God! What have I done!". The next few days kinda were a haze of tears, blind hysteria and pure madness..

Oh yes, Sri was perfect, if only whatever he told me about himself was the truth. But what if it wasn't? I had heard too many horror stories about women who went into marriages where everything sounded hunky and dory and later it turned out that it was a far cry from that. Women who were told that they'd have freedom in the marriage only to find out that they wouldn't be allowed to set foot outside of the house. Women who were promised by men that they'd be together all their lives only to find out that they'd not even live with them after a month. Women who were given the green light to a career after marriage only to find out that it was all about the money. Women who were promised heaven and stars only to be brought down to earth with a crash into the worse kind of hell. I didn't want to be one of those women..

It was not only that I didn't know whether to trust him, but also the plain fact that I didn't know whether to trust my judgment. How do I know whether what my heart was telling me was right? I knew in my heart that he was a nice and truthful guy, but my brain kept questioning it. It was the age-old conflict between the heart and the mind and there seemed to be no way to resolve it. I was paralyzed with the fear that I was making a wrong move, but how to even determine that it was wrong?

My parents, though a bit dismayed by the way I was behaving, were somehow supportive of me. Mom even said that she'd call Sri's parents and tell them "No" if that was what I wanted. But strangely, I didn't want that either. As I said earlier, I couldn't be sure that my decision was totally wrong either. Finally what dad did was to find out more about him through whatever ways he could. Most of what we found out seemed to confirm what Sri had told him. But obviously professional stuff could be confirmed, but there was no way I could know about the personal until I took the plunge.

And one day suddenly, I woke up to a bright morning with a clear head and told mom that yes, I was ready and I wouldn't really worry about it anymore. Yes, he was the one and no matter what happened later, I didn't want to lose the present with all my "worries". Come what may, I would face it. And somehow that was it, I really felt a huge burden lifted off my heart. It didn't really mean that my worries and doubts were over. They lasted well into the marriage, but I didn't let them overwhelm me like that again. After a few days full of terror, I felt free. It was my choice and I would live with it. And that was okay..

Much later (actually much much later :-D), I did tell Sri about the whole madness and we have laughed about it together :). As you know, Sri didn't turn out to be a scallawag ;-) and is mostly honest :-p, hehehee :)). And I'm certainly glad that I am not one of those women in the horror stories. It all worked out wonderful for me, but I still believe that the phase I had 5 years ago, was some sort of defense mechanism that kicked in. It was a healthy dose of reality that kept me grounded even when I was being swept off my feet ;-). I guess my mind wasn't really willing to let my heart go that easily and belong to another :-D. Even today, I say that marriage is a huge gamble and you never know what the true nature of a person is until you have lived with her/him. Its just that my gamble paid off :).

Baa Baa bak bak ;-).

Snugli possssssssssssssssssssttttttttttttttttt :-D. Been a long time since I wrote a post about her. I actually thought that I'll let Snugster take over, but well, these days she yaps so much that I knew she'd be out of control, hehehee :)). Maybe some other time ;-). What are we waiting for?

• She talks and she talks. So much that I actually wonder whether about-to-be-2-years-old talk so much! She imitates just about anything we say - the other day Sri said something about logic and she immediately says "logic". She doesn't differentiate between simple and complicated words, tries to say everything! Its on one hand amazing, but irritating on the other - imagine somebody trying to imitate you when you are doing some serious talking :-D.


• Whats worse is that we have to watch our mouths all the time! I hardly ever use bad words, but one day I dropped a fragrance bottle in the bathroom (which shattered) and said "Oh sh**" and guess what, she repeated the word 4 times. I was mortified, hehehee :).


• Other times its like a continuous commentary. Sri and I have lunch after Snugli, so she usually is around us when we eat, commenting on everything we do. It goes something like this - "Amma anna, Naana anna. Amma saaru. Naana saaru. Amma Saaru mammu khaali. Amma Mosaru. Amma majjige" and so on (translation - "Mom rice. Dad rice. Mom rasam. Dad rasam. Mom rasam rice is done. mom curd. Mom buttermilk". Mind you, this is just a gist. Sometimes its wonderful, but there are times I am grateful that she is asleep when we have our dinner :-D. We don't really have to struggle to understand her as she says almost everything that needs to be said, but there are still times when we are stumped by some words :-D.


