...an evening sun showers a kind of warmth, which may put one at sleep on the road... the truckkers beating the sleep with beedis i guess :D
Thursday, June 29, 2006
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
Monday, June 26, 2006
Foot ball fever in Bangalore....
...the large football hoisted over a building on Brigade road, Bangalore, fell down on a Cielo parked in front of the shop....
ale ale ale!!! :D
ale ale ale!!! :D
Sunday, June 25, 2006
weekend at Jungle Lodges, K Gudi...
That was the call of a barking deer!!! There was no mistake that it was an alarm call, with a clear message that there was danger around.
Our Maruti Gypsy speeding on the rough jeep tracks in the K Gudi reserve forest, screeched to a halt.
The loud barking of the deer was heard again. Yes, that was the call of the barking deer again.
We were in the forest department's safari vehicle, surrounded by the pouncing green of the K Gudi reserve forest. But for the jeep's roar, which had been killed now, there was silence. A slight chirp of a bird here. A rustle of some leaves there.
And some other jungle sounds, only audible to an interested ear.
The barking deer is a category among the deer, named so because their barks resemble that of the dogs. But a little more on the shrill side.
Again, there was a call from an unseen barking deer.
The deer could be hiding anywhere in the thick undergrowth of the forest. It had just rained the whole of the last week, and due to that, the usually thick undergrowth was thicker and could house any wild being. By the sheer tone of the bark, it was evident that this was a warning call for its mates to flee from the vicinity, as a predator had been spotted.
Half an hour earlier, we had met up with a crowd on another jeep of the safari. The crowd had seen a tiger near a water hole. This water hole was a two minutes walk from our present location. The feeling that a tiger could be anywhere around us, was exciting.
Was it scary?
It was not scary enough, because we were sure that there were no man-eaters in this forest. Also, I trusted the jeep drivers a lot, as they had been doing this for years. (Later I came to know that even the non - man-eaters could attack us, if they are scared of us. Also, the jeep driver was actually a storekeeper, who was doing the driving as a temporary arrangement. He had just spotted tigers six times in his career of ten years).
There was a flock of spotted deer moving away slowly ahead of our vehicle. Hadn't they noticed the call of the barking deer? Why would not they run?
(We told later that they would not run because they would not know the direction from where the carnivore could be expected, and hence they were moving carefully.)
The barking continued at equal intervals.
Soon, the calls were joined by another type of call. We were told that this was the call of the spotted deer.
It was getting more exciting by each passing moment. The frequency of the barking deer had increased.
We had our cameras ready, intensely waiting for any movement. My friend had switched on his mobile phone to record the ambient sounds, along with the call of the barking deer.
Would there be a tiger sighting today? Would we see an innocent deer have its neck broken between the cruel canines of a tiger?
Would the tiger notice the five people in the jeep?
For some more time, the call continued. Then, the frequency of the alarm call began to decrease. And suddenly, ceased.
The bored driver gunned the engine, and hit on the gas pedal.
After sighting a few more elephants and deer, we were driven back to the K Gudi Jungle Lodges.
That was one great experience in the safari.
K Gudi (Kyata Devarayana Gudi) is a small village in the middle of the reserve forest. This is approximately sixteen kilometers away from the more popular B R Hills, in Chamarajanagar district, of Karnataka, India. The Jungle Lodges , run by Government of Karnataka, maintain their resort in the middle of the reserve forest. For getting an accommodation, one has to book in advance from Jungle Lodges office in Bangalore. K Gudi charges Rs 1750/- per night, which involves a lunch, snacks, a wild life safari, campfire, dinner, and stay in tent-like cabins. Also, another safari (either on jeep or on elephant back) on the second day morning, followed by breakfast is assured.
One has to report to the place on the first day, early afternoon.
The travel to and from the place has to be taken care off by oneself.
"Let us go for a short walk till the lake, for some great night photography," said my friend Shre, brandishing his Nikon SLR camera. It was still half past nine in the night, and one more hour before the generators for the resort would be switched off. Then, the lights would go off, and the whole of the jungle resort would be blanketed by darkness.
"Alright, but we will have to come quickly, before lights are out" I said, picking up my camera, and the tripod.
