Ramanagara 1

Hey Zindagi galle lagga ley

Hum ne bhi tere har ek pall ko

Galle se lagaya hai, hai na ??

A great song to begin the trek right ? The trek at Ramnagara had began, we walked thru narrow paths, green vegetation all around, streams here & there. And, since I was lagging behind with my kyamera, the team stayed put awaiting Sunand & me. As we approached them, I could hear Jagdish - who lead the team - exhorting the waiting crowd for a song. The girls - left to right - Manasa, Megha, & Mamtha came up with this gem. They sang for quite sometime, and it was beautiful high up in that cloudy morning.

The terrain in the morning.

A mushroom on a broken twig. There were two of them at the ends of the twig.

Shirish is a good bird watcher, he spotted this bea-eater as it flew in, and settled on the tree, and quickly devoured the dragon-fly.

Hey Zindagi galle laga ley.

Megha got maha excited by the streams and well, this picture says it all. Shot by Sunand.

7 brave humans treading on a gravel bed where the dead were left to be feasted by the animals. Source: Jagadish, I am quite skeptical though.

Hey Zindagi galle lage ley

Jagadish's juggle-bandi
Hum ne bhi tere har ek pall ko

Galle se laggaya hai, hai na ??

Jagadish & Manasa posed for this snap ;-)) Spot them.

Lots of little flowers on the way. Along with mushrooms & lichens. Thanks to Megha - a final BSc student - we were getting lotz of funda's. Lots of grass-hoppers, crickets, butterfly's too.

Hey....who are these chaps ?? what are they doing here ?? My bet is that they are male & female of a species - trying to do the obvious - though they looks so dis-similar. Hey Zindagi... galle lage ley!!!

We were walking on pretty rocky terrain. Walking on huge boulders, walking besides them etc etc. This chap reminded me of 'Nandi' (bull).

Ajay was having a great time concocting myths & legends for everything he came across - major fun we had -

Sheep & cow dung were all along the path. Here, this couple was staring at strangers in their homeland.

Jagadish was showing off some local tricks ;-) Here, some plant's sap was used to produce bubbles aided by a safety-pin.

At this point, we started climbing an hill, there were steps made of small boulders & rocks.

And lots of flowers on the way.

After a good climb, we came across a Rama temple. Some of us went in and were rewarded with pongal as prasada!

Can U see its tail.

And, furthur up, this was the last climb to the peak.

Sunand, Jagadish & Mamtha carried the back-packs. Thanks to them, the rest of us had a easy trek. Sunand, infact planned the trek for us. An organizer with KMA - Karnataka Mountaineering Association - (my first gang too), and also a valuable volunteer working for the under-previleged.

Having reached the summit feels good, one gets a good rest. There were lots of cactai plants. A small pond with lotz of activity. Unfortunately, my camera battery was running low. The pond had lotz of frogs. And, they seem to wait at the surface for passing dragon & damsel flys. I saw a pair of mating damselfl's being devoured in a flash by a frog. There was a big (bluish) dragonfly flying around too.

As we sat & relaxed, it was Manasa & Mamtha who hogged all the limelight. Manasa - a 1st year MBBS - is learning Yakshagana. Yakshagana is a dance/play based on mythology with elaborate costumes & exaggerated eye movements. And, when Manasa sang a few yakshagana lines - I was thrilled like anything - I had always heard it on TV - and it never had excited me. But here & now, it had hit me like nothing before ;-)) Wish she had sang more lines. Soon, Mamtha joined the act. Apparently shez learning kick-boxing. Sunand invited her wrath with some leg pulling. Boy! he got kicked fine & proper. I was amazed. Never before I had seen such clean kicks delivered!

This is my favourite shot. You see Manasa closer, furthur up lrft to right are Mamtha (lying down), Shirish, Kiran, Jagadish (bending) and Ajay.

Here, the red thorns are the young thorns in the making. They are soft. When I touched/pressed them, a white fluid oozed out.

Hey Zindagi galle lage ley

Hum ne bhi, tere har ek pall ko

Galle se laggaya hai, hai na ??