Migrated to Wordpress

I recently shifted my blog to wordpress because I felt it was more advanced than blogger. Soon I'll post the reasons but till than point your feeders to this link.
See ya blogger!

My ride on Wave!

Google has always been a trendsetter in whatever it does and continues to be one. The fascinating products like Google search, Maps, Earth, Sketchup, Gmail and what not..I guess almost everything they've built. And once again, they come with a fascinating product that is surely going to change the way in which the world communicates. I see a instant of time in near future where emails, discussion forums and other communication tools will be "something that existed in past" because everybody will be too busy riding on waves. Yes I am talking about the most awaited, talked and twitted google product, Google Wave.

Lars Rasmusen along with his brother started working on this project back in 2007 at Google office in Sydney. For past two years they have been working on it and on 30th Sept 09, they went live for first public beta release of Wave, giving out 100,000 invitations who had registered themselves for being a part of Google Wave. Its still in beta so there are bugs and other issues but the reason why they went live was that they wanted to know how people would/will react to it. When the news of Google giving out Wave invites leaked out, there must have been enormous searching done on Google itself to search for them. Twitter is trending "Google Wave" or "#wave" for past three days and the incoming twits still continue to flow. A guy even put up an "e-bay" bid for selling Google Wave invite and within a fortnight, his bid received 12000 hits and the highest bid was $157. People have been talking, waiting for Google Wave, just to experience something magical. Currently Google Wave is used only by Googlers and now, the first 100,000 users would get to use it. The news is that it will be going live in mid 2010(or even early) and I cant stand my excitement.

So what's Google Wave is all about?
It's a online communication and collaboration tool that aggregates almost everything you do on web at one place. Each new conversation is called a wave and there are participant in that wave who add, edit, share content in real time. This video of Wave's first demo at Google I/O 09 shows some of the amazing features that it has which I am sure, will redefine our notions about communication. It has messaging, discussions, media sharing(photos, videos), creating/editing a document, inbuilt Google search in a wave itself and lots which must have been added since that video, all in one place. And the possibilities of what you can do on a wave are limitless.

Some reasons to get excited about Google Wave are that it's an open source, any developer can built an extension, it follows open protocol system same as that of email, anybody can start their own customised wave system, it can be embedded anywhere you want it to be, it comes preloaded with a bunch of cool applications and it's totally web based.

Who should look forward for it?
Everyone! Right from a naive user to a developer, it has goodies for everybody! Anyone who uses web for getting his work done by collaborating with other people present over there should be excited about it. I also see Google Wave as a potential e-learning tool basically for the virtue of it being to aggregate and collaborate stuff in real time.

The day is not far when we will be talking about wave and must have almost forgotten email, social networks, chat engines, twitter etc. It has been discussed as killer for all this apps, but being open minded, google has developed API's to integrate wave with almost all of this applications. What will really affect is the number of people who actually visit these sites to do all stuf, because after wave it can be done from one place.

Thanks to Google for yet another revolution in online communication! We are waiting...

(Only)PowerPoint slides are not E-learning medium!

As the computer gizmo is hitting all sections of society, and being applied in every domain in which it could be applied, education/teaching is one sector where it is thriving rapidly to make learning virtual. Basically I don’t have any interest in teaching methods (though I come from a family which has considerable amount of people working in education field!), but I strongly believe and support the view that technology can bring drastic changes in much questioned Indian education system. I am not an authority either to speak on this issue but whatever information I have collected through meeting people, readings, internet etc. led me to pen down this post.
A workshop was going on in our college on “Use of Computers in Teaching” or what they call as ICT in Education. One of my higher secondary teachers was also attending this and told me that they were taught to make power point presentations. My father and mother have also attended such workshops in past few months (Dad even went to Bhopal for that) and were taught nothing different than Microsoft Office Suite, stressing more on PowerPoint. I guess anyone who attends such workshops would rarely practices atleast showing a ppt in the class, forget getting more interested in ICT in Education. There are practicality issues everywhere (and more complex ones in Goa) as far as teaching methods are concerned.
A rule which is being often quoted in education circles is that “One teaches his students as he has been taught by his teachers”. Since we have been following the so called Chalk-Board (or Get Bored!) system of teaching, and we (will) still practice that for future generations to come, after all we are Indians! The resistance for change in system is bound to be offered and education is surely not an exception. Come on people, we are not talking about the changing the systems fully (though it would be the best revolution that will ever happen in Education sector), we are here just to make the teaching learning process just smoother, better and effective.
Let me not get into teaching methods again, it can be altogether another write up I could make in coming days. My grudge is against all people who are the resource persons for such workshops mentioned above who propagate that using powerpoint presentations in classrooms is E-teaching and do not uncover the life beyond PowerPoint, or MS Office or even for that matter, Windows! May be the resource persons themselves haven’t heard anything beyond the 3 things mentioned above and try to push in whatever they can into Office Suite labeling it as E-teaching and society calls it E-learning.
Things have gone much beyond of Powerpoint, Office and Windows and people here are least bothered, unaware and un-updated on it. My second grudge is about these people who are unaware about technology that would make their life simpler, easy and smooth. For an instance to quote an example from my class, one of my lecturers had bought a new laptop and since my college is one of the only two educational institutions in Goa, who have moodle package running for their campus, started uploading ppt files of his course on moodle. There were no issues until one day he brought his laptop in class, projected a MS Word window in Full Screen Mode on the screen and started reading out whatever he had typed in those notes. It was one of his most boring lectures I had this semester. After the lecture was over, I went to him and asked “Sir, wouldn’t it have been better if you could actually had shown us how the particle behaves in particular state of motion (it was Physics) using a simulator or something?”
“Are there any such kinds of softwares?” He asks.
“Yes! There are plenty of simulator application available, and more plenty in Mechanics itself.” I replied, expecting him to be eager to know about them.
“You know to use them?” He asked again.
I said yes. I thought he would tell me to demo them but he just says “very good” and walks out of class.
This was so unexpected and moreover disgusting, that being a teaching staff of a noble science pursuit called Physics, teaching a fascinating subject ie Mechanics and moreover being an employee of a educational institute that boasts about being the pioneer in e-learning in higher education in Goa(I’ll talk about that later, that’s another breed of people out there!)
The moral of the story is if they don’t want to learn by themselves, how they expect their students to learn?”
I see E-Learning as an effective medium for learning and the best way to achieve it is FOSS. Wait, for all those who have been sleeping with their “Windows” shut and haven’t heard of this term, the term FOSS stands for Free & Open Source Software, a renaissance in computer software and technology. There are n numbers of applications available for teaching a specific domain which falls under the category of FOSS and are absolutely free to use and modify as per the user requirement. The worst part is that people haven’t heard about it, and those who have, are again not keen to opt for it. Again introduction to FOSS would be another post, Introduction to FOSS in Education/Teaching would be yet another but before that, my dear teachers and educationists please wake up and dare to think beyond PowerPoint, MSOffice & Windows.
Technology is dynamically changing life by changing itself too. When are we going to change?
Note:- The day I had that dialogue with my teacher, I went home and took up a task of collating information about e-learning applications available under FOSS category and making a toolkit for the teachers to use them. I know there is an ocean out there of such softwares but I would try to collect as much as I can grab from it.