There was a quaint little lake, a short walk from the resort. This night was a full moon night, and we hoped to get beautiful images of the reflection of the moon. As we sneaked away from the resort, with only two torches, out of which one had its batteries breathing their last breaths, I was feeling a little tensed up due to all the darkness around. We had been told that wild boars, elephants, and sometimes leopards would come very close to the resort. They are supposed to be pretty much harmless, unless they sense danger.
I would agree that the wild animals would not find me dangerous, as I was not bad looking, with a clean-shaven face and all. But, it was dark everywhere, and it would be scary to anybody who would look at my silhouette, a six feet three inches hulk with a strange looking gadget in one hand and a tripod resembling a gun in the other.
As we moved towards the lake, my friend with the good torch scanned the way ahead.
I stopped in my tracks!!!
We could see the shimmering eyes of what we guessed to be wild boars. Some of them were lying down, and some of them moving around, their evil teeth showing off from their strange shaped mouths. If not for the timely scan by my friend, we would actually be walking into them.
Suddenly, my priorities in life straightened, and I could see that a good life back home could not be gambled for a trivial photograph of the lake, reflection, and all. We stopped right there, to take some pictures of the moon, with a silhouette of a tree beside us. Two of our friends went in a different direction, to have a look at an elephant, somewhere ahead.
After some pictures of the moon, and the tree, which seemed like a badly made poster of Ram Gopal Verma's next horror flick, we returned to our cabins.
The safari on the first day had not been as exciting as the second day, where we had been caught in the middle of the ball park, as described above. The safari on the evening of the first day had begun on a promising note, with a fairly good-looking lady boarding the jeep in which we were seated. A security guard who held her infant joined her.
As the jeep slowly made its way on the rough, rocky jeep tracks into the forest, I began to feel the body and the frame of the jeep hit against my body, occasionally, due to the violent rocking. By this time the security guard was playing around with the child, and I began to wonder about how liberal the lady was.
After a few deer sightings, there was one hour of boring drive in the forest. By this time, I had lost all hopes of any sightings of wild animals, and had changed the lens of my camera to shoot some cute pictures of the child who was staring back at us from the front seats.
The security guard was now cozying up on the woman.
This was quite incredible, and I began to suspect that the security guard could be the beautiful woman’s husband. Ma’an, he had had a good catch!!!
The kid was as equally puzzled as us about the purpose of the safari. All we were seeing were the greenery, greenery and more greenery. No wild animals anywhere.
But, just in the last half hour of the safari, we sighted barking deer, the mouse deer, the wild elephants, the gaurs, and some strange kind of birds. Just goes to prove, how unpredictable jungle safaris can get.
I was disappointed as most of the animals were sighted after the sunset, and I had not been able to get good pictures.
But, despite lack of lot of exciting moments, that we had expected, the trip was a memorable for its own calm, and some enchanting moments. A sighting of the tiger would have crowned our efforts, but then, I guess it is scheduled for us to experience in the next few visits to the jungle. :-)
Here are the pics of the trip...
Thank you for being a part of our experience in the jungles.
Have a great week ahead.
With warm regards,
Teju
(ps: About the mysterious security guard, we realized that he was an MBA, and was in marketing Jungle Lodges in Bangalore. He was not a security guard, though he appeared like one. He also owned the huge Toyota Innova, and that explains the beautiful spouse :D )
Our Maruti Gypsy speeding on the rough jeep tracks in the K Gudi reserve forest, screeched to a halt.
The loud barking of the deer was heard again. Yes, that was the call of the barking deer again.
We were in the forest department's safari vehicle, surrounded by the pouncing green of the K Gudi reserve forest. But for the jeep's roar, which had been killed now, there was silence. A slight chirp of a bird here. A rustle of some leaves there.
And some other jungle sounds, only audible to an interested ear.
The barking deer is a category among the deer, named so because their barks resemble that of the dogs. But a little more on the shrill side.
Again, there was a call from an unseen barking deer.
The deer could be hiding anywhere in the thick undergrowth of the forest. It had just rained the whole of the last week, and due to that, the usually thick undergrowth was thicker and could house any wild being. By the sheer tone of the bark, it was evident that this was a warning call for its mates to flee from the vicinity, as a predator had been spotted.
