Destination Malvan: Day 2 - A Surreal Drive on NH17 back to Pune

Continued from previous post: Destination Malvan: Day 2 - Dolphins and Snorkeling

There were few reasons, why I felt against taking the same route back to Pune - Malvan -> Kankavli -> Gaganbavda ghat -> Kolhapur -> NH4 -> Pune. That route would have been quicker, but nothing is as boring as taking the same route back to your home. Besides, NH4 is not as serenely smooth towards Pune, and on Sunday, tremendous evening traffic, which I had experienced while coming back from Raigad via Varandha ghat, makes it dangerous road to tread on. And there is no driving pleasure due to its one-way nature. You just have to go through the motions and traffic. If there is an accident somewhere, it's even more cumbersome to switch lanes and get going. And believe me, accidents do happen here during rush hours. People are careless thinking they cant have an accident on a one-way and then one unseen pothole, or one unseen animal on the road, or one unseen car parked by some idiot in the night without blinking hazard lights, can lead to a series of high speed accidents/scrapings/heated arguments that can hold up the entire traffic behind them.

Apart from that anti NH4 stance, there were some pro NH17 feelings making their way as well. NH17 is considered to be one of the dangerous roads, at least in Maharashtra, due to its single-lane nature and the high-speed and careless Mumbai-Goa traffic. So for a new driver, it's a challenge he cannot say no to, and also an opportunity for testing the turf before taking on some highly difficult drives like Manali-Leh, later on in life. Other than these reasons, we were also thinking of doing Ganapatipule on the way back. So NH17 won over NH4, despite being at disadvantage in terms of time and distance in comparison with NH4. And we took Malvan -> Kankavli -> Ratnagiri -> Chiplun -> Mahad -> Mangaon -> Tamhini Ghat -> Pune route.

We started from Malvan at around 2:30pm and reached Kankavli, which is about 40km, in an hour. Took our late lunch there and by 5pm started our main journey. It was around 480kms of journey back to Pune on NH17. Out of those 480km, nearly 350kms were on NH17, and it had already started nearing sunset. So majority of this drive would come during stark night, on a dreaded single-lane highway, without any street-lights, alongside bad mannered and careless drivers, and through zigzag ghats, since NH17 is comprised mostly of ghat sections. It was a monumental drive coming up, and god knows I was excited as hell to take on this monster. It's not always that you learn to drive, and then within 3-4months you get to tackle one of the most dangerous highways, during night, all by yourself. Honestly, despite at the risk of sounding like a preacher, I strongly believe and feel that these are the real pleasures of life. I will any time splurge on such drives, rather than spending in malls and multiplexes.

Anyway, so we began our journey at around 5pm. Ratnagiri was 129kms from Kankavli and chances of Ganapatipule started appearing bleak as the drive progressed. But boy, was that an eventful drive! Shortly after leaving Kankavli, towards Ratnagiri, the road started getting better and the daytime views on NH17 are pretty good. It made us drive leisurely without realising how it's going to affect us later. I was driving at around 60kmph, using gear shifts to control the speed, so that the brakes don't get overheated, which can result into a fatal brake-fail situation later on. Suddenly one yellow Maruti Alto overtook us at a blind corner and cut us in, to avoid incoming traffic at the corner. That was a very provocative manoeuvre and I felt like bumping into that guy for overtaking in such a dangerous way. It was a challenge, and though I had stayed away from falling prey to provocations on highway, this time I just couldn't let go. I accepted this challenge and thus began a half-an-hour race on the NH17. Suddenly the speed picked up to 90-110kmph, even in the ghat sections. His was an Alto, painted yellow, with a 1-litre engine; and mine was a Palio with a 1.6-litre engine. So the only way for him to stay in the competition was to take undue risks that I wouldn't take. That's what he did. Overtaking at blind corners was what he regularly did, and got lucky with it every time. I always refrained from doing that. Overtaking at blind corner is a gamble which if goes against you, you don't get to gamble again. Simple as that. So blind-corner-overtaking is a complete no-no. सिर सलामत तो रेसेस पचास.

My advantage, on the other hand, was when there was climb in the ghats. Having a powerful engine helps you climb steep roads without much difficulty. Still, I wanted to race without straining the engine. So I maxxed out at 4500 RPMs, strictly not more than that. I had a long journey ahead of me, and didn't want to strain the engine unduly. So the accelerator was never floored during the race. This game of cat-and-mouse catch-up went on for around half-an-hour. I would catch him, and when I am almost there, he would take his nose out without realising what kind of risk he was taking. Due to this, while he got away, many a times, I got stuck behind some slowwwy slowwww containers blocking all corners for vehicles behind them. But ultimately, I caught him on a moderate climb with some straight road, drove for couple moments in parallel, gave out a war cry and raced ahead at 110kmph. Within couple of minutes, he disappeared from my rear view mirrors.

