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January 28th, 2010
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Archive for January, 2010
Kulanggad
January 26th, 2010
There are about 350 forts in Mahararastra. For whatever reason, I kept going back to the same forts I had visited before. This time when we decided to go somewhere new. Our choice was Kulanggad (कुलंगगड) and it turned out to be just great! This fort is in the same range as “Kalsubai” (कळसुबाई), the tallest peak (~5300 ft) in Maharashtra. This fort has two neighbours, Alanggad (अलंगगड) and Madangad (मदनगड) aka Mandangad (मंडणगड). Climbing on one of those is very technical and requires rigging up ropes. Thanks to bombardment by the British when they took this set of forts from Peshwas in 1818.
Elevation at the top of Kulanggad is about 4850 ft requiring a climb of about 3500 ft from the base. It is quite evident from the photos that this mountain has pretty straight rock walls and the trail goes along notches in the rock. There are steps carved into the rock and at many places they are very narrow and you have to watch your footing carefully. It was probably one of the most difficult climbs in Sahyadris for me.
This views of rugged mountains all around while climbing and from the top of the fort are absolutely amazing. Other than a few caves, there are ruins of old buildings on the top of the fort. Some of the buildings are right on points that are at the ends of the fort. There is a sheer drop of more than 2000 ft on three sides of these building. These must have been watch posts. Due to the fort’s natural defense, there wasn’t much fortification required.
There are a lot of water tanks (carved in stone) on the fort and that makes spending a night on the top easy. Some people might not even touch this water after looking at it but, believe me it is potable. No one in our group had any problems from drinking it right out of the tanks. All our problems arose from not being in good physical shape for such a rigorous hike.
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Phir Mile Sur — fail
January 26th, 2010
On India’s 60th republic day, there was a lot of buzz on social networks about a new version of the amazing song, “Mile Sur Mera Tumhara”. It is called “Phir Mile Sur”. I really loved the original song from 1988 and wanted to see the updated version (part 1 and part 2) despite warnings from many people about its badness. I had to watch it myself to find out how bad it was and it is truly horrible. First of all, it is 3 times as long as the original and did I say that it is horrendous? It shows what is wrong with today’s India: unduly high importance/reverence towards Bollywood stars and Rahman’s electronic music which is mediocre at best.
Friends, I have taken a bullet for you. If you haven’t seen the new version yet, please don’t. Here is a link for the original song again. Watch it 3 times instead of the new crappy version.
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Solar eclipse — contd
January 20th, 2010
Finally, got around to putting all the eclipse photos together.
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Solar eclipse
January 15th, 2010
Partial solar eclipse in Thane, India.
More photos below… Note the sunspots to the top right – about 2 o’clock position.
Read more…
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3 idiots – part 2
January 5th, 2010
Watched 3 idiots today. All is well. Nothing has changed. Bollywood is still making crappy movies and they are very popular and make boatload of money. The only saving grace of the evening was the wonderful air-conditioning of the movie theater. If it wasn’t so hot outside, I’d have left the movie. Another nice thing about the movie was good camera work and some beautiful locations in Himachal Pradesh. Other than that, it is just the same old tired jokes and same old cliches. Nothing of substance.
The movie should have ended when they stopped for the interval. The second half was completely superfluous and unnecessary. Three hours of running time was way too much. I liked Boman Irani (maybe because his character shared my last name) and the guy who played Chatur. I would have liked Boman more if he had played the part of a Marathi person properly. He played a Parsi with a Marathi last name. That was very sad. His daughters didn’t sound Marathi either. The movie would have been the same it their last name was “Sharma”. There was no need to drag my good last name through all this mud.
The three idiots were absolutely motherfu*king idiots. There isn’t much to say about them. Nobody would miss the story/script writer of the movie he fell off the face of the earth tomorrow. The only funny part in this movie was Chatur’s speech on “Teacher’s day”.
I don’t like Aamir Khan because he always plays these “I am so good and I know everything, so kiss the soles of my feet” roles. This was no different. Also, his hair plugs were quite prominent. I should make a note to myself not to watch movies with these old actors on big screen. All their flaws just stick in my eyes and then I can’t enjoy anything else. A 44 year old can’t play a 20 year old college student. Doesn’t matter if he drinks 5 liters of water every day or not.
There was no need for Kareena Kapoor to be in the movie other than the song in the rain. I’d have preferred if Kareena and Aamir had exchanged their costumes for the song. 
All this glorification of bad behavior on college campuses and boozing by college students is just not right. There are enough problems on college campuses as it is, there is no need for Bollywood to promote more of this nonsense.
I feel sorry for wasting my cousin’s money to buy the movie tickets.
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