Thursday, April 14, 2011

“Sasan Gir” – The Last Home to Asiatic Lion

Last month I was enquiring for the itinerary for Ahmedabad – Nalsarovar – Sasan Gir – Diu – Somnath, finally I completed my trip without Nalsarovar and Somnath because of some personal reasons.

I had started on 9th March and was in Ahmedabad on 10th / 11th to attend a marriage, started for Junagad on the night of 11th and reached by early morning. We had hired a taxi from Junagad to take us to Sasan Gir and Diu. We (Me, wify, Brother-in-Law, His Wife and child) were in Gir for 12th and 13th half day and then in half day covered Diu.

From Diu we started in at 8 PM, reached Junagad by 11:30 PM and catched 12:15 AM but to bring us back to Ahmedabad. I was again in Ahmedabad on 14th / 15th. I had planned to visit Nalsarovar on 14th but now they have banned boat ride and it was too hot (42/43 degrees) so opted out. I came back on 16th and joined office.

I have put some of the teaser shots at my facebook (facebook.com/bmunshi), all of them are un-edited, un-processed, direct of the camera shots.
In this travelogue I will focus only on ‘Gir’ part and might be just might be will touch the ‘Diu’ at the very end.

As I am starting from ‘Gir’ so let’s start from the point once we reached Junagad in the morning of 12th March’11 at 5:30 AM.

I called the travel agent with whom we had pre-booked the taxi, he requested us to come to his office (yes it was open) as driver was still awaited. We reached there, taxi (Indica Vista) was already waiting for us, after initial introduction and formalities, we started for ‘Gir’.

Hardly 10km from Jungad there is a Jain worship place by name ‘Girnar’ which has got 10,000 steps and is located high on a hill. My brother-in-law and his wife just stepped down and prayed at base of hill and then all of us started for ‘Gir’.

‘Gir’ is around 50-55KM from Junagad and road is not that excellent what we generally hear about ‘Tarmac of Gujrat’. From my overall experience and talks with locals I got to know that the ‘Saurastra – The Southern Gujrat’ hasn’t got its share of development. Majority of people says Modi is a big marketing / advertisement man and mainly focusing on big cities like Ahmedabad, Surat, Baroda etc.

Well coming back to main topic, the surrounding and atmosphere was excellent, by 7 AM I could see Sun rising up from the back of hills, I captured many shots but looks like nothing came up as excellent shot, but just for sake of starting with images, here comes the very first image of this travelogue.

As we move forwarded started to spot the very common animals like deers, peafowl.

We reached ‘Sasan Gir’ by 8 AM and inquired about our room at ‘Forest Guest House’, we were told our room will be available by 10/11 AM once the morning safari is completed and guest frees the room.

Getting room at ‘Forest Guest House’ is very interesting and tedious process but once you reach there and experience it, it’s all worthy. One has to call their number in advance (1 – 1.5 months) and check for the availability. Based on availability you have to fax a request with copy of ID Proof, then confirm if they have received good copy and confirm the availability again. After that you are required to make the DD of room charge and send them and again confirm it is received.

In my case we got a link (my wife’s cousin’s friend’s father is a forest ranger) so I just had to fax the request and that too hardly 3-5 days in advance. But we could get only 1 non-ac room with 2 extra mattresses. The weather was too good and AC is not at all required in any extreme weather conditions.


Another interesting thing is in forest guest house you have to book your break-fast/lunch/dinner in advance (by 8 AM for 1PM Lunch, 5 PM for 9PM Dinner and 8PM for morning 9AM break-fast). We booked our lunch knowing the food is very tasty and cheap (50/- per plate) thru our link.

So by 8:30 AM we were standing in the parking lot and were discussing what to do for next 2 – 2.5 hours. The first fixation was to have a break-fast. Then we started for ‘Devaliya’ which is about 10 KM from Forest Guest House.

‘Devaliya’ is a very special small forest area which is very well and strictly controlled, they have kind of enforced the natural habitat of forest by keeping almost all kind of animals (of course which are suited and present in the main forest area). It is being said that at times big animals like Lions are given food as well.

Not sure but looks like it has got around 7 lions, plenty of deers, sambhers, bores, peafowls, and others.

To visit it they have a small office from their one has to buy the ticket (95/- each) and then they have small buses (capacity 22). Once a bus is full it goes in to the park (I would rather say it park instead of forest). Lion sighting is almost guaranteed and drivers does nothing but just goes to the place where lions are resting (they get the information from previous bus drivers and the patrolling persons inside park).

