Destiny has a mind of its own, and what a way to reiterate the fact that no matter how much we try to hoodwink fate, fate somehow always manages to not just catch up but also do “tuk - tuk” (for non Marathi folks, catch the kids playing in the playground and doing “tuk tuk” to get the meaning) once it has overtaken us.
One fine day, Madhuri ridden with guilt for not calling me since ages managed to find time and give a ring. “Picnic chalega kya” in her sweet voice sounds so harmless, just like a walk in the neighboring park in a car driven by someone else. Having nothing better to do on the weekend and thinking how much can a picnic do harm to the carefully cultivated health of mine I agreed, with the caveat of “IF” the picnic morphing into anything more strenuous than lifting food from the plate to my mouth, I would skip.
Do not know if it was just good manners on her part or a way of making sure she was not the only one I knew on the trip and hence the target of my impromptu one liners, she asked me to get along some of my friends, if they were interested to spend a weekend outside the cool comforts of home sweet home. Manjusha and Rama are into trips as much as I am into vada pav’s. Needing no more cajoling than a single call they both hop on to the plan. Madhuri, Kunal, Priyanka, Gaurang, Jalpa, Manjusha, Rama, Juhi (with silent h), Hech (that’s my dad nic, but somehow stuck to me and I do not bother correcting anyone as I can think the guys are teasing my dad and not me) and Prakash/Prashant (our helpful driver whose name we were not able to place till the very end) formed the gang in one of the vehicle.
The start was eventful, as if getting up at 4.45 in the morning is not stressful enough think about a mirror committing suicide by jumping down from its stand and breaking itself at 4.00 in the morning. Mum had that woeful look in the face and she kind of was hoping I call off the thing but me the ever ready “andha shradha nirmulan” kinds would hear no more of it (though retrospectively next time a mirror breaks, I am going to make sure I do not even climb up/down from my first floor apartment).
Reached Nahur at 6.30 and had a few stray dogs for company. They may be wondering either I was out of my mind to be out so early on a weekend or I was lost and they were trying their best to show me the way by barking and running in a direction, which I guess they wanted me to follow.
Somehow the gang gets together at around 7 and after having a few hiccups for getting everyone on board and a last minute call from Madhuri to juhi (with the silent h) to join us (as the first line said it all, what was Jui to know what was in store, she may have thought about a cozy weekend lolling around in her bed) we start off from Thana a good 2 hour late. We were following a few trekker uncles who were the folks who had extended the invitation to us lazy city folks in the first place. (As it turned out, the uncles were kunal’s uncles or at least I thought them all to be, which by the end of the trip I found out I was miserably wrong and it was only one uncle and one kunal. The rest being uncle’s friends but then I am digressing from the topic but again that’s how I write and think).
On the way me and the rest came up with various ideas like ditching the uncle group but we having the food and kunal valuing his life, had no option but to stick to the original plan. Reaching the 0’th base camp we had food and everyone other than me changed into battle gear. Realization stuck that Madhuri had led me up the garden path and this was no picnic or walk in the park but a climb up a mountain, a feat which seems so harmless is called a trek. We were led by the trekker uncles (a motley collection of fit elderly folks with the eldest being a sprightly 71 year old who was the fittest of the lot and the kind of guy who would have been a good model for baidyanath’s chwanprash). Giving up all hopes and making a note of strangling Madhuri if and when we return back, we started out on the picnic.
The setting was gorgeous, it was green all around with springs cutting across and making splashing sounds as they show in movies. Ah-hah movies why do not people come out with a trek movie where someone else captures a trek on a movie and I get to enjoy it sitting in a lounge and a popcorn in my hand. Thinking bigger why don’t they come out with a trek in IMAX format so that I get the feeling of being there without getting my feet wet, something to think about. “THUD”, coming back to reality, I realize there is a tree in the way and I am like staring at the bark at close quarters coz just a millisecond back lost in my dream about starting a venture to make 3D trekking movies, I had bumped into it. The rest of the folks had grouped a little further around Jui and I catch up to find Jui not in the best of health. Bells go off in my head, thinking of an opportunity to play the chivalrous guy by volunteering to escort Jui back to the trax and putting on a sad face for not getting to complete the trek I stand around. Alas, Jui does not want to let me play her saviour, she gathers enough energy and courage to make it to the top. We take the mandatory snaps on the way and walk on.
At base camp 1, we have a round of introductions where I learn the trekker uncles are not really just uncles but old enough to be my grand uncles but still fit enough to beat me at any sport at even my best day. Embarrassed, I make up my mind to not let myself down and reach the top. Then I get up and see the route to the top and the shame is gone. I want to go homeJ. We make it through some of the most beautiful scenery I have seen till now (that could also have been more to do with me not being out of my bed much on weekends than anything else), we walk through steps cut through by water gushing down from the hilltop. The water is crystal clear and cold maybe they have an Aquagaurd at the top. Taking numerous stops on the way and beseeching all and sundry if we could not head back and it’s not really a bad deal if we end up alive at the end of the day and not dead on top of a mountain, we make it to “nane-ghat”.
Nane-ghat as the name suggest is a pass from around 1’st BC and used by traders to cross over from the konkan valley to the plateau side. The place has water cisterns and a cave for taking rest at the top. It is also flanked by a rock cliff called “Nanacha Anghta” which is another arduous climb to the top but which provides panoramic views all around. We reach the cave which has numerous inscriptions in a language unknown to me. But if I could read, I would bet it would be something like I will not climb up a mountain, I will not climb up a mountain, I will not climb up a mountain. I am also tempted enough to write “Nanachi Tang” all along.
Food was courtesy the uncles as we intelligent enough to know its no use carrying food as someone else always does carry some and somehow it always tends to get shared. The cave is quite windy and its cold, I start hallucinating about a thela at the top selling cutting. I guess it’s a good time to get back to reality i.e. sea level Manjusha, Madhuri, Rama, Kunal Priyanka have other plans they have to go ahead and make sure they are at the right place. I do not know if they were thinking of finding a name plate proclaiming this to be nane-ghat or something, was it not enough that we assumed it to the place. Suddenly it’s raining heavy and the trekker uncles are concerned about us making it down. Half of our group has gone ahead and the rest are like shivering in the cave. We decide it’s better to start down in small groups or risk getting stuck there due to the rain. I join the first group coming down which unfortunately consists of the best of the trekkers from the uncles group. They go down the water cut rocks overflowing with water as if I would go down the steps at my home. All I see is water and rocks and all they see is a way down I am not sure. If this was water world I would have an easy way down in a float I guess but then it isn’t and I have to come down the way I went up through some really rugged terrain.
I reach down and take refuge in the vehicle where after some time our driver informs me that there are leopards around in the jungles we just were waltzing through. Thanking god and for change thinking I was lucky to be thin, so the leopards, if they ever lay their eyes on me would ignore me as the effort was just not worth the juice I am like …. Uh-Oh wait a minute do wild animals ever go on a diet. I guess this is what happens when you strain yourself. My knee was paining badly no doubt I was hallucinating.
The uncles are all back and changed and fed and look as fresh as if they have just returned from a shopping mall, I am in a condition worse than the one I was in after my ill-fated EMF in the 5’Th semester. I catch a glimpse of the rest of my folks and get happy that finally I would get to go home, but as the destiny thing again pop’s up Gaurang informs me that Madhuri and half the gang has lost the way while coming back. I am impressed and somehow the faith in Madhuri, which I had lost during the last couple of years is restored. She had grown mature over the past some time and acted in a responsible manner since she got married. I guess she had forgotten that she was Madhuri and is meant to be in trouble all along. She somehow won back that trust by not just getting herself lost but taking along a few more people with her. I am mighty proud of being her friend. Waiting in the vehicle for the people who have got lost is no easy task, in fact when you know its going to be dark in quick time and there are leopards around is not exactly comforting thoughts. With the uncles not making any move of making an effort to launch a search party and it getting pretty late Manjusha and Rama volunteer to do the honors. I with my knee in a bind wish them luck and provide moral support for them to find the rest. I wish I had access to google, they claim if they can’t search something it does not exist. I would have loved to put their claim to test.
Manjusha, Rama and our two drivers somehow manage to meet up with the bunch of lost group who had somehow managed to reach the opposite side. All is well that ends well, I guess after running up and down and making plans to spend the night eating chole and in the company of just each other and maybe a hungry cat the gang is reunited again. Alas it also means we head back home. It’s all water over my idea of an adventure searching for them in the pitch black, fighting off a wild cat for the sake of my friends. I guess I will include this interpretation in the trek video I intend to make or else get someone to make. Cold and wet we head back and its not long before I am home and my mum is thanking god for getting me back home, I wonder if she ever realizes, its god who put me in there in the first place.
I have sworn off treks for the near future, my lungs have got so used to the smog I encounter on way to work that I am afraid fresh air will make me sick. I have grown old by staring at the computer screen that panorama may make my eyes sting. I guess I am done with treks for the near future which is like till the next plan. Hmmm what did you say kunal, Bhima Shankar, 18’Th august. Let me check, I do not do any work anyways so leave should not be a problem, it’s a overnight stay so you seem to have learnt your lesson and made provision for people getting lost and the best part is the mirror which broke is not replaced yet, so there……
Thursday, August 9, 2007
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Making of MST Blog
Hint: Please read upside down (i.e. hold the monitor ulta :) )
From: Devesh Rao
Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2007 4:06 PM
To: Manjusha Awate; Smita Vargante; Gaurav Jagavkar; Devdatta Pawar; Ramchandran Subramanian; Kewal Vargante; Manish J. Pradhan
Subject: RE: Me...
Ohhh he changes his name to “busy” when placing orders…?
That’s a nice way to avoid being identified J
From: Manjusha Awate
Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2007 4:05 PM
To: Devesh Rao; Smita Vargante; Gaurav Jagavkar; Devdatta Pawar; Ramchandran Subramanian; Kewal Vargante; Manish J. Pradhan
Subject: RE: Me...
Wait for a while. Gau must be busy placing orders. Right Gau?
From: Devesh Rao [mailto:deveshr]
Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2007 4:00 PM
To: Manjusha Awate; Smita Vargante; Gaurav Jagavkar; Devdatta Pawar; Ramchandran Subramanian; Kewal Vargante; Manish J. Pradhan
Subject: RE: Me...
