All posts by Ruturaj Vartak

A better $ function

U may remember the $ function from prototype.js and the famous Top 10 JavaScript Functions.

It was when it struck me, that the multiple arguments to the $ function returns an array, a numeric index based array. So to refer to the numeric indexes, u need to remember the order that u’d specified ur ids.

My new $ function is a little better, it returns an object with the id’s name as the member name.

function $() {
	var elements = {};
	for (var i = 0; i < arguments.length; i++) {
		var element = arguments[i];
		if (typeof element == 'string')
			element = document.getElementById(element);
		if (arguments.length == 1)
			return element;
		elements[arguments[i]] = element;
	}
	return elements;
}

So if u use multiple ids as this…

var myObjects = $('id1', 'id2');

// Now u can use the references as 
myObjects['id1'].setAttribute("class", "myclass1");
myObjects['id2'].setAttribute("class", "myclass2");

Rajmachi and Kondana Caves Rappelling

As I listen to “Hard as a Rock” by ACDC, my mind swirls back to our “hardcore adventure” trip, waterfall rappelling the Kondana caves!!

Vj again, our PRO !!! had subscribed to a meetup group, which now has been christened as MoRonz AdvEntUrez. He’d asked me to subscribe as well. And these like minded individuals had finally got another meet organized at “Cafe Sea Side”, Bandra. I and Vj had managed to get there late eve, almost 8.30pm 😛 after office, where we were surprised to see a big group already chit-chatting and headed by our Maadu organizer, Kalpessbhai. Guess what had they been discussing !!! Plans for the movie “Sivaji” starring Rajni 😀 The meetup group had managed to find a star, or I don’t know if it was other way round. But the group had Rahul Barve, Well … a star ’cause he was into trekking, camping and adventures for the last 16yrs and was a pro. Another reason why he is a star, u’ll know soon. The group full of enthusiasts, who were kind of first-timers, hobbyists in this field of adventure. And they didn’t want just trekking, they wanted more… Waterfall Rappelling.

I don’t remember if there were any members apart from Rahul himself and Kalpesh who’d done rappelling before, but all were keen on “waterfall” rappelling. The plan that was cooking was to trek Rajmachi in the night to the Rajmachi village, stay there till the early morn, and then climb up and back down to the Kondana caves, where we’d have our rappelling session. And then head down to Kondivade village. Rahul was quick to warn/notify members about a night trek in rains and mud, a wet sleepless night and then a rappelling event. But the buzzing group couldn’t be tranquilized. They wanted it. So rendezvous at 7.30pm, Chandu Halwai, Dadar TT, 14th Jul 2007. The week between, Kalpesh had organized for a bus which would take us straight to Rajamachi trail, Lonavala and then move back towards the Kondivade village waiting for the tired सवारीs.

Travelling Directions

6.30 pm, 14th July 2007, I was waiting for Vj on the Dadar FOB. I was unsure how many of the enthusiasts were gonna finally make it. I was pleased to see atleast 1 member with Vj, his friend Keta, a bhai!!, a crazy character. She too was supposed to get some more friends, which had backed out at the last moment. I was hungry, We had “Mosambi” juice after which we headed to find Chandu halwai, Kalpesh had managed to find a shop which no one knew. He didn’t want Pritam hotel for some reason. We finally reached there, which was opposite to Metro, Regal shoe galleries. huh!!!

Kalpesh couldn’t u just say Metro/Regal shoe gal. !?”

Waiting over there was a group of around 9-10 guys, most of which I think met me @ the Cafe Sea Side meet. I recognized a few faces, one of which was Vikram who’d misidentified me as “Ruturaj, the RJ”. A casual hi-hello and I reminded him that I’m Ruturaj, but not a RJ 😀 Vj got a call from Kalpeshbhai, who said the there were about 25 people.. phew!!! quite a lot, I never expected this big team. Good!!!, could be fun. Now started the “stretching” time from the IST with people comin, calling, forgetting something… getting late.. It was close to 8.30 when we all were there, Sandipan another character with his wife, MallikaArjun and more… We moved towards the inside of the PArsi/Hindu coloney where the bus had been waiting, and finally we moved.

Inside, we started a introduction to start off a conversation. Soon, we were doing halla gulla over names, “MallikaArjun” to be precise.. People were so happy to know some Mallika was in, but had turned out to be a male, bonded with Arjun 🙂 this chap was from IIT, there was another one from IIT Kharagpur. An entrepreneur in Sachin, I guess I remember right, call center guys, a mid-aged guy in Real Estates, Venky from Construction Security (who I guess developed his interest in adventure by jumping off with a harness tied to a rope from top of buildings), people from IT, Jewelery manufacturing, it was quite a bit of फर्साण. It can’t be an Indian bus ride without an “Antakshari”, All started… Sandipan enjoying everything.. this is where our star man, pounded his every body muscle into the songs. This guy was amazing, he could start of from any point of any song and could continue till the end. Remembering every single stanza line in it. He just remembered. I was probably the opposite, I just forget every song. The ride was good, with Rahul rendering the Engineering parody of “आधा है चन्द्रमा, रात आधी” into

.5 है चन्द्रमा, रात .5, रेह न जाए तेरी मेरी बातें .5, मुलाकातें .5

We picked up some more participants, one of them Moiz, who was a globe trotter, Beijing, Ukrani, Dubai, Mumbai and so on. We picked up Rahul’s friends @ Nerul, one of them was a strong guy, Roy. Who never got into any conversation, and he never sat in the bus. Another was Zayeed, I guess I’m correct, who was called as भाईजान by his members, this guy, I was told, was the world’s youngest Bungee jumping instructor at the age of 18. There was one thing common in Rahul’s friends, either height or body physique, Rahul possessed both, Zayeed – height, Roy – exceptional physique, which was of great help to Vikram.

