Save Tada

November 1, 2009 will go down in the annals of CTC as one the many “1st to be there” events in its history. Whilst the world slept comfortably on a Sunday’s eve – CTC’s first battalion numbering about 230 plus marched into the reserve forests of the TADA waterfalls with one single objective – Clean the jungles of all muck & dirt replete of what the human minds have come to be and restore its natural self back in place.

The spark for this phenomenon of an event had hit us a few weeks ago and what began as a droplet soon spiralled into momentum that finally culminated at TADA on Nov 1. And just like a droplet of water that would seemingly look insignificant and disproportionate in front of the Ocean – Every member of the team, No matter from where he or she came from, No matter How insignificant an act of theirs might have sounded to the rest of the world, No matter what the future had in stock for TADA – All that mattered at this juncture was we complete the cleanup of TADA successfully. And so it was that when Peter announced the event, a leader’s vision soon sparked a few hundred souls to reach out and stand by the side of Mother Nature;
After all – Without Her, We would all be lost in the wilderness of the concrete jungle that there is !!!

No event of this scale can ever be achieved without any plan in mind and kudos to Peter and the team yet again for showing excellent spirit and enthusiasm for not letting the scales down and pushing forward the agenda with so much happening in our professional and personal side as well. For those of us who just took part in the event, the behind the scenes operation were ample proof of what we really wanted to achieve. Be it meeting the Forest Officials both at Tamil Nadu & Andhra Pradesh and explaining to them of what has been happening at TADA and the need to restore it back to its pristine self, was in fact welcomed with praise and pomp. Elsewhere, another team embarked on catching up with the press and broke the myth apart that the young & educated here in India do not care for their country however inconsequential it may seem to be. We soon saw the press breaking the news apart to the rest of the world in their own inimitable way and slowly but steadily – the world had finally woken up to what CTC was all about;

Another team began work on spreading the word around through Posters & banners for the final showdown. With such a group brimming with energy – would new ideas be any far from reach; the thought of an online petition to Save Tada would sound like a cliché to most of the ignorant and the docile lot but for those of us who believed in spreading the word across – the journey to the mission was as important as the event itself and it was imperative that we let the World knew all about it. Mission SAVE TADA was soon everywhere – From Newspapers to the new age media, the news had indeed spread like wild fire. From Now on – It was all about execution.

Logistics for any such event is an unwritten & highly demanding prerequisite and do we need to spell its importance more so when it comes to achieving the objective such as cleaning a place that has been marred by negligence & greed for almost 3 years until now. CTCians are a diverse lot driven by one single passion – to be in the presence of Mother Nature and be one with her whenever and wherever possible. And this single determinant beats all anomalies & differences that exist in any communion for that matter; the socio economic factors simply diminish into oblivion when it comes to Mother Nature. With such a wealth of experience & selfless souls to boot – Nothing ever is impossible. Food was organized keeping in mind the scale & the objective of the event; Transport although typically is a ‘carpool and share’ basis this time gave way to Buses that would reduce the dependencies of transporting such a huge number of CTCians whilst also keeping in mind – the delays due to breakdowns amongst other things.

The countdown to the event had finally begun.

With everything in place, however there was one major proponent who would determine the success of the event. It was Mother Nature herself. Weather conditions in Chennai had worsened to indicate a possible deluge throughout the week before the event and possible chance of rains at TADA as well. Those with prior trekking experiences would completely concur with my thought on what the rains can do to you apart from wetting the rocky- mountainous paths and make trekking a lot more difficult to accomplish. One good deed deserves another and it was for a good measure that Mother Nature chose to bless our day with ample sunshine and a clear day with not a single drop of Rain. We began our day from Tidel Park picking up all CTCians on the way until NH5. Breakfast was distributed on the way up to reduce downtime. Gloves, Lunch and other essentials were distributed and we were finally on our way. Mission SAVE TADA had begun.

