Mobical
This is probably the best backup solution for out there. The beautiful Ajax interface puts Nokia’s backup solution to shame. Whats more? It even allows you to export all your contacts with a single click. The only reason why i choose not to use this service is because i might need to access my backup at some cybercafe, and they do not really have the latest of browsers or hardware.

O-Sync
This website claims to work with all phones that have support for SyncML. On first run, it comes across as a simple and effective and no-frills solution. The layout is designed to give as much information as possible in a single look. Another thing noteworthy is that it uses an https protocol. It simply works and its free!

Another handy feature provided by these guys is “Update Me”, where in you can choose to send a message to your contact, who can then visit a web page to update his or her details. This way, you dont have to go filling up all the details for all your contacts. Whats more, you can maintain serveral seperate devices each with their own contact lists and calendar entries.

Additional paid features include, but not limited to, client software, which you can purchase and download at a small fee, for use with non-SyncML aware sources such as Outlook / Express, BlackBerry, PDA, Smartphone, etc to sync with O-Sync.

ZYB
Zyb packs in quite a punch with features such as profile pictures, auto updating of contact details, location tagger etc. However, for some weird reason, i was not able to sync my phone with ZYB.

SyncML Server
This is not really a free service. The demo mode possesses all functions of the system with some limitations as to the quantity of data – you can control only 20 contacts, tasks, notes and events. The period of its validity is not limited in time.

Geocache @ Mahim Nature Park

Related Links
More about geocaching
More about Mahim nature park
Mahim nature park geocache details

It was a lazy Saturday afternoon and me and Nikhil were on our way to Mahim nature park, hoping to discover a geocache, placed by Rottenwood. This was our first geocaching experience. Being local boys, we were overconfident of finding this geocache without even needing a GPSr. We can handle a few square meters here or there, we thought. Big mistake…
The board outside the park lists several attractions including an aquarium, Open air Amphitheatre, Exhibition hall, Bird Observation Points etc. Sadly, not all of these projects are complete yet. One thing that is complete though, is the nature trail. The entry fee is 5rs which is dirt cheap.

The nature trail

The nature trail here is definitely worth a visit. It is hard to imagine a place like this in the heart of the city. It felt as if someone had opened our eyes to an oasis in our own backyard. There are bird shelters placed throughout the place. We did not spot any birds though. Bad timing? Also, there is a plant nursery here which cultures various types of plants. There is also a vermicompost production center. The water used here is from harvested rain water, which is then fed into aquaguard RO units.

Coming back to the geocache, we were using Google maps on my cell phone to track the position of the cache. As we approached the point on the map, we realized that a few square meters in a dense vegetation such as this does make a huge difference!

We kept to the trail, all the time, referring back to a print out of what Rottenwood had written on the website. He had left a hint. “Trees Knees”. We figured the cache was hidden or on near a tree which looked like a knee? We were losing hope with time…

After walking up and down the trail a few times, Nikhil suggested brute force technique around the area we suspected. After checking a few trees around the place, my eyes fell on it! (I will not ruin the fun for others by telling where we found it…). We were the third to find this cache. I remember the feeling of elation as i wrote down our names in the log book.

I still cant believe we found this thing without a GPSr. It was an amazing experience for us and this will definitely not be the last of my geocaching trips.

Irshal

Irshal
Irshal is often mistakenly called Irshalgad(Irshal fort). However, Irshal was, once upon a time, a watch tower over the ghat route to pune.

Related Links
Irshal @ Wikimapia

My treklog
Saturday 09:15 hrs – Rendevous with Nikhil
Irshal was a long awaited trek for me and Nikhil. As decided, Nikhil picked me up from Dombivilli railway station. After buying required rations from shops around the railway station, we headed off towards the Mumbai-Pune highway…

Saturday 09:50 hrs – Shil phata
The road leading to Shil phata was in bad shape, riddled with potholes and inappropriately high speed breakers. But it was nothing compared to initial stretch of the road the road leading from here to Panvel. The ride ahead from Panvel was smooth and we picked up speed.

Sunday 01.00 hrs – Chouk village
An easy-to-miss by-lane on the highway leads to chouk village. Chouk village lies on the Mumbai-Pune highway near Mohape. Chouk village is a small cluster of huts and mud houses. Surprisingly, the road is in good condition. Recently a dam was built here, which is visible from the highway.