The bus was in the Lonavala Ghats, when it took off from the expressway section into the Lonavala exit, and then into a small lane which was only navigable for a single bus that too a small one. We moved ahead it was around 12.30-1, We kept moving on rocky road full with puddles, streams of water crossing the road. This is the route normally treaded on foot, but we were doing it in the bus, probably Rahul wanted to save the first-timer’s energy. I’m sure it was more of a Picnic to Rahul and his friends as it was for me and Vj. One point, we got down off the bus, people changing into their trekking boots, shorts, etc. Grabbing their torches, mounting head-lights, etc. Vj got into super shiny yellow pants. It was when I decided to remove my shoes and put on hawaii slippers. People were amazed to see me do that, but I knew what I was doing (probably the experienced guys knew as well).

As we moved into the darkness, with the pebbled road, full of red soil, I remembered my first encounter with Mahuli, where I and my friends were walking in complete darkness on a road which we were not quite sure of. The difference here was, Rahul and his exp. gang knew exactly where we all were heading. The road turned from bad to nasty. Full of sticky wet soil, people filling their shoes with soil, gravel and adding weight to their soft/foamed shoes by plodding through water. This was where I was lucky or intelligent 🙂 with my slippers. Only problem I faced was when we had to move on muck and wet soil, it was when the slippers stuck in them and my foot came off from it. Later I kept taking the slippers off when we had to cross a muddy patch, at times we had to plod through knee deep mud, but it was fun, I don’t know how many enjoyed that spoiling their Nikes and Adidases 🙂 I did !

Almost 2 hours of battle with mud, water and dirt, we finally reached the Rajmachi village where all I could see was 3-4 big huts, and some poles for electricity. Rahul knocked one of the hut’s door. An old man came out and Rahul had a word with him, and declared that we’d wait here in the hut till the morning before we left after a hot tea and “poha”. Somebody spotted a tap, and everybody rushed to get their feet clean and many to discover their shoes had left the tired souls in a miserable position. Almost half an hour of cleaning.. and finally everybody got in the hut, only to find a damp floor waiting … 🙁 For me even that was good enough, I didn’t even expect that 🙂 We somehow managed to cramp ourselves into that room in our wet clothes and put our seats to rest. Guys got their snacks out of their bags, Chips, waffers, ruffles, bananas, pears, apples, you name it. There was a lively debate of what pigment is Apple’s skin made of, Beta Carotene, which not many were able to pronounce correctly, “Beta cartamine”, “Beta Cart” and so on… Every group needs a “bakra” to chew on the time, and it was Venky, the Constructional Safety Engineer. Everybody was @ him. Jokes, Practical pranks, etc. We had some snaps over there, MallikaArjun was in a sleepy mood, he laid back and kept sliding into a 180 degree position, with his hard rock blaring earphones. He kept humming in a strange fashion, to which everybody just stared at him till he realized that something was wrong. Finally around 3-3.30 everybody started slipping into their bedsheets that they had managed to get. I too laid back, Rahul went outside asking everybody to be up by 4.30.

The ground was damp, well rather wet, so were my clothes, but I didn’t have any option but to sleep, and I tried, Vj too tried sleeping. He was next to me, It was around 4.00 when Vj got up, it had become quite cold and he got out a bedsheet or a towel on him. He was shivering and at times even I was. 4.30 – 5, when Rahul came in towering over us asking to wake up, I never got sound sleep and got up promptly, Rahul asked where is Kalpesh, only to find him curling in a corner. Slowly and steadily people woke up, the old man got a chai for everybody, I sipped one and then another. Soon he got steaming “poha”, which everybody liked, and then another tea. After all that food and drink, a very cold, inviting rainy weather outside, there was only one thing left, yes…. aah … never felt so wonderful before. I somehow always like it in the open, and its an icing on the cake when u’re surrounded by greenery. Soon we were ready to leave, Kalpesh settled the sums with the guy, Rahul asked him to get भाकरी, मिर्ची ठेचा by around 1.30 @ kondana caves. Close to 6 and we were moving, I was back in my hawaais.

In few minutes, we halted, where Rahul advised everybody to be careful during the slippery descent. I was asked to stay at the back, with Roy the strong man and his other colleagues accompanying him. Roy was carrying a big backpack, which I thought was around half of my weight, he later told that it was around 30-35 kgs. It was not very comfortable in the slippers but it was not that bad either as I had expected, I’m sure another trek and I’d be skillful enough to do any trek in hawaais, There were 2 guys ahead of me, who were having trouble getting down in their broken footwear. Along came beautiful scenic spots of the Karjat valley, where all halted to capture the moments. All the way I kept admiring Roy’s skill in getting down so smoothly and quickly with that big, heavy rock on his back.

