Written on 7:10 AM by Tushar
Yesterday night I had gone to watch this movie in the open-air theatre at BEG (Bombay Sappers), Khadki. The open-air theatre, named Gazni, is extremely nice and you can feel the freshness of the air you breath! Every Wednesday they screen an English movie and it was the second time* we blessed this place with our presence.
Brokeback Mountain is an Ang Lee masterpiece, which is “Based on the E. Annie Proulx story about a forbidden and secretive relationship between two cowboys and their lives over the years.” [Thanks to imdb for the plot outline] The movie deals with a very delicate topic and something that is considered as a taboo in the society. The plight of those two ‘men in love’ couldn’t have been portrayed better. I particularly enjoyed the scenic locations, serene lakes! Great movie! Check out this to know more!
This movie was considered as a hot favorite at Oscars but couldn’t match the expectations. Still it won 3 academy awards. I had decided to watch as many Oscars nominated movies as I can and glad that I am making it happen.
*Last time we’d watched ‘The myth’ starring dream girl Mallika sherawat:) and Jacki chan at his worst. The movie sucked but we had a gala time cracking jokes every now and then!
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Written on 6:09 AM by Tushar
Today is a Sunday and m home… Those who know me will understand what’s so special about it:)
I slept a lot, watched movies, went to the library, chatted with mom and surfed the net…I was surfing for almost 4 to 5 hours. Read blogs of a few geeks who are pursuing their masters just to know what future holds for me. I must say that it wasn’t so scary. I am damn sure that I can survive!…Someone who knows me really well says that I can survive in any place m put to.
Had planned to go for white water rafting at Dandeli on the next weekend. Had talked to foliage outdoors for arrangements, had dropped mails to my friends. Somehow I lost the interest and dint pursue the matter any further. Have a backup plan ready though:)…Next weekend I will be going for a moon light trek… I had been to one such trek to Rajmachi last year during the same period . After walking all night long we were all drained. In the afternoon when we started the return journey it was really hot and we were praying to the rain gods and all of a sudden miraculously ….it rained!…Hope something like that happens this time too!
Tonight I wanted to take my parents to a movie but dad had to go to Bombay for some office work and the plan was cancelled:(…then all of a sudden Sam called up. Tomorrow is my friend Saudamini’s b’day who got married few months back. Tonight we are going to her place to decorate the whole place and give her a pleasant surprise:)…More about this later, as I gotta go:)
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Written on 5:56 AM by Tushar
I am back after a yet another refreshing weekend. This time the venue of the
outing was Water Kingdom at Bombay.This is the best waterpark around as far as I
know.I had gone with my teammates at Calsoft including my manager.
We had hired a 14 seater and left at 730 on Sunday morning. The
journey was amazing and I shot a lot of videos of our 'antakshari'. You
encounter lots of tunnels on the expressway which look amazing in the yellow
lights and some of them are so long that the length of the video in which I have
shot the jorney through the tunnel is 2 minutes! We took 5 hours (!) to reach
the destination as the driver of the vehicle was a jerk and din't know roads
well and we wasted lot of time in figuring out which way to go. The park was
flooded with people which was assumed as it was a Sunday. We dint waste much
time in getting the lockers, changing clothes and getting showers. In less than
half an hour we entered the first point which was the dance floor!
The place had a ROCKING DJ and we danced our hearts out.Before moving ahead to
the next ride everybody was telling each other that we HAVE to visit the dance
floor again! There was a loooooong line for the next slide.We waited for almost
an hour till our turn came. While we were standing in the queue we discovered
that we had "Johny" in our group:P (Will the real Johny please stand up?). After
doing rafting in the (artificial) river we did some petpuja and ate a bucketful
of Maggie.
We spent most of our time playing on the slides 'gushing machine' and 'hamunga
kowabunga':D...The 'black dragon' in my opinion is the best slide which makes
you feel that you are falling in a black hole! We had a great time in the wave
pool where we taught each other a lesson or two in swimming:).As the night
started falling we ran to the dance floor. I had the best time of the entire
trip here dancing in the rain to those rocking tunes.