What I have been upto these days?

"It's not that I am too busy. It's just that I don't want to take any responsibility". This was my FB status some days back. As you people already know(or else read About Me) that I am into too many things at same time which sometimes makes your living horrible, I thought of minimizing my domains. But somehow I am falling lose these days.....
Anyways here is a sneak peak of what I am upto currently
1)Academics
Two Assignments submitted already of Maths..one yet to be given. For my DBMS project I am building a back-end database for an organization (MITRA in particular) and for Operating Systems some programs are given to be written in Shell Script I guess...haven't got the copy yet. For EDP ie Entrepreneurship Development Program, a case study of Sergey Bin and Larry Page, the founders of Google. And so are two physics....but I am least excited about them as of now!

2)Extra-curricular activities at College
I try to keep this as minimum as possible now. First of all, got permission to start a Computer Science Students club for which I was trying since last year. The activities will begin soon after reopening. I've named it as ADOCSS(Association of Dept. Of Computer Science Students)....may be changed later after deliberations.
Initiating a college community blog TigerPunditz for blogging about college issues. It's still in infancy stage and me alongwith Sir Andrew are working out on it.
In process of getting a film club started here on campus.

3)MITRA activities
It was decided during the last meeting of MITRA to organize a monthly activity about anything related to environment. In August, we screened a documentary "The Silk Spinners" but did not catch up the response I was expecting. Hoping good about the activity of the coming month..haven't decided about it though.
BTW, finally after a long lasted deliberation, we finally agreed upon to buy Cannon Powershot S10 IS for MITRA which will be coming next week. Totally excited about re-starting the photography.

Other than this, since Ganesh Chaturthi is fast approaching, busy with trying to make my room as neat as possible in whatever way I can! Also employed by Mom and Aunties Pvt. Limited for "Clean House Project" for no wages. So in festive mood

Random things
tweeting heavily..i mean as compared to before
finally wrote some poems after a long time...published on SPANDAN
yet to collect the rucksack given for stitching
drive once in week on highways
being insomniac....thats bad when you have got pracs at 8:30 in morning the next day
changed profile pic...many girls appreciated it(OooooOhh)! My answer was simple "I was bored of holding that cap for so long"

Old Pic

New Pic

What else?
See you next time than.....

Come Back Post

Ohh! I just dont believe that I have been away from blogging for this many days of my internet life. Somehow that excitement of blogging has lost...wait..it's just not blogging! It's almost in every part of my life....wait more...it's not me only! I see people, things around...with no excitement. Looks like some dementors have sucked all happiness from around. This is just a short post to say that "All you netizens out there, I am still alive and will be back here soon.
And not with ongoging 4 blogs but it's better that I merge all of them into one and start tagging them properly....well! I'll be back..surely..just collecting sufficient excitement!!!

It is here finally....

If it was not for the cracking sound of thunders outside the window, I wouldn't have even cared to wake up in the middle of the night from a yet another divine sleep that I had last night. The good news is that rains are here, giving a surprise to meteorological predictions as always.
The morning was made special by the unmistakable fragrance of the virgin soil getting wet, and to add to it was some nice hot tea.

