Trek to Vasota..... Experience to share

Before this I did hike/trekked to small forts like Tikona and Sinhagad near pune. To be frank any hiking to me is tough, but that's fun part of hiking/trekking, you will get exhausted and tired like hell but more you hike more your gain energy and stamina. Now then as I was catching up with speed of hiking at least marginally matching to our trek group, I had to officially take break for some months and then one followed other GAP increased by 9 to 10 months.

When I returned to Pune, my trek group asked me if I am available for Vasota trek near Satara, well without any hesitation I just jumped and said OK because last time I went near Vasota it was raining and we were not allowed to go inside, but the scenes were amazing, dense forest and awesome back water.

Picture this to start with (This is from the Top of HIKE/TREK)

Back to trip experience, we were 8 of them and started from Pune at around 5 pm in the evening. Pune-Saswad-Bangalore Highway-Satara-Kas plateau and reached "Bamnoli". Please note that you need a guide (from Bamnoli) or prior appointment to reach Vasota as this comes under forest department. We reached "Bamnoli" village at 9:30 pm so it took 4-5 hours from pune, but good thing roads were fantastic, thanks to Kas plateu (named as world heritage), road leading to it was way better than what I had experienced 4 years ago.

We spend one night in a guest house (pretty basic one) but such places you don't expect star hotels. We had traditional marathi bhakri and dal. These guest houses are very clean and nice to stay as area is with zero pollution and air is absolutely clean. The whole place is covered with dense forest and we cant venture out after 10 pm, not for animal scare but for darkness.

Trek Starts at MORNING  9 am
We had breakfast - Poha, apple and tea at Bamnoli and moved towards Boat area (there was a group of 50 people from other trek waiting). 5 boats were ready to go to Vasota with some amazing view of Back water and green forest.

It took 1 1/2 hours to reach Vasota base area, where everyone came together in a group. Unfortunately one boat faced some problems so our trek was delayed and started only at 11:30 (we waited from 10:30 am), but finally we started.

When I started moving in, though it was a jungle, route was good and clear path with some natural springs in between. I wished the route would be like this till the end :)

By now looking at the above picture anyone will be excited, simple lovely.....

Now as we moved on trek started to get tougher and tougher, some cliff heights came by then some down slide came so it was like ups and down, nothing much.

True trek started after 35-45 minutes of  walking and it turned to be a never ending climb. If you are non trekker like me, its like passing major hurdle one cliff at a time, but then you wonder Man when will this end. By the time you climb for 1 hour, you will pray to reach top and destination looks near still far. People around you, especially try to motivate you - its nearby just few more climbs.

There was a point when I said to myself, "that's it" I cant make it. Then I thought why not, move it you can make it. Just one thing was in my mind (few experiences from sinhgad) that never sit down and rest, you can never make it,. just stand and rest for sometime and move. then last few strides were like KILLING, it became steeper and steeper. That's the thing about climbing a mountain, final few strides are very much tough to climb and you body says please stop but your mind says No move ahead.

FINALLY reached and feeling was "Oh man have I made it"

It took 2 1/2 hours to reach the top (maybe 1 hour more than regular trekkers). View from top was just amazing, weather was fantastic, no pollution, just fresh air. We started at 11:30 am and reached at 2 pm (I mean few reached well before us, yes there were people like me also)

So we just spent 1 hour or so as we were told to get back before 4:30 pm as animals in the forest become very much active at night. When we reached bottom camp, we were given some Chapathis, sabji and dal with some buttermilk. Also throughout the trek, maybe because of awesome view and challenge to reach no one felt hungry till we reached down. After seeing food we felt hungry.

Time was to leave the spot in the amazing boat again and say good bye, saying to myself, will I get a chance to come here again?

But then again never say goodbye, will surely come again here and trek again this time lot quicker :)

Picture this TAJ

We went at December 2013

Why I love Chipotle when in US

I was first introduced by one of my fellow colleague Jeevan, saying Chipotle is a treat to all Indians when in US. Not that it has some indian flavors but because of its freshness and tummy filling (in our words paisa wasool)

But Why?

• First you can choose what you want and move on with some yummy topings
• Secondly Rice with some gravy beans, green veggies, corn, some chillies also you can sum it up with Flour tortilla (Rotis like thing)
• Lastly its so quick that you dont have to wait, take your serving, grab it and pay
• Probably this is one of few chains in US where Veg and Meat are clearly differentiated 

    

Net Meeting and Working Session works

5-10 years ago, I was just wondering how we bridge the gap of communication without the phone or to an extent through emails. Today if you see almost everything happens via new meeting, skype, Lync file sharing, Join me.com, so many things and also people have become flexible both India or US to have call early morning in US and little late evenings in India, and this works.

Past 2 years I am doing it and now I am so used to it that if there are no working sessions in the evening I feel something is missing from my days work. Also sometimes net meeting helps a lot to interact between customers and us.  

Something’s I learnt when you interact through net meetings

•  Since in India we have some un-avoidable background noises, so it’s always better to be on mute whenever you are not speaking
• Keep the momentum going, don’t always be on a mute mode and let others speak, many a times I noticed people just expect others to speak so call becomes silent for and it’s like who will break the ice kind of situation
• Always be alert and be a good listener as people cannot judge you since you are remote. But asking queries and clarifying thing may keep the people glued and also call becomes active
• Always try to make the call productive by noting down points and at the end of the meeting sending MOM ASAP as this will make everyone know what was the outcome

Most importantly what I learnt was don’t assume thing as the other person may think you got the point but in reality you did not.

In my recent projects I learnt these things and I am still learning the art of proper listening, communicating properly and most importantly getting productive outcome from the meeting 

My New York Trip Jan 13

New York Trip Jab-Feb13