MP3 Player

Got a 6-mo old mp3 player (MuVo 512MB) today. Sounds ok, not bad! No text display, don't know in which order the songs are played. It was only for 2000 rupees, which one guy in office says is a steal. I hope it doesn't conk out too soon!

Some people hike it a lot!

Yet another trek, but this was my first monsoon trek. I should say my pre-monsoon trek, as it was very hot and dry going up, and cool and very wet coming down.

This thursday Gautam calls me up and says they have planned a trek to Gorakhgad, somewhere near Kalyan. It was supposed to be a simple trail, followed by a steep climb to the top.

As usual, we met at Dadar station, but very early in the morning, at 6 am itself. Me, Gautam travelled together to Dadar, and as luck would have it, even our stud, Arjun, was in the same compartment as us. The train is fast becoming a rendezvous point for us now! He had a friend with him this time. There was a big group in Dadar, and we took the super-fast local to Kalyan. The train sped towards Kalyan through tunnels and over hills. From Kalyan, we caught a state transport bus (ST bus) to Murbad, and another ST bus from Murbad to Dehri.

Gorakhgad, about 2300 feet above MSL, with a set of caves at the top; dead-drop cliffs and drop-dead gorgeous views.

The group this time was Nisarga Brahman, a group started and run by Rohit of Peb-Matheran fame. This was a varied group, with high profile people like Abhijit, Abhi of DeepAbhi.tripod.com, the encyclopaedia which everyone consults before trekking around these parts, a professional from TrekShitiz, and two 12th standard students!

We thought this was a monsoon trek, so less water would be required, we were close to wrong. It was hot, humid, and sultry during the climbing part, which made us sweat even more than a summer trek. Atleast the sweat evaporated quickly in summer. But the view, even halfway across the climb was awesome. There were quite a few balconies where we stopped and enjoyed the view. We enjoyed the city in the last trek (night), we enjoyed the vertical faces of hills in this trek. There are so many places to trek in Maharashtra! No wonder the Sahyadris is called the Trekkers' Paradise. If I did one climb every weekend, I guess I would require two years to do everything, and still have some left. Makes me wanna stay in Mumbai more.

We reached the trekkable part, and came to the rocky area, which we had to climb through a staircase carved into the rocks. Thankfully I didn't worry about slipping this time. I even saw a tiny snake at the entrance to the fort, so tiny I could close it in my fist. I didn't try, it was supposedly a poisonous snake.

We reached the caves and explored around the ledge, which led us to a regular carved-into-the-rocks reservoirs. Some of the group started playing and horsing around, throwing ice-cold water over everybody, stepping down into the pool, etc. Even as we were climbing, the sky was partially cloudy with chances of showers When we were by the pool, it suddenly started pouring - rains with heavy wind. I swear the rain clouds opened up just a few metres above our head. Some of the group had climbed up to the pinnacle (I had avoided it) and they were stuck up there, and the rest ran back to the caves. While we and they waited for the rains to cease, we started with our lunches. Tepla and sandwich were the most popular food that day.

The rains ceased, they people who went up came down, and we began our descent. The rains had cleaned every one of us (most of us, I wore a raincoat) and the hills, and made the descent slippery. Quite a few slipped and landed on their butt in the wet clay. We got down to a temple in the base where we cleaned ourselves and started our return journey. The trip from the village to the bus stand was crazy - two jeeps were arranged, and there were 10-12 people in each jeep. Three each were hanging on the outside. I sat next to the driver, behind the steering wheel, while the driver sat next to me, half out of the cabin. Sounds funny!!

Then it was the routine way back, bus, and train, back home at close to midnight, wake up late and come to the office late, etc.

Developments, developments

It was coincidence, reading about Indians getting outsourced - one in Economic Times, and another in Dilbert! RBI employees are now demaning their jobs not be outsourced. Irony?
RBI employees demand barring outsourcing of services

Who is this new Sandeep coming in? Will he be as naive as Asok? Would he be an IITian too?

Ah! The irony of everything!

Someone on the net told this

Most of the time Asok is treated like dirt by the pointy haired guy. so much for "indians arriving on the global stage"

I am not being anti-IITian, or jealous of IITs, obviously!

A lot of developments in the office in the last 2 months. I am dazed by everything that happened, and the speed in which it all happened.

