Another trek this weekend. There were mails from Asif and Dnyanesh about a "hot trek" to Peth and Kothligad. The mail was enticing, about trees shedding leaves, golden grass, a test of survival, etc. I was not so sure at first, but at the last moment, I called Asif and confirmed my trip. I also got Gautam (from Visapur trip) to join me this time. Gautam, the epitome of stamina, joined us from another trek the day before! Apart from Dnyanesh, the entire troupe was different this time. New people, more fun!
Peth (village) and Kothligad (fort) are about 30 minutes away from Karjat. Peth village is at the foot of the fort, at a considerable height! To go to Peth, you have to walk from Ambivli village (in the flat ground). We had our breakfast, Poha and tea, at Ambivli village, and started walking up towards Peth. The ascent was a little difficult - considering the hot sun, dry weather, and my not-used-to-exercise body. Along the way, Asif taught a lot about the various trees, showed us birds building nests, and interestingly, fire ants building nests in trees! They build by joining together leaves with their saliva and possibly sap from the tree itself. The hike up took some considerable time, as I and some people took frequent rest breaks. Thankfully, this time we took sufficient water to last us till we reached Peth village.
Peth village was very dry this time of the year. We rested for some time in the village where we had aam panna, lots of glasses of it. I think aam panna is raw mango juice mixed with salt and spices. It was very tasty and refreshing in that hot climate. After spending some time there, we started climbing up towards Kothligad fort. The big part of the trek was up to the village, and the fort is not far away from the village. Towards the end of the ascent, it became very scary (especially for a person scared of heights). Some parts of the walk were along narrow ledges, with only the rock to provide a little grip. The fall down would've been the fastest descent, down hundreds of feet, and an even faster ascent towards heaven. Thankfully, Dnyanesh was there to encourage me and helped me climb up to the fort. At one point, he left me to rest in a safe cave, went round the fort on that tiny ledge, circled the fort and picked me up to the right place! I am absolutely mortified even by the thought of it.
Kothligad is a small fort, with a lot of caves, a water tank, and a temple. The temple was that of Lord Bhairoba. The fort was specially designed for stocking armaments and ordnance. Once we went up there, there was aam panna and lime juice waiting for us. Again, we had lots of it. From the fort, there was the pinnacle, which could be reached through an enclosed staircase. This was the first pinnacle I reached in all the treks I've been to. After some time, we started our descent to Peth village. It was much faster this time, and through a simpler route. We had two kids acting as our guides and they showed us the right way down. Once in Peth, we had our lunch at 5.30 pm - food made in the village itself. The rice reminded me of my village. We had rice, bhakar (rice chappati), drumstick curry, dal, and aam panna again. We were now ready to reach our buses so that we can be in Mumbai to go to our offices the next day. The descent down to Ambivali was much faster this time. We almost ran down the hill!
In the village, we rested for the last time, washed our faces, and had some cool drinks. I had a pepsicola - not the american cooldrink, but the indian pepsicola, frozen juice inside a thin, long plastic pouch. We used to have that a lot when I was a kid, but they don't exist anymore in the towns. We then took the bus back to Mumbai, and I just crashed down into the bed after a refreshing bath. I was so tired, I couldn't open my eyes in the morning, but got up anyway and reached the office.
Monday, May 15, 2006
Wednesday, May 03, 2006
Jeep Safari, Trekking, and Valley Crossing
It was a very hectic three-day weekend this time, and more adrenaline filled than the last week.
On Saturday, André (from Visapur trek) and I (from this blog) decided to join up and go climbing mock-rocks in Hiranandani Complex, Powai. The route itself was very scenic at some places. We stopped to have our photos taken at Powai Lake. I was awestruck at the beauty of Hiranandani Complex itself when we entered it - broad roads, splendid architecture, only rich people, no slums or homeless people, etc. There was this place called Hakone, where we climbed an artificial rock and went go-karting. The climb itself was very small. There were three levels - easy, medium and hard; we both did the medium one pretty easily (60 bucks each). We met this girl called Tina, who was the 'instructor'. We wanted to try the hard level, for which she said, we can pay her directly and she will 'talk with her manager to get us a discount' We all knew there was no manager and it was going directly into her pockets, still, being Indians, we paid her and did it (André did it, I could not cross three-quarters of it). Next, we went go-karting. It was a small track and I had not ridden any car before, just those hot-wheels kinds. I could say that my first time was on a race-track! My lap timing was 34 seconds (average 34)
I've been a member of Ryze for about 6 months now, but haven't used it. This Friday, I just logged in, went to the list of events and activities to do something over the weekend, and saw that a group called Nature Knights was going on a jeep safari and valley crossing trip to Ratnagiri. I thought maybe I should join and gave Dhyaneshwar, the event organizer, to be included. This was on Sunday, early morning 6 am. The trip started somewhere in Marol and I joined them in Andheri - met a few good people. We went around Mumbai - Bandra, Chembur, Sion, etc and took the highway to Ratnagiri. Early morning was very pleasent. We stopped for breakfast and tea somewhere near Panvel, and the details get hazy from there.
