Sula Vineyards_Office Building

Nasik
Originally uploaded by ~aDeSe~

Sula Vineyards again. Camera Courtesy, Pallavi - My next door neighbor.

So on my right was this landscape and on my left was the this one.

The building right at the end of this frame has the office and the tasting room. The godown and the packaging also happens in the same building.

The rooms are filled with fresh wine fragrance and it almost gives you a high.

I traveled to Nasik in the month of December and we were welcomed with a cool breeze and rains towards the end of the day. Overall an amazing trip.

- Aditi

Lantern

Lantern
Originally uploaded by PaGLi

The Lantern at Tribal Route, a Handicrafts store in Mumbai. Love the place for its ambience and decor and of course the Artsy stuff they sell.

This one's inside one of their washrooms :)

A leather Lamp hanging from the roof. I am crazy about Lanterns and Lamps.

Simply loved the color and the reflection on the mirror, the texture on the wall. Was happy with the first click.

Applied Blur to get rid of the noise and decreased the exposure to get the right kinda effect from the light from the Lantern.

A Nokia 3500c Product :)

Bangalore - Goa Adventures_Day I

I made my second trip in a month to Bangalore and Goa around 23 - 27 Jan and it was nothing less than an adventure.. The first time was post New Years - which was much more fun. I shall write about it later may be.

Not a very positive trip, but still it was something which shook me from my roots..

Reached Bangalore on the 22nd Evening and headed off to my cousin's place. I was staying back at her place and we were meeting after almost a year after her marriage. Brother in Law was hit by an iron rod a few days back by some random guy outside the Microsoft Office in Bangalore, which kind of shocked me and made me feel disgusted..

Are these the Metros which they talk about... Why would someone hit someone so innocent, someone who hasn't scratched anyone all his life..

They were in the US before returning to India, Jiju was pursuing Post Doctoral at the Rutgers and also teaching at Princeton. I am not sure if its the other way round, but probably if you know Neeraj Kayal, I don't think I would need to make further statements about him.

I am going to get thrashed by sis for putting him up on the blog, but I guess its ok :P

Anyways, I was in Bangalore for Proto, which went off pretty well and unorganized. We did a Pitch Camp and also a VC Speed Dating Session for startups who wanted to meet potential funding partners, which was appreciated by the audience and the participants. It was a little unorganised and on the spot, but it went off pretty smoothly.

The Event was a good networking platform and I ended up meeting a whole lot of VCs and Startups and pitching them our iAccelerator Program.Freeman did a small Introduction on both the days and got a good response as well.

24th night, I took the bus to Bangalore. I had reserved a KSRTC and the services were ok. The mid way stop was awesome, and since I didn't get a chance to grab on some food, this was a blessing in disguise. Chatted with a couple females on the bus, the men were all obnoxious.. :P

25th morning, I headed off to Namita and Priya's house near Baga. Post friday night, I expected these girls to be drunk and sleepy.. I reached at about 11:30 pm and Priya was still sleeping and someone by the name of Sonia was also sleeping in Namita's room. Namita was no where to be seen, apparently she went off to sleep at her friend's place because Sonia had taken her bed :D

Sonia is an Afro Indian lady, who was in Goa writing her thesis on Afro Indian Lifestyles in India. She is studying in France. She still looked hungover and dead and I had just met her, so I didn't know what would make her feel better. Nonetheless, since I was hungry [no breakfast] and she looked like she wanted some breakfast, we headed off to the near by restaurant to eat something.

Had some banter about Commitment, Marriage, Guys, having kids and not having kids and how 33 yrs and Socialogy has taught her what life is all about... All this over Masala Omlette and Veg Fried Rice with Coke and Mazza.. And then we headed off, when she insisted she wanted to go back to Panjim to her house, as she had a lot of stuff to wrap up.

Asked a couple people there for rickshaws and where we can get them, no one had a clue. So we crossed the road and stood under a tree against a White Maruti 800, and were looking for an empty rickshaw to Panjim or Mapusa. 2 mins.. 5 mins.. no luck and the sun was burning me up.

