Shock Abs: Need of the time

Just as Shock Absorbers in a car help reduce the effect of bad roads, some of them installed in our minds would surely help a lot in maintaining relationships..

As we drive on the road, we consciously or unconsciously avoid the big potholes (which are common in Mumbai) to avoid the sudden discomfort caused to us. There are eventually such incidents, where you cant control from pulling over the pothole and in the course cause discomfort to yourself and all the passengers. In our real lives, we come across such situations quite often where we face some potholes and the same if we don't avoid, can cause discomfort.

In a relationship, may it be any - parents, friends, loved ones, there are many times when we feel bad about something, it may be the actions or words, it certainly disturbs you somewhere deep within you. It may not be something which was intended to be done but was purely coincidental and done in a rage. We humans many a time say or do a lot in rage of something. We are connected with a lot of things in our lives and any change in that might affect our mental balance. At such times, we wont think of what we are doing or what we say but at the end of the day someone's hearing us and someone's being affected by that. What the whole phenomenon does is, it affects the relationship.

In this article, I would like put forth an understanding where we can try to keep a cushion or a shock absorber within our selves for such kind of events. The moment when someone says something bad or unacceptable, it would surely have some reason behind it, some kind of rage which is making that person do so. If we as the second person, or the person who is on the listening side, stays calm and tries to understand what is causing the first person to do so, life can really be a lot simpler. Pre-judging or assuming do bring in a lot of misunderstandings and might harm the whole fortress of the relationship. If in any brawl or argument between two persons in this world has atleast one of them with his head calm, the relationship would surely survive. It would be like a half won war when with a calm head. In today's world, we have so many tensions and stresses' that keep going up every day and those moments where one would do something in the fit of rage is highly probable.

So, while driving, just as we avoid or ignore the discomfort caused by the pothole on the road and carry on with the road ahead, we take a lesson that we should take the road ahead in any relationship even we face some kind of potholes which would lead to discomfort...

Assume data wherever necessary

It a common rule in most of the academic papers we write, atleast in engineering papers, where they mention a rule "Assume suitable data wherever necessary" which subtly means that they should not be blamed in case there are any discrepancies in data sufficiency!! I suppose they have kept that as a template as I was never surprised to find that rule mentioned even in theory papers !! Leave apart the education system, I had never thought that really applied in real life, of course, not in all cases.


Did I surprise you, may be not, its pretty much a fact of life. We assume suitable things here and there before checking them and even before realizing what impact would it have on the relationships surrounding you.But we are comfortable assuming things. The moment we get some what comfortable with new people around us, we tend to assume things about them before they are actually clarified. There are many times when you assume things even after being in a relation for a long time and may be times when you dont even know the person. Now how many people have assumed Priyanka chopra is a great person by nature even before knowing her??

Remember the last time, when you saw your boss shouting at your colleague at something and you assumed that he was arrogant, cruel etc etc. But the next time you confronted him he was all not that bad !! Personally speaking, I really did go through the example mentioned above at my workplace. That was about your boss, he is meant to be arrogant at times, just to meet the company targets. Lets understand how that might be when we talk about someone like a friend, a relative. A friend of yours who is really short tempered, does it make him/her really bad at heart. Naah,Wrong thing to assume !! Many a times people might behave different in the situations they face in life and would be heavily characterized by their daily mood, problems issues faced in life etc. I personally have asked a friend of mine if he had a bad day that day after he scolded me once, and he really did have a bad day... But it was really good for him to open up and let me know the reasons or else my stupid mind would have assumed many things about him that day and maybe that would have seriously affected our friendship !! That was the day when I really went by the motto "Dare to assume and care to understand"

Remember the next time you assume suitable things about your near and dear ones, they might really prove to be a dent in the relationship.. Thanks.

Bad roads !!

A road with full of pits also leads to discomfort in a relationship

Words: 399
Reading Time: 2 mins 14 secs

Mumbai, the financial capital of India and my hometown has one thing which discomforts and irritates all of its inhabitants - the roads - are full of pits/trenches. The shock absorbers of any vehicle are completed put to a test to ensure a smooth ride. But we cannot in any way build better shock abs and hence and should thus try and built better roads. Better roads are built by an efficient spend on infrastructure, use of the perfect materials and minimal corruption! While reading this you must be wondering as to what I am trying to reach to !! I am putting ahead the similarity between the two - relationship and bad roads !

A relationship - may whatever it may be - siblings, friends, bf/gfs - they dont matter, they all take the same road. The road in the relationship completely dictates the comfort that one would be in the relationship. It completely depends on the way the vehicle is driven !! There are ways of driving the relationship - you either take it slow over the pits thus ensuring minimum discomfort, or you simple steer to avoid those pitfalls. There is also one more method which you wouldnt want to take which is driving fast anyhow the road maybe which would be disastrous for the vehicle as well as the passengers !!

A relationship is a very tender, cannot bear major disturbances while in journey. Once you go through a bad stretch, one will and should ensure that it (the pits) are avoided next time or the vehicle is slowed down to great extent! Once a relationship is through a turbulence, the vehicle has to be pulled back to its normal speed with great efforts - shifting to lower gears and pulling it back to normal speed. The relationship also thus goes to the base where it started from and has to be pulled up from the lower gears to higher speeds !! So as mentioned above, the roads must be built with efficient spend on the infrastructure and good materials, ensures that the roads are built for the future..

Though the road authorities claim that only 3% of the accidents on the road are due to bad roads, I feel the number would be much higher than that because of Bad Roads !! Happiness is where you get smooth and pit-free roads in life !!

Pacifying Yourself !

There are 2 things humans have created to pacify themselves in this world. Each and every person in his life sees times when he is down,depressed and has the whole world against him. At such times does he give up, does he fight back or keeps going as the water flows in a river ? Frankly speaking, I would not know what would he do in such a case.. would purely depend on individual preferences..