The jungles, which had gone dry over the summer would now be springing to life back displaying all the shades of green everywhere. I just cant wait to go to rove around....with so much to see, discover, love and conserve....rain is here again....padharo mharo des!!!

The Call of Mhadei

"We wanderers, ever seeking the lonelier way, begin no day where we have ended another day; and no sunrise finds us where sunset has left us."

To experience what it means to be a wanderer, or rather a backpacker, we decided to camp in Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary during the last weekend in January. The trip was planned mainly as an adventure, and wildlife had a secondary preference. The main aim of this trip was to imbibe the practices that are useful in camping amongst us so that it will help us in near future. I was reluctant to join the troup since I wanted to attend some other function in coming days. But the day before, while attending a seminar on biodiversity conservation by WWF-Goa, I was lucky enough to attend Rajendra Bhai's lecture on Mhadei, which changed my plans and I was on with rest members

.

But the trouble started from the Day 1 itself. Since I reached late on the Bus Stand, others had to miss one bus and to add on that, all the subsequent buses were canceled due the political gathering at sanquelim.. After those four hours of continuous wait and deliberations whether to go or not to go, or to change the destination, we finally boarded the Ponda-Mollem-belgaum bus and got down at Mollem and caught a bus to Valpoi from Mollem.

Getting down at Khadaki, we walked till Bhironda river bank. This was the first base site for our camp. The sun was already waving a farewell to the water of Mhadei and we were fortunate to see and capture this show. We dumped our belongings in one pothole so as to prevent them from dogs. Next move was to take a swim in the adjoining river and we felt fresh after that.

It was perfectly dark now and we lit our surroundings by the three torches that we had with ourselves. We sat and talked about our problems, future, conservation etc. Saish, Aniket and Me recited some poems of our own. I lied on Utkarsh's laps watching the sky lit with millions of stars, finding the arrangement patterns within them.

It was the time for dinner now, and they had Maggi noodles. Since, I did not like maggi, I managed myself on Bread-Jam and Cakes. Preparing the maggi was an ultimate experience and we all enjoyed it.

We sat to plan the next day. Our next destination was to reach Karanzol, a remote village in Sattari and from there walk till “Pishtyachi Kond.” Saish and me knew the route since we had been there before. Sharp at 6:30, a bus leaves to Karanzol from Khadaki and we decided to catch the same. I think we slept than under the open sky counting the stars overhead.

The next morning was not too far, and while waking up I found my sleeping bag was fully wet because of the dew drops that descended upon us. When Saish, me and Utkarsh woke up, we found Rohan and Aniket already busy preparing the tea. Even we joined them and had a nice cup of hot tea with little less sugar, but the sweetness of our spirit added to it was making it worth drinking hundred times.

It was 6:15 when we left Bhironda, and we had no hopes of catching with the bus. Still, an elderly lady on the way told that the bus comes at 7 o'clock. We hurried but atlast we came to know that the bus comes at 6:30 only and we missed it. There were no more buses going to Karanzol that day.

We tried stopping one bus of Zantye Cashew factory which takes the employees to the factory. Th driver agreed to take us but said he can drop us upto Karamali, a village 8 km before Karanzol. We got into the bus and got down at Karamali, from where we walked till Karanzol. There was no need to go to the village since the route to “Pishtyachi Kond” starts well before the Karanzol village but sometimes I cant resist my nostalgic attacks. Over my past visits to this village, I have developed a sense of affection towards this village. Saish preferred resting under a Jackfruit tree while I headed others to show around the village. I met Govind Kerkar, a resident of Karanzol and forest guard at Bhironda Soil Conservation Dept. who had accompanied us to Pishtyachi Kond last time.

We came back to Saish and after resting for sometime, started our journey towards Pishtyachi Kond. Since the time we woke up, we were walking and walking and just walking. We stopped by the way and hid our luggage ambush so as to reduce the burden to carry. After reaching deeper into the forest, we could hear the sound of water flowing adjacent by us. We badly needed water for drinking. We decided to stop here itself for lunch. Than came the three hours of splashing water sports that we all played and were back fresh for the lunch. The recipe did not change from last night and it was same, cake for me and noodles for others. Since it was late now, we canceled the plan to walk till Pishtyachi Kond since we would be reaching the village by night. We marched back calling it off for yet another memorable trip and a promise to visit again to Pishtyachi Kond next time.

At night, we slept at a temple in Karanzol after having our food in a local restaurant. Approximately, we walked about 45 odd kms that day and had no plans to continue the camp on the third day. We boarded the bus that leaves from Karanzol early morning and then were back to Ponda.

This trip to Mhadei was refreshing, but also thought provoking. The proposed dam project will surely be harmful to this place and not only Sattari, whole Goa will lose its elegance and glory. The water of Mhadei is calling out to its each son out there amongst us to protect her veil from being submerged under political wishes of neighboring states.