Half an hour earlier, we had met up with a crowd on another jeep of the safari. The crowd had seen a tiger near a water hole. This water hole was a two minutes walk from our present location. The feeling that a tiger could be anywhere around us, was exciting.
Was it scary?
It was not scary enough, because we were sure that there were no man-eaters in this forest. Also, I trusted the jeep drivers a lot, as they had been doing this for years. (Later I came to know that even the non - man-eaters could attack us, if they are scared of us. Also, the jeep driver was actually a storekeeper, who was doing the driving as a temporary arrangement. He had just spotted tigers six times in his career of ten years).
There was a flock of spotted deer moving away slowly ahead of our vehicle. Hadn't they noticed the call of the barking deer? Why would not they run?
(We told later that they would not run because they would not know the direction from where the carnivore could be expected, and hence they were moving carefully.)
The barking continued at equal intervals.
Soon, the calls were joined by another type of call. We were told that this was the call of the spotted deer.
It was getting more exciting by each passing moment. The frequency of the barking deer had increased.
We had our cameras ready, intensely waiting for any movement. My friend had switched on his mobile phone to record the ambient sounds, along with the call of the barking deer.
Would there be a tiger sighting today? Would we see an innocent deer have its neck broken between the cruel canines of a tiger?
Would the tiger notice the five people in the jeep?
For some more time, the call continued. Then, the frequency of the alarm call began to decrease. And suddenly, ceased.
The bored driver gunned the engine, and hit on the gas pedal.
After sighting a few more elephants and deer, we were driven back to the K Gudi Jungle Lodges.
That was one great experience in the safari.
K Gudi (Kyata Devarayana Gudi) is a small village in the middle of the reserve forest. This is approximately sixteen kilometers away from the more popular B R Hills, in Chamarajanagar district, of Karnataka, India. The Jungle Lodges , run by Government of Karnataka, maintain their resort in the middle of the reserve forest. For getting an accommodation, one has to book in advance from Jungle Lodges office in Bangalore. K Gudi charges Rs 1750/- per night, which involves a lunch, snacks, a wild life safari, campfire, dinner, and stay in tent-like cabins. Also, another safari (either on jeep or on elephant back) on the second day morning, followed by breakfast is assured.
One has to report to the place on the first day, early afternoon.
The travel to and from the place has to be taken care off by oneself.
"Let us go for a short walk till the lake, for some great night photography," said my friend Shre, brandishing his Nikon SLR camera. It was still half past nine in the night, and one more hour before the generators for the resort would be switched off. Then, the lights would go off, and the whole of the jungle resort would be blanketed by darkness.
"Alright, but we will have to come quickly, before lights are out" I said, picking up my camera, and the tripod.
There was a quaint little lake, a short walk from the resort. This night was a full moon night, and we hoped to get beautiful images of the reflection of the moon. As we sneaked away from the resort, with only two torches, out of which one had its batteries breathing their last breaths, I was feeling a little tensed up due to all the darkness around. We had been told that wild boars, elephants, and sometimes leopards would come very close to the resort. They are supposed to be pretty much harmless, unless they sense danger.
I would agree that the wild animals would not find me dangerous, as I was not bad looking, with a clean-shaven face and all. But, it was dark everywhere, and it would be scary to anybody who would look at my silhouette, a six feet three inches hulk with a strange looking gadget in one hand and a tripod resembling a gun in the other.
As we moved towards the lake, my friend with the good torch scanned the way ahead.
I stopped in my tracks!!!
We could see the shimmering eyes of what we guessed to be wild boars. Some of them were lying down, and some of them moving around, their evil teeth showing off from their strange shaped mouths. If not for the timely scan by my friend, we would actually be walking into them.
Suddenly, my priorities in life straightened, and I could see that a good life back home could not be gambled for a trivial photograph of the lake, reflection, and all. We stopped right there, to take some pictures of the moon, with a silhouette of a tree beside us. Two of our friends went in a different direction, to have a look at an elephant, somewhere ahead.
After some pictures of the moon, and the tree, which seemed like a badly made poster of Ram Gopal Verma's next horror flick, we returned to our cabins.
