While walking around the Sindhudurg fort, came across this wild flower. Don’t know whats it called.
Category: Project 365
Day 63/ 365 – Bringing in the New Year
This year we, me and my wife – along with some of my best friends, welcomed 2014 in the most unique manner. We celebrated New Year’s at Tarkarli – which is some 500 kms away from Pune. Tarkarli is famous adventure water sports – one of the few places in India where you can do scuba diving, and snorkeling. We had already finished doing the water sports and decided on the spur of the moment to hire a boat and celebrate New Year’s eve on a secluded island. Initially, I was a bit apprehensive about doing this as I had never done something like this earlier and was not sure how it would turn out. However, Saurav and my wife, convinced me otherwise and we decided to go ahead with the plan. We got our food and drinks packed, got wood for the bonfire and also got firecrackers. With our stuff all packed, we headed out to accomplish our plan.
As it turned out, the skies were clear- and we got to see plenty of stars something which is a luxury in a city like Mumbai where we have way too much pollution. Under the starry sky, we were in the boat in the middle of the Karli river and not a soul was around us. This was just too good to be true. As we reached our destination, we found that due to high tide the whole island was submerged and it would take atleast another 30-45 mins for the low tide to occur for our island to appear. The same island is used for water sports during the day and we could see the bamboo stands in the middle of the water. It seemed like, we would not able to celebrate on the island after all. The boatman who had accompanied us told us that we can use one of the stands to get the fire going and wait for the low tide. It was around 11:30pm by then. We were in two minds – whether we head back or celebrate in the boat or get down here and wait for the low tide. This is where Saurav and I got down to evaluate the depth of the water and found it to be about knee high. We decided that it was good enough for us to celebrate and decided to get the fire going on one of the stands.
With the fire going, the spirits started flowing and soaring. Come 12am, we started bursting firecrackers and welcomed 2014. This was very different compared to the way I have been celebrating the New Year’s eve. I couldn’t have imagined a better way to bring in the New Year. Thanks to Saurav, Geeta, Tushar and family for making it an awesome evening.
Day 62/ 365 – Colors of Sunset
Took this picture in the evening after sunset while roaming around on the Tarkarli beach.
Day 61/ 365 – Retrospective for 2013
Wow.. 2013 is almost about to be over. Cant believe time has flown by so quickly this year. Personally this year has been very satisfying for me. Though I didn’t really set out with a to do list for the year, did manage to do some of the things which I wanted to do. Here are my top 10 things for 2013
- Trekked for 2 days in Himalayas – this was one of the best trips ever for me. I am never going to forget the time I spent in the mountains.
- Visited Leh – Ok – this was in continuation of the trek – but if there is one place which anyone should ever visit is Leh. It is just beautiful.
- Brought my first car – Always wanted to get a car and was finally able to get one. Really happy for that
- Donated blood for the first time – Had never donated blood ever in my life. Thanks to Saurav Roy’s persistence, was able to donate blood and felt proud about the good deed done.
- Clicked a lot of pictures – Captured a lot of pictures this year and learnt quite a bit of photography and thoroughly enjoyed taking pictures – birds, landscapes, covered an engagement and a wedding.
- Ran Vasai Virar Marathon – this is something which I am not too proud about – finishing a half marathon in 3 hrs and 17 mins without much/ any practice.
- Scuba Diving/ Snorkeling – Ok.. this hasn’t been done yet, but will be done in the next couple of days. Saurav Roy, this better be good else I will have to take this off my list of achievements.
- Started Project 365 – Started writing again. I know I am running late by approx. 10 days but what the heck, I am enjoying writing down my thoughts and sharing some of my photography work with everyone.
- Completed my Executive MBA – Ok. This is also not yet done. But would be completed on Saturday. After almost 18 months done with it. Finally Saturday’s would be mine, mine and only mine.
- Discovered a passion for traveling – covered so many places this year – Indore, Manali, Ladakh, Nathdwara, Pune, Nasik, Bangalore, Chincholi Morachi, Tarkarli (will happen in the next couple of days) etc.
The next year will bring about its own share of adventures. Looking forward to them eagerly.
Day 60/ 365 – Piano Man
I have been in love with this song since I heard it for the first time. I enjoyed it even more when I attended a Billy Joel concert in Washington DC in 2005 and he played this song as his closing number. I think it is one of the best songs ever.
It’s nine o’clock on a Saturday
the regular crowd shuffles in
There’s an old man sitting next to me
Makin’ love to his tonic and gin
He says, Son can you play me a memory
I’m not really sure how it goes
But it’s sad and it’s sweet and I knew it complete
When I wore a younger man’s clothes
Chorus:
Sing us a song, you’re the piano man
sing us a song tonight
Well, we’re all in the mood for a melody
And you’ve got us feelin’ alright
Now John at the bar is a friend of mine
He gets me my drinks for free
And he’s quick with a joke or to light up your smoke
But there’s someplace that he’d rather be
He says Bill, I believe this is killing me
As the smile ran away from his face
Well I’m sure that I could be a movie star
If I could get out of this place
Now Paul is a real estate novelist
Who never had time for a wife
And he’s talking with Davy who’s still in the navy
And probably will be for life
And the waitress is practising politics
As the businessmen slowly get stoned
Yes, they’re sharing a drink they call loneliness
But it’s better than drinking alone
Chorus:
Sing us a song, you’re the piano man
Sing us a song tonight.
