The Tao of the Comet

Over a period of time these days … i have been constantly amazed by one fact about sport … it provides so many stories of underdog triumps .. so many stories of comebacks .. redemptions … criticial decisions … so on … it is very interesting to see .. how people manage to stay upbeat amidst adversities .. fight back .. standup for themselves .. and then one day have that big smile on ….. hope triumphs really :) ..

I thought i should document these on my blog ..

Graeme Swann : [Oct 23 2009 . Indian express http://www.indianexpress.com/news/i-wanted-to-give-up-cricket-and-become-a-hack-swann/532283/0 ]

It was in South Africa that his international career almost ended no sooner then it had begun in 1999/2000.
Such was the crisis of confidence sparked by that trip that Swann thought about quitting cricket completely. Swann made his one-day international debut in South Africa. But missing the team bus because of oversleeping did not impress then coach Duncan Fletcher and Swann, now with Nottinghamshire, had to wait more than seven years for another England call.
“When I was playing at Northants at the end I couldn’t have been further away from playing for England,” said Swann.
“I didn’t even want to play cricket – for Northants or Northampton Saints (the town’s rugby union team), let alone England. I wanted to give up and become a hack (journalist),” he explained.
“There was a lot of time when I couldn’t imagine playing for England again.”
But since making his Test bow, against India in December, Swann has established himself as England’s premier spinner.

In those seven years of waiting .. he would have doubted himself innumerable number of times .. but then .. today he finally established himself :) …

Moral of the story : Self belief is the last thing you should lose even in the worst of times

T Dilshan : [Sep 23 2009 , Indian express http://www.indianexpress.com/news/opening-the-innings-has-changed-my-life-dilshan/520538/0]

Dilshan was dropped from the ODI side September last year after his average slipped to 25.87 in 21 matches. When he returned early this year to team, he was asked to open in ODIs and he never looked back after that. Dilshan got the Player-of-the-Series award after amassing 317 runs at an average of 52.83 in the Twenty20 World Cup.

Opening the innings has changed my life .. “I am in good form for last six month or one year and I want to deliver in this tournament also. I have changed my batting order. I think this is the turning point for me.”I open the innings which gives me opportunity to play my strokes and take chances during the powerplays so that is the turning point I feel,” he added.

And look where he is now .. who doesnt remember Dil-scoop .. and all his recent antics on the field .. now it is unimaginable .. that dilshan had a 25.87 average for 21 matches !! .. and that he was actually “dropped” from the team ..

Moral of the story : Everyone gets a turning point . Wait for yours :).

Usain Bolt : [Oct 20 2009 , Indian express http://www.indianexpress.com/news/returning-to-first-love-bolt-beats-gayle-wi/530665/ ]

Triple Olympic and world champion sprinter Usain Bolt returned to his first love, cricket, on Sunday and showed that he certainly knows how to handle both bat and ball.
Bolt, who batted with his brother Sadeeki, made 13 with the bat, including a superbly struck six off Gayle’s off-spin.
“I was pretty good as a kid and my cricket coach said I should concentrate on bowling because I was pretty quick running in,” Bolt said. “I also used to open the batting for the school team but I haven’t batted for a long time,” he said. “The six was a brilliant feeling, though.”

God knows what would have happened .. if Usain Bolt was fighting for his place in Westindies team and working hard in Jamaica first class team :D

Moral of the story : Sometimes the “switch” can work wonders :) . You just need to know where to switch when to switch .

Darren Ganga and T&T T20 team in Champions League [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daren_Ganga]:

Now who hasnt read abt this :) .. Pollard’s heroics .. Ganga’s captaincy .. Pollard i dunno .. but atleast for Ganga .. this has to be “the” moment of his life … As in .. what was he before this league ??… a top order westindies batsman who was “rejected” :) … Now the sudden limelight .. ppl talking abt him as “the” man for reviving westindies cricket etc :) …

Moral of the story : Life throws enough surprises .. Wait for yours :) ..

Jacques of all trades : [September 22  2009 Cricinfo http://www.cricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/425941.html]

This has been well documented here  . The sudden rise of the new jacques kallis has astonished many people . Hardcore kallis fans like me arent surprised though ;) …

Anyone who has seen the high utility jacques kallis is the IPL-2 , Recent T20 would be surprised to know that he was omitted from South Africa’s World Twenty20 squad .

