1. Get Firefox browser.
2. Get greasemonkey addon.
3. Grab my greasemonkey script here.
4. Login to www.meebo.com.

That’s about it. Fill up the textbox and hit send. The message will be sent to all your IM buddies.

If you are savvy enough, you can make some customizations to the script.

1. Right click on greasemonkey icon and click on “Manage User Scripts”.
2. Select “meebo all at once” and click “Edit” at the bottom of the window.
3. The script will be opened for editing in your favourite text editor.
4. Follow the instructions and make changes to the block marked in the source code.
5. Then reload www.meebo.com.

That’s pretty much it. I quickly hacked it up in couple of hours so there might be some loose ends. If so, please let me know and I will fix it at the earliest. If you wish to make improvements yourself, you can fork the script at the Github repository.

Summary

1. Link to the script.
2. Link to the repository.

If you are even more savvy, you might want to check the Meebo analysis below.

Analysis of Meebo

Meebo makes heavy use of the Comet programming paradigm. Once the user is logged on, the server returns a session key and a client ID. After that, it makes a series of “event” AJAX requests. Each of those requests receive a JSON response. E.g. {“rev”:3,”events”:[{“type”:”buddy::online”,”data”:{“user”:”aswinanand@meebo.org\/Meebo”, … The rev parameter that is sent with each request is incremented by one for every request from a given client ID. The list of buddies for a given provider – Yahoo! Messenger, Google Talk etc. – are received in parts over multiple long lived HTTP requests.

Once the list of buddies are received, it constructs a few javascript global objects based on the JSON response. Such objects include:

1. gBuddyList – instance of meebo.BuddyList
2. gNetworkMgr – instance of meebo.NetworkMgr. This is the core network manager that handles AJAX requests and their asynchronous responses.
3. gIMGateway – contains the client ID required to make the AJAX request

… and many more.

I found out these global objects by enumerating the properties of window javascript object. There’s a property called m_buddies in gBuddyList that contains the set of buddies and their related metadata such as whether the user is online or not, their status message, network (yahoo, gtalk etc.) and other such details. It also has a length property and a nice bunch of helper methods such as getByIndex, getBuddyById etc.

AJAX Requests

When a message is sent to a buddy, an AJAX request is fired to http://www.meebo.com/mcmd/send with a list of parameters that include: receiver, sender, protocol, clientID, sessionKey, mt, msg. In the usual scenarios, we need to reconstruct the AJAX request. But when we have gNetworkMgr global object, this stuff becames a breeze. Hence, a simple called to gNetworkMgr.doRequest(“send”, args) fired the request with the needed parameters. Here, args is a custom constructed javascript object that contains the request parameters. The first parameter “send” is used by gNetworkMgr to construct the actual URL at which the AJAX request has to be sent.

Currently, the script doesn’t monitor the AJAX response. But it could be done if required. Do try out the greasemonkey script and give feedback. Hope you enjoyed the lecture

Unnai enni parkayil kavidhai kottudhu
Adhai ezudha ninaikayil varthai muttudhu
la la la … la la la …

It roughly translates to, “When I think about you, emotions flow; but when I try to put them down, words fail me.” That exactly describes how I feel about Ladakh and the bike trip. The beauty of Ladakh beats all superlatives. Its memories left me in a dreamy state for days together … making sure that I longed to visit that place again and again.

I totally felt at home at Ladakh. The people were cheerful and friendly. The weather was so cold that its summer was like Chennai’s winter. Mile after mile, we passed through breathtaking vistas, rushing rivers, snow capped mountains, snow storms, bad roads, snow fields and what not! Each of those scenes screamed at us to stop, close our eyes, take a deep breath and take in that scene. Much of those even rendered me speechless. Sunset time was especially brilliant. Though we were never able to see the actual sun set – because of high mountains around – the golden light created so much contrast that everything around us opened up to its purest beauty.

There were 13 of us on the Grand Ladakh Trip and I’m sure every one of us had personal special moments that we will cherish for our lifetime.

Team Poster

If you like this post and my other travel adventures, do subscribe to my RSS feed. I’m sure you will love it!

[sniplet LadakhItinerary]

The Itinerary

Day 1 – Chennai to Delhi and Delhi to Jammu

Day 2 – Jammu – We were forced to stay in Jammu this day because our bikes arrived a day late.

Chennai and the magic cloud

Day 3 – Jammu to Kudh via Udhampur. First experience of the hilly curves and the awesome dinner at Kudh as we were served by an enthusiastic Brahma Dev Singh.

Day 4 – Kudh to Sonamarg via Patnitop, Ramban, Ramsu, Banihal, Jawahar Tunnel, Quizigund, Srinagar – My bike skid on the road. Myself and Ajay had some bruises

Day 5 – Sonamarg to Kargil via Zoji La, Baltal, Drass, Kakshar – Very special day as we touched and felt snow for the first ever time . We also visited the war memorial at Drass. I held a real AK-47 gun. The gun displayed a raw and brutal arrogance that I kind of liked.

Sonamarg - View outside our hotel

Day 6 – Kargil to Leh via Mulbek, Fotu La, Lamayuru, Khaltse, Saspol, Nimoo – A super adventure for me that extended in to morning of Day 7. I can’t forget that day and the help from Gurbachan Singh (a lorry driver) and Munna (helper boy at a hotel in Khaltse). Crazily amazing road from Saspol to Leh (60 km), with three straight stretches where I reached the maximum speed on my bike – 118 kmph.

Day 7 – Leh – Permit letters, Shanthi Stupa, Leh Palace, Leh Bazaar, Tibetan market etc.

Day 8 – Leh to Diskit via Khardung La, Khardung village, Khalsar, Diskit – A great day as we rode to Khardung La (the wrrrld’s highest motorable pass) and the day of our first football game in the sand dunes en route Diskit. Susila Defenders vs Ladakh Mokkais

My bike, the sand dunes of Hunder and His Majesty beyond!

Day 9 – Nubra Valley – Visit to Diskit, Sumur, Panamik, Hunder and back to Diskit. Super duper bath at Panamik hot springs, visit to Sumur Monastery, the sand dunes of Hunder and camel ride.

Day 10 – Diskit to Pangong Tso via Agham, Shyok, Durbuk, Tangtse – Encounter with the worst ever road possible on the whole trip, the epic day of road kissing ceremony and the best of all, we drove on this unmapped road which had no other soul except us!

Road Kissing Ceremony

Day 11 – Tangtse to Marsimik La, Spangmik and back to Tangtse – An unforgettable day in the lives of Ram, Suresh and Venkat as they drove to the top of Marsimik La in inclement weather. Others had to turn back at various levels.

Day 12 – Tangtse to Leh via Durbuk, Tsoltok, Chang La, Sakti, Karu – This was my day. The day on which I enjoyed driving the most. Slight rain in morning, followed by heavy snowfall, frozen limbs which we warmed up at an army camp at Tsoltok. They even served us hot soup!

View en route Chang La. Durbuk and Tangtse are visible.

Day 13 – Leh to Moore Plains via Upshi, Tanglang La – Amidst the best breathtaking vistas, myself, Simon and Ram drove to Tanglang La during sunset. Temperature reached -5 as the sun set and we stayed in a tent that night at Moore Plains. Suresh and Ram P joined us an hour later. Rest of the gang joined us only the next day!

Day 14 – Moore Plains to Zingzingbar via Tso Kar, Pang, Lachlung La, Sarchu, Baralacha La – The most beautiful day of the whole trip. Frozen lakes, bad roads, sunset at Baralacha La. I literally had tears after watching nature’s display. This was also the day when we experienced real numbness in our limbs. An adventure packed beautiful day to be precise.

Day 15 – Zingzingbar to Manali via Darcha, Keylong, Rohtang La. Landslide at Rohtang, skating at Rohtang La & drive to Manali amidst clouds

Our tent at Zingzingbar

Day 16 – Manali to Mandi – The second best amazing road on the whole trip with a 3km tunnel. First slot goes to the road from Saspol to Leh.

Day 17 – Mandi to New Delhi and New Delhi to Chennai

Special Note – Bike Transport

As much as possible, try to send your bikes by train. We sent our bikes through a transporter called Gati. When our bikes arrived a day late at Jammu, they were in bad shape. Broken domes, dented petrol tanks, engine oil leaks, broken silencer, damaged gear shift lever, broken indicators etc. Because the bikes arrived a day late, we had to skip Zanskar Valley.

The glacier stream, the roads and the bridge en route Manali

That never dented our enthusiasm though. For everyone in our team, it was our first time to Ladakh and we wanted it to be as awesome as possible.

My dear friends, this is just the trailer … Wait for more posts and pictures that will get you to stop breathing!

By the way, If you like this and other trekking stories of mine, I would strongly suggest that you subscribe to my RSS feed. You won’t regret that decision I tell you.