The group was split into 15 + teams and areas were clearly demarcated for garbage collection. Group leads were responsible for the overall harmony and success of their group. A team of Photographers were assigned the complete responsibility of documenting the event apart from lending a hand or two when needed from time to time. The Bill Board team went about its way of putting up sign boards every where possible to create awareness among the general public. The media management team ensured that the press and the local media were fed with enough information to ensure that the right news reaches those who are yet to know what’s been happening in their town. At about 11 AM, the various teams had closed in on cleansing their respective areas of garbage and dirt. Without being too modest about our effort – About close to a ton and a half was collected and we were not finished yet. With so much garbage strewn around the place & collected for a decent two hours, they still had to be moved from the respective areas to the common point where it will be taken out for disposal.

And therefore the collection of garbage had to come to a stop somewhere. The local media had finally arrived, Peter addressed the team in a clinical fashion and we wish that the information trickles down to the general public and bolsters a much needed impact to save TADA. Post Lunch – The CTCians were back to familial territory – Jumping Jacks took to the rocks and water as their home turf – Our version of having fun amidst Mother Nature had just started. A good hour in the TADA waters later– Come 2:30, we began our way back to civilization. The Garbage bags were bought back to the final collection point, but not before the group snap was shot and a final drive to collect some more garbage at the entry point of the water pools, did we bid adieu to TADA.

It’s always been said that any vision even of the highest order if driven without a purpose is a life spent wasted. And thankfully though, those of us who took part in this event can hold our heads high in adoration and reverence for all that was done on the first of November 2009. No word of Thanks can be said to that one person - Peter, for that single spark and a visionary who chose to drive us to this hour of glory – where every human who took part in this campaign paid his highest respect and tribute by doing what best he could however negligible it may seem, collectively contributed to the overall success of the campaign. I can’t wait to see how TADA will fare from this day on. Our pent up frustrations during the course of the day would never wore out like the night of the hour and I sincerely wish that we derive new meaning out of this whole episode – A purpose that shall not end at TADA but spread across other states as well.

Mother Nature needs us as much as we need Her with us if not for anything else, Lets restore her gorgeous self to pristine grandeur and amidst this all, May we endear on and seek what our purpose is for a lifetime to come...

Post Mission Media Briefing

On November 1, 2009, the Chennai Trekking Club (CTC) collected 2 tons of garbage in Tada, a well known and scenic picnic spot, 2 hours North of Chennai. 230+ volunteers of CTC traveled in 4 buses and spent the entire Sunday collecting plastics, broken bottles and other pollutants from the crystal clear water streams in Tada filling up more then 500 large garbage bags. The volunteers put up "Do not pollute" boards to spread environment awareness among the tourists visiting Tada. The team was welcomed by officials from the forest department whom were visible touched to see so many volunteers from different states and countries cleanup the local tourist spot. During the cleanup effort the volunteers encountered a large presence of gangs of drunkards who travel to this reserved forest to get drunk, break bottles of alcohol in the scenic stream and actively harass families and regular tourists visiting Tada. The volunteers made a strong appeal to the officials to strictly enforce an no alcohol ban and restore Tada again to its original beauty so that this natural paradise becomes safe again for families and regular tourists to visit. CTC also ran an online petition and collected more then 1200 signatures which will be presented to the forest officials. The team is planning to return periodically to follow-up on the garbage and drunkard problem and bring any continued issues to the attention of the media until the responsible officials take proper action.

Nagari

On Friday evening (Oct 31), Angel and I were a bit nervous with Angel calling people to confirm their participation. The support from the car leads was nice, where we were able to co-ordinate with all participants and cross check. This was the best group of 1 day trek participants in terms of punctuality - we did not have delays waiting for people anywhere - and hit the breakfast place on time



We started driving towards Nagari when Anubala's car developed a snag and A bike and a car (Hyundai Verna) rushed to help.. Bala helped out the damsels in distress by doing a 10 minute spare tyre change and in the meanwhile the rest of the cars were waiting ahead, taking pictures of a large group of ducks being herded to cross the road..
(You will soon see Viki's picture of those ducks which has become the wall paper on so many PCs in my office and is getting international fame already)..



We hit base camp and considered taking a local guide given the fact that we had to search around for the route twice during the trial trek but dropped the idea when they proposed a different route. We started walking towards the hill through the fields with me leading the way with Ramki, Raghuvir and Naresh and had a group of people following closely behind. There were very few first timers in the group and we had Viki, Selva and Angel ensuring everybody was taken care of at the end. Bala, Selva and Udhay were in the middle group. The initial short steep climb took some effort but the gradient dropped very soon. This segment had the green jade like rocks and fossilized tree roots / shale..