Buy a amphibious car which can fly….
From: Manjusha Awate
Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2007 3:58 PM
To: Devesh Rao; Smita Vargante; Gaurav Jagavkar; Devdatta Pawar; Ramchandran Subramanian; Kewal Vargante; Manish J. Pradhan
Subject: RE: Me...
Aur jo bulk discount milega usase ek boat bhi kharidana. Ho sakata hai ke car aur plane seekhane ke baad hum log boat chalana sikhana chahe.
From: Devesh Rao [mailto:deveshr]
Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2007 3:55 PM
To: Manjusha Awate; Smita Vargante; Gaurav Jagavkar; Devdatta Pawar; Ramchandran Subramanian; Kewal Vargante; Manish J. Pradhan
Subject: RE: Me...
Gau make that 2…. I don’t want to fly but tu khareed raha hai to I wont miss out
From: Manjusha Awate
Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2007 3:53 PM
To: Devesh Rao; Smita Vargante; Gaurav Jagavkar; Devdatta Pawar; Ramchandran Subramanian; Kewal Vargante; Manish J. Pradhan
Subject: RE: Me...
Gau, while u r at it (buying civic et al), mere liye ek Cessna please. Me want to learn how to fly.
From: Devesh Rao [mailto:deveshr]
Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2007 3:47 PM
To: Smita Vargante; Gaurav Jagavkar; Manjusha Awate; Devdatta Pawar; Ramchandran Subramanian; Kewal Vargante; Manish J. Pradhan
Subject: RE: Me...
Gau is not uncle scrooz…. He is uncle kanjoos…
PS: gau Honda civic ghe na re plssss… me want to learn how to drive
From: Smita Vargante
Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2007 3:45 PM
To: Gaurav Jagavkar; Devesh Rao; Manjusha Awate; Devdatta Pawar; Ramchandran Subramanian; Kewal Vargante; Manish J. Pradhan
Subject: RE: Me...
Uncle Scrooz ke khajanese…
From: Gaurav Jagavkar
Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2007 3:43 PM
To: Devesh Rao; Manjusha Awate; Devdatta Pawar; Ramchandran Subramanian; Kewal Vargante; Smita Vargante; Manish J. Pradhan
Subject: RE: Me...
Who to kiya hota re but paisa kidhar se aata?
Regards,
Gaurav
From: Devesh Rao
Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2007 3:41 PM
To: Gaurav Jagavkar; Manjusha Awate; Devdatta Pawar; Ramchandran Subramanian; Kewal Vargante; Smita Vargante; Manish J. Pradhan
Subject: RE: Me...
Sala chindi… u kno bangladesh ka sponsorship is equal to a 40 sec ka add on sony….
Gau by that standard u cld have sponserd kya bought them poora and named them gau’s 11
From: Gaurav Jagavkar
Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2007 3:39 PM
To: Devesh Rao; Manjusha Awate; Devdatta Pawar; Ramchandran Subramanian; Kewal Vargante; Smita Vargante; Manish J. Pradhan
Subject: RE: Me...
Firse paise ki baat?
Kya cricket team ka ball khareedne ka hai, jo contribution ke barein mein boling?
Regards,
Gaurav
From: Devesh Rao
Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2007 3:38 PM
To: Manjusha Awate; Gaurav Jagavkar; Devdatta Pawar; Ramchandran Subramanian; Kewal Vargante; Smita Vargante; Manish J. Pradhan
Subject: RE: Me...
U can contribute to it :)
From: Manjusha Awate
Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2007 3:37 PM
To: Devesh Rao; Gaurav Jagavkar; Devdatta Pawar; Ramchandran Subramanian; Kewal Vargante; Smita Vargante; Manish J. Pradhan
Subject: RE: Me...
But then how will me learn? And then what is life without learning? So don’t negate a learning experience for me. Teach Me!!!!! J
From: Devesh Rao
Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2007 3:35 PM
To: Manjusha Awate; Gaurav Jagavkar; Devdatta Pawar; Ramchandran Subramanian; Kewal Vargante; Smita Vargante; Manish J. Pradhan
Subject: RE: Me...
Option d is better…. Me will do it J
From: Manjusha Awate
Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2007 3:29 PM
To: Devesh Rao; Gaurav Jagavkar; Devdatta Pawar; Ramchandran Subramanian; Kewal Vargante; Smita Vargante; Manish J. Pradhan
Subject: RE: Me...
If someone can explain me how
To start a blog, I would do that. (
To be precise I will need (a) User Manual (b) trouble shooting guide (c) 24 hours Helpline numbers and if all of that does not help, then (d) someone else
To create a blog!)
From: Devesh Rao
Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2007 10:58 AM
To: Gaurav Jagavkar; Manjusha Awate; Devdatta Pawar; Ramchandran Subramanian; Kewal Vargante; Smita Vargante; Manish J. Pradhan
Subject: RE: Me...
Me zero that… means me the first
To say yes J
From: Gaurav Jagavkar
Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2007 10:08 AM
To: Manjusha Awate; Devesh Rao; Devdatta Pawar; Ramchandran Subramanian; Kewal Vargante; Smita Vargante; Manish J. Pradhan
Subject: RE: Me...
I will second that.
And on other’s behalf I shall third and fourth that
Regards,
Gaurav
From: Manjusha Awate
Sent: Tuesday, March 20, 2007 11:06 PM
To: Devesh Rao; Gaurav Jagavkar; Devdatta Pawar; Ramchandran Subramanian; Kewal Vargante; Smita Vargante; Manish J. Pradhan
Subject: RE: Me...
Instead why don’t we have MST blog? We, then, can put in our common mails (Rama’s and your dream), description of our excursions as well as a separate photo section! What say?
From: Devesh Rao
Sent: Tuesday, March 20, 2007 1:19 PM
To: Manjusha Awate; Gaurav Jagavkar; Devdatta Pawar; Ramchandran Subramanian; Kewal Vargante; Smita Vargante; Manish J. Pradhan
Subject: Me...
Planning
To collect all our trips ka mails I and others have written and put it on my blog under the header “Gypsy trails” ..
I found mails for the following trips
paris (Gau)
Ladakh (Majusha)
Koyna (MST)
Dhabdhaba (MST/2)
Flamingoes (MST/3)
I do not remember any other write ups… remind me in case of anything new…
Thanks and Regards,
From: Devesh Rao
Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2007 4:06 PM
To: Manjusha Awate; Smita Vargante; Gaurav Jagavkar; Devdatta Pawar; Ramchandran Subramanian; Kewal Vargante; Manish J. Pradhan
Subject: RE: Me...
Ohhh he changes his name to “busy” when placing orders…?
That’s a nice way to avoid being identified J
From: Manjusha Awate
Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2007 4:05 PM
To: Devesh Rao; Smita Vargante; Gaurav Jagavkar; Devdatta Pawar; Ramchandran Subramanian; Kewal Vargante; Manish J. Pradhan
Subject: RE: Me...
Wait for a while. Gau must be busy placing orders. Right Gau?
From: Devesh Rao [mailto:deveshr]
Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2007 4:00 PM
To: Manjusha Awate; Smita Vargante; Gaurav Jagavkar; Devdatta Pawar; Ramchandran Subramanian; Kewal Vargante; Manish J. Pradhan
Subject: RE: Me...
Buy a amphibious car which can fly….
From: Manjusha Awate
Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2007 3:58 PM
To: Devesh Rao; Smita Vargante; Gaurav Jagavkar; Devdatta Pawar; Ramchandran Subramanian; Kewal Vargante; Manish J. Pradhan
Subject: RE: Me...
Aur jo bulk discount milega usase ek boat bhi kharidana. Ho sakata hai ke car aur plane seekhane ke baad hum log boat chalana sikhana chahe.
From: Devesh Rao [mailto:deveshr]
Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2007 3:55 PM
To: Manjusha Awate; Smita Vargante; Gaurav Jagavkar; Devdatta Pawar; Ramchandran Subramanian; Kewal Vargante; Manish J. Pradhan
Subject: RE: Me...
Gau make that 2…. I don’t want to fly but tu khareed raha hai to I wont miss out
From: Manjusha Awate
Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2007 3:53 PM
To: Devesh Rao; Smita Vargante; Gaurav Jagavkar; Devdatta Pawar; Ramchandran Subramanian; Kewal Vargante; Manish J. Pradhan
Subject: RE: Me...
Gau, while u r at it (buying civic et al), mere liye ek Cessna please. Me want to learn how to fly.
From: Devesh Rao [mailto:deveshr]
Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2007 3:47 PM
To: Smita Vargante; Gaurav Jagavkar; Manjusha Awate; Devdatta Pawar; Ramchandran Subramanian; Kewal Vargante; Manish J. Pradhan
Subject: RE: Me...
Gau is not uncle scrooz…. He is uncle kanjoos…
PS: gau Honda civic ghe na re plssss… me want to learn how to drive
From: Smita Vargante
Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2007 3:45 PM
To: Gaurav Jagavkar; Devesh Rao; Manjusha Awate; Devdatta Pawar; Ramchandran Subramanian; Kewal Vargante; Manish J. Pradhan
Subject: RE: Me...
Uncle Scrooz ke khajanese…
From: Gaurav Jagavkar
Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2007 3:43 PM
To: Devesh Rao; Manjusha Awate; Devdatta Pawar; Ramchandran Subramanian; Kewal Vargante; Smita Vargante; Manish J. Pradhan
Subject: RE: Me...
Who to kiya hota re but paisa kidhar se aata?
Regards,
Gaurav
From: Devesh Rao
Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2007 3:41 PM
To: Gaurav Jagavkar; Manjusha Awate; Devdatta Pawar; Ramchandran Subramanian; Kewal Vargante; Smita Vargante; Manish J. Pradhan
Subject: RE: Me...
Sala chindi… u kno bangladesh ka sponsorship is equal to a 40 sec ka add on sony….
Gau by that standard u cld have sponserd kya bought them poora and named them gau’s 11
From: Gaurav Jagavkar
Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2007 3:39 PM
To: Devesh Rao; Manjusha Awate; Devdatta Pawar; Ramchandran Subramanian; Kewal Vargante; Smita Vargante; Manish J. Pradhan
Subject: RE: Me...
Firse paise ki baat?
