Brahmagiri – A trek of blood, sweat, wet and moolah amidst natural beauty

Day 0 – 10 June 2011, Friday

    An 18 seater booked for the trek – A first in our gang’s outing. 18 for a trek!! Still could not believe it when it was done. After a total of 10 modifications and cancellations and confusions and rate haggling with TT owners, 12 members – tintin, manja, monks, raghu, finny, me(ppr), Ummi, skm, Sai, boyz, Subith, prashanth turned up to trek the Brahmagiri hill (1608m high), in Kodagu district – our monsoon trek for the year. What a drastic change from the abysmally low 3 person trek we went to Arbi Bandajje… 🙂

    We started at 11pm, from Vyalikaval police station, home to Ummi. P.S: Ummi doesn’t reside in the police station but close to it, as confused by a certain police constable in Yelahanka… 😛 When 12 pickups were done, the clock had stuck 12 and moved a further 30 minutes ahead, and we had roamed half of Rajarajeshwari nagar to pickup Monks, who seemed to have an unusual idea for fun, by not giving us the correct directions…:P

Day 1 – 11 June 2011, Saturday

    The cab traveled through the Bangalore-Mysore SH17 to Srirangapatna and then the ring road to join Hunsur road, then took a deviation towards Hunsur taking the Mysore-Madikere road (SH-88). On reaching Hunsur, we took the Virajpet-Mysore road (SH-90) towards Gonikoppal. Then, took a left turn taking the SH89 which led to Sirimangala. Once we cross the Bangalore-Mysore highway, the roads start moving from super highways to pothole filled irritating double lanes. You can rest assured that your sleep is not contiguous and you wake up at sporadic bursts of huge potholes.

    Sirimangala is the usual Indian quite and beautiful town in the midst of natures beauty which we strive to see every day. We have to take permission from the forest office to enter the forest, as well as to stay at the IB guest house at Narimale, to spend the night. Camping at the peak or anywhere else in the forest is not allowed. So, don’t bother about carrying tents.

    The forest officer arrives at 9am and it is advisable to phone him once and confirm about the availability of trek and guest house before hand, instead of arriving at Sirimangala and then requesting for the same. Only a few people are allowed to trek each weekend. So, it can be termed as reservation. There are a couple of hotels near the forest office and the breakfast was tasty enough to let ourselves take parcel for the afternoon lunch too. The officer’s advice was to not go for the trek because of the rains as we had to cross a stream in the middle of the forest, which would be overflowing in this season, due to the incessant rains over the past 15 days. Since we had arrived from so far and had the entire trek to ourselves with no other batches for the week, decide to take a chance and paid the sum of 3500 for two days for the guest house, 200 per head for entry, 75 trekking fee per day per person, 500 per day for the guide, 350 per head for the trek permission. This came up to an enormous 8700 for 12 people!! My god, when did trekking become so costly!! I guess being so close to Kerala, the authorities decide to charge for every possible thing for the trek or is it a tactic to lessen the crowd in the forest reserve, which is forcing the elephants to come towards towns and villages?? Either way, we paid though our noses and this is the highest we paid for a two day trek.

Irupu water falls

     By this time, everybody had their morning chores completed in the guesthouse near the office and we were ready to leave by 10am. The trek starts from Irupu falls which is 9Km from Sirimangala. It was a 30 minute journey through scenic land but there was ample cloud cover hanging around. On arrival, the forest guard who was supposed to accompany us for the trek as a guide was furious that we were being allowed to trek in this weather and said it was impossible to cross the stream. By the time skm used his convincing skills and the guide agreed to join us, it was already 1pm. What a waste of time! We waited at Irupu falls and after numerous phone calls, the guide finally arrived at 2pm testing our patience to the limit and we had cursed him quite a few times under our breaths…

Protection from onslaught from the leeches

    Our first stop was at the Guesthouse in Narimale which is a 4km trek from the falls. A trek of 2.5km takes us across a small stream which needs to be crossed over the wooden logs laid across and a further 1.5km after that to the Guest House. It began raining 30 minutes into the trek and ceased only to give us a few glimpses of the beauty through which we were traveling. The leeches had a gala time, suddenly it was a fair for them. 5 days of lone time and then 13 fresh pair of legs to suck out blood from during this particular weekend. We literally ran across the forest cover many times, to minimize the number of leeches that grab onto our shoes.

First sight after the rain abated

rain water flowing down the trek path

    The grasslands provided a bit of relief with fewer leeches and the rain had stopped by then. Finally arrived at the guest house after 1 hour and 45 minutes. The guide informed us that we will not be able to trek in this weather to the peak. So, just when we thought of covering the caves and hoping for the peak the next day, another disappointment was waiting for us, as we were informed that there was no permission to trek to Munikal Caves which is a 3km away from the guest house as it lies in the Kerala province. 3pm on a sat in a guest house in the middle of the Brahmagiri forest range, with no fire wood, several leech bites, most of them bleeding and severe rain. You can term it a disaster but it wasn’t, all this is part of the trek. If you didn’t face any of these then where is the question of a “sense of adventure” or “being with nature”??? Passed our time playing Mafia, our very own Monks favorite game and dumb charades. It was a fun filled, lazy and relaxing time. 🙂

Guest house in Narimale

    With no firewood, our plans of having noodles for dinner went out of the window and we had to settle for bread-jam and chocos. Also, note that there is a stream very close to the guesthouse and we can get drinking water. By 9pm, we settled into the 2 rooms available in the guest house. And to add some more fun into the stay, people with the rented sleeping bags who attached it to their bags found it totally wet due to the rain and couldn’t use it.  Book and then rent sleeping bags for 6 people, carry them all the way in the trek and dump them without any use. Talk of waste of money, time and energy… 😛 Few of us who had their own sleeping bags had them in the trekking bag and luckily had no such worries… 🙂

Day 2 – 12 June 2011, Sunday

    Travel so far spending so much moolah and unable to trek was a disappointment we weren’t ready to take. We literally prayed to god the previous night to let us trek Brahmagiri. Our prayers were answered by a pleasant morning, with a bit of cloud cover and the guide woke us at 6am and broke the good news that we can trek to the peak. 🙂 By 7am, we were geared up with an apple and an energy bar each and a few water bottles to cover the 12km to the Brahmagiri peak and back.