As we reached the village, we met a villager returning from work. He agreed to keep our bike outside his house for the night. After parking the bike outside the villager’s house, we began walking towards the mountain. The villager asked two local boys to escort us to the foot of the mountain.

Sunday 01:45 hrs – The climb
The boys had led us through the village to the foot of the mountain. From here, there was a clear trail leading upwards. It was pitch dark. After bidding farewell, we began our climb led by our flash lights. After a while, the trail had disappeared, hidden by tall dry grass.

We had hardly climbed 100 meters when we started feeling out of breath. Puzzled, Nikhil checked his altimeter and then it dawned upon us that we had climbed 200 feet. No wonder we were out of breath. We shone our flash lights about us. We were fooled by the tall grass around us. The terrain was steep (Almost 45*). We continued to climb, taking breaks in between.

The sky was sparkling clear and stars adorned the skies as if small diamonds had been sprinkled all over. For the first time in my life, i saw a shooting star!

Sunday 02:00 hrs – Irshalwadi
Several minutes later, we were walking across tiny paddy fields. We had reached the outskirts of Irshalwadi, a small and remote mountain village. The dogs in the village had sensed us. When e reached the village, there was no one around. Probably, the villagers were all sleeping. After scouting around for a place to sleep, we decided to spend the night at the local village school. We had a quick torch light(we forgot to get matches) dinner. Alarms were set at 04:45hrs and 05:00hrs. Lights out..

Sunday 04:45 hrs
ALARM! SNOOZE… zzZZ

Sunday 05:00 hrs
ALARM! SNOOZE… zzZZ

Sunday 07:00 hrs – The Climb

Sunrise at Irsahlwadi

With such amazing weather outside, waking up was an effort. When we finally did wake up, we were rewarded with a beautiful sunrise over the Sahyadri mountains.

The sun was rising fast. We packed up and headed for the peak. The forest was thick. The habitat was wonderful and we came across many types of butterflies and birds. At one point, a couple of birds flew out of the bush startling startling Nikhil with their noise . After half an hour of wading through thick under bush, the trail kept splitting and dividing. Villagers traveling through the forest to other mountain ranges had traveled across these routes. Each trail we took, ended in a dead end. We had lost the trail…

We could however, still see the peak. Nikhil suggested scaling the mountain ridge at the easiest point. We climbed to the edge of the ridge and began walking along it trying to find the shortest spot to scale the ridge. But we had not planned to do any rock climbing and did not even carry any rope on that day. Scaling the ridge without a rope meant that, if anything were to go wrong, at least a broken leg was certainty. We decided not take the chance…

While we were still discussing the alternatives, a local villager happened to pass by. He offered to lead us to the right path. We grabbed the offer.

Sunday 10:00 hrs – The summit
Finally, we were on the right track. The trail took us through steep climbs and narrow ledges. Several minutes later, we came across a water cistern. Just above the water cistern is a small shrine dedicated to Vishaldevi.

Climbing further up, we came across an etched marble stone dedicated to a youth who once died here.
It reads..

Great was your flight ajith,
Sometimes on the himgiri and sometimes over the sahyadri mountains,
Sometimes you are seen at dusk and sometimes in the depths of the earth,
Finally, you have rested here and every moment, we remember you…

Note: The above is what we could translate from what was written on the stone in “Marathi”. The translation may not be perfect.

After this point, lies a step rock pinnacle. There was no way we could scale this pinnacle without rope and other professional equipment. This is as far as we were going. The summit is covered in dry grass and there is a fear of slipping.

As we stood on the top, Swallows flew around us in their signature flutter-glide pattern. Groups of monkeys sat on the ledges opposite to us enjoying their breakfast.

Sunday 10:30 hrs – Breakfast
After spending some time here, we backtracked to the small shrine, where settled down to have breakfast. After breakfast, we decided to catch a quick nap before the descent.

Sunday 11:45 hrs – The Descent
The descent down was tricky and once the rocky terrain was covered, we doubled our pace. On the decent we passed another group returning from Irshalwadi.

