June 27th

I’m quite surprised! I seem to be the last person to wake up this time! Ideally Suhas was to drop by my house at around 3:30 am after his night shift. When my alarm hoots at 4:45 am, I sense the first drop out for the trek. I anxiously dial his number only to hear that he’d be reaching my house in a few minutes. The routine starts again. The next person on the roll was Rahul- someone well known in our group to doze in mighty glory when his presense is really required. Quite surprisingly, today he picks the call right at the first ring and he pretty much sounded alert enough. So i move on to the next person - Amrita. The call goes on but no one picks. A few minutes later she calls back telling me that even she was very much awake. Ashutosh too was almost set and he’d be reaching Parihar chowk in a couple of minutes.We’d to reach Shivaji Nagar Stn. by around 6:00 am to board the train to Karjat.

At about 05:35am Ashutosh, Suhas, and I meet Amrita at Parihar Chowk and we pick a rick. to Kadki stn. Suhas suggested, that would be closer and that the Sinhagad express would stop there as well. We happen to reach well before time . The train would tentatively reach Kadki at about 06:20am. Rahul and a couple of folks would be boarding the train at Shivaji Nagar and a few others would be joining enroute. Later as Bhavana boards the train we get wind of an interesting episode. Pragya Joshi had overslept and Abhijeet too had to miss the train - For ten minutes Abhijeet’s been at the door of Pragya’s house trying to wake her up while Bhavana was seated in a rick below. One of the tickets were on Bhavana’s name, so she had to make it to the station at any cost. And she did, as Rahul describes later - The ‘Jab we met style !

This time the final count was 13. Rahul, Bhavana, Kajal, Abhilasha, Trupti, Suhas, Amrita, Ashutosh, Uwaraj, Swarnika, Abhijeet, Pragya, and I. At about 08:15am we reach Karjat.The latest update of Abhijeet and Pragya was from Amritha - They’d boarded a ST and would be reaching a BIT late. We decide to move further and wait at Ambivali for the two. To reach the trek base one needs to reach Ambivalli and from there walk some distance to the Peth Village.

Start of the trek

A five minute walk to the Karjat bus stand and we get to the know the next service to Ambivalli would be at 08:30am. The following service would be at 09:45am.But again you would have to get down at Kasheli and get hold of a TumTum to reach Ambivilli. We get some VadaPav’s packed and simultaneously inform the details of the bus timings to Abhijeet.In about an hour we happen to reach Ambivalli. The best identification mark for this stop is a small school to the left side,right at the starting of the Ambivalli village. A cement path to the right takes you to the Peth village.

A few other groups had also arrived by then and were sort of relaxing at the tea shop. The latest status quo from Abhijeet was that they’d got down at Khopoli and had picked another service to Ambivalli. A few minutes later we get a call from him telling us that they’d just got down at Ambivalli village and were standing right in front of a school - the irony being that, we were standing in front of a school too but we couldn’t trace them out. A deeper analysis by Rahul reveals that from Khopoli they’d actually caught a bus to Amboli village and not Ambivalli village . How better can things get ?

We decide to move on, reach Peth village and wait for them. Ideally the walk is about an hours quick sprint. In our case though, we took a sweet two hours to reach the village - thanks to the stop over at one of the viewpoints and the quick pace of most of us . Nevertheless, it was a beautiful start; what with us trying out all possible short cuts, avoiding the regular route. Also we had a heavy downpour for a few minutes as we reached the village - a much deserved respite post the humid weather.

First sighting of the fort

Once you cover about half of the distance from the Ambivalli village you get to see the Kothaligad fort from the breath taking viewspot . You need to take an escalated embankement path to the left, a couple of minutes after you start from the Ambivilli village. Once here, it’s only about following the well laid kutcha path and reaching the Peth village. Oh and If you’re looking for a couple of short cuts - they’re plenty. It’s all up to you to use your brains and instincts to concort a path from the wilderness!

Somewhere when we were still on our way to Peth, my cell manages to catch the signal and a message is delivered - Abhikeet and Pragya are on their way to Mumbai . Getting to Ambivalli from Amboli was something that they decided against. Quite reasonable a decision!

We reach the Peth village base at about 12:30pm. There’s a small hotel types place here wherein you can have a brief stop over for a light snack or tea. Uwaraj and Swarnika catch up with us here at this spot. We get to know that they’d not taken the left and instead moved further into the village right at the beginning ! Each of us have a shot of hot diluted masala tea and start moving towards the Kothaligad fort. Our pace was pretty fast from here - probably the masala tea did the trick on the drenched nuts ! The villagers directed us at a certain point and from there the trek up was all a quickly guessed out route. We did have a loyal dog to guide us to a certain distance but soon even he ditched us once another doggie wagged her tail!

Half way through the way up the hillock and half the fuses are out. This was Amritha’s first ever trek and she was already cursing all of us mentally for having moved up with that pace. Abhilasha and Swarnika were more of less in the same thought process probably! They definitely did test our motivation skills at aone point of time ! Finally we made it to a plateau and now all that was left was to climb up the final part of the fort. This did look a bit steep. Suhas , Uwaraj and Ashutosh tried exploring the possibilities on one side and Rahul and I on the other side. There was no way up! Damn and the way down for us was far worse. We somehow managed to get back to the plateau and rested there for a while. Intermittent showers and the haily winds kept the spirits up though. We started our down trek in about fifteen minutes and by around 3:00pm we reaached the Village.

And we thought we were there!

