Yogakshemam Kaivara trip 2008

Yogakshemam Bangalore had arranged a trip to Kaivara Vaikunda and Kaivara Kailasa for its members in Jan 2008. Scriplets about the tour...

The trip was good; better than expected. We had around 75 (+ 10 children) people for the trip. 2 buses were booked, both private vehicles. KSRTC bus booking involved a lot of procedures, which none of us had time for. So we listed out a few private bus operators, and selected the cheapest one. This one came from Krishnettan (John Distillery). So we booked a 50 pushback seater wala bus and a Swaraj Mazda van. The van drove us all the way from Raja rajeshwari Nagar to Kaivara through JP Nagar, BTM, Indira Nagar and KR Puram. The bus took Rajarajeshwari Nagar, Malleshwaram, Yelahanka, RT Nagar, Ulsoor, KR Puram and then along with the van, to Kaivara. The van reached KR Puram at 8 am, and we drove a little further and stopped at Avalahalli, 10 kms from KR Puram, near a BPL factory. The bus joined us by 9:15. The van which had 32 seats, was occupied by about 35 youngsters (This includes senior Kiru and wife, their father and mother). We had 2 rounds of self introductions, and most of the people who did an intro were in a small way, ragged. We saw a competition between IBMites, Wiproates and Infions in the number of attendees for the trip. No one from the van wanted to go to the bus, the reason for which still puts me in deep thought!!!

Soon, we stopped near a petrol bunk, and had idly, Vada, Sambar, Chutney and tea. MS Ettan had arranged a caterer to provide breakfast and lunch for the whole team. In the van we had Antakshari, Kittan’s intelligent answer questions (Shama, Kallada, Jabbar etc etc), and a lot of screaming and shouting. The trip was fun filled, with a few new faces, some from IBM, Infy, and Wipro. (Kudos goes to Dilip for discovering these poonool dharikal.). We reached Vaikunda by 11:15, went into the temple, and came back by 12:00. The temple is a very good one, with lots of sculptural masterpieces. It had a Yoga Narasimha moorthi, and sculptures of all the dasha avataras. There was a homam going on inside that when we reached there. The temperature which was around 30-35 outside, dropped down to about 25 inside the temple. The whole temple seems to be carved out from rock which makes the interiors so cool.

By 12:15, we started towards Kailasa. Many of us were tired by the time we reached there. There was construction work going there at Kailasa. Kailasa is again a temple carved out of huge rocks. There are 3 prathishtas here, Siva, Parvathi and Ganapathy. Construction work was going there, and I think within a few days, there would be more and more prathishtas. The govt and the priests there are finding this as a revenue generating one, and I guess this would be a great temple (tourist spot) very soon! We had lunch after “climbing” down from Kailasa. There are lot of monkeys (other than us) waiting for the leftovers from the tourists. So, for tourists they have created a lunch room. MS Ettan had arranged Curd Rice and Vangi bath, with Pickles, which was so tasty that we just kept on eating more and more. After lunch we started moving to an ashram nearby which had lots of open area. We reached there by 2:30, and played dumb sharads, and a game for finding the fastest couple (Nothing to do with real couples). We packed from there by 4 pm after having a group photo session. Every one was tired on our way back, but still the always energetic Sankar, Dilip and team kept on singing… I had lost my throat, and could not sing even though I wanted to. Just before reaching KR Puram, we had a feedback session, where everyone was asked to provide their feedbacks.

The overall feedback was very positive, and everyone was convinced that its not the place we visit that matters.. it’s the people who participate which really matters. Everyone was very happy with the games that we played. That was the best every one quoted in their feedbacks. Krishnettan had a strong opinion that it’s the youth that has changed the Yogakshemam’s image to such an energetic one. (And ofcourse, whom ever in the Yogakshemam Member list I called in the last one month, there was a cold response for the trip)

Even though there were a lot of last minute drop outs, we could maintain a team which did not affect the Yogakshemam financials in a bad way. Yogakshemam had to put almost 75 rupees per head from the common fund. The final figures are still not out.