The Setting

On Sunday morning, the last water point was at around 10.30 AM. I drank about a litre of water, got some water on my backpack and we started moving ahead. We proceeded to hit a side-stream which would (according to the maps) take us somewhere close to the exotic Nagalapuram’s regular first pool. By about five hours after we started walking, all water resources had been exhausted & most of us were thirsty. We hit upon a 15m fall in the stream and couldn’t proceed any further. Straight and butter smooth rocks rose on both sides which made direct climbing impossible.

First Climb on Day 1

The 15m fall didn’t have any place to hold and climb down. But there was water there & we couldn’t even reach it with ropes. Eventually we decided to climb around it and then go down. The direct route was very bushy and thorns started raping us in all places where even a tiny bit of skin was visible. So, we backtracked some distance and climbed an 80 degree incline. Best thing about the incline was that, it had a good number of crevices to keep our hands and legs for balance. By the time we started climbing that incline, it was 3.30 PM. The sun was mercilessly burning down on us and the rocks were hot.

The Climb Up

Many of us were able to do the climb. Some did it slowly, some did it quickly, some did part of it quickly and part of it slowly & some of them had to be helped. But climb up … we all did. It was around this time that dehydration started to hit me. Every cell in my limbs were screaming for water. Blood receded from my finger tips and created wrinkles. Then I stopped climbing and noticed that a good number of people were still way down. That would give some time for rest. I wrapped my arms around a tree to stabilize myself and slept standing for sometime… may be 5 minutes. But that didn’t work out. So I removed my backpack, found a flat rock and rolled over there to get an amazing sleep for the next 1 hour 15 minutes. The sun was burning down and there was not much shade. But with a towel to cover my eyes and arms, sleep couldn’t have come at a better time.

Butterflies

During regular climbing, if I had said that piece of rock as “flat rock”, I would have been called a dumb ass but who cares when you want some rest?

Eventually everyone made the climb. It was around 6 PM now. The sun began to lose its intensity and a cool breeze was drifting around. That pushed me in to another 15 minute siesta. The gang stabilized and was gearing to climb down. After the climb down, we would get to that elusive elixir of life. This guy, let’s call him Jay, was the last one to climb up. Myself and Anand took the responsibility of getting him to the base camp. We were told to give him some rest and then take him to the hill’s peak and walk along the peak until the gradual descent began. That way, there wouldn’t be much pressure and since we would go on to the peak, the breeze would be good too.

The Sunset

After few minutes of rest, myself and Anand pushed Jay to start walking. It was getting dark and being stuck on the mountains during darkness isn’t a fun thing. We pushed, pushed and pushed, with myself and Anand taking turns to carry couple of extra backpacks. After 30 minutes of walk, we rested. The sun was setting just behind us on a mountain. The sight was breathtaking and so wonderful. But Jay’s spirit went down with the sun. The sun going down meant that twilight would be available only for about 30-45 minutes more and that was too less a time to get down fast.

Sunrise on Sunday

We pushed off again and didn’t give rest for Jay for the next 45 minutes. It was pitch dark by then. But we knew where we were because right down the hill, we saw the dam and people could notice our torches too. That way, we were safe and didn’t actually get lost. By around 8 PM, Jay lost all gas and plopped. He couldn’t move much without water and was mumbling something. Anand was beginning to get low because of the current situation. We yelled for a few people from the top of the hill but no response came. Every time we thought we heard a response, it was the wind playing games. Jay’s situation was getting bad.

Stars appeared here and there and in a few minutes, a whole orchestra was being played in the skies.

The Idea

I suggested that instead of waiting for help, it would make sense to walk for 10 minutes and rest for 20 minutes. That way, we would at least reach the bottom of the hill and be near water. We could drink water to our heart’s content and even camp there for the night. But that was not to be. As with Jay, Anand also announced that he cannot move anymore. Some coaxing and bullying didn’t work & that followed by more yelling for Peter, Biju, Alex etc. But no one heard us. Idea didn’t work out. Myself, Anand and Jay took turns showing our torch in case someone noticed. Sooner or later, they would have to figure out that we were missing.

Mushrooms

Anand then called B in the city who told us he would get back to us immediately. I then talked to B, D and P and explained the whole story so far and asked them to come from the city with some water because none of the trekking members were reachable. Then few minutes later Ansar called in and said he would come. I pinched myself literally and asked him to repeat it once more. He said he’ll pick up Sujai and come there for the rescue. Immediately Guru (the ultimate trekking and navigating machine) came to my mind and I told Ansar to pick up Guru also. Guru is a lean and a classic trekker full of stamina and power. While on call, Ansar also spoke to Jay and Jay’s spirit soared to some extent. He went from to … In the time that followed, Anand snored peacefully while Jay and myself were talking some random fun stuff. I was happy that I was able to maintain my cool from a tense situation.

Peter to the rescue

Suddenly, Ramesh (one of the trekking members) gave a call to Anand’s number asking where we were. I shone the torch from the top of the hill. He could see us but I couldn’t see him. He said Peter was looking for us and coming in the direction of the torch with some water. I felt “WOW”. In an hour or so, Peter reached us. Jay’s spirit went from to . He gulped down some water with electrol and his face lit up almost immediately. I drank some plain water and waited for Ansar, Guru and Sujai to make their appearance. Peter had come in through some really dense bushes and didn’t want to go down the same way. Time was 1.30 AM. I couldn’t sleep anymore. The thought of going to the base camp and it being so near was exciting me to the core.

On top of the 800m peak on Sunday morning

Help Arrives

In an hour (2.30 AM), we saw a bright orange light sweeping the ground beneath the hill. It was Ansar’s car. We gave a call to them. Guru woke up some locals near the dam and inquired about the easiest route to reach the torches on top of the hill. With the help of two locals, Guru and Sujai carried 6 litres of water and came to the top. Meanwhile, we packed our bags again and started walking downhill with Peter holding Jay’s hands and dragging him down. We climbed down for around one and half hours. A huge bear hug to Peter, Guru, Ansar and Sujai for coming there on time and giving us water. That was very timely and very quick response. It’s something that I will never forget in my lifetime.

Sunrise and Ochre on Monday

4 AM

The sky was opening up to the sun slowly. It displayed a brilliant ochre that mesmerized me completely. Soon, I witnessed an awesome sun rise on the eastern hills and my spirits were back to normal. It was totally surprising that I could hold on in such a pressure situation & since I was able to handle that, I would be able to do better in other life situations I guess

Any questions?

See you soon!

If you want to see the craziest people in Chennai, it has to be at CTC. We trek on untamed terrain with awesome gangs in search of that elusive elixir of life. Once in a while, this craziness increases up a notch. What was once thought to be impossible or out of habit became a habit … and one such habit was taking out underprivileged kids from many of the homes in and around Chennai for an easy trek in to the pristine jungles so that they can have fun as much as we do all the time.

Thilak and kid. Priceless happiness on their faces.

That Sunday was special. Thanks to Thilak, the kids from SIP Home in Kolathur were taken on a beautiful one day trek to Nagalapuram’s Eastern side. I had taken a break from trekking for whole of April for swimming & when this trek invite came in, I was more than glad to accept it. What made that home special was that it cared for kids who are HIV+. What really surprised me was that the home was being run by a trans-gender. She was very supportive of us taking the kids in to the jungles for a day of bliss & she even accompanied us. At 61 years of age, she is supremely fit… fitter than any of the modern couch potatoes!

The Morning

Eight bikes and an equal number of cars picked up close to 40 kids from the home at 6.45 AM & started to Nagala. While the cars went to the home to pick up the kids, the bikes went to Nagala directly. We usually put our bikes at the nearest village and walk towards the jungle, climb up and down a dam and then start trekking. This time though, Ford Bala had a different idea. After reaching the village, we all started driving towards the dam. It was kind of off-roading because there were no roads… those big stream rocks were everywhere. Vibrating and shaking all through the way, we made it to the dam hoping to put the bikes to rest. But no! We went around the dam and in to the forest with the bikes until we reached a temple where we had put our bikes . Going that far would be simply impossible during/after monsoon because the dam would be full. Once the kids reached, we took a group photo and started the trek.

Group Photo @ start of the trek

The Excitement

The kids couldn’t contain their excitement. Some of the kids had visited Nagala before and offered to guide me on the trail and I happily accepted saying that my first visit to Nagala . Before long, with a kid to each of us on tow, we started walking… or should I say running? The kids were running and we always had to catch up with them. They had double energy than that of adults & although some of them had become tired after a while, they just kept pushing themselves until they were forced to rest.

