Ride for Relief with ThROTLS team

Gone on lots of long journeys, but this one’s always going to remain special. 

Purpose:: Started with talks on helping Chennai, post floods. And what started as a discussion turned out to be a mission that got accomplished with lots of smiling faces.

Destination:: Hope Foundation Matriculation School, Kannagi Nagar, Thuraipakkam, Chennai

Mode of transport:: 1 Force One & 4 Bikes

This was a maiden journey for ThROTLS team on some social work and so was it for me…something that I have been wanting to do for a long time. Coming out with an idea was quick, but to make it happen took about 10 days. Once the plan was put in place, there was no looking back. The ThROTLS team put in their best efforts to collect all the material from every corner of Bangalore city, amidst their busy office schedule and not to forget Bangalore traffic.

What we collected:: Hats off to the team who managed to collect about 80k and one the most active members Reena who single handedly managed all the purchases- Approximately 250 bags along with school kits for about 100 bags which included a pouch, pencils, erasers, crayons, sharpener, Lifebuoy soap, notebooks & a towel. Basically making it look like a goody kit for the young kids of Hope foundation school. She also thoughtfully picked up a box full of Pencils, scales, chalks, markers etc for the teachers of the school. Looking at the way our ForceOne got filled we wondered, how she managed to do all this all by herself.

Apart from the cash collected, we also received huge lots of clothes for all ages, Sarees, Lungis and bedsheets which we decided to donate to another organization.

We also picked up 100 bedsheets which will be donated to an NGO supporting flood relief victims.

Goody kit getting ready; Little Samhita helping with packaging; Bags ready to be boxed; Packages ready to be taken

My experience:: I was already excited about being involved in such a noble cause. Husband only asked if I would be interested in being a part of it and I jumped at the opportunity. We got the handle bar ribbons ready with ‘Ride to Relief’ written on it. Also made 2 ThROTLS flags for the bikes.

Morning of 19^th, 4.30am alarm rang and I was up n ready by 5.15am and husband by 5.30am. The plan was to leave by 6.00am take 2 other biking friends along in the car and meet the 2 more bikers on the way. But once we started unloading all the stuff from the car & started loading the boxes on top of the car and plastic bags into the car, we realized we would be delayed. By the time we started it was 7.45am!! Delay of more than 1.5hrs. Good breakfast & coffee at Shri Krishna Inn, Krishnagiri. While the bikers were able to move fast on good roads to Chennai, we kept getting stuck at all the toll gates. We took 2-3 short stops to give the bikers a break from their ride. We were supposed to reach the school by 2.00pm, but by 1.00pm we realized we were running late. So without stopping for any lunch break, we continued to drive on…while nearing Chennai we realized that the roads were getting worse. With bad stretch of road and a fully packed car, we ended up slowing down further. Disappointingly delayed by another hour.

Next was to find our way to school at Thuraipakkam. Google maps managed guide us to take the shortest route, but that ended up being a busy road and a bad road. We gave some hope to the hope foundation team that we would reach in another 30-40 mins…but ended up reaching only by 4.45pm…delay of close to 3hrs. Upon arrival, I jumped out of the car, and moved in to see what’s in store for us…and what I saw & experienced was just too overwhelming.

A WELCOME placard held by 1^st standard kids..and nicely shouting out, welcoming us to their school. Even after a 3hr wait, the little ones had managed to keep their energies high. I couldn’t stop the tears from rolling down…why did I get emotional?? Am not too sure, but I think the thought of making the little ones wait for so long after a day long outing they had had, made me feel bad! The parents of the lil ones sat waiting outside under the shade of trees in the hot afternoon sun.

The boys started unloading the material, while I took the chance to take some pictures of those happy lil faces and interact with the teachers. First ones in line waiting for their goody bag were the LKGs & UKGs, then came the older kids. Each one quietly following the queue…no pushing..no pulling. Each one’s face lit up the moment a bag was handed over.

Priceless expression accompanied with a thank you Sir or thank you miss. Each one of the 8 of us took turns to give away 100+ bags and I think all of us enjoyed watching the smiling faces of the kids. Once the school kids were done, we had 15 other under privileged children who had come to the school to for free computer education at the Computer Lab, which is sponsored by Dell. We were told that there were 100 children who would come through the week to learn computers for free at the lab. The 15 kids we handed the bags to looked like the 14-15yr olds…or may be older. We also left another 25 small sized bags for the nursery kids who were not in school on Saturday and another 60 bags for some more children.

