Among the Sahyadris again - Rajmachi trek

Left to meet Sensei..it was her B’day. Me and Riddhi met up and took her a cake. Somwhere on the way , went and picked up my Lafuma sack,sleeping bag and tent from Akash at MAM.It was good fun catching up with her after a long time. She was amused and touched that we remembered so much about her…..Whilst in the middle of a conversation , I received a message from Avani asking me to reply asap whether I was interested in coming for a trip to Rajmachi. I obviously jumped and said YES immediately.Anyway, left for Nani’s place at about 15:15.Reached there, dumped the bags there, apologized to Mau for not letting her have her Sunday at the institute( as I would be going on the trek).Then me and SK went for Body of Lies…an ok-ok movie with Leaonardo Di-Caprio acting as good as ever. Anyway after the movie, we decided to hang out and then Avani messaged saying that the trek might be cancelled. Sk gave his damned grin and told me that I wouldn’t have gone anyway.. he then dropped me off at Queen’s park asking me to come collect his headlamp and all IF I were going..it is so irritating when someone tries to pre-empt you. From the rickshaw also he called out that I will not go!!!grrrrrrrrrrrrrr…anyway , started walking to Nani’s house..so much for an adventurous weekend!!When I reached nani’s gate, Avani called telling me to not get too happy and that the reason for her decision is NOT my sms:p..the trip was on..we were meeting at 21:00 at Dadar station.I tried calling up Sk , but as usual , Mr Popular’s phone was engaged!Got through to him and asked him to wait wherever he was…met him at Band signal , and went to his place where I picked up his headlamp and mats and then we went to a shop in Bandra to pick up a cap.

Came back to Nani’s place, kept the phone and camera battery to charge, transferred the photos from the drive onto the lappie phaphat packed and left for Dadar. By the time I had dinner and left , it was 20:45(and we were supposed to meet at 21:00).

Went to Santacruz station, picked up a loaf of bread and 3 pairs of socks ,and ran to the train.mustve’ reached Pritam by 21:15.Met up with Antara(she’s from E&A)..my throat was gone and there was no sign of the other 4.So I went in for a cuppa of coffe..the guy misunderstood and ended giving up 2 cups instead of 1..sat opposite a veryy cute baby.

These guys came at about 21:30 and then the 3 guys-Nihar, Pariket and Savio went to take a leak….and they went on for another hour , while Antara,Avani and me were dutifully trying to check out which bus goes to Lonavala. They mustve come at around 22:30, tummies satiated with few pints of alcohol , after which we found a bus to baramati at around 23:00.Got in and caught the whole of the last seat. And started talking about this and that. Antara and Savio were on and on about their respective cameras with Savio teaching Antara a couple of tricks with her cam(both have a Nikon)Nihar was sitting ahead..and conversing with his neighbour , apparently he can strike a conversation with about anyone ,, an admirable quality which we saw more and more on the trip. He would converse in his broken marathi and just strike up a conversation! Anyway , we started talking about Movies, and got stuck up …NONE of us and I repeat NONE of us could remember the name of the black guy in American Gangster(and Philadelphia and bone collector and Courage under fire) we could also not remember the guy in Hotel Rwanda( and Crash)…finally we gave up and I messaged Sk and he promptly replied Denzel Washington and Don CHeadly…hahah so much for being film buffs!! !And then Avani gets stuck up on an actor with a mole near the nose- a white actor….none of can remember ANY Caucasian actor with a mole..not a famous actor at the least!! so we went on and on thinking, she couldn’t even recollect the name of any movie he has acted in…so she called up her friend and he promptly replied Robert De Niro…and then we all were upon her , chiding her, telling her that Robert De Niro has NO mole near his nose!!!! called up Sk and he too confimed Avani’s version!!none of the rest of us still believed it…(anyway fact is that he DOES have a mole, albeit way above, near his eye and not near his nose).Anyway , fact is that we all will always remember Avani and this trip everytime we watch a Robert De Niro movie(which she also sms'ed me right now!!)After all this excitement of discovering how bad we really are with our favorite actors and movies, we all settled down. The bus lights dimmed and I, sitting near the window was watching the sahyadris..it felt so good to be going for a trek after such a longg time,antara and savio went to nap and avani and pariket were listening to some music on his ipod.i went to sleep and would wake up everytime avani guessed a song or strated singing or discussing it:p.One such time, she said “Nirvana” at a time when I was smiling at the awesomely cool a/c like gale that was blowing in my face and I said..yeh this weather sure is Nirvana…Avani and Pariket gave me such blank looks:hehehe..