But look what he did to himself then .. he went back .. reinvented himself ..
“I wanted to improve my batting in the one-day formats and looked long and hard at making a few technical changes,” recalls Kallis. “Mickey Arthur and [mentor] Duncan Fletcher helped me make the necessary adjustments, but I’ll admit it was a lot of hard work.”  .. If kallis .. kallis ! . the big man himself .. can go to the nets .. reinvent himself .. work on mistakes ..  you and me can as well

Moral of the story : There is always scope for reinventing and re-evaluating oneself. Do your due diligence .. and it will work wonders.

Irfan Pathan “It’s not just a hope, I believe good times will return”
[Oct 25 2009 , Indian express http://www.indianexpress.com/news/its-not-just-a-hope-i-believe-good-times-will-return/532841/0]

I have always admired irfan pathan … i admire him even more after i read such … it is not about attaining success at a young age .. it is not about making a mess out of it .. it is about staying upbeat in the face of adversities .. and this 24yr old’s ongoing story is the best example for that :D … I hope he makes a comeback one day .. one big huge comeback .. so that all the naysayers keep their mouth shut :D …

““It’s not just a hope, but I believe that good times will return. I have seen worse three years ago and I have overcome that. There will always be a position in the team for a guy who can bowl and bat well. I believe that I will perform and get an opportunity to play four or five games on a trot,” he says.

Thumbsup ! Irfan :D

Moral of the story : Believe goods times will return .. and they will ..

Mohd Kaif :
[0ct 25 2009 , Indian express http://www.indianexpress.com/news/watching-from-the-stands/532866/0 ]

“Now I am three or four degrees away from the Indian team. But I’m playing well, and somewhere I know I can make it back”
“I have to make the best of every opportunity I get. Life doesn’t give too many chances,” he says with a smile, “at least not to me.”

I dont talk much about Kaif .. coz i am not a big fan of his actually :P .. except for this interview of his really i dont admire or adore him so much .. But yeah i hope he too makes his comeback again !

Moral of the story : [Same as above]  Believe good times will return .. and they will ..

So the frustrated software engineer got frustrated again , this time he decided to go the tamhini ghats near pune and enjoy the greenery and whitery  around( dunno if such a word exists … if it didnt … now it does :P)… ( As mentioned before ,  this seems to be the standard opening line for my posts these days ;) … i am reminded of Vikram aur Bethal series .. where each story starts with the same lines :D ) …

Little background on tamhini ghats :

Last year about the same time i went to Mahabaleshwar … on the way back we lost our way .. roamed around in random roads and somehow came back via tamhini ghats …. it was dark by then … and despite the darkness i had decided this as one of the most beautiful things i have ever seen to date ;) ……. one of my friends famously claimed that the valley/mountain view from the ghats is going to be his profile pic on orkut/gtalk .. and hasnt changed it in a year now :D ….

So we started ( 3 in all) … from Pune at 6:30AM … pirangut ghat -> paud road -> mulshi -> tamhini .. and back .. It is just about 80kms .. and as one of my colleagues remarked .. “this is why i dont want to leave pune .. there are sooo many beautiful places around pune” … so true … pune rox when it rains :) …

The speciality of these ghats is .. the huge number of waterfalls …. and the white white gushing waters there …. Check the pics then :) …

Pic 1  Comment 1 :

Trust me this is NOT a wallpaper from wallpapers.com :P

Pic 2 Comment 1 :

I had corn / mokka jonna here along with hot boiled egg … trust me good hot food does help .. at times :P ( I rarely eat egg btw .. i am supposed to act like a pure vegetarian .. but for once .. i couldnt resist ;) )

Pic 3 Comment 1 :

This waterfall was a bit bigger .. and we could walk high up also … nice experience it was

Pic 4 Comment 1 :

Yet another one .. by this time i got bored of water :D

Pic 5 Comment 1  :

Coupled by awesome views of like the one below .. it was an awesome trip indeed ..

