Nagala East, Sep 17-18




Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Before the credits start rolling, let me insert the statutory warning:

TREKKING CAN GET INTENSELY ADDICTIVE. INDULGE YOURSELF IN WITH CARE!

Read on for those who can click the 'Agree' button to the above cautionary note.

Title: NAGALA EAST
Date: Sep 17-18
Difficulty Level: Moderate



As the night gives way to the waking hours of the dawn, the sidewalk in front of Tidel park gets buzzling with a couple of energetic folks carrying the trekking gears around and sipping cardamom flavoured hot tea. As usual the regulars get into a friendly huddle in gaiety and start churning out the details of past adventures and the ones to come soon. Newcomers were quickly introduced to the group and all got set to explore and celebrate the spirit of CTC to the eastern terrain of Nagala.

In a trek, the uncertainities start from the get go. As goes by the tradition, the tempo which was expected to arrive by 3 am at Tidel got punctured on the way. Without wasting any fleeting moments, we jumped into the next bus that stopped at Tidel and joined the rest of the group waiting at CMBT. As the cars started moving like ants following one another with Raj at the head of the pack, leading the way.

As the cars screeched to a halt near the Nagala dam, one by one we stepped out of the cars and started unpacking the food items. Little did we knew that the food menu was prepared with such exquisite expertise. I believe Rekha, Rajesh and Ela has a big hand in this. Fresh idlis for breakfast and sumptous lemon rice for lunch. Wow, are we dreaming. Wait, 5 Five stars(hey,it rhymes) , appples , oranges , some other fruits.

Max was spot on when he later on renamed CTC as 'Chennai Trekking and Eating Club'. We were overwhelmed with the extensive food that we carried along that filled up the stomach which would make any luxurious buffet serving pale in comparison. If we were to rate the culinary experience in all of our treks combined this one trek could beat them all hands down. Big cheers to Rekha and all the folks who had a hand in the food department!



The morning looked crisp, fresh and the rays of sun yet to shine through the blue sky and clouds scooting by gently in the breeze. And it was further charged by the super energetic chatter that started with Gayatri being the centre of attention. With Shanker and Gayatri speaking at 1000 words per minute and engaging the whole group and stepping up the entertainment vibe, this trek looked already ON!

Carrying the heavy backpacks and looking towards the mountains far away in the horizon, we moved towards the dam one step at a time. With the monsoon in full swing, the greenery across the distance looked quite enchanting. On climbing over the small steep we were treated with a mindblowing view of the dam and the small temple that was part drenched in the water.
The group started getting to know each other as we started after a group pic. The weather was at its extreme best. A slight cool breeze and the green bushes with due drops fluttering over the leaves, nature had already bowled us over in the very first moments of this trip. Colourful butterflies of varied designs made the landscape look even more enticing than it already was. The trail looked fresh and the soil untouched though this trail would have already been taken by a 10000 trekkers. Thats the beauty of Nagala, it never fails to surprise you with its elegance and wilderness.

Moving further, along the trail, crossing to right side and left side of the stream a couple of times and yes, filling the water bottles with water(You gotta fill your bottles at 'water points', thats a rule by the way) we strode along. We slowly climbed up along the left side of the stream paying close attention to the boulders that carved the trail like a painting. A few more step ahead, the path slowly winded down to the 'FIRST POOL'. Facing 2 big rocks the First pool leads to a small water fall. Breakfast was planned for the first pool.
On seeing the pool, however most of us stepped into it, got their feet wet and cut the silence of the jungle with a sheath ofexuberance. Little kids from nursery will not stand a chance to compete the pandemoneum that we created all along the trail.




We climbed on the right side of the FIRST POOL after having mouth watering idlis. Nature was in its abundant glory all the way. We slided along to the left side of the stream and then crossing a big horizontal rock to the left. Then one more deviation to the right and we were further into the jungle. Pebbles in the stream , sound of water gushing as it thrashed through the rocks, and rays of sunlight that managed to penetrate through the cover of greenery around, this just felt like a retreat.

