A short stay back in mother's (nature) womb

It was rather an accidental decision that we decided to make short trip to yelagiri in Vellore dt, Tamil Nadu. I was looking to book a trip to Yercaud and couldn't find decent accommodation and decided on Yelagiri as an alternative. Checked holidayIQ and consulted some friends and booked "Zeenath Taj Gardens" as the place to stay. I had my own bit of skepticism on the choice of vacation and place of stay.

I booked the place for 2 days and started from Bangalore on a friday morning. It was a nice and smooth road all the way and only has a 10 odd kilometers of Ghat roads. The ghats are not too tough to navigate and took us under 3.5 hours to reach Y'giri from B'lore, driving sanely.

The very entrance and look of the "zeenath taj" was very different and had a very natural look. We got room #2 and that was the first thrill.


The room was very well laid out and had all the basic needs addressed and neatly done for a small family. From the Verandah of the room, we had a nice view of the car-way (Picture above) and pretty much all the main parts of the resort. We settled down quickly and were ready to grab some food. I did read and hear on the net, about the nice south-indian food these guys were dishing out for several years. We decided to subscribe to the food option, the report was offering and that was most smart decision, I made in years :-). The food was by far the best veggie food I had for years. Incidentally, I was telling the owner of the resort about the great food that they were offering and the elderly man replied "taste of food is all about where,how it is served and the mood of the person, who is consuming" .. interesting perspective .. right .. btw, Most of the times food is served out-doors under the trees, In the garden etc.,

Here I should pause to talk about what I enjoyed but talk a little about the kid's and how they felt about the place. I have near-5 yr old boy and one of the thoughts was to make sure the place was enjoyable to him too. The resort had a small little place which is a children play area, surrounded by trees and little park. After hanging around for few hours with the kiddo, I did realize that the place is safe to let him play by himself and we left him at the play area. There are a bunch of geese in the resort and pretty much all the children had a ball of a time with geese and chasing the geese. In the process, Aadarsh did make some friends and uploading one the picture (below) with his new found friend.

Enough of singing laurels for "zeenath Taj" and let me talk a little about the Yelagiri, itself. The place is around 1015 mts above sea level and weather is fairly good but don't expect it to be a ooty and kodai. It is a hill station left to itself largely. Yelagiri has few places to see like the Main lake and a nature park that was recently done to add to the tourist attraction.

It is mostly a place for 1 day visit unless you are nature lover and want to explore more places in and around and do a couple of treks etc.,

In all the place had the real charm of nature and so much being part of the nature. If one is interested, you could do a couple of treks (which I did and find some nice places to trek and find few rare birds and medicinal plants etc.,). Even Zeenath Tak is a fairly big resort with 11 acres of land or so, with full of mango, gauva and Litchi trees. It is season for mangoes and litchi's and we did taste some farm-fresh litchis. The resort folks don't have any issues we plucking mangoes or litchis and if you exploring enough, you would find a good number of fruits to each farm fresh. 

It was a wonderful 2 days we got to spend in Yelagiri, thanks to Mr. Rehman who really took take of each of the guests and treated us like "mehman" to him own home .. With heavy hearts (and heavy tummy too :-)), we returned to Bangalore on sunday afternoon, having the famous mutton biriyani from ZT, on sunday afternoon..

A bright life needs help - I

We have a mail at the start of this week on madhav, a bright b.tech student suffering from blood cancer. Below is the mail from him. Will keep updating this thread on what's going on wrt to madhav's treatment..

*Current status is that the funds are flowing in fast and hope is raising..*

/***********************************************************************/

I, K. Madhava Reddy (3610), passed out in 2006 and am currently pursuing my
B.Tech in Hyderabad. I was diagnosed with ALL (Acute Lymphoblastic
Leukemia) - a type of Blood Cancer- in November, 2007.
I have been undergoing treatment for the above said disease since then
under the supervision of Dr. SVSS Prasad, Apollo Hospitals, Hyderabad and
completed B.Tech 2nd and 3rd years in distinction. The treatment was going
fine till Oct. 2009 when the doctor noticed that the disease has relapsed.

The doctor advised that the only way I can sustain is by undergoing a
BMT (Bone Marrow Transplantation). I was accordingly prepared for
this BMT by giving high dosage of chemotherapy. Now, the reports have
showed remission and the doctor has referred to Apollo Speciality Hospital,
Chennai as this facility is not available at Hyderabad.

I have consulted Dr. Jose M Easow, BMT speciality who has conducted the
required investigations and advised for an immediate admission and
transplantation. The donor for transplantation is my Sister whose marrow
has matched with my marrow.

The estimate given by Apollo Chennai (attached) is for Rs.15 lakhs.
Other incidental expenditure will be 3 to 5 lakhs. Both my parents have
expired before I was 8 years old, since then I was dependent on my uncle who
has already spent approx. Rs.10 lakhs towards my
treatment. But now since the amount is huge, I request you to lend
out a helping hand and support my uncle. Any kind of help whatsoever will
be deeply appreciated. Your help and support will give me a chance to lead
a normal life once again. There is nothing called a small help when the
heart giving it is big. All amounts shall be accepted with gratitude.

All payments can be made by cheque or DD in favour of "K. Madhava Reddy" or
can be remitted into SB A/c No. 10123165040 State Bank of India, Balkampet
Branch, Hyderabad

i am deeply grateful for your help and concern. Please forward it to anyone
who can be of any help.

Awaiting your positive response.

Thanking you,

K. Madhava Reddy (3610)
H.No. SRT-18, AMEERPET COLONY
HYDERABAD - 500 016

For any queries Pl. contact my uncle
Mr. MV Srinivasa Reddy
Cell: 9849984039
mvsr.srt18@gmail.com