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Trek to Sankshi fort

nospam@example.com (Anurag) — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 11:50:59 +0530

After a long long time I got a chance to go trekking again on 22 Nov. Sankshi fort is located near Alibag, off the Mumbai Alibag highway. Difficulty level is easy to moderate, but it involves about an hour of walking.

Article on Sankshi fort from Maharashtra government website.

The name Sankshi is said to have been derived from a chief named Sank who is traditionally believed to have been the lord of the fort. See below.] (T. Pen) also known as Badr-ud-din, or Darghaca Killa from a tomb or dargah of the saint Badr-ud-din at its foot, lies within the limits of Nidivali village about five miles north-east of Pen. read more...

We assembled at Panvel ST depot at 7AM, waiting for others to join in, and finally left Panvel at 9:15 after having breakfast at a restaurant across the road. Since the bus started from Panvel, everyone got seats, and I dozed off to sleep.

We got down at Balavali Phata and marched towards saint Badr-ud-din's dargaah. The route is cool and covered with dense trees, but full of giant spider webs. The photographers among us took half an hour to capture the arachnids and buffaloes on camera.

We reached dargaah in less than 2 hours, relaxed and moved towards the Sankshi hill. There's a GI water pipe that runs to dargaah at the base of the hill from a water cistern at the top of the hill. Some walk in the jungle, struggling with the itchy bushes, a rock patch and we were at the top. After exploring for half an hour, we came back down to have lunch at the old dargaah structure that looked beautiful and wise in white color.

It was a nice little trek (microtrek ) and we were back to panvel around 6PM, without feeling tired at all! Complete pictures from trek to sankshi fort are available in my flickr set.

Trek to Gorakhgad and Malshej ghat

nospam@example.com (Anurag) — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 11:24:15 +0530

Trek to Gorakhgad can be counted as one of the most luxurious treks in the Sahyadri range. We left Mumbai on Saturday 4th July 2009 at 2300Hrs. It rained heavily whole day so many participants dropped out at the last minute since the train services were badly affected. As a result, the bus we hired had several seats empty and lots of place for us to sleep.

We took NH-222 from Kalyan and stopped at Dehri. Trek began at 3AM in the moonlit sky with torches. In about 2 hours we reached the base of Gorakhgad mountain and started climbing upwards in the light of dawn.

After exploring the top, taking pictures, having breakfast and walking in the clouds we were back to the highway before noon. After Gorakhgad we switched to picnic mood and started our trip to the scenic Malshej ghat.

It was an amazing trip and it seems i've taken several pictures that can make it to next year's calendar. The complete pictures from trek to gorakhgad and malshej ghat are available in my flickr set.

todo item ticked off!

nospam@example.com (Anurag) — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 14:28:10 +0530

Another TODO item ticked off a while back! It wasn't what I had originally planned, but the goal has been achieved nevertheless.

I didn't know I made myself a bucket list, long before watching the movie.

MovieAB movie summary

The Bucket List

Movie info by MovieAB

the sixty one

nospam@example.com (Anurag) — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 14:36:25 +0530

I'm on love with The Sixty One for the past one month. The layout & presentation, the indie music - its all very smooth and nicely done. No matter which section of site you visit or what link you click, the music keeps playing on. Give it a try!

MovieAB - A tiny movie mashup

nospam@example.com (Anurag) — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 19:10:16 +0530

Announcing MovieAB -- a mashup of freely available movie data APIs from around the internet. A catalog of over 170000 movie titles, tv series, programs available on DVD, actors and directors is available at the moment, and keeps growing every day.

Try a sample page for the movie Spider-Man 2. Every movie info page displays DVD box-art image, netflix user ratings, genres, a short summary, cast, awards and nominations and movie reviews from NYTimes if its available.

MovieAB came up as an idea to implement Netflix's API, after they decided to open up their vast catalog of movie data to third party developers. This was soon followed up with New York Times' decision to open up their comprehensive movie reviews api to third party developers. I can't thank them enough.

And, what's this AB? Well, I have no idea. This was the smallest domain name available. iMovie, gMovie, LiveMovie are all taken

Many thanks to Kamaleshwar for designing this clean and simplistic logo. More artwork requests from me are coming your way! If you liked the application, have suggestions for improvement, criticisms, bug reports or general feedback - write in to feedback (at) movieab.com.

MovieAB movie summary

Spider-Man 2

Movie info by MovieAB

USD INR exchange rates

nospam@example.com (Anurag) — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 15:48:18 +0530

I keep looking at stuff and try guessing its price in INR. Look around for calculator, check USD exchange rate and punch it in.