But according to my observations of the world what I have seen, man has himself developed / believed in certain things which keep him afloat above all the depressions he has in his life. Those things would help him get out of the same. Would certainly like to say that it is " believed " that those things would help him get out of those depressions.. Those couple of things are

1. God

2. Destiny / Luck - whatever u call they are the same

God is our ultimate belief.. we always attribute our happiness as well as sadness to God. We always say whatever happens is for the best because God has decided that for us. We always pray to god, in our good times as well as bad times. Does our prayers get answered ?

For destiny, we have heard many people or I myself have cursed or praised my luck several times !! "It must have been written in my destiny" is what most of the people end up saying. Isnt it ?

Does God Answer Our Prayers?

If God were to fulfill the desires of people according to their prayers then the Impartial Lord would become "partial" towards those who pray.

Then how does God fulfill the desires of His devotees?

Lord Krishna says "Whatever form a devotee seeks to worship with "faith" that "faith" of his I make firm in him". (Bhagavad Gita7/21)

From the material Standpoint, when we pray, and deter¬mine to achieve something we develop a "faith" in the goal and confidence in ourselves to do so. Faith is a, growing belief rooted in understanding. As this "faith" increases, the mind becomes more and more efficient. A single - pointed mind is indeed a mighty force against which no obstacles can stand for long. This "faith" irrespective of the chosen goal, is that which ultimately takes each one of us to our success.

Then what? How does one gain the fulfillment of his desire?

Reinforced with that "faith" in his chosen field man works harder. The Lord admits that by "His" grace that "faith" increases and consequently the efforts also increase with the increase of "faith". We put forth more and more efforts and as a result our desires are fulfilled. So, to say that we have been praying for years and our prayers have never been heard is the complaint of not those who pray but those, who only beg, without constantly striving hard to achieve.

From the spiritual standpoint, this verse is a very important one as it has carved out a distinct character for the Hindus—their unbelievable sense of tolerance towards all other religions in the world. The Hindu knows that "Truth is one; sages call it by different names." In whatever form man worships his God with "faith", in that form God shall be revealed to him.

Both in material and spiritual successes the secret of achievement is one and the same. If one desires the worldly things one gains them; if the spiritual experience, then one gains that too. If one's desires are materialistic •then one will seek them through worldly "devatas" (powers) and find one's immediate fulfillment.

Efforts remaining the same, the results depend upon whether we strive out-worldly for the passing joys, or dive inward to reach the permanent Bliss in the Self. In short, we can have what we wish for, if only our powers of wishing are powerful enough. Prayer brings about the necessary mental integration in ourselves, and assures our success
in any field of endeavor.

Remember, prayer is not beggary. Nor is it merely an exaggerated glorification of some unknown entity called God repeated mechanically by the mouth in a language which is unknown to the devotee. Prayer is invocation with the mind contemplating on the greater Reality of Life, the Essential Life that energizes, activates, thrills the inert world
of matter into living creatures, expands itself and in this expansion it soars higher into kingdoms of joyous experiences and true unfoldments.

Author : Swami Chinmayananda
Source : Swami Chinmayananda

Perception

Does the way in which the worlds perceives you matter at all ?

Words: 512
Reading time: little less than 3 mins

Perception, to define it in simple words, would be the way someone perceives another being to be. His/her characteristics, behaviour, good points, bad points are all stored in the minds of the audience based on previous instances. Once those are stored, they always are refreshed when that person is back in front of them. To change one's perception is very difficult - thats what people say.

"First Impression is the Last impression" is always the phrase repeated by many professors to their students to help them understand that once the impression is created in the mind, theres very little scope to change that again. Many many people in this world feel that one has to be himself / herself and not copy anyone else's traits. I do not completely disagree that, but at the end of the day it matters a lot when it comes to interaction with the world. The world would make a big picture about your character, positives, negatives etc and will always keep an impression in his/her mind. The next time you meet the same person, he already knows the way you behave and the way you socialize. Let me take an example, I am known to be a short tempered person, yeah theres still a divide on this within the social circle I am with most of the times. But those who have perceived me to be a short-tempered person will always ensure they dont cross the lines when being with me. Now personally I feel, I have very much overcome that short - temperedness (whatever it took me to realize, read Anger Management) Even today when a person meets me it has always been to my notice, that s/he still feels I havent done my lessons properly. Its all about perception. It might be atmost difficult to change a perception that has been bred in the minds for quite a long time now.

Imagine people going for an interview, the first impression is the last impression truly. The way you approach situations, problems is answered in the perception created in the interviewer's mind and yes of course, thats created by you itself, Isnt it ? Once you are done with the interview, you might get a feedback that you might be expecting but something that would not be expecting. The strangest thing would be to create such a perception to the interviewer which might not be the case - the so called wrong-impression.

Till today, It hasnt been possible to read peoples mind and possibly change the way they think about you as a person. The only way one can change the perception is to change the thinking method that one employs. Put yourself in the person's position and assess your behaviour - a best and the only method according to me for introspection. Perception cannot be destroyed, but can be modified and at the end of the day, I think its the way the world looks towards you as a person which matters the most and not that of the "man in the mirror" !!!

Law of the Garbage Truck

The morning had already begun by witnessing a brawl between two passengers, while commuting in the local train in my homtown, Mumbai. Rather than such quarrels occuring on day-basis, I would say these quarrels occur on an hourly-basis or maybe even less than that. At every step, every life you encounter with in Mumbai would be running to earn his bread-n-butter (job)...

Post an hour of travel to workplace, I came across a lovely mail and it very well echoed what I witnessed in the morning and what should be done to make this world a beautiful place to live in.. 

