Mudumalai/Masanagudi trip - 2 Years @ Intel project celebration

Hi! All,

One of the most wonderful weekends I have had the last week. We were celebrating the completion of two years (August 7th) at the Intel Project and the whole team planned to go to Masanagudi. Though we had been there before, we as a team decided to go there again. A decision we did not regret even one tiny bit.

That is me

Our manager (Syed) decided to give each a responsibility and that proved to be a good decision as the whole trip was very well organized.

Firstly, the place to stay (Resort) and other itinerary was handed over to Praveen (my colleague) and he did a wonderful job at that. There was a tree top (kind off) house at the resort and a very vigorous trekking. I will come back to it later

Secondly, Snacks & Music (DJ Rohan) was handled smoothly and efficiently. Everybody had to contribute their own choice of music to the DJ and he collaborates it into CDs for the trip. So there was no regrets no accusations about the music.

Thirdly, Fun & Frolic (Bala-Myself) was a joint team work and everybody had fun (at nobody's cost) like never before. :) There was dumb sharads, Antakshari and many more such games

Fourthly, Nataraj had the onus of arranging the official tshirts for the team. That was an amazing spark of idea and we used the same for the trekking.

Now coming back to the trip:

Started, as usual from Rohan's place, at 4.30 in the morning (29th August, 2008) and started towards Masinagudi. After one quick tea break, we reached by 11.30 in the morning at Masinagudi.

Mr. Abid was our host and he gave us a very warm welcome. After refreshing ourselves, we had a quick breakfast and started the trekking. Woah, it was really a great eye opener for most of us, to find the level of energy and passion each member showed during the trek. It was just a warm up for the next day's vigorous trekking.

The high light of the trek was that three of our team members (Syed, Nasir & Praveen) got to see the Bengali tiger just 10 meters away. As per them it was the greatest event of their life and all we can say is HAPPY FOR THEM. LOL

We reached the resort back at 7 pm and after One hour rest we started to the bonfire by the river side. We had some games, fun and frolic till about 9.30 and reached back to the resort for dinner.

After a sumptous dinner, we started for the safari (in an open jeep) at around 10.30 pm and it was such a lovely sight. We got to see a herd of elephants & Bisons all the way. We decided not to take any cameras along and rather enjoy the beauty of Nature and God's creation with our naked eyes.

We reached the resort back at 12 mid night and all I remember is falling into the bed. I slept like a log and was abruptly woken up by an alarm (Nasir's mobile) at around 4.45 am. Woke up and got ready and surprisingly the whole team was also ready to go.

We started the trekking by 6.15 in the morning and we pushed our limits this time around. The trek was through uphills, shrubs and one of the most treacherous places in the jungle.


We got to see the rougher part of the jungle and by the end of it, most of us were almost torn apart with the trek.

We were taken to the dam by Masinagudi and everybody refreshed himself. Rohan just could not control himself and went straight into the water, followed by Syed.

Breakfast was served by the river side and everybody started feasting on it (Idlis, Pongal, Sambar & Chutney). After a filling breakfast, we moved towards the resort. We decided to leave the resort sooner than planned and move onto Gopalaswamy betta (Hillside temple).

That is the team photo :)
We left around 12 noon from the resort (heavy heartedly) and started our journey towards Gopalaswamy betta. We reached around 3 pm over there and it was an amazing sight at the top. We enjoyed every minute at that place and from there we moved to Mysore for lunch (or linner) because the time was around 6.30 pm when we reached PlanetX (at Mysore).

Balaji (friend of Praveen & Nataraj), was a very helpful person who not only booked the table at Resort Planet X but also was with us till we left Mysore. He took us to a good place for the paans and mmm they were really tasty.

And oh how can I forget to mention this. I bowled at Planet X after such a long time and had a very decent score on the board. The regular champion bowler (Hussain) had a score of 149 on board and my score was 146. Though I lost, it was a feel good factor as it has been more than 2 years since I had last bowled.

Around 9 pm we started back to Bangalore (all tired by now. We reached at around 11.30 pm by Rohan's place and all parted their ways.

Highlights of the trip:

1. Everyone collaborated together as a team to make this trip a huge success

2. We all got to know about each other better and understand each other

3. We came to know about Nagabhushan's speaking skills and were amazed at it

4. Though the onus was on one person, the whole team assisted in that responsibility

5. We all stayed as per the itinerary.

Overall, this was a grand success trip and I am sure nobody would forget this trip for their life time. We went as a team and came back as a team.

As the saying goes,

"One for all, All for One"
Cheers

Balasubramanian Jayaraman