Friday 21 July 2017

Outing to office!!!



Internet can be abuzz with the memes of people behaving/feeling on different days of week while going to office. Monday as horrible, Tuesday as sluggish and so on and on. Amidst all this, some fool has given this post of “Outing to office”. Idiot must have been working with government organization..hunhh….

Well, this idiot is working with private organization only :). You will never detest going to office if you are in my office. In fact you look forward to it.  

And yes I am not saying this because I am some workaholic or I love my work (which off course I do) or something like that. That is simply because the location. Who won’t like to go to office if your office is somewhere in between hills. Hills which have become very dense due to rain and if you look closely you can spot one or two small waterfalls also. Isn’t the same we wish when we go to some hill station… ‘Only if my office is here, I can work continuously’, ‘Only if I have a home here and my office allows me to work from home. I can be more productive’. Me and my colleagues in office joke about taking a selfie and post in team whatsApp group with caption “Working from Lonavala”.

And…wait wait…don’t just imagine the hills, best part is yet to come. Icing on the cake would be if there is the best of street foods just outside of your office. You wish it and you get it with the super quality. Idly, vada, sambar, coconut chutney, at least 15 types of Dosa, Uttapam, best quality of chai and filtered coffee, maggi, Kanda Poha, missal pav, corn masala chat, Juice, shake, pani poori and what not. All hot and fresh. Aahhh….India will be far less India if devoid of street foods. And now you are free to imagine :)

I am writing this post just after having this feast in breakfast. When I started from my desk, I was suspicious whether to go outside or go to office canteen as it’s raining quite heavily in Pune. It’s been 7 days now and it’s raining almost continuously. So I started from desk thinking if I go outside and there is no one, stall vendors will think I am crazy who has come outside in this rain. When I reached reception, I got the office umbrella from someone who himself was coming from outside. This gives me courage :)

Once out of office gate, I got to see the dedication of people. Even in this rain there was the sea of umbrellas. Every stall there has some sort of covered area alongside it with proper benches and stools. People were enjoying the breakfast as in any usual day. What you come to know from this ???....that office canteen food is so poor in quality that even in rain people prefer to come outside. And off course not to forget there is tough competition among vendors also. Earlier there was only 1 Dosa vendor, now there are two and Dosa quality is super since the 2nd one has arrived. So you see market forces :P

So I had hot ‘Loni sponj Dosa’ (after so long) with tea. Now coming to the tea, this is the best tea I get here. Only on few occasions in my life till now, I had the tea of similar taste/quality. One such occasion what I can remember was when we were on our road trip from Pune to Kanpur and stopped for tea in a road side Dhaba. FYI, Dhabas in North India is famous for their tea, food and lassi. And despite of being a tea lover myself and having the ability and training of making good quality tea, I’ll not put myself anywhere near this vendor outside my office. Simply superb. And this gives the kick start to my day here in office. All set for work. 

So while returning to desk, I was so content that I decided of going outside and was so eager to pour all of my happiness and satisfaction in this post before breakfast hangover goes off my head. Here goes the pictures.







Thursday 29 December 2016

Years last trip: Dapoli


Before this year ends, we thought of making up for not travelling much this year, despite the fact that after July, this year was full of long weekends. Anyways, all is well if end is well :P.  And while I am writing this post, someone posted in FB for all the long weekends we will be getting in 2017. By the way, in 2017 all the leaves are falling on Friday, Monday, Thursday and Tuesday with the bonus of no leave is coming on weekends. :P. So guys, pack your bags…
As usual, we 2 were the lone traveler. We started from Pune at around 8 AM and took the route through Tamhini ghat. There is another some 40 KMs longer route which is through Bhor. We thought of taking that route while returning.
We took first stop at Tamhini ghat itself. One cannot resist stopping there. Tamhini ghat is considered one of the most beautiful and dangerous route among the Western ghats in Maharashtra.  If you search in google for the Tamhini ghat, all the images you will be getting would be of the monsoon season. But, I would say visit there after monsoon also and you will find an altogether different beauty. The greenery of monsoon will turn into light brown color dried grass and long stretch of it will resemble some kind of golden brown bed. A perfect place for photographers in any weather.
One more 30 min break for breakfast and drove straight to Dapoli. We have booked hotel and Murud, and we checked in hotel at 1:30 PM.
We decided to first visit the Kelshi area which is famous for Yakub baba Dargah and Mahalakshmi temple. Yakub baba was one of those people whom  Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj held high in esteem. And this Dargah was built by son of Shiva ji.
On the way to Kelshi comes the virgin beach of Anjarle. And the beach just re-confirms me that we humans really have the guts to spoil anything and everything. I mean just see Anjarle beach and then see the Murud beach. You will see the difference. Murud beach is the only beach where there is parking on the beach itself. Just because beach has facilities for few water sports, hence huge crowd, hence parking on the beach. Too much.

















