My Experiments With Ghost - A True Story

        It has been some time, since I had written my last article and with the presidential election candidate selection going on like a roller coaster I would like to write about my experiments with GHOST. Is there ghost? Well, I have experienced it twice so it should exist, shouldn't it?

The First Encounter:

           This happened when I was in 6th standard. My grandparents had come to my home and we were chatting after the night's dinner. As this was going on, the power suddenly got cut and we all were in pitch darkness. All of a sudden we heard the calling bell ring. I went down to check, who it was? But, there was no one. I came up wondering how the bell rang as there was no power. As soon as I came up I told everyone that the ghost had rung the bell as there was no one. This led the discussion about the existence of ghost. Since all were interested in the topic we did not bother to lit a candle or turn on the emergency lamp. Gazing at the dark space I was arguing that there was NO GHOST. After some argument everyone decided it was time to go to bed.

         Its at this time that I noticed that the window in my sister's room was open. I walked towards the window in the dark, I could see that outside the window too was dark. I put my hand out and reached for the window frame but I could not pull the window. Something was holding it, at this moment I felt something caressing my hand. I was freaked out, "How can something catch my hand from mid air?" My mind voice was yelling,"It's a GHOST and it has come to prove its existence". Though I wanted  to shout, I couldn't. I brought all the courage in me and said to myself, if its gonna just catch hold of my hand I can pull it back. I let out a loud cry and pulled the window and the window started to move. Yes, I was defeating the ghost.

          Hearing my loud cry my dad came running into the room and the power had returned by now. This is when I realized that, I had not been fighting a ghost but bending the hook holding the window from air. The thing caressing my hand was nothing but a coconut tree branch outside and all that I got for my heroic hook bending was a smack in my head from my dad. Well that clears it GHOSTS are only in our head and no where else. Similarly all the presidential candidate selection goof up is only on the news and not among the politicians :P The second encounter... maybe sometime latter :)

The Blind Guide

            How long? How many times can I fail, on the same task! Failure is the stepping stone to success but how many steps more should I climb! with thoughts like this I was returning home. Frustrated by certain change of events, I was kicking the occasional stones on the road. I looked up the sky and saw the Venus-Jupiter Conjunction. Hmm, I remember reading somewhere that during the doomsday there will be celestial wonders. Is the world gonna end, as we know it! Maybe maybe not.

Venus-Jupiter Conjunction

             If its gonna end! What is the purpose of me wondering of how many steps? Is this whole concept of "life" a big joke! By this time I had come to the main road and I had to cross it. Since it was the evening peek hour, the traffic was at its max and everybody were rushing on their vehicles to their loved ones. At that time I saw a Blind man walking at the other end of the road. I know that there is a blind people's association near where I was standing. "So this guy is going to cross the road! having both the eyes am stranded this side. Well, someone on the other side will help him cross" that was my mind voice. To my surprise the man did not wait for help, He raised one of his hands and using his walking stick he started to cross. The entire traffic came to a standstill and he crossed safely. 

            What gave him the courage to do it? What if some motorist had not stopped! Why did he not wait for someone to help him? Well "The Blind Guide" had given me a great inspiration.

Road, not taken- ‘Mission Kodachadri’

Day 1

The Beginning:

We a group of 18, reached Nittur at 6.30 on a Saturday morning. Most of us were first time trekkers. We were on a mission to go on a trek to Kodachadri. Though we were novice trekkers we had Jairaj and Ram, two adroit trekkers as our team leads. Ram was telling us how Shankaracharya had persuaded Sri Mookambika Devi to come to Kerala and how in turn of events she stayed at Kollur. Intrigued by Ram’s tale and beauty of Mother Nature we moved on. The initial terrain was a normal mud road through a small village but even that seemed to be secluded from the rest of the world. 

As we moved on we noticed that a stray dog had been following us all the way. Ram stopped and tightened his shoe laces. I thought maybe we are going to enter harder terrains and made myself mentally prepared and marched on. Suddenly there was a yell and I heard somebody jump. “Did the dog bite somebody? Did anyone get hurt!” with all such questions I turned back but everyone were laughing. Ram in a mischievous way had held the ankle of Sudhakar. While, Sudhakar had thought it was the dog itself. With this prank the group started to banter each other. One such banter was about the Great Indian Hornbill. Jose said that it was the national bird of Kerala! And it was vehemently countered by our “Shivaji Nagar Schwarzenegger” Prasanth.

 At the falls and beyond:

At the end of the mud road we came across the house of the forest ranger. We relaxed there for some time and proceed to “The Hidlumane Falls” the track was no more mud road; it was small passages between trees and rocks. This track seemed to be a little difficult than the normal mud road but once we saw the falls we forgot everything and enjoyed as if we have conquered the Everest. We enjoyed to the core and that is when Jai said, “Relax yourselves as much as you can as the terrain ahead is tougher”. Terrain ahead! I looked in all directions there was no way, the falls was kind of a dead end. But unfettered by Jai’s comment Binoy took the lead. We had to go up the falls, catching hold of tree trunks and roots we scaled an almost 80 degree terrain but that was not the end. The 4 to 5 hrs of trek had exhausted us but relaxing at the falls gave us some hope and strength to proceed forward. While at the top of the falls we could see the hills surrounding the place we were. From the top of the falls we had to cross 2 hills to reach Kodachadri.

