Walk Along With Me

Life Republic - Kolte Patil, Marunji Hinjewadi

2012-02-07T09:01:00.000+05:30

This Sunday I visited the Life Republic - Kolte Patil, Marunji Hinjewadi and find it facinating ...

The kind of facilities they have thought of are the best one has thought of ...

you must visit the actual site to see the progress ...

the bungalow construction is in progress as on now.

Till now the schemes open are almost 95% sold out ! and further avenues will be open with higher rate per square foot. Last week the rate hiked by 100 Rs psf, so now minimum rate is 3500 Rs psf till 5th floor, after that rate hike of 25 rs psf per floor is applicable, so if you want to buy 22nd floor you need to pay Rs 425 psf more ! (but it may be worth in my opinion)

but believe me, if things go as they have shown, this will be best place to live in India (as you know Pimpri Chinchwad has already won "Best city in India" award for 2011-2012)

you must see the video they have published on their website

http://liferepublic.in/walk-through.html

Cheers ... I am impressed hence I will post more photos since I am planning to visit the site again for my friend.

Barbecue time

2012-02-01T10:55:00.000+05:30

Its end of winter now ... and that calls for barbecue time ...

it will take some time to experiment and master the art of barbecue ! but sure in years to come !! i will do it (any expert wants to guide me in this welcome)

Yesterdays experiment was done with Potatos, Cauliflower, and Chicken ...

Potato's are done successfully since they were also tried before 3~4 times ... wash them up ... cut partly .. put lot of butter + chilli (green fresh or red powder) + salt to taste ... then wrap it in aluminum foil .. put it inside the coal .. this time i applied butter also from outside the potato resulting into more softer skin ... and no need to remove the skin since that also taste different after roasting :-)

Cauliflower with butter + salt .. ummm .. it tastes like heaven ... ummy .. tasty .. too good ...

Chiken was the first time experiment so it needs lot of improvement ( hey .. hey it failed in the first attempt .. but better luck next time !)

I could not get time to photograph more ,.. since all members were keen in finishing hot food before I get chance to do something ! .. so i left the camera and jumped to enjoy the things ... next time for sure i will do it !

cheers :-)

My trek recipes - Instant Pithale (Zunka)

2012-01-19T22:08:00.000+05:30

Next goes with Instant Pithale (Zunka)

Required material (quantity to suit your requirements)

1 cup gram flour (basen)

cooking oil ~ 4 table spoons

2-3 Garlic cloves (peeled & chopped)

Hing (asafoetida)

Green chilies ~4 nos

mustard seeds ~small tea spoon

turmeric powder ~small tea spoon

salt (as per taste)

Preparation -

Heat about 4 tbsp oil in Kadhai, splutter mustard & cumin seeds, add turmeric + curry leaves + chopped green chillies + Garlic cloves, saute on medium heat to make crispy.

Now add gram flour roast on medium flame you will feel aromatic when gram flour begins to change its colour. by this time you can add some salt to taste.

Allow it to cool & pack in an air-tight plastic bag. this is ready to carry instant mix for your trek.

At trek -

Heat ~3 cups of water in kadhai (or what every you carry in trek), add our instant mix, keep stirring (this is must) till the mixture starts boiling. this should happen in 7~8 minutes, now allow the thing to cool. your trek-Pithale is ready ! If you want you can still cook it further to remove all water content can be called as sunka (as per Marathi type it must be hot with more chilies In it)

My trek recipes - Instant Khichdi

2012-01-18T22:11:00.000+05:30

Scond goes with Instant Khichdi

Required material (quantity to suit your requirements)

1 cup Rice + 1/2 a cup of Moong Dal
onions – 2 nos, chopped
green bell pepper 1 nos
red chilli powder 1 1/2 tsp
A dash of Hing
curry leaves ~7~8 turmeric powder ~small tea spoon
cumin seeds ~small tea spoon
cooking oil ~ 2 table spoons
Salt as per taste

Preparation :
Wash Rice & Dal & soak them for 15 minutes.
Heat about 2 tbsp oil in Kadhai, splutter mustard + cumin seeds, add Hing, curry leaves, bell paper, saute on medium heat to make crispy.
Add chopped onions, turmeric, saute till onions turn pink. Add Red chilli powder.
Add Rice, dal mixture. roast on medium flame you will feel aromatic. by this time you can add some salt to taste.

Allow it to cool & pack in an air-tight plastic bag. this is ready to carry instant mix for your trek.

At trek -
Heat water in kadhai (or what every you carry in trek), add our instant mix, let the mixture boil. this should happen in ~15 minutes, now allow the thing to cool. your Mug khichdi is ready ! And if you want more taste add potato / carrot / tomatoes / green peas, whatever is available in this while cooking !

cheers !!

My trek recipes - Instant Upma

2012-01-16T22:07:00.002+05:30

Remember those days when my mother used to help us out for trekking ... the main help was to support our food by giving us instant mix recipes, on public demand I am adding few of them in next few days ..

first it starts with Instant Upma

Required material (quantity to suit your requirements)

Semolina (Upma Rava) ~ 1 glass
cooking oil ~ 2 table spoons
Green chillies ~4 nos
curry leaves ~7~8
mustard seeds ~small tea spoon
cumin seeds ~small tea spoon
white urad dal ~1/8 of a glass
turmeric powder ~small tea spoon
salt (as per taste)
chopped onion ~ 1 medium

Preparation -
Heat about 2 tbsp oil in Kadhai, splutter mustard & cumin seeds, add urad dal, wait till it changes colour (slightly), add turmeric + curry leaves + chopped green chillies + chopped onion, saute on medium heat to make crispy.
Now add semolina & roast on medium flame you will feel aromatic when semolina begins to change its colour. by this time you can add some salt to taste.

Allow it to cool & pack in an air-tight plastic bag. this is ready to carry instant mix for your trek.

At trek -
Heat water in kadhai (or what every you carry in trek), add our instant mix, keep stirring (this is must) till the mixture starts boiling. this should happen in 7~8 minutes, now allow the thing to cool. your trek-upma is read

cheers !!!

next recipe -> Instant Mug (mung, moong) Khichdi

Buying Hero honda Un-Pleasure

2011-12-23T21:57:00.002+05:30

Bought Honda Pleasure this Deewali ...

I think "one picture is worth a thousand words"

here is the Honda Safety Lounge .. the customers are standing !!! and the mechanics are sitting !!!!!

Further to this when we went to take the vehicle delivery (after having full payment one month in advance) .. they asked for all the documents .. so I had to go to my house again just mere 5 kilometers one way (this is what the showroom person says !!! it is just 5 kms you can reach home in 5 minutes !!) .. So I met the manager and explained him that if I have called up showroom 4 times for confirmation of delivery of vehicle no one has told me about this address proof / ID papers and now happily your showroom representative is saying to bring it from home in 5 minutes, I also explained to take this as feedback for improvement ! but seems that they are selling very high and do not need customers ... don;t care ....

anyway since I had no choice by then after paying full amount !! I expressed by feelings to the manager of Pratibha Motors Wakad and came back.

ya .. one more thing I forgot ... when I was angry to be informed about the documents and asked showroom person ( i mean madam) .. she said sir "we are giving you delivery within one month !" I replied means it is free of cost or what ? I have paid full amount to you and you are not doing any favor on me giving it in a month !!

after delivery of vehicle ... it was not starting !! i.e. battery was not charged hence the showroom person started it by kicking outside the showroom (so nice!)

and when back home I drove it .. rattling noise was coming and since I am from R&D could immediately find that the main stand stopper rubber is missing (from the factory itself !) DURING THE FIRST SERVICING AFTER INFORMING THEY FITTED THE STAND RUBBER !

anyway .. just wanted to share the un-plesurable experience of hero honda pleasure. and may be someone from Hero honda reads this experience can reply me :-)

Just two images for front and rear tyres of hero honda pleasure, showing rear tyre wears more compared to front, even on my new vehicle it can be seen just after 1000 kms, one of my friends vehicle has complete ~10,000 kms where this can be seen prominently
.

cheers !!!!!

Devache darshan kase ghyave

2011-11-27T11:19:00.000+05:30

Devachya darshana purvi kay karave

Devateche darshan kase ghayave

Pradakshina kashya ghalavyat

Pradakshine nantar kay karave

Kuldevtechya nama japache mahatva

This useful information I found in Hindalga Ganapati Temple, at Belgau, Karnataka.

I hope this helps you knowing more about how to, what to, why to regarding Dev Darshan.

The Titan(ic)

2011-09-20T23:02:00.000+05:30

One fine morning .. my wife asked me ..
did u see the Titan ad ? ....
means .. I wish to hv a nice Titan selection !!!
So obviously as any poor hubby wl do ... I went to the Titan(ic) showroom ...
Obviously the thing which I like she would not ! (believe me the more you love .. the more this wuld happen)

So I selected a nice gold plated one ... see this one ...

Everything done .. billing .. payment .. & we were back home ...

& then after some time .. i heard murmuring how the other watch was more beautiful & looking sooo nice ... & rich design .. & bla bla ....

So the other day morning .. understanding the .. implied meaning I phoned the Titan showroom .. whether they will allow me to change the one which I bought yesterday !!! & they said it is OK :-)

I called my wife saying that we can go to titan showroom again to change the watch ! & the reply was ! no no this is your selection and I have liked it, but still we can have a look at one more time :-) hummm .. very smart :-)

We went to Titan(ic) showroom .. and the new selection was ..

It was bound to happen that I liked it too ! ha ! ha !! (I know u also experience the same way, when the selection is made by wife)
But obviously by some sort of rule the showroom lady said that exchange for this watch is not possible, since we might have used the watch ? .. however looking at my face she realized that I wuld not get entry back to my home & so she kindly agreed to help me out by allowing this exchange .. hushhh...

Happy ending of my Titan(ic) story ...

Needless to say what is lessons learnt out of this !

Happy shopping (with wife only)

Kaas plateau visit 17 Sept 2011 - the mist

2011-09-18T11:44:00.009+05:30

Do Carry a magnifying glass with you so that you can enjoy the beauty of micro flowers (remember these are wild flowers, small in size, some are too small to see the details by naked eyes)
Do not pluck the flowers, or even touch it, looking at number of persons visiting, even one person is plucking one flower !!! then !!! ....
Plan only Kaas trip & not any other places so that you spend sufficient time to go to the details, and not just having glimpse and come back. The more you see, the more you will understand and enjoy.
===========================================================
Yesterday (17 sept 2011) I could enjoy the misty colours of nature at Kaas plateau (satara) ... although it was raining & heavy mist there (and mind well when we were at Satara it was clear .. no rais & sun light too !) .. however i was pretty happy to see lot of flowers ... and looking at it it seems that next 15 days it will be colour change to blue-white .. since the blue white ball flowers are just started ...

you can park your car ~1 kilometer away from the plateau & then a ST bus starts from there (only 5 rupee per person) and the frequency is pretty good .. so part your car ( i saw many people fighting with forest people to get there vehicle to the plateau ! but it is not required at all .. be cool park your car, i am sure you will realise that it is the best way for you to enjoy the flowers) ... ST bus will drop you the exact point and there you can spend time to look into the best of nature .. the vally of flowers of maharashtra ... the Kaas plateau ...

take care not to drop in plastic there .. no damage to the flowers .. do not touch them at all ... you know this will ensure that thousands of other nature lovers can enjoy flowers if you keep them intact ... and this year really i could see that due to lot of efforts put in by government and a social nature lover organization "Ranwata" .. the area is pretty clean :-) thanks

Some Fandu images can be found at
http://www.naturelyrics.com/pages/articles/kaas_plateau_of_flowers.html
You may also like to buy a book "Kaas Plateau of Flowers" by "Sandip Shrotri"
http://www.sahyadribooks.org/books/Kaas.asp?bid=638

and if you have time .. get on to my old post on this
http://mdpathak.blogspot.com/2009/10/kas-plateau-visit-oct-2009.html

Eco-friendly Ganesh immersion

2011-09-07T06:53:00.000+05:30

Over the years now people are becoming more environment cautious while respecting their traditions and so are the Mahila Bachat Gat. This year I could see their contribution to this eco-drive via Sanskar Pratisthan - Maharashtra.
Sanskar Sanskruti Sadbhavana Mahila Bachat Gat helped for eco-friendly immersion for Ganesh Idols at Pavana river Chinchwad gaon.

Every year I am so sad to see hundreds of Ganesh idols lying in river water and I have to really step upon to do immersion of my Ganesh, however this year I was really happy to use the facility for Ganesh immersion to get satisfaction of not stepping onto previously immersed idols as well as helping to avoid river pollution.
The Maharashtra pollution control board is also taking efforts to educate people to use eco-friendly Ganesh idols (news reference - DNA 5th Sept 11)

So my request also to all either to go for complete eco-friendly idols with use of natural colours, so that they dissolve in water, but if you are not able to get such idol & bought POP (plaster of paris) idols then use such facility to avoid river water pollution, since POP do not dissolve for months & the chemical colours used to paint idol will cause water pollution.

Happy Ganesh festival to all.

what is special food in this indian city

2011-09-04T18:00:00.001+05:30

Whenever I travel to any city, the first question strikes is what is special food there to taste

So started listing what I know ... all may like to add more & more information :-)

Agara	आग्राचा पेठा	Petha

Baroda	बडोद्याची भजी	Bhajj (pakora)

Dharwad	धारवाडचे पेढे	Pedha

Gholvad (Thane)	घोलवड चे चिक्कू	Chikku

Jalgoan		Shevanchi Bhaji, wange che bharit (Brinjal), Thecha( Garlic+Green chilies), spicy mutton

Karjat (Mumbai)	कर्जतचा वडापाव	Batata Vada pav

Kolhapur	कोल्हापूरची मिसळ आणि मटणाचा रस्सा	Misal, Matnacha rassa (mutton curry)

Lucknow		Tunday Kababi

Narsobachi Wadi (Sangli)		Kavath(Limonia) Barfi, Basundi & Kandi Pedha

Nagpur	नागपूरची संत्री	Oranges

Pune	चितळेची बाकरवडी	Chitale's Bakarwadi

Satara	कंदी पेढा	Kandi Pedha

Sangli	सांगलीचे भडंग	Bhadang

Shegaon		Kachori

Solapur		Shengachi poli (Groundnut bread), groundnut chutney (crushed groundnuts +red chili powder+salt), Khara Mutton

Surat		Ghari

Tasgaon (Sangli)	तासगावंची द्राक्षे	Grapes

Links are added, where possible to exactly describe the food / fruit as reference.

So do not forget to buy these famous sweets / fruits / or at least taste it when you visit any one of these places,

and do inform me to add more & more info to complete this master list !!

cheers !!

1 rupee car wash

2011-08-28T20:40:00.000+05:30

Its Sunday ... and my wife was telling the kamvali baai (housemaid) to wash the car ... as usual Baai took big shampoo bottle and used it for car washing ... and i was wondering why she is not using the one rupee pouch which I normally keep for the car window washer bottle filling .. so asked my wife not to waste the costly shampoo in bottle but to use one rupee pouch, she obviously (!) replied that it doesn't make any difference cost wise to use either of the shampoo !!

so naturally as R&D man I started my research!! on which is costly .. one rupee pouch or the big bottled shampoo ?

what do you think ?

one rupee shampoo
1 Rs for ~5 ml means ~200 Rs/liter (few options are 6ml for a rupee)

bottled shampoo costs
100-140 Rs for 200 ml means 500-700 Rs/Liter

Some Herbal shampoo's do cost as low as
120 Rs for 500 ml means ~240 Rs/Liter

still the simplest calculation shows that for things like car washing or car washer bottle filling, the famous one rupee pouch is the cheaper option than using the bottled one, I guess this is one of the marketing strategies the shampoo companies adopt to go to the bottom line selling ... may be that is the reason knowing this economy also we will keep on using the bottled costly option only.

