Murud-Anjarle-PratapGad Trip

So, looks like I am traveling a lot these days. After Pabe's nice trip, I went to Konkan with my project mates. It was supposed to be a small trip sponsored by our client, but my team size is so big that we decided to share the expenses together and add few people from different groups of our project. We planned to have a one night stay in Murud and were back to Pune on Sunday evening. Since there was no girl in our group, staying was not a problem. We moved early in the morning at around 6 o'clock. It happened that at one place we stopped by to wait for some time, and a van passed by. I didn't notice it as I was busy taking snaps but other guys said that there were pretty girls sitting in that van and they too were heading towards Konkan!

Hooha !!!! Suddenly some of our project mates got a mission to accomplish. We started chasing the van with all our strengths and fuels, but we couldn't since some of our gentlemen were busy vomiting.... :-( I hate this but one can't stop the nature's call and after all they were my project partners and so I stood by them. After a long relentless pursuit, we managed to find that van but unfortunately learned that those girls were going towards other place... There came a glitch in everyone's plan... alas.


But everyone forgot whatever happened as we moved into the coastal areas of Konkan. It's an amazing place. One can never find the serenity that lies in listening to the sea and wind if one lives in a crowded city. We stayed in a local house in Murud and had lunch in a beach resort. There is this place called as "Kadyawarcha Ganapati" in Anjarle, a small beach in Konkan. The way to Anjarle is full of turns and twists and there are some great spots to stop by. We visited an old but nicely maintained Ganapati Mandir and while our way back, stopped near a Sunset point. That point was far above from the sea shore and we could see small houses of a village called Harne. We didn't mean to see the sunset, but what we saw that day was simply wonderful. I have never seen the GREATNESS of sea before. That was hot and scorching sun but we were truly mesmerized by the beauty. There was this blue sea all over and some of its portion was literally illuminated by the sun rays.


We had a lot of fun on the beach that evening, swam near the shore till we get really tired, enjoyed a lovely sunset and came back to where we stayed.

Next day, we headed towards Pratap Gad, I haven't seen it before. Pratap Gad is situated in one of the highest ranges of Sahyadri. These days we have vehicles and roads but in early times one has to cross the deadly Javaliche Khore to reach Pratap Gad, some of the trekkers still prefer that way though. We visited the fort itself and Bhawani Mata Mandir where Shivaji Maharaj was bestowed by the Bhawani Mata with a sword. The Gad was quite well managed and they have preserved lots of things which still today showcase the legacy of The Hindavi Swarajya and its Shiledar. After remembering the great Shivaji Maharaj near his statue we went to have lunch and then on a way back to Pune.

One the way back home, all of us have shared a common bond. One of our team mates, Harish, doesn't understand Marathi but Vivek was prompt enough to translate every detail that the guide told us about Pratap Gad. We had a nice chat that was far better and real than the one which we do everyday. We definitely shared a great moment.

Aniket, Kedar, Harish, Vivek, Mayuresh, Samir, Nikhil, Urjit,Tushar, Milind thanks a lot for spending your time with me. Let's hope for yet another trip in future...

Pabe Ghat Trip

I haven't heard of Pabe Ghat until Jogya told us some interesting stories about it. So, after hearing so much about it, we have decided to visit the place. Contrary to my earlier trips, we made a plan before around 7 days or so and surprisingly kept our words . We ( Me, Kedar, Sneha and Jogya) went to Kedar's place last Saturday morning at around 5:30 AM. It has been ages since all of us saw the beauty of rising Sun, so we chose to go early in the morning. Of course, as expected Kedar took more than 25 minutes to get ready and we slipped off a bit with our schedule. But with Kedar, it is obvious and I have kind of expected this to happen. There is always an incentive when you have a girl traveling with you in a trip, you don't have to bring anything. Sneha, being a typical Puneri Mulgi, bought few eatables and a bottle of water . FYI, that bottle was so small, that one could sip it up in one shot, but you know, girls and their girly things ;-)