Now, it has started raining in Mumbai, very nice. A year back, I had no worry about getting soaked in the rain while coming to office. Now, I have to worry about both coming dry to the office, and coming in on time!

Peb-Matheran

It all started as an email from Gautham (Visapur, and Peth-Kothligad). He mailed the original Orkut gang about a night trek to Peb, and a 'stroll' to Matheran. I was enticed about sleeping in a cave, walking into Matheran without paying the entry tax, etc. Only Shishir and Aditya did not join this time. The plan was almost cancelled at the last minute as the person who knew the trail was not coming. Fortunately, he (Rohit) confirmed at the last minute and I started packing my bag. This time there was no arranged bus or taxi, we just took a local train from Dadar to Neral, and started walking from Neral station.
It was late in the evening, and the sun was just about to take a dive. We started walking towards Peb fort. We took a lost of rest stops, and as it turned out, it would be one of the easiest patches of the trek. By night, we had reached a patch of rocks, climbed up it and came to a ridge between two peaks. The view from there was awesome. From there, we were saw a huge rock and thought we had reached the peak, but when we went up, we came to another clearing and another cliff, which we thought was the peak. Even that was not the peak, we still had to climb. From this tiny clearing, we climbed up that rock face, and came to another clearing and another rock-face. This was not the peak, yet. We saw two paths circling from that clearing - one to the left was 'blocked' by a jutting rock, and we realised we had to crawl under it to reach a set of caves. The other way was a very narrow path which led to a different set of caves (the main ones), but the path was missing at some places, and only some footholds carved into the rock face. We didn't want to take a risk in the darkness, and decided to camp in that clearing. We had our dinner - bread, butter & cheese, chocolate bars, and teplas. It was beautiful, sleeping under the stars.
The next morning, Gautam and Andre decided to explore the two routes.
They found out one led to a set of caves, and another led to the original caves and a ladder. We decided to take the ladder route and started walking. The ledge was very narrow, and at some places, the trail abruptly stopped and reappeared a feet ahead. We found out that we were at one end of the fort, and our destination was the other end, and we had taken a different route.
We reached the caves. Two gurus were supposed to live in the caves (and they were said to meditate for months together in the other set of caves). We thought they were like those Himalayan swamijis, totally away from civilization, rolling ganja and smoking pot. They were not. We did not see them at that time. We walked through a set of slippery patches, with very little foothold and hand support, and reached the pinnacle. Surprisingly, this pinnacle had a well maintained (with modern tiles) samadhi or something. From up there, we could see Matheran's Panaroma point, a lake in the distance, a watchtower ahead, and lots of monkeys. The pinnacle even had a tall makeshift flagpole attached with a ladder.
We didn't know where to go from that place. But, in the ledge below, we could see some people waving at us, and we decided to walk down. We quickly found out a steep trail, and took that down to what we thought was a village. It was the temple where those swamijis lived, with a heifer, and a dog.
All through this while, we were overcautious about water and carried about 4 litres a head, which turned out to be an overkill. But, better safe than sorry. One of the swamijis prepared tea for us; he turned out to be part-time swamiji, doing his MBA, and had come up for vacation! They told us the correct way to Matheran, and we proceed towards Matheran.
It turned out to be one scary experience. Earlier it used to be a simple trail that went along the mountain, and joined the railway road to Matheran. About a year back, the trail had been washed away in mudslides, and what remained was just a narrow path which went missing at places, filled with scree, and loose rocks. We inched our way towards Matheran, careful not to slip and fall anywhere. Thankfully, the railway people had put up some ladders at crucial places, without which this trek would've been impossible. At one place, Gautam, started slipping down, and Arjun, the unshakeable guy, started shouting for help. Thankfully, Gautam did not fall down, and we reached the railhead to Matheran.
We walked along the rail route to Matheran, towards Matheran. It was a scenic tour. We could also see many places were the rail road was washed away, or covered with mud from last year's mudslide, blocked by huge boulders, etc. Unfortunately, there was one guy who was waiting at the tracks, and did not allow us to go ahead; instead, we had to walk through stinking horse-stables, through the main entrance. In Matheran, we befriended a nimbu pani seller, went to his house (for a fee), had a bath, had lunch, and took off for sight-seeing. We went to most of the places from my first Matheran trip. Unlike last time, it was very dry and dusty this time. Late in the evening, we took a taxi to Neral, and headed off to Mumbai.

Trek to Peth, Kothligad

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.