The Trek Polama experience

I have been a member of CTC for quite more than a year. But the hardest fact is that, I have not participated even in any single trek so far. Being a member of the online group of CTC, I get the email updates of the treks posted by people who have finished their forest trips. This has made me contended of empowerment of knowledge of the forests and the eco system existing in South India. Myself being farther from Chennai (Cuddalore is 200kms  away) its a challenge to join in the treks organized by the Chennai Trekking Club given my 6 day work week.

But, I am sure to make to one of the treks in the near future.

The symposium "Trek Polama" happened on Sunday, the 27^th of March'11 at the IIT –Madras campus. Being a Sunday, I am lucky to make to the event.

After my office on Saturday, caught the bus from Pondy to Chennai. Got to reach my Chennai home in the night, have dinner and then go check the internet and update my travel plans for the next day.

The bird walk is the first gala opener in this event and it was scheduled at 5.30 a.m. Spoke on mobile with Kartik Kannan who is living at Madipakkam to know on how to go about the next day. He is coming by Nanganallur and myself wanted to join him & bike pooled to IIT campus.

As planned, in the morning, we were to catch up at the Roja Medicals at Nanganallur. Alas Kartik missed the path and came to the spot after some hard efforts. Thanks Kartik for all the help at that odd hour.

Then we went to Kartik’s house and his wife Janani joined us for Trek Polama. From Madikpakkam we three got in two bikes and went into the IIT Campus through the Velachery side entrance. Man!! it was very near. I earlier thought that Nanganallur was en-route for Kartik and he will be going to GST road and then reach IIT-M.

If not for Kartik, I would have travelled to IIT-M through the GST road and might have travelled double the distance at that odd hour. He took arduous task of coming down from Madipakkam to Nanganallur, getting confused with the roads, driving some extra kilometers and finally catching me at the Roja medicals and then conveying me back to his house and we finally reached IIT through Velachery.

The Bird Walk is at 5.30 a.m. and we were amply on time.

Deepak my friend and the coordinator (an ornithologist) of this bird walk were there. Got to the see Deepak after so long a time.

And that's Janani and Kartik...

There were some 40 people ready for the walk and it exactly started at 5.30 a.m. with Deepak segregating the people into two groups and giving directions for us to go ahead. We joined with the first  group and Ponniah was the knowledge person who explained about the different names of the birds. Whooa, these many birds!!

That's Ponniah, explaining about the birds... 

I never imagined of so such large forest area inside the IIT-M campus. I was pretty dumb struck with the vastness of the woods and the existence of large ponds and greenery inside the IIT campus.

There was one bird which Ponniah told of the rarity kinda. I happened to click this pic on my cam. But, since it was too far away, it was not too clear. I am sure you are able to see that bird in the above pic. Just then the bird flew away. Ponniah asked if anybody have clicked it and he direly need the picture of this rare bird. Though it was too blurred picture, it was just a memorable click. The name of the bird is orange brested green pigeon.

It was observed that few of the bird walkers were clicking their cameras with “FLASH ON”. This resulted in the birds flying off due to frightening. I realized this after half way  into the event and prompted them  to swith off their flashes. My kind advise to newbie photographers is not to use the flash while you click in the wild. The forest or the woods is for the birds and the animals and we are actually guests there. So keep in mind not to disturb them. Also, your effort to capture them in your camera is defeated if your flash is ON.

Then the time ticked past 7.00 a.m. and it was a time to cling on to “Basic Photography” session scheduled at the CLT auditorium which is around 1 km away from these woods. So we bid adieu to the bird walkers. Kartik, his wife Janani and myself walked past to the audi.

It was nearing 7.30 and Kartik and his wife went for breakfast. I skipped breakfast and went on to catch the Photography session at the audi. Lucky me, Bhagat of Makka Sudios who is giving this session is yet to come and start. 

When I got into the audi, Rajnikanth, the coordinator for the session was introducing the participants.

Finally Bhagat arrived and started the session. He continued with telling about the intrinsic details involved in photography. He started the introduction session with querying the participants on how they started into photography. It was an interesting session. It would have been a more interesting one, if he shared his works with us and explained on how to get a better photograph.

