Teach yourself fun in 21 days!

Last 3 weeks have been quite eventful. Colleagues from my last job, boss and a friend were here for an onsite visit. My boss is a connossier of food and drinks. Thanks to him, in the last 21 days we tried our hands at Italian, Mexican, Thai, Peruvian, Turkish & off course Indian cuisines! Only thing we probably missed was Greek.

Of all the dishes, I distinctly remember just one of them. A Turkish dessert called baklava. It gives me those lights and fireworks (if you have seen Ratatouille you'll probably understand what I mean). And then I got to know the history of it, from my boss, who is a mobile wikipedia, wikipedia may be wrong sometimes, not him. So here it goes. Baklava is the one of oldest desserts known to mankind. It was invented by some guys called Assryians, after which it was spread far and wide in the middle east to Europe, from Greece to Armenia to Turkey and the Arab world. Now you may ask why the Turkish took so much to it. Baklava uses pista(chio)s and honey, both of which are considered to cause arousal. I can understand why the Turkish love it so much, though that wasn't exactly what I was thinking, when I said it gives fireworks :P .The image here is definitely not doing justice.

Peruvian food was good too. I had a dish called Chaufa de Pollo, which is similar to a chicken fried rice. But the thing about this restaurant was that they used fruits and vegetables which looked straight out of Jurassic age. Corn seeds were 4-5 times the normal size, and rice looked more like wheat. They were probably using authentic South American vegetables. But I was happy with the fact, that there is one more culture that believes in good spicy food, other than Mexican, Thai & Indian.

Other than the food, we visited quite a few places. In fact I think I know places around in New Jersey and New York a lot more than Arizona, where I have been living for last one year! We drove to the last point of long island, a place called Montauk. Montauk, and many places near it, like the Hamptons( there are as many as North/South/East/Mid/Bridge/Beach Hamptons in Long Island!) are very old immigrant settlements. All of them had a distinct European feel, with windmills & vineyards. Montauk itself was impressive, with lush greenery (which is so common in NY countryside, I'm amazed) and blue beaches.

We were supposed to go to another beach called Rye beach, but we ended up going to a nearby place called Playland. This place is actually called Playland because it has a "fair" there since early nineteen hundreds. Off course now the "fair" is equipped new age rides, though some of them were still pretty old, one of the rides even having a wooden framework. But I stay away from such things, I don't like to play with gravity, and I'm glad that somebody (read Samba) agrees.

And yes, we did visit the popular places like the Statue and few places in Manhattan. The majestic view of Manhattan is plain astonishing. See it to believe it.

All in all, it was great fun.

Grand Canyon & Vegas

I was pretty udaas. There wasn't anything to do in the vacations. And out of nowhere, a trip was planned to Grand Canyon & Las Vegas, at the 11th hour.

Road trips are facinating, you get to see a lot, and even more when you are in a foreign country. We, Sanket Samba and me, started off early morning from Tucson, had chai at Sanket's friends' place in Phoenix, which is around two hours from here. Its a big city, supposedly 4th or 5th largest in the US. Multi-storey flyovers, never ending malls, its a sight, particularly in the night.

It was already chilly in Phoenix, and as we went on our way ahead towards, Flagstaff, thats another big city in Arizona, it was already snowing! My very first experience with snow. Surprisingly it wasn't as much cold as I thought, though it was snowing. Grand Canyon is about an hour from there. And that entire journey from Flagstaff to the Canyon felt like a ride in Serbia or something. Thats probably 'cause Russia is the thing that pops to my mind when I think about snow ! Light flakes tossing in air, foggy coniferous trees and dark clouds. Every thing I saw was now a 'kodak moment', and we did take quite a few snaps.


Grand Canyon though wasn't what we expected. The snow and the fog made the grandeur disappear. All we could see looking down the valley was dense fog. It was like haath ko aaya par mooh na laga :P We satisfied ourselves with the fridge magnets :s

After that we proceeded towards Las Vegas, it was some 4 hours drive. And we got to go through the historically popular Route 66. Its one of the oldest highways in US, theres a nice digital depiction of it in the recent movie Cars.