Soon, there was a right turn which took us through the steps to a scenery which resembled “Jurassic Park” scene of the helicopter descending along the waterfalls, I could see a leaves, trees covering a tall waterfall, I could hear the noise of the water thrashing the rocks, behind the waterfall there was brown/yellow coloration, a little aperture adjustment and I could see that it was the cave behind the waterfalls !!!! marvellous and it was this that we were gonna rappel ? Great !!

A wash in the great waterfall was inevitable, some preferred to stay out of it, but most didn’t. How can one stay away from such a lovely nature’s call ha haa !! More snaps, and we saw Rahul and his friends at the top of the waterfall, the waterfall was around 80-90 feet high. They were indicating us something, it took a little while before we could understand that he was asking us to come up and start with our final objective, Rappelling !!!

At the top, it was beautiful. To our right we could see the valley ahead, with the trains crossing the ghats, while on my left I could see the Rahul’s friends tying ropes, harnesses, buckles etc. Rahul gave us some advise on how rappel and asked 4-5 members to follow to the final point, the mouth of the waterfall. Then started a long wait till we finally saw Venky get attached to the harness and the other ropes, We could see from the distance, that Rahul was advising a lot to him, he was the first one to go down, and all were anxious, some of the members behind me were talking about goosebumps, I was too interested to see Venky rappel than to be checking each other’s goosebumps.

The arrangement was such that there were 2 guys at the top who helped to release the rope, Rope that was released by the rappelling candidate helped him to go down, but if that feeding was fast and out of control, then it could be problematic, so the guy at very edge controlled the feed of the rope. While the other one checked other stuff. I”m sure Rahul could add more of the technical details to this !

Venky was at the very edge of the waterfall, with his back facing the cliff, slowly and steadily he backed till the edge, when the guys started to release him, and he started tilting backwards, and he slowly moved down… where he lost his footing and slipped !! and he hung lose, the guys managed to advise him how to stick the legs back into the wall and continue his descent. He managed to do that, after a 8-9 feet of descent, the cliff bent inwards and thus a lose overhang. After which he just let go the rope in a controlled fashion to get down at the base. Mallikaarjun’s was the same, the initial portion was slippery where he slipped and gained control back again. Every single descent was taking around 1/2 hr, and there were around 25 of us. It was taking long, soon Venky came back again and was with us, Vj and he laid back trying to have a nap, but the nature had something different in store, everytime they tried to sleep, it became very sunny and the heat sored… and within few minutes it turned shady and it rained hard. It was wonderful, but I found it irritating trying to keep my S3IS away from the forces of nature.

Close to 1.30-2 the last group including me and Vijay went to the final mouth of the fall. It was here where we witnessed Roy’s amazing strength. Vikram was ready to descend, and he too slipped at the very position, but this time there was something more to the chaos, somehow.. Roy was shouting/advising more than he was doin to others… Jalal another member of the of the professionals said that Vikram’s rope had intertwined resulting in a lock, which didn’t allow Vikram to release his rope and go down or allow Roy and others to simply pull him up. It was a database deadlock, thankfully there was no “kill” to resolve this issue, but it was pure muscle, Roy tied another rope his harness and went further ahead at the cliff, where he lead his hand to Vikram and tried pulling him. Vikram was about 6′ and I guess more than 90kgs. We all could see that Roy was finding it extremely difficult to pull him up. But strong as bull, he managed to pull him up and all 6-8 of us cheered and clapped. I saw both Roy and Vikram were tired.. Roy almost bending, I’m sure the extra rope must have churned his intestines. Vikram came to us and said… that he was too tired to go down again… phew!!!

Soon the rope was reset and all were going down smoothly, finally it was my turn. Rahul had advised not to look down when at the edge, but I was not going to miss that .. hahaa.. Manoj I guess checked the harness and tied all the ropes and buckles and advised me to stand in a specific position, with my legs in a “V” shape and the back facing the cliff. Roy saw me and said “U’re the guy with the slippers naa ?”, “Ya”. I was ready. I backed a little and saw the cliff with water flowing through my shoes and straight down on the rocks below. I felt like I was standing on the wall of my friend’s terrace and he was pouring a bucket of water at my legs. !!! Only difference being, the pour was continuous. Slowly and steadily I backed feeding the rope, but I could see Roy shouting at me not to feed the rope too much. At the cliff, I saw nothing but water falling down and it indeed was slippery, I was unsure where to put my feet, Roy advised me to place my left foot in a rock cut, I put it but I bent my knees to which he shouted again asking me not to bend my knees too much. Later he asked me to put my right foot below, and yet maintaining the “V” position of my legs, I put the right foot and again bent my knees, which put more pressure on the toes making me slip, Roy held back the feeding rope, and asked me to put the feet back again in the, I followed his instructions and I was firm making an angle of around 45 deg. with the wall. Now he was shouting to let go the rope and tilt more towards the backside, I did, but as best as a first-timer could do.. I also started descending, to which Roy held back my ropes advising me the right way of descending, he asked me to look straight up in the sky, and close my eyes if the water troubled a lot. I bent back more, and then started feeding the rope, and putting my feet down the wall one at a time, trying to remember not to bend my knees. I’m not quite sure how successful I was at that, but I guess I was satisfactorily good at it. A few seconds more I was at edge where the wall bent inwards, thus putting me in a completely hanging position, this was easy now, I started feeding the rope, and the my descent was faster as I knew that Roy above knew that I’d crossed the final part and was just feeding over the overhang. Below I could see Rahul holding the rope, and adjusting it so that I can land in a right area. And soon I was touching my shoes on the rock below, I could see Rahul smiling at me, I don’t know if that was for my stupid descent or the nostalgia of the first rappel that he’d experienced.