After Kedar's typical "I am sorry" apologies, we headed off to Pabe. It's a beautiful place in the curvy mountain roads, usually chosen for biking . Jogya is a regular visitor of Pabe and since he was knowing everything about it, he became our driver-come-guide. After some great scenery and lots of hard turns ( which demonstrated Jogya's driving skills ) we reached to the place. The Sun was about to rise but the skies are already showing the great glory of golden rays. It was an amazing experience to see the sunrise after so many days. We took some snaps of it and parked our car on a mountain top. This place was really great. You can see Torna and Rajgad through a small mountain passage. Since it was a clear sky and a beautiful morning, we could see a sharp range of Sahyadri without any problem, (things which you can't see through polluted air of Pune). I always have a feeling, if you want to really know who you are and where you stand, compare yourself with a great mountain and you will have an eternal feeling of legacy of the creator. I revived this feeling after a long time.

After visiting Chapet Dharan which was built by Dnyan-Prabodhini with the local co-ordination, we went back to Pune. It was a great experience overall, and I am looking forward for more such trips. Kedar, Sneha, Jogya and I will never forget this wonderful experience.

V'day Special

Well, I could not come up with any other name than this one for a post. As it is 14th Feb and I do not have anything to chew on, thought of writing something about Valentine's day.

For someone who is enamored about someone else, this day may carry lot of importance. But for me, who is 'happy to be single' this is just another regular day... Today morning, my friend Harshad analyzed the current situation and explained the reasons behind my 'single hood' ( I am unaware if English dictionary has this kind of word in it, but will still use it.) I admit that there are very few girls in my friend circle, but almost all ( without some dignified exceptions ) boys fall in the lukhha category. I am writing this post to just remind them that it is neither a high time nor end of the road. We still have got lot of time in our hands. I realized that people might get disappointed while seeing others seeing each other but there is nothing to worry about it. So, today/tonight if you happened /happen to see a couple getting cozy with each other, don't take it personally. Today it has happened with someone else, tomorrow it could happen with you too...

Generally, there is a common myth ( of course , amongst my friends) that, it needs a lot of time / money / ... to get someone fall for you. I totally disagree with this because likings are all relative. Someone might like your nature, other might get impressed with your face, someone with your overall personality. So, you never know who likes what. Today if you are changing yourself just to please others then it will be a biggest defeat ever, if someone really likes you, he / she should accept you as you are. And who cares? We are enjoying every moment of being single. One day, everyone is going to get married and going away from this phase of life. Instead of craving for these wonderful days then, shouldn't we enjoy right now? I mean, it's so nice. You don't have to ask anyone before doing anything, you can come home anytime you like, can wear same jeans for two months without ever washing it, can grow hairs like hippies used to do, can hang out with friends late night, can do whatever you want to without bothering about social etiquettes.

This is heaven... Why should we spoil a life of a free bird ? Consider this, how about watching Friends / Football or Cricket or Tennis matches / Movies all over the night than going out with your girlfriend to some boring place ?

My message to all singles : We are leaving in paradise, so enjoy your life as it's going to change one day when you will starve for these days.

To hell with Valentine's day ;-)

A waste of 3 / 4 hours

One of my friends called me yesterday and said that he wanted to meet me. I was not in much contact with him and since he has called me after long time, I said yes. We met near my company and he asked me to come with him to a place. Neglecting my question, "Where are we going?" he took me to a cafe restaurant in Kothrud where I was supposed to meet his new FRIENDS. These guys ( who work for so called "Indian Software Giant" firms) earn money in their leisure time by working for a company in chain marketing. I was brought there to meet a guy who was very good in marketing that company's product, a gold coin which costs 30,000 rupees. To prove his point, that the coin is not just a 'lump of gold but a rare piece of art' ( fyi, this coin is for numismatist), he started to give me company's overall information.

