Trek to Torna Fort

Masoom was coming to Pune and he told me that he was interested in joining me at the Alang Madan Trek I was planning for the Christmas weekend. But later when he learnt that we would have to do some rock climbing and valley crossing, he said he would not be able to do it this time as he had just fractured his finger when he visited Jog Falls last month. So we thought of trekking another fort for this weekend. We quickly decided on Torna Fort.

Torna Fort, also known as Prachandgad, was the first fort conquered by Sivaji at the age of 16. Located at over 1400m above sea level, it is the highest fort in Pune district.

I reached Swargate bus station at 640am. Masoom too reached in sometime. But we just missed one bus to Velhe village(the base village of Torna Fort). We then had to wait for another hour to get the bus. We left Swargate at 8AM. It took the bus 1Hr45Mins to reached Velhe, which was its last stop too.

On the way uphill

We got down and had a quick breakfast at a small restaurant there. We began our trek to the fort after that at  around 10:10AM. It was quite sunny then, but a nice cool breeze was blowing. So we didn't feel the heat at all. There were not many guys trekking there on the day. On the way we also met a group coming down after camping there for the night. If you start from Velhe you will enter the fort through the Bini Darwaza". We reached the top in around 1Hr 50 Mins. There are a couple of temples on top. We checked the temples and then went around the fort.

 There we met a group of 3 elderly men in their 60s. We spoke to them for sometime, they told us somethings about the fort and offered us some tasty chiwdas and laddoos.They were full of energy and their face did not show any sign of fatigue. They were frequent visitors of the fort. They showed us the ladder that had to be used to get to the 'zunjar machi'.

Zunjar Machi

We went down there, found a nice place and sat down for lunch. Masoom's mom had prepared some very tasty pulav for us. We ate that quickly and rested there for 10 minutes; enjoying the pleasant breeze on top of the fort.

Raighad in the background

We could see the Raighad fort from Torna. Many people trek cover Raighad and Torna in a single trek. We then returned back to base after taking a few pics. It took us a little over an hour to reach the base. After having some refreshments at the base, we got into a shared jeep that dropped us at the highway from where we could catch a bus to Swargate easily. 

The best time to visit Torna, or most of the forts around Pune for that matter, is during the monsoon. I hope to do revisit the fort, and if possible clubbed with Raighad trek.


Other posts that you may want to read:

• Dzongri Trek - Days 1, 2, 3 - Getting there!
• Dzongri Trek - Days 4, 5 - The Ascent
• Rappelling at Naneghat
• Waterfall rappelling at Vihigaon
• Duke's nose trek and valley crossing

Theatre Acting Workshop @ Pune

About a couple of months back, we just finished a major release at work. So I definitely had some free time ahead of me; at least during the weekends. So I started looking for an interesting workshop in Pune. That was when I got a message from Niche Stagekraft that they are going to have a workshop on stage acting starting the very next weekend.

Niche Stagekraft is into english plays. It was founded in the year 2002 by Mr Jitendra R Powar. W had gone for their 25th production 'Candles in the Wind' - a collection of 7 short plays, and we had a great time watching. Some of the plays were really good; so when I reached back home, I registered at their site with my email id and cell phone number for their updates. That's how I got the message regarding the workshop.

So that weekend, I started going for the workshop. Acting is not more difficult than it seems; acting is a different world. You try to become another person, try to think like another person. It is not easy. We were taught different elements of Stage Acting including different emotions, body language, stage movements, training your voice and many more things. We also learnt different exercises for the facial muscles, for the tongue and for the voice. It was really nice to know all these things.

They are now conducting more workshops, starting this and next weekend (from Dec 5th and Dec 11th). The workshops will be held twice a week on Saturdays and Sundays, for four hours each in the afternoon. You can come for the workshop, and then if you wish, continue with the group. And who knows, you may find yourself on stage in a few months.  Their upcoming plays include Taale Danda (a Girish Karnad play) and Rest's Silence.

You can contact them on the the number given in the image, or through the mentioned email id. If you have any problem contacting, feel free to get in touch with me.

Trust me, it is going to be totally worth the time...and much much more!

