Kohoj: Trek as it should be!!!

It was a fundoo trek to Kohoj that extended all day loong...

Next day morning I managed to get up early to attend a meeting(Which later turned into a Pizza treat by a ProfessoR :D), but obviously I soon started snoring with head down on the table.... So here come the comments from a friend, 'चायला, कशाला त्रास द्यायचा स्वतःला? '
(Why the heck bother to wake up early n trouble your body?)

Though I didn't care to answer him, I gave it a thought
Yesterday when I boarded local train for trek, first person to welcome me was a 60+ aged youth Chand Singh. He was such an enthusiastic person full of energy and love for nature. He is a businessman and had been to Himalaya's many times. Mangesh, the leader, Anoop, Ganesh, Chaitra, Chitra, Tejasi, Ajinkya all were people from varied backgrounds from Medical, paramedical to Engineering and from Reliance Life Insurance to Film Making! On the way we talked about profession of each other and stories from their earlier treks, warming up our minds for a great experience ahead.

We reached Waghote and started making our way from some farms. It wasn't all green, but still it was nice to be away from city. Trek was pretty lengthy and it took us more than 2 hours to climb, walk, climb and find our way to some shade.

View of the heart shaped lake was just awesome. It at least calmed down our eyes if not legs.
Soon we started our lunch, and started enjoying Egg Rice courtesy Smita, X courtesy Y, Thapele courtesy A, B, C and awaiting us was awesomeMaxx Homemade 'Black Forest Cake' courtesy Tejasi. Having such a fundoo lunch, some sleep was inevitable.

After we were awake again, we took a round for an hour, looking at the ~20 ft man(like pinacle) from all sides before we started descending. As usual, getting down wasn't as easy as we thought. Slipping here and there, crying franticly now and then we were getting down. Talks had stopped and everyone was concentrating an footsteps.
Fortunately, all people came down with all of the bones intact and a dip in the lake was too tempting to avoid. Though just Rakesh has a swim in the lake, all others got in and enjoyed themselves.
With such a relaxed schedule, it was too late to get a bus, and we manged to get lift from a Truck driver. It wasn't my first time, but still it was soooooooo much fun to travel from open truck. After truck it was Rikshaw, bus, shuttle train and local train to take us back to Mumbai. (MNS for and against debate on the bus stop deserves a mention :P)

Despite the hectic day, I was feeling so charged up, I just can't stop myself from writing this blog entry and now it awaits some pics b4 its published.

So, to sum up the answer to the comment,
Trek is not just about climbing a hill and get down with some injuries on the way. The company, the jolly mood itself is enough to refresh you for a hectic week ahead.
Hope to see many of you for the treks ahead !!!

Welcome!

The content here has been censored by Mr. Dhosa. This blog is banned !!!

My first interaction with freshies this year was while counseling.
I was amazed by excellent common sense shown by The Cream of the Country...
Few examples being...

->Choice sheet upar se neeche bharni hai ya neeche se upar??

->Sifarish lagaani ho toh kya karu?

refer to http://youcanhaveyourpaiandeatittoo.blogspot.com/ for more examples

It seems we were quite successful in our job. 69 of top 100 arrived at IITB.
And mainly more than 60 girls did choose Bombay :)

AIR 81 was unfortunately convinced to take energy.
Dr. Deva, when contacted said that, "Bade bade institutes me aise chhote chhote hadase hote rehte hai" :P
Apart from this, all students were convinced ki aapke seniors gadhe nahi hai jo CS liya, so follow the trends.

Now, the freshies arrive in insti. Not just the students, but on an average 10 parents accompanying them. Again the parents continued to be in great form.
->Lectures ke liye kaun uthata hai?
->Hostel me AC laga sakate hai kya?
->Special rooms ke liye apply kar sakate hai kya?
->IIT me professors padhate hai kya?(I answered "pata nahi" :P)


Irritated by these questions, I stopped eating in mess. But once on the way to my room a student asked me,"Ye kutta katata hai kya?"
And hence, I am here at home.
I plan to return on on Independence Day :P

The WALL!