The mail is called as Law of the Garbage truck and it goes like this

"One day I hopped in a taxi and we took off for the airport. We were driving in the right lane when suddenly a black car jumped out of a parking space right in front of us. My taxi driver slammed on his brakes, skidded, and missed the other car by just inches! 

The driver of the other car whipped his head around and started yelling at us. My taxi driver just smiled and waved at the guy. And I mean, he was really friendly. So I asked, 'Why did you just do that? This guy almost ruined your car and sent us to the hospital!' This is when my taxi driver taught me what I now call, 'The Law of the Garbage Truck.' 

He explained that many people are like garbage trucks. They run around full of garbage, full offrustration, full of anger, and full of disappointment. As their garbage piles up, they need a place to dump it and sometimes they'll dump it on you. Don't take it personally, just smile, wave, wish them well, and move on. Don't take their garbage and spread it to other people at work, at home, or on the streets. 

The bottom line is that successful people do not let garbage trucks take over their day. Life's too short to wake up in the morning with regrets, so...Love the people who treat you right. Pray for the ones who don't. 

Life is ten percent what you make it and ninety percent how you take it! Have a blessed, garbage-free day! " 

Wouldn't be it wonderful if everyone adopts this law in each ones life ?? We will just put behind all the differences and make this world a better place to live in ...

 

BRTS Mumbai

BRTS cannot succeed in Mumbai unless authorities take huge efforts

Introduction:

BRTS (Bus Rapid Transit System) was started by Best in Mumbai by introducing Long buses with cushion seats, conditioners that keep you cool in the hottest weather outside and running right across from Backbay (South Mumbai) to Dahisar (North Mumbai) - from one end to other end of the city. Pricing is pretty comfortable for an air - conditioned bus at Rs. 65 from Backbay to Dahisar (check the BEST website which says 55 but the conductors charge 65). The minimum charges are Rs. 10.  

The bus is deputed in the mornings and the evenings from Monday to Saturday - targeted at the car owner who uses his / her vehicle to travel to work. 

Practical Problems: 

The absence of a dedicated lane for the Long bus (which is seemingly impossible in Mumbai or in any city in India) makes the travel a long 3 hrs from Backbay to Dahisar - the time in which you can reach Pune, thanks to the expressway. But in Mumbai, if you are returning from work - 3 hours, trust me, tend to be extremely long. BEST estimates a time limit of 2 hours which can still be long. The other alternative, the bone-crushing travel in the local train which is faster at 1 hour but totally strains you out - Air condition is out of question but getting a place would also be difficult in the local train. 

Epilogue:

The fact that it takes more than double the time to travel between the same places, the travel being extremely relaxing with those super efficient suspensions but in this world where people are always short of time, the pleasing environment inside the bus might not help lure mass Mumbaikars.  

Rock On - The bollywood movie

The Bollywood movie "Rock On" rocks.. a must see !!

It was a hectic week in office, and I was already dreaming of going back to a good sleep. My friends suddenly came up with this plan to go for this movie.. that too a late night show.. phew !! I could not imagine what I could have missed I had not joined them on this show.. !!

This movie simply goes by its Title - it simply rocks.. Based on a group of guys who had a band (a rock band) out of sheer passion and had even won a Channel V contest to bag a cool music album sponsorship... what happens next ? I would like to leave that for the time when you yourself would see it in the cinema hall...

Finally, a great story directed very well... Shankar ehsaan loy has yet again given good numbers suiting to the film.. Lyrics could have been better but who listens to lyrics in rock songs.. !! oh did I hear that you dont like rock music ?? But chill .. even I dont like it still now .. but i love those numbers in Rock On.. those are simply awesome...

A story with love, friendship emotions and yes of course the rock music all mixed very well to create a masterpiece

I would simply give a "MUST SEE" rating to it..

10 Tips to attract traffic to your blog/website

It’s always an aim of any blogger to increase his blog traffic day by day. I started my blog about 18 months back and have followed some great tips to try and make it known in the internet world. Follow some of the tips mentioned below to anticipate an increase in traffic which I am using or have used..

1. Visualize yourself to be the audience of your blog/site and anticipate what readers would get from spending time on your site. Is it useful enough for them? Will you be able to provide the right information the readers are looking for?

2. Include many references, links in the article to make it more robust and ensure that the article is not too verbose – People nowadays don’t like to spend more time on a single site. They want information quick and in an assorted manner

3. Include links for ‘Related posts’ for the article on your blog to ensure some people who would like to read more about that topic navigate to your other posts – thus increasing retention

4. After you have created the post you think will ‘rock’ spread the word. Participate in forums related to the article with including a link to your blog. Submit your articles to popular article databases like ezinearticles.com, articledashboard.com etc.

5. Answer questions in popular sites like answers.com related to your topic and of course include your URL, submit your URL to popular aggregators like bloglines.com etc

6. Submit your site to the mother of all search engines – Google – Many surfers would have their way through Google, and your site being found there is always an advantage – If your site is popular then Google will automatically index the site, but if not visit the URL à http://www.google.com/addurl/

7. Create custom and attractive feeds for those who subscribe your feed with the help of sites like feedburner.com

8. Place labels of other content on your blog for allowing people to know about the other content, place comment boxes & polls on your blog to get feedback from your readers

9. Enable swift registration of your subscribers by placing subscribe boxes on your blog

10. Register for Statistics at any site providing those services for your blog. I would personally recommend Google Analytics to constantly monitor the traffic and preferences of the audience. Judge which is the ‘hot’ topic is and try to improve the topic to ensure reader retention!!

11. Earn Online by installing advertisements on your site to monetize your site – to which I would recommend Google Adsense – the audience generally lands your page in search of information and if they don’t find it, they would rather navigate to another page by clicking on a prominent ad on your page ensuring some money earned for yourself

India at 60

Is this what India dreamt of, after 60 years independence, did we achieve what we dreamt of?

