Thoughts,Ponderings,Musings,Ramblings..& all such th(ings)

Another Attempt to Build on Pune's Hills..

2011-11-23T22:59:00.000-08:00

Please take a moment to Read this. I wouldn't be mailing if this wasn't serious. Eight long years go.. In January 2003, articles started appearing in papers about the Government's plan to Allow construction on the Hills of Pune. This wasn't the first time that the very Identity of Pune, Its Hills - the Lungs of the city had been threatened. But this time the very idea that all the Hills

Twitter Archive : #parthswedding

2011-11-22T03:51:00.000-08:00

Finally managed to retrieve the tweets I had done before & after my Wedding (Jun 16, 2009) . My Wife still curses me for tweeting during the ceremonies .. But i feel it was worth it ! I wasn't able to retrieve these for a long time.. I felt they were completely lost .. Was planning to use the API to get them.. but then i was able to get them using the All My Tweets app.. http://

Grilled Veggies

2011-11-17T17:41:00.001-08:00

Made some simple grilled vegetables today. You can make these on an electric grill or use a barbeque or just toss them on a tava. Each method can add a taste of its own. What vegetables ? I used small potatoes, capsicum, cottage cheese(paneer), tomatoes, onion, cauliflower florets, baby corn. The Marinade Ginger garlic paste, turmeric, chili powder, garam masala, rock salt and black salt, lemon

The yellow rose in full bloom

2011-11-09T20:24:00.001-08:00

A few years ago when i'd gone on a cycling expedition near Kullu I got back 3 varieties of roses. Of these only one flowered and recently its really on a roll ! At one point it had over 23 buds :-)

Some fresh produce from our rooftop 'farm'

2011-09-16T23:56:00.001-07:00

Some pics from our roof top farm. Bottle gourd and chillies ! Will post a full gallery on picasa soon ! Currently have tomatoes,chillies, sweet potato (ratala) , lal math, 'wal', basil, bottle gourd on the food front. More photos coming soon.

The anti corruption movement heats up in Pune - Photos from Pune

2011-08-17T09:30:00.001-07:00

The people have taken to the streets in Pune and all over India to support the anti corruption movement led by Anna Hazare The Tricolor flies with new found vigor in the Anti Corruption rallies across India. The Youth are rediscovering the meaning of freedom, patriotism & democracy.. The people sitting for fasting in the night batch 8 pm in the night to 8 am in the morning.. Everyone

Dharmapuri Gadhi & Kedareshwar temple- Beed region

2011-08-15T07:13:00.001-07:00

Continuing on our journey, we started for Dharmapuri at about 3 30 after getting a smacking lunch at Krushnai lunch home in Ambejogai. We reached the place at about 5. Dharmapuri is more of a 'Gadhi' than a fort, located about 30 kms from Ambejogai on the road to Ahmadpur. The peculiar feature of the fort is that a lot of temple remenants have been used in the construction. Practically every

Awsa fort, Latur

2011-08-15T05:59:00.003-07:00

Awsa is located just 19 odd kms from Latur. We started from Latur at about 3 30 after having a awesome lunch at my uncles's place. The fort closes at 5 and we managed to get there just in time.There is an old doorway at one point which seems to be part of the old walls surrounding the village below the fort. The wooden doors here are still standing and have iron spikes on them to deter an assault

Udaigiri fort - Udgir , Latur

2011-08-15T05:59:00.001-07:00

We started from Latur for Udgir at 8 30 in the morning. Udaigiri fort lies in the town of Udgir - 65 kms from Latur. The fort is surrounded by a large moat and we have to cross a bridge to enter the fort. From here going to the right there is the Samadhi of Udgir Maharaj after whom the town is named. There is a large water tank in which there is a cave on one side inside which there is a

Dharur fort - Beed region

2011-08-14T05:56:00.001-07:00

We had been travelling for a long time-almost 4 hours when we reached Jamkhed. Our destination the fort of Dharur was still a long way off so we decided to take some rest in a temple in a village half way between Jamkhed and Patoda. Feeling refreshed, we started off at about 8am from there and stopped at Manjarsumba to get some breakfast. We have now just started on our way again. The next mile

Beed osmanabad latur forts trek - day one blogging on the go

2011-08-12T21:42:00.001-07:00

Its the 12th of August and the 6 of us ar waiting for the hired Tavera to pick us up. This year 15th August - India's independance day has come on a Monday giving us a nice to day long weekend owing to which we have planned to visit the forts in the Beed,Osmanabad & Latur regions. Its been a bit of a hard decision planning this effective 'tour' of mostly land forts so far away from our favourite

Blogging from my new Samsung Galaxy Pro

2011-08-08T19:54:00.001-07:00

So finally after squeezing all the juices out of my old Nokia 3110c I have got my self a smartphone. Though I was able to just about get things I needed most done using the 3110c, of late the gmail app on it had become unbearably slow and the phone itself had got some physical damange on my trip to Periyar in Feb. When Pinakin got himself a Galaxy, I got a chance to really properly use android

Vote Bank Politics in India - Caste in Census forms - Time to put an end to it

2011-02-15T20:08:00.000-08:00

I am not the best informed person in this field.. But hey i have the right to my opinion.. So i guess i will express it. The Indian Census process that is currently ongoing was rebooted recently as the Government passed a resolution to add two new columns in the form.. These being "Caste" & "Religion"... which have always been the great Divides in India since ages.. For years the great thinkers

Trek to Bhivgad alias Bhimgad

2011-01-26T05:38:00.000-08:00

I'd been planning to visit this fort for almost 3 weeks but due to some or the other reason it ended up getting postponed. Finally we decided to head to Bhivgad on the 26th of jan 2011 which was an holiday on account of the republic day of India. When we started out by Sinhagad express, at 6 in the morning from Shivajinagar, there were 6 of us- Pranav, Aditya, Dnyanesh, Vishal, Himangi & myself.

