Light at the end of the tunnel - Dudh Sagr trek.!

This is a trek which we completed many months ago but I now finally got time to write about this amazing trek. After completing some twenty treks..most of it in the Western Ghats, we felt we had to do a different kind of trek and we decided to go on a railway track trek to Dudh Sagar which lies in the Karnataka-Goa border. We had no idea about the place n stuff as none of us had done this trek before. We searched for information about this place on net and booked our train tickets to Castle rock from Yeshwanthpur. We were five of this time and played rummy til late night during our train journey. At around 3am we reached Castle rock and got down with our backpacks. We then started walking in the pitch dark along the railway track and through the tunnels and paved way for the fast incoming trains. After some two hours we realised we were missing out the scenery and decided to sit in the tunnel and have our early morning breakfast. For those of you who don't know about the location let me tel you this place is a heaven. It lies amidst the thick jungles of the Western ghats and the track follows a hell lot of tunnels and old slippery bridges. There is no roadway in this place. At the beginning of dawn we could see things clearly around us n trust me I cant explain the beauty of the place in words. For those of you who love photography this is the place to be.! We walked for some three hours from then and at around 8:45am we reached Dudh Sagar station..Its just a platform where trains exchange tracks. We couldn't find anyone there and we had no idea how to reach the falls but we could hear the roaring water. Then we spotted the Station master n he told us there was no train that day in that route and we'd to walk all the way to Madgaon(Goa). We were already tired and thought we would first sort out this issue n then go to the world famous falls. He then contacted the Castle rock Station and found out that a Goods train had just left Castle rock and that it would reach Dudh Sagar in sometime. We then dropped our backpacks there and walked to the falls. It was Amazing. It is one of the biggest water falls in the country and the water actually falls on the track near it.! We screamed out of joy to our limits but sadly couldn't stay there for long as we had to run back to the station. The Station master told us ways to get a lift in a train. We went n stood at the place where the engine was supposed to stop n got ready with our backpacks. The train arrived in sometime n we used the tricks taught to us by the Station master..i mean we had to salute him first n speak to him in kannada n tel him we were students..Guess what it worked.! We actually got a lift in the four-engin long Goods train and for the first time in life I actually got to travel in the engine..It was an awesome experience.! The train then passed by the falls n the water splashed on to us..n passed through some strange stations actually platforms like Sonalium n stuff. It seemed like we were in some radioactive site..lol.! The train travelled at around 20km/hr speed coz it was a Goods carrier n we were in the Ghat section. The driver moved the train only using brakes after he accelerated at the Dudh Sagar station. We reached Madgaon at around 12:30..it took three hours to cover just 40km. by train.! But anyways thanks to him that offered us lift. I then thought of paying him something n went to offer a 100 Rs. note n he blasted me for it.! How nice.? I'd never thought that somebody wouldn't accept money for that great help. He then guided us to reach Panjim from there n went to the office. By then none of us were in a position to walk n we caught a passenger train to vasco. We were very lucky to get a lift or else we had to walk 40km. more that would have been more than 65km. in total. After that we reached Panjim n I guess no need to write from here:-)

- Vishwas.V

Team members:

Name: Vishwas. V
College: DSCE (BT)
Age: 20

Name: Nitin. G
College: BNMIT (EC)
Age: 21

Name: Pavan Acharya
College: BMSCE (IT)
Age: 20

Name : Vinod.R.M.
College: Don Bosco(EC)
Age : 21


Name : Pavan.Y.
College: KSIT(Mech.)
Age : 21

My footsteps into the Indian Stock Market..