The silences of Cotigao Wildlife Sanctuary

We were overjoyed to see Paresh sir back from the elephant operation to Cotigao. It’s an altogether different experience to rove in Cotigao with Paresh sir. We had visited Cotigao number of times before but never got a chance to see it with Paresh sir & this was the moment for which we were all waiting for.
After a session of informal discussion, we all settled ourselves into his jeep which marched towards Bela Lake. It was the onset of sundown and surely, best time for wildlife sighting. The jeep being open, we constantly conversed with the wind which was moving opposite to us as we went forward. Since me, Omkar & Arnold were standing; we had to dodge down to miss the branches that had descended down from the canopy surrounding the trail. The vehicle stopped at the lake, unloading the villagers whom we had given lift till the spot.
We went little further for some birdwatching. We spotted Heartspotted Woodpecker, Racket Tailed Drongo, Tree Pie, Starlings etc. We all came back to the lake. Paresh sir told us to sit quietly and wait for the black birds to show up as he wanted to photograph them. We adjusted ourselves on the plinth while Arnold and Paresh sir adjusted themselves into a nearby hide pointing their DSLR cameras to the lake. The lake looked still and so as we.
A Pond Heron landed in the lake. We were not thrilled to see this otherwise often seen bird, even in urban settlements. None of us uttered a word, not even a sheer whisper was exchanged. I was trying to resonate with the silence of jungle. It started to dominate us as we began to accept its authority over us. They say that jungle has its own laws, and so as it has its own voices.
Time passed rapidly fading the skies to darker and darker shades of black. Suddenly, two Orange Headed Thrushes showed up at the lake, joining the Pond Herons. The Black Birds were yet to show up and by this time, we were completely adjusted to the silence of the jungle. Time passed but the scene at the lake did not change.
I felt some motion to my back towards right on the road. It was Prakash, the forest guard, who was walking rapidly with a face beaming a smile of some great achievement. ‘Sir, Leopard!’ Those two words had hit me hard & my impulses took a leap like that of the mighty beast that was sitting right on the road, in a carefree manner. I had flare visions of the leopard that had crossed our car at Khandepar, a month back. We all got up and saw in the direction in which Prakash was pointing his finger & it all appeared crystal clear. A leopard right in the middle of the road on an open patch just few meters away from us. The yellow colour of the dried grass looked dull in contrast to the shades of yellow that this beast wore on his body. We were excited like hell.
Paresh sir told us to climb the watchtower. He was expecting the leopard to come straight to the lake but it proved him wrong. Instead of turning to left and walking towards us, he went straight and vanished out of the view point. Paresh sir and Arnold went in the hide again, me and Omkar settled ourselves in the open part of the jeep while everybody else waited on the watch tower with binoculars struck to their eyes.
Paresh sir signaled us to listen to the hissing sound of leaves on the other side of the lake. It was dark by now and hearing was the only vision. We waited, waited and just waited but nothing happened. We could only hear some sounds of leaves hissing which disturbed the silences. Suddenly a Lapwing gave a cry from the left side of the lake. Paresh sir suddenly got us & told us to get back in the jeep. He told Prakash to drive to the acacia plantation from where the sound had come. We drove to the spot; thinking that Lapwing had raised alarm because of leopard was roaming around that area, but it was futile enough and we decided to return back.
While returning, Arnold had switched his headgear. We were passing Bela lake when me and Arnold saw four eyes gleaming in response to the LED flash that his headgear threw around. I tapped the window glass where Paresh sir was sitting & told him that there is something waiting for us. He instructed Prakash to take the car towards left, leaving the trail and we entered the dried mouth of the lake. The headlights of the jeep flashed infront and we saw two leopards, one male and another female!
They stared at us for disturbing them. I could feel the time stood still for some seconds, allowing everybody amongst us to freeze this moment in our mind. I felt like giving a roar to celebrate this time of my life. This drama took place for few seconds after which both of them faded into the dark forests of Cotigao, making it silent as it was before.

Chaddi Pehnake Phool Khila Hai.......

As you begin a new today of your life, you never know what can take you back to sweet memories of your past and you might end up spending your day thinking about those nostalgic times of your life. I often get such nostalgic attacks in the middle of vacations when I have nothing else to do than wandering along with the reminiscences.

Your attack may be kicked as simple as this- you open a supplement that comes with your local daily newspaper to read an article about Gulzaar. While reading, you come to know that the song that accompanied the childhood of our generation, “Jungle Jungle Pata Chala Hai”, title song of famous animation series Jungle Book, was penned by this living legend and is composed by Vishal Bhardwaj, the genius Indian filmmaker. Same thing happened with me and this reason was enough to take me back to the sweet childhood days of mine and it all appeared as if it had happened just yesterday.

Me sitting infront of TV enjoying the adventures of Mowgli with Sher Khan, Bagheera etc. & sipping the Sunday morning tea with chapattis rolled and dipped inside it, both done simultaneously to get better taste of both the activities. These images are crystal clear in my mind and have not vanished though the childhood has eroded around to make me an adult.

I get up and connect my computer to internet in and download the title song of jungle book. Finding it was not very difficult since only one keyword “Chaddi” was enough to get me the desired results, and wow! 

“Jungle Jungle Pata Chala Hai, baat chali hai

Chaddi Pehnake Phool Khila Hai Phool Khila Hai”

I set this song as ringtone for my cell phone and listen to it the whole day. This song does not only bring the sweet memories of past to life, but also some attributes within our personality that get lost in the due course of time like innocence, the no-worry attitude, serenity, inquisitiveness etc.

