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.

Countries do have boundaries, helping hand does not!

Photo Courtesy: www.cnn.com

Asia subcontinent is more evolving like a Europe where India's every contribution in developing this region is noticed by whole world. Take recent example of earthquake at Nepal. A country with mere 2.5 million suffering through high magnitude earthquake where India is in quick response like a elder brother at another minute. As India PM appraising our culture which teaches us 'Seva Parmo Dharma', it's our duty to contribute through the mean we can.

Most of the Indian used to travel neighboring countries including Nepal. The country largely occupied by mountain range with attribute of highest mountain in the world called 'Mount Everest' followed by 'Kanchenjunga', 'Annapurna'.

However recent earthquake destroyed such peaceful country, devastating million of dreams. The earthquake cause to damage historical statue like 'Trailokya Mohan Narayan Temple' and 'Vatsala Shikhara Temple' in Katmandu. It will be impossible to citizen of Nepal to leave without these statues as it was mostly tourist attractions which was become earning resource for them.

Your small contribution towards relief for people of Nepal will help them survive until they found themselves established in near future. I wish you will donate through every possible mean for this cause.

Zebra crossing was meant for animals too

I don't know exactly who started Zebra crossing in the past. However, I used to heard that before it got implemented to use for human being, it was used for animals to cross the roads where people have to drive carefully as the area has densely populated with animals in forest around. As road going through forest marked with black and white strips like the famous animal, Zebra has, so called 'Zebra Crossing'.

This past got revised when I witnessed kind human being gesture to help animal to cross the road at busy streets nearby my residence. 

It was 9pm, I had dinner and was stuck into the window before going to sleep. A traffic signal was off which I can see clearly as people were showing their skills to make their way by stopping each other. However I noticed a stray dog was trying to cross 
the road from other side but failing to do so because of no stoppage to vehicles at that moment. A dog seems like used to with the routine to cross the road and 
was trying every moment when he found road little empty between two vehicles with no success since I was watching.

Sometime later, I found a dad-daugher duo with their two-wheeler trying to take U-turn at the signal. A girl sitting behind noticed a dog while her dad trying his skills to take U-turn. She whispered something at her father's ear resulting her father stopped their two-wheeler after taking the turn. A girl stepped down and ran toward road divider and stretched her hand to guide the dog so that she can give little confidence to a dog to cross the road. A dog noticed the girl and after few attempts, dog got reached at the road divider.

Afterward, a girl took that dog to another side of the road where I found a dog was so happy showing his gratitude by moving his tail contineously untill that girl disappeared with their bike. I was amazed by a small girl's gesture to help dog to cross the road. A signal has zebra crossing, but I know the difficulty to cross the road when signal is off. And here it's animal, who cares except sensitive human being like a little girl in this context.

Keep up good work! Thanks for reading!!!

Akon Feat: Team India Apologize to Indian Fan

In this cricket world cup, we witnessed major shift on social media where people appreciated Team India's effort to reach Semi-final. Even few news channels tried to tarnish the image of Team India, however mature netizens condemned such act by appreciating team very loud and clear. Meanwhile Indian team realized the pain behind world cup loss and they decided to take blame on themselve by singing updated version of Akon's famous song 'Sorry, Blame it on me'

As cricket goes on we starting to learn more and more about responsibility
And we realize everything we do is affecting the people around me
So we want to take this time out to apologize for things that we have done
And things that haven't occured yet
And the things BCCI don't want to take responsibility for

We're sorry for the times that we left you at SCG
We're in the air bus and you were alone
We're sorry for the times that we had to let go world cup
We're sorry for the fact that we did not know about
That Anushka was sitting at pavillion just wishing us
Could go back to when it was just you and us
We're sorry for the times we would neglect
We're sorry for the times we disrespect

We're sorry for the wrong things that we've done
We're sorry our captain not always there for his daughter
We're sorry fo the fact that we're not aware
That you can't sleep at night when we play semi
Because we are at SCG like boxing day
We're sorry for the things that we did not say
Like how you are the best thing in our world cup chess
And how we're so proud to call you our fan

We understand there are some problems
And we are not too blind to know
All the pain you kept inside you
Even though you might not show (pointing to appriciation on twitter even after loss)
If we can't apologize for being wrong
Then it's is just as shame on us
We'll be the reason for your pain and you can put the blame on us

You can put the blam on us
Said you can put the blam on us
You can put the blame on us

Open letter to Parliament: Being Estate Agent

Couple of year ago, when I shifted from Mumbai to Pune, I saw more shops of real estate in most civilized area of Pune like Kothrud, Karve Nagar etc. However, during my early 15 days of company provided accommodation, whatever advertises I found on social ad-agencies like Olx, all were posted by real estate agent. As days were passing, I met one of the real estate agent and rented an apartment with rent of one and half month as brokerage. The only question raised in mind that if estate agent raising so much money after each transaction then how much tax they are paying up. I just compared my salary with his income. However I disappointed when agent gave me a receipt without any serial number or carbon copy on his record. Ultimately I understood that this is the business to raise money without contributing to government institution. Being employed, I know government keep watch on every salary on my bank account to deduct tax over my income. So unfair!!!

