happyfeet

When we first met, our conversation meandered towards trekking at least once, when Raj mentioned that he liked it and we should do it. Once married, our first vacation turned out to be a long walk in a dense forest in Coonoor. Among the hills, between the bisons, and the intermittent rain, we walked to the edge of the cliff, reaching a machan, waiting on it, in search of the pachyderm. Long walks marked this vacation, the beginning of a new chapter in our life. Fast forward a few months, and there we were, in another long walk, on another winding road, amidst dense greenery, the ruins of an ancient empire, with small chirps from exotic birds marking the dusk. The silhouette of Kanchendzonga, popping up ever so often when we could see beyond the dense tree line. Pelling (the town), a small afternoon tea at a quaint shop overlooking the mighty Kanchendzonga, we got into a conversation with a person who turned out to be a local trek guide and explained in detail a...

Our journey started on a nice Friday evening while struggling to get an ola cab. Surprisingly reached central before time. While validating our names against the coache, I realised our friends from VV and CTC were also in the coach. We settled down early in the train with @nivi Vidya Karthik and Sreeja. Karthik was late as usual. However, Girija was on a different level. Due to a mixture of events her first finish line was directly our B2 coach. If only she had timed her run I think she would have broken some record!!!. So our journey started to metupalayam. A good night's sleep later a new addition to our gang was பாலாஜி ஜோதிமணிwho had finished 6 wadas waiting for us. A little over 2 hours and we were right in front of the Lawrence school. Balaji was great company explaining away about farming, camping, hills along other topics while the sweet wind made me doze off again. Too early to get in we were shooed away thus allowing us to go to ooty tow...

It all started with planning our marathon calendar. As two people in desperate need of improving their fitness, we started searching for upcoming marathons, and that is how we zeroed on our next marathon- the spicy, spice coast marathon.  After a series of snoozed alarms, we woke up to ride on our borrowed bike to reach the venue. The climate was bordering between pleasantness and cold. As we zipped through the lone road on Wellington island with backwaters and trees guarding  us on both sides, we could not see a single soul with the familiar white color spice coast T-shirt. As we reached near the stage, we heard blade runner Major (retd.) D.P. Singh sharing his experience. Assumed dead after the kargil war, he made a come back we rarely hear of. His positive outlook was evident from the following statement he made- maybe god had other plans for me. He believed god will help him in exceeding beyond his own expectations. His incredible zeal and the loud roar of 'bharat mata ...