Once we reached the village, we grabbed the bike and headed back home. As we rode back home, we could still see Irshal. We stopped for one final click before we headed back home, and thus ended once of the most memorable treks i have ever been on.

Fast forward a couple of months and today, i regret that decision…
Recently, i updated my phone’s firmware. Quite confident of “My Nokia Backup”, i went ahead with the firmware update without backing up the phone memory when prompted.

When the update was complete, i headed over to “My Nokia’s (India)” website to restore my contacts and calendar entries. The “My Backup” link was dead.

Temporary technical issues, i thought as I tried again the next day… and the next day… and the next day…
Nothing! The web page was gone! Vanished! poof!

Left with nothing else to try, i wrote to Nokia clarifying my problem. Yesterday, i received a reply, asking me to stay put while they fixed the site.

As of now, i am left with no contacts… and no appointments… no birthdays… no to-do’s… and no choice but to wait while Nokia attempts to fix the problem…

And so, i wait…
Nokia backup is back online! However, i have decided to stick with mobical for now…

Resource management

This picture was shot by my friend,  Nikhil in thane, outside a local vada-pav stall.

Translation from Hindi: Please give 1 and 2 re change, amounting to 200rs, in exchange for a free vada-pav

Now that’s is what i call resource management!

Sai baba samadhi mandir

Related links:
More Information about Shirdi
Official Shri SaiBaba Sansthan Website
More Information about Shani Shingnapur
Pictures of the trip

This was more of a leisure trip for me. We had hired an A/C mini bus(Tempo Traveller) for our excursion to take us to Shirdi, and from there to Shingnapur and back to Bombay. It was a 12-seater with the boot modified into a bed to accommodate more people.

Friday 21:30 Hrs : Mulund Check Naka
We started out from Mulund checknaka. After a while, we realized that the A/C was leaking and had to be turned off to keep the back passengers from drowning.

Lesson learnt: Check the vehicle before paying up. Thankfully, the weather outside was cool…

Saturday 02:30 Hrs
We made a stop at “Pangri” for tea at a small local stall.

Saturday 03:30 Hrs – Sri Sai baba samadhi

Sri Sai baba samadhi

We reached Shirdi. The aarti starts somewhere around 4:15-4:20AM. We were late and there was a huge queue lining up outside the temple. An hour or so later, we were inside the temple, and were thrown out by the security guards just as we realized it. Apparently, they do not allow people to stay inside the temple area for more than a minute. This is so that everyone gets a chance to get in.

Saturday 07:30 Hrs
From here, we went to Shani Shingnapur, which is about 70kms from Shirdi. On the way, we stopped at a place called “Sri sai raja” for breakfast. It turned out to be a south-indian restaurant and surprisingly the place had just 3 items on the menu: Idli, Dosa and Upma. Coming to think of it, they did not require a menu.
The waiter disapprovingly turned his head every time we asked for anything other than the 3 items on the menu. Manshu’s request for bisleri received the same treatment.

On the plus side, the Sambar was simply wonderful and was served in steel buckets! Guess the place runs only on Sambar.

Saturday 10.00 Hrs : Shingnapur

Shani Temple at Shingnapur

We reached Shingnapur. It was hot with the sun beating down on us. This is the temple of Shani god and people come here to ward off bad luck. The temple was kind of empty at the time and it felt good being there…

An interesting thing is that the place is known to have been blessed by the Shani god, that no robberies can occur here. Hence, most guest houses, shops, and other buildings here, have no doors or locks. (Not even the Post office or wash rooms).

The tradition here is to offer prayers to shani god, wearing nothing but a dhoti on a wet body.

After spending some time here, we decided to head back home.

Saturday 15:00 Hrs

Shri Matoshri

On the way we stopped at a place named “Sri Matoshri” for lunch. The food here, was pretty decent if one was willing to overlook the really long wait time. While waiting, you could try your hand at decorating your plate with salad. If its any compensation, the prices were quite decent.

Saturday 17:45 Hrs
We made a stop at “Kasara” for tea and snacks. The road on this stretch leading to Kasara is in very bad condition with construction in progress at various spots. Our friend bollam nearly fell off the bus as the rear door almost flung open, after we had hit a really bad patch of road.

