Of Tada, Veerapandi, Kodai and becoming an ENGINEER!
The past few weeks have been pretty good. It was filled with treks, trips and many other good happenings. The first on the list was the Tada Trek. We kept planning, planning and finally went on the 10th of April. Just four of us(Me, Ganesh , Mahen and Vittal). It was the “-thon” and the movie gang. The gala night outs at Vittal’s place still stay fresh. We were all parting to different places and so we thought we should go some where and have some fun. Mahen is getting married, Vittal is(has) shifting to Mumbai and God knows what is happening with Ganesh. Some sources said he is planning to take a break and go on a Euro trip! Waahh!!!!
Getting back to Tada, it is a wonderful place, full of greenery fresh water and close to nature. Mahen was pretty well versed with the route and after travelling by train and share auto we finally reached there. The beauty with Tada is that as you go higher and higher it becomes more beautiful, you get lost in the beauty and finally get lost! We took the wrong route while coming down but it was pretty adventurous and at last we found our way through. It was one helluva trip and one of the best treks i have ever done.
This was the initial rough terrain where we had to jog, run ,walk and drag for about 3 kms to see the first stretch of water.
The first place where we took a halt, changed , got wet and played ultimate Frisbee for some time.
Our “Typical” shot
Me trying hard to get on!
Bliss!!
After completing the tough stretch.
Check out more photos from the trek HERE
After Tada we had to face the final wrath of sitting for three hours in the same place and scribble some thing in a booklet. They do call it exams and we were do it for one final time. We didn’t complain. As usual previous day photocopying, over night stand and we finally did it.
On the day the exams got over a few of classmates started to a place called Veerapandi a small village near Theni district. We stayed at my friend Arun’s place and the four days i will never forget. The thiruvizha, the sweet and loving family, the farms, cows, the river, the palm trees, Arun’s grand father and many more. With all these the days went off with amazing fun.
The thiruvizha (temple fest) was SO massive and i never imagined some thing like that. There were about a lakh people from the surrounding villages and the city never slept for the entire week. Music, dance, religious rituals , shops selling unseen items and two eyes was not enough to see all those. The first day we roamed the thiruvizha and one thing which made every one gape their mouths wide was the death well or the Marana Kinaru. It was a 50 foot deep wooden well like thing and the stunt men rode cars and bikes on the wall. High point was there were 3 women in the team. Imagine a car running perpendicularly on a wall at 100 kmph and the man taking his entire body out of the window controlling the steering with his legs and hands partly! You have to see it to believe! But they were risking their badly…. i second mismatch between the vehicles , sure shot kabala moksham!
Indeed…A Death well!
The next day we spent it in the farms, the river and had nungu straight from the palm trees. Also learnt the art of eating it directly by putting one finger inside the soft surface. We then went to the river and dipped in for a couple of hours.
Natural Shelter to beat the heat!
On the way back we saw the die rolling game. (Recall the Pithamagan film where Surya cheats Laila). Some what same thing. 10 ruba vecha 20 ruba. One thing which is synonymous with villages is that there will be no pechu, only vetu , kuthu, kolai! One guy made a comment during the game and it turned to a big riot. Only thing which we did was ESCAPE! The next day we went along with many of the family members of Arun and had food in the farm. Veerapandi is one unforgettable experience and i has some good conversations with Arun’s grandpa. Hard to see a man like him. He would be some 80 years and was so passionate to take care of the farm and daily went and did the irrigation and stuff.
Theni is really an excellent place with a pleasant climate. It is centrally located between Munnar, Kodai and Thekkady. We decided to go to Kodai the next day and head to Chennai from there. Kodai was good except for the summer crowd. Lots of places to explore there but we just alloted one day and so we hired a cab and checked out many places. We went to boating when the sun was about to set and the lake was filled with mist.
Finally after battling in 4 government buses and travelling for some 18 hors finally reached home!
Not but not the least, yours truly is now an ENGINEER!
The final semester result was a pleasant surprise. Scored 85% which i never thought. Although not a big accomplishment feels good to be a first class with distinction grad!
5 Responses to “Of Tada, Veerapandi, Kodai and becoming an ENGINEER!”
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Hi! I am Ramanujam. I am a grad student in the Department of Computer Science at Virginia Tech.
hi machi…….nice to know about your experiences….
The tada trip was really a nice….But in our trip we made a mistake while going itself….. but still enjoyed very much….
sorry i couldn’t make out for the theni trip
really feeling bad for that……
Yup! The Tada trip was brilliant fun. Baby is coming tomorrow. We shall plan the Goa trip
BTW, ithu enna palakam? Link all the names to their respective blogs
@sano
Thanks!
No worries…there is always a next time!
@Sagaro
Yup…waiting for Baby to come!
Linked…. TWICE!
U will hopefully get a PR5 or 6 the next time!
They must be really great experiences as they seem to be……………even i wish to do adventures with my friends……….hope dat day coms in near future……
congrats for ur 85% machi…