Kya cricket team ka ball khareedne ka hai, jo contribution ke barein mein boling?
Regards,
Gaurav
From: Devesh Rao
Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2007 3:38 PM
To: Manjusha Awate; Gaurav Jagavkar; Devdatta Pawar; Ramchandran Subramanian; Kewal Vargante; Smita Vargante; Manish J. Pradhan
Subject: RE: Me...
U can contribute to it :)
From: Manjusha Awate
Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2007 3:37 PM
To: Devesh Rao; Gaurav Jagavkar; Devdatta Pawar; Ramchandran Subramanian; Kewal Vargante; Smita Vargante; Manish J. Pradhan
Subject: RE: Me...
But then how will me learn? And then what is life without learning? So don’t negate a learning experience for me. Teach Me!!!!! J
From: Devesh Rao
Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2007 3:35 PM
To: Manjusha Awate; Gaurav Jagavkar; Devdatta Pawar; Ramchandran Subramanian; Kewal Vargante; Smita Vargante; Manish J. Pradhan
Subject: RE: Me...
Option d is better…. Me will do it J
From: Manjusha Awate
Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2007 3:29 PM
To: Devesh Rao; Gaurav Jagavkar; Devdatta Pawar; Ramchandran Subramanian; Kewal Vargante; Smita Vargante; Manish J. Pradhan
Subject: RE: Me...
If someone can explain me how
To start a blog, I would do that. (
To be precise I will need (a) User Manual (b) trouble shooting guide (c) 24 hours Helpline numbers and if all of that does not help, then (d) someone else
To create a blog!)
From: Devesh Rao
Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2007 10:58 AM
To: Gaurav Jagavkar; Manjusha Awate; Devdatta Pawar; Ramchandran Subramanian; Kewal Vargante; Smita Vargante; Manish J. Pradhan
Subject: RE: Me...
Me zero that… means me the first
To say yes J
From: Gaurav Jagavkar
Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2007 10:08 AM
To: Manjusha Awate; Devesh Rao; Devdatta Pawar; Ramchandran Subramanian; Kewal Vargante; Smita Vargante; Manish J. Pradhan
Subject: RE: Me...
I will second that.
And on other’s behalf I shall third and fourth that
Regards,
Gaurav
From: Manjusha Awate
Sent: Tuesday, March 20, 2007 11:06 PM
To: Devesh Rao; Gaurav Jagavkar; Devdatta Pawar; Ramchandran Subramanian; Kewal Vargante; Smita Vargante; Manish J. Pradhan
Subject: RE: Me...
Instead why don’t we have MST blog? We, then, can put in our common mails (Rama’s and your dream), description of our excursions as well as a separate photo section! What say?
From: Devesh Rao
Sent: Tuesday, March 20, 2007 1:19 PM
To: Manjusha Awate; Gaurav Jagavkar; Devdatta Pawar; Ramchandran Subramanian; Kewal Vargante; Smita Vargante; Manish J. Pradhan
Subject: Me...
Planning
To collect all our trips ka mails I and others have written and put it on my blog under the header “Gypsy trails” ..
I found mails for the following trips
paris (Gau)
Ladakh (Majusha)
Koyna (MST)
Dhabdhaba (MST/2)
Flamingoes (MST/3)
I do not remember any other write ups… remind me in case of anything new…
Thanks and Regards,
Saturday, March 24, 2007
Different story line
From: Devesh Rao [mailto:deveshr]
Sent: Wednesday, May 04, 2005 5:00 PM
To: Gaurav Jagavkar; Manjusha Awate; Anuradha Rao; Devdatta Pawar; Smita Vargante; Kewal Vargante; Manish J. Pradhan; Ramchandran SubramanianSubject: RE: Nobody can beat Software Engineers at Non sense.
we, as in the rao's do not belive in monarchy nor do we follow any rules especially laid don by despotic, no power, "thuskya", so called kings like u :)....
i follow guerilla tactics. so gau watch out i may very well come our to ur place hit u and run away....
From: Gaurav Jagavkar
Sent: Wednesday, May 04, 2005 4:43 PM
To: Devesh Rao; Manjusha Awate; Anuradha Rao; Devdatta Pawar; Smita Vargante; Kewal Vargante; Manish J. Pradhan; Ramchandran SubramanianSubject: RE: Nobody can beat Software Engineers at Non sense.
well, this is being churned out at a faster speed than the network speed can support.
In any case i believe that
- anuradha has been freshly released from some project and has ample of time today :)
- hech can be named as my official brand ambassador (brand auto rickshaw would be more appropriate)
- mastek mailbox upper limit has been increased
- manjusha must be damn good in C, could not figure out the things in between comments
- people with surname as 'rao' are doing a lot of politically motivated gau bashing. the dictator might have to exterminate you or lock u inside bhutatki lifts at Mazgaon.
btw anyone still in mazgaon?
From: Manjusha Awate
Sent: Wednesday, May 04, 2005 4:10 PM
To: Devesh Rao; Anuradha Rao; Gaurav Jagavkar; Devdatta Pawar; Smita Vargante; Kewal Vargante; Manish J. Pradhan; Ramchandran SubramanianSubject: RE: Nobody can beat Software Engineers at Non sense.
i wish u could write such nonsensical stories as in-line comments - u know a bit here and a bit there...
look at the example below
public class SysParamDAL : ISysParamDAL
{
#region Constant
// apna hero gau ka wt is 50 kilo [theek hai in movies we can add wt by making him put extra clothes], he dosent have any aim in life and all day does java
// coding. his friend one day decides to put on wt and joins a gym and gau decided to join him just for company.
public const uint CONST_FALSE =0;
public const uint CONST_TRUE =1;
public const string CONST_YES = "Y";
public bool getSysParam(int pintModuleID, out DataSet pdsSysParam)
{
//his friend drops out of the gym at the last moment coz he got admission for onsite in US. gau is now left alone and dosent kno what to do. his dad scolds gau
//for having no wt target in life and wasting away his life on 50 soemthing kilos.
UIDebug objdebug = new UIDebug(UI.Framework.Common.UIModules.Queries,"SysParamDAL.cs","getSysParam","Entry into getTags Function of SysParamDAL.cs");
UILogger.Log(objdebug);
So on and so forth....it will be quite an interesting work to do a code review!!!
-----Original Message-----
From: Devesh Rao
Sent: Wed 04/05/2005 11:18
To: Manjusha Awate; Anuradha Rao; Gaurav Jagavkar; Devdatta Pawar; Smita Vargante; Kewal Vargante; Manish J. Pradhan; Ramchandran Subramanian Cc: Subject: RE: Nobody can beat Software Engineers at Non sense.
i could try writin comments, they anyways dun help in understanding the code,
atleast if i write the comments, the person trying to debug will kno its not his fault he is not getting any of the code....
-----Original Message-----
From: Manjusha Awate
Sent: Wed 04/05/2005 11:12
To: Devesh Rao; Anuradha Rao; Gaurav Jagavkar; Devdatta Pawar; Smita Vargante; Kewal Vargante; Manish J. Pradhan; Ramchandran Subramanian Cc: Subject: RE: Nobody can beat Software Engineers at Non sense.
dev, i have been telling u, u should take up a career in writing! forget abt programming-begramming! :))
-----Original Message-----
From: Devesh Rao
Sent: Wednesday, May 04, 2005 3:36 PM
To: Anuradha Rao; Manjusha Awate; Gaurav Jagavkar; Devdatta Pawar; Smita Vargante; Kewal Vargante; Manish J. Pradhan; Ramchandran SubramanianSubject: RE: Nobody can beat Software Engineers at Non sense.
ya it was a sort of ego issue to me u see... how can any infyite be better at anything than us.. scope hi nahi aata... even at nonsense I ... errr i mean we rule :)
-----Original Message-----
From: Anuradha Rao
Sent: Wed 04/05/2005 11:00
To: Devesh Rao; Manjusha Awate; Gaurav Jagavkar; Devdatta Pawar; Smita Vargante; Kewal Vargante; Manish J. Pradhan; Ramchandran Subramanian Cc: Subject: RE: Nobody can beat Software Engineers at Non sense.
Bad story ya good pata nahi… parr its hilarious… try getting a patent on it…. U never know…. After all read the subject of this message “Nobody can beat Software Engineers at Non sense.” Way to go, Dev!!!
From: Devesh Rao
Sent: Wednesday, May 04, 2005 3:24 PM
To: Anuradha Rao; Manjusha Awate; Gaurav Jagavkar; Devdatta Pawar; Smita Vargante; Kewal Vargante; Manish J. Pradhan; Ramchandran SubramanianSubject: RE: Nobody can beat Software Engineers at Non sense.
different story line...
apna hero gau ka wt is 50 kilo [theek hai in movies we can add wt by making him put extra clothes], he dosent have any aim in life and all day does java coding. his friend one day decides to put on wt and joins a gym and gau decided to join him just for company. his friend drops out of the gym at the last moment coz he got admission for onsite in US. gau is now left alone and dosent kno what to do. his dad scolds gau for having no wt target in life and wasting away his life on 50 soemthing kilos.
his gf... [ok, ok this is getting too filmi] ... his WSAD tool which is his first love is happy coz gau will now stay away from coding for some time and WSAD can take a rest from constant compiling and running of java and projects.
gaus first weeks in gym are a horror show and he runs away back to WSAD who is so very gussa on gau that she dumps gau's programs and refuses to compile any of his programs.... gau's warrior ego is hurt and he vows to get back to gym and he now comes out a well built person and goes on to win MR shivaji park competition.
WSAD also finally comes around and builds all gau's projects and makes him happy.
PS: i go on to win at the razzies for the worst story, direction,production, and all categories.
PS1: gau loses out on winning at the awards coz they all faint and cant watch any further so his acting goes unnoticed
PS2: i make a lot of money [not by selling the movie... its a junk but by getting myseld adopted by gau's bapu.]
Sent: Wednesday, May 04, 2005 5:00 PM
To: Gaurav Jagavkar; Manjusha Awate; Anuradha Rao; Devdatta Pawar; Smita Vargante; Kewal Vargante; Manish J. Pradhan; Ramchandran SubramanianSubject: RE: Nobody can beat Software Engineers at Non sense.
we, as in the rao's do not belive in monarchy nor do we follow any rules especially laid don by despotic, no power, "thuskya", so called kings like u :)....
i follow guerilla tactics. so gau watch out i may very well come our to ur place hit u and run away....