By the time the race was over, sun had set, and it was getting dark. So I slowed down a little and took it easy. We reached Ratnagiri at around 7:30pm. Ganapatipule was ruled out now, as we still had 350kms to cover till home. So we took a short break, and after filling up petrol at a highway petrol pump before Ratnagiri bifurcation, we carried on at 8pm. Our next stop was Mangaon, just before climbing Tamhini ghat. And it was almost 210kms from our location. So we estimated that by 11pm we would reach Mangaon, and from there, Pune is around 120kms and it will take at least 2.5hrs for us to get to Chandani chowk. So target was Mangaon by 11pm, and then Pune by 1:30am in the morning.

Rest of the journey onwards from Ratnagiri, was not as eventful, though we did have butterflies in stomach, on couple of occasions. It was stark dark on the highway by then, and people were as manner-less as they can get anywhere else. Nobody bothers about the comfort of the incoming driver. People never mind driving with 'upper' all the time. I used to switch between 'upper' and 'dipper' when I saw incoming traffic, but not many were responsive and very few cared. So rather than getting into a sticky situation myself, while trying to save some careless ass from a little discomfort, I stopped doing that. I only responded when somebody switched to dipper pro-actively. To top it all, I also saw some highly irresponsible mofos who were driving with as much as 4 high-power xenons, where even 2-high power xenons can absolutely blind the driver of incoming vehicle. Initially I would curse no end, vehemently. Eventually, it became a norm and I also ran out of my stock of choice-words. So as the night wore on, and the initial bout of highway-night-driving-frustration began to recede, the cabin fell silent.

During the night driving on that single-lane highway, to my own surprise, I was consistently driving at 100-110kmph. The ghats would bring the average speed down later on, but there also, in the ghats I managed to successfully overtake a v-tec, a fiesta apart from other sedans. I also gave a successful chase to an innova in the ghats after Chiplun, on the way to Mahad. I was driving quite good, enough to chase that impressive innova driver, so much so that after some time, we were the only two headlamps seen in the area, without trace of any other vehicle. But at the end, that innova guy was just too good for me. One bad judgement on my part, when I got little stuck behind a truck, and he vanished ahead of me.

We reached Mangaon by 10:45pm, 15-mins earlier than our estimate. Took a short 5-10mins break before we began to climb the lonely Tamhini at that late in the night. We had lots of baggage in the boot, including a costly DSLR gear, and I was really worried about waylaying in the 'famous' Tamhini forests. I told people about the risk, told them that we aren't going to take any break until we reach home, locked all the doors from inside and carried on.

The road condition of Tamhini was absolutely abysmal. It was very frustrating to drive in that area, in 2nd gear, because of the huge potholes. It took us 3-insane hours to cross Tamhini in that speed; and we reached Chandani Chowk by 1:45am and home by 2am. I took a pledge right after reaching home, that I will never ever take to Tamhini again, unless Tamhini is my destination. The roads are just abysmally pathetic after this monsoon, and it's better avoided.

The Malvan chapter closed at 2am in the morning of 27-Dec in Pune, after an eventful and surreal journey on the NH17, where I learned some of the hardest but most essential lessons from a driver's perspective. And thankfully, this learnings didn't come at a fatal price, and we reached home safe and sound.

Destination Malvan: Day 2 - Dolphins and Snorkeling

Continued from previous post: Destination Malvan: Day 1 - Pune to Malvan via Kolhapur

On Sunday, 26-Dec, we got up early in the morning, rushed to the Malvan jetty, where the guy, with whom we talked the previous night, was waiting for us. He managed a boat for us, and excited, we scrambled in

the boat for a best-view location. We were going on a dolphin-trail.

Dolphins are sighted near Konkan coast around Ratnagiri, it seems. Last time we had been to Anjarle, in Dapoli, there too, we had a chance to go on such a trail, but our laziness had killed that opportunity. This time round though, we were in the boat, and on the trail.

Early morning boat-ride, with a pleasant and cool sea-breeze, and sighting and subsequent trail of a small group of dolphins, was what we did and enjoyed a lot during the couple hour trail. We wished the dolphins would jump out of the water and give us a shot of a lifetime, but that wasn't to be. All we could see was a dolphin's tail/fins, as they were breast-stroking (to map it to human swimming styles).