• And its not only that she talks - she understands most of the things she is talking about. She knows our names, my parents and in-laws names. She has some 5 books about fruits veggies etc and she recognizes 90% of the things in the books and relates them to real life. She listens to sounds of trains and planes and immediately recognizes them by name. If she hears/sees a baby cry, she says "baby oowaaaaaa" :-D. And sometimes it ends up surprising both of us. She suddenly brings up something that we might have casually referred to earlier - for example, during her bath, I keep referring to things so that she learns and whenever I soap her feet I tell her that I'll wash it immediately so that she doesn't slip or "jaaru" in the tub. One day I soaped her feet, but forgot to wash them off and she literally shouted "jaaru jaaru" at me :-D.


• She has all of her baby teeth now - so the total count is 20. Her 4 final molars haven't come in fully yet, so she still has some amount of irritation. But thankfully she isn't biting us/other things as much as she used to earlier. On the other hand, brushing her teeth is a pain ;-).


• She's a cleanliness freak! Not in the matter of cleaning up her toys though :-p. No food particle should fall on her high chair table and even if it does it must be cleaned immediately (or she'll protest until it is cleaned up :-p). Also she'll find some minute particles and bring it to us so that we can dispose of them - its literally as if she's mocking my cleaning skills :-D. One day she actually found a crawling worm and was afraid of it - kept pointing to it and running away from it :-D (these days I have some of my potted plants inside the house, so some bugs are common). But as I said, when it comes to her toys, she doesn't put them into her box even with pleading/scolding/whatever :-D. Doesn't find the big toy, but brings a small speck of a paper to us ;-).


• Some of the things she does are so funny. Whenever she doesn't recognize a sound she hears, she puts a finger on her chin, taps it and its as if she's wondering whats that ;-). Whenever things fall, or something happens that shouldn't she says "uh uh" (or Oh oh) and "Mmm Mmm" :-D. These 2 learnings are courtesy of her dad ;-) :-D. And when she says something complicated, we usually say "AmmO, you said that wow" and these days she says a complicated word and adds "AmmO" herself :)). Whenever she says no to anything I make it a point to ask her "Sure aa?" and these days, yes, she says "Beda." (meaning "I don't want it") and then reaffirms "No. Sure.", before I even think of asking her. Hehehehee :)). She's a constant source of fun :).


• And then there are other things which make us feel as if we are revisiting our childhoods in a whole new way :). She stomps her feet in the wet bathtub, splashes water from the bucket, absolutely adores bubbles and tries to hug me when she's totally wet (I don't know whether to enjoy it while it lasts or scold her :-D). Whenever we even mention going out, she says "Tata" and shouts at us until we take her out :-D. Even when we are in the car, she enjoys everything - "Birdie", "Chaama" (chandamaama - the moon), "Taak" (Truck), Car etc. Its something akin to seeing the world from her eyes and it feels so good to see her enjoy the simplest of things.


• I've also started to see a streak of independence in her these days. When I'm bathing her, she insists on pouring the first few mugs of water on herself. She insists on drinking water from the glass herself during mealtimes, though she still doesn't have full control of the same (usually takes her eyes of the glass and there goes the water :-p). These days she even wants to eat breakfast like chapathi/poori/bread - whatever can be eaten by hand herself and recently is insisting on even the eating-by-spoon items. So it kinda a double work for me - have to hold her hand holding the spoon and push it towards her mouth :-p. I'm not really finding it difficult to let go, I actually like the independence, but it usually ends up being tedious since I can finish the work much faster if I do it all on my own ;-).


• And finally her potty training (PT). As I said things were working out okay for us until we went on the North Hampshire/Massachusetts trip (I know, I know, I have to post on that). She surprised us on the trip by saying potty whenever she needed to go everywhere! In fact I think we took half a suitcase full of diapers and hardly used 1-2 diapers per day! It was so amazing that it was totally a letdown when we got back home. She stopped asking to go to potty completely. Imagine how disappointing that can be. These days, we are making sure we take her every hour or so and yes the diaper usage is wayy down. And she does ask to go to potty whenever we are away from home. Its like she's too distracted at home to do that. Well, just don't know what to do about it for now, we are just biding our time and hoping that she'll do it at home too :).

I can't stress enough how overwhelming her each stage of growing up is for us. Its wonderful seeing her become her own individual. I was recently holding a 3-month old and it seems like ages since Snugli was that age - so lightweight (I can't carry her for more than a few minutes these days :-D) and so still and quiet, hehehee :)). Obviously, its all worth it and more :).