From: Gaurav Jagavkar
Sent: Wednesday, May 04, 2005 4:43 PM
To: Devesh Rao; Manjusha Awate; Anuradha Rao; Devdatta Pawar; Smita Vargante; Kewal Vargante; Manish J. Pradhan; Ramchandran SubramanianSubject: RE: Nobody can beat Software Engineers at Non sense.
well, this is being churned out at a faster speed than the network speed can support.
In any case i believe that
- anuradha has been freshly released from some project and has ample of time today :)
- hech can be named as my official brand ambassador (brand auto rickshaw would be more appropriate)
- mastek mailbox upper limit has been increased
- manjusha must be damn good in C, could not figure out the things in between comments
- people with surname as 'rao' are doing a lot of politically motivated gau bashing. the dictator might have to exterminate you or lock u inside bhutatki lifts at Mazgaon.
btw anyone still in mazgaon?
From: Manjusha Awate
Sent: Wednesday, May 04, 2005 4:10 PM
To: Devesh Rao; Anuradha Rao; Gaurav Jagavkar; Devdatta Pawar; Smita Vargante; Kewal Vargante; Manish J. Pradhan; Ramchandran SubramanianSubject: RE: Nobody can beat Software Engineers at Non sense.
i wish u could write such nonsensical stories as in-line comments - u know a bit here and a bit there...
look at the example below
public class SysParamDAL : ISysParamDAL
{
#region Constant
// apna hero gau ka wt is 50 kilo [theek hai in movies we can add wt by making him put extra clothes], he dosent have any aim in life and all day does java
// coding. his friend one day decides to put on wt and joins a gym and gau decided to join him just for company.
public const uint CONST_FALSE =0;
public const uint CONST_TRUE =1;
public const string CONST_YES = "Y";
public bool getSysParam(int pintModuleID, out DataSet pdsSysParam)
{
//his friend drops out of the gym at the last moment coz he got admission for onsite in US. gau is now left alone and dosent kno what to do. his dad scolds gau
//for having no wt target in life and wasting away his life on 50 soemthing kilos.
UIDebug objdebug = new UIDebug(UI.Framework.Common.UIModules.Queries,"SysParamDAL.cs","getSysParam","Entry into getTags Function of SysParamDAL.cs");
UILogger.Log(objdebug);
So on and so forth....it will be quite an interesting work to do a code review!!!
-----Original Message-----
From: Devesh Rao
Sent: Wed 04/05/2005 11:18
To: Manjusha Awate; Anuradha Rao; Gaurav Jagavkar; Devdatta Pawar; Smita Vargante; Kewal Vargante; Manish J. Pradhan; Ramchandran Subramanian Cc: Subject: RE: Nobody can beat Software Engineers at Non sense.
i could try writin comments, they anyways dun help in understanding the code,
atleast if i write the comments, the person trying to debug will kno its not his fault he is not getting any of the code....
-----Original Message-----
From: Manjusha Awate
Sent: Wed 04/05/2005 11:12
To: Devesh Rao; Anuradha Rao; Gaurav Jagavkar; Devdatta Pawar; Smita Vargante; Kewal Vargante; Manish J. Pradhan; Ramchandran Subramanian Cc: Subject: RE: Nobody can beat Software Engineers at Non sense.
dev, i have been telling u, u should take up a career in writing! forget abt programming-begramming! :))
-----Original Message-----
From: Devesh Rao
Sent: Wednesday, May 04, 2005 3:36 PM
To: Anuradha Rao; Manjusha Awate; Gaurav Jagavkar; Devdatta Pawar; Smita Vargante; Kewal Vargante; Manish J. Pradhan; Ramchandran SubramanianSubject: RE: Nobody can beat Software Engineers at Non sense.
ya it was a sort of ego issue to me u see... how can any infyite be better at anything than us.. scope hi nahi aata... even at nonsense I ... errr i mean we rule :)
-----Original Message-----
From: Anuradha Rao
Sent: Wed 04/05/2005 11:00
To: Devesh Rao; Manjusha Awate; Gaurav Jagavkar; Devdatta Pawar; Smita Vargante; Kewal Vargante; Manish J. Pradhan; Ramchandran Subramanian Cc: Subject: RE: Nobody can beat Software Engineers at Non sense.
Bad story ya good pata nahi… parr its hilarious… try getting a patent on it…. U never know…. After all read the subject of this message “Nobody can beat Software Engineers at Non sense.” Way to go, Dev!!!
From: Devesh Rao
Sent: Wednesday, May 04, 2005 3:24 PM
To: Anuradha Rao; Manjusha Awate; Gaurav Jagavkar; Devdatta Pawar; Smita Vargante; Kewal Vargante; Manish J. Pradhan; Ramchandran SubramanianSubject: RE: Nobody can beat Software Engineers at Non sense.
different story line...
apna hero gau ka wt is 50 kilo [theek hai in movies we can add wt by making him put extra clothes], he dosent have any aim in life and all day does java coding. his friend one day decides to put on wt and joins a gym and gau decided to join him just for company. his friend drops out of the gym at the last moment coz he got admission for onsite in US. gau is now left alone and dosent kno what to do. his dad scolds gau for having no wt target in life and wasting away his life on 50 soemthing kilos.
his gf... [ok, ok this is getting too filmi] ... his WSAD tool which is his first love is happy coz gau will now stay away from coding for some time and WSAD can take a rest from constant compiling and running of java and projects.
gaus first weeks in gym are a horror show and he runs away back to WSAD who is so very gussa on gau that she dumps gau's programs and refuses to compile any of his programs.... gau's warrior ego is hurt and he vows to get back to gym and he now comes out a well built person and goes on to win MR shivaji park competition.
WSAD also finally comes around and builds all gau's projects and makes him happy.
PS: i go on to win at the razzies for the worst story, direction,production, and all categories.
PS1: gau loses out on winning at the awards coz they all faint and cant watch any further so his acting goes unnoticed
PS2: i make a lot of money [not by selling the movie... its a junk but by getting myseld adopted by gau's bapu.]
Dhabosa Falls...
Picnics are meant to be fun, though the definition of fun is where the haziness starts drifting in. This is something I keep on learning and re-learning during my frequent trips with my MST. Chicken is fun for Devdatta, "Funda" is fun for Rama, Talking is fun for Gau, Arguing is fun for me and as far as Manjusha is concerned, I guess “she is fun”.
The morning was very ominous with thunder clouds and lightning acting as my alarm clock and waking me up well before time. After a flurry of smsing with Manjusha on what should be done, we decided to hold it out and think on lines that since the worst was over only the best [not the bus] was to follow. Gau had some starting trouble getting his mom convinced on letting him out, my mom any day preferring the thunderstorms to me hanging around the home all day. So 7.00 it was finally when all the 5 of us met in Thana and Devdatta took on the steering wheel, and the rest of us started deciding where to go [yeah, exactly you read that right where to go. As always we had chalked out a well planned itinerary with links and descriptive info about the place to visit and all, but again as usual, we wouldn’t like it the easy way would we? So instead of a beach we headed for the mountains]. There was also a bit of confusion regarding the direction, as we were not sure which was east and which was west, Devdatta of all people said no to food and we were like, has the sun risen from the east? He cleared the doubt by sharing with us that he had a heavy dinner at 2.00 in the night [only Devdatta can do that] and hence he was taking a break. Food was scarce to find and with Devdatta not in a hungry mode, we, as in me and Gau [of all people to be hungry] had to make do with biscuits and cola-pesticides.
The road was extremely scenic, but Gau who insisted on sitting in front was not doing any serious photography and was wasting a perfectly good seat. Rama couldn’t resist any longer and forced Gau to switch places. Rama finally happy to be besides Devdatta, would bully him to stop the car as and when he liked, which given Rama’s love for everything in nature would be every few microseconds.
After many wrong turns and right lane driving. I mean driving on the right side of the road and not right side of the law. Wrong to drive on the Right, Right to be not on the Right. I can only think of the British who can come up with something so “Right” and we even “Righteous” to follow it.
Who needs sides anyways when a whole road is empty, drive wherever you want, and if there is a vehicle coming from in front then surely he will have passed the license test and hence must also be following our principles and hence would be on the other side of the road as well. If only now we can get everyone to follow this model, road travel will be smooth. Jawaher [oh, I forgot to mention, we chucked tikona, kamshet, palghar, kelve beach as options and decided on jawaher as the place to visit and all of this done in flat 5 minutes in the morning. So much for our efficiency and runtime decision making abilities, Gau can you ask CD to send us MST folks on a sales pitch, I bet we can sell a fridge to an Eskimo, at least we would end up buying it for him with a IOU signed from him which says he will pay us back in seal skin installments.
Dhabosa falls, it was where we ended up at around 1 in the afternoon, for some reason it was named dhaab-dhaba falls. Now for all who know Marathi will make out the redundancy factor in the name. For the uninitiated please think of it as an reiteration of the fact that it was a fall and someone wanting to stress on the fact that it was a waterfall, how nice, why on in this earth any sane person would think of water falling from hundreds of feet from a cliff into a ditch as anything other than a water fall.
Once there, Manjusha thought the fencing and stuff on the viewer’s deck was for the buffaloes, cows and sheep not to fall into the valley when they graze serenely looking at the view and are not to keep out us mere humans. We almost thought to tie her up but for that we would have had to catch her first, so we chucked the idea.
The falls are pretty and have a decent height. The only drawback was no approach roads and only a viewer’s gallery which was quite far. There are a few goat trails to the falls which Manjusha was adamant on attempting but nothing much other than that and to add to devdatta’s woe no food available at the falls. So as always we were stuck between the views i.e. the falls and an empty stomach. Of all people, Gau had the duty of restraining Manjusha but somehow when Gau was busy practicing parking the car [so thinking of an alternate career choice Gau, by the way if you are thinking Valet means something which contains money then think again you are off by a couple of alphabets, if not by tons of moolah.] Manjusha managed to slink of and get to the edge of the cliff. Only intense coaxing which eventually turned to pleading could get her back.