The safari on the first day had not been as exciting as the second day, where we had been caught in the middle of the ball park, as described above. The safari on the evening of the first day had begun on a promising note, with a fairly good-looking lady boarding the jeep in which we were seated. A security guard who held her infant joined her.
As the jeep slowly made its way on the rough, rocky jeep tracks into the forest, I began to feel the body and the frame of the jeep hit against my body, occasionally, due to the violent rocking. By this time the security guard was playing around with the child, and I began to wonder about how liberal the lady was.
After a few deer sightings, there was one hour of boring drive in the forest. By this time, I had lost all hopes of any sightings of wild animals, and had changed the lens of my camera to shoot some cute pictures of the child who was staring back at us from the front seats.
The security guard was now cozying up on the woman.
This was quite incredible, and I began to suspect that the security guard could be the beautiful woman’s husband. Ma’an, he had had a good catch!!!
The kid was as equally puzzled as us about the purpose of the safari. All we were seeing were the greenery, greenery and more greenery. No wild animals anywhere.
But, just in the last half hour of the safari, we sighted barking deer, the mouse deer, the wild elephants, the gaurs, and some strange kind of birds. Just goes to prove, how unpredictable jungle safaris can get.
I was disappointed as most of the animals were sighted after the sunset, and I had not been able to get good pictures.
But, despite lack of lot of exciting moments, that we had expected, the trip was a memorable for its own calm, and some enchanting moments. A sighting of the tiger would have crowned our efforts, but then, I guess it is scheduled for us to experience in the next few visits to the jungle. :-)
Here are the pics of the trip...
Thank you for being a part of our experience in the jungles.
Have a great week ahead.
With warm regards,
Teju
(ps: About the mysterious security guard, we realized that he was an MBA, and was in marketing Jungle Lodges in Bangalore. He was not a security guard, though he appeared like one. He also owned the huge Toyota Innova, and that explains the beautiful spouse :D )
Thursday, June 22, 2006
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
Hosur Road Bangalore
....due to the traffic jam till road shoulders ahead, I was slowing down in the service roads to Hosur Road.. when I spotted this unique 'handsfree' :D
Sunday, June 11, 2006
about the Da Vinci movie....
"Here's the PJ..." said my cousin, "What do they call the movie Da Vinci Code in Punjab?"
What the hell? One does not rename a movie just for the sake of one state.
"Whatz it?" I blurted out. It was a boring Saturday evening, and my mind goes into a coma after Friday 5pm. It almost takes the effort of reincarnation, to get back to normal on Monday morning.
Due to all these grave reasons, I refused to let any blood flow amidst the grey matter inside my skull.
"Vinci Da Code," he said aloud, followed by a set of guffaws.
"Heh heh," I smirked.
One Saturday evening found me and my two cousins at the Symphony theatre for the movie 'Da Vinci Code'. And that is where the tragedy began. Devoid of all the hot women that one can find at these cinema halls, the crowd resembled nothing less than a gay club, with chest thumping men in tights and lean men, seemingly unfed as from Nigeria.
"Where are all the babes, ma'an?" I asked my cousin, who had been one of the patrons of the theatre.
"They are all at the PVRs," he shrugged.
"##@$%&*@###@$%&&," I said. (Beeped out due to censorship).
"Then what are we doing here?" I added, more politely, by the previous standard.
"We have come to watch the movie," the other cousin added. "Yeah rite!!! Letz stick to watching the movie then", I uttered sarcastically.
.
The movie began with an old man in a dark suit running for life in a dark building, in France. He ran, ran and ran. He ran like one of those stinking rich, pot bellied men on the tread mill, who suddenly get a call from their gorgeous cousins on the day of the murder. (True!!! I have been watching a lot of murder mysteries). He runs through all those dark halls, dark corridors and darker rooms.
What the hell was happening???? I thought it was only Bangalore that had power cuts all the time.
Suddenly, like a comedian, Silas appears out of nowhere, and shoots the fat man down.
Thankfully!!!
Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks), an academic in the US, (where there is plenty of electricity, so much so that all the scenes are well lit! and so Tom Hanks is visible) is invited to France as a part of inquiry by the French police. And there again, he enters the dark zone, and for the next half hour, you hear a lot of dialogues which remain unchanged from the book (believe me, the dialogues resemble the book, WORD TO WORD!!!). You can as well take the book to the theatre, and play the game of checking the same. In the book, a lot of reader's imagination is involved.
Well, it is the same with the movie. You will have to use a lot of your imagination, as what is visible is almost next to nothing, due to all the darkness.
Finally, there is some relief when 'Robert Langdon enters the bank' scene, after an hour.
The scenes are well lit and one can start concentrating on the proceedings rather than scream at the projector controller to increase the brightness, as he bangs his head on the walls unable to do it more than the limit.
And then there is the most awaited part of the movie.
THE INTERVAL!!!
"What has Da Vinci got to do in this movie?" my cousin, who has not read the book, asked. Ask the director ma'an. That moron was supposed to explain the stuff to you.
Well, if you have not read the book, please invest the ticket money in the stock market. It is in a pretty bad shape now, and someday when it picks up, you will thank me for the tip. :D
I had to explain the first half the story in the available five minutes.
The second half went according to the novel, the director not attempting to show anything different from what you would have got from reading the novel. By the time the movie climaxes, you are tired of the term Holy Grail. You are tired of watching the Robert Langdon getting tensed about everything in life. You are tired of watching a bad looking heroine, who partly resembles Bugs Bunny (no surprise that Langdon doesn't smile anywhere in the movie).
If you have read the novel, better stick to your imagination, which certainly is better than Ron Howard's.
If you have not read the novel, and want to watch it out of vengeance, to later say 'Oh! Da Vinci Code.... I know about that!!!’ forget about it. You will have to run to a Da Vinci Code literate to decipher the movie, a bigger mystery than the murder in the movie.
Yeah. The 'Vinci Da Code' joke was better.
What the hell? One does not rename a movie just for the sake of one state.
"Whatz it?" I blurted out. It was a boring Saturday evening, and my mind goes into a coma after Friday 5pm. It almost takes the effort of reincarnation, to get back to normal on Monday morning.
Due to all these grave reasons, I refused to let any blood flow amidst the grey matter inside my skull.
"Vinci Da Code," he said aloud, followed by a set of guffaws.
"Heh heh," I smirked.
One Saturday evening found me and my two cousins at the Symphony theatre for the movie 'Da Vinci Code'. And that is where the tragedy began. Devoid of all the hot women that one can find at these cinema halls, the crowd resembled nothing less than a gay club, with chest thumping men in tights and lean men, seemingly unfed as from Nigeria.
"Where are all the babes, ma'an?" I asked my cousin, who had been one of the patrons of the theatre.
"They are all at the PVRs," he shrugged.
"##@$%&*@###@$%&&," I said. (Beeped out due to censorship).
"Then what are we doing here?" I added, more politely, by the previous standard.
"We have come to watch the movie," the other cousin added. "Yeah rite!!! Letz stick to watching the movie then", I uttered sarcastically.
.
The movie began with an old man in a dark suit running for life in a dark building, in France. He ran, ran and ran. He ran like one of those stinking rich, pot bellied men on the tread mill, who suddenly get a call from their gorgeous cousins on the day of the murder. (True!!! I have been watching a lot of murder mysteries). He runs through all those dark halls, dark corridors and darker rooms.
What the hell was happening???? I thought it was only Bangalore that had power cuts all the time.
Suddenly, like a comedian, Silas appears out of nowhere, and shoots the fat man down.
Thankfully!!!
Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks), an academic in the US, (where there is plenty of electricity, so much so that all the scenes are well lit! and so Tom Hanks is visible) is invited to France as a part of inquiry by the French police. And there again, he enters the dark zone, and for the next half hour, you hear a lot of dialogues which remain unchanged from the book (believe me, the dialogues resemble the book, WORD TO WORD!!!). You can as well take the book to the theatre, and play the game of checking the same. In the book, a lot of reader's imagination is involved.
Well, it is the same with the movie. You will have to use a lot of your imagination, as what is visible is almost next to nothing, due to all the darkness.
Finally, there is some relief when 'Robert Langdon enters the bank' scene, after an hour.