    The trek is majorly though grasslands, so assuming that we will not to be bothered much by the dreaded leeches, did not take enough precautions for a possible onslaught on us.. 😛 What a difference that turned out to be!! It all started when 1 hour into the trek, the leading pack did not inform and took a left turn towards the peak, we under any natural scenario took the straight path which in-fact deviated away from the peak. The entire stretch was forest cover and leech filled. We refused to even bother about flicking them off the shoes coz, every time we stopped our walk and removed the leeches, more numbers would have already climbed the shoes than the numbers we flicked out. We saw a forest guard tower and headed towards it. Our guide, 30 minutes into the wrong turn, came back to call us to inform that we were in-fact heading into Kerala and would have been detained by the forest guards for not having permission from the Kerala forest department to enter that part of the reserve. But we have no regrets to have taken the route, as the views the range provided was quite spell binding. The mist and clouds just above the green hills and super cool breeze blowing across.  It was a deviation worthy for us. The previous day accounted for just about 10pic due to the rain but this time it was click-mania. It was better to get lost in such an amazing place and be found rather than just follow the actual trail… 🙂

some amazing views near the Kerala border

Kerala watch tower. 30minutes into the wrong route

     After 2 and 1/2 hours, with an hour’s wrong deviation included, we arrived at the base of the peak. The last part of the climb is pretty steep and took us about 20minutes to complete the super-slippery surface. On reaching the top, views were not much to be appreciated due to the mist but the views en-route made up for that.

the final ascent

    The descent from the peak turned out to be an adventure in itself. Quite a few of us slipped at-least once and Finny cramped up badly in-between. After a spray of Volini, he was able to pick up pace. A return journey of 1&1/2 hour was again through the serene, pristine and scenic hills was a good one.

the descent

     On reaching the guesthouse we packed up and had a few of the snacks left out before moving out. By 12pm, we were ready to move but the rain gods assumed that we had requested their services back, began to show their full prowess. The return journey was again mostly through the forest cover through the home of the leeches and them punishing us again for treading into their home. By 2pm we came to the end of the trek and forest guard took 500 for his services in the rain. I believe, it is better to have the trekking privatized. The government officials collect the trekking amount literally twice  -One part to the government and one part to their own pocket.

Disciplined set of guys walking in a single file.. 😛

     Had a wonderful massage by the Irupu falls, with the water falling directly over our aching body. Being directly under a water fall in full flow is amazingly refreshing. I suggest every one try it after a trek if possible. We returned back to the waiting cab at 3pm and started out return journey to Bangalore. Had a couple of big breaks for lunch and snacks. This along with the amazingly slow driving by our driver led us into Bangalore limits only at 11:30pm. After dropping 8 people as close as possible to their homes as time permitted, the clock was pointing 12:30 am and we were at Vyalikaval. The driver had a big argument with the owner of the cab about the payment and this delayed us by another 45 minutes. Finally skm came to the rescue again (i tell you this guy should do his MBA… 🙂 ) to convince the driver to drop me and Finny home as we stayed the farthest. Reached home around 2pm. It was going to be a tiring day ahead but no regrets due to another good trek. I and many of my trek mates will take it anytime and everytime… 🙂

gang at the peak

Pics links:

https://picasaweb.google.com/ppr.bms/Bramhagiri#

https://picasaweb.google.com/unithinbhat/BrahmagiriTrek
https://picasaweb.google.com/manjunathmb.bms/Brahmagiri#
https://picasaweb.google.com/ragupalankar/Brahmagiri_12_6_2011#

Points to be noted:

1. Total trek distance – (5.5km to Narimale + 6km to the peak) * 2 = 23kms.
• Time taken for climb = 4 hours maximum.
• Time taken to trek down = 3 hours max.
2. Total cost 2000 per head including the cab charges.
•  3500 for two days for the guest house
• 200 per head for forest entry
• 75 trekking fee per day per person
• 500 per day for the guide
• 350 per head for the trek permission
3. Contact number of Forest officer, Brahmagiri: 08274246331 and 09481989970.
4. No tents and sleeping bags required. Carry enough cash to pay for the entry fee.
5. Trek Difficulty level : Easy to moderate.

Marathon mania begins

Did you people know that running is an addiction?? 

    Wiki starts the definition of addiction as ” Addiction has been defined as physical and psychological dependence on psychoactive substances”. Common features of addiction:

1) Positive reinforcement

2) Negative reinforcement

3) Craving

But in this case, the psychoactive substance is the run itself. For a runner, we could use the same terminology: 

A run makes the runner happy –> Positive Reinforcement 

A runner feels it is a stress reliever –> Negetive Reinforcement and finally

A runner feels and wants to run watching other people run –> Craving.

    There is a major point to be noted here. Running  is a positive addiction!! Along with trekking, a run/jog has become a sort of motivation to better myself every time I go out to run. Its been just 2 months since the start of the run. But the motivation to run a few kms every alternate day has increased each day. Currently, I believe I am at the start of phase 2… So, I am getting addicted for sure!! 😛

    All this began with tintin, a regular runner registering himself and asking me and Manja to register for the Sunfeast 10K Bangalore, 2010 marathon. I did register but failed to even start the marathon meanwhile both Manja and Tintin did well. So, this time around, no chances to be taken and I had one simple aim – “Complete the 2011 Bangalore marathon”. 

Event: TCS 10K marathon 2011, Bangalore

Category: Open 10K Run

Distance: 10 kms

Date: 05 June 2011

Event time: 8am
BIB number: 3345

Venue: Kanteerava Stadium

Participants: 4 of us: Tintin, Manja and new comers ppr(me) and Santo – The happy bugger along with 10000 other Bangaloreans.

Open 10K Route

    The event was organised pretty well though people entering from North Bangalore had to literally travel all the way to Ulsoor from KR circle to park their vehicles in UB city!! Once we entered the grounds, we found the participants were bit of over-enthusiasts though. They shoved each other around the start line for the start of the race. A few people went over-the-bar literally to be ahead of the line to start the race. Each of us were provided with bib numbers to wear on the T-shirts and a running chip to be attached to our shoes for registering our start, breakup and end times for the race. The race began and some of the runners including me tried to do a bike-in-traffic and find gaps to go through slow starters, and then came the manic runners who literally elbowed people out of the way to get a few ample seconds ahead for a bit of glory. But a majority were running for themselves and that is the most important thing – You run for yourself and not to prove others that you ran so fast or faster. 

    Water and energy drinks were provided at a number of places and quite a few jawans and other people lined up supporting and shouting encouragements to the runners. On completion of the race, good refreshments were provided and on the whole felt that the management was pretty decent except for the parking problem faced by North Bangaloreans.

Here are a few snaps of me in the race:

At the finish line

    Completed the race in a below average 69min and 59 sec with me coming in at 2439 in the overall standing. But the aim of completing the marathon was achieved!! So, next target for 2012 marathon – anything less than 60minutes. Till then, get the addiction going, keep running… 🙂


Website: http://www.tcsworld10k.procamrunning.in/
Timing info: http://www.timingindia.com/results_page.php
Pics:http://www.global-pix.com/scripts/event.py?event=Sports/CPUK/2011/Bangalore%2010K&match=3345

A Painted House

    John Grisham’s 12th novel “A painted house” released in 2001, is the first novel to deviate from his standard legal-thriller genre. This is a contemplative and slow paced story. The plot is in rural Arkansas, and the year 1952. In a small county called The Black Oak, Luke Chandler, a 7 year old, the story’s protagonist is the person eyes through which we see the plot unravel. Luke belongs to a family of cotton farmers with 80 acres of land for rent. They live in the cotton fields with his parents and grandparents Pappy(Eli) and gran(Ruth) in a little house that’s never been painted. The family leads a simple life with hard-work but at the same time pessimistic about their future. These farmers are totally dependent on rain gods and nature in general. The Chandlers are in such an ungrateful profession that with a good crop, they break even, with no extra debts need be taken. But with a crop failure, family goes deeper into debt and this happens almost every year.