As a promotional move we were granted an entry in the esselworld. The whole
place was lit with lights and it was an amazing sight. I shot a very nice video of the
same. Wish I could upload it here:(...Soon we headed back to our den. During the
return journey we clicked lots of really funny pictures. As there was no light
inside the vehicle and my cam has a series of flash before taking the actual
snap everybody was finding it very difficult to keep the eyes open while
taking the snap.Riyaz was the worst of all. I had to click his snap 7 times before he
managed to keep the eyes open:D...We were pretty tired due to the day long
dangamasti and Riyaz was killing us with his 'Saas bahu stories :animal
version'!It was a very memorable picnic!...Click here for the snaps.
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Written on 4:47 AM by Tushar
I watched 'crash' on the weekend. The movie.It has got 8.4 rating on
IMDB...A iraqi shopkeeper,a black cop who makes love to his colleague,his
mentally retarded mom, district attorney and his 'white' wife,two white cops out
of which one has a grudge against 'black' people,two 'black' goons , a Korean
couple...all these people crash against each other in LA ...This is a story
about racism,humanity and hope.Let me warn you that it is very serious movie and
I got an headache by the time it got over:(...But this movie truly deserves 6
Oscar nominations that it has got.
This time I have decided to watch as many Oscar nominated movies as I can...
Atleast you are guaranteed that the movie is good!...Lets see how my resolution
goes.
On Monday I had taken a leave from office (compensation off:)).In the
evening I was back in Pune to attend Ramu's b'day party. The venue was 'Shisha
cafe' @ ABC Farms. The place has a very nice ambience.There are couches
available where u can sit and chat for hours with ur closed ones. No bright
lights...No need to tell how nice it is to have a candle light dinner when jazz
music is playing in the background.I tasted Irani cuisine for the first time. It
is very bland that is what I can say. I am used to a lot more spicy food than
that.Anyways a veggie has very less options:(...After a nice refreshing dinner
we had icecream at Naturals.It was a nice break from the monotonous hotelling @
JM and FC.
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Written on 5:53 AM by Tushar
Hidalgo is the name of a nice movie which narrates the story of a horse Hidalgo
and its relationship with its master. On Saturday night I was watching this
movie on Star Movies. Incidently the next day I had planned a visit the stud
farm where my dad works as a manager. Stud farm is the place where race horses
are bred. The farm is named "Equus" which means horse in latin. It is situated
in Talegaon Dabhade at the base of Ghoradeshwar Hills.
We had decided to gather at Shivajinagar station and were gonna catch 8 am local
till Begdewadi station. It is the nearest place to reach Ghoradeshwar Hills
which hosts many Hindu caves. There is a temple of Lord Shiva in one of the
caves and this place attracts lots of devotees during Mahashivratri. It was
Riyaz this time to miss the local and Mrunal was going to come on his own bike.
Eventually six people [myself, Minu, Ramu, Harish, Parag, Somil] reached the
place as planned [Plan ke mutabik :D].
It was almost 915 when we started climbing the hill after eating the sandwiches
that I had got for everybody. The scorching heat made us reconsider our decision
to go trekking but as there was no other way to reach the stud farm which was on
the other side of the hill we carried on. Surprisingly it took us around 20-25
minutes to reach the top and we rested at the main cave which has the temple. As
this place is situated at relatively higher altitude it gave us panoramic view
of the surroundings. We could see the Birla School below and greenery of Equus
Stud was making it stand out. I was carrying my digital cam with me and the
place was ideal to click some really cool snaps or should I say Orkut snaps:P
We started climbing down and it turned out that it was difficult than climbing
till the top! Initially entered a stud farm which is the neighborhood of Equus
and got the first glimpse of race horses. We reached the main gate of Equus by
noon where my dad received all of us.