Entering Vegas from the Arizona side is an extraordinary experience. You can see the vast expanse of Las Vegas all glowing with a million lights, so much so that it creates a glow in the atmosphere, its something better seen than described. You also get to see the Hoover Dam at the outskirts, which I somehow found not that interesting. The funny thing you notice there is a clock on one side of the dam that says Arizona time & on the other side there is the Nevada time, and you gain/lose time just by crossing the line. This way we gained one hour while entering Vegas, and arrived just in time.

Once in Las Vegas we hurried to catch the free shows of various casinos. We caught the "Fountains of Bellagio" right in time. Its a fountain dance in the lake around the Bellagio casino, it was shown in Oceans' 11 in the scene where everybody meets after the robbery. After that it was already late and we missed the show at Treasure Island, another big casino. The casinos in Las Vegas are all located in an area called "The Strip" and its as grand as it can get. Places like MGM Grand, New York, Paris, Bellagio, Venetia are enormous and a dish to watch, all decorated with their own "themes".

Wandering around we had entered Venetia(Venice) casino, and what we saw inside was astounding. They had created a Venice like theme there, with the canals, boats, small bridges and daylight! A skylike ceiling diffusing light as if it was a day, just too good.
Though with just 2 hours to roam around, we didn't play anything nor did we try any other adventures, if you know what I mean ;)

We stayed at my roomie's brother's place, he works in Vegas!! Next day we took the road back to Tucson, going through Flagstaff again, which was experiencing snow-meltdown. A great trip, but such that it has left us to visit those places again. Vegas again, 'cause we rushed through it and GC again 'cause of the snow.

And now something about "Exit 42":
On the highway I saw a lot of signs saying exit number this and that. And it clicked to me that a pic of "Exit 42" sign would make a rare & novel snap. But I had already missed Exit 42 on the route, and people said that the next sign would occur ahead of Tucson. But my luck was good, we stumbled across "Exit 42" in Phoenix! It doesn't end here, in a moving car, in the night, I just couldn't get a neat snap of the sign, and again I was left high and dry. Theres always next.

Mount Lemon and Tucson

With nothing todo other than looking for jobs online and doing some minor chores at the university its getting freaking boring by the day. This weekend was a good relief from the everyday stuff. We arranged a trip to Mount Lemon, its some 30 miles from Tucson.

Its scenic all the way right from the point where the first mountain starts and you enter the ghat. For the first time i saw zig-zag roads and blind u-turns in the US...but i guess there isnt any option when you are making roads in steep mountain ranges. The first few hills that come along the way have a characteristic desert feel to them. As far and below you can see there are just cacti and white-chrome-yellow sandstone type rocks. But since it has rained for atleast past fortnight or so it was pretty grassy all around.

As the elevation started rising to 5000 feet it got all cold and windy. The mountains started looking very very green. The cacti were replaced by conifers and there were waterfalls around ! The transition in surroundings surprises you, as desert now turns into European landscapes. When we reached the farthest top at 8000 feet it must have been 8-12 deg celcius. A phenomenal drop from what the temperature is down here in Tucson.

Mount Lemon probably has the name cause of yellow rocks that are present there in abundance...a lot of sulphur probably. And yes I forgot to add I was enjoying all this in a convertible...

Tucson, though painstakingly hot in the noons is a ultra scenic place. The clouds everyday manage to make a vista with the Catalina mountain range to add more colour. This is the first place that i have ever seen that has a sky such that once can see literally 2-3 levels of clouds...those far down upto those far up. The evening sky these days is red-blue-gray all at the same time....

Due to clear sky there are numerous observatories positioned here. Eye candy is infinite, but but but I dont have a camera...I am in one of the most beautiful towns and I dont have a camera. And I dont have a job...so that explains.

Starting off..

Finally...after completing lot of paperwork, shopping and god-knows-what-not i boarded the flight from Mumbai. Due to some technical problems the flight got delayed and i reached my destination, Tucson, after an astounding 24 hrs more.

