Kailas Gad - Easy trek with mind blowing views

Had been to Kailas Gad on saturday. Not many know about this fort mostly because it is surrounded by more famous forts. It must have been only a watch fort during Shivaji's time because it does not seem strategically important considering that it is surrounded by Loh Gad on the Lonavala side and Sinhgad on the other side.

A road going right from the base of Tamhini Ghat takes us to a village named Waghwadi from where the trek starts.This road goes along the backwaters of the Mulshi Dam which is what makes a trip to this fort a refreshing experience. Also from the top you see the whole view of the backwaters surrounding the fort on three sides.

Here are a few snaps of the trip.

Some classic photography on the way

The bikes....The enfield looks the best as always :)

 A Classic view on the way to Kailas gad. We could not resist waiting here for a while. Besides since we had cousins Digital SLR with us it was worth waiting.

 The lush green mountains just made us feel refreshed already.

Whole group except for the Photographer...

 Nice view half way from the fort. Mulshi Backwaters.

 Beautiful view of the Kailas Gad. We had to still climb the mountain seen in the snap.

 The queen of the fort we called her. She does not look less beautiful than Katrina Kaif. Thats the beauty of SLR. I was a little afraid that after clicking the snaps she would ask for her modelling fees. some 100 Rs per snap or something. We had clicked quite a few snaps of this lady.

"Gai Humari Mata Hain, Agey kuch nahi ataa hai" 

Have you seen a flying Human? No it is not Milkha singh. It is our own SLR owner.

Finally the tired, exhausted group with a thought in the mind that we need to still travel 90 Kms.

All in all not a difficult trek, but a very refreshing one. Or you can say can be a romantic trek rather than a hectic one.

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Mr Aurangzeb's city

Had visited Aurangabad on a weekend in May on my new unicorn. Was a great experience and I proved myself the quote that "Four wheels move the body while two wheels move the soul".

We were just two of us on two different bikes to attack Aurangzeb in his own city.

Here are some snapshots of the experiences we had.

Me with my girl friend...

It seems this is the famous Delhi darwaza at Aurangabad. I wonder what is it doing at Aurangabad. It must be an consequence of some silly demand from one of aurangzeb's wife that she wants to stay in Delhi and Aurangzeb must have fooled her in this manner. Believe me, when it comes to wife's wishes the mughals could go to any extent...

The tar on our way to Ajanta Caves.

Ajanta Caves view. They are basically monastries from the 5th century. They have some amazing architectural desings and i must say the Archeological Survey of India (ASI) have preserved them with care. No camera flashes are allowed in the caves so that the bright light does not deteriorate the paintings.

 

An example of the architectural intelligence of the 5th century men.

 

Ghrisneshwar Temple. One of the shiv jyotirlingas. The place is called Verul. We had a real good learning experience the previous night. We reached here at 12:00 from Ajanta caves as we got so engrossed in the caves that we did not realize the time. We could not find a lodging and were thinking to stay on the road. But by God's grace we found one just besides the temple. Moral of the story: Stay wherever you are by 9:00 PM when you are at an unknown place.

We two exhausted with the experience we had the previous night. We had slept at 2:00 AM in the morning and we were back on tar the next morning at 6:30 AM.

She was the only one supporting me whole heartedly for anything i wanted to do :). This view was on the way to Daulatabad fort.

Daulatabad fort. It gives you an measure of Mughal intelligence. It is not easy to rule almost whole of India when other kings like Shivaji, Pratap singh rana and brave rajputs always on your look out. It had in all 5 safety layers. The most interesting was a dark cave which was the only way to enter the fort. It seems the troops use to hide there and in case the enemy manages to cross all the earlier safety layers and reaches the dark cave, the troops hiding in the dark cave would attack them.

This is called the "Chand Minar". It was a sort of announcement point. This is one view from the top of the fort.

Great experience. Would be visiting this again in the rains. Should be more fun.

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Times Cycle To Work

Cycling rally on Saturday 5 June 2010.

Over 2000 cycles to see, some more expensive than bikes :)

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Hari weds Nayana

Hari wed Nayana on Wed 2 June 2010, Bangalore

The ceremony

The dos and don'ts

See! Shooting star!

The rest of us (I'm clickin')

Highlight: Clyde's neck was locked at 27º from the mean position arresting the rotary degree of freedom.

