Day 5 of Study Tour- Bangalore

Bangalore- The garden city was our last stop before we left for home. I woke up and walked to a hotel nearby for the breakfast. I had the best masala dosa so far. The bus came by from the other hotel and we put our luggage and all in it. We stopped at Lal Bagh. You cant leave bangalore without visiting Lal Bagh can you? Everyone who's been to Bangalore have been there. Some really old trees and green houses and a lake are the main attractions

In the picture shown to the right, there's something really interesting happening in the direction where my thumb is pointing. Yup, you guessed it.

                                                                     
There was also this old tree fossil which is about 20 million years old(shown left). We walked around some more before finally coming back to the bus. After two hours in traffic we finally came to a street full of shops. Lunch was from KFC and the girls went on  a shopping spree. I bought a small jute bag for my sister and some sweets. By 5:00 pm we got back on the bus and headed home. We should have reached the college by 10 am the next morning but as we found out, things dont always go as planned. We stopped for dinner at a hotel inside a gas station and after which i met my uncle by the roadside as previously arranged. He had a package of flowers that he wanted me to give to a church to be used in the holy mass the next evening. Everything was going according to plan until 5:30 am in the morning. We had reached Thrissur. The roads were so bad and there was a small bridge that had to crossed, in view of the risk, the vehicles were restricted resulting in a very long queue. In other words we were stuck. And it was hell. Nothing to do except sit on the bus waiting for the line to move. Moreover it was a rural area with only some small teashops and makeshift restaurants. We were going mad inside the bus. My uncle had also gifted me with  a box full of sweets for the whole group,which we ate and we waited. We got some chappatis from a small hotel and after some 5 hours of waiting we finally got moving. And i reached home by 10:00 pm 12 hours late,than planned.

The long wait to get moving....

Even this tiny snag at the very end could not dull our spirits. Because of what happened, i am sure we will all never forget this particular journey and our experiences. We can forever cherish these memories and reminisce them long after we've gone our separate ways...



THE END.

Day 4 of Study Tour- Wonderla

We said goodbye to Mysore and moved on towards Bangalore, cause the 4th day of our study tour is at an amusement park called Wonderla. I wasn't feeling so good that day and moreover i'm not too fond of amusement parks, so i decided to walk around the whole place with James and Harish. It is owned and run by V- Guard Industries. And its their second amusement park,after Veegaland (now renamed as Wonderla) in Cochin. If you have ever been to Veegaland at Cochin, then this one in Bangalore will surely be a disappointment for you. Its not as exciting as Veegaland. And the number of visitors were so low, that most of the rides were shut down. Too bad we have to waste a whole day in this place. But what can one do when majority rules. Anyway i walked around and took some snaps, ate a pizza and simply watched people who paid to get themselves scared. Come to think about it, arent we paying thes guys to make us scared and cause an adrenaline rush? Anyway here's some pics.

After this rather uneventful day, we left for Bangalore and went to a hotel called Grand Regency Inn. Now, the only thing grand about this place is the filth. I've seen worse so it wasn't much of a shock. But for a few of the light hearted people among us it was quite unbearable. So after dinner and an hour or so of heated discussion with the hotel manager, our tour coordinator Arun decided to find a new hotel for the girls alone. So he left with them while most of us opted to stay back. It was almost 10:30 pm and Binu and I decided to go for a walk. We walked past many intersections, a flyover, a petrol pump and we kept on walking until we came across two policemen. We decided to walk past them. But as we reached them, they stopped and asked us where we were going. I told him I was looking for a tea shop. He then wanted to know whether i was here on business.He went on taking some more in Kannada. I told him we were from Kerala and we didnt know his language. He then switched to Tamil. And Binu was like "Enikku koncham tamil theriyum". As if he had been waiting to hear this, the other policaman started speaking endlessly in tamil by the end of which Binu had to correct his earlier statement to:"I dont know Tamil". Soon enough we all switched back to english and i asked him whether it was ok for us to walk some more. But he told us that there were "bad people, people with knives, they take you purse and phone,so you go back to your hotel". Ok no problem, we said goodbye and walked all the way back to the not so Grand Regency Inn, which was closed!