First impression of the US if you ask me, well...we were stranded at the LA airport. And inspite of being such a big and busy port i couldn't find a single phone booth where calls to India could be made. Neither did i find a shop open late in the night to buy a calling card, and had to wait till the morning. I would say making a phone call back home is much simpler and easier. I was amazed by the kind of vehicles i saw at the airport and particularly the cleanliness of public transport.

My first experience with american coffee was bad and tea, worse. People here definitely dont know how to make tea. Tucson, the city i am in, is a very quiet and peaceful place. You hardly see a person walking around. Seniors here are doing just everything possible for us, to make us comfortable, hats off to them!

Jet lag has nearly been compensated...Search is on to get a place for living, and still have to explore each and everything out here. Hopefully things will settle down in like a week and half.

A little hay, a little hoe

Last weekend i had been to a stud farm. TNT's dad works there and he had invited us to visit the place. Interesting place...a lot of things to learn. Not only the equines related GK but other things too. Some interesting things about horses ( you can skip this )

* Live for 25 years
* Sleep with one leg slightly lifted and eyes open.
* Cost of a 1-2 yr old youngling is a staggering 15L, offcourse for the best breeds.
* They get passports after their gene pool is authenticated :P
* All race horses alive can be traced back to 3 stallions, that were from England. What were these fellows ? Ghengiz Khans of the equine community :P
* The ego of male horses(colts) is such that every one of them is kept in a separate paddock (approx. an acre of land).

Some race horses earn quite a fortune for the betters, i actually saw a record of some American breeded earning some hundred thousand dollars. The farm we visited was called Equus and is owned by some Ruia from Mumbai, the Ruia College was made by his family. This farm had some 40 odd younglings right now and a total of 180 horses. Yes that totals in crores ! And this breeding business is this guy's hobby. A look at his farm house at the stud farm gives you a lesson as to much money you can have and how good a spendthrift you can be. His swimming pool takes ten thousand bucks to get heated once...that should say all.

So next time you feel good that being in the knowledge industry field earns you more, think again. Hay is always greener on the other side.

posted from http://writely.com .nice.

Category [ _Trips_ ]

What happens in Goa, Stays in Goa...

Goa...We finally set foot on the land and sea of Goa, after almost a month of planning and discussion.

It was a masti ki paathshaala all the time...time after time. A life for 4 days, king size. We stayed at GTDC's Mapusa residency. In 3 days of the actual stay, we visited a total of 5 beaches. Every beach has a flavor of its own, "they all have something to say", some have something to see :P

Calangute and Baga are neighbouring beaches and are stormed by phirangis, literally. Those areas have plush eateries, catering international cuisine. We also termed a street on the way as The Lane, and had a feasty dinner at a place there too. Talking about dinners and lunches, all of them were royal feasts, even the breakfasts were far from ordinary. Our food demands were exotic, with someone ordering freaking lobsters to someone having American breakfast for dinner, ahem...yes really.

For the first time i tried different liquors, though in "sip mode". The list included beer, rum, vodka and wine. None of them impressed me enough to try them again. Ashwin challenged me to a bottoms-up for half a glass of wine...and i did it, i dont think one can get drunk with even 3-4 glasses of wine. Though nobody ever got talli, we didnt need liquor to be so, with creatures like Pashy and Salil around. The laughter riot was stomach aching. The thing is that we rarely laughed due to the jokes, but often over the jokes, considering their pathecity index. Pashy went to never-seen-before highs on this.

The weirder part was the addictive accents Sally and Mukya always use. These guys are heads over heel for "Friends" and the Australian accent, Ostraalian, say, i should. While Ashwin got speaking with the, Zhe nazi accent. Zhat getz funny, contagiously. Mukya even spoke to some of the accented phirangis in an accent...with "over te bieg bridze" directions. And i cant stop laughing when i saw the giggling school girls, when Mukya asked them the directions to the Morjim beach, known mostly for obvious reasons.

We played a dumb charades in the chilly serenity of the Baga beach, it is arguable whether that was the right thing to do on a night at the beach. But hell, we were having a great time. And we played amateur football and its types till everybody got panting and dehydrated during the sunny afternoons on the Miramar and Morjim beaches.