After coming back on shore, our guide packed us on a boat to snorkeling destination. Now this was an interesting part. I had been looking forward to doing snorkeling, if not scuba diving, for ages, since when I was in England. Little did I know that it was available in our own backyards.

Scuba diving, it seems, was also available, but it was discontinued. God knows why!

Off we went in the boat, near Sindhudurga fort (the backside of it), where we were given, snorkel ls and goggles, and I was finally in the water looking below the water to spot anything that can be of interest! There were different kinds of fishes, sea-weeds, corals etc. The water was a little disturbed, so it was long way from being as clear as they show on NagGeo or Discovery. I had managed to pack my Samsung Marine in the pocket of my swimming shorts. I was all 'gadgety' on this trip, and it paid off. I pulled that phone out in the water, and managed to click some pics under-water. The phone, as was advertised, didn't give a single problem, and allowed me to shoot underwater. What a privilege! Have look at these pics which I took with it underwater -

The snorkeling activity lasted for around 20-mins. The guide would take us to some underwater creatures, pronounce their names, and that's it, we move on to the next. I don't remember a single name now, apart from the zebra-fish. Besides, what I felt objectionable in his practice, was using a bread slice to attract fishes, so that tourists can have a better look at them. This I found unhealthy for the marine life, because one of my bird-photographer friend had once told me that he never places baits to attract birds, so as to shoot them. Placing such baits can alter the bird's feeding habits and will make it dependent on your baits for food. This can unable the bird later to secure his own food, once you are done with your shooting and stop placing the baits.

By the time we were done with snorkeling, and returned back on the shore, it was around 11:30am, and there was a huuuuuuuge crowd going to Sindhudurga fort. So we instantly dropped the plan to see the fort. We had our breakfast that time. Came back to our room, had a bath, readied ourselves, paid the host his dues, and by 2:30pm, left Malvan for Pune.

Continued in the next post - Destination Malvan: Day 2 - A Surreal Drive on NH17 back to Pune

Destination Malvan: Day 1 - Pune to Malvan via Kolhapur

Well, I admit, these days, it's becoming more about the drive than about the actual destination, for me. They say journey is half the fun. In my case, these days, journey is becoming all the fun. What we do at destination is a cherry on the cake. Especially when the destination is a place like Malvan, and you get to drive alone both ways, despite the exertion, the excitement and that experience is cherished for a long long time.

We had planned our trip into Konkan on a very very short notice. We had a colleague's wedding to attend in Kolhapur on morning of Saturday, 25-Dec-2010. And decided about rolling over into Konkan on the night of 24th! We were four people, me being the lone driver. On that same night of 24-Dec, I was following the Rohtang Pass and Manali-Leh highway excitedly, thanks to the awesome Lisa Kelly of Ice-Road-Truckers:Deadliest Roads season. That girl had become my muse, after her daredevilry to take an Indian truck up the nasty Rohtang Pass. That feat of hers dug deep into my head and the route to Ladakh had become kind of a final-frontier for taking a motor-vehicle to. Car or bike undecided as yet. Anyways, due to all those details and drive experiences about Rohtang Pass, I was even more excited about this trip, as this would test me as a driver - my skills, my stamina, my patience, how cool-head I can maintain, and would also boost my confidence about long distance driving.

I hurriedly made some notes about the route, collected whatever numbers at Malvan, that I could get, for a stay. I wasn't sure on getting any accommodation in Malvan, at such a short notice, and that too during times like Christmas and year-end. Konkan is always bristling with tourist during this time of the year. So in short, we were going there without any planning at all! But people were mentally ready, and I, for one, always fall for such unplanned trips, which usually bring out the best in you, in terms of survivability; because everything that can go wrong, usually does.

We left not-so early in morning from Pune. Still, it was hyper misty due to cold, even at 8am. Once on the highway, the ride became a bit relaxed. Due to many trips to Sangli, including those on bike, this route was like my daily route. No surprises and just a lacklustre but relaxed high speed drive. We reached Kolhapur little late, even though I tried hard to reach in time. We even clocked 150kmph on the way once more and I wanted to touch that 100mph mark - 160kmph - this time, but the car wouldnt pick speed quickly, and I had to give up due to thickening traffic. Wish I had realised earlier to switch off that damn AC! Lesson learnt.