It was around 9.30 a.m. when the event kick started with Peter and a senior  professor from IIT-M giving the intro talk. 

Then Peter gave the session on Maps, GPS and Navigation session. Surprised to know of the vast of information available for anyone to learn. The way the trails are discovered using different kinda maps are mesmerizing. It was an awesome session with Peter throwing us knowledge on the various maps available.

The treasure hunt is in progress. Seems someone has succeeded hunting the treasure.

Then there was a session by Mr.Rass's on the restoration of Adyar poonga. The spot which once was a place full of mounds of filth have been turned into a nice eco park in about 5 years. Half a decade back the same spot was with rubbish which were shown through photos and the tireless effort by him did bear fruit with now the park in Chennai inviting people to enjoy, as well as the species which work in balancing the eco system of the estuary to live. He showed the photos of Auroville taken during the 1968 and the present scenario. Awestruck to know that Auroville was once a barren place and now the vegetation has developed a green canopy with continuous efforts of the people. Ross has played a vital role in that too. He himself pats down that these works are only a drop in a bucket of water; there are still mountains of work that need to be done in the current scenario to restore our environment.

Then came Sujai’s talk on mountaineering. This guy has completed mountaineering course and have successfully done mountaineering upto 17,000 feet. Whoooaaah. He gave a presentation which had the pics of the mountaineering tools that were needed if you wanna trek the higher altitudes. Such a crisp and clear details and a simple and powerful presentation made the audience decide to go for a mountaineering. 4 institutes run by the government are there in our country which makes the people get trained to climb the mountains. The fact is that, the fees for a full month course is Rs.4,000 and it comprises of food, accommodation and the training. The actual expense towards this mountaineering course is 5 fold which is taken care by the government of India.

Had a tasty lunch...

Post lunch session was a talk on “The Snakes of India” by Sujan Bernard. We were spell bound on seeing the nice photographs of those magnificent species. He gave a demo on how to handle a snake bite. He gave some of the interesting facts about the snakes. If an agriculture field has many snakes, it means that the field is fertile. Ohhhh! So far, I only thought that snakes in the fields are bad for the human visitors. Got to know of the actual fact behind the existence of the snakes.

Then there was a session by noted noted wild life activist Mr.Shekar Dattatri . He elucidated on the efforts against mining taken by him to restore the eco system on Kudremukh. He pepped us on how we the nature conscious trekkers can do their bit in safeguarding the wild, as well as create awareness through the internet. 

Then came the talk on how to build your own cost effective houses by yourself. The trend to build yourself an house will definitely cut costs. This system of using the unburnt bricks and the non dependence of the cement goes a long way in making an environment friendly method. She is to start constructing houses made of bamboo and wet bricks in different places around Chennai. I am interested to make a visit to the bamboo house while it being built. Let’s see.

Then came the session “Photography paadhi, post processing paadhi” by Ashok Saravanan. We were given an astonishing act. A portrait photograph which had a dark face and a bright background was processed and the face was brightened. But I understand that this could be done by people who own a DSLR and not me as I have only a P&S camera.

Its now past dusk. A panel discussion on eco conservation called “TrekX” came up. 

Eminent people were present in the discussion. Noted environmentalist Mr.Sekar Dattatri made for a thought provoking discussion. The things that I minuted out of this discussion were... 
1.)The forest is home for the wild animals, we the trekkers are actually the guests. Keep in mind that you are peeping into the privacy of the wild. Be a responsible trekker. Do not disturb them.
2.) Its not a tour that you go into the forests. It is actually a home to a variety of species. Even if you are sure that you are not disturbing the forest eco system, your foot steps are actually killing a small number of speicies that are living on the soil. Mind it.
3.)Do not make unnecessary noise while in the forests. You are actually disturbing the animals there. Actually you are a guest, obey accordingly.
4.) Make sure that your attire is not of alluring colour. Animals are not comfortable.
5.) Keep your group size to the minimum.