From there, as we turned back and looked at the height we’d covered and the spot that we’d got stuck up, a major disappointment loomed on our faces. We’d not even reached the base of the Kothaligad fort. All that we’d covered was the base foundation of the fort. The chap from the hotel then told us that we’d chosen the wrong path at a spot - Instead of taking a left we morons had moved rightwards. This is when Uwaraj, Swarnika and Ashutosh suggested we give the trek another shot. We quickly had a poll on who’d like to move up again and after having got a 50:50 status decided to split. Rahul would accompany Bhavna, Kajal, Abjilasha,Trupti and Amrita back to Karjat and Suhas, Ashutosh,Uwaraj, Swarnika and I would give the Kothaligad another shot again. The only dicey thing was that we’ll have to make it QUICK! If we had to target boarding the 6:30 train at Karjat, we’d have to scoop all our energy and move fast, real fast. The return bus to Karjat from Ambivalli would leave at 5:30pm. We hit up on reaching the peak in 1 hour. Swarnika led the group all the way to the top! This time we took the left turn at the right spot and we had two kids and our ever faithful dog to show us the path. The way up was real good. You had to reach the first plateau and from there take a flight of stairs up the caves to reach the forts bulwarks.This path was pretty much simple and the caves part of the trek upwards was stupendous. Thanks to the constant chitter chatter of Swarnika, we managed to hit the top of the fort in flat 45 minutes. At the caves you have an old woman selling Lemon juice. I bet you wouldn’t want to miss this! We stayed on top for a while and to inform the first team that we’d reached the peak, messaged them. A brief photo session and we started our trek downwards. This was done in a jiffy - A sweet 15minute run down the mill .A quick lunch here and at about 04:30pm started our trek down to the Ambivalli village. The dog led us all the way down to Ambivalli! Also we had Suhas to entertain us with his sliding on the brief cascades and oh yes, did I not tell you - he lost the strands of his shorts somewhere way down and had a Charlie chaplin run down the way ? Now Suhas, We do have a video to prove that, NOM .

Meeting deadlines!

We did manage to reach the Ambivalli base point right on time: 05:28pm. The 05:30 service was right on time and fortunately he dropped us right ahead of the Karjat station. The first team had been waiting there for a while and we managed to be right on time again to catch the 06:30 Deccan Queen way back to Pune. Once we reached Pune we decided to have dinner at a pretty famous restaurant at JM Road . A sumptuous dinner with people checking out all sorts of Maharashtrian delicacies. I tasted a yummyDosa types dish made of grounded grains. Well, I dont really remember the name of the dishes as Trupti was the one who ordered it and the Marathi jargon only complicated things !

The Kothaligad trek has indeed been challenging. Not because of the endurance but because we had to redo it again! The strict deadlines made it all the more interesting. Probably this place needs a second visit sometime later; now that we know where to take a right left turn !

Stats:

Trek:1 day trek

Members: 13

Route: Karjat-Ambivali-Peth village base-Kothaligad.

Best season: Monsoon / Winter

Approximate Time : Karjat to Ambivalli - 45mins; Ambivalli to Peth village trek - 1 hr quick sprint; Peth base to Kothaligad peak - 1hr ( Subject to the climate )

Endurance: Medium

Difficulty: Easy-Medium ( Based on route chosen)

Bus timings: 08:30 am - Karjat bus stand to Ambivalli; 05:30pm - Ambivalli to Karjat

Train timings: Sinhagad Express : 06:00am ( Pune Station ) ; Deccan Queen : 06:30pm ( Karjat Station )

Important:

Stick to schedules: Connectivity to and from the Peth village is pretty bleak.

FOLLOW THE DOG: Atleast in this trek rely on the dog’s instinct. Believe me, It really helps!

(2 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

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Purushotam skews his head up and looks at the monitor. I’m reminded of the frequent mails that we get regarding body posture while sitting in front of the workstation. The 45 degree look down angle at the monitor cannot be applied in this case. The plastic chair doesn’t help much either.

Remotely bothered he hits the arrow key and navigates the word document. He is almost through with the test on Basic ‘C’. Moments later he hints he’s completed the test. A few corrections are done and a jubilant Purushotam walks out with his mother’s help towards the door.

Uttam seated a bit away smiles looking at the table. I wonder what his mind is concocting in the vast expanse. I introduce myself and sit beside him. He’s faster than me in socializing. A few minutes and we’re discussing almost everything under the sun. Soon we strike a deal - He teaches me Marathi and I teach him English. Thoughts fly by his mouth in Hindi/Marathi but when it comes to English, he’s blacked out. Soon Shekar, Baaji rao and Preeti join the conversation. Shekar, BaajiRao and Uttam are pursuing their 12th grade at Fergusons and Garware College. Preeti has completed her MA in English and currently plans to do her M.Phil.

Biswajeet and Aditya soon join us after having a quick chat with Purushotam’s Mom. Suddenly the topic of Indian independence pops up. When asked what they feel about the independence movement, Shekar is prompt in responding - India shouldn’t have been given Independence. He reason’s out saying they would have been in a better position today had the British continued to stay. Point taken!

They’d just had a session with Dhananjay - A graduate from University of Pune. Most of it was in Marathi, so there wasn’t much that I understood. But their jubilant responses and the questions on career development takes me off my feet. They know where they need to be few years down the line. Much better planned that me! It’s only about how they work towards it that would decide how far they go towards reaching their goal.

These people had different interests and passions; were from different backgrounds, schools and colleges. Just one thing bonded them together - All were visually challenged! A few dyslexic and physically challenged too.

