Michael Schumacher is returning!!!

Are you interested in Formula 1 Racing? Well if you asked me this question a year back my answer would be no. But I started liking this form of racing as well. For me Formula 1 and Michael Schumacher both were same before I have grown my interest in it. I think most of us know this F1 driver irrespective of their interest on F1 Racing.
Michael Schumacher started his F1 racing career in 1991 and in 2006 he put his racing helmet down. People say he had taken Ferrari team to a different level, way ahead of the others, which includes McLaren also. Nobody ever questioned his driving ability. After his retirement, world has seen many more superstars in the circuit who continued the wining stream of Ferrari and McLaren. Kimi Raikkonen, Lewis Hamilton, Felipe Massa, and Fernando Alonso they all appeared to be great drivers before the start of 2009 F1 season.
This year one major rule has got changed regarding the standardization of engine of the cars. I am not very familiar with these details but bottom line is, this season onwards all the cars will be equipped equally. So there won’t be much difference between a Ferrari Car and a Brawn-Mercedes car. This brought a lot many things in front of the viewer and race lover. The limitations of those renowned drivers got exposed. We are at the end of race 10 this year. Last year’s champion Hamilton is on 8th position with 19 points where as Massa, Raikonen and Alonso are positioned on 7th, 9th and 11th position respectively. Leading driver is Button with 70 points. Even in constructor table McLaren or Ferrari are nowhere near to Brawn-Mercedes team. Even Toyota team performed better than them. Ferrari and McLaren has sensed the tough time at the start of the season. They had threatened to pull out their names also. With all this data how do I believe that Kimi Raikkonen, Lewis Hamilton, Felipe Massa, Fernando Alonso they are the best drivers of the world. They win only because of using better cars. Once that advantage is taken back, their pride has just got ripped off.
Now in these circumstances Michael Schumacher, the 7th time world champion is reentering to the circuit to replace Massa in the Ferrari team, as Massa got injured during Hungarian Grand Prix. All the fans are very excited to see the return of King of F1 Racing. Everyone believes Schumacher is above all the artifacts. He used to win the races not with the help of car; he used to win because he is the best in business. However Critics have different views on it. They don’t think Schumacher can prove himself above all these. With a car similar to other cars, he cannot win a race any more. Even I feel this. If Schumacher can prove us wrong, no one will be happier than me. But if he fails to win, then he might lose all the pride he gained in his 15 years career. Best of Luck Michael.

Bushi Dam, Zenith Waterfalls and Kund Mala trip

Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.

We did it. We discovered ocean of merriment, ocean of exuberance when we shown enough courage to lose the chance of taking rest in a lazy Saturday as usual. You got it right; once again I went for a trip this weekend. Monsoon season never let me down at least in this part of India. Every time it appears in front of me with its huge treasure of natural beauty.

This time we went to Bushi Dam, Zenith Water Fall & Kund Mala. Bushi Dam is a very common place in Lonavala, so huge crowd was expected. Just to avoid the crowd our plan was to reach there early. Executing the same plan I got the first pick up sharp at 5 in the morning. Maloy was with me. From my place we went to pick up didi from Bund Garden. After that we took Abhishekh from Aundh and all the others from Nigdi. With everyone’s successful contribution (being on time) finally we departed from Nigdi at around 7:45 am. Let me first tell you about the members of the group. Most of the people are from my Didi’s office. Out of them Abhishekh, Ruchi, Seema, Anmol, Anirban; I met them before also during trip and other activity. This time I got few new friends in form of Karthik, Gaurav, Chiru, Piyusha, Reshmi and Himadri. In the bus I was as usual sitting on the last seat with a complete view of the entire team. I remember the first thing we discussed is the language barrier. We started in Hindi but ended in an embarrassing position realizing that Karthik does not know hindi at all and Even Chiru is also not comfortable. We are five Bengalis in this bus, so some Bengali chit chat was also going on here and there; all of a sudden Maloy shown his skill in Tamil being a Bengali and started talking with Karthik. Everyone was confused which language can bridge us. Ultimately we decided to help Karthik and interpret everything in English. The main reason behind this is we were about to start Antakshari, which cannot continue in English.


We had our breakfast in the bus itself, bread-butter and jam. Then we started singing. The theme was decided “Vehicle”. Everyone contributed with their knowledge and signing skill. Me, Abhishek and Anmol we even danced. Mhmmmmm lets be fair, most of us danced in the bus. Don’t know how time went past and we reached to Bushi Dam. Reaching there it was just matter of time when we all got wet in spite of having umbrella, wind cheater and every pre cautions of not getting wet. I don’t know why we carried so many things when we all knew this trip is all about to enjoy the monsoon, rain, and waterfall. When we reached at the Dam, there were not many people around. We started clicking snaps in wildest of pose. In the Dam there were steps for free flow of excess water; Anmol started climbing the steps fighting against the water stream coming down. Everyone followed the leader. Didi took the safer route to climb up. I wanted to climb up through the water, however for the camera’s safety, had to take the dry steps. Most unfortunate thing is I could not save the camera also after this. Its display got damaged because of water.


After enjoying the Bushi Dam, we started conquering the water fall which is filling the dam. We spent there more than an hour. We climbed up the rocks. It was bit risky, still we did it. I was not in very good mood that time because of my camera. But how could I have my off bit mood with so much fun around. Soon I forgot all about my camera. Once we finished our exploration in that water fall we came back to the tempo traveler.

We had our lunch in Kamat hotel. I don’t want to talk anything about the food. Just one suggestion to everyone, DON’T GO TO THAT HOTEL EVER.
Our next venture was Zenith Water Fall. This is not a very famous place in Lonavala. This is actually in Khopoli Village near a company named Zenith. We had to do a lot of R&D to reach there. Once we reach there, got down from the bus and almost walked 1 km to reach at the bottom of water fall. Ohhhh….. My………. God. What a view it was. I can’t explain how gorgeous the waterfall was. Till date all the water falls I have seen here, in most of them water shutter down on rocks. But here a little pond is created at the bottom with a depth of 3-4 feet. This is what made it different from other waterfalls. Since this place is not so famous, there was not a huge rush, which made the atmosphere more soothing. We have shown all our jumping, diving, swimming skill there. Unfortunately almost everyone was in water so not much snaps we could take with the camera, but permanent snaps have been taken into the memory, no doubt in that.

Our next target was Kund Mala. In between we changed our wet cloths in a road side hotel and a good tea break. When we reached Kund Mala, the sun was ready to end his shift for the day, so we were running out of time. Lot many plans are already made to be executed. Kund Mala is basically a series of pond as I read on the internet. Kund means pond and Mala means chain. I drew a picture of the place based on this information; however in reality I hardly identified any series of Ponds. But the place was cool and that is what it matters most for me. We spent almost an hour on the rocky bank of the so called pond/river. As per plan we prepared bhel and had it. Along with that we had lot more photography also as usual.
As soon as the sun disappeared with its last ray for the day we started our journey back to Pune, with a good experience in memory.

At the end, a special thanks to didi and Abhishek to arrange the trip and including me. A special thanks to all the other members to make the trip so memorable. We are from different part of India, talk different language but it’s our culture which teaches us to stay together, enjoy together and that is what creates the bond.

If you wish to travel far and fast, travel light. Take off all your envies, jealousies, unforgiveness, selfishness and fears.

Definitely this is not the end of the season. A long monsoon is waiting for us; I am not going to miss a single weekend. So… next plan is on its way.

P.S.: My camera has started working when it dried up. So next time more photographs I can click.