Reached Lonavala at about 130 am, visited the toilets and most of us had a cup of chai. Then we left to find us some transportation to get to the village where we would start our trek from. We got onto the main road only to find a deserted street with no auto in sight. We went around found some guy in a bike and asked him for directions..he asked us to take the 3rd left from the bust depot. Pariket , with his superb negotiating skills, found a Maruti car willing to take us to the village for some 10 bucks a head. After some going back and forth and trying to guess the exact turn that we needed to take , someone finally told us to take the road just before HDFC bank, which turned out to be the correct road. The road from there to the top is actually a motorable road right upto Rajmachi village. But after a while when the road became a muddy road, the Maruti guy refused to go further ahead and dropped us off. We finally started to walk. It was 2:35 am!

We walked and walked , passed the gate of Captain's resort, passed a lot of thatched huts which reminded me somehow of Kagal, with its cowdung and burning wood smell.We came to a fork where one road led upwards and another straight, we walked stratight then came back and went up and sat for while ,Pariket and Savio went to find out whether it was the correct rd,it was not, so back down again and we continued walking. For some unknown reason ,there was a little water on the roads. It was a nice moonlit night and throughout the trip , we did not feel the need to turn on the headlamps/torchlights. We stopped after about an hour and half and sat to eat bread with Avani’s melted cheese.With some grub in , we recommenced and continued to trudge slowly .I t was an easy path(like I said ,it’s a motorable road )The road went up and down but as never steep. The weather was awesome .At the start of the trip( and as reminded by Sk) , we were expecting a sweaty trip.But it turned out quite otherwise, we were hoping we had expected this earlier and had carried jackets to combat the cold. But then we were keeping a steady pace and were sweating a little bit, so we never felt too cold really. Some of us were tempted to just lie down on the road- the breeze was so amazingly cool.It was like a/c.really amazing. After a 4 hour walk and around 18 kms later , we finally reached Rajmachi village at around 645.

Nihar was amazed that we all seriously weren’t carrying brushes, nor felt the need to want to brush. Shaking his head in disbelief, he finished his prized ablution while Pariket and Savio instantly fell asleep on the 1st flat, manmade construction they saw in the village.We ordered for tea and milk and sat outside a shop.An old woman came and asked us whether we wanted some water or tea and then asked us whether we wanted to sleep for sometime. Savio woke up after sometime. Nihar was playing with the village dogs, shaking his head at how badly treated they were and offering them Avani’s marie biscuits. Nihar and Savio ordered for some egg bhurji. Savio was insisting that he slept for only 15 mins while actually he was snoring for over 30 mins. While we all were feasting, Pariket woke up after an hour’s slumber wondering how the rest of us were surviving without any sleep. All well fed and (some) well rested, we again debated on the route o Karjat(we were comin down via the karjat route). Avani pointed out to a route from front of the shop where we had tea and was seconded by an old woman standing at the door. So we started our way back down at around 845.We walked down breezy , grassy routes.The blowing grass gave the effect of a blanket being jhatkaoed.It was beautiful!! We continued to trudge down for around 45 mins when Avani suddenly stopped and exclaimed that we were back on he Lonavla route.Everyone else said no- as we had not noticed any deviations on the route the night before…it was im[possible , we couldn’t have had made that error.Pariket went a had to chck and discovered a wall which we had seen the previous night.We indeed were back on the way to lonavla.This fact was confirmed some people we met.Apparently this was the same spot where Avani had done a route error ;last year. Rajmachi definitely has something against Avani. Anyway we debated whether we should move on to lonavla or go back to the village and go to Karjat. Back t o the village would be an hour and from there to karjat would be around 2 hours, while on this path , we had a 3 hours, non-canopy,hott journey ahead of us! The decision was made and we started disbelievingly trudging our way back to the village. 2 hours of the cool weather was lost because of this mistake!!!!!