Just two hours with them and you learn what life is all about. Believe me; they’ve seen things from a much better perspective than us. Every statement from their mouth makes me realize how little I was in front of them. They teach me - It’s not the vision that is important, what’s important is how you visualize it. They tell me, they’re no more afraid of darkness; all that they’re afraid of is light.

At 07:00pm as the class ends, Uttam requests us to show them the Infosys campus. I’m stumped! We promises to take them in the forthcoming weekends, bid goodbye and walk out. The sparkling smile on their faces as we shake hands and walk out still lingers in my mind. I’ve never seen a livelier smile than that till date - a smile of true thankfulness.

All that they were asking for was a few minutes of our time to see the world from a visionary perspective, to learn things from the so called fortunate people like us, to understand and reconfirm if what they’ve been visualizing in their abstract minds is actually what is present out there.

As I walk out of the old school building, I’m ashamed of things I’ve been so proud of till date. I’m belittled and humbled by the prowess that these people possess. There’s so much that we’ve lost sight of in our endless quest for a better life that we’ve lost track of the minute details of living a worthier life.

If you’re from Pune and can take some time off on your weekends, probably you may want to do some unlearning and pay a visit to the Snehankit foundation. For all you know, it’s we who are blind, light just being a camouflage.

(4 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

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The vote was almost equal - About eight wanted to leave on Saturday and seven on Sunday. So finally we decided to have two batches for the Sarasgad trek.

21st June:

Snehith had come down to my place the night before. We’re up by around 5:00am and start dialling numbers on the cell. A few enlightened souls were still asleep.. and they had to be woken up! Pranav’s already awake by the time I call him. Rahul still hangs in heavenly glory till about 6:10 am. About fourteen of Snehith’s friends were supposed to join us . All drop! Akhilesh arrives at the bus stand well before time. At about 06:25 I get a call from Nikunj saying he’d be joining us soon. Vaibhav, Siddharth and Trupti turn up at 06:30. Rahul’s surprising there at the Sivajinagar bus stand right on time! Finally we’re a team of 12 - Pankaj, Prashant Rathore , Falgun , Nikunj, Vaibhav, Trupti, Siddharth, Pranav, Rahul, Snehith and I. Sivanand would be joining us enroute.

We initially had plans to take a bus to Khopoli first and then another to Pali. Vaibhav enquires with the transport officials and finds out that we’ve got a direct bus to Pali at 07:00am. The first half an hour, more or less everyone keeps to himself. Nevertheless a few minutes later most of us get to the rear of the bus and slowly start conversing. Probably it’s been just about ten minutes and wham..Someone ( read Nikunj) clears his throat and starts singing. Prashant falls in line soon. Melody turns to Rhapsody with most of us trying to pitch in whatever we know. People start staring at us but who cares!

In about three hours, 10:20 hrs, the driver kicks us out of the bus. We’d reached Pali! Pali situated in the Sudhagad Taluk of the Raigad district is famous for Ballaleshvar - one of the Ashtavinayaks. A brief darshan at the temple followed by a quick breakfast and we’re all set for the trek. Localites guide us to the trek base point. From the base point, the trek looks pretty simple. JUst one hillock to cover. This looked just similar to the Rohida fort but for the steep incline at the end. At approx. 11:30 hrs we start the trek. Unfortunately, this time climate isn’t as conducive as it was during the Rohida trek. Air currents were sporadic and humidity was high. We reach a plateau and decide to rest for a while. Pranav on the other hand decides to stay right there instead of moving ahead. We were only four of us trailing behind in the group - Pranav, Rahul, Nikunkj and I - the rest had already reached a higher plateau. Amidst all this, Nikunj direly needed a band to pony his hair. All we had was a datacable !

In moments we catchup with the remaining folks. All that was left to reach to the peak now was to climb up the vertical hillock. A flight of gigantic steps manually carved out of the rocks led us up to the top. The climb would have been scary had it rained ! Once we reach the top by the stairs we realised, there was a little more to climb. This secton was a bit interesting - A few hairpin turns, slippery rock surfaces and loose gravel. In about 10minutes we reach the actual top. A small Nag temple stands isolated at a corner. We rest a while here by the side of the hillock which had relatively better air flow and then decide to start our downward trek. Pranav had already reached the base temple by this time.

The way down was a cakewalk. All you needed was impulsive feet, a bit of concentration, and control on your senses to zip down the hillock. Rain would definitely have added a silver line! By around 03:00pm we get back to the same old hotel where we had breakfast and have a decent lunch. The direct bus back to Pune was supposed to come at around 04:30pm. We reach the Pali bus stand by around 04:00pm and while away time.. Unfortunately, we’re not the only one’s waiting for the bus. The moment the bus turns into the bus stand, there’s a mad rush to catch a seat. Rahul manages to get a seat. Pankaj and Shivanand wisely jump into the drivers cabin and base themselves properly there. The rest of us stand! The prospects of getting a seat after Khopoli was also pretty bleak, so we decided to switch buses there.

We reach the Khopoli bus stand by around 05:45 pm. As we stand and decide on what to do next, a set of kids barely three years old starts begging for money and as Trupti pointed, all they knew to speak was ‘Paisa Paisa’. Probably that is all that they were taught! Their behaviour indeed showed they were mentally sick and it was high time they received attention. All of this in a small town like Pali. Imagine the plight of several other unlucky kids spread out all across the country. India is a developing Country - What part of it is developing is the question !

At about 6:15pm we picka bus to Lonavala and reach by about 7:00pm. At Lonavala we board the train at about 07:20pm and we’re back to form again - All of us squat on the floor and while away time by cracking highly intellectual PJ’s almost all the way back to Shivaji Nagar . That one hour of chitter chatter indeed brought about a feeling that we’ve known each other for quite some time! We reach Pune at around 08:15pm and decide to have dinner and then part.

