August 3rd

Day 11: Steps to Remember

My name is Sai Keertana Ganta from Seattle WA, I am 17 years old and was a participant of the Giggling Geckos camp 2023

Our morning

Waking up at 5am had become the standard by now. It was the third to last day of camp, something no one wanted to be reminded of. We started our day listening to the lively Sai namam in the mandir, a staple that none of us would dare to miss. The namam was followed by a cup of malt provided by the Aunties - another crucial part of our mornings. But this morning was different. We weren’t going to follow through with our full morning routine with yoga or a farm walk; instead, we were changing our scenery. Among the group, there was no sense of tiredness but rather a feeling of excitement flowing through everyone's veins as we reminded ourselves it was the day. The day we decided to conquer Gingee Fort. 

Preparation for Gingee Fort

At first it was a little daunting. The feeling increased after we were told that we weren’t just hiking one fort but two. The first hike being called Raja (king) fort was 1480 steps. The Rani (queen) fort on the other hand was 456 steps.  With a good amount of hiking experience we were ready to take on the challenge. In efforts to prepare us for this exhilarating hike, we took every last liquid iv/pedialyte packet that we could find in our suitcases and distributed it to the group. Ammamma made sure that we all took small antibiotic balls before our hike as a precaution. After everyone was supplied with a bottle of electrolytes and a bottle of cold water, we met face to face with 2 full bags of snacks. Sruti Akka then distributed the snack bags equally between the two respective cars we were taking. After all was settled, we piled into the cars and set off to Gingee.

Arrival at Gingee

The car ride there was filled with nothing but sound. Be it the sound of our horrid singing voices, the horns of cars, or the voice of a biker getting mad at Murali uncle for hitting his foot with his car, every sound was a story. We sang our hearts out the whole way there with the exception of breaks to laugh or point out Jagadish uncle and Pradeep uncle driving on the scooty past us. A car ride later, we had arrived at the grounds of Gingee.

As soon as we arrived, the monkeys greeted us with a set of circus routines. We were told that there would be several monkeys during our hike, something that we were all afraid of. After a few bites of the energy bar for nourishment, we headed towards the foot of the hike. Before we arrived at the starting point, we took a little detour to admire the throne room. A structure that used to be 12 stories tall but looking at it now, it was demolished to rubble… We took a few pictures and decided that we needed to brave our challenge and start the hike or else we would be caught in the scorching sun. We read a sign about the history of Gingee and bid farewell to Sweety akka and Anshu who decided to wait at the bottom of the hike for us due to some injuries. They also used their time at the bottom as an advantage to choreograph a surprise dance we were going to perform for Ammamma and Sruti Akka. And with that, we had begun to climb the Raja fort. 

The start of our hike

The first 20 minutes was the most physically exhausting part of the whole hike. We all collectively had some sort of leg pain prior to the hike so the first part was challenging. With the steepest steps anyone has seen, we climbed for a while supported by excessive breaks to ease into the hike. Afterwards, we got the hang of it and our joints loosened up and our faces lit up with smiles as one of the guards told us that we had just gotten through the hardest part. On the way up to the top, we would take mini detours to look from lookouts down to our cars, going inside a few structures to see what the soldiers would be looking at back in the day.

We were constantly vlogging on Uday anna’s phone and keeping ourselves entertained. About halfway up the hike the girls realized we needed a break as the uncles,  annas, and akka went off the path a little to explore. We sat on some steps and emptied the last of our electrolytes and ice cold water. Having a little bit of time to satisfy our hunger, we opened some of the snacks in our backpack. Collectively we all shared a bar before we realized that it might attract the monkeys. Without the Uncles to fight the monkeys off, we all hurriedly finished our food and discarded the wrapper far away from us, just in case the monkey caught on to the sweet smell. We waited a couple of minutes until we heard the slightest sound of “oo ooo,” the designated bird call between the group so we’d know where everyone was. We all sang “oo ooo” back in response. And out of the corner of our eyes emerged the Uncles and Akka with smiles plastered on their faces taking in the wholesome moment. With no words for two minutes but rather just oo ooo’s we laughed as they got closer and started to continue our hike.

The way to the top 

As we progressed, we came across natural air conditioning rocks, more steps and a fascinating bigger rock. This rock had a perfect nook to sit in after climbing it a little. Anvitha, Manmohan uncle and Uday Anna all climbed the rock  to sit in the nook to get some good pictures for memories, but soon they were face to face with an uninvited guest. A monkey crept around the corner, towards the three of them. With no escape to get down fast enough, Anvitha panicked a little. Manmohan uncle had fast reflexes and took a stick and scared away the monkey, leaving them all to get off the rock safely. 

