The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : A software professional on the move

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, May 01, 2006

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

A software professional on the move

Having covered many parts of the world, Anandha Ramakrishnan tells K. Satyamurty that he wants to make more trips to Mount Kailash, and also make it to the Everest Base Camp and the Amazon

WHEN HE is not busy dealing with software for surveillance and security systems used in many countries, Anandha Ramakrishnan is busy travelling.

Having travelled across the world from East Europe to Equatorial Africa, the latest travel bug to have bitten him is the journey to Manasarovar and Mount Kailash, some of it in Chinese territory. Getting a visa is not a problem but a journey where practically no roads exist, is.

"A few hundred Indian pilgrims undertake the trip each year but few do the `inner parikrama' around the foot of Kailash. You are already at a an altitude of 18,000 to 19,000 feet above sea level and then climb about a 100 feet more to do this. There are glaciers which bring down small rocks down from the mountain, and some collect these as "atma linga" but you have to reach there first. Many don't," explains Mr. Anandha Ramakrishnan.

Beyond the Manasarorvar Lake itself, it is almost uninhabited wilderness and while the climb uphill may be made riding a horse or mule, it is safest to climb down on one's feet, he has found. The six to seven-day journey to the lake serves as an acclimatisation exercise because there the oxygen content in the air is less and sudden exposure can be risky. "Since one has spent a lot in terms of money and efforts to reach there, it is a good idea to spend a few extra days to really look around the mountain which is something like a huge temple by itself," he says.

His journeys have also taken him to the shores of what is called the Arctic Ocean, at the northern extremity of Alaska. "Between Prudhoe Bay and Seward runs an oil pipeline and a track along it for maintenance crew. This is termed a highway but for at least 800 km along it you cannot find a place to fill in petrol. The road crosses the latitude, beyond which the Arctic region begins," says Mr. Anandha Ramakrishnan. The risk factor adds spice to the journey but "it is not a good picnic spot," he cautions.

Another unusual destination for him was the Dead Sea, bordering Jordan. It is about a 1,000 metres above sea level and the water is so saline that you can sit on it and read a newspaper," he says.

In the same region are the pyramids of Egypt which he visited. "You have read about them in school textbooks and seen pictures but actually seeing them is a very different experience," he says. Beyond the remains of the Egyptian civilisation lies Tunisia with remnants of what the Roman Empire left behind. Among the other journeys which he found "more interesting" was driving across the United States from New York to Los Angeles. "You see and pass through a number lot of scenic spots, but it is not such a difficult trip to make," he adds. More difficult was the journey through Central Africa, the equatorial region providing a stark contrast with his trip in Alaska. "It is hot and there is thick jungle, often not penetrable and you can only walk along the few paths. Only some stretches can be covered on a four-wheel drive vehicle," he recalls.

The itch to travel came to Mr. Anandha Ramakrishnan while at the Indian Institute of Science when he made several back-packing trips to mountains in the Himalayan region with fellow researchers. "Now I live so close to my place of work so that I don't even cross one traffic signal. All the travel I want to do now is more trips to Mount Kailash and perhaps make it to the Everest Base Camp and also travel down the Amazon," he remarks. Exotic places evidently challenge him.

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