The traffic was speeding past and no one even bothered to stop by and help us what so ever. The roads were thin and two lane traffic is something which was almost impossible on these tracks. But traffic was flowing.. at almost 50 - 60 kmph.

Worse comes to worse, I would have had to hire a bike and drop her to Mapusa and drive back to home at 1 in the afternoon. I suggested to come back home and rest for some more time and leave in the noon, but she was hell bent on leaving at 1 pm. So I accompanied her..

We were still waiting for rickshaws when a speeding inter city volvo, which looked almost out of control of the driver, was coming towards us. Considering that we were standing off the road, Sonia didn't expect it to come and bang into us. I mean, the bus is expected to move atleast half a meter away from the parked vehicles if not more. I moved behind the car because I didn't want a scratch on my body. But she was still there, leaning against the car so that she can be safe.

Well, the bus came crashing into the White 800, scratched the car, pushed it about half a meter from the road and also hit Sonia. Sonia was pushed about a meter from the car on the sides of the road and her head was bleeding. All this happened in the second that I moved from the car to the back.

I ran to her, was disgusted at the driver's ways. The bus had stopped about a 50 metres away and someone from the bus had already called the Emergency Number - 108. Gave her some water to drink and shouted at the driver, apparently the guy I shouted on wasn't the driver :P

Till the Emergency Van came, we figured that she had fractured her right arm, it was swollen and painful. The Emergency Van took us to Calangute Hospital which looked like some shady Government hospital, but the services were ok. They cleaned up the open wound and stitched it up. Almost 14 stiches on the forehead ! and applied some red tonic on the other open wounds.

In between, Sonia called up one of her friend who came to see her at Calangute Hospital. Priya and Myself had to accompany her all over Goa because apparently her "friends" were all working on a "national holiday". She also informed her Mother about the accident and aunty was trying all possible ways to figure out how to help Sonia from Bangalore.

The right arm was squashed and the Doctor just tied it to her neck with a bandage for support. She was being carried around on a wheel - chair. We were asked to move to a specialty hospital for X - Rays and CT Scans and we drove off to Goa Medical College.

It was the 26th of January and everything was shut. And it was getting difficult to get small things done. Goa Medical College took a lot of time to carry out tests. Priya was running around with her because I couldn't sit any longer in the Emergency Ward, which had people puking and screaming with pain. It kinda brought back memories of Ahmedabad Blasts and the patients at the Civil Hospital [I had gone to meet them 3 days after the blast, with a reporter friend]. So I was waiting outside.

One of Aunty's Contacts came to meet Sonia at Goa Medical College, someone with connections in the Government and private establishments in Goa.. Rich Man :D. We were a little relaxed then.

It was almost 3 pm and Priya was hungry.. She'd just gotten up and washed her face and brushed too [apparently she thought it must be some minor accident so she dressed up and freshened up before coming out to see the drama on the road outside her house] but didn't have anything to eat. So we rushed to the Hospital Coffee Parlour [Nescafe it was] and called for lots of stuff to eat. I explained her the entire story and she still looked confused.. Had to use the empty glasses from all the drinks we had and animated the scene on the table.. was fun.. :P and she seemed to be following it, so all was good.

I am not sure if such tragedies and dramas in my life make me a comedy model, may be its just a reflex action to not show the tension on my face and in my head. But I was smiling all through out and handled the situation pretty much well.. I would say so. This was the first time I'd ever faced an accident and so it was good..

Talked to a couple friends, while Sonia got herself checked up at the CT Scan place but all in vain.. didn't really help.. I didn't know how I was feeling.. One part of me said its all fine and that I need to keep my head open and take quick decisions and that tensions on this moment will screw up more than one life.. Had this rush of blood and energy and all good things which kept me going..

God was there.. And I knew he was there.. cus I was saved by a second and I knew he would help me.. :) help me survive till Sonia gets into better hands..

