Valley Of Flowers

Rains are now paving way for October heat. This is the best time to wander around hills near Pune. few sundays back we had inspiration and straightaway headed towards a destination very popularly known as maharshtra's valley of flowers. This Place is called Kas near satara. around 125km from Pune. My family shares my wanderlust so they jumped onto it. We had an inauspicious start with one of my tyres having six punctures. Thanks to tubeless technology we did not have to dirty our hands. Its been ages since i am hands on in every sense. I only manage... just joking as still i do prefer doing things hands on professionally. sorry for deviating.
it was sunny morning , but as we crossed shirval, it started raining and we could see clouds hanging around hills on the west. we knew we were destined for a monsoon drive...
after doing a bit search around for way in satara city, we reached the famous tunnel leading to sajjangad. we took right to the road climbing the hill . after turns and twists, we saw the greandeur of kas plateu. Its a flat hilltop plateau not very wide. On both sides you have valleys with big lakes. The weather was great with drizzle and clouds. Gentle but cool breeze to refresh. The flowers have just started blooming of various colors. we just lazed around. what more you need in life with such weather, great location, loved ones around, good music, good food packed, ....
we then started drive towrds kas lake. the road is great with thick forest, winding turns, ups and downs, small villages. We started climbing and entering thick fog. At one point it was almost zero visibility. There were very few vehicles operating with full lights on upper. We reached lake amidst fog. we could only see 6ft water ahead. and then suddenly it all changed. within 2 mins the entire clouds evaporated (if i can use this word). and we could see lovely landscape, lake, forests all around and few other people also enjoying this show. We then drove to bamnoli on koyna backwaters . the road is amidst thick jungle and turns scary at a point. But wonderful. weather added to the moment.
we returned back after enjoying numerous stream, waterfalls aside the road. we had lunch at satara (guy took almost hr to prepare very good food).
Suddenly we had a brainwave to go to mahabaleshwar as we were out of stock of honey we use daily. They a call from mahabaleshwar never can be avoided. we followed satara mahabaleshwar route. its another great journey. ghat is very winding and narrow at some point. thankfully road is good. (only problem with stray dogs, hens, cows to be avoided).
Mahabi was great as usual with rains. its rains something there. crowd was sparse thanks to swine flu.
after refreshments and shopping at Mapro we reached back by twilight. one highlight or return journey was a semicircluar rainbow we saw. i have never seen such panorama before. as we left rainy satara district and entered sunny pune, we saw this. the colors the range , the size etc and the backdrop was awesome...
hopefully you will like my first and maybe last attempt to pen travellogue. I myself find it bit cliche but when i comeup with original i will attempt again. They say picture says thousand words in prose. i have attempted prose. but i am against sharing snaps on open forums. so if you want to see snaps to comment, i can send you link. they are great snaps esp the rainbow one.

Time and Tide

Almost an year has gone by. I did start this blog on ganesh chathurthi eve last year. Time and tide seem to have gone beyond control. Golden years have been spent. Grey years are impending. been talking to all my batchmates and they also feel same sense of sand clock losing sand quickly. Daily chores, inertia, meaningless things to dos of routine work, hedonistic weekends of seemingly happy but empty contents; are taking toll. when was the last time you did something creative, close to heart and something real.... maybe few of us have been close to all these. or some of them have kept those feelings secret. even i was close to such moments few times and most of us are i am sure. But what % of time was that.
Time is a non renewable resource. we have only one lifetime. Time to make a meaningful things t do. Time to create real value and innovation. Time to leave legacy in any right sense. Clock is ticking and your time starts now...
Hope Lord Ganesha shows the path and gives wisdom....