Paari, Shanmugam, Rocket, Suganya

A guy named Shanmugam came with me. He was a joyous bundle of infectious enthusiasm and not a moment did he sit! He crossed puddles without any help and trekked barefoot! He didn’t complain of thorn pricks or leg cramps at all. The moment he placed his foot on a rock, his foot adjusted automatically (something that I’m still learning to this day) and he used that balance to propel himself forward. Wow! I was amazed. Soon everyone stopped for regrouping and he asked when we will be starting again

She was licking some glucose

Kids and First Pool

First pool holds plenty of my memories from my first trek to Nagala. I still remember being amazed at the beauty of that first pool with a huge rock in the middle, that divides the shallow and deep portions with a tiny waterfall on the other end. Sudharshan sponsored 40 swimming tubes for the kids while Hari Kumar sponsored caps for the children. The moment they came to the first pool, they lunged forward . They were breathless and their enthusiasm kicked up several notches. They couldn’t be contained anymore from their boundless joy.

The waterfall at the end of Nagala's first pool

Meenakshi and the kids

Once the tubes were blown and Peter & Sudhir sir were in water, it was no holding back. One by one the kids jumped in and started playing. Their play went on for more than 3 hours while we captured some of the fun they had. Finally, I couldn’t resist water any longer and jumped in. Nothing was more satisfying than to know that I could swim . Lunch bells rang at 1.30 and they slowly trickled out of water towards food. Their mind was clearly in the fun in water and they weren’t too happy about the fact that they had to get out of water.

More fun

Angel of the day

Water Monkey, Acrobatics

While much of morning was fun with the kids and playing with them, after lunch it was us in water. Thilak and Meenakshi started this race where a water filled bottle would be thrown in water and they had to race to get it. That idea was refined to become water monkey . Two people would be throwing the bottle to each other. If the monkey in the middle is able to catch the bottle, he’s out and became the monkey. That game was soon joined by others and it became a full fledged water game for about 45 minutes.

Peter diving head first

Then came Peter and announced (in his famous accent), “Guys, Nagala’s water is available only for an hour more. So enjoy it all you can.” That announcement did it. One by one, the swimmers got on the center rock and started diving and jumping to the deep portion. Shutterbugs captured all the action for the next one hour. Some clicks to burn your stomach are below:

Arun Matthew jumping in

All of us jumping together

And then, it was time to bid farewell. We walked with the Children to the cars and then they started dancing to some cinema songs . With that fabulous end to an awesome day, the weekend couldn’t have got any better.

Some Thoughts

What many of us (or our kids) take for granted such as new clothing, premier education etc. aren’t available to these kids. Yet, they are happy beyond measure when someone spends time with them. In those few moments, true joy emerges and forms happy rainbows left, right and center. So, my request to you would be, visit an orphanage or an old age home nearby and spend time with them. It’s all they need. A little bit of compassion from everyone of us in our free time would definitely make the world a better place.

Photo Albums

Here are pics clicked by other people:

1. Aswin Anand
2. Chaitanya
3. Pratik
4. Ramesh
5. Vikram Varun
6. Vinoth

See ye’ soon sailor

Here’s a typical work flow for my trek photos:

Go on a trek –> Click nice pictures –> Transfer the photos to the computer –> Make minor modifications such as contrast, brightness, saturation, cropping etc. –> Remove duplicates –> Add signature, copyright notice –> Generate a low resolution version of the final photographs –> Upload them to Flickr/Picasa/Facebook to share them with the world.

With these powerful cameras, much of this can be done on the camera itself. For e.g. my camera already allows adding signatures to pictures through a text stamp feature. It also allows notes to be added to pictures. The pictures can be cropped and frame freezes can be obtained from HD videos shot with this camera. While cropping, a tiny popup containing contrast, saturation and brightness could be displayed. Pictures can be marked with a star so that they can be cycled through while viewing the clicks.

What I want now

Each camera should have a nice file system API, network API and GUI API. Using these APIs, third party applications would be able to fetch photos from the memory card and do the required modifications. More detailed descriptions would be added to the photos and they would be preserved as part of the picture’s EXIF data.

The memory card should be formatted in a special way so that it can hold third party applications in a separate shell. This shell would be accessible through an iTunes like desktop software from which third party applications for the camera can be installed or removed. Once an application is installed, it should be displayed in an Application settings screen on the camera, from where the application can be activated or deactivated.

Once the necessary modifications are done, using the network APIs and WiFi, the application should upload the “starred” photos to flickr, picasa, facebook or any other service the application supports. All these and other services support HTTP APIs. Instead of the camera themselves supporting various services, it could just provide nice APIs and let the developers do the magic. While uploading each picture, a very high resolution picture should be scaled down for the web dynamically.

Geo Tagging

Oh wait! I want to geo-tag the photos as well. So, while clicking each photo, they should be geo-tagged in the background so that the actual speed of clicking a photo isn’t affected. Manually geo-tagging photos are a huge pain in the wrong places.

So, there you go! Click pictures –> Geo tag them in background –> crop them & make other minor modifications –> add text stamp for copyright notice –> Generate low resolution versions dynamically (cache them if required) and upload them!

Since most of the work is done by software in digital cameras, I think the stuff mentioned above is very much feasible. At least geo-tagging should be brought in as a feature.

By now, everyone must have been aware of the recent Facebook announcement of the universal Like button. As probably talked about all over the web, this one button is like giving too much of power to one company. By now the Like button should have appeared on thousands of websites already. Famous press blogs running wordpress should have had the Like button along their standard ‘share this’ toolbar. Facebook’s 400 million+ user base is a huge audience to showcase your content to & everyone wants a piece of the pie!

However, this like button reopens an old problem in a new way… User Privacy. Few years ago, when doubleclick.net installed tracking cookies for sending customized advertisements, it created a huge uproar. Similar stuff happened when Google History came about. But now, Facebook uses a clever way to track users that, you cannot even opt out if you don’t like the process. It makes of full use of the way how the web and ultimately, HTTP(S) works.

I’m not even talking about the case where you are logged in to Facebook and click on a ‘Like’ button on a website. That’s voluntary. You like a piece of content and you spread it to your friends and fans on Facebook. I’m talking about the case where you just visit a certain website containing the Like button and that data will be harvested by Facebook.

Like this on Facebook to understand how it works: [sniplet fblike]

How it works

Let us take it step by step:

1. Clear cookies on your browser. If you are using Firefox or Chrome, press Ctrl+Shift+Del.
2. Visit www.facebook.com
3. Login to Facebook.
4. Visit other websites to be tracked. So simple isn’t it?

When you first visit Facebook.com, it sets a cookie called “datr”, whose expiry is two years from now. So, if you visit Facebook.com today and never clear your browser’s cookies, you will be tracked for the first two years with “datr”. When that period expires, it will be replaced with a new cookie and you will continue to be tracked. After you login to Facebook, it sets some more cookies on your browser along with a cookie called “xs” which is the session cookie for your Facebook session. If you remove this cookie, you will be redirected to Facebook’s login page. After login, “datr” and “xs” cookies will be refreshed.

When you embed the Like button on your website, it loads in an iframe in the Facebook.com domain. When a request is sent to any website by clicking on a link or by typing it on the browser’s address bar, the browser sends all the active (non-expired) cookies to the domain. So, when the Like button loads on a website, it makes a request to http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php. Along with this request, it will send the “datr” and “xs” cookies. It will also set the HTTP ‘Referer’ header to the originating website. For example, if you click on a Facebook.com link from my website, the Referer header will be set as ‘www.aswinanand.com’. This is used by other websites to determine where the user is coming from.

Now, when the ‘Like’ button loads on a website inside Facebook’s iframe, the Referer header will be set to your website’s page, “datr” cookie will be sent and if you have already logged in to Facebook, “xs” cookie will also be sent. So, just by loading Facebook’s Like button, Facebook will know what websites you had visited. Since the expiry for “datr” is set to two years, it will associate your Facebook logins to this cookie… which means, even if you logout of Facebook, it will know who the user is. Moreover, when you are logged in and move from one place to another, Facebook will know during what times of the day you are active and during what times you are inactive. When you are active, it will know from where your web browsing occurs and by being able to find location from IP address, they will know where exactly you are moving. Don’t worry, all this data will also be combined with your Facebook mobile usage and a final stat will be arrived at! That’s scary because it could reveal so much about a user & all privacy is gone with the wind.

Targeted Advertisements

This kind of tracking is something the user cannot opt out because sending cookies and setting HTTP Referer headers are part of the protocol. That means, you are tracked by default. Without your knowledge, your online behaviour and all the websites you visit (assuming they have added the Like button) after logging into Facebook are tracked by Facebook. This is useful for a lot of cases. Say you visit IMDB after logging in to Facebook. Each of the movie pages will have the like button. So Facebook will know which movies you are visiting. When you click on the ‘Like’ button for a certain movie, it gets to know your tastes and offer more movies along similar lines when you visit IMDB next. This same technique could also be used by spammers to trick you in to ‘liking’ some random link of their choice.

Like this, through the iframe based ‘Like’ button, Facebook funnels all required data to create a customized and scary experience.

Why not Google?