We stopped at Pali, so that we can conquer the fort Sarasgad. Somehow, we had split into two groups, and our group did not have water. The other group had loads of water, but ran out of water by the time they reached the top. The view from above was spectacular. There was some water collected in artificial pools all around the fort. The method of collecting water was very ingenious - they had cut pools into the rock, below a main rock. When it rained, the pools first filled up and then water starts flowing down, the water might hold till the next rains. At that heat, it was the coolest water I washed myself in. Coming down was not so difficult, but treacherous. Still we managed to climbed down, right down to a well. We were so overjoyed by the sight of the well, we threw out cautions to the wind and gulped down buckets of water, supposed to be some kind of poison for city-slickers.
After Sarasgad, we were on our way to Ratnagiri town, another Shivaji-era fort, but near the sea. On the way, we saw a river and stopped our jeeps for a quick dip. A quick dip translated to 45 minutes in real-time. I found out something there - when you want to sink, the water makes you float; but, when you want to float, you sink anyway! We stopped at a roadside restaurant for lunch. As soon as we got into the jeep, I fell asleep and woke up maybe half-way across the ghats. A few hours into the remaining distance, I puked. We reached Ratnagiri late night at around 10.30 pm, where food was waiting for us - very good pulao, and very good aam-ras. That night, after a very long time, I slept in the open air - in the terrace of a temple. This fort was a little different - there was a motorable road which led us directly to the fort, and a good view of the harbour and the sea on three sides.
Next morning, we woke up pretty early and I couldn't wait for the Valley Crossing. We had planned to finish valley crossing, take a dip in the sea, take another dip in a river, and head back to Mumbai by evening. But plans did not go through as planned. There were a lot of people trying to cross the valley, along a single set of rope-and-pulley. The organizers pulled you across a valley, with you strapped in a rope. I had assumed we had to crawl upside down, along the rope. Still, it was hard work for the organizers - as they had to pull a lot of people , non-stop, from 10 am to 7 pm. I would like to see the buffy people spending so much time and money in gym try to do a tenth of what these "skinny" guys were doing. We started back at 7.30 am, and again, somewhere along the ghats, I puked again. We reached Mumbai at around 3 am. That was not the end of that three-day long weekend, I couldn't open my eyes the next morning, so it got converted into a four-day weekend.
On Saturday, André (from Visapur trek) and I (from this blog) decided to join up and go climbing mock-rocks in Hiranandani Complex, Powai. The route itself was very scenic at some places. We stopped to have our photos taken at Powai Lake. I was awestruck at the beauty of Hiranandani Complex itself when we entered it - broad roads, splendid architecture, only rich people, no slums or homeless people, etc. There was this place called Hakone, where we climbed an artificial rock and went go-karting. The climb itself was very small. There were three levels - easy, medium and hard; we both did the medium one pretty easily (60 bucks each). We met this girl called Tina, who was the 'instructor'. We wanted to try the hard level, for which she said, we can pay her directly and she will 'talk with her manager to get us a discount' We all knew there was no manager and it was going directly into her pockets, still, being Indians, we paid her and did it (André did it, I could not cross three-quarters of it). Next, we went go-karting. It was a small track and I had not ridden any car before, just those hot-wheels kinds. I could say that my first time was on a race-track! My lap timing was 34 seconds (average 34)
I've been a member of Ryze for about 6 months now, but haven't used it. This Friday, I just logged in, went to the list of events and activities to do something over the weekend, and saw that a group called Nature Knights was going on a jeep safari and valley crossing trip to Ratnagiri. I thought maybe I should join and gave Dhyaneshwar, the event organizer, to be included. This was on Sunday, early morning 6 am. The trip started somewhere in Marol and I joined them in Andheri - met a few good people. We went around Mumbai - Bandra, Chembur, Sion, etc and took the highway to Ratnagiri. Early morning was very pleasent. We stopped for breakfast and tea somewhere near Panvel, and the details get hazy from there.
We stopped at Pali, so that we can conquer the fort Sarasgad. Somehow, we had split into two groups, and our group did not have water. The other group had loads of water, but ran out of water by the time they reached the top. The view from above was spectacular. There was some water collected in artificial pools all around the fort. The method of collecting water was very ingenious - they had cut pools into the rock, below a main rock. When it rained, the pools first filled up and then water starts flowing down, the water might hold till the next rains. At that heat, it was the coolest water I washed myself in. Coming down was not so difficult, but treacherous. Still we managed to climbed down, right down to a well. We were so overjoyed by the sight of the well, we threw out cautions to the wind and gulped down buckets of water, supposed to be some kind of poison for city-slickers.