Actually the one day Trek Polama event had given me a lot of knowledge on the forests and the wild life. Had I been not there, I would be poorer of the empowerment of the knowledge on the forest eco system, birds, photography, eco conservation, cost-effective housing, mapping, snakes, mountains, mountaineering, etc, etc..,

I bet that, it’s a very rare kinda to get empowered of a vast and diverse knowledge in a single day. My kudos to Chennai Trekking Club.

Come on Chennai, Come on CTC. May the treks go on for ever. May the people like me learn more on forests.

More of the photos are available at my FaceBook. Don't miss them

Last but not the least; My big thanks to the team which has missed their sleep for days & nights together; put in their effort to make this a successful event.

TrekPolama - The First largest Trekking Symposium in India

Conducted for the trekkers, of the trekkers and by the trekkers, “Trek Polama!” is a yearly event by The Chennai Trekking Club. Lovingly called the CTC, the club was founded in 2008 with the main aim to get the adventurous souls of Chennai together and to discover the unexplored locations in and around Chennai.

With over 1000 participants last year, “Trek Polama?” was a base for existing trekkers and new enthusiasts to explore new avenues. This year, in collaboration with ecoLogin, an alternate tourism service provider, CTC presents the event at the CLT Auditorium ,IIT Madras Campus on Sunday, the 27th March, 2011.


Trek Polama! has both indoor and outdoor events. The event kicks off with a Bird Walk at 5.30 am followed by a Hands On Session about the Basics of Photography. A wonderful  opportunity to explore the rare thing called forest in our metro Chennai. The indoor session starts at 9.00 am with sessions on GPS / Map reading / Trail planning, Navigation. Mountaineering, The Snakes of India, Post Processing of Photographs etc  and will go on till 6.30 pm.

Eminent speakers like Shekkar Dattatri, Sujaan Bernard, Anupama will be coming in to give Guest Lectures on topics ranging from "Wild life videography - how it contributes to conservation" , "Build cost effective environmental friendly house with your own hands" to " The Snakes in India".  In addition , there is a Biking workshop and  fun events like Treasure Hunt and Outdoor Climbing Activities.


The schedule is

5.30 a.m.    - Bird walk
7.00 a.m.    - Awaken your 3rd eye - Outdoor Photoshoot
9.00 a.m.    - Curtains open for Trek Polama!!!
9.30 a.m.    - Pave your way - GPS / Map reading / Trail planning ...
10.00 a.m.  - Treasure Hunt
11.00 a.m.  - Beyond Trekking - What next
11.00 a.m.  - Know your Ride - Bike workshop
12.00 noon  - Basics of Mountaineering
1.00 p.m.   - Lunch
2.00 p.m.   - Scale with the wrigglers - Snakes of India
2.30 p.m.   - Canopy Crapers - Outdoor climbing...
3.30 p.m.   - Photography Padhi, post processign padhi
6.00 p.m.   - TrekX - Panel Discussion

Though "Bird Walk' & "Outdoor Photoshoot" require pre-registration, the event is open for the Public and everyone is invited to take part in it. “Trek Polama!” promises to awaken the inner trekker in you, again this year. Its synonymous that CTC's events attract much of the crowd, so be aware. Do not miss to buy your Lunch Token by 10.30 a.m. itself!! 

I have long been a member in CTC's google group, but so far have not taken part in any of the event. The primary reason being far away at Cuddalore (nearly 200 kms from Chennai). This is the first time I have got to take a plunge in the fun. I shall be leaving Cuddalore on Saturday evening to Chennai. Staying at Nanganallur and catching up the first event called "Bird Walk" at 5.30 a.m. at the IIT-Madras campus. If you are there, buzz me. Let's catch up.

Visit the official website of CTC at http://www.chennaitrekkers.org

Catch'em up the Face Book event page here 

Get the lively email updates of the musings of CTC by joining the Google Group

A workshop on Real Time Biosurveillance Program by RTBI

Biosurveillance – What does it mean?

Keeping tab on outbreak of diseases. Its done by the Health Department of our Government of Tamil Nadu in our state. So far I do not have any knowledge on this subject.