How was it ?

Fundoooo !!!!! yeah !!!!

Soon the rest followed, and I had the wonderful भाकरी and मिर्ची ठेचा. Another shower and we were waiting for Roy and the other guy to come down so that we could go back. The return from the falls was a short one, it took around 20 mins before we reached Kondivde village, where we saw a restaurant like structure. We went into it placing orders for chai, pohe, upma, etc. A quick change finally into dry clothes since the last night was wonderful as well. The bus was waiting outside on the outskirts of the village somewhere, Kalpesh and Rahul got into the tuk-tuk and got back the bus to the restaurant.

The ride back to home was a smooth one where most of us were dozing off. Rahul and Vj were still discussing plans for future treks. Rahul and his friends got off at Chembur while most of us at Sion from where we got into ricks back to our homes, tired, excited and finally dry !

Travelling Directions

  • Get to Karjat by train
  • Hire a tuk-tuk to Kondivde village

Chords: Rooth na jaana tumse kahoon to (1942 a love story)

This entry is part 20 of 41 in the series Guitar

Very lovable song, simple chords in scale of F

Rooth na jaana tumse kahoon to
F         Bb    C        F
Main in aankhon mein jo rahoon to
F        Bb     C           F
Rooth na jaana tumse kahoon to
F         Bb    C           F
Main in aankhon mein jo rahoon to
F        Bb     C            F
Tum ye jaano ya na jaano
F ... (play on...)
Tum ye maano ya na maano
F ... (play on...)
Mere jaisa deewana tum paaoge nahin
F          Bb          C         F
Yaad karoge main jo na hoon to
F      B    C            F
Rooth na jaana tumse kahoon to
F         Bb    C        F

 

Kamandurg Trek

Kamandurg is a quiet and quite an unknown destination when it comes to trekking. Most of the enthusiasts prefer venturing in the Igatpuri and the Malshej ghats. The Mumbai-ite with the trouble of extra travel in the crowded locals before he can set his foot on the some of the lovely mountains.

Kamandurg, close to Vasai, Mumbai, is however quite an experience for a trekker. The information about Kamandurg too is not easily found on the net 🙂 However Vj did manage to find and make the best use of Google. The trek was set for 9th Jun 2007. Vj getting his trekking meetup’s gang as well.

Travelling Directions

I was waiting for the Borivali local to shower its timely presense.. but as all public transport modes … it was untimely. I could reach Borivali station only by 5.15am, Vj’d called stating.. that we were gonna miss the 5.10 Virar local from Borivali. And we were helpless. The worst thing for me is to be not on time. But … “some things in life u just cant control”.

5.15, Borivali: I got down @ the first platform, I was wondering where was all the old structure, when I saw another train overtaking my train and halting ahead… What was that.. ! well… I was on the new platform (towards North), another train from Churchgate showing its might @ the platform, this time at the old one.. it was when I saw ‘Virar’ on the display, my cell rung, it was Vj checking if I could make the train that was arriving… ha!! perfect ! I was already running to make for it. With a sprint I made into some compartment.

At Dahisar i finally met Vj in the compartment ahead with Vikram, this was a new guy from the meetup group. Seemed like a typical call-center-bachelor-guy happy go lucky life, smokes, bikes, etc. But I was wrong. Was quite a fun to know him later though….

आज बहुत मज़ा आएगा

Vikram kept saying that, I never new why. Inside, Anupama and Rajo were there as well giving their tashreefs a pre-rest. It was almost 6am at Vasai when we got down in the west to check for the routes etc. I was hungry and Vj had to wait for Kalpeshbhai, fine, i’d put that time to good use.

A little enquiry @ the ST bus stand made us wonder we’d miss the bus, the bus that would drop us at Chichoti was about to leave in few min. Damn!! we were gonna miss it. outside we found it would be Rs 200 a rick for that place. We decided we’d wait till all came and figure out if there is a better deal on the eastern side. Few mins. later there were cells buzzing.. Kalpeshbhai, Mayur were ringing..

Kalpesh was running towards us, I never thought he too would be a pathetic PJ cracker as we are, but he turned out to be better or worse than us (I don’t know how to put that :P) We had a vadapav and chaay and moved towards the station when we met Mayur, hmmm… and crossed the lines to get on the otherside of the station.

We can always figure out the extra km travelled in the meter

Naa.. Mayur .. not here in villages … doesn’t work that way. We were trying to negotiate the extra fare if the final destination of Dekhundi village would be from the Kaman village. It turned out to be Rs. 180 for each rick with 4 people. We were 8 that was perfect.

The rick-ride was initally boring however refreshing, and as soon we were on the Vasai-Bhiwandi exit, it started raining amidst the sun. This was better. We had few snaps which we could manage. And sooner we were at the Kaman village, where a villager guided us towards the right direction of the base of the fort, Dekhundi.