A classic outing, subjective climate and on top of it all - a wonderful group. Indeed a trek to remember!

Stats:

Group: 13

Endurance: Low

Difficulty: Medium - Subjective to climate

Distance: Approx 115kms.

Route: Sivaji Nagar - Khopola - Pali

Trek time : Upwards: 1.5hrs Downwards: 0.5hrs

Amount: 275INR - BF, Lunch, Dinner, Travel ( Pune <–> Pali )

(5 votes, average: 4.4 out of 5)

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This week’s been pretty tiring. Moving over from KT phase to Secondary support, solving stuff which seems simple but turns out to be worse than what it shouldn’t be, filling the same old excel sheets multiple times for reasons unknown even to the person who send it, needless formalities and processes just to send a message across to the person at the other side of the globe…Boy, Am I complaining?

Believe me, I’ve never worked this hard in the past few months! All this, just to make sure my work life doesn’t spoil my weekend. The Kundalika river rafting was planned for Sunday and the DH team had planned a series of treks starting this week. I’d decided that I’m not going to miss even a single trek. In fact, that’s one of the main reasons why I got myself transferred to Pune on a short term basis for!

15^th June

01:20 hrs: I hit the bed after finishing some personal work. The day’s been real long and eventful and a proper sleep is all I need. The sound of water gushing through gorges and sound of rain drops spluttering all about is all that I hear and in moment’s I’m totally blacked out.

05:00 hrs: The Continental music hoots from my mobile to remind me it’s time I get up. My back’s aching real bad and arm’s aren’t any good either. Yesterday’s 10kms of Oaring is slowly taking its toll. I snooze the alarm and get back to sleep. Fortunately, I realize the pain is only going to get worse if I rest longer. I Jump out of the bed and rush to the restroom.

We had to reach Swargate by 06:30, the latest. Ashutosh, Hitanshu – my roommate and Akhilesh - a friend of his would be joining me from Aundh. Vaibhav, Siddharth, and Rahul Nair, were to join us at Swargate. I call up Rahul and Ashutosh to wake them up. Rahul wasn’t really sure if he’d join us. Ashutosh said he’d be meeting us at Bremar circle. We leave for Swargate by around 5:50 and reach right on time to board a State Transport bus to Bhor. Bhor is about 65 kms from Swargate, so that effectively translates to about an hour and a half’s travel. The ST bus picks the Kolhapur route to NH17 through the old Katraj tunnel and after a kings ride we reach Bhor at about 08:30 hrs.

With not much scope for a proper breakfast, we hit on a VadaPav stall. A kid about seven years old was running the shop. The way he was handling his customers was an interesting sight. Something I’m sure he would beat most of us at! Had hot tea and Vadapav’s and also got some parceled.

For the base point, we had to reach Bajarwadi, a village about 9kms from Bhor. Vaibhav and Siddharth spoke to a few localites and arranged for a Jeep. We reached Bajarwadi at about 08:45 and started the trek at about 09:00hrs. The destination was visible right from the base and it looked pretty easy a trek. The weather got better the higher we climbed. Intermittent showers and heavy winds were consistent company all through the trek. It’s surprising how Nature keeps ridiculing you every time you think you’ve achieved something, always warning you to stay within your limits and not crossing that dividing line!

By 10:00hrs we reached the fort entrance. The fort had three consecutive entry doors and right at the entrance was a board put up by the Govt. explaining clearly in Marathi, the history of the fort. Vaibhav translates each word of it and then with that gyan we keep moving across the fort’s various points. Plausibly, the fort was built by Adil shah, then moved over to the hands of Shivaji and finally came uder the control of the ruler of Bhor. I believe, Aurangazeb too was involved in control flow somewhere in between. This is the first time ever that I’ve spent so much time understanding the fort’s history , walking across all the Burj’s and exploring each part of it.

We finally decided to stop over at one of the Burj for a quick snack. Just moments after we finished munching, the drizzle started all over again. At about 12:30 hrs we decide to start our descent and get back to Pune. The descent was much easier. At one point, we noticed that with some miniscule element of risk we could find our way to a waterfall. Ashutosh, Akhilesh and I decided to take it up and we did finally reach the cascade. The towering fall was all we needed to remove any body pains! Having had a wonderful massage from the falls, we moved towards the base where Vaibhav, Siddharth and Hitanshu were waiting for us. While we were basking in the waterfall, the other three folks were whiling away time near the Bajarwadi temple watching the village folks playing cricket. Later we got to know that Vaibhav and Siddharth had come almost half way up again searching for us !

At about 14:00hrs we got to get into a jeep back to Bhor. At Bhor we had another round of Vadapav ( and not to forget the Spiced up Channa Mix ) and got back to the ST stop to board a bus back to Swargate. Thankfully we didn’t have to wait for long. At about 16:40hrs we reached Swargate and from there boarded a bus to Parihar Chowk. Ashutosh would be in a better position to explain how we boarded the bus .

The week was tiring, the weekend even more! But I believe, that is what keeps you on your toes and when you hit the bed, pains and aches apart; you know you’ve done at least something worthwhile in life!

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It’s about six in the morning. Just another drop makes its descent on the already created pool right outside our tent. It’s ben raining cats and dogs ever since we reached the base point and there seems to be no sign of it subsiding. Though it’s been just about four hours that I’ve caught some sleep after having reached the river rafting camp at Kundalika, my brain shows no signs of drowsiness - It’s probably the smell of rain that’s spruced up my spirits but I believe it’s more to do with the sense of a tentative accomplishment of what I’ve been wanting to do for quite some time now.

