We... The 'Responsible' Citizens of India

I don't understand this... Last 2 weeks, everybody is blaming politicians, military, intelligence, national security agencies etc. This blame game is going on and on... People blame media, police, some people blame themselves... The only visible and prominently striking thing out of this is that we lack integrity... All of us! Nobody would accept this. Civilians feel that they understand everything, they protest, they head rallies against politicians, police... This is never ending...

What I was most frustrated by, was the manner in which this so called responsible middle and upper middle class is protesting. It leaves me nothing but frustration...
This class always thinks that they are the most ideal clan, they do nothing wrong and they know and understand everything! I don't know why they think so...

This particular class is literally misusing its hard earned reputation. Reputation that many of its members are well educated, at high position in society and that they are docile and hence sensible and mature and so forth... They use SMS, email, internet to show their anger and everybody gives them publicity; which they don't deserve!

They know nothing about politicians, police... still they keep on blaming them. They don't understand the cultural, religious fabric of India, they don't know anything about social engineering, they don't understand caste politics, they don't understand geographical and even historical complications. They don't understand that this huge functioning anarchy would crumble down under its own weight if any extremity is followed! And surprisingly feel that they know what politics is, and blame all democratic institutions, politicians! Without understanding what goes underneath... They simply overlook ability of politicians to handle people, their ability to keep people interested and hopeful about them, that they do what is required. That they are the most able managers! They don't understand that this is the essence of democracy, not to follow any extremities, neither good nor bad! That capitalism and USA are the bigger culprits than anything else!

Lets look at police. These so called responsible citizens don't understand their problems, they don't know that they work for 12hrs a day. When there is need, these citizens are always ahead to exploit police with their 'contacts'. They don't understand their work pressure, that they don't seat in AC rooms, that they can't maintain their cool when they people flock to them with their comparatively small problems, that they handle bad elements with their crude but effective manner!

This becomes even more surprising, when one sees how insensitive these responsible citizens are about things which belong outside of their circle! They never travel by state transport, they need not wait for water which comes for only half an hour each day, they don't know that there are villages where people are totally dependent upon monsoon, they don't know that their is no connectivity in any form is there for them, road, electricity, phone are luxuries for them...
They don't care about African nations who suffer from cholera, diarrhea , malnutrition; or even about people from their country...
Nor about pollution, plastic, environment etc. They have never seen countryside; never seen 'aamachi maati aamachi manasa'; never went for off beat cinema; don't know folk music; haven't read even a single book in their mother tongue!

Is having no electricity for 10hrs a less important issue? But these responsible citizens never protest, never show their anger in such cases! They feel the heat only when they want to! They see and feel the sorrow and suffering around them only when it starts hurting them !
and still somehow they feel that they understand everything! And they are absolutely sure that they would do things better if they get opportunity...

I am not saying that all this protest, anger against politicians, police, intelligence is wrong. We need to improve and we need to improve a lot. And there are real responsible peopl in this class. But I can't support this sudden anger in these so called responsible citizens, when I can see that they themselves lack integrity, that they never show responsibility, that they always whine and blame system, that they are not mature...

And I feel even more frustrated when I see that these people are absolutely confidant that they can change the system without understanding it! To the hell with these responsible citizens!

Has Marathi found new wings?

I was thinking about this for quite some time now.
I seriously feel that Marathi has found new wings to rise from wherever it was... Well I am not saying that it rose from ashes, not at all; Situation was not really that bad, however I should admit that there was a time when I could see Marathi nowhere... It was not used in public and most importantly we did not had it in our hearts! The most important place where it should be!

However I see a huge change happening... As its well clear from one of my previous posts(one of the best ways to force reader to spend more time, add self references ;) ), I am from Marathi medium school. I am not saying that my English was good(and not at all saying that I am good at English now), but at least as I realized afterwards, that very few people actually know English as a language... To really know that language one should feel it in their your heart, whatever one think and do should be in that language. I certainly feel that many English medium school people lack that. Just reading a few pulp fiction novels, watching a few popular Hollywood movies, and using English and some desi language is definition of knowing English for them.
So I was and am very happy that I don't belong to this hybrid(or dhedgujari, oh! is it casteism?) category. Which don't understand their mother tongue, and hence fail miserably to understand their own culture(culture includes, understanding music, books etc). There are exceptions of course.
Same is true for Hindi speaking population, they don't even read Hindi!