I was not told that I will be sitting for his presentation when my friend took me to the place. Maybe that's because my friend ( who is a part of the chain) must have thought that after hearing it, I might not come with him. But I wasn't new to the presentation. This company is supposed to work in 100+ domains and have a variety of products, and being a so called smart software professional (who knows nothing but working for 5 days a week and freaking out on weekends, still considered as the brilliant of all white collared corporate people), he invited me to listen to his plan . So, the presentation started off with a question 'Do you want to earn money or not' ? I was kind of surprised, first thing is I just know this person ( the presentation guy) for not more than 5 minutes and he is asking me a question for which everyone will answer 'yes'. I don't want to start the presentation with a shade of quarrel so I answered yes. Then the guy was like unstoppable. He explained me like what is the company, showed me the details (registration no., ISO-9001 certificate, some token of appreciation from some British Institution) for authentication. Then he talked about various products that the company makes and came to the point that I should also invest my money to one of their products , a gold coin.

This was not a normal gold coin, but instead the one on which you get an embossed image of a famous personality. The company get these coins minted from some German minting company and for each image that it emboss, pays royalty to the person who is being embossed. This was about the coin, what I was supposed to do was to pay 30,000 Rs. to a person and get this coin ( which was assumed to be of 99.9999999% purity, 24 carat gold) to join their business. If I want to earn some money, I should refer few of my contacts so that they can buy this coin. If I could refer total 6 people, my account will be credited with 11,500/- check and as the chain grows up, I will be benefited. To explain the business strategy, he talked about the tree structure of the business, the profit that I will be getting after each 2 raised to n people at each level and so on. Moreover, according to him, this was a zero investment business where you can pay 30,000/- by using the credit cards of several banks ( transferring the money from one bank to another ). Then came the most clashing point, he started comparing this business with that of Ambani's, Tata's and all big shot entrepreneurs. I agreed to his point that by traditional means of a job, one can not make a huge money, but strongly disagreed to his analogy that by doing this business I could be rich like Ambani's. Come on. they did not start a crap chain marketing business, all they had was a vision and a strong desire to achieve their aim. I did not see anything of that sort here. Moreover, these people did not have a product as such which has a potential money making future.

So, after wasting my 2-3 hours listening to that guy's management / marketing fundas, I said "Just stop it, I don't want to hear you anymore" and walked away with my friend. It should have been much more better if we could have met for some REAL BUSINESS or for some social cause or just to say hello. Why are we in search of quick money making mantras ?There are so many things which we can do other than chain marketing, real estates, bidding for stocks and can still earn money. I would definitely love to join a thought provoking seminar or a meeting where people come and discuss ways to CREATE / IMPROVE any open source software, put forward a nice idea that could be marketed or maybe start implement yet another killer software application. I would like to join hands and more importantly contribute to ameliorate the current situation of software field or social atmosphere.

This guy and his plan, I think was just a waste of time and nothing else.

Talya got married :-)

Talya, one of my best friends, got married last Tuesday with Chaitrali. It was great to see someone from our group wearing a 'married' tag. They looked very pretty and we friends could really sense a 'made for each other' look on the couple's face. Talya was wearing a cool Sherwani and she was wearing a Saree. He somehow looked much more matured than what he is , maybe because it was his wedding that day and I have never seen him before in Sherwani. I think, you gotta look like a MAN than a BOY when you get married. Talya has invited few of our friends for his wedding but Sankya, Babu, Charya were in Japan, Canada and USA respectively so they couldn't come. They must be missing him very much, after all, you get married only once and it was really a special moment for us as it was to Talya and Chaitrali. Me, Chaddya, Dhumma, Anpya and Sankya's Aai( on behalf of Sanket) were present on the occasion.

Talya and Chaitrali were college friends and fell in love with each other in Engineering. Soon as their families knew about it, the couple decided to start a new inning of life. After seeing him getting married, I felt that he is transformed from a usual Talya ( remember, who used to play Cricket like a crazy person ?) to a guy who has a wife and a lovely married life ahead. But at the same time I had another thought that he will not be with us anymore, as he has to spend most of his time with the better half. We will not go out in the midnight say to have a cup of tea or a mastani or an ice- cream anymore. Suddenly, he will have more responsibilities than earlier.

But anyways, I was more happier on that day, because someone from us has just started a league of married couples and the honor for that of course goes to Talya and Chaitrali. Let's see how many more are joining this league...

I have some snaps of the JODI but could not post them here. You see, internet is no more a safe place.

Wish you a very happy married life Talya and Chaitrali. May God's blessings and the happiness shower your life forever...