 By this time Arun called Binu and told him that he was at a hotel called Taj and asked us to come there if we could. Yeah whatever, so we walk towards the other side(the way opposite to that we just came from). After  walking for a long time, we reach a dark,deserted road full of dogs.There's not a single person on the roads, except for animals, yeah, cats,dogs, mice and cows. Suddenly all those dogs(about 10, i didnt have the time to count)began to growl and they chased a cow away. I smelled trouble, Binu was skeptic and wanted to go forward. Soon these dogs turned at us, they started growling and barking at us. Not a single person anywhere. "Time to go" he said and that was what i have been waiting to hear. We turn back and walk away discreetly, but the dogs started to follow, we increased our speed, which they did too and before we could start running we saw a security guard in front of a hotel who wasn't there when we passed through earlier. We called out to him(actually it was more of a wail). On seeing another person somehow those things backed off. We decided it was enough for a day and headed back to the hotel. Since it was closed we thought we'd spend the night outside the hotel. But again, you wouldn't believe it,the dogs were back and this time, we could chase them away. We banged at the door and still no one opened it, there was a guy sleeping in the lobby, we couldn't wake him up. So we called James, who was asleep inside and brought him down to wake up the sleeping dude who had the keys and opened the door...

We went to the room and slept, knowing that we were this close to being mauled by dogs...

Tomorrow is the last day of this tour.......

(to be cont'd)......

                                  

Day 3 of Study tour- Mysore Part II

After Chamundi Hills we came back to the city, for our industrial visit at Kaynes Technologies. After lunch, we had an extra 2 hours before thing at Kaynes. So we decided to go see the zoo. Yup you heard it right, the ZOO. Personally i dont like the idea of locking up animals in cages and fences and you pay money to see them. I do feel sorry for them, especially he birds. We can understand their sad plight only if our freedom was taken away. So i walked around looking at these sad fellows and occasionally i tell them i'm sorry and that there's nothing i can do, to help them. I tried not to take too many photos, because i somewhat felt that is was wrong to do so. Isn't it bad enough that they're in cages?? Why annoy them with my lens?
So here's some of the pictures that my classmates took.

We leave the zoo pretty quickly, to get to Kaynes. It seems like a pretty big company.As already instructed, you have to wear shirts and pants, anyone with jeans isn't allowed inside. So is anyone without and ID card. So a few among the group cant enter, and a few chose not to enter at all. You aren't allowed to take your camera or phones inside.We wait for half an hour inside the gates. Soon one of the staff comes over and instructs us to form 2 groups.She then assigned us both two guides, who will explain to us the various stuff thats going on there. The lady assigned to us was a Keralite. She led us to a big building were we took off our footwear,whereas the other group went off to another building.She started by giving a brief introduction about the firm. Kaynes was established in 1988 as an electronic contract manufacturing company. It is based in the United States and in Europe. Their main works include PCB assembling and transformer core assembly. She told us that they had lot of certificates, it was such a  long list that i cant remember even one of those. And thy're not into consumer electronics,i.e they never meet the end customer.

So their manufacturing method is mainly of two types and the products will be a combination of the two

1. Surface Mount Technology

2. Through Hole.

And the following steps are involved in SURFACE MOUNT TECHNOLOGY :

a.) Screen printing                              c.) Reflow Soldering

b.) Pick n' place                                 d.) AOI(Automatic Optical Inspection)

e.)VMS (Video Microscopic Inspection )

THROUGH HOLE ASSEMBLY has the following processes associated with it:

a.) Forming Bend Leads at 90 degrees    

b.) Stuffing components on board

c.) LQC (Line Quality Check)

d.) Wave soldering

      Here these guys use a machine called 8035 PCS to perform wave soldering. Wave soldering has 4 main steps involved 

                   1. Applying Flux

                   2. Preheater

                   3. Solder Bath

                   4. Cooler

e.)Cleaning (done using Isopropyl alcohol)

f.)Manual Inspection/Touch up etc

g.)FCI (Final Component Inspection)

In-circuit testing is optional.

The next section is CLEARANCE: 

 The products manufactured here find applications in Railway signalling and Automobiles. There is an area under ROHS(Restriction of hazardous substances). A lot of people are busy soldering and our tour guide tells us that this particular room is free of lead and other chemicals that are hazardous. There is also a machine which can simulate environmental conditions to test and measure performance of products under actual conditions and compare it with expected levels of performance.(This is a soaking room for railway signal devices). They also perform an OQC (Outward Quality Check).

The next area is where transformers are manufactures. Its an assembly line, with four people each of them doing one of the following tasks:

• Bobbin Winding: where the coil is wound around a bobbin.
• Core insertion
• Terminal Insertion
• Gluing

In another section all finished products are tested after assembly.
So our whole tour of Kaynes Technologies was over in around in 90 minutes and we headed out towards 

Brindavan Gardens.