In over 100 minutes of bouldering , listening to the birds and sound of water,we came to what is fondly named as the DEAD END POOL. Most of us encounter the DEAD END POOL on the Day 2 of a trek on the way back. Meeting it first from the other side can be a deceiving sight. It looks pristine, new and quite easy to cross from this end. For what its worth, this gave us enough time to settle down, chill, and get to know each of the other fellow trekkers who has taken this challenge. Swimmers dived into the dead end pool as quickly as they throwed the backpacks
out of their shoulders. Non swimmers weren't any behind and they blewed up the swimming tubes and the DEAD END POOL was rocked out with enegry, enthusiasm, fun, loud chatter and acrobatics. 1 hour and the fishes were soon humbled in their swimming skills by varied swimming styles demonstrated by all.
'Prince Of Nagala' with his extremely huge swimming tube caught the centre of attention.

Using the ropes to ferry the bags over saved time and effort.
In quick time each of us was either swimmed or were 'ferried across' the dead end pool. As the bags were hauled over the rock on the second end of the dead end pool, I noticed something peculiar about this trek. It has a kind of rhythm about it. It is slow but hits the notes in resonance that sounds magical. Its effortless and yet shows a metallic feel about it.
The two huge ridges across the second rock resembled two blades with very sharp edges ready to cut anything quite mercilessly.
The surface of the rocks looked like as though chiselled out to perfection by a master craftsman.



We took out our lemon rice packets here, and jeez, did I mention that it was the best of delicious lemon rice that you could ever have. The tickling of taste buds with the well prepared lemon rice and  watching the ripples of shadow of water on the rocks, listening to water streams hijacked our minds to a space trip.
The group huddled into a more exciting convo after the meal and moments drifted by and the sun started shining more brightly.
We stood up, well noursihed by the meal and stamped the boulders ahead and made way holding onto trees, plants,leaves, rocks and moved up the trail. We rested for 5 minutes at certain points taking quick naps and capturing snaps of nature at its best. This served as regrouping the whole unit and making the whole group move like beads on a chain.
The gorge stood proud in all its glory demanding us to step up to the challenge. Why not, we quickly climbed a bit up along the right edge of the stream and reached the very steep edge facing the gorge. Hmmmmm..Not advisable for the faint hearted.
Stuff that can easily get rated as 'Do not try this at home'.
With heart in mouth, each of us grabbed the rocks on the edges for dear life and moved inch by inch. With a relief, we started climbing down and looked back at the monster gorge that we surmounted. Woooohhoooo!

Within an hour of hiking over the higher altitudes of the mountain, we again took a steep climb to slowly slowly face the phenomenon called 'PICNIC POOL'. Water trickling over and hitting and splitting over a step of descending formation of rocks on to the pool makes it unique from any other pools over this trail. And the perfect geographical terrain that surrounds the pool with flat rocks and smooth stream makes it a perfect 'CAMP SITE'. Yes we settled down in to stay the night at PICNIC POOL.




Mani had climbed over along the edge of the falls and precariously placed himself on the rocks and treated himself to the heavenly stream of trickling downpoar from ahead. As enviously as we watched, one by one, each of us climbed over and got them comfortably seated over the slippery rock for an overwhelming experience.
As the sun settled, the stars formed a beautiful carpet across the sky. Down there, near the PICNIC POOL, we arranged the rocks, brought in the twigs, put in the camphor, lighted up a fire, filled in the pots with water and the scene was set for a pompous dinner. Rekha took on charge as the head chef, Gayathri announced that she will give moral support, Sankar made sure that he kept everyone busy with 10 instructions a second, and Rajesh'waran' lightened up the mood with his tongue in cheek remarks. The 2 Adi's, 2 Krishna's, 2 Raj's, Arun and almost everyone was around helping their bit in cooking up the dinner.

10 Sweet corn soup packets were ripped open and mixed in the pot and poured into the pot. In about half an hour, expectant faces surrounded the fire with bowls and spoons looking at the pot simmer. The fumes set in by the fire engulfed the PICNIC POOL promising gastronomic delights deep into the night.
3 to 4 rounds of soup was served for each of the bowl and everyone couldn't stop praising what a wonder the soup is!