The bag..

You know you are obsessed with your baby when:

The first thing you think when you are going shopping ALONE is "Now where is the diaper bag?" :-p :-p :-p.

BTFYA 4 - The happily ever after :).

Fate certainly had other plans :). At this particular time 5 years ago (it was about 5-6 PM in the evening when Sri and his parents came home to "see" me), I had no clue that my life was about to change in a very drastic manner. I was tired of seeing the same old guys who were hardly compatible and thought that this would be another re-telecast. There must have been a little hope somewhere, but I don't really remember that now. So I was looking forward more to the trip to my chikkappa's house (for the Deepawali Balipadyami celebrations) than to the guy-seeing ceremony. So to say that Sri was a pleasant surprise just doesn't seem enough - he was so much more than that :-D.

We talked lots and lots about ourselves (imagine we had to decide to commit to a person in a matter of about 2 hours alone in a room just an eavesdrop away from our parents :-D) and one of the things that impressed me was that he was encouraging about my so-called trekking adventures, sharing that he had done hang-gliding in Himachal Pradesh (albeit with an instructor). That part was certainly good - taking limited risks ;-). I am still a bit jealous that I haven't done it yet ;-). It was the most positive guy-seeing experience I ever had, but somehow I blocked off the decision making process. Maybe because it was so positive, something in me just didn't want to believe he was a great guy and wanted to confirm it by seeing him again. Some switch in my brain flipped to "meet-again" and refused to continue the signal to any sort of decision :-D.

I did learn a lot of things that day but I learnt more from then on as time went by and even now, each day is a revelation :). So here are my enlightenments -

• Next time we met, the first things I learnt were that Sri's height is greater than me in my platform shoes and that his dimples curled just the way I loved, hehehee :)).


• More importantly, I felt like a cave woman next to a very sophisticated modern man. We went to a pizza place for dinner and Sri actually used a fork and a knife to eat the damn thing, while I chewed away at the pizza holding it in my bare hands :-p. After that there was many a time where I have had the thought "Why does this guy even want to marry an uncouth like me?" ;-) :-D. But well, I have to admit he never really used a fork and knife to eat pizza after that, but he sure is always much cleaner than me even if he does eat with his hands ;-). Till today I tease him that he was showing off and he is nonchalant about it as if it came very naturally to him :-p.


• Some of the first things I asked of Sri seem a bit silly to me now :-D. I told him flatly that I didn't know how to cook, but that I'd learn (and I did learn :-D) - he said he cooks, so that was alright :-D. That I didn't really like to wear a saree (even now I am not very comfy) and would like my clothes to be my choice, he just said okay. That I'd call him by name (instead of the various Kannada hubby-addressing-mechanisms like "Ree", "Ivre" and "Enoondre" :-D) and "Neenu" instead of "Neevu" (in my defense, we have only 3 years of age difference between us and it felt like a generation gap to call him "neevu" :-D). He said he didn't have any problems with that. Many a time while saying such things I have felt that maybe he must have thought me foolish, but he took me seriously. He never laughed it all off as a girl's fanciful stuff or treat it with disdain. And in 5 years he has never brought it up and fussed about anything (despite the fact that I refer to him as "Avanu" or "Ivanu" i.e in a singular context in front of my in-laws too!). It kinda showed me that he listened to what I had to say and respected my choices :).


• One of the things we are totally opposite in is that Sri is hardly excited about anything - whilst I keep jumping up and down at every little thing. I guess most men are like that :-D. They are supposed to be the steady rocks when their wives are the rivers :-D. But I get frustrated even now about it, because sometimes its impossible to guess his reaction to some of the things I blurt out. I think the only time I've actually seen animated expressions on his face is when he is doing/talking about something related to technology :-p. I still haven't completely learnt to read into his expressions, so he is as enigmatic as he was 5 years ago :).


• I really appreciate that Sri never imposes his opinions and philosophies on anyone. For that matter I don't even know whether he has any philosophy at all, except to take life as it comes. My sweetheart's a smooth sailor ;-). He never acts like a know-it-all, never dictates things to me and is always willing to learn from me. I love that about him because I don't like being bossed around, thats usually my prerogative ;-) :-D.