About eighteen of us had blocked our slots for the June 14th river rafting batch at Kundalika almost two weeks back. Monsoon had just set in here at Pune and this was one of the best times to give this a shot.

13th June,

I manage to complete my work by 9:00pm and rush to board the 9:15pm service to Shivaji Nagar. This was were we were supposed to board the bus arranged by the organizers of this event. I reach well before time and am actually surprised to find quite a few people already waiting there for sometime now! Soon Rahul chips in. In the team of 18 or so, he was the only one I’d met before. Remaining folks pitch in soon and to add spice to the event, we also have about fifteen foreigners joining us. For apparent reasons the bus leaves the spot at about 23:15hrs, Four other folks join us enroute and we finally manage to reach Pune outskirts by about 00:15hrs.

14th June

Things get peppy in the bus, thanks to an Anthakshari between the other half of the team - a couple of L&T folks and their foreigner counterparts and us. Soon most of us give in ( Or should I say, the other half gave up ! ). Agreed my prowess over Hindi songs is pathetic, but then who cares; I was a part of the winning team! At about 02:00hrs we reach the camp base. One step into the area reminds me of the backwaters in Kerala. The location had been perfectly selected with scores of coconut trees spread out over a vast area of land .

Arun Sir ( The co-facilitator for the event) had already propped up all the tents by the time we reached. So all that we had to do was to divide ourselves into groups of six and hit the beds ( Read plain ground with plastic mounted sheets ). Rahul, Jagdeesh, Sunil, Murali ,KP and I pitch into one of the tents. Rahul had fortunately got his sleeping bag and one of us ( not me obviously !) had brought a thick mattress. All set, we hit the bed in a few moments. I was at the receiving end a few times at night, thanks to Rahul and Murali using their damned wonderful feet! Nevertheless, compromises had to be made when you’re camping in a tent and it’s raining outside! The team from Mumbai arrive at about 04:30 am.

At about 06:00hrs, I’m up and to take revenge for the nights trouble, I wake everybody up . They do abuse me mentally for spoiling their sleep and finally we come to terms. We walk over to a mini dike that was regulating water to the river body, pull out some water to wash our faces and start speculating if this was going to be the spot where the river rafting was to start. Soon we get back to the camp and join few folks who’d just started playing Volleyball. The rain made things only more interesting and the game went on till about 08:30hrs.

Tea and Poha was provided as breakfast and then started the set of events for the day. Burma bridge to start off was a cake walk. All that was to be done was to climb a tree and walk on a Coconut coired rope tethered at a height of about 10 feet with support provided by two other tethered coirs on either side. Then was the Parallel ropes, wherin one has to walk on a single tethered coired rope with just another coir rope for support at a height of about six feet off the ground. The best event was the Pampered pole wherein one has to climb up an elastic ladder and then bank on to the bark of a tree at a height of about thirty feet. From here all that you had to do was to jump and get hold of a horizontal pole at a distance of about five feet . Safety wasn’t an issue - the person is holstered to propper gear; It’s the height that mattered!

Not many were able to finish these events as we had to start preparing for the rafting. At about 09:30hrs. A brief introduction of the organizing team was done and detailed instructions on what was to be and not to be done while rafting, navigating and possibly drowning was covered. Each raft would have eight folks each with life jackets, helmets and oars and a navigator. Just before the raft was put in water, the Navigators for each raft held a detailed session on the instructuction code et al.

Rahul, Murali, Monica, KP, Sunil , two other folks and I pitched in into one of the rafts. Robin, a veteran Nepali Raftsman was our Navigator. Moments after the briefing, the actual rafting was started and even before we could realise the rapids started. Robin was pretty stern when it came to navigating. He would literally tap on the person’s helmet who was faultering .

The whole rafting distance is about 10kms with about 3kms of swimmable expanse. There were about six specific points wherein the rapids were real good. Robin did mention names for the rapids, but then when you’re amidst such painfully exemplary surroundings, who would even want to give effort to remembering the names? No words can describe the experience that we had in that two hours stint! The pouring rains, the marauding rapids and the panoramic beauty of nature through the Kundalilka river was simply exhilrating! The swimming phase was just as great! Swimming along the flowing currents is something that I’ve never done till this day and today I’ve realised how difficult swimming in a river is! Rahul too had his day staying afloat in the life support jacket all the way through. Robin did his best in making the rafting experience worth remembering - Be it in toppling Monica off the Raft in the swimming section or navigating us through the rapids explaining each part of it vividly. One of the rafts toppled over somewhere mid the swimming section and soon the whole expanse had people floating in their life jackets . I seriously have doubts if this was done by the navigator in reason to make the experience more interesting!

At about 12:30hrs we managed to reach the end of the white water rafting stretch. Post all the packing of the rafts to the TumTum’s and Sumo’s we were asked to walk for about a kilometer to get to the spot where a bus would pick us up. The moment we reached there, we found Aditya serving Hot soup and Poha to everyone. Boy, that’s the best soup I’ve ever had till date! We helped ourselves with one more serving and hunched into the bus.

A couple of L&T folks ,foreigners, Rahul, Kajal and I got on to the ceiling of the bus. Initially the driver didn’t want us to sit atop but then later we( read someone) managed to pursuade him and there we were! It was an absolutely wonderful experience sitting atop the bus on the way back to the base camp. The speed of the bus and the torrential rain brought about the experience of a thousand ants biting us all over! On second thoughts I feel this experience was much better than that during the River rafting .