The first few horses that we saw were mares which had given birth to
colts/fillies. The oldest among all babies was 4 days old and they were really
cute! The funny part was when we tried to interact with the baby horse it used
to hide behind its mom:) All of them had 'shahi' treatment and had the luxury of
the cooler. There were many mares in the nearby stables which were due for
delivery. I was surprised to know that the weight of the horse touches the mark
of 700 kgs during the pregnancy period. Since it was noon almost all the peddoks
were empty as all the horses were inside the stable so went to have lunch.
For lunch we went to a Jain temple _ 'Parshwa Padmalaya' which contains 52 Jain
temples [called 'Jinalaya']. The entire temple has very beautiful carving and as
far as I remember the place is being built since past 10 years. They hope to
complete the temple by May 06. It was a treat to the eyes even in the incomplete
state. We took off to visit yet another temple which is an exact replica of Sai
Baba temple at Shirdi. After taking the darshan we reached the farm and took
afternoon sherbet at Dr. Ali's place who works a vet on the farm. His 2 yr old
daughter Sara is the healthiest baby I have ever seen! Mrunal likes to take
pictures of people [Mostly unknown people :D] and he took some really nice snaps
of Sara.
On every stud farm there are 3 to 4 stallions as compared to 100+ mares. This
stallions cost in crores as the price of a baby horse which is ready for sale
depends on its genealogy. If either of its parents have won the race then there
is a very good chance that it also will. You will be surprised to know that
lineage of a horse can be traced back till 300 years. Info of every race horse
is maintained at the race course and it even has a passport. The horse is sold
when it is 2 yrs old and the trainer trains it for a yr. It will run the race at
the age of 3 and will continue racing till it is doing good. The weirdest thing
is no matter when the horse is born its birthday is always 1stJan. For e.g. If a
horse is born on 31st Dec and the other is born on 30th Jan both of them will
turn 1 yr old on Jan 1st of the next yr:)
We visited Dad's boss' bungalow and had food over there too...Yeah we eat a
lot:D
All of us took pride in clicking snaps with the vintage merc standing outside. I
shot a video of horses running wildly as a part of their muscle building
exercise. It was almost 530 when we left for my home. On the way back we took a
halt at the 'shakti bhakti' monument in Nigdi. This place is giving serious
competition to Saras Baug. We had a nice time at home and everybody left by 7 pm
local.
I hope everybody had a nice time as I did!
Click here to see the snaps.
[Word editors in Linux are SAD. Blame them for the poor formatting of this post:( MS office rocks!]
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Written on 6:53 AM by Tushar
Last weekend was a little unusual as I was at home most of the time. I spent some “quality” as well as “quantity” time with my family members:P I also met my room partners who have moved to other places (B’lore and Mysore) in search of better opportunities.
I saw the republic day parade on Jan 26th.My dad was fortunate enough to watch the parade in person in his college days. The ammunition and highly advanced military equipments that were showcased in it were mostly indigenous. It is a pleasant shock to know that not the entire talent in India is running after IT.
This week I discovered that I have become a total movie buff. If I am not reading any book the only thing that I feel like doing is watching a movie! I watched two animated movies _ Shrek II and Shark Tale. Shark Tale is undoubtedly the winner! I am crazy for such animated movies and my friends tell me that I need to grow up:P
I watched a horrifying Marathi movie called Blind game with my college pals on Sat that too in the theatre:( We could not stop laughing in the end not because it was very funny or something but we were wondering why on earth were we watching that crap!
On Sunday I watched Rang de Basanti… I don’t wanna comment about how good the story/direction/casting/acting/music is. You must watch this movie to get a feel. By the time it got over I had started thinking about my closely knitted college group, all the fun we’ve had together. The movie clearly lives to it’s title_ a generation awakens!
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Written on 5:30 AM by Tushar
'Bird watching' is a the most favorite sport among all teenagers. You know what I mean:)I had not been trekking since past six months and was dying to go for something exciting.I was aware of the bird watching activity conducted by Insearch Outdoors at Bhigwan dam which is located at 100 kms from Pune. We were supposed to get a glimpse of greater Flamingoes (if we were lucky!)and other birds which stay in the wet grassland habitat. This sounded something I had never done before and I said to myself ``Lets try this thing too!''
