Bhandardara Trip

Sharing link to video montage of my trip to Bhandardara hill station this year, a memorable road trip with family. We enjoyed our stay at Ananadvan Resort which is very well maintained and has courteous staff with lip smacking food at their in-house restaurant. When you are out exploring nearby attractions near Bhandardara dam do visit places like Umbrella fall at Wilson Dam, Amruteshwar temple, Randha Falls, Reverse Waterfall at Sandhan Valley and Agasthya Rishi Ashram.

We took Chakan - Rajgurunagar - Alephata - Brahmanwadi - Kotul - Bhandardara which is the shortest route however once you take the turn from Alephata it is a single lane road with some bad patches on the way so you need to drive slow while passing through small villages. Nevertheless this route is enjoyable in terms of soaking in all the natural scenery around. Make sure to have snacks/breakfast while you are on the highway.

On return we took the longer route back to Pune from Bhandardara - Ghoti - Bhatwadi - going along NH60 - Ghulewadi - connecting at Alephata which adds approx. 70kms to the journey however road condition is good and you would pass through farm areas all along with more options to stop for food on the highway.

Enjoy the video!

Ode to a Rainy Sunday

A post shared by Bhautik Joshi (@kreativegeek) on Jul 21, 2018 at 11:52pm PDT

I was yearning for a rainy weekend this monsoon season and today was that perfect Sunday when a steady drizzle has continued since morning, prompting me to spend time in my balcony staring at the rain drops soaking up trees in our society garden while enjoying hot cup of coffee. I am no fan of gloomy overcast weather however the pluviophile in me is not complaining today.

Occasional mist of rain drops accompanied by the breeze gracing my face, feels refreshing! There is some beauty to a rainy day that makes you stop for a while and take time to look at the world around you. The sight of landscape blurred by raindrops renders the weather to look more fresh once the rain has passed, the air feel more clean. Even if you are stuck in traffic if you choose to ignore the noise of urban distractions around you and listen to the rain drops falling, they don't have any tune but it creates an ambience of sound worth listening too.

This year there have been no major instances of raging downpour that continues for few days making it difficult for people to move around in the city or commuting to work. No one loves to be confined to their home watching downpour continuously or braving flooding in the name of 'spirit of the city'. That is why I love the rains in Pune which does not bring your life to a standstill apart from the regular traffic snarls and other civic issues which every major city in our country faces.

Rainy season is a phase of transformation that changes the brown landscape of scorched earth to a vibrant green carpet laid down by the clouds, dust turned to mud. Thoughts and ideas pouring like the rain, some come out in form of words some get washed away. This happy feeling does not for long however the rain touches our soul to prepare us again to deal with the mundane chores of our day to day lives.

Monsoon arrives in Pune today

After a long spell of tease with cloudy mornings and breezy evenings, Monsoon marks it's proper arrival in Pune today.

First Monday of the holy Shravan month reminds me of childhood days spent in Mumbai regularly visiting a Shiva temple near our home in Mumbai with my granny. Rainy season in Pune is hardly intimidating like heavy showers that disrupt normal life in Mumbai, it's a constant drizzle that makes you feel like ditching the umbrella and take a walk in the rain.

Mumbaikar's love to stroll by the sea, hit the road towards Lonavala or Bushi Dam while Punekar's throng towards places like Mulshi, Tamhini Ghat, Sinhagadh as favorite spots to enjoy rains. Let us hope that the rain gods continue to shower their affection for another 2-3 days to overcome water supply scare generated due to delayed arrival of Monsoon. 

 

Only problem is once the dams are full, measures to curb water scarcity would be put in a cold bag again by politicians and civic authorities.

Monsoon Gaffe : Overlooking the El Nino Effect?

IMD was anticipating close to normal monsoon conditions for India and continued harping on this statement until August arrived and it finally realised overcast clouds had actually failed to pour and they would have to announce a partial drought condition in the country. Farmer's have already started committing suicide entering into a cycle of debt again, why do we need a MET department that is unable to study climate change trends that fails to help farmers in the country to prepare themselves for the worst. Advising farmers to change crop sowing pattern's is not going to help their cause. News channels are reporting drought conditions to be worse than 2009.

Let's check the whole series of prediction model goof up's :

1) El Nino unlikely to hit monsoon : MET office, TOI Jul 11 2012

2) Weak Monsoon a worry, but no drought, IBN Live Jul 16 2012

3) Wake up call finally on Aug 4, El Nino may effect the monsoon : Business Standard

Government machinery is still shooting down drought fears, however we are already aware of the poor storage and distribution network for food grains which allows middle men and traders to hoard foodgrains leading to a price rice condition which leads to high inflation situation that is left to RBI to solve, it's not just India but the entire global food chain that would probably witness food price rise.

Subsidies and relief packages would be announced for farmers and states, the end consumer would be left to battle market conditions and the blame game would then pass on to nature's hide and seek game on the already pressurised economic conditions, so don't expect RBI or government to come up with a relief tonic to the ongoing inflation disease, you can only hope for a consolation wish on the way - Happy Diwali !