Trek Rajgadh

After a long time I went trekking with some of my colleagues. We trekked Rajgadh. This was a great trek which was moderately tough and was so scenic in this season.  Below is the trek route we took.

View Rajgad Fort Trek (Complete) in a larger map



Here are some images from the trek to which will explain how beautiful it was. Pics are courtesy my colleague Sapan.

 

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Transition

Last year had been one hell of a year, I hardly got any time for blogs, heck I hardly got anytime for myself. The year started with possession of my flat and almost the whole year saw that concrete structure taking shape into a home it is now, which was really some work for a lazy ass like me. I never had run so much ever, for every small thing balancing cost with quality is really a tough task. From putting curtains to doing furniture, it's difficult if you are alone doing it. To make things worse, pressure was mounting on the work front at the time when I wasn't able to focus.

And if that wasn't enough, I got engaged around middle of the year and got married towards the end of it. This was the biggest transition for me, from a carefree bachelor to a clueless married man. Funny thing is I didn't get much time to even think about it. I was so busy making things fall in place everywhere. But I guess that worked in my favor :)

Now when I think of it, my life has really changed in last one year. So I will remember 2010 as the year of transition and I am glad it has happened. Though I have new set of things to worry about now but I feel happy, things just feel right.

After being married for 2 months I realize that 2011 is going to be another transition year, there are a lot of things still left to do but I am not worried. I know everything is going to be just fine and I am Loving this new phase of life.

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Earth Hour 2010

Earth Hour is back again to remind us to do our bit in the larger quest to fight global warming and climate change. Some of the things that I have been doing and we call can do in our everyday life to contribute,

• Don't leave your electrical appliances ON when they are not in use. Remember they consume electricity even in standby mode so make sure you turn their main switch off.
• Switch off your work stations at work when you are going home. Leaving them idle is a huge of waste of electricity.
• Use Air conditioners only if they are not needed.
• Buy all new electric appliances with 5 star energy rating.
• Use energy saving CFLs instead of incandescent bulbs.
• Minimize or at least optimize the use of vehicles. Try to make one or two planned trips to grocery store to get your monthly ration instead of running for them every time something is needed.

These are just few of the things which we can do and I am sure there are many more to the list which I would love to know from you. Let's work together to achieve this goal which we must realize to save our planet before its too late.

So, Let's join the campaign and switch off the lights during the Earth Hour which is on SATURDAY 27TH MARCH, 8:30PM - 9:30PM in India. Don't forget to set a reminder :)

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Hilarious conversation

A hilarious conversation which took place @ work between two colleagues. Let's call them SRK & Saif to protect identities ;)

SRK (loudly from his desk): Saif main aau ?
Saif (from his desk far enough for everyone to hear) : Kis liye ?

SRK: Abhi karna hain ?
Saif: Kya ?

SRK: Reproduce.
Saif: Abhi nahi baad mein.

And I & few others who had the ear for it burst out laughing hysterically. Then I took the liberty to repeat it to the rest and then everyone was laughing frantically. SRK was flushed with embarrassment though also laughing. I couldn't stop laughing yet and I am going to laugh again when I send them this blog entry to them :D :D

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Best of "मधुशाला (Madhushala)"

Madhushala is one of the most famous works of the great poet and writer Late. Harivansha Rai Bachchan ji. This consists of 135 verses of 4 lines in all and is very meaningful and metaphorical. Here are some my most favorite verses from Madhushala...

सब जला चुकी है, जिसके अंतर की ज्वाला,
मंदिर, मसजिद, गिरिजे, सब को तोड़ चुका जो मतवाला,
पंडित, मोमिन, पादिरयों के फंदों को जो काट चुका,
कर सकती है आज उसी का स्वागत मेरी मधुशाला।।१७।


एक बरस में, एक बार ही जगती होली की ज्वाला,
एक बार ही लगती बाज़ी, जलती दीपों की माला,
दुनियावालों, किन्तु, किसी दिन आ मदिरालय में देखो,
दिन को होली, रात दिवाली, रोज़ मनाती मधुशाला।।२६।


बनी रहें अंगूर लताएँ जिनसे मिलती है हाला,
बनी रहे वह मिटटी जिससे बनता है मधु का प्याला,
बनी रहे वह मदिर पिपासा तृप्त न जो होना जाने,
बनें रहें ये पीने वाले, बनी रहे यह मधुशाला।।२८।


पथिक बना मैं घूम रहा हूँ, सभी जगह मिलती हाला,
सभी जगह मिल जाता साकी, सभी जगह मिलता प्याला,
मुझे ठहरने का, हे मित्रों, कष्ट नहीं कुछ भी होता,
मिले न मंदिर, मिले न मस्जिद, मिल जाती है मधुशाला।।४७।


मुसलमान औ' हिन्दू है दो, एक, मगर, उनका प्याला,
एक, मगर, उनका मदिरालय, एक, मगर, उनकी हाला,
दोनों रहते एक न जब तक मस्जिद मन्दिर में जाते,
बैर बढ़ाते मस्जिद मन्दिर मेल कराती मधुशाला।।५०।


कभी न सुन पड़ता, 'इसने, हा, छू दी मेरी हाला',
कभी न कोई कहता, 'उसने जूठा कर डाला प्याला',
सभी जाति के लोग यहाँ पर साथ बैठकर पीते हैं,
सौ सुधारकों का करती है काम अकेले मधुशाला।।५७।


