Velliangiri trek

Region : Velliangiri Hills, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu(near Isha yoga center)
Peak Height : 2240 meters / 7349 ft
Difficulty level: Moderate to Difficult

Trek Details:

Vellingiri trek is like a video game with different levels where after finishing every level the next one comes with more challenges, after every hill you finish there is another hill in front of you waiting for you, ready to offer you more beauty in return for your hard work. It is not only a test to your physical fitness, it is also a test to your will power.

Vellingiri hill is located 40KM away from Coimbatore, near to Isha yoga center. 14D bus from Gandhipuram town bus stand will take until isha yoga center, from there share autos will be there to POONDI temple where the climbing starts, there are direct buses to poondi temple, but the frequency is less compared to the ISHA buses. We have to climb total 7 hills and the difficulty level is moderate for the people who do trekking and difficult for first timers.

On every pournami between Feb to June people climb this hill, most of them are villagers on Yatra to take darshan of Lord shiva temple on the seventh hill. People climb the mountain at night and see sun rise at 7th peak and climb down by noon. Ladies from age 14 to 45 are not allowed to do this trek.

Trek experience:

First hill:

We (total 11 members) started climbing at 11 am, except me all others were climbing vellingiri for the the first time. First hill alone consists of 1800 steps which is equal to the total steps of the 7 hills of Tirupati. You will be climbing inside the forest which is not that much dense. Before starting the trek, all my friends imagined about this trek as walking, playing and running on the plain grass lands surrounded by hills, but after climbing some 1000 steps for almost 45 minutes, the reality hit them and the expressions on their faces(including mine) got changed, all were in some shock. It is like you expected a 20% hike and all you got is 20 rupees per month.

Almost 90 minutes got completed but there was no sign of the small temple which is present at the start of the second hill, finally after two hours we reached the temple. Myself along Bala finished the first hill last, when we reached the temple, all others were sitting there waiting for us, few went into deep sleep. All the faces were telling one thing- 'Six more hills..impossible....no way....i am going back'.

Bala and myself tried to convince others by explaining the beauty of the seventh hill, but that did not work so we tried to hurt their ego by saying ' look at that old lady, she is 60 years old and climbing'. Surender's ego got hurt and joined us immediately, one by one we convinced all others and started climbing second hill.

First Hill- 1800 steps like this

Second hill to sixth hill:

No difference...same steep steps, same hot sun, same feeling. we took rest for every 150-200 steps, after some 30 minutes a place came where a small stream of fresh water is coming from the top, the water was so tasty, after this place only at 6th hill you can get water, so fill your bottles here. Slowly we finished second and third hills.

The view gets better from fourth hill as the path goes away from the forest, you start feeling the chillness in the air. The 4,5 and 6th hills are somewhat easier to climb compared to the first three. After finishing the 5th hill we saw the 7th hill, that sight of that long hill far away from us made us feel more tired, but then another old lady walking slowly with the support of a long stick crossed us.

View of 7th hill, that rock at the top is where the temple(shiva linga) is located

From fifth hill you will get to see the beauty of the vellingiri hills, to the left side of the path you can see the hills and valleys and to the right side you can see the thick forest. At the end of the sixth hill you have to climb down for some 15-20 minutes, then you reach a small pool(very small), the water in the pool is always ice cold irrespective of the season and the time you reach there, villagers say that taking bath in this water is good as it comes from the hills full of herbs, but if you go during pournami time, the water will be full of dirt as lot of people take bath in that small pool.

near 5th hill

Seventh hill:

Now comes the most toughest and the most beautiful part of the trek- seventh hill. Climbing Seventh hill is tough, coz it is so steep. You can see the top of the hill, it looks like it is very near to you, so you start climbing fast......30 minutes gets over...it still looks near to you....45 min.....60 min.....then you will realize that it is like the fake water mirages that you see on the roads, you never reach that place, it is like running a race on treadmill. So instead of trying to reach the top fast, it is better to enjoy the beauty of the seventh hill.

