Sinhagad – No stone unturned…

The day was Saturday. But, I was in the office. 4:09 PM, my mobile started showing me the name of Puru. It was my roommate cum colleague cum friend calling. I wondered why he is calling as he was in Lonavala (near Pune) for a weekend with his Mom and Dad.

I picked up the call and he said in his usual style “Hey Buddy! I am about to reach Pune. What are you doing tomorrow, going to office? ” I replied “No”. “So, can we plan a trip tomorrow?” He continued, “Yes” was my acknowledgement.

The accord was on Sinhagad (The Lion Fort), is located near the city of Pune, India, and situated on a hill, rising 800 meters above the surrounding countryside.

Puru put off the phone assigning some homework to me, which had to be done in the office. After few minutes, I was watching the fort with ‘Google Eyes’. As I had googled on ‘Lonavala’ for Puru’s visit, I was too trusted to do it again on this new place. So, thanks to Google. (Googling really works! :))

Meanwhile, Puru was busy on call to gather more enthusiasts. :)

Hopping and glancing through the links to “sinhagad fort”, I discovered some interesting history and geography. History was more interesting this time (as I usually like geography). So, let us browse the history first.


The site is witness of many battles since at least the 14th century. Tanaji Malusare, a General of Shivaji in March 1670, fought one of the most famous battles (Battle of Sinhagad) for Sinhagad to recapture the fort. It was after this battle that the Kondhana fort (previously called) renamed to Sinhagad after Tanaji, whose nickname was 'the lion' (Sinha). Having spearheaded the attack and fighting valiantly, Tanaji's life was lost in capturing this important fort
More recently, during the 20th century, Lokmanya Tilak, the Indian freedom fighter, built a bungalow atop the fort.

At present, it is a popular weekend destination for many residents of Pune. Enthusiasts like trekking to the top of the fort from the base near Sinhagad village.

Geography says, It is 26 Kms from pune, the base of the fort is approximately 550 meter (1800 ft) above sea level, and its top is 1,350 m (4,430 ft) above sea level. Please mark these numbers! For us, the only alluring factor was the height. :)


One interesting thing I found was, “If you do not exercise regularly, you climb the Sinhagad fort every Sunday morning”. This is the mantra of most of the people in Pune. It is about 1.5 – 2 hours trekking. :)

The other thing I found includes How to go? What could be the budget? What are the other special attractions? Food, conveyance blah, blah, blah….



So, here my homework finished. After that, Puru got a cake for Vidhya. Vidhya, the dedicated to work, B Day girl cut the cake. That’s the simple way of celebrating B Days in our project. After that, we (me and Puru) went to station to see Venu off, who was going to Hyderabad after getting urgent transfer. Mayank (my rommie) also joined us there for dinner. We further discussed the plan for tommorrow. There were 10 people joining us for the trip. The scheduled departure was 10:30 AM.

We reached home. Another cake was waiting for us at home. 12 o’clock , It was the day when our dear elephant “Mayank Ratra” scheduled to acquire a huge volume on the earth’s compartment. He has already been here for 23 years. That was the reason for celebration. He has turned from a small kid to a massive giant (6 Ft, 90 kg). I wished him Happy Birthday and keep flourishing ahead. :) :)


The next morning was Sunday (Birthday of Mayank). We were all set to meet “the witness of many battles”. Puru’s Mom was cooking lemon rice. The Birthday Boy surprisingly got ready. This time he was first among us to get ready, reason being, he had to go to the temple for getting special blessings, for the once in an year occasion. He left, while we were packing. (Lemon rice and pickles).

Swargate, one of the biggest bus terminuses of Pune, was our intermediate destination. This was where our friends were waiting for us. Friends list were having two new faces, techies from Infosys, Sneha and Pragul. Others were TCSers only, Nirav, Chitra and Vidhya.