India was centuries ago known as the ‘Golden Bird’ and consequently knowing this the whole world ran towards the country trying to grab a share of the pie. Starting from the Mughals to the Britishers, they had it all and what was left for the people here could be only imagined. What was built by Mughals was destroyed by Britishers and memoirs like the famous ‘Kohinoor’ was shipped off to the place where the Queen lived!! India was always exploited in the hands of rulers who are famous now. After ruling & exploiting the country for nearly 180 years the Britishers with their common strong strategy of ‘Divide and rule’ divided the land in what is today known as India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

It has been 61 years since we gained Independence and have established ourselves as the largest democracy in the world, the first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, and a close friend of Lord Mountbatten, the then Viceroy of Indian territory had said “When the whole world will be asleep on August 15th 1947, India will awaken to a new world to have a tryst with destiny…” Since then the country has a come long way in terms of Politics, Development, Industry and nearly every field we might talk about. As long as one stays in India, it would be always great to see India achieving something new and advanced. My visit to another developing country gave me the advantage to look at the comparisons for our country. Its only when you compare that you find the shortcomings in the nation’s prosperity.

Apart from comparison, some incidents always hinder my mind questioning the prosperity of the country and will it ever change.
1. A young boy is studying for his final school exams, in a candle light, because his village in rural Maharashtra faces a minimum 12 hour power outage for a simple reason – there is not enough power produced – The state faces an acute shortage of power because the power supply has remained stagnant over decades while the power demand has increased proportionally. Who fails to anticipate the demand and ensure the supply is increased??

2. A family is homeless in a hamlet in Orissa due to floods – I do agree this is a natural calamity, but should it then happen every year. Last year people were homeless in Bihar and it floods every year but does that mean we put it on natural calamity and keep quite?

3. Back in Mumbai’s suburban station, Goregaon, is full of people wanting to catch the next train to town. A person is valiantly trying to get into the already overcrowded train. Finally after the 4th attempt he has to wait for the next train. Poor, does he know the next train might be worse - I certainly agree that population has exploded in the last decade in Mumbai but does that mean we still have to use the same local train network that was built at the time of the once ruled India !! Couldn’t have we built another network supporting the current local train?

4. Metro rail which started work almost now 3 years back is still no where!! Will it be ever ready by its target date?? – I would attribute this to the intense politics and the inefficient processes in place

5. A truck driver is found with 8 driving licenses (yes you read it right.. 8) Every time he was being caught for offence and his license confiscated, the driver would simply use his other licenses – Now I am lost, I have no reasons for this other than a sloppy process in place

6. A political party is always on the neck of the ruling government threatening to withdraw support in the reason that the government would sign on a Nuclear deal with the US (which supposedly would solve the electricity problems being faced) - I really don’t know who’s correct but atleast reaching to some consensus which would be beneficial to the masses should be done

Of course, there are reasons for everything.. But what matters would be the passion in the people (by the people and for the people) to make it a better place to live..

Obvious, it will be continued…
Disclaimer: The blog include the opinions of the author and does not intend to or relate to any individual. The author does not intend to hurt any religious or political sentiments

Day of Life in Mumbai - 2

Words: 729
Reading time : little above 3 mins

One fine evening, we were lucky enough to get a chance to return home early from a training session but even we didnt knew what was in store ahead..

I was with one of my colleagues, who also stays at Borivali, the last stop on the suburban local route for most of the trains. We found ourselves waiting for a train at Matunga, the station next to Dadar while coming from Churchgate. The time, described by many people as the 'peak time', but frankly speaking, I never find any difference in the crowd levels at any time of the day, maybe its a bit more crowded at peak times. One of the slow trains ( here slow does not refer to the speed but rather to the train which stops at every station) arrived in quickly at the station and was fairly less crowded so to enable us to at least find an easy entry (the most difficult part of traveling in local trains). We were always wanting to catch a fast train so as to enable us reaching our destinations faster and to the effect of which we decided to get down at Bandra - the next junction where a fast train would stop.

Few men were struggling to enter the gents compartment in the fast train to Borivali standing at the Bandra station but finally decided to vouch their hopes of catching the next train thus staring the 'indicators' for the next train time. Observing this from the overhead footbridge, we were highly regretting our decision to get off the slow train in anticipation to catch a fast train. The next strategy was to take a slow train again as there were no hopes of the crowd waiting for a fast train depleting , which made us to go to the slow train platform. But as bad luck was at its best, we found ourselves waiting for a train with horde of other people too. There were absolutely no chance of catching a train and we thought of not prioritizing the travel so as to risk our lives.

When in a race, the car runs out of fuel, it ends up in the pits to fill more fuel to end the race and thats what literally was happening in our case. The next step was to take a mere crowded train to Andheri, 3 stops ahead and thus inching us more closer to our targets. Andheri falls exactly the 5th station from Borivali and is the next junction for fast trains to stop. But getting down at Andheri to catch is not a smart deal, as Borivali fast trains generally are the same beyond this stop. i.e. stopping at all stations.

Now if I again say that we got down at Andheri to see the same situation of the trains going to Borivali I would be pretty much redundant. But thats what the situation was...
One stroke of luck and some rush of energy accumulated from the day's gained calories, and not to mention the sacrifice of our neatly ironed shirts which were pretty much in shape even in the evening, helped us barge into a train. I was struggling with my bag encapsulated between me and others in the compartment, but getting the bag out of way was not without some irritation from the other co-travellers. A person wanted to get down at a upcoming station and was moving towards the door, now one of the other person was irritated and started blaming the person for pushing him. The travel is incomplete without encountering at least one or two such war of words sessions between people trying to prove their point in these over crowded trains.