OK don't think too much & through away your shampoo bottles ...

its Sunday ... man go ahead ... & wash ur car ...

Pay money & get probelms with your Mahindra Logan

2011-08-18T22:06:00.000+05:30

Got my Mahindra-Renault Logan 1.4 GLX paid servicing done to create more problems !!

Interior wash done by payment of ~2000 bucks & the result is that they washed off things ! to clean !! it was told to me that some chemicals will be used to clean the interiors, & the result is seen in photograph below !

the interior trim came off due to this washing, also the gear shifter bellow came out, the gear shifter box was not cleaned at all !!! but I was so tired of waiting for the car (as usual !! evening u will get delivary at 6~7 pm) so I took it off without any complain !!!

the front tyres are worn out at 25000 kilometers .. I am pretty sure that they have not checked the wheel alignment while doing service checks !! but I thought that sine I have done servicing things will be OK, & one fine morning my friend showed me that the front tyres are gone for six !!!

so be careful to spend your money to get the interior cleaned from these Mahindra service stations !! don;t waste it, instead call local private persons to do this for you.

also make sure (ask 10 times) that they have done basic checks for your car !!

Any way I am pretty sure not to go for next vehicle without confirming the service history .. that way when I was having my Maruti Omni .. for years .. not a single time they gave me a chance to compliant :-)

A fishful friendship day

2011-08-07T20:05:00.002+05:30

Last week we were discussing places to do time pass on Sundays& I told me friend Rajendra, that we used to go for fishing years back ....

He said we can also try this next Sunday on friendship day .. & so we did ...

Since we went to Pavana river after years .... the scene is really changed !! unfortunately things which were clean b4 years are not clean now :-( (the place where we went is behind Birla hospital on the way to Kejudevi mandir (temple) ... so since it was not clean we decided to go back to the MIDC side area .. since it is far more inside .. normally no one goes & so obviously it was clean ....

there was ample water due to rainy season & after an hour of effort we were able to get a catch :-)

result was one fish alive & one dead ... so the alive one went to Rajendra's house pond & the dead one went to our pussy cat "Timmy" :-)

Timmy enjoying the fruits of our fishful day !

so we enjoyed a fishful friendship day !! which was dishful for Timmy :-)

Happy friendship day :-)

cheers !!

Akkalkot

2011-08-05T20:51:00.000+05:30

Now when I talk about Pandharpur it is quite obvious that I also need to give information on the most famous ones which are nearby like Gangapur, Akkalkot & Tuljapur.

We have already talked about Gangapur, so lets proceed to Akkalkot, where Shri Swami Samartha stayed for ~22 years.

Akkalkot [Sri Swami Samartha] - Bhiu nakos mi tuzya pathishi aahe

Vatavruksha Swami Mandir (Temple) timings

5.00 am Kakad Aarti
7.00 am to 11.00 am Abhishek puja
8.00 am to 10.00 am Laghu Rudra
12.00 noon Aarti & Maha-Naivedya
8.00 pm to 8.45 pm Shej-Aarti

Every Thursday 8.00 pm to 10.00 pm Aarti & Palkhi

Vatavruksha Swami Mandir Mahaprasad timings

12.00 noon (daily)
8.00 pm (daily)

Main events (Yatra)

1) Shri Swami Samartha Pragat din - Chaitra Shuddha Dwitiya
2) Shri Swami Samartha Punyatithi - Chitra Vaidya Trayodashi
3) Guru Pornima - Ashad Shuddha Pornima
4) Shri Datta Jayanti - MargaShirsha Shuddha Pornima
5) Gangapur yatra - Magha Vadya Pratipada

Tours copilation Aug 2011

2011-08-03T19:47:00.001+05:30

If you are not able to view this TABLE correctly then visit
http://mdpathak.webs.com/aug-2011.html

Its always been interesting to me to compile such information before I go for any tour, I may go with my favorite tour operator as usual, but would like to know more & more options to choose from, you know you can not go to him & sit for hours to decide where to go .... so this type of chart I prefer to prepare before deciding the location ... which gives me idea of where to go & what is my budget ... you have to be careful since many tour operator costs are inclusive of --- or exclusive of --- which one has to study carefully since the offers are always made attractive ... so check this chart out .. i will be updating daily as I come across advertisements in news papers ....
cheers !!

WEGA - Aug 2011
Tour operator	Days	Note	Price	Locations	Travel

Kesari	4	**	44,990	Taman, Negara - 24 Sept 11	Ex-Mumbai (Air travel)

Aradhana tours	5		12,875	Ran of Kachha
					>
Strawberi holidays	6	*	24,990	Essential Kerala

Aradhana tours	7		11,975	Kokan-backwaters
Aradhana tours	7		21,775	Bhutan special
Kesari	7	**	22,975	Bandhavgad, Kanha - 13 Nov 11	Not included
Strawberi holidays	7	*	25,990	Essential Rajasthan
Aradhana tours	7		35,275	Andaman (havlok stay)	Ex-Mumbai (Air travel)
Aradhana tours	7		78,000	Maurities
Strawberi holidays	7	*	1,89,990	South America	Ex-Mumbai

Kesari	8	**	25,975	Nagarhole, Bandipur, Ranganthitte - 01 Nov 11	Not included

Aradhana tours	9		16,475	Hydrabad, Puri, Konark
Aradhana tours	9		20,875	Saurashtra
Aradhana tours	9		21,775	Sikkim, Darjiling
Aradhana tours	9		28,975	Kerala-backwaters
Guardian holidays	9		1,40,000	South Africa
Guardian holidays	9		1,60.000	Swiss cycle tour

Kesari	10	**	1,62,990	Keniya, Tanzania - 21 Oct 11	Ex-Mumbai

Aradhana tours	11		31,675	Three sisters (Aasam, Arunachal, Meghalay, Tawang, Bomdil)
Guardian holidays	11		74,990	Singapore, Bangkok, Pattaya, Malysia
Aradhana tours	11		84,000	Singapore, Bangkok, Pattaya, Malysia

Aradhana tours	15		30,775	Rajesthan,Mewad, Marwad
Aradhana tours	15		34,375	Bhutan, Sikkim, Darjiling
					>
Aradhana tours	16		29,875	Madhyapradesh complete
Aradhana tours	16		45,175	Seven sisters (including 3 air travels)
Aradhana tours	16		1,79,000	China, Hongkong, Makau(with Yangatse river cruize)	>
Aradhana tours	16		2,14,000	Vietnam, Kambodia	>


* Strawberi holidays (offer ends 31/8/11)	Price includes accomodation, meals, sightseeing, & transfer as per itinerary, international holidays inclusive of airfare Ex-Mumbai, Indian holidays exclusive of airfare (sales@strawberi.in) 1800 22 9080
Aradhana tours	phone - 25531222 / 1444 / 30221444, if you book before 7th Aug, you get special discount ( INR calculated at 1US$=47Rs.)
Guardian holidays	Phone - 30568888/87
** Kesari	Jungle tours special, International tours are Ex-Mumbai, INR calculated at 1US$=47Rs. Indian tours do not include Rail/Airfare, prices are per person & Twin share basis. Phone - 1800 22 1100
For details of tour please contact tour operator, there can be typo error here, this information is compiled from local news papers only in my own interest, website does not take any responsibility
http://mdpathak.blogspot.com/
http://wega-pune.blogspot.com/
WEGA - Aug 2011

Tuljapur

2011-08-01T21:54:00.001+05:30

Now when Italk about Pandharpur it is quite obvious that I also need to give information on the most famous ones which are nearby like Gangapur, Akkalkot & Tuljapur.

We have already talked about Gangapur& Akkalkoat, now we will talk about Tuljapur situated in the Vally of Balaghat hills.

Places to visit at Tuljapur

1) Ghatshil (buliding with 8 corners)
2) Dhakte Tuljapur (situated to theeast of main Tuljapur, there is Bhavani idol which is found to a muslim farmer while ploughing)
3) Matangi mandir (temple) - there is Kund (a square well) which changes its water colour as per the season. it is said that a monstor Matangasur was killed by Mata Bhavani at this place.
4) Kal-bhairav
5) Kal-bhairav bhendoli
6) Tol-bhairav mandir (temple)
7) Mudgaleshwar (temple if Shiva)
8) Nagzhar - Nagatirtha, to take holy bath
9) Ramvardayini temple - Bhavani mata idol with 8 arms (astaBhuja)
10) Indirayani temple - PapaNasha tirtha

Tulja Bhavani Mandir (Temple)

Main temple have four doors, out of which South door is made out of brass & the remaining three out of Silver. You have to climb up many steps to the main temple. Mata Tulja Bhavani was he family godess of Chatrapati-Shivaji Maharaj & it is said that Mata Bhavani gave the winning sward to Shivaji maharaj

Tulja Bhavani Mandir (Temple) timings

6.00 am Pratham Puja
9.00 am Abhishek (panchamrut snan)
12.00 noon Dhhop-Aarti & Maha-Naivedya
6.00 pm Panchamrut Snan
night Prakshal

Tirtha (holy place)

1) Gai-mukh tirtha(gai=cow,mukh=face) this is located near to the main temple
2) Kallol tirtha - it is also called as VAristha tirtha, it is said that the holy water of this tirtha willl make you free from all the difficulties (sorrow & illness)
3) Sudhakund tirtha a.k.a. Amrut Kund
4) Vishnu tirtha a.k.a. Makavati vihir (Makavati well)
5) Papnash tirtha

Main events (Yatra)

1) Chaitra Pornima
2) Vijayadashmi (9 days program during Dhashara festival)
3) Ashwini Pornima (there is tradition of dancing sticks from ~500 years)

Important days for Mata TuljaBhavani are Tuesday, Friday & Pornima

Excellent information is available on http://www.tuljabhavani.in/ , it is really a good website to know history of Mata TuljaBhavani, MP3 songs, selected beautiful photographs, do visit that website.

Shivtharghal - Samarth Ramdas Swami

2011-07-21T21:08:00.004+05:30

I was browsing through some trekking photographs & found these ones from my 2008 album, in a trek done with Bajaj trekking club, so thought of putting them on. I have posted only the information which is not available on any other blog or website, rest you can ask Google :-)

Shivtharghal was found in year 1930 by Shri Shankar Shrikrushna Deo of Dhule

He found this based on the following lines which are described by Swami Samarth Ramdas, each line describes the location, which you can feel once you reach this place, you may not experience the dense forest kind of situation which Swamiji has felt that time, however it is really worth to see the water roar while sitting in the caves where Swamiji wrote "Dasbodh"

गिरीचे मस्तकी गंगा | तेथुनि चालली बळे |
धबाबा लोटती धारा | धबाबा तोय आदळे || १||
गर्जता मेघ तो सिंधू | ध्वनी कल्होळ उठिला |
कड्याशी आदळे धारा | वाट आवर्त होतसे ||२||
तुषार उठती रेणू | दुसरे रज मातले |
वाट मिश्रीत ते रेणू | सीत मिश्रीत धुकटे ||३||
दराच तुटला मोठा | झाड खंडे परोपरी |
निबीड दाटती छाया | त्या मधे वोघ वाहती ||४||
गर्जती श्वापदे पक्षी | नाना स्वरे भयंकरे |
गडद होतसे रात्री | ध्वनी कल्लोळ उठती ||५||
कर्दमु निवडेना तो | मानसी साकडे पडे |
विशाळ लोटती धारा | ती खाले रम्य विवरे ||६||
विश्रांती वाटते येथे | जावया पुण्य पाहिजे |
कथा निरुपणे चर्चा | सार्थके काळ जातसे ||७||

समर्थ रामदास

Other details you may please read at wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shivthar_Ghal

Distance from Pune is around 90 kms, 200 kms from Mumbai & ~40 kms from Mahad

you can also stay at the Math near to Shivthar ghal

Kataldhara re-visited July 2011

2011-07-17T23:09:00.007+05:30

Have you ever fall in love with a waterfall ?

At least once you shall visit this beautiful waterfall .... it's difficult & hence intact from the nature sopilers ...

I started trekking in ~1988 with my first trek to Dhak Cha Bhairi .. & since then did many treks .... but today's experience of being into the huge waterfall with Zero visibility was awesome.. I will say it was the best ever .. best than the view of Kalavantin durg .. of course nothing is beyond the best Kokan Kada view :-) but ...
This time the waterfall was the biggest I saw it over last 5 years ... it was raining heavily through out the trek & the waterfall was at its best size !! I was not so sure of entering into the caves .. however when you are with (Mahesh Mahajan & Mandar Tharval (FONA founders) you should be sure of safety ... literally the waterfall was so huge that me & my wife were just stopped before the caves ... we were not able to see anything but just water all around ... visibility was at its best !!! but then finally with help of FONA team (Yuvraj, Nilesh, Abhay, Vikas, Rounak, Suyog , Miss Vidya) ... we finally reached the destination caves ... where the roar of water just threatens you giving the straight warning ! not to play with it ...

Last year there was small landslide at this place & so the way to the waterfall is bit easy (compared to the previous years) .. the landslide has helped to create reach path ... still at 1~2 places you need to use rope trick !

Kataldhara waterfall (Ullhas Vally - Lonavala)

The FONA team (62 members !)

& its me !

Kataldhara waterfall (Ullhas Vally - Lonavala)

Obviously the photograph quality is not so good ...since it is a 2 MP mobile capture ... but u know it at least gives an idea ...

Instructions Again :-)
1) This time we took Mosquito repellent cream with us, which obviously washed away many times by the heavy rains :-) but proved to be extremely useful
2) Do not use the mobile earphones to listen songs etc. while trekking .. it is extremely dangerous, you may not listen to stone falling call or any important instruction / call be the leader.
3) You must have proper trekking gears !! each trek we repeat this instruction and still people come with wearing slippers !! or sandles !! mind it ? this is serious trek .. you have to remember that you are playing with your own life. Do buy proper trekking shoes (my favorite model is "Trekking" shoes from Action)
4) Do wear full attire, no half pants/shirts ! this avoid bites from insects as well as protects you from creating any body scratches.
5) & I think not to provide any stupid instructions like do not take any alcohol ! since I haven't seen a trekker doing that !! (till now)
6) we used mini-bus to go to the nearest point so that walking will be less !! unfortunately the transporter sent 50 seater BUS (!) for return journey & it got stuck for an hour !!!! so do not repeat this mistake, if u want to avoid some walking, use smaller jeeps or SUV's !

Kataldhara re-visited Aug 2010

Chalo Kataldhara (near Lonavala)

Mother's Recipe - Metkut

2011-07-12T19:58:00.000+05:30

Yesterday fresh preparations were going on to prepare Metkut, for my friends daughter who is having fever ... so thought of jotting down for all of you who miss mother's recipe.

It is called as Metkut, a tasty & healthy yellow powder with aroma that one will never ever forget when it goes with soft rice + Ghee + some salt (for taste).

My childhood memories are there with this aroma and taste .. specially that was given to us when we were sick with temperature ...

so here is my mother's recipe in her own handwriting :-) over the years my wife will be using this & u may use it too :-) ......

Snap from the handbook :-)

This is how it looks ... yellowish powder .. take care to keep it in air tight container since it should not loose its aroma ..

yesterday fresh preparations were going on to prepare Metkut, for my friends daughter who is having fever ... so thought of jotting down for all of you who miss mother's recipe.

so here is my mother's recipe in her own handwriting :-) over the years my wife will be using this & u may use it too :-) ......

It is called as Metkut, a tasty & healthy powder with aroma that one will never ever forget when it goes with soft rice + Ghee + some salt (for taste). My childhood memories are there with this aroma and taste .. specially that was given to us when we were sick with temperature ...

