Hogenakkal

Hogenakkal.

Remember the song 'Dil Hai Chhota Sa' in the movie Roja? There was an absolutely magical shot of an oarsman steering his flat-bottomed boat in a tiny river which flowed through a ravine. Well, this was filmed at a place called Hogenakkal which is near the Karnataka and Tamil Nadu border. This place is in the middle of the formerly infamous Veerappanland.

The Physics Dept. Association (pda) had organised its 2003 picnic at this spot. This was some three hours by a rather ramshackle bus from the institute. Kanhaiya, Amit, Jayanta, Vij and others started dancing in the middle of the bus. This was a rather strange thing to see. In a bit, I had also been dragged up front by my batchmates.

After we got there, we rented these little flat bottomed boats (with oarsmen). After navigating for a few hundred metres downstream, we were told to get off. We then had to lug these boats down a few hundred steps hewn in the rock. That got us to the bottom of the ravine, bypassing the otherwise somewhat bumby route over the waterfall. The walls of the ravine have been eaten by the water to create some really bizzare structures; little nooks and alcoves all over the place.

After a while, we saw a really strange sight: a shop on a boat. Selling pepperimints, chocolate, snacks and cola. Talk about ingenuity! We 'beached' maybe three kms downstream and immediately started multiple games of “catch and dunk the juniormost student.” Lunch was random stuff, but anything would have tasted great. We explored the river valley quite a bit, almost drowned a couple of times, climbed up a series of rocks to look directly over a waterfall, and generally had a ball.

One thing I should mention: Sohini took along a couple of hoola hoops, which were put to good use!!