The experience I shared have coincident with recent amendments to act of Land Acquisition by Indian government. A government at center have clear majority in parliament and if they decide to go with this new law by hook or trook then it's not impossible at all to them. As an alert citizen when I differentiate between existing act with new amendment, I found that new government playing role of real estate agent who don't want to contribute in building national infrastructure and only intending to raise the money for certain group of people. For instance, one of the amendment is to remove clause of having agreement of 70% farmer during land acquisition or land owner can not knock the doors of court after land acquisition for justice. I agree you have majority but keep in mind that we have democracy and as ruling government campaigned 'Inclusive Growth' during general election, they should consider every minor factor of Indian Democracy.

Short vacation to Keral via Kanyakumari

Recently I done with my short vacation to few tourist destinations in Kerala and Kanyakumari. However the trip was so special as we witnessed marriage in Keral, it was one of my friend who tie knot at the same time. As most of my friends asking to put down my experience on paper so that they can share or plan their journey. I'm trying my level best to put everything so that it will be more informative to reader.

We had marriage to attend at Ernakulam district in Kerala, it is one of the central destination in Kerala. We booked tickets of 'Garib Rath' train two month prior to our journey from Kurla, Mumbai. Simultaneously we booked return tickets from Kochin to Pune via Indigo airways. Again, we booked flight tickets couple of month ago for better discounts. So in total we spent 1100/- for train and 2750/- for flight.

We started our journey from Kurla on Friday at 4.55pm, we traveled via Udupi -> Mangaluru -> Kasargod -> Shornoor to reach Ernakulam at 4.30pm on Saturday. Our friend arranged transport to his home. On Sunday, we attended his marriage. It was wonderful experience as we witnessed their rituals first time on the occasion of his marriage. A couple will attend temple to tie the knot with blessings from God and Bhataji. 

It was followed by reception at nearby hall where we found a folk dance which was so symbolic to their culture to welcome newly married couple. I have complete video and will share soon.

In whole stay at this marriage place, we had typical South-Indian meal with rice with number of vegetables and pickles. As we belongs to Maharashtra, we used to with Chapati-Sabji and Rice. But in Kerala, we hardly found Chapati during our five day stay.

Then we bag-pack and started our journey to explore Kanyakumari. As we have no package tour, we generally get in touch with local people on how to commute to other places. We reached Ernakulam station on Sunday night where as lady at ticket counter guide us to reach Kanyakumari. As she suggested, we need to take route of Thiruvananthapuram-Nagercoil to reach Kanykaumri. We board train around 11.00 pm at Ernakulam and started heading to Thiruvananthapuram, immediate after reaching their we found train to Nagercoil which reach at 5.30am. At Nagercoil we had train to Kanykumari at 6.20am only reach to our final destination at 7.00am. 

We already had booking for a Hotel to stay in Kanyakumari. We checked in at Hotel 'Gopi Nivas', jsut 1.5km away from Station, so no need to take auto-rickshaw unless and untill you have heavy luggage. Hotel reception hand-over keys along with tourist places and in and around Kanyakumari. This is what I prefer when I travel unknown places to get the list of famous places, check with local people on commute. I found all places at Kanyakumari are few steps away. We ggt refreshed and started our heritage walk in Kanyakumari.

At first, we visited 'Vivekanand Rock'. You need to take ferry to reach there. They charge around Rs. 40/- per person. At Vivekanand Rock, you will find 'Vivekanand Statue', few book sellers. We spent couple of hours there.

A ferry include visit to 133 feet statue of poet and philosopher Thiruvalluvar, however due to low tide, a ferry was suspended for time being. Next time good luck :-) After having fun at Vivekanand Rock, we head back to hotel to have some rest and meal.

At 4.00 pm, we again wear our shoes and headed towards Mahatma Gandhi memorial and fish aquarium. A plan was followed by sunset at the last. Kanyakumari is the only place in India where you can witness Sunrise and Sunset at the same place. I am luck to have glimple of both the occurrences as we had stay in the Kanykumari.

