Nandi Hills@night - Unraveling the Magic and 'Mist'ery of nature...

Note: I tend to be quite descriptive. If you just want to how Nandi is at night then let me tell you that  there are no words that can describe and no photos that can capture the beauty the magic of Nandi hills at night. But that won't stop me from trying :)


If you have been to Nandi hills to watch the sun rise or the sun set, believe me, you have not seen Nandi hills at all! Actually, you haven't seen anything at all! Move over Coorg and Chikmaglur! We have Nandi hills.. And for all those who think I am crazy, it's quite natural. Coz in most probability, you have not seen Nandi hills in the night/ early morning. And I mean by means of over night stay. And if you have seen it, I know you won't be disagreeing.


First of all, a hearty to thanks to AG - the man behind the arrangement and to the caretaker at the hills for having us. Now to the story of the best place on earth (The use of only superlatives is the Nandi hill effect.. I know there are better places but I this is the best I have been to!)


My team (ex-team by now) had this habit of doing a self sponsored outing at irregular intervals of time. The first was Bear mountain and then Chikamaglur and then Sakleshpur. So this was a tradition that we were quite proud of coz no other team was doing something similar. And even if they did, they could never have fun like we do! And thats thanks to the team mates and more so to our managers! We can be ourselves in front of them in such trips and this has really brought us all together to the point that we can proudly call ourselves as a small set of diverse ppl forming a happy, normal dysfunctional family..


So after the latest trip which happened almost 6 months back, we were eager to get one more trip done.. But we were having trouble choosing a place/ time where everybody could join.. And this kept postponing till other turn of events in the company forced us to rethink, regroup and organize a get-together.. asap.. and that's how a trip to Nandi hills was planned.. no, not a trip.. that would be normal.. an over night stay at Nandi hills was planned.. we were supposed to go Friday night, stay, have fun, eat dinner and have breakfast in the morning and leave..


Ofcourse, at that point, none of us had an inkling of what we were in for (except AG who had been doing it for 15 yrs "straight" as he puts it and GR whose college used to be at the base of the hill). Now here is some background. No one is allowed into Nandi hills after 6.30 PM. There are government guest houses there but not for general public. But AG knew ppl (he always does) and he got us some rooms there..


We were planning to leave office by 5PM on Friday and reach early. But after a number of glitches which almost cancelled the trip, we were finally ready to go as planned, at 6.15PM (as usual).. Four cars - AG, GR, JP & SY, 16 ppl, one destination.. With AG deftly delegating work to others and guiding them, we got all that we needed (Alcohol for everyone, juice & red bull for me, lots of ice, snacks, chicken and baby corn) and reached by around 10 (thanks to the traffic all the way there which we didn't realize coz of the IPL match between MI & RCB). 10PM - a time when you would never be allowed to enter Nandi hills. But we found the caretaker waiting for us with a smile. And then began 6 hrs of pure fun..


To maintain the dignity of ppl involved and to cut the story short, m gonna just condense the main points - Awesome cooking by the ppl at the stay.. The best baby corn manchurian I have had.. And wonderful rasam that everyone just drank and finished resulting in ppl eating just the briyani for dinner.. Lots of drinking and lots more of talking.. 


In between, we came to know that RCB won the match.. With most of them being RCB fans, the mood was setting right.. and then someone gave an idea of posing topless shirtless in the cold wind outside for pictures.. And we stepped out into the balcony.. and stepped right into a thick mist the clouds.. Yes, you read that right - clouds.. it wasn't mist. We were actually in the clouds!! I have always had elders tell me to never walk with my head in the clouds.. And I always used to wonder if that was even possible.. On that night, I knew.. And it was exhilarating! Imagine walking bare chested with the cold wind blowing through, the dew and moisture settling on your body and giving a slight ticklish chill while you are surrounded by thin white clouds.. It's hard to imagine unless you have been there and seen that..


That's one thing about the clouds.. it looks so white and full and fluffy like cotton pieces, from the ground.. But up there, it was just a thin film of white everywhere.. almost like smoke.. until you look up and see the thickness above and realize you are inside a cloud! Ofcourse, it's too dark to actually see the clouds but you sure can feel it! And I can't think of anything that can beat that feeling! We did a small walk at around 3AM amongst the cloud till Tipu point. And THAT is a WALK TO REMEMBER!


The highlight of that night was the game we played where each one of us had to tell our fav song and why it was our fav. And the song would be sung by all who knew the lyrics (which was mostly AG) followed by a detailed analysis by AG, abt the person based on the song he chose.. This was quite fun and went for more than hour.. And the best part was when VCP who was a kannadiga said 2 hindi songs as his fav while SRK who was Telugu, said a Kannada song as his fav which over joyed and pissed JP to the max. It was fun watching JP slurring remarks at all the Kannada ppl there who were telling out hindi songs as their fav..  In all, a complete fun time and we actually got to know something special about each other..

We finally slept at around 4.30AM and got up at 8.30AM and went to Tipu point and have a look. This time we could actually see nothing - Just white everywhere! And then it was getting late to return so  we came back, brushed and had hot pongal and vada served graciously by the staff there..

We left Nandi Hills by around 10.30AM and reached back at 12PM - quite exhausted and a bit hung over.. but each one of us was having the same thought - we had stayed & witnessed a piece of heaven on earth! The memory of which would forever remain with us...