It was almost 6:15 when we arrived at the gardens. The fading light was inadequate to capture vibrant colors of the garden,especially those of the flowers. But still we had some good snaps and a very nice walk around the place. There's nothing much to see except for a lot of fountains and gardens, and......nope,nothing but more fountains and gardens....and a big dam!

A thousand lights...

The twilight soon turned into dusk and the lights beneath the fountains were turned on, which caused the scenery to turn from black and white to a color picture.

We leave Brindavan after watching the musical fountain and on our way back to the hotel we stop for dinner. Back at the hotel, there was a party, if you know what i mean. And Anand got a bit carried away, if you want to know the details I suggest you ask Dayal,who was on the receiving end of this. Good gracious lord, i'll never forget what he did.After the party we all slept and tomorrow we go to Wonderla, an amusement park.

(to be continued........)

  

Day 3 of Study Tour- Mysore Part I

We were all in deep sleep when our 'tour coordinator' Arun woke us up by banging on the door.He came by to make sure that we were up and ready on time, in fact he woke up everyone on that floor.Had this been an alarm, you could have just turned it off,but here, the only way to get rid of him was to open the door. Again we got ready and today is the day of our Industrial Visit. We have to carry our ID cards, and wear pants and shirts to enter the industry, you cant enter if you're wearing Jeans and /or T-Shirts...hmm seems pretty uptight to me..whatever, if they want pants and shirts,then pants and shirts is what they'll get.

St.Philomena's Cathedral, Mysore

Our first stop however is St. Philomena's Church. The last time I was in Mysore was when I was studying in 11th Standard. We came to Mysore and Bangalore for a 3 day tour from our school. And of course i have been to this church. It's mind blowing. All the detail and care that has gone into the making of this church is pretty hard to digest. As for me, it is the biggest church in terms of size, and the best in terms of architectural beauty that i have ever seen. (And I've seen my share of churches.) I am not an expert on architectural styles, but i do think that this one is built based on the famous Gothic style.

It has stained glass paintings and the aisle is wide enough for two rows of benches. His highness Maharaja of Mysore laid the foundation stone in 1933 and it was completed in 1941. the twin spires are 175 ft high. The structure produces a looming effect. And its pretty hard to get the whole thing in a single frame. It's dedicated to St. Philomena and it also has her relic, which is kept under the altar. 

The underground catacomb.

 You can see the holy remains by taking the stairs which start in front of the altar and goes down to a room, where it is kept for worship. This room leads to an underground catacomb.It seems that a lot,i mean a lot of people have been buried here. This chamber is like a narrow corridor which leads out to the church grounds.Its a very beautiful church and its a spot not to be missed if you're ever visiting Mysore.
After a group photograph in front of the church we went to a nearby hotel for breakfast.

ABOVE: Some demon guy(with his disciples?)
RIGHT: The temple>>

Our next stop was at Chamundi Hills. The way up there was breathtaking. As you're going up this winding road along the hill, stretching out far,even beyond the horizon, Mysore is feast for your eyes.Even with the rain clouds floating above it, the city seems to give you a sense of pure bliss. Too bad we have only one day here. I heard that there's a thousand steps leading to the top, but since we're short on time we go to the top via the bus route. There's this pretty little temple and a statue of this big guy with a sword and, must be some asura(demon). Sorry,my knowledge in Hinduism and its stories is limited. Anyway theres also this huge statue of a bull, which is called Nandi, the mount of Shiva.

Soon it started to rain and we ran for cover, my camera almost got wet and while i was wiping my lens clean i saw some monkeys trying to find cover from the rain. Click! and this is what i got. >

There's also this small alley which has got small shops on either side of it. Harish wanted to buy something for a certain somebody who couldnt make it to the tour. And I bought two small caps for my twin cousin sisters. Arun bought a ladies bag for our Head of Department, Mrs Ananda Resmi.

The many shops on the way back..

                   (to be cont'd.....)

Day 2 of Study Tour- Coorg Part II

Ok, so it was another waterfall, and quite a big one too. The main attraction of Irupu falls is its fall height and the fact that its located inside the wildlife sanctuary. Getting there is quite hard and so is going back as we found out. The roads were so narrow and winding with hairpin curves,that we lost a considerable amount of time. And being a  Sunday most of the restaurants were closed.So that meant no lunch for us. After some agonizing hours in the bus(during which i found out that i had a leech on my foot) we reached a town in Coorg. By now it was almost 4:30 pm and we ran to the nearest hotel.