    When the cotton is ready to be picked, the Chandlers get The ‘hill people’ and the Mexicans to work for them. Luke works in the farm and gets paid for harvesting the cotton like any other worker. Life sails wonderfully with amazing homemade and homegrown food and, baseball games to be followed. As a football fan, he loves Cardinal jacket and begins saving money from his earnings.

    The plot moves idly until Luke finds the arrogant Hank of “hill people” and the switch-knife wielding cowboy, the two main villains in the plot. Luke witnesses two murders, watches his feelings for Tally(Hank’s 17 year old sister) rise, the romance blooming between cowboy and Tally, witnesses the birth of uncle Ricky’s illegitimate child and last but not the least, floods devastating their crop. In the midst of all this, Hank’s retarded brother starts painting the Chandler’s house using his own earnings to buy paint.

    A 7 year old kid experiences things that even grown men do not in a life time. He has to bear a lot of secrets, which if revealed could alter the fate of not only his but other families in the county as well. Luke’s Mom is interested to move to the city to lead a better life. Will the floods and the debt finally tip the scales in her favor and the family breakaway from being another generation of debt-ridden cotton farmers? Will Luke say good bye to his beloved grandparents and his town forever?

    The highlight comes when Luke invests his savings to buy paint to complete the house painting instead of buying the Cardinal jacket. Simply put, “A painted house” is a story of 7 year old Luke losing his innocence and becoming a man at heart. A 6/10 rating for this one.

The Last Juror

    The Last Juror is the 17th novel and a legal thriller from John Grisham, released in 2004. The story begins with Willie Traynor, a 23 year old college dropout from Memphis, arrives in Clanton, Mississippi in 1970 to work as an intern in “The Ford County Times”. The chief editor Wilson Caudle, famous for his obituaries drives the Times to bankruptcy after years of negligence and struggle. By then,  much to the towns shock, Wilson now fondly called Willie buys the newspaper through his wealthy grandmother. Willie continues with the good obituaries and starts writing obituaries even of blacks at a time when the racism was still at a high in the county. Willie then befriends Callie Ruffin an elderly black woman, one of the finest citizens in ford county who has 7 of her 8 children holding PhD’s and begins visiting her for her wonderful home cooked meal.

    The town is stunned with the rape and murder of a young widow Rhoda Kassellaw by Danny Padgitt, of the infamous mafia Padgitt family, who stay in Padgitt Island a few kms off Ford County. The murder is witnessed by her two young kids. The Padgitt family is renowned for everything illegal, working under a legal Timber yard name. The Times covers the entire episode with front page news and Willie is threatened for the same. Danny is subsequently arrested and Miss Callie is called for jury duty in a packed court house trial. Danny threatens the entire jury in open court with death if he is convicted. The jury finds Danny guilty but finds it difficult to assign death penalty. So, he is sentenced to life in prison.

    9 years on, Danny is paroled for good behavior and then the killing of the Jury begins. 2 Jurors are killed by sniper hits and another maimed by a letter bomb. Everybody fears for the other Jury members while Miss Callie reveals to Willie that only the jurors who were against the death penalty are being killed. The police naturally arrest Danny and bring him in, but is assassinated during the trail. The story is about who killed the Jury members?  Who assassinated Danny? Will the Padgitt family extract revenge by killing Miss Callie and the remaining Jury members? Will Willie pay for the bold news published about the trial? Will the small time newspaper ford county times survive?

    The book covers the beautiful relation between a 23 year old Willie and 59 year old Miss Callie, racism in a small county much similar to the concept of untouchables or low caste or low race seen across much of the world, the dilemma that a religious person faces about the concept of a death penalty to a murderer, the news reported and working of a small time newspaper firm and most importantly a young college dropout making his mark in an unknown skeptical town. I would rate it as 7/10.

Dandeli, Yana, Gokarna, Sirsi

Day 0: (21 April 2011, Thursday):  Bangalore -> Dandeli:

    8 of us Tintin(Nithin), monks(shashi), manja, ummi, shrek(shravan), loki, sai and ppr(me) decided for a summer trip which is usually a non-trek and no bike-ride i.e, in general, a non hectic trip. This time it was Dandeli, Yana, Gokarna and Sirsi in Uttara Kannada. We booked tickets in the 10:45pm Rajahamsa to Dandeli. Long weekend + Rains =  Chaos in KSRTC bus stand. Our bus eventually left at 11:45pm.

Day 1: (22 April 2011, Friday): Dandeli:

    We reached Dandeli at 10am, to find that the state lodge (situated exactly opposite to the bus-stand) where we had booked rooms for the day, refused availability. After much haggling with the manager, he parted with an ac room for Rs.700 and non ac one for Rs.350. Even further haggling and we were able to extract 2 rooms with non-ac for Rs.880 for 8 guys. A commendable job!! 😀

    

    We landed in Dandeli for the sole purpose of water sports and adventures particularly rappelling. We booked adventure activities from State adventures for a rate of Rs.1000 per head which included Kayaking, Coracle ride, jacuzzi point, river crossing and Crocodile vella. But much to our disappointment, the organizer said that some endangered bird had laid its egg in the rappelling path and we will not be able to do it. 

    We freshened ourselves up and had breakfast at a not so decent hotel. The organizers had organized for a jeep costing Rs.1100 to take us on a 15km journey to Bison River Resort in Ganesha gudi along the bank of river Kali, which was our haven for water sports. Our first activity was Kayaking. Having already kayak-ed quite a few times before, we were quite used to it. But the scenery was good and the place very peaceful. Enjoyed the 1 hour slow ride on the river. Next in line was the boring coracle ride, but we at-least got a chance to take a few pics this time around, as we didn’t take our cams during our kayak trip. After a 20 minute ride, we were taken to the jacuzzi point, where boulders along the river path had created natural seats for us to sit down and let the fast rushing water to flow over us giving a good massage en-route. 30 minutes ran past before we knew and we were very sleepy in the hot sun after the wonderful cool bath… 🙂



River Kali




Sai at jacuzzi point



    When we returned to the bank, the organizer told us that river-crossing was cancelled, as the water level was not too high and the crossing could be rather termed bande(boulder)-crossing… 😛 This disappointed us mightily, but to our luck, we found that rappelling was open. After a 22km ride into middle of the forest near Jagalbete, where an old mining spot is converted into an rappelling point. 3 guys from the Bison river resort were clubbed along with us for this event. 



Our rappelling spot



    Our guide/instructor explained the intricate details of how to go about rappelling safely. The first guy went down the 75feet cliff without any mistakes. But the second person to go, skidded and fell and hit the cliff’s boulders multiple times and reached down with bruised elbows and bloody knee. Now our stomachs squirmed and we had cold feet in mid-day standing on top of a cliff with the sun in all his glory. To add to this, the 8 of us not knowing about the availability of rappelling had come in wearing floaters and chappals with no grip whatsoever.. 😛 

    7 of our gang got down while I was stationed above as a photographer to take pictures of them in the act. I was the last one to go down. Having seen quite a few adventure events and X-games where the experts followed a particular method of doing small leaps and covering major height that way. I followed this method instead of the walk perpendicularly to the cliff, which others before me had followed. It was thrilling and pumped up the adrenaline. One of the best things I have done till date. 