I had to request him multiple times that I am not here to see the lions, rather to experience the natural habitat and take some interesting shots than just tons of kind of dead shots of lions.

My wish was granted and the moment we entered park I was able to capture this beautiful shot.

The cutie – pie looked more than happy to give pose for me.

Another pose


As we moved further, spotted this, look at the size its so big
It also blessed me by giving a look

Wished I could have got the frontal shot




Friday, November 13, 2009

Using Cluster Commands on a Console to create New Copy, Replica, Template

We know it but hardly use it, its a great feature to use.

Using Cluster Commands on a Console to create New Copy, Replica, Template

  • Special “documented” cluster commands : The server does not have to be in a cluster
        Enabled by the following console command -->  
Set Config CLUSTER_ADMIN_ON=1

  • Copy a Database Using the Console :  You can copy a database from one server to another using the console
         Type the following:   
CL copy serverA!!db1.nsf serverB!!db2.nsf

  • Create Replica Using Console :  You can create a replica of a database from one server to another
        Type the following:   
CL copy serverA!!db1.nsf serverB!!db2.nsf REPLICA

  • Create Template Copy Using Console : You can create a template copy of a database from one server to another
         Type the following:  
CL copy serverA!!db1.nsf serverB!!db2.nsf TEMPLATE

  • Create Copy on Same Server :  You can create a copy of a database on the same server
         Type the following:   
CL copy db1.nsf db2.nsf

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

FP3 for Notes and Domino 8.0.2 Released

IBM has released FP3 for both Domino Server and Notes client as per their schedule fixpack release, they can be obtained from IBM Fix Central which is at following URL:

ABSTRACT: This document provides download information for IBM Lotus Notes and Domino 8.0.2 Fix Pack 3.

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Directory Independence Beta available with Domino 8.5.1

While roadmap for Directory Independence is planned for 8.5.2 , IBM has released Beta by using a new Directory Assistance Template (da851.ntf).

IBM Technote for same --> Directory Assistance template(s) in Notes and Domino 8.5.1

Overview of Directory Independence (DI):
  • Option to use LDAP directory instead of Domino Directory for people and group information
  • Optional deployment choice -- can continue to use Domino Directory as usual
  • Domino Directory continues to be supported
  • Active Directory will be first implementation planned for DI
  • Store Domino person attributes and groups in LDAP
  • Other information will be stored in a Domino Configuration DB
  • Tools will be provided to migrate Domino person attributes into LDAP
  • Allows for phased migration to new directory
  • New Domino directory APIs for applications integration
Future: Support additional LDAP directories

Friday, October 30, 2009

MS BPOS & IBM LotusLive Offerings

While I could have easily termed it as MS BPOS V/S IBM LotusLive but the only reason I didn't do that was its so early to compare them, and I being working on IBM Product for so long dont wanted to be biased.

Well, I collected information from their respective sites and mixed them, here you go......
(Click on thumbnail to view pic in large size)















 
































































Thursday, October 22, 2009

My New Notes 8.5 Widgets

Just got 2 new widgets for my Notes 8.5.1 client


1.) File Navigator: Navigate to your OS File system from sidebar and open file even drag & Drop to notes documents like new memo.
http://www.openntf.org/blogs/openntf.nsf/d6plinks/NHEF-7WL8WR






























2.) GoocalSync : Sync your Notes calendar with Google Calendar without using the Notes 8.5 Template, this works with any release of Notes Client and Notes Template.
http://openntf.org/Projects/pmt.nsf/ProjectLookup/GooCalSync

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

IBM Releases Notes/Domino 8.5.1

IBM has announced Notes/Domino 8.5.1 on 6-Oct-09 and general availability that is electronic download will be available from 12-Oct-09.

What is more important with this release then pure technology is the new IBM Business / Marketing strategy, which contains following 3 action items:

1.) The IBM Lotus Designer will be free: As per IBM it is the biggest value add, as the list price of Designer client is US$864 and Maintenance renewal cost is US$200, which will be free now onwards.

2.) New CAL Base licensing for Users: Till now the base of licensing was what kind of client customers are using i.e. Notes, iNotes/DWA, Mobile, but now onwards there will be only 2 kind of licenses , (i) Enterprise CAL (ii) Messaging CAL .

Based on above licensing customer will be able to use any kind of clients like Notes, iNotes/DWA, Mobile, Traveler etc.

3.) Availability of Lotus Mobile Connect: Now onwards Lotus Mobile Connect will be available to users based on their Enterprise OR Messaging CAL license.

Following is the table which describes what will be available under which license:


















Reference: http://edbrill.com/ebrill/edbrill.nsf