Comment 2 :

This pic is supposed to have captured a waterfall .. where we could barely see the water fall … it was as if it joined the clouds before it fell ….. I know i need a better camera :D

Pic 6 Comment 1 :

If there are two things that amaze me the most about all these places around pune … It is the fog or mist or rain or watever :D … It suddenly makes the sorrounding look sooooo beautiful ;) …

Pic 7 Comment 1 :

If fog/mist/rain is the first thing .. the greenery is the second … i somehow never remember seeing this kind of greenery in my side of india ;) .. Andhra pradesh .. though my colleague from coastal andhra reminds me .. some places in coastal andhra .. look just as green too ..

So the frustrated software engineer got frustrated again [My last three posts have the words .. Frustrated software engineers .. do you see a pattern here :D ] .. and decided to go to Diveagar – Harihareshwar … he had three other colleagues joining him this time ..

Now lets finish of this thing fast .. as the author needs to rush for a movie at 7PM .. and he cant waste time .. doing something as trivial as blogging … :P …

Diveagar – Is a konkan beach town .. like many others on the konkan coast ;) … it has a famous suvarna ganesha temple .. though the temple will look more like a cottage from the outside .. as in no .. gopuram or some such things that u expect from a hindu temple …  It has got a black-black beach .. which i think i last saw .. when i was in ratnagiri ;) … when i went there it was raining .. cats dogs dinosaurs .. wat not :D … and it was precisely the rain that added beauty to the full scene . We hired an indica from pune to diveagar .. about 250kms .. unless you get lucky .. like we did :) .. This journey btw started with a Puncture :D ..

From diveagar .. next stop was harihareshwar .. which has got a white-white beach .. and a famous temple .. another cottage like temple .. like the one seen in diveagar .. apparently this place is called … Dakshin Kashi it seems .. had lunch there .. and stayed there till about 5PM-6PM or so .. and reached Pune at 10PM …

Nice trip it was .. and here are the pics :)

The black black beach ..

The green green forests .. that sorrounded the black black beach … [ At this point of time the author thinks repeated mention of colours .. make this sound like  a kindergarten rhyme :D ]

This is the cottage like temple .. Harihareshwar temple …

The white white waters :)

Grey grey skies :)

Another post .. after about a month or so .. okie .. i can count .. more than a month ;) ..

So the frustrated software engineer got frustrated again .. and went to Ajanta-Ellora-Aurangabad last weekend …

Other frustrated software engineers and frustrated research students :P … joined .. 10 members in all ..

The folks who came from hyderabad came in Ajanta express which starts at a convenient time of 6:30pm from hyderabad and reaches aurangabad at 4:30am . From pune i had a couple of roommates joining me and our bus started from pune at 12:00 AM and reached aurangabd at 4:30AM .

Immediately we headed to the railway station as the others were waiting for us there , luckily enough we found this fella who offered for a tata-sumo / tavera for all 10 of us .. for 2 day tour including Ajanta – Ellora- Grishneshwar – Daulatabad fort – Aurangabad . The tariff worked out to about 600/- per head for 2 days , if u can sacrifice the a/c in the vehicle then it would be 500/- per head . Not bad actually ;) ..

The driver fella also took us to a hotel nearby , after some bickering etc .. we managed to find 3 rooms for 10 of us at a tariff of 450/- per room .. about 150/- per head per day :D .. cheap ;) .. So we then slept for sometime and had breakfast etc and started to ajanta at 9:00 am . Ajanta takes about 2-3hrs from aurangabad .

It is a UNESCO world heritage site … and is more of a never ending stretch of caves . Some of the paintings are good .. but after a certain point of time it does get boring . But yes walking through the whole sequence of caves .. listening to the gibberish that the guide mouths is an experience in itself ;) . We returned to Aurangabad after having lunch at a local dabha at about 5:00 PM .

This is when some of the folks got a brilliant to idea to also go to shirdi .. which is about 2hrs from aurangabad … miraculously enough they managed to find a cab for about 1500/- and 5 of them left to shirdi at 6:30pm .. reached and finished darshan by 9:30pm and came back to aurangabad by 11:30pm .. Quite fast indeed ;) .

Those of us who chose not to visit shirdi .. went roaming in the city .. and landed in a zoo :P … zoo in the middle of the city .. with quite a few animals .. all this at 5/- entrance ticket :D .. cheap ;) …

Next day we started to Daulatabad fort first … reached there in about an hour from aurangabad . Boy o boy . what a fort that is .. it is by far the largest of the forts i have ever seen to date ( i did see quite a few after coming to maharashtra ;) ) .. very very tiring .. the whole climb . But looking at the grandeur .. the dark alleys .. and other traps for enemies etc is a fun experience.