On the same evening, I stood at the gallery at my aunt’s place watching the Santa Clause vehicle passing by the road. The adult in me could just smile looking the children on the road running madly behind him to get that one gift packet but the child in me had an etch to run behind the Santa Clause just like I used to do back in my childhood. We as an adult are too rigid and are often scared of breaking rules set by the society unlike the child mentality. I would prefer anytime being a innocent child rather than being responsible adult, would you?

Untitled

Well…sorry for not uploading any thing about a month but couldn’t find some free time to sit back and write down the trek description in a lucid way. I tried writing about the my last trek to a village in Sattari with Parag Sir, Pankaj, Nitin and Omkar but the write ups were not somehow upto the mark. Frankly speaking, there was not much to write about this trek because neither did we walk much distance nor did we spotted something different than some dragonflies. So I thought of just uploading some photos of the trek. Sorry again but enjoy the photographic journey.

Trekking along the track-epilogue

The birds cooed the morning alarm and I was awake from last nights sleep disturbed from time to time by the passing trains which we could here in the temple. Also the flies and other insects had equally contributed in causing disturbance to our sleep. One of them bit my lower lip and it was swollen from one side which I kept chewing throughout the journey.

We were ready now to move to the final destination but rains which abruptly came stopped us from moving out of the temple. But finally we started walking in the rain so that we could reach early. We were back on the tracks now and we got used to walking in the cement beams stepping hard and harder on them.

Along with the trek, also we were busy in photographing the beauty surrounding us. It was about 8:45 when we halted for a cup of tea. All along our journey, we had been watching Dudh Sagar in different angles and now we came to the “Dudh sagar view point” where we stood face to face with it. Adjacent to the view point, there was a small hut for the Railway guards to take rest. We halted there and started preparing the tea. Everything was in powdered form, even milk. You have to be minimized on such travels. Everybody was hungry since we had not done the breakfast. While Nitesh sir prepared the tea, I passed the cakes to everybody around. The tea tested fresh and the rains which showed up while we were having tea made it tastier.

Now it was matter of few meters to reach to Dudhsagar. We passed many people who had come there as tourists. They were shouting, howling and yeah, even drinking. Most of them had come down from Maharashtra. We quietly walked further as these sighting were common in every eco-tourist spot.

Following Parag sir, we took a right diversion from the track and jumped into small streams which lead to another mini waterfall. The nature was at its best colorful display. There was so much to photograph but all my excitement came down when Rohan passed me the camera saying that it ran out of charge. But just watching this sight was nirvana for us. We saw nest of Malabar Whistling Thrush in which young ones were awaiting their mother with some food. This sight was just amazing. After having finished roaming around that place, we marched forward to waterfall. And here it was at last, a mighty waterfall with a gushing sound of water flowing with huge speed and force. The sight was something to be marveled at but the tourists who had come there spoiled the whole scene. Shouting, howling, smoking and whatever! We couldn’t stand there any more so we moved further to wait for the train which would take us back to Collem. I won’t describe the waiting part now because it was three hours long. Waiting for a transport medium is fun when you are out in such treks. I have done it many times; the longest one was of four hours at Karanzol. I can blog about it separately.

The train which came was not a passenger train but it was a goods carrier. We adjusted ourselves into the narrow space on the left engine bogie and it was fun returning back, especially our ears blasted when the train blew the whistle.
This trek was in a sense a teaching experience since this was my first night out camp. It taught me exactly how trekker should be equipped and with what he should be equipped when going out for such treks. All thanks to Parag sir! After we reached Collem, we were off to our busy schedules once again. But if you have such refreshing weekends, it’s worth living those hectic time tables.

Trekking along the track-the prologue!

At about 4:30 we started walking towards Dudhsagar waterfalls from Collem Railway stop. 5 of us along with a Russell’s viper which was to be rescued in the forest began our journey by walking on the railway tracks. I was too excited about this trek because it was an overnight camping which I had not done before. Bypassing railways disturbed the silence of the environment which was otherwise filled with bird songs.

Rain had just whispered through the forest which was the right time to spot Odonates. We spotted Pantala, a migratory specie and Malabar Torrent Dart which is found near the streams. Even the butterflies were in good number and we enjoyed watching them too along with Parag Rangnekar, author of “Butterflies of Goa.” While Omkar and Nitesh sir were busy photographing Forest Glory, Odonate specie, it started raining. So we all had to hide the cameras from getting wet. While it’s raining, nature is at it’s height of beauty, but the bad part of it is we can’t photograph it.

Dudhsagar is approx 12 kms from Collem. It was already 5:30 and was difficult, rather impossible for us to reach there before it’s dark. While stopping to take some rest, we decided to release the viper into the forest. One thing I liked about him is that he never turned aggressive, which is it’s common tendency when disturbed. Rohan and Omkar handled him for a while so that I could manage to get some photographs. The evening was turning dark and the clouds in the sky had made the light condition still poorer for a quality snap so I decided to use the flash. He finally disappeared into the greens without even hissing. A true noble guy!