We reached the Base camp at around 14:30hrs. There was a brief rain dance for a few moments and then people who had not completed the Burma bridge, Pampered pole and Parallel ropes got back to it. After a quick lunch and again some Pampered poles , we started packing up and left for Pune at about 17:00hrs.The scenery on the way back was just fabulous! The streaks of cascading white water falls on the towering mountains, the clouds apparently cuting across them, the splintering rain and the chilly climate made a stuendous panoramic view! Nothing to beat Mother Nature’s recipes.

We reached Pune at around 19:00hrs with stinking pants and bags. At least that was the case with me . One of THE best weekends ever spent in Pune till date in my brief six month stint here. But wait, this weekend’s not yet done! There’s a trek to Rohida planned tomorrow. All depends on how fit I’m at 04:45 am  .

(3 votes, average: 4.67 out of 5)

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Installing Grub using a Hosting more that one OS on your hard disk can be a pain if you’re not really sure on configuring the boot loader. I’ll confine the scope of this post to parenting only Debian based Linux OS ( Ubuntu ) and WIndoze. Because for the most part of it, I’ve only worked on them.

Why would you have to Install / reconfigure Grub in the first case?

1) You had to install Windows after you installed Ubuntu/Linux which led to the Grub ( Previously installed by Ubuntu ) to be over written by the Windows Boot loader.

2) You screwed up an installation right at the wrong spot and now you can boot neither Windows nor Linux.

Installing Grub through a Live CD:

1. Insert the Ubuntu Live CD into the tray and restart your system
2. Once you’re at the Live CD Desktop, Navigate to the terminal ( Applications>Accessories>Terminal)
3. Type sudo fdisk -l /* This would list all the OS installations and drives that you have. Make note in which drive Ubuntu has been installed - Let’s say it’s hda3*/
4. Next we’ll have to enter the Grub shell. Fot that type sudo grub
5. In the grub menu type find /boot/grub/stage1 . This would return a listing of the drives in which the OS’s/ boot records are installed.
6. Identify where Ubuntu’s Grub is on, by relating the output from step 3 and the above output.Now to let the Grub shell know what grub files are to be used, type root (hd0, 3) /* You’ll have to change this accordingly as per your output from step 3*/
7. Now to install Grub on MBR,  type setup (hd0)
8. By now, You should have got a success message from the grub shell telling you that the Grub has successfully been installed.
9. Type quit and exit the terminal. Reboot and this should have properly fixed your Grub.

Installing Grub using the Super Grub disk:

If in case you do not have a Live CD, you can download a super grub disk and use it to setup the Grub for you. Check this page for more info on using the Super grub disk.

Note:

Installing Grub in your MBR will overwrite WIndows bootloader. If in case you do not find Windows in your boot menu after rebooting, all that you have to do is to make an entry in the Grub boot list.

Making an Entry of Windows in the Grub boot list:

• In the terminal , type sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst /* Always have a backup of this file. Screwing this will only cause more trouble */
• Add the following lines wherever you would like the Windows entry to be listed

title WIndows XP Professional Edition

root(hdX,Y) /* Based on the fdisk -l output. Note: /dev/hda1 ==(hd0,0). /dev/hda2==(hd0,1) –> Grub  convention */

savedefault

makeactive

chainloader +1

• Save Menu.lst and reboot. This should resolve the issue

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Just ten minutes before I was supposed to leave for work yesterday,  I had this remote urge to get back Hardy running on my desktop. I had it installed but because of a windows re-install, the GRUB boot menu was overwritten. So all that I had to do was to re-install Grub!

 Powered the CPU , inserted Gutsy’s Live CD, logged into the desktop and fired a few commands in the terminal. The shell gave in a success message and I quickly rebooted to check if the Grub was installed. And boy, it did get installed right in the first go !

I had to catch the 10:45 service so I powered the CPU off and ran my might to reach in time. Post work when I get back home and turn on the Desktop to check back on sweet old Ubuntu, I’m in for a surprise - I didn’t remember the Password for my Admin acccount ! Even before my instincts to re-install the OS took control, I rebooted and logged into Windoze. Googling a bit had even more surprises in store - A few posts in the Ubuntu Forum stated a minutes walk to Glory - You could override the admin’s password by a few quick commands! And till date, I was thinking Linux gave me all the security in the world. How wrong I was ! Or was I ?

This only made me think if Linux had a backgate entry, Bill’s Windoze should as well. Again thanks to Sergey and Larry, I realized hacking the windoze admin password was a cake walk too! Damn, it took me so many years to realise that. It was no damn rocket science!

This incident forked out a few salient points

1) If there’s a password - It can and will be hacked. It’s only a matter of when and how!

2) Linux is still a better vault when it comes to data security- Check this link

3) If you’re really worried about data security, You have every reason to be! It’s a murky world out there !

4) We’ve got one of the best processors - the Brain. High time we knew how to use it effectively !

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It all started with a mail from Shiva asking me if it would be a good idea to plan a trip to Mahabaleshwar sometime during the coming weekend. The Hydventura team had not been for any treks for more than a fortnight now! The anxiety was quite understandable! But then a trip to Mahabaleshwar during this hot summer would do no good. Instead I suggested they come down for the Katraj - Sinhagad trek that I was planning to do the coming weekend.