The gates of the Nunnery

Our next stop was at NYINGMAPA NUNNERY a monastery for Buddhist monks. It was quite a wonderful place, with all the gardens,huge bells, gongs and sculptures, and monks with shaven heads walking around in saffron colored robes.....The gate to the nunnery looks like this(right >>>)

The main entrance....

 The main entrance has got a huge photograph of some monk (must be some important guy..like a Lama?!) placed on top of a structure which has a wheel on the background.They have many buildings inside the monastery, like prayer rooms, hostel/boarding for the kids(i.e the young monks), a school for them and many more.To the left of this main entrance there's this huge prayer hall which is decorated with statues of small guardian lions on the steps. These steps lead towards three doors, the one in the center considerably larger than the other two. Inside this prayer hall we can see three large statues of Buddha.There's also some large benches put across the length of the hall which reminded me of the main hall at Hogwarts.Its a really sacred place for them and so around 6:30 the monks asked us politely to leave as it was time for their evening prayer.

Here's how the inside of this prayer hall looks like.....

The prayer hall

Oh i almost forgot about the paintings,yup the main highlight of this place was the intricate yet colorful and attractive paintings.Each of them were different from one another and we had no idea what they meant. So i decided to get one of the monks to explain the paintings to us. And in order for this to work i had to use Harish, because i cant speak or understand Hindi very well and those monks knew only Hindi. 

Lundup and Sange....

We met two monks Lundup and Sange, from Bhutan, who were kind enough to explain to us the different paintings, and even more patient enough to answer all our stupid questions.We would tell our various queries in Malayalam to Harish who would in turn convey these to Lundup and Sange.They explained to us a lot about the four guardians of the four cardinal directions, about the various levels of hell and other stuff.Before leaving we asked for a photo together and they were only too happy to oblige...

Crash course in Buddhism.... 

7:45 pm and we are going back from this monastery. Harish had with him a Cadbury Rum and Raisins, which disappeared '   ' just like that,as soon as the wrapping was removed. And i found out that rum can also be eaten! Anand Raj, Harish and i thought seriously about joining the Buddhist Monastery, hell why not? Free food, schooling and accommodation and a life of peace..ah..yes! Harish seemed all pepped up and  a bit more eager that the boht of us. He might go through with it.......

The road ahead leads to Mysore where our third day will be spent. But before that we'll have to stop for dinner. By the highway there were two hotels, Highway 18 and Hotel Monarch. Very few chose Highway 18. The majority of us the latter. The food in both the hotels were comparable, but there was a tiny problem with the Monarch, which we overlooked. We became aware of this small detail when the bill came. It was a three star hotel and they charged us about Rs.1200 as service tax. Oops...!

Anyway we check into a hotel and again my roommates are Pai, Binu, Akhil, and Biju.... Tomorrow also have an Industrial Visit, almost forgot about that part. Funny cause isnt that the reason why we have this (Study) tour?

Day 2 of Study Tour-Coorg Part I

After an eventful and exciting day at Wayanad we are ready to set off towards Coorg.Waking up at 4:30 am in the morning we took turns using the bathroom.I got ready pretty quickly and went down to the parking area to find our bus. On the way down i had to use the stairs because last night the boys had a rough run and they ended up destroying the elevators(True Story!)Its around 6:10 and we're on the road to Coorg,travelling via the Sultan Bathery Pulpally route. Our tour coordinator had told us that we might see wild animals (no, i know what you are thinking,if you thought tigers and wolves and other fierce 'wild animals' you are wrong!).Behold the wild animal - a deer.

Now i get it, when the guy said that we'll see wild animals, he meant that we'll see a lot of deer. And we cant blame him,cause he never said different kinds of wild animals did he?? Anyway this picture was taken by Shilpa T.S.(special thanks to her), and moving on we saw another wild animal- an elephant.Great, how lucky we are (sarcasm intended). We reach Pulpally, and being a Sunday most of the restaurants are closed, and many are just opening. After searching for a while we find Hotel Greens. It was a decent hotel, but not as posh as the one in Wayanad. And as expected we had crappy food(still, not as crappy as the one from Mint Flower). I guess its a general trend that as the overall quality of the restaurant decreases the quality of the food increases slightly. I had my breakfast and came back to the bus. While waiting for the others, it hit me. Sundays,.... of course, i usually go for the morning mass. Oops! completely forgot about that part. Then i told myself that its OK because He knows i forgot and that it wasn't intentional. Its almost 8:00 am and i am still waiting.....