Anyway , we went past the "jangal mein mangal" room and past those grassy slopes and when were just , behind the village,we asked a village boy who was passing by what the route to karjat as he just looked to his left and pointed to a stone with a white marking showing the route!!!we couldn’t believe that THIS is what we had mossed, such a clearcut marked path!!!So began our journey back to civilization.This wasn’t a simple stroll.This way down was a slope down, with most parts requiring bending down,and holding onto the rocks to o a step down.Our legs were screwed!!Thighs, knees all gone..and then came the sun in full glory,our water resources were down!!and the sun had no mercy, nor did the hill.In hindsight, it was no t at all a diffucult route.The path is well marked and doesn’t require any sort of dangerous acts.But because of the steeper slope, it took a toll on most peoples thighs..to try not to fall head first, we hd to be very careful.I slipped and fell , while trying to change my cam batteries and ended up being the last one . after an hour and half with only one stop (in the 1st half hour for eating and drinking),we did not stop at all.My legs were gone and I was afraid that stopping and sitting down would make me not want to get up again.. captain avani kept edging us bit by bit. Nihar did not complain one bit. He just maintained an even pace. But such was the hurry to get back down , that nobody but me stopped to take pics of that amazing place. I too did not end up taking too many , lest I fall way too behind! We passed a stream where Pariket and Savio replenished water supplies to some extent. We continued trudging down. We could hear the train and that mirage of a sound would lift our spirits,..just 15 minutes further(probably)..We finally came to a place where the road started becoming more of a plain and finaly we were convinced that we weren’t far away now. Hurrah!!! 10 more minutes!!! Then we asked a couple who passed us how much further and they said “30 mins”!!!

They were right.We reached the village and lost Savio at around 1230 pm.We filled ourselves with Fanta and Thumbs up.(yeah me too..i've gad soft drinks after god knows how many years..but they did not have water or milk).Feeling better , and with no sign of Savio , we refused to an offer to give us a ride to Karjat for 200 bucks!!!a 15 minute walk down and the same ride was 10 bucks a head(60 total).We started walking when a villager called out to us and told us that a friend of ours was waiting with a rickshaw!!! Savio to the rescue!!!!! We haggled with the guy and got the fare down to 20 bucks a head(120 total).The train to home was at 13:15.But there was no way we could make it! Nihr tried his hand at the rickshaw for sometime.We reached the station at around the same time. The train was gone and we had an hour to kill before the next one at 14:00.So we had glasses and glasses of the refresing nimbu paani (lemonade).I and avani filled our bottles with it to sip slowly on our way home. Some ate vada pav , some drank lassi. All plans of the guys filling themselves with beer had one kaput. Getting a shower and a bed was the priority!! We boarded the crowed train and settled ourselves on the floor of the bogey. Antara got a seat and was immediately snoozing, even before the train started! Uncomfortable that we were, Savio and Nihar too went for a normal seat once they found one. Avani said she preferred to stand inside the compartment rather than at the door where there would be a whole crowd of people coming in. It was the central railway after all!!The crowd came and how!!!I thought there would be a stampede or something. I and Pariket stood up and continued talking and he tried protecting me from the "vile men looking for a good massage". Anyway I got this bright idea of getting off at Kurla instead of going through the craziness of going to dadar and catching a train to Santacruz. Sk called during the journey down and was amazed that we were so tired. It was Brijesh’s treat too that night (oh no!! i was already pooped).Reached Nani’s home at around 1515.had a bath a quick lunch and dodging mau’s questons, took my aching body straight to bed!!