The scenes are well lit and one can start concentrating on the proceedings rather than scream at the projector controller to increase the brightness, as he bangs his head on the walls unable to do it more than the limit.
And then there is the most awaited part of the movie.
THE INTERVAL!!!
"What has Da Vinci got to do in this movie?" my cousin, who has not read the book, asked. Ask the director ma'an. That moron was supposed to explain the stuff to you.
Well, if you have not read the book, please invest the ticket money in the stock market. It is in a pretty bad shape now, and someday when it picks up, you will thank me for the tip. :D
I had to explain the first half the story in the available five minutes.
The second half went according to the novel, the director not attempting to show anything different from what you would have got from reading the novel. By the time the movie climaxes, you are tired of the term Holy Grail. You are tired of watching the Robert Langdon getting tensed about everything in life. You are tired of watching a bad looking heroine, who partly resembles Bugs Bunny (no surprise that Langdon doesn't smile anywhere in the movie).
If you have read the novel, better stick to your imagination, which certainly is better than Ron Howard's.
If you have not read the novel, and want to watch it out of vengeance, to later say 'Oh! Da Vinci Code.... I know about that!!!’ forget about it. You will have to run to a Da Vinci Code literate to decipher the movie, a bigger mystery than the murder in the movie.
Yeah. The 'Vinci Da Code' joke was better.
Wednesday, June 07, 2006
A drive on water!!
...an account of a casual drive on the lake... with a twist
The icy cold winds brushed against my face, trying to rip out the skin. They were getting partial success in the process, drying up my skin, leaving it susceptible to easy tear. But, the greater damage by the cold (-10 degree centigrade) winds was the numbing of the senses of my facial muscles, which were quickly dying out like the last few desperate wriggles of a fish out of water. I had to do this fast, else would need a lot of time to recover later, from the ruthless torture of the dangerously cold breeze.
I held my camera steady, and composed the picture of the whiteness of the frozen North Wood Lake spreading out as a backdrop to the dark brown, wooden board leading to it.
The state of Minnesota in the US is known as the 'Land of ten thousand lakes'. Though I am not sure about the exact count of the lakes in the state, I did find a lot of lakes there. The sizes of these lakes vary from just as big as a swimming pool, to the as big as that equivalent to an entire state. Some lakes were as big or bigger than a state!!!
We were at the 'Lake of the Woods' town, in the northern most part of Minnesota, on the border of US. It was a seven hours drive from Minneapolis, the place of my stay in the US.
Just then, I noticed a car entering the frame of the picture that I was about to click. IT WAS OUR CAR!!!
A Ford Taurus, which had been driven onto the frozen lake by my roommate.
Was he CRAZY???
The lake was frozen all right. But, could it take the weight of the car? How could one know what would be the thickness of the ice of the lake? How much thickness was required to support the weight of the car?
"Come fast, ma'an. Let's go for a small drive on the lake," he screamed.
I was shocked. Drive on the lake??!!! What sort of madness was this?
Any weak crack in the ice could lead to a suicidal plunge into the evil cold waters of the lake. There was no escape if something went wrong. Our fate would be sealed.
The lakeshore was absolutely deserted, but for a distant restaurant. The whiteness of the snow on the lake spread out, concealing any weakness that may be in the ice. I had recently watched the Titanic on the TV, and did not want this Taurus to become our Titanic. And there wasn't even a good-looking Ms Winslet to die for.
Just then, my eyes fell on a Ford 150, a truck making its way towards the lakeshore from the center of the lake. As my eyes rapidly searched, they found many other huge vehicles far away in the lake.
Whew!!! So, that lake was safe after all.
I clicked the picture, and then made a dash to the car. As I jumped into the car, and pulled the door shut, the sudden change in the temperatures gave a temporary relief to my facial skin, but the sensation of burning was felt as blood began to gush into the muscles. It was like painting one's face with headache balm all over.
As my friend slowly accelerated, the car began to trudge ahead, first slowly, and then a little fast with shackled efforts, as though something was holding it back. This was due to the large deposits of fresh snow over the icy surface of the lake. That made the car move like the vehicles in desert.
