The only thing that I can plan and execute too well is what to do on the weekend coming up. I have had pre-planned weekends for months in advance. It is said that a life is well spent if it is full of experiences. Every minute of our life is important as once it is spent, you cannot reclaim it. It is said that time is money and one should invest it wisely. For quite some time I had ignored this principle and wasted my time in doing things which gave me nothing in return. It is time to put things in right places and get going.

It was almost a chaotic half year since I had stopped to smell the flowers, to count the stars. The urge to reconnect with nature was becoming irresistible. So when my trek buddy asked me if I was up for a moon light trek from Katraj to Sinhgad, there was an impulsive agreement. This is a rigorous trek from Katraj to Sinhgad and trek involves a hike across 15 to 16 hills for roughly 12 – 14 kms. The experience of trekking this terrain twice was telling me that this time it won’t be easy. 

This trek is bench mark for every trekker, in and around Pune. It is an experience of life time, which involves great physical and mental strength. Many have said to trek here as a part of their training programs for Himalayn Expeditions. Once you cross first two hills, there is no way to come back. The most important part is, this is where you experience total isolation from city, though its view keeps you company through out... For the entire route, one would not find any third person; it’s only you and your trek-mate.

This route being so isolated, you need to carry enough water, food, first aid and emergency safety gear.  So there it was, a backpack weighing around 8kgs which included about 4 liters of water. I was only getting stronger in mind to achieve this.

We gathered at Katraj Snake Park and took a local transport bus to the tunnel. The trek begins atop the tunnel. We started walking at about 11 in night from the Waghjai Temple. The first two hills  - Vrindavan and Gokul are the ones which test your will to complete this. After these two hills there is no turning back. All you can do is, hold on to yourself looking at the blinking red light of TV tower on Sinhgad and keep walking. 

The hike is as good as journey of one’s life, going up and down. However, soil corrosion is killing mother earth! It’s only March end, and the plants already seemed dry and soil looked cracked. This was not a pleasant view on a cool night.

The group consisted many first time hikers. Hats off to their enthusiasm! Another trekking buddy was here to prepare himself for Mount Everest Base Camp. The most inspiring was another trekking buddy who participates in Marathon all over the country. He had recently completed this trek in less than 8 hours and that too during day time.

The walk continued with several breaks.  The water bottles were emptied and the backpack was getting lighter only technically. One has to be careful about not harming the nature, yet the rightful residents of the terrain like serpents and scorpions may make their appearance occasionally. 

The second last hill is known as one tree point. The single tree atop the hill marks it territory. If the pace is right, by sunrise you should be beyond this hill.

  

You may choose to climb the last hill or traverse and reach the tar road. We had arranged for local transport from the junction to the city.

This achievement restored my confidence and faith and now I can definitely say, Tested, Verified, OK!

For Statistical purposes & records:

The highest altitude touched was 1180 Mtrs and lowest was 815 Mtr. Minimum temperatures recorded was 20 C. And total distance covered was close to 12 Kms. (These are approximate values)

The phrase "Body Art" fascinated me for quite sometime. It was those days when I used Orkut for online social networking. There used to be a column: Body Art. I could never fill it as I had none.

Some people would fill that information as tattoo. Coming from a typical Indian middle-class family I had hardly seen anyone with a tattoo. I often wondered what a tattoo was like.

When I started working, I came across a few people who had tattoo. There would be casual conversations what the tattoo was like, did it pain, and most important, how much did it cost?

The people gave varied answers. The location of tattoo would decide how much it would pain, the size would decide the cost etc. etc. But I heard no one talking about anything about the designs.

I had read sometime that doodles are the interpretations of ones hidden desires. I am not sure why, but I felt tattoo also represented same.

Then, I started looking around. I found someone at work place, who has tattooed Ronaldinho on his forearms. I was curious to know why, he said, he loved Ronaldinho.

Then, a famous actor had tattooed his son's name on his back. People said what a lovely expression of love.

Well, then I decided I would get one done on my shoulder whenever I would go to Goa for first time. Having never traveled to the land the craziness, I had marked my agenda with the craziest thing I thought I would do.

I didn't know when I would reach Goa. Somehow, as God has always been kind to me, he soon arranged for a quick trip to Goa, with a few friends.

There I was, in the land of Craziness! Booze & beaches marked my weekend. Well, I had an fixed agenda, I had to get a Tattoo done. Fortunately, I found one studio near the resort. I was ready to get inked.

The only question here was, what to ink on myself? It was going to be permanent, had to portray Me in a small picture. So, thats what the answer was to my curiosity, A tattoo is a representation of one's personality.

The tattoo artist at Palolem Beach, was showing me designs, Nothing was really impressive.

It was a shame for a quick shopper to look into 4 books and not being able to finalize anything. And then, I saw a raw design lying on his counter. It looked like a imperfect butterfly and more or less resembled a moth... That's me, perfectly imperfect.

Days passed by, felt like life was on a super highway and then again, I was going down. My life is a representation a perfect cardiogram. When it goes up, its like I am touching the skies, and when it goes down, its like I am drowning in the ocean.

I somehow managed to get myself back on surface of the ocean, the need to boast that a next phase of life has begun is getting stronger in me. Who would interpret it better than a flower on a creeper? So there comes my another tattoo on my ankle. It also has a butterfly, to interpret that with the lessons learnt, I am now a butterfly, though not perfect, but definitely more improved.

"Oh, its just a sci-fi movie, lets go", I was too reluctant to watch this one... I would rather wait for Harry Potter or Mission Impossible. But a sci-fi was definitely not on my list.

Being a jobless rude woman, someone asking me to watch a movie with them should have been a great honor. Instead I honored them with my company to watch a movie of their choice.