Goa Med College wasn't of much help, to the extent that they didn't want to give it in writing about the analysis they did on her and the injections they gave her. The IAS Office [Aunty's Friend] made a decision of taking her to the Manipal Hospital. We carried Sonia back into his car and drove to Manipal which is pretty much South Goa. Sonia was craving for a smoke, lit one for her and she was happy.

Manipal Hospital is close to the Cidade Goa resort, pretty location !

We put her into the hospital's custody and while they did their duties. What a relief !

The X-Rays and CT scan was done again and the reports mentioned multiple fracture of the right shoulder which had to be operated and no other major injuries. The Right Shoulder would be eventually fixed with metal joints because it was squashed completely.
The operation was scheduled for the 28th Morning. I still haven't got a chance to talk to her and ask her how she is, but I know that her family reached Goa on Tuesday morning to take care of her.

Another problem emerged before we could leave her in the hospital. Someone had to stay back with her all through the night to take care of her demands etc. We were in a fix and hoping she had enough friends to stay back at the hospital, because we barely knew her to stay back and take care. Over and above that, both of us were dead tired and lived pretty far away, leave that, We didn't have clothes or the morning stuff to stay back at the hospital.

Sonia then called her friend to come and stay back at the hospital and he agreed.
It was almost 7:00 P.M. when we left her. Her friend had still not come and we were not in a mood to stay longer.

Bid her farewell and headed off home, only to find Max sitting with Namita in her room. Max is Makarand Deshpande :)

Eventually, Sujoy drove down to Namita's place and the five of us headed off to Whispering Lake Resort, near Arambol Beach to have some gala time and good food. Makarand and Sujoy are Namita's friends. Sujoy lives in Goa itself and is a journo by profession, and Makarand came down from Mumbai to spend the extended weekend in Goa :)

Whispering Lake Resort was one heaven and after all the jazz during the day I really needed some piece of mind and a nice place to relax. The place has been designed and maintained by Stanzin, again Namita's friend from TISS. Amazing person and amazing work. If you like this place and want to make a visit there, leave a comment on this blog with your e-mail ID and I shall put you in touch with Stanzin.

The Night passed away singing with another bunch of people and Makarand Dancing :)




coming up, Bangalore - Goa Adventures_Day 2

TwiTrip Day II

After a really long night of drinking, talking, walking around, dancing a bit and all of those things, we woke up pretty hungover.

The idiot me, went off to sleep way before the other guys because I was kinda depressed and stuff, high - obviously and was missing my Granma..

Woke up at 6 to walk down to the beach. Salonee was still sleeping and feeling ill, so the four of us walked down to the beach..
Dhempe and I went into the sea to get wet and it was lot of fun. I love diving over the waves and flowing back to the shore. It had started raining and it was getting colder. The water was chilly and the wind was making it worse.

Punkpolkadots wanted to go back to the room, so s4ur4bh, Dhempe and me went walking down to the other side of the beach, over the rocks. The rocks were spikey and good enough for an accupressure treatment for the feet.
Walked back towards the sea and the shore to relieve our feet of all the torture and had some hot maggie and tea at the near by stalls.

The plan for the day was sorted out, we had decided on pushing off to Janjira fort and stay back at Murud for the night. We moved out of the Hotel at around 12 and tuk tuk it was again for till Janjira.. Another 300 bucks, but having one is almost like having your own four wheeler..
One of the very interesting things which happened before leaving was this entire story which I made up on spotting the thing in the pic below..
"I thought it was some sorta wi-fi router in the Hotel and we could probably have access to Wi-Fi even though we don't have any phone connection or GPRS for that matter."
And we decided to call it the Ganesh Wi-Fi ! The Spot of the trip was this new invention.. Dual purpose WiFi Router !

After a lot of soul searching, we finally found a tuk - tuk and in the mean time the duo - and Salonee. Dhempe clicked this image below.. The hotel was decent enough to spend a night.