Drive back was courtesy Manjusha who insisted on driving and we the rest in a temporary fit of insanity agreed, not that she is a bad driver or anything but just the fact that while driving she kept on asking “konala udvu” [kisko udao], at one point she was even giving us choice’s, “tya mansala udu ka bailala J [kisko udao, aadmi ko ya bail koh?]”.
The drive is pretty and if only the roads were better it would rival any scenic drives anywhere out there in the world, the fields are lush green with meadows of flowers [some of them yellow flowers which instantly trigger off a reaction in Gau about the yellow flower theory]. A break in between besides a beautiful lake where again Manjusha tried to use her toes as bait for catching fish, me chased a dragon fly but it out flew me, Devdatta posing for shadi.com, Gau trying to fast forward his thinking from that of a kid to one who starts thinking of bringing up kids and Rama acting the local god to all of us, we realized we needed food. Devdatta as usual had flag marked resorts on our drive to the falls as prospective sites for eating while driving back. I do not quite understand but Devdatta has this canny ability to predict that somehow humans need food eventually and cannot do without it and always makes sure he has a zillion places marked out and again without fail the one place we do a treasure hunt to find some name-I-forgot resort chose to be closed. Now why would someone open a resort and close it, if it was meant to be closed why open it in the first place. We somehow cooled down Devdatta by telling him that we would eat a dozen bull sized chickens in Thana on our way back and this place was not worth stressing out on anyways, who ever heard of good food and fun in a resort fat chance.
Again as they [Ok, I made this up just now] say luck favors the brave and the hungry find the menu, we sighted a roadside place which had somehow escaped Devdatta’s CRM [Chicken Restaurant’s Master list]. A “poth bharli” experience at the place with divine food [or was it we were so hungry we could have eaten grass and thought how lucky the cows are] I could have dozed off then and there itself.
And then the rains started, someone seriously has a problem, either god is way behind his deadlines this season or someone played a joke on us all while we were sleeping and turned the calendar a couple of months ahead. So every time there was a lightening we said cheese and put out our best faces, as someone had the bright idea that god was taking snaps. After all who would want to end up on god’s flickr site looking forlorn? Some of us wanted to put our hands out in the rain while Devdatta was scared that the lightening will come inside and insisted on rolling up the windows, what a fun-killer and what was all talk about the car getting wet so what hang it out to dry will you, and to think I am called a cribber. We somehow made it through the rains and reached Thana thanks to Devdatta who drives normally thinking the car as a bike capable of taking the smallest of gaps, and when someone overtakes us his minds starts thinking the car as a tank, if only the rest of the people [including us] thought likewise. A Monday, well spent with tones of snaps and much more memories [Random access and Hyundai brand]
So where are we heading next time… Saputara, Murud or Arunachal Pradesh?
The morning was very ominous with thunder clouds and lightning acting as my alarm clock and waking me up well before time. After a flurry of smsing with Manjusha on what should be done, we decided to hold it out and think on lines that since the worst was over only the best [not the bus] was to follow. Gau had some starting trouble getting his mom convinced on letting him out, my mom any day preferring the thunderstorms to me hanging around the home all day. So 7.00 it was finally when all the 5 of us met in Thana and Devdatta took on the steering wheel, and the rest of us started deciding where to go [yeah, exactly you read that right where to go. As always we had chalked out a well planned itinerary with links and descriptive info about the place to visit and all, but again as usual, we wouldn’t like it the easy way would we? So instead of a beach we headed for the mountains]. There was also a bit of confusion regarding the direction, as we were not sure which was east and which was west, Devdatta of all people said no to food and we were like, has the sun risen from the east? He cleared the doubt by sharing with us that he had a heavy dinner at 2.00 in the night [only Devdatta can do that] and hence he was taking a break. Food was scarce to find and with Devdatta not in a hungry mode, we, as in me and Gau [of all people to be hungry] had to make do with biscuits and cola-pesticides.
The road was extremely scenic, but Gau who insisted on sitting in front was not doing any serious photography and was wasting a perfectly good seat. Rama couldn’t resist any longer and forced Gau to switch places. Rama finally happy to be besides Devdatta, would bully him to stop the car as and when he liked, which given Rama’s love for everything in nature would be every few microseconds.
After many wrong turns and right lane driving. I mean driving on the right side of the road and not right side of the law. Wrong to drive on the Right, Right to be not on the Right. I can only think of the British who can come up with something so “Right” and we even “Righteous” to follow it.
Who needs sides anyways when a whole road is empty, drive wherever you want, and if there is a vehicle coming from in front then surely he will have passed the license test and hence must also be following our principles and hence would be on the other side of the road as well. If only now we can get everyone to follow this model, road travel will be smooth. Jawaher [oh, I forgot to mention, we chucked tikona, kamshet, palghar, kelve beach as options and decided on jawaher as the place to visit and all of this done in flat 5 minutes in the morning. So much for our efficiency and runtime decision making abilities, Gau can you ask CD to send us MST folks on a sales pitch, I bet we can sell a fridge to an Eskimo, at least we would end up buying it for him with a IOU signed from him which says he will pay us back in seal skin installments.
Dhabosa falls, it was where we ended up at around 1 in the afternoon, for some reason it was named dhaab-dhaba falls. Now for all who know Marathi will make out the redundancy factor in the name. For the uninitiated please think of it as an reiteration of the fact that it was a fall and someone wanting to stress on the fact that it was a waterfall, how nice, why on in this earth any sane person would think of water falling from hundreds of feet from a cliff into a ditch as anything other than a water fall.
Once there, Manjusha thought the fencing and stuff on the viewer’s deck was for the buffaloes, cows and sheep not to fall into the valley when they graze serenely looking at the view and are not to keep out us mere humans. We almost thought to tie her up but for that we would have had to catch her first, so we chucked the idea.
The falls are pretty and have a decent height. The only drawback was no approach roads and only a viewer’s gallery which was quite far. There are a few goat trails to the falls which Manjusha was adamant on attempting but nothing much other than that and to add to devdatta’s woe no food available at the falls. So as always we were stuck between the views i.e. the falls and an empty stomach. Of all people, Gau had the duty of restraining Manjusha but somehow when Gau was busy practicing parking the car [so thinking of an alternate career choice Gau, by the way if you are thinking Valet means something which contains money then think again you are off by a couple of alphabets, if not by tons of moolah.] Manjusha managed to slink of and get to the edge of the cliff. Only intense coaxing which eventually turned to pleading could get her back.
Drive back was courtesy Manjusha who insisted on driving and we the rest in a temporary fit of insanity agreed, not that she is a bad driver or anything but just the fact that while driving she kept on asking “konala udvu” [kisko udao], at one point she was even giving us choice’s, “tya mansala udu ka bailala J [kisko udao, aadmi ko ya bail koh?]”.
The drive is pretty and if only the roads were better it would rival any scenic drives anywhere out there in the world, the fields are lush green with meadows of flowers [some of them yellow flowers which instantly trigger off a reaction in Gau about the yellow flower theory]. A break in between besides a beautiful lake where again Manjusha tried to use her toes as bait for catching fish, me chased a dragon fly but it out flew me, Devdatta posing for shadi.com, Gau trying to fast forward his thinking from that of a kid to one who starts thinking of bringing up kids and Rama acting the local god to all of us, we realized we needed food. Devdatta as usual had flag marked resorts on our drive to the falls as prospective sites for eating while driving back. I do not quite understand but Devdatta has this canny ability to predict that somehow humans need food eventually and cannot do without it and always makes sure he has a zillion places marked out and again without fail the one place we do a treasure hunt to find some name-I-forgot resort chose to be closed. Now why would someone open a resort and close it, if it was meant to be closed why open it in the first place. We somehow cooled down Devdatta by telling him that we would eat a dozen bull sized chickens in Thana on our way back and this place was not worth stressing out on anyways, who ever heard of good food and fun in a resort fat chance.
Again as they [Ok, I made this up just now] say luck favors the brave and the hungry find the menu, we sighted a roadside place which had somehow escaped Devdatta’s CRM [Chicken Restaurant’s Master list]. A “poth bharli” experience at the place with divine food [or was it we were so hungry we could have eaten grass and thought how lucky the cows are] I could have dozed off then and there itself.
And then the rains started, someone seriously has a problem, either god is way behind his deadlines this season or someone played a joke on us all while we were sleeping and turned the calendar a couple of months ahead. So every time there was a lightening we said cheese and put out our best faces, as someone had the bright idea that god was taking snaps. After all who would want to end up on god’s flickr site looking forlorn? Some of us wanted to put our hands out in the rain while Devdatta was scared that the lightening will come inside and insisted on rolling up the windows, what a fun-killer and what was all talk about the car getting wet so what hang it out to dry will you, and to think I am called a cribber. We somehow made it through the rains and reached Thana thanks to Devdatta who drives normally thinking the car as a bike capable of taking the smallest of gaps, and when someone overtakes us his minds starts thinking the car as a tank, if only the rest of the people [including us] thought likewise. A Monday, well spent with tones of snaps and much more memories [Random access and Hyundai brand]
So where are we heading next time… Saputara, Murud or Arunachal Pradesh?
Flamingoessssssss.......
Flamin-goes to be renamed as Flamin-never-there, is the conclusion of our adventures. I really do not know who got the thing into our groups collective head to go in search of birds that too the two legged variety with feathers, I should have traded it for the without feathers variety … but as they say “kisine khadda khoda hai to kisi ko girna bhi jarori hai”
Waking up at 5 in morning [yes, I can do that, so what if the alarm was going off for so long, it sounded more like an project manager during appraisals] and making it to 6 at Thana qualifies me for an lifetime achievement award, Devdatta was on time [his time] and we were in kurla, Manjusha place in 20 minutes.
I do not know, if Devdatta knows some short cuts thru time-space but after the ride, I can sure crack the fear factor series on AXN. After a hearty breakfast of thalipeth-butter and tea/biscuits [yummy] we started for uran and Devdatta got control of the wheels and the first question he asks was can someone tell him, if the steering wheel is straight. Manjusha owns the car but she know as much about it as she may know about an Eskimo, no offence meant Manjusha but it seemed like fun sitting in the backseat watching Devdatta asking her where he could find so and so control and she telling him to make an effort and if he so much cared for a measly brake or a gear he better find it himself.