    On the return journey, it was almost 6pm and we bunked the crocodile vella as a majority were uninterested. The last bus to Sirsi goes by 6:30pm. Since we had missed that by a good 30 minutes, we went to our rooms to clean up and have our dinner and get some rest.



Shrek getting ready for rappelling



Day 2: (23 April 2011, Saturday): Dandeli -> Yana -> Vibuthi falls -> Om beach, Gokarna:

    After a night of war with the mosquitoes, we were too drowsy but still caught the 7:30am bus to Sirsi via Yellapura. I will never want to train for driving where the driver of this particular bus trained. He never lifted his foot from the accelerator for any road hump, pothole or come what may. We were thrown around in the seats (we were too smart to sit in the last but one row for this one.. :P) for 2 hours covering 120kms before we reached Sirsi New bus stand right in the middle of nowhere. After a 5 minute wait, we were taken to the old bus-stand amidst civilization. Had a wonderful breakfast of idlis, puris and kokam juice in a small hotel and booked a cab (Winger – 12 seater) to roam around for 2 days at Rs.5000. 

    By 12pm, our cab was ready and we were on our way to our first destination, YanaKumta, we were dropped at the entrance to Yana. A 0.5 km trek lead us to  the famous 2 huge solid black rocks Bhairaveshwara Shikhara and the Mohini Shikhara named after Lord Shiva and Pravathi ma. 



Mohini Shikara




Bhairaveshwara Shikhara



    After a brief visit to the temple dedicated to Swayambu(created by its own accord) Linga which is situated below Bhairaveshwara Shikhara, we moved towards the famous caves behind the temple. The caves are magnificent piece of artistry by nature. The crevices at the top of the caves form spectacular formations while the whole cave path is strewn with natural beauty though covered with bats and smells of bat droppi. This place is a heaven for photographers… 🙂 We took about 1 hour to cover the whole cave which in normal walking speed should take at a maximum of 10 minutes. 



Infront of the famous caves of Bhairaveshwara Shikara





Comet shaped crevice in the caves of Bhairaveshwara Shikhara




A lone barren tree atop the Shikara



    We next “tried” to visit the cave below Mohini Shikara. The path is made of concrete steps. Monks and me had a race to the cave and we over-shot the cave by 3kms. We had almost reached the parking lot at the other entrance.. 😀 After waiting for about 20 minutes, we saw tintin and loki ambling along, forming a “search and rescue” party to get us back. Well at-least the S & R mission was accomplished… 😛

    Our next stop was Vibhuti Falls at a short distance from Yana. The 2km trek to the waterfall is good and the waterfall is refreshing to say the least. We had the entire waterfall to ourselves and clicked photos to our will. I rechristen Loki as the fishy-boy and i mean it literally. The small fish in the pool close the water fall were attracted to loki’s feet like moth to fire.. 😛 



Vibhuti falls




Add caption



    By the time we returned to the cab, it was 5pm and the 60km and 1 hour ride to Gokarna was smooth. We entered the famous Om beach where we had booked beach shacks/huts for the night at Om Shree Ganesh Resort. But on arrival the manager much similar to the previous day in Dandeli refused us saying accommodations were full. This is blatant disregard of trust. If you donot have pre-booking then why agree in the first place. We were told to wait back to talk to the owner while tintin and Monks went ahead to search other options. The owner arrived and said 3 rooms were available (magically appeared i guess) at Rs.300 per room. But the guys had found Jungle resort which gave us 2 better shacks for Rs.200 each and we readily accepted. We had a good dinner at “Dolphin Dive Cafe” frequented by foreigners and the cleaner here is a foreigner too. Talk about outsourcing!!! 😛 Took a stroll in the beach at night with no one to disturb except an occasional stray dog whose sleep we disturbed or a tourist with torch finding his way back to his shack.



Om beach




Jungle resort shack



Day 3: (24 April 2011, Sunday): Gokarna -> UnchaLi falls -> Marikamba temple -> Banvasi -> Sirsi -> Bangalore:

    For a second consecutive night we faced the wrath of mosquitoes. Again got up in a drowsy state but soon was wide awake by the thought of a beach trek… 🙂 Om beach to Paradise beach, the 6km trek along the beach and cliffs. We started the trek at 6:30am, by walking all along the Om beach to its other end and climbed up the hill. The sun was rising and following the beach along the cliff, within half an hour reached Half Moon Beach which is a totally non commercialized small beach with only crabs as its inhabitants.. 🙂 



End of Om beach along the trek





Sunrise along the trek path



    From here, the route is much rougher along the slippery boulders with the sea crashing into the boulders. After crossing another cliff/peak, Paradise beach was visible. There are a couple of shacks or resorts here but the crowd is very less. This was one of the most beautiful short treks ever taken by us.. 🙂



At half moon beach




Flowers at sunrise




Paradise beach



    It was 8am and we decided to hitch a boat ride back to Om beach costing Rs.100 per head. But along the way, we were taken to the portions of sea where Dolphin’s frequent and were lucky enough to catch a glimpse of few of them. On returning to Om beach, we had our breakfast again at “Dolphin dive cafe” and then dived into the sea and played for an hour. Took a long shower in the open roof bathrooms like in our villages… 🙂

    By 12pm, we were back in the cab. Our first destination was the Maha Ganapathi Temple and then the famous Mahabaleshwar Temple which holds the atmalinga. We began our last destination of the trip Sirsi. Had ShevBujiya for lunch (never even heard of the name before but tasted good). Took a deviation en-route and watched the beautiful 116 meter drop UnchaLi falls near Heggarne. 



UnchaLi falls



L to R: Monks me and tintin super excited for a pic.. 😀



    The remaining 35km of the journey to Sirsi was very good as it drizzled all the way. We visited the famous Marikamba temple and then the Banvasi temple which is 22kms away from Sirsi town. Banvasi temple is a temple dedicated to Madhukeshwar which is a linga in the colour of honey built in  9th century. The temple gave us ample opportunities to take good pics of the sunset. We returned back to Sirsi town to have dinner and catch the 9pm Rajahamsa back to Bangalore.



Marikamba temple




Statue at the Entrance to Banvasi temple



Ardha ganapathi – One of its kind.





Sunset at Banvasi temple



    It was a very good trip considering the amazing places we visited both natural and man made wonders. Though the hospitality and courtesy of Indians towards one another is still poor, the places we visit negates the effects and has more to offer us new views and perspectives on nature. This makes us want more of such trips.



L to R: Shrek, Tintin, Ummi, Monks, Sai, Loki, me(ppr) and Manja… 🙂



Summary:

1. Costs 3.5K per head including 1K for adventure sports.
2. Reconfirm your hotel bookings.

pics link:

https://picasaweb.google.com/ppr.bms/DandeliYanaGokarnaSirsi?feat=email#

https://picasaweb.google.com/unithinbhat/NorthCanaraTrip#

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From "The Indian cricket team" to "Team India" !!