Dzongri Trek - Days 1, 2, 3 - Getting There

 Das told me about the trek just a fortnight back. He and Ren had missed out on telling me when they were planning the trip. I always wanted to travel to the east and this one being a trek, I didnt have to waste any time thinking. I got my trekking bag from Wildcraft (Alpinist -55L) that evening and I booked my flight/train tickets on the same day.

Following was the plan:

October 30, 315: Howrah Duronto to Kolkata

Oct 31, 7 pm : Reach Kolkata, 

Nov 1, 350pm: Meet rest of the group; Saraighat express to New Jalpaiguri (NJP)

Nov 2; 2AM reach NJP; Cab to Yuksom. Reach Yuksom in the morning. Start 4 day trek to Dzongri


View Larger Map

A - Pune, Maharashtra
B - Kolkata, West Bengal
C - New Jalpaiguri, West Bengal
D - Yuksom, Sikkim


"Bhaiyya...thoda jaldi chalaiye na!"  I told the auto driver. I was late for the train! I was The driverwas racing against time, with the heavy traffic of Pune. I managed to reach the station 5 minutes before the departure. The Howrah Duronto (non stop from Pune to Kolkata) was waiting there for me at Platform one.

Das and Muneeb with our ride 

 I met Das and Muneeb at the station. The three of us got our berths in adjacent coaches. It was a long ride to  Kolkata. We were chatting about our college days and friends most of the time. The only time we went back to our places was to sleep or when the food was being served. We didn't have to order food. It was part of the ticket as this was a non stop train. The food was pretty good and had enough variety too.

We reached Howrah station at 650 pm the next day. We had some time in the night to explore Kolkata.As suggested by a friend on the train, we walked towards the Howrah bus station looking for a lodge for the night. Next to the bus station there were few decent lodges which didn't burn a hole in the pocket, where we could crash for the night. We left our baggage there and got out to explore the cultural capital of India.

We walked along the Howrah Bridge.  The first thing I wanted to get my hand on there was Rasgulla. West Bengal and Orissa are known for good Rasgullas and I love them too. We got into the first bakery we found and had few Rasgullas and Rasmalais there. Muneeb wasn't a great admirer of sweets, but Das and I relished having them.

After having the sweets it was time to have dinner. All three of us were starving; we met an elderly couple on the street and asked them for their recommendation for a good Non-veg restaurant. He suggested we go to Park Street, where we could find a lot of joints. So we took a taxi to Park Street( recently renamed as Mother Teresa Sarani), but Park Street was a lane with many branded outlets, pubs and continental restaurants. But we were in the mood to have some good Indian Biryani. There we met a group of guys in their early 20s who strongly recommended we go to a restaurant called 'Arsalan'. As we had time and enough patience we hired another cab to Arsalan which was in Park Circus road, a couple of miles away.

People waiting outside Arsalan

When we reached Arsalan, we found a around 50-60 people waiting outside to get in for dinner. We were a little upset as we were hungry and had to wait; but at the same time the long queue meant we were in line for some good food. We waited for about 10 minutes and then when inquired, we were told that it would take around 20 more minutes. So we decided to check the street until then. Right then a tram stopped in front of us! We looked at each other, nodded and then hopped in! Kolkata is the only city in the country to have a tram network (maintained by the Calcutta Tramways Company). Started in 1902, it is also the oldest operating electric tram in the whole of Asia. We had a short ride in the tram and then got out at the next stop. We then walked back; checking a small fair on the way. We were at Arsalan right on time. We got in an ordered some Mutton Biryani and Chicken Tandoori for us. We weren't made to wait a lot; we were served soon. The Biryani was pretty good; but we had spent few years in Calicut, a place known for its good Biryanis. After dinner we went back to our lodge and slept.

The next day we again hung around Park Street, Camac Street and Chowringhee Road before it was time for us to set out for our next destination. On our way to the station, we saw the Victoria Memorial and the Eden Gardens stadium. As suggested by the the Cab driver we got down in Babu Ghat so that we could take the steamer to Howrah.