The bird sightings were also satisfying as a pair of Imperial Pigeon showed up and later entertained us with their song. We also spotted Bronze Drongo perched on a tree; a bit far than 12x optical zoom. Now it was total dark and rains were moderate and the actual fun started. The height of it was walking along the tunnel in the dark with our torches lit. We were yet to reach Sonavale, a village on the way to Dudhsagar which was our destination for a halt at the night.

The signal light perfectly lit the railway track with a combination of red and blue and I was wise enough to capture this scene in the camera. We reached Sonavale and followed the mud slope which ended to the village temple of God Dudhsagar. Parag sir and Nitesh sir went down to a house to ask for the permission to sleep in the temple. The village people were very kind and they even let us to use their Choolah to cook our dinner. We had Maggi Noodles for the dinner, one of the things I hated to eat but had to eat because there was no other choice. Nature trails even teach you life adjustments you see!
Somehow I finished a bowl full of maggi noodles and switched over to bread and jam. The stomach wasn’t full yet, but the mind was overfilled with a sense of joy because this was something new for a city teen like me. The night went long and dark and we were off to sleep. Though the legs were aching, joy of mind didn’t let me feel the pain. All of us were excited over the next day’s plan and the trek was supposed to be more fruitful than what it had been till now. The lights went of and eyes got closed for a new morning.

Timepass blog!

Well it's already 12:15 a.m. and I am still postponig my Linux work session to prepare myself to write some programs on Monday practicals at College Lab. I donno why I more like writing C programs in VI Editor on Unix rather than doing it on Linux terminal. Telnetting is fun.
The "Birds and More" exhibition was put up at Chowgule College. Response was not that good but well. Umaji Chowgule visited it and was very impressed. Also, Mr.Vishram Gupte, the co-ordinator of Sangat, NGO working in te field of psychological counselling who won an international award for their work too visited the exhibition. Well, that's all for tonigh(midnight) and finally I have decided to cncel my Linux session and now I shall go to sleep as tommorow I will be visiting Payatalee again.

Whatever……

Ever since my days at Chowgule College have started, I have rarely blogged. There was lot stuff pending to be updated right from my day 2 at Karanzol camp to our latest (2 weeks back!) visit to Payatalee with Parag Rangnekar. Well, you can read the Payatalee thing on Rohan’s blog. He has written in detail, practically! Well, some more ideas I held up in my mind for blogging but kept postponing it further. The deadline has stretched and the backlog is still counting.
Well, you can blame Chowgule time-table for that matter for keeping us a tedious schedule from 8 to 5. Except Physics practical and the schedule, everything is good here. The campus environment is like that of some foreign university. It’s great to be a Chowgule TIGER, but sometimes I miss being an ENGICO!
Well no regrets!
OK, let me reveal my reason of this lazy blogging! I have joined Computer Science and that would be my major at third year. Most of the software people are lazy in their free time and don’t feel like doing anything which makes sense either to them or others. I can’t be an exception to such an attribute of Geekism. Other reason might be that I haven’t still adjusted to college life, that to in Chowgule College, which is miles different than what it as for us at GVM’s.
So reader, henceforth, along with my trek blogs, I would keep you updated with the news on the campus and some geek funda!
Sorry for not making it up, and hahh! The Karanzol Camp blog series is discontinued.
Note:-As I had mentioned earlier in my “Green Blogging” post, one of the laziest lad in our group, Rohan, has started a blog. Well, he is no more laziest now, I am leading the wagon!-)

The stroll through the fields!

The evening was fresh and the zephyr was silently making its way through the huge trees nearby the camp sites. Everybody was set out for a evening stroll through the fields of Karanzol nearby from the camp site. We had just finished with Pankaj Lad’s lecture on the bio-diversity of Mhadei. I was still in the hangover of the lecture delivered by Rajendra Kerkar (Bhai) on the cultural aspects and ancient traditions that our ancestors followed towards conservation of the environment. Bhai, while delivering the lectures on Goan culture, travels from Pernem to Canacona and adds references from the surrounding villages of Maharashtra and Karnataka which have a similar culture.
The three groups namely Sahyadri, Srishti and Devrai guided by the volunteers of VEAB, set out for the trail. Our group, Sahyadri, leaded by Arnold and Sangam of VEAB, parted from the rest two groups to go in another direction. The trail began with identifying the trees, which I was not much interested initially. As Arnold and Sangam started adding importance of each sighted tree, I became keen to know more.We stopped to see a pair of Ashy Wood Swallow sitting on the electric wire above the fields. Soon the Bee-eaters appeared from behind performing beautiful aerobics. I have always enjoyed watching Bee-eaters, especially their beak which looks sharp and gives him a powerful appearance. There was so much to photograph but I was carrying a small Nikon Coolpix borrowed from uncle since Rohan had taken the nature club’s camera to Pune. I cursed Rohan for taking the camera.
Leaving the tar road behind, we entered the fields. Far from the world of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, farmers here had put lumps of cow dung in the field at regular intervals. This is an ancient method for fertilizing the soil. During the rains, these lumps of cow dung get mixed with the soil thereby making it fertile and ready for farming. Sun was slowly setting down turning the blue skies to orange. We stopped near a huge “Devil’s tree” or “Devcharanchey Zaad” or “Saatveen”. Orchid flowers hung from the which had just bloomed to life.
We decided to return back to camp site as the evening was already turning dark. Before calling it a day, every group had to present a report of the trail which was followed by a dinner and than a long sleep till 5 a.m. in the next morning. Was it really a long one?