The view from the seventh hill is fabulous and worthy of the hard work we did for the past 6 hours. we started climbing the seventh hill around 5.30 pm, the view of the floating clouds was mesmerizing, after some 20-30 minutes of climb we were in clouds, a big cloud got passed us, almost for some 10 minutes we could not able to see anything in the front.

Unfortunately by that time we reached 7th hill, cell phone and camera batteries got dried up, so we could not able to take much photos of 7th hill

We reached the top around 7PM, it started raining with lightning and thunders, the view of lightning at a height of 2km above the sea level is breath taking, fortunately after some 10 minutes the rain got stopped.

The climate on the top was so cool, we didnt bring any blankets with us, so there was no way we can stay there in the night, so we decided to return back. We took darshan of lord shiva, it was a very small temple which is under a huge rock, after the darshan we started climbing down. If you start the climbing during midnight and reach the top by 5, you can see the sun rise from the top.

The big rock at the top of the 7th hill

Climbing down the seventh hill was so funny, the seventh hill was so slippery, so we crawled the whole hill down slowly. Climbing down during night is some what difficult, because you need to watch out your each and every step, you cannot afford to hurt yourself in middle of that forest. It will take very less time to climb down as you wont get tired much. we reached down by 1.

If you do not have Velliangiri in your bucket list yet, it’s time you add it to the list and make it a point to visit this awesome place, some time in next summer between jan and may. You will not regret it!

Take blankets and some food so that you can stay in night there, because vellingiri trek is incomplete without sleeping under the stars and watching sun rise. If you got any queries about the trek, post them in comment section below.........bye.....and Please dont leave any waste on the hill, carry a bag to put all the waste along with you.....

                                                                                         Finally myself at 7th hill      (this time we didnt take the gang photo, every one was too tired to take photos, all they wanted to do was to finish the trek and go back to home)

BAAHUBALI SONGS - not a review...just my opinion

Usually for a film which got made with a very high budget, got shot over a long period of time, and more importantly getting released in multiple languages with so much expectations, we expect the music also to be at the same level........unfortunately i think that this album fell way short below that level........just listen to MANOHARI song..you understand what i am saying.....

Of all the 8 songs i liked two songs..Dheevara song(telugu version) and Mamatalani song...the two songs sung by keeravani are ok, but i feel S P Balu's voice might have given the power that these songs require.

 All other songs are not so good, with so much expectations set for this movie, people from non Telugu background will not accept the music unless the album is that grand. Since this movie already got the attention of the people around the country, this album wont effect its expectations.

I never waited for a Keeravani album before, but i did for this time because of the grandeur with which this film has been made. The thing that made me to wait for this album is to see whether Keeravani did any new things in his music to match the senses of the Hindi and Tamil audience as Rajamouli is targeting Tamil and Hindi market. I know it is not fair to compare any music director with Rahman...but i wish Rahman had composed music for this film....I wish SPB had sung those two songs sung by Keeravani....

P.S. Now after watching the film i started liking the songs, i started liking the same MANOHARI song, may be my love for Rahman blinded my ears and didnt let me like Keeravani's songs ;-)......

Silent Valley National Park- one day jeep ride

Silent valley is not a place where you find  large mammals like lion, tiger, elephant, etc. Here you can go into the dense rain forest which is very remote and can spend time with nature in all its glory. You can enjoy the beauty of the forest, the cool refreshing breeze, the crystal clear water of the river Kuntipuzha.

Me and my friends went to Palakkad to attend a marriage, after marriage we planned to go to silent valley. The reason for choosing this place apart from beauty is summer, may month, hot sun. Whichever place we go, there is no way we can escape the hot sun, but silent valley is a rain forest, it rains almost every day in silent valley.

How to reach:

Silent valley is in Palakkad district, Kerala. The entrance of the park is in the town MUKKALI, it is about 80km far from Coimbatore and Palakkad, takes two to three hours to reach. From Coimbatore we have to take bus to Anaikatty and then to Mukkali. From palakkad we have to take bus to Mannarkkad and then to Mukkali, there are no direct buses. Comparatively the road from Palakkad to Mukkali is more scenic.

