4x4 absolutely floored…

New years day and the jungle what could be a better combination. A trip into the know but yet unknown wilderness of the forests with cousins could only get better. I have often wondered what is it that catches the fancy of people who take their vehicles up steep inclines dotted with rock too mountainous for the ordinary car to overcome. Well the joy of going 4x4 is something that you got to experience first hand and in company as joyous as your family.

Although this is not my first time at it when you are actually at it for the first time after a gap of several years the adrenalin rush you get is superb. There is also the sense of accomplishment that makes you feeling like you have actually conquered something or rather tamed the wild.

Well the 4x4 experience has totally left me floored and looking out for more!!!!

Wave Towers

Travel in India is always fascinating and it also is scope for some very amusing observations. Traveling through some remote areas is even more hilarious when the people you travel with are obsessed with staying in touch. Be it a loved one, a close friend/confidant, friends, works or even casual acquaintances, the wonder called mobile phones have brought the world closer.

The urge to contact becomes even more frustrating when you accidentally receive a message asking to call immediately. Wondering what the emergency is, up goes your hand with the little wonder of mobile connectivity(the mobile phone). Strange is the sight of a person trying very desperately to catch a single wave and even stranger is the sight of the frustration the person exhibits once the couple of seconds of connectivity passes by!

The world has advanced quite a bit I must say from the era of land lines to high speed and advanced communications. But when we become addicts to the marvels of technology it sure provides a sight.

Recently on my trip to the lovely coffee hamlet of Coorg instead of the usual and overpowering aroma of the coffee plantations it was the hilarious sight of people atop roofs that caught my senses. Driving through the twisty roads is enough to grab one’s attention but the stranger sight of silhouettes on roof tops was a urge too irresistible to ignore.

Stopping at a hilltop and looking down at a retiring town I couldn’t but wonder how many of us have become slaves to communication. (Well for those of you who are wondering am I against communication I assure you I am not. I to have very so often become a slave to the above syndrome). On top of almost every house there were youngsters moving about in a very co-ordinated dance form trying to catch that one direction that provides an undisturbed communication channel.

Watching this dance of human wave towers is fascinating as it also brings about reactions of happiness, anger, frustrations and accomplishment. Thank god for the reactions otherwise we would have been reduced to rather strange mobile towers!

Relief

The feeling of relief never felt more clearer with an experience I had of late in the dusty hilly area of Madikeri. The town in itself is bustling with tourist activity, activity to the extent the town is able to cope up with. The terrain like all hilly towns is with a lot of inclines and sprinkled to it is the over flow of traffic on tiny roads.

Tourism apparently is the reason for the congestion but I hardly fail to understand what’s it that drove all these people out here! There is hardly anything but a few old buildings worthy of tourist status and even those buildings have been converted to government offices.

A meeting with a really close friend took me there after a lot of hurdles and potholes. Reaching the city, I rush to the spot I thought I decided to meet the person. Not seeing the person there I try to call but the electronic voice which is the source of resentment in the youth of today electrnically and without emotions informs that the number you are trying is currently switched off. Well as if it is any consolation the voice also asks if you want to leave a voice sms and proceeds to give directions as to how you can do so.

Well when you are in a fix as to what to do and how to proceed you tend to rush about town searching frantically. Up, down, left, right and even strangers become friends when you are in the maddening search of the person. You befriend a lot of people you normally wouldn’t even talk to or rather notice, you observe a lot more of the place and also get to visit every damn tourist destination the town has to offer.

The tension rising with every step, your ears hot with the over heating but useless mobile phone, your brain trying hard to conjure up scenarios to both extremes the good and the bad… the bad usually over powering the good and that I turn leading you to overlook a lot of thing you normally would have looked into.

Then out of the blue I get a call from an unknown number. Since I have given my number to a couple of strangers today I call back and was immediately calmed by the voice on the other end. Although the voice through the other end was angry, frustrated and with enough force to send shivers down my spine, strangely today it felt totally relaxing and soothing.

The feeling of relief is a something that you really don’t get to savour very frequently very often but today it was the only one that mattered the whole day. Thankyou.