Captain Gopinath speaking

Last week I had the privilege to hear Capt Gopinath of Air Deccan speak in person. Our organization had invited him to speak on innovation. I had seen couple of TV interviews earlier; I was impressed with his simplicity and analytical ability and was looking forward to hear him. The auditorium was overflowing with people.

Capt. Arrived 5 mins late, there were the inevitable jokes with comparison with Air Deccan. But once he started, people were captivated by him. He had a pretty good career in army but soon he quit his job to start of as a farmer on barren land with just Rs 6000/. He told us how he doggedly pursued to make his dream come true. He talked of his innovation in making the barren land start yielding organically when everybody was after the chemical fertilizers. How got the loan on the literally useless land. He went on to become a successful silk farmer. He was recognized by Rolex Company for it.

He then went on to start Deccan aviation a helicopter company a first in India. He started of from nothing again. He persuaded a Japanese company to provide him a helicopter to start of with. The Japanese had hesitated to sell him the helicopter because of political instability, but he exploited the instability and the subsequent elections to expand. He could also grab the opportunity because the chief ministers of states were competing for investments. He also did not forget to tell us that. He did not pay single paisa as bribe to get the license, but he did not get give up for 3 years. I missed the Air Deccan part.

Overall, the take away was, you can innovate in small and every thing you do. Be it farming, marketing or selling yourself or the big ideas, but most important thing was not to give up. He often quoted Einstein who said something like “I am no different from others, but only I stay on the problem longer than others do”.

One important think he told us was instead of complaining about politicians and doing nothing, take it as given and work around it. Most politicians are guys who have come up from the rough and tough world. People who do not have anything else (other profession) get into politics. They have come from the world of survival of fittest literally. So let us take it as reality and work with it. I personally felt it was a very relevant message. We literate people have become arm chair commentators bitching, whining and complaining but doing nothing.

Capt. Gopinath as a person is a likeable man common man of RK Laxman who also is his logo. He resembles him. He is simple, clever, a good analyst, a person who can express his views in a simple clear way others can easily relate to. He often related to the small innovations he did as went on. This reinforced the message very clearly.

What do you care what other people think? by Richard Feynman

Got to read Feynman after a very long time. This book is more of his love life and challenger shuttle disaster investigation. He is much older but the same inquisitiveness is there. He writes about his love. He married his love despite knowing that it was a matter of time she died. She did pass away soon. It nice to know he was a wonderful human.

One thing that stuck his the way his father taught him when he was young. The key was making him (Feynman) learn ‘why’ instead of just the description, names and mugging. I Guess it is never too young to start teaching.

Greater part of the book is about the investigation into Challenger shuttle crash, which killed 7 astronauts. Important thing that comes out is the systematic investigation. He also writes about the team balances within the investigating group. He has put the crash reason in a simple way for people to understand. It was because of rubber seals which failed at low temperatures. This problem was known but was not taken as risk. It was interpreted that if it had not failed previously, it could not fail again. It is a assumption most of make in like to see things move on. The shuttle flights were flown at very high odds of failure.

The book is a good read, but not as much fun as ‘Surely you must be joking’, but still an interesting read. There is quite a bit of technical jargon. The mature and older Feynman is reflected in the book.

Inhuman or Insensitive?

On the way back from Jog tour we saw a buffalo which had met with an accident and a few people gathered around it. It probably was dead, it wasn’t moving, its head was at an odd angle and eyes open, this was in the rural part of Karnataka.

Contrast, we took the ring road from Tumkur road, soon we saw another accident, a truck had run over a bike, the bike was under the front wheel of the truck and a person was lying on the road almost at the center. Hundreds of vehicles were passing by. Not a single vehicle stopped by INCLUDING us. After we passed we were discussing whether we should have stopped. We thought after all he was dead and there was no point in stopping. We came up with reasons why we shouldn’t. Response of police, we may have to spend time running around.

Well I realized we were justifying ourselves with lame reasons for not stopping.