Howrah Bridge as seen from the steamer

This time I reached the station with some spare time to go :). We met Nirmal, George and Rashmi at the station. They had just flown in from Bangalore. We chatted at the station until the train arrived. The train (Saraighat express) left the station at 3.50pm. We played poker on the train for sometime, after I gave others a quick poker 101. We found people selling all sorts of things on the train; snacks, sweets, cold drinks, tea n coffee, bioled eggs, saris, stationaries, electronic items and many more things! After we had our dinner, Das, Nirmal and I sat there talking. Others went to sleep. We were expecting to touch New Jalpaiguri in a couple of hours. And a cab ride later we were scheduled to start our trek.

It was going to begin the next day; on Day 4!

PS:
Next posts in the series:

• Dzongri Trek - Days 4, 5 - The Ascent

Similar posts:

• Duke's nose trek and valley crossing
• Rappelling at Naneghat
• Waterfall rappelling at Vihigaon

Waterfall Rappelling at Vihigaon

I got a tweet last week which led me to this page about waterfall rappelling at Vihigaon last weekend (17th and 18th July). The pics looked good. The rapel was only of 120ft -around  previous 350ft rapel, but the waterfall would definitely not make the descend easy. But the only issue came up when I called up Zeenat on the number specified on the page and she told me that I had to reach Shivaji Nagar at 4 in the morning! That meant I had to leave my house at 3AM and would have to wake up at around 2! That like the waterfall rappelling was something I have never done before! But after booking seats along with 3 of my colleagues, I didn't have much choice.

So on sunday morning, after my alarm was successful in waking me up at 2.30, 4 of us, Prateek, Mansi, Vinod and I went to Shivaji Nagar in a  call taxi. Trekmates, the group conducting the event was waiting there for us. We hopped into the bus and in 10 minutes we started off to Vihigaon. It was a long journey, most of it was along the Pune-Nasik route. We made only 2 stops along our 7 hour journey - the first one when we saw a hyena on the way and the second one for breakfast.

A friend we met on the way

When we reached at 11, the group from Mumbai had already begun rappelling. The guys waiting for their turn to rappel were having a nice time watching the waterfall and people rappelling or enjoying in the water. . Within a couple of hours, they stopped for lunch. Prateek had brought tasty puris from home and Mansi had cooked some good pulao for the four of us.

People enjoying the place and their time

After lunch, we didn't have to wait much for our turn. I was the last one to go among the four of us. One of the guys who finished his rappel passed his gloves, helmet and harness to me. I put them on with the help of one of the volunteers and then was ready to go!

My first few steps

When the rope was free, I was called. Few instructions were given, the knot was tied and in a couple of minutes, I was walking backwards along the waterfall. 

In size, the descend was only a third of the Naneghat rappel I had done earlier. But the force of the waterfall and the slippery rocks made it equally if not more difficult and challenging. My footwear only added to the problems. I was wearing my shoes earlier, but for the rappelling I decided to change to my sandals thinking I it would give me the same grip and I that I could prevent my shoe from getting soaked! I didn't sleep properly the previous night, I had a fever and still went ahead with the trip but changing the footwear was the stupidest of them! I slipped once after covering almost the quarter of the height. After that I kept feeding the rope faster so that I stood perpendicular to the rocks and managed to complete it fine. It was a really thrilling and enjoyable experience. 

I believe the pics speak for themselves

 By the time I finished, it had started to drizzle. I was feeling really cold so I changed to a dry shirt and wore my wind cheater. But before others finished and we reached the bus the only dry shirt I had was wet too. We had tea in the evening and then left for Pune around 630; we should have started 2 hours earlier to reach on time. Now we knew we were going to reach back home pretty late in the night, but what we didn't know was about the accident on the highway ahead which caused a huge traffic block and delayed us further by more than an hour. The fever and cold was getting worse. We now had to stop at a restaurant for dinner which again consumed some time. But with the help of the good roads (we came back via the mumbai pune national highway) and the driver's heavy right foot, we managed to reach Pune around 3.40AM. I then took a rick from shivaji nagar to my home and reached there at 4am! I have slept past 4 in the morning a lot of times before, but never after waking up at 230am the previous day!

As Jack Bauer says, "...this is the longest day of my life".


Similar posts:
-Naneghat rappelling
-Duke's nose Valley Crossing

6-legged cow

Two-faced kitten(Two Face and also Frank and Louise), two legged dog(Faith),  snake with a foot, one eyed cat(Cy) - there have been so many odd and mutated animals born around the globe; and I got to witness one yesterday: a 6 legged cow!