An amazing trip really. I think besides a picturesque place in the Sahyadris, what is of essence in a trek , is good company. The whole trip was a whole lot of fun. Avani was amazing. She’d just start singing relevant songs, just like that. Her energy was uncomparable. She was simply a lot of fun! She and Savio kept pulling each other’s legs so much! Savio did the entire trek in slippers. Nihar , Pariket and Antara we awesome company too. Everyone kept the mood light and conversations going. I realized just how much I moved and missed nature and also the known fact of how unfit I was. Being unfit just compounds a lot of discomfort on such trips. So hopefully same time next year, same/similar trip, lighter me and no ache complaints!!!!!

What's happening to the world'smost prosperous economies?!?!

Japan's Core Inflation Rises,
Jobless Rate Worsens

DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
March 27, 2008 11:52 p.m.

TOKYO -- Japan's inflation rate climbed at its fastest rate in a decade in February and the jobless rate worsened to 3.9% under data released Friday, raising concerns about the health of the world's second-largest economy.
The core consumer price index, which excludes volatile fresh food prices, rose 1.0% in February from a year ago -- the fastest reading since March 1998, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said.
Japan has long struggled with deflation, or falling prices, but Friday's data, which also marked the fifth straight month of gains, show that higher prices for imported oil and commodities are adding pressure on living costs.
Separate data released by the ministry said household spending was flat in February from a year earlier, an indication that the economy was getting less support from domestic demand, while exports that have long driven the nation's growth are also losing steam.
The result fell short of the 2.5% rise expected in surveys by Dow Jones Newswires and Nikkei.
Economy Minister Hiroko Ota voiced concerns that recent sharp rises in consumer prices could have a negative impact on consumption growth.
"With economic growth pausing and workers' wages not increasing, I cannot say that recent rises in consumer prices are good," Mr. Ota told a news conference. "I'm concerned about how such price rises -- mostly stemming from rises in gasoline and food prices -- will affect consumers."
Separately, Japan's unemployment rate stood at a worse-than-expected 3.9% in February, the Ministry of Public Management said. The results reflected slowing domestic and overseas growth, which has made business less willing to hire workers.
Japan's unemployment rate was 3.8% in January.
The ministry said the total number of jobless was down by 40,000 on year, marking the 27th consecutive month of decline.
The jobless rate registered to 4.0% in September and October before dropping to 3.8% in November and staying flat for three months.
The core CPI for the Tokyo metropolitan area for March rose a preliminary 0.6% on year, the data showed. The number is considered a leading indicator for nationwide consumer prices.

Central Banks-soothe or Stoke?!?!?!

