Kunti Betta Trek: Short and Crisp

Initially planned on 30^th of July, Saturday with thirty four participants including two organizers the trek was eventually shifted a day later, due to some bandh called on the planned day. The first confirmed drop out of those thirty four members was one of the two organizers.

Being a day trek, we were required to assemble at Bangalore City Railway station at 6:30am. It was raining at 4:30am when I woke up however; the rain receded by the time I left for the railway station.  My first question to Ankit after finding him was, “Bhai kitne log aaye? (Brother, How many have come?). Ankit’s reply was, “Bhai abhi to main aur tu hi hai, 15 log a rahe hai?”(Now, we both are there, around 15 people are coming). Because of incessant rain more than half of the participants dropped out, probably the highest of all times. This was also my first one day trek with such a small group.

The train too was running late by more than an hour. We planned to have our breakfast and the introduction session at the Bangalore junction itself in order to save time later on. Finally the train arrived, and we got into one of the bogies.

We got down at Pandavapura and reserved a mini-van till the base of Kunti-betta. At the base there were temples and a small pond filled with greenish water. The place seemed to be a little developed; a number of tourists may be visiting it. There were stairs at the beginning of the trek probably been constructed for the devotees! The climb seemed to be an easy one. The clouds overhead further made the trek easier. For the new comers this seemed to be the perfect beginning. An easy climb favoured with weather conditions.

The group was so small that we were all mostly together. Apart from a few narrow passages flanked by thorny bushes and a few boulders, (“harry potter and the cursed child” got delivered right now……..I will rush through the blog now :-p) the whole trail was an easy ascent.

“There is a cherry tree at the top and we will get cherries there”, I used to say this to make those resting ones climb. Finally after climbing for a quarter of an hour we reached the top. The wind was very strong as if it was ready to put wings on us. Though there was no cherry tree, I was carrying a box of cherries and we all enjoyed eating those red fruits. In all directions there were farms as far as human eyes can see. The air was fresh. It was a nice escape from the city life just a few hours away.

After clicking a few photographs we all settled for lunch. Non-chicken biryani, bread-butter-jam-honey, ghee rice, one more variety of rice, poha, packed mango juice, cup noodles and others were been rotated around. As no one has ever brought cup noodle on a day trek along with boiled water in a flask, it became the food of our trek. Ankit, a bachelor, cooked delicious poha and brought it for us. Anyways, he didn’t have any other choice than to cook poha :-p

“Main sach bolta bhai, main sach bolta, photo me sound aayega, main sach bolta”(I am telling the truth brother, I am telling the truth, there will be sound in the photograph, , I am telling the truth).These were the words being repeated by Kishan who was ready to prove that there will be sound in the photograph. “Main sach bolta bhai” became a cliché among us. Finally he clicked a few photographs with sound effects.

We started climbing down at 1:30pm. To make the trail long we climbed down one of the hills and then climbed up another. It took us hardly half an hour to reach the base even after stretching the trail. The same mini-van guy had come to drop us at the railway station.  At the railway station we performed the ritual of BTC, our feedback session. Finally, before the train arrived it had started drizzling. Even the clouds might have thought why to let them leave without showering Kunti’s blessings. A few of us wished to have been clicked with an umbrella, and the photographs obliged.

While going back we all were sitting together in one compartment and began playing dumb-charades. Some of the guys have maintained a list of most of the unknown movies of Bollywood. It was fun watching the performances of others and performing before others. There is a movie whose title has been carried to this trek from the Augumbe trek. Premal was especially asked to enact the name of that movie. It took a while for his team to guess the name of that movie but ultimately they succeeded, and through all these we reached back to our destination too.

Eventually we all departed to our respective houses and now I am rushing back to my room to read “Harry Potter and the cursed Child”. Co-incidentally we trekked on the day of Harry Potter’s birthday.

Written By      : Ishan Deep

Photo Credits : Amol, Prasanna, Premal, Suresh

Organized By  : Ankit
Date of event  : 31st July, 2016

Place               : Kunti Betta
Members         : 15

Pictures          : BTC FB Page