On the way to Coorg we stopped at Irupu Falls. Its a part of the Brahmagiri Wildlife Sanctuary.We reach the entrance and move through the gates that lead to the falls. And by the look of things i feel that its going to be yet another long walk. Along the way on either side we see fields growing plantain. And towering above us a huge hill. Great! i guess we'll have to go through it, is this a tour or a boot camp?
The way to the falls is full of puddles and muddy,if you are wearing shoes there's a good chance that they'll get wet.

Our coordinator had told us to leave our footwear behind,but i was too confident to listen to him, and now i have to jump step across puddles and tread carefully so as to keep them dry. To the right you can see a picture where the road is completely submerged underwater.This was the very first obstacle i came across. After weighing all my options,the solution was quite simple, take off the shoes cross the damn creek and put them back on the other side. Hope i dont have to do this very often,cause its not as easy and quick as it sounds. Moving on,......

After some more walking i find this. Its from this board that i came to know that all the adjoining areas of the waterfalls are part of the Brahmagiri Wildlife Sanctuary. Its a pretty good painting with an awesome catch phrase. I've got no idea how much further i have to walk....

 The anticipation of what i'll see keeps me moving forward. From the puddles and small creeks all around us i think that it might be a big waterfall. After some more distance we come across this strong torrent of water. Its flowing very strongly and swiftly. The water is white  and foamy.After covering some more distance i reach a hanging bridge across this stream. It's a good spot to take some photos.

 
                         
   

                                                          

 On crossing this bridge there's more steps and after more walking you get to see the falls from afar for the first time. walk some more and you reach a view point. And from here you can see the falls in its full splendor and glory. Its a sight to behold. The Soochipara Falls at Wayanad is nothing compared to this one.Here's a picture to prove my point.

Yup that's me in the center with Ayyappa Raj to my left and Anand Raj to my right (No they aren't brothers, in case you were wondering). There are steps that lead further up to the top. The force of water gushing down is so great that there's this constant roar and you have to speak up to be heard in this din. To get good up-close shots of the falls you have to risk your camera getting wet. Since it's only day 2 and there's a lot to be shot in the days that follow, i decided not to do it.  As the water is falling from a great height and that too onto rocks, it creates a huge spray of water. Get too close and you'll get wet from the water that's floating around in the air carried by the wind.

I believe i haven't introduced these two people. This is our dear Akash Sir and his wife. This may sound hard to believe but these two are the ones in charge of us. For every study tour a staff from our college should accompany the students, and in our case its Akash Sir. We'll get to more on him later(Yeah and that's Harish standing behind them).

Thats it for Irupu Falls. We trace our way back to the bus. And some of the guys and gals who decided to take a bath anyway went to change into dry clothes and I along with the others waited for them. Funny thing, my shoes are still dry, yes!!, high five!!!

While waiting for them to return Harish and I went for a walk and found a temple nearby.He asked me to take a photo to show his mother, that he's a god fearing, religious kid. Why not?(By the way,this is as far as he got to the temple, he never went inside it ).





To be continued.....

Day I of Study Tour Wayanad Part III

So far we visited both Edakkal Caves and Jain temple in Wayanad. And now we are en-route towards Soochipara Falls (also known as Sentinel Rock Water Falls). We reach the falls by around 3:00 pm and buy  the entry tickets. As we are students we were supposed to get a concession,but unfortunately,as we had forgotten to take the relevant papers we had to pay the full amount. And like always you have to pay extra for your digital camera (If this goes on i'm thinking that i'll pay around the same amount it cost me to buy one of these). So, tickets in hand we move towards the falls which is some 2 to 2.5 kms away from our parking area. Ok! its not so bad right? Its only a couple of thousand meters. Walk on!!!!!

Actually it wasn't so bad,it was a cobbled path all the way to the falls,surrounded by greenery on both sides.   It's a serene setting,the only sound ,that of the jungle and the endless roar of the waterfall in the distance.

We're almost there and i have Harish and Jijo with me. A quick picture captures  the mountains veiled in mist and the forest as far as the eye can see. It was Harish who had earlier said that he feels this trip is more like a pilgrimage than a (study)tour. He said this while we were walking towards the waterfall and i think it must have been the exhaustion from climbing the Eddakal Caves and the long walks reminding of Sabarimala that resulted in such an observation. Honestly i have to agree with him. But when you're with friends its fun, and you feel like you can take on the world. As for me i felt that this long walk towards the waterfall was worth it. At first it was like any other waterfall,a huge curtain of water all white and foamy gushing down. But then came our old friend the rain.I scurried towards a shed like structure for the fear of my camera getting wet.But the sunlight hadn't gone when it started to rain,soon enough the waterfall became breathtakingly beautiful wearing a rainbow and click!This is what i got. So by 4:00 pm we start making our way back to the bus in small groups.