If not careful, one could get stuck in snow.
I realized that we were repeating mythology (not history :D ). Remember all those fables about ancient Indian sages able to walk over water??? Well, we had gone a step further, and were driving over water.
Just then we came across a small blue board nailed to the ice on the surface of the lake actually. 'Stay on the trail' the board warned.
The trail consisted of makeshift way markers of thin pieces of wood, arranged in a row, leading farther out towards the horizon where the whiteness of the lake and the depressive blue of the sky met. For the next five minutes, we drove in silence, admiring the sheer expanse of the large, plain landscape of the frozen lake, covered with snow. The white snow spread out luxuriously, till our eyes could see. At the other end, we could make out that the trail was leading into a cluster of pine trees (the only trees which are green even in winter) at a great distance. I could make out that quite a few vehicles had passes by the trail recently, due to the rough marks of the tracks. But, the marks appeared to be a little different than the expected tire tracks.
A glimpse towards my right side, had me looking towards the center of the lake, which only had whiteness till the horizon. A few dark dots were visible, which I guessed to be some trucks that had ventured towards thinner ice, for ice fishing.
It appeared as a scene out of Antarctica.
Suddenly, my friend at the driving wheel started struggling to hold the vehicle in control. The next moment we came to an abrupt halt.
Blood started to drain from my face as I had realized what had happened. "I think we are stuck, ma'an," my friend gave out a nervous laughter. The car was stuck in the snow, over the frozen lake.
But we had stayed on the trail!!!
As he tried to accelerate the vehicle, we could feel the front wheels whirl around. But the car did not budge. He put it in reverse gear, and accelerated. The powerful car struggled like a horse in captivity. But did not budge, even an inch. We got out to inspect the scene. I noticed that the wheel had burrowed into the snow, and had reached the depth where it was in contact with smooth ice. Any amount of acceleration would only make the wheels to slide on the smooth, wet ice.
I was never in such a situation before, and was nervous. I knew we had to run for help, but would the car hold long enough on the ice till we returned?
Why the hell did we ever come out onto the lake?!!
We should have taken the picture of the lake, and the sky, and should have returned.
Why did we get into all these unpleasant adventures??!!!
Should we just leave the car and run ?
How did things go wrong?
We had stayed on the trail!!!
Alright. Now was not the time for ifs, buts, and whys. We had a challenge, not a problem.
We had to overcome the challenge.
We could see that the snow buildup at the front and rear of the front tires was preventing the car from moving back. More acceleration would lead to more burrowing. Could we clear out some snow from the rear of the wheels, and try to accelerate it in backward direction?
We had nothing to shovel out the snow. Hurriedly, we searched for tools at the trunk of the car. We could only find a snowbrush. This brush is used to clear the snow deposited on the cars, when parked outdoors. The brush had a bent shovel like attachment to its handle, to remove any ice formations on the windshield and the headlights while on long drives. This attachment appeared strong enough.
I used it to pull out some snow from the rear of the front tires. The attachment was in no way a replacement of a shovel. It was just scraping off some snow here and there. The negative temperature of the surroundings, the warming up of the body due to this hard labor were inducing some strange sensations of chill and warmth. Though I had my thick coat, the chill was getting to me. The effort seemed endless.
We ditched that idea.
Next, I tried lifting the car at the front, as my friend tried to accelerate backwards. The car was too heavy. It was in no way comparable to the frail Maruti 800, which I had lifted similarly, some years back, in India. This car was a heavy mammoth.
It was half past four in the evening. During the winters, the days are very short in the US. Minnesota had sunsets at half past four in winters.
I decided to run to the shores for help, as it would get very dark, very soon.
As I walked back towards the shore, the cold winds were cutting against my face, the only exposed part of the body, as even the hands were gloved. I pulled out the muffler from my pocket, and held it against my face, leaving only the eyes. For the next five minutes, it was a very difficult walk towards the lakeshore, with an occasional cracking sound below. The cracking sound was more towards the shores, as the grass from narrow lakebed would have induced weaknesses in the ice.
Every step was making me nervous. I was not walking back on the trail, as the trail took a longer route to the shore. Hence, the route I was taking to the shore was untested yet.