There were 2 buses loaded with amateur bird watchers which was unexpected. We were a group of 8 friends namely me, Minu, Ramu, Ankur, Riyaz, Nikhil, Mrunal and Uttara.I had to try really hard to convice the organizers to reserve our seats. On Sunday we all gathered at Garware College at 6 am in the chilling cold.The bus was full of 'senior' citizens and amateur photographers who were carrying their really expensive cameras . We occupied the last seat in the bus.As the bus took off we started cracking PJs and I felt pity for the PSPL guy who was sitting with us.
The bus waited at a hotel on the way and we had breakfast which was provided by the organizers. This is when we saw the first animal in our journey which was none other than a cockroach! Ramu was the lucky one to find it in his dish:D. Soon we reached Bhigwan Dam and I beg to differ when somebody calls it a dam...it was no less than a ocean. I AM exagerrating but the quantity of water was enormous because of the monsoon in 2005.The water is spread on the both sides of the bridge which is supposed to be the center line of the water body.Greater quantity of water has attracted more species of birds this year.
There were boats arranged to take us to the Flamingoes which were on the other shore of the dam. Greater Flamingoes come from Gujrat and Iran. These
migratory birds are really beautiful. They are about 4 ft in height and have pink shade in the inner side of their feathers.They feed on the algae and insects which can be found only in the shallow water and that's why they are always found on the shore of the water bodies. Bhigwan has suitable i.e. warm climate and food for 'visitors' is plenty.
My friend from VIT , Vishal Gokhale was our guide who is a amateur bird watcher and was volunteering with Insearch. The boat was really small and could accommodate only 9 to 10 people. It was shaking continuously and the 'boat captain' was making us change places to achieve the balance.On our way to Flamingoes we saw different types Herons [especially the Grey Heron is bigger in size], terns, cormorants and sea gulls. Till that day I knew only one seagull and no prize for guessing _ Jonathan Livingston Seagull:)...I had seen this type in Goa as well and I like the flair with which they fly. We saw many seagulls sitting in a line on the electric wires running from one pole to the other which were immersed in the dam water. Thanks to the fantastic camera [Canon IXUS]that Uttara had got I clicked many pics. Mrunal was ofcourse there with his mindblowing Canon S2IS camera clicking the pictures wildly:)
I saw thousands of ducks on the water and one could see black dots on the horizon in all directions. Brahmani ducks caught my attention in particular because of their brilliantly colored feathers. As we reached near Flamingoes Vishal told us to observe the silence strictly. These birds are very sensitive and fly off whenever they sense any danger. We were about 200 mtrs away from those beauties who were busy fishing. We clicked pics frantically and I was happy on my decision to get my binoculars along. As we were observing them closely some jerk tried to come near them from their back and the whole flock flew... It was an amazing site. Thank god Mrunal could capture those memorable moments in his cam. The whole flock flew and went to the opposite side of the dam thankfully exactly near to the place where our buses were standing. We turned our boat and starting our return journey. We spotted painted and other varieties of storks as we again approached Flamingoes. This time we were lucky and spent 15 to 20 minutes observing those birds.
As we reached the shore after two hours of fantastic and memorable boat journey we headed off to the sugarcane field nearby to satiate our appetite temporarily. There was a calf which was 2 to 3 days old and I could do some wild life photography as well:)
After having lunch in a dhaba we headed towards Matoba dam. We saw Baya weaver bird and other types names of which I don't remember:)...Sunset at the dam was fantastic site and m glad to capture it in the cam.After a journey of 3 hours we reached Pune. We had dinner at Nisarg Hotel near Nalstop and were rolling on the floor laughing while listening to Nikhil's anecdotes.
Epilogue:
Mrunal and Uttara are goin to upload the snaps soon.
Bird watching is really cool and shall do that again given a chance.
Made some new friends and we have decided to cook some more plans in coming days.
I came across a really nice link where one fellow who accompanied us to Bhigwan has uploaded pics taken during the trip.
The fun has just begun!
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