Ideally speaking, this was something that Google should have done a year or two ago. Most people I know are logged in to Google all their day and web browsing happens simultaneously. Just think of what would would happen if Google had done this. With their already powerful search tracking user behaviour and statistics, adsense would use this data to send specific advertisements to users. Google analytics is already deployed on tons and tons of websites all over the web. This one ‘GLike’ button could also be used to track statistics so easily. Now all of that happens on Facebook. Facebook is luring developers and users alike with its huge user base . Combining a utility like ‘Like’ button with Google’s powerful anti-spam, anti-phishing and other anti-* mechanisms, it would indeed become a formidable force on the web.

What if you don’t want to be tracked?

If you don’t want to be tracked without your explicit approval, I would suggest browsing Facebook in Incognito browsing mode in Chrome, multiple profiles in Firefox or InPrivate browsing mode in Internet Explorer. All these modes will clear cookies and other history data when you close the browser window. So you might not be tracked as efficiently as possible.

I hope Facebook addresses this privacy concern. Facebook, please don’t be evil with our data. I wouldn’t be surprised if Facebook launches a general purpose search engine in the next couple of years!

Rat Snake, Cobra, Russell's Viper

Btw, if you had liked this post so far and my other travel/trekking escapades such as Ombattu Gudde or The Kodaikanal Trek, you might want to subscribe to my RSS feed to get new posts as and when I write them.

The Rat Snake

This was the first snake we caught on that day. As we were chattering and walking, our guide suddenly turned around and moved towards a fence. Few minutes of looking through the bush & he emerged with a really long adult rat snake. Much of its torso was in a triangular shape and it had beautiful scales in greenish brown colour with yellow bands in some places. I was most captivated by its eyes. They were big and shining and it looked as if it wore eye-liner.

Eyes of the Rat Snake

Hopeland, our snake expert, explained that the top of its head resembles a Cobra. So, when people spot this snake, they wrongly assume it as a Cobra and kill it. Cobras aren’t as long as Rat Snakes. A rat snake’s distinct feature is that, it emits some chemical when it wants to get away or when it finds a mate. When Ravi Ghosh handled the snake, it put up such a stink that we couldn’t contain our laughter .

Tongue of the Rat Snake

After plenty of pictures with the Rat Snake, we moved along and found our prized catch for the day.

Rat Snake and Me

The Spectacled Cobra

Whatever said and done, whatever programs you see on Discovery or National Geographic, nothing comes close to experiencing the Cobra first hand. The way he majestically erected himself and opened his hood was a sight to behold! Not only that, he didn’t attempt to strike on first sight. He gave plenty of warning and hissed loudly for more than an hour… And then the inevitable happened. He struck! Like lightening, his head darted forward and hit the ground. Our Irula guide moved his hand just in time. In no time, the Cobra was back to his erect stance, intently observing his every move. The only downside was that, the Cobra never cared about what happened behind him.

For that magical moment, he stared straight in to my lens

Closeup of his hood

Venomous snakes such as the Cobra are captured by authorized snake catchers. These snakes are then handed over to the Irula Society where their venom is extracted and after about 30 days, they are released in the wild. Cobra was a prize catch. We were so lucky that day. Slowly, while distracting the snake with one hand, he brought his other hand behind the Cobra and in a swift move, he caught his head and lifted him up. He allowed the Cobra to open its mouth and showed us the fangs through which venom is injected during bites.

Deadly Fangs

It was deadly. But on that particular day, my fears vanished and I got as close as possible to that magnificent creature and got as many shots as possible. It was one of those special moments that I will cherish for a lifetime. After all, how many get to touch and feel a live, throbbing and insanely venomous adult Cobra? [Warning: Never go near any snake in the wild without expert guidance.]

Russell’s Viper

This snake was the most beautiful that I had ever seen until now. So close, so venomous and so beautiful! He was about 3 foot long and from the moment he was caught, he was very restless and hissed loudly for all the time he was held. In fact, his hiss was so loud that it could be heard above our chatter. It was a very lucky day for everyone. We had seen 2 of the Big 4 Indian Venomous snakes.

Russell's Viper

Russell’s Viper have very big fangs that are capable of piercing to a great extent on the human body. It’s venom is capable of doing extensive damage. This particular snake is responsible for maximum number of snake bite deaths in our country. But all these details wilt when you see such a snake in front of your eyes, showcasing what he is capable of. For a few precious moments, I was totally absorbed in capturing all his movements and got as many snaps as I could. This was a chance that presented itself & who would want to miss it?

Fangs and Venom

As he was being handled, few drops of precious venom escaped from his long fangs. Everyone observed it with rapt attention. All that while, the viper’s body was throbbing heavily as he was hissing continuously. After the power display of his fangs, he was placed carefully in a bag and carried off to the Irula Society.

Venom Extraction

At the society, we were shown how venom is extracted from snakes. They placed a small bottle and made the snake to bite that bottle. Snakes control how much of venom they inject each time. So, when a Banded Krait’s venom was extracted, everyone was shocked and surprised. Those drops can wreck havoc when it gets injected into blood stream

Banded Krait's venom being extracted

A wonderful day had come to an end and I wished it never ended. I badly wanted to touch the Russell’s Viper’s fangs. But common sense prevailed and the guide wouldn’t hear any of that. With a satisfying day and some intense experiences, I was pretty sure this experience would be remembered for a lifetime.

Special thanks to Hopeland for sharing so much knowledge on snakes.

Photos

Now, as the photos are unveiled below, grab a drink, sit back and enjoy them! Here’s a direct link to the album.

See you soon … Hissssssssss !!

A village enroute to Kukkal

Day 1

Day 1 was as easy as it could get. If not taken for a trek, it was actually an uphill walk for about 7kms to a temple on top of hill. There was quite a bit of the Shola forest cover almost throughout the trail & at many places, the canopy was thick enough to block the bright blue sky. Weather was splendid and we hoped to have a great time.

Moss covered tree trunk

We followed the trail for an hour and a half and burst into the Shola grasslands. It was about 4pm then and the first sights were marvelous. On the far left, mist covered huge peaks and the mist gradually thinned until we could see the peaks couple of valleys away. We were also treated to a nice cool breeze by Mother Nature and that experience was lovely. There was also another reason why this was lovely. I was leading the trail and it’s a special experience to burst into the open and grab the fresh air and sight before anyone else came in .

The Temple

Cliff before the temple

The temple on top of the peak had steps as we neared it. We stopped there for lunch. As the guide and quite a bit of the gang were making their way, we emptied a few packets of yummy chapathis. The guide joined us soon and gave us some absolutely delicious home made chocolates. The breeze was nearly non-stop and I was fresher than ever. All around us, we could see very far and to our right there were a few steep cliffs which served as suicide points

Kaushik with the bison skull

After the lunch break there, we moved on to the camp site for the day, which was visible from our point. We had to cross two small hills to reach the camp site.

Day 1 Camp Site

Our camp site was one of the lower and flat hills in the area. It was surrounded by bigger mountains and deep valleys with thick forest cover. For miles around, there were no humans. We were all to ourselves on top of the hill, at an amazing place and that too at the right time; just before sunset. As the sun bathed the camp site in its various hues, many of us started downhill to collect water and firewood for a nice campfire. While collecting firewood, Mohan and Kaushik found a full bison skull with its horns intact. They were ecstatic when they brought it to the campsite and soon a flurry of poses and photos followed.

Our camp site - Top View

It was then time to pitch the tent. As the sun went down, it got cooler and before we knew it, mist was coming down heavily and it wet our backpacks and other stuff lying around. Anything that wasn’t covered had its day. We pitched two big tents with the available tarpaulins and the guide pitched two more 3-person tents.

Campfire Roaring ain't it?

Within no time, a campfire started roaring and we all sat around it, absorbing the comforting heat. Stomach bells rang & the competition started!

The Cooking Contest

The girls’ gang led by Chitra lit a kerosene stove and started cooking the soup. Guys, not to be out done, started cooking the same thing using a natural stove made with rocks and fired using twigs and tiny branches. The fire in the men’s stove was kept alive by the master blower Madhav. Within no time soup was finished by the hungry gang and we started to cook Maggi.

The Girls' Gang - They Lost

It’s here that I must mention that the girls’ gang cooked killed it in the worst possible way . The first course of their’s came our sorta ok. As they were showing teeth all around about their “achievement”, the guys cooked it in a different way with a few ‘special ingredients’. That made the taste to go several notches higher and we almost witnessed a movement to move the cooking department to the guys; hehe… Our maggi was so popular that people waited in queue for a second helping. The girls then tried a hand by cooking again for another helping and unfortunately for them (fortunately for us), it turned out to be, well, opposite to good

The Guys' Gang - We Won!

Guys’ maggi was declared unanimously as the winners and we won the hearts of trekkers that night

Songs and Balaji

As the night set in, it became very cold and most of us moved inside the tents. Since the trek was pretty much light that day, no one could sleep. However, no one could venture out because of the chillness and moreover, they just got settled in their sleeping bags. Chitra announced that it was time for songs and called us to sit up and sing. It was here that Balaji made an awesome statement, “Everyone please have fun … inside the sleeping bag” ROTFL! It was over. Balaji had dug his own grave … lol. The whole tent woke up and ragged him to death. Ruchi was in the same tent. At times, when conversations were about to get diverted to her and her camel, someone would start off and it would end up in Balaji.