There was a however a slight problem, the way towards the falls was a sloping one going down. So you know how that works,you go down,you have to come up. As beautiful and serene the place was,the way back nearly broke our backs and i clearly remember,that,at one point i was pushing SR up a slope.And my camera was running out of power. SR was in a rather good mood and tried to climb up a tree,why? I have no idea!(He almost fell down,and was hanging like a monkey).He still had those red chappals and specs. This is the last photo i took before my camera died.It shows the cobbled path i had talked about.Its still a bit foggy. From here it was straight back to our hotel. As promised the rooms were ready and we moved out of our dormitory. It was a good room(it even had a living room!)

The cobbled path amidst the forest

The 'living room' in our room

As planned we are supposed to go see a movie at 9:00 pm and that gives us very little time to take a bath and have dinner. We(myself, Binu,Ayyappa, MC and Akhil) had the room to ourselves and took turns in using the bathroom. Later Binu and I, along with MC and Ayyappa found a vegetarian hotel and ordered our dinner with only 30 minutes to go before the movie starts. Our curry comes first,and we were so hungry that we finished it and when our chapatis came we had to order another one. Settling the bill and walking out we have less that 10 minutes until showtime.Only one thing to do...RUN!!! So we ran,jumping over broken gutter slabs and dodging people on the footpaths of Sultan Bathery....
We're almost there when we're joined by Micheal and gang who are also running, I'm pretty sure that the people on the streets must have thought that we were being chased by Micheal's gang. And then Micheal yells to us all to take a detour to the left into a dark alley and that its a short cut. Ok,what the hell,we do it and soon enough we're running through this dark lane. And i still dont know how he knew there was such a shortcut because all of a sudden we pop out into a road head first and there it is-the theater.

As for the movie it was a romantic film by the name Thattathin Marayathu .The same old wine in a new bottle. Boy meets a girls,almost killing her by accident,then falls in love with her. They both have contrasting backgrounds and to make matters worse she's a Muslim and he's a Hindu(Oooh, big surprise there!).And it ends with a stupid happily ever after.The only difference is in the style of presentation,narration of the movie, and the music. Its the same cliched stuff being tried again by a group of youngsters. I was actually so bored that i walked out during the interval(along with Binu and Harish) and went back to our hotel. On our way back we stopped for കട്ടന്‍ കാപ്പി  !! YAY!!

When we got back it was almost 10:30 pm and then we slept.......
TO BE CONT"D......

Day 1 of Study Tour- Wayanad Part II

Jain Temple at Sultan Bathery

From our hotel we first went to the Jain Temple at Sulthan Bathery. (It was a  rather short and quick stop mostly due to the annoying rain.)The site is a protected monument under the   Archaeological Survey of India since 1921.It was built around the 13th century and thus at least 700 years old. An interesting thing here is that even though this temple is small and lacking in grandeur compared to other temples of Jainism in India,it is still of great significance because this place 'Sultan Bathery' got that name because of this temple. You see during the invasion of Malabar by Tipu Sultan he had used the temple as a battery(to store ammunition) and thus resulting in the town being called Sultan's Battery. This got modified into Sultan Bathery.According to the caretaker at the temple there are atleast 450 Jain families and they gather here once a year to celebrate their religious festivals. Anyway here's a picture of the temple.

My friends at the ticket counter
Photo courtesy of Akhil A

Our next destination was the Edakkal Caves about  12 Km from Sultan Bathery. The road to Edakkal is a really winding one around the mountain with about 9 hairpin turns and really hard to navigate especially if you are travelling in a large 50 seater tourist bus.But it does offer some spectacular scenery of the forests and the mountain ranges stretching far across the horizon.And going uphill you can see the roads laid out below you in a zig-zag fashion embracing the hill slopes.The bus can take you only as far as the base,from where you have to walk around 1-2 kms to the ticket centre and that too up a sloping path.The rain had gone and was replaced by clear skies and warm sunlight.It was a good walk and I, along with Harish and Binu got there without much effort.But back then we had no idea that it was only the ticket centre and to get to the caves you still had to go more.So lets just say that I was a tad bit surprised. We waited like 15 minutes for the others,some of whom came panting and out of breath.

The way up...

