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.
No comments:
Post a Comment