I was sometimes doubtful regarding my love about my mother tongue. Sometimes I felt like I am going nowhere. I mean there were no fellow followers, I felt deserted.
Nevertheless I was very much self confidant and happy about my stand, and never regretted it.
For some time, even I was convinced that Marathi is dying slow death. Everywhere I could see senior Marathi veterans asking to rejuvenate Marathi language, asking Marathi youth to learn and respect Marathi, expressing grief that there is no fresh crop of Marathi writers, poets etc. Marathi certainly had lost its golden era when there were likes of PL Deshpande, Babuji, Shrinivas Khale, Gadima etc and I could see no ray of hope...

But now I feel that situation has changed for good. May be because of the efforts those eminent people made to promote Marathi or whatever. And hope that this change would remain with us.

Marathi is finding new identity all over India. There was no dearth of Marathi people in any area except politics anyway. Marathi speaking people contributed and sometimes dominated all fields, be it history, cricket, cinema, freedom fighters, photographers, movie artists, music, scientists etc.

But sometime in between, Marathi lost its charm, Marathi was ignored...
I believed that Marathi is going to go away, for one there was not enough people contributing to Marathi, and for second, Marathi youth ignored(or was ashamed of) it.
As for example Punjabi might not be that great as a language(I don't mean insult, looking from no of creations in Punjabi like books, quality music, novels etc) but because Punjabi is so celebrated; Punjabi youth is not afraid of talking in Panjabi. I wish same should happen to Marathi but the reason should be the first one that I mentioned.

Now I can see and feel the change.
Salil and Sandeep changed marathi music scenario completely, they were the pioneers. And afterwards Ajay-Atul contributed to it. Marathi cinema and music is now recognized as music with content and not just extravagance, not just show off.

Marathi actors, directors, writers, choreographers, cinematographers are contributing significantly to Bollywood too. However I should mention that Marathi actresses and models made their way and established themselves into Bollywood much earlier. Marathi girls are beautiful and smart is very well established. Also Marathi girls are modern, charming and intelligent and I am very proud of them! I must admit that Marathi boys fall way far behind when it comes to smartness, modernness and charm... Now people like Shreyas, Ritesh and Atul Kulkarni are establishing themselves.

In previous couple of years Marathi is getting recognized everywhere... Marathi channels have blossomed like mushrooms in monsoon. Now there are 10 Marathi channels, Sahyadri, Z Marahi, E tv Marathi, Saam Marathi, Mi Marathi, Star Maza, Z chovis taas, IBM Lokmat, Z cinema and now Star Pravah! Marathi has totally changed its face. Very few Marathi households now watch Hindi channels, almost all has switched to Marathi.

Add to this great reality shows like Sa re ga ma pa, Ekapeksha ek which highlighted their uniqueness by avoiding cheap publicity stunts and maintaining very high quality. Marathi has got new assurance now. This is pretty clear if one looks at quality equipments used, huge, flashy stages and expensive stage shows (like Mata Sanman, Z puraskar). And at the same time I must mention good quality that is evident everywhere, even news reporting is very mature...

After seeing all this I have started feeling that Marathi is re-establishing itself and that too with bang! I would have followed my Marathi love anyway, but it feels really good that what I believed in(as having great quality, and hence should not be lost) is proving its mettle. And I have many like minded fellows now!

Beginners guide to Camera and Photography

I have not attended any photography course, not read even a single book on photography, nor own a SLR like camera.
But still for starters(because I definitely don't belong to that category), I feel that following tips would help them to understand photography in general(at least would shorten their learning curve). These are applicable for the Point and Shoot cameras(PAS), which most of us use. PAS is the term used for cameras that offer very basic manual settings and usually have 3x-5x optical zoom(and are affordable).

Things to look for while buying a new camera -

1) Never go only for brand names. 'Models' are good or bad, not brands. Though percentage of good models that a brand produces vary. On this standard, Canon, Nikon, and Sony are good brands, in the same order(thats not my personal opinion, thats what I found on internet)

2) Mega pixel does not indicate quality! You can find more information about this fact around internet. Megapixel means you are capturing more information(ie quantity) and not quality. Any mega pixel count past 5 is fine. And you probably wont notice the difference(unless you crop it, or zoom in, on actually print it on A4 size paper!). Other parameters for the quality are - color reproduction, level of detail, compression method, algorithm used(all these are image parameters, there are camera parameters too, like anti blur mode, image stabilizer etc)

3) Color reproduction is essential. Most of the point and shoot cameras(referred as PAS hereafter) don't support hue adjustment. And neither of them produce colors perfectly. Hence before buying ensure that colors that you see in the photograph are as close to real life as possible. Bad color reproduction means bad image quality (for me at least)

4) Time between two photographs, or how fast you can click consecutive photos is another measure that you would look for. Especially in India, when we try to capture that exact moment in festive season... it becomes really irritating to ask people to repeat/ or stop that moment for more than 3-4 seconds just to click a photo.

