Dang - Place and it's People

Dang is a well known place (district) in the South Gujarat and has around 312 villages, with it's administrative headquarters in Ahwa. It has plenty of natural scenery, water fall and wildlife. During monsoons it's one of the most beautiful places to visit. The lush green meadows, outfield, hills covered with mist and floating clouds would definitely mesmerize one for sure. Dang is around 140 kms from Surat. Five (Bharat Uncle, Pinkesh, Vatsal, Chintu and me) of us started from Surat around 2.30 pm in the afternoon and were lucky enough to reach Geera Falls in Waghai just before the sunset in the overcast conditions with persistent rains through out the journey. We clicked for a good time at Waghai and enjoyed the Geera waterfalls and the stream that was overflowing with the muddy water. The reddish kind of color in the water along with greenery made the gray atmosphere colorful. Waghai also has a huge botanical garden, which is said to be the second largest in Asia. The sun was already setting for the day and the less amount of time that we had with us, we let the botanical garden to explore for our next trip.

@ Waghai

Red mud water

Geera Waterfalls @ Waghai

It was time to call off the day, had to travel good 35 kms to reach the place of our rest and also to have our dinner in a lodge which was kept open after 9 pm on our special request. We had a night stay in Ahwa at the house of Pinkesh's relative. Chintu was already down and out by the time we're trying to settle in.

Chintu, already slided in

Next day early morning we moved to the sunset point in Ahwa to capture the monsoon morning beauty of Dang. The view from the sunset point was enthralling which had hills covered with greenery and floating clouds.

From Sunset point @ Ahwa

From Sunset point @ Ahwa

The day had just begun for us and with Bharat uncle's in depth knowledge of the place, who belongs to Dang and has spent most of his childhood in Ahwa made our trip a great journey. He took us through the interior places of the Dang which had amazing landscapes, scenery and lovely views. We then went to the famous yet less explored waterfall of the Dang known as Geera Waterfalls in Girimaal. The waterfall is around 60-70ft and the depth where it falls is around 300ft. Once you reach Geera waterfalls you don't have anything to eat or drink, one needs to carry food and H2O if planning to stay for couple of hours.

Landscape on the way to Girimaal

Geera Waterfall @ Girimaal

While moving back from Geera waterfalls, Girimaal, we passed through the Mahal forest which has a rich wildlife. Saw a leopard crossing our way in a fraction of second and a colorful chameleon passing across the road like a king.

Colorful Chameleon on the roads of Mahal

Ladies on the roads of Dang

People of Dang are as beautiful and colorful as it's place. The majority of the people residing here are tribal and Aadivasi who speak a different lingo other than the Gujarati. I got to click quite a few portraits of the men and women working in the field, moving on the roads with umbrellas, school children returning back to home in the rain.

Old lady and a girl fetching the
water from a hand pump

People passing through a
check-post in a Jeep

This trip happened almost after a year of planning with Pinkesh and I'm thankful to him. I'm grateful to Bharat uncle, without whom we would not have been able to explore the beauty of the Dang - place and it's people.

28 years and Champions

It was 25th of June in 1983 that India had created the history by defeating the dominant side of the West Indies who were the giants of Cricket then. India had lost the opportunity of being crowned in 2003. The 2007 showed some decline in the men in blue in the first round exist with the likes of Greg Chappell. This didn't stopped the mighty Indians in conceiving the dream of winning the world cup of 2011. After lifting the T20 world cup in 2007, the men in blue were unstoppable. The inspiration and ambitions that were drawn from Gary Kirsten had no looking back. The God of the cricket didn't stop for 21 years to conceive and witness the most memorable day in the life of cricket. The Lankan Lions had to be given back the nightmare of 1996 and you can't ask for a better, bitter sweet revenge than this. Indian team was considered as the favorite when the tourney had started. They literally played like a unit of champions. Nothing could deter this men of blue along with whom were bleeding the billions. 4 wins, 1 tie and 1 loss out of 6 group matches. The bar was only raised up with every knock out match. 