Age is no bar
Last  15 KMs to Kelshi  alone took around 1 hr as road condition was not that good. Also roads are not wide enough for 2 vehicles to pass. So if other vehicle is coming from opp. side, one has to stop and adjust for other to pass. Because of very narrow lanes, we didn’t realize we have taken other route and have entered into a village. Turning the car there alone took 20 mins. :P
Mahalakshmi temple comes first and then from there at 1.5 KM there is Yakub baba’s dargah.



Soothing life




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Way to Yakub baba's dargah
Way to Yakub baba's dargah
While returning from Kelshi, we paid visit to Kadyavarchi Ganpati temple, which exactly comes in Anjarle area.




It was already dark when we left from the temple. Thankfully, the worst part of the route was already covered.
Next day we started with Dolphin safari at Murud beach. Demonetization’s (Indian govt.’s recent venture) effect was there to be seen. Being the most favorable season for Dolphin safari and also because of year end vacation, off course crowd was there. Everyone there has a 2000 Rs note in hand, looking for change. And person in ticket counter, though has a bundle of 100 Rs notes, was asking for full change. We silently scrapped our plans of getting change and paid him in lower denomination.
Dolphin safari part was ok ok. Though there were a lot of them and also we got to see them but what I was expecting was a full high jump from them. High expectations I must say. Boat driver said whenever they are in playful mood, they do that also. If one is a good swimmer and can swim up to that area (which is not far for even a mid-level expert), he can certainly swim with Dolphins’ group.







It was around 9 AM when we left from Murud and it was the time for Fish auction at Harne to start. Now that was the most interesting part of whole trip.
In first go, it was hard for me to fathom why Fishes needs to be auctioned. Why can’t people simply sell and buy them. That’s what we have seen around us. After repeatedly answered by my husband that no, at larger scale it happens. People can’t simply buy and sell when they are purchasing for selling them in online market. Also there were fishes so costly that local people can’t afford them and also some of the sea products are of not their preferences but in some parts people consume them so they needs to be stored accordingly to increases their shelf life, transported to the area where there is demand for them, sell them in wholesale and in local market.
So after this much explanation, I was able to comprehend that Okay, fishes can be auctioned. After that came the other bizarre part. The first bunch of sea food which was in for auction was Octopus. I mean Octopus, why people eat Octopus and who are those people who eat Octopus. Being a pure vegetarian and from that part of the word, where being non-vegetarian means eating mostly Chicken, Mutton, Prawns and Fish, this fact of eating Octopus was hard for my stomach to digest and for my mind to come in terms of. I was sharing all this with my sister, she told me that even Indians eat tortoise, rabbit, snake and what not. Pheww…so I was ill-informed, accepted. But still Octopus..
So coming back to the auction scene, one bunch of around 100-120 octopus went in 1,60,000 Rs. Another bunch went in 1,20,000 Rs.













Men at work
Men at work






Red rose at hotel premises
After there we spent some time in water at Harne beach which is a virgin beach. After lunch we checked out of hotel.  Hotel caretaker told us about the Cashew nut factory and Chandika Devi temple.
Cashew nut factory is all about transforming raw cashews into market sellable product. Right from shelling out raw cashew from its hard outer layer till multiple refining process and till packing. One can even see all this process and there is one guard who will answer all you queries.








From there chandika devi temple is some 25 KM. Chandika devi is a “Swayambhoo Temple”, which means the deity was originated from the earth itself and then the temple was built around it. We gave a second thought about driving 25 KMs just to see a temple. But later we decided to give it a try. And that decision was not waste.
Chandika devi temple in itself is very good. Temple is inside a cave. You have to go inside the cave, visit the deity and then by taking a round you will come outside the temple. As soon as you step inside the cave you will feel suffocation due to its location. Apart from it those 25 KMs are super awesome. All covered in dense forest with orderly placed coconut trees at some private properties. Worth travelling 25 KMs.
















Nature

That was the end of our visit to Dapoli. Headed back to Pune at around 3 PM. We had thought of taking Bhor route while returning, instead we followed the same Tamhini ghat route and that was kind of another driving milestone achieved for my husband. Driving in dangerous ghats that too in night….I was more stressed on co-driver seat than him J

Happy Ghumakkadi J