5) Auto focus hit rate should be high. Some cameras are really slow in this task, and some fail to do so for apparently no reason (low lighting could confuse camera and this is one reason that is expected, though). This is important, because in PAS cameras, you don't have any option to adjust the focus. If camera does not get it correct, then there is nothing much you can do, except clicking multiple photos and crossing your fingers that one of them would be good. Ensure that auto focus is working reliably.

6) Size, battery life, view finder, LCD size - These are other few things you should look for. Size should be small enough so that you can slide it into your pocket occasionally. Battery life should support at least 100 photos without flash. And preferably it should have view finder so that you can save battery(for more information - LCD consumes a lot of battery power, you can switch it off, and use view finder instead), if you need to. You can review your photograph more easily and with lesser time on bigger LCD.

7) Battery life indicator - some cameras have only have two/or three level indicators, i.e. they would start complaining only when battery is empty. This is annoying as you cannot plan your photos in such a case. When there is battery low warning, you would hardly be able to click a few(around 10-20 in most cases) photographs.



Tips to click a good photograph -

Probably you can find better tips elsewhere, but here are a few tips from my side, which are not very technical and which are especially applicable for PAS cameras.

1) Never use flash, if you want 'real' photographs. Flash illuminates objects in inconsistent manner(the flash that is built in). Hence avoid flash as long as possible.(of course, there are situations where using flash would get you better photos than not using it).

2) While capturing the photo, 'half press' the capture button. This would focus your camera on the subject. Now wait for the moment that you want to capture and then at that moment press the button completely. This way you can capture the exact moment. If you do this process in one go, then camera first focuses on the subject and then captures the image. This focusing process requires time and this is the reason photo appears to have been captured after you have pressed the button. Understand the working and you can click better pictures...

3) Never have source of light in front of the camera. PAS cameras have light sensor, which adjusts the exposure time. If light is in front, then camera thinks that there is enough light, and reduces exposure time. But your subject is not exposed to light and hence subject appears black.

4) Night mode is of no use! Understand this. Night mode increases the exposure time to almost(and at least) 1/4 sec. You cannot hold your hand still for such a long period. and hence images captured would always be blurry in such cases. Use flash in such cases. Keep camera on usual setting(auto) and try to keep your hand steady. This would give you the best possible photo(auto mode automatically adjusts the necessary settings).

5) If you find your first photo unsatisfactory, click 2-3 more. Usually camera would click better photo next time. This happens as internally camera adjusts all the parameters for each photo, but this process takes some time, and not perfect always.

6) Ask your subject to be still if there is insufficient light. Camera increases exposure time in low light conditions, and hence if the subject moves, you would always see blurry/ghost images.

7) Use only optical zoom, digital zoom is marketing gimmick. Using digital zoom is like cropping the image. Also make sure that your hand is steady when you zoom in. Zooming makes camera very sensitive to hand vibrations(and it is directly proportional to zoom factor). To understand this, think about angle...

8) No digital camera can captures crystal clear images indoor. Indoor light is always insufficient for camera, and hence 70% of the times your images wont be crystal clear, unless you take enough care.

9) And last, but very important, composing, angle and lighting are the things that make a great photo. Any average camera can produce excellent photograph... it depends more on the photographer than camera! Understand and accept this!

Movies I liked

Its not that I have been watching movies for many years(well, I am not that old...). It was only the days of engineering that I started watching movies.(By movies, I mean real movies, not just movies that we watch on weekends to socialize(better word for timepass ;-) ). Those were the days when I first started appreciating movies, but then at that time I had to watch movies that others already have... there was no choice, as there was no internet... Even if somebody recommends a movie, there was no guarantee that someday you would actually watch that movie....

This latter changed, when I had my own internet connection, and thanks to the bit torrent, now I could get any movie that I want...(well almost any).

Movie as a medium of expression, is very different from books, and essentially I don't like the idea of comparing movies, with their books. Or in general trying to compare movies and books. Both have their pros and cons. Movies are directed, stories are told. In movies director tries to explain his own interpretation, and that is the very fact that makes movies different. Books leave interpretation open to readers, and hence readers imagine whatever they think of, which latter movies cannot conform with, and hence the disappointment...