State of eternal chaos

Ganesh Chaturthi festival starts from coming sunday. The destroyer of Obstacles is thy reputation O Lord Ganesha. And there is no one else to look upto.
Swine Flu, Drought, Recession, Terrorism, .... list goes on ....
The next in line after almight is the maaybaap Government who has pledged its service to aam aadmi. Is Governance in place
Example for swine flu: No one seemed to be in control or atleast making semblance of sense of urgency in decision making. Need of hour was to take quick and sensible decisions. Health deptartment , PMC, Mayor, Guardian Minister, CM, MP , no one was ready to take the buck. schools , people were left on their own to take a call . Media added to panic resulting in chaos. More than 1000 people swamped the only testing center. many people must have got infection there. at other center, to do the testing one had to cross the quartantine room. ridiculous...
And our esteemed politicians were busy at a ceremony to name the expressway...
meteriological department has to be closed down. They predicted normal monsoon. They are good at analysing but forecast is what was needed. Govt machinary has woken up last week to declare draught. foodgrains prices have reached exhorbitant level. Thanks to commodity index and hoarders we face this. (another reason i strongly recommend banning of futures trading in commodities) Govt did not do anything.
Things run on their own. No one seems to be in control. No one is interested to help aam admi. they are busy milking the system..
what are we doing: writing an inconsequential blog... Guys lets do something

Rakhi sawant fan club: reality sets in with a nostalgia

Last year in one of my postings i had mentioned about Importance of Being Rakhi Sawant (http://nayakgiri.blogspot.com/2008/09/importance-of-being-rakhi-sawant.html).
I am a firm fan/follower of Rakhi Sawant. She had her swayamwar last week and by god what a drama, what a poise. i wish i could have traded my place with Elesh (the winner).
Dame has so much guts. she is so confident. she oozes drama. Mind it she is the ugliest celebrity maybe, she is the most crass of them. But she does what she thinks and there are no double standards. Had i not been happily married (repeating old cliche that my wife is happy and i am married), i would have surely applied for a slot in that swayamwar....
Another example of how channels take people for ride. everything is managed. But so long as janata is entertained who cares..
This reality TV is not my cup of Tea. I am surprised by fan followings of all these shows. seems like people like them. thats why every channel has one. different formats (but adapted ones nothing original). Its all scripted as one can take an educated guess. nothing real about it except sms and money making. Earlier generation of reality was ok and restricted to singing competition or quiz shows: has some semblance of fair judgement system. (forget about tantrums by judges etc). This lot is more about bitching, sex, personal issues.. not my cup vulgur
Good old DD during mid to late 80s was golden era for me for TV viewer. Single channel no choice: Staring with Hum Log, Buniyaad. Ramayan and mahabharat. Short stories like satyajit ray presents, kathasagar, darpan, ye jo hain jindagi. Good serials like khandan, ados pados, mr and mrs, karamchand,kacchi dhoop, aa bail muze maar, udaan, subah, rajni, himalay ki dhara many more.. Quiz time by siddharth basu, whats the good word, sports quiz , world this week were my kind of reality shows. short films like Tamas, sandokan etc . many more. Mumbai DD programmes were the best : gajara, those great poets and singer events, much more qulaity. Technically they may not have been sleek as today but content was more rich, and most importantly Honest..

Pandemic Terror

More than AH1N1 its terror which is pandemic and damaging. Its very natural to be careful, watchful but its another thing to be terrorised.
Its rightfully said that if you keep subjects under fear they are easy to be governed. Now we dont have Kings but we have politicians who claim to be our representatives who have this policy. Its very unfair to blame politicians for everything but its the system which needs overhaul.
Having suffered the logistical nightmare owing to school shutdown, i feel panic has set in. Its correct and prudent to be scared and follow the rules. Idea should have been to educate and circulate proper information right since the day first victim was detected. (it was atleast 15 days back that a software guy had reported, things got into news only when whole class was down).
ofcourse health officials tried to do that.
But now with first death in india, terror has crept in more than panic. a slightest bout of cold, sneeze, fever will lead parents to h1n1 tests. but that needs to be done as its very tough to track how and when you would have got in contact with infected patient. offices, gyms, clubs, hotels, movies, public transport, ... where all you can establish the chain...
Now i feel we should do following:
1. Have 5 more official quarantine sections (one in kothrud, one in katraj, one in aundh, one in peth areas, one in shivajinagar) to isolate and treat positive cases
2. 2 more H1N1 testing centers /equipment should be added (at what cost will need to find out) to handle cases with symptoms (be it anybody) and rule out negatives.
3. Home quarantine of people in direct contact with H1N1 positive confirmed cases. Dont close whole school. Upon symptoms report to centers
4 Basic hyegiene to be maintained while sneezing , spitting , hand washing etc.
5. pray to almighty
its scary situation....

3.