 Coimbatore-(by bus)- Anaikatty- (by bus)- Mukkali town(entrance of the park)
Palakkad- (by bus)- Mannarkkad-(by bus)- Mukkali town

Only Forest department vehicles are allowed inside silent valley, call up the forest department (08589895652, they are quite helpful) before coming and ensure a jeep availability, they'll probably ask you to arrive between 8:30 am and 1 pm post which entry for this trip closes.

23 KM jeep ride:

The ride started from forest check post in Mukkali, our jeep driver started explaining about silent valley. He told that out of this 23km ride only the last 1km comes under the core zone of the forest, the place we are going is called Sairandhri vanam which is 23km away.  For the first 5-6 Km the forest is dry. After 6Km we reached a place where we can see the tribal settlements.

After this place the forest started getting thick, driver told that it is difficult to spot animals as they run away after listening to the jeep sound. We saw a lion taled black monkey and a giant malabar squirrel, i could not able to capture them into my camera. We stopped at several places to have a good glance of that thick forest. There are trees which have a 10 meters circumference, trees with big hole inside the trunk, Sunlight tried very hard to get inside and touch the ground, but the big trees gave a tough fight.

 Surender, myself, dharani and bala

A photography enthusiast will feel at home at this place and will probably dry up his camera battery. .....unfortunately we forgot to charge our camera and cell phones before night, so we could not able to take much photos.

After 20 Kms we saw a board and a gate welcoming us to the silent valley National park and soon we were at the place called Sairandhri, where there was a 150 meter high watch tower.

Watch tower:

very bad photo- but this is the only long shot of watch tower i got

From the top of the watch tower you can have a bird's view of the location, you can see the kunti puzha river, hanging bridge and all those hills covered with clouds. Any photo on watch tower looks beautiful in a huge scale. If you take binoculars and watch it from the top of the tower, there is a chance of spotting some animals.

 After climbing down the watch tower, we had parottah, there are no hotels in silent valley, so you need to get it from mukkali before starting the trip

 Hanging bridge and leeches:

This is the most beautiful and the best part of the trip. there is hanging bridge over kunti puzha river, it is located around 2km from the watch tower and takes 15-20 min trek down from watch tower, but the path that leads to the bridge is full of leeches and there is no way you can escape them. The best thing you can do is not to stop on the way, if you stop then 10-15 leeches will jump on your legs to taste your sweet blood(at least for them).

When we were on the half way, it started raining heavily, we continued our walk in that rain and reached the hanging bridge, the sight of bridge and the place is so stunning, i wish they allowed us into the water, but what to do, visitors are not allowed to enter into the river. You can have a good view of the river from the bridge. This is the last point of the silent valley trek, there is a route on the other side of the bridge, but visitors are not allowed.

bridge and kunti puzha river

We stayed there for some 20 minutes only, right from the watch tower the driver was on our ass telling that we are getting late, we should move fast. So. after 20 min we started climbing up to watch tower where our jeep was parked.

This climbing up part was somewhat difficult, not because of the slope or distance, but because of the leeches. It is almost a 20-30 min hike and you cannot stop in between, coz if you stop, the leeches will get on you legs...so you get tired..you want to stop..but you cannot and continue the hiking...it was so funny.

Finally after reaching the top, we removed our shoes and sandals to take the leeches out, Surender went a head and removed his pant to check any leech inside it.

Return journey and Bhavani river at Mukkali :

There is nothing much new to tell about return journey, we got tired after the trek and took a small nap. After reaching mukkali, we said good bye to silent valley and our driver and went to have a look of bhavani river. It is very near from forest office, you need to take the small way on the right side to the office. It is a very beautiful place, when we went, the time was 5 in the evening, few local women were taking bath and washing clothes. so we went to the other side where few local kids were taking bath and having fun.

We sat there for some 5 min, Surender tempted me to take bath but my return bus to Chennai was at 9 from Palakkad. So promising that we will take bath there in our next visit, we returned to the bus stop.

