Trip to Tamhini Ghat

One thing is sure guys, Tamhini ghat is the place to be on earth. Located on Pune-Mahad road it’s one of the few places void of all social animals.

Located roughly about 65 to 70 kilometers from Pune, it offers us the best view of the Western Ghats. Our family made a trip to this place on 28^th June, 2009. The road to Tamhini ghat is okay one and on the way one can enjoy the view of Mulshi dam. I took a few photos from my Sony cyber shot digital camera and I am pleased to share it with you.

The first photo shows us the flat plains of Konkan region clearly visible from Tamhini ghat.

The second photo shows us the close up view of another insect. Frankly speaking I don’t know the name of insect.

The third photo is one of the best I ever took. This photo shows how soil erosion has took place on a mountain eroding it and giving rise to dense foliage. This dense foliage runs down till bottom of valley and such type of foliage is not found elsewhere on the route.

The fourth photo shows us that a part of mountain had caved in this part was somewhat receiving less amount of water. Now if you observe that caved in part carefully and if we zoom that part we find some white growth in that part. Is the white part some kind of wild mushrooms or like my friend guessed it as some bird, still it is unclear. This photo was taken from an eight megapixel digital camera and full 4x optical zoom as that place was very high from the place we were standing.

The last photo is the catchment area of Mulshi dam. Due to lack of rains in the month of June the catchment area was not full of water. (This collaborates that the news we hear about lack of rains this monsoon is true) We went down to the reservoir along a muddy path and we had a nice time strolling near the reservoir with the gushing wind gracing our faces like a hard slap.

Tamhini ghat is perfect place to spend your weekend in the laps of nature.

India on the path of conquering commercial aspect of cricket

Surfing channels, I came across Star sports airing some old cricket match from its rich archives. The match going on was India vs. England (1995-1996). The English audiences neatly dressed in suit- tie were enjoying watching English bowlers getting hammered by a debutant Sourav Ganguly.

Let’s get to main thing that pushed me to write this post. All the advertisements were looking unfamiliar to me. Even the spaces that separate the stands which hoist advertisements were unfurling the English brands. I don’t recall those names but those all sounded unfamiliar.

2009- ICC 20-20 world cup going on. The main sponsors- Reliance Mobile, LG, Hero-Honda and Pepsi. All the four are having significant presence but out of them, two are located and based only in India. Every space on the ground capable of displaying advertisements is occupied by these brands.

Do the Australians, Pakistanis, New Zealanders know these brands unless they search the net. Nahhh!! They might be going nuts thinking about these brands.

Look at the current position about the power of India. She has literally captured all the commercial aspect of cricket. That made me proud of India the most in spite of ongoing things going in India like corruption, nepotism etc. India has captured a huge chunk of the commercial market.

Beware world, India is marching on and all the other people need to look out at India as a major superpower in the world.

My memorable past..

Every time I think about my past moments in my life, I cannot stop thinking about it. Thinking about the past nostalgias makes me smile a lot. I would like to share my few past memories that are deeply inscribed on my brain. Even a ‘Ghajni’ like incident can’t wipe them out from my grey matter of my brain. Here are some of them...

Have you ever experienced the agonizing pain in fracturing a bone in your body? I have experienced not once but twice. The first one when I was really small to understand the pain and second one the unforgettable one. While playing in 2^nd standard near our building’s society premises, running wildly through a dense bush, I tripped over a stone marking the boundary of the bush and a path. I rolled two to three times on my back before coming to a halt. At that moment I realized an excruciating pain in my right elbow and started crying loudly. Such was the pain that I wasn’t able to move my elbow as if it had got stuck somewhere. My nerves of hand were giving high levels adrenaline to my brain which made me cry aloud for at least an hour. Somehow I reached home to find my mother telling me that I have suffered a fracture. She somehow managed to put a temporary support to my hand and gave me pain killers. The next day I went to an orthopedic who plastered my hand with one kilo white cement. For 21 days I had the heavy plaster on my hand right from my fingers to shoulders. During this period my friends completed all my class-work and homework assignments and I am really indebted to them.