    There are 7 major dates which come to mind whenever I think of Indian cricket. These are just my favorite moments or the ones which impacted me and I believe Indian cricket the most.

June 25, 1983 –

    With odds of around 66:1 before the start of the world cup, India were the ultimate underdogs in the third edition of the worldcup. Kapil Dev lifted the worldcup in Lords, the home of cricket, to ground the mighty West Indies, who have not yet recovered from that. It was the day when a nation arouse from its slumber to embrace a sport which was considered as “goron walon ka khel” until then.

February 26, 2000 –

    Sourav Ganguly is named captain of the Indian team for the five-ODI home series against South Africa. India wins series 3-2. The appointment of Dada as captain was one of the biggest moments in Indian cricket. He turned around the fortunes of a team, which was reeling with senior-junior divide, had talented but directionless younsters, was too passive to look eye-to-eye with a opponent when sledged, was a mediocre team with a few outstanding players and had no team spirit. He brought about the change in half a decade instilling confidence in young stars and showing the team that matches are not won by individuals alone. It is under him that the team learnt to fear no opponent nor their bouncy tracks and most important of all, It is under him that India learnt the art of winning overseas.

April 7, 2000 –

    The day when match fixing allegations rocked cricket. Delhi police revealed that they had a recording of a conversation between Cronje and Sanjay Chawla, a bookie and what followed was opening of a closet filled with skeletons. Saleem Malik, Ata-ur-Rehman (both Pak), Mohammad Azharuddin, Ajay Sharma, Manoj Prabhakar, Ajay Jadeja(Indians), Hansie Cronje, Herschelle Gibbs, Pieter Strydom and Nicky Boje  (South Africans) were named. This almost led the cricket into a coma, but still knowing that the majority of the cricket stars were still clean, proved to be the medicine at the right time. I just cannot envisage the situation if Sachin was brought into the scandal. That would have killed cricket in India. Thankfully the clean cricketers saved the day and the sport lived to see another day.

March 15, 2001 –

    India v Australia at Eden Gardens, Kolkata. 1-0 down in the seris and to add to that, following-on after trailing by 274 in first innings of the second test, India went on to win by 171 runs with one of the best all time performances by a cricket team to beat the number one test team in the world, who were on an 16 match winning streak in Tests, with VVS laxman smashing 281, “The Wall” Dravid accumulating 180 and Bajji picking up 13 wickets which also included a hatrick. This was the point when the team announced itself to the world. It was the start of the golden age for Indian cricket. We finally went on to beat the Aussies 2-1 after being 1-0 down in the series.

September 14, 2007 –

    Winning several series overseas, but nothing big to show-off. We were what the Dutch was in football. Captain cool (some call him captain lucky stars.. :P) MS Dhoni lifted the inaugural T20 world cup in Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg, South Africa by beating Pakistan by 5 runs in a thrilling finale which almost led to several heart attacks around India… 😛 This turned around the Indian adminstrators attitude towards T20, leading to the start of the glamorous IPL the next year.

December 06, 2009 –

    India becomes number 1 Test team for the first time by beating SriLanka in Mumbai’s Brabourne Stadium and winning the 3 match test series 2-0. This was just a report card at the end of the year for what the team had achieved in a decade.

April 2, 2011 –

    The joy in the world increased by 20% on this day… Thats exactly the Indian population around the world… 🙂 Dhoni lifting the 10th edition of the worldcup by beating Srilanka at the Wankede, Mumbai after scripting memorable victories under the most extreme pressure situations against the now-not-so-mighty Aussies and a corner-me-and-i-fight-back Pakistan. A fairytale script fit for a Yash raj movie. The dream of a billion to lift the trophy after 28 years with a grandmaster in the final stages of the most outstanding career possible in cricketing terms. 

    It was not won on a single day. This journey began exactly 10 years go in Kolkotta under Sourav Ganguly and the team has reached the pinnacle under Dhoni in Mumbai. Due credit must be given to the coaches with John Wright starting the building of a dream, Greg Chappel derailing it & causing a nightmare and finally Gary Kristen accomplishing what they set out to achieve 10 years ago.

    This team has moved from the Passiveness of Sunny Gavaskar to the Passive-aggression of Sachin Tendulkar to the Devastating-aggression of Virender Sehwag. It plays along with the mood of the Indians accross the globe. A billion people have a belief and get a sense of achievement for what these 11 players do on a cricket ground. We have finally witnessed the change from “The Indian team” to “Team India” … 🙂

Madhugiri fort – The acropolis of Tumkur

    It had been some time since we had a day’s bike trip. As Tintin would call it “Back to the basics”. With quite a few places left to be covered in and around Bangalore, we decided to visit Madhugiri fort near Tumkur. After too many drop outs(again and again… this is becoming quite a trend since the last few months… 😦 …. ) me(ppr), Tintin and finny were ready to leave on a fine Saturday morning in mid-March.

About Madhugiri fort:

    Standing at 3930 feet, Madhugiri hill in Tumkur District is the second largest monolith in Asia. The Ganga Dynasty, dominated by the Jains began the construction of the fort. Raja Heera Gowda of the Vijayanagar dynasty completed the fort. It was ultimately taken over by HyderAli/Tipu Sultan and at last became a part of the Mysore empire under the British control. There are quite a few trekking spots in the surrounding which include Chennarayana Durga, Devarayana Durga, Siddara Betta.

Madhugiri hill visible enroute

The D-day: Saturday, 19 March 2011

      Got a wake-up call from Tintin for a change. Usually, the trend is such that, I call up people and say that I am ready to leave… 😛 By 7:30am all 3 bikers were ready at the Nice road – Tumkur road junction. There are several routes to reach Madhugiri and we took the one via Koratagere. NH4 is a 4 laned ride but take the flyover every time. We tried to take the service road route and were perplexed by the number of road humps in place. 4 huge road humps for almost every crossing. This considerably slows you down. We had breakfast and packed our lunches in Kamat. After 30km, since the Nice road-Tumkur road junction, we reached Dobbaspet. Take a deviation to the right under the flyover and this leads you to a 2 lane SH3 in pretty good condition. 35kms into this road and we cross Korategere. Take a left at the junction. The roads are in pretty bad shape as we reach the Madhugiri town. Pothole ridden and in poor condition. But the slow ride had its advantages. There are quite a few lakes along the route. We spotted one very close to the road and took out bikes to the edge of the lake and it was snap time. Had a mini slide on the sand. Continued our journey and by 10:30am we were at the entrance of the fort.

        10:45am, cool breeze blowing around and we started the trek. The entrance to the fort is well maintained by the government and we have to commend them as there are only a few good things that showcase our history and one such instance is this Madhugiri fort and the signs were that its in pretty good shape. As we entered the stone slab filled steps of the fort, we craned our necks to see that the end of the hill was pretty close by and assumed our friend Monks taking 2 hours to complete it was a lie.. 😛 As the saying goes, “Don’t judge a book by its cover”, The same goes for the trek to this fort as well. Huge boulders lie around everywhere along the path. Stone steps are available during the initial few stages of the fort. Then as the steepness increases, the steps are replaced by carvings in the boulders which act as footholds and huge metal railings are placed for support all along the footholds.

