Tada

postcard from Tada

Finally I did get a chance to see green as green and brown as brown without a layer of dust on them, courtesy the Tada falls. The lazy Sunday morning started off with my friend cursing my bubbling enthusiasm to travel to the hotspot of virgin beauty. After a 70 kilometer drive at varying speeds, directly proportional to my friend’s concentration levels, we reached a rocky, sandy terrain. However much we increased the accelerator the rough terrain would not let our ‘civilized transportation’ get into its realm (nice lesson: advertisements are exaggerations). This along with an old lady’s unwavering assurance that vehicles can never go beyond this point, we ended up using her hut as our parking space and up we trekked to the falls. As I walked up the hill, there were clear pools alongside, which were easy giveaways to the burnt brown of the rocks beneath. The rocks looked like the leftover pieces of some sculpture, left at the mercy of these waters to give them their slippery touch. I could not resist the temptation (something which is never resisted) of throwing a stone and watching the ripples it created. To me, the ripples seemed like the frown of the pool for having disturbed its Sunday sleep (old habits die hard). From golden brown flecks to the darkest of burnt browns, the sun had it fancy dance with the waters, proving its might with the palette of the pool. The cool waters, slippery rocks and the vain sun – the beginning of my trek looked good. After about 4 kilometers of trekking, the warm shades gave way to the cool greens and blues, whose ripples created beautiful patterns with sunshine as their aide. This time, the thick undergrowth muttered curses at the waters for not having acted as a faithful cover. The pools here were deeper and bigger with a canopy of trees above, and yes, a bunch of men laughing and thrashing about in the water too became a part of this postcard from Tada. And yet, we did not stop.

As we went higher up, we encountered boulders of about 3 – 4 feet high, smooth as Vaseline coated skin (supposedly). The boulders were bordered by thick, green vegetation with small brooks running along playing tag. Finally I thought, my Geography books were not after all wrong. (I thought these descriptions were written in order to entice us into learning that subject… hmmm). Further down 3 kilometers of us getting on all hands, legs and knees, we sighted the waterfall. There it was. I was not fooled by some travel journalist... ha! It was really beautiful, gushing down with all its force and forming a pool below. I just threw my shoes and climbed down to put my head under the waterfall. Nothing equals the fun of getting wet in the rain and the new addition to my list of utmost fun – putting your head under a waterfall. After some time of this watery fun, I started wondering... no thought could pass through my mind at the magnanimity of the rocks, trees and the water around – so unmindful of the foreign intrusion…My friend dived into the pool, went deep down to touch the bed and came back unsuccessful. The pool was so deep that the echo of the water could not be heard. The strong currents also prevented him from going deeper. We spent time just lying down there listening to the sights and sounds, feeling the harmony and smiling at the irony. The irony of the byproducts of Nature changing the face of the raw material….. the stillness brought our thinking process to a halt, something which no yoga or a meditation class could. We trekked down home wiser, somber and definitely more sensitive about ourselves as urban hippies gallivanting across in the name of civilization…..
As hard as I did try to avoid using descriptive clichés, the mantle of being an urban trying to get used to the ways of a roughened traveler, constricted my mind into using them. This being my very first tryst with traveling down the unused terrain, I guess you do squint when you first see light and later it’s a sense of absolute freedom, an unbridled force to let your legs wander and match them with the speed of your mind.

the burnt brown, the vain gleam

on our way back....

How to get there:

You could take a bus from Koyambedu and get down at Varadaiah Palem. From the bus stop, you have share jeeps which could take you up to a point and from thereon it’s a trek. If you would like to take your own transportation, then it’s a straight drive of about 67 – 70 kilometers from Koyambedu. From the bus depot a little further down take a left, which would lead you to the destination. Please take food and water along with you.