Metkut ingredients

Roast the following things (without using any oil) -->
2 bowl= gram (harbara dal)
1 bowl = black gram (udid dal)
quarter bowl = rice (tandul)
quarter bowl = wheat (gahu)
quarter bowl = green gram (mug dal)
quarter bowl = corriander seeds (Dhane)
quarter bowl = cummin seeds (jire)
1 spoon = fenugreet seeds (methya)

Do not roast the following things -->
4 nos = cardamoms (veldode)
4 small sticks = cinnamon (dalchini)
quarter piece = nutmeg (jaiphal)
1 spoon = asafoetida (hing)
8 nos = dry chilli
dry ginger
1 spoon = termeric powder
1/2 spoon = salt

bowl = catori (hindi) or vati (marathi)

roast items as mentioned above, then grind them all to fine powder.
Mix all ingredients with each other thoroughly and metkut is ready.

Use of metkut

1) put metkut powder onto soft rice alongwith ghee (clarified butter) + salt (for taste), this is specially used at my home when someone is sick with temperature and you are feeling tasteless. be sure that this will help you a lot ... its mother's recipe .. prove through years ...
2) you can mix metkut powder with chilli powder and curd with some salt. The mixture goes well with chapati or wheat bread
3) metkut powder goes well with Upma
4) it goes well onto uttapa

Over years this is useful when someone is not feeling well and he feels any food tasteless, metkut goes very well, since it gives taste as well as retains his health.

Gangapur

2011-07-09T20:15:00.001+05:30

Now when I talk about Pandharpur it is quite obvious that I also need to give information on the most famous ones which are nearby like Gangapur, Akkalkot & Tuljapur.

We can start from Gangapur where Shri Narsimha Sarswati stayed for about 24 years.

Gangapur

Situated at the confluence of river "Bhima" & "Amarja" this is auspicious place of lord Dattatraya, it is beleived that any Ghost affected person gets releif from theghost because of Lord Dattatraya powers in this holy place.

What to see at Gangapur

1) Audumbar
2) River Bhima & River Amarja Sangam (confluence)
3) Bhasmacha Dongar (Ash hill)
4) Chidanand Dharmashala (Charitable resthouse)
5) Chidanand Swami Math (monastery)
6) Datta Mandir (Temple)
6) Gulavni Maharaj Math (monastery)
7) Kalleshwar
8) Nana Maharaj Taraneshwar Math (monastery)
9) Maruti Mandir (Temple)
10) Sangam Mandir(Temple)
11) Sangameshwar Mandir (Temple)
12) Vishanti Katta (resting square)

Main Nirgun Paduka Mandir (Temple)

Located in the mid of Gangapur, have two Maha-dwar (main-doors) at East & West. The auspicious Paduka's are kept in main room having small darshan window. about 1.5 kilometers from this temple at the confluence of Bhima & Amarja there is a hill called as Bhasmacha dongar (ash-hill), where you can collect holy ash. It is said that this ash is created from holy Homam. Near to this hill there is Sangameshwar temple situated in the area called as Tapo-bhumi (penance-land)

Main Nirgun-Paduka Mandir (Temple) timings

3.00 am Kakad Aarti
6.15 am Karpur Aarti
6.45 am Mangal Aarti
7.00 am to 12.00 Noon Abhishek, Rudra-Abhishek, Padya puja
12.00 noon to 1.00 pm Maha-Aarti & Maha-Naivedya
7.30 pm Dhhop-Aarti, Palkhi, Vida, Shej-Aarti
9.15 pm Temple close

Tirtha (holy place)

1) Bhagirathi tirtha
2) Chakra tirtha
3) Koti tirtha
4) Manmath tirtha
5) Narasimha tirtha
6) PapNashi tirtha
7) RudraPad tirtha
8) Shaskul tirtha

Main events (Yatra)

1) Magh Vadya Pratipada to Chaturthi (February)
2) Datta Jayanti in December

Since we are reading information on one of the main places of Lord Dattatraya in Maharashatra, I wish to enlist other famous places too here.

Famous places of Lord Dattatraya in Maharashtra

1) Audumbar
2) Devgad
3) Gangapur
4) Karanje
5) Mahur
6) Narsoba-Wadi (Sangli) - refer to my previous blog post
7) Panchaleshwar

New Pune-Lonavala local train timetable 100 kph speed change

2011-07-06T22:50:00.003+05:30

Last update 01/08/2011, finally I got this from one of my friend :-)

Latest update
Newspaper --> Maharashtra times (Pune) date 23/07/2011, page 5

Fast local will become slow !

New Pune-lonavala local time table will be declared in a weeks time by railway authorities

Time taken to travel from Pune to Lonavala -->
Old time at 80 kmph = 1 hour 27 min
New time at 100 kmph = 1 hour 12 min
Corrected time at xx kmph = 1 hour 20 min (this time table will be declared shortly !)
---------------------------------------------------------

The good news is that Pune-Lonavala local train speed is increased from 80kmph to 100 kmph, so we will save 12 minutes of travel time ...
but ... the bad news is that time modified table is not easily available to all ...
and since I am planning to go for Kataldhara trek next week I got one for me :-) and obvious that I will share with you all ... so here is the modified time table due to increased local speeds.

New Time table as I have jotted down from some paper displayed at the railway station !!

Shivajinagar time (pune-lonavala local)
4.56 am, 5.51 am, 6.36 am, 6.55 am, 8.16 am, 9.06 am
Akurdi time (lonavala-pune local)
4.37 pm, 4.54 pm, 6.12 pm, 7.07 pm, 7.42 pm, 8.27 pm, 9.27 pm, 10.27 pm
you can subtract ~40 minutes from this time to get Lonavala time

btw some time tables are available at following websites (but not sure about the update as per latest speeds) SON ANYONE IS AWARE OF NEW TIME TABLE PLEASE LET ME KNOW

http://www.indiafun.net/pune-to-lonavala-local-train-time-table-routes-schedule

http://www.mumbailocal.net/pune-to-lonavala-local-train-time-table-and-local-train-time-table-routes

News in Pune mirror -->
Pune-Lonavla local trains speed up by 12 minutes
News in DailyBhaskar -->
Two additional Pune-Lonavla trains to ply from today

Pandharpur - My hometown

2011-07-02T17:23:00.004+05:30

Shri Kshetra Pansharpur is also well Known as Dakshin Kashi. You must have noticed that about a million people walk to this place during this week. Obviously my colleges ask me about this place, hence decided to jot down information on Pandharpur.
Every year about a million people walk a distance of 250 kilometers from Alandi to Pandharpur

Pandharpur
Situated at the bank of river "Bhima" also called as "Chandrabhaga" meaning "Moonlike" since it takes shape of half moon while passing through Pandharpur

What to see at Pandharpur
1) The main Vitthal-Rukmini temple
2) Kaikadi Maharaj Math (monastery), this is the best to see & will take arount 3 hours to move through the maze like structure which shows different stories, statues etc. (must see)
3) Vishnupad
4) Gopalpur
5) Padmavati
6) Chandrabhaga mandir, Lakhubai mandir, Shri Datta mandir
7) Shri Gajanan Maharaj temple - this is replica of the main Gajanan maharj temple & they have very good overnight stay facility.
8) 11 Ghat on river Chandrabhaga

Main Vitthal-Rukmini Temple
Facing to East with four entry doors.
Main door a.k.a. Mahadwar or Namdev Darvaja.The first step is called as Namdev Payari, since Shri Santa Namdev took rest (profound meditation-tomb) there @ year 1350. It is tradition to give respect to the first step while going to the main temple.
Second door (to the left of main door) = there is temple of 33 crore gods at this door
Third door a.k.a. Tarti door, if you enter through this door you will goto Laxmi mandir & Vankoba mandir
Fourth (west) door a.k.a. Paschim dwar (dwar=door)

Main Vitthal-Rukmini Temple timings
4.00 am Open for darshan
4.30 am Kakad Aarti
6.00 am to 7.00 am Darshan
7.00 am to 8.30 am Bhakta puja
8.30 am to 11.00 am Darshan
11.00 am Maha Nevaidya
11.15 am to 4.30 pm Darshan
4.30 pm to 5.00 pm Poshak (Dress change)
5.00 pm to 6.45 pm Darshan
6.45 pm to 7.15 pm Dhup Aarti
7.15 pm to 10.00 pm Darshan
10.00 pm to 10.45 pm Padya Puja

River Chandrabhaga (Bhima) Ghats
When you want to get down to the river for rituals, there is provision of steps which is called as Ghat. There are 11 such places on the river Chandrabhaga.
1) Divte ghat
2) Krushnaji ghat
3) Dagari ghat
4) Udhhav ghat
5) Shri Datta ghat
6) Kumbhar ghat
7) Mahadwar ghat
8) Kasar ghat
9) Chandrabhaga ghat
10) Vipradal ghat
11) Smashan ghat

Temples (Mandir) in Pandharpur
1) Shri Vitthal Rukmini mandir (Main temple)
2) Bhakta Pundalik mandir
3) Shri Gajanan Maharaj mandir
4) Ambabai mandir
5) Vyas mandir
6) Traymbakeshwar mandir
7) Panchmukhi Maruti mandir
8) Kal Bhairav mandir
9) Mallikarjun mandir
10) Holkar Ram mandir
11) Dwarkadhish mandir
12) Gopalkrushna mandir
13) Kala Maruti mandir
14) Namdev mandir
15) Sridhar Swami Samadhi mandir
16) Shri Dyaneshwar & Shrinath mandir

Tirtha Sthan (holy water place)
1) Lohadand tirtha
2) Padma tirtha
3) Kundal tirtha
4) Sangamtirtha
5) Venu tirtha
6) Gunja tirtha
7) Vruddha Kaleshwar tirtha
8) Panchganga tirtha
9) Vishnupad tirtha
10) Gopalpur tirtha

Main events (Yatra)
1) Chaitra Ekadashi (Yatra)
2) Ashadhi Ekadashi (Yatra)
3) Kartiki Ekadashi (Yatra)
4) Maghi Ekadashi (Yatra)

Dharmashala (Charitable resthouse) at Pandharpur
1) Aagri Dharmashala
2) Gadge Maharaj Dharmashala
3) Lad Dharmashala
4) Maheshwari Dharmashala
5) Padmasali Dharmashala
6) Sarda Dharmashala

Math (monastery) at Pandharpur
1) Ausekar Maharaj Math
2) Banvaskar Math
3) Bankat Swami Maharaj Math
4) Belapurkar Math
5) Chaunde Maharaj Math
6) Chopdekar Maharaj Math
7) Chudamani Math
8) Dasganu Maharaj Math
9) Dhondopant Dada Math
10) Gadkar Math
11) Kukur Mundekar Maharaj Math
12) Khandarkar Maharaj Math
13) Lohiya Maharaj Math
14) Manmadkar Maharaj Math
15) Muktabai Math
16) Narayan Gunda Maharaj Math
17) Savtamali Math
18) Santa Tanpure Maharaj Math
19) Thakurbua Math
20) Vadgaonkar Math
21) Vaskar wada Math

So if you wish to do Puja or Abhishek of lord Vitthal, do not hesitate to contact me & be sure I will arrange for it through my friend Pujari's (mainly Utpat & Badve's) over there.

|| Jai Shri Vitthal ||

Mahindra Logan wipers - waiting period 8 months

2011-06-27T21:58:00.004+05:30

Mahindra Logan 1.4 GLX review
Car --> Mahindra Logan 1.4 GLX
Issue faced --> Wiper failure
Replacement cost --> 4500 Rs
Replacement time --> 8 months
Service Quality --> BAD

Complete wiper mechanism replacement needed on failure of only one link !

Failure closeup shows how bad the design is

Last year the rains were almost over I was heading to a evening party & caught by sudden attack of heavy rain in the mid of Banglore highway.. Wipers were doing its best on highest speed ....and .. suddenly they refused to work !!! got completely locked !!! I quickly took the car off the road .. after an hour of waiting in heavy rain ... returned back home on lowest possible speed ... and then thought of getting the wiper repaired from the service station .... and could get them repaired almost after 8 months of continuous follow-up !!! & that too when I told the service station to provide spare part order details to get the parts from M&M directly by writing off to Mr. Pavan Goenka to get the spare parts !!! I think beyond this someone can't think of pushing service station to its limits ?

Now first of all see the Call & SMS Log to Silver Jublee Motors for wipers issue !!!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
date --> Monday 11/10/2010 2.17 pm
(PRO of SJM) --> 9881068193
SMS text --> "Hi, my logan wipers r locked, when shall i bring it 2 u?, rgds, pathak"

date --> Monday 14/02/2011 6.31 pm
Mr. Kabir --> 9552562593
SMS text --> "hi, my logan wiper work to be done as well as servicing, when can we plan ? next Monday ? rgds, pathak"

I was thinking of getting the wiper work done, so also delayed my Servicing.. was following up with Mr. Kabir, one fine day he told
me that wiper mechanism will be available in next month.. which after followup I could not get, so finally I called up the Public
Relation Office (PRO) of SJM and told her the complete story, she agreed to help, but gave up saying that I need to talk to the
works manager to push the spare part order, so I started follow-up with works manager ...

date --> 27/04/2011 11.44 am
from (PRO of SJM) --> 9881068193
SMS --> "Sir, i appologise for the delay. You can talk have with our WORK MANAGER no. 9822841907 mr patil"

After this I immediately talked to Mr. Patil & explained him that since months I am following up and the spare parts for the wiper mechanism are not available ! He promised me to track the case and revert back (which obviously he did not do, obviously since I was in need I followed up !!)

date --> Wednesday 28/04/2011 7.41 am
works manager(SJM) --> 9822841907 (Mr. Patil)
SMS --> "GM sir, my logan wiper repair is pending, plz inform me if part avlable this week, rgds, pathak"
reminder SMS to Works Manager--> Friday 29/04/2011 8.03 am

After this I kept on following up to know whether the parts are available, but no one was able to track when I will get them !!
At last as I was completely out of my fury, I told them to provide me the PO number and I will get the parts from M&M using my own reference contacts, so they promised me that part will be available in a week... as expected the history got repeated and this time I told them to provide PO details which I would send to Mr. Pavan Goenka !!!! to get the spare parts !! I don't think someone has to go to this extent to get spare parts ? but surprisingly this worked and the parts arrived in a day ? so happily I reached to the service station on 11/06/2011 for getting the wipers repaired.

date -> 11/06/2011 Arrived at the service station to get the wipers repaired
SMS to 9881068193 (since mobile was out of range or switched off) --> 9.58 am "Thank you, I have arrived here with my car"
call/SMS to 9822841907 --> 12.06 noon " can u help, its 2 hours & stil Iam not sure how much time it will take"

At last I went inside the service station to find location of my car ... called up a supervisor there .. where I found that they are
not able to repair the mechanism and need to replace the complete part (after 2 hours) , so I told them to replace the part worth 4500 Rs. (no choice or what ?) and got it repaired after one more hour.

Question is if you see the history of all by blog posts from time to time for my Mahindra Logan, you can easily see that over the
span of 3 years .. its mere failure of Mahindra & Mahindra to improve upon on the service front, and even the Logan car is good in
itself might not be successful in long term due to poor service support, the company can not come out of its image of selling rugged
vehicles to the farmers or commercial travel operators, they do not understand the Car class has to be catered in certain way, the
other class of Scorpio may be getting the repairs done at roadside garage, but car customer will not do it, like in this case I could have got the wiper welded at roadside service.