We had to walk a red soiled road, across a dry river to reach Devkhundi, at the village we spotted a house buzzing with life, early morning chores, etc. Thats where we decided to recruit our guide. We got a teenager.

अरे चल रे गड्या, घरी बसून काय करशील ?

Rajo very sweetly got his younger kid brother about 10 yrs old to join us.

The trek started close to 7.30-8.00. No sooner we were 15 min. into the trek, it started raining.. we were waiting for it… It was also when Kalpeshbhai had a call from another meetup-groupie who was @ kaman village, and had around 1/2 to 1 hr to join us. He with another friend of his. We decided we’d wait.. We sent back the teenager to pick him, while Mahendra, the kiddo stayed with us. 15 min, and Mayur was fuming … we managed to get some laughs in his arguments. We decided that we’d move on.

And the trek started… twists and turns, rocks gravel and climbs all helping to drain our calf muscles. As the clock moved past an hr since we’d started.. the pace of the group too started to pale, but we moved on. I was very quiet as there were few with whom I talk. There was Vj ofcourse and his PJs and Kalpesh just kept on adding to the heap. Vikram kept chanting “Aaaj mazaaa aayega”.

Later as soon we hit the plateau while crossing mountains.. the group moved ahead, with me and Vj at the end testing our photography skills. We even had few videos from our NGC explorer cum Dandia champ, Vj.

We kept dragging behind, often whistling to keep track of the group ahead led by Mahendra. But we kept snapping, and it was fruitful with some lovely snaps of flowers that we had on the route.

deep pink wild jungle flower jungle white lily
jungle white lily jungle white lily

It was close to 11.30 when we thought we were almost at the top, when there was nothing above us but pure blue sky. The sun now starting to heat up the things. All the way long it was amongst the canopy and the early morning sun which didn’t really trouble us. But this was. Open and in the Sun. Some more climb and that was it for 2 of us, Santhosh and Mayur. they were happy resting on a rock. While rest of us were sure to make it to the final summit.

me and vj group snap me
vijay me and the summit Vijay and the summit
another one for shaadi.com ! rajoba maharaj yeah, what a pose !!!

It was all rock climbing, none of which required any special training, but definately which requires caution and intelligent step placement. Further ahead, it was Anupama’s turn to halt. Now just me, Vj, Kalpesh, Vikram, Rajo and Mahendra treading along. The summit beautiful, all are though. Some more snaps.. and we headed back towards the trailers. That was when we saw 2 guys meeting the rest of the pack, I guess they were the ‘remainders of the division’.

Food was on everybody’s mind when we all of us met. As usual we had ample of bread, butter and Jam. Vj with is Sat. upwaas for a beautiful bride had got sweetlime, tomatoes and cucumber as well. A good, healty, meaty and heavy meal later We all were lazing around.. after the other 2 of the group joined us, we decided to move on.

Stud-dirt plucker

And that was it, it took us around 4 hrs to climb, with a whole lot of waiting, panting, resting, drinking, etc. But the descent was exceptionally quick, back into the foliage and the canopy shielded from the sun, all of us were quick, almost jumping and running down the path. It took us around 1.5hrs to reach back to the outskirts of Dekhundi, thirst and sweat …. !!! It was when we saw a hand-pump !!!! Yummy!!!

There are certain experiences in life that u can’t blog, explain, write, etc. One of them is having a cold shower at a village hand pump after a trek, at the expense of somebody else pumping and flexing the triceps to shower u with cold cold water Jeevan

Aaaah … !!!
पैसा वसूल

This was all that everybody had on their lips, with Vikram reminding us of “Aaaj bahut mazaa aaega”

With a double, triple, quadraple showers, taking turns to pump water on each other, we finally moved on back towards the highway, it was another 1.5hr walk back, but it was good, after that refreshing bath. On the journey back, I wished some others too could’ve joined like Mukti, Sudani, Gauri. ha ha and … Mukti managed to be in just before we finished. “Mukti Dham”, a crematorium. I and Vj looked at eachother, I had my cam memory stick full, but I had to have this for Mukti 😀 . I deleted some extra photos and got Mukti Dham for Mukti 😀

Mukti Dham

At the highway, we all had ourselves full with Sugarcane juice. Again we managed to negotiate rick drivers for Rs. 150 a rick with 5 people in each of ’em. This deal was sweeter 🙂

At the station we were back in the crowd again with sweat pouring all over. We had to skip a few trains before we could manage to get into one of ’em that seemed ’empty’ to one of the commuters.

Back at home …
aaah blindness … … …

Travelling Directions

  • Get a local train to Vasai (Western Railway), Mumbai
  • Either get a ST bus or a rickshaw for Kaman village at the highway
  • Walk towards Devkhundi (base village), where ideally u’d grab a guide to help u to the top

Photos

trekking kamandurg
Complete Album

Karnala Trek

The trek was finalized !!! phew !!! After endless discussions to pick a peculiar destination. Karnala that was, a bird sanctuary. Why ? ’cause it was an easy one ! well… that was one of the points that contributed towards its vote, another one was its easy accessibility, only 15 mins from Panvel bus depot. Panvel bus depot itself being only 1.30 hrs from Dadar station by ST bus.

Excited !!! Mukti able to make it this time, even Saurabh. Other participants being the regulars, Vijay, Sudani and Neeraj. Good, always need some TP during treks, and Mukti assures that. She is best at it, with Saurabh to add some spice. The Junagadh king, Mr. Ashok Sudani adding the gujrati flavour to our recipe. Vijay and me relishing every moment of it.