I would enlist here some of my favorite movies. Most of them are English. Hindi cinema has still not matured enough from my perspective(well, it still lacks integrity). This does not mean that it lacks quality, but it seriously lacks story line. I mean Hindi movies are perfect for the audience they are targeting, but stories are pretty predictable, subject is very common and so on.
I am not listing parallel cinema here, and frankly speaking I have not seen much of them(this is one area I would like to explore, inputs are welcome)

I would categorize movies at very low granular level, and it would be interesting for anybody to watch movies in one category and then compare them(I would appreciate comments if any). First line represents summary as a feeling that you would have at the end of the movie. Actually most of them are very popular and hence I would have liked to avoid them, but at least few of them are non main steam. But it seems that its very difficult to avoid these main stream movies completely...

1) Memory, the ultimate thing that gives us the meaning
Memento, Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind

2) Whoa! my perspective was totally different
Matrix(part one), Sixth sense, The Others

3) Violence... is this the solution?
Munich, Hotel Rwanda

4) True story? It cant be true
Motorcycle Diaries, Raid on Entebbe, Catch me if you can, American Gangster

5) You cannot escape the death
Final Destination

6) Animation it its best!
Toy Story(1 and 2), Finding Nemo, Madagascar

7) The beautiful face of the human relationship
Dil Chahata Hai(between three friends), Swades(he and his country), Taare zamin par(teacher and his dyslexic student), Crash(between different elements of society), Dor(two young girls), Babel

8) Love... you gotta feel it!
Serendipity, Love Actually, Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge

9) History was amazing!
Kingdom Of Heaven, Troy, The Last Samurai

10) War... the ultimate mirror of human capabilities
Saving Private Ryan, Enemy At The Gates

11) Fantasy...
Lord of the Rings(all three parts), Van Helsing, Pirates of the Caribbean(all parts)

12) Scifi is terrific!
Matrix(all parts), Jurassic Park, Terminator(part one), Transformers

13) Comedy
Chaos Theory, Herapheri, Hungama, Love ke liye sala kuch bhi karega

14) Miscellaneous
The Godfather, Sarkar, Goodfellas, The Bourne Identity, Cast Away, Cliffhanger, Gangajal, Mumbai meri jaan, Johny Gaddar

15) Marathi
Bindhast, 10vi pha, Dombivali fast, Shwaas, Checkmate,

(This does not list all the movies, I would like to update it from time to time, any comments are most welcome)

The thing that gives us the meaning - Our Memory...

I recently saw a fantastic movie - 'Memento', which refreshed the memory(yeh, I still have it crystal clear, but for some time, I did check if I do remember things correctly! For those who have not seen 'Memento' you will understand latter...) of the other great movie that I have seen - 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind'

I can't fully say that I truly understand what directors(or writers) of these movies had really in their mind. But I see apparently disconnected connection here.

Both of these movies talk about memories, of course from human perspective. How important memory is for our existence? Well, as we all can imagine, memory is essential, to do our daily work and stuff. But there is more deeper meaning to our memory and these movies try to concentrate on this same fact.

Memento essentially talks about how something like short term memory can affect your life, and how something which appears so trivial to us is so important! I think this idea might have been originated from computer science's secondary memory and primary memory concepts(or at least this was the first thought that came into my mind...) CS guys can understand and appreciate what I really mean.
The guy shown in this movie(Lenny) has his secondary memory intact but he does not have any usable short term memory and he cannot add more data into his secondary memory either. The story revolves around this guy, his 'condition', what he does and finally solves all the mystery...
Direction is brilliant(if you can appreciate it, else pathetic), story line proceeds in layered manner and that too in backward direction and in pieces. Overall its not really easy to understand what is happening. But I think this is one of the way director is just trying to showcase why your short memory is important!

Eternal sunshine is somewhat different. It uses similar and weird direction technique of layers along with pieces. But here the guy(it's Jim Carey!) has all his memory intact but he is undergoing memory erasing operation(thinking that it would ease his situation). His girlfriend too, has gone similar memory erasing operation. At the end they both erase each other from their memories but when they meet again, they fall in love again to complete the cycle.
(about direction style, very famous 'Pulp fiction' also has this weird non linear direction style, but pulp fiction is way to difficult understand and appreciate in one go)

'Finding Nemo'(one of my most favorite movie) also has this short term memory loss concept, but it has been used cleverly to entertain and hence it does not highlight deeper impacts this same thing.

This memory is so important to us, still we always take it for granted, but without memory we have no meaning! Whatever we do, has meaning just because we can relate it to something... which just brings me to other conclusion that if we can just forget something, we can start all over again... no regrets, no despair, no anger!

Memory is the very thing that gives us the meaning.

