Wild Wild Western Ghats

If you are pressed for time, here's the photo album.

I am sure most people are now tired of staying home all the time. Following social distancing "strictly" has now clearly got understood as very unnatural. We, as individuals, as a species, are hunter-gatherers, foragers. We have a biological need to go out, and interact with others of our kind. Staying home 100% of the time probably provides the best protection against the pandemic. But doing so comes with its costs both in terms of health -- both physical and mental and social connections.

Hence, as far as social distancing goes, most of us are playing the game of probability. That is, we are good kids most of the times. But every once in a while, we get naughty -- we break the rules and take the risks. Doesn't mean that we don't think COVID is real, nor because we think that social distancing is not needed. But simply because doing so all the time would drive us crazy!

So, all for the keeping of our sanity, we headed out to Sakleshpur on Christmas day (December 25, 2020), to have a short vacation in the Western Ghats. We chose Kadu Mane Hills Resort for our stay a mid-level resort with excellent amenities, friendly staff, and great surroundings.

Drive Up

The drive is of about 6 hours. We started sharp at 6 am from Bangalore, and were at our destination by around 12.15 pm, with approximately an hour in between for two break -- one for breakfast and one for water.

Day One

We settled in and relaxed for the rest of the day. When we arrived, we saw no other guests, but within hours two to three large groups arrived. By 4-5 pm, the resort was bustling with around 30-35 guests. We took short walks to explore the surrounding area which is mountainous and covered with forest, tried some of the adventure games in the resort, and enjoyed the bonfire set up for the guests in the evening.

 

Day Two

The second day started with an unplanned trek up the hills. There must have been 20 trekkers ranging from 10 to 70 years of age. A 2 km walk took us through paddy fields, thick jungles and steep ascents to the top of the nearby hill. The view was breath taking.

 

We came down the same way, and marched straight on to the dining place for a well-earned breakfast.

Next was a drive to a nearby waterfall named Majagahalli Falls. Most chose to hop on to a rugged truck. We decided to drive ourselves. There was again a small trek down to the falls from where we parked. The shallow brook, nestled between thick foliage, decked with a gushing waterfall, was one of the most beautiful places I have been to, straight out of some Bollywood flick. I gradually got tempted to first wet my feet in the ice cold water, then to wade till waist deep, and eventually to go all out, taking a full dip and swim -- with my trousers on! That chill in the flowing water will warm my heart for many years to come. Of course, the site of Vigyan, who was visibly upset on not being able to participate in the fun due to his fracture, was very difficult for us. And yet, I feel, such heartbreaking moments are a precious source of learning for kids (and grown ups too) -- to know that it's better to make the best of what's available, rather than lamenting over what's not.

 

On our way back two senior ladies from the other group -- one of them the 90 year old matriarch of the family -- decided to join us in our car as the truck ride was too jostling. I didn't try to keep up with the truck which moved too fast for me; and probably that was a mistake. Soon we lost them, and we had to resort to Google Maps. Initially refusing to come up, Maps led us through some seriously rough, narrow and bumpy paths. It gave me many a moment of jitters, not the least as I was driving two ladies of the other family. Thankfully, we did make it back to the resort with no event to report of.

Evening, like day one, saw a bonfire being lit. Many of us gathered around it to play Antyakshari, but were soon pleasantly interrupted by notes of live music from the dining area. A musician was commissioned for some live music, karaoke and dance. Many of us performed several songs. Of course, Shilpi and I were there too. It was great fun! The tempo gradually rose to a point where you could just dance to the beats, not sing along with it. There was some alcohol in the atmosphere which helped turn the heat a few degrees higher. We didn't partake of it. But did enjoy its effects nevertheless!

Thus came to its end the most eventful day of our short trip.

Day Three

Third day was the day for coming back. We finished our breakfast and headed out for the Manjarabad Fort. It's a nice hilltop site with a fort belonging to Tipu Sultan. A 250 and odd steps took us up the hill. By now (11 am), the day was warm enough to make the star-shaped stone fort swelter with heat. Up there, I plonked myself at a shaded spot and enjoyed the view of many visitors enjoying the site.

Journey Back

We finally started back home by about 12.30 pm. The journey back was reasonably comfortable. We stopped to have our lunch at Suruchi restaurant, a vegetarian eatery near Hassan. Shilpi and I opted for vegetarian meals and Vigyan went with Naan and Paneer chilly. In the midst of the mental discomfort we were feeling due to the overcrowding of the place in the pandemic times, we found the food quite good. We entered the hustle bustle of Bangalore by around 5 pm. Barring some unpleasantness and delay near the Tumkur Road Toll Gate of NICE Road, the drive back was uneventful. We were home shortly after 7 pm. A drive stretched by well over an hour due to heavy traffic.

Highlights and Memories

The Kadumane Hills Resort will take the prime spot among our memories of the place. The timber cottage was spacious, clean and comfortable, providing a breathtaking view of the nearby hills.