Had a memorable drive down to Janjira... awesome scenic beauty and the rains had made it even more better, clearer, chilly and dampy.. I totally love that kinda climate.. Wetness, windy and the smell of the wet earth..reached janjira and the five of us were mersmerised with the beauty of this historic location. It was huge, and it is said that this fort was never conquered by anyone. We climbed up to the highest point in the fort and were screaming on top of our lungs :)

And yes, there was Phone Network on the highest point of the fort :)
spent the entire noon at Janjira.. and requested the tuk tuk to wait till we come back from the fort and he agreed :)

Half hour drive to Murud and we were back to the beach.. Oh-So-Beautiful !
We stayed back at a hotel which was on the beach.. all of us bunked into one room..
Drank till the wee hours of the morning and I again dozed off early cus i had drank too much probably.. and the others ended up enjoyin some Russel Peters on my hard drive.. I think they were just trying to make me jealous..
Day II at Murud went off well.. luckily, the bus to Alibaug went from right outside our resort at 6 am and it was so damn convenient. We got up, freshened up, picked our bags and walked outta the room, waiting for the bus to come..

I think all of us slept in the bus, and I don't think I remember how long it took us to reach Alibaug from Murud. Was a convenient ride back and we enjoyed the slight drizzle on the way.

At Alibaug, we had some break fast at a resto and found some hillarious stuff.. Heard of Excited Drinkss... errr.. uttejit pey.. yeah, we did get to see some there.. the list included tea, coffee and some more random stuff, outta which we ordered for some tea and coffee and lots of stuff to eat.

Decided to take a tuk tuk to Mandwa, the guys there were asking for too much moolah.. The bus to Mandwa went from the same place, so decided on waiting for some more time, patiently for it to come..

We had to literally stop the bus to Mandwa mid - way by blockin the road..

But over all it was lot of fun.. look forward to reading about our adventures on the Third Day of the Trip..






Coming up: TwiTrip - Day III

TwiTrip - Day I

The process started a good 15 days before the trip actually began.. and everything was planned online on a site called twitter. after that minute details were decided over e-mails and this is how the first ever TwiTrip was planned and implemented.

The plan initially was to head to a karaoke bar in Mumbai and sing "That Thing You Do".. i really wanted to do it.. i still want to.. but it ended up becoming an extended vacation to the virgin beaches of Murud and Kashid.. We decided to just book tickets to and from Mumbai and nothing beyond that, unplanned trips are lot more fun than planned trips..

Salonee and Myself wanted to head to a beach place.. Goa was on our mind. But due to the lack of enough modes of travel to Goa from Ahmedabad we decided on Murud Kashid.. and I am happy we didn't go to Goa.. Dhempe was travelling all the way from Bangalore for this trip.

2nd October, Salonee and me parked our asses at Bandra Terminus quite early in the morning.. We took Lokshakti from Ahmedabad as the other trains were not available..

Bandra and then a local from there to Bombay Central, as the bus to Alibaug was from Bombay Central.. We met three other twitter pals there.. Dhempe, s4ur4bh and punkpolkadots joined us here...

Dhempe and s4ur4bh enquired at the State Bus stop, while the three girls chatted over some chai. We figured that the bus takes around 4 - 5 hours to reach Alibaug and then another hour to reach Kashid, which would basically mean losing one entire day...

We decided to take the ferry then and pushed off to Gateway of India. The ferry incidentally takes only 1.5 hr and in another hour we'd be at Kashid.. And nothing like an early morning ferry ride in the Arabian Sea with all the wind and all the nice bright sun..

Reached Mandwa and from there we had a connection bus to Alibaug. At Alibaug, we inquired about the bus to Kashid figured that the bus leaves at 1 in the afternoon. We decided on taking a tuk tuk instead. And it was totally worth the ride, for 300 bucks..