A visit to Goa can never be complete without the churches of Old Goa. And we saw the Dona-Paula memorial too. We got arguing whether they were the first lesbians of Goa, or whether a previous incarnation of Damma-Pashy, DP...DP sounds rhyming...maybe! If there is pun out here, it is intended, no offence intended though.

We even tried playing at the J W Mariotts casino, it was another fact that almost all of us were OOC (out-of-cash, term courtesy Mukya). The entry fee of 200 bucks was good enough to stop us at the door, but we made our visit worthwhile...with a visit to the 7-star loo :P. At the end of the 3-day mega-maja we saw Rang De Basanti at Inox in Panaji. Panaji is a place with a personality. Everything there is clean and has a strong medieval European influence, lamp posts, wooden windows, brick pavements and the like.

It was a blasting trip, every piece of it. Got some nice pics, hope they turn out actually as nice as they were when we took them. Though Sally, the spoil sport deleted some of the not-so-publicly-viewable pics of his.

All of us are on different paths right now, and they will soon diverge...it was great getting the breeze and some booze till the roads are still the same. Guys, i hope we do something like this again, somebody even said that when we were at the Aguada Fort, widely known as the DCH fort...just like the guys in the movie

Lose Control
One more time!!
Lose.. Lose..
Lose Control
Haha (x3)!!



Category [ _Trips_ ]

The Mahabaleshwar trip

My timepassing self continues to dominate. This weekend it was Mahabaleshwar again, i must have been there 4-5 times before, but i keep going there, seeing the same places, the same rain, the same same. But who cares, as long as I enjoy ;)

We started off on Saturday morning. Takes around 3 hours to reach, we got down at Panchgani. Its a nice town, in winter it feels like England & in rains like Cherrapunji. It is pretty evident why those phirangis must have stayed there & they have left more than their marks. There are some 22 big missionary schools in that small town ! Coming to the track, we got ourselves a room, you cant believe it 4 beds, a verandah, a TV in a decently posh hotel at 660 bucks. We were real lucky, did i mention it was off-season.

Visited Pratapgad for the first & the last time. Theres nothing on the fort worth seeing, absolutely nothing. Its crammed with hawkers & theres hardly much of the old construction left. Highly not recommended. After lunch we went to those typical Mahabaleshwar spots, but they looked good with the rain & clouds. By 7 we were back resting at the hotel.

Night out in Panchgani is always cool, particularly if you play dumb charades, cards, watch a movie & have a walk on the windy-silent streets accompanied by those whoosh whoosh sounds. On the other day, Sunday, we spent time at leisure at the table land. It was fun throwing stones in the ponds up there. We also saw, what people call Pandavas footprints. One wonders what were all the Pandavas doing at the same spot on one leg & so close. And how did they manage to put footprints in hard rock, interestingly all the footprints together look like a dinosaur's print.

We got going after lunch, sadly we couldnt get a seat in the bus back, & came standing to Wai, through the Panchgani ghat. It felt like punishment, standing with the bag, nauseating stomach & swinging at every curve. It took us 10 min to come to normalise at the Wai bus stand.

By 7 i was home & it was a trip to remember.

PS: Kshitti, its so so so sad that you missed it !

Category [ _Trips_ ]

Lohagad

After a long hiatus accounted to the the scorching summer heat, we (the Firefox trekkers, as we call it ! ) were back at trekking again. It wasnt exaclty a trek, but more of an outing, Lohagad fort, nearby Lonavala.

Its easily a single day's affair & should take around 2 hrs to go up the fort, though we took 3 loitering around :). It was a drenched day all the time. Whenever we stopped due to heavy rain it used to stop and by the time we got going it used to start pouring again. Felt more like the rains were meticulously planned for us, something like the cloud hovering over Jim Carrey in The Truman Show! When we reached the topmost plain on the fort the winds were as strong as that point on Sinhagad & the rains slapped the skin, literally. The hazy foggy winds, the ferociously drifting clouds, the green scapes the periodic floods and the wet shivers...we really had some time up there!

By the time we started descending down, it had rained so much through the day that there were families of waterfalls sprouting from everywhere. It looked quite amazing to see so much in a single frame.