• I have to mention something about Sri's forgetfulness. I'm not talking about him forgetting important dates/events (well, how can he do that? :-D), but more of a day-to-day stuff. For example, he may forget what I cooked the previous day :-D. I keep pulling his leg saying that if I'm not around for a few days, he'll not remember who I am :-p. Sometimes its a boon (he doesn't really remember any mistakes that I may have made ;-) :-D), but usually its a bane. I usually ask him to remind me something and usually end up regretting it. He's getting better, but I still haven't learnt from these types of mistakes ;-), hehehe :)).


• Once Snugli came into our lives, I started seeing Sri in a totally new light. I have always admired his patience but the word takes on a completely different meaning when it comes to Snugli. He never ever flares up on her, never gets frustrated no matter how frustrating she is or in turn I am and is always like a calm lull while I'm the raging hurricane. No wonder she never takes his scoldings seriously ;-) :-D. I love to watch them play silly games and I'm proud to see him take care of her without complaints. He even misses her fluttering around us when she is sleeping (while I heave a sigh of relief ;-) :-D)! As I see her grow up, I learn new inspiring things about him. He leads by example, making me a better mother and a better person :).

I feel very strange when I write these types of posts. Whereas you get to know me through my blog, you get to know Sri through only my version of him and the way I feel about him. Its as if you are not getting to know the person but someone's idea of a person. Weird :-\.

Anyways, as you can see, I found my tall, dimpled, sophisticated, ever-listening, respectful, enigmatic, non-preachy, forgetful, patient and wonderful-father-material man, 5 years ago on this very day and learnt the difference between infatuation and love :). I have many blessings in my life that I count daily and am very much grateful for and Sri is the greatest blessing of them all :). This is how Saturday the 13th actually turned out to be the luckiest day of my life :-D (coincidentally today's Friday the 13th :-D).

Happy 5th day-we-met anniversary my love :)

BTFYA 3 - Yedukumeri trek :)

Back to 5 years ago :). First of all, this whole post is simply based on the memories I have of the trek, unlike the post for Bisle trek since I didn't really note down anything. I think we went to Yedukumeri in August 2004, but certainly don't remember whether it was before my birthday or after (I guess it was after since I am pretty certain I'd have remembered having banged up knees on my birthday :-D). A little bit of history before we start off. I have always loved the train route between Bangalore and Mangalore. The sad part was that the trains were overnight trips, but I would be awake just to see the tunnels and beautiful bridges on route (it's be a treat whenever there was moonlight, the part between Sakleshpur and Yedekumeri). But sadly, the trains were stopped giving the elusive excuse of metre to broad gauge conversion and the system has only recently gotten back on its feet again.

Well, on the Bisle trek, I did have many chances to interact with fellow trekkies, but there were 28 people, so couldn't obviously talk to everyone. But I did find out about 2 wonderful treks - one to Yedukumeri and another to Kemmannugundi. Once I got back, I think it was one of the things I ALWAYS talked about. I must have troubled many a friend with that tale :-D (in my defense, I was just trying to get them to trek with me :-D). My mom really loved the Bisle saga and told me that if ever I'd go on the trek to Yedukumeri which would be basically walking on the railway track, she wanted to join me, since it'd not really have any climbs and be a flat ground trek. So I kept calling Kamesh to find out when they were planning one.

Finally I got to know there were 3 more takers (all my aged girls) for that particular trek to Yedukumeri, and so we'd be 5 trekkies + Kamesh and his assistants (Raj and Naagu). So we set off one Friday evening from Bangalore Majestic bus stand and caught a bus to somewhere near Sakleshpur (a little further away from Sakleshpur but sadly, I don't even have a clue about the name of the place). I only remember that we landed there at around 4 AM in the morning, setup a tent and slept right there at the bus stop until about 8AM in the morning :-D.

Later got up, walked till we found the railway track and cooked a breakfast of Maggi :-D. We finished brushing our teeth, washing our face, having the breakfast and exploring the bridge until then (if you notice carefully in the following photo, you'll find me and mom somewhere towards the left on the top of the bridge :-D).




Then we started walking. The trek would be totally for about 35km (17.5 km to Yedekumeri and another 17.5 km back)!! And the specialty of this trek was that there was no base camp. We had to carry every damn thing we had and that was a challenge..




That was us at the first tunnel. Walking in a tunnel is somehow very enigmatic, though practically there is nothing mysterious about it ;-). For me, the whole concept is a thrill - we'd make these sand tunnels using our feet when we were young and its amazing that the real ones are actually dug in mountains and make a pathway where there was none earlier :). The first tunnel even had a side opening through which we walked out and saw this beautiful waterfall somewhere in the valley below..