I also proudly handed over a bag with 2 board games and a packet with about 3 dozen pencils…a contribution from my kids to the school. Once we were done with distribution, we sat with Mr.Santosh who along with his wife runs the school. Mr. Santosh spent a few minutes explaining to us about the work that is done in school and on the contributions they make to the society. The children who come to the school are apparently are the kids of the slum dwellers and Hope foundation is giving them an opportunity for education. Kannagi nagar is like a slum rehabilitation center. Hope school is an English medium school and I was happy to hear good English from the teacher who spoke with me. Currently the school has been given the permission to run till the 8^th standard and Mr. Santosh announced that good amount of relief material actually comes from Bangalore too. It was good to know that the school was spared from floods and was used as a shelter for children in and around thuraipakkam for 2-3 days. We were served some hot tea at the school before we started back for the service apartment that was booked for us at OYO, No.21,Vasudeva Nagar extension, Thiruvanmaiyur. Neatly maintained double bedrooms. They charged us Rs.1800/- per room with complimentary breakfast. Dinner was at Keys restaurant which was at a walkable distance. We got back to the room by 12.45am or so and headed straight to bed. The boys had a good time singing staying up late.

Next morning I was woken up by a call from my daughter giving me all her updates. Post the call, I realized how hungry we were. Finished up with bath & packing up bags and headed for some light breakfast- at 12pm :-P . The boys were still struggling to get out of bed. By 2.00PM we checked out and Madhura our only local guide & member at Chennai took us to Thalappakatti for lunch. We were lucky to get some tasty vegetarian food for ourselves after a long wait. Once we were done with lunch and seeing off Madhura we started back home to Bangalore…a long journey back again with few short stops and one long break at Ambur for leather goods shopping. Post late & heavy lunch none of us were in a mood to eat heavy…finished up with light dinner & kulfi.

The hugs, handshakes & the tata-babyes happened at Silkboard.

Enjoyed every bit…the work that we did, the team, the talks, the drive.
Missed this earlier....special mention:: Thanks to everyone who contributed time, material & money to make this relief work a success :) 

Update:: A must see...our journey & work dedicated to those who helped us achieve our 1st mission..on YouTube>>https://youtu.be/XYo60-DgL-o

The wait for lil ones

Team @ Chennai

Curious eyes waiting to see what's in the bag

Couldn't have missed the smiles

Car loading in progress

Distribution of bags in progress

Take a break

Ready for Ride

Waterwoods, Kabini

Be there to know what this place has to offer :) and what better way to celebrate Children’s day with kids..

We started at about 7am on a Saturday, stopped over for breakfast just after maddur. Was surprised to see the number of restaurants which have popped up on mysore road and mostly good ones. 

Waterwoods

Waterwoods Kabini a getaway from Bangalore. You have the Serai, Jungle Lodges and Orange county next to it, but this place also has the same comfort and serenity to offer you.We reached there at about 12.30 with a fuel break and a breakfast break. Good drive except for the Mysore road traffic. With the weather God having blessed our weekend, there was no rain, no sun, just clouds. What a lovely weather to be outdoors. Got a lovely family room right next to the swimming pool and facing lake. And that's it..daughter was in it within 20 mins of settling down. Son was a little hesitant...shy...but eventually couldn't resist the temptation of playing in the water. So it was swimming pool n jumping on the trampoline for kids before we headed for a well spread lunch. 
The staff here is really courteous and any service that you have requested for is there with you within minutes of asking. The place overall is nicely maintained, calm. Rooms are beautiful with luxurious bed and large TV and a LARGE bathroom. The family room we took had 1 large double bed, and 2 single sofa cum beds. Good enough for our family.

