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.