The tents we pitched

All songs that night were dedicated to Balaji. We made enough noise to attract Mohan and our guide Mani. Samyak and Chitra sung nice songs and before long, we were snoring … which reminds me of another topic . Right behind Chitra and Manoj, Madhu was snoring so loudly that the tent pole shook at times. I’m sure Chitra and Manoj didn’t sleep a wink. Yours truly didn’t face much of a trouble. After the snoring episode at Ombattu Gudde, I got used to it.

Day 2 Morning

With pleasant memories of songs and Balaji’s statements, day 1 came to a great end.

Day 2 – The Ledge

Since day 1 was very easy, I was assuming day 2 might be easy as well. About three hills away, we could see a waterfall from our campsite. My heart immediately went to it and all through the trail on day 2, I followed it all the time, and checked to see if it was within my site. We filled water at the same spot where we got water for day 1 and then moved on.

Ledge

After a few quick minutes, we came on to a dangerous ledge. Approximately, it would not have been wider than 40cm and to our left was the steep drop. One look down & my spine gave a tingling sensation. I gulped hard and moved forward and thought “WOW”. When the ledge took a turn, we couldn’t see who was behind us but we could clearly hear them. They were just around the turn. Not seeing someone behind you is a scary feeling in an unknown land. Everyone made it safely out of the ledge and started moving downards towards the direction of the waterfall. My heart was singing already.

The Slide Down

After the ledge, the trail wasn’t clear in many places and we had to stay together as a group. Few minutes from the ledge, there was a steep climb down. I sat down and slid on my butt for quite some distance before coming to a stop, and repeated “WOW”. We went through some dense grassland and came through another steep incline. I already knew what to expect. The gradient would have been 80 degrees and its pretty tough to walk on such gradients. Many of us slid down and when we gained speed, we used the thick grass as brakes. We would brake hard and skid too . This one was tough and damn funny.

Trekkers

Added to the slide was that, Noel was carrying a plastic water pot and we were kicking it along our sliding trail because it couldn’t be carried. Until our slide stopped, the whole trail resounded with the “dung-dung-dung” sound of the pot as it hopped and bounced on the trail. Couple of hours later, we came to a clearing. We stopped there and reunited.

The trees near the clearing had plenty of gooseberries on them. Mohan and Dipankar climbed on the trees and got everyone lots of it. With a bit of salt, it tasted heavenly and made all the slide totally worth it. It was Nature’s way of smiling and encouraging you to get ahead.

Thorns

After the continuous slide for about 2 hours, we were all very dirty and thorns had scratched us here and there. We cajoled Mani to take us to a stream or waterfall or a nice pool so that we could wash ourselves and freshen a little bit from all the dust. The climb down was still on but this time we were on a trail, which quickly came to an end much to our chagrin.

We crawled through this

If earth and grass were scratching us all over before, it was thorns this time. They were everywhere and pricked at all spots where they could find a centimeter of skin. For over an hour we moved through thorns and came to a place where the only hope of passing was to bend and crawl on all fours. If not, the thorns would scratch us real badly and we would have a fun time while it healed. The crawling thorn assault ended after a gruelling 15 minutes and we moved out to the open again. The sun’s warmth was soothing on our skins and it felt good after all the scratches, crawls and slides.

The Waterfall

Around this time, I heard gushing water. Was it real? Was it not? I listened in closely and looked around. There was a smile in our fellow trekkers’ face. No words were spoken but the joy had conveyed the message. There was water nearby and we just needed to locate the trail to it. We found a slightly beaten path to our left which again went in to a canopy of thorny bushes. We challenged them and successfully emerged out to see the sight of our lives. Everyone was screaming. No one could be controlled. The sight of chill water was something that everyone yearned for.

Waterfall / Stream

The waterfalls that we saw when on start of day 2 was the same one to which we had reached. We had reached a point at which the falls was cutting the valley and was wide enough for everyone to relax. Towards the end of the fall was a shallow pool. I couldn’t contain my excitement and dived in immediately. People were all over soon and we had a fun time in water. Some of us moved upstream and bathed there also. All the dust got washed off and after lot of hours I could see the real colour of my skin. We couldn’t remain in water for a long time because it was freezing cold. Nevertheless, the bath refreshed us like never before.

Reflection

While the gang was bathing and generally having merry, few of them took a nap & had a sun bath in the bright afternoon sun. Soon, our guide announced that it was time to move. The short nap and the power bath energized and made me hungry at the same time. That was a funny feeling!

Hill of the Day

We crossed the waterfall and moved on to the opposite valley. It was in fact a farm and we were moving through it. Water from the waterfall was being used to irrigate it and was re-routed with filters effectively. We reached a higher portion of the same falls through the valley and crossed it by means of a log bridge. Soon after, we emerged in to a third hill of the day.

Climb of the day

After walking on what looked like plains for an hour, we started climbing up slowly. There was no way we could get lost because the trail was very clear. It was pretty steep though & the last part of the climb to the top was like an icing on top of the steep cake. I was very hungry by that time and was already salivating for some spicy food when one of them told that biryani was arranged. Needless to say, Neelima started the biryani chant.

It was the first time in my life that I had climbed upwards to reach the end of a trail

Kukkal Village

We started near a lake at the Kukkal village and finished our trail at the village itself. Our buses were couple of hours from the village and we walked through the village to get to delicious biryani and the bus. All along the village, kids were enthusiastic and were punching the sleeping mats which were tied outside our backpacks. Many of them posed for a click and the joy on seeing their face on the camera’s LCD was priceless.

Terraced Farms

Much of the village lived on farming. Few of the smaller hills were converted into terraced farms. While passing through one of the farms, a lady smiled and gave us some fresh carrots to munch on. Along the way to our bus, Noel found some more fresh carrots. We washed them in the ice cold stream and had it. Aaahhhh! its tasted heavenly!

Kid

After a 2 hour night ride from Kukkal to Kodai, we started on the long journey to Chennai. Overall, the trek was moderate and we had so much fun . The gang was awesome and we had a great time cooking, singing, sliding, scratching and bathing. Spicy biryani was a delicious end to an awesome trek.

Photo Galleries

Here are photo galleries through which you can try to live our moments:

1. Ajinkya
2. Aswin Anand
3. Gopal
4. Madhu
5. Neelima
6. Noel
7. Rajnikanth
8. Venkat

Contact Info

Our trek guide Kodai Mani can be contacted at +91-98940-48493.

No. of days – 3.5 (31-Dec-2009 afternoon to 3-Jan-2010)
No. of bikes – 10
No. of people – Around 20
Total Distance (home to home) – 1004 kms
Top Speed – 110 kmph (I know Wild Kannan wouldn’t agree but this is what my speedo displayed)
Lowest Speed – 35 kmph (lowest speed on top gear)
Best Chunks of Road – Chidambaram to Pichavaram, Vailankanni to Vedaranyam, NH-45
Worst Chunk of Road – Vedaranyam to Mannargudi
Most Challenging Drive – Chidambaram to Karaikal
No. of minor accidents – Ninety eight minus ninety nine plus two (Clue: Its a signed integer).
No. of major accidents – Nine Thousand point five six four seven divided by four hundred and sixty eight point two into zero

The Group

Ride to Pondy – 31st Dec 09

Its been a long while since the last drive to Pondy on ECR and today the chance came again. Part of the gang of bikers met at Besant Nagar beach and started off after a quick roll call. Some more joined us on ECR & after filling up petrol, we were good to go. Somewhere after Kalpakkam, we stopped for a snack on an otherwise non-stop drive. Soon, we reached Pondy

Pondicherry

The whole of Pondy was in festive mood & it obviously spread to us as well. Else, why would a gang go to Pondy on 31st of December? Our resort of sorts was close to the beach and while stuff was being arranged, few of us went to the beach.

Its Party Time Baby!

Bottles, cups, soda, snacks, dinner and what not were brought in & a noisy toast was raised . Yours truly got enough high on a mocktail of sprite + coke + oorga (pickle) that he decided not to go near anything else. While the party was on in full swing, we came to know that Pondicherry tourism department was organizing some fireworks near the main beach. Many of us went there & we saw the worst ever fireworks that a tourism department could put together. Heck! even the kid next door burst more crackers during Deepavali!

Group Pic on the way to Vedaranyam

On the way back, we were enthusiastically greeted HAPPY NEW YEAR by gangs of teenagers and we repeated it out to them. Few scoops of delicious ice-cream later, we reached our resort. By this time, the Lunar Eclipse was just starting out. It was a very beautiful sight. I was seeing it unfold above me and was completely dumbstruck!