At first sight, I thought a cow was having problem giving birth to a calf, and that it was being taken to a vet. But coming closer, I noticed people taking pics on their mobile and a person standing next to it talking of some miracle. Only then I realized what it was.

The cow seems having no problem in standing, but the extra limbs are definitely discomforting, and are of use only to the owner, who was trying to make some money yesterday with the display.

Ke Nako - Its Time!

The biggest thing that happened in the last 4 years is here! Actually in South Africa.

The teams are in the country. The warm-up friendlies are over. There have been injuries to a lot of the top players. And now the Kick-off Celebration Concert is going on at Johannesburg as I write this post, and is being streamed live on youtube.

 My favorites are definitely the men in yellow and blue. I wasn't following soccer before I was 7 years old ('94 world cup). And once I did, Brazil have won 2 of 4 world cups and finished runners-up once. Since the last world cup they've won the Copa America(2007) and the FIFA Confederations Cup(2009).

This year the Brazilians are placed in group G, arguably the group of death this time, along with Portugal, Ivory Coast and North Korea.(BRB...)

(Back from a short break...how could I have missed shakira's hips that dont lie being streamed live from the Johannesburg)

Alright, here are the 8 groups:

So which captain is going to lay his hands on the most beautiful trophy on the 11th of July? Will Brazil, Italy and Germany continue the World Cup domination, or will other favorites Spain, Netherlands or even the English triumph? Are we gonna witness any upsets this year?

We will know only when the Jabulani rolls!!
 

PS: Its been a long time since my last post and lot of things had been happening since. I resigned at Amdocs and decided to join ZS Associates. Will miss the guys at Amdocs. But Im not losing any friends, I;m just making more when I join another office. My heads at ZS, please don't take it in a negative sense.;)

The world is flat...VERTICALLY!

"pls let it be full......lord..."
That is exactly what Pancily's chat said, when I told him that I was going forward with the trek even if he was stuck in Mumbai with his work. It was Pancily who told me about the 350ft rappelling at Naneghat on Feb 21st. But later, he had got the deadline for his project as 22nd feb which pulled him back. Girivihang trekkers, a club from mumbai was organizing it, and they would have it again only after diwali. So this was my best chance. Just as Pancily hoped, their bus was fully booked! But as they were coming from Mumbai and I was in Pune they told me that they'd let me do the rappelling if I arranged for my travel.

I then called up Viggy and Kini. We decided to go there on bikes. Kini was hungry for a long ride on his new R15! But on saturday, we learnt that naneghat is around 4 hours away from pune on bike, and your back is not going to like the last few kilometres. So Ashwath and Vignesh dropped out! The organizers had told me about Samyak who, along with his friends, was joining them from Pune. When I called him up, Samyak told me they were going in a Tavera, and they had space for another person!! You know what happened after that. :)

The pic that compelled me to go for the trek ;)

We - Samyak, Rishikesh, Anirudh, Prasad, our driver, Sachin and I- reached Naneghat at 12 noon. The Mumbai guys were there and around 30 guys had already finished rappelling. We sat down and waited for our turn to come.Some of the guys who were in line to go next were looking tensed. But the guys who had just finished seemed thrilled and we were eagerly waiting to get going.

 Click on the pic and spot the two guys who are rappelling.

Once everyone from Mumbai had finished, we got to start. They had a two sets of ropes coming down from the top. So a couple of participants could rappel at the same time. After waiting for few minutes, it was my turn. I got into my harness, got the carabiner attached to it and went to the top.

  I was then told how to rappel. The instructions were quite simple; atleast seemed simple when I heard them. Keep your feet at a distance of around 2 feet and do not bend your knees. Lean backwards and using your left hand behind you pull and feed the rope to your right hand, which would be a few inches above your forehead. The sole function of the right hand is to maintain balance. So you must not try to hold the rope tight if you are going down too fast. The speed can be controlled with the left. And if you do not come down in a steady manner you could spin around like a top, as Sachin did. :) This mostly happens if you do not use your feet properly or when the rappel is overhanging (it means the rocks are curved inward).