On Jan 19, 2009, I got a good business and earned some 15k in that week. Two weeks before that..to be precise on Jan 9th the Corporate India was in for a shock coz the markets didn't seem to recover soon. It was the 7000 crore Rs. Satyam fraud. For those who didn't understand economics, the newspapers were just a piece of crap coz there was nothing other than this news. The Stock Markets had collapsed and the investors had lost faith in the stocks. Just check out these figures:

Satyam Stock lost 77% of value and is ended the day at 40. 14 crore shares were traded in the BSE Sensex while 33 crore shares were traded in the Nifty.
On December 16, when Satyam Computer Services (Satyam) declared that it wants to buy Maytas, it triggered investor activism, forcing the software giant to retract.
Buoyed by the power of shareholders, fund houses started stocking up the company’s shares, lured by its strong balance sheet and cash reserves of Rs 5,040 crore. Fund houses, including HDFC Mutual Fund, Tata Mutual Fund, ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund and a host of others, hiked their stakes.

For instance, ICICI Prudential mutual fund bought another 35,00,000 shares (314 per cent) and HDFC mutual fund bought 54,00,000 shares (106 per cent). Others like Franklin Templeton mutual fund added 17,28,000 shares and Tata mutual fund bought 2,65,000 shares of the now-tainted company last month.

On Jan 09,2009 the share value reached an all time low of 11.50 Rs. By then the markets had lost about 2,600 crores. But this had kept the people on their toes and so was I. By the time I got my money for the business, I knew the moment had arrived. The share value had increased to 48.75 Rs. per share and it was on Feb. 6th,2009 I first entered the Stock Market. It wasn't a big risk that I took coz it was a long term investment for me. And now with Tech Mahindra taking over 38% stake in satyam I'm hoping the Share value goes up and I dont have to turn back.

Basic rule in stock markets:

Never hold even a single stock when a fraud is broken out in a Company. Exit immediately even with big losses. That's why Swiss Finance exited from Satyam with Rs 500 crore losses. That's why Aberdeen Investments exited with more than Rs 1,000 crore losses (estimates).

A humanitarian crisis

Well.! I'm not talking about our own economy or the global economy and the recession factor. This is about the country miles away from all economic clusters, a country that has lost its way out o the political turmoil, a country where more than half the population dont have access to proper food, sanitation and health care is in the worst possible state. Yeah.! I'm talking about another African country - Zimbabwe. This is the country that houses the 'Victoria falls' and an amazing wildlife. It was once called the 'Breadbasket of Africa' but there are no more breads in the basket. Just take a look at these figures:

In 1983, USD $1= ZWD $1
In 2000, USD $1= ZWD $1000
In 2003, USD $1= ZWD $100,000
In 2006, USD $1= ZWD $500,000
In 2008, USD $1= ZWD $18,700,000,000
If you all remember, a few months ago in India the inflation figures rose to about 11.42% and there was panic seen clearly in our stock markets. Well.! U got to look at this - The inflation in Zimbabwe as of today(22 May,2009) is about 231 million percent. Today only about 6% of the population is employed and 8 out of 10 people in the country dont get one proper meal a day. You have people moving with million and billion dollar notes in their pockets but cant spend it coz it has absolutely no value. Inspite of all these problems there is very little aid available to this country from the major countries and also from the United Nations. Its an emergency situation for which the solution is simple but needs the involvement of the global community.
I won't go into the history but I'll brief you a bit about the history as it is important how the problem started.
Robert Mugabe, who helped end the white rule in Zimbabwe has been the President since 1980 and from then its been a one man's country. Mugabe's reputation has plummeted from an African liberation hero to a despot, who has ruined his once-prosperous country. The elections in the country is no more free and fair. Voting for the opposition could cost your life. The Police are themselves involved in looting the banks and markets. One of my cousin who recently went there was telling me how difficult it is to even walk on the streets. People come and rob you of any and every stuff you have. But you cant blame them either. When the govt. isn't providing any employment oppurtunities this is the only way to earn. The African Nations isn't doing anything coz most of the leaders consider him as a freedom fighter. A refugee crisis has stuck the neighbouring countries, China is donating weapons to Robert Mugabe and the United Nations is doing very little to solve this problem. Robert Mugabe is still the President. I think its peak time all the responsible countries of the world come together and bring down the political structure of this country and save the direct descendants of Adam n Eve, more importantly value the human lives.