मेरे अधरों पर हो अंतिम वस्तु न तुलसीदल प्याला
मेरी जीव्हा पर हो अंतिम वस्तु न गंगाजल हाला,
मेरे शव के पीछे चलने वालों याद इसे रखना
राम नाम है सत्य न कहना, कहना सच्ची मधुशाला।।८२।


जिसने मुझको प्यासा रक्खा बनी रहे वह भी हाला,
जिसने जीवन भर दौड़ाया बना रहे वह भी प्याला,
मतवालों की जिहवा से हैं कभी निकलते शाप नहीं,
दुखी बनाय जिसने मुझको सुखी रहे वह मधुशाला।।१०३।


अपने युग में सबको अनुपम ज्ञात हुई अपनी हाला,
अपने युग में सबको अदभुत ज्ञात हुआ अपना प्याला,
फिर भी वृद्धो से जब पूछा एक यही उत्तर पाया,
अब न रहे वो पिने वाले अब न रही वो मधुशाला।।१२५।

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Hail the home makers !!

After a wait of 2 years and 3 months and numerous site visits (checking progress, making sure things r fixed where needed)... I finally got possession of my flat and the feeling, the sense of ownership is absolutely fantastic. Although I have a huge loan to pay off, but I will worry about that in some other post ;)

Now that I have got the flat, I am far from relieved. I have the mammoth task of setting it up to make it home. It's so difficult to decide on things to buy. Got to first select something out of numerous option available and still need to find out who gives the best deal for it, after all finance is a big constraint for the new house owners like me. Must have the essentials and certainly not willing to compromise on the quality (after all it's my 1st home). Striking the balance in a tight budget is certainly no mean task. On weekends when I come home tired from the market, mostly I have done nothing but got diff quotes, have seen hundreds of products and am finally confused like hell between choices. Now I understand why it is convenient to take someone along, they make the choice easy for you by voting. So, seriously I bow down to the ladies who perform, almost always, the role of home maker to the brink of perfection. Cheers to them !!!

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Gearing up for the BIG run

24th Pune International Marathon (PIM) is here, the event which I was awaiting for an year. In the last marathon a friend of mine had participated and after hearing his experience about the run, I was determined to participate in the next marathon. Just a week ago I found out that PIM is on 6th December and so I started gearing up for it. I needed to check my stamina to figure out which race I am gonna participate in..

Day 1 - Thursday, Nov 19th:
I started with a try out of my stamina and covered about 5.5 Km. I must have walked for approx 1.5 km intermittently, but I didn't stop at any point. After this I took a 2 day's of running break but did some skipping n stretching instead.

Day 2 - Sunday, Nov 22nd:
I followed it up with a non stop jogging of 4 km on the Sunday evening which was quite fun.. I was feeling I could run more but decided against it.

Day 3 - Monday, Nov 23rd:
Last 2 session had been on concrete in Pashan-Sus road area which has inclines and declines all over. But today I was running in a garden on a flat dirt jogging track of 400 mtrs. First nine laps I jogged slowly and then walked for about 50 meters gaining my breath and ran the Tenth lap hard. I again covered 4 kms but was more exhausted than Sunday. It felt amazing to lie and stretch on the grass after the run.

Day 4 & 5 - Tuesday, Wednesday Nov 24th & 25th
On day 4 & 5 I tried a different course. In the same garden with 400m track. I did 10 laps but for every lap I first ran for half course and then I walked for half of the course. This way I could run at high pace. On second day I fully ran the last 2 laps at high pace. I had heard somewhere that by alternating your training patterns you train your muscles better.. Let's see how true was that.. as I have decided to give day 6 a rest for some recovery.

The one day break got extended due to one thing or other.. and I could continue with my jogging on Tuesday.

Day 6 & 7 - Tuesday, Wednesday Dec 1 & 2
I maintained the schedule of Day 4 & 5 and increased my continuous running. On Day 7 I ended with nonstop 5 laps of running at relatively high speed.

I skipped Thursday again.. and today on Day 8, Friday Dec 4th I will try running the whole distance of 4 kms non stop and see how do I fair.

Now that the D-day, December 6, is here its obvious I am not prepared for the longer run, so I will be participating in the AIDS charity run of 3.5 kms this year, committing to my self that next year it should be atleast 10.5 kms :)



Marathon day -- Sunday December 6th...
I left home at 7am braving the chilly but beautiful weather on by bike in a tee n track pants. But as soon as I reached starting point the energy and enthusiastic crowd made me feel cheerful and the chill was gone instantly.

The charity run of 3.5 km was scheduled at 8:30am, which I didn't know, but I was surely on time as I got to watch some of the opening ceremony and then I watched all the groups zooming at the wave of the flag. It was such a lovely sight to see people from all walks of life and all age groups run together for a cause.


I completed the 3.5 kms run without any problems. It was quite fun actually. Mostly people walked in groups. Some groups were waving banners of their companies or about AIDS awareness. There were also groups of people from Shiamak Dabar dance group jogging & dancing intermittently.. they really filled others with energy with their dhol beat. Now I am determined to prepare for next year with 10.5 kms run as target. Also, next year Pune International Marathon will be in it's 25th year. Silver jubilee celebrations should be some view. So, Happy running Pune!!

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