Saturday 20:00 Hrs : Touch down!
The rest of our journey was pretty uneventful. The highway is in pretty immaculate condition: smooth and wide. Thankfully, we did not hit any traffic as we entered the city. We were dropped off at “Eternity Mall” Near Thane. After bidding farewell to the gang, me and Swapnil headed home…

Untill next time…

Zenith Waterfalls

Related Links:
Photos of the trip
Pictures taken by me in 2003

5 years later, i returned to the zenith waterfalls, to find that it still looks just as beautiful as it did the last time i saw it.

This time, however, i choose to travel by road. Zenith waterfalls is about 97 kms from Mumbai(Dadar). I took the old Mumbai-Pune highway, which was recently renovated and converted into a 4 lane highway. The ride is scenic and comfortable.

Materials required:

• Plywood
• 2 steel rods of 3 feet each
• wall-wall straight sockets
• Paint
• Sun Mica

Cutout the base and top pieces from the plywood. I cut out a 8×8 piece for the base and a 6×6 piece for the top.

Screw in the sockets to the plywood cutouts.

Connect the top and bottom pieces to the steel rods using the sockets.

I used araldite to fasten the steel rod to the sockets.

Almost done…

Next weekend, i intend to paint the bottom pieces and paste sunmica to the top pieces…

After a bit of bargaining with the shopkeepers, I bagged this beauty at a price of INR3800 (approx. 95USD).

Here is the technical lowdown

MAIN SYSTEM  - Sound Pressure Level   : TBD
               Total Continuous Power : 70 Watts RMS
               Front Speakers Power   : 9 Watts/channel @ 4 ohms @ 10% THD
                                          @ 120 Hz - 17 kHz 2 Channels
                                          Loaded.
               Rear Speakers Power    : 9 Watts/channel @ 4 ohms @ 10% THD
                                          @ 120 Hz - 17 kHz 2 Channels
                                          Loaded.
               Center Speaker Power   : 9 Watts @ 4 ohms @ 10% THD @ 120 Hz
                                          - 17 kHz Single Channel Loaded.
               Subwoofer Power        : 25 Watts @ 4 ohms @ 10% THD @
                                          40 - 120 Hz Single Channel
                                          Loaded.
               Frequency Response     : 40 Hz - 17 kHz (-10 dB)
               Signal to Noise Ratio  : @ 1 kHz INPUT: > 70 dB
SPEAKERs     - Surround Speakers      : One full-range 2.5" driver per
                                          speaker.
               Subwoofer              : One 5.25" long-throw woofer
DIMENSIONS   - Surround Speakers      : 3.7"w x 5.4"h x 2.3"d
               Subwoofer              : 10.4"w x 6.6"h x 14.2"d

It comes complete with a wireless remote. It lacks separate bass and treble controls, although this can be compensated for this by adjusting the equalizer in the media player.

Ulhas River

Ulhas River
Ulhas River is a river of western India. It originates near Karjat in the Western Ghats Range, and flows westward through Raigad and Thane districts of Maharashtra between Kulgaon-Badlapur, north to Ulhasnagar (to which it gives its name) and on to Kalyan, where it turns west to Thane.

The river as seen from the bridge where we got off…

Getting geared up…

The water level in the river had risen to alarming levels because the dam up north(built by British 150yr ago) had collapsed. There was no way we could fish for anything in these gushing waters…

On our way to the fishing spot…

The landscape is simply breath taking!

Getting ready to go off-road…

The canal that will lead us to our spot…

To the right you can see water holes… These were teeming with danios and barbs of various kinds…

Initially, we could not catch a thing! The danios simply jump off(rather fly off!) as the net approaches…
When someone swiped the net, you could see 10-15 danios flying out of the water…

Finally, i got the first catch… From there on, we caught many danios…
I remember ajay once swiped his net in the water lazilyn and got 3 danio’s in one swipe!

Some wishful photography..

Beautiful violet flowers…

Local fisherman…

On our way back, we chanced upon these…
FOXTAIL!

Fish collected:
Rasbora daniconius

Wish we had caught more of these…
Malabar danio(devario malabaricus)

Garra Gotyla
This one was caught by Ajay or Abhi…