As the movie began, I started feeling drowsy... Seeing Jake's brother being cremated, I was unmoved. Come on, its just another thing that happens in life. Someone's born, someone's dead! Nothing new.

Jake's was being sent to Pandora to take his bro's place and I was craving for Nacho's...

I loved the way Grace's sarcasm is in its full form when she meets Jake. Marine is most decent word she must have said. She puts in to link with Avatar! With a new body, Jake is at his best out of control form. Slowly I had started enjoying this movie.

Jake messes with a thanator and is lost in the Jungle. The sky people are worried only about the "Avatar". Jake encounters Neytiri the female Na'vi. And it looked like a typical bollywood movie.

He follows her and she criticizes his childlike curiosity. And she says" You have a strong heart. No fear. But stupid! Ignorant like a child!" Perfect, this is the best I would describe the youth. Following only superficial appearance and not wanting to see whats deep inside. perfect definition of word "Immature".

Yet he follows her to their tribe and Neytiri's mother tells him It is hard to fill a cup that is already full. So right! We have everything around and within us and we are running after something that even we don't know. This movie had forced me to think.

As the movie progressed, several secrets of this world had made home in my mind. All the energy is only borrowed and we have to return it one day... How true! I was at a crossroad now. This movie got me going. I was more at peace with myself now. I didn't feel the pain of past anymore.

Jake was taken to make "tsaheylu" with Banshee, you will know if it selects you, how? It will try to kill you. Interesting... I was laughing out loud as I saw myself not ready to accept anyone. Why would I do that? That person has to prove that they were capable of handling me or I would kill them. The bond is necessary. Huh... my head was getting heavier now.

Jake successfully makes the tsaheylu and starts flying, the scene was picturesque and suddenly he says shit, the bird tries to throw him off. Hey, that's how our lives go, our thoughts can chain us or change us.

The movie progressed, all I was seeing now was greedy nature of Human kind, we have exploited mother earth beyond our worth. All the greens are vanishing... The mother is dying. We better take steps now and save ourselves.

Well, Then came a point where Jake captures Leonopteryx and becomes Toruk Makto. Sometimes, you have to do extra-ordinary things to make someone trust you... Hmm this is how life goes...

Well, after the movie, I was at much peace with myself... It was like I had found myself.

I had realized being disrespectful to everyone and everything around me had put me through a lot of turmoil till now. And it was about time, I should have changed things within myself.

" I rather change my way and succeed than have my own way and fail. " Robert H. Schuller

Duke's Nose 08 August 201This was one of most happening treks, so many participants!!!

Shripad's Shirdiwale, pardesi pardesi & Tejal's Tu agar from Raaz rocked the train journey in morning. Wanderer's legacy songs like Suragini, dehachi tijori remix, panyamadhe killa remix were the highlights of this journey.

Ajit had organized for a small felicitation of pillars of wanderer's on the occassion of 250th Trek after the lunch & Harshad, you called at the right time.

Shailesh, Pritam, Lucky, Abhay, Omkar were awarded a cadbury each which none of them shared with me. :-(

Shailesh's camera met with an accident on the way to Mandakini fall & some guy's cell fell off the bridge near Tata's helipad were the hitchs & as always Ajit & Sachin were the Saviors. :-(((

Like every year, Diwadkar's wadapav stall on Platform 2 on Lonavala Station sold us more than a 100 Wadapavs and almost same number of tea cups.

Local journey to Pune was a crowded experience, thanks to Ajit, Omkar, Pritam & Shantanu, who made it better.

For a change, Gauri - Shantanu's wife had come along with her sister. So we can definitely expect few more wanderers for our next treks.

We missed Manjiri, Rohini, Shrutika, Tanmay Pendse, Pushkar, Omkar (OD), Lijo, Dr. Sirdesai & Sarthak.

This is it of Duke's Nose trek for you & it was very nice of you to call, and we all felt graced by your virtual presence.0

It was a Hot October morning when I set out to my newly discovered hobby, studying the jungle life.

This time the target was the woods near my native place on NH17.

These woods are quiet familiar as when we were kids we would have crossed them several times to reach our picnic spot hidden inside these jungles.

Though there isn't much wildlife left there now, the feel of being inside the woods wasn't less.

As I had been there a few times in past I knew the way...

My confidence was boasted when I found few familiar land marks... And then after the small munching break, I took a left turn...

And I had reached where I shouldn't have... and I was lost in the woods.

The place where I had reached wasn't the one I was expecting to reach. I had reached near a pond which I never knew existed.

And As expected I saw the first wildlife sign - the pugmarks. I was shivering with scare.

And then there was a movement in the nearby and there came a wolf & her newborns.

It was a real scary moment of my life. I was dead sure that now I won’t be going back to my world.

I started thinking about the incomplete tasks, assignments & my dog Rickie.

Same time I recollected Robert Frost's lines -

"The woods are lovely, dark and deep,

But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep,

And miles to go before I sleep."

For first and only time in my life I started praying God to save my life.

I wondered to myself about the reckless driving practices that I followed sometimes,

About times when I jumped off a cliff to swim the river, about times when I trekked the Himalayas.

And the moment came and passed the wolves drank the water and went away. They didn't even pay any attention to me.

I was surprised. All I could think was probably the prayers were really answered.

I decided to go back the same way I had entered, every way looked just the same.

I was confused what to do next.

I kept walking for some more time; soon I saw some smoke rising in the sky.

It was a good sign indicating human dwelling and I decided to keep the faith and reach there.

And I was right. I had found the way out for the jungle safely.

I sincerely thank God for teaching me the value of life with this simple incidence.