Squeezing the juice out of my nokia 3110c

2011-01-25T17:52:00.000-08:00

With smart phones becoming common place, nokia too has changed its strategy. Even lower range Phones like the C3 now come with great business features like push mail, chat and a nice qwerty keypad. I have been attracted to smart phones for quite some time now but have resisted buying one. The main reason being that none of the phones are really open. I want to wait till there is a affordable

Did you know that you can blog from a nokia 3110c

2011-01-25T17:48:00.001-08:00

This is the first time i an trying to blog from my aging nokia 3110c. With nothing else to do as i travel from pune to karjat for a trek to bhivgad (bhimgad) , thought i'd give this a shot. If it works expect more clois from of on the go!

Google celebrates Makar Sankranti with a Kites logo !

2011-01-14T07:05:00.000-08:00

Its been Quite some time since i have seen Google have a Indian Festival logo. I suppose its only reflecting to Indian locations ... Google today sports a Trendy look on Account of Makar Sankranti. Feast your eyes while it lasts ! For those of who dont know What this is all about, "Makar Sankrant" is one of the major harvest festivals in India ( though this is not the only reason for the

Amazing New Years trek 2011 - Saptashrungi, Markandya, Rawla & Jawlya Forts

2011-01-08T01:13:00.000-08:00

New year for me & a lot of other trekkomaniacs is not about partying into the night or going clubbing... It's not been that for more than 10 years now.. I remember the last time I did anything 'conventional' on News year's eve was back in my 10th Standard. That said, I usually try to plan some kind of trek around new years eve to places where no one else is likely to visit. P.S. when you are

An Appeal to All Family & Friends to Support my fanatical need to Trek :) - A humble appeal of a person affected by "Trekkomania"

2011-01-03T18:52:00.000-08:00

Note : To be read keeping in mind that this is an attempt at humor, although my need to trek is very much serious .. as i say below, an obsession. Also a big thank you to everyone who has been anyways supporting me till now without me asking them to.. in everything i have sought to do...including trekking. It would have been impossible to pursue this hobby without your support. On 21st December

An Experiment with a home made Wood fired Pizza Oven

2010-07-11T01:03:00.000-07:00

For a long time now i have been fascinated by Wood Fired Pizza Ovens. Then while on a Cycling trip in the Himalayas, i came across one at a friend's Hotel in Naggar Village in Kullu. Now this guy makes amazing Pizzas & you can get one for as little as 75 bucks ( thats INR) . When i was there for a day of chilling out post the cycling trip, he showed me his oven which he'd made himself after an

Work @train

2010-03-29T02:50:00.000-07:00

Never though i would be so impressed by a train ! I think this 'Gareeb Rath' - The Poor man's Chariot is one of India's first fully Air conditioned train with super facilities & super cheap tickets..Needing to travel on a workday , i needed to get some work done during the journey..Here's some pics from my work from train

Chocolate Truffle Cake

2010-02-01T20:53:00.001-08:00

Dont think i have ever blogged about my cooking before.. So here goes..Made a Chocolate truffle cake last Sunday..3 Main StepsA. Make a chocolate Sponge CakeB. Make Chocolate Truffle &C. Cut the cake & fill it & layer it with the truffle.. & Decorate it with something like strawberries..P.S. Strawberries in the cake are from our terrace patch..Will upload a video of the whole process soon..A few

Email Campaigns & Google Analytics .. some scribbles

2010-01-20T01:19:00.000-08:00

I needed to use of Google Analytics with email campaigns to help analyze the effectiveness of the campaigns.. So here are some scribbles & notes which might help anyone needing to do something similar..I am going to use a Techjoomla.com email campaign we were creating to promote one of our Products 'JBolo!' a chatting extension for Joomla..Normally i would have linked the 'Buy Now' Button, Image

Another Magento Bookmark Post - Tutorials

2009-12-02T04:27:00.000-08:00

This is another post i am making to compile magento related tutorials & SnippetsRemove Product Comparison in Magentohttp://inchoo.net/ecommerce/magento/removing-product-comparison-in-magento/Making use of Magento getSingleton Methodhttp://inchoo.net/ecommerce/magento/making-use-of-magento-getsingleton-method/Add Qty Box on Category list page http://snippi.net/

Google Chrome Blog: Announcing the Chromium OS Open Source Project

2009-11-20T01:07:00.000-08:00

Google Chrome Blog: Announcing the Chromium OS Open Source ProjectWell its out !Google's Chrome OS's Open Source code was released today..Check out the preview here..http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/releasing-chromium-os-open-source.htmlWant to Try it yourself ?The virtual box way : http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/11/19/guide-install-google-chrome-os/The vmware way : http://gdgt.com/google/