Bisebellabath was the word that kept floating aound in our conversation all through the day, and as Rekha took out the vegetables, tomato, chilli , salt, pepper, masala and oil out and mixed it up in the pot, the trip looked totally like a dream. This is culiminary delight at its best.
Before the sun came up the next morning, Raj took all the ones who were awake by then to the TREASURE HUNT POOL. The folks who went in couldnt stop exclaiming with hyperboles as to what a wonder the TREASURE HUNT POOL is.



Rekha was seen already busy with the spoon and pots cooking up the food for breakfast. There was enough and more time to lazily strech over the edge of the pool and let your leg being bitten by a swarm of fishes that looked extraordinarily hungry with sharp teeth.'Prince of Nagala' got bitten the most and over most parts of his body if there was ever a competition in that department. The food tasted even more delicious and we equanimously decided to join a trek with Rekha without a second thought.

By 11 am we took on our backpacks and set out for the down trail. The rhythm was still on. The boulders, the gushing stream, the song of birds and dew drops drifting down the edges of the leaves. In clusters of small groups we moved down.The gorge was climbed back and to our delight we explored and found out a much easier path to get down. Back down at the Dead End Pool we streached back for lunch. Its here that Max couldn't hold himself any further and renamed CTC as'Chennai Trekking and Eating club'. Yeah, we all felt so noursihed in this trek, and paradoxically we would all have gained a couple of kilos than losing a few as is the norm with trekking. Chappathis with jams of various flavours. YuMMMM!

Again the ropes made ferry look like child's play. Moving further down, we reached FIRST POOL soon. Refilling the water bottles, we took the right side of the stream further and drank in the glory of the enchanting beauty around. Soon enough we reached further down to the last water point.

The trail winded down to the ordinary village tracks and we were soon overlooking the dam. We perched ourselves comfortably over the edge of the dam and watched the darkness settling in as the moments drifted by. We took a couple of snaps in the dark and walked towards our nicely parked cars.



After dumping the bags to the back of the cars, everyone exchanged parting pleasantries and new found friends promised to meet in next treks soon. We didn't wanted to end the experience so soon and decided to have the 'dinner at the Dhaba'. The cars lined up one after the other by the highway and we got into the Dhaba to taste the delights that they had to offer.
Before speeding back to Chennai coming back from what seemed like a space trip to the other world, all we had a big thanks for RAJ and ELA for giving us a delightful 2 days of adventure that delighted us more than what we could have asked for!

The next adventure starts buzzling...
--
Regards,
Samim

===

I have done three treks with CTC so far (excluding the current one) and it has been Nagala West all the time! I’ve been waiting to go trekking to other places. So imagine my excitement when I receive a mail inviting registrations for a moderate trek to ‘Nagala East’! I did what I’ve been craving to do – ‘Register’, but I was not quite hopeful of getting selected as I learnt that the organizers had received 75 registrations (within 48 hours of sending out the invite) of which, just 30 members were to be chosen. To my great joy I later received a mail of selected members and found my name in it. And to my relief, I was given to understand that I needn’t bring my car as a tempo traveller was being arranged for the journey.
Raj and I set out from his house, walking from Shastri Nagar to Madhya Kailash (a 25 minute walk) in the rain at 2.45 a.m on Saturday morning. At least I had an umbrella, but Raj chose to ignore the fact that it was raining, which could make him wet! I admire invincibility when I see it and I saw it in Raj! Well, through our walk to Madhya Kailash I guess I bugged him into silence (and hopefully not to death) with narration of my previous experience with ‘Nocturnal Nagala’. Finally we reached our destination and joined the other members. But my earlier relief was short-lived when we learnt that the van driver had a flat tire that he was trying to set right for 2 hours (which was conclusive of the fact that he didn't intend turning up!). Hence Raj & I had to bring our cars. But once behind the wheel, I can never stop driving - as my love for it is absolutely insatiable!We drove down to CMBT and merged with the rest of the gang. While, all were engaged in serious discussions on travelling arrangements, I sneaked out with Arun Prabakar and Shankar to satisfy my addiction – ‘tea’. The journey then started at around 5.30 a.m. After an hour, we again stopped for a tea break and finally reached Nagala at 7.30 a.m. As usual, the first activity was distribution of food articles. I must say that the menu was awesome – Idlis for breakfast, tamarind rice for lunch, bisebella bath & soup (to be cooked) for dinner, amongst others. Kudos to Rekha, the official cook of the gang for ensuring that unlike our muscles that constantly screamed for rest, our stomachs were never given the opportunity to voice their protest of hunger! She was so unconditional with her cooking, post which she was ever magnanimous with the food distribution (most important!).
We started our trek at 8.00 a.m. and had to walk along a dam that was filled with water of 5 feet depth. I was given to understand that at times when the dam was dry it was possible to walk across it to reach the trail. Since it was full, we had to take the longer route and walk along and around the dam. The dam with water covering half of the trees in it seemed like a scene out of a postcard of some foreign land (except for the temple at the center) - picturesque!



