New feature suggestion for Picasa and GMail for easier exports

Got hundreds of photos from parties, birthdays, marriages and outings strewn around on your hard disk? You’re probably missing something if you’re not using Google Picasa to touch up and organize them. It has some very cool features and a really slick UI.

Well, here’s something I miss in it. Picasa 3 Beta is out but they still don’t have a feature which would allow exporting images in GMail attachments into Picasa web albums directly.

Picasa’s suggested way to get images from GMail is to download the pics to the hard drive, have Picasa scan them into an album and then upload them to Picasa (the tool for this feature is very well done!).

But I don’t see what could be keeping them from implementing a page in GMail that would show thumbnails of images grouped by email alongside a button to export selected images to Picasa with an album title. A little bit of intelligence can be added by providing a filter that searches for images that can be identified to be from a Digital Camera by looking at the EXIF header or whatever kind of metadata the image file has.

Why would this be a great feature? Because everyone I know seems to have many photos “somewhere” in their GMail account that were emailed either to or by them. Only a few of them use Picasa. If they see the easy-to-use feature suggested above, not only will GMail help them organize things better, it will also push adoption of Picasa with people.

I suppose this feature needs to be implemented (mostly) by the GMail team rather than the Picasa team.  I sure hope somebody is at least thinking about implementing this already. I, for one, would find it useful.

Vetal Tekdi trek from MIT college (photos linked)

Vetal Tekdi trek

Once in a while I feel the need to drag my lazy ass away from my PC and go trekking. I like trekking. But getting to a trekking spot is the problem. I don’t have a bike.

Not too many people realize that there’s a pretty neat place one can go trekking right inside Pune. Sufficiently cut off from the city. And close enough to make sure that getting there is no problem at all.

So one weekend, my bored self got in touch with an equally bored (Infosys employee) / (ex-roomie of 3 years from BVP) friend and we made plans to go explore the area they call Vetal Tekadi / Law college hill etc.

The day before the trek, I got a good look at the area on WikiMapia and Google Earth and drew myself a quick map of the path we would take, what lies where etc. It was helpful. Infact WikiMapia should be even more helpful now that I have made a few edits to that area.

So in case you haven’t been there yet, this post should gve you a few ideas on what to look out for and how you can plan your day.

Now first thing, people don’t realize it, but that area is pretty big up there if you are curious enough and explore in all directions. I personally like trekking under a hot sun but the day we went was a pretty rainy/windy day and it was over all quite lovely. You’ll almost certainly encounter peacocks up there. Yea, peacocks! That’s right. Right in the middle of Pune city. The place up there is not as devoid of trees as the images on WikiMapia would have you believe. As of the writing of this post, the images are very old. Atleast in the monsoons when I went, the place is pretty much a “young forest”. And we were warned to watch out for “other” animals (probably an exaggeration).

Right, so there are multiple places where you can get onto the hills from. You can look around on the map for entry points, but remember that new buildings may have come up in the area from which you plan to get onto the hills from.

We decided to take the route to the hills from MIT college. Just get to MIT Engineering college, get to their play ground, and take the path that leads off it to the nearby resedential area and from there look for a path that seems to go into the hills. Turn around and take a few snaps of Pune city on your way up. You’ll get some nice shots there. That path will take you to ARAI (Automotive Research Association of India). It caused a huge outcry when it was being built a few years ago about spoiling the pristine beauty of Vetal Tekadi, the last refuge for nature lovers in Pune. However, it seems citizens and the Forest Department have woken up since and done a good job in keeping the place well protected from further “development”.

From ARAI, you can take a quick 15 minute short cut right up to the peak of Vetal Tekdi to “Vetal Baba Mandir”. Or you can do it our way and leave that for later. Instead take the path from ARAI that leads towards a small temple. It’s nice and quiet there. From here on, not too many people will be seen. One of the paths from that place goes towards the Law college hill area. Explore that area and come back. It’s nice and quiet and breezy up there. And you get a great view of the city from several places.

Then the other path from the temple will send you towards Pashan quarry – ugly gashes in the mountain from which stone has been mined for many years to build Pune city. Check out the pics. Along the same path, a TV tower can be seen. We went upto that. And from there we saw another one and headed towards it along some nice rocky terrain and got nice views of the city.

We then turned back and headed for the quarry, and then towards Vetal Baba Mandir, the highest point in this area. The temple is the only place around here where you’ll get water. No food is available around here. We had the brilliant idea of bringing along several packs of wafers, biscuits, bread and butter…..mmmm good stuff. Nothing like trash food and the peace of nature. A rather rickety watch tower is also present right beside Vetal Baba Mandir from which you can get some amazing bird’s eye views in all directions. Don’t miss that, but very careful climbing the thing.

Anyway, a lot of people come to Vetal Tekdi and do what we had done so far and go back down to ARAI and then to MIT and back to civilization. But here is the cool bit, we didn’t do that. It is actually possible to crossover to Chandni Chowk along the hills moving roughly parallel to Paud road. So make sure you have a good idea of what the general geography of the area is (Google Maps to the rescue) and take the path from from Vetal Tekdi towards the Chandni chowk area along the hills. Now that path isn’t really much of a “path”, but if you move in the right direction, you should be ok. Be warned, in the monsoons, that path is virtually non-existant. And there is a good chance that you’ll feel you are lost and totally cutoff from civilization in some places. You have to be the adventurous kind to do this.