We hopped back by the 6.34pm local, & then the worst happened. While in the train, I had to listen to 1 hour of inarticulate torture pouring out of Riyaz's mouth. To worsen it more Satwik was giving him an able fight, so it was twice the load i would have had to bare!

After reaching home, I slept of impending sleep after a lot of days. Feels good to go to sleep that way :P. Now thats what i call it a day of quality.

Category [ _Trips_ ]

Moonlight at Rajmachi

My 3rd trek in last 3 months. This time it was a night trek aptly called by the organizers moonlight walk. We started at 1230am from Lonavla. It was great fun to toddle over unevens & foliage, particularly with 1 torch for 5-6 people. Some sadists were destroying the nice ambience with radke hindi songs. Just before dawn at around 445am we reached Rajmachi base. Slept there for 2 hrs, under the open sky on ground ! That was some sleep, with cold winds waking me up at 7. We went atop the Shrivardhan fort, theres another fort, Manoranjan just opposite it, but we didnt go there. Shrivardhan fort has some nice locations with steep falls. We could see few waterfalls that were unfortunately dried up. It must look really picturesque in rainy season.

The entire area is full of high drop, rock cliffs & dense forests, with some flat lands & even a pond around. You dont get words to appreciate the beauty the mighty Sahyadris engulf.

We had lunch in a nearby village & set for return journey at 3. I cant believe how lucky we got that day with rains showing up. All of us were wishing for it & it rained. The return journey really brought magic to the entire experience. And offcourse there was TNT Vs Sameer verbal bash for tax free entertainment. Minu didnt cry this time & managed to inspire the foundation of MFC, Minu's fan club, having majority in the organizers ! And yes Batman did a great job coolie_ing for Dhanshree ;) .

We were pretty dehydrated by the gruelling 34km, 17km one way, and my legs are stiff even as I write this. But some things are just too good to miss...

Category [ _Trips_ ]

Bhimashankar

Trekking has me...atleast for some time to come.

On the toes of a trek to Vasota i was back again doing the "you donno why you disturb your saturday nights & cosy sunday afternoons for a skin scorching, heart pounding bath in the waters of sweat". Phew...thats some definition. But thats the other side. But the greener side is like, you get to know & stretch your bodys limits, have fun, get pride in surmounting those inverted abyss' & gaze open mouthed at a marvel called nature.

This time it was Bhimashankar, organised (not that nicely) by Zhep. We got a train from Pune to Karjat, from Karjat it was an hour travel to a village called Khandas. We made a night halt at Khandas. We stayed in a localites house. Night was spent awake thanks to the hard ground & the synchronised snores ! We started at 8 in the morning for Bhimashankar. Managed (just managed) to reach Bhimashankar around 2pm. I was completely out of steam, energy & water due to the extreme heat & steep incline in the last 2 hours. But its a contentful joy when you reach the top.

Let the tribe increase...

Category [ _Trips_ ]

Jiva shivachi bail joda...Jayee begeen apli pudha...

This was the very first time that i had been to a real trek with a trekking group, Explorers. We started at 1230 pm on saturday. We reached some place called Bamnoli at around 520, sunday, dawn. It was pretty chilly & we were fortunate enough to get a chai garam. We spent some time before sunrise near the lake, gazed at the sky. It gave a celestial feeling to witness the time span of dawn, gradual change of colors & the wisps of fog floating over the calm lake! Tushar, hereby referred as TNT happened to see some moving star & dogmatically claimed it was a geo-stationary satellite. A moving-geo-stationary, we had a hearty laugh, n people started talking about may be it was a satellite with different operation modes kabhi stationary kabhi moving etc etc. People like us, techies always end up proving that everything is a analogy.

We then went to base of Vasota, the paytha by a 1 1/2 hour long boat ride, with amateur antakshari for company. Then started the trek, we walked for about 3 hrs intermittently. A large part of the walk up was over a dry stream n my ankle must have turned 60 degrees in both directions a million times while doing the balancing act over the unending route of round n big stones.Thrice i missed from straining my leg n breaking a ligament or two. TNT's mouth continued to utter gibberish all through the way. The stress n the strain didnt seem to bother him, n kept us going as well. We took the Linux Vs Windows battle even over there, with Batman, AG & i Vs Sameer (who apparently was on both sides) n TNT as the referee. I was supposedly the founder of the KillBill movement, which i preferred to call PLF, the Penguin Liberation Front.