Well, we’re all in the mood for a melody
And you’ve got us feelin’ alright.
It’s a pretty good crowd for a Saturday,
And the manager gives me a smile
‘Cause he knows that it’s me they’ve been coming to see
To forget about life for awhile.
And the piano sounds like a carnival
And the microphone smells like a beer
And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar
And say “Man, what are you doin’ here?”
Chorus:
Sing us a song, you’re the piano man
Sing us a song tonight.
Well, we’re all in the mood for a melody
And you’ve got us feelin’ alright
Day 59/ 365 – Peacocks at Chincholi Morachi
Last Sunday, we visited a village called Chincholi Morachi. The village is approx. 50 kms away from Pune on Ahmednagar highway. Chincholi means Tamarind trees and Morachi means peacock, thus translating name of the village as Village of Tamarind trees and Peacocks. The drive to the village is very pleasant with rolling hills on the side. I had been here earlier along with Saurav Roy in December last year. As soon as we reached the village, we spotted a peacock but before I could take a picture, the peacock ran away. We then parked ahead on the side of the road and then entered the fields to observe some peacocks. We also ran into a local villager who told us how he feeds the peacocks on the daily basis and they are running away because we are strangers. By this time, we had already spent like 45 mins there. The villager asked us to stay back for some more time and the peacocks would come. However, we decided to make a move and head back to Pune. Overall, we had a good trip.
Day 58/ 365 – Sunset at Khandala
I captured this shot while returning from Khandala on Sunday evening. The sun was setting and the place was crowded with way too many people. I could only find a spot where there two branches in front of me. So I thought.. lets use them as props and tada.. the results are the below two pictures.
Day 57/ 365 – Reminiscing Old TV days
Today while having lunch we, me and some colleagues, started reminiscing about old days when we just had state sponsored TV channel. In the early 90’s satellite TV had not yet arrived in India and there was just one state sponsored television channel, Doordarshan, which was free to air for everyone. So we were discussing about the various shows which were telecasted during those days. I believe the content quality of those shows is far more superior to anything that current TV shows dish out in the name of family entertainment. There used to be shows like – Malgudi Days, Gul Gulshan, Gulfam, Wagle ki Duniya, Nukkad, Mungeri Lal ke Haseen Sapne etc. The quality of those shows was simply amazing. I think even now a lot of people watch them on Youtube. I remember my parents watching Rangoli every Sunday morning – a song – which would play songs (old and new), then me getting all excited to watch cartoons – Duck Tales, Talespin, Jungle Book and then we would sit and watch Mahabharata/ Ramayana any of the two which is ongoing. Then at 1pm there would news for mute and deaf – where one news reader would read out the news and the other would use sign language to convey the same. There would also be a movie on Sunday afternoon. The evening would begin with regional news followed by a Marathi program – Aamchi Maati Aamche Manasa. On Sunday’s you would also have Surabhi – show where they would showcase different places in India along with other interesting topics, followed by English language programs. I remember I was so excited when Doordarshan came up with another channel – DD2 Metro. It was supposed to showcase some of the favorite shows during certain times of the day – everyday. So now instead of watching TV only on Sunday, we could watch some shows on DD2. With the advent of satellite television in India, Doordarshan gradually lost its place and now is probably only watched by people who cant afford to have a satellite connection.
Day 56/ 365 – Evening time at Vasai Creek
Everyday I pass through this stretch and feel like taking a picture. The other day I finally parked my bike on the side of the road and took this picture.
Day 55/ 365 – Dhoom 3
One of the most eagerly awaited movies of the year – Dhoom 3 releases today. There is so much buzz about the movie, that most of the tickets have been booked for the weekend. The general story line of the movie is – The bad guy steals, the good guy catches him, the bad guy becomes a good person or dies. Nothing different, right? The Dhoom franchise is famous for making its bad guys look really cool in the movies. In the first movie we had John Abraham who looked super cool riding a Hayabusa bike and robbing banks and casinos alike. Then we had a super suave thief with Greek God looks in Hrithik Roshan in Dhoom 2 who would steal the rarest of rare artifacts and now Aamir Khan who plays a clown thief with a weird face tattoo who robs (God knows what) in Dhoom 3.
The only constant characters in the movie series are the good guys – Abhishek Bachchan and Uday Chopra. While Aamir is already an established super star, the careers of the other two baddies – John and Hrithik really took off after this movie. The other thing that has evolved with this series is the location where the baddies operated. John operated in India, Hrithik – the world over as they tried to show it and Aamir – primarily in the US as the trailers show. Another thing that has worked in the favor of the franchise is that so far the movies have been slick and fast paced. I am hoping that same continues in the upcoming movie. I just hope that in this movie – Abhishek Bachchan dies and Aamir wins.. buhahaha.
My thoughts...My story 