After sunset, we visited local market for shopping. We spent time until we get hungry. Post shopping we had our dinner, kept everything we shopped at hotel and went to Sea-Shore to only witness sound of waves when there is no-men :-) We came back to hotel at 11.45 pm to have some rest as we planned to visit Thiruvananthapuram on the next day.

We got up early in the morning to catch glimpse of sunrise. Post sunrise, we visited Kanyakumari temple. Then we came back to Hotel to check out and started journey to North (geographically we moving north :-) )

We come to Kanyakumari station where Tea-vendor suggested that instead of waiting for train, you can take auto rickshaw to reach Nagercoil where you can visit Suchindram temple on your way and autowala will halt for some time. We hired auto for 380/- to travel Nagercoil via Suchindram temple. We reach there at 9.30 am and spend an half an hour. This ancient temple had very nice architecture. The only constraint is to take off you cloths before entering the temple.

Then we moved to Nagercoil to have train to Thiruvananthapuram, we had train at 10.25 am which reached at 12.45pm. After reaching Thiruvananthapuram, we had lunch. We had little chat with hotel owner and found that Padmanabhaswamy temple is now closed and will open at 5pm. He suggested to hire auto rickshaw and roam around to visit tourist places till 5pm. We hired auto-rickshow for 600/- for a day where auto-driver promised that he will accompany us till evening and will drop us at train station.

The first place we visited was Poovar beach. Here you will find lot of vendor who offer back-water drive for an hour with Rs. 2000/- per person. However we were not in mood to spend an hour due to time constrain so that we head back to Kovalam beach.

On our way back to Kovalam beach, we visited government owned Fish Aquarium followed by Shipping Harbor.

The another destination on our way to Kovalam beach was Light House. It was wonderful experience to reach at the top of Light House and have view of Kovalam Beach and Arabic sea.

After having some fun and photo session at light house, we traveled to Kovalam Beach. This beach has clean water so that you can have boat ride, surfing and swimming at same place. We spend some time here.

Then we head back to Padmanabhaswamy temple at 5.30pm. Again we had take off our cloths before entering the temple. A temple is so huge that you need at least an hour visit each area accessible in this temple. Due to recent gold-rush at this temple, it has multiple fold security inside and outside of the temple premises.

After Padmanabhaswamy temple, it was almost done for our trip. The only mistake I did was flight booking I made from Kochin. So that we traveled back to Ernakulam from Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday night. We had our flight from Cochin on Wednesday to reach our home in Pune.

I have summarized our trip in very short words as most my friends asked me pen down so that it will help other netizens. Thanks for reading this blog and hope this will be helpful to you. 

Crazy netizens or is it a change?

I called up, ‘Hey, what happened? I saw you post, why are you deactivating your facebook account?’

My friend, Sanket replied on another side, ‘I do not believe in this virtual reality, better to stay away. However my post suggest I will be deactive for temporary but that is not true. I am quitting facebook forever.’

I stumbled, a guy who used to post each and every happening around him stopped using facebook. At one moment, I agreed on his opinion on virtual world.

Few days passed away, suddenly Sanket’s post start blooming on my social account.

I text him, ‘Hey buddy, I know you will be back soon’

He replied, ‘Hey, you know why I come back. Let me call you, I can’t text everything J’

I had chat over phone with Sanket, he brief his decision of reactivating account by a symbolic story.

In an ancient days, one of the remote village had water pump located at center of the village. All villagers used to have water source as that water pump. Each day villagers queue up to have water next to water pump as that is the only drinking water source around.

One fine day, one of the villager saw a dream where he witnessed that if anyone drink water from only source of water in the village i.e. from Water pump will get crazy. The age represented in this story is the one when people used to believe on dreams and makes decision accordingly.

A villager woke up early in the morning and heads up directly to water pump. As he reach there, he started asking people not to drink this water as people will become crazy if they do so. When villagers arguing with him, he started explaining whatever he witnessed in the dream. People started laughing on him and started pumping water by ignoring his argument on possible craziness upon drinking water. 

To make him more embraced, one of the villager take sip of water and said ‘See, I drink water and become crazy now’. All people around bust into laugh again.

Still the villager tried to convince people to not drink water as per his dream. After few days, people started laughing at him and started calling ‘Crazy’ to him.

One of the villager passed comment at him, “Drink the water and become crazy like us.”

A villager got frustrated day by day and tired of explaining people to do not drink water at only water pump in the village. No one was in mood to listen him. Finally, a day has come and he visited water pump and drunk the water to became crazy like other people in his village.

The story ended with clear notion that Sanket was tired to listen from people around him that ‘Kya baat kar raha hai? Tera facebook pe account nahi hai?’ (Meaning ‘What are you saying, dude? Don’t you have account on facebook?’).