Sunday, 26 Feb 2017
On this day, my employer Nalashaa solutions has
organized a small trip to Antragange, near Kolar Dist. As per the schedule,
I've started at 6:20 AM from my house on bike with all gears up. It was decided
that all the trekkers will meet at 7:00 AM at ITI gate. This was the point
where cable-stayed bridge of KR Puram ends towards Kolar dist. I reached at the
meeting spot on time and was waiting for others. The guy name Mahesh joined me
firstly. He was on a bike and so I got a ride-partnerJ. Within 20 minutes of span,
all the people have arrived.
The Sun started shining
in visibly full manner but the faded sunshine worked as a morning goose bump.
Everyone was up and excited for the trip. I, as a new employee, had a small
circle of known people within the company. So it was the first time when I was
meeting other floor/BU people in casual way.
We, 20 people approx., started our journey at 8.00 AM for Antragange
trek. A total of 4 cars and 2 bikes were travelling towards Antragange. The
destination was 65 km away from Bangalore so we decided to take the breakfast
at Kamat Restaurant situated on the highway itself. After refueling ourselves,
we started again to cover up the remaining distance.
It was becoming a li'l asynchronous for bike riders to
follow up the cars. I and Mahesh have already lost the leads. To reach Antragange
there was a left turn which we need to take before Kolar city. The car people
have decided to wait at that point and signal us as soon as we show up on the
highway. Nalashaa's VP Mr. Venkat Hari has set up a lady name Madhavi to do
this job for us. She was wearing a high visibility neon orange color outfit.
She was supposed to signal us for stopping at that point. Indeed, this decision
was taken wisely.
I was driving a bit faster than Mahesh so we had a small
distance gap between us. Madhavi saw us coming on the highway and started
signaling to stop.
Although the neon orange color is not a Stop indicator (like the traffic Red color does) but
her waving hands could have served the purpose. Mahesh saw her but I missed her
completely as the tempting asphalt road had completely taken over me like a
witch.
I was driving like 125 Kmph or something ("Sorry Mom! If you ever come to know about this,
I promise; I will never do it again!")
After 10 minutes of riding, I realized that I have lost
synchro with my co-rider as well. I parked my bike on the sideways. At the same
time I received a call from Mahesh saying that I have travelled ahead of the
left-turn for Antragange.
The car people waited for me sometime and then they left for
the final destination assigning duty to Mahesh for bringing me to the Antragange
temple along with him.
Finally, we both reached at Antragange temple with a little
time lag and joined the other people. We all started trekking the hill at 11:00
AM approx.
Few employee have joined with family n kids as well. Parents
were helping the kids to climb up. They were doing all precautionary talks with
these little minds. Within few minutes we realized that this hill trek is not a
piece of cupcake. So we took 2 Time-Out break till we reached to the cave entrance
passage on the topside of hill.
There was a local kid of age 8-9 years old who was showing
us the way to move forward during the whole trek. I wouldn't call him a Tourist
Guide. At least, I don't want to get world’s attention for the Child Labor Act'
1986. But yes, he was doing a weekend
support and earning some ransom.
The passage to the cave was very narrow and only one person
could enter at a time. By the name of Indian tradition & recent training after
demonetization, we all formed a queue to enter the cave. One by one we all
entered into the cave.
It was very soothing and pleasantly cold inside. After a
bright sunlight of mid noon throughout the hill trekking, we found this
surrounding very peaceful and relaxing. All the people have scattered and found
the place to sit on the various rocks inside the cave. We had some snacks and
water to get reenergized. Our official Photographer Mr. Litton took multiple
pics and captured some victorious memories in his camera. After spending some
quality time, we all started trekking down. Few small groups has been formed
who decided to reach down to the parking lot and rest have decided to come down
at slow pace. We 3 people reached the parking place, few people have already arrived,
and rest were on the way down.
Within the premise of 1 Km from parking place, there was a
boarding school for the mentally challenged children. Nalashaa Solutions, Thinks Simple Build beautiful, has
already built a strong connection with this school. The company frequently
visits the school and provide them financial & moral support to all those
who are a part of this great Human Act of Sensitivity. Nalashaa's Director-HR
Ms. Gayathri had given the cheque to the school officials. We spent some time there
and had some talk with them.
The clock was ticking to 2:40 PM. We decided to have lunch
at the same Kamat Restaurant. We left from the school and headed towards
Bangalore. Within 30-40 min, we all reached the restaurant and refueled
ourselves for the last phase of journey. All of us were feeling restless so the
lunch is going to play the role of sleeping pills. After finishing lunch, and
having some chit-chat, we started traveling back to Bangalore.
This Journey to Antragange & visit to mentally
challenged children's school was very joyful and optimistic for me. I really
enjoyed my first experience of this office tour.