The afternoon heat, the physically demanding route led to massive dehydration, Minu broke. But she managed it later though. We reached the Nageshwar top at around 1230, had our lunch n even napped for a while. Damn i slept like a dead, when i woke up it took me some time to get to where i was. At 2 we left for Vasota. After a very exhaustive, 8km walk that too on cliff perimeters with slippery stones below we managed to reach Mhataricha Angtha.

We began the journey back at 4. By 530pm we had reached the paytha again. The downside route was much more easier. Sameer, Saudamini n TNT took a lot of time lingering around taking snaps, of god knows what not n the Explorers' leader had a tough time getting them moving fast. We were all set to go back when it occured that a couple was missing. The Explorers' team searched them out, n to everybodys relief they were found, after 45 minutes. Reason, they were enjoying the sunset, aha great at the cost of 40 odd peoples time. It was dark during the boat ride back to Bamnoli n the propeller got stuck in some net. Relief again as the boat driver managed to dis-entangle it soon.

We hopped back to Pune, n reached at 2 am, the worst part was that we got dropped at SP & Batman n me had to walk the entire Tilak road, after walking a whole day, to get a rickshaw.

Moral of the story, you get to know how much you can stretch your physical limits, admire the organisers who were on back to back treks, make new friends, n offcourse get really really really (a phrase accredited to PanditJi) close to nature !


Category [ _Trips_ ]

Of bumpy rides, cool breezes & SPDP...

Finally after 2-3 hasty unsuccessful endeavours of arranging a trip
we made it a reality. We went to Harihareshwar, a beach side place
in Raigad. I had previouly been there in my 10th standard ( i like
it to call it that way than saying usish grade ). And what a trip that
was...i can still remember vividly all the things we did there 6 years
back...it was lifetime cherishable experience. This time too it was
pretty good & i am more than sure i will go there again...it has
got a place in me somewhere.


We started off on Saturday, 20th Nov in the morning. On Damma's
insistence i got up 4.15am, its midnight time for me these days...&
the expected struck when Damma n others showed up at 6am. 4 1/2
hrs & we were already there...after lot of bumpy dumpy travel in
a Sumo, which sounded like a direct descendent of an ST bus. We
managed to get a tent in the MTDC resort, its full thumbs up with nice
n tidy tents right by the sea shore. You can hear the waves lashing,
watch the sea gulls fly, feel the cold & warm breeze and entertain
your eyes with artistic panoramic delights while sipping strong coffee
all at the same time...man its some place !!

We played a lot on the beach, and it felt like a private one made
specially for us with nobody around except the 5 odd of us & offcourse
a horde of sea gulls who made sure we were at a distance. The
restaurant is beside the sea and eating food was a pleasure with
awesome ambience. We chatted till late in the night outside the tent
with cold breeze and the sound of lashing waves for the company.
Salya missed that though, he was more interested in sleeping.

Next day we visited the Harihareshwar mandir, it seems like there is
a cold war going between the pujaris at the two temples present
there. Each mandir has a board saying this is the main mandir
here...n they call it Dakshin kashi, irony, reloaded.

We went to Shrivardhan from there, it too has a nice clean big beach.
But since we had gone there at noon time we didnt spend much time
toddling around. Next we went to DiveAgar. It has a beach you can
see from the snaps of Greece & Mauritius, marine blue sea, golden
sand & some constellation of rocky terrains which look like modern
art. There too we spent very less time for we had to rush home, so
that we could have some leisure time on Sunday evening.

We hopped back, with music & innovative antakshari & offcourse the
driver SPDP(siddesh patil driver pathetic, to be precise) as we named
him, he bugged us as much as he could through the trip.

PS : Guys, Damma, Pashy, Salya & Mandar IT was great, we'll go
somewhere again. Ashwin, Bala & Muks its really sad u people
missed it.

Category [ _Trips_ ]