As i said before the silent valley gives you the experience of going into the real forest and most admirably with no plastics and other wastes, it is so pure and clean.

Points to remember:

 Book the jeep in advance,get the details from the number 08589895652, it costs around 1350 for jeep, maximum 6 persons are allowed, if you are less in number say two, you can share the jeep with others or take one separate for you.

Take food items from Mukkali, there is nothing except the fresh water you can get inside the park.

Reach the forest office at mukkali early, atleast before 12 to enjoy the complete trek without any hurry.

Kurangani to Top station trekking

Warning for the people who has the habit of working in office- THIS IS A LONG POST.

Last trekking i did was to Nagalapuram in October 2014, and after that i went to the same place three four times as none of my friends were ready for a long trip. During this time i used to ask my friend Bala about the next trip, two weeks back he told me that his friend JK is organizing a trek from Kurangani to Top station on Feb 14 and 15 and asked whether i am interested, like that i ended up in the group of 17 people.

Chennai to Kurangani:

We all gathered at Porur toll gate and got into the bus to Bodinayakanur at 8 pm, all introductions happened in the bus and our journey started. Fortunately i got a good sleep and woke up only at Bodi. Bus reached Bodi at early morning 6.30 on Saturday, the climate was so cool. After having a hot tea in that cool weather we took the next bus to Kurangani at 7.30. The road from Bodi to Kurungani is so beautiful and slowly introduced us to the Kurangani hills. Hills covered with mist, valleys with coconut trees, hair pin bends, suddenly we were in different world and started to feel the western ghats and enjoy its chillness.

We reached Kurungani at 8, it is a small village from where the trekking to Top station starts. Immediately after getting down the bus our first photo session started. There is a bridge near bus stop and few got down the bridge and got fresh up there, meanwhile JK took parcels of Idly for breakfast.

From left to right: JK, Shaan(in lungi), Karthik, Manoj, Me, Shiva, Karhik, Idhaya, Sathish, Arul, Naresh, Shankar, Kabilan, Tarshiq, Jalal, Bala and Vignesh

Kurungani to Middle station:

Finally around 8.30 we started our trekking, Idhaya and JK have already done this trekking, so they guided us the way. It was not sunny, the trail was wide, not that much steep and within an hour we reached the stream.

For this one hour i didn't attend the call from nature, once we reached the stream immediately i finished my poo poo. In an open place, inside the forest, water running under my feet, birds giving background score(encouraging), actually i enjoyed my poo poooing and it was a great experience, sorry i am getting carried away here.

near the stream

 After that we took bath in a small pool there, the water was so cool and refreshing. After taking the bath we had Idly and Vadai as break fast.

 From the stream we started at 10.30 am to middle station and the trek was some what difficult. Almost the entire way is a stone laid path with hair pin bends. Here my friend Satish found a technique to take rest instead of directly asking to wait- whenever he felt tired he used to ask us to pose for a photo saying 'the view is so beautiful macha', after one snap he would ask to pose for one more and then one more until he felt ok.

After two hours we reached middle station also called central station, it is a beautiful place with some 30 to 40 houses and a small shop, almost every one there work in coffee estate. We stopped at the shop and had a nice sharbat there.

Middle station to Top station:

This part of the trekking was the most scenic one, you want to put your every snap as your profile pic in Facebook, it was that much beautiful. You walk through the plain grasslands with beautiful hills surrounding you giving a breathtaking view.

Yes the climb was little difficult but the beauty of the place deserves it. Here we saw horses, you can rent them for 300 to climb from middle station to top station. Finally around 3.30 we reached our destination- Top station.

Top station:

 Top station is located near Munnar, some 5 km away from Kerala, the main attraction here is the view point, where you can have a good view of the hills. After reaching the top we went to a nearby hotel and had food, then we went to the resorts by jeep where we booked the rooms. Our resort is in Koviloor, Kerala state near vattavada village, it was a 20 minutes ride from Top station. The route was really good, a typical Idukki district route, Jeep driver started playing the love songs of A R Rahman. Feb 14, evening time, AR love songs in Gods own country- perfect combination. We stopped at Vattavada village to take photos, the village is so beautiful, everywhere there are farms of carrot, strawberry and coffee.