We reached uran after a nice and uneventful drive, stopping off in middle of road or going to the left and right of road depending on where Rama wanted to click a snap, all traffic and holdups coz of us doing the crazy stuff not being our problem after all it is not everyday that we go out in search for flamingoes.
Uran should be renamed “ONGC” everywhere we went we found something to do with ONGC and no flaming-@$&*. Manjusha & Rama almost got us on the front pages by insisting on clicking snaps in a restricted zone and getting the CRPF and locals on our tracks. It is good, I was with them and with my decent nature and “guni porga” looks they believed us when we said we were chasing “gulabi pakshi”. We almost got reported to the police by the locals but for one school teacher who had heard of the gulabi birds and chose to believe us.
The locals were very cooperative in misguiding us and always made it a point to suggest an alternative spot where we could find the flamin-damn-bird. Maybe they wanted to rid of us naïve city folks who assume the birds are like the starlets we see on TV, always ready to pose even in front of a camera cover. All said and done after visiting Uran, Karanja, Phonda [for Devdatta the names must have sounded like puran, karanjya, bhonda] we headed for karnala. We thought at least that is the place where we can redeem ourselves so what, if we did not see flamin-bloody-birds we will click all other birds and the flamin-not-goes will feel jealous.
Devdatta has two passions in life, one is food and other is thinking about food. We got ample proof of that on the trip where he was planning the trip based on eating joints he knew along the way. After the flaming-joke disappointment and a very sad Devdatta [not coz of the birds but coz not finding a good eat out] we made it somehow to datta snacks and gorged on vada, khichdi and buttermilk. Karnala was a short drive away and getting there was again punctuated by discussions on devdatta’s ideas for what we were going to eat on the return journey.
Karnala is a bird sanctuary and we hoped to click birds and pass them of as the “birds which should not be named”. The place has nature trails and trails to a fort in its midst.
As we were on a mission, we decided to skip the fort and go after birds. Manjusha was not helping matter by calling out loud to birds as if they know that when they are called out they should stand in line and get photographed. Some time soon after walking, rather climbing for quite a distance, we [Manjusha and Rama] came to the conclusion that we had got on the wrong trail and we were in fact heading to the fort. After much cribbing and many clicking opportunities on the way we somehow made it to a ridge where we came across a group of scouts who told us the fort was almost an half hour climb more. I and Devdatta decided that we were going to turn back, Manjusha and Rama wanted to conquer the fort and hence they went on.
Climbing down was another task in itself with rain and all the muck we were sliding down, it helped coz we were coming down at a speed much faster than the climbing speed but also needed to take care that we do not prove medicine wrong by coming down with more bones than with the number we went up with. Devdatta contributed to the ditches in the climb down by choosing to fall, Manjusha and Rama when they were coming down could see the impact and may have immediately guessed that only Devdatta could have fallen down there. I guess Devdatta wanted to make the way down the trail a bit easier for Rama and Manjusha to follow, by leaving behind impressions in the earth at regular intervals. After a brief [kshan bhar] stop at a vishranti ghru and Devdatta being extremely disappointed for not getting his fave “chiken” we headed back for home.
All in all even if we were not able to find the flamingoes, we clicked ourselves and had fun…its flamingo’s loss at the end of the day. Where in this whole wide world will they get another chance to be clicked by us great self proclaimed photographers?
Waking up at 5 in morning [yes, I can do that, so what if the alarm was going off for so long, it sounded more like an project manager during appraisals] and making it to 6 at Thana qualifies me for an lifetime achievement award, Devdatta was on time [his time] and we were in kurla, Manjusha place in 20 minutes.
I do not know, if Devdatta knows some short cuts thru time-space but after the ride, I can sure crack the fear factor series on AXN. After a hearty breakfast of thalipeth-butter and tea/biscuits [yummy] we started for uran and Devdatta got control of the wheels and the first question he asks was can someone tell him, if the steering wheel is straight. Manjusha owns the car but she know as much about it as she may know about an Eskimo, no offence meant Manjusha but it seemed like fun sitting in the backseat watching Devdatta asking her where he could find so and so control and she telling him to make an effort and if he so much cared for a measly brake or a gear he better find it himself.
We reached uran after a nice and uneventful drive, stopping off in middle of road or going to the left and right of road depending on where Rama wanted to click a snap, all traffic and holdups coz of us doing the crazy stuff not being our problem after all it is not everyday that we go out in search for flamingoes.
Uran should be renamed “ONGC” everywhere we went we found something to do with ONGC and no flaming-@$&*. Manjusha & Rama almost got us on the front pages by insisting on clicking snaps in a restricted zone and getting the CRPF and locals on our tracks. It is good, I was with them and with my decent nature and “guni porga” looks they believed us when we said we were chasing “gulabi pakshi”. We almost got reported to the police by the locals but for one school teacher who had heard of the gulabi birds and chose to believe us.
The locals were very cooperative in misguiding us and always made it a point to suggest an alternative spot where we could find the flamin-damn-bird. Maybe they wanted to rid of us naïve city folks who assume the birds are like the starlets we see on TV, always ready to pose even in front of a camera cover. All said and done after visiting Uran, Karanja, Phonda [for Devdatta the names must have sounded like puran, karanjya, bhonda] we headed for karnala. We thought at least that is the place where we can redeem ourselves so what, if we did not see flamin-bloody-birds we will click all other birds and the flamin-not-goes will feel jealous.
Devdatta has two passions in life, one is food and other is thinking about food. We got ample proof of that on the trip where he was planning the trip based on eating joints he knew along the way. After the flaming-joke disappointment and a very sad Devdatta [not coz of the birds but coz not finding a good eat out] we made it somehow to datta snacks and gorged on vada, khichdi and buttermilk. Karnala was a short drive away and getting there was again punctuated by discussions on devdatta’s ideas for what we were going to eat on the return journey.
Karnala is a bird sanctuary and we hoped to click birds and pass them of as the “birds which should not be named”. The place has nature trails and trails to a fort in its midst.
As we were on a mission, we decided to skip the fort and go after birds. Manjusha was not helping matter by calling out loud to birds as if they know that when they are called out they should stand in line and get photographed. Some time soon after walking, rather climbing for quite a distance, we [Manjusha and Rama] came to the conclusion that we had got on the wrong trail and we were in fact heading to the fort. After much cribbing and many clicking opportunities on the way we somehow made it to a ridge where we came across a group of scouts who told us the fort was almost an half hour climb more. I and Devdatta decided that we were going to turn back, Manjusha and Rama wanted to conquer the fort and hence they went on.
Climbing down was another task in itself with rain and all the muck we were sliding down, it helped coz we were coming down at a speed much faster than the climbing speed but also needed to take care that we do not prove medicine wrong by coming down with more bones than with the number we went up with. Devdatta contributed to the ditches in the climb down by choosing to fall, Manjusha and Rama when they were coming down could see the impact and may have immediately guessed that only Devdatta could have fallen down there. I guess Devdatta wanted to make the way down the trail a bit easier for Rama and Manjusha to follow, by leaving behind impressions in the earth at regular intervals. After a brief [kshan bhar] stop at a vishranti ghru and Devdatta being extremely disappointed for not getting his fave “chiken” we headed back for home.
All in all even if we were not able to find the flamingoes, we clicked ourselves and had fun…its flamingo’s loss at the end of the day. Where in this whole wide world will they get another chance to be clicked by us great self proclaimed photographers?
A typical MST mail converstaion.
Hint: Read this from bottom to top....
From: Manjusha Awate
Sent: Tuesday, May 03, 2005 3:48 PM
To: Gaurav Jagavkar; Devesh Rao; Devdatta Pawar; Smita Vargante; Kewal Vargante; Anuradha Rao; Manish J. Pradhan; Ramchandran Subramanian
Subject: RE: Nobody can beat Software Engineers at Non sense.
gau, only u can come up with such weird idea! Gau aur Gauki tanhai aksar ek dusrese baate karte hai.....!
From: Devesh Rao
Sent: Tuesday, May 03, 2005 3:40 PM
To: Manjusha Awate; Devdatta Pawar; Smita Vargante; Kewal Vargante; Anuradha Rao; Manish J. Pradhan; Gaurav Jagavkar; Ramchandran Subramanian
Subject: RE: Nobody can beat Software Engineers at Non sense.
brain what brain..... i suppose when in gods factory on the shopfloor when i was being assembled... maybe the worker went out for a ciggi when it was my turn for brain v0.1..... so i am makin do without it for the time being :)
anyways if someone had brains to start with... scope hai kya woh gau ke aaju baju mien bhi ghumega... :)
From: Gaurav Jagavkar
Sent: Tuesday, May 03, 2005 3:38 PM
To: Manjusha Awate; Devesh Rao; Devdatta Pawar; Smita Vargante; Kewal Vargante; Anuradha Rao; Manish J. Pradhan; Ramchandran Subramanian
Subject: RE: Nobody can beat Software Engineers at Non sense.
what do i get to stay with myself for the past 25 years? at least you ppl get time off from me, ever thought how difficult it is for me to be with myself all the time?
From: Manjusha Awate
Sent: Tuesday, May 03, 2005 3:32 PM
To: Devesh Rao; Devdatta Pawar; Smita Vargante; Kewal Vargante; Anuradha Rao; Manish J. Pradhan; Gaurav Jagavkar; Ramchandran Subramanian
Subject: RE: Nobody can beat Software Engineers at Non sense.
Alive and (not to forget) not brain dead! Yes, Dev, its a mammoth task. U need to be given an award in bravery, endurance, patience..and so many other qualities which would be essential in order to survive with Gau.
-----Original Message-----
From: Devesh Rao
Sent: Tuesday, May 03, 2005 3:27 PM
To: Manjusha Awate; Devdatta Pawar; Smita Vargante; Kewal Vargante; Anuradha Rao; Manish J. Pradhan; Gaurav Jagavkar; Ramchandran Subramanian
Subject: RE: Nobody can beat Software Engineers at Non sense.
lets pack gau and send him across to there... then they will kno what nonsense is all abt..
anyways....i can vouch for what manjusha says.. coz i have had the un-enviable task of being his roomie.. i want a medal of bravery when i come back ..... it is no small task comin out of this alive and i think i am not yet done.. still 4 more week to go :)
-----Original Message-----
From: Manjusha Awate Sent: Mon 02/05/2005 11:06 To: Devdatta Pawar; Smita Vargante; Kewal Vargante; Anuradha Rao; Amit Shirvaikar; Manish J. Pradhan; Devesh Rao; Gaurav Jagavkar; Ramchandran Subramanian Cc:
Subject: RE: Nobody can beat Software Engineers at Non sense.
it is really really hilarious! :))
however it only proves that .... people have more time than MST people. I have no doubt in my mind that we are capable of more nonsense than anyone else!