"Welcome to Zimbabwe"

The Orange and apple debate.!

I'm writting this article as the health minister is in full mood to take d issue to PM.
Indian culture is one of the oldest in the world and its unfair to legalise homosexuality in our country.
We are bombarded by questions pouring in from television commentators, gay activists, politicians and liberal-minded publications - Dont Gay and lesbians deserve equal rights in society? Why do we have to care for what happens between two adults? Why not let em get married?
People who oppose the concept of being homosexual donot come out and speak coz they have the fear of being labelled 'ultraconservative'.
Firstly gay and lesbians have equal rights and are protected under the law. Let me wxplain - I can marry a person of my opposite sex and so can they and vice cersa. So we have the exact same rights. What they are asking is for "extra rights". There are many wonderful people on the earth who choose to be single and they are not complaining for not having the rights which the married people have.!
Why should such people be given such rights just because they choose to marry the person with whom they share the same anatomy?
Ok. Even if they achieve this status do you think its goin to stop there? Make no mistake. There is a deeper agenda at work here, even if all gays and lesbians were not aware of it.
Human beings always love to play with truth and change the meaning to what they choose to do at the moment.
The fact is, though not politically correct, gay marriages are unhealthy. They constitute less than 1% of our population and 45% of them have STDs. The risk of alcoholism, drugs and risks of sexual behaviour is high. This is not the culture the govt. should be encouraging.
The whole debate is about govt. legalising and calling it a 'Marriage'. Even if the congress pases a resolution and calls it a 'marriagr', does it become so.? Consider an orange and an apple. If the congress comes out tomorrow and says since both of them are fruits we got to give equals rights and passes a resolution saying an orange is an apple. Does an orange become an apple.? It doesn't make any sense. In the same way its about marriages also. U cant redefine the basic institution of our society.
Another important factor here is that they cannot take their family forward. It will have a bad impact on the kids even if they adopt. They might think having no moral is actually good, where where two shameless freaks staying together is fine. what next.? Polygamy might happen. Because here the logic is that they love each other. Why stop there.? Why not 100 people getting married together.? The restriction of a marriage to a couple loses its logical basis, leading to marital chaos.
Lets not change the logic behind marriage coz we dont want to see a parent marrying a child or a brother marrying a sister or polygamy.
Male+Female=offspring and its by nature not by man-made laws of stupidity. There are still a hell lot of points which u'll get if u think abt it. The article above might seem like its blown out of propotion but its actually a possibility.!

public void Disclaimer();

The 'Hangman' Code which I've pu it here has few errors..however these are minor and I vil rectify them soon..If ur good at programmin(c#)..then do it yourself..It needs a lot. of patience.

C# Code for 'Hangman'.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.IO;
using System.Threading;