Back at the resort, the party was on in full-swing and birthday bums session was on … Soon enough, there was enough fun for everyone to see and laugh (though I won’t say what).

Day 1 – The New Year Dawns – 1-Jan-2010

With the dawn of the new year, we started quite late after the party last night. After a heavy breakfast at Pondy it was already 11 AM. We decided that we would proceed to Chidambaram and then halt for the night at Karaikal or Nagapattinam depending on the situation. Until Cuddalore, the road was only “ok” of sorts. After Cuddalore though, the road turned out to be awesome. The gentle growl of my bike’s engine soon became a roar as the rubber blazed the tar … Soon, Nachu raced ahead of us and stopped at a place where trees were arranged beautifully and would do well for a photograph.

Place where we had bath

From all the ride since morning, we were dirty and dusty & it would be great if we had a waterfall or a pool nearby (recent trek effect you see). Soon enough, there was also a paddy field at the place where we stopped & there was a bore well & pump over there . Water gushed from the pump and was pouring in to the fields because paddy needs stagnant water to grow. We asked the farmers whether we can take bath in that pump. As soon as we got the nod, we ran towards it in all glee.

Mohan getting it

Fun ensued! water splashing, jumping etc. etc. We were also making so much noise to attract views from the highway . After the much need refreshment and bath, we blazed through to Chidambaram.

Road to Pichavaram

En route to Chidambaram, there is this HUGE Mangrove forests called Pichavaram. Its about 16km from Chidambaram. Its so huge that its bound by the sea in one end and has plenty of small islands inside. All these islands are full of lush Mangrove and they attract plenty of birds every year. Just before Chidambaram, there’s an awesome road that takes you to Pichavaram.

Birds at Pichavaram

The road to Pichavaram quickly widened into a very wide freshly laid tar road that was damn smooth. There was absolutely no traffic on the opposite side & there weren’t any markings too … meaning, the road had been laid recently. Most importantly, the length of the stretch was visible from the starting point. I was excited to the core and I was also driving single at that time. I twisted the accelerator to the maximum and burst ahead . The road was too tempting to not do it.

The lonely fisherman in the Pichavaram lake

And then … at a certain point, time stopped. Everything that had been moving in a dazed blur stopped. I could see miles ahead and miles together on the sides. The sun was giving a glint on every object in front of me. The sight was beautiful & I was “in the moment” … totally absorbed & thinking about nothing except being rooted in the moment. I didn’t realize my bike was slowing down. The moment was just too beautiful to let it slip away. Few seconds later, Nachu overtook me and suddenly the trance was broken by the right indicator from his bike. The direction board read, “Pichavaram –> 10km”. That particular 6km ride was the ride of the day for me. These same moments materialized again when we came back on the same route to proceed to Chidambaram.

Boating at Pichavaram

Boats can be engaged at Pichavaram to tour its vast expanse of Mangroves. If you cajol the oarsman, you can even visit certain inside spots that are usually not taken by the them. We took a motor boat. Until our time slot became available, we were waiting at the watch tower nearby. This watch tower had a telescope using which we could see those distant birds on the Mangroves. I could identify Egrets with their yellow beaks from recent Flora and Fauna workshop (Thanks Gowtham & Hopeland), of course Parakeets and some storks.

The Mangroves

The water surrounding the Mangroves are just about 5-6 feet deep at their maximum and only about 3-4 feet deep at their minimum. As our boat left the shore, I couldn’t help being captured by the beauty of the Mangroves. Birds were everywhere & at many spots, we switched off the engine of the motor boat so that we could watch them in absolute silence … tuning ourselves to the sights and sounds of the forest around. After cajoling the oarsman for sometime, he agreed to take us to some places inside, which are even more breathtaking. Initially, it gave an eerie feeling but it soon disappeared as soon as beauty took over.

Open Billed Stork (Courtesy: Gowtham)

After a pleasurable boat ride into the Mangrove wilderness, it was time to touch the shore.

Chidambaram – Tharangambadi (Tranquebar) – Karaikal

It looked like Jan 1 was a religious day. The Siva temple and the roads to it were crowded beyond measure & so we pushed ahead. It was almost 6 PM now and the sun was setting in the horizon. Stomach bells were ringing out loud. We made a stop at the tea stall and had hot bajjis with some delicious tea & a few pineapple slices to cool down the hot tongue. The next stop was Tharangambadi or Tranquebar; about 40km away from Chidambaram. Tharangambadi is an old Dutch Colony which is also home to a Fort, now turned in to a museum. Since it was dark by the time we reached there, we couldn’t visit the Fort. Hence, it was decided that we would skip it and proceed to Karaikal.

Mangrove Roots

In those few minutes of the twilight zone, we came across a wonderful patch of road, portions of which were under construction. Those parts where the construction was completed was splendid. We were driving in patterns in that road. It was beautiful and as the sun was just setting, everyone’s spirit rose to the tune of the nature.

It became dark quickly and the road’s width lessened to an extent where only one lorry or bus could go comfortably. Added to it, there were wild twists and turns along the road. It was a very adventurous ride. The only advantage that we had was that the road was decent enough. No huge pot holes and no unannounced speed breakers. So we ‘up’ped the speed a little bit and did all those curves and bends in about 60-70kmph speed. One curve was damn awesome and I loved it. The roads were completely dark and we had to rely on our bike’s headlight only. At one point, the road curved ahead and naturally we also turned and stabilized … only to find out that the turn hadn’t completed yet. So we immediately bent again and took the curve near the edge of the small road. At another point, a stupid tata sumo overtook a lorry without any warning and sent us in a cloud of dust

My Beast

This ride ensured that all of us would stay awake throughout & I was left wanting for more when the road widened and led us in to Tranquebar. The drive from here to Karaikal was a cake-walk. Roads were good and wide. We reached Karaikal at around 8.30pm, had dinner and headed to the beach to chill off. Part of the gang attempted suicide by watching Vettaikaran (recently released Dr. Vijay’s movie – kkrrrrrrthooooo!). We were shocked at their plight when they came back from the movie he he…

Day 2 – Karaikal to Vedaranyam

Second day started very early. The destination today was Point Calimere or Kodiyakarai (as its known in Tamil). All along the route, its a haven for birds and hence, we had to start early to capture the beautiful sunrise and also the birds chirping and being active. We had chai at a beautiful place after Nagapattinam and started towards Vedaranyam; which is home to a Bird Sanctuary.

Early morning view outside the tea shop

After a railway crossing near Nagapattinam, we had to take a left to go towards Vedaranyam. I must tell you that this was the best road next to the Chidambaram-Pichavaram route. This new road from Nagapattinam to Vedaranyam was very wide and had the necessary road signs. However, there’s no traffic on the opposite side and if you were on that road, you would fly.

Sunrise on Day 2

Sunrise

Just imagine this. We crossed the morning twilight zone and it’s bright. No signs of the sun yet.. but it’s bright & the visibility is good. The mist is still lingering around and literally drenches everything in its vicinity. I shot ahead on this road early in the morning and with no traffic on the opposite side, it was driver’s bliss. I was in one of those moments again and nothing could break it now. This road extended for quite a few kilometres until we came to a fork which pointed Vedaranyam to the left side. We were now surrounded on both sides by lush green fields. Sky was showing tinges of orange now & I felt my mood getting elated automatically. Those dew drops in the grass opened up their presence by shining brightly & within few minutes I was in another of those moments … Man! You should’ve been there to experience what I’m explaining. It was an ecstatic feeling. Words will never do justice. It was in one of those moments that the picture below was clicked by Jason You can see how much joy there was!

The Best Pic of the Trip - Thanks Jason!

We then stopped to click the rising sun. After plenty of photography and torturing the poor Jason, we moved ahead and stopped again 30 minutes later. At this spot, I could recognize the Brain Fever Bird, thanks to its unique calling & thanks to the Fauna workshop a week ago. Some more driving later, we came to a field where a white necked, golden brown bodied eagle was perched. Erect in its stance, it looked majestic and I could see that it was showing the finger to the world . We approached it very carefully & clicked some nice close-ups. Then we moved on non-stop to Point Calimere.

Brahminy Kite (Courtesy: Kausikram)

Point Calimere

Kodiyakarai, as Point Calimere is known locally, is a combination of three things. It has a Wildlife Sanctuary, a Lagoon and a Holy Shrine of Lord Rama. Since this place is very close to Vedaranyam, its also home to plenty of birds and its shallow Lagoons are a sight in themselves. Srilanka is just about 48km across the sea from this place. The weather was splendid today and there was even some drizzle. We drove towards the lagoon. Roads ended soon and we were wondering what to do because we wanted to go to the center of the lagoon.

Splendid weather on day 2

The answer was obvious! Time for some serious off-roading. Bumping along the salty bunds, we drove our bikes there; getting down near the sand at times and coming back up again. We drove like this for what looked like 5kms and we stopped at a point where the bunds ended. At this point there was water all around us. What would happen if tsunami struck now was the thought running through my mind and mind you, “Water water everywhere, but not a drop to drink” . The locals told us that much of the lagoons are shallow and some people were harvesting prawns from the shallow waters.