Nopes!
I am not talking about Rahul Dravid.
He used to stand like a wall between ball and stump(without even getting LBW :P)

But we all are standing between two groups of people. Thats racism.
India is a place, where racism shows up maximum possible variety.
We have racism based on cast, religion, language, state, sex and what not!

I tried to think a bit about the basic thought behind racism.
In general, we feel affection for someone who talks the same language. You can communicate to him easily and you can enjoy talking in your mothertounge!
While being out of station, you might find a person from your city close to heart, for you share the same background. You tend have some common memories, thoughts and something common to talk about. Certainly, you will have more belongingness with such person.
In such case, you'll tend to favour him against a person from completely different background.
This, I believe is the root of racism. (Thats why Marathi ppl grab most AAs in workshop :P.)
Jokes apart. When a person from different state/nation grabs an opportunity you would have otherwise got, you'll be hurt for sure.
This has lead to all the aggressive racism, from MNS to curry bashing.

Still the ideology is that its bad to have proud of your caste/religion and hatred for others.
But its still a great thing if you are proud of your country and hate other say Pakistan.
All the political tensions between two countries arrive mainly due to heads of the respective country. A soldier has no hard feelings for the opponent he is killing. And if they are, I believe that human beings are no different from wild animals.

To say in a a bit IITians fashion(Or call it the sheldon way), all people wanting peace, is a unstable equilibrium.
And racism is a basic instinct of man, which will not let the equilibrium to be achieved.

'Pratham' Tuj pahata...

It was very first first semester of first year of my IIT life. I was chilling out at Lake Side when a senior calls me up in a refreshing eve. I had just got acquainted with during 'Shaastra', technical festival of IITM. "Hey, are you not attending the quiz tonight?, its a really big project. Leave everything aside and come for quiz." So this was Mehul calling me up and the quiz was Satellite team entrance test.

As a result I was a part of 'Power System' of satellite team namely PrathaM, The First. We started work with infinite enthu in December. I was thinking that we have been chosen by ISRO for making the satellite. Now, it seems after a couple of years that ISRO is the least concerned about our satellite. Hopefully, even this turns out to be a misconception.


Sometime, I start thinking, what I got from satellite...

1. we had trips to ISRO.
2. we could showoff.
3. got a lot of exposure
4. A lot to learn about what problems arise while running a big project
5. How not to manage such a project :P(Sorry, Bandu)
6. Certainly a god resume point :P.
7. I got a friend, guide and philosopher. Yeah Mehul.
8. and of course a lot of friends.

I really owe a lot to this project. (except the project owes me a big deal of money)
Senti apart, I really put in my everything in the project. And as a result, now I am ashamed to tell to relatives and frinds that I am making satellite, after telling this for a year and a half.
I will be proud to tell so only when satellite work is finished. I believe same is the feeling of all working on the project.

So, I had to modify the romantic Marathi song to
'प्रथम तुज पाहता, जीव कन्टालला चढवुनी ठेविले, डोक्यावरी मी तुला'
'Pratham', while watching you, my mind got bored thou art blown out of proportion :(


P. S. After very long blog entries, managed to keep this one just long :P

ख़ुद को Satellite टोपी चढाई और हमें भी :P

LOSER

So, after a decent response to first post, I was confused.
Confused about what to write about. I had many options in mind, economics, view of youth towards politics, Love and relationships, and few more(Which obviously, I'll take up after this one). But one topic that popped up dominantly was cell-phone or mobile.

As all of you know, in last few years, mobile phones have spread their reach at tremendous rate. Not just that, dependency on cell phones has increased many folds. Unlike earlier ear, when we used to take the address while leaving, we now say, "I'll come to Dadar and call you for further address." That's dependence. Girlfriends and mothers get disturbed if you're not 'reachable'.
A pessimist like me can say that its a start of era where man will be highly dependent on gadgets and lose all his skills and memory. (Or has it started long ago?). We are their Gulaam's.

