Thursday, August 28, 2008

"Ever wondered how a day's news fits in 12 pages of a newspaper and 24 hours of a channel everyday?"

We go for a movie, spend couple of hundred rupees and then critisize the technical things about it. dont we know that there are millions of people who cannot earn a hundred rupees even for days. even if you think that the movie was bad, imagine what the people behind making it think. will they ever make a movie if they know its going to be bad? do we care what the director/producer/staff had in mind while making it? there might be atleast one person who might be making the movie with a big vision of something or a passion, he just fails short while realising it or fails to find a mass appeal in it...and we tend to ignore that (not that we shouldnt always)...

while i was in pune, i used to eat at a small snacks bar that served paavbhaji, bhelpuri and stuff like that. for me it was not great food but it was rather food that is available nearby. once I saw a man (agend around 30-35), eating paavbhaji there with his wife and two small kids. he answered a phone while doing that and i heard him telling this to the person on call - "aaj 4 saal saal ke baad first time family ko hotel me leke aaya hai!". His idea of hotelling was different than many who are reading this...what would you do and where would you go if you want to go out and eat somewhere?

i read somewhere - "ever wondered how a day's news fits in 12 pages of a newspaper and 24 hours of a channel everyday?"

It's a known and bitter fact of today's human life. everyone makes a circle to encompass their belief, relations, assets, selfishness and decides to walk around with it. Anything that does not fit inside that, is non-existent or invisible. I am no exception to that.

Ideally there are a lot of things that need to happen or to be taken into account, but that doesnt happen ideally...and if it starts to happen, it wouldnt be a real nice life...

Choices are few and not always simple

- Spread your circles, include more in and just do nothing but feel sad like this

- Break away your circle and try to be the change

- Just keep walking and ignoring things outside it

(as commented on - http://feelingsandviewpoint.blogspot.com/2008/08/blog-post.html)

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Mumbai-kolhapur-Amba-Ratnagiri-Mumbai

Had been to Amba village on the weekend which is right in the middle of Ratnagiri and Kolhapur. The village is approx 300ft above the sea level and great place to halt for a weekend trip.

We started from Thane and reached Kolhapur via Pune. Mumbai Pune is approx 200kms and Kolhapur is another 200. From Kolhapur we took Amba Ghat route to Ratnagiri and reached Amba Village via village Bambawade and Malkapur.
Amba it seems is now part of reserve forest area. There is a Dam nearby and also lots of water catchment areas and waterfalls on the river that runs along. You can spot peacocks and many other birds, kingfisher is very common too. You can take a walk in the jungles with help of locals. There are few resorts available here which offer lovely food and stay. Its advisable to do a reservation first. The resorts are not like commercial resorts - they are like villager's house converted into resort. Usually they provide customizable food menu, blankets and attached washrooms. If its not raining, you can do a camp fire and barbeque also. Our resort had a policy to let the place to one group at a time (for a minimum of 5-6 people).

Once you start from the village towards Ratnagir, you will be greated by amazing view of Konkan range. Here you realise how much above the sea level you really were.
We went to Marleshwar temple which is approx 40 kms away from Amba. This place is a temple of Shankar right next to a nice big waterfall. You can pay-park the bikes at the base and take few steps to reach the temple and waterfall.

From here we started off for Ganpatipule. We first came on Mumbai-Goa highway and went towards Ratnagiri. Ganpatipule is around 40 kms from here.
Return journey to Amba is via haatkhamba and pali. For this you have to come back till mumbai-goa highway again and go towards Ratnagiri again. And then take the kolhapur diversion after few kilometers.

While returning to Mumbai, you can come via NH-17. The distance is almost same but road quality and ride is different as you will pass through different ghats along the route.

Will post the map and pics soon. Till then you can check out cellphone pics on flickr.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/globe_treader/sets/72157606795523194/