Travelling Directions

Karnala Fort Trek, Photos

26th May 2007, As usual I was unable to have sound sleep in the night, waking up every half hr. or so, just to check what time is it. At last waking just before the 4’o clock’s hammering ring. Even without enough sleep, I was contended. Looking forward. A quick brush, and a call to Vj.

Trring trring… Trring trring… Trring trring… Trring trring… Trring trring… Trring trring… Trring trring…

Hello, Vj?

hmmm… (deep voice)

uthaa ?

hmmm…

uuth… aur ready ho.

hmmm…

chal bye!

hmmm…

साला आएगा क्या ?, next up, a ping to Mukti.

Trring trring… Trr, the second one not allowed, hmm… the Engine is up and running. Good.

5:45 AM, I was waiting for ‘public’, when I saw Sudani searching on the Dadar FOB, even Neeraj had come. Few minutes later, Mukti called on my cell, ye, ‘my cell’, that I’d borrowed from my mom. She managed to get the directions correctly, and no sooner she met us. She bursted into laughter, no wonder we all like her around. This girl had managed to get her cousin escort her till Dadar, on a Kandivali ticket. Oh god !! Mukti u should be into marketing. What powers of persuasion. Vijay too made it sometime later, and we thought we’d have to wait for Saurabh, when he made a sudden appearance. All there. Lets head for the ST Bus. It was close to 6:15.

Just opposite to the Pune’s Asiad bus stand, the ST buses were humming their engines, not exactly humming but kind of choking… We were lucky to spot a Panvel bus waiting only for us, as soon as we hoped in, the bus was rolling. The early morning ride on a highway is always pleasant, the May sun however was starting to show what it was capable of. New bombay, or Navi Mumbai was full of previous incidents for Vj, who’d done his Engg in BVP. We saw where he used to play kho-kho, etc., etc. ‘kho-kho’ to us also has a special meaning, which we never forget to remind. isn’t it Mukti !? Amongst all the khee khee, Sudani had spotted some graffiti in the Bus, ‘Chetana loves hemalai’ or something of that sort, which he was sure of it was not “Chetan”. I’d never seen anybody so emotionally attached to a graffiti

अबे विजय, वोह लिख्खा है ना !! वो चेतन नही है

To that, we all lost it. Haan Sudaani keh rahaa hai to hogaa…

Panvel Bus Depot, around 7:45. Typical ST Bus depot, all the red buses showing how not to follow good traffic ethics in a closed environment. The loos, full of pee overflowing, reminding me and Mukti of NH3 and H2S stink @ National college. People waiting in every single corner of the depot for their buses. This depot was quite a competition to Chicago’s Air Traffic Control.

A lady at Panvel was very helpful in leading us to the right bus to Karnala, we managed to get into the bus after her. This bus was full, I thought this ride would be on foot. But as usual, humans do not prefer what we do, the last seat in the STs. ha ha we love it. don’t we. The ride from Panvel was on a very good road, as soon as we left Panvel, we could smell the jungle air. The air too got cooler, here we come. Within 10-15 min. we were waiting for Karnala, when a guy said, “Karnala?, mere saath utro”. We got down with him, to see ahead, “Karnala Bird Sanctuary”. The guy got into a cabin, and said, “वर्ती पर्यंत जाणार ?”, “पाणी आहे ना?, वर्ती काही नाही.” Ok buddy, Rs. 20 each for the trip, thik hai. He even gave us a neat map of the Sanctuary.

We headed out only see a group of monkeys on the road, Mukti was hesitant, but had no option other than following us, The monkeys didn’t budge, “आगए आदमी के अौलाद”. Vijay as usual was moving fast and … trying to find a wrong turn 😀 . We took a deliberate right turn that was supposed to join back to the main road, which was properly paved. The right turn however never joined, we had to trace back. Further ahead, we saw cages and some huts, the ‘Office of the Sanctuary’ as stated in the map. There was a peacock trying to showoff his beauty, by spreading its feathers all round and dancing. Some parakeets as well, with their distinct vocals, further ahead, white Rabbits. They were so very white, they even had 3 pups,calfs, god knows what are rabbit’s kids called. But they were damn cute, just about 3 inch long and full of cotton wool. mmmm…. could be tasty to have a bite at, ha haaa.

A right turn ahead was a “difficult route” to the Karnala fort, while a left one was for “elders”. No prizes for guessing our route, we were on a trek, not a picnic. the route first descended, and then climbed back, nicely twisting and turning in the woods. aaah .. that smell of leaves fallen on the floor, the sound of crickets, cicadas, and the sound of birds…. simple jungle life…

As we moved on… Vj, not waiting.. always moving ahead…

Yeh to garden mein walk hain

Soon the way started to climb harder, more rocky features to cross and more gravel to be afraid of.. to that Mukti and Saurabh commented ‘haan, what a walk in a garden !!!’ with Vj and Saurabh both sweating heavily. With lot of snaps some video captures, we moved ahead. We got a chance to see a gujrati मक्कडमानव hanging on the trees. With all that, heat, water intake, we were moving ahead. Except for Vijay this was our trek after a long time. just the previous Sunday Vijay had again managed to have a disastrous Harishchandragad. It was my first after my knee zol. But the trek wasn’t strenuous.