The photo is courtesy of the digital camera of a trekkie from a totally different group :-D. The route has about 19 tunnels and more than 25 bridges, so each one of them, big or small were absolutely enjoyable..




Except one thing about the bridges - they were my downfall, my pain in the neck (actually knees :-p), my nemesis, so to say :-D. It had rained the previous night and that Saturday was still partially cloudy and rainy, so it made the bridge logs pretty slippery. Somehow everyone seemed okay on them except myself :-p. I think I must have slipped and banged my knees on the logs about 5 times that day, so much that I was very scared the next day to even step foot on a bridge, but well, that part of the story has some more time to come ;-). Some of the bridges had an iron strip in the middle, so it was easier to walk on them, but most of them didn't, so the only way to cross the bridge was to cross the gap between each and every log (so we had to be very careful). Which means its very difficult to know whether the next log is slippery, we can only set a firm foot and hope that we would not slip. Well, as for me, I never got the "firm" footing right that day :-D.

Here's another tunnel which has wild banana (kaaDu baaLe) growing on top, almost like nature's very own thOraNa :-D..




I loved it all (despite the torn knees :-D). Thankfully there were no leeches around on the railway track, though we did find some around on the wet mud beside the tracks. Each time I walked through a tunnel I'd be reminded of the saying I have on the bottom part of my blog - "Then it comes to be that the soothing light at the end of your tunnel was just a freight train coming your way!!" (Metallica in their song "No Leaf Clover"). Loved it, loved it, loved it :-D.

On the next bridge, Kamesh picked a spot for us to rappel (!!!) and decided to setup the equipment (yes, they carried the required ropes) then and there. I didn't even know what rappelling was until that particular moment :-p. The concept was pretty simple - they'd tie a set of ropes onto the logs of a railway bridge right next to a pillar and with the help of the pillar and ropes, we had to slowly rappel down. Practically, it was a different story. Yes there'd be a harness, but I was very much afraid to put my full weight on the ropes (I half thought the ropes would break :-p). This photo is just before I did it:




Again, the photo is courtesy of the digital camera of the same from a totally different group and we actually met that group at this point and they also enjoyed rappelling with us (one after one ofcourse :-p) and I remember asking the guy about the camera and finding out that the Olympus digital camera costed Rs. 20000 (that fact left my mouth hanging open :-D). We took several snaps of the deed in our analog camera but well, none of them are that good :-p. Anyways I was petrified at the moment you have let go of your foot from the ledges (the fact that I'm grinning in the photo has nothing to do with it - its actually a I-must-be-crazy-to-be-doing-this grin :-D), but rappelling turned out to be fun :). The ropes were a bit irritating, but cruising down the bridge with no care and then swinging on the ropes like a monkey (:-D) was really a highlight :). We (me and another girl) later had to cross a mini jungle and then climb a hill to get back to the bridge.

Mom was at first very hesitant to even try it. In face she flatly refused to. But Kamesh can be pretty persuasive :-D. So she decided to give it a try and actually did it. Sadly, I only have a blurred snap of her rappelling and thats one of my major regrets. But I can still see her rappelling down if I close my eyes, so the memory is locked in my head forever. I was (and am) oh-so-proud of her :)). She did have some difficulty in climbing back, but she did that too :)). It was one of those my-mom-is-so-cool moments for me :-D. Soon everyone was done and we wrapped everything up.

It actually started raining while we were crossing the next tunnel, so we stopped to have lunch (I think Kamesh and his assistants cooked up a quick meal of Avalakki oggaraNe :-D).




There was another ominous bridge right next to the tunnel and I took the opportunity to take a snap :-D (I think one of the girls actually lost her torch here - I don't know whether it was retrieved, I remember Raj doing some circus antics to get to it). Also I think I even graced this bridge with another of my falls :-p. (BTW see what I mean about the iron strip in some sections? You can see it in this bridge).




We reached the Yedukumeri station by evening. I don't even know whether there was a nearby path to any village or the highway (didn't bother finding out as we were heading out the way we came), but it did feel like there was no civilization around - the station obviously wasn't being used.




For the umpteenth time, the photo is from the same guy from the other group. We freshened up in a nearby stream first - that was fun :). We planned to put up tents on the platform and later cook there, but the rain had other plans. It came down heavily which caused the tent to literally fly and get completely drenched. Well, we had to settle for one of the sheds like the one above where we setup everything, including the place for cooking. As nightfall came in, the rain stopped, but everything was still too wet to set it up outside, so we even cooked inside.