#!/usr/bin/env ruby

require 'rubygems'

require 'hpricot'

require 'open-uri'



amount = (ARGV.length == 1) ? ARGV[0].to_f : 1

amount = 1 if amount == 0



doc = Hpricot(URI.parse("http://in.finance.yahoo.com/").read)

element = doc.search("/html/body/div/div[2]/div/div/div[4]/div[2]/table/tr[2]/td[4]/a/")

exchange_rate = element[0].to_s.to_f

puts "#{amount} USD = #{amount * exchange_rate} INR"

Now i no longer have to. Just running $ usdinr 197.21 gives the amount in INR. Save this file in /usr/bin/usdinr and give execute permissions.

[Update 2009-02-19: Updated the script with new XPath]

Nominations

nospam@example.com (Anurag) — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 03:00:44 +0530

Your votes are invited for selecting the best photos from this collection of pictures i took in year 2008. Last year was very eventful and i ended up with filling my flickr account like its no one's business.

To vote for the pictures you like, simply visit the Nominees collection and vote for the photo by marking it as a favourite or leaving a comment there. I'm biased, all food pictures got nominated automatically.

An eventful year

nospam@example.com (Anurag) — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 20:06:52 +0530

A long eventful year comes to an end. Year 2008 was dedicated to trips, treks and some more trips and treks. Last year at this time we were cooking dal rice sitting next to a cave on top of Kulang - a mountain in sahyadri range. This year -> a peaceful dinner at home.

The day Merb joined Rails

nospam@example.com (Anurag) — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 17:41:05 +0530

A usual dilemma before starting a Rails project: Rails (Well known, well documented api, blogs, books) or Merb (Speed, Lean core, fresh framework, alternative ORMs). Today Rails and Merb core team announced their decision to merge into what would be known as Rails 3. Its a good thing since people would stop writing blogs about Rails vs Merb, and talk more about getting things done. I'm looking forward to a faster and less memory hogging version Rails.

Flickr stats for Winter 2008 KDE posters collection

nospam@example.com (Anurag) — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 18:22:31 +0530

Just like last year, Pradeepto and his secret team released winter 2008 collection of KDE posters. And just as last year, the posters have been a huge hit. Many thanks to Kamaleshwar Morjal for spending countless hours designing the posters.

In the first column are ~12 hour stats of latest posters, and in second column are the posters from last year along with their ever increasing view count. The complete poster collection is available at KDE Posters flickr set.

todo item ticked off!

nospam@example.com (Anurag) — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 01:33:55 +0530

The place was different, it wasn't coffee that we were sipping, and we had some company too!

Tata Indicom wireless data card (Huawei EC321 CDMA card)

nospam@example.com (Anurag) — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 02:03:08 +0530

Tata indicom Vdata card

I've been using Tata Indicom's data card based internet services for the past 2 years or so. and my experience about the internet service quality has been above satisfaction so far. After filling up the application form, and paying 4990 INR upfront for the data card, i got the card delivered at home in 2 days. Pretty fast indeed.

Data card connectivity speed: The Huawei EC321 CDMA card is rated for about 156Kbps. Initially at the place where i used to live, i used to get about 140 Kbps speed without fiddling too much with the antenna and direction. At my current residence too, i manage about the same speeds, which is more than enough for my email and IRC applications

Setup and installation: The data card comes as a PCMCIA device which can be plugged onto the PCMCIA slot of your laptop. Its probably straightforward to install it in Windows. There's a desktop manager application included in the installation CD with puts a dialer-cum-sms inbox checking app shortcut on the desktop. Getting the internet working on linux is even easier. Check how to get the data card running with wvdial here.

Tariff plans: The data card costed me around 4990 INR some 2 years back. It should be cheaper now. The USB pen drive shaped Plug2Surf ones are definitely cheaper. I am under 1GB plan which costs me less than 800 INR per month with taxes included, as i never cross my 1GB limit.

Network coverage and roaming: Its based on Tata Indicom's CDMA network, so internet services work wherever there's tata indicom's mobile phone network. So far, it has worked for me in all the cities i've traveled in india. There are no charges on national roaming if you are using the data card only for internet services.

Verdict?: Its a good gadget to keep along if you are traveling. Internet works just out of the box, without having to ask anyone for network access or proxy authentications. I haven't used data card services from Reliance or Airtel, but i dont really have a reason to switch services as yet. Lately there have been days when the internet is pathetically slow but then it comes back again.