Levels 3 to 7 visible at this point of the trek

Footholds on this boulder look like a spine of a monster

        You can notice all along the way that the place is ruined with scrapping and markings of foolish and unwitting men. Who in the world would come to know if X loved Y and why in the world that has to be inscribed on a such a historical place with paint on every possible nook and corner of the fort. I do not blame the government but the foolishness of the people who visit such a people and ridicule it to a lovers park. In some cases, with no place left to write such inscriptions/graffiti, people have written them on the few cactus lying on the hill too…

Graffiti on walls to graffiti on a cactus…

       We had not done any survey about this trip. So, each time we crossed one level of fortress and felt “Is that it?”, another level would be readily visible after a few steps. Can you imagine crossing 10 levels of this stone fortress with the enemy firing down from the top and throwing down water for you to slip?? And each time you cross over a level of fortress, the next one with the same if not more security was staring at you in the face to be conquered. It would have taken a huge effort to conquer this peak and yet it has changed so many hands. It is not sufficient if u have strength, you should know how to use it to your advantage too…

      On crossing level 3, we found a huge tank to store water. It shows all signs of one of the first models of rainwater harvesting. Major part of the rain water flows down into stone pathways made to be later directed towards the reservoir/tank. Seriously commendable skills of the architects of the fort. We finally reached the 10th level of the fort by 12pm.

Huge water tank after level 3

Madhugiri town can been seen clearly along with a few other surrounding hills.

Fort at level 10

Reservoirs/granaries in front of the single floored building

Beam of light from the ventilation visible in the dust particles

Shri Finny Baba and Tintin swamy

Natural lake and a man-made tank visible from the top

      We had our packed lunch 10 minutes into the descent. By 45 minutes, we had reached the bottom with the weather gods showing their pleasantness in mid-March with a cool breeze and a not-so-harsh sun… 🙂 Had moosambi/pineapple mock-tail at the entrance to the town which tasted very good and we rode back to our homes by 5pm feeling pretty good covering an engineering marvel of historical significance.

A whale shaped boulder

Points to be noted:

1. Bike distance: 230kms

2. Route: Bangalore-Dobbaspete-Korategere-Madhugiri- and back.
3. Trek distance: 3kms up and down.
4. Time taken for trek: 1 and 1/2 hour climb and 1 hour climb down.
5. Difficulty: Easy.

Pics links:

https://picasaweb.google.com/ppr.bms/Madhugiri?authkey=Gv1sRgCJKKyd23_Z-I6gE#
https://picasaweb.google.com/unithinbhat/Madhugiri#

ABC trek -> Arbbi Bandaje – a Captivating trek

    Like most of our last few treks, too many cancellations and re-booking was the order. Ombathu Gudda was dropped as we were too few. After much deliberation we decided to trek to Bandaje falls. 3 was the final count – Tintin (Nithin), me (ppr) and after a 8 month long trekking sabbatical, Chandan joined us for this trek.

Day 1: 18 Feb 2011 – Bangalore to DharmasthaLa

    We boarded the 10pm KSRTC Rajahamsa to DharmasthaLa from platform 23. But just before the bus left, we met Shashi who was trekking the Ombathu gudda on the same day. Curses to Monks for not informing us in the first place… 😛 And in the bus, we met another gang of 7 who were trekking Bandaje too. 

Day 2: 19 Feb 2011 – DharmasthaLa to Ujire to Arbi Bandaje

    Much to our surprise, the bus dropped us off at 4:30am in DharmasthaLa. We still had about two and half hours to kill. Accommodations are available at the old DharmasthaLa’s Ganga, Kaveri and Narmada guest houses along with modern guest houses Netravathi, Vaishali, Sharavathi, Gayatri, Gangotri and Saketha. So, we booked at room at “Gayathri” guest house adjacent to the temple complex at the cost of Rs.250. The rooms are spacious, very well maintained and has hot water. I would recommend all people deciding to stay overnight to book rooms here. We rested for an hour and then had a beautiful view of the temple town at sunrise. We were ready to leave at 7am. Had breakfast of Idlis and packed Chapatis for lunch. There are multiple routes to visit the Bandaje falls. We chose the route passing through Bandaje village for the climb and Sunkasale route to descend. This way, we go through the forest cover while climbing which is less tiring due to the protection from the hot sun than the grassland route from Sunkasale side.

DharmasthLa town at sun-rise

    We caught the 7:30am bus to Ujire at cost of Rs.8 per head and reached in 20 minutes. We then have an option of catching a bus to Idya and then hire a rickshaw to Bandaje village or hire a jeep all the way to Bandaje village costing Rs.250. We took the latter, as we had a half-an-hours wait for the next bus to Idya. The jeep leads through the quite and scenic Bandaje village till Narayana Gowda’s house who provides guides for the trek. We had pre-decided to do the trek on our own and Narayana gowda suggested we call him in case of emergency but the routes are pretty easy to identify at this time of the year. By this time the other group whom we met in the bus arrived and another gang of 15 had left about an hour earlier. So, our chances of getting lost were a bit low considering one gang ahead and another behind us.

Start of trek trail

    Geared up with a compass, a map and a blog, we started the trek at 9am. The climb immediately starts trough a thick canopy cover. The starting part is pretty confusing as there are several tracks leading to different farms on the hills. Once we clear this, the trek is pretty straight forward with one clear cut path at least during this time of the year. After a 80 minute trek, we reached Bandaje river which is a indicator that we had covered about 1/3rd of the distance and we were heading in the correct direction. We crossed the river and took off our shoes to dip our feet in the cool water. This is the first watering point. So, fill up your bottles if any empty. After a 20 minute break, at 10:40, we restarted. The climb increases but we don’t feel the tiredness as the canopy cover takes care of the hot sun and the cool climate makes us not sweat. By 12am we arrived at the grasslands. This point shows that we covered almost 60% of the trek and the Arbi Bandaje waterfalls is clearly visible for the first time. We met the gang of 15 at this point. We took our 30 minute lunch break here.

Bandaje river

    By 12:30pm, we started our last leg of the climb. It is a bit steeper and has no tree cover. The hot sun over our head, saps out all our energy. Forest fire has burnt out a major part of grasslands. After a 20 minute climb, we arrive at the second watering point just to the left of the grasslands where a small sub-stream creates a puddle of edible cool water. We felt reinvigorated after this and by 1:30pm we reached the peak. At this point, we were like how a school kid would feel during the last hour of class before the summer vacation… 🙂 From here it is a small yet steep 5 minute descent to our destination – “Arbi Bandaje”.