From CS perspective, we have achieved the Memento thing. And that is the reason we still say that AI can never compete with human intelligence. Lenny's system is like current AI, based on fixed set of rules, it has the ability deduce, but it could all blow up one day(like Lenny makes correct decision most of the times, but not always), without violating any of the rules. The three fundamental principles of robots don't stand a chance in such case. Which brings us to the very question that, how would you know what you are doing is correct?(think from classical philosophical perspective) From coding perspective, if your objects state is not correct, your methods would never return correct output! Whatever we do, think, is only from our perspective and we just assume that its correct and respond(that is the reason of all this friction and anger between all humans), but what if somebody is setting objects state(i.e. us) already? We have our own system of interpretation, and hence we would proceed with our algorithm(like the Lenny's) and think that everything we are doing is correct! What we don't understand is that we were tricked into it... we feel like we have taken decision... we have our own control(and from limited perspective we do have, but from broader perspective we don't)(remember 'Choice is an Illusion, created by those with power for the powerless', by Merovinjian in Matrix reloaded ) and thats what spirituality talks about(and perhaps astrology too!). The interpretations are endless for me...

the Lenny guy is like a computer program calling itself again and again and changing variable state in each iteration. each time it modifies variables and produces different output, but after all its not completely random. Output depends upon initial state.(is this what astrology talks about?)

And if its so fragile, so why not just use to for better purpose? If not having short memory can have such deep impact, then why not clear all sad, things that we don't want to remember from our brain?(or at least pretend that they are not there) it would make our life so much better....

PS - Gajini is such a bad plagiarism and such a great insult of the Memento, that I feel like I should drag makers of Gajini to court!

कधी कधी...

तुमच पण कधी कधी असच होत का हो?

म्हणजे तुम्ही खूप काही अपेक्षा न ठेवता वगैरे काहीतरी करता, आणि खरच तुमचा 'कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलुषु कदाचन' वगैरे गोष्टिंवर विश्वास असतो किंवा 'मी हे सगळ माझ्या आनंदासाठी करतो' अशी पण तुम्ही स्वत:ची समजूत घालून घेता. एखादा षड्रिपू तुमच्यावर हल्ला करायला आला की तुम्ही पळुन न जाता त्यालाच चितपट करता. किंबहुना निस्वार्थीपणा, तत्त्व तुमच्यात अगदी साखरआंब्यासारखी मुरलेली असतात. लोक तुम्हाला चाखून जातात आणि त्यांच्या चेहर्यावर आलेला गोडवा पाहून तुम्ही खूष होता. कधीतरी शालेत वाचलेली सुभाषित, सुविचार आठवतात. ते वाटसरुला सावली देणार झाड वगैरे आठवत आणि तुम्ही स्वतः खूष होता... स्वतःवरच...

किंवा असही होत कि अवघड जागेला तुम्ही इतरांच्या मदतीसाठी उभे रहाता. लोकांना आधार देउन वर जायला मदत करता. खालच्या लोकांनाही हात देउन वर आणता. तुमच्यासाठी हे खाली-वर वगैरे सगळ सापेक्ष असत. आणि तीच लोक नंतर धन्यवाद देउन निघून जातात. पण ती लोक मनानी काही वाईट नसतात. शेवटी कुणीच वाईट नसत. पण ते पुढे निघुन जातात, तुम्ही कसे वर याल याची काळजी न करता. तुम्ही म्हणता, त्यांना कदाचित ईतर काम असतील, तुमच्यासाठी थांबले नाही म्हणून बिघडल कुठे? तुम्ही मदत केलीत ना... आणि तुम्ही स्वतः खूष होता... स्वतःवरच...

मग कधीतरी तुम्ही असेच चित्र काढत बसलेले असता. तुम्ही खरच खूप सुंदर चित्र काढता. लोकांनाही ते आवडत, लोक येतात, वहावा करतात. तुमच्याबरोबर फोटो वगैरे घेतात. आणि निघून जातात. तुम्हाला लोक नमस्कार करतात, हात जोडतात, तुम्हाला खूप आदर देतात. पण कोणीच तुमच्याबद्दल, तुमच्या चित्राबद्दल काहीच विचारत नाहीत. लोकांनी तुमच कौतुक केल ना? तेच तुमच्यासाठी खूप असत, तसही तुम्ही फळाच्या अपेक्षेनी काहीच करत नसता... आणि तुम्ही स्वतः खूष होता... स्वतःवरच...