-----Original Message-----
From: Devdatta Pawar
Sent: Monday, May 02, 2005 12:24 PM
To: Smita Vargante; Kewal Vargante; Anuradha Rao; Amit Shirvaikar; Manjusha Awate; Manish J. Pradhan; Devesh Rao; Gaurav Jagavkar
Subject: FW: Nobody can beat Software Engineers at Non sense.
These guys have broken our chain mails record. Gau u should take some inspiration.
Please read from bottom to top to get real enjoyment
Regards
Devdatta
From: Manjusha Awate
Sent: Tuesday, May 03, 2005 3:48 PM
To: Gaurav Jagavkar; Devesh Rao; Devdatta Pawar; Smita Vargante; Kewal Vargante; Anuradha Rao; Manish J. Pradhan; Ramchandran Subramanian
Subject: RE: Nobody can beat Software Engineers at Non sense.
gau, only u can come up with such weird idea! Gau aur Gauki tanhai aksar ek dusrese baate karte hai.....!
From: Devesh Rao
Sent: Tuesday, May 03, 2005 3:40 PM
To: Manjusha Awate; Devdatta Pawar; Smita Vargante; Kewal Vargante; Anuradha Rao; Manish J. Pradhan; Gaurav Jagavkar; Ramchandran Subramanian
Subject: RE: Nobody can beat Software Engineers at Non sense.
brain what brain..... i suppose when in gods factory on the shopfloor when i was being assembled... maybe the worker went out for a ciggi when it was my turn for brain v0.1..... so i am makin do without it for the time being :)
anyways if someone had brains to start with... scope hai kya woh gau ke aaju baju mien bhi ghumega... :)
From: Gaurav Jagavkar
Sent: Tuesday, May 03, 2005 3:38 PM
To: Manjusha Awate; Devesh Rao; Devdatta Pawar; Smita Vargante; Kewal Vargante; Anuradha Rao; Manish J. Pradhan; Ramchandran Subramanian
Subject: RE: Nobody can beat Software Engineers at Non sense.
what do i get to stay with myself for the past 25 years? at least you ppl get time off from me, ever thought how difficult it is for me to be with myself all the time?
From: Manjusha Awate
Sent: Tuesday, May 03, 2005 3:32 PM
To: Devesh Rao; Devdatta Pawar; Smita Vargante; Kewal Vargante; Anuradha Rao; Manish J. Pradhan; Gaurav Jagavkar; Ramchandran Subramanian
Subject: RE: Nobody can beat Software Engineers at Non sense.
Alive and (not to forget) not brain dead! Yes, Dev, its a mammoth task. U need to be given an award in bravery, endurance, patience..and so many other qualities which would be essential in order to survive with Gau.
-----Original Message-----
From: Devesh Rao
Sent: Tuesday, May 03, 2005 3:27 PM
To: Manjusha Awate; Devdatta Pawar; Smita Vargante; Kewal Vargante; Anuradha Rao; Manish J. Pradhan; Gaurav Jagavkar; Ramchandran Subramanian
Subject: RE: Nobody can beat Software Engineers at Non sense.
lets pack gau and send him across to there... then they will kno what nonsense is all abt..
anyways....i can vouch for what manjusha says.. coz i have had the un-enviable task of being his roomie.. i want a medal of bravery when i come back ..... it is no small task comin out of this alive and i think i am not yet done.. still 4 more week to go :)
-----Original Message-----
From: Manjusha Awate Sent: Mon 02/05/2005 11:06 To: Devdatta Pawar; Smita Vargante; Kewal Vargante; Anuradha Rao; Amit Shirvaikar; Manish J. Pradhan; Devesh Rao; Gaurav Jagavkar; Ramchandran Subramanian Cc:
Subject: RE: Nobody can beat Software Engineers at Non sense.
it is really really hilarious! :))
however it only proves that .... people have more time than MST people. I have no doubt in my mind that we are capable of more nonsense than anyone else!
-----Original Message-----
From: Devdatta Pawar
Sent: Monday, May 02, 2005 12:24 PM
To: Smita Vargante; Kewal Vargante; Anuradha Rao; Amit Shirvaikar; Manjusha Awate; Manish J. Pradhan; Devesh Rao; Gaurav Jagavkar
Subject: FW: Nobody can beat Software Engineers at Non sense.
These guys have broken our chain mails record. Gau u should take some inspiration.
Please read from bottom to top to get real enjoyment
Regards
Devdatta
Koyna Nagar Trip....
May 6'th - just another day for people and maybe b'days for some, but for MST it will be one of the dates which will always be remembered on par with say 26/8.
As they say everything starts on a good note and what could be better than celebrating the birthday of one of our oldest "MSTian", Devdatta '96' Pawar, no he did not turn 96 on the day, it is rather a pointer to his lineage. After assembling at devdatta's place and having a hearty dinner of spicy Indian Chinese and cakes and ice cream [food is to dev's home as sugar is to anthills] we took off in our "NISSAN" for Koyna Nagar. We should have got an idea of what was to follow, as it is well known that "Joh bhi hota hai manzoore khuda hota hai", no, this
are no after effects of being bitten by a mosquito high on Hindi films, but rather our khuda for that day and the day to follow went by the name Manzoor and he was our driver.
Between Manzoor nodding of to sleep twice on Mumbai-Poona highway and his taking power naps on the way [while driving], we manage to reach satara and had a quick breakfast and leisurely tea break at Devdatta's brother-in-law's place. The journey from there to koyna nagar was also uneventful, if we neglect Manjusha and poonam trying to get a sun tan in the fields on the roadside. Once in koyna nagar the true picture of Devdatta's 'POWER' came to the fore, where things which were not happening say at the local dam office or the MTDC resort fell into the proper place once they realized it was sahib Devdatta '96' Power they were talking to. Got a
lifetime's dose of vitamin C and an awe-inspiring look at the dam over the river koyna. A nice lunch of spicy veg and non veg food followed when given the rate at which the food was disappearing, it was clear that either we were very hungry or we had just trying to be nice to the cook or else he would feel bad that we did not like the food.
An afternoon siesta was in order and the time set up for the visit to the interiors of the dam which was originally set for 3.30 got pushed to around 5 and that too poonam thinking of skipping the trip for vasoolofying the
view from and rent of MTDC, a wise decision, she tagged along as what we got to see is what very few people get to see as the area is a restricted area but for a few, how we got in, please read the above again and when you reach the line about Devdatta's 'POWER', fill in "High Profile Contacts" [Cannot tell who, they work for the government, always dress in white, work In the backgrounds and can be held responsible for anything that
happens in the country] and the connection is made.
Going down the shaft on a metal lift which thankfully Devdatta was to inform me later has a tendency to snap and send the pious occupants to heavens and not so pious occupants to the hospital was an experience.
I have been at 18000 feet above sea level but still it was a comfortable feeling as you know the sky can never fall on you, it is held up by invisible chains from space after all at least that is what I read in my science book when I was a kid, or wait a minute was it written in tinkle comics, hard to tell, lets for now assume it was my science
book as tinkle comics can't be so technical so as to calculate the weight that needs to be supported by the chains and all that.
But what do you do, when you are below the ground and the whole world can collapse on you and it does sometimes given that you are digging holes in the ground and have tons of rocks and water above you, its ok if only the rocks fell, I could avoid them, some advantage being 2 dimensional you see but how do I swim if the rocks separating the lake on top springs a leak, I after all have had only one session of swimming lessons and had skipped the chapter on swimming under rock falls in a dam.
The experience was truly once in a lifetime and anyone of us IT guys who complain of stress and work pressure, AC/Heaters not being cool/warm enough, not getting paid on industry par need to be sent down there
for a one day field trip where they will know what stress, sound, and comfortable environments are. We had the dam-technology and the efforts which goes into getting the dams built explained to us by a knowledgeable person, who was no doubt proud of what they are doing and they should be as these are the people who are building the temples of modern India. Lake Tapping, Muck Pits, Cement blasting, Drillers, Splice gates, Mesh
Filters were words which we added to our vocabulary and I hope, I remember what they mean some time down the line and they do not get lost In 5X value, Maximizing Leverage, Vision statement's and Falana Dimka.
We dropped of kewal, smita and Atharva, back in the resort, and they not keeping the keys to our room [please remember this point*****], we headed for satara as we had to receive Gau "Ponytail" Jagavkar.
Considering that he had just flown in from Newcastle that very Afternoon and then taken up the journey from dadar to satara, we thought it Would be decent on our part to pick him up from satara.
How were to know that khuda ko aur kuch "manzoor" tha. The "NISSAN" of ours was listening to our plans for the next day and I am very sure that it could understand us, as it gave up on us mid way on the highway and
in spite of all the CPR's that our driver could think of the "NISSAN" didn't start, maybe it was inspired by Medha Patkar and NBA and was on a hunger strike against koyna dam [even the water we were pouring down
the radiator was being promptly spilled out through the "HOSE Pipe"].
We managed to flag down a sumo, after the attempt's of the ladies in our midst to stop a highway police patrol car in vain and deliberating on whether it was adventurous enough to ask for a lift from a truck driver, given the type of people we are I wouldn't have been surprised, If the adventure would have been used as a qualifier by the truck driver to describe the short lift of about 30 km's. We managed to meet Gau who was still surviving on one dabeli, he not having anything to eat as his standards were still set to mineral water and hands free wrapped
sandwiches. We reached devdatta's jiju's place dead in the night, thankfully his jiju settling down in satara, maybe they knew years in advance that sometime in year 2006 his house would be required for a
group of people never assembled till then and hopefully assembling again many times in the future. Cooking khichdi was supposed to be the easiest thing but someone forgot to tell that, it is not the case if the
pressure cooker doesn't quite agree to work under pressure [Maybe it also was in IT before and knows the best time for a developer to throw a tantrum and get your point across to the management is when there is
a delivery] and chooses to blow the pressure valve the moment the hunger quotient is at the highest. Somehow we manage dal and rice and wafers and chips and biscuits and jam and bread and chocolates and :-) we
pack off for the day.