Now looking at the failure photographs bellow, one can easily seen that the samrt designer has improved the section modulas by reducing the cross section (!) and the part has failed exactly at the center where the bending momenet will be the higest, resulting into early failure (see my wiper failed in the second rainy season, means must not have done to the life cycle of the part) .. no wonder the spare part consumption will be so high that service stations are facing difficulty in getting the spare part ... obviously they will not agree the design fault, since they then have to pay 4500 bucks to me ! and if they have not fitted the improved part (here the assumption is that design is improved by M&M R&D) it will surely fail by the next monsoon !!

any way ..look at the log from day one of buying my Mahindra Renault Logan 1.4 GLX, hope someone from M&M will take look at all then log and come back to me for the actions they might take in coming decade (yes, this is the time they need to improve, in my opinion)

my Previous posts for Logan 1.4 GLX

After 20000 kms
After 10000 kms
After 3000 kms

Re service after second servicing
Re service FOC
issues after second servicing

minor-accident-with-my-logan

Logan glove box handle-broken

test drive with Logan 1.4 GLX

my first Sedan

Mahindra Logan 1.4 GLX review

Prati-Shirdi Sai Baba Temple - Shirgaon, Pune

2011-06-22T06:40:00.002+05:30

Official website - Prati-Shirdi Sai Baba Temple - Shirgaon, Pune

Prasad timings --> 12 noon to 3.30 pm at nominal charge of Rs.25 per person

We visited Prati Sai baba temple on this Sunday & it was pretty crowdy ... Huge private parking is available which can accommodate ~100 cars at a time .. & it was full !!!

Look at the beautiful entrance gate for the temple

Prasad is available from 12 noon & the Anna Chatralaya is pretty huge, see below to get an idea.

The other view of Anna Chatralaya

AS on now the photography inside the premises is not allowed, hence I could not capture them from inside, however some previous photographs are available on
1) their official website Prati-Shirdi Sai Baba Temple - Shirgaon, Pune
2) on SaiPrema's Blog
But both websites show old pictures, may be at least the official website should show the recent photographs !

Schedule of Daily Programs
Kakad Arti ------> 5:15 am
Maha Abhishek -> 7:00am
Noon Arti -------> 12:00 Noon
Dhup Arti -------> 6:15pm
Shej Arti -------> 10:00 pm

Temple remains closed from 10:30pm to 5:00 am
Prasad timings ----> 12 noon to 3.30 pm

Locate on WikiMapia

Tail Baila Base Camp

2011-02-24T06:55:00.000+05:30

Puja ... let the trek be a success ... FONA members performing Puja & ready to head to Bhambarde village for the night stay ...

This is India ... begin good things by cracking the coconut :-)

The night stay at Bhambarde in a residential school run by SAMPARC

There is a check dam built for the school & this is a view of famous "Navara Navari" i.e. Husband & Wife from the check dam point

View of Tail Baila ... it will not take much time to reach the base camp !

On the way .. its windy .. u can feel the vertical walls of Tail Baila ...

One more view of the vertical wall
BTW this was only the base camp .. & FONA team climbed this up on 26th Jan 2011, but unfortunately I could not attend that climb :-(

We were staying at the Bhambarde school run by SAMPARC, which was very clean, the one which you can compare with top most schools in Pune & I really admire that.
http://www.samparc-india.org/bhambarde-school-hostel.php

One day round trip plan to Pavana dam

2011-01-09T12:10:00.002+05:30

One of my most favorite one day trip for all my guests is Pavana Dam trip, which is just 50 Km away from Chinchwad. This is nice round trip which makes me happy as a nature lover as well as to the guest since he is able to see a fort, nice temples, dam, water rides, fabulous nature all in one in one day ! & u need not travel for kilometers to experience this :-) too good na ?

The trip route is suggested as follows :->

1) Chinchwad to Prati-Shirdi (Shirgaon) ~ 10 Kms, travel on the old mumbai-pune highway till somatne Phata, from there it is ~2 kms, you can see board towards Prati-Shirdi after the toll naka.

Also at the toll naka itself u will be able to see Lorg Ganesha copper coated Idol on the hill top, the idol is pretty tall (~54 feet)

for the Prati shirdi temple timings goto website http://www.shrisaimandirshirgaon.org/schedule.htm

1.1) Photostop --> when u start frm chinchwad u hv nice photo stop at Bhakti Shakti garden at Prashikaran Nigdi.

1.2) u may also like to visit the beautiful Krisna temple in front of Bhakti-Shakti garden.

1.3) Except Sunday u can also visit to the Snake park - Akurdi, which is ~4 kilometers from the Khandoba-mal chawk, but snake part is closed on Sunday :-(

2) Somatane Phata - Pavana nagar Phata ~ 16 kilometers, this is near to Kamshet

3) Pavananagar Phata - Pavana dam ~ 15 kilometers

4) Pavana Dam - Mantra mandir (Prati-pandharpur) ~ 7 kilometers

5) Prati-Pandharpur - Lohagad fort ~3 kilometers, you will be able to drive to the bottom of this fort by car - read my blogpost "Chalo Lohagad"

6) Lohagad - Lonavala ~7 kilometers, at Lonavala u can enjoy many points like Tungarli lake, Bhushi dam, Lion's point, Tiger’s Leap etc. Read this website for more points --> http://www.hotelsinlonavala.net/places-to-see.html

7) Lonavala - Chinchwad ~ 53 kilometers

(Pune approx dist is @65~70 Kms , way down from Pirnghut-Kalvan-Lonavala route)

** At Pavana dam you can enjoy boat riding at nominal rates.

1) 25 Rs per ride per person (minimum 8 persons) - Big motor boat

2) 50 Rs per ride per person - Single person small motor boat (high speed)

3) 70 Rs per rider per person - two persons at a time - high speed motor boat

*** LUNCH - There is hotel at boat club which provides good food.

Their is one more hotel at Pavana dam electricity generation station side (Dam water delivery side) name is HOTEL SHAKTI which provides testy food ((less spicy), with beer shop with it !

**** You will see Lohagad Fort, Tikona Fort, Tung Fort from this location

Experience the Singapore

2011-01-05T06:55:00.001+05:30

Little India - Road lighting for Deepawali festival

Hotel lobby - very nice ambiance

A view from my hotel room in Singapore

View of side building from hotel room in Singapore

the same side building , see how neatly the cloths are dried in the non-visible area of the building, this

I wuld not go into detailed photos of things which I visited in Singapore since they are available in web in thousands, but briefly write my comments on the standard things where all tours & traveler company's visit.

Mustafa Shopping Mall --> Honestly malls in Chinchwad (as example star bazzar / big bazzar - Chinchwad) are clean & better than this one ! prices of all items are better in India for all items like clothing, ornaments, watches etc. EXCEPT you can get electronics like handy cam at very very good prices like I checked for the Sony handycam at half the price than in India :-)

Night Safari Tour --> great experience, really appreciable effort to maintain the natural environment of rain forest & the animals, they also allow u to walk around in night time, which one must experience. I could not do it sine it was heavily raining that day :-( but if u r planning to visit this plz plan for more time even though ur tour manager has planned for the nice dinner, u can skip it to experience the night walk to see animals from close.

Indian National Army (INA) Monument --> Please visit this & proud to be Indian. It is established in 1995 by the National Heritage Board of Singapore.

Marina Bay --> again a standard photo stop by all the tour operators, nice view overall, u will enjoy it, hv a photo with Merlion. also u can view durian shaped Esplanade Theater with capacity of 2000 people

City Hall --> Was a Municipal Building built in 1929, good to see as old quality construction

Parliament House --> needs fresh painting ! that's it.

China Town --> I had no time to visit this place !

Mariamman Temple --> I had no time to visit this place !

National Orchid Garden --> Nice place to visit, really awesome orchids, my wife was really happy to buy gold plated orchid brooch. u get pretty decent designs & at affordable prices, so if u r thinking to gift something for ur beloved ones then do keep some money reserved for this, @2000~3000 INR will do or u can get a good bargain if u buy pack of 3 at ~5000 INR. since it is different than what we get in India, worth spending some money for the memory of Singapore visit :-)

Santosa Island Tour --> worth to visit the Wax museum, Surrender Chamber, Dolphine Lagoon, Under Water World, Dolphin & Sea Lion show

Song of the Sea show --> If I compare this laser show with the one I saw at Lumbini park - Hydrabad, then I liked that show much more than this show, somehow the quality of the story they presented or the theme of show is not flawless, it appeared to be as patch work to me. Insted the show at Lumbini park at Hydrabad is done like a story board & take u from one point to the other, u don't feel like u hv lost. Once more point is although it is at the sea shore they have not taken any special advantage of this fact, in my opinion there is hell lot of scope to improve this show taking advantage of sea shore. In fact I was hardly able to see the sea behind ! rest of the things are just technology of laser, which u can experience at H'bad also. Anyway 10$ for the show is not a bad deal at all :-)

as I hv mentioned in my first blogpost, I was only surprised by the things scattered outside international airport (ofcource in India we have taken due care that once u r out from international airport u can be sure that u r back to India looking at the garbage outside), however I was not expecting a single piece of paper ouside Singapore international air port ! but rest of the city is comparatively pretty clean, expect unfortunately again the little india area :-(

I hv specifically avoided repeating information on the above places which are available in thousands of web pages all around & tried to be specific as per my personal experience, so feel free to comment on if u agree with things or add more information about what to buy, what to see etc.

& the most important thing in our life : drinking WATER :-> This is scarce commodity in Singapore & hence they have to buy it from other countries ! (India has this in TMC's which is wasted !) so they have to recycle even toilet water !!! so the water what u will be drinking there is recycled water from the last tourist batch ! don't worry it is very safe & clean, you can drink tap water without any issues. For me it was not an issue, since I drink tap water even in India :-) so immune to all kind of ....

cheers ! enjoy ur holidays at Singapore !!

Roadside Shopping Srilanka

2010-12-24T21:42:00.004+05:30

The best thing to buy in Sri lanka on the road side is coconut monkey carvings .. these are quite cheap and attractive too... but due to its size be sure that u hv sufficient space in ur baggage to keep them .. but u know its more than its price u will find it a cute gift to someone .. & u don;t get these kind of things in India for sure. so i will rate this at the top when u go to Srilanka ... so plz reserve space for this .. this will cost u @ 200 Srilankan Rupees which is dam cheap, for Indians too ... remember our currency is powerful in Sri Lanka :-)

Monkey carvings made through coconut

These are cute small souvenirs u can buy which shows Rikshaw, elephants in different forms ... i liked the colourful rikshaw more ...& again the elephants but carved onto the lather .. very rich look ... .. u get key chains of this form again a good gift to someone when u r back from sri lanka ...
& here is something for the children too elephant mechano .. see one of the monkey carving at the bottom again ... nice one
again u will find many roadside shops in sri lanka which sells hand made Silver and Brass presentation articles ... but i don't know how to carry them in international travel !! so forget it !! also such items are also available in India .. so I was not very much interested in them .. only u may get some advantage of our currency being strong ..
Again this is not road side shopping .. but u hv decent shops all around selling quality gems .. & one could also bargain for the price .. they easily reduce prices for us ... surely they sell it at much higher prices to Europeans .. but we can bargain & get at lower prices .. most of them provide guarantee card for gems ..

Apart from this Many shops in Colombo u can get good bargains for the shirts .. I mean ready made Garments, for children/ women / men ... u can buy beach wear from here if u r heading down to Thiland for corel island tour .. & all of these are of export quality at very good prices .. since they export these to other countries & we get advantage due to weak currency.

Also important thing is u can buy world's finest tea & spices in colmbo .. of course u shuld hv knowledge of tea & spices to get good price & best quality ...

and last thing which drew my attention is Volkswagen Beetle cars all around road side from Colobo to Kandy road .. amazing but I could spot out Volkswagen Beetle cars parked at road side garage & then came to know frm our guide is that they are widely available and at pretty cheap prices ... like 100,000 srilankan rupees to 800,000 srilankan rupees .. I was so impressed that I though it culd be great idea to buy one from there & import to India .... nice idea na ?

so when u r at sri lanka do not forget to buy things that i hv shown here . including the Volkswagen Beetle too :-) ha ! ha !!!

Traffic in Colombo city - Sri lanka

2010-12-17T08:43:00.001+05:30

colobo city traffic is comparable to traffic in Pune in terms of density of vehicles, however they are highly disciplined than us. No horn, No road race on the traffic signal, no signal crossing & to my notice 100% two wheeler drivers & passengers wear helmet, in Colombo as well as in Kandy.

Also on our way back from Kandy to Colombo, out mini-bus met with small accident with auto rikshaw having no driver in it ! after this accident immediately driver & cleaner marked the boundaries using stones of both vehicles & took them off the road so that there is no Traffic jam !! then they discussed for the damages & settled the same in ~10 minutes. The fault was of the rikshaw driver & hence he agreed to pay the damages, I was so impressed with the way the situation was handled & just could imagine how this situation will be handled here in India ! no need to tell or ?

these are typical vehicles I saw used to carry loads

Few snaps of traffic in Colombo - dense but disciplined

I really don;t understand why here in India we can not follow simple traffic rules & what is the gain we get by doing rush & damages due to that !! but I think even God can not answer when we will understand this ! Many times if I am waiting at the traffic signal exact on the Zebra line, people from behind will horn like anything & will pass by looking at me like I have broken the Indian rules ! can't help out of this !! sorry !!!!

Grab the Crab

2010-12-15T06:47:00.000+05:30

I could enjoy the real sea food at the restaurant at the sea shore ...

As usual & natural India tenancy of being in queue & disciplined :-) I was waiting for finishing the attack! of our tour group, & could chat with a french person, who was also waiting like me :-( but since he was aware of typical India way !! he said it's fine, he can wait ! .. so we just exchanged few words .. he was from France & going to Dubai for job & wanted to spend his holidays in Sri lanka. So he was asking me about Kandy & my experience ... He also told me about the dishes to try in this hotel .. like crab, octopus, fish curry etc. which helped me a lot :-)

Grab the Crab

Nice sea view restaurant
a snap alongwith my mother

Food table was pretty with lot of sea food dishes ...

the train in Colombo runs by the side of sea shore ... & I was able to see it from this hotel ... Even though I could not get a chance to travel in this train ... u can :-)
The restaurant was pretty good with live music & food too.

Visit to Amit gems pvt ltd in Srilanka

2010-12-08T20:30:00.000+05:30

In our Sri lanka tour we visited Amit Gems Private Limited outlet ...

The collage below shows the process on excavation of gems from the ground ... which they have prepared just to show & explain to visitors ...

They also showed nice film showing the process & explained also...

The right top corner of the image shows different gems that are excavated from Sri Lanka, its simply sample from my photographs ... showing fascinating colours which really attracts you :-) & of course the Mahila mandal (wife's) ...
so what do you think ? who is this ? ... nice na ... how about having this place permanently /.. ha ! ha !!! ... just kidding ...
The prices are good ... however u know as per the astrology .. as said in India .. u should check before u wear any gems ... so as to suit the same as per ur rashi ... so I did not buy anything (good reason umm ..)

Hamara Bajaj - in Srilanka

2010-12-05T09:38:00.003+05:30

As I entered in Srilanka I was happy to see presence of Bajaj everywhere :-)

You can see Red & Green colour Bajaj Auto rickshaw all the places in Colombo & Kandy ..

most of them are decorated with aerial tube lights, radio antenna, aerial horns in the top center, decals over wind screen, sunshades (like found on Indian rickshaws too), decorative bordering tapes all over the front, colored wheel rims & much more

Auto rickshaw stand outside the botanical garden in Kandy

On the way back from Kandy to Colombo, our bus stopped here since one auto rickshaw without driver !!! suddenly headed in mid of the road ! ... our driver stopped the mini-bus but the auto kept on moving (without driver) & hit the mini-bus breaking its side indicators. Somehow the driver left is road side without applying hand brake. So our bus stopped & immediately the driver marked the outer boundaries of rickshaw & bus. Then he called up the rickshaw owner & both the vehicles were taken to road side to avoid traffic jam. They discussed the issue & decided not to call police, since the auto rickshaw owner agreed to pay for the damages. Surprisingly the matter was settled in 10~15 minutes without any quarrel or fighting ! I was so impressed by the way they addressed the issue, that I appreciated this to our tour guide. You can imagine how the same incident will be handled here in India :-(

So I got rickshaw on the other side of road ... see the rickshaw & the greenery behind it ... you will find every where in Srilanka.

