Links for the day 31st March 2008
March 31, 2008 by overclockedfragger1. Reasons to Trash or Rewrite Your Resume — check the comments
2. How to do what you love on the job
3. Tipping like a gentleman — the site seems to have other good articles
4. Core insanity replaces megahurtz madness — An excellent article a person should read before making hardware purchase decisions.
Links for the day 25th March 2008
March 25, 2008 by overclockedfragger1. Stain removal
2. Firefox Smartkeywords explained
3. Watch shared folders for changes with file alert monitor — Useful for work
4. Developing muscle mass
5. Heatmap your schedule for productivity
6. Google Code University — Check out “Introduction to Databases and MySQL”
7. Adventures in Rechargeable Batteries
8. Pack a vacation into one backpack
The Trek to Vasota
March 21, 2008 by overclockedfraggerThe saga of enjoying life in Pune continues…. Its been a few weeks after I went on my second trek. This time, it was to this place called Vasota in the Sahyadris.
We (Me and MS) decided to join a bunch of people from work, who were going for this trek, just 8 hours before the trek began. We had initially planned to go waterfall rappelling and white water rafting, but the lure of Vasota won. I had seen some photos of Vasota before and I knew that this was too good to miss.
Before deciding to go for the Vasota trek, out initial plans were to take JD’s rusty old Yamaha RX100 and do an early morning bike ride to a place 150 kms from Pune where the waterfall rappelling and white water rafting. The white was rafting depended on the discharge of water from the Mulshi Dam and so we had to reach there by 7:30 AM.
The Vasota Trek, meanwhile was much farther away.
On the night of 29th February 2008, we got into a mini van and set off for this village called Bamnoli. It was a 4 hour journey and we reached there early morning at around 5 am and slept in the van for sometime.
I woke up by around 7 am, roamed around, and took some snaps of this small village and the lake.
We had Poha and chai from the small shop there. The Poha was very different from the usual stuff which I get from the company canteen and was delicious.
We were then delayed by around an hour because we had to get permission for the forest trek. Finally we got onto a launch and started the 90 minute boat journey to the base of the hill. Our bags were thoroughly checked for alcohol and other contraband before the launch set off. Our trek organizers had a strict policy of no alcohol or smoking on this trip, and so the locals who had come to check us went back empty handed.
The boat journey was boring, and so I kept clicking.
The above photo showcases a “kerosene trail” from the boats. This is a pollutant and I could see this froth prominently present near most of the banks. If Vasota becomes a major tourist spot, then these guys might want to use an alternative fuel to avoid spoiling the fragile and serene beauty of this place.
At the end of the boat journey, we got off at the base of the hill from where the trek trail started.
We started the trek and I found trekking through the jungle to be a very different experience compared to what I had during the Bedsa Caves trek. We came across a carving of Hanuman after a while.
MS was initially disappointed because of the easiness of the trek, but when the steepness started to increase, the trek offered a good physical challenge and he was happy.
One of the mistakes we made was taking a long 25 minute break in between where we all did our introductions. After that break, it was really hard to get into the groove again and we had to take it real slow. The initial speed with which we had reach that resting spot was no longer visible.
I had kept a good pace all the time and took the lead during this time. This helped me capture some nice snaps of the place.
After around 100 minutes, we finally reached the top where we could see some ruins of the old Vasota Fort. We went further and saw the amazing view which made the long arduous trek worth the effort.
Unfortunately, my camera’s battery died at around this time and I couldn’t take more photos. I was forced to switch off the camera, wait for 10 to 15 minutes, switch it on and immediately take 1 snap during this time. It seems my new cheap battery charger is either too slow in charging, or has destroyed the capacity of the NiMh battery.
We spent around an hour and a half there, almost everyone had bought cameras and they took a lot of snaps. We had lunch and then after a few minutes rest, we started off on the descent.
The descent initially was pretty challenging and I slipped once or twice, saving myself by catching hold of some shrub or bark. After a while, I reached back to the place which MS had found non-challenging and actually ran continuously for around 5 minutes through that stretch. That was one hell of a risk and I would have ended up with bruises and dislocated bones if I had slipped or missed a steps. But only if we take risks like these can we really get an adrenaline rush and enjoy.
A small group of guys, including me, who had fast tracked it to the bottom, spent some time sleeping on the grass near the base. It was heavenly and as Suraj would put it, it was a “disconnect” from the daily trek through the tar and concrete jungle.
After some time, the launch reached and we got onto it. I spent most of the boat time half asleep and finally we got back to Bamnoli.
Another hour was spent in Bamnoli waiting for the second group of people who were coming in another launch.
We then left Bamnoli and started the journey back to Pune. We stopped to have dinner from a place called Hotel Raigad on the Pune Satara Bangalore highway. Incidentally, it was a mallu hotel and what pissed me off was that we had roti and bhindi from this place instead of some good ol’ Kerala style mutton biriyani. This was because our group was sitting together and some of the people were vegetarian. It would have been much better if we had separate tables. 
This was an anticlimax, but the bill was equally shared, so we couldn’t complain and me and MS kept the grudges to ourselves.
We got back to Pune by around 12 AM Sunday 2nd March.
This was one hell of a trek, and it is classified as “medium difficulty” by most people.
Next time, I hope to go for a Katraj Sinhagad night trek. I should have gone for it yesterday, but it was canceled thanks to a poor turnout.
My next blog entry will be about a project party I went to. It took place at Ananda Valley.