Attended the wedding ceremony, had our lunch, and before leaving for Konkan, collected few essentials, including a car charger for my guiding light - my Moto Milestone. More about that 'sweet piece of awesomeness' (in geekish language) in a later post. I also made some frantic calls to find an accomodation there in Malvan. And to my surprise, one person was very kind enough to route us to another, who in turn, could offer a room to four of us, at 150 bucks per head, read peanuts, during such a busy time of an year! What a relief that was! That allowed us to stroll to Malvan at a leisurely pace.

All set, we left for Gaganbavada ghat. I had heard a lot about this ghat section from people. It was near ideal time of sunset when we reached the summit ... if you can call *that* a summit, that is. Yes, height-wise, it's a dud! Let's just say it's over-rated, and be done with it. The ghat-road, on the other hand, was in much much better condition. Quite smooth, in most of the patches, and well maintained. Compared to the pathetic Tamhini roads, Gaganbavada ghat is a gem of a road to descend into Konkan.

After getting down, in about 2-hrs we reached Kankavli. Had our snacks there, and left for Malvan. We were on the NH17 now, and it was already dark. To make the matters worse, the road was degrading, and people were driving like maniacs. My first taste of NH17 driving during night. And that was just a beginning. With the help of GPS on my Moto Milestone, I could find out which exact turn to take from NH17 towards Malvan. Had it not been for that GPS, god knows we would have been stranded way away from there.

After that turn, the road is quite straight forward; and apart from few terrible 100-200mtr patches, it was a smooth sail to Malvan. By around 9pm, if I remember correctly, we reached Malvan and in half an hour we found out our accomodation. It was more than what we could ask for at such a short notice. Had our dinner, and then had a talk with couple of guys whom the host had called up on our request for giving some information about snorkelling. One of the guys was very knowledgible, and we had long talk ranging from dolphin-trails, snorkelling, scuba diving, dirty politics behind scrapping of scuba-diving gear etc.

We decided to get up early in the next morning, go on a dolphin-trail, then experience snorkelling, see the Sindhudurga fort and Tarkarli beach if possible, and by afternoon start towards Pune.

Continued in the next post - Destination Malvan: Day 2 - Dolphins and Snorkeling

At Crossroads, Part II - A New Beginning

I couldn't sleep well that night. I thought hard. About everything - current status, the support kit, the possible change in project, where it's leading me, where I want to go, the big picture, where will a new c++ project take me, what chances I have of working again on a project of the calibre of Calient which remains the best and my favourite-most till date, due to the kind of challenges it posed ... etc etc. It was a long night.

At the end, when I look back at it now, I thank god that this happened. It made me answer some hard questions that I used to dodge with my wishful thinking. I was so stubborn about c++, even though I had this dormant thought-process that c++ is not the bleeding edge of the industry any more. I had this inkling that c++ is more and more becoming niche. But I would tend to ignore it as c++ had commanded a huge part of my fascination since my pre-engineering days. I had tried very hard to get to work on c++ on linux since joining IT industry. And when those efforts culminated into getting projects like CP-redundancy implementation (Calient), it more or less fed into my ego that I am working on what I set out for, what I loved to the core.

This ego is good as long as it boosts your confidence in facing challenges successfully, and drives you to get better technically. But it gets murkier when it starts turning into a virtual inertia which blinds you from practically assessing your future direction. I was so enamoured by c++ that I virtually shunned myself from thinking about where it might lead me in near future. I did have some occasional eye-openers, like when I came to know about python. But slowly they would go into oblivion, thanks to my wishful thinking about getting another cool project on c++.

It had to be a jolt like this that would wake me up from the deep sleep. And boy-o-boy, did that wake me up! Suddenly I realised, I am far away from the cutting edge. It made me look around, and made me see that almost all of the c++ projects these days are maintenance project, and new development hardly happens in c++, if ever. All those design patterns were being implemented in new java projects; all those creative apps were happening on iPhones and androids; all those cool websites were being created using AJAX/python-ruby-php frameworks; all those emerging new OO languages, like Ruby, with support for functional language constructs like lambdas and closures (C++0x plans to have these) were aimed at web-development. Where was c++ in this picture? The C++0x standard which has been pending for so many years, is still not out. And now even if it comes out, it might turn out to be hopelessly late to the party.

So thinking on these lines for some time, and following my guts, I finally came to conclusion that it's about time that I let go; that it's about time to move over to web technologies and other happening areas rather than stubbornly sticking to one language which is fast becoming niche (work-wise of-course), especially for those who are not into game-development.

So there it stands as of now. After around 5yrs of c++, here I plan to rock my own boat, and move over to what I perceive as greener pastures. Let's see how it goes.