So we all took our tickets (you have to pay extra for your camera) and started up the hiking trail which was yet another kilometre,only this time much steeper and you had to go over,under and around rocks(and the girls are gonna have one a hellavu hike if they're wearing high healed footwear). We move towards the top of the mountain through steep paths laid out amongst the rocks.

Pai and MC getting inside the cave
(click to enlarge)

Step by step....

After some more climbing we reach a small opening in the rocks which leads to a large dimly lit cave with the only source of light the aforementioned entry point and and exit. The air inside was cool and refreshing.Getting out of this place is harder than getting inside.But this isn't what we came to see,so we keep moving and as expected there's more rocks and stairs,then some more rocks and stairs.Here's a picture,you can see what i mean ...

The rock which forms the roof 

The cave drawings

Our ordeal was soon over,right after this very long stairway.We had reached our destination.Going down a set of stairs we enter the Edakkal Caves. Now the thing is,its not actually a cave. It is a small space between two large rock faces covered on the top by a large boulder.The word 'Edakkal' in Malayalam means 'a rock in between' .Eddakal Caves have the oldest cave drawings/carvings in all of South India.Such carvings are rare and carvings similar to this are found only in France.Its at an elevation of 1200 meters above sea level. It was discovered by Fred Fawcett, a British police officer in 1890.The carvings,believed to have been made between 6000-2300 BC depict men and women,their various tools and what seems to be wheel .One of them is a  figure with what appears to be a crown on his head and has a dress.There is also a message written in a script which experts think is the Brahmi Script.Now this here is solid proof that we had prehistoric settlements and  highly developed languages.

That was it. All of us climbed back down and went straight for lunch near the parking area.And after lunch we hit the road by 1:30.

View from atop the hill

To be contd......

Day 1 of Study Tour- Wayanad Part I

4/8/2012
 Its almost 6 am and our first day. The cold is bearable en route to the hotel at Wayanad. The rain is persistent and annoying. We had left for Wayanad the earlier day at 5 in the evening. Through my closed window dotted with rain drops the place looks captivating.I think that the slight drizzle highlights the natural beauty of this place and also gives it a classy look. The landscape keeps changing through this window of mine.Elevated plots give way to gorges and cliffs, fields change into houses and other buildings. But still there is a lot more green scenery than what you'd expect. Far away the horizon is dark,the sun still hidden behind the mountains shrouded in fog.
One by one my friends are waking up. Upon discovering that I am writing this for my blog they all want to be mentioned. Jibin (K.R.P.) who was asleep on my shoulder for the last hour and a half has just woken up. Biju is running around the bus and he just asked me to write about him and two girls. He's a bit more eccentric than usual, may be its the cold getting to him.The girl sitting in front of me (Miss Rakhi) is rather annoying. She cant stand closing the window. Since two rows of seats share a common window,if she opens one it the same as me opening my half. I have to keep begging her to close her window so that i wont freeze to death........

Pai and Akhil with Biju(on the bed), click to enlarge

We have reached Sultan Bathery and its 6:30 am.The town is still asleep. Not many people are out in the streets.The town is  still covered in fog.Our first hotel is Mint Flower.Since we are a bit early the rooms weren't available and we had to settle for dorms. And once the occupants clear out the rooms will be made available to us.This is what our dorm looked like. We had like more than 15 beds and 3 toilets.
  

 

     The new freaky look!

After our morning refreshment we were all ready at the restaurant by 9:00 for our breakfast. Breakfast was a buffet of vegetarian dishes. I had dosas with Deepak,Anas,and Anand Raj.I am calling it Dosas because it looked like dosas,but tasted like.....hmmm,to be frank it had no taste. Now its 9:30 and the rain is persistent and might pose some serious issues.We are sitting on the parking area of our hotel and waiting. I do have to mention about Anand S.R. who is walking around in flashing colors.You could spot him from a mile away with those red chappals and red colored spectacles.We had no idea what was to come next...

To BE CONT"D.........

STUDY TOUR

I haven't written anything for the last two months because i was both busy and lazy.But now i do feel bad for not having produced anything good from my blog lately. And i felt somewhat disappointed at myself for being  lazy enough to lay my hand's off the keyboard for two months. So now i have this wonderful opportunity which presented itself in the form of our 5 day industrial visit/study tour.Yup, tomorrow we leave for this study tour. But sadly this will be our last journey as a group. And this will be the last time that we get to enjoy together as EC A Batch students of CEP.