Dodging hands moving to catch hold of the overhead support bars is another valiant task in a local train. You actually never know which hand from the hundreds around might hit you.

Borivali station was just 10 mins and the train had almost emptied almost 3/4 its load on the second last station, Kandivali with the remaining people just trying to overcome the oxygen shortages their lungs were facing for about an hour, and thinking that one more day of travel in the local trains has come to an end..
Me standing at the door, recollect the memoirs of the journey to home creating ripples of many thoughts....

Related Posts

• Day of Life in Mumbai - 1

Alibaug

"Alibaug was more of a being together with friends rather than a more relaxing trip" - Amit, Colleague

"I had never experienced so many emotions in a such a short span, that when we started the trip there was excitement and happy ness, but when it ended I felt as if something close to my heart was ending" - Jaypreet, Colleague

Total Words: 537 words
Estimated reading time: 2 mins 14 secs

Alibaug, situated around 60-70 miles from Mumbai, is now becoming a major residential hub for the people of Mumbai more than a tourist spot. The district, Alibaug, is a collection of about 60 small villages seems to be attracting people from Mumbai for weekend relaxation trips to investments in farmhouses. The land prices, till now, has helped many people grab up places in Alibaug. Also real estate developers seem to be keen on building hamlets/farmhouses. Some developers are also expected to be providing an exclusive yatch service to Mumbai, since mumbai is just 20-25 mins away by sea route..

With the excitement of going with the help of waterways, we one day decided to end up in Alibaug, for a weekend trip for nothing more than some time away from city life.. So we all decided to meet up at Gateway in Mumbai one morning to make it convenient for us to take a ferry to Alibaug. We all boarded the ferry, which costs you around 60 INR for a 60 minute ride to Mandhwa jetty. The ferry takes you through the numerous ships anchored around the Mumbai sea face, some of them being naval ships. A little bit into the sea and the skyline of Mumbai is a mesmerizing scene, which makes you thank yourself for boarding a ferry to Alibaug.
Alibaug's main village lies another 30 mins ride by road, after the ferry drops you at the Mandhwa jetty. The ferry providers deploy their own buses to enable you to cover this road distance. After reaching Alibaug, the main task was to look for an accommodation, which we havent done as the plan was instantaneous and we had hardly any time to do our bookings. We found a pretty decent resort "Ravi Kiran" which was situated near to the main chowk in the town.
The same evening saw us leaving for a nearby beach, it was supposed to one of the better ones in Alibaug. To our surprise, the water were too dirty, as compared to the waters at Diveagar... maybe because of the proximity to Mumbai.. So instead we had some plans of playing beach cricket. We snapped the gear required on hire from the adjacent shops and had our game started in no time. In an hours time all were tired and ready to chomp on bhajji's and some hot tea. The dinner back at the hotel, saw many cuisines being ordered in a haphazard manner, which is many times a fact when we all find ourselves together for dinner in some restaurant. One side of the table was indulged in savoring the food, but the other side was discussing "horror" stories.
Back at the hotel, all gathered in one room for gossips and timepass. How time passed by in that whole night, in which hardly anyone slept would take me another blog to describe..!!
The next morning, we had to pack our bags to get going back to our homes, back in Mumbai. The return journey was a more thrilling one as we experienced a high tide on our way back. A ride on a ferry during a high tide cannot be explained in words.. The ride was the most enjoyable for some whereas some where just wishing to be back on shore at the earliest..

To Get there:

• By Waterways
• Ferry - INR 60 to Mandhwa jetty and bus at no extra cost upto Alibaug
• Expected Travel time :80 - 90 mins
  
• Catamaran
  
• Air Contd - INR 110
  
• Non AC - INR 60 - 80
  
• Expected Travel time : 50-60 mins

By Road

• State transport
• Private buses plying on the route

Related Posts

• Diveagar

Anger management

The Bee, a small creature teaches a lot to the human kind

Total Words: 384 Reading time: 1 min 36 secs

Anger is one thing which a human brings with himself right from birth. The only difference between two people would be the degree to which each person can control their anger before doing a 'blitz kreig' or say, can reach their threshold of being patient. A human, when he gets angry, does not realize the harm that he would be or have caused to the person in front of him. The degree of this harm can depend on the person in front at that time. Does a person in anger would realize what has he done ? Can he take some learnings from a small creature that god has created better known as the "bee" ?

A bee or a wasp can sting a human, which can harm the human a lot based on the power of the bee sting which has been described at different levels of pain by famous entomologists (for further reading refer Schmidt Sting Pain Index). A common bee sting can create an inflammation of the skin. A further point to be noticed is that when a honey bee stings, she is almost dead. Hence, a bee can sting only once in her life or in other words, the bee has to control her anger so that she can save herself by not stinging someone !! In turn a bee harming someone else, she harms herself more than the other !!

Doesnt that ring a bell in your human mind ?? It surely did when I came across this fact. Applying this fact to humans, a human should take care of not hurting anyone when in anger because he is in turn hurting himself more than the other. The other person might feel the pain of the sting but when it comes to one who is angry s/he might have hurt him/herself more and would have a hard time to over come it.

So in simple terms, a bee teaches us that our anger should be managed well enough so that it does not hurt our relationship with others, not only because it hurts the relationship but it hurts our own souls more than the other person. Beware the next time when you get angry !!!

Change the width of your blog

Changing the width of your blog in Blogger new is very easy, only with some logical calculations. Traditional blog widths are basically made to suit 800x600 screen resolutions, but you can easily intercept them to change the width of your blog

Heres a small lesson on how to change the width of your blog:

Before changing the existing template, save the template by clicking the 'Download existing template' and then start making the changes.

Go to the Template and Edit HTML in the respective blog, from your dashboard in blogger.