We made pooris together, Kamesh made the bhaaji and we all enjoyed them a lot. I remember singing loads of songs and some of of my favourites - "Kahin door jab din dal jaaye" and "Gul raha he saara manzar" (by Shankar Mahadevan - it really jelled well with the fading sunlight) outside on the platform and feeling blessed for being there. This phrase from "Kahin door" fit my personal situation so well -

"Kabhi Yun Hi Jab Hui Ojhal Saansein
Bhar Aai Baithe Baithe Jab Yun Hi Aankhen
Tabhi Machal Ke Pyar Se Chal Ke
Chhuye Koi Mujhe Par Nazar Na Aaye, Nazar Na Aaye"

The frustration and hope combination was never ever defined so beautifully :). That night we slept with uncomfortable blankets on hard floor, with never tiring conversations, tired and aching bones (I think I even ran a fever for which I took tablets), a running rodent inside our room :-D (all of us ladies were in one room and some of them, not me or mom, actually screamed at the intruder :-D) and Kamesh voice scolding us from another room to get to sleep :-D.

The morning arrived with a beautiful view :).




We finished our morning rituals and I think had some bread for breakfast and set out.




Here is the entire team of 8 people just before we said goodbye to Yedukumeri..




Just after a few minutes of walking, we took a right turn to find this amazing waterfall :).




That was one of the times I felt the need for proper roads to such a place. Only people who knew the place knew that there was a waterfall there. In US, there are smaller waterfalls and they all have trek/hike paths and you can find most on the internet with maps included :-p. Anyways Kamesh setup river-crossing here and this time I was able to complete the entire route and back :).




Even mom went about 3/4th the way :-D. Did I mention how proud I am of her? :-D.




After everyone had their turn, we packed up and started back. At the first bridge, I was scared out of my wits that I'd fall again, but it was sunny and the logs were mostly dry, so we were able to spot the slippery parts and tread around carefully. I didn't fall at all that day and yeah, that was an achievement :-D.




The following is the longest tunnel enroute - 572m.




Everything was perfect until that point, but at about the next tunnel, there was a break in the path that we were treading on and mom, not noticing that, fell and twisted her ankle. Kamesh immediately wrapped her leg in a tight bound bandage and from then on Naagu carried her backpack. I knew she was in lots of pain, and I felt so bad, so terrible and so guilty of not watching out for her. Our pace obviously slowed down after that and we were able to get to the highway only after nightfall.

I remember us waiting for a bus for a long time and then flagging down a lorry. I remember climbing onto the back of that lorry and us girls having a lot of fun jeering at people and behaving like taporis :-D. And I remember that we finally calmed down when the lorry driver requested us to ;-). We got dropped off at Hassan, had our dinner at a hotel and then caught a late night bus to Bangalore. We said our goodbyes early in the morning and scattered back to our own lives with the enriched memories.

Epilogue:

1) Mom was okay after a while, but the whole thing bothers me to this day. One new thing I learnt about myself this trek was role reversal. I was used to mom (in general, my parents) worrying about me all the time. But for the first time, it was the other way around. I worried whenever she walked on the bridges (even though I was the one falling), when she rappelled and river crossed. Later when she hurt her leg, I felt like a mother hen clucking around her chick :-D. It felt like a taste of what parents go through everyday when they wait for their children to come home and worry about their well-being constantly. Well, a very good beginning to whats going on now ;-). And mom was wonderful, she wanted to join me on a Kemmannugundi trek if I went on one and she even tried to convince dad to :-D.

2) I'm so glad we made it to the trek when we did. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to before the train service restarted, but we made it. They have the trains back on now and I believe they have day-trains these days, so it would be fun to ride on one and see a glimpse of the route again :). But thats in turn bad news for the trekkies, its certainly hard to walk on the bridges or tunnels confidently when you know a train can come in anytime (even if you know the train timings - Indian standard time delays :-D).

3) The trek was a test to my and all of our endurance. We had to carry stuff and walk, walk and walk. I found out that we can push our bodies to do things and it was an achievement of some sort. I found out that the more we go on, the more we wanted to go on, the more our determination and strength grew. I remember feeling victorious and invincible when it was over and couldn't wait to get back. But as you see, fate had other plans.. (To be continued)..