This time its Sangli,Satara & Kolhapur. We hate to spend our daytime in journey so we prefer night journey. Unfortunately trains for konkan were basically during daytime. So we booked Konduskar mercedes benz for night journey. As usual we encountered incessant rain during that day too.
3rd september 2012: Heavy rainfall since morning. I took a taxi to bal govindas road where my office is located. Konduskar always sticks to its schedule strictly. From dadar office we tried booking a cab to chembur as we were already late and the bus already started from wadala at 9.30pm and its next halt was chembur. We left office at 8.45. We tried convincing konduskar to wait for us for at least 10 -15 min but they straightaway refused. No taxi was ready to take us to wadala/chembur due to heavy rains. Finally after waiting for a taxi for about 15 min we got a taxi who was ready to take us to sion from where we decided to take auto to chembur. There was a heavy traffic and nearly half an hour was wasted. All roads were blocked by vehicles even two way roads were blocked by one way going vehicles. It was also necessary for us to get that bus as we had luggages and we can't run here and there in heavy rains for another bus. We even can't skip that day as it would have upset our workshop schedule. So our target was just to get that bus. The taxi wala was a bhaiya Mr. Prem Jaiswal. We really salute to him not because he helped us getting that bus at wadala on time but for some other reason too. Before us he had helped an ailing boy who was in serious condition whose father was pleading for a taxi but no taxi driver was ready to take them. We need to really salute such people who consider duty before family and never judge people by their caste or state. He was initially not ready to take us to chembur because he was staying in ghatkopar. So he was saying in bit bhaiya style ”sahab humare bacche humare bager khana nahi khate”. Finally he left us at wadala on time and we got bus. While going we took his number and gave him extra money for his dedication to work. Bus journey was fun with a romcom movie rowdy rathore and eating spicy hot wada pav.
4th september: We reached Karad near pankaj hotel at 6.30 am where Mr. Joshi, principal of Jaywant college of engineering was waiting for us to take us to their guest house of Krishna medical college,sangli. That college was half an hour away from jaywant college where our workshop for 3 days was going to be conducted. The krishna college is famous college for medicine in sangli and all over maharashtra too. It has international hostels and a very huge and maintained campus. The infrastructure is also pretty good. After having a short nap till 10.30am, we had our breakfast at cafeteria besides our rooms. Then we went to jaywant college for initial installation work.The students are very co-operative and enthusiastic. The entire last year batch of engineering do the volunteering work for the college. Very simple and intelligent bunch of students. One huge computer lab for around 96 people was arranged. There were around 80 volunteers who were doing installation work with us.
5th september: The very first day of our workshop. The workshop time delayed due to inauguration ceremony. The students gave a grand welcome to us with a beautiful rangoli put by them the night before. As it was teachers day it was a must to say a few words about their gurus in life. We really appreciate the interest the students took in making this workshop which was national level a grand success. We were felicitated with shawl and a coconut. We met Adv. Shambhajirao Mohite who gave a fabulous motivatonal speech. Like our sir he's also a staunch follower and supporter of simplicity and rural development and also lover of shayaris. Being such a great personality like legal advisor of Mr. Vilasrao Deshmukh he is down to earth. After inaugration we went to the lab where all participants were already waiting for us. First day is what we call bread buttter day i.e all basic stuff. We gave a brief presentation for introducing what is FOSS. It is a nice feeling when students approach us to ask interesting doubts and almost all students want to shift to linux. Many students liked 12.04 allrounder version which sir has developed as it has default all necessary softwares already installed. I was very new to sangli accent so initially I felt the language wierd. There were many passionate students from various colleges. The students of jaywant college were mostly from Mumbai. For dinner we went to Rangandha hotel. The thing disappointed us was that the last year students organized the workshop who actually should have participated.
6th september: The next day was for basic commands, virtual machine and php java c programming in eclipse.They were provided bootable ubuntu 12.04 allrounder dvd ,a notebook & a pen as sources. I had studied php in my degree but when students ask unusual queries, I get to learn equally.
“If I am having an apple and my friend has another apple,if we exchange them still we have 1 apple each but in case of knowledge if we exchange at the end of the day we have 2 information each"
For dinner we were invited at Mr. Mohites place. We met his entire family. His living room is fully occupied with awards and momentoes. We had a wonderful dinner of chicken thambda rassa, chicken curry, chapati & jowar bhakri.
7th september: Last day of the workshop was for faculty. The dinner was plannned by Mr.Joshi at Sangam hotel.
8th september: We went to Gajananarao school near sangli where Mr. Mohite had studied. This school is purely for 8th 9th 10thstudents. We liked the way they felicitated us with mango plantations during welcome speech. The girls were very enthusiastic and confident than boys. Then we went to Mr Mohite's bungalow where his brother stays. We just skipped counting rooms as there were many rooms and was kindof duplex. There we had a unique combination of egg and sheera. From there we left for Sayali's village satara ,wai. On the way I bought kandi pedhe from khamkar mithaiwala. We met entire Yewale family there. We had sweet water crab curry & jowari bhakri for lunch. A typical village atmosphere. From there we went to Mr. Nimbalkar's place in satara digvijay society, mangalwar peth. Here bhaves badishop is famous.There I met Mrs. Anuradha Brahmankar, my colleague.
9th september: We had our quick breakfast at nearby hotel and then went to urmudi dharan. For dinner we went to Prof. Nimbalkar's place again. We had chicken curry, chicken sukka chapati and jeera rice. We even noticed that Nimbalkar's plant nursery in his house is rich with vermiculture. From there we had booked a car to kolhapur. Along with Nimbalkar we went to mahardare jungle for trekking where we planted four mango plantations. A dog was guiding us during trekking. Then we went to Kolhapur Sanjay Ghodavat institue. We stayed there in their guest house which was no less than a 5 star hotel room with 1 gallery and 2 bhk house, well wooden furnished. For dinner we went to nearby hotel Amber.
10th september: We had a quick breakfast at dining hall in the campus. The college has really very huge campus and very rich materialistic infrastructure. When we entered college premises we had a feeling as if we were in a shopping mall. We met Mr and Mrs More and HOD Mr Alzende. A quick inaugration function with the best speech by one of the professor comparing the hifi brands with microsoft and how people prefer it for linux. There were 3 labs. After lunch we went to Mahalaxmi temple. Ujwala & Sayali bought kolhapuri chappals. We saw new palace museum. At both these places photography was prohibited. For dinner we had awsome chicken biryani, surmai plate and tambda rassa in Amber hotel Yummmmmmy!. Then we started preparing for our next day workshop in our rooms.
11th september: Met Mr. Sanjay Ghodavat. There was not proper coordination as the number of students exceeded the limit specified.
13th september: Last day of workshop. All students took our autographs and clicked pics. We had a quick valedictory function. It was a workshop on introduction to foss,php, symfony basiscs, ajax ,jason and we provided students with recorded tutorials of some sessions, goodies, allrounder ubuntu 12.04 bootable dvds. Around 7.30 pm we reached our rooms for packing and after dinner we headed to royal plaza kolhapur konduskar travels office. Sharp at 10.30 pm bus arrived. It was sleeper bus. At 5.30am bus reached teenhath naka.
This was the longest and most memorable workshop ever(every workshop seems better than the previous.