We reached Swargate, searched for the bus. I was wondering how this bus terminus is one of the biggest! We didn’t find any bus. Finally, we 10 people decided to hop into 3 different auto rickshaws. I must mention these auto drivers’s teamwork; they did many permutations and combination, which further turned three autos into two autos! :)

Not to forget, we should thank government for providing such a superb road! This was no doubt a magnificent “Roller Coaster” ride. :)

About 12 o’clock, we reached at the base, now was the actual time to decide who all are actually aspiring for trekking. All girls declined and they actually did no mistake in doing that considering the heat of afternoon, the long way to top and a bit off health conditions of Puru’s mom and Chitra. Therefore, sending others through cab, we were left with Fab 5! They were I, Puru, Mayank, Nirav and the new infy friend Pragul.

It was time to Rock on!! :) :)

The huge mountain, with historical rocks was challenging us! We were crazy to take on the same.


Approximately 800 meters to climb up, it was expected to take one and half-hours. We started with full fervor. All of us were passionate and were keen to leave no stone unturned. :)

Starting speedily, willing to have quick acquaintance with the rocks resulted into fatigue, as if it was the resistance by the mountain. However, we human are gifted with minds. The mountain would be envious of us when we stopped at a juice shop to have lemon and sugarcane juice and re-energize ourselves. Probably, we added bitterness to Mr. Mountain resentment, when Nirav and Mayank went crazy to take out the sugarcane juice themselves. Thanks to localities, we had many of them to support us. However, we used only three of them.

We tried to be intelligent. However, it seemed Mr. Mountain was ready with the more plights. The mountain was becoming steeper as we were ascending up. We were having fun on the way, taking snaps, boosting each other, seeing the natural beauty that have been loved by Mr. mountain and his rocks so far. It was amazing to trek on!

Sometimes we won, some we let Mr. Mountain won. We were not minding doing that as we were reaching closer to the top and he was showing us his birthright beauty. At the same time, allowing us to capture splendor of delights.

There was one fine steep wall like huge segment to climb. We stride out to rejoice. We said good-bye to the rocks. We were on the top in the lap of Fort! :) :):)

We stopped there for a while to look back and expressed our gratitude to Mr. Mountain. It was a great marvelous demonstration by Mr. Mountain. We admired the wonderful legacy. The heritage was spectacular.


While we reached the fort, fun was intensified. To find a few:

Right in the morning, Aunty prepared all the raw things for making “Lemon -Rice”. The gas stove was not working properly. Our investigation ensured that there is something wrong in the valve attached to the cylinder. But, Mayank’s investigation achieved a new height, ensuring no valve in the stove.The valve was broken!! We do not have alternate stove. So, the million-dollar question was what do now? Puru got a wild solution. “Wooden Stove”, from our security guard home! Aunty was destined to have this experience.

”My mother didn’t allow me to cook on this, not even My mother-in-law told me to do so, You ….My Son! Telling me to cook on a wooden stove”, Aunty remarked. However, she did it excellently for his dear son and us.

The second funny thing of the day happened when we reached on the top. As, our other team has got their by cab (not by trekking), we tried to coonect them using our mobile. No signal…. No signal…. No signal…

Although we could see a tall network tower, there was no signal. Later, we came to know that is tower of Door –Darshan, Pune. So, everybody was kept their hand (mobile) at some height and when signal used to come we used to move our head up to listen where the other side is ringing or not! People there must be enjoying our attempts. While doing so and failing all moved ahead. The only person still trying was none other than me a k a “Kislay”. I was alone there for 15minutes, thinking where to go, I entered into a resturant guessing to end my search. What a surprise? My guess was more than correct as I found the other team, Uncle, Aunty, Vidhya, Chitra and Sneha! :)

Later uncle’s phone said hello to nirav’s phone and we were all together after 2 hours of toiling hard. We walked into the fort. There were Gardens, interestingly many suicide points. We first sit there to have lunch (yummy...lemon rice) and of course some local delicious food. After a long time I had “pakode”…yummy…and “lassi”….The lunch was absolutely awesome.