The trail was quite clear in Nagala East (unlike the West, where it was just too easy to get lost). I could feel the excitement emanating from everyone around. To make myself relax, I began taking deep breaths and the familiar smell of trees, wood and insects clogged my brain. We reached the first pool in an hour. Rekha was the first one to get into water and swim across to the small waterfall at the farther end of the pool. Shankar & Arun Prabhakar followed suit. The first pool was lovely, but not deep enough, especially for the divers. We were just glad to stretch our limbs and subsequently took out our food packets to have breakfast. We then continued our trek onto the dead end pool. Though I had heard a lot about the dead end pool, I was irretrievably soaked in fascination when I set eyes on it. It was great fun, diving from atop one of the big boulders. The group generally had a whale of a time swimming and diving, after which we had to move on to reach the picnic pool before dusk. Being a dead end that had to be crossed to march towards the final destination of the picnic pool, it was named the ‘Dead End Pool’. It was heart-warming to see the entire group engrossed in getting all the bags and non-swimmers across. We placed the bags on a swimming tube (one at a time, of course) and with the help of ropes, used it to transport them across the pool. Similarly, non-swimmers were also ferried across the pool. So went all the bags and non-swimmers to the other side of the pool. It was a wonderful sight – amazing co-ordination and team effort!


Once across the pool, we had to cross a huge boulder. Climbing onto the boulder and off it was a bit tricky as the surface was quite smooth leaving no room for grip anywhere. Many of us had to be helped onto the boulder and subsequently off it as well. The dead end pool was a picture of aesthetic loveliness. The ridge formations were intriguing as it made me realize that many hundred years ago the very place where I currently stood could have possibly been the floor of the stream/river.
After crossing the dead end pool none of us had the energy to move forward without refuelling ourselves. We thus raided our backpacks for lunch packets. We grabbed food off each other’s packets like starved creatures trying to satisfy our hunger. Once refuelling was done, we then proceeded to the picnic pool. After the dead end pool our trail got a bit difficult with steep climbs and equally steep falls.



The picnic pool was a visual delight. The waterfall was quite small compared to that of the fourth pool at Nagala West but was beautiful nevertheless. The pool was 20 meters in length and had an interesting shape – almost a perfect rectangle!  The water was very cool against our sweat drenched body. As I was drinking in the beauty of nature and our camping site, I heard a couple of splashes…..Arun and Varadarajan had taken the much required plunge! Shankar’s never-ending chattering and enthusiasm helped in keeping all our spirits high. I was disappointed with the fish in the other pools as they refused to give me the much anticipated pedicure. But my disappointment was pleasantly short-lived as they all promptly came to kiss my feet in the picnic pool. I was basking in the glory of my pedicure as the others were getting settled. Most of us were dead beat and ravenously hungry. Our dinner menu was Bisibelabath and our chief cook Rekha got down to instructing the team to help with the preparations. That was the best bisibelabath I’ve ever tasted in my life (though I had to pay a price for my greed – I burnt my tongue and upper palate, which still hurts even after 3 days!). Amidst volunteering work, I had sneaked out for a bit, to play cards with Rajesh, Arun, Prem, Mani & Co. Having food at the top of a mountain, beside a gorgeous pool filled with magnanimous fish that are kind enough to oblige us all with indiscriminate pedicure, under the moon-lit clear sky with millions of stars casting their loving gaze upon us was the most soul stirring experience ever in my life!