                                                                                                                   

I am not going into the details of the places we intend to visit,mainly because after i come back,i 'm going to write a detailed description of this tour and post it here.So i have packed my bags,prayed to the gods for a safe journey and if nothing catastrophic happens,tomorrow evening we're leaving town....

The pain of mending broken headphone wires

Well i am back again, after a long hiatus. So its about time i published something else, right? Today's topic is about my struggle to repair my headphones. For the last two days the bloody thing had gone deaf on me. So i decided to take things into my own hand. Opening up the volume control unit i found that the soldered portions have come off. So i thought, what the hell? All i have to do is solder them back to the circuit board. So i cut off the old wires and cleaned the board with flux.then i removed the insulation exposing new wires. And boy oh boy wasn't i surprised! Each insulated covering has two wires within them.

Each insulated part encloses two small wires

Ok now this us new to me. So being the noob that i am, i simply soldered the wires as in the previous arrangement. Then the i connected the audio jack to my PC to check and surely there was no sound. So now what? After a moment of deep thought and contemplation i said to myself "blame it on the soldering". There rip it all apart and do a fresh soldering. Give plenty of contact and solder. Believe me when i say that soldering these audio wires is a real pain in the ass. They are almost as thin as a hair and awfully hard to handle Same procedure,same connections still no 'sounds of life'. At this point i was getting all mad at myself and it was Just like the lab exams, all connections are correct yet no output.

A picture showing the paint burning off;
courtesy of alexwhittemore.com

 I was getting desperate and i made a decision. And so to make things easier for me i ripped apart the connections for a third time. And threw away the volume adjuster. Then i removed the insulation and got ready to wire them up directly. I did just that. Again disappointment. Finally i got onto the Internet, which i should have done at the very start of this mess. As always the Internet saves the day. The reason i haven't been getting the connections right is simply because i hadn't removed the second layer of insulation. Yup you heard me! There is a second layer of insulation on the wires. So far i had only removed the outer plastic
insulation. But the wires are coated with a special paint which insulates them from one another and so a single core can carry two wires namely the live one(which carries the audio signals) and the ground. So in order to remove the paint which insulates the wires you have to use a sandpaper and scrub it off. But the easy way is to burn them. Just expose the wire to an open flame and it just burns away the paint.

There you have it! Thus remove the paint and then solder together the exposed parts...

I cant believe i wasted almost 2 hours on such a trivial thing..

Avengers Assemble! (Movie Review #3)

 The posters all said “SIX SUPERHEROES, ONE MOVIE”. Well if we consider only those with superpowers as superheroes then its incorrect. Because we all know that Black Widow and Hawkeye are both humans and Iron man is a ‘genius, billionaire playboy philanthropist’ in a suit of armor. Yes I am talking about THE AVENGERS movie. It has undoubtedly lived up to our expectations and left the opportunity for many more reunions of these six superheroes. I saw the movie on the third day and still the theatre was fairly packed. You should know that English movies rarely do well in Kerala. I think I know why there’s a good crowd. Iron Man, Thor, The Hulk and Captain America have a good number of followers. So put them all together in a movie and there you have it, the perfect formula to satisfy all the fans.

Theatrical release poster

An interesting thing to note is that movie deviates from the original Avengers Comics. In the comic, the avengers were formed without Captain America, and he was rescued from his icy tomb by them. In the comics the first avengers consisted of Iron Man, The Hulk, Thor, Ant-Man and Wasp. But here we have Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, The Hulk, Hawkeye and Black Widow. The bad guy is Loki in both the versions. Joss Whedon has done a remarkable job of  using just the right amount of  each of the  six characters. The movie doesn’t rely too much on any one person. All the six had their moments and even Nick Fury was all pumped up. If there was a personal favorite for me, it was The Hulk, wait a second, I wouldn’t be wrong if I said the whole theatre was rooting for Hulk. The movie has given a total makeover for the Hulk. They have made him more aggressive, more human looking and funny! Mark Ruffalo replacing Ed Norton made me a bit nervous but he was to the mark both as Bruce Banner and the ‘other guy’. Chris Hemsworth dons the role of Thor for a second time and so does Chris Evans as Captain America. Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man. Scarlet Johansson and Clint Barton appear as Black Widow and Hawkeye respectively.

All in all I am just so happy that they have pulled it off successfully.The best scene of the whole 143 minutes is without doubt the rotating shot which features all six of the avengers ready to jump into action. After the great build up which consisted of  Iron Man 1 & 2, The Incredible Hulk, Thor and Captain America the grand finale isn’t disappointing at all. Enough said just go see the movie….