We had 2 uphill and 2 downhill walks to get to the first temple and waterfall and went above past that one to go to the second waterfall and temple. There were beautiful butterflies in the area and the sun rays filtered through the trees creating beautiful images on the little streams..We had a target to reach the temple not later than 1 pm, and the first set of people reached at about half past 12 and had everyone there at 1. People jumped into water and splashed around.
A few divers experimented and learnt what dead leaves at the bottom of a natural pool can do.



Little fish bit me, and a few others had the experience.. The waterfall was refreshing. A group went up above the waterfall and took pictures/ posed for pictures and had lunch up there. The rest of us stayed close to the fall and ate our lunch sharing it with the monkeys and the dogs. We decided to leave at around 2:30 pm and started climbing again with a target to reach base camp at 6 pm. We walked with no rest breaks and reached the confusing 'Mani' tree at 5:30 pm. We rested , letting Bala make the calculations to settle accounts and then walked to the cars. We let the lone biker Srivats leave, settled the accounts and then started the drive back to the city.. 12 of us celebrated trek completion in Chennai Deluxe and had a whale of a time..
A lovely way of spending a day in a weekend.. Thanks to all those who came - thanks for the company, hope to see you all soon in a trek..

Kolli Hills

Kolli hills will always go down as the most chilling experience of my life ever. Never did I push myself so much physically as I did for this trek. This trek taught me the all important lesson which every trekker should know – “It’s all in the mind” -- by Peter.
Before the trek I was very confident or should I say overconfident that I will clear this one very easily. As it unfolded, I found the going very tough both mentally and physically for most part of the trek. I pushed myself reaaaallly hard but with no avail.

Day 0: The trek started technically in the Egmore railway station when the group got together in front of the station. I got introduced to loads of people, whom I will never forget my entire life or at least till I remember this trek which is probably till the end of life…. We got in to the seats allocated by the organizers and passed some time knowing about the co-travelers. I slowly wandered in to the sandman’s trap as little did I know what tomorrow held for me.

Day 1: We landed in Salem railway station quite early in the morning. We were joined there by a group of five people who reached Salem by car. That’s when I got introduced to the CTC lingo of “Telugu channel”. It was kind of racist. It means certain instances when two individuals resort to communication in Telugu in front a group people whose understanding of that language is minimal. A confusing and long explanation is it??? Well that’s how I got explained.



Outside the station, cabs organized by Vikki were waiting for us. The driver took us to a hotel for breakfast. There we also loaded up with mineral water bottles for the trek. Then we started on the journey to the base of the hill. It was a village who name I don’t recollect. On the way to that place Vikki told me that his native was Salem and how he used to frequent to kolli hills on his bike to take a dip in the falls. Once we reached the village. We were told to leave all the useless stuff in the cabs and travel as light as possible, as the cabs would follow us up the hill through a different route. That is when I heard that instruction as “Pack everything you brought into your backpack and make it as heavy as possible” so I did exactly that. – My first mistake.

We started the trek shortly and it was going smoothly till we were in the initial flat part. We had a walk for about an hour and half till we reached the base of the hill. I was wasting my energy in short sprints running up and down the pack. The flat part was very bushy and we had to go through thorns many a times. First thirty minutes of the climb was gentle and I was going well. We stopped for lunch and I started to feel a little pinch in my breathing. The slope was gentle till now but suddenly it started getting very steep and the humid, hot weather started telling on me. I started losing sweat at an alarming pace. I didn’t panic initially and kept up my pace climbing with the first few guys. Slowly I started losing ground and more sweat. I started to panic a bit. I as afraid that I would end up dehydrated and kept drinking more and more water till I finished all the water I had—my second mistake.