Even though I did not find time to ride in Hamara Bajaj in Srilanka .. you don't forget to do it.

Pinnawela elephant orphanage - Srilanka

2010-12-04T20:20:00.000+05:30

Maha Oya river near Pinnawela elephant orphanage

Botanical garden - Kandy

2010-12-03T07:12:00.000+05:30

Botanical garden of Kandy - must visit

to give you an idea of the kind of trees you can see I have added here few snap shots ...

The huge Bamboo - see the man standing to compare the size !

We have encircled the tree just to give you an idea about the diameter of the trunk !!

again one more huge tree .. see the parts are supported by steel poles ! ... its magnificent ...

Hey ! what r u doing man ???? no good ! ha ! ha !!! its a jack fruit tree .. and size is too small :-)

So when u be at Kandy .. do not ever forget to visit this place ... not to miss ...

nature lovers will really like to see these trees .. they also have orchid garden there, which is kind of beauty in itself ... however I liked the huge trees there .... the garden is really maintained well .. and you will really enjoy watching the magnificent trees there ....

Kandy - The Srilankan cultural show

2010-12-01T22:51:00.002+05:30

You have seen the natural beauty of Kandy ...

and here is another thing you can experience at Kandy ... the Srilankan cultural show ...

Its available at two or three different places in the evening time at Kandy & you can attend any one of them .. also they are free of cost & u can contribute to tips as per your wish :-)

The show is really nice experience indeed & u can see that the artists are really doing the things from the bottom of the heart. They really do their best to deliver the performance, which I really appreciate. In general I liked the simplicity & presentation from them.

The show started with folk dance with interesting characters as shown below ! & they also laugh in really funny way with singing of some folk song too ...

subsequent dance ... showing furious mudra & dance too

Very difficult act demonstration with all discs rotating at the same time !!

Followed by the task of walking on fire, rubbing fire torch on the body & eating it too ?
See some snaps from my Video shooting for this show.

It may not be new to Indians to see such act, however for Europeans fire show seems to be very interesting.

Amazing Srilanka - Kandy

2010-11-30T06:39:00.001+05:30

Srilanka facinitated me with its untamed nature ....

This is a photograph in Kandy from my hotel room :-)

You can easily see view above the clouds, literally the hotel is located above the clouds ...

Kandy - Above the clouds

Another tempting view from hotel room, the building you see is the other part of the same hotel !

The Tourmaline - my hotel during stay at Kandy

Kandy facinated me with its untamed nature .. you can see that even the grass at the road side is also grown to its limits ... no one has touched it .... the road sides are clean from plastic & other things ... the Kandy lake is very clean ... things are as it is .. I was fortunate enough to experience this untamed nature ... & I wish that this should remain as it is forever :-)

I would say that Kandy is a feast for a nature lovers ... those who want to experience greenery ...

My Srilanka, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand tour

2010-11-26T18:27:00.002+05:30

Back from pleasure tour from Srilanka, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand tour alongwith my family ...

and for few weeks I will be writing the story of the places I visited..
my experience with people ...
my experiences with the countries .. the tour operators .. the shop keepers ..

and the amusement parks they have created to generate money for their countries ... mind well they do not want to entertain you bur mere generate money for their countries ! & this is the fact ....

When ever you enter in Singapore, Malaysia or Thailand, the tour guide will first thank you to be in their country & get money to their economy !!! They talk about their economy for the first 10 minutes & then will start with the tour plan !! instead I was expecting warm welcome (at least through words)

Out of Order at Santosa

A bitter experience at Santosa Island Singapore > picture above is self explanatory, also a bitter experience was there with the workers at Santosa > there was a small hotel inside which was closed & having once hotel worker sitting outside on chair & having other chairs empty, since we were waiting for tickets I wanted my mother to sit on one of the chairs, but the worker plainly refused to use the chairs saying that the hotel is closed. I requested him to use only one chair for my mother, however he refused saying that the hotel is closed & he can not allow to sit on the chair. where as he was sitting leisurely on two chairs with feet up on one of the chairs !!! I don't think this will ever happen in India, because at least we respect age old persons. So that was the reason I am saying that we are just ATM machines for them.
Also "The Merlion" at Santosa --> they charged S$8 & when we went up, because of crowd I was able to stand on the observation point for ~10 seconds !! I was so surprised on myself to waste my money for 10 seconds, where no one can see anything as a observation !!!
Anyway I will be writing complete experience at Santosa, but just wanted to give a glimpse of it to all.

Anyway I will start with Srilanka where in my experience was the BEST :-) of all these 4 countries I visited, in terms of untamed nature, food quality, courtesy of people & travel operator experience.

Congratulations FONA for Project Mahseer

2010-10-29T06:13:00.004+05:30

Congratulations FONA for the new assignment

Project Mahseer Fish breeding
in river Indrayani , Dehu

Go ahead ....

Congratulations Mahesh, Shshank & FONA team ...

I AM PROUD TO BE A FONA MEMBER ... as always :-)

As FONA basic aim is "Conservation of Wild Life & Nature" it always strive to achieve the same ay every moment of life . each FONA member is alert to what's happening around & tries his best to conserver nature .. be it a snake found in society .. or someone displaying snake on road .. be sure if he is FONA member he will certainly take some action .. that's the way the team is :-)

Its really a Happy moment that FONA has got this opportunity to execute project MAHASEER with funding worth 1.39 corers from government, complete details of this project are available at
http://neelambaribhoge.blogspot.com/2010/10/my-article-on-mahseer-fish.html so I will not repeat them here ...

So great news .. & all FONA members ... be prepared .. we have to make it happen ... as always we do ...

read more about Mahseer on wiki

See some of the FONA activities that I have jotted down on blog ...

Kataldhara re-visited Aug 2010
Rajgad - Fandu trek for tree plantation
Ghorawadeshwar - Tree plantation drive by FONA
Lohagad - Tree plantation drive by FONA
Say no to plastic
Congratulations - FONA

Ganesh procession

2010-09-28T07:59:00.003+05:30

And preparation for the Ganesh procession begins ... team work is nearly seen in all the Ganesh Mandals in Chinchwad ... lot of efforts done day & night to complete the things in time ... & mind well no one is giving them the dead lines to complete .. but the Lord Ganesha does it :-)
Mostly the theme of procession is derived from the theme they present for the 10 days festival .. as e.g. the photograph below shows the Peacock theme & the same is then used by them for the procession ceremony (see photographs above) .. u know at every stage of product we think of theme, which is then carried out from exterior to interior ... this goes in line ...
from the below photograph u will get an idea of how big the Ganesh pendal is ... & the theme is also carefully done ...

& the small mandals hire the procession Rath having dolby music systems installed on it .. this will be common scene on every street in chinchwad or pune ... although this creates a traffic jam ,, no body minds on this auspicious day :-)

& the procession continues till late night .. & even till morning in Pune .. once started this procession lasts for ~18- 20 hours ... or even more in some cases ... people watch this procession through out night .. its Ganesh Festival fever .. they enjoy the traditional Dhol / Tasha music, which I also like the most ... when say ~50 Dhol (Drums) are beaten in a syncro ... then u can just imagine the BASS that is created ... its awesome ... u can never ever replicate it on am dolby music system ,,, one must experience it & say wow :-)
& now the city awaits for the Navaratri festical ahead .... & so do I :-)

more reading for information on Ganesh Festival -->

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganesh_Chaturthi

http://goindia.about.com/od/festivalsevents/p/ganeshfestival.htm

http://www.surajinfo.com/ganesha/HonouredGanesh.asp

Nana Fadnavis Wada, Wai, Menavali

2010-09-26T08:05:00.001+05:30

Nana Fadnavis (12/03/1742 to 13/03/1800)
Beautiful Ganesh idol in front of Nana Fadnavis Wada

Nana Fadnavis Wada, Wai, Menavali

Wada is a traditional mansion typically in Maharashtra, India

Side view of remains of wada

Nana Fadnavis Wada, Wai, Menavali
Wada is a traditional mansion typically in Maharashtra, India
Front view of remains of wada

Nana Fadnavis bed, see the legs of bed are kept on pot made of stone in which they used to put water which then prevents insect's entry .. so have nice sleep .. good night :-)
A information board outside Nana Fadnavis Wada, showing details about birth & his life.

More or less at least this wada is maintained clean from inside, since maintained by someone .. however as I said in my previous post .. unfortunately places outside wada are not so clean ... near to this place at 300~400 feets is loaction where the song shoot from the movie "Dabang" took place ... however that place is also not so clean (i mean to say dirty)

information on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nana_Fadnavis

Wai Maha Ganpati & Kashi Vishweshwar

2010-09-24T06:27:00.001+05:30

Wai Mahaganpati
(wikipedia information link for Wai)

Wai Mahaganpati mandir view from outsideUnfortunately the outside is not so clean :-( It can be clearly seen that no body is taking care of the garbage management there !! the Krishna river that u can see at the back of temple is also dirty .. this is unfortunate part that people after praying to Maha Ganpati do not care to keep the place clean ... however if Devasthan takes care of the same using the money they get .. & the place is maintained clean .. people wil also think twice before throwing plastic, garbage there !! but who cares ?

Kashi Vishweshwar temple, Wai

Kashi Vishweshwar Shiv Pindi

Nandi in front of Kashi Vishweshwar, Wai

Flex depicting life of Sambhaji Maharaj, beautifully arranged inside the Kashi Vishweshwar temple, this temple is just 100 feet away from the Maha Ganesha temple & surprisingly this is maintained very clean from inside !!! must be the management is very strong and caring about the temple ... why they are not maintaining the same outside also ? may be some issue !!! don;t know !

I have visited Wai many times on the way to Mahabaleshwar, but this was the first time I spent time only for Wai visit... to my disappointment the complete place is not so clean .. every where garbage is spilled around .. & I was very much disappointed by the way it was :-( so sad to see all ! but that's the way people likes it, they do not even notice such things ! why not all these Ganesh Mandals who are spending huge amount of money on placing pedals & processions take care of a single temple in their area ???

Adieu to our society Ganesh

2010-09-18T06:55:00.003+05:30

Society Sarvajanik (common) Ganesh festival 2011

&
Adieu to Ganesh ....old photographs for 2010

Procession started from the society

Moving out for the immersion ceremony ...

Team Girls putting all efforts to lay down Rangoli all over the way to immersion procession ... in advance they are moving fast carrying all the rangoli material & doing quick Sanskar bharti type rangoli designs ...

See the enthu in the teen ones as well as grown ones ... this year the society has bought all the instruments required for the ceremony (up to last year they used to hire it) .. so bachhe company ne full week practise kiya hai :-)

The immersion ...

Ganpati Bappa Morya Pudhchya varshi lavkar ya :-(

Ganesha in my housing society

2010-09-17T07:00:00.001+05:30

Ganesha in my housing society

As per the tradition our housing society also installs Ganesha in common place, so all will have Ganesha at their home as well as in the evening time we all come together to pray him in common place.
It's an opportunity for all to come together and enjoy games, share some ideas, discussion on what to do about some improvements etc ... so it's a kind of platform where no need to call a society meeting for discussion ... good na ?

Evening program of children

All will get chance to entertain others & get some prices too :-)
these 10 days of Ganesh festival are too good to enjoy ... go outside & u see decorations all over ... spend hours to wonder all over & u see people full of enthu ..
it's festival of joy ...

Ganpati Bappa Morya, Mangal murti Morya

2010-09-11T12:35:00.009+05:30

Ganpati Bappa Morya, Mangal murti Morya
Ganesh Chaturthi this year = 1 Sept 2011

गणपती बाप्पा मोरया |
पुढच्या वर्षी लवकर या ||१||
गणपती गेले गावाला |
चैन पडेना आम्हाला ||२||
अर्धा लाडू चंद्रावर |
गणपती बसले उंदरावर ||३||
आता लहान पण पासून हे आम्ही हजार वेळा म्हणालो असेल .. तरी पण प्रत्येक वर्षी परत परत हेच म्हणायला मजा येते :-)

Home Ganesh 2011

Lord Ganesha has arrived at home now & he is waiting for his sisters Gauri.

So the space left in the photo up is meant for his sisters, which will arrive tommorw, will stay with him for two days and then leave. The story behind this I will post as I get time :-), since today I will be more n\busy in decorating Ganesha.
As you know this time Ganesha idol has arrived from Pune, we could manage to get the eco-friendly green Ganesh idol made from chalk powder + paper pulp + natural gum & painted using water colours.

Eco-friendly Ganesha

Happy Ganesh Festival to ALL :-)

Ganesh Chaturthi dates -->

2011: 1 September
2010: 11 September
2009: 23 August
2008: 3 September
2007: 15 September
2006: 27 August
2005: 7 September

My Eco friendly Green Ganesha

2010-09-09T06:38:00.005+05:30

Eco friendly Ganesh in Pune - where to get 2011
Phone update 26/8/2011 --> Mr. Pravin Wagh 9767898701, Mr. Agarkar 9767898703

Link to watch video for how to make eco-friendly Ganesh idols --> http://youtu.be/G2TqRnPR63w
I got message from my nephew that Green Ganesha idol is made available in Pune by "Sadguru Shri aniruddha upasna kendra - Shivajinagar", he read this in news paper Sakal. So I told him to hunt for the same.

Since last 3~4 years we were trying to find out idols made from clay made from Shadu soil & dissolve in water after immersion however unable to get so. This is due to the simple reason that idols made from clay does not last & develop cracks during transportation, which then can not be sold since traditionally such idols calls for immediate immersion :-(

so these eco friendly idols are prepared by using paper pulp + natural gum + chalk powder & water colours are used to ensure that they get dissolved in water in couple of hours after immersion :-)

These Eco friendly Green Ganesh Idols will be available from "Sadguru Shri aniruddha upasna kendra - Shivajinagar" at "Omkar Bakery" Narayan Peth - Pune. (Near Alka takies)

The time for availabilityat Omkar Bakery is
10/09/2010 - 5 pm to 10 pm
11/09/2010 - 7 am to 11 am

I could get the contact person name Mr. Pravin Wagh 9767898701, Mr. Agarkar 9767898703 however you shall call him only in the evening time after 6.30 pm, since he will be busy in daytime.

I will put in photograph of my own idol as soon as it reaches my home :-)

Have a Happy & Eco-Friendly Ganesh festival to all blog readers :-)

Good reading -->
Eco Friendly Ganesh Chaturthi
Get yourself a green Ganesha

Logan 1.4 Glx after 20000 kilometers

2010-09-07T06:28:00.002+05:30

Over two years now & I have driven my Logan 1.4 GLX over 20,000 kilometers ...

what do i say then ?

Overall it is nice experience to have this car ...

what went right in this car ?
1) Space space & space ... cabin space & boot space WOW
2) Soft suspension ... works best on roads full of pot holes which are there almost all seasons of the year ... so just forget about these pot holes & keep driving :-) a cozy drive indeed (however this creates role in Ghat sections, but it is acceptable)
3) Smooth engine ... no complaints + can drive at higher gears at lower speeds, which helps in traffic situations (no frequent gear shifting required)
4) Good air conditioner (although it takes much time in summer to cool the car, it is acceptable)
5) mileage of ~13~14 kmpl (w/o & with A/C) which has gone upto 17 with A/C on my long highway tours.