COUNTRY BRIEFING
FROM FINANCIAL TIMES
By Chris Giles in London and James Politi in Washington
Central banks' efforts to ease strains in the money markets are failing to stop financial institutions from hoarding cash, stoking fears that the recent respite in equity markets may not signal the end of the credit crisis.
Banks' borrowing costs - a sign of their willingness to lend to each other - in the US, eurozone and the UK rose again even after the Federal Reserve's unprecedented activity in lending to retail and investment banks against weaker than usual collateral and similar action in Europe.
The continued friction in the money markets came even as stock markets were showing new signs of optimism in spite of fresh data from the US showing consumers at their most pessimistic for 35 years and house prices falling at the fastest rate on record.
In London, where the Bank of England has faced criticism for not being as proactive as other central banks, the three-month Libor rate was set on Tuesday at 5.995 per cent, its highest of the year. This is nearly 0.9 percentage points above the level investors demand for risk-free money, a spread nearly as high as that which led to central bank interventions in September and December.
The European Central Bank allocated €216bn ($337bn) in seven-day funds in its regular weekly operation on Tuesday - some €50bn higher than the amount it estimated would have normally been needed - at an average rate of 4.28 per cent, which was the highest since late September.
The Fed's latest lending to banks under its Term Auction Facility was also in heavy demand, receiving bids for $88.9bn compared with the $50bn on offer, an excess of demand almost as great as the previous auction two weeks ago, before the collapse of Bear Stearns.
But equity markets ignored the continued stresses in the plumbing of the financial system, partly in the hope that they were driven by liquidity hoarding at the end of the financial quarter.
In Europe, the FTSE 100 gained 3.5 per cent, closing 193.9 points higher at 5,689.1, while the FTSE Eurofirst 300 rose 3.1 per cent to close at 1,266. In Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 closed up 2.1 per cent while the Hang Seng in Hong Kong rose 6.4 per cent.
The rises followed strong gains on Monday in the US after the revised JPMorgan offer for Bear Stearns. At the close, the S&P index was also up 0.23 per cent - its earlier gains pared by further evidence the credit crisis risks sending the US economy into a deep recession.
Consumer confidence crumbled to a five-year low in March, and US home prices experienced a record slide in January.
The Conference Board's confidence index fell from 76.4 in February to a reading of 64.5 this month.
"Consumers' outlook for business conditions, the job market and their income prospects is quite pessimistic and suggests further weakening may be on the horizon," said Lynn Franco of the Conference Board. Except for a brief period in 2003 when the Iraq war began, the index is at its lowest level since the early 1990s.
The expectations index, which tracks consumers' assessments of future conditions, fell from 58 last month to 47.9 in March, its worst reading since December 1973.
The collapse in US consumer confidence came as the S&P/Case-Shiller Index of US home prices showed a sharp decline in January. Home prices in 20 large cities fell by 10.7 per cent in January compared with the same period last year, a drop that was slightly worse than expected but marked an acceleration compared with a 9.1 per cent fall in December.
The slide in home prices - the biggest monthly drop on record - could damp hopes that the US housing market may be close to a bottom. Those hopes were raised on Monday when data showed that sales of previously owned homes rose for the first time in seven months in February.

A new Arthur Anderson?!?!?!

Is KPMG heading the same way as did THE AA firm?!?!Surely not because of the belowmentioned New Century Financial Corp..but the way the firm is directing its capabilities..could well be heading the same way as the erstwhile AA....

KPMG Aided New Century Missteps, Report Says
By PEG BRICKLEY and AMIR EFRATIMarch 27, 2008; Page A6
A court-appointed investigator looking into the collapse of New Century Financial Corp. said in a report that its auditor, KPMG LLP, devised some of the improper accounting strategies that allowed the company to hide its financial problems for years.
The investigator, Michael J. Missal, said the company might be able to recover money for its creditors by suing KPMG for professional negligence and negligent misrepresentation. He also recommended the company sue several of its former top executives to recover millions of dollars in bonuses and other compensation paid to them.
KPMG "contributed to certain of these accounting and financial reporting deficiencies by enabling them to persist and, in some instances, precipitating the company's departure from applicable accounting standards," Mr. Missal said in a 550-page report filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., and released Wednesday.
Dan Ginsburg, a spokesman for KPMG, said, "We strongly disagree with the report's conclusion concerning KPMG. We believe that an objective review of the facts and circumstances will affirm our position."
The Justice Department, as part of its investigation into New Century's collapse, is looking at individuals at KPMG who audited the company, according to people familiar with the case. But these individuals are not currently a target of the investigation, according to a person familiar with the matter. The Justice Department inquiry is being handled out of the Santa Ana office of the U.S. attorney for California's central district, based in Los Angeles. A spokesman for KPMG declined to comment.
A spokesperson for New Century said in a statement: "The Company is pleased that the Examiner's report is finally completed and that we can take the next steps of confirming the plan of liquidation, therefore substantially concluding the bankruptcy process."
In his report, Mr. Missal said that in one instance, a KPMG partner who led the New Century audit team castigated a subordinate who had questioned one of the company's accounting practices as it prepared to file its 2005 annual report with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
According to Mr. Missal, the KPMG partner told the subordinate in an email: "I am very disappointed we are still discussing this. As far as I am concerned, we are done. The client thinks we are done. All we are going to do is p- everybody off."
New Century, based in Irvine, Calif., was once one of the country's biggest providers of mortgages to people with poor credit histories. In 2006, it originated nearly $60 billion in subprime mortgages. It collapsed in April 2007 after its accounting problems came to light, accelerating the meltdown in the subprime-mortgage market. That meltdown precipitated the biggest credit crunch in at least a decade.
In his report, Mr. Missal said New Century had "a brazen obsession with increasing loan originations, without due regard to the risks associated with that business strategy." Its loan-production department, he said, was "the dominant force in the company," which trained mortgage brokers in sessions it referred to as "CloseMore University."
The company had low standards for originating loans, Mr. Missal said. "The predominant standard for loan quality was whether the loans New Century originated could be initially sold or securitized in the secondary market," he said. "The increasingly risky nature of New Century's loan originations created a ticking time bomb that detonated in 2007."
New Century owes its creditors more than $1 billion, but it has said in court papers that they are likely to recover no more than 17 cents of every dollar they are owed. Because the company has few assets left, much of that funding is likely to come from lawsuits against parties responsible for the company's collapse.
In an interview Wednesday, Mr. Missal said KPMG "didn't have the healthy skepticism that you would expect from your outside independent auditors." One of the accounting errors Mr. Missal identified involved a decision not to account for a "growing backlog" of troubled loans New Century was obligated to repurchase.
Senior New Century executives knew as far back as 2004 that the subprime-mortgage boom was doomed to go bust, Mr. Missal said. But he said its accounting practices allowed those dangers to be disguised.