Start of the grasslands

    We wasted no time to set aside our bags and follow the water flow towards the falls. Due to flow of water, the boulders near the edge of the fall are pretty smooth. So, it is advisable to be careful around this point and it is better if u crawl on all fours to get to the edge. Once we looked down over the edge and lo behold!!! what a sight!! An amazing view of the water falls, all the way to its meeting point on the ground. The beauty of the human mind is such that, in an instant all the tiredness gained in the four and half our trek goes out and in-turn is filled with pure joy of enjoying natures beauty… 🙂

The amazing Bandaje arbi falls looking down from the edge of the cliff

The fall at the edge of the cliff

    Took Chandu’s help to hold on to my hand while grabbing a few pics over the edge of the cliff with the other hand. Tintin did a few yogasanas, to get good snaps of the innumerable mini falls created along the flowing water before reaching its majestic best as Arbi Bandaje falls. Meanwhile, Chandu decided to teach a few bravery skills to another gang to go and watch the falls over the cliff without fear… I guess, a “Spot award” is in order for starting this initiative… 😛

Serene – Reflection of leaves on the water pool

    We then took a long dip near a huge puddle formed by the flowing water. We moved our bags to the other side of the stream and decided to search for a good camping spot. There is a good spot very close to the stream but it was already taken by the 15 member gang with 4 huge tents. After a fruitless 45 minute search, we decided to consult the guide from the other gang who suggested a good spot close to the stream. We setup the tent, got firewood for the campfire and sat down waiting for the next event – The sunset in western ghats. The sunsets are always one of the high points during treks. It is a beautiful real-time video to be stored in out city-bred brains to be re-winded and played back again and again until we get the an opportunity to witness another absorbing view during some other trek.

    Next in the agenda was dinner, with tintin showing his prowess of cutting tomatoes with nothing but just a fork into perfectly sized pieces. Kudos to you tintin….:) I heard there is an opening as a chef in one of the star hotels.. Maybe, its time for a job change…  I recommend you apply… 😛 In one hour, our dinner of maggi was ready and we had the campfire going. My friends, after a few treks, we have mastered the art of cooking noodles by campfire and I am sure by this time our moms would be so proud that their sons were able to cook maggi on our own… 😀

Our cooking spot + campfire..

    Being a full moon night, visibility was very good and we shouted out (not sang literally screamed) songs with a couple of steps from Tintin and Chandan around the campfire. 😉 By 9pm we were tired and crawled into our sleeping bags with the gushing of the stream only sound along with our snores… 🙂

Day 3: 20 Feb 2011 – Arbi Bandaje to BallaLarayana durga to Sunkasale to Kottigehara to Ujire to DharmasthaLa

    6:30am and we were wide awake. Finished our morning chores, had breakfast of bread-jam, cleaned up the overnights utensils, packed up out luggage and tent and by 8:30am, we were ready to start our return journey. Note that the stream is the only watering point till we reach Bhattaramane near Durgadahalli a good four hour away. So, fill up all of your bottles here. Our first destination was BallaLarayana durga fort, about 2 hours from our camping spot. The initial part is a steep ascent and by 30 minutes we reach the forest cover. Here take a left and it leads to even higher point where a Y shaped fork is visible clearly. Do not take the path leading to it. Take the deviation towards right and after about 5 minutes, the fort is visible. From here onward, the route is again straight forward with the climb taking you higher. We reached the fort at 10:30am. The view from here is amazing. We spent about half an hour here with tintin and Chandan surveying the route to be taken next. Another group of trekkers were visible and the route that they had taken was directly in-front of us. So, we decided to take this route and from here onwards the journey is pretty easy with a very easy descent.

BallaLarayanadurga fort

    By 12pm, we met the jeep trail. Here, we met with another batch of trekkers who left after us but had skipped the visit to the fort. They were being told by a armed guard that there was an elephant along the jeep track and it was advisable to stay back for a few minutes and travel in groups. After a 30 minute wait, we restarted and reached the Bhattaramane by 1pm. Here we made a mistake of taking a shortcut to Sunkasale and at one point reached a place where there were two routes heading into the middle of the forest. Not wanting to be lost at the end of the trek, we backpedaled and lost a good 45 minutes here. Then the 3km walk to Durgadahalli/Sultanpete. This is the first major town with shops and rickshaws available. Had a couple of tender coconuts before catching a rickshaw ride costing Rs.60 to Sunkasale by 2:30pm to be just in time to catch the bus to Kottigehara. This journey is of 30 minutes and the ticket costs Rs.13 per head. The bus stop is adjacent to KSRTC bus stand and one can catch a bus to DharmasthaLa or Horanadu from here.

The jeep trail during the end of the trek

    We took out lunch break here and by the time we returned, heard the news that a majority of the buses were taken off by a couple of major political parties using them as transport for their show of power. This caused heavy rush along all the routes much to our irritation as every bus was filled to the brim. The autos were charging exorbitant prices. One guy claimed Rs.500 for the 50km ride and all jeeps had already moved towards Ujire. After a wait of 1 and half hour, we caught a jeep costing Rs.55 per head to Ujire and then a Rs.8 per head ride for 8kms to DharmasthaLa by KSRTC. This time wastage caused us to reach the temple town at 6pm which removed all our chances of finding a room, cleaning ourselves up, visiting the temple and then catching the 9pm bus. The search for the guest house turned out to be tough as almost all of the 10 guest houses claiming “No rooms”. Finally found a room in Sharavathi at Rs.70 per day with common bathrooms. Freshened ourselves, had dinner and caught a Rs.15 auto ride to the new KSRTC bus stand to catch the 9pm Rajahamsa to Bangalore.

    This was one of the most satisfying treks but we missed out on sunrise due to the tree cover around the falls and the grasslands were dried out. I would have loved it, had it been a total green cover in the grasslands. But nonetheless, one of the most gratifying treks we ever had with only 3 trekkers and no guide. A good step forward. 🙂

me(ppr), tintin and chandu – The 3 Idiots.. 🙂

Route taken: Bangalore – Dharmastala – Ujire – Bandaje village – Bandaje stream – Bandaje Arbi Falls – BallaLarayana Durga fort – Durgadahalli- Sunkasale – Kottigehara – Ujire – Dharmastala – Bangalore.

Points to be noted:

1. Trek route: Bandaje village – Bandaje stream – Bandaje Arbi Falls – BallaLarayana Durga fort – Durgadahalli
2. Distance : 8km to falls + 12 kms return = 20kms
3. Time taken: 4 and 1/2 hours to reach the falls + 4 hour climb down to Durgadahalli.
4. Cost of the trip: 1500 per head including tent hiring and bus tickets.
5. Trek level: Moderate to Difficult.

Picture links:

https://picasaweb.google.com/ppr.bms/ArbiBandajje?authkey=Gv1sRgCK-3m-LLh6uKowE#

https://picasaweb.google.com/unithinbhat/BandajeTrek#

The basics of football – Part 2 – FIFA and The FIFA world-cup

    The first blog on “The basics of football” covered football on a layman’s perspective – “what is football?” . This blog moves to the operational side of football. That is, how the game is handled away from the pitch and the politics/administration that goes behind the scenes to run the game smoothly at international level.

    The most important international governing body in football is FIFA – Fédération Internationale de Football Association with headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland with 208 member associations from which one member is nominated to represent the country in FIFA Congress.

    FIFA recognizes 6 confederations to oversee the game across 6 different regions/zones. Each of these confederations in turn act as the administrative and controlling body for the member nations under it.