कदाचित असही होत की तुम्ही एकटेच रस्त्यानी जात असता. कुठुनतरी तुमच्याच दिशेनी जाणारा जथा येतो माणसांचा. मग तुम्ही तुमचा वेग कमी करता. त्यातल्या प्रत्येकाशी बोलता, गप्पा मारता अर्थात तुमचा वेग कमी ठेवूनच. पण लोक 'आलोच' म्हणतात आणि पुढे जातात. तुम्ही कुणाची वाट नाही पहात, पण तुम्ही वेग वाढवतही नाही. तुम्ही त्या जथ्यातल्या प्रत्येकाशी तसेच बोलत रहाता, तितकच लाघवीपणे, मनापासून. कारण तुम्ही सगळ तुमच्या आनंदासाठी करता, लोकांच्या आनंदातच तुमचा आनंद असतो. तो जथा पुढे निघून जातो. दुसरा येतो. तुम्ही तसेच बोलत रहाता. याच आनंदात की आधी मी एकटाच होतो, आता माझ्याबरोबर कितीतरी लोक आहेत... आणि तुम्ही स्वतः खूष होता... स्वतःवरच...

म्हणजे तुम्ही खरच खूप चांगले असतात. बाकीचे पण ते मान्य करतात. आणि अर्थातच बाकिचे पण चांगलेच असतात. पण मग अस असेल तर तुम्ही कोणालाच 'आपले' का नाही वाटत? कोणी तुम्हाला त्यांच्याबरोबर घेऊन का नाही जात? कदाचित तुम्ही त्यांना फारच आदर्श वाटता, रस्त्यावरचा लोकांना मदत करणारा फलक एकटाच असतो. अशी तुम्ही तुमच्या मनाची समजूत घालता... पण यावेळी मात्र तुम्ही स्वतःवर खूष होत नाही....

खरच होत का हो तुमच अस कधी कधी?

किल्ले कुर्डुगड (kurdugad)

आता आम्ही कोण कोण होतो वगैरे सांगत बसत न बसता, सरळ मुद्यावरच येतो.

कुर्डुगड रायगड जिल्ह्यात येतो. मुळशीवरुन ताम्हीणी घाट उतरुन कोकणात गेलो की विळे गावापासून माणगावचा फाटा लागतो(पुणे-विळे : ९१किमी). याच फाट्यावरुन पुढे गेल कि जिते गावाचा फाटा लागतो.(विळे-जिते: २५किमी) जिते गावापासून किल्ल्यावर जायची वाट सुरु होते.(जिते फाटा-जिते : ११किमी)
मात्र किल्ला जिते गावापासून दिसत नाही. किल्ल्यावर जायची वाट २ टप्यात किल्ल्यावर जाते. पहिला टप्पा जिते-कुर्डुवाडी(९०%) आणि दुसरा कुर्डुवाडी-कुर्डुगड(उर्वरीत १०%). ST च्या उपलब्धतेबद्दल काही ठोस माहीती नाही. जित्याहुन किल्ल्यावर पोहोचण्यास सुमारे २.५ तास लागतात.

जिते गावातून गडावर जाण्यासाठी डावीकडील दुसर्या डोंगरावर जायला लागत. छायाचित्रात जिते गाव आणि पहिला डोंगर दिसतो आहे.

From उगाच इकडच तिकडच

ही वाट विजेच्या तारांखालून मात्र जात नाही(आम्ही तारांखालून वर जायचा यशस्वी प्रयत्न केला, पण वाट तिकडुन नाही). जुनी वाट दरड कोसल्यामुळे बंद झाली असली(आम्ही गेलो तेव्हा [जुलै २००८] हि वाट बंद झालेली होती) तरी आता नविन वाट तयार केलेली आहे. माथ्याजवळ वाट कड्याच्या पोटातून उजवीकडे जाते.

छायाचित्रात कुर्डुगड आणि पाठीमागे सह्याद्रीची मुख्य रांग दिसते आहे.



कुर्डुगड किंवा विश्रामगड सह्याद्रीच्या मुख्य रांगेत नाही. तस बघायला गेल तर कुर्डुगड कोकणातच म्हणायला हरकत नाही कारण सह्यधारेपासून कुर्डुगड बर्यापैकी सुटा झालेला आहे. (छायाचित्रात सह्यधारा मागे दिसते आहे)
कुर्डुवाडी पर्यंत मुख्य चढण आहे. कुर्डुवाडी एक छोटस गाव आहे, तिथे पोचायला कच्चा रस्तादेखिल अस्तित्वात नाही. कुर्डुवाडीतून गड अगदिच जवळ म्हणजे १० मिनिटांच्या अंतरावर आहे. छायाचित्रात दिसणारा सुळका म्हणजेच गड आहे.