We sat on one of the suicide point. More interesting was to get there; it was three meters long and one and half feet wide and approximately 300 m high!
:)

At last, we had the privilege of witnessing the lovely sunset. The sun was bidding adieu. It was time to come down. Our dear Mayank was so caring to leave all the drinks bottles behind, leaving all of us in sensation of dryness in the mouth and throat.

We came back had dinner and slept happily thanking God for giving such a grand day out and praying for some more distinguished moments ahead and saying Good Night to the beautiful world.


It was many- many happy returns of the day. Happy Bday Mayank :)

Thank you, GOD! May there is some more stories are waiting to pen down!

Have a nice time… :)

Kislay Kishore

Rock On...Follow The Magic of music...

Yesterday...It was just an another Saturday..and I was not having any special weekend plan. I just got fresh and went to market to buy the newspaper..I gone through 2-3 newspapers at the stall and as usual bought a TOI...

I saw a big add in PuneTimes... it was about the reviews of Rock On....

"I admire the honesty and integrity with which the film is made." -Vidhu Vinod Chpora

"A visual treat. Honest performances and innovating music".

Vishal Bharadwaj

"Lets roll with the new age of Indian cinema."

Ashutosh Gowarikar

"Rock On!! Has been a revelation to me as a filmmaker."

Karan Joher

and many more Wollywood jaint.....having similar remarks........I decided to watch this movie,even if I hv to go alone!!

Puru(my rommie) was getting ready for some outing ... probably BALA JI temple (pune)...... but at last he called some frend and that plan got cancelled......however the always ready plan had replaced that...movie!!! He asked me that I am coming or not.

I didn't think twice and put the condition intelligently...dat I ll accompany you ..only for RockOn!!

He was a bit not conviced and told ..I dont know which movie..I called Chitra (my frend)....which movie?? reply came ...don't know!! ...ask Nirav...I immediately called Nirav..... he said first meet @central mall ...den we ll decide....

In the mean time Puru also saw the add as well as reviews... He was a bit convinced at that time itself.

So, we reached central mall and decided to go Inox.Then, I somehow persuaded all of them including Vidhya( my frend) to watch Rock On.Because Vidhya had watched earlier as well so she was a bit annoyed and told me that she would sit beside me and tell me each and every twist.

The Rock On started to rock and so was I. The show went on. It was really great.....drums...guitar....beats......mystical.... musical.....I really enjoyed a lot.The songs , really make you go crazy.

At last, I thanked all for movie with me.Specially Vidhaya , although she was beside me in the theatre, but didn't tell anything,watched movie quietly.

Kudos to Mr. Lucky Explorer "Frahan Akhtar"....The Big Akhtar...Zaved Akhtar must be feeling very proud of his innovative son.

So.....

Rock On.....Hai Ye Woqt ka Ishaara...

Rock On.....Har lamha pukara.....

Rock On.....Yun hi dekhta hai kya tu...

Rock On.....Zindagi milegi na doobaraa.........

Hi All....

This is my first blog. I was aware of blog for quite a few years but never really interested in blogging...but after reading "Ofcourse...I love you..."(although the book has nothing special..!!! ), I thought ..well...blogging....not a bad idea!As it is my first one so ...lemme introduce myself..I am Kislay Kishore . A computer grad....almost 22 years old....interested in music, dance(in future..), reading novels...now a days I have found new interest.... to know people....to observe them...I dont know why... I have not been that easy mingling guy as I am now, The credit goes to probably my first job.....my first company i.e TCS. I have just finished my training at TCS Ignite.....really a global training division of Tata Consultancy Services. Anyways..I am here so..you will come to know about me..as I would keep blogging...and keep telling about myself and ofcourse consequently you'll know my thought as well different aspects of life...so welcome to my blog....