FIFA Confederations

AFC – Asian Football Confederation in Asia and Australia with headquarters in Bukit Jalil, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and has 46 member countries

CAF – Confédération Africaine de Football in Africa with headquarters in 6 October City near Cairo, Egypt and has 53 full members

CONCACAF – Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football in North America and Central America with headquarters in New York City, United States and has 40 full members

CONMEBOL – Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol in South America with headquarters in Luque, Paraguay and has 10 full members

OFC – Oceania Football Confederation in Oceania with headquarters in Auckland, New Zealand and has 11 full members

UEFA – L’Union Européenne de Football Association in Europe with headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland and has 53 full members

 The Biggest sporting event in the world – The football world cup.

    FIFA is responsible for handling of the major football tournaments at world stage which includes the Men’s, boys and women’s World cups which are quadrennial events.

World Cup qualification

    208 member nations and 32 slots in the world cup – the number says it all. Based on the numbers and/or relative strength of the six confederations teams, FIFA decides beforehand the number of spots awarded to each of the continental zones. Tournaments are held by the six confederations to decide the qualification and the formats are different for each zone. Other than the hosts, who have a default qualification spot, every nation has to go through the qualification process irrespective of their position or rank in the world of football. Since the 2003 world cup, the number of slots allocated are as below:

1. Africa – 5
2. Asia – 3.5
3. Oceania – 0.5
4. Europe – 13
5. North and Central America and Caribbean – 3.5
6. South America – 4.5

Total = 31 + 1 host nation

0.5 indicates 1 team  gets selected through an intercontinental playoff.
1 berth for the winners of CONMEBOL-CONCACAF playoff and
1 berth for the winners of AFC-OFC playoff

Qualification in all zones ends during the September–November months of the year before the finals.

    India qualified for the 1950 world cup and were placed along side Italy, Paraguay and Sweden in group 3. We subsequently withdrew when FIFA imposed a rule banning barefoot play. I cannot believe the state at which Indian football was and still is.. 😦 

P.S: India had played barefoot at the 1948 Olympics…

World cup host

 

    Till 2002 world cup it was held alternatively in America or Europe. Then FIFA adopted a policy of rotation across the continents which led to controversies in the bidding of 2006 world cup. Since then , FIFA decided to no longer continue with their continental rotation policy. The newest host selection policy is that, any country may bid for a World Cup, provided that their continental confederation has not hosted either of the past two World Cups. The bidding process is done through an exhaustive voting system. The exhaustive voting system works when the executive committee is allowed a single vote on the bidding nations called as candidates. If no candidate gets an absolute majority then the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated and the process is repeated until there is a clear majority on one candidate. The hosts for the next three worlds cup are:

2014 –  Brazil
2018 –  Russia and
2022 –  Qatar

World Cup Trophy

    The trophy is awarded to the winners of the FIFA world cup. Jules Rimet Trophy was used from 1930 to 1970. The Jules Rimet Trophy was stolen in 1983 and never recovered. The FIFA World Cup Trophy is being used from 1974 to the present day. The current trophy is made of 18 carat gold with a malachite base. It depicts two human figures holding up the Earth.  The country which wins the tournament has its name engraved in its national language along with the year in numbers in the bottom side of the trophy. Eg:”— 1994 Brasil”. At present 10 winners name is engraved and this can continue till the 2038 world cup.

Julius Rimet Trophy

The current FIFA world cup

FIFA Anthem

    Composed by the German composed by a German Franz Lambert, the FIFA anthem was adopted since the 1994 world cup. It is played before every FIFA sanctioned match i.e, the qualifiers, friendlies and all the world cup matches.

The FIFA world cup

    It is held over two stages:

1. The Preliminary or the group stage
2. The knock out stage

The Preliminary or the group stage:

    The initial grouping process is done by placing the 32 teams in 8 groups of 4 teams each. The criteria for placing the teams in the 8 groups is based on FIFA World Rankings and/or performances in recent World Cups and the geographical criteria. The last round of matches of each group is scheduled at the same time to maintain fairness to all the four teams. 

    The top two teams from each group qualify for the knock-out stage. The ranking of each team in each group is determined as follows:

   1. Highest points. (3 for a win, 0 for a loss and 1 for a draw)

   2. Biggest goal difference. (Goals for – goals against)

   3. Maximum number of goals scored.

   4. If more than one team remain level after applying the above criteria, their ranking will be determined  based on the performance in  head-to-head matches among those teams:

         1. Highest number of points.

         2. Biggest goal difference.

         3. Maximum number of goals scored.

   5. If still the same then it is finalized by the drawing of lots.

The knock out stage:

    These are one-off matches with one team getting knocked out from each match. If the match is not outrightly won, then it is taken to extra-time, then to the penalt shoot-out if needed. It begins with round-of-16 where winners of each group plays the runners-up of other group with the matches between the groups predetermined. Quarterfinals, the semis, the 3rd place play-off and the finals follow in that order.

The winners:
 

Year	Host Country	Winner	Score
1930	Uruguay	Uruguay	Uruguay 4-2 Argentina
1934	Italy	Italy	Italy 2-1 Czechoslovakia
1938	France	Italy	Italy 4-2 Hungary
1942	not held due to WW2
1946	not held due to WW2
1950	Brazil	Uruguay	Uruguay 2-1 Brazil
1954	Switzerland	Germany	Germany 3-2 Hungary
1958	Sweden	Brazil	Brazil 5-2 Sweden
1962	Chile	Brazil	Brazil 3-1 Czechoslovakia
1966	England	England	England 4-2 Germany
1970	Mexico	Brazil	Brazil 4-1 Italy
1974	Germany	Germany	Germany 2-1 Holland
1978	Argentina	Argentina	Argentina 3-1 Holland
1982	Spain	Italy	Italy 3-1 Germany
1986	Mexico	Argentina	Argentina 3-2 Germany
1990	Italy	Germany	Germany 1-0 Argentina
1994	US	Brazil	Brazil 3-2 Italy
1998	France	France	France 3-0 Brazil
2002	Japan / S. Korea	Brazil	Brazil 2-0 Germany
2006	Germany	Italy	Italy 1-1 (5-3) France
2010	South Africa	Spain	Spain 1-0 Netherlands

The awards

1. Golden Ball for the best player with a shortlist drawn up by the FIFA technical committee and the winner voted for by representatives of the media.
2. Golden Boot for top goal scorer. In case of 2 players holding the top position, the tie-breaker goes to the player who has contributed the most assists. If there is still more than one player, the it goes to the player who has played the least amount of time.
3. Golden Glove Award for best goalkeeper
4. Best Young Player award for best player at-most 21 years of age and voted in the official FIFA website.
5. FIFA Fair Play Trophy for the team with the best record of fair play based on least fouls (yellow and red cards)
6. Most Entertaining Team award for the team that has entertained the public the most during the world cup with the winners being selected by public voting.
7. An All-Star Team comprising the best players of the tournament chosen by FIFA’s technical study group, and since 2010 by an online poll on the FIFA.com.

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