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Motorcycle Diaries - Pondicherry

Pondicherry trip

Since we've all become very busy (read lazy) nowadays, blogging isn't really possible. I thought I could utilise this webspace to keep picture records of my trips.. hehe

This one's about my Pondicherry bike trip with friends and family on 6-7 Feb 2010

The route

Somewhere down the road

Thiruvanamalai TempleSaapaad near the temple
Gingee Fort And the other sights on the beach

The famous Le Cafe

All in all.. we had a good time :)

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How some people sleep

Some sleep at work...

Some let their mind stray...

Some doze off in the back seat

On a get-away...

Some so horny; suck parts of their own

And some forget they were talking on the phone

Some get entangled...

Some knocked out...

But this dude is the strangest...

beyond doubt.

At the registrar's office he fancied his bed....

Slept as a bachelor and woke up WED!!!

Credits:

Pari

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I found him..

Disclaimer: Since I am posting this, you might expect something funny, but let me warn you that there's nothing funny below. Read with a strong heart.

Did you hear about....
1. Somebody told me he's still in Goa
2. I heard he's teaching at R.I.T.
3. I heard he left that job long back
4. It seems he's a full timer at ISKCon now

All bloody rumours.. And I so wish they were all false....

Go to ID hospital in Ponda and look around observantly. You'll notice that one building in the neighbourhood is particularly noisy. People dressed in white attire talking in a very soft tone get in and out of it and appear to be busy with something very important. The non-members have a smile on their face when passing by. And if you pass by this place, you'll sure feel like giggling unless you notice that one of those faces is quite familiar. He used to be our friend. His laughter rocked the hostels. The loudest guy of our batch. And here he is now - dressed in white dhoti-kurta, bald head and aloof.

He has taken up "bramhacharya". This means he will never get married and never attend any marriage. His occupation includes social service, prayers, going around in groups to preach about his association etc.

He does not have a personal phone number or email id. His basic needs - and i mean basic (food, clothing and shelter) are taken care of by the association; and thats about it. He visits his parents once every year and thats all they see of him.

I hadn't seen him for over four years, so decided to spend an empty sunday finding him out. I did find him quickly, but wasn't quite happy to see him this way. Nevertheless, I managed to keep a smile on my face.

He seemed to be happy with his life.. May be he is.

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Vacation '07/'08 - Goa & Pune

Its been long since i've written so here goes... i just had a fabulous and much needed holiday in India ! Met a lot of the old folks... Everyone's more or less the same. Some of the girls have straightened their hair and/or put on weight.
We did some karting again, and needless to say who was the overall champion: me :)... although a certain driver by the name of Yuri might respond to this blog trying to say how he had been leading. But my friend, the idea is to keep your kart on track rather than in the tyre wall. Anyway, you drive your Alto quite well mate, and thanks a million (I really mean it !) for taking me back home the day I was totally drunk. I'm going to remember that night for a long time now, specially since i had to explain to my mom why i don't need to join AA.

Goa, India

Anyway, had a good time at the dances inspite of not being able to put to practice what i'd been learning. But i haven't given up yet... restarted my dance classes with the British women. Mari, i'll teach you some more cha-cha-cha next time. Hopefully next time i'll take someone other than sisters or sisters-in-law as well... Oh, but I did manage to get in for the bacardi blast... with a French girl. And using a little bit of what my French teachers had thought me in school, i know her name is Sirielle. Well, "Rendez-vous à Paris, Sirielle !"
Anyway, the highlight of the holiday was the trip to Pune. It was great driving on Indian roads again, although some of my friends think i've lost touch ! But the roads were good. Its great to see India's infrastructure improving. You could almost compare the highways to the motorways here. Did quite a lot of shopping for export.
It was fun staying at the Engico home in Pune. It seems to be the 'hudda' for our batch. There's a lot i can write here, but i'll let the photos do the talking...

Pune, India

(besides i think i've caught the norovirus here and don't feel all too well).
Back in Goa, i found myself at the annual mando festival, which reminded me of my roots... and it was fun hearing the politicians speak and the spontaneous Konkani humour from Dr. Bhikaji Ghanekar.
I just wasn't feeling like coming back at all, and as if the heavens read my thoughts, i got an extra day thanks to Air India's troubled services, so spent the night at the Jajurs @ No. 903 in Mumbai !!
It was fun travelling in the Mumbai locals and getting lost in India's population...
I'm back in England and its cold and windy and rainy and horrible. We had our first snowfall yesterday and did some masti and fell sick. As a matter of fact i haven't seen the sun since i left India...

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