namespace ConsoleApplication21
{
public class Hangman
{
string randomString, userString;
int dataLength;
string Category;
string[] bookData = new string[5];
string[] movieData = new string[5];
int bookCount = 0, movieCount = 0;
public Hangman()
{
FillNameValue();
}
//stores movie names and book names in repective strings
private void FillNameValue()
{
string Firstline;
StreamReader sRead=new StreamReader("c:\\TextTest.txt");
sRead.BaseStream.Seek(0,SeekOrigin.Begin);
Firstline=sRead.ReadLine();
while(Firstline!=null)
{
if(Firstline.Substring(0,1)=="B")
{
int stringStartPos=Firstline.IndexOf(':');
bookData[bookCount]=Firstline.Substring(stringStartPos+1);
bookCount++;
}
else
{
int stringStartPos=Firstline.IndexOf(':');
movieData[movieCount]=Firstline.Substring(stringStartPos+1);
movieCount++;
}
Firstline=sRead.ReadLine();
}
}
public int AccdeptCategory()
{
Console.WriteLine("enter the category to play-book/movie");
Category=Console.ReadLine();
Category=Category.ToUpper();
if(Category!=Book&&Category!=Movie)
{
Console.WriteLine("invalid");
return 0;
}
else
{
ExtractName();
return 1;
}
}
public void ExtractName()
{
Random RandGen=new Random();
if(Category=="Book")
{
int Rnd=RandGen.Next(0,bookCount-1);
randomString=bookData[Rnd];
}
else
{
int Rnd=RandGen.Next(0,movieCount-1);
randomString=movieData[Rnd];
}
}
public void StartGame()
{
dataLength=randomString.Length;
char locateChat;
int correctCnt=0,inCorrectCnt=0;
int i,k;
char[] s=new char[randomString.Length];
InitializeUserString();
ShowUserInputString();
if(Category=="Book")
{
Console.WriteLine("the total charecyers in the book is:{0}",randomString.Length);
Console.WriteLine("the total charecters u can enter to guess the name of the book is:{0}", randomString.Length+2);
}
else
{
Console.WriteLine("the total charecyers in the movie is:{0}",randomString.Length);
Console.WriteLine("the total charecters u can enter to guess the name of the movie is:{0}", randomString.Length+2);
}
for(i=1,k=0;i<=dataLength+2||k==dataLength;i++)
{
if(correctCnt==dataLength||inCorrectCnt==dataLength)
{
break;
}
Console.WriteLine("enter the char");
locateChar=Convert.ToChar(Console.ReadLine().ToLower());
int foundPos=0;
int foundChar=0;
foreach(char c in randomString)
if(c==locateChar)
{
UpdateString(foundPos,locateChar.ToString());
k++;
foundChar=1;
}
foundPos++;
}
if(foundChar==0)
{
Console.WriteLine("wrong attempt");
inCorrectCnt++;
}
ShowUserInputString();
Console.WriteLine("Total correct attempts :{0}",correctCnt);
Console.WriteLine("Total incorrect attempts : {0}",inCorrectCnt);
if(k==dataLength)
{
break;
}
if(randomString==userString)
{
Console.WriteLine("You have won");
}
else
{
Console.WriteLine("The correct name is : {0}",randomString);
Console.WriteLine("You ve lost");
}
}
private void UpdateString(int fPos,string updateStr)
{
string beforeString,aftterString;
if(fPos!=0&&fPos!=dataLength-1)
{
if(fPos==1)
{
beforeString=userString.Substring(0,1);
}
else
{
beforeString=userString.Substring(0,fPos);
afterString=userString.Substring(fPos+1,dataLength-(fPos+1));
userString=beforeString+updateStr+afterString;
}
}

if(Pos==0)
{
afterString=userString.Substring(fPos+1,dataLength-(fPos+1));
userString=updateStr+afterString;
}
if(fPos==dataLength-1)
{
beforeString=userString.Substring(0,fPos);
userString=beforeString+updateStr;
}
}
public void InitializeUserString()
{
userString=" ";
for(int i=0;i{
userString=userString.Insert(i,"*");
}
}
public void ShowUserInputString()
{
Console.Clear();
Console.WriteLine("Input value : {0}",userString);
}

class Game
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
Console.Clear();
Console.WriteLine("You have to complete the Game within 60sec");
Hangman obj=new Hangman();
int returnVal=obj.AcceptCategory();
if(returnVal==1)
{
//obj.StartGame();
Thread t=new Thread(new ThreadStart(obj.StartGame));
t.Start();
Thread.Sleep(60000);//Making the main thread sleep for 90sec
try
{
t.Abort();
Console.WriteLine("Time over");
}//killing th new thread
catch(ThreadAbortException e)
{
Console.WriteLine(e.Message);
}
}
Console.ReadLine();
}
}
}
}

KODCHADRI - 2

Before you read this, I ask you to read the first post as we did this trek because of our previous experience. This time however we knew the correct base camp.

