Chronicles of Nikhil Baliga

Swami Nikhilaananda said: " And then when I saw the leeches, blood drained from my face... " A cool breeze blew past me, reminding me to prepare myself for the obstacles ahead. I looked up at the sky and felt like a giant, for the clouds seemed to be within my reach. In the epic Mahabharata, in the Mahaprasthanika Parva , the Pandavas and Draupadi begin their journey up the Himalayas to reach heaven. And then a dog accompanied them... I knew I was about to embark upon a similar journey; I sensed I was very close to heaven, for nowhere else can beauty of this magnitude exist - the lush leaves of plants and trees all around me painted in various hues and shades of green, the soft gurgle of the stream, the eternal croaks of frogs and chirps of mysterious birds that refused to show themselves... The entire area seemed to be the epitome of vibrant life, for even the fallen trees were teeming with life, with  mosses and colourful mushrooms growing side by side, a perfect exampl...

Swami Nikhilaananda said: " I am in shape... round is a shape " Desperately wanting to break out of monotony and also the need to give exercise to other parts of the body since ordinarily we are commited to exercising only our fingers (and occasionally our brains) drove us to go out for some physical activities. Kabbaldurga was a random choice. We picked it after doing a very brief search on the internet. But there are a couple of factors that we took into account. Since we were climbing in summer we thought it should be a night trek - Climbing in the heat is really tiresome for those who are not used to. And we found some other reviews that said that they had climbed this hill at night. The night was a full moon one and this is very favourable for night treks for obvious reasons. The place is located around 80 kms from Bangalore. You can find it on the map here . View Larger Map We hired a cab to the place. The reviews said that the hill was relatively easy. But i...

Swami Nikhilaananda said: " Bad luck always comes in wholesale, but the sun always rises after the dark night " We had planned to have a trip somewhere close by. It started off with only a handful of people. But as the planning progressed, we had more and more people joining in. Finally, after some confusion about who was coming and who was not, we had a group of 17 people. We had booked a Swaraj Mazda - a 21 seater mini bus. We met up at two of our friends' houses, and the vehicle picked us all up, and by around one, we were hurtling towards Skandagiri. The bus journey was a regular one, with friends catching up and frequent jokes being made about one another. We had crossed the airport by then... Some time later, there seemed to be a small commotion, and we found that one of our friends had a severe stomach ache. She started crying and asked for the vehicle to be turned back. If we had done that, then by the time we would reach the hill after returning to the city, it w...