Fortunate to get invited by Prof.Ashok Jhunjhunwala from IITM for a press conference on “Real Time Bio-surveillance Program” on the afternoon on 7th July’10. 

But there was an interesting workshop which preceded this press conference which pulled me to arrive there in the forenoon itself. After attending this session at the Research Park campus at the IITM, came to know of many of the interesting aspects involved in such an exercise.

How the present system of bio surveillance works?

The first of the information such as symptoms of the disease / epidemic gets to be known to the nurses working for the concerned village, probably attached to the Village Health Centre or the Primary Health Centre.

This exercise involves the nurse to record various data in a form as provided by the government. Each of the nurses have a few villages for them to cover and they go far  into these places carrying bundles of forms which may weigh nearly 7 Kilos in total. They get to record the diseases and the various attributes as need to be noted in the form. End of the day, they go back to their office and submit these forms. Even if there is no disease or any symptom, “Null” gets reported for the day. These forms go to Primary Health Centre and finally to the Deputy Directorate of Health Services. The movement of the paper which might have taken not less than 15 days of journey finally ends at District Health Centre where the data is then fed into the central server of the Health Department.

With the umpteen number of human intervention and multiple modes of transport, the time between the info received by the village nurse and the data recorded into the server will take not less than 15 days, sometimes a month.

Given the vitality of the information during an epidemic, the response that could be taken based on this system gets to play a spoil sport. It takes some 3 to 5 weeks to know the health statistics of the population.

What if this whole system responds in an instantaneous manner??

The Rural Technology Business Incubator is pushing into play a new project called Real Time Bio-surveillance Program (RTBP) which is going to make the need of a paper and pen almost to null.

All it needs is a simple JAVA based mobile phone with GPRS connection. Once the project which is now in pilot is successfully implemented in our country, the story of nurses carrying 7 Kilos of paper bundles will be talked as if it was a Stone Age practice. The time to get the data recorded into the Health Dept’s server is almost instantaneous. This pilot project is getting tuned at the backyards of our own Tamil Nadu in the district called Sivaganga.

He is Dr.Raghupathy, Deputy Director of Health Services, Sivaganga District. Implementing this project is not an easy task. The work involves an additional burden right from the Deputy Director till the Village Health Nurse. But given the benefit of near instantaneous response this project going to gift us in the near future, their toil is worth it.

How this new system of bio surveillance works?

The village nurse gets to click a link on their java phone and download the software in it. This software gives out a form where they record the data. Initially the records needed to be typed for each of the alphabets, which was not only cumbersome and time consuming but also increases the probability of error to creep into the system. But the tech team back at RTBI has made little changes to it. Now typing the letter A will give suggestion for diseases starting with “A”.  Just go down and click, its recorded.

I thought these nurses would be having difficulty in using English. But during the Q hour, I got my thought beaten down. One of the Nurses asserts that, it was too much easy for them now to use English in her mobile phone. She votes for English to use in her mobile phone.

Such an advancement in our home land. WOW

Literally they have not used their phone for anything other than making/receiving a call. Now they have mastered their phone. All this has not happened in two days, but more than a year in implementation and with the field project associates of the RTBP constantly motivating them and responding to their queries to assist them in trouble shooting their queries. There were instances where the whole software was deleted from the phone.

Its exciting to know that such a project is going to deliver a robust emergency preparedness module for our country in times of any health hazard. As if to eliminate the chances of errors in a typical keying in routine, Prof.Padmashri Ashok Jhunjhunwala has quipped that this project will soon be getting a voice based response system which should eliminate the need of typing and a computer directly interacts through voice with the village health nurse and records the data into the central database.