Next memory that I would like to share is how my 2^nd standard picnic got spoilt due to my one of my friend. We were going to a resort in Ambernath. He was sitting near the window seat while I was sitting near the aisle seat regretting my decision not to a catch a window seat by running when the bus arrived and catching the much coveted window seat. As the bus was midway to our destination, the friend sitting next to me vomited on my left side. Yuck!!! I said loudly. He in spite of sitting near the window seat vomited that white liquid on me. Our body has such complex reflex actions is the one thing that I learnt that day. On that day I had tough time as I smelt the whole day. My class teacher Miss Leena cleaned the whole stuff as soon as we reached the resort. Still the smell was stinking the whole day. I didn’t enjoy the picnic the whole day. Just like cigarette packs carry a statutory warning on them –‘Smoking is injurious to life’, people who tend to vomit in bus should also carry a statutory warning on their shirt-‘Give me a window seat or suffer the consequences’. Still you can suffer like me.

One of my worst days in life turned out to be when I was in 3^rd standard. After playing one evening cricket on the big playground in front of my home, I forgot to take my bat. Somebody took the bat lying idly and we all went to my home to have water part to quench our thirst. As we all gulped down three to four bottles of water, in hurry I forgot to lock the door of my house. The house was left open and one of our good neighbors noticed it and kept a good vigil the whole evening till my mom arrived. When I reached home I got a good scolding the whole evening for the double losses I had suffered.

The next thing that recalls me is that of monitors patrolling our class. Whenever there used to be sometime between one teacher to come between the lectures the monitor used to take control of the class. He used to write the word ‘NAMES’ on the blackboard and he used to write those who used to talk or play some mischief. Though there used to be some regular names on the blackboard some of them used to beg the monitor to cancel the name from blackboard. If the teacher used to be strict, they would give remarks in diary or some would simply neglect. There used to be n type of monitors to do all work and they acted as if they are the immortal souls of the school. Also the teachers showed partiality towards these immortal souls of school.

There are many more memories that I will never forget with some of them capable of acquiring Oscars like those mentioned above. Don’t know but I have a unique ability to recall many things about my past. I hope my future will also give me such type of incidents in my life..

Dare to think out of box

Recently, I was going through the huge piles of National Geographic magazines I had collected over the past few years. The main aim of me browsing through these magazines was that I was bored studying electronic circuits. I desperately needed to refresh into my already saturated mind, so I took solace in reading these magazines. One article that really fascinated me was that from January, 2009 issue was about North Pole sagas.

 It’s about a daring idea of a Norwegian scientist, Fridtjof Nansen, to freeze a ship in the Arctic ice and take it to North Pole! Though this idea appears to be suicidal, this great man along with a companion managed to reach the highest latitude ever reached at that time 86degrees 14 seconds!! In the late 19^th century without any modern equipment, they still were just 226 miles away from pole. What’s appreciable about Nansen is the courage and the daring nature of this man to reach north pole. I really felt motivated simply reading this article. A great achievement of that time!

Really those who think to dare succeed the more number of times. To dare we need courage and this courage can be build only by us. Also our way of thinking should change. We should dare to think differently and take the correct decisions. Daring is one virtue that many few people in this world possess and those who possess it turn them into fruits of success.

Daring, you all may be thinking is not that courage that Las Vegas male and female strippers possess of removing clothes in front of huge eye-pooping crowds. Such daring is of no use but one should appreciate them for showing of their skin in lieu of money and also self-esteem.

Those who think differently only succeed in life. Had any one thought of a small business venture like Reliance turning into a MNC within short period of time? The late Mr. Dhirubhai Ambani had the vision to think differently. That’s why reliance is at such a good position in this world.

Like this there are innumerable examples of great people realizing their dreams by daring to think differently.

So friends let’s change ourselves by thinking out of box.

