One year of Modi Government: Did you know?

courtesy www.facebook.com

Yes, exactly above image bring my attention at famous social media site upon completion of one year of Modi government in India. However people are tend to focus on positive aspect of Mr. PM's foreign visits. It is equally need to take another side of of the 'Positive Aspect', hence opinion posted here is not negative.

This photo post at social media brought up really very good point to debate upon. Everyone appraise whatever Mr. PM is doing to bring ease in doing business in India. However, ground reality is to become self dependent first instead of depending upon foreign investments. Take example of Japan, China, they become habituate or made constitutional amendments to make their citizens to work for country first. More than 70% population who is still in rural area far away from basic infrastructure like water, road, electricity. You no need to go far away, just step in to any MIDC located at nearby Taluka place, you will find what level of infra our govt providing to SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises). My uncle who run cashew factory scared to sell his product on his own (Initiative to sell on his own was to reduce cost eaten by agents) in cities like Pune or Mumbai just due to harassment by traffic cops and taxation at every APMC (Agriculture Product Market Committee). Now he decided to sell to agents by seating in his office. This will be too early to judge policy's effects by Modi-govt, but we have history of economy liberalization by then economist Manmohan Singh in 1991 which took 15 years to take it's effects, but what about inflation in basic commodities which unable to controlled by Indian government. As Ratan Tata said earlier in recent interview, it will be too early to judge new government. As a common man, I can wait for another four years, if new government serve 'Roti, Kapada aur Makaan' without snatching it from another common man (Read blog on land acquisition: Open letter to Parliament: Being Estate Agent).

Bike Ride: Lonavala via Lohgad

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Pune has surrounding of luxury of historical and naturally beautiful places. Apart from forts, it has hill-station nearby, Lonavala. You can take bike ride to enjoy circular journey between Pune and Lonavala. We have had very good experience to travel this road in monsoon couple of time. Before we jump into details, quick check below itinerary

Route: Pune-Chandani Chowk - > Paud Gaon -> Hadashi -> Lonavala ->NH4 -> Chandani Chowk -> Pune

Travel Distance: Approximate 135km

Travel Time: Sunday, 7am – 4pm

Best Period to Visit: Prefer monsoon or Between July and December

As it was rainy season we carry rain-jackets and prefer cloth that will dry soon. We started at 7am after having Tea and Breakfast at Sadguru snacks-center opposite to ‘ICICI Bank ATM’ after crossing Kothrud Depot. A meeting point was Chandani Chowk where we kick start our journey to Lonavala via Paud Gaon.

The road from Chandani Chowk to Paud Gaon distance 20km, as road is pretty good; it took maximum 30 min to reach there. After reaching Paud Gaon, ask for direction for ‘Hadashi’ village. A road between Paud Gaon and Hadashi is little rough and need to drive carefully. However this season bring drizzle or fog and will make your journey so memorable. We took couple of halts to catch glimpse of cloud floating just above our head.

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It is just 13-15km journey between Paud Gaon and Hadashi, however we reach there by 8.45am. When we reach Hadashi, we found lake called by name of village itself i.e. ‘Hadashi Lake’. The lake was full of water and has awesome look as it got reflection of mountains around. We spend almost half an hour and started our journey towards Lonavala.

After traveling almost 20km ahead we reached Pawana water dam. It has no power generation plant. However I heard it has capability to generate power and now it is turned out to reservoir only. You can take glimpse of water dam however photography strictly prohibited nearby dam when you reach at entrance to the dam. We spend some time to enjoy in the water floating from the dam.

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Then we started our journey towards Lonavala. After another 10-12 km, we reached at road from where we can head to Lohgad. From main road towards Lohgad base, road is steep and have to take extreme care while driving. Recent past, road is made up of tar however I will suggest to avoid car on this route.

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The photo above is taken at famous Dudhiware Khind. This road is surrounded by rocks at both side. We reach at Lohgad base at 9.00 am. Note that there is no dedicated parking arrangement. The fort has steps making it easy climb. It will take an hour to reach at fort. While walking you can enjoy the scenery around the fort. I suggest if you plan only trek with family at this fort then start early in the day as heat will sweat like hell if no drizzle in this season. We learn this lesson when we found few foreigners climbing down indicating they started early of the day.

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After reaching fort we take little break as fort has large area to visit. In brief, this fort has witnessed lot of warriors who claim over this fort in the history ranging from Chalukyas to Nana Phadnavis. Recent history says this fort has been declared as protected monument.

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The fort has awesome views and one must not miss. We tried sound echo, you can check this video at Echo at Lohgad After fun at fort we started return journey and almost climbed down around 1.30pm. You can check few photos at GooglePlus

We kick off bike and head towards Lonavala and reach there by 2.15pm. We reach Lonavala, we had our lunch at Hotel Gurukrupa. The hotel is at main road itself. Post lunch, we started our journey back to Pune via Old National Highway-4. Around 4.30pm, everyone reached Pune almost at their home.

This bike ride to Lonavala via Paud is one of the memorable due to monsoon season and historical places on the way. I wish everyone have safe travel and keep sharing this post if you found this post informative.