What went wrong in this car ?
1) Wiper does not wipe top right corner on driver side, however it cleans up passenger side ? so this creates serious visibility issue in rainy season !! very BAD design intent to address LHD/RHD compatibility at the cost of customer safety.
2) Wiper noise ... from day one this is unresolved issue ! its not wiper it is wind screen scrubber
3) Noise of A/C compressor, it is irritating humming sound which comes up each time u switch on the Air conditioner
4) Inner door handles getting loose (so u hv to tighten them up to avoid rattling noise) & the beauty is the countersunk screw heads are of special type, so u can not tighten it using noram screw driver !!!!
5) The fuel filling is on the RHS not so much trouble as such but then u need to be in the queue from the opposite side of the petrol pump ... :-( always :-(

see door handle special head screw (this will get loose every week - for all handles)

In general people does not like the looks of this car, but my family has no issues in that also due to the comfort it provides ...

One more area is the POOR service support ... they have very poor service support ... after repeated followup also u will not get expected service back up (this is not only my experience but also experience from other Logan owners too) ... Since I shifted from Maruti Suzuki to this brand I could feel the gap which is beyond measure ... there r no reminders for first / second / third service till date from them (however I still get calls from Maruti Suzuki service stations even after 12 years, which is too good) .. if at all u reach the service station u hv to make sure to spend hell lot of time to enroll the car for servicing !! it is assured by them that u waste an hour for that ? & for the delivery the same thing is repeated .. say delivery time is 5 pm & the since the car washing takes small time .. u can get the delivery by 6.30 pm ... then u see that they hv forgotten to clean the car from inside ??? so by the time u loose ur patience .. better to do the same outside the service station ... any way ... this is the same old story i hv repeated through out the small write ups i hv done since beginning about my Logan experience series !! nothing new !!!
So for the service front I give them ZERO points.

my Previous posts for Logan 1.4 GLX

After 20000 kms
After 10000 kms
After 3000 kms

Re service after second servicing
Re service FOC
issues after second servicing

minor-accident-with-my-logan

Logan glove box handle-broken

test drive with Logan 1.4 GLX

my first Sedan

Vasudev in Maharashtra

2010-09-02T06:59:00.001+05:30

One fine morning after long time I could see the "Vasudev" or "Vasudeo" in front of my house. He was singing a traditional song in loud & clear voice, so I called my daughter to see them. I gave him 5 rupees & he immediately started telling astrology !! he said he will do it from face reading ... anyway normally they tell something like "u will do lot of progress .. but someone does not like it ... so .. bla bla bla.." so for fre minutes I heard him ... see the picture below which i took ...

in the photograph u can see the other Vasudev's brother is telling astrology for the person in car !! the more he tells .. more u will pay (obvious)

Anyway "Vasudev" or "Vasudeo" wear a conical cap of peacock's feather ... Vasudev in actual was the father of Lord Krishna, (it is said that) who used to wear such cap ) .. they move from village to village. They sing heart touching traditional songs when they move from home to home ... in villages they collect rice, wheat etc. from homes ... however now a days they also come to cities & get some money (home to home collection !!) .. but yes I like to hear them in early morning .. it sounds very cozy to me hearing them crystal clear ...

they are described under nomadic tribe in Maharashtra

they normally worship Khandoba of Jejuri (maharashtra) & Ambabai of Kolhapur

If you wish to know more about this tribe then do read the following book -->

People of India: Maharashtra, Volume 3

By Kumar Suresh Singh, B. V. Bhanu, Anthropological Survey of India

read from page 2033 to know more information about Vasudev like their tribe, Panchayat, types, lifestyle etc.

2010-08-29T06:55:00.001+05:30

hurry hurry it's happy holiday !!!
Sunday :-)

Be comfortable ... its Sunday .... Enjoy !!!

Kataldhara re-visited Aug 2010

2010-08-22T10:43:00.004+05:30

Kataldhara revisited on Sunday 23/08/2010
Location --> Ullas vally near Lonavala

Organizer --> FONA (Friends Of Nature Assosiation - Talegaon)
Trek leader --> Mandar Tharval

Distance from Lonavala --> ~7 Kilometers, ahead of Kune Gaon & on the way to Rajmachi
Identification to get down to vally --> see photo at end of post, two mango trees are the only mark available, u must get down from that location, there is no other way.
mobile range available --> BSNL, IDEA & Vodaphone mobile range is available in this Vally, so better to have one of this sim card with u s as 2 use in case of emergency

Precautions -->
1) this is semi-hard trek, u must have proper trekking gears for this trek
2) Odomas or any other mosquito repellent is necessary
3) Full sleeves shirt & proper full pant is must
4) at the last patch where u get down to the water fall, rope is required due to difficult rock patch
5) Markings on the way by keeping three stones one above another is done by FONA team, carefully follow them, due to density of forest there r chances to loose track easily
6) do not take undue risks in the waterfall, the water falling down gets doubled in minutes as per the rain fall rate .. so risky
Here is the refreshing snap shot of Kataldhara ... the one of the remaining untamed nature of Maharashtra ... clean ... fresh .. untouched from PLASTIC BOTTLES & GARBAGE !!!!

& so i always like this spot & pray to god to keep this place as beautiful & untouched from the ...

Inside the caves ... were we took our luxurious LUNCH ... it was not so shivering :-) ... after POWERFULLLLL Chilled water Bath ... we were hardly able to have our lunch without shivering !!! u can hear roar of water falling over the cave ... when u enter inside the cave .. a AUTO-BATH features at the cave entrance is always in enabled mode !!! the mist inside the cave ... the water roar .... nothing to express in words but u must take a feel of it ... no words !! that's the beauty of nature indeed :-)

a collage of beauties u see on the way ... crabs, snails, Karvi (flower that blooms after every 7 years - i was fortunate to see the same in my trek to Kalavantin Durg :-) beautiful flowers & butterflies .. so much to see ... & on the way you have so many streams ...

Entry point to the KatalDhara is this point on the way to Rajmachi .. where twin Mango trees are there .. this is the only point u must remember .. else there are 99% chances that u will not be able to get to this place .. this is very very tricky place since many trekkers has lost in the valley of Kataldhara ..so make sure that u get the right directions ....

so what r u waiting 4 ? feel free to ask me any more questions since this is one of the recent exploration done by FONA team ... definitely u would like to enjoy the same ...

you may also like to view my previous post for Kataldhara (Ullhas Vally)

Chalo Kataldhara (near Lonavala)

2010-08-20T06:50:00.001+05:30

Katal dhara means

Katal = Rock
Dhara = flowing water

This is one of my favorite trek spot & I had been there many times by now ...
& Again this Sunday we will be there to enjoy the water fall of Katal Dhara ...

Katal Dhara (Near Lonavala)

Caves below the water fall .. once you are inside these caves .. you will be able to feel the quantum of water flowing in a minute ! you will forget all the tensions you have & purely enjoy the beauty of nature ... this is the spot where you can appreciate how Swami Samrtha must have selected locations like Shivthar Ghal for writing the great "Dasbodh" ... the sound of falling water inside the cave gives u the feeling of how serious the nature is to create such beautiful thing ...

This place can be seen from Rajmachi & here is view from one of my previous trek to Rajmachi

(Click the image to see FUll Flaged picture of this water fall - must see)

(Click the image to see FUll Flaged picture of this water fall)

These pictures will give u an idea of how big the waterfall is .. the pictures are taken from distance of @ a kilometer !!

So on the way to Rajmachi ... u have to get down in the valley & walk for @ couple of hours to get to this spot .. this is semi - hard trek and the last patch to get down to the water fall is most difficult .. u must have ropes & proper trekking gears for this trek. its better to get along with experience members to this place .. please do not take any risk.

So I will post more photographs of this waterfall once I am back frm Katal Dhara (near Lonavala) ..
would u like to join us ?

Shravan the month of colours

2010-08-14T17:01:00.003+05:30

The month of Shravan takes you through colours of joy & happiness ....

It will be raining & in a moment it will fill with clear sunlight ....

Balkavi has rightly said "Shravan masi Harsh Manasi Hirval Date Chohikade .... "

Here are the moods which I could capture on the way ....

& this one by my nephew ....

& yes the most important is Sharvan is also month of festivals .. all the festivals like Gauri-Ganesh will start from this month .. so coming months called as Chaturmas, there will be series of festivals ... & most of the people does not eat non-veg / onion / ginger during these months of Chaturmas (as a tradition) .. this lasts till the Deepawali and after Deepawali when Tulsi marriage happens with Lord Shri Krushna .. then marriage muhurtam starts ... that goes till month on May then ....

And the Green way begins

2010-08-02T21:40:00.003+05:30

Remember we began our Seed plantation drive from Lohagad from June 19th this year ...

which we continued to Ghorawaqdeshwar as well as Rajgad ...

And here is the progress :-) we were very happy to track this progress ...

seeds popping out of soil ...

& yessss ... there here are the survivors of the nature game :-)

We have planted at least 4 seeds of the same type in one location & with basic rule of strongest will survive ... here is that seed which has won the game :-)

So our aim is to take care of these survivors by watering them time to time ...
Determination is there & I am sure we will be able to have good success results :-)

Cheers !!! happy tree plantations !!! & lets make it GREEN everywhere ...

Good reading -->
Raigad tree plantation drive -2010
Ghorawadeshwar tree plantation drive - 2010
Lohagad tree plantation drive - 2010

If you wish to get information on numerous places to visit near PUNE visit the new web page launch

WeekEndGetAways - PUNE

Rajgad - Fandu trek for tree plantation

2010-07-14T07:04:00.001+05:30

We started our trust to plant trees from fort Lohagad
(read "Lohagad - tree-plantation-drive-by-FONA")

which we continued on the Ghorawadeshwar hill near Begdewadi ...

the same passion continued us to drive to the king of forts .. Rajgad this Sunday ...

you will find most of the information about the fort on internet so I will not spend much time in explaining the importance of this fort .. rather you can see the links at the end of post to read more about how to goto Fort Rajgad & its historic importance etc.

Look at Rajgad .. the king of forts ... where Raje Shivaji stayed for ~26 years of life ..

FONA leader Mandar preparing the new fleet of FONA .. young chap is also interested in plantation of trees :-) no doubt these children will make future of India ... & the credit goes to :-)

Manoj & shirish are equally interested in keeping things Green ...

& finally me :-) ... yess ... why not ?

& the team finally reached the topmost peak point ... the bale killa ... one can feel the mist .. clouds ... rain ... & the blowing wind here ... no doubt Raje Shivaji selected this location ... u can see most of the forts from this point ... feel the power of nature .....

You should not miss the needle hole point near Suvela machi .... this is must visit point on fort Rajgad ...

view from distance for the needle hole point

& now the close-up of needle hole point

& here we are inside the needle hole point ...
u will get memorable experience after u feel the power of wind passing through the needle hole .. its amazing .... a must must ....

this is way to the needle hole point ... mist .. mist ... clouds ... wind ... what else u need .. don't ever miss it ...
I am sure you may also like to join team FONA for tree plantation drive .. if yes ... just keep me message ... & u can get information / help from me or team for this noble cause ...

Happy trekking ... happy tree plantation ....
cheers !!!

references

http://www.maharashtra-tourism.com/mountains/forts/rajgad.htm
http://kuldeepdeokule.blogspot.com/2008/02/rajgad-fort.html
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/27516253 (distance Cheladi Phata to Raigad)

If you wish to get information on numerous places to visit near PUNE visit the new web page launch

WeekEndGetAways - PUNE

Ghorawadeshwar - Tree plantation drive by FONA

2010-06-26T21:38:00.005+05:30

Ghorawadeshwar near Begdewadi

Lush Green with sky blue & white sauce

In giving another boost to our drive to have more & more trees planted this monsoon & observe the output, we decided to have plantation in area where we visit frequently. so that we are able to check the progress & effectiveness of the process we are adopting, to derive any improvement required in the plantation process.

So we selected Ghorawadeshwat hill for the next plantation for the reasons that we visit once in a week to this hill place which is one of the most beautiful and less crowded !! place in our area. (may be for the reason that it is very steep for climbing). This is our most favorite place for weekly visit & now a days our team is able to climb this hill in matter of 8 minutes :-)

So ....

Here we will be trying plantation with different techniques, observing the results for different type of seeds how it responds, in terms of growth, living rate, are they able to sustain in the monsoon with proper growth etc.

As usual the happy FONA member .... & the blogger ... to bore u with his stories :-)
you know what is the most stupid thing he has ? he always thinks that each seed he is going to plant is going to grow :-) ha ! ha !! just kidding !!!

& here are other FONA members too ... you know only single person can never do such task.

An in the evening it is even more beautiful ....

So if you even think of becoming member of our team .. or participate in this FONA activities .. go ahead .. put scrap here & u r always welcome .. to be part of team

If you wish to get information on numerous places to visit near PUNE visit the new web page launch

WeekEndGetAways - PUNE

Lohagad - Tree plantation drive by FONA

2010-06-19T20:22:00.011+05:30

Remember that Lohagad is one of my favorite place to go for quick walk along with our guests ...
(remember I posted this last year Energized ... back from Lohagad)
there are two ways, one can go upto the fort bottom by car (from the Pavana dam side road) the other is to have ~6 km walk from the Bhaje caves.
So our FONA (Friends Of Nature Association - Talegaon) decided to do a plantation effrt last Sunday and arranged for different tree seeds.

We selected

1) BHAHAWA (Indian Labernum - Cassia Fistula Linn),
2) BAMBU (Bambusa dendrocalmus),
3) KANCHAN,
4) KARANJ (Derris indica),
5) BABHUL (Black catechu - Acacia arabica)
6) AWALA / AVLA (Indian Gooseberry - Emblica officinalis) (MOTHA),
7) KALA SHIRISH (Rain tree - Albizia lebbeck),
8) CHINCH (Tamarind tree - Tamarindus indica),
9) GULABHI BHAHAWA

seeds which will last long for life and will not require more water to grow up.

The beginning ... Mahesh with Team Leader Mandar on the seeding drive

Busy FONA team members in plantation

Touch of nature always make a happy couple :-)

Velvet Mite, very commenly found in this area BHAHAWA, BAMBU, KANCHAN, KARANJ, BABHUL, AWALA(MOTHA), KALA SHIRISH, CHINCH, GULABHI BHAHAWA seeds

Things to remember while seeding

1) find suitable place for seeding, it can be away from the normal walking path of persons or cows/ships etc.

2) Dig ~1~1.5" inside ground

3) place at least 3~4 seeds nearby (this will ensure chances of surviving at least one of them)

4) cover up with soil

5) place 2~3 stones in direction of flow of water, so that water flowing due to heavy rainfall will get diverted from the seeds & will flow from the sides, this will protect seeds flowing down from the place

Happy tree plantation :-) & do not forget to ask me or FONA for help if you are willing to do this at your place, we will happy to help you out.

Good reading for the TREE information in Marathi to English names

http://www.astro.caltech.edu/~vam/abadtrees.html

collecting plastic bottles - Ghorawadeshwar

2010-05-25T22:19:00.004+05:30

@ three months back we started going for hill climbing exercise to Ghorawadeshwar temple near Chinchwad,

more we visited the place we liked it ....

every time the same place looks different ...

however we were sad to see the plastic thrown all over the beautiful place by so called educated people, as example a couple came to the temple which is situated at the hill top, they poured a liter of milk over the god (Ghorawadeshwar) which they brought in the packed plastic bag and after doing that they simply dumped the plastic bag inside temple !!!! we were so angry to see that act !!! simply unbelievable !!! but its true .. people come there to through tonnes of plastic bags and bottles ...

Practically its difficult to be there to teach discipline to all the (so called) devotees to keep the God's place clean .. so team decided to collect as much plastic as possible and bring it down the hill .. and since we climb from different places we can collect plastic which is thrown all over the hill ....

so simple we collect @25 bottles each time we go there !!!!