Also, the amount of snow over the ice was decreasing towards the shore. This made the ice more slippery. I had to watch my every step, as a fall on the ice may be nasty. It would be more hurting than falling on the muddy ground. But, that was the least of my worries. I was more concerned about falling on thin ice, which might break the winter diet of any sharks below the layer of snow....heh heh.
Just kidding.
There are no sharks in these lakes, but the water was cold enough to paralyze the body within minutes.
I turned back for a glance at what my friend was doing. Now, it was getting very dark, and I could hardly see the car. But, he had switched on the 'hazard lights'. This was an intelligent move. Maybe some passing truck might notice, and would tug the car out of the pit.
I turned and moved towards the small restaurant on the lakeshore. As I moved carefully, avoiding the slippery ice formations on the roads of the lakeshore, I noticed that almost all the vehicles had gone now. My hopes of getting help were disappearing by the minute.
Now, I began cursing myself. I should have brought out my digital camera, and some other stuff lying in the rear of the car. If the car went down, all our other stuff would go down with it.
As I entered the restaurant on the lakeshore, I came up to the some of the old waitresses, relaxing with drinks, just before closing. I stated my case to them.
"So you mean, you are stuck on the lake???" the waitresses seemed shocked beyond belief.
I stated that we had just followed the trail.
"Trail? What trail? That is no trail for a car. It is the trail for the snowmobiles," uttered the old, blond waitress. The snowmobiles are vehicles designed to be rode over the snow.
So, the strikingly rough tracks on the trail were from snowmobiles!!!
I felt like hiding under the table around which they were sitting.
I asked her if she knew of contact numbers of any towing vehicles. "I doubt if the ice can hold the weight of the towing vehicles, but I will try to get you numbers anyway," said one of the waitresses, as she took me over to the telephone directory. She showed me to some phone numbers. All the three numbers failed to respond.
"Hmm," she said, "I have a shovel in my car trunk. It is a little broken, but might help you shovel out some snow," she said as she led me out to her car, and got me an aluminum shovel.
Though I was not sure about whether shoveling could help us get the car out, I thought that it was better than nothing. I was praying that some of the trucks at the center of the lake would come driving down towards the shore, and help us pull the car out of the pit. I did not know if the shovel could be of any help at all.
I thanked her, and started on my trudge back to the lake, scaling my path carefully, a little nervous due to the occasional cracking sounds from beneath, with the shovel on my shoulders. When I reached the car, there was the Ford truck moving away from the car. I was wondering if he would help us out. I noticed that he turned back towards the car and came upto us.
My friend told me later that they had tried to tow the car already, by the truck, but the car had failed to move. He was returning as he had not been able to help, but now seeing me with a shovel, he guessed that it might work this time.
I tried to shovel out the snow from the front and rear of the front tires. Just then, a huge man on a snowmobile stopped over. He appeared to be a pin up man for the WWE fans. The unbelievably huge shoulders, the singular design of his beard gave away that he would have been a Harley Davidson biker in summer.
He took the shovel from me and hit out at the snow with great vigor. I was left marveling about the man's strength, despite appearing well over his early forties.
After shoveling out the snow, the trucker tied a rope to the cars' rear, accelerating his truck.
The car wriggled like a scared snake, when the truck pulled it out of the pit, and then came to a halt.
It was a sight of great relief for me, who had already been planning to book lodge rooms at this place.
The huge man who had helped me shovel, suggested that only my friend be in the car, as he drove it to the lake shore, to have the minimum weight in the car. He offered me a ride to the lakeshore on his sleek snowmobile.
"That was one big adventure for you guys," the biker blurted out on the top of the roar of the snowmobile engines. "Yeah," I said, " Hope we don't do it again."
"You need to get a truck ma'an," the biker said, "Give the car to your girl."
"Hahaha," I let out a guffaw, "You are right." What did he know?!! I had seen more women on the truck, than cars, in Minnesota and Wisconsin.
In the restaurant, all the old waitresses were very happy, and congratulated us for the effort. They also warned me to be careful the next time when we are driving, on frozen water.
Thanking the trucker, and the snowmobiler for their help, and the waitress for her shovel, we started our long drive back home into the darkness.
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