random thoughts. really!

Paltan Bazaar, Dehradun

An Evolving restaurant in Dhanaulti. I think I’ll visit it again in a few years!

Way back.. way way back when there was only dialup and the sound of a Dlink modem making screeching electric axe sounds was sheer music to the ears, there were some individuals who ran little host servers from their own homes on their expenses.

The servers hosted Bulletin Board Systems (or Services?) or BBSes, which could be accessed through Window’s Hyperterminal application, on a ASCII interface. BBSes allowed users to access a central file system to share files and chat with other users, all streaming down at a whopping throughput of 3.4 kbps.

And today I stumbled upon this dude’s site - called Mayank, he used to run a BBS called Tasveer that was one of the best around. I don’t remember what made Tasveer unique but it had a lot of users.

Ahh.. It wasn’t much, but it was 1997. 

Pipes, in tribute to Unix | pipes, is a RSS remixer. Basically an answer to “how do I manage so many RSS feeds individually?”, it allows you to pipe several feeds into one feed, while filtering out duplicate content.

Good explanation, and a list of pipes you can use. Example: this pipe takes the Nytimes and finds relevant photos from Flickr.

Dhanaulti is 45 mins from Mussoorie, and incredibly beautiful with lot of virgin territory at this time of the year (May):

Deoprayag - where Alaknanda and Bagirathi meet.. and briefly they had two distinct colors that reluctantly mixed at the merger. Deoprayag is 2 hours from Dehradun but the roads were quite bad this time.

And a ladybird with a macroshot.. came out real well.

Just a quick rough list of some manufacturers in India. Mostly from a list from a dude called Kartik.

Bombay:

• M/s Tejraj (www.tejraj.com)

• www.galileotelescope.com

Galileo Telescope Maker
503A, Prem Kunj, Navroji Lane,
Ghatkopar (W), Mumbai - 400086. INDIA.
Telephone : 2511 9195.
Cell : 93235 54536.
Fax : 2510 2545.
Email : galileo@atiindia.com, nileshv@vsnl.com

Delhi

• C.B.DEVGAN

431, DHRUVA APARTMENTS,
4, I.P. EXTENSION
DELHI-110092
CELL:  9810226297
www.atiindia.com - This link leads to the Galileo site above.

• Gnomon telescope

WZ 19
asalatpur
opp a3 block
janakpuri
new delhi
http://www.gnomonastrotech.com/

• V.C. MATHUR

SHARP VISION SCIENTIFIC CO,
M-7A, SHALIMAR APARTMENTS,
SHALIMAR GARDEN
SAHIBABAD,
GHAZIABAD (UP)
PIN CODE: 201005
PHONE: OFF: 0120-4625065
RES: 0120-468363
www.sharpvisionindia.com

Chennai:

• DEVADAS TELESCOPTICS

PROF. P. DEVADAS
NO.2, CHAKRAPANI ROAD,
GUINDY RACE COURSE WEST,
CHENNAI-600032
TAMIL NADU
PHONE: 044-2450941

Kolkata:

• PRECISION OPITCS AND MACHINERIES PVT. LTD,

P-26, CRAHAMS LAND
KOLKATA-700040

I haven’t personally checked them all out, but I did buy my reflector from VC Mathur way back in 1994. Also Tejraj is a pretty reputed supplier in Bombay, and I checked out some Gnomon telescopes at Dilli Haat some months back - they appeared to be good too.

Sariska is a huge tiger reserve in Rajasthan, 40 kms off the NH-8, 210 kms from Delhi. Getting there from Delhi by road is very simple - down NH8 towards Jaipur, cross Behror and Kotputli and 40 kms from Kotputli take a sharp left at Shahpur. Follow the main road to cross Viratnagar (after about 18 kms), then Thana Ghazi, and after about 7 more kms you come across a circular in the road - take a right and Tiger Den is to your left.

The reserve used to have tigers but there have been no sightings since about 5 years. There are supposed to be Leopards, Jackals and Hyenas but you probably need to have a longer trip and wait patiently in the right areas.

Enroute to Sariska, after turning left from Shahpur

Options for staying are the Tiger Den resort right at the entrance of the park, and the Sariska Palace. Tiger Den, where we stayed is surprisingly well maintained and comfortable for a Government resort - the food was great too. The rooms were Rs 2350 per double AC room or Rs 1500 per double non-AC (but w/ cooler) room. The rooms are big and spacious - so you can just get extra beds for Rs 575 each. There are 60 rooms and while it was near empty at this time (May) of the year, you can get a room reserved at the Rajasthan Tourism office in Bikaner House, Pandara Road New Delhi. The hotel arranges a jeep for the forest tours too at Rs 815 per trip - but reach early so you have the time to visit the scattered spots of interest, plus hope for a cooperative guide (and not like the 70 year old we got ). You also pay Rs 25 for entrance tickets and Rs 200 if you have a video camera, which the jeep driver will arrange for you.