The team considered to be the strongest batting powerhouse in the world of cricket were highly criticized for their bowling show. We were chasing 260 in the quarter finals and defending 260 in the semifinals. Bowling performance in the quarter finals against Australia had shut some mouth by restricting 'em to 260 at Motera. The disciplined attack of Zaheer supported with Munaf and Nehra was just getting better by every match. The semi final against Pakistan was another masterpiece of a close enocounter. The score was not good enough to be defended without a disciplined attack of bowling where Nehra was criticised after his subdued show in the last over against South Africa in the group stage. But that could say the least.

And, finally it was the big final, giving back the memories of 1996 to Srilanka. The Tigers had their last roar over the Lankan Lions. The Indian sub-continent celebrated the glory with all fervor and gumption. And why not, it came after 28 years!

P.S. The feelings are yet to sink... :)

Don't buy Petrol

I've been seeing this email from quite a few days now. And specially the price of petrol per liter is constantly 17 per liter from last 3-4 years. Every-time the price rises in India the same kind of thing comes up. Though the price per liter of petrol is lesser in Pakistan and Malaysia than compared to India, sad thing is none of us really look into the real price and circulate the email. There are countries like NZ, UK and Norway were petrol prices are higher (apprx. 70, 94, and 106) than India (I wonder if they too are cribbing by taking India's name) I'm putting down some links which shows the other side of the story.

http://www.kshitij.com/research/petrol.shtml

http://eurekatips.com/2011/02/02/petrol-price-in-pakistan-today-petrol-rate-in-pakistan-pakistan-petrol-cost/2751/

The below link shows the current prices of Europe, which is again higher than the price of petrol in India:

http://www.drive-alive.co.uk/fuel_prices_europe.html


Moral: It is good to worry and spread awareness about the basic amenities which is affecting all of us, but not at the cost of some rumour circulating emails... :-D

Festive Declines

India has a very rich culture when it comes to festival and doesn't miss on celebrating a single festival irrespective of the religion. Lately, our own festival celebrations are declining to a good extent. The enthusiasm and joy of celebrations that I’ve seen during 90’s and in the early 2000’s is something vanishing now. Many move out to visit few places or stay indoors just making their lazy selves more comfortable. And some believe it to be the inflation and save by not being part of the celebrations.

The major nuance I feel is of the cultural change that we are going through in last couple of years. The working class which forms the major population of our nation is barred from the adequate leaves during our own festivals. The work culture is very much adapted with the western countries to which we provide major services in service industry. The time are set and leaves are mostly availed as per their calendar and have seen a cut short in our festivals. I broadly remember having 2 days leave during 14-15^th January which is now only restricted to 14^th January. Same used to happen during the Holi and Dhuleti which is again restricted to one day. The amount of enthusiasm that is seen during the celebration of 31^st December is broadly below par when it comes to the New Year celebrations after Diwali. We hardly get 2 days leave during Diwali which used to be of around 5 days previously. At least it’s good that manufacturing industry in Gujarat still observes and enjoys the 5 day vacation during Diwali which is unlike within the service industry.

Hope we all once again bring back the same energy, zeal and zest to celebrate our own festivals in a lively fashion as much as when we do while celebrating other festivals.

Natrani

It was for the first time that I was visiting Natrani, Darpana Academy of Performing Arts. Was visiting the place to see the photo exhibition "PEACE" held by Nazariya. It was a good experience being there, seeing the exhibition and feeling the place located on the banks of Sabarmati. The calmness and the cold breeze of the winters made it more perfect. As PEACE was the theme, a group of students from Australia were performing a mime on Garba dance which is seen during the festival of Navratri in Gujarat. It was good to see the Australians performing here in India and the best part was the audience applauding them through out their performance by clapping and hooting and whistling. It was a good initiative to bridge the gap in this cross culture tradition.I wish the same, Indian students get to feel in Australia. Below is the small video of the performance:

A documentary movie "SHED NO MORE BLOOD" was followed by the mime act, which is based on the various uncertainty that the people of Nagaland have seen. After watching the movie one would certainly feel how safe and sound we're in Gujarat, whereas our brothers in the North-East are the victims of some factional groups. The case does not rest only with the Naga tribes, the same goes with the people of Jammu & Kashmir, Bihar, Orissa and other states were Naxalism is helping to disrupt the communal harmony and the LTTE in the South. Are we becoming the victims of being the biggest democracy in the world?