Turn off the Expand Widget templates for further simplification
Find the following lines in the HTML

/* Outer-Wrapper
-----------------------------------------------
*/ #outer-wrapper {
width: 660px;
margin:0 auto;
padding:10px;
text-align:$startSide; font: $bodyfont;
}

#main-wrapper {
width: 410px;
float: $startSide;
word-wrap: break-word; /* fix for long text breaking sidebar float in IE */
overflow: hidden; /* fix for long non-text content breaking IE sidebar float */
}

#sidebar-wrapper {
width: 220px;
float: $endSide;
word-wrap: break-word; /* fix for long text breaking sidebar float in IE */
overflow: hidden; /* fix for long non-text content breaking IE sidebar float */
}

The Outer wrapper contains the main wrapper and the sider bar wrappers.The dimensions that specify those pages is the Width parameter. The positions of these wrappers are mentioned with the help of the "float" function. Notice that the outer wrapper does not have the float function as it is positioned in the center of the page which is specified by 'margin:0 auto:'

Change the "width parameter" in the Main Wrapper & the Sidebar wrapper and then change the width of the outer wrapper by the same amount as it has to accommodate itself to the new width.

Important:
Change only one dimension at a time and hit the 'Preview' button to see the changes before saving the changes
If you want to discard the changes you can always upload the previous template, you had downloaded before making the changes.

To change the width of the HEADER, look out for the following HTML code

/* Header
-----------------------------------------------
*/ #header-wrapper {
width:660px;
margin:0 auto 10px;
border:1px solid
$bordercolor;
}

Then change the 660px to whatever you want.

Remember to keep the width under 750 px to make your blog viewable for most of the screen resolutions.
Some templates may not have the 'Outer Wrapper' section, for which you can look out for the 'Body' section and changing which would get you the required changes in the width of the posts

Diveagar

Total Words: 810 Time required: 3 mins 22 secs
Check out the slide show on diveagar snaps.. also at My Picassa Web albums

I would term this beach as a "Heaven on Earth". Frankly speaking, it was difficult to first grab the name of this place when one of our friends came to us and told about this beach, about two years back. The immediate reaction was to go out and explore this awesome place. And with our awesome expertise in planning the trips, a gang of 7 people were out on an adventure at 1900 hrs to an unknown place..

We started from Pune at about 2100 hrs (oh yes! we prefer night trips as it saves the whole day) with a white sumo. We had a fair idea of the road as narrated to us by the same friend. The road had to cross a dense forest ghat which is aptly called 'Tamhini Ghat', and the trip seemed to be fully loaded with surprises.

The sumo started trudging the ghat after about 2 hrs that we had been traveling. It was also the first trip to the amazing ghat in the Sahyadri range, even though it limited our visibility of the great heights in the plum darkness. The ghat is densely covered with greenery and the roads were still manageable with still less number of potholes as that compared with those in our city roads.

This time we were travelling in the winter and anyone who has been known Pune, can tell the intensity of the winters there. The fog that we had to dodge through was equally dense to the greenery that the ghat ensembles. At some sections of the ghat, the road ahead wasnt visible due to the dense fog, but we had to find our own way out and today we are still alive and kickin.. ;) The twists and turns enveloped with the greenery and the fog had already enthralled us, the heaven we were heading had to be something special..

We reached the Mumbai-Goa highway at about 0400 hrs and was a perfect time for the morning kadak chai, for those who enjoyed the ghat as well for those who enjoyed their siesta. The chai walah gave us the directions further and 'Diveagar' was still 2 hrs far from us. The beach falls about 40 kms from the Mumbai - Goa highway and again takes you through a jungle, this time at a level closer to the sea, and that actually helps you spot some creatures in the dark.. ..well what we could spot in all was an Owl :o .. The ghat road does not allow you to sleep in anticipation (even thanking those potholes)... The room we had already booked when we started the journey helped us settle down quickly when we finally reached the diveagar village, situated just besides the beach.. these rooms provide a good option to the absence of hotels in this area as this remains an unfazed tourist spot, with the room owners trying everybit of effort to ensure a good service, but yup at a price...!

After the morning refreshments, we had to dip in the waters.. for which we headed straight towards those refreshing sound of the waves.. (... which one would surely miss if s/he had to stay in pune ...). The water seemed to much better / cleaner than what one would find in other parts of the country, even putting behind the beaches of Goa.. As I mentioned, minimum number of tourists at this spot ensures a much more clean beach... a piece of plastic would be hard to spot and my plead would be to those people visiting there to ensure this cleanliness of the beach by refraining from littering..

After about 1-2 hrs in the water, the sun had started to trouble us with its intense heat and which in turn helped us swarm out of the waters to be back to our rooms, aptly waiting for the freshly prepared lunch with some local specialties. The food there is prepared by the room owners with specialties like the 'Modak' which is served with pure ghee.. trust me it tastes awesome.. for non-veggies, the fish varieties can be savored according to your choice...
The heavy lunch had made us feel lazy and everyone was bound to find the way to the bed, but as we had to leave for pune the same day, one of us took the charge to ensure no one falls asleep.. The en-route started at about 1600 hrs and we indeed had to go a long way back, especially after a good relaxing trip.


The trip back was filled with discussions on all the funny incidents at the trip. With this we all just could wrap those in our minds to be cherished for a lifetime.. not to mention, we all are going to miss each other and the fun we had together when we take the individual paths in our lives !!