I am not sure how much time it would take us to clean this place .. but we will try our best to do that ...

one idea was to get garbage collectors along with us to that place and pay them to collect garbage to clean the place once in a while, but not so sure that they will come to do this even we pay them ? so may be will try this Sunday .. if any one has better idea .. plz gv ...

May be once the place is clean people may think twice to through somethings ......

Hope for the best :-)

Good read :
http://www.allplasticbottles.org/collect.asp

there are many good people who are doing this
http://www.squidoo.com/road-litter

here is one more person doing this
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jun/20/motorway-litter

and so good information about the litter given here
http://www.uksafari.com/archive/litter.htm

If you wish to get information on numerous places to visit near PUNE visit the new web page launch

WeekEndGetAways - PUNE

Home cooling using exhaust fans

2010-05-15T21:43:00.004+05:30

I did lot of study during this summer for keeping the house cool,

Shall it be Air conditioner ? Air-cooler ? Fan ? which i have closely described in my last study

http://mdpathak.blogspot.com/2009/04/air-cooler-or-conditioner-split-or.html

So many of my friends asked me more about eco friendly way to keep their home cool .. and hence my study went on & on ...

One of the way if you are staying at the top floor is to paint the roof top with white heat reflective paint, this helps bringing down house temperatures during day time & use of exhaust fans to cool home during night times ...

here is one company which provides this terrace painting option --> www.thermatek.co.in

Now here is simple check if ur exhaust fan will help u keeping cool during nights ..

at night time say 10 pm go out in balcony or house, if u feel outside is more cold than u feel at home . then be sure that u will get benefited using exhaust fan .. be sure that the hot air has gathered all around in home and making u feel hot ... so use exhaust fan to drive that out & make ur home breathe cool air ...

use of exhaust fan have following benefits ...

1) Locate exhaust fan at the top most point of house / room since that removed hot air which is stagnant & creates cold flow inlet in house

2) No fan can cool ur home like A/C can J in terms of temperature and speed of bringing temperature down ! however the DELTA temperature difference makes u feel cool

3) They are the most cost effective way, A/c can pull up to 2 KW load as against an exhaust fan which pulls mere 50 Watt (40 times less) so most eco-friendly way J

4) This is most effective in night time than day time

5) Due to low power consumption this works even in power cuts on Inverter

6) A/C can keep only one room cool, as against POWERFUL exhaust fan located at say terrace door keeps entire house cool J by expelling naturally accumulated warm out & drawing cool air thro’ all windows in house

7) Bathroom exhaust fan helps in cooling down + main work is to reduce unpleasant smells & helps in reducing the fungus formations due to moisture

8) Compare to A/c unit window fan circulates lot of fresh air in house J however this may not work in polluted area where air filters in A/c may help getting clean air

9) Fresh air circulation and delta difference in temperature throughout home makes u feel cozy, which may not be the case for an A/c in single room

more reading ...

http://www.atticfans.com/

http://www.mywindowfansite.com/

http://www.ehow.com/how_2072666_cool-home-exhaust-fan.html

http://www.wikihow.com/Use-Window-Fans-for-Home-Cooling

If you wish to get information on numerous places to visit near PUNE visit the new web page launch

WeekEndGetAways - PUNE

School Kit Movement - my Bajaj friends

2010-05-11T21:16:00.001+05:30

My last post was showing few snaps from actual work participation in this School kit drive.

In addition to this all Bajaj friends have till now donated ~172 school kits which is great contribution.

I am really fortunate enough to have such friends who are so keen in each and every activity that we all do.

Be it a trekking camp or annual party or helping someone for the medical care they all put hands together. Great na ?

Chlo dekhte hai till June how many moew kits we add to this School kit drive ...

And target is to go to at least one school kit distribution camp so as to participate and experience the feeling of child when he actually receives a school kit :-)

------------------------------------------------------
School kit drive by Seva Sahayog volunteers in Pune

rear more information on
http://www.sewausa.org/sewausa-activities-amp-projects/school-kit-drive
http://schoolkit.info/

School kit drive - Pune camp

2010-04-26T21:34:00.001+05:30

School kit drive by Seva Sahayog volunteers in Pune

rear more information on
http://www.sewausa.org/sewausa-activities-amp-projects/school-kit-drive
http://schoolkit.info/

Location :- Bal Shikshan Mandir
Date :- 25/04/2010
Day :- Sunday
Time :- 10 am to 2 pm
~100 volunteers from Pune / Chinchwad area participated in this move.

The first stage work was to do quality checking of school bags for any defects etc. and select the only good ones.
here are some happy volunteer faces from my Bajaj friends team.

Srikanth & Gaurav :-)

the Blogger

Kathale sir, youngest of all team members

Onkar & Abhinandan :-)

Quality checked school bags are kept separately for further work of packaging notebooks, compass box, Creon colour box etc. as per requirement, this will be done next Sunday

This was first time I have actually participated in this activity. my opinion is that only giving money for this noble cause is not suffice but actual participation is very very important.

this year the target of Seva Sahyog is to contribute 25000 school kits which is hell lot of work for volunteers.

so come on join this movement ...
see you on Sundays for participation ....

Life

2010-04-20T21:10:00.002+05:30

A snap on Ghrawadeshwar hill ....

Life ....

Its the nature teaching us the revival after burning hard ....

That's the way we should be .... after going through difficult situation .. we should bounce back ...

Narsinhwadi (Narsobachi Wadi) - Kolhapur (Sangli)

2010-04-05T20:57:00.005+05:30

Narsinhwadi a.k.a. "Narsobachi Wadi" is situated @25 Kilometers from Sangli in kolhapur District, @55 kilometers towards East from Kolhapur & @20 kilometers from Miraj.

You can reach "Narsobachi Wadi" Jayasingpur railway station which is situated on the Miraj-Kolhapur railway or ply on direct state transport (ST) buses from Miraj, Sangli or Kolhapur.

This is the most famous location of Lord Dattasthan situated on the bank of river Krishna & Panchaganga.

Shri Narsinh Saraswati who is avtar (incarnation) of Lord Dattatraya lived here for twelve years.

Here Lord Dattatreya is in the form of his 'Paduka' situated below a Umber tree, which symbolises presence of lord Dataatrya there.

"Narsobachi Wadi" is also famous for Brinjal, Cucumber, Corn that are really very very tasty due to the fact that they are grown on the bank of river Krishna. Also do not forget to buy Pedhe / Pedha, Kavath(Limonia) Barfi & Basundi which are considered to be best of Maharashtra for its taste & quality.

Entrance to the "Narsoba" temple

Temple of Lord DattatrayaClose up look

Auspicious River Krishna

From Sangli city you can drive down to this place within ~40 minutes, road is narrow but good. There is way to Kolhapur also which shows distance of ~45 Kimlometers.

COEP 82nd Regatta 2010

2010-03-23T06:34:00.002+05:30

Sunday I went to COEP with my family to attend the 82 nd Regatta festival.

Here are few snap shots of the same.

Mashal (fire torch) formation showing collage name from distance .. ... amazing combination's presented by students .. very much creative and message giving :-)The senior batch !!! see Ex students from 1970's participating in the Regatta festive :-)

my to these seniors :-)

Amazing fireworks presentation ...

The crowd

Arrow formation

My recommendation to all past students of COEP, come on goto your college and see the changes in collage premises over the years :-)

Ghoradeshwar (Shivlinga) temple - Ghorawadi

2010-02-09T18:32:00.004+05:30

This is my most favorite place to visit, a beautiful temple called as "Ghoradeshwar" situated near Ghorawadi. This is a "Shivlinga" temple at the hill top with beautiful nature view. Pretty clam and quite place with wind breezing which u can feel while sitting at the table top land in between the climb to the temple.

The Ghoradeshwar temple look from outside, it is engraved in huge rock, the small dark orange colour small temple is Hanuman / Maruti temple & the other two arches are entrance to the main Shivalinga darshan.
There is also water available in engraved tanks near the temple, so that u can wash your feet before u enter the temple :-)

This snap of Shivlinga is one of the memorable moments, since it is showing evening (~6 pm) sunlight fallen on the Shivalinga. It looks amazing and u can also feel that the person who has though of this beauty, of course in many temples in India this is given due respect as one of the requirement. So if u want to see this u can reach there ~ sunset time (and at the beginning of Uttarayan)

Not less than ~ 350 good steps to the temple :-) & if u can climb this in 20 minutes .. then be sure that u r at good health :-) so I visit there frequently to have this free health check... it is just 15 minutes distance from Akurdi / Chinchwad on Mumbai-Pune highway. or the alternate way is to travel by local train and get down at Ghoradeshwar railway station, from there u can walk to the hill in ~5-10 mins.View from the Ghoradeshwar temple.

I like this place a lot and hence recommend you to visit it, if u r staying at Chinchwad, it will not take than an hour to complete this visit. ( 15 mins to reach the Ghoradeshwar hill, 20 mins to climb upto the temple, 10 mins rest and Darshan of Shivlinga, 15 mins to step down the hill, 15 mins to return to Chinchwad)

Now a days we have started climbing this hill every week, which started from baseline of 20 minutes of climb with 2 stops in between, and by the forth week we are able to climb in 12 minutes + non-stop :-)

informative reading :

http://wikimapia.org/519107/Ghorawadi-ghorawdeshwar-temple

Shri Datta Temple - Murud

2010-02-04T19:35:00.003+05:30

Shri Datta temple - 21/06/1907

Shri Datta Idol

while I was on my Revdanda trip, i went to Murud on my way back.

there i could visit a beautiful temple of Lord Shri Datta.

When u enter Murud, there is a tourist toll collection naka, immediately

after that u hv to turn left upto ~ 1 kms to reach this beautiful Shri Datta

temple built by Swami Bramhendra.
there is motor road upto hill top as well as steps which u can climb :-) i

choose motorable road ...
it give panaromic view of Murud from the hill top, one wuld love to see the
sunset from there ...

View of Murud-Janjira from hill top

Shri Hanuman in Datta temple

ref reading:

http://www.freewebs.com/murud-janjira/

for complete information on Revdanda & places nearby do read my post "Revdanda sea beach"

Paras Darshan - Jain temple - Chanera

2010-01-30T18:00:00.006+05:30

On my trip to Revdanda I had an oppetunity to visit this beautiful temple nearby. So here are few snaps ...

Paras Darshan - Jain temple - Chanera

This beautiful temple decorated with millions of glass pieces of different colours. Located very near to Revdanda sea beach.

See the closeup photogrpah of the main idols, look at the decorative borders

Left side of this image shows the roof top, due to image size constraints & my account space availability I could not put 5 mega pixel images here, but someone more interested can contact me for the full image sizes, they are really marvelous :-) and the right side of image shows the place for daily morning Puja of idols, after morning puja they are shifted back to the main temple room.

Shri Payapuri Tirtha

From left :
Shri Chakreshvari Devi,
Devdrusha Vastra Dan (Upsarg),
Govaliya Ka Upsarg,
Barshitap ka Parna

From Left :
Chandrakashik Sarp Ka Upsarg,
Shri Parsvnath Bhagvan Nageshwar,
Shri Shantinath Prabhu Bhopavar,
Shri Padmavati Devi,
Shri Nakoda Bhairavji

Pujyaniya Guru

When ever you are passing by to the Phansad Wildlife sanctuary, do not forget to visit this beautiful temple "Paras Darshan" located at Chnera near Revdanda sea beach

for complete information on Revdanda & places nearby do read my post "Revdanda sea beach"

Korlai light house, Korlai (Chaul)

2010-01-29T21:16:00.007+05:30

I visited this beautiful light house on the trip to Revdanda sea beach, its just 3~4 kms away from Revdanda and u can experience the sunset from the light house, it looks beautiful from the top. They start the light in the light house at 6 pm, every evening.

One u pay the entry fee, the light-keeper takes u to the top & explains all technical details like frequency of light flash, what is the use of light house, what if the main light fails, the fall back, the remote control system ( which can control the light house from Mumbai control room), how it operates in day time (using electronics) etc.

The Entrance to Korali Light House

Korlai fort is just behind this light house, see way to the fort from the light house

View of Korlai fort from the light houseGovernment directives for the entrance into the light house, which says "Public may be admitted to the light house on their own risk & on payment of prescribed fee" + "admission is at the discretion of head light-keeper or in-charge light house", only they have not prescribed the entree fee, so the light keeper charges 10 Rs per person !!

also the light house official timings are 16.00 hours to 17.30 hours

very detailed technical as well as location information is available on government website :

http://dgllnoida.gov.in/mumbai/KORLAI FORT.html

Interesting information about Chul can be found out at ablog

http://blissfullsolitude84.blogspot.com/2009/05/info-on-chaul-history.html

for complete information on Revdanda & places nearby do read my post "Revdanda sea beach"

Phansad Wildlife Sanctuary

2010-01-27T06:38:00.004+05:30

I visited Phansad Wildlife Sanctuary on 22/01/2010, and the experience was great :-) its real dense forest .. u can drive in the car long way .. but obviously then u can not see a single animal then !! due to the engine noise, and guess right I did use my car and could not see any animal !! ha ! ha !!! but I wanted to hv quick & deep look so as to plan for the next visit for staying there in tents or the bamboo house.

its located ~ 150 kms from Mumbai & 150 kms from Pune too :-)

its on Murud - Roha road

And as I could get the preliminary information, the forest is known for the presence of Leopard. As well as u will find wide variety of flowers, butterfly, Heyena, Jungle cat, Palm civet, Sambhar, Barking deer, Bonnet Macaque, Wild boar , giant squirrel, 164 types of birds (including the interesting Pied hornbill, Three toed Kingfisher, Malkoha, Pitta), 90 species of butterflies (including Common Map, Black Prince, Nawab, Blue Mormon), 27 species of poisonous and non poisonous snakes, 718 types of trees !!! amazing !!! make sure u visit it with at least one stay, so that u will be able to see forest in early morning and night time with the help of forest guards.( refer to phone numbers in the blog post end)

Entrance to the Phansad Wildlife Sanctuary

Map displayed at the entrance

What you will be able to see there

View from the observation tower

Aging !!

The shape !!!

Entangled !!!

Feel the dense forest :-)

You can stay in these tents :-) (presently there are two tents)

Or the better option is this beautiful bamboo house

Bookings for the guest house contact :-
Deputy Conservator of Forests, (Wildlife),
Thane Wildlife Division, L.B.S.Marg, Naupada,
Thane (West), Maharashtra India 400 602.
91-22-25402522

Bookings for the tent or the bamboo house :- phone numbers as on 22/01/2010
Mr. Harishchandra Naik 9270892679 or 09270251369 (Forest Gaurd - Phansad)

Enjoy Local Food :
There is a "Mahila Bachat Gat" named as "Gavdevi Mahila Bachat Gat" which can provide pure Gavran food to u during ur stay. Gavdevi Mahila Bachat Gat is headed by Savita Naik which consists of 12 team members. (Reference "Sakal - Pune" news dated 01/02/2010, a news by Chitali Chandorkar)

some more information can be found at :

http://www.indian-wildlife.com/phansadsanctuary.htm

for complete information on Revdanda & places nearby do read my post "Revdanda sea beach"

Revdanda sea beach

2010-01-25T18:35:00.012+05:30

Last weekend I had been to this place near Alibag, which is a small village place "Revdanda".

The sea beach there is pretty small.

