A small but adventurous trip around Pune

On this Sunday, we had some guests in our house. They had come to Pune from Roha via Tamhini ghat in the morning. They wanted to visit a place in Chinchwad along with me and my wife. After that they planned to start back for Roha via Lonavla by the 5 pm bus - and reach Roha by 10 pm.

To give some background, there are two routes to Roha from Pune. One is through the beatiful Tamhini Ghat. This is a short-cut. The longer route is through Pimpri-Chinchwad-Lonavla, which is a longer one. The only bus on this long route from Pune in the noon is at 5 pm which reaches Roha at 10 pm.

So we all started from my house in Kothrud at 12.30 pm and surprisingly reached Chinchwad in just 25 minutes. The roads were near empty in the hot noon and so it was a very easy and pleasant drive via the highway. Luckily, our meeting at Chinchwad ended in an hour and a half, so we had plenty of time in our hands before the visitors could catch their 5 pm bus. It was then that we all decided to change the visitor's plans.

According to the new plan, all four of us (The two visitors, me and my wife) would start immediately (@ 2.30 pm) from Chinchwad towards Hinjewadi. From Hinjewadi, we would take a road towards Pirangut. Pirangut is located on the Pune-Roha road about 30 KMs away from Pune. But the big advantage is, there are many buses from Pune that go towards Roha from this route at that time of the day, as compared to the only 5 pm bus on the Lonavla route.

So off we went from Chinchwad - back towards Pune on the Bombay Banglore bypass. We left the bypass at Hinjewadi, showed our guests a number of cool IT buildings in Hinjewadi. And then crossed Hinjewadi to travel towards Pirangut. It was around 2.45 pm. We knew that a bus from Pune would start towards Roha via the Tamhini route at 3 pm. This bus was expected to reach Pirangut at around 3.30 pm - 3.45 pm. So our target was to reach Pirangut before 3.30 pm at any cost so that the visitors could catch this bus at Pirangut. With so much of time on hand, we were more than confident that we would make it in time.

Then the shocker. With 5 KMs. still to go, we stopped at a place known to the visitors. They had an acquaintance working in a plant on this road. When we met that person, he told that the road ahead had a bridge before Pirangut which had recently fallen off! So according to him, the only way out for us was to go back to Hinjewadi, take the bypass, come to Chandni Chawk and catch the bus. But that would have taken us more that half an hour at least, and we would have surely missed the bus at Chandni Chawk. Disappointed that all our optimizations had fallen apart, we began our drive back. On the way back, about 5 kms still away from Hinjewadi, we saw a (kind-of-kaccha) road to Pirangut. We stopped a vehicle on that road coming from the other side and confirmed that the road was accessible right through to Pirangut and had no broken bridges :-) However, this road was severely damaged and kind of risky. We still decided to take the risk as the distance was only 10 Kilometers.

As we moved ahead, we realised that the ride was very bumpy but equally beatiful. This road goes through hills and rivers with lush green fields on both the sides. It was really enjoyable but scary. We had almost no other human being visible in the near vicinity. The road condition meant the car could break down or catch a puncture anywhere and we would have no help at hand! After a long wait, we reached Pirangut at sharp 3.30pm. The bus reached there at 3.45 pm and the visitors were only too happy! They reached Roha at 7 pm whereas via Lonavla they could not have reached before 10 pm.

It was a bit tiring, but the beauty of the nature generally over-rides such exhaustion. And so we had a wonderful drive. The sudden and un-expected changes in plans right throughout the journey made our day really memorable. Looking forward to many more such trips in the future.

Cheers,
- Tosh

Current Reading...

Autobiography named Samidha by Mrs. Sadhana Amte, the wife of Baba Amte. Baba Amte is a legendary social worker. SadhanaTai, his wife has supported Baba's work throughout her life. It is said that behind every successful man, there is a woman. And SadhanaTai has played a critical role in the service rendered to the society by Baba Amte.

More on Baba Amte here: http://www.rediff.com/freedom/amte1.htm

SadhanaTai married Baba Amte when he was in very initial stages of his service to the nation. His main project of Leprosy patients was launched a few years after the marriage. The book has two main parts. One, their initial days, when they faced many problems related to health and budgets. Once they started getting the finance from the government and others, they really created big projects of social service in which thousands of poor and affected people were nurtured, cured and developed.

One cannot help but get a strong urge of doing some or the other service for the society after reading such books. The other obvious realisation is that the comfort which we enjoy everyday is in complete contrast with the difficulties faced by the poor living in villages. This gap between the rich and the poor must come down if India has to become a Developed nation.

The book makes excellent and though-provoking reading. Highly recommended for all those who can read Marathi.

- Ashutosh

Related Links:
http://www.spcollegepune.com/DEPART/deptenglish1a.htm
http://www.dkpdindia.com/Samidha.htm

Catches Win Matches

What a match! Come the morning of the fifth day, and all the three results seemed possible. Curator's dream come true.

All the Indian dreams were shattered by an impressive England performance. After dominating the first two days of the match and holding on ever so slightly in the next two days, England produced a killer performance on the last day. Something that they missed so much in the earlier two games. Well played Colts.

I would say that India lost the match (And could not win the series) more because of their poor top order batting & catching than because of England's good bowling. In my opinion, the decision to go in with 5 bowlers was correct. Howeer, the decision to bowl first was not. If you are gonna play five bowlers then you must believe that the 5 batsmen will be good enough. If you don't believe that, they you pick 6 batsmen. Its as simple as that.

