Trekking in Thekkady and Gavi

Gavi..?? where in Kerala? Is it a tourist place? Which district it is? etc these were the queries i got after posting the event in the website. Monsoons in its peak time,bad time to visit the forests of Periyar tiger reserve. Good response and a bunch of people registered within the first week and was forced to close the registration within few dates.

So Friday night I reached Shanti Nagar bus stand from where our bus to Kumily was booked. People started coming and finally after all late comers majority seats of the bus were filled by the ascenders. We started of to Kumily, morning when woke up we were in the plains of Tamil Nadu near Kumbam. Hills far ahead, grape farms and drizzling, a good sign to start up with the day. We could see a waterfall sliding through the hills and I made an announcement its Chellarkovil waterfalls and we will be visiting that today. All heads out of windows to see it:):).

After 1 hour of climbing up from Cumbam we reached Kumily... cool and pleasant atmosphere welcomed we crossed the check post in border to Kerala. We checked in to hotel and decided to start by 10.00AM after breakfast with a Jeep ride. mean time went to the forest office and made the arrangements for Gavi passes. By 10.00AM 4 Jeeps were in front of the Hotel and all occupied the best seats and we headed off to Ottakathalamedu (camel head top, if I translated correct ) view point in Kumily. When we started climate was good but as we attained altitude it started drizzling.

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Nature call and the step falls

After first day of camping at Dudhsagar we were in the railway track walking towards Kulem, - our destination.  The sweeper, the last lady and Baba was walking at the end. Baba from morning was bit upset as he has not got the nature call yet.. finally he gets the call and started to look for that corner of nature to explore.. At one point he saw a side stream and some heavy waterfall sound, he shouted to the sweeper who was walking little ahead . Sweeper went to Baba and they decided to go down and check the stream. There were stairs going down. The lady started following these people. Baba got disappointed seeing the lady following  them as he thought of fulfilling his need some where around... 
We crossed a small stream and some knee deep stream and found a step falls... what made it special was the green  patches of grass between the rocks. So it was combination of black rock, white water and green grass in between... a stepped waterfalls .
So Baba’s  nature call helps us find a stepped waterfalls .. lot people  might have been there before and after us but we found it due to Baba’s nature call.
Some pictures of the great expedition,

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Idiot Box

During my study days this was the hot topic in debates.. "pros and cons of  TV( television) ", and who were supporting the bad side of it used  to call it as Idiot box. Some advantages they used to say were fast to get news, developments, learn English faster, new technologies etc etc and disadvantages I used to hear were affecting studies, not good for eyes, culture less programs etc etc...  But of all every one considered it as a great invention... the elders used to say that time, we used to hear radio and you people are lucky to watch along..

Time passed and every one had forgot the Idiot Box as  it mostly remained as a mode of entertainment. Then came the Computer era for which all had good things to say and advantages only. I think the main reason all believed the Computer era to be good was the ones lesser knowledge about this field at that time... following the computers came the laptop, palmtop, internet etc etc and computer too started getting its cons list...

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