At around 2pm on 18Th Jan, we decided to go on a trek to Kodchadri. Within 5 hrs. We did all the shopping and reached the city railway station at around 7:30 – 8:00 pm. luckily we got the tickets to Shimoga. The train was at 11:00 pm. So we went to ‘Pai’ near Anand Rao circle and our dinner.

After a sleepless night in the train, we reached Shimoga at 6’O clock in the morning. We caught a private bus to Sampigekatte which was a 4hr. journey and finally we reached Sampigekatte at 10:00am. We then hired a jeep till the base camp and started our trek. At first all of us were walking together but after a while, we halted to remove our full arm t-shirts which we wore during the train journey. God knows what was wrong with Acharya he never stopped. So virtually It was me and Nitin who did the trek together and Acharya did a solo! Lol

It was a very hot day. The temp was around 35’C and we started the trek without having our breakfast. We walked in that jeep way which we actually thought was the trekker’s path. Out of all the treks I’ve done so far, this was the easiest path but the toughest trek! This was the worst season to go for a trek in that path.

After trekking for two hours, we reached the grassland on the top which is the best thing about Kodchadri. This is the ‘Galipata’ spot. We were so delighted to see the grassland that we threw our bags and me n nitin had a photo session for half an hour! The wind speed was amazing. We thought we’d reached Kodchadri but it was still 2km. away. We met a biker who told us this. We were damn hungry, tired but started walking again. At around 3pm we reached Kodchadri.

We went to bhatt’s house and had our lunch. Then we relaxed for half an hour. At 5’O clock, we started our trek to the sunset point. We met a group of people from England who I guess came to attain salvation! Lol

The Sunset was superb and we thought of staying there but we’d left our bags at bhatt’s house, so had to come back. It was 6:30pm and was pitch dark. We collected few twigs to cook our dinner and some big ones for campfire and continued our night trek back to Kodchadri. One the way, I placed my foot in a place where landslide had occurred and fractured my leg. We reached there at around 7’O clock and cooked puliyogre and rice for dinner. For the first time in life, I helped someone in cooking. After dinner, we planned to put the campfire and sleep around it but it was very windy and our sleeping mats were flying. It was impossible to sleep there and we went to bhatt’s house and slept inside. Next day morning, we got up at 7’O clock, drank milk and started trekking down in the trekker’s path, not in the jeep way. For me, walking with a fractured leg was almost impossible but I’d no other option but to trek down. We started trekking down the mountain and again took the wrong route. We crossed two mountains and we reached an end point. All the dried up streams looked like paths and we gambled with it. Thankfully after walking continuously for hours, we reached a house in the forest. From there, we went to Hitlumane falls and met some locals. Nitin and Acharya played in the falls I’d to only watch as my leg took its toll. I couldn’t walk. The locals told us a different route and after resting for 1 hour, we started trekking in the path they told us. Again we took the wrong path and we were climbing the mountain which was inclined at almost 85 degrees. We couldn’t come back as it is not possible to trek down such a steep mountain, you can only climb up such mountains. We didn’t know what to do and we shouted and gave signals to the locals whom we couldn’t see but we knew they were somewhere close by. To our surprise, we got the signal from them and went in the direction of the voice and found them. They showed us the route and after a 7km. trek from there, we reached nittur at around 3’0 clock. My leg was paining like hell and I couldn’t walk. We went to a hotel and had our food. We took a bus to Shimoga and reached there by 9’O clock, had our dinner and took a bus to Bangalore. We reached here by 5’O clock in the morning.

This was our second trek to Kodchadri but we missed the way again. However this was far better than the first and I’m sure you will agree with me if you have read the first experience.
If we had not met those locals in the forest, I wouldn’t have written this story. Thanks to those tribals who saved us.

As I said in the beginning, among all the treks I’ve done so far, this was the easiest path but the toughest trek.



- Vishwas. V




Name: Vishwas. V
College: DSCE (BT)
Age: 19

Name: Nitin. G
College: BNMIT (EC)
Age: 19

Name: Pavan Acharya
College: BMSCE (IT)
Age: 18