Then we went to this temple .. Grishneshwar which is one of the 12 jyotirlinga places in India . The temple looked very similar to the one i saw in triambakeshwar .. except for change in colours here and there :) . Only difference is .. you need to go in half-naked into this temple if you are a male … obv they cant put such restrictions for females :D . So if any girl is reading this post… don’t worry :P.

We then went to ellora caves which is about 30mins from this fort . Ellora is different from Ajanta in a lot of aspects … in that the caves have lesser paintings and more sculptures ;) . It also has got the awesome Kailashnath temple .. which is supposedly one of the world’s largest monolithic structures.

Next stop was Bibi-ka-maqbara .. the imitation of tajmahal .. it is a pretty decent imitation .. but ofcourse no point comparing it with tajmahal … this can be called may be poor man’s tajmahal ;) .. the ones deep down south who feel going to agra is such a pain .. can visit this place and stay content ;) …..

Then took a bus again at 12:00pm from aurangabad and reached pune at 6:00am .. this bus sucked though :D .

Now for the only entertaining part of the post …. entertainment is such a subjective thing really :D ..

Caves in Ellora / Ajanta .. How does it matter anyway .. Caves are caves :D

One of the awesome sculptures in Ellora

What was this called .. Chaitya hall ?? .. or whatever the guide said

The next two pics are just to show what a pain climbing the daulatabad/devgiri fort can be .. this is the minar/tower seen at the bottom of the fort

And this is how it would look from the top of the fort …

This was the final destination .. the bibi ka maqbara …

So seeing this fellow here back to blogging … I thought i should too …

No i won’t even try for a recap of what has been going on in my life in past 3-4 months ..

I will directly jump into what i did last weekend …

So May 1 2 3 .. was a three day break for most of the software engineers … so like all frustrated software engineers .. i too decided to go on a holiday ..

The plan initially was to join another friend who was going to darjeeling etc .. but for a 3 day trip that seemed quite far off … and even if take flights to and fro .. it really didnt seem feasible from pune :) .. So we decided to explore places here in maharashtra .. the konkan coast ;) ..

With some google search .. we decided on .. Ratnagiri – GanapatiPhule – Tarkarli – Malvan … It was such a real pain to find tickets .. most of the private travels were full . Finally managed to find tickets from Pune-Ratnagiri on Thursday April 30th .. In a so-called semi luxury bus .. curiously called “Asiad” … So here i go then with a quick summary of things last weekend …

Day 1 (May 1 )

We (My roommate and a friend from mumbai .. Yes both IIITians :) ) reached Ratnagiri from Pune at around 4:30 am … About 6hrs of journey …
To our surprise almost all the hotels in ratnagiri were full .. We had fun searching for vacant rooms at the unearthly hour of 5am-6am .. with no one but the street dogs to welcome us ;) .

Then we came back to the bus-stand .. decided we should first book the retun tickets from Ratnagiri to pune .. going by the rush there we thought tickets & hotels can be real problems :) . The ticket counter opens only at 8am .. so we had atleast 2hrs to spend without any place to stay .. All of us were very sleepy .. so we slept on the cement benches in the bus-stand .. trust me it was a super awesome sleep :D .

Around 7:30am we finally managed to find a lodge … 300/- for one full day .. which means 100/- per person .. Super cheap :D … Then we took bath etc .. ate the same old poha – misal stuff .. and landed at the ticket counter around 8:00-8:15am … We decided to finish ratnagiri tour that day … so booked tickets to Malvan on Saturday (May 2nd) … then booked return tickets from ratnagiri-pune .. in a red bus :( .. the only bus available ..

We then started on a whirlwind tour of ratnagiri … Enjoyed the majestic view from the majestic fort of Ratnadurg … Caught a glimpse of the sea side from the dirty mandvi beach and bhatye beach a beach with a lot of black sand … also visited lokmanya balgangadhar tilak’s place … then enjoyed the antics of some turtles in a local aquarium ;) … not to forget the beautiful view of backwaters from theebaw point :) … All this was possible thanks to a friendly autowallah .. he took 350/- for the whole 4hr tour .. Not bad :) .