As our tired and worn out muscles were torturing us for rest, we were forced to settle down for the night. We were just settling down and spreading our sleeping mats when I noticed that the sky was beginning to get cloudy. Promptly I started panicking because my mind recollected something not so pleasant. As much as I loved the ‘Nocturnal Nagala’ experience, the one thing that wasn’t too pleasant and which will be forever etched in my memory was the wet and cold night that I had to endure under the tarpaulin sheet. It wasn’t encouraging to note that we ran the risk of a repeat. Though all of us retired for the night, I woke up once every two hours to check out the sky and cloud density (like it was going to help, nevertheless, the human mind sometimes seeks solace!). At 6.00 a.m I was quite satisfied to note that the night went well (i.e., without rains). Most of us woke up at around 8.00 a.m and were soaking in the pool for the next two hours when our chief cook Rekha again came to our rescue. We had left over Bisibellabath which was recooked with extra vegetables and ghee. After swimming for 2 hours, food was a welcome respite to our starved stomachs. We then set out to pack our things and retrace our path to reach the car park by 6.00 p.m. Surprisingly our pace had improved from the previous day and we broke our previous records. We started from picnic pool by 10.45 a.m and reached the dead-end pool by 2.30 p.m. Resting our limbs for a while, we left for the first pool by 4.00 p.m and reached by 5.00 p.m. We were out at the entry point by 6.00 p.m. We took group photographs by around 7.00 p.m. and left to Uttukotai by 7.30 p.m. As none of us could wait to reach Chennai for dinner, we stopped at a road side dabha for dinner. Dinner was great fun as we again grabbed food off each other’s plates. Some of us proceeded to have tea after dinner (I had tea before and after!). After dinner, we left for Chennai and dropped off people at the respective pick-up points.
A thoroughly professional effort from all – organizers and team members. The caring, sharing, giving and taking reminded me of that of a family, absolutely unconditional! It is astounding to note the inexplicable bonding amongst strangers coming together, with only one thing in common – the passion to live with nature and amongst its lovers! Here, you make friends for life and go back home feeling much lighter than when you’d left!



I thank everyone for making this trek an exceedingly memorable one! Max (for fascinating me with stories of trekking in Germany and other parts of Europe), Shankar (with his infectious enthusiasm & rusks for tea, winky), Raj Jacob (for his poise and confidence), A.Raj (for his volunteering and thoughtfulness), RJ (for always getting caught by me with a mouthful of something – adorable!), Rajesh & Arun Prabhakar (the discussion on Spices, Mersk and Banking), Rekha & Chandrika (for being such a wonderful cook and assistant cook respectively – I am a fan of their youthful souls & extraordinary fitness levels), Sheeba & Cheruba (for the calm/peaceful exterior and solid interior, have tried my best to shut up but have never succeeded in 27 years), Ela (for being a cool cucumber throughout!), Mani/Nachiketa/Arun/Palani (was thrilling to keep pace with you guys and for helping me stay awake through our journey back to Chennai), Surya (for additional stock of food, winky and an untiring effort at keeping Ranjani comfortable & kicking!), Sunil & Aditya Prasad (best pals from yet another memorable trek), Shamim (for, he made my day by saying he liked my post trek write-up on Nocturnal Nagala), and all others including Kishore, Aditya Verma, Varadarajan

Gayathri Chandrasekaran

===

Brother WARAN’s Snow white and the dwarfs.

These days, the business is making me a busy Bee. Shifting amidst calls on hold and multitasking my Black berry is a common phenomenon. The week was not so different. Sometimes I wonder if I had really scaled down my business as I intended to. It seems to be climbing on goddamn turnover again. However, amidst a call on hold, my friend ELA badgered me to confirm the trek to Nagala eastern entry on sep 18th and sep 19th. I did.