A flutter of mails and calls, a week of pooling in and pooling out and all was set! The HydVentura team was all set at a head count of 18 despite a ‘Statutory warning’ e-mail from Adi ( You’ll know who adi is, had you read my post on my first trek to Sinhagad ). Two days before The Hydventura team arrived I enquired with Abhishek, Abhijeet and Ravi ( The Deccan highlanders Anchors ) if anyone from DH would be interested in joining us. Friday evening, Abhijeet says he had a volatile head count of 20 from the DH team. Boy , this is gonna be real fun!

17th Morning - Saturday.

I barely manage to open my eyes and have a look at my watch. Damn! It was 07:45 hrs already. Two days back, i arranged for a Tempo Traveller for the Hydventura team. The driver was to pick me up from my house at Aundh at 8:00 hrs. Right at 08:05 hrs I get a missed call from the Driver. I get ready in a haste, pack my bag and make sure I have at least 2L of water in my bag. Well, you learn from mistakes…Just one month back on the slopes of the sahayadris we were stalking like dogs for water. Every drop of water was like elixir then!

We make it to the station by 08:45 hrs and I while away my time till the Mumbai Express crawls into the station. The team had finally landed in Pune! Gourav, Reshma, Aishwarya, Kirthi, Jemshed, Animesh, Yeshwanth and Venki had been for a few treks along with me. The new faces were Siddharth, Ranjan and Trishna. We moved over to Infy Phase I where they refreshed and had a decent breakfast. Munni and Deepika joined us there. Prasanna was to join us directly at the trek base point - Old Katraj tunnel. It was already 12:30 hrs by the time everyone was ready.

At 13:00hrs We moved over towards Bunshi Dam. Not that we expected to see much water, It was only accommodated to keep us busy. We reached the Dam at around 14:20 hrs and idled some time there. Sat by the lake and under the trees not because it was really inviting but just because we had nothing else to do. The water was murky by the banks and the only thing appeasing was that the water was cold. At 15:30 hrs we started moving towards the vehicle when we spotted a guy selling lemon juice and ‘Kala kutta’. ( ‘Colored Katta’ is basically Frothed, Shaped and packed ice dipped in colored syrup / sherbath) .Knowingly or unknowingly we spent almost three fourth of an hour here and spent about 250 Rs. Just for the ‘Mineral water’ Ice’d cream and the lemon juice ! It was worth every rupee! Reshma and Ranjan had their slurps from literally every ‘Colored katta’ that came from the vendors hands! I bet, He must have closed the shop and gone home after all the profit that we gave him!

It was high time, we moved over to Katraj. Besides we hadn’t yet had Lunch! At about 17:00 hrs we had our lunch at a roadside dhabha and moved towards Old Katraj. A small accident on the Satara highway caused us to be delayed by a few more minutes. It was almost 18:30 hours by the time we reached the Katraj Muncipal Bus stand. Prasanna, Vishnu, Hari and Pavan joined us there. Gourav and I went on a shopping spree for Chocolates and Biscuits while Animesh and Venki ran about for water bottles. It was a literal shop loot in both the shops . All in all we bought about sixty Five-stars , sixty dairy milks, forty Goodday biscuits and about Sixty five Mineral water bottles :-). All set , we reached the base trek point at around 19:30 hrs. The DH team had just arrived there a few minutes earlier. Abhijeet was still put up at the city outskirts as he couldn’t find proper transport.  He turned up too a few minutes later on a tractor !

After a quick distribution of chocolates and Water, the 36 strong team splited into six teams. Suhas and I were the only two people in the team who had been to this trek recently. So the onus of guiding the whole team on the right path was on us. Moving a bit ahead we realized this modus operandi would simply not work. So once we reached a tableland , we regrouped ourselves into four teams. Each team would have a lead and a sweep. Abhijeet opted to be the sweep of the last team so as to keep a tab on the movement. We had quite a few noobies in this trek and no compromise on safety could be made. I was the lead of the first team and Suhas the sweep of the first team. Abhishek, Nitin, Gourav, Animesh and Zohar took up respective responsibilities of lead and sweep for different teams.Though being a huge team, after a reordering of people, we noticed the team picking up speed. The first hill was definitely a solid motivation to the team. ( That was after they got down from it ) . I wouldn’t comment on the trek path now because I’ve already covered that in my previous post. In fact this was a bit more challenging to me as I had seven 1litre water bottles in my backpack! Reshma couldn’t continue with the 2l in her bag post the first hill. So we shifted them into my bag on condition that she’d carry the Emptied bottles . Surprisingly, We’d covered about seven hills before midnight and the spirits were still high. But for Trishna who had cramps developing on her legs not many had their energies low. But, Later in the morning it so happened that Trishna was in the leading team .

18th May - Sunday

I thankfully had not much problem recollecting the trek route from my past experience. Being in the first team is always advantageous. You have the discretionary power to set the team’s speed and at the same time you get to rest more frequently than the other teams.

I missed the track twice during the trek. First time fortunately a Hanuman temple indicated we were in the wrong path. I rightly remember not coming across any temple during my previous trek. Deepika, Meenu and Ranjan helped me track back to the right path. All in all we could have saved about an hours time had I led them in the right direction. Nevertheless, this only added some more thrill to the trek! . The second time i missed the track was at the fag end. But then a few other folks were pretty quick in tracing back to the right path.

We reached the last hill at about 06:30 hours. All we did once we reached the final hillock was to rest on the Gravel. One view of the sunrise on this peak is enough to rejuvenate you. The soaring sound of the chilled wind, Dew settling on those lucky few shrubs and the rays of the sun slicing through the clouds - Can anything match that feeling?