Gull (Courtesy: Kausikram)

Kingfishers were showing off their expertise on nose-diving and picking up fish as one or two neared the surface. Storks were blissfully pecking at their food at a distance and oblivious to the presence of us humans. After spending some time here breathing some nice salty air, we thought it was time to move to the next destination – Tanjore.

Landscape at Point Calimere

Few people had slept through Nachu’s wake up call. So they got up later and visited the Dutch Fort at Tranquebar and joined us in Tanjore directly.

Sri Ramar Padham (or) Lord Rama’s Footprints – Point Calimere

Lord Rama's Footprints

Legend says that it was at this point that Lord Rama evaluated the army of Ravana and that it was from this point that Hanuman made his iconic jump to Lanka in search of Sita. After clicking a few snaps here, we headed back to Vedaranyam.

The Temple

We had superb brunch at a hotel in Vedaranyam. After filling up our stomach, we realized we were stinking a lot from around 6 hours of driving since today morning. Part of the gang started off to Tanjore. The Siva temple nearby had a huge tank inside and that we could swim in it was enough to make me and Nachu stay back. We could catch up with them pretty easily or so we thought. After a refreshing swim in the temple’s tank, we started on the route to Tanjore via Thiruthuraipoondi and Mannargudi.

Worst Roads Ever – Vedaranyam to Mannargudi

This was the worst ever piece of road we had driven on during the whole of the trip. The road with its twists and turns had plenty of pot holes. Added to it, there was considerable traffic in the opposite direction when we were nearing villages. Certain patches of road were good though and we made the most of it. The twists and bends were continuous and it was like driving in hills except that the altitude wasn’t there.

Wild Wild West

My bum was blown out when we reached Mannargudi and we had to take a break to cool off our butts. Soon the Mohan couple joined us (they spent extra time at the Sanctuary in Point Calimere) and the four of us proceeded towards the temple town of Tanjore in three bikes. Thanks to the swim at the temple, otherwise we would have been damn frustrated after the ride to Mannargudi.

Tanjore was still 40kms away.

Mannargudi to Tanjore

From Mannargudi, the roads became better. There were fields on both sides of the road and I was already thinking of a second bath in those paddy fields. They were lush green and looked very inviting. However, the need to catch up with the rest of the dudes kept us driving … until we were about 2kms from Tanjore. We called Wild Kannan and they told us that the rest of the gang were enjoying at a small stream off the road. We couldn’t locate them however and also decided we needed a bath to chill off. Near the Tanjore railway line crossing, we noticed a coconut farm and a paddy field beside it.

Near the Grand Anaicut

After getting permission, we jumped in and cooled off for more than 45 minutes; the four of us taking turns to stand under the huge pipe through which water was gushing at tremendous speed.

A quick call to confirm their locations later, we pushed off to Tanjore and met them near the Tanjore’s Siva Temple.

The Tanjore Temple

If you are going to Tanjore, you shouldn’t miss the Siva Temple. Its huge and has amazing architecture. It also has the biggest Siva Lingam in India and was constructed by the great Chola kings. Every time I visit this place, I’m awed by its vibe. It lifts one’s spirit like none other. Day 2 of the trip was turning out to be great. A great “moment” in the morning at sunrise and another great “moment” during sunset. I couldn’t ask for more on this day

Silhouette of the Main Gopuram

As the Sun was just setting, I clicked some silhouettes and some pictures of the main Gopuram. As it became dark, the lighting on the temple tower and on the Nandi was kind of excellent. Thanks to Wild who taught me some long exposure techniques, I did some experiment today. After sometime, this picture came out decently.

Night shot of the Main Gopuram

After a nice dinner and a Tamil lesson from an American, I crashed and went to sleep in an instant. The day had come to a peaceful end.

Day 3 – Trichy to Chennai

We started at around 8am from Tanjore and proceeded to this place called Kallanai or The Grand Anaicut. Its a huge dam built on Kaveri by the erstwhile Karikala Cholan. Centuries later, this dam is still in use and is maintained by the Government. A few snaps here and there and then it was time to move. Bypassing Trichy, we entered into the awesome NH-45 highway. This highway is a straight stretch between Chennai and among other major destinations, Trichy.

Kallanai or The Grand Anaicut

On the way, we stopped somewhere before Dindivanam and had another great bath under a pump set at a paddy field . We blazed through this highway and returned to Chennai by evening after a superb bike trip! The start to this new year was something special that I can never forget.

Butterfly - Common Tiger

Route Followed

Chennai – Pondicherry – Cuddalore – Chidambaram – Tharangambadi (Tranquebar) – Karaikal – Nagapattinam – Vailankanni – Vedaranyam – Kodiyakarai (Point Calimere) – Thanjavur – Trichy – Chennai

Final Group Pic

Home to home, the distance was 1004.03 kms that was recorded on my bike.

Photo Albums

What’s a trip without albums? Here are a few. Go through them and check out the fun we had

1. Alfonso
2. Aswin Anand
3. Jason
4. Karthick Sundararajan
5. Karthik Yadav
6. Naveen
7. Pavan

WISH YOU A VERY HAPPY AND PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR . The beginning to this year couldn’t have been better

Stay tuned!

I couldn’t contain my excitement what-so-ever and few days in the middle, I almost fell sick with excitement. I was high. The thought of crystal clear water, those tiny beautiful waterfalls, gurgling stream and varied colour rocks strewn across in the form of jewels … OMG! Every such thought was driving me crazy. Moreover, we were a gang on the treks and this was a pretty easy trail. So just imagine the fun we would be having on the way and back! To add to it, it was Max’s birthday on Sunday, 6th December … Too many things to celebrate for and only 48 hours. Not enough at all.

Picnic Pool Waterfall

A few of us met at co-organizer Naveen’s home on Friday night for a quick pre-trek planning discussion and party. The night dawned into the day with none of us sleeping. Soon, everyone assembled at Koyembedu and we raced off to our dear home away from home … Nagalapuram. Distributing food and items for the next two days, we started walking towards the forests.

The Dam

The dam was in full splendor this time. It had been more than 10 months since I visited Nagala and the site of the dam overflowing and brimming with water was too good not to be WOW’d at.

Panoramic view of the Nagala dam

Since we couldn’t take the usual route, we chose to walk along the dam, in to the forest which would join somewhere ahead at the regular trail. Trekking until this spot was pretty much easy. Gradual ascents and descents later, we reached the first pool.

The First Pool

The very thought of the chill water excited me to the core & the realization that I could swim this time made it even better. With zilch thoughts, the gang plunged head long in the water and started jumping and diving. Behind the rocks on this first pool, there’s a very cute and small waterfall. We helped ferry a few people there using sleeping mats and even a few non-swimmers climbed on to the rocks and jumped in water… to be lifted up and led ashore safely by swimmers. Around an hour’s excitement at this place later, we started on the way to the dead end pool.

Cute waterfall at the First Pool

The Dead End Pool

This pool so gets its name because of high rocks on all three sides and the only way to cross this pool is to swim across. Using the knowledge gained from the previous Venkateswara trek, we built two rafts to transport bags safely to the other side. A few non-swimmers were then ferried along with the bags, who climbed on the narrow ledges to accept backpacks as they were being passed to them. In the meantime, you know what we did

People crossing dead end pool

This pool is a lot deeper and bigger than the first pool. Since the rocks are high on 3 sides, we climbed on them and started jumps and dives. It was lot of fun to do it this time and without any help or fear. Non-swimmers, please go and learn swimming right now . You are missing the water fun.

Backpack Hunt

It was here that 2 great slips happened

The Slips

At the Dead End Pool, there are two rocks which have to be crossed to go to the other side. With water and others climbing, the second rock became very slippery and there was very little to hold on to. A slip here leads directly to a deep end of the pool. This time, I tried my hand at climbing it on my own. I was up a little bit when my left leg slipped initially. I gained some balance and climbed up a bit more when left hand slipped. Horror of horrors … bloody left leg gave up too & I slid down the rocks in to the water. It created a huge uproar as I panted and surfaced

Then I was helped to get on top of the rock. Ananth also tried climbing on his own. I warned him that its very wet and slippery. He preferred to ignore the “advice” (he he he..) and tried. He also slipped and that created another huge uproar. Lol. Both of us knew swimming and we escaped the skid without a scratch.

Boooooo Boooooo

We used Rubbification Technology to laugh off the teases and ploughed ahead shouting MOVE IT MOVE IT … heh!

We had lunch at this spot and then proceeded towards Picnic Pool. It was about an hour from this place. But since there were many first time trekkers, we started pretty early to avoid trekking in the dark. I was with the sweeping gang along side Vikram, Gowri, Max, Sagar and Sai.