Tiger Den resort

Boards inside the Tiger Den resort

We first went straight to Kankwari Fort - I think a good 18-20 kms from the entrance, and through some really bad terrain (yea no road at all). But the fort turned out to absolutely worth it.

Just before the fort, the area clears up and acquires a very ‘desert-y’ look - with palm trees and sand plains. There’s also a small village at the foot of the fort - with no electricity and 2 solitary hand pumps. Our driver told us that those people were used to not taking a bath for 6 months at a time, given the shortage of water.

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Two interesting things about the fort’s structure - one, each floor of the fort actually appears to be just a cut in the ground, in the sense that any floor is not the ceiling of the floor below it, but on hard ground - the whole fort being made in a step like fashion. Second, from the top, the various steps seem to be in very accurate alignment. While at first the fort appears to be in the most isolated of places, it becomes obviuos from the top that its located strategically in a central hill that is surrounded by a valley, that is encircled by high mountains - making the fort very impregnable.

On the way there are also some interesting rock formations.

The authorities have created artificial water holes in the forest, where the animals (read Sambhar, Neelgai, Deer, Peacocks) flock. They’ve adjusted so well to humans that they (animals, not authorities) hardly flinch a muscle when a jeep passes.

Don’t expect any tigers now of course, and even a Leopard spotting is probably happening only if you stay on during the sunset or may be early in the morning, and at the right place if you have the permits. We did see a zillion deer and peacocks however. Thankfully the forest, though dry, was denser than Rajaji National Park, and more exciting.

After Kankwari fort and a trip through the forest we reached Pandupol temple. Right before the temple, there are water holes in rocky palmtree lined ‘oases’ - right out of a Jungle book scene and probably a good area to spot a leopard.

You can find some food and drinks at the temple. The real thing however is a 1 km trek from the temple to the Pandupol Gorge - a hole in the hill that according to legend was made by Bheema from Mahabharata. Unfortunately we were too late, and our uncooperative guide refused to give us the 25 mins to walk to that spot. We were also told we’d get bitten by bees at this time of the year. Vehicles aren’t allowed up there since the road isn’t good.

After Pandupol we made it back to the resort, had a good buffet dinner, great lime juice, and sat outside in the lawns during dark.

With 4 people, by road from Delhi, 1 night in the AC room at Tiger Den, cost us about Rs 2000 apiece. Other links to Sariska: link 1, link 2, link 3 (with lot of detail).

Having more time on my hands, getting the right guide, and going at a better time of the year (Sep/Oct?) is what I need to remember to do when I redo this trip (and also Rajaji!)!!!

Rajaji National park (website) has multiple entrances - two are the Mohand entrance just before Dehradun, and one in Hardwar. Despite a 40 km ride through the forest, we really didn’t see anything beyond the deers and peacocks. Never mind the brochures saying that summers are a good time to visit the forest as animal spotting is more likely around the water holes - the forest at this time is mostly dry and dusty and not as dense as you’d want.

You need permission to go in to the forest - from the forest deptt officials. The road trail is cemented and rocky/sandy in most part, but not too bad if you have a good vehicle.

Rajaji National Park map

Rajaji National Park Mohand Entrance

Forest trail

Forest at evening

Hardwar Barrage

Elephant enclosure just before the 2nd entrance to the park

Deer

There’s a peacock if you looked closely…

Shivpuri - Starting point for rafting to Rishikesh - about 17 kms between them by road.

Shivpuri

Cliffjumping enroute the rafting

Arranging to raft is very easy in Rishikesh since there are zillions of operators - earlier in the morning you get more options of rafting course, while the last group usually leaves Rishikesh for Shivpuri around 3 PM. It cost us Rs 450 per person to join a group of 6 other guys, on a 20 odd km stretch from Shivpuri to Rishikesh - going through some of the best rapids on course including Golf course, Roller Coaster, Butterfly, Tee off and 7 others (not in order) but not including Marine Drive which is supposed to be one of the best.

Never had time to sit in the sun

because all I had in front of my eyes was all that needed to be done

but when I did find a minute to sit in the sun

much sooner all the tobedos got done

now life is fun.

“What’s a hamstring! And why are so many people pulling at it??!”

These aren’t the books I thought would be in the Non-Fiction section…