Vattavada village

We reached the hotel by 5.30, climate became so cool(almost equal to ooty climate).

our resort

Here comes the funniest part of the trip, after taking some rest, we had camp fire. We started talking, Tarshiq started discussion on one topic which we young people always think, this made the star of the evening SHAAN to interrupt and give his PERCEPTION on the topic through some memorable songs, it was so hilarious and those four five songs made our day. After that some dance vance happened, there was another group of four people who came from Cochin by car, they started dancing to tamil songs, we also joined them. Then we had dinner and slept.

Return Journey:

It was Feb 15, India vs Pakistan match, so we got ready by 8.30 and sat before T.V. We watched the match until the jeeps came.

Same 20 minutes ride to Top station, but this time jeep driver played old Ilayaraja songs. Morning time, jeep ride in western ghats, Ilayaraja songs- old combination, but old is gold.

These puppies gave pose for photographs in front of a house in Top station

We climbed down in the same path which we climbed up, near middle station there is a small masjid which we didnt notice while climbing up, we went there, one can have a good view of the hills from the top of the masjid.

Middle station and the houses at the bottom are at Kurangani

We reached Bodi at 5, our bus to Chennai was at 8, so we sat before a closed shop near bus stand and started playing dumb charades, it was fun. If this game gets included in Olympics, Idhaya will win gold medal for our country, every film name was on his lips.

 All good things must come to an end and so this trip. It was a nice trek, people with average fitness level can easily complete this trek. If you haven't gone to this place, go with your friends and enjoy the real beauty.

Trek details:

Distance is 12km(one way), not difficult, if you get tired in between you can rent a horse.

Starting point is Kurangani village (Theni dist, Tamilnadu)

Accomodation: There are lot of hotels on Top station.

I - Shankar's Treat

Spoiler's ahead: If you haven't watched the film yet, go and watch it without any second thought, it's Shankar's film, you can always come back and read the review after watching the film.

After a long time Shankar took a non-message oriented subject and made a thriller with romance. Film starts with the introduction of vikram in hunchback makeup, then comes the body builder Vikram with a different dialogue delivery. Shankar takes time to introduce our hero and his love towards super model Amy Jackson, Amy looked hotter than Chennai's summer in this film and her introduction step in 'LADIO' song is awesome, after introducing these characters Shankar takes us to China and from there with the help of P C Sriram and Rahman he just gives a visual feast.

Coming to the highlights of the movie
Songs and it's Picturization is beautiful, VFX work in 'Mersalayitten' song is topnotch, beauty of China and cinematography in 'pookkale' song is jaw dropping, 'Aila Aila' song in second half where 7 advertisements are pictured is brilliant. Shankar always mesmerizes us with his songs and his song's visuals always matches the beauty of Rahman's  music.
The first fight in Gym and the one particular shot in that fight where Vikram lifts two persons is super. I didn't like the fight in China,but still watching it on big screen with Rahman's BGM is worth.
The scenes of Vikram taking revenge on each villain with a different strategy is clever though it reminds us of Anniyan.
Last but not the least Rahman's music, no words to explain about God(RAHMAN)'s music, his BGM gave the grandness that Shanakra's vision requires.

 It is a usual revenge story, but the way Shankar narrated it is brilliant. He cleverly selected the non-linear screenplay showing the past and present one after the other, so that we won't get the usual same story feeling while watching it. Almost for the entire second half Vikram looks in that de-glamourized role and no one complains, whole theater claps when that character says 'athukku mele' and takes revenge on villains, that is the greatness of Shankar. I will say that this film's script is the weakest of all the Shankar's films, but the execution is at its best with rich technical aspects and great acting.


Shankar, Rahman,Vikram and P C Sriram, 'I' is the magic created by these people with the help of the others.