We reached the top, where we couldn’t see rocks, trees above us but only sky. This top however was a road on the top of a mountain that lead us to the final fort. We saw a group coming from the other side (the elderly route !). An aunty was creating a havoc in the jungle peace… “WHY ARE YOU’LL NOT COMING…. I’M GOING AHEAD” and so on… I was trying not to listen her… but couldn’t help it. She was a bit too loud in the jungle. Further ahead there were steep steps towards the fort that we could see. The steps were actually cut rocks. The lady yet again…. “HELLO…. U’LL ARE NOT COMING… ? SHOULD I GO AHEAD ?” after a few steps, few difficult ones, “OYE WHY ARE YOU’LL NOT COMING WITH ME ?” I’d figured out the reason, why ! I was with Mukti, but I never had a look in Mukti’s eyes during this scene, I knew a single look would have made her laugh right in the aunt’s face. Thank god.. I didn’t. Further ahead, Sudani, Neeraj were managing to cross difficult rock patterns, when the aunty was unable to judge her steps… to that …

keep your pair here.

? pair ?
Ashok or Neeraj whoever that was… realizing the mistake..

leg keep here

another point where I avoided an eye contact with Mukti.

Vijay and Saurabh were ahead, almost into the fort now. Waiting for 4 of us trailing behind. As we moved into the fort, we saw the final piece of cliff that the rock climbers do rappelling etc. Some more snaps over here. By now Mukti wasn’t really feeling all good, too much of water perhaps. Feeling uneasy, While rest of us were finding a shade to have something to eat. We found a cave like area where there were cool water cisterns. Some were bad, but there was one which was exceptionally clean, I tried a sip of it despite opposite views, after me Saurabh too had it.. “abe, meetha paani hai” we then later enjoyed the meetha water even more.

Mukti was so uneasy, she had to puke.. she found a bad stinking water pool, where in she helped it clean with her distilled water like उल्टी, and in a weired fashion as well !! oh !! Tension free after that, she was so enthusiastic that she came into the cave with a big bang, ya big bang on the rock with her head. Aaaah !!! sat Mukti… holding her head… trying to weep perhaps… but then as we all know her.. She started to laugh..???? ha haa. Vj put some cold water on her head…

After few questions of how u’re feeling and so on.. we came to the important one… “what was the laugh about”

ये क्या हो रहा है मेरे साथ? पेहले उल्टी, अौर अब ये

ha haa, hmm… good carry on. After an enjoyable relaxing time in the cave, we headed for another shelter of the rock granting us some shade, where we had our food, Bread, etc, and so on.. Few snaps as well.

There on, Vj wanted to relax, so we headed back around the cliff towards the entrance of the fort, the door. Where we all put our bags down, and spread our feet. Vj and Saurabh trying to spread every single part of the body, but the whole entrance wasn’t wide enough to sleep. Vj laid down with his feet resting high on the wall. So did Saurabh, after which “Shit.. yeh paaon bahut oonche nahi rakh sakhtaa huun, aah…” uska cribbing chaltaa rahaa… We shot some more TP videos, abusing each other etc. which were deleted.

I and Mukti were still chatting while Vj was trying to sleep, Saurabh was trying to adjust his body into the area, Neeraj and Sudani were already dozing… We moved ahead from the place to venture out further, only to find nothing. Found another shade and we sat. Few min. Saurabh too joined in. aaah now this place, he was able to spread his whole body.. “aah .. but these stones, only if I could have had a pillow… ” .. and so on…

It was close to 3.00 when we finally decided to move down again, picking up our bags, etc. We head back into the jungle. within minutes I found myself hungry, yet again.. We sat down for food, munching bread, puffing ourselves with Glucon-D, mmm.. it tastes so yummy when u’re thirsty. With more photos during our descend, we reached the “Office building” where we releaxed in the shade of the trees on the grass carpet. Quenched our thirst, before we finally headed for the highway. It was then when we observed a pillar with a distinct message on it.

मुली पटविण्यास मनाई आहे

a little thought by Saurabh.. and it was actually

चुली पेटविण्यास मनाई आहे

waaah !!!

On the road, we waited for the ST bus, before we hired a 6 seater. where as a mandate, you need to sit in a awkward, tight position before u could have a sawaari of a 6 seater. Some more snaps helped us thru. At Panvel Station, Vj spotted a Watermelon vendor, and we all were there, puttin our small mouths into the big melon pieces, enjoying it. The bus ride from Panvel to Dadar was a soothing one, yet again on the backseat. Saurabh, Ashok, Neeraj all dozing off, while Vj, Mukti and I continued to enjoy.

At Dadar, it seemed more than a day, when we’d met earlier in the morning, ‘alas, the good day had come to an end, and we all were again like ants, cockroaches running and waiting for the local trains in the heavy rush.