The food would be a close next. Kadumane is a vegetarian place, and serves food cooked in Malnad style. The food is delicious -- not spicy, not bland -- just cooked the right way. People who like South Indian food would surely love it.

The resort pays attention to environment friendliness -- serving food in biodegradable utensils. However, it would be a lie if I say they succeeded completely. There were some tissue-papers, some styrofoam cups and such. But given the pandemic scare, and the staff which still seems not to have built to its full strength, I think they deserve a pat for trying hard.

For some like us, the absence of the need to plan our vacation days ahead of time is a great blessing. The resort, housed in natural and rugged environs of the Western Ghats, provides umpteen opportunities to the enthusiastic soul to explore and experience the jungles and hills. Some of the guests actually even treated themselves with a game of mud-volleyball. Further, a number of adventure games are there to be enjoyed within the premises.

One of the top memories would be of the large family of guests. There were -- I think -- sixteen people, connected through an elaborate family tree. At its head -- as mentioned earlier -- a senior lady nearly 90 years of age. A majority of them were seniors in the fifties and sixties. A few were in their 30s. Rounded off with two little girls may be 5 and 10 years of age. It was a treat watching their bonding and dynamics, to interact with them and gradually get friendly.

Vigyan's arm injury and how it came in his way of enjoying the vacation to the fullest was a saddening aspect. Often, we were tempted to abstain from certain activities as our child wasn't able to participate. But, we knew it would be wrong to do so. Vigyan's mature attitude in accepting this limitation was both heartbreaking and heartwarming for me as his father. On the day three, Vigyan finally took to the ropewalking game. I was apprehensive, but supported him. Here's him in the middle of his adventure:

Yet another observation was the complete disregard for the pandemic. Proponents of social distancing would probably cringe at the liberty people -- many in their senior years -- were taking whether in the eateries en route, in the tourist spots, or in the resort. In fact, there was a doctor family lodging in the adjacent cottage. On day 2, the doctor himself sprang a cute surprise. Definitely with a few drinks down, he made a fairly jovial sight being seen dancing to foot tapping numbers in close proximity with other guests. To hell with social distancing; and to hell with masks! When we put our masks back on on re-entering Bangalore roads, we smiled to each other, at the irony of it all.

We all have been through much this year. I will not pretend that I was amongst the sufferers. I was most likely not, considering what many others went through -- losing life and livelihood. In fact, personally, I recollect this year as one of the most rewarding years of my life. And yet, the monotony of working from home had, somewhere, taken its toll. This little vacation was an attempt to break that monotony.

 

If this post has taken you away -- even for a moment -- into the misty mountains of Western Ghats, I would consider the effort of having written it well paid for. 😀

Losing a Close Colleague

This is not an obituary. This is a cry of pain.

For the first time, I am feeling the depressing weight of the pandemic truly weighing on me. I realise that I am exceptionally shaken by the heart breaking news that came crashing down on us last evening. Tridib Roy Chowdhury, the centre manager for the MINRO Centre in IIIT-B left for the heavenly abode yesterday. Suddenly.

Tridib wasn't the kind of a guy you would expect to go like this. Tridib was in his late fifties, but was extremely fit. An avid sportsman and cycling enthusiast. By his looks, he could have given any young person in his early thirties a run for his money. You read the obituaries that came pouring on Facebook yesterday, and you know what he was: and IITian, an inspiration, a mentor, a successful corporate, an exceptional human being.

His going like this hurts at many levels. Firstly, this is my first experience of losing a close colleague like this. I had got many opportunities of interacting closely with him over the last one and half years. I had seen how hard he was trying to bring in the positive energy, the movement, the result-orientedness that drives the corporate world, into our laid back academic world. I had found his energy infectious. And all the accolades that came along through the Refreshable Braille Display project had largely to do with him.

Secondly, It wasn't COVID, or an accident, or something of that kind for God's sake! Seeing a fit person like him succumbing to a freak cardiac incident fills my heart with a chill. If keeping fit doesn't safeguard you from your heart giving up on fine day just like that, then what does? I tend to lose my enthusiasm about the effectiveness of a healthy life-style in preventing your life from getting cut short from something we typically associate with bad lifestyle. It's really disappointing.

Thirdly, I realise how inept, unequipped we are in feeling -- leaving alone expressing -- our shock and pain! For an hour after getting the news (from Facebook), I sat there alone in my living room: numb, dazed and stupefied. Both my wife and my son were in two different rooms doing their things. They had no way to know how nerve-wracking those moments were for me. My education, my 'status', has robbed me of my ability to scream out, to accept that I am suffering, to acknowledge even to myself that I am in pain, to cry for help.

And finally, the ominous reality of the pandemic seems to finally dawn on me. It's not an open wound, not a raging burn. It's a slow, dull pain which is continuously at work inside us. It has shifted the ground level of our despair just that much higher so that one or two incidents of this kind will throw many of us over the edge. Government figures will write these off as collaterals, co-morbidities. Not COVID deaths.

