10 Safety First Advice While Driving

Source: www.jersey.police.uk

Recently, most talked Monsoon hit an Indian territory. Most of the new roads and highways made up of cement and causing to accidents due to slippery nature during rainy season. Roads become slippery due to mud at hillside roads or water layer on the road due to downpour. 

Irrespective of causes for accidents here are some do's and don'ts while driving during rainy season in India.

1. Follow Speed Limits and Traffic Rules

2. Avoid driving stunts and risky overtaking

3. Announce lane change using indicators in advance

4. Maintain safe distance between vehicles

5. Avoid applying sudden breaks

6. Start slowing down from distance

7. Avoid speeding and overtaking in tunnels

8. Hire experienced drivers to control steering of your vehicle

9. Ensure regular interval maintenance of your vehicle

10. Do travel, if necessary.

Stay safe!

Stay indoor!!  

Happy Monsoon!!!

Read post on my travel experience:

Visit Lohgad - http://maddyconnect.blogspot.in/2015/05/bike-ride-lonavala-via-lohgad.html

Visit Keral & Kanyakumari - http://maddyconnect.blogspot.in/2014/11/short-vacation-to-keral-via-kanyakumari.html

Mesmerizing Sea Link

Bandr-Worli Sea Link

Rajiv Gandhi Sea link, alternately called Bandra-Worli sea link is famous landmark in Mumbai.

30-Jun-2009, I know very well, when I took taxi at Dadar station to visit Worli sea face along with few friends of mine. A taxi halted at sea face and sudden rush of people gathered around the taxi. When we stepped out of taxi, we found that it's inauguration day of the Sea-Link and ride is toll free for the day.

We blamed our luck for leaving taxi as it was not easy to get taxi as most of the people their awaiting for the ride. Finally we disappointed and decided to ride any other day, but of course it will not be toll free ride, on top of that it will not be first day anymore. After that day I traveled a lot in Mumbai but did not get chance to visit this marvelous architecture.

13-Jun-2015, almost after six years, I again got a chance to hire taxi at Dadar station. As I seat, it reminds me the day when I missed ride to iconic structure on a historic day. I asked driver to ride through the bridge to Bandra.

Banda-Worli Sea Link

A 5.6 km long sea link start at Worli sea face and ends at Swami Vivekanand Road in Bandra. A structure looks magnificent adding beauty at the cable stayed portion. A bridge has toll-post at Bandra side with Rs. 60 per ride, Rs. 90 for return journey and Rs. 150 for daily pass. This sea link has 4 lanes each side, however at toll end it spread to 8 lanes each side to cop up with traffic at the end. A short ride to this bridge gave feeling of man-made marvels. Adding cost of hired taxi and toll charges, I spend Rs. 240, however it was worth.

Then I rode to bandstand to have glimpse of this magnificent statue till my eyes got tired. You can check glimpse at Mesmerizing Sea Link

Bandra (West) Local Train Station

After having visit to Bandra fort at Bandstand, I started my return journey. I reached at Bandra local train station. An entrance is revamped with paintings describing history of western railway and culture of Bandra. You can check glimpse at Mesmerizing Sea Link

Read post on my travel experience:

Visit Lohgad - http://maddyconnect.blogspot.in/2015/05/bike-ride-lonavala-via-lohgad.html

Visit Keral & Kanyakumari - http://maddyconnect.blogspot.in/2014/11/short-vacation-to-keral-via-kanyakumari.html

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

https://maddyconnect.blogspot.com

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.

https://maddyconnect.blogspot.com

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.

https://maddyconnect.blogspot.com

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.

https://maddyconnect.blogspot.com

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.

https://maddyconnect.blogspot.com

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.

https://maddyconnect.blogspot.com

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