I could not answer 2 questions to myself.

1. How did I know he was dead? If he was not, am I not guilty of letting a person die?

2. Assuming he was dead, what if he were a known person?

Inhuman or Insensitive? Probably both and more.

Time to change and quickly.

Shivanasamudra trip

Planned the trip at 7:30 Am and started at 9 AM. Started off in 3 cars maruthi 800 cars. One of the cars broke down 7 kms from Ramanagara, we spent about 2 1/2 hours getting the mechanics to examine, finally decided we get it towed to Bangalore. Later we found it was a blown engine due to blocked engine oil. There are no Maruthi service stations on Sundays from Bangalore to Mysore. The help desk was not sure if there any authorized service centers in the stretch. Smell a business opportunity.

Had lunch and finally reached Shivanasamudra at 4:30 PM 125 kms took 6 ½ hrs including breakdown, lunch and 5 kms of no road.

The trip was actually worth it. Cauvery was full and the falls at Gaganachukki and Barachukki was absolutely gorgeous. When I had gone with friends about 8-9 years back, there was hardly any water we had gone to the top of the falls. Ramu and I had taken a nude bath on top of the falls. There were no people.

This time it was filled with thousands of people. There was hardly any place to stand and watch the falls from the front. Spent about an hour and started back. On the way back, the other car broke down and did not start. The mechanic at maddur did not have anybody. I used my car to tow the other car for 5-6 kms. By the time I finished towing my car had a flat tire. We found the other car had a electric short circuit. When it rains it pours. We had dosas at Maddur tiffany’s and returned home at 11 PM.

It was a trip to remember because of break downs and partially for the beautiful falls.

Jog - 2 Top view

Next stop was Jog again, this time it was from the top. There were so many people, it was more like a Jog Jatre, with lots of vendors lined up on the road to the top. Once we went to the view point, it was more like Majestic in Bangalore oops Bengaluru. My friends did not bother to some down. Well Down means to the top of the falls from the view point near British bungalow.

Oh! Boy people had gone crazy; men, women and kids were looking down from the edge of the falls. Men were holding the women and children to help them have a wonderful view. Yes from the edge of the falls looking down at 900 feet vertical drop. People were sitting, lying down, hanging and having a look down. It was like this all around the horseshoe shaped cliff. (One can’t make out from the front view that the falls is horseshoe shaped). Off course everybody wanted to have the Mungaru Male view of the falls. Infact people were talking about it.

To be honest even I got bitten by the looking down bug, I sat on the edge of the cliff and looked at the bottom of the falls, initially I was scared but once I looked down it was not so scary. I enjoyed the view of the water falling down into the emerald green pool formed by Sharavathi. It is a sight to be remembered. I shot it all with my handycam.

I was as irresponsible as everybody, looks like it needs couple of deaths to wake up the tourism department to stop people from looking down. But the view was worth the risk.

Back to Bengaluru

Drove from Sagar to Tarikere, Accent viva is a nice car to drive. The car is easy on driver, at 4 and 5 th gear the response of the engine is wonderful. Reaching 120 – 130 kmph is very easy. I thought the car had a bit of understeer or may be I was taking on the curves too fast. It doesn’t strain the driver much. After that Sridhar and Ramu drove rached home at 1 PM. We had covered 950 kms in 2 days

Unchalli falls aka Lushigton falls

After the Jogs disappointment, we planned to see the Unchalli falls. We made Siddapur as our base. Road from Jog to Siddapura is not very good. Siddapura to Unchalli road is pretty good.

Route to falls. Need to take a left after siddhapura town on Siddapura Sirsi road. Need to travel for about 20 Kms till one sees a board at a junction. Unchalli falls is 4.7 Kms from the junction.

One has to park the vehicle were the road ends near a small shop. The trek to view the falls is about ½ kms and is pretty steep at some points.