View from Ratnadurg Fort

Backwaters

Had lunch at a local hotel .. then proceeded to Ganapatiphule in another redbus :D .. takes about 1.5hrs from Ratnagiri to GanapatiPhule .. we stopped at some local bazaar near ganapatiphule and had to walk some 15-20 min to proceed to the temple … very modern looking temple this one … built on the shores of a super awesome silvery sand beach … the beach view was just all too amazing :) ..

GanapatiPhule Temple

Once that was done .. we went to Jaigad fort … another sea-fort with equally awesome views ..

There was also a big factory by Jindal folks near the fort … we were lucky enough to catch another bus back to Ratnagiri from Jaigad … Trust me .. Finding those ST (State transport) buses is such a pain in maharashtra :) .

Jaigad Fort

Back in ratnagiri around 8:30pm .. saw the Bangalore vs Punjab XI match in a local restaurant for sometime .. then went back to the 100/- lodge to sleep … We had a bus to Malvan at 8AM the next day to catch :) .

Day 2 (May 2nd ) :

The journey from Ratnagiri to Malvan takes 6hrs .. and in a jam packed red bus .. it is horrible :( … i also lost my w580i cellphone in this rush .. Sad :( …
We got down at Malvan and then immediately checked if bus tickets are available from Malvan-Pune .. after this 6hr journey .. we ruled out the idea of going back to ratnagiri and catching that redbus to pune :) … we were lucky enough to find tickets for Pune in an asiad bus on sunday at 4:30 pm ..

With the ticket problems resolved .. we started on a hotel search … Now the main idea of coming to malvan was to see Tarkarli and the sindhudurg fort .. Tarkarli supposedly has got nice resorts/hotels etc … so we went ahead to search for hotels in Tarkarli .. Tarkarli is about 7km from Malvan bus-stand and you get autos for 60/- , 70/- from the bus-stand… tarkarli has got this pleasant village like atmosphere with almost all houses in the villages modified into lodge/hotel .. We found a room for 1400/- with A/C , TV etc :) .. Not all that cheap .. but then you cant expect a 100/- room everywhere you go :) .

We had lunch at one of those makeshift hotels .. and proceeded to the beach at Tarkarli . Trust me tarkarli beach is one of the most beautiful things i have ever seen in my life to date :) . Not an exaggeration thsi one :) .. The white sand .. with a distant view of sindhudurg fort .. crystal clear waters … nothing can get better than that :) … MTDC resort here is super good .. sad we couldt find rooms there :( ..

Tarkarli Beach :

So we spent a lot of time there in the beach …. then went for a walk searching for a place from where boats would be available the next morning for Dolphin viewing .. snorkelling etc ;) … Finally landed in the room at about 8PM .. and saw the IPL match between CSK vs DD ;) for sometime and had a nice sleep ..

Day 3 (May 3rd) :

Next morning .. we decided not to go to the dolphin point as ppl around said the probability of actually catching a glimpse of dolphins is less .. So we went to straight to Sindhudurg fort …

And boy ! what a fort this is ! .. It just beats all the other two forts hands down .. It is build on an island .. and has got some real breathtaking views :) . From Malvan bus-stand sindhudurg fort is about 2kms .. you get to do a short boat ride to the sindhudurg fort . To and Fro the charge is about 27/- .. cheap :) … But the catch is you get only 1hr of sight seeing and u need to return by the same boat you came by… If you miss that .. then getting another boat can be a bit of a problem .. we solved the problem and had to pay 60/- extra to find some space in another boat .

On my fellow travellers .. the one from mumbai had a bus from malvan-mumbai at 2:30pm .. so after bye-byeing him .. we were left with 2hrs .. before our bus back to pune starts from malvan at 4:30pm .. we decided to spend those 2hrs in a “rock garden” about 1 km from sindhudurg fort ..

The garden as such was very general .. but it is the rocks which rocked :) …. rocks all around in all shapes and sizes .. and with huge waves hitting those rocks in regular intervals .. wow ! what a sight that was ..

Rock Garden Malvan:

And then we reached pune around 4AM .. and here i am back in office .. staring at my PC …. :)