We stayed on the peak for a few more minutes and started moving down the last hill to reach the Sinhagad fort base by 19:30 hrs. Not many of the team members were interested in climbing up the fort. So based on group decision the plan was dropped. Balaji, The TT driver picked us up at around 09:00 hrs and we managed to reach Infy at around 11:00hrs. I got dropped back at Aundh and the Hydventura team left for Hyderabad at around 14:00hrs after refreshing in the Infy Campus.

All in all , it was one wholesome experience to trek with such a big enthusiastic group. This time surprisingly we didn’t use much water. In fact my bag still had three full water bottles!

Stats/ Details :

Team: 36 ( 18 - Hyd , 18- Pune )

Distance: Approx 10Kms

Start Point: Old Katraj Tunnel

Direrctions to reach Basepoint: Pick a Rick/Bus from Swargate and reach Katraj Muncipal Bus stand. From there try pitching a lift from someone to The old Katraj Tunnel.

Precautions: Always carry a Torchlight! You never know when the clouds would shroud the moon even if it were to be a Moonlight trek! ( As it happened in our case ).

Complexity: Low

Endurance : High

Estimate time : 7hrs.

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8:00 pm ! I thank Dona in my mind for ending the call well before schedule and rush out of the conference room to my cube; Send in a report to my PL about the clients call, quickly shut down the system and run towards the swipe out machines. It’s been just a minute that I’ve thanked my access card for working fine at this moment that it suddenly stops responding at the turnstiles. Time to curse the facilities department for not having issued me a new access card. Fortunately the ‘beep’ finally sounds and I’m given access to the exit! Huh! The swearing continues…

All this for catching the 20:15 service. This was going to be my first day after becoming a billable software engineer to reach home early and I just didn’t want to be languishing in the food court with sparrows for another hour for the next service! and more so who’d want to work for another hour when it was not required? I just couldn’t miss the bus…

I run like crazy towards the Phase II gate as i see the Medipoint bus moving . The security at the gate totally oblivious of my pathetic situation stops me right in front of the gate. His duty .. can’t help is all i say to console myself. Thankfully the check is done quickly and he gives me a sarcastic smile hinting…Bhago!

I run behind the bus and finally get a seat. Thumb on the GoGear with the plugs in my ears and in moments I’m blacked out totally.

The honk from an adjacent TT suddenly wakes me up from my slumber and I have a look at my watch by instinct. 21:15! I should have ideally reached Aundh by now. But wait , the surroundings were no close to resembling any known locality. It took just seconds for the angel to loom over my head! Damn! Just another day of Oversleeping in the bus, and it happened to be on this fateful day!

I request the bus driver to stop by the wayside and jump out. A few enquiries here and there and I realize that I’m at Senapati Bapat Road! A cool 10kms away from Aundh. . Fortunately, I spot a local transport service back to Aundh. and reach at 22:15.

And..there’s something more! I boarded the wrong bus! The Medipoint bus has it’s last stop just a couple of stops away from Aundh. I would never have reached SP Road had I boarded a Medipoint bus!

I could have rather stayed back at the Food court! Would have at least reached home on time!

And by the way, Whats the word for ‘ Fear of Slumber in motion’ ?

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It’s been almost a month now that I’m married and I don’t even know who my wife is!

Every junior who happens to talk to me asks the same question - Heard you’ve had a registered marriage! And you didn’t even tell me? All thanks to that wonderful person who’s started the rumour. And I wish I knew who that holy soul is!

Before the rumor does any more damage, This is just to officially declare that there was no registered marriage! I’m pretty much a bachelor!

Ah! and if you happen to trace out that virtual wife of mine please do ask her to sign the same declaration here!

(2 votes, average: 4.5 out of 5)

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Childline India Foundation primarily supported by The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment - Government of India has come up with an initiative of having a one stop phone helpline for children. Any child in Distress or in need of help may now call the toll free number 1098 for assisstance. More about this initiative at their webportal here .

Next time you see a street kid or just anyone’s kid in need of help, all you need to do is dial 1098. Spread word of 1098 to every kid that you come across. You never know when s/he may find it useful!

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Five days back, our Bai ditched us for a few days and left for her native. Lazy bums at times that we are, Adi and I drove down to a close by restaurant for dinner. We’d heard of this place called ‘Rasoi Ghar’ quite some time back and just thought of giving it a shot. Rasoi ghar was just a few hundred yards from the usual place where we’ve been having dinner for the past few days. So we just walked in and gave the order.

 All of a sudden this particular poster caught my attention. Need I say a word more? And mind you..This was just a normal shop by the roadside…

Next time you’re on your dining table and everytime you say that ‘Yuck’ when you taste something not so tasty hope you’ll  recollect this poster !!

Hat’s off to the owner of Rasoi Ghar!

(7 votes, average: 4.57 out of 5)

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Breakfast here in the Pune DC is pretty fascinating! The huge food court with its high raised ceiling and the glass facades does make for a beautiful start.

The other day while Adi and I were having breakfast , I felt a strange sensation on my head. Someone was pulling my hair. It took me only a moment to realise there was a sparrow sitting on my head! Oh Yes! We have sparrows in the food court! Nope..not caged one’s, these are left free to flutter all over and believe me, they totally use their freedom !

It’s real fun to see them have their breakfast from someone’s plate. You leave your plate unattended for sometime and you’re all set to have proper company! Almost every other day you get to see people running half the span of the court to shoo the sparrows feasting on their meal when they’d left it on the table to grab a cup of coffee at the other end :-) ! Even the most somber guy in the crowd starts smiling! Besides, the chirps they keep making make the whole ambience really plesant! What more of a refreshing start for a day could you ask for?