Scorching sun and shade:

Though we had come through a plain, up a falls before this, the terrain we currently were was entirely different. It was a series of mountain slopes with only dry grass burnt from the sun’s heat covering them. We had to walk continuously at a 60 degree inclination. To add to our woes the sun was right on top of us, burning our heads as it had burnt the grass. We were not able to climb as a group anymore. Based on each and everyone’s stamina we climbed slowly but gradually we were progressing. One by one we reached on top. If going up was tough, going down was equally arduous. Controlling one’s body weight on the slope was a tricky issue. Padmaraj advised me to walk by crossing the foot to get additional grip. Before scaling the second hill we found a group of trees lending their shade for us. We had our lunch there. The lunch was simple but effective; we had bread and lot of citrus fruits to compensate the water we have lost. 

The rest gave us some energy but it had also cooled our bodies. When we resumed the trek we felt that double the amount of energy was sapped from us. As we were climbing the second hill I had lost the hope of reaching the top. Midway of the second hill I sat and looked around, I could see the entire range. All the trouble we had undergone seemed worth it. It was a once in a life time experience. I saw Kaetan coming up, and when I looked back on top I could see someone waving their hands they had reached the top I thought. Again I started to climb; we need not climb the entire second range it seems! There was a mud road track, which the jeep trekkers use. From there we could see our base camp point at Kodachadri. 

 

Base camp and evening sunset:

                We were glad that the arduous terrain was over. We started strolling towards our base camp. It was the house of the temple priest there. Once we reached we were welcomed cordially, most of the trekkers in that route rest at that place it seems. We relaxed and refreshed ourselves. By evening 5, we again stated to move towards the sunset point but this time there were a lot of tourists accompanying us, they had taken the jeep route. I felt proud of our group for we had fought with nature and successfully won a battle against it. Though it was evening the sun’s heat was still prevailing. So we stayed under the shade away from the tourists. It is here we reinvented the game “Three stones”. To pass time Sudhakar, Ram, Binoy, Anil and PadmarajVasuki completed the contest but since it was out of his turn it was considered a disqualification.

                 By this time the sun started to go down and the horizon started to turn red on top of the red was a dark black shade and below a grayish white shade. The bright sun that had burnt us all day was now retiring. A lot of pictures were taken, Jai was focused on nature but rest of us was busy making memories of ourselves. Occasionally jai took pictures of us too but it was only to complement nature. We were only his props! At the peak there was a Sarvajna Peeta, just visiting the place gave some of us new ideas!

 

End of Day:

                As it got dark, we came back to our base camp had dinner and made our evaluations for the next day. There were leach attack; muscular cramps etc but we all had good time. The moon and the stars were amazing to look at such a height. Due to the absence of clouds the sky looked like a black blanket studded with diamond stones. It was picture perfect scenery.

Day 2
The Sunrise:

                  Early morning at 5 we started to trek again to the sunrise point which was opposite to the sunset point. If noon was hot! The early morning was so cold that I had to wear a blanket on top of my sweater. To trek in dark is entirely a different story. Another group of trekkers had built their own base camp with tents on the way to the sunrise point. I said to myself, “next time we should do it this way”. We reached the point and were waiting for the sun sitting on a rock cliff. The cold winds where brushing our faces. From the hill top we could see a water reservoir and at distance one or two lights in the huts below. But all this was in a misty condition and there are no words to describe the scene as it was. We waited for the sun for sometime but as it was cloudy the sunrise was a dampener to our spirits. Some of our teammates left to the base camp, but patience always deserves the best. Once most of our guys left, the sun crept out from its hiding. It started to glow like a red hot iron ball. Those of us, who waited for the sun, took pictures of us with the gorgeous sun. We returned to our base camp and got ready to climb down the hill. Sampath had pulled his muscles from the previous days trek and opted to reach down by a jeep.

The Lost 2:

                Jai told us that we will go down in another route and it would be really good. It was around 10 and I was worried that we may have to face the fury of the sun. The new route downhill, was through the forest. We had the shade of huge trees most of the time. Climbing down too had its difficulties but not as much as climbing up. The forest cover was awesome there were a lot of trees and ferns which I had seen only on papers. We got split in to two groups while climbing down; I was in the first group. When we went down admiring the forest we realized that two of our group members JP and Nithin were missing. We thought they might have fallen behind and so waited for them for 15 minutes but they did not come. Have they got lost! Prashanth and Binoy started to call out the missing people’s name, but no response from them. Though they did not respond the forest responded. The crickets started to make noise to indicate to the rest of the forest that there were intruders it was fascinating to see how the ecosystem worked! After sometime we decided to move on and wait at the base of the hill for the next group and then decide about searching the missing 2. What happened to the 2! We reached the base of the hill; there was a small hotel there. While we were in the hotel another group of trekkers had come there to go to kodachadri from there. They over heard us talking about our missing group members and said that they will guide them if they found them on the way.

Regroup at Hotel and The End:

                While we were waiting for them, at a distance in the forest path we could see three people coming out. It was Rajesh the multi language specialist coming along with the two missing JP and Nithin. Since our group had climbed down fast JP and Nithin had waited for the other group coming at the back and joined them. Everyone said that it was a good idea, rather than venturing for themselves out alone in the jungle. Latter everyone had come out of the forest and we relaxed at the hotel. Now the trek had almost come to an end. We only had to walk for some distance to reach the main road. Though the remaining distance was easy it felt difficult to leave the wonderful Mother Nature and go. Finally we came out of the forest sto the main road. We had conquered kodachadri! Maybe it had conquered us…