Karanzol...i was there back again!

“Where is exactly the camp site at Karanzol?” I ask one of the VEAB members while I find a place to stand in a bus already flooded with people and us with our bags. Karanzol is not new to me. I have been here before once, when I had gone to Pishtyachi Kond. Karanzol is located in Sattari at the foothills of Sahyadri Mountain ranges and on the fringes of Mhadei wildlife sanctuary.
I was here for a 3 day pre-monsoon nature orientation camp organized by Vivekananda Environmental Awareness Brigade, a NGO working for past 6 years in the field of environmental conservation. This group is leaded by Mr. Rajendra Kerkar, a leading environmental activist from Goa. The following posts will be describing my experiences of these three days.

A sight worth TON!!!

We were just about to step on the entrance to Devil’s Canyon in Bhagavan Mahaveer Wildlife Sanctuary when we heard a strong hissing sound from the bushes just 5-10 steps away from us. I initially thought that it must be Langoors but the hidden animal was not arboreal. Ajit & I remained motionless for a second while Saish slowly descended down to see that what it was. He first announced that it was a deer, than Sambar. The herd was rushing on the climb and I could see the horns moving in a rush. At first, I thought it must be a herd of local cattle that must have been in forest for grazing. But I was proved wrong soon by the two faces that exchanged their looks with me. Their horn was glued to white mane and they were in black and brown colour. My heart gave a jerk when I came to know that it was a herd of Indian Gaur, the state animal of Goa.
I didn’t romanticize this sighting because I went 2-3 steps back in fear of this hefty animal, weighing almost a ton. We three remained stunned and watched their pageant silently till they vanished into the forest.
It was one of the moments in my life that I would never forget like my first sight of a Sambar running with a huge speed, Asian Paradise Flycatcher’s aerobic movements with its handsome tail, the jump of Giant Squirrel, the python in hibernation and the community of Pied Hornbills. For past one and half year, whatever sweet memories wildlife has offered to me are the ones that I shall cherish throughout my journey. This sighting was an addition to it, and we returned back from BMWS.

It never lets you down!

Almost at 5:15 in the evening when sun was about to set, Ankur, Saish and me reached Pachamee sweating in our black nirvana t-shirts and khaki cargos. This visit of ours had no special intention except introducing this place to Ankur. I didn’t expect any bird to show up at this hour of the day. We straightway walked to the small stream, and sat on the giant black rocks for some rest. Malabar Whistling Thrush kept singing in his soothing tone which perfectly served as background music for the surrounding scene. Saish noted the variety of plant species in the surrounding along with Ankur while I preferred resting some more. He waved his hand, telling us to walk back to the lake as he finished his work. He started walking back to the lake on a mud trail, running parallel to a narrow water stream. Ankur & me stopped near a branch of tree bearing a nest. He had his Sony Cyber shot camera and focused on the nest. HIs orange LED lit which lit the nest and gave it an orange ambience.

We hurried to catch up with Saish while he was busy recording a fern plant. The dried leaves below one level from where we standing, suddenly hissed, disturbing the silence. I could see a long tail going deep into those leaves but couldn’t identify it. The movement below the leaves stopped as we stopped. It didn’t move until Saish jumped down to see exactly what it was. The creature suddenly climbed the tree in a breathtaking speed while we three remained motionless. It was a monitor lizard, which I had presumed to be a snake. It was rather thin and pale skinned, compared to the two monitor lizards which I had seen on the front page of Sanctuary Asia magazine, hugging each other. It stopped for a while above my head level on the bark and again climbed and vanished into the branches. I had never seen a monitor lizard with a close look before. This scheduled animal is fighting for its survival in Goa as it is killed for its skin which is used for making a traditional folk instrument named “Ghumat”. Its blood is also consumed, believing that it has some medicinal properties.

We reached the lake when the sun was ready to set, darkening the water of the lake. We than went to the temple which stood beside the lake where a huge ant-hill is worshipped. It is believed that a King Cobra lives in this ant-hill and the villagers offer their prayers to him. Killing any creature in this area is considered as a sin here.

We moved out at about 6:30 as Ankur had to reach early. He was amazed by the beauty of this place. I and Saish were overjoyed with sighting a monitor lizard along with vivid varieties of butterflies and moths. This visit too, didn’t turn into a disappointing one. Anytime you visit here, it reveals some or the other drama behind its green curtains that I have enjoyed ever since my first visit. It has some magic sprinkled on my mind and still continues to grow.

Pachamee has a special place in my heart because unlike other things in my life, it never lets you down, rather it gives me energy to rise up and fight back.