Next day everyone has their thinking caps on thinking what needs to be done as we have kewal, smita and atharva in MTDC in Koyna, the rest in satara, Amit and Poonam wanting to return that morning itself coz
they had an engagement to attend and the windmills and sajjangad pending and yes a small detail, our "NISSAN" still on hunger strike and not yielding to any tactics used by our driver including welding, trying to patch
up the leak with a soap bar [someone needs to market this, "Aaapki gaadi bina radiator see pani leak kiye kaise chal rahi hai... is it your love or is it dove?"
Finally after many deliberations and me and Gau managing to pin down Devdatta, RDB - mud wrestling style. We arrange for a vehicle to pick kewal, Smita,Atharva and our luggage from koyna, Amit and Poonam
taking the Mumbai-Satara-Mumbai shuttle and another vehicle for us to take
us to the windmills, and yes the *****point comes into picture now, I had the keys to the room, which we had to courier back to the resort and still get fined 200 bucks[not the Salman khan variety].
I had no idea why the windmill farms were called "Farms", do they actually get watered was what I used to think. My doubts were cleared when we saw the mountain top "Farm". There are thousands of windmills
and it is an awesome sight, now I know why the valleys down below are so windy, I also had one more doubt given that our state is energy deficient state why is so much electricity used in running the fans that to provide relief to a sparsely populated valley. I am thinking of starting a movement to getting them shifted to our Ghatkopar hills at least we will not feel the heat when there is load shedding. We then made our way to sajjangad and a mandir [whose I do not remember, sorry god, should have asked for the visiting card].
The return was no less eventful, having a discussion of how to return, we learnt how projects get implemented and what brain"storm"ing is all about. We by then knew "NISSAN" had some other ideas of traveling with
us and just would not give in to the demands.
To our surprise as I had said earlier, khuda ko aur kuch manzoor tha and he landed up at the door and gave us the news that he had managed to revive the "NISSAN" and it can be driven back given that we do not ask
it to travel at a rate higher than 40-50 KMPH [looks like it had seen Speed too many times]. The adventure spirit still being alive we took the option and cruised along back to Mumbai with "NISSAN" needing
regular refills of the radiator as its "HOSE Pipe" was still leaking and we needing to carry water bottles and a bucket full of water just for it. Who ever heard of a car needing to drink water at regular intervals or else it would collapse from exhaustion, it was almost as If it had a life, good thing it didn't or else it would have had it for a short period of time given the trouble it had given us.
All in all, a very eventful 2 days one more "feather in the cap" of MST team.
are no after effects of being bitten by a mosquito high on Hindi films, but rather our khuda for that day and the day to follow went by the name Manzoor and he was our driver.
Between Manzoor nodding of to sleep twice on Mumbai-Poona highway and his taking power naps on the way [while driving], we manage to reach satara and had a quick breakfast and leisurely tea break at Devdatta's brother-in-law's place. The journey from there to koyna nagar was also uneventful, if we neglect Manjusha and poonam trying to get a sun tan in the fields on the roadside. Once in koyna nagar the true picture of Devdatta's 'POWER' came to the fore, where things which were not happening say at the local dam office or the MTDC resort fell into the proper place once they realized it was sahib Devdatta '96' Power they were talking to. Got a
lifetime's dose of vitamin C and an awe-inspiring look at the dam over the river koyna. A nice lunch of spicy veg and non veg food followed when given the rate at which the food was disappearing, it was clear that either we were very hungry or we had just trying to be nice to the cook or else he would feel bad that we did not like the food.
An afternoon siesta was in order and the time set up for the visit to the interiors of the dam which was originally set for 3.30 got pushed to around 5 and that too poonam thinking of skipping the trip for vasoolofying the
view from and rent of MTDC, a wise decision, she tagged along as what we got to see is what very few people get to see as the area is a restricted area but for a few, how we got in, please read the above again and when you reach the line about Devdatta's 'POWER', fill in "High Profile Contacts" [Cannot tell who, they work for the government, always dress in white, work In the backgrounds and can be held responsible for anything that
happens in the country] and the connection is made.
Going down the shaft on a metal lift which thankfully Devdatta was to inform me later has a tendency to snap and send the pious occupants to heavens and not so pious occupants to the hospital was an experience.
I have been at 18000 feet above sea level but still it was a comfortable feeling as you know the sky can never fall on you, it is held up by invisible chains from space after all at least that is what I read in my science book when I was a kid, or wait a minute was it written in tinkle comics, hard to tell, lets for now assume it was my science
book as tinkle comics can't be so technical so as to calculate the weight that needs to be supported by the chains and all that.
But what do you do, when you are below the ground and the whole world can collapse on you and it does sometimes given that you are digging holes in the ground and have tons of rocks and water above you, its ok if only the rocks fell, I could avoid them, some advantage being 2 dimensional you see but how do I swim if the rocks separating the lake on top springs a leak, I after all have had only one session of swimming lessons and had skipped the chapter on swimming under rock falls in a dam.
The experience was truly once in a lifetime and anyone of us IT guys who complain of stress and work pressure, AC/Heaters not being cool/warm enough, not getting paid on industry par need to be sent down there
for a one day field trip where they will know what stress, sound, and comfortable environments are. We had the dam-technology and the efforts which goes into getting the dams built explained to us by a knowledgeable person, who was no doubt proud of what they are doing and they should be as these are the people who are building the temples of modern India. Lake Tapping, Muck Pits, Cement blasting, Drillers, Splice gates, Mesh
Filters were words which we added to our vocabulary and I hope, I remember what they mean some time down the line and they do not get lost In 5X value, Maximizing Leverage, Vision statement's and Falana Dimka.
We dropped of kewal, smita and Atharva, back in the resort, and they not keeping the keys to our room [please remember this point*****], we headed for satara as we had to receive Gau "Ponytail" Jagavkar.
Considering that he had just flown in from Newcastle that very Afternoon and then taken up the journey from dadar to satara, we thought it Would be decent on our part to pick him up from satara.
How were to know that khuda ko aur kuch "manzoor" tha. The "NISSAN" of ours was listening to our plans for the next day and I am very sure that it could understand us, as it gave up on us mid way on the highway and
in spite of all the CPR's that our driver could think of the "NISSAN" didn't start, maybe it was inspired by Medha Patkar and NBA and was on a hunger strike against koyna dam [even the water we were pouring down
the radiator was being promptly spilled out through the "HOSE Pipe"].
We managed to flag down a sumo, after the attempt's of the ladies in our midst to stop a highway police patrol car in vain and deliberating on whether it was adventurous enough to ask for a lift from a truck driver, given the type of people we are I wouldn't have been surprised, If the adventure would have been used as a qualifier by the truck driver to describe the short lift of about 30 km's. We managed to meet Gau who was still surviving on one dabeli, he not having anything to eat as his standards were still set to mineral water and hands free wrapped
sandwiches. We reached devdatta's jiju's place dead in the night, thankfully his jiju settling down in satara, maybe they knew years in advance that sometime in year 2006 his house would be required for a
group of people never assembled till then and hopefully assembling again many times in the future. Cooking khichdi was supposed to be the easiest thing but someone forgot to tell that, it is not the case if the
pressure cooker doesn't quite agree to work under pressure [Maybe it also was in IT before and knows the best time for a developer to throw a tantrum and get your point across to the management is when there is
a delivery] and chooses to blow the pressure valve the moment the hunger quotient is at the highest. Somehow we manage dal and rice and wafers and chips and biscuits and jam and bread and chocolates and :-) we
pack off for the day.
Next day everyone has their thinking caps on thinking what needs to be done as we have kewal, smita and atharva in MTDC in Koyna, the rest in satara, Amit and Poonam wanting to return that morning itself coz
they had an engagement to attend and the windmills and sajjangad pending and yes a small detail, our "NISSAN" still on hunger strike and not yielding to any tactics used by our driver including welding, trying to patch
up the leak with a soap bar [someone needs to market this, "Aaapki gaadi bina radiator see pani leak kiye kaise chal rahi hai... is it your love or is it dove?"
Finally after many deliberations and me and Gau managing to pin down Devdatta, RDB - mud wrestling style. We arrange for a vehicle to pick kewal, Smita,Atharva and our luggage from koyna, Amit and Poonam
taking the Mumbai-Satara-Mumbai shuttle and another vehicle for us to take
us to the windmills, and yes the *****point comes into picture now, I had the keys to the room, which we had to courier back to the resort and still get fined 200 bucks[not the Salman khan variety].
I had no idea why the windmill farms were called "Farms", do they actually get watered was what I used to think. My doubts were cleared when we saw the mountain top "Farm". There are thousands of windmills
and it is an awesome sight, now I know why the valleys down below are so windy, I also had one more doubt given that our state is energy deficient state why is so much electricity used in running the fans that to provide relief to a sparsely populated valley. I am thinking of starting a movement to getting them shifted to our Ghatkopar hills at least we will not feel the heat when there is load shedding. We then made our way to sajjangad and a mandir [whose I do not remember, sorry god, should have asked for the visiting card].
The return was no less eventful, having a discussion of how to return, we learnt how projects get implemented and what brain"storm"ing is all about. We by then knew "NISSAN" had some other ideas of traveling with
us and just would not give in to the demands.
To our surprise as I had said earlier, khuda ko aur kuch manzoor tha and he landed up at the door and gave us the news that he had managed to revive the "NISSAN" and it can be driven back given that we do not ask
it to travel at a rate higher than 40-50 KMPH [looks like it had seen Speed too many times]. The adventure spirit still being alive we took the option and cruised along back to Mumbai with "NISSAN" needing
regular refills of the radiator as its "HOSE Pipe" was still leaking and we needing to carry water bottles and a bucket full of water just for it. Who ever heard of a car needing to drink water at regular intervals or else it would collapse from exhaustion, it was almost as If it had a life, good thing it didn't or else it would have had it for a short period of time given the trouble it had given us.
All in all, a very eventful 2 days one more "feather in the cap" of MST team.
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