I was thinking of the same trail, we had tried during the treasure hunt and I fell into a sleepy dream that I was being carried on a stretcher back home by some 4 girls on each stretcher post. The dream window popped when Rajapandi(RP) and ELA screamed through my mobile to get up at 2.30 am. I was blurting out some nonsensical sleepy shallow conversations. But what followed was another Fairy Tale.
“RP – the hungry dwarf came home. We quickly picked up the provisions and food. RP Munched on some. He was navigating the dark roads for my sleepy mode of driving. We picked up Chandrika and Krishna from mogappair. Both were skulky Dwarfs hiding behind a police booth avoiding the rain and avoiding my gootro gootroo calls from my Hyundai accent silver steed. Somehow I located the skulky dwarfs and proceeded to meet all my lil jill jill pals at Nathans Café. We were all quickly out of the sleep mode and listening to each other’s sprightly greetings. RP was making his usual comical jives. Only an elephant stamp can seal this guy’s mouth. Sunil and adithya newbie dwarfs were joining us on to work at the mountains. We were all 26 dwarfs happily strapping our backpacks starting off to work at the mountains before the sun shows us the daybreak.



I, the lazy dazy dwarf was thinking of a languid sleep beneath the green carpeted nagala mountains. Our rented carriage backlashed our plan with puncture. The hiccup was handled smoothly by Reliable King RAJ. The king summoned six motorized 4 wheeled steeds to ferry us to the wonderful Nagala Land. We produced the task of headcount to our Sadhu dwarf ELA. Chattering between ourselves, there was a rumour floating in the air “oi ! oi! Oi! The princess snow white has been banished by the witch step queen Rekha. ” The SAD dwarf Shammim was being overtly sad at this news. So were all the others and the happy dwarf Nachiketa (rare to see him rue). To such a noble king RAJ who helps even the dwarfs, why must there be such a grief befall.

We snaked through some rough patched up roads to the base of the mountains. The Nagala Guide Doggies scampered behind us to check out what was alive in our spirits to repeat our Nagala Sojourn. We did not tease the animal and hopped on happily singing a merry song to our workplace.
“Ho ho ho !  a bottle of Glucon D Rum ,
Can summon all the happiness to come,
Jilly billy silly butterflies, nothing can stop us,
As a team we all scurry.

Work work work! A tired day’s Trek
Can call upon all the tiredness within from,
Hello yellow fellow sun , you can’t slow us,
AS a team we all scurry”

We camped at first pool, chit chatting upon the days gossip and drinking our honeymead readymix Glucon D and the herbal Electral juices. Our sadhu Dwarf ELA shared his IDLI with me and the Nagala Doggies. The work beckoned and we proceeded to the DEAD END pool. This pool is a conclave for us all to drop dead after a tired days trekking amidst the woods. The lovey dwarf Surya and Dovey dwarf Sivaranjini were exchanging foods to lighten their Cupid Filled Bags. There were lots of MC Vities love cookies in their bags and the whole jolly pack munched on them.
Once we reached Dead end pool, we were whistling some light tunes to lighten the hard Days work.
“ Its been a hard days work,
And I’ve been working like a log.
But when I get home so soon ,
I don’t find the things that I do here.
Hovering all over us, great mormons and swordtails,
Singing birds and cackling laughs,
         


oh ! Its been a hard day’s work.
And I’ve been working like a log.
Swimming through the ponds,
I feel all the tickles of the fishies.
Oh do I ever wanna go home.
Only the mind just cant tell. “


And suddenly Lo ! behold, we heard a voice cracking up our melodious song.

“ EIYY! NEE ENNA DA PANRINGE”

Alarmed at the shrill girls voice, we looked at our own dovey dwarfs ranjini or giggling dwarf chandrika had torn their larynx. No. This voice was like a car horn. Everyone was silenced. Then we heard it again.