The village is more like Goa, the construction etc is very Portuguese. I am not sure why but. The houses are like duplexes and for one family. I am sure the land is pretty cheap there and hence people can afford living in such spatial duplexes and houses. Each of them had a garden and quite a lot of open space around. The roads were nice, there was no proper mobile network though..

We enjoyed the tuk tuk trip over all.. twitter junkies that we are, lack of twitter made us sad time and again.

Reached Kashid at around 2 pm or so.. We saved around 3 hours of time by not taking a bus from Mumbai to Alibaug.

Dhempe had already booked Picnic Park in Kashid which he'd found through some research on the internet.. I think Mouthshut.com had rated this resort pretty high and the ratings were true.
5 mins walk thru the jungle to the beach and awesome food and hospitality. The rooms were nice and the staff was good too.. Dogs included :D

We went to the beach for a long evening walk. Salonee and s4ur4bh went missing and the three of us kept waiting all thru evening for them..

The beach was awesome.. totally virgin, not many people around and lovely breeze, sunset, food and chai. Not to forget sutta.. :)

Started talking about LyF, families, work, boyfriends/girlfriends, ghosts, spirits, auras.. and lot more things till the sun sunk into the sea.

Decided to pick up cold-drinks and wafers for the night.. it was Gandhiji's budday.. and we had to celebrate and get drunk.. :)

Walked back to the hotel.. Nokia 1100 turned out be a very handy, the torch light I mean.. the roads were pitch dark with traffic moving from both ends and at high speeds..

What followed was opening of bottles and the rest is history....






Coming up: TwiTrip - Day II

BarCampMumbai 3

BarCampMumbai - 3 came to an end...
Don't want to say much, just that yes it was good fun.

Except for the morning Chaos and people (read: PiScEaNaTeD) being allotted 2 different sessions in 2 different rooms at the same time, everything else was fine !

Purfektly dis-organised !!

Being a planner, you are anyways not supposed to attend sessions, but a few of them kept insisting on attending sessions while the event was goin for a toss. Being a planner, i had expectations. I don't know if other Planners expected something from it too.

Nonetheless, the first timers enjoyed it a lot and have sent in very good reviews of the event on their blogs. A Google search for barcamp mumbai 3 / bcm 3 should help you with quite a lot of stuff on this event.

Positives...
BlogCamp rocked.. just that I couldn't sit through any of the sessions.
FireTalk was happening too...

Your's trully presented the iAccelerator program, the newest thing at the CIIE as part of the startup track.

Got good reviews for the project and quite enthu crowd.

Missed out on the Linkbun.ch and Startup Saturday launch. Fooled around with the flying saucer for some time and posed for the camera-man from Mint, who was obsessed with the stickers on my hand.

Was good fun being in Mumbai.... three weeks after farewell, too humid, so skipped lunch.

Saturday night was fun too... nice dinner followed by lots of talks.. and some banter with a friend over BCM3. Slept and woke up every two hours :P

I'm now looking forward to BCB - 6 !! and I'm looking forward to enjoy the rains in South India...

Hope to see the gang there too.. and meet a few more interesting people.

Cheers till the next post..

aDeSe

Thinkin about....

was on my way to Andheri in a bus, today morning... and i see a woman... dressed in red....


:-).... and kingfisher comes to my mind...

the redness....

wierd...

feature this....
a sexy lady... in a read skirt.. a red shirt... and a red blazer.... red as in the blood red color.. !
ok.. add to that, red lipstick, red eye-shadow, red nail-polish, red ear-rings, red air-bag...

Thank God the hair is not dyed red :-P... !
anyways, they are following a brand...

me is wondering wat is wrong with the normal people around...

now feature this... normal people in the bus... all colorful, pastel shades... soothes the eyes...

and suddenly this woman comes... red bandana, red shirt, red bag, red lip-stick, red eye shadow, red bangles... :-P

watever happens to people sometimes, jus like to over do things...

i'm no better... i over-react... :-P...

i guess thats ok... till the time it doesn't hurt your eyes !! :-P :P

another one on its way....
stick around...

~a~