Trekking down to Waghure-Sacorda Day 2

I don’t what exactly happened at 5:15 in the cold early mornings of Sacorda that made four of us wake up at the same time. Nobody’ exhibited a tiredness of last night’s incomplete sleep on their face. Everybody sprung into action the moment we got up and finished the morning duties as fast as one could to leave as early as possible. For breakfast, Aniket’s mother served us rice flakes cooked with potato. Finishing it with a cup of tea, we marched on our way heading towards Waghure.
Rohan was sprinting while I and Saish found it hard to keep up with Rohan. Aniket was busy looking out for birds that showed up early mornings in the lush green fields which ran parallel to the roads through an Olympus binocular. I struggled hard to get some enough light to capture some early morning photographs while walking but the images came blurred. Sacorda is associated with mining activity and hence, every other house here owned a truck. Some of them even had two. The trucks rested outside the houses making the small road even narrower and comfortable for walking only. Slowly, we left the village and followed a narrow trail which further led us to open grassland. Aniket, being a resident of Sacorda, told us every bit of information that he had gathered about the places which we met on our trail. A White Throated Thrush was sighted on the way followed by Plum Headed Parakeet and a Chest-nut headed bee eater.

The open grassland was slowly shrinking into a forest now. We could see some traces of bison which they had left behind on the dew wet land. We halted near a small water body to decide which side to go as it had left us with three options to choose. Finally it was decided to go further by crossing the water body first, and than trek the remaining two.

“We’ll have to cross a mud field to reach the other side” said Aniket as we saw a small piece of green field ahead on our way. We had experienced walking into the mud once back at Carambolim lake when our group escorted B.Ed trainees for bird watching. We took our slippers into our hands and stepped into the mud. I was finding it difficult to balance my body and the camera which hung from my neck. We reached the other side where we saw a small lake where we washed our legs. The forest was getting thick enough to frighten me. We halted near a huge tree on Aniket’s signal for us to stop. He fingered the stem of the tree which was scratched by a bear. I raised my head to see right upto the tree top in fruitless search of sighting a bear, but it was not there. Aniket gave me a shock by declaring that he didn’t know the further road. Saish and Rohan decided to still walk forward with which I was not comfortable with, but in democracy, majority wins. I quietly started walking behind them. Somehow I could sense something run past by me from my back, but it was the fear which made me to feel so.

You can’t predict where an aimless wandering would take you with it. The trail which we were walking started broadening and we could clearly see now a small hill with dried yellow grass contrasting with hard black rocks. We climbed it up and settled ourselves on top of it. The view was magnificent. The mountains still hid themselves under the veils of fog revealing only the top portion of it.

They appeared to be floating in the mid of the skies. We held out the binoculars and glued them to our eyes in search of a flight, disturbed stillness of the leaves or a pair of wings flying across the blue skies. Our search fetched us fruits within no time when we saw a Racket Tailed Drongo flying across the nearby mountains with its long tail dancing to the rhythm of his wings. It’s my favorite black colored bird because of the bluish tinge he possesses over his black body. In the meantime, a Tree Pie sat on a leafless tree right in front of us, but it was too far to be captured on our 12x optical zoom lens and had to opt for the digital zoom. None of us was ready to walk further leaving this hill which revealed us the beauty of Waghure with a top view. Saish, as usual, started hunting for snakes around the hill while I enjoyed observing a pair of Grey Hornbill.

"Massive Python” Saish yelled coming out from a cave with a narrow opening. We thought he was playing a prank, as he always did. But his face revealed excitation similar to that of a small child who was happy after finding his lost toy. While Saish was dancing with joy, Rohan put his head in the narrow opening of the cave and he too, came out overjoyed. There had to be something! Me & Aniket did the formality of conforming the presence of a 3 meter long Indian Rock Python who was resting in the cave after enjoying a meal, may be a rabbit or so. His body was puffed and it rested like a noble guy. We clicked its photographs, but offering him this Page 3 status did not affect his solitude and nobility. Satisfied with the trip, we descended down the hill for our return journey. We halted on the same water body where we had stopped while entering the forest to drink some water. A pair of Ruby Throated Bulbul showed up while we were busy drinking water. While I adjusted the camera, the yellow wings vanished into the greenery. It was an end to another worth blogging trip. The satisfaction of Python sighting was overflowing from our face. We clapped for Aniket for the whole arrangement. We reached his house and ran near the fresh water spring in his plantations for a bath. After two hours of bath and aqua-fun, we returned for lunch and headed towards the bus stop to catch the return bus

Note:- A Marathi version of this post was published in Daily Gomantak’s supplement named “Muktapeeth” on 28th April 2008.

Half past midnight

It’s almost mid-night now and I find myself caught up in the middle of its darkness. I get up from the sofa and come out in my bedroom and stand near the table. It’s almost messed up, just like my mind. I pick up a book by Anil P and just flip the pages, trying hard to fix my eyes on one of the many pages. I give up after doing this act for some time and again pass a zero kind of look on the table. Three novels are lying there, waiting me to open up them and read. But I can’t dare to even touch those pages. Besides them, my assignments and exercises are in a waiting for completion. But I just ignore those meaningless paper sheets, just as I ignore my confused thoughts, because in such situations, both don’t make sense either.
Strolling over dried fields of my mind, I sit down to write up something. Thoughts come and go, but I am unable to put them up in order. Unknowingly, my writing slowly turns into scribbling some figures, abstract yet meaningless.
I am in a state of confused mind but not an empty one. Random flashes of seemingly unrelated thoughts strike the walls and disappear into the disturbed cosmos. The feeling grows intense and I am about to scream into silences. The lights go off, both in my room and my mind. I lie down on my bed where the sleep takes me under its blankets.