Divegar - To reach there:
From Mumbai
By Road:

• Take a diversion to the Mumbai-Goa Highway which falls after Panvel
• The next diversion would be to 'Diveagar' about 100-120 kms from Mumbai and 14 kms before Murud Janjira
  
• The further road diversions can be judged by the on-road hoardings
  
• The road after diversion from Mumbai - goa highway would be around 40 kms
• Local people prove to be helpful in many cases to reach the final destination in the village

No other transport is available to reach this place.. Heaven has only one gate...;)

From Pune By Road:

• Drive to Chandni Chowk and take the Paud road to make it to the Mulshi ghat and then the consequent Tamhini Ghat
• The exit from Tamhini ghat on the Goa highway proves to be exactly in front of the Diveagar diversion
• Remaining directions would be the same as above
• Total Drive from Pune: about 120 Kms total

Walk the extra mile..

Total Words: 476 Reading Time: 2 mins 39 secs

It all starts with the train slowing down well before the Borivali station, which gives the slightest of indications that the train might eventually land up on the Platform No. 8 at Borivali. The faces of the people traveling from the past one hour and having being at work whole day, start showing that irritating nature but actually cant do anything about it.

Borivali being the last stop on the Western line, is the destination for most of the commuters travelling all the way from Churchgate, which is a commercial hub and also the start point of the local train services. Now, when I say Platform No.8, you might be imagining all platforms to be parallel to each other, but eventually they are not. Initially, Borivali had total of 6 stations from years, and due to which all transport services concentrate around these stations. Due to some great planning by the Railway authorities, the 1st platform is extended to accommodate the 7th and the 8th platform. So actually saying, to reach the 8th platform, get down on the 1st platform and then walk towards the 8th, passing the 7th platform on your way.

Lets just see how much you need to walk to get back to the 1st platform, if the train unluckily drops you at the 8th platform..
Assume you are in the 8th wagon from the motorman (its the first class compartment, which I generally end up in)....
Your train length towards the 1st platform = 11 x 8 = 88 mts (an EMU is said to be about 10.5-11 mts long)
The safety distance between 2 platforms.. = assume to be around 25-30 mts..
Another 7th platform = 12 x 11 = 121 mts

Thats make the total distance.. oh ya.. hey wait.. we are still at the start of the 1st platform.. thers nothin there.. most of the transport is in the middle of 1st platform.. so add another = 30 + 60 mts = 90 mts

Now the total comes to = 330 mts.. Hmm.. quite a big number, if you are working the whole day and waiting for some good food to be served to you..
Also, these 2 platforms have only 1 exit on the west side, so 90 % people walk their way to the 1st platform..
And if both the platforms have trains dropping in the commuters consecutively, you not just cannot imagine the block that is formed at the entry of the 1st platform.. It more takes form of a rally with thousands of 'em participating.. You easily tend to lose on some minutes just waiting to get your chance of passing through the traffic jam..
Just waiting for the authorities to provide the commuters with some solution... But is it that scheduled in the near future or still waiting to get some more passengers... ???

<--- Bumper to bumper at 2100 hrs on the 7th Platform

Trip to Matheran..

Words: 928 Reading Time: 3 mins 55 secs

Its always a happy mode when a student finishes his week long of tense exams and what could be more relieving than a trip plan to Matheran.. the heaven situated just 100 kms from Mumbai.

We, students at our college, decided to go for a trip after which all of them will go for one more stint in the corporate lives with an internship in respective companies. Matheran seemed to be the closest and best option we ought to choose.

Matheran, situated at 803 mt. above sea level is probably the only place, besides Venice in Italy from having banned the use of Motor vehicles in its permissible limits. This keeps Matheran absolutely free from pollution and well situated within dark green forests. Matheran was discovered in 1850s by the Britishers. The USP, as said in marketing terms of Matheran, is the Narrow Gauge (2.0 Ft wide) train popularly known as Toy Train, which was built by Sir Adamjee Peerbhoy in 1907 covers a distance of 20 Kms and consumes upto 1 hr 45 mins, taking you through the busy Mumbai - Pune route station Neral to the Forest engulfed Matheran.
The 3 hrs wait for taking that train to Matheran were spent by us lazily on Nerul Station in anticipation of the trip which would be attached with many memories. The train was pulled up on the station well before time which gave us ample time to snap memories in our camera.

The train has only 4 coaches and the charges are well below the normal taxi charge. The train finally chugged out of the station at the mentioned time with the driver and guard flurring the green flags.. the length of the train helps you clearly watch both the flags. The Train signaling system has still the old traditional manual systems and have been maintained over the years. It exchanges a ring which signals its arrival at 2 stations which it passes before reaching its destination. The train starts slowly climbing the hills, circling almost all the range surrounding Matheran. Beautiful scenes, the swirling track, the deep valleys and the some prevalent springs all mesmerize the 2 hrs journey to the top.

By the time we reached atop, it was almost dinner time and Matheran does not have much options but only an area where the restaurants are available,also eventually the only area where you get the mobile network. We directly stepped into the quite famous Khan's Hookahs and Tikkas restaurant. The only decent hotel, has a good ambience filled with fountains, cushions and music playing in the background. A hookah was ordered without any inspection of the menu card, the rest main course decision was a brain storming session with everybody's hungry stomachs affecting the decision making.

After a good and filling dinner, it was time for a walk back to the resort where bookings were already made by a batch of us who had arrived earlier in the day trekking all their way to the top, about 9 kms from Nerul station. A small visit in the dark jungle was amazing at that time, we were on our way to Khandala point, till the time everyone finished with their dinner. The only thing visible at that point, after all torches were turned off, was the moon that very well shined and no hindrances of pollution affecting its shining brightness.

In the next half an hour, we found ourselves in the resort looking and arranging for the rooms. The resort had a in house disco, and yes we were out there shaking a leg to the music. The DJ went on well till 11 in the night, as the resort was quite isolated to be heard by anyone.