On the way to Picnic Pool

After passing along the stream for sometime, we climbed a picturesque hill, which then led us to the edge of a gorge. Little did we know about the beauty that would be present at the end of the gorge, which would be explored the next day. The view of the gorge was awesome from this place. Clicking a few snaps here, we moved on. A few meters of a steep descend led us to the stream again. Hopping across the rocks, we reached the edge of the camp site in about an hour… Talking, chatting and ragging… making our experience.

The Adventure

It was beginning to get dark now and there were only about 6 of us with the sweeping gang. At this point, there were 2 routes to the camp site. One is to swim across a 50m pool and the other was to climb the hill and follow the trail that would lead to the camp site. We decided that it would be best to swim across the small distance. That would mean building a raft to ferry the bags and helping the non-swimmers float across.

Alas, we didn’t have the ropes to build the raft. So myself and Keshav decided to climb the hill, drop our bags at the camp site and get a few people so that non-swimmers and backpacks can be transported across. Vikram showed us a trail and gave some directions on when to turn left. It became pitch dark now. Promptly, myself and Keshav started ascending the hill. We followed the trail for some distance and logically we would have to turn left and walk along until the trail led downwards. Pretty simple right? But in the dark, things can (and will) go wrong.

Instead of turning left at a certain point, we climbed right ahead and reached a deadend because a tree was fallen across our path. We realized our folly and turned across, which led us into vegetation. Seeing no trail, we were wondering what to do and which path to follow. I knew we had to go down. But it was very steep. Around 80 degrees. After carefully descending for a couple of meters, we noticed some light at the bottom. Fire flies can give you this illusion that there’s light far off. Immediately we switched off our torch light and made sure it was human light.

Fun Groupie!

To send a signal, we switched off and switched on the lights repeatedly. Promptly, someone alerted Adi & he came near the hill shouting at us not to follow the path because there was no way down. No sooner had he said that, Keshav slipped. He slid down for a feet or two and held a tree. My heart was beating like hell & I tried to remain calm. His sleeping mat got ripped open & part of his bag was opened too. Mobile phone, purse and other items flew in all directions. As he was getting up, I calmed him and we launched this treasure hunt for his phone in the dark . We found it! We found his purse also! After retying the mat and putting all the stuff back, we moved up a little bit and found the trail to our left. It was steep no doubt. But the trail had a route to the bottom. The next morning, we found out that the place where Keshav slipped led directly to the pool below. Both of us knew swimming so we could have escaped and there were many other swimmers in the gang too. But the electronic devices would have suffered had our backpacks taken the plunge

Recognizing our absense for sometime, Gowri swam across, got the ropes and ferried the people and backpacks. We reached the camp site safe and sound.

Peter’s Surprise Visit and Hooting

At the campsite, we started collecting firewood to setup the kitchen with a double burner stove. As we were doing this, everyone around us were hooting and shouting UUURRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAHHHHH!! Out of dark, Peter emerged! Everyone was shocked and surprised. When did he start from Chennai and how did he make it this far? Did he get lost anywhere? Lol… everyone had so many questions. Peter knows Nagalapuram like the back of his hand.

The whole campsite resembled a hyper-active beehive as soon as he made his presence.

Campfire

The campfire was to become a huge bonfire when Peter announced, “I need 6 strong buffaloes” to lift two huge trees. Few minutes later, 2 big trunks came into the campfire and the wood started crackling. A nice dinner of hot soup and maggi later, we headed to the pool for a swim in the dark. For about 2 hours, we would swim in the pool, come to the shore, get ourselves warm at the great fire and dive in again It was superb!

Max’s Birthday

At precisely 12 AM, Ajay went near Max, woke him up and told him that “I” went for a leak and was missing since then. Frantically, he woke up and reached the campfire only to find us waiting with a birthday cake and candles in the middle of the forest … He gave this shocked + surprised reaction (lol) and made sure I was among the crowd. Fresh from the recent swim, wet and cold, we stood near the cake and wished him a very happy birthday.

Max cutting the birthday cake

... then getting beaten up

Almost immediately, we all lifted him up, gave birthday bumps and threw him in the pool. Ha ha! Ajay was standing near the edge and a kick on his bum sent him spiraling in to the water behind Max. We were making so much noise and laughing so hard that I’m sure none slept in the camp site for quite sometime.

and flung in to the pool

Max distributed chocolates when he came ashore and then it was time for the night.

A Cold Night

The night was cold. After about 2-3 hours of sleep, I woke and sat straight up. I was shivering involuntarily… so much shiver that to others it may have looked like I was belly dancing

The Crackling Fire

Not withstanding the cold, I moved very near to the bonfire and slept there. The crackle of fire wood, those millions of stars above, the warm fire and the cold bath + memories of the day made me smile and lulled me into sleep.

Day 2 – Wake up Call, Tea

I was up at around 6.30 AM. That’s a rough guess based on the lighting of the sky. As I was wondering who would be up at this ungodly hour, Ananth, who was sleeping on the other side of us shouted “Tarakarama, UUURRRRRRAAAAAHHHH … Wake Up”. I was up at this time and responded to this bird call. Lol. So early & I could see a number of heads coming up to see what the commotion was about and they went back to sleep.

Brewing Tea

Soon, we started brewing delicious tea, that was to be consumed with rusks. Nothing tastes better than hot black tea & rusk on a cold morning in the forest. Sometime later, Peter and few of them climbed the waterfall and went to another waterfall upstream. By the time they came back, the whole campsite was up and a full fledged diving session was on.

Naveen

One by one, the swimmers climbed the waterfall, the trees nearby and on to ledges and were diving. Few of us were being thrown in to water like how we did to Max the night before. First timers, especially non-swimmers, were very apprehensive of jumping from the waterfall, to which I could very well relate to. After clicking a countless pictures, shooting videos of diving, we moved to another waterfall behind the camp site. It was beautiful and deep. It was around 11am by this time and time to move on.

Guna, Gowri diving head first

Sadly bading good bye to the magical Picnic Pool, we slowly pushed off.

The Gorge and The Cave Pool

Trekking for about an hour, we reached this place Purdha Point from where the Cave Pool was visible in the form of an arch. The gorge below us was deep and rocks were protruding everywhere. We sat near the edge and clicked a couple of pictures and raced down to enter the water pool at the base of the gorge. The cave pool waterfall was at the end of this gorge and we had to swim for around 60-70 meters to get there.

Sitting on Top of the Gorge

Dropping our backpacks near the entrance of the gorge and wild with excitement, we hit the water. Man … it was so damn cold. We swam for some distance, hit some rocks, jumped over them and swam some more until we reached the cave pool.

Through the Gorge

It was a breathtaking sight. The roof of the cave would be only around 10 feet in height. There was a big crack in its ceiling from where water was rushing through to form a waterfall. There was so much water that it was as if 10 people were pounding the back with their fists. We stood under it for sometime, came out and went back again. This continued for about 15 minutes and then we climbed to the platforms on the cave. Damn! I was missing my camera at these places. Then it was time to swim back to the entrance of the gorge.

From the gorge, we trekked for about 30 minutes to reach the dead end pool.

Swimming in the Dead End Pool & Raft Race

A human chain formed almost immediately and we passed on the bags through the chain to reach the other side of the dead end pool; from where a man-made raft was waiting for pickup. Once it was loaded with 3-4 backpacks, they would be pushed on water to the other side. Swimmers (oh yes, including yours truly ) took turns in pushing the raft to make sure stuff reached safely to the other side. At the point where the slippery rock had to be ascended, lot of people helped each other to climb it. Once they were done, swimmers jumped in water and swam across.

“On your mark, get set, GO!” … and immediately, Poncho and Max would push the raft in water and race to get it to other end of the pool where more bags were waiting, accompanied by howls and cheers from all sides. On the other side, Viki and two more people would lift us above his head and throw us in water. We would land with a huge splash on the water and ask for encore he he… We literally became kids. As this was happening, few picked up unused mats and started a mat fight in water. We ganged around Max and tore him to bits coz of his birthday, followed by Viki, Ananth and more.

We had some snacks here and then it was time to go back to the first pool.

Group Photo at First Pool

It is customary in each trek that we take a group photo of the awesome gang that made all this possible. So we shot a group photo here and then proceeded to the dam and then on to the cars. On the way to the dam, we were joined by Peter and Guru. Few of them including Lucie, Gowri, Peter, Guru and Ajay swam across the dam under the stars and reached the other side safely.

Group Photo

On the way to the dam, we would shout in chorus as, “Gumtha lakadi gala gala gala … OOHH AAHH OOHH AAHH; LIC heightu CTC weightu” etc. It was time to bid good bye to Nagala now & looking back at the 2 days, I just can’t believe we had so much fun and an easy trail to go with.

Photo Galleries

Check out the photo galleries. They capture about 1% of the fun we had.

1. Aswin Anand
2. Dev Kumar
3. Gunasekar
4. Sivashankar
5. Sunil
6. Suratha

See you soon!