Mosaic Adventure Commune draws youth for trekking

Tirupati: Curiosity of a youth ultimately made him an avowed trekker. Intrigued by his brother, he often visits holy Theerthams in theSeshachalam forests.  

BandaruBalasubramnyam, the 50-year-old is quite popular in the pilgrim city as `Trek Balu’ with his `Mosaic Adventure Commune (MAC)’a city based registered NGO engaged in creating awareness in Heritageand Habitats conservation through conducting visits to various placesin and around Tirupati and Tirumala. 

Balasubramanyamhas said that when he was a school boy, he, along with his mother Kusuma and elder brother BV Ramana, went toYudhagalaTheertham located in the deep forests of Tirumala. He was amazed at the historic 3000-year- old rock arts in thecaves which encouraged him to take up more such adventure trips. 

BV Ramana, who was a scribe working with a leading Telugu daily, is anature enthusiast  and a regular trekker to various places inSeshachalam forests including Theerthams. He later   joined in TTD SVBC and isthe guiding force to Balu in running MAC. 

Speaking to The Hans India, Balu said that first he assisted and accompanied his brother Ramana organising treks to places of interestsin and around Tirupati and later set up MAC and registered it in theyear 2000 to conduct trekking on regular basis.  Balu who is also acting as national secretary of `Youth Hostel Association of India’. He motivates youth to join the trekking being conducted by MAC.

MAC, the one and only NGO engaged in organising trekking and visits tohabitats, historic places and heritage sites based in Tirupati. `Sunrisetrekking’ being organised on every Sunday from 6 to 9a.min the morning, since April last year becoming popular. 

Balu who was working as civil contractor along with his father BandaruMunirtnam, gave up the lucrative profession and took a small businessthat would permit him to devote more time to his trekking which turnedas his passion.

He said MAC is conducting tours on a non-profitable basis and collecting a nominal amount for providing water, cucumber, carrot andbiscuits to the participants. More than 3000 including doctors, advocates, senior citizens, women,youth and others from the city participated in MAC heritage tripscovering more than two dozen places of interest including Megalithsite in Mallaya Konda, natural habitat Thatikona, Kalabairavagutta,Chandragiri Fort, Peruru Banda, Royala Banda, Kotala etc.

By G Sridhar