Well so we took that…”path”. Rocky. Knee high grass. Path…what path? And kept moving along it expecting to finally reach Chandni Chowk or Pashan lake. But unfortunately, we had started out a little late. It was evening and it was getting darker by the minute. And being where we were after sun down would have been *real bad* trouble. Dhruv, who had been with me since the beginning was now starting to get jumpy and we finally realized Chandni chowk or the lake were too far away for us to reach now, we needed to get to civilization and we needed to get there fast. We started moving faster hoping to get to a place where we would get a choice to turn towards the city…but it never came. Finally we just left the path we had been following and turned towards the city going through dense bushes and rather rocky terrain and finally managed to reach the city at some slum area near Vanaz. Another 20 minutes or so and it would have been too dark to move through that area.

Back in good, old polluted Pune, we took a rickshaw back to the fork from Paud road towards MIT and landed at Durga’s. You must go there. Amazing cold coffee – “Rs.8 here. Rs.80 at Barista.” And not to forget their heavenly Anda Bhurjee (scrambled eggs).

So that’s how we did it. Perhaps next time I go there, I’ll start a little early and vist Pashan lake and have dinner at some place in Chandni Chowk. That would be the complete journey.

Oh and by the way, Vetal Tekdi isn’t the safest place to be in. It’s pretty much deserted. There have been “incidents” in the past. Go with a few friends. But it’s a different thing going alone(not recommended!) or with a single chum.

Please do keep the Tekdi free of litter. All poly bags and wrappers into your pockets/backpack please. I wish we had a digicam for the photos but a 2MP phone camera (Dhruv’s Sony Ericsson W830i) was all we had for the pictures seen here.

Trekking to Sudhagad fort

Sudhagad fort, believed to have been in existence since 200BC, is at an altitude of around 2000 feet and was once one of Shivaji’s strongholds but is now mostly in ruins. Due to its distance from the city (123 kms from Pune) it promises a beautiful spot for a trek as few people travel the long distance for a rather taxing trek. Our plan was to reach the temple dedicated to Bhorai Devi, who has been worshipped in the region since 200BC, starting from Taila-Baila village and then descend down the other side of the valley towards Pachhapur village.

Our group of 50 TechMighties reached Sharada center at 6 in the morning on 2nd Dec all set to leave for Taila-Baila village, our starting point for the trek to conquer Sudhagad. Early morning enthusiasm manifested itself in the form of a lively session of Antakshari in the bus and time flew by as we reached the serpentine roads of the Western Ghats and finally completed the first phase of our travel with our arrival at the foothills of Sudhagad.

We started our trek armed with packs of parathas (the incentive to get to the top fast) and fruits. Warnings were sounded that the trek would be long, hard and punishing with no sources of water to be found along the path that we would cover over 10 hrs. And the bright, hot, sunny day didn’t make it any easier either.

The initial kick off was, as expected, quite energetic. Breathtaking views and pristine nature greeted us as we forged towards our destination. Golden fields of tall grass, cliffs, unspoilt and unending forest cover at every point along our path were a feast for the eyes (and our enthusiastic team of shutterbugs).

It all seemed deceptively easy in the initial part of the trek when we first walked through farmland and descended a gentle slope. But soon the slopes started to turn into cliffs and everybody was cautioned to watch their step in the descent towards a dried riverbed from which we planned to proceed. The first exciting bit came when the sheer drop on either side of the path we took made things a little too dangerous and our guide decided to deploy ropes for support along the most dangerous part. We did still have a few who seemed to feel safer sliding down the slopes rather then take the risk of slipping unintentionally!

And then after the not-so-simple descent, we didn’t find a path to take! Must admit it was fun getting lost away from all civilization. So we trudged along the riverbed hoping to find a path along the way while our guides scouted for a path ahead, eventually meeting success. By this time, water supplies were starting to run low and at a few points along the dry riverbed, running water, supposedly potable if our guide was to be believed, was spotted percolating through the rocky terrain. Bottles were refilled and we decided not to blame the canteenwallas for any health problems caused in the next week.

And then came the hard part of the trek. Already having gone several miles over some rather rough terrain, we now had a steep ascent to the top of the fort along what perhaps used to be a path centuries ago. We marched on one step at a time towards the top. Most of us were thoroughly exhausted by now taking regular breaks along the path on any rock or by small, ancient water filled caves along the rock face. And then, finally, we were there!

The Bhorai Devi temple was nothing spectacular but its environs offered peace and scenery like no other place. Packets of paranthas, pickle and fruit disappeared faster than wickets do when the Indian team bats. We indulged in some sightseeing around the place and discovered a few echo spots here and there and then prepared for the descent to Pachhapur where our bus awaited us.

The final descent wasn’t without its share of problems as part of the team almost sprinted its way to the bottom while another group plodded along while the sun set and darkness took over leading to a moon lit trek. But finally after having descended rocky patches, where even a mountain goat would have taken an LIC policy, without major injury to anyone, we all got to the bus which had had been visible to us from the mountain peak long before we came anywhere close to it, with scrapes and scars, twisted ankles, bleeding palms but most importantly a great sense of achievement.

On the way back, a roadside dhaba was chosen to be graced with our business. Fifty, very tired, hungry-as-wolves TechMighties dug into a very satisfying spread of Palak, Paneer butter masala, Dal tadka and Jeera rice.

The food worked its magic and after some energetic song and dance (within the bus!) we finally reached Sharada several hours beyond schedule at 00:30 hrs. But no one was complaining. Every minute of the trip was a memorable experience. Besides the physical exercise, fresh mountain air, serene and sylvan surroundings doing all of us-software-professionals a world of good health wise, it had also been a tremendous opportunity to network with people with all levels of experience from various Tech Mahindra locations across Pune.