 

Balle Elephant camp

A walk by the lake anytime of the day is all you need after following a hectic schedule in the city. So thats we did post lunch..relaxed on the easy chairs and caught up on some sleep. Evening we visited Balle Elephant camp. Unlike other parts of Karnataka that we have visited this place grows vegetable crop through the year. So all the farms here were mostly vegetables...all kinds. Beauty was seeing all the greens through the way. The camp had 4 elephants. The famous Mysore Dasara elephant Arjuna is here...a 75yr old 1 tooth elephant was slowly eating her food..we were allowed to tough this old lady :) and another few years old baby elephant. We were asked not to touch Arjuna and another tusker. We were back to the room by 7.30PM and just relaxed and watched the AV on Kabini. Then was the bonfire followed by dinner. He and I went for a short walk post dinner and looked through the paintings that have been put up in Waterwoods. They were beautiful...all the paintings were depicting scenes of Kabini & its wildlife.

Next morning breakfast was really nice. Had hot crisp dosas also being served at the table apart from the buffet spread. After a sumptuous breakfast we headed for a boat ride to Bheemankoli. This place is across Kabini river. You will come across two abandoned temples built by the Chola Dynasty over 700 years back. The guide took us to one of them- Shiva temple, which is well maintained. The other temple, we were told, is in the ruins because of fight between two villages trying to claim it as theirs. The landmark of this sacred grove is a Banyan Tree dating back over 600+ years which is just a few meters away from the temple. We requested the resorts folks to allow us to check out a little later so we could finish up with Bheemankoli and they obliged :-) Finished up packing once were back, had our paid lunch and headed for 2hrs Jungle Safari conducted by Forest Department.

Rates for Safari:: Adult Indian- Rs.1600+tax, Child Indian- Rs.1200+tax, Adult foreigner- Rs.2630+tax, Child foreigner- Rs.1752+tax


The Safari starts from Jungle Lodges premises. It is told that Mysore raja in olden days used to come and spend his summer here and invite maharajas of other states to hunt tigers. The sighting began with a small tusker just by the road,,grazing on green grass. He didnt seem to be disturbed by our presence. Gave us a chance to look at home from all sides by turning around :) and then walked away. Then came the spotted deers....lots n lots of them through out the safari. We then saw a Boar with 2 deers running scared..because of us. Then the Sambar shyingly hiding behind the bushes not allowing us to get a full view of it. The guide told us that they are extremely shy animals and rarely show up in public view. And that the deers mostly die of heart attacks as they fear all the time. We got to see a Large Owl who refused to show his face, an eagle who stood still on a large tree, and kingfishers. Then came the unforgettable view of 2 elephants entering the waterhole to drink water...from distance they looked like twins doing every activity at the same time. We moved after they walked away. While we were on watch out for more animals the driver received a call from the other safari driver stating a Leopard had been spotted....and....the driver just took off on reverse gear in full speed...turned around and drove on the bumpy jungle road to the spot in high speed. All of us were asked to hush up and wait so the leopard could step out in the open. But after a long wait of about 20 mins..we first heard a squeal..we were told that the leopard has his catch. Then is when he jumped up on the tree and gave us a good visual. What a graceful animal...with long tail all stretched on tree branch....he sat there just to show how beautiful he is. Luckily the guide had a super powerful binoculars for us to get a good look at the leopard. Wow!! Once all of us had had a good look, we moved to for our last sighting of our 2hrs journey...which turned out to be Gaur (bison) again a shy animal...started running away from us the moment we got close. I think this was the most wonderful part of the trip. Kabini visit is complete only with a safari. It was 6.30PM by the time we returned to our car and headed back to Bangalore. We reached home by 11.30PM or so and headed straight for bed.
A great breakaway from the daily hum-drum. Good treat for kids too.

Leopard

The pool & trampoline

Highs n lows

Banyan tree @ Bheemankoli

At Waterwoods

Harihareshwar temple

A quick trip to Harihareshwara temple is what we could squeeze in between the tight schedule we had packed for 2 days. And am glad we managed to make it happen.

Harihareshwara temple at Harihar houses diety Hari (Vishnu) & Hara(Shiva) half -n-half. Vishnu & Shiva came together to take the form of Harihara to end a demon by name Guha.
The road leading to the temple is a small town road...people lazying outside their houses. The temple is maintained clean and has beautiful carvings both inside & outside. Parts of it reminded me of "savira khamba da basati" and some parts reminded me of Belur temple. The temple has not compound wall..instead, is surrounded by small houses of pujari's who perform puja at the temple.

Side view of the temple

Frontal view- aint it so clean

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No compound- temple surrounded by houses

Shining Pillars

Lord Harihara