A brief moment yesterday brought me the realisation how alone we are away from our near and dear ones, how helpless and vulnerable we are against the power of fate, how ridiculous it is to centre your life around thoughts of the future, and to make too much of our glorious past and present. At that moment, I would have given anything to have a shoulder to cry on, a heart that would know my feelings, a voice that would tell them to me without my having to find my voice, a reassurance that it was OK to feel sad and afraid.

At this moment, I am looking for a bunch of friends to huddle together with and whimper and cry. Nothing else!

Can We Give another Chance to an Alternative Economy?

On the one hand there's being sympathetic to people who have been displaced due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On the other hand, there's this belief that the over-consumption led economics that we have been forced to leave behind us by the ravaging virus, is unavoidable to prevent famine from hitting large swaths of population.

Quite the contrary! Very powerful people have it in their interest to make people believe that the most important way they help the economics to thrive is by consuming. Because consumption generates demand. And demand generates business and employment.

But this also makes millions of people hook themselves up helplessly to one monolithic system (which we so grandiosely call the global economy) and rest all their hopes and dreams on it never failing. And this starts the unending cycle of people scrambling hard to get away from the fringes of this system closer to its core. While there's no denying that this scrambling leads to high productivity and quality of output, that's not the complete picture. Please note the reason why we scramble so hard in the first place: Firstly, because we know that being in the fringes of this system is very bad for us, because it makes us vulnerable, helpless and pushes us to the brink of extinction. Secondly, because deep down there's this realisation that, by definition and design, a large majority of the population will be in the fringes, because the urgency to get out of those fringes is the basic engine that drives this system.
 
But there are certain invariants about this system:

• It can generate wealth as no other system can.
• It critically depends on creation of global super-specialists. These are the winners of this system. They are enormously rewarded with wealth and power. The overall efficiency of the system is entirely to the advantage of this very minuscule minority of the population, say R%.
• One of the most towering achievements of this system is that R keeps getting smaller and smaller.
• There simply aren't enough number of specialised jobs to employ to the entire human population. In fact, nowhere close. And there never will be.
• The rest of the population is doomed to struggle fruitlessly to find a toehold in this system. The efficiency thus generated from the insecurity of these suckers leads to efficiency and productivity.
• Whenever the system totters, not always from external forces (e.g. pandemics), but more often under its own weight (e.g. recessions, wars, terrorism, revolutions), the people at its fringes are washed away like ants. Nobody comes to know how many perished.

Therefore, the sufferings that are descending on our poorer brethren is not due to the pandemic, but is a result of the very structure that we have created. It's efficient on the one hand, and extremely fragile on the other. But most importantly, it's extremely unjust and unfair: those who drive it with their sweat and blood are the first ones to perish when crisis hits.

Alternatives do exist. But the reason why they don't get tried is not so much because they are unrealistic, unscalable, impractical or academic, but because the ones who decide the fate of so many people in the current system are also those who gain so disproportionately from this system, primarily by keeping millions -- billions -- on the brink of starvation. Why will they ever agree that anything else can work? Because no other system will allow them to appropriate such unrealistic shares of the commercial loot.

One such economic system that I have in mind would be rejected as plain regressive by most. I am no economist. So, I may not be able to articulate everything well and do I have elaborate arguments in defense of my ideas. Also, the whole idea may be trashed on the basis of the lack of clarity on how to get there from here. But anyway, it's my blog. I can at least write about it here.

Here are a few salient points of this economy:

• It will be less 'advanced'. Technological advancement will definitely be slowed down.
• It will be slower. Commercial activities will be far less. Many businesses which exist today will not exist or will be severely curtailed.
• There may be some severe penalties to pay. Many advanced healthcare facilities will no more be there. Deaths from deadly diseases etc. will be harder to prevent.
• It will be agrarian, artisan based economy. Megapolis economy will not exist.Government may play a role in ensuring that the above basic structure doesn't get compromised. In that sense, there will be similarity with socialism. But the Government will not be the owner of capital as in socialistic system.
• Population mobility will be curtailed, because the probability of doing well in life will be comparable everywhere.
• Scholarly pursuits will be done as an integral part of the agrarian, artisan sphere of life. On the one hand, education, research, art and culture should be closely associated to the needs of people. On the other, it should be kept away from becoming a recreational activity of the rich and privileged. The idea of scholarly independence must be rethought.
• The idea will never be to banish hardships and manual labour from people's lives. Focus of progress will be empowerment, not emancipation from inconvenience.

 I don't claim all the above to be realistic. Particularly, there's something about the way humans are wired that it will be (and has been multiple times in the past) very difficult to set up an economic system similar to the above. Every attempt so far has succumbed to the baser human aptitude for greed, hunger for power and domination, sexual and material insatiability born out of ignorance and suffering.

Nevertheless, some of the brightest minds and elevated souls in history (e.g. Plato, Gandhi, Vinoba Bhave, Buddha, E.F.Schumacher etc.) have time and again thought about something in similar lines (no covert attempt here to gatecrash into that august party). So this idea is not all that silly. It can for sure act as a reference, a prototype to work towards. I would definitely want to think and read more about it.