Travelling Directions

  • Get a ST bus to Panvel ST Bus depot from Dadar Stn., Mumbai (opp. to Pune’s Asiad bus stop)
  • From Panvel get a bus towards Pen/Karnala

Chords: Chal Chale Apne Ghar (Woh Lamhe)

This entry is part 26 of 41 in the series Guitar

A lovely song from the movie Woh Lamhe, The chords are very simple. Just strum along with Down Down Up Up Down Up Strumming pattern

chal chale apane ghar ai mere hamsafar
E             A         B        E
band darwaze kar sabse ho bekhabar
E            A         B  E
pyar dono kare raat bhar tootkar
E         A         B     E
chal chale apane ghar hamsafar - 2
E             A          E

na jahaan bheed ho na jahaan bhar ke log
E               A      B            E
na shehar mein base laakhon logon ka shor
E              A       B            E
chand lamhen tu inse mujhe durr kar
E              A       B        E
chal chale apane ghar hamsafar - 2
E             A          E

duriyaan dene ka jo bhi hai darmiyaan
A             B         A        B
aaj kuchh aise mil ek ho jaaye jaan
A              B       A        B
bhar mujhe baahon mein le duba chaah mein
A                 E       A          E
pyar kar tu bepanaha khatam bechine raaton ke ho silsilay
E           A            B            A       B     E
yun laga le mujhe aaj apane gale
E           A         B      E
durr har bandishen aaj mujhmein utar
E            A          B        E
chal chale apane ghar hamsafar - 2
E             A          E

 

MySQL: Efficient Stored Procedure Editing

This is not about how to write a Stored Procedure (SP), But how to efficiently write a SP.

MySQL Query Browser

The easiest way to write a SP is to use a MySQL Query Browser, Just select the database and right click the dB and “Create Stored Routite…” This shall help you do easily modify, edit and create procedures.

Command Line

Unfortunately, not many of the dB guys could have access to GUI and create/edit access permissions, they may have to rely on the CLI. This is where create / edit of SPs is the most tedious. Lets set something in our system, before we log into MySQL.

  • In your ~/.bashrc add the following…
    export EDITOR=vim VISUAl=vim
    
  • Create / Edit ~/.vimrc file, and add the following…
    set noai
    set nonu
    
  • Log into the MySQL CLI, and set the following command
    delimiter //

The Developer now is ready on the server side to create/edit the procs. On the client side I assume the Developer has a Notepad equivalent text editor, or even better, I suggest Kate (if you are on Linux box).

In the editor…

  • Write an if exists drop procedure statement…
  • With few carriage returns following…, write the whole content (SP)
  • If a specific user/s need execute, write the grant execute permission after few carriage returns…

The dev is now ready to Create the proc..

  1. Paste the if exists drop statement and execute
  2. In the mysql prompt, select the dB and enter the following prompt
    \e

    . This is basically to go into editor mode. Press “i”, to get into the insert mode and paste the actual SP Content

  3. Press Escape key, to go back in normal mode and then press “:wq” to save and exit
  4. Enter “//” (the command delimiter) and press Enter, that should either create the proc, or return with the errors.
  5. Execute the Execute Grant statements

Done, Simple.

PS: Copy Paste @ rescue yet again !!! 😀

Chords: Yeh hai Bombay Meri Jaan – CID

This entry is part 19 of 41 in the series Guitar

A lovely song from CID

F          Bb       C    Bb
Aye dil hai mushkil jeena yahan
Bb           C            Bb              F
Zara hat ke zara bach ke, yeh hai Bbombay meri jaan
F      Bb         C       Bb
Ha haa, ha ho ho, ho hi haa ha haa
Bb         C         Bb          F
Hm hm hm hm, hm hm hm , hm hm hm hm hm
Aye dil hai..

Bb                                              C
(Kahin building kahin traame, kahin motor kahin mill
                                         F
Milta hai yahan sab kuchh ik milta nahin dil) -2
Bb         C          Bb      F
Insaan ka nahin kahin naam-o-nishaan
Bb           C            Bb              F
Zara hat ke zara bach ke, yeh hai Bbombay meri jaan
Aye dil hai..

Bb                                          C
(Kahin satta, kahin patta kahin chori kahin res
                                             F
Kahin daaka, kahin phaaka kahin thokar kahin thes) -2
Bb          C       Bb    F
Bbekaaro ke hain kai kaam yahan
Bb           C            Bb              F
Zara hat ke zara bach ke, yeh hai Bbombay meri jaan
Aye dil hai..

Bb                                 C
(Bbeghar ko aawara yahan kehte has has
                                     F
Khud kaate gale sabke kahe isko business) -2
Bb          C    Bb        F
Ik cheez ke hain kai naam yahan
Bb           C            Bb              F
Zara hat ke zara bach ke, yeh hai Bbombay meri jaan
Aye dil hai..

F                                          Bb
(Bbura duniya woh hai kehta aisa bhola tu na ban
Bb            C             Bb                F
Jo hai karta woh hai bharta hai yahan ka yeh chalan) -2
Bb       C    Bb         F
Tadbeer nahin chalne ki yahan
Bb               C              Bb                   F
Yeh hai Bbombay, yeh hai Bbombay, yeh hai Bbombay meri jaan

Aye dil hai mushkil jeena yahan
Zara hat ke zara bach ke, yeh hai Bbombay meri jaan

F      Bb         C    Bb
Aye dil hai aasaa jeena yahan
Bb            C           Bb                   F
Suno mister, suno bandhu, yeh hai Bbombay meri jaan
Aye dil hai mushkil jeena yahan
Zara hat ke zara bach ke, yeh hai Bbombay meri jaan