Anyways, I am telling this all so aggressively, there must be some reason, huh?
Yeah, I lost my mobile a couple of days back to find myself in helpless situation. I was in Mulund for some work. After some pains and running around a bit I finished the work.
Tired and fed up by traffic, I was standing (not in line obv.) for BEST bus. A crowded bus arrived after long time and being a young and agile chap, I managed to get in quickly. In just few seconds a group of young people rushed to back door saying we wanted to get back at earlier stop. Irritated by the whole thing, conductor shouted a few curses at them, and so did me(silently of course)
And that was enough of chaos for them to pick my phone and leave quckly. It didn't take me more than a minute to discover this, but....

I got a lot of sympathy from all aunties coming back from work, a lot of fundae from fundoo people on where do they sell these phones. Obviously none of them could get me my phone back.

Ashamed for losing two phones in three years I walked way to home... I cursed myself a lot for appriciating the thieves for their skills, but yes I did appreciate them in mind. These people are really good at their job. I put my hand in pocket to check the time and OH S*IT, it hurt more than the first time of realisation. Every time it makes me more cautious about surroundings maybe more than required.

Subsequently, I got new phone duplicate sim etcetra. But, it keeps reminding me of the whole drama again and again. Then I try to convince myself,

Let bygones be bygones.
Look at what you have and try to make most out of it.

Marine Drive

Inspired by Antariksh's Yummy blog, I planned two things
1. I'll learn cooking at Home this vacation
2. To start my own blog

So here I come.

As you all know, I am a simple(:P), shy(:P) and introvert guy.
So, I prefer to mingle with nature rather than watching movies or night outs with friends.
Cycling is my hobby... So, I group up with anyone (even Soham Mehta for that purpose :P) make a plan and go out for cycling.
I have earlier gone to places like Yeur and Sanjay Gandhi National Park.

Recently I had gone to Marine Drive by cycle with 'Fundoo' Ashish Goel and Shakti.
This very famous beach is ~30kms away from IIT campus.
As per Goel's plan, we were required to leave campus at 3am. He gave us infi fundae on cycling at night, how to dodge dogs that follow, precautions while driving and so on (So he became 'Fundoo' :P)
But, alas, since Ashish himself got up late we were at main gate, the starting point at 3.15 only to realise that Ashish among his infi fundae had forgotten to Inflate air in his cycle. That delayed our trip by another half an hour. The watchmen at Main Gate were laughing at us
(The same way you must be laughing now).
And, here we leave with a loud call of 'Ganapati Bappa Moraya'
(Praying Lord Ganesh).
Straightaway we reached eastern express highway. Awesome cool breeze accompanied us all the while. We made our way very fast with an average speed exceeding 20 kmph towards Dadar. As a sweet surprise, Mumbai Police (whom we curse every now and then for every small thing), were checking all vehicles at many spots. So we could take their help to find our way to Marine Lines.


....And what a beautiful scenery was that!!!
Blue sky bending down to light blue sea, enlightened by the full moon.
The moon covered slightly by the the thin cloud cover, looked like a traditional indian bride with
'Ghoongat over her head'. Whatever the scene was awesome.
All three of us were stuck right in the center of the bridge, watching that heaven on earth.
Queens necklace was also looking awesome at that late night time.

We relaxed on beach for half an hour, had some Chaay in nearby Tapari. And we started our journey back. We took a bit different path, we progressed while watching landmarks on the way. Last few kilometers were tiring. It started feeling hot even before sunrise. We managed to reach back by 8.30. Overall the trip was really good, kept us wanting for even more next time...

So, after so much of publicity, enthu people can contact me for cycling trip to Pune next Month.
Option of Konkan is also open. (Tempting mangoes yo know)
Viva La Marine Drive,
Viva La Vacations