The next performance was again a mime performed by a group of students from St. Xaviers college and was directed by Gaurang Raval. The act was beautifully presented on the current scenario of the traffic hindrances, cell phone obsession while riding/driving and other typical things that you get to witness while you hit the road. It was quite a good example depicted in the form of "અધીર અમદાવાદી" (Impatient Amdavadi)

P.S. Video's have been converted from HD to low-res.

Visit to Champaner - A World Heritage Site

Children's Day could not have been better than spending a quality time with couple of friends away from the city at Champaner, a World Heritage Site located some 50kms away from Baroda. All of us were happy and to have spent a sumptuous Sunday, roaming around like a child from one place to another completely carefree.
The journey to Champaner began from Baroda on Sunday morning at 6 a.m. Me and Aekam on Yamaha Fazer and Ninad and Ronak on Bajaj Pulsar.
We were wandering to catch the early morning sunrise on Baroda-Halol highway and hit the road for about 20-25 kms to have a picturesque landscape and ended up our bikes in a village called Kotambi on the Baroda-Halol highway. I was bit disappointed as the sun had already started to rise and we're still searching a picture perfect place. From the information given by the local guy we ended up our biking adventure to the so called river of the village, which was actually a water stream. But that was satisfactory as we managed to get some good shots of the morning mist and the sunrise along with the villagers doing their house hold chores by the water stream.

Sun Rise @ Kotambi Village

Women performing household chore @ Kotambi Village

After a bit of satisfaction we started moving towards Champaner and saw some beautiful places on the way and capturing few of 'em. We reached Champaner and visited few World Heritage Sites which includes, Shaher ni Masjid, Jama Masjid, Kamani Masjid and Saat Kaman (7 Bows.)
Shaher ni Masjid is a beautiful location in the heart of the village with some nicely carved stones. So is Jama Masjid, but a bigger place in area having different entries to the place, an octagonal tank for the abulations, and beautifully hand carved stones and pillars with a Picturesque Pavagarh landscape in it's backdrop.
Out of all these the best place to be was at Saat Kaman which is located near Manchi in the ghats of Pavagarh while en-route. We went there after having our lunch at Hansraj Hotel near to the ST Bus Depot. You just don't feel getting back from there. The view of the whole Champaner and it's surrounding is just more than mesmerizing from around 2000 feet or so (just an approximation.)

Saat Kaman (7 Arches)

Panaromic View of Champaner from Saat Kaman

Kalpvriskha Carvings @ Jami Masjid

Foothills of Pavagarh

 







Thanks to Aekam, Ninad, Ronak, Aviral, Rushabh, Ashish, Ruchee and Vaibhavi who joined along made it a memorable trip.
P.S. Others had joined us lately at Champaner.

Love

Love has always been a talk of time, may it be permanent or for time being, the tenacity remains the same for what so ever reasons. A friend of mine is in a dire situation of love trying to balance between his parents and girl friend whom he's willing to marry. And the battle has never been as easy as it comprehends. I just tried to gather some thoughts from few friends on how do they define love, to understand them better as it was always out of my kettle:


Amit Sharma: love is nothing but resultant of overlapping of the sinusoidal wave of trust & affection...

Binny Pandya: understanding, respect, sacrifice, commitment, loyalty, honesty and feelings between two individuals is called love...

Umesh Verma: when you feel so much of fear if someone leave you that is love...

Deepak Dubey: can't define dude :P

Neha Kanodia Gandhi: you can't wish unwell for that person no matter how hurt you are due to him then you know you love that person...

Ruchee Soni: love - trust, faith n Bonding between two...

Rahul Verma: when you hug someone and you're lost... don't remember anything...

Aekam Parmar: Love is an unconditional relation in which no materialistic things matters... what matters is two person living for each other...

Amresh Kumar: Impassioned affection, desire for partner's happiness at any cost...

Anushree Jain: Love to me is my own little world...

It seems like love makes everyone selfish and restricts them to only two selves. And forget that, apart from 'em no one matters, not even parents.

P.S. To me it has always been a word of four letters with 2 vowels, 2 consonants and yea of course not to forget 2 idiots who at times are ruined by a 3rd idiot... :)