Anyway, it was a good cricketing series I feel, with almost all matches getting decided on the last day and that speaks tons about the quality of pitches. Andrew Flintoff was the star performer and he really relished the captaincy. India found two exceptionally good talents in Munaf Patel and S. Sreesant, both of whom bowled brilliantly. The Indian (mis)fielders dropped more than ten chances in a match, and no team should expect to win after that. There should be no excuse for missed chances. Add to that, the top order failures meant that we were expecting just too much out of our bowlers and so the end was inevitable.

Another impossible thing happened in Mumbai. Sachin Tendulkar was booed. The man tipped by many as the best to play the game was hooted on his home ground. What a surprise! It just goes on to show that Cricket is a game of consistent performances and not just past track records. [Feel free to think about Saurav Ganguly if you wish to :-) ] Tendulkar is probably at one of his worst patches in his career and he has only two options. Score or Go. It will be interesting to see how the champion reacts to the pressure.

In the meanwhile, kudos to the Indian sportsmen who are winning so many medals in the Commonwealth Games.

Cheers,
- Tosh

Current Music...

1. Rang De Basanti -> Rehman rocks as usual!
2. Taxi No. 9211 -> My Ishtyle. Ajama Le is my favourite!

Cheers,

- Tosh

Ind 1 - Eng 0

India beat England convincingly in the end in the second test match. Even after playing with only 5 batsmen. England scored 300 in the first innings and then India were reeling at 150 for 5. That was when the game changed. Indian lower order scored more runs than the higher order and got the invaluable lead of 30-40 runs.

These tailenders are so frustrating, aren't they? I have a theory about lower and tail end batting. It goes as follows: The team which performs better in lower order batting than the opponent, has generally a higher chance of winning a game. Sounds weird, ain't it? Look at the India Pakistan test series. Look at this test match between India and England. Look at the thrilling one day match between Australia and South Africa. Look at the previous test match between West Indies and New Zealand. The team that batted better in their lower order went on to win the games. Which undelines the fact that cricketers must have a high utility nowadays. Bowlers and keepers have to be good batsmen.

The most promising thing from India in this match was their positive attitude. They went in with 5 bowlers, which I think was a splendid decision. Hats off to the people made this decision.

About the new comer Munaf Patel. When I first saw his bowling, I had the impression that he uses his shoulder a bit too much. Which is how he generates the high pace. This is not very good in the long term because he might suffer shoulder injuries which can be career threatening for the fast bowlers. He should instead work on quickening his run-up just a bit to get the rhythm. All said and done, he moved the ball considerably. Especially the reverse swing in the second innings.

Reverse swing is a miraculous act. It depends a lot on the conditions and the ball. You will find so many times that one ball reverses, and as soon as its changed, it stops reversing. Something similar happened in the just concluded test between West Indies and New Zealand. Shane Bond himself admitted that there was something in the ball which made it reverse more than the one used earlier. If Munaf keeps reverse swinging all balls the way he did yesterday, then it will be awesome. But that consistency will be hard to achieve and we need to wish him best for that.

Dravid in the meanwhile has been the under-rated champion of this match. He was instrumental in India putting up a decent total so he should get the due credit. He is one of those captains whose performance has improved with the captaincy. Well done Rahul, you have led by example.

Off to Mumbai...

The Best Cricket Match Ever?

Wake up in the morning, check out any news channel, any newspaper, any news site. The top news is the match report of a cricket encounter. Surprisingly, India did not play that game. Still its the top news story. How'z that?

The game had a hot build-up to it. Two teams playing for pride. The grand finale of an evenly matched series hanging imperiously at 2-2. Conditions were perfect on the most beautiful ground in the world - The Wanderers. The bloody cocktail produced an extra-ordinary game of cricket, in which a near-impossible task was made possible - not once, but Twice! Australia scored 434/4 in 50 Overs. The first time any team crossed 400. In reply, South Africa, back to their walls, chased and chased successfully! Can you believe it? NO. No one believed that this was possible. The only men who believed it were the 11 members of the SA team. And it is because of this belief that they were able to pull up a miracle. It was something that could happen only a few times in a century. It was a match to remember. A celebration of a sport. Two thoughts come to my mind here:
"Whether you believe you can do it or not, you are correct". And
"When the going gets tough, the tough gets going".

One performance stands up and away from the rest. On a belter where batsmen murdered all bowlers, Nathen Bracken produced a magical display of bowling. With 5-60 odd, he almost took the game away from the hosts. Ponting, Katich, Hussey, Smith, Gibbs, Boucher played well. They are big names - champions, really. But the guy, who in my opinion turned the game decisively in SA's favour was Van Der Wath. An unlikely hero who came in when the high hopes seemed dashed. And played a gem of an innings, a cameo that took SA so much close, that even a flurry of wickets in the end could not deter them from reaching there.

The margin of victory was the smallest possible: One wicket, One Ball. What a match! Cheers to the (Ex :-) ) chokers. And Cheers to the game of cricket. And while we congratulate South Africa, we must not forget the entertainment provided by the Aussies.

Cricket rocks. Bigtime.
- Tosh

A Cool Dilbert

Quite a good one.
Source = http://www.dilbert.com

Cheers,
- Tosh

Blog Rolling...

Came to know about this cool tool from Mahesh's Blog.

Currently, I am using it to store a list of Links. The tool then powers the 'Other Blogs I Read' section on the Right Hand Side of this page.

Check it out, it's too good => http://www.blogrolling.com/

Cheers,
- Tosh