गडावर पहाण्यासारख मात्र फार काही नाही. किल्ल्याचा घेर लहान आहे आणि सपाटी फारशी नाही. किल्यावर खूप बांधकाम देखिल नाही. जातानाचा मुख्य दरवाजा पडलेला आहे(पहा).

दरवाजातून गेल्यावर वाट जवळ जवळ संपते. तिथून पुढे किल्ल्याच्या डाव्या अंगानी वाट पुढे जाते आणि नंतर वर चढते(पहा).

इथे हनुमानाची भंगलेली मुर्ती आहे, मात्र मुर्तीला मंदिर नाही. मूर्ती अत्यंत सुंदर आहे. एकंदर ठेवणीवरून प्राचीन देखील असावी. पुढे बुरुजावर(दरवाजावरील बाजूला दिसणार्या) जायला वाट आहे. किल्ल्यावरील सुळक्यावर जायला सोपी वाट नाही(कदाचित कडा कोसळल्यामुळे बंद झाली असावी). मधील सुळक्यावर गुहा आहेत.

कुर्डुगडावरून दिसणार सह्याद्रीच रौद्ररुप पहाण्यासाठी(अनुभवण्य़ासाठी नव्हे, अनुभवण्यासाठी ढाकच्या बहिरीला जायला हव), निसर्ग सौंदर्यासाठी तिथे एकदा जायलाच हव...

(सर्व छायाचित्रे साई गणेश यांच्या सौजन्याने)

आम्ही साले non co-ed वाले

मी तसा को एड चा नाही. नाही म्हणायला यत्ता चौथी पर्यंत वर्गात हा दुसर्या प्रकरचा प्राणी असायचा, पण तेव्हा आम्ही इतके लहान होतो कि त्या प्राण्याकडे फारस कधी लक्शच गेल नाही. आणि आता तर त्यांचे चेहरेही आठवत नाहीत.

पण त्यानंतरची ६ वर्ष म्हणजे तर अर्धा वनवासच होता. आणि मजा अशी की त्यानंतरही तो तसाच चालू राहीला. आता याला वनवास म्हणायच कि नाही हा ज्याचा त्याचा प्रश्न आहे, पण सध्याची एकंदर मानसिकता बघितली, तर ते मान्य करण्यावाचून गत्यंतर नाही.
बहुतांश सगळीच असल्या अस्सल मराठी शाळांमधली मुल (पुण्याच्याच बाबतीत बोलायच झाल तर रमणबाग, मॉडर्न(ही फ़क्त नावतच मॉडर्न आहे), गरवारे, भावे वगैरे अफलातून शाळा) नंतरच्या आयुष्यात "कुणी एक गर्लफ़्रेंड देता का गर्लफ़्रेंड" असल्या अवस्थेत फिरत असतात. मुलींच्या बाबतीत काही कल्पनेला खूप वाव असला तरी फारशी काही माहीती नाही.

आता असल्या शाळांमधल्या मुलांना ८ ते १० मधे मुलांची मुलींकडे बघायची 'नजर' काय असते हे वेगळ सांगायची गरज नाही. याला अपवाद फ़क्त तुलनेनी मवाळ(म्हणजे केशव, साजूक तूप, चमन) मुलांचा. या वेळी वर्गात होणार्या चर्चा आणि माहितीची देवघेव ही अत्यंत शेलकी (आणि कोणी ऐकली तर हीन दर्जाची वगैरे) असते.

पण तरीही माझ्या अनुभवानुसार अशा मुलांमधे नंतर मुलींबद्दल जास्त आदराची भावना दिसते. जरी मुलींशी बोलण्याची हातोटी आणि सहजपणा कमी असला तरीही. म्हणजे एकूणच मुलींशी त्यांची interaction कमी असूनही त्यांचा समजूतदारपणा जास्त असतो.
याउलट इंग्रजी माध्यमाची मुल(आणि co-ed वाली) वागण्यात जास्त सहज असली तरी बेजबाबदार वाटतात.

तरीही मी इथे जे काही लिहितो आहे ते या व्यवस्थेच्या बाजुनी नाही, असल तर विरोधातच आहे.

याची आठवण यायच कारण म्हणजे एकतर मिलिंद बोकील यांच 'शाळा' हे पुस्तक आणि नुकतीच आलेली 'एकत्र शिक्षण पद्धती नसलेल्या शाळांमधील मुलांची प्रगती जास्त होते' ही बातमी. IQ वाढत असेलही कदाचित, पण EQ च काय? अशा या आपल्या 'अस्सल' शिक्षण देण्याच्या पद्धतीतून भावनांना महत्व न देणारे 'बैल' आणि भावना समजून देखील न घेऊ शकणार्या 'म्हशी'च निर्माण झालेल्या जास्त दिसतात.