“This project was not about just meeting its objectives, both at research and in implementation. It was about seeing it through as it is genuinely perceived as a way to go, path to future. RTBI in Chennai, LirneAsia from Sri Lanka, Auto Lab from USA and National Centre for Biological Sciences in Banglore, though not only joined hands with different skill sets (Technology, Research, Implementation and Liaison with Government respectively) but also are striving to achieve one goal as in how this project can be integrated to mainstream processes, scalable not just in Tamil Nadu but across our country India. The intent is not to eliminate paper alone, but how can we get across the information faster and in a more effective manner. After all, we still do carry notepad to take notes, but at the end of the day email/call to get the word across faster” quips Suma Prashant the Vice President of Exploratory Initiatives of RTBI, IIT-Madras and she fails not to mention that it is her team that saw this through, and adds on to give due credit to Dr. Ganesan, Ms. Vincy and Mr.Janakiraman.

If you feel of direly missing this one day workshop, I am sure your visit to my FaceBook photos will quench you a little.

Genesis 2010 event at IIT Madras

Came to know through Kiruba’s tweets that an event called “Genesis 2010” happening at Department of Management Studies in IIT Madras on Sunday, the 31st of Jan’10.

Given the fact that this event is associated with social entrepreneurhip, that too on a Sunday, with one of the two session being “Brain jam by Kiruba” I was super excited to have a peep and get a chance to network with people working on social entrepreneurship.

So, yours truly sets out to travel from Cuddalore to Chennai on the bus. on 31Jan10.

I was with an assumption that this Social Entrepreneurship competition has a big crowd from CEOs who are making business on the rural front to the students honing their business studies for plunging in to develop the rural India. But, when I arrived at the conference room at 11.00 a.m., there were only a few students numbering not more than 15 waiting for the speaker to arrive. I was the only person who is an outsider, all others being Management students of IIT.

The first session was “How to get your first customer in a venture?” by Mr. Siddarth, CEO of Aura Integrated Solutions Pvt. Ltd.  He gave an interesting talk on Marketing side with only a fewer slides which were crispy and was quite interesting. Then followed is the Q&A from the participants. Having a 15+ years of experience, Siddarth got to give out some interesting statistics on the marketing side of some of the well known local brands.

Once this session ended by 12.15 p.m. I went to Tiffany to have lunch. The next session being at 2.00 p.m. it was too long a time for me to pass. Ofcourse passed my time by reading newspaper and came back to the venue. I was bit earlier, so killed time by chatting with friends on my phone and then reading each and every notices displayed on the notice board of the Dept. of Management Studies. What to do? There is no other way I could find to pass time :D

At 2.00 p.m. Kiruba arrived to give an awesome session, there was an inflation in the number of particants now say about 40+. It started with people introducing themselves and then pointing their hand to the next folk to get introduced. Each of the participant were given a soft yellow ball and three small stickers. Folks were asked to give whatever idea they have, be it social entrepreneurship or any nice business idea; each idea is written on the board. If there is a bull shitter crapping out with a bad idea, every participant will throw the soft ball on him. This made the session get an extra funny bone as well a fool proof filtering mechanism. This was actually good, and since it’s a soft ball the victim does not get injured. Once some 15 ideas had been jotted down on the white board, its now the voting session. Participants need to stick their stickers on the top 3 ideas which fascinated them. Then the best idea is picked.

As I told you, I am the odd man out at this place, since all other guys + only one girl are students of IIT. I think absence of pre event promotion is the reason of poor crowd to this workshop. As I am running my CEO centric blog startupstory.in, I am particular in attending these kinda events. Having myself profiled interesting stories of IITians running businesses, I got to know about the wonderful incubation centre RTBI at IIT Madras headed by Prof.Ashok Jhunjhunwala. So post event, I happened to chat with the boys who were there. Themselves being management fraternity the workshop related to social entrepreneurship, I thought that they would know about the rural centric business which are being incubated at their IIT premises. But I was dumbstuck that these people have not heard of the other side of the pasture.

Such an event called Genesis 2010 with emphasis on Social entrepreneurship is a laudable one. But, the student fraternity associated with organizing this social entreneurship event being in isolation of the wonderful startup happenings at their own premises is definitely a big treasure missed just because of an absence of interaction.

I hope, a bridge will happen soon and the treasure gets discovered by these students of management on their entrepreneurial hunt. 

Moreover, the organising team has done a good show and it was really an awesome event.

See you soon guys.