I wore my gloves. The knots were tied and I was at the edge of the cliff! The first couple of steps weren't very easy. An instructor told me a twice not to bend my knees while going down, because I could bang then onto the rocks if I did. After taking around 4 steps, I started to get the hang of it. The speed started to increase and I started to  literally run backwards [and downwards ;)] for a few seconds. I suddenly realized that the team at the top was no longer to be seen, neither was the control team at the bottom. I was alone for the next 50-75 meters, before I could even see the guys waiting for me down there. But now it didn't matter much. The fun factor had overcome the fear! I was really enjoying it! And before I knew it I was on ground; ground that didn't make a lot of angle with the sea.;)

 Coming back to the base after the rappel.

  
At 430 pm, everyone had finished rappelling. Once the organizers checked the count of people present, we set out for Pune. On the way, in Junnar, we stopped by at Anirudh's gradparents' home. After having some tasty poha and tea there, his granddad took us to a packaging factory they own. The person managing the place showed us around, and it was really impressive!

 After that, it was a non-stop drive to Pune, ending another memorable day and a great experience!

NB: The pics were taken from Kunal Shinde's picassa album of the same trek with rappelling conducted by the same club, Girivihang trekkers in 2009. The first pic was from another blog.

PS: This completes 3 on 'My White List'. :)

Inspired! ;)

PRANKS! I love pulling some pranks on my friends, sometimes on total strangers too! Today I got to witness one; a couple of strangers fooling a third stanger!! :)

This morning I was walking towards Magarpatta junction looking for an auto. The Pune Sholapur highway was abuzz with vehicles as usual. Walking along the footpath, I was spotting the people I see everyday; people I've seen over a hundred times, yet strangers. The cobbler was there, sitting under the banyan tree, trying to polish someone's shoes into a mirror. Next to him there was an 'astrologer' predicting future for another guy. I bet both of them were confused! ;)

Walking further ahead, there were many small shops on the roadside. I noticed a guy walking a few metres ahead of me suddenly slowing down looking at the ground. Bending down, he picked something, and continued walking.

"HEY!!" couple of small boys come running towards him shouting. My guess is that their parents work in one of the shops along the road, as I've seen them there earlier in the area. The boys rush towards the man and tell him something; one of them pointing at his hand. The guy then slowly handed over a wallet; that he had picked few seconds back, looks around him and walks; this time much faster. The boys had placed the wallet there and were waiting for their prey; and its not at all difficult to find one!

The lil boys celebrate their triumph with a Hi-five, and go back... and inspired, I started thinking of something mischievous I could do. :) Will update as soon as something happens ;)

My White List

I watched "The Bucket List" again a couple of months back. The movie is about two terminal patients, played by Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman, who make a list of 10 things they want to do before they 'kick the bucket'.

I tried making a bucket list, but wasn't able to write more than 4-5 items that i really wanted to do. So keeping my fingers crossed and hoping that there's time left before i cash in my chips, i decided to make a shorter short-term-list. This would consist of 5 things to do in the next 50 days. I call it the white list. You can use your wild imagination and creative mind to figure out why. ;) So heres the first white list.

1. Watch an IPL match. The third edition of the Indian Premier League will begin on March 12th in Mumbai. I am yet to witness a live match in a stadium. So being in Pune, this could be a great chance.

2. Rappelling on a waterfall! I have been wanting to do this for a long long time! Another test for my fear of heights! There is scope for rappelling and lot of other activities in places in and around Pune. That is another reason I prefer staying in Pune over cities like B'lore, Chennai or Kolkata.



3. Join some vocational classes for weekends ;). I haven't yet decided what classes to join. Will need to decide soon. :)

4. Considering the present situation, i feel watching 'My Name is Khan' in Maharashtra amidst all the hullabaloo, could have a place in the white list. :P

5. We have been procrastinating the visit to the paintball arena in Kalyani Nagar for quite some time now. Moreover, spending a lot of time playing counter-strike back in the college, I'm craving to shoot someone down. :P

That completes the list. Today is 13th Feb. So a time frame of 50 days would make the deadline for the above white list, 6 weekends later, the 4th of Apr. Will update the space as I finish each item in the list.