“ EiYY! Neenga mattum EATING. Enakkum kudunga da! Moraikatha , kanna , Kudu”

 The voice was like a crow, but standing before us was a swan white princess-Gayathri. There was nothing so beautiful in this scenery than this white painting in a Pink Dress.

“ Naan Than pa ! unge Princess..Vanthute ya vanthutten !”

We failed to understand this royal slang of speaking and were bewildered by this swan SNOW WHITE.
Gaping at this SNOW WHITE gaya3, we forgot our manners. The TIGER puli Dwarf SHANKAR handed over some PULI RICE to this princess. He bowed his head to the un Crow highness. Sorry! Uncrowned highness.



The dwarfs were all introducing themselves to the princess. The princess was busy fighting for food with Hungry Dwarf RP. Flirty Dwarf Manimaran was being suave and interested in the princess’s Banish Story.
We all listened as we ate and drunk more of GLUCON D mead.
“ I was the lovely daughter to a good king and a fair queen. Then my mummy died. And daddy married a baddy. The baddy witch stepmother-REKHA was also so so pretty. She wanted to know who is the FAIREST of them ALL . The mirrors in the palace lied and the crystal clear NAGALA streams parted to my beauty.

EIYY! Naaan alaga irukkena…sollu man-jumpy Varatha? “
Jumpy jumped into the pool on his stomach lest the princess hurt her and said
“YES”
“ Witch mother got the gaandu’s and sent me to forest with these three buddy silent baddies-A.RAJ and ARUN prabahar and SUNIL. I gave them some biscuit and they spared me. Please help me dwarfs to settle home.”
All the dwarfs were crying to the sad story of the princess and she became the jewel in our crown.  We gave her BUN,Butter  and Jam. Soon we all became close. We offered her flowers and flirty Dwarf MANI gave her a jolly good chatting time. Even the baddies, arun and A.Raj joined us all the way to our home at PICNIC POOL.

We made our bed and flocked around the fire to narrate stories of each other. The fishes were circling the surface of the water probably listening to us too.
Suddenly a lady appeared and offered to cook for our hungry crowd. We all nodded. Lovey dwarf and lazy dwarf and sadhu dwarf collected firewood. The lady put her secret recipes into the pot. All of us ate. Ate we did after we offered the princess tat tasty BisiBela Bath and soup.
Next morning, one by one , we woke up with a knocked out head. We were wondering If it was the Glucon D Mead. Then came the song from the cook lady



“              EVIL I am calling,
            Evil , do you hear!
            I pull up the pride and pull my chest,
            I am the prettier than the prettiest.
            Snow white has been drugged,
            BisiBela Bath has done good.
            Let none near,      
            Unless a prince appear     “

The dwarfs were pop eyed to this unassuming visitor who none the less was the witch step mother. We felt powerless to unwrap the curse on the SNOW WHITE.  Unsure what to do, we asked our hunky dory dwarf PREM. Sadhu ELA Dwarf tried his magic potions like iced tea and kadva CHAI. PULI dwarf fed rusks to the Snow WHITE. None worked. SNOW WHITE had fainted and swooned flat on the rocks. The baddies, Arun and A.Raj meanwhile left to bring KING RAJ to see his beloved daughter. We all collected flowers and leaves to make a bed to SNOW WHITE. We were all huddled around each other, hands on our chins, brooding the sleepy snow white gayathri.

Time was passing as we all hummed in silence waiting for the prince to kiss the SNOW WHITE.
“snow white , glow light,
Why do u sleep, we weep,
Every morning, everyone mouring,

Snow white, glow light
Wait for the prince, riding tall n nice
To plant a lil kiss, on you miss.”

Then suddenly the unexpected happened. The NAGALA doggy, licked snow white’s lips. Quick like a fire, the dreamy snow white, sat up. Gleaming with happiness, we all patted the animal prince. We gave rations from our food. Snow white was saved. .  RAJ , the king took her home  , banished Reka. Meanwhile, we dwarfs are returning too onto the dark caves called Chennai.

What happened to the witch step mother, we are not sure, but there will be another plot by her to make us fall fat n high to that delicious food.
         


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