I will be writing details of stay as well as other things, but as of now I will put quick view of what u can see in that area and add some glimpse photo's of place I saw there :-)

Me with my fresh constructed sea fort at beach of Revdanda :-)

Revdanda sea beach at a glance

Sight seeing in and around Revdanda

1. Datta Mandir ( 3 Km )
Historical Dattatraya temple on hill in Chaul village. Has about 750 properly built steps. Can be approached from Hingulja devi mandir side. Hingulja devi temple is on a smaller hill and has 120 steps. From hingulja devi there is mountain path leading to Datta mandir. This is much simpler than climbing 750 steps of Datta mandir mountain. Take road via Hingulja devi for going to Datta mandir and come down by steps. This will be about 4 hours outing and reasonably strenuous.
A five days Yatra ( fair ) starting from Datta Jayanti day is a very important event for locals and for surrounding villages. The season during the period is very pleasant. The whole atmosphere is charged with yatra fever. This is some event every city dweller must visit once in a life time and enjoy the Yatra feel.

2. Daily Market
Typical village market near Maruti temple is a very interesting place to visit where fresh local farm produce are sold in the morning between 9 & 12 hours.
Fish Market
Runs in the mornings and evenings depending on the tide timings. You can have sea fresh seasonal catch.

3. Hingulja Devi ( 3.5 KM )
This temple is run and maintained by Bhansali community is situated on a hill which is a southern part of Datta mandir hill. 120 well built steps reach this temple. There are three temples and few other utility buildings. Bhansali community celebrates the temple festival annually on “ Paush Pornima day ”, the night fire works and a fair is attended by a large number of villagers & followers.

4. Sheetala Devi ( 3.5 KM )
Very old temple of Sheetaladevi, built by Peshawas & Angre families is a Gavdevi for locals. Renovated in 1997, this is a most important Gavdevi worshiped by all casts and religions. Tuesday and Fridays are special days for pooja. This temple is situated in the lush green coconut and supari plantations of Chaul. The road passes through plantations on both sides and journey itself is very pleasant. You can walk through plantations or go by car or riksha.

5. Rameshwar Mandir ( 1 KM )
Shankar temple in Chaul is an excellent specimen of Peshawa time architecture. Pushkarani ( temple lake ) in front is full throughout the year. It is a enjoyable swimming pool in monsoon season. All through the year temple festivals are celebrated with great enthusiasm.

6. Birla Mandir ( 4.5 KM )
Built by Grasim group near Vikram Ispat factory. This is a Ganesh temple of very modern architecture in white marble, situated on a small hill ( 130 easy steps ). This is a place visited by tourists from all around. The entire hill is a temple complex with beautiful gardens & fountains all around.
Visit this temple in the evening and enjoy the whole complex in floodlights. Temple is closed between 11 AM to 4 PM. Camera is not allowed.

7. Revdanda Harbor and nearby Beach ( 1 KM )
It is a very scenic spot whereby you can spend some time on way to Birla mandir. One Km. long bridge spans the Kundalika river which joins Arabian sea at Revdanda. You can have a nice view of Korlai fort, Revdanda fort, and curve in the sand leading to Revdanda beach and open sea.
You can watch fishing trawlers & iron ore barges going out or coming in from the sea. If you are a fishing fan, carry a hook & line. You can get some good catch from the bridge or from the rocks.

8. Revdanda Beach
This is a long stretch of over 5 KM of clean beach starting from Revdanda harbor with a green wall of coconut trees on Eastern side. You get an excellent view of sun set with color play in the sky which lingers far beyond the actual sun set.
Revdanda beach is very safe for sea bathing, however, avoid going in the water during low tide. Do check with us about the safe timings.

9. Korlai village & Church ( 4 KM )
The village is populated by Roman catholic East Indians & local fishermen. Korlai has a rich historical background dating back to 300 years during Portuguese rule. A village church and adjoining convent school are in a typical rural setting and worth a visit.
Korlai has small section of beach with beautiful view of open Arabian sea.
10. Korlai Fort ( 4 KM ) read my post on "Korlai light house"
Fort on the small hill was built by Portuguese as a watch post for protection of the Revdanda harbor. There is a new light house on the western slope for guiding the oncoming ships to Mumbai port.
Although the fort is in ruins these days, a medium tough day outing will provide lot of excitements for youngsters and history scholars.

11. Phansad Dam & reserved Forest ( 8 KM )
This is an earthen dam situated in the thick forest. Excellent spot for day picnic in all seasons, however more exciting during monsoon. Ideal place for forest lovers. Do visit Kajuwadi village to get a real village feel.

12. Nagaon Beach ( 10 KM )
Nagaon beach is a flat clean stretch of sand with clear water and plantation of tall “suru” trees. Ideal spot for short or a day long outing.

13. Kashid Beach ( 17 KM )
Tiny stretch of beach on way to Murud. Popular due to vicinity of Suman motel resort.
Popular sto over on way to Murud

14. Siddhivinayak Temple at Nandgaon ( 23 KM )
A very famous Ganesh temple in Nandgaon - on way to Murud - is surrounded by lush green coconut and supari plantations

Siddhivinayak Temple at Nandgaon

15. Murud ( 33 KM )
Murud is a typical konkan town mixing rural & urban facilities. Being a capital city of Nabab, Murud has a number of historical heritages. It has a small but beautiful beach.
Janjira Fort ( via Rajpuri )
4 KM from Murud - Janjira ( surrounded by water ) Fort is a unique historical place. Sail boats ply between Rajpuri village and Janjira. Journey by sail boat and grandeur of the fort are quite exciting.
Read my post "Shri Datta Temple at Murud"
Jain temple near Revdanda ( see the glass work ) read my detailed post "Paras Darshan"

Chinchwad to Revdanda distance ~150 kms, see map

How To Reach Revdanda :-
By road
from Mumbai via Panvel - Pen - Vadkhal Naka - Alibag - Revdanda ( 120 KM )
from Pune via Lonavala - Khopoli - Pen - Vadkhal Naka - Alibag - Revdanda ( 150 KM )

By sea via Gateway of India by catamaran to Mandva jetty - Alibag - Revdanda.
Daily S. T. buses start form Borivali, Mumbai Central, Thane, Kalyan and Pune.
( busses ending at Revdanda or going to Murud - Agardanda or Savli )

Where to Eat

Kelkar Hotel	Veg. Snacks & meals, min.water	Tel.240082
New Lucky	Veg. Snacks, meals	Tel. 240167
Subhash Hotel	Snacks, V/N-veg meals	Tel. 240299
Kinara Hotel	V/N-veg meals (Biryani)	Tel. 240291
Prafulla Hotel	V/N-veg meals, Permit room	Tel. 240096
Sahyadri Hotel	V/N-veg meals, Chinese food, Permit room	Tel. 240403
Surabhi Hotel	V/N-veg meals, Permit Room	Tel. 241260
Vishwas Bakery	Oven fresh Bakery Products	Tel. 240090

Where to stay : Mr. Ashok Deodhar, Maruti Ali, Recdanda, Alibag, 9869749028 or 952141-240443
Here I must mention that staying with Ashok was wonderful experience, full with hospitality. The house was very neat and clean as well as the food served was typical Konkani but simple food. The main part of enjoyment with him was learning new cards game called as UNO, which was really very very interesting. Also he provided me so much information and allowed to put it on the blog so that it can be used by people to visit Revdanda. My strong recommendation to stay at least a day to experience his hospitality :-) many thanks to Ashok for such a wonderful experience :-)
As of now the charges are 250 Rs/person/day which includes one night stay + full bk. fast + morning tea/cofee + evening tea/cofee. If you opt for having lunch or dinner with Ashok, then the charges are 80 Rs / Veg-meal & 100 Rs/non-veg meal.

Cheers !!

Adventure camp at Panshet

2010-01-12T19:22:00.015+05:30

*** IMPORTANT *** updated on 02 Aug 2010 ****

I had been to this place today & due to some issues this camp is CLOSED last week *** in case you decide to visit this camp please make sure that you get confirmation that it is open *****

A good friend of mine recently visited a camp at Panshet and he enjoyed a lot there ...

Since he is also a regular blog reader he has shared his experience and photographs for all of you :-)

Boating time :- 9 A.M. to 7 P.M.
Parking :- Available
Toilet :- Available & are really CLEAN :-)
Stay facility :- Available, in tent
Contact phone numbers :- 9423560938 (Vijay)

Adventure club advertise and contact numbers

The water rides you can enjoy with and if you are opting for the package deal then it will be really enjoyable to you including foodies too :-)

Enjoy the beauty of nature at Panshet, look at the clean water (they take you to island by boat where u can see this crystal clear water !) ... rest is water and lush green ...

Children play area is available, and if you want to enjoy adventure in the tent, you need to pay 500 bugs per person per night :-D ( and if u r going to stay, plus point is toilet is available which is pretty clean)

The rate chart :- You have to see it at last :-) Ha ! Ha !!
but the person who offers a package provides you a very good deal indeed. In 500 bugs you can get morning bk.fast + Lunch + 6 Joy rides + evening tea, great na ? its bit cheap deal, you should go for with.

The overall rating for this package was good in all aspects, food + stay + the camp fire + small adventure in night on the hill + the water rides. As many of us are not regular trekkers and want to have one which is secured + guided, the same is arranged by them in night time on a hill, they will assist u in having a adventure trail at night time :-) which u can enjoy with ur family.

Cheers !!

Map to Panshet - Pune or Panshet

11 Maruti temples by Saint Shri Swami Samarth Ramdas

2010-01-05T06:41:00.016+05:30

There are n number of websites dedicated to Saint Shri Swami Samarth Ramdas the Spiritual Guru of Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj .... however I was surprised to find NO INFORMATION WAS AVAILABLE on the 11 Maruti temples established by Shri Swami Samarth Ramdas in the vicinity of Chaphal-Satara area in Maharashtra !!! These 11 Maruti's are also called as "Vaariche Maruti" which is similar to the famous Ashtavinayaka or eight Ganeshas, in Maharashtra
So I decided to put it on web ... so that if someone is interested to visit these historic places, he will be able to do it.

in year 1674 coronation of Chatrapati Shivaji took place, wherein Samrath Ramdas wrote a poetry "Anandbhuwani" which refers to the 11 Maruti temples ...

Akara Akara Bahu Akara | kay akara kalechina |
gupta te gupta janaawe| anandbhuwani||

Swami Samarth Ramdas pupil Venabaai says about the 11 Maruti temples as ...

List of 11 Maruti (Hanuman) temples established by Swami Samarth Ramdas in Maharashtra

Year 1566 - Shahapur, Chunyacha Maruti
Year 1567 - Masur, Maharudra hanuman
Year 1570 - Chaphal, Daas Maruti + Pratap Maruti
Year 1571 - Shinganwadi, Khadicha Maruti or Baal Maruti
Year 1571 - Umbraj, Umbraj Maruti or Mathatil Maruti
Year 1571 - Maajgav, Maajgavcha Maruti
Year 1573 - Baahe-Borgav, Baahe-Borgav cha Maruti
Year 1573 - Manapadale, Manapadale cha Maruti
Year 1574 - Pargav, Pargav cha Maruti
Year 1576 - Shirole, Veer Maruti stance

I will describe in brief about each Maruti as I get time (DONE-see post for details) ... till then here is just a brief path to travel to cover all these Maruti or Hanuman temples

Satara to Chaphal (cover three temples Daas Maruti + Pratap Maruti + Khadicha Maruti or Baal Maruti)

Chaphal to Umbraj (~11 kms) , on the way small diversion to Majgav (Maajgavcha Maruti)

at Umbraj visit (Umbraj Maruti or Mathatil Maruti)

Umbraj to Masur (~9 kms), visit Maharudra hanuman

Masur to Shahapur (~3 kms), visit Chunyacha Maruti

Shahapur to Karad to Baahe, visit Baahe-Borgav cha Maruti

Baahe to B'lore highway to Battis-Shirole, visit Veer Maruti

again to B'lore highway then Pargav, visit Pargav cha Maruti

Pargav to Manpadale, visit Manapadale cha Maruti

Manapadale to Kolhapur (End)

Year	Location	a.k.a. Name of Maruti	Idol height, Feets	Idol facing towards	Idol made of

1566	Shahapur	Chunyacha Maruti	6	East	Lime
1567	Masur	Maharudra hanuman	5	East	Lime
1570	Chaphal	Daas Maruti	6
1570	Chaphal	Pratap or Veer Maruti	6~7
1571	Shinganwadi	Khadicha Maruti or Baal Maruti	3.5	North
1571	Umbraj	Umbraj Maruti or Mathatil Maruti	6	East	Lime+ Sand+ Jute
1571	Maajgav	Maajgavcha Maruti	5	West
1573	Baahe- Borgav	Baahe-Borgav cha Maruti
1573	Manapadale	Manapadale cha Maruti	5.25	North
1574	Pargav	Pargav cha Maruti	1.5		Engraved in stone
1576	Shirole	Veer Maruti	7	North	Lime

1) Shahapur - Chunyacha Maruti > Worship is done by Kulkarni family of Shahapur, Hanuman Jayanti festival is celebrated on Chaitra Shudhha 15 every year. There is `^" height brass idol which they take to Chaphal Ram Navami Utsav.

2) Masur - Maharudra Hanuman > Worrship is done by Kulkarni family of Bramhapuri, Hanuman Jayanti festival is celebrated on Chaitra Shudhha 15 every year. This is the best and most beautiful in all 11 temples. To the left & right of main idol Shivaji Maharaj & Shri Swami Samartha are painted on the wall. Here you can stay at Monastery of Ramdasi Maharaj (information ~20 years old to be confirmed)

3) Das Maruti > Hanuman is in Namaskar position it is standing in front of Ram in Chaphal temple

4) Pratap Maruti > situated behind Shri Ram temple of Chaphal also called as Bhim Maruti, Pratap Maruti or Veer MAruti. Festival is celebrated at Sharavan Vadya 30. You can stay at Monestery in Chaphal near Ram mandir (this facility I have seen in 2009, so you can stay there)

5) Shinganvadi > very near to Chaphal. Ramghal is located where Swami Samrtha used to do meditation. Also spring water called as Kubadi Tirtha is found here. It is said that Swamiji created this to give water to thirsty Shivaji Maharaj. This is the smallest temple of all 11 temples.

6) Umbraj > Idol is made of lime + Sand + Jute. This is called as Umbraj Maruti or Mathatil Maruti. Thing to note is that there in no spire to this temple !

7) Majgav > Idol is facing towards West i.e. it is looking towards Ram Mandir of Chaphal.

8) Bahe-Borgav > Located on the bank of Krishna river near Borgav. Temple is located on island called as "Ramlinga". On which there is ancient Rama temple and in front of this there is Shiv Linga. Behind the Rama temple Maruti is located who is in a stance of diverting Krushna river water flow using his both hands :-)

9) Manpadale > located near Kolhapur, there is ~26' x 15' hall in front of the temple

10) Pargav - Smallest idol of all 11 Maruti which is engraved ni a stone (~1.5' height)

11) Shirole > Shirole is also famous as Battis Shirole for snake catching. Worship is done by Deshpande family.

Veer Maruti photograph by me

If you wish to go for 3 days tour package to visit 11 Maruti temples in Maharashtra, you have a tour package available by VanRaj Travels - 11 MARUTI with CHAPHAL

Websites providing information on Saint Shri Swami Samarth Ramdas

Saint Shri Samarth Ramdas from WikiPedia

Saint Shri Samarth Ramdas - an Elixir of Human Excellence

get more information on his writings in Marathi Dasbodh, Manache Shlok, Atma Ram

Shree Kshetra Dervan - A Center of Pilgrimage.

Shri Samarth Seva Mandal, Sajjangadh

Speech given by Prof. Shivajirao Bhosale on Samartha Ramdas in Marathi

Shri Samarth Ramdas - the inspirer of Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj on HINDUPEDIA

Saint Shri Samarth Ramdas

For writing this post reference is taken from a book "Samrtha Sthapit Akara Maruti" by Writer Pu. Vi. Harshe, published in 1983
During the time I have visited only three of these Maruti temples, blog readers if have any new information please inform me for updation here in the blog post.