That worsened the situation for me. I couldn’t continue both mentally and physically. I recently found a link which tells how dangerous it is to drink too much water too fast. --- Too much drinking water.... Also its general wisdom that more water you drink, more you will sweat and lose essential salts which can’t be replenished by drinking plain water. Loss of the salts will cause ionic imbalance in the body which will cause symptoms like nervous imbalance, fear and high BP.
I started to slow down but remained very determined to finish it as fast I could. I reached the toe end of the group with the sweepers screaming at me to move faster. After some distance, they too gave up on me and left me with the guide who was helping them sweep. Just then I found a companion in gopal. He was feeling the pinch too. I knew we were nearing the summit so I started to relax a bit. That relaxation coupled with my exhaustion slowed me even further. Luckily for me we weren’t on any tight schedule or anything, though due to this slow ascent loads of people were to miss the visit to the falls after we reach the summit. In the middle of the ascent, I found some respite in a pool of water which had formed from the flowing stream. The water was near ice cold and I could the condensation immediately after we filled our bottles with this water. Even here I had too much water. Immediately after the water break the whole group regrouped for a difficult crossover where we needed the rope to cross over the face of the hill. I thought I felt a bit better when all the glucose I had near the pool started to kick in. So I sprinted up the slope without using the rope and even found an alternative route—my third mistake. Instead of conserving the energy there I wasted it again.

The exhaustion kept piling on me and I started to get cramps. I could bear the pain for sometime but after a point I couldn’t even carry my bag, so gave it to the guide who carried it painlessly. Gopal kept telling me not to show short bursts of energy, instead move slowly but steadily. But I thought otherwise as not doing that was easier. Sometimes what is easier is what hurts you most. That is the only time in a trek I gave my bag to somebody else to carry. The guide, Gopal and me were moving at snail’s pace and somehow finally made it to the peak. By this time the cramps got out of control. I could neither sit nor stand. I painstakingly smiled for a group snap at the summit. We reached the place with step farms and an Airtel tower which I vividly remember.

The exhaustion somewhat died seeing the lush green top of a hill, whose ascent was very ugly. After a thirty minute walk, we reached the viewpoint where to my joy; I learnt that the cabs are supposed to pick us up. “No more trekking for the day” – well that’s what I thought. It was also finally time for lunch—yes finally!!! I don’t know about other but I had a blast at that place. It was unlimited rice and one serving of chicken. I flicked anand’s chicken too. That was a very filling meal.
The cabs then took us to the temple and we unloaded the entire luggage from the cabs. I had barely caught my breath when peter said guys interested in going to the waterfall can follow him.

We had a brief discussion with the authorities there who advised us that going waterfall in this level of light is not so advisable. We went ahead in spite of that. Yes, that’s true. I went it too – My fourth mistake. On the way down the stairs, I learnt that there are actually 750 steps which we have to climb down to get to the waterfall. What was scary was that we climb up those 750 on the way back. By the time we reached down. The light was very bad already but it was still enough for us to view the falls. This was the first time I had gone any where near such a big falls in my life. The ascent back was pretty smooth and I wasn’t that ruffled as I thought I would be.

Once back on the hill-top, we got ready for a blast of a dinner. It was an unlimited dosa festival. People just thumped like they did for the lunch. After the dinner some people sat down for a game of Numero Uno in the center of the road, rest crashed.

The localites thought we were gamblers when they saw the cards in our hands. We had a hard time convincing them that it was just a game meant for kids in age range 5-12 years. After the game the gamers crashed too. We had to get up early.

Day2: I got up a bit late and was feeling a bit refreshed after the sleep. Peter informed that people are going down to falls again to take a bath. The original plan was to come back from there and then take a different trail downhill to the village where we started. But plans are meant to be replaced by better plans. This time I could see the grandeur of the falls in a more elaborate way or should I say I couldn’t. The force of the falls made it impossible to look at it directly much like looking at the sun only here it is water droplets instead of electromagnetic waves. We could see the falls directly with bare eyes. We had a pleasant dip in the falls and set out for the return journey. Some 9 of us got slowed down; including Peter because of some minor sprain Angel had suffered. Suddenly on our way up on the trekker who knew Tamil read an inscription on one of the rock some 150 steps up the path. It showed a way to some caves across the stream that flowed down from the falls. Peter set about finding that cave as the trail was properly marked. We had nothing but a muscle spray but we decided to start the detour. I was feeling somewhat better so I followed too. I even convinced Divya to come.