As we continued to trek to the top, we entertained ourselves by singing the soundtrack to both the Baahubali movies, creating a fun environment between the kids and uncles. The singing loosened up everyone's nerves, making the hike more enjoyable. Our special bonds with the uncles became stronger on this hike as we allowed our personalities to shine through and as they motivated us to keep climbing. After climbing a good amount of steps later, we had reached the top of the King fort! We crossed a bridge and explored the top of the fort. We found a structure that had steps around it and a little lookout that we proceeded to take pictures in.  Half of the group sat and rested enjoying the nice view and slight breeze as the others explored the structure. Hasita and I were perplexed by this one lookout that had no entrance, possibly closed off. Sruti akka and all of us girls also sat on the roof of another building and dangled our feet off.

The way down

The most freeing feeling after a tedious hike. From the top we could see many goats and it was a beautiful view of the other rocky hills around us. We also found a really structured room that echoed even if the smallest whisper was spoken. At this point, all our water was depleted, but surprisingly no one was in dire need of water. We still felt that we could make it down the hike without any water or electrolytes.

 After exploring the top of the fort for a little while, we began our trek down. We briefly stopped at a viewpoint, all of us embracing the view. From the viewpoint you could clearly see Arunachala ahead of it. We observed that the main road followed straight to Arunachala. Sruti akka (as well as the rest of us) stood in awe as she said, “The world revolves around Arunachala.” And we all agreed, it was true. Everything we had done at camp was about Arunachala, around Arunachala or related to Arunachala. While walking down it occured to me how out of the ordinary this all was. Here we were, away from the comfort of our homes, on the top of a fort where centuries ago battles had been fought. At that time there was probably a lot of chaos and problems, but as we hiked the fort it was anything but that. It was very peaceful and a really great opportunity to explore an area we would never have the chance to explore if we weren’t in Tiruvannamalai.

As we were reaching the bottom, we once again heard “oo ooo”- a sign that Anshu and Sweety akka were waiting at the bottom for us. We reunited with them and told them all the stories we experienced on the way up, as they gave us the thumbs up that they had finished choreographing the dance. After we reached the bottom, the uncles instantly bought us ice cold water. I have never seen that many Bisleri water bottles in one place. After quenching our thirst we headed to the cars so that we could get some lunch.

Lunch

We then piled back into the cars and made our way over to lunch before we hiked the Rani fort. For lunch we had the most delicious mutton, chicken and veg biryani. We also tried different variations of chicken. Sruti akka ordered 2 varieties of mutton curries, both of which were very new to me. I willingly tried them as akka put them on my banana leaf and it was a burst of flavor. We all enjoyed our food and continued to tell Sweety Akka and Anshu about our experience hiking. After a couple of laughs and stories later we all got some ice cream. Our stomachs filled and energy regained, we made our way to the Rani fort. 

Round 2: Rani Fort

As we drove to the Rani fort, Sweety Akka and Anshu filled us in on all the adventures they had on the bottom of the fort from hiding from monkeys in Sruti Akka’s car to choreographing the surprise dance for the farewell day. Whether it was on top of  the fort or in the car, the fear of monkeys ruled us all. Before we knew it, we had reached the Rani fort, and were ready to begin the climb all over again. Similar to the King fort, the climb to the top of the Rani fort was filled with lots of songs, laughs, and jokes until we were ultimately aggressively escorted down the hill by the Guard. Though that did not stop us from singing more songs with exclusive features from Mass Maharaja Manmohan uncle singing “I wanna follow follow follow you” and Dharani’s “Dum dhara dham.” Exhausted, we crammed into the cars one last time, but this time we were going home - to Harithachala.

Reflection

Climbing Gingee fort was one of the best experiences we have ever gone through. Without our phones to capture exactly what we were seeing, and to document the experiences we had, the memories of Gingee day exist only in our head. And something about that stands special. While hiking we often walked through walkway arches that had writing on them. One specific one said “Life is short but love is forever.” It reminded me that being with everyone in that moment in Gingee laughing about our experiences was a type of love that we had created. We are often reminded that life is short but taking adventures like the Gingee hike showed me how you have so much opportunity to explore and understand the world. As the saying said “love is forever,”  doing the hike alone I would have been unmotivated and possibly would have given up. However, with the positive attitude and an endless amount of fun we had, I realized all I needed to push myself was a little love.