नुकतच 'शाळा' पुस्तक वाचल्यावर मनात पहिली प्रतिक्रिया जी आली, ती या लेखाच शीर्षक बनली.
एकत्र शिक्षण न देण्याचे काही फायदे असतीलही कदाचित... पण शाळेतली ती वर्ष बरोबर मुली नसल्यामुळे खरच miss केली अस वाटल. त्यात दाखवलेल निरागस प्रेम आणि आकर्षण हे मनाला चटका लावून आणि त्याचबरोबर मनाला कुठेतरी आत आपण याचा(किंवा असा) अनुभव नाही घेउ शकलो याची रुखरुख पण देऊन गेल.
आता त्या वयात अस काही 'निरागस' वगैरे असू शकत का हा एक खरच अवघड प्रश्न आहे... पण तरीही निदान मुला मुलींना एकमेकांशी नैसर्गिकपणे वागण्याचा अनुभव तरी मिळाला असता.

कदाचित जर एकत्र असतो तर त्यातलीच कोणीतरी 'ती' आयुष्यभराची सोबती झाली असती किंवा एक मनातल सगळ समजून घेणारी मैत्रीण झाली असती असही वाटून गेल. आणि काहिच हाती लागल नसत तर निदान आयुष्यभर पुरणारी प्रेमाच्या निरपेक्ष भावनेची शिदोरी तरी मिळाली असती...

पण कुठल्याच नैसर्गिक भावनांना मान्य न करणारी आपली संस्क्रूती त्या भावनांना लहान असतानाच नष्ट करुन टाकते(प्रत्यक्ष आणि अप्रत्यक्षपणे). आणि त्यातूनच मुलांकडे संशयानी बघणार्या, आपलच वर्तुळ म्हणजे जग आहे समजणार्या, आत्मविश्वास गमावलेल्या, मुलांशी मोकळेपणानी बोलुही न शकणार्या आणि स्वताशीच कुढत बसणार्या मुली तयार होतात. त्यामानानी मुल मात्र तुलनेनी मोकळ्या आणि समतोल विचारांची(कदाचित बाहेरील जगाशी जास्त संबंध आल्यामुळे) तयार होतात म्हणायला हरकत नाही.

पण काहीही असल तरी या 'शाळा' पुस्तक शेवटी, च्यायला आम्ही साले non co-ed वाले हा असा काही काळजाला भिडणारा अनुभव घेउच शकलो नाही, आणि आम्हाला तसच बनवल्यामुळे कदाचित पुढच्या आयुष्यात पण असा प्रेमाचा अनुभव घेऊ शकणार नाही अशी भावना देउन आणि मन खूप अस्वस्थ करून गेल...

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तस ब्लॉग लिहिण्यामागे हेतू (उदात्त वगैरे) आहे(उगाच खोट कशाला बोला :D ). पण ते नंतर कधीतरी...

मराठीमधे लिहिण बराहा (www.baraha.com) मुळे खूपच सोप झालय. ते पण एक निमित्त आहे ब्लॉगिंग सुरु करण्यामागे. पण त्याच बरोबर अस्सल मराठी विषयांबद्दल फार काही सापडत नाही महाजालावर हे देखिल कारण आहे. जस कि दापोलीमधे बघण्यासारख काय आहे? किंवा दुर्गा मधली भुर्जी चांगली की PD ची? किंवा अगदीच शाळा स्टाईलचा 'माझी राजगड सहल' वगैरे निबंध... अशा कशाबद्दलच फार काही मिळत नाही याच दु:ख पण होत.

आता सांगायला काही हरकत नाही की मी एक पुणेकर आहे, त्यामळे तस या ब्लॉगला विषयाच काही बंधन नाही(आणि कदाचित भाषेच पण). आणि त्याच बरोबर उच्च अभिरुचीची वगैरे अपेक्शा ठेवायला पण हरकत नाही(अस्सल पुणेरी माज!) पण उत्साह किती दिवस टिकेल ते मात्र माहीत नाही.

हा माझा मराठीत लिहायचा पहिलाच प्रयत्न(पहिलीतला वाटणार नाही अशी अपेक्षा आहे). तेव्हा क्रुपया फिरत फिरत आला असाल तर प्रतिक्रिया द्याव्यात ही विनंती.

ब्लॉगच्या विषयांबद्दल(माझ्या आवडी निवडीबद्दल) लवकरच लिहिन...