Where to buy?: You can visit their website ichoose.in and place an order. If you are in Mumbai then let me know, i can pass over the contact information of their sales representative and he'll take care of the rest. My email address is anurag (@) gnuer.org

Trek to Kalavantin durg-fort

nospam@example.com (Anurag) — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 16:08:18 +0530

Monsoon treks for the year 2008 started with a rather exciting trek to Kalavantin durg(pinnacle). Kalavantin durg, located very close to Panvel, is a medium difficulty trek, but the rains make it more challenging. After the first rains fell in Mumbai, we planned to trek Kalavantin durg on 8th June 2008. We all gathered at Panvel bus depot to take the 7AM bus to the base village of Thakurwadi. Since it was getting late, we then decided to take six seater auto rickshaws to Thakurwadi instead. After negotiating with the autorickshaw drivers they agreed to take us there for Rs. 200 per SixSeater rickshaw. The distance is about 17Kms form Panvel.

While reaching Thakurwadi village, look out for Zoia resort, there's a road which goes left from there, and after walking about 1 hour on it one can reach the base village, which is very close to Kalvantin hill. We however went a little ahead and took some other route and got lost. After a little help(paid) from local kids, we managed to find the actual broad village road which led us to the village at the foot of Kalavantin pinnacle. From here we found our own way through the jungle. One thing to make sure is that the shoes are good, since the jungle path becomes extremely muddy and slippery because of several groups who might be ahead of you.

After climbing for an hour more, we reached the notch from where there are steps dug out in the rocks to climb the pinnacle from its southern end. The force of wind is freaking awesome at this notch, and throughout the climb. After a while, it started raining and the whole scenery was covered with mist and fog. Really awesome view, but photographing it was rather difficult. After climbing the topmost pinnacle of Kalavantin durg, we climbed down. Several people slipped and fell since the entire route was made muddy and slippery due to a rather large group which came and returned before us.

We had lunch at the base village, and returned to the ST bus stop at Thakurwadi village, after dumping the plans to visit Prabalgad.

Pictures from trek to Kalavantin durg are available here.
Continue reading "Trek to Kalavantin durg-fort"

Trek to Sagargad and Siddheshwar temple

nospam@example.com (Anurag) — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 15:10:27 +0530

After a break of 4 weeks, and having done Kalvantin, Mahuli and Avchitgad, it was time to go for another place we hadn't covered. Jagdish planned a trek for Sagargad and Siddheshwar temple on 20th July. Sagargad is a hill fort located in Alibag region, 1 hour walk from the popular Siddheshwar temple and math. As usual, we all gathered at Panvel ST bus depot and took a bus to Alibaug. Siddheshwar temple is about 2 hour walk from the base village of Khandale.

After taking some rest at Siddheshwar temple we moved forward towards Sagargad fort, eagerly waiting for rains showers. And it did, just around the entrance of the fort which is now in ruins. In its time, this fort could have been a prominent center of power, as can be seen from the strong walls built over a rather larger area of the flat mountain surface. Apart from a ganesh temple, there are a few man made ponds with water and green sprawling gardens on the flat mountain surface.

A rather fascinating sharp and pointed rock structure named Vanartok lies at the edge of Sagargad's hill. Vanartok, or Monkey point is a popular destination with professional rock climbers. After drenching in rains and taking several photographs of lush green scenery, we all had lunch. The usual theplas, murabbas cakes and ladoos followed.

And since it was Jagdish's birthday, a round of gifts, and photographs with him holding the gifts followed We had planned to visit the waterfall on the return journey, but didnt know the route to the waterfall. Nevertheless, we walked back to the base village Khandale and took ST buses back to Mumbai. All in all, a weekend well spent.

Pictures from trek to Sagargad and Siddheshwar temple

Trip to Goa - Devaaya resort!

nospam@example.com (Anurag) — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 14:42:00 +0530

End of May, the long pending get together happened. On 29th May evening we left for Goa in a Volvo. Night was spent sleeping and singing. After the long journey on Mumbai - Goa national highway we reached Goa next morning and headed towards Diwar Island. Checked in Devaaya Resort and relaxed. Had party whole night, with lots of chicken and booze.

Panjim, the capital city, is a city of churches and beaches and there are ample opportunities of photographing both. Next day a couple of us hired a few bikes and went off on a beach visiting spree.

All in all, a trip well spent. Goa is fun place to be at.