The descent was pretty simple and was very energetic. The trail led us down to the gushing stream and marking pointed us to cross the stream. The stream was furious and wouldn't let anybody cross it solo. It needed a team effort. We formed a human chain with two strong guys at each end—evidently me and peter and crossed the raging stream. We kept following the arrows on the rocks till at one point we decided that we should turn back, though we didn’t reach the cave. So we turned back and reached the stream again. There was a small incident while we were returning. We followed the same strategy with me and peter at each of the ends. But this time I slipped and almost flew away with the flow. Lo behold Uma leaps out to pull me out and save the day for me. That was legen…. Wait for it … dary. After all the drama, we had a nice dip in the stream. It was very powerful and kind of felt like a Jacuzzi at one of those five star hotels. We really missed cameras as there would have some splendid snaps. We took a dip for about an hour. At that point of time anybody of us would have hardly felt that we didn’t have our breakfast that day and we were way past noon already. Then we started the ascent up the slope which we had so energetically climbed down.

Suddenly out of nowhere, the exhaustion I had felt the previous day returned back to me. I started panicking way early this time as I didn’t have any water and people were much less too. My cramps as if had just hid under skin resurfaced.
I started moving very slowly again. I couldn’t believe I was struggling again. In the middle of struggle, we heard screams of something which rest of guys uphill had termed as a “rescue team”. That only meant we were close. But the thought of 600 more steps after we reach our original detour point, was frightening. You see that’s why they “ignorance is bliss”.Step by step I reached the top and then flushed myself with some fluids (slice and sprite you pervert!!).

Babu sir helped here as I was broke – ‘thanks to anand’; as he sponsored me for all I drank. We had our lunch. I learnt that our little adventure of taking a detour cost the whole group a chance to trek more. Well I don’t think anyone would have been interested in doing so. So there was a change of plans and it was decided that a part of group can go down by the cab and interested junta can follow the last day’s trail downhill.

I still remember and will do for the rest of my life when peter walked up to me and said “Raghu, you look very tired and it would be good if you could go down with the cab. There are some nice viewpoints on the way down and moreover we can’t afford to get delayed again as we have a train to catch”. It just shook me up and I was more determined than ever to go downhill trekking. I promptly replied that I will go downhill through the trail. He agreed and we set off a very tricky descent.

Rain-gods were marginally angry with us and cursed us with mild showers on our way downhill. It made the descent a bit difficult especially at the place where we used a rope in our ascent. We had to sit slide for most part of our descent. I knew that if I slowed down this time then we were sure to miss the train. So I maintained a constant speed like an old locomotive. We were down in no time, may be a couple of hours. Yet we were on a tight schedule. Yet on our arrival downhill, it was festival-like atmosphere with people going on cycle-rides around the village. Others busy taking bath and freshening up for the Salem chicks. We actually had to wait for the cabs that had started downhill through the road route downhill. They still didn’t reach the base which shows the scorching pace we built up on our descent through a steep wet hill slope. The CTC motto is “When the going gets tough, the tough get tougher”.

Once the cabs reached, we packed everything and started off. There wasn’t lack of thrill there too as we missed Angel and Vinodakka at the village and started off without them. Unfortunately we did come back to pick them up (should have left them there :D). Once we reached the station we barely had time to eat our dinner, so we rushed to the nearest paratha shop and people feasted on the unlimited parathas. I have to congratulate organizers on maintaining this “unlimited" spirit throughout the meals during the trek unlike the other treks. It just adds another dimension to your trekking abilities when you know that at the end of it all u get unlimited food. We finished our dinner and boarded the train for the return to Chennai. Nothing much there in the return as everybody was tired and wanted to crash hard. We reached Chennai early next morning. Everybody bade a final goodbye and left the station. I concluded my trek by rushing home in an auto and crashing till the evening. I guess the “Hill of Death” deserved at least a day off from work.
I have mentioned several mistakes I made in this trek. Life is all about learning from mistakes and not repeating them in future. Well I try not repeating them. When I succeed in doing that I have a great trek. Overall the trek was awesome and an adventure to remember. Great organizing coupled with unexpected surprises made the trek even more memorable. The friends I made in this trek were awesome too especially Madhu, Babu Sir, Vinodakka, Divya … the list goes on. Special thanks to Umakka for saving my life across the stream. The power of the stream was really frightening. I hope to see them in many more treks in future. Forgot the needless to say – Peter was awesome, as he always is.