After Sarasgad, we were on our way to Ratnagiri town, another Shivaji-era fort, but near the sea. On the way, we saw a river and stopped our jeeps for a quick dip. A quick dip translated to 45 minutes in real-time. I found out something there - when you want to sink, the water makes you float; but, when you want to float, you sink anyway! We stopped at a roadside restaurant for lunch. As soon as we got into the jeep, I fell asleep and woke up maybe half-way across the ghats. A few hours into the remaining distance, I puked. We reached Ratnagiri late night at around 10.30 pm, where food was waiting for us - very good pulao, and very good aam-ras. That night, after a very long time, I slept in the open air - in the terrace of a temple. This fort was a little different - there was a motorable road which led us directly to the fort, and a good view of the harbour and the sea on three sides.
Next morning, we woke up pretty early and I couldn't wait for the Valley Crossing. We had planned to finish valley crossing, take a dip in the sea, take another dip in a river, and head back to Mumbai by evening. But plans did not go through as planned. There were a lot of people trying to cross the valley, along a single set of rope-and-pulley. The organizers pulled you across a valley, with you strapped in a rope. I had assumed we had to crawl upside down, along the rope. Still, it was hard work for the organizers - as they had to pull a lot of people , non-stop, from 10 am to 7 pm. I would like to see the buffy people spending so much time and money in gym try to do a tenth of what these "skinny" guys were doing. We started back at 7.30 am, and again, somewhere along the ghats, I puked again. We reached Mumbai at around 3 am. That was not the end of that three-day long weekend, I couldn't open my eyes the next morning, so it got converted into a four-day weekend.
Thursday, April 27, 2006
Harvard Author Caught Plagiarizing
Commentary on The Onion:
In another news, Sanjay Kumar, formerly of Computer Associates, is not an Indian but a Sri Lankan. Still, he is a Tamil. Is that reinforcing a negative stereotype that Tamils are crooks, and corrupted?
Harvard Author Caught Plagiarizing
Harvard sophomore Kaavya Viswanathan, who was paid the largest advance for an unpublished author, admitted to having "unintentionally" borrowed passages from author Megan McCafferty for her book How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life. What do you think?
Kim Bellings,
Croupier
"It's sad when a negative stereotype is reinforced by incidents like these, but I've always said: Indians are dirty plagiarizers."
In another news, Sanjay Kumar, formerly of Computer Associates, is not an Indian but a Sri Lankan. Still, he is a Tamil. Is that reinforcing a negative stereotype that Tamils are crooks, and corrupted?
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
The Case of the Boss' Minion and the Mysterious Timesheet
He comes in on time and leaves on time. He spends an hour chatting with his buddies here, an hour or so in lunch, fag breaks, etc. That's 6 hours a day available for work which translates to 30 hours a week. He also spends a lot of his time trading online, searching for household items, planning trips, etc. That can be maybe an hour or so, which effectively leaves him 25 hours a week.
Basically, he does actual work for utmost 25 hours, but his timesheet always shows more than 40 hours. How is that possible?
I wonder how many of the valued employees out there have to fill in timesheets, and how many fudge the time entered? Yesterday morning I filled in my timesheet and realised I can fill in enough time on the work completed in the previous 16 hours to satisfy 28 hours!
Basically, he does actual work for utmost 25 hours, but his timesheet always shows more than 40 hours. How is that possible?
I wonder how many of the valued employees out there have to fill in timesheets, and how many fudge the time entered? Yesterday morning I filled in my timesheet and realised I can fill in enough time on the work completed in the previous 16 hours to satisfy 28 hours!
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
Chennai in Google
Hi resolution satellite image of Chennai is available on google maps now, after debuting on google earth a couple of weeks back. Now, LTTE can use it to plan some stuff!
Chennai on GOogle Maps
For some odd reason, they have left out Chennai city and centred it on Chennai Airport! You can see runway 07 clearly along with some planes (they look like ants.) You can see Meenambakkam, Guindy, Saidapet railway stations, Guindy race course, Velachery Aquatics complex, Mount Road, River Adyar, Guindy Engineering College, IIT Madras, the elevated MRTS, the Raj Bhavan.
Surprisingly, Chennai looks green, and the traffic density is very low!
Almost all the people I went to college with gave me a piece of trivia - the main building of my college looks like "E" when viewed from above, because, according to them, it is an "E"ngineering college. I disputed some, and realised it was fruitless. Now, I present the proof
Guindy Engineering College / Anna University
Chennai on GOogle Maps
For some odd reason, they have left out Chennai city and centred it on Chennai Airport! You can see runway 07 clearly along with some planes (they look like ants.) You can see Meenambakkam, Guindy, Saidapet railway stations, Guindy race course, Velachery Aquatics complex, Mount Road, River Adyar, Guindy Engineering College, IIT Madras, the elevated MRTS, the Raj Bhavan.
Surprisingly, Chennai looks green, and the traffic density is very low!
Almost all the people I went to college with gave me a piece of trivia - the main building of my college looks like "E" when viewed from above, because, according to them, it is an "E"ngineering college. I disputed some, and realised it was fruitless. Now, I present the proof
Guindy Engineering College / Anna University
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