Post Scripts:

15/02 I had gone home last weekend. 'My Name is Khan' was released there; but again with a lot of opposition. It wasn't Shiv Sena there but their cousins Bajrang Dal causing problems. The theatres didnt screen the movie on friday, but they did start from the second day. The theatre didn't display any poster of the movie and you could also see a lot of policemen on duty outside. The screens were obviously running houseful; two of them were screening only this movie. Thought not in Maharashtra, I feel thats good enough to strike #4 off. :P

20/02 There were many guys from college in pune today. Yadu, Hari, Sharath, Padmanisha, Tisa, and Aruna were in Pune for the weekend. The number was good, so this was the best chance to play paintball. It is fun only when you have a lot of guys. So along with them and TP, nishana and chitra, I reached the paintball arena at 5pm. As Padmanisha wasn't feeling very good, the remaining 9 of us went on to play. Chitra, TP, Aruna and I were on one side; the rest on the other. We were given some safety instructions in the beginning after which, we had 5 rounds of absolute fun. If you haven't done this, get around 10 of your friends and rush to the nearest paintball zone! That completes #5.

21/02 I was quite tired after yesterday's paintball. But could I have missed today's rappelling because of that?! ;) #2 done. Check the post here .

13/03 The 3rd edition of IPL began yesterday in the DY Patil stadium, with a grand opening ceremony. With Pancily, I witnessed it and a great match between KKR and DC, that followed. Its a totally different feeling when you watch a game live in the stadium. You need to watch a match in a stadium atleast once; and you would probably enjoy it more if its a IPL. #1 is also done now. 1 more to go!

03/04 This one took couple of weeks. I had a hard time deciding which classes to go for. Finally I made up my mind. Its kickboxing every Saturday and Sunday morning! That completes #3 and my first White List is finished successfully; in time.

Wah Ustaad Wah!

Jan 11, monday (around midnight): Dunno why, but I suddenly feel like going for a Zakir Hussain concert. I start checking the web for any links to a concert I could go to. The official website only talked about his tours in Oct(in the US of A); of which the last two concerts were canceled due to his mother's demise.

Jan 12, tuesday(around 530pm): I get a mail at my office which said there was a Zakir Hussain concert, in pune, on friday! What coincidence!

20 seconds and 900 amdocs club points later: I've registered for the concert, without any second thoughts.

Jan 15th, Friday: I left office at around 6, with Soumitra. He too, like me had joined amdocs last year. We hired an auto from Magarpatta city which cost us 90 bucks and 30 minutes to reach the venue: MES Abasaheb Garware College Ground. Hundreds of cars on both sides of the road outside the college, told us that the ground is gonna be crowded. We were lucky the concert hadnt yet started. They were just having a presentation about the Maharastra Education Society, which was conducting the concert; celebrating 150 years of its existence. Few minutes later the stage was handed over to Zakir Hussain and Sabir Khan. Sabir Khan had played sarangi in great musical hits like Jodha Akbar, Saawariya, and Chameli.

First Sabir Khan started off with his sarangi, and the Ustaad followed in later. They started off slow first, but within a few minutes their fingers started to move at such a fast pace that the crowd was totally mesmerized. You could hear so many "Ohhooo"s, "Wah"s and "Kya baat hai"s around. Zakir Hussain then started to create many situations using his tabla. He first showed with his tabla, shiva's 'dumroo' and his disciples blowing the conch shell (creating the sound of the conch shell using tabla was simply awesome and unbelievable). And then he took us into a train and its compartments. Few minutes later he produced the sound of rain, clouds and thunder, then a deer running in a forest. The crowd was clapping most of the time; if not they were stunned hearing the sounds. I never knew so many sounds could be created from that simple hollow percussion instrument. And Sabir Khan too is a great talent. He played the Sarangi really well. There were times when Zakir Hussain would go slow on his Tabla and Sabir Khan would start showcasing his endowment.

Zakir Hussain played the tabla so well and at times so fast that it would seem like two or more people were playing at the same time. You would even doubt a musician or a tape playing on the backstage.

It went on non-stop for more than an hour an a half. And during the time he forced out three words from almost everyone present there,
"Wah Ustaad!! Wah!!"

PS: This is my first post this year....so a very happy new year to all the readers!