The night was long with games like dumb charades and cards and alive with discussions for plan of the next day which would be eventually the last day in Matheran. The next morning started with a good hot water bath and good games of Carrom and Table tennis at the resort provided facilities, followed by a good tea. The post tea saw us trekking our way to some of the points like Echo Point, Charlotte Lake and missing out on points like One tree hill, Panorama point.

Matheran is filled with monkeys all around trying to snatch anything and everything they can eat, one will find monkeys roaming around like dogs do in the cities. A strange but funny incident happened when a monkey snatched a bag from one of our colleague's hands and ran away, but few of our brave guys followed it, finally the monkey climbed atop a tree with only taking one biscuit packet out of the 4-5 packets in that bag. The bag was safe and sound back with the owner. The remaining tour still remained incident-free.

The way back was kicked off after a lunch at some place in the market area, the food being pathetic my memory gives way for remembering its name. A filled stomach and Blurring noon sun, we were off to the Dasturi check point to catch a taxi back to the Nerul Station. We just missed a local train back to Mumbai by 3 -4 minutes and had to wait for another hour for the next train.

The journey back was filled with memories from the trip and incidents that occurred on the trip. This trip would certainly be at the back of our minds when we return back to our life in the corporate world and rejoice the memories when we would miss each other !!!

To reach Matheran: (From Mumbai)

• By Road: Take the Mumbai-Nashik Highway and turn the diversion for Nerul which lies about 100 km off Mumbai.
• By Rail: Board a local train from Dadar to Karjat or Khopoli, get down at Nerul Station after Ambernath .. take a cab to Matheran or the toy trains exclusive services
• Cab Fare: Rs 60 - 100 depending upon the day.. generally Maruti Vans etc..
  
• Toy train Fare : Rs 32 - General Class / Rs 170 - First Class
  

Yuvraj Strikes and strikes heavy

Watching Yuvraj play against England that day was like a dream!! He was on fire and the ball was flying everywhere on the ground. No fielder could do anything..the ball just kept flying over.. Awesome video.. Goes into the books with style..

A day of life in Mumbai..

Words: 901 Reading Time: 3 mins 45 secs

My day in Mumbai begins with the Nokia phone besides my pillow ringing in full volume to try and break that beautiful sleep and dream in progress. With an irritating chime to wake me up from the weirdest sleep, i scamper around to search that disturbing sound. The moment I snooze the alarm, my eyes are again shut with the thoughts that i will get up in 5 mins again.. yup the snooze works for 10 mins but being an true indian need to keep that time integrity of 5 mins...

The best part being that the cell phone does not restrict you to the number of snoozes u can enable with the alarm.. When i finally don't get up.. dad has to then finally wake me up after 20 mins.. thats when I realize that I am late ..!!

Going through the daily morning chores and getting on the table for breakfast is the next ultimate goal.. ready in 30 mins its time to strap up the laces to go out on a literal war... a war cry before leaving out of house completes it..

The first signs of a war starts at the bus stop where a few other people alongwith me are waiting to be lucky and try and board the next bus that would take them to the railway station. The bus arrives at the bus stop... no one moves a step.. neither on the bus stop nor in the bus.. theres no place to get in the bus, ultimately 3 people are already struggling on the doors. A look at the watch and a small curse in their minds all people on the stop look at the road for another bus to arrive. "maybe that might be empty" is what everyone wishes for.. Another 10 mins & 2 buses zoom past the bus stop as the driver has assumed that no one would even try to get in and no sense in stopping the bus.

A 3rd bus arrives which has some space left in its steps to accommodate a couple of persons. Me and one more lucky guy got the chance to stand in the door and somehow manage to get to the railway station.. You seriously got to believe your luck, in case you happen to stand in the door and sway according to the G-Force acting upon you and successfully reaching your destination..
Well, this was half done.. The big challenge stands in front of you now, the local train.

I happen to wait on the platform for the 8.10 Churchgate Fast, the train timing which I generally prefer to take. Amidst several others waiting for the train which is already late is a good experience, to watch each one of them getting ready for the jump they have to take to secure a comfortable place in the train, its somewhat resembles to soldiers loading their guns before the actual attack takes place.. Suddenly theres this voice on the speakers on the platform blurring and trying to tell something, the lady voice which ultimately announces of the arrival of the 8.10 train to be on the opposite platform than the regular one. To even lessen the pain, the voice apologizes to the travelers for the inconvenience caused because of the sudden change of platform, which I find strange because it has become common. First you change the platform and then apologize...

Finally, I happen to arrive on the respective platform somehow managing the thronged crowds on the already small overhead bridges meant to commute between the various platforms. The train arrives by the time I reach the respective coach position.. The juggling with the persons in front of you while running for your respective coach gives a good aerobic session early in the morning..

As soon as the train chugs in, the people on the platform jump into the coaches to catch a seat, in most cases there are no seats vacant, thanks to the people already travelling from the earlier stations.. Eventually, one needs to get in between the standing position between the seats so as to avoid himself from being eembodied in the rush that would be gathering in the gangway in the consecutive stations.

I somehow got hold of my bag which was caught hold in the struggling people trying to enter the train. I almost got successfuly past the gangway and stood just at its corner, still observing other commuters scrampling through the door.

Within 5 minutes the train started out with a thump, giving a jerk to everyone standing. As soon as the train starts, everyone's hands raise a gesture praying to the almighty, maybe in an attempt to help them reach their destination succesfully.

Standing in the local train is very much similar to an exercise, with adjusting at every moment according to the movements of the train as well as the people surrounding me. Nevertheless to mention, the fans which never work help you to sweat out like water flowing in mumbai during the monsoons. I happen sweat out in litres during this workout session..

After bearing it all for 40 - 50 minutes, I do manage to get a seat and relax a bit, only to my amazement that my destination station is the next 2nd station... Losing good number of calories is a good start to the mornings in one's life in Mumbai...

To be Contd...