Random Musings of a melancholy conundrum

Just watched Taare Zameen pe for the umpteenth time yesterday.Yesterday was under the pretext of my Mum not having watched the movie.the movie reminded me of the glorious yesteryears.Am sure everyone who watched it felt the same...all those naughty pranks,irate daddies,worried mummies musing"what will happen to this kid!!"

RC i guess was the one more shouted at than i was.He was like water always wanting to do his own thing.I remember almost beating him up for saying that God is nonsense and Krishna is a mere story and that the almighty RC is stronger than any imagined God.That was 20 years ago..and now...where is he?As near his"powerless God" as one can get after an engineering degree, a MSc with honors from UK , and god knows how many other feathers on his cap...And the Deepa Bhat who was suposed to be a doctor is still giving exams , still musing about her purpose in life and what she should really do..."give in" to "whirledly things"

But even though I am not sad , I have a little thought nibbling on me this morning . The more I live , the more I realise two things . I still don't have a 'purpose' in my life . (Oh,all right I DO go around proclaiming that I have found my purpose...but I seem to be taking steps in exactly the opposite direction....does that make me a loony?!?!)And second , now that I have lived some more , I have lesser time to find that purpose .It is like 5 years back I was "Chill yaar . I am only 22. Only God Buddha found a purpose in life at that age." But Now I am like "Umm . I am almost 26. And I think I will find a bigger meaning in life right after a little nap. "Sure , I have phases of 'being driven' in my life . Like I wake up and say 'Right . Today I will call the Hutch Customer care people and tell them they should be looting banks in masks and not calling themselves a telecom service provider for all the scary things they are doing to my connection'. So, little purposes about getting my cell connection up , analysing whether DSP TIGER's downside is lower than ICICI's Infrastructue...hell can they be compared at alll(blurrghhhh)ironing my clothes for the next day and such micro sized things dot my day. But there is nothing which connects all these dots ...I think and shout that I have my purpose outlined....but thats because of the fault in the Matrix's programming which makes some of us come around once in a while once our souls have been recycled enough number of times-enough to make us raw....as raw as we were on the day we were born.We(meaning I and such other poor confused souls like moi) have those short glimpses of utopia...and take as many steps forward ..but then stop.What is real?the fraction of a glimpse,or what i live everyday ..because of the glimpse is the real thing then all these dots are ,,well just a means to pass time...do i want to merely pass time,going on through a drudgeous life? or do i want to make those glimpses real and these dots a mere prop?!?!Do i want to be Neo?or some common mortal stuck in the Matrix?!!