We came to the view point all we could see is white mist and lot of sound from the falls, felt were in cloud. Met an old school friend who came up from view point at a lower height, he was drenched. He told us to go down for the better view. We started climbing down the steps. It started raining. Soon we realized it wasn’t raining it was the spray from the falls. We were soon drenched from head to toe before we reached the view point. It is about 200 steps. Soon after we reached the second view point, the wind changed direction and the spray cleared for some time. The view was awesome. It was a really huge falls. Narrow at the head and becoming wider as it comes down. There is thick virgin forest on the either side of falls and the valley. In the raining season there was lots of water in river Aghanashini. It was a wonderful sight. It was like a Christian bride dressed in all white with a flowing skirt below the waist, covered in misty veil, who let us have a look at her once in a while when the veil lifted.

We had a look at it for few times. It was wonderful experience, especially after the Jog’s disappointment. The photos Unchalli falls on net were generally taken in summer and from the bottom. They don’t really do justice the Majestic falls.

There were visitors in about 4 cars, where as Jog had 1000 times the visitors. But this hidden beauty just 45 Kms from jog made our trip wonderful. Hope it doesn’t get commercialized too much.

The drive to and from Unchalli Siddapura itself is wonderful. There are lush green paddy fields on the flat land and a thick forest as we climb. There is a view point on the road where the river Aghanashini curves between mountains make a picturesque sight.

Jog -1 Front

What a disappointment awaited us. There was hardly any water falling, it was little more than what we normally saw in photos. But the setting of Jog is majestic, it is much bigger that the picture I had in mind, the sheer drop of over 900 feet itself is mind blowing. The dark rocks against the greenery made a very nice sight. Kp and me started to go down, well KP backed of at the start itself. Everybody was coming up and nobody going down. KP scared me saying it takes 3 hours to come up. I did not believe him. On the way down I saw 2 other guys also going down. We started to run down the huge steps. Half way through my thighs started shaking with strain. One lady had fallen on the path because of fatigue. People were trying to make her get up. I simply ran down. I felt the hole was bottomless. Even after seeing the foot of the falls, it took quite sometime for me to reach it.

When I reached the bottom, I was the only guy heading down; I had left behind the other 2. I relished the view, It was a wonderful sitting alone, well almost seeing the majestic falls. I saw to other falls apart from Raja, Rani, Rocket, Roarer. It has been quite sometime. I did not know whether they were new or I did not just remember. Took pictures in video and stills, washed my face and checked the time. It was 6:36 and was getting dark, Oops had I made a mistake going down alone? There were few people (including some drunks) and vendors who were going up almost in slow motion. I climbed a bit may be 20-30 feet. I ran out of breath, my legs were on verge of collapse. I pushed a bit, one the vendors saw me urged me not to hurry and take it easy. I drank a Maaza and slowly started off, could not climb much. I was on all fours, it gradient was pretty steep, It helped climbing on all fours. After going further, there were almost no people and was becoming dark by the minute. Made my mind not to stop would go at a steady pace. I was thinking of Tour de France riders for inspiration, soon I reached a family who were climbing slowly and reached a stream. I washed my self and my mouth. The sweetness of cool drink had made very tired. Felt refreshed, made up the remaining distance pretty quickly. I finally could see the view point check the watch, it was only 7:05. Wow I could not believe it. My climb was less than half an hour, wanted to reach the top in next one minute. I went up quickly, saw my friends waiting for me check the time. It was 7:06. I had made it to the top in ½ hour flat.

Drank some water, ate some pineapples which tasted like heaven. Then started for Siddhapura Inspection Banaglow. Siddhapura is about 16 kms. After 3-4 kms the roads are pretty bad.

Stay at Siddhapura

The person at IB Hegdekar took very good care of us. Nice dinner was served. Rooms and toilets were built well, but maintained badly. Didn’t feel sleeping on the bed. All 5 men slept on a single double cot. Well it was warm on cozy…. It was link old times before marriage.

Had breakfast in a hotel treated by Hegdekar, had Sira (Kesari bath) and a dish like puri made of banana, midha, etc. I was good. We left for Unchalli falls.