  

I Voted for India

On 30th April,2009, I voted for India for a better tomorrow. Instead of having a long weekend I voted for the welfare of Indian democracy that one day change will happen..

Shame on all those who did not vote inspite of being eligible to vote.
I was dissapointed with the low voter turnout in Mumbai.

Let's hope for a good change to happen..

I vote for India

Today, early morning I went to the local election office to see whether my name is there or not in the electoral list for LokSabha elections. I was pleasantly surprised to see my name in the electoral list J

I had filled the form for inclusion of my name in the list way back in July, 2008. Seeing the government apathy in all fields of commerce, I had expected my name to be in LokSabha elections 2013 most probably. But today’s day started with a positive note and a slightly changed attitude towards the government.

Walking down the road, I pondered, whom to cast my precious vote?

To the corrupt politicians who eat our hard earned money?

To those who play the dirty politics of forming alliances and breaking them whenever they see green fodder in the opposite stable?

To those who compromise development of country for their own selfish means?

To those who play dirty vote bank politics to remain in power and to eat more money?

To those who stall infrastructure projects if they don’t get a big pie of money in this project?

To those who bollywood stars for attracting attention from public?

Are these politicians who use bollywood stars not capable of themselves attracting crowd with their own charm?

Or to those who go to Delhi for obtaining orders from the high command in order to implement decisions regarding any change in government? Can’t they take decisions themselves instead of flying to Delhi in aero planes and wasting public moneys?

Or to those who play the communal card in order to garner votes?

Recently in a radio interview I heard a young youth asking for a separate button on the voting machine for not voting to any of the candidates. I really agree with that youth’s point.

The heavy campaigning done by Aamir Khan and all others to vote for country should not go waste. After all our vote can somewhat change our country.

Last but not the least let’s vote for a better tomorrow.

I will vote for India.

My driving experiences-2

This is post is the continuation of the last post about my driving experiences.

Well let’s start with the important aspect of driving any car. First a fall, you should remove the phobia that you can’t drive a car as soon as you sit on the driver’s seat. You should have the confidence of driving the car irrespective of whether the weather, pothole ‘wallah’ road or any other minor reasons. Before starting of car it’s the responsibility of driver to ensure that the car is working properly. He is the one who has to see whether the car has adequate engine oil, brake oil or whether the tires are aerated. This should be done as the fate of the passengers is in his hand. Also you should adjust the two mirrors of your car to see the vehicles behind you.

The next important part is driving a vehicle improves your eye, ear, hand, legs co-ordination. Your reflexes should be quick to respond to any type of circumstances. Let me explain this hand-eye-ear-leg co-ordination with an example. When you sit on a driver’s seat you two legs should be able to handle the three pedals of the car namely ABC’s( accelerator, brakes, clutch) , your two hands should be able to handle the gears, steering wheel as well as various functions on the dashboard of the car. Also your eyes and ears should be wide open so that you could understand what’s happening in the surrounding.

Next thing is that you should always start any vehicle with gear in neutral mode. This prevents your car from starting from jerk in case you have not pressed the clutch pedal of the car. Slowly accelerate the car once you switched to the 1^st gear and change the gears according to your speed. Don’t accelerate the car rapidly as the vehicle in front of you can stop at any instant leading to an accident.

It is sometimes said ‘roads have potholes but Indian potholes have roads’ J

Though this criteria is not applicable to all Indian roads. Nothing happens if you go through a small pothole if your shock absorbers are good but many things can happen if u go through a big pothole. Your car can bounce and run into the divider of road.

Also from my experiences the golden rule to cross any speed breaker is as follows:

As soon as you see a speed breaker change the gear to 1^st and reduce the speed by pressing both the clutch and brake. As soon as you fell that your front tires have gone through the speed breaker increase the speed and shift to 2^nd gear. That’s what I have been doing whenever I see a speed breaker.

Last but not the least; don’t talk with your co-passenger unnecessarily. Also don’t drink and drive for sake of your safety as well as others who are driving on the road.

HAPPY DRIVING..