When I am gone...

"That be not told of my death,

Or made to grieve in account of me,

& that I be not buried in consecrated ground,

& that no sexton be asked to toll the bell,

& that nobody is wished to see my dead body,

& that no mourners follow my funeral,

& that no flowers be painted on my grave,

& that no man remembers my name,

To this I put my name, for I have lived my life to full."

- Thomas Hardy

Height at Night

Finally after quite a long time, I went for a hike. 'Skandagiri' is a hill some 70 kms from Bangalore on NH-7 Highway. It's famous for night climbing in moonlight. 

We of course, depended more on torches than crescent moon. This place is also known for colorful sunrises. As per Murphy's law, all that could go wrong, went wrong. One of our bikes got punctured, we did loose the way in night, climbed back & then had to climb again. Well, to put in a nutshell, of the 14 people in my group who climbed; each one of them was a zombie, by the time we climbed down. 

However, it was worth the effort. Here are some pictures I managed to take:-

Bangalore Skyline before sunrise, as seen from the top of Skandagiri. The shot is a long exposure of 20 seconds on my tripod(struggled quite a lot to carry that to top).

The hill in front atop the clouds is Nandi Hills. The shot has been taken just after sunrise. Because of the speeding clouds here, Nandi Hills is visible like the pupil of a blinking eye.

Took this shot at the top. The boulder lies at the edge. Gives a good reference scale of the sizes. 'Kudos' to the morons who were standing near the edge to get themselves photographed.