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Thursday, March 28, 2019

Kibber

Kibber is a village at an altitude of 4270m, (14,200ft) in Spiti valley of Lahaul Spiti district in Himachal Pradesh, India.  Kibber is famous for its Ki monastery and Kibber wildlife sanctuary.  Located at 19kms from Kaza connected by bus and local cab service only in summers.

Kibber has a civil dispensary, a high school, and a post office. Kibber Monastery was founded by Serkang Rimpochhe of Tabo.

Post office, Kibber


Kibber wildlife sanctuary is only sanctuary in a cold desert, home for  many important species of medicinal plants, ibex, blue sheep, red fox, lynx, pika and the snow leopard.




In recent years kibber has become centre of attraction for many geologists.  Also titled as Fossils Park is home for different Fossils. 



Fossils

Fossils


Ki Monastery is considered one of the most important Buddhist pilgrimage in Spiti Valley located close to Kibber enroute Kaza.  Ancient murals, thangkas (paintings on cotton or silk), rare manuscripts, and wind instruments are preserved here in this Monastery.

Ki Monastery


Still now barter system is followed for trade between locals and Ladakhis.  Horses are often traded for yaks.  Agriculture and animal husbandry is major occupation here.


High altitude and pollution free atmosphere make it a favourite destination for sky gazers and nature lovers.  The Mount Kanamo is very famous amongst trekkers and mountaineers.  It is one of the very few marching peaks in Himalayas with altitude around 6000m.







Temperature in winters is around -10 degree celsius forcing people to stay indoors.  Food is stocked for survival in winters and spend there time knitting clothes and creating handcrafted items.
There is only one water source coming somewhere from the springs of high mountains, properly pipelined upto the village, but during winters frozen spring compels them to do a lot of hardwork for arranging water.

How to reach?
Kibber is 19kms from Kaza, one of the biggest village or we can say town in Spiti Valley.  From Kaza there is only one bus towards Kibber.   Best option is to hire a taxi from Kaza.  Kaza is accessible both from Shimla and Manali.  From Shimla it is 430kms and from Manali it is 210 kms via Rohtang and Kunzum Pass.

Stay at Kibber: Homestay is the only option here, no hotels or resorts are available.  Locals provide rooms for rents on very affordable price with yummy food.

Tuesday, March 26, 2019

Disable previous dates from jquery date picker

Sometimes you want users to select dates after current day, usually required in appointment or meeting applications. But these date pickers are provided with all dates active.  Following few lines can disable past dates from the current date on a datepicker.


This will set today's date as start date on page load itself and disable all the previous dates.

// Getter
var minDate = $( "#datepicker" ).datepicker( "option", "minDate" );
// Setter
$( "#datepicker" ).datepicker( "option", "minDate", new Date() );

In case you want to disable dates past some specific date in place of new Date(), we can use any string specifying Date in a format specified by us to set current date as minimum date. e.g:


$('#datetimepicker1').data("DateTimePicker").minDate("03/26/2018");

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Sunday, March 17, 2019

Batal


Batal village is at an altitude of 3960m with two small road side eateries Chacha-Chachi n Kangri Dhaba offering basic Indian meals. Famous Chandratal lake is accessible on foot from Batal. Batal comes under Spiti part of the Lahul and Spiti district of Himachal Pradesh, India.

Bus journey from Manali to Kaza via Rohtang and Kunzum is best to experience the scenic beauty of Spiti valley. Bus service on this route depends on weather conditions. This route is accessible when Rohtang and Kunzum pass opens. Only one Himachal roadways bus runs on this route. 0530hrs it starts from Manali and 10 - 12 hours drive to reach Kaza. Batal is often considered as stop for lunch. High altitude desert landscape with virtually no civilisation is a treat for eyes.




Mighty mountains of Pir Panjal and Spiti ranges dominates the beautiful landscape of Batal. There is an alternate route from Shimla side from Kinmaur valley. One must plan a overnight stay preferably at Reckong Peo before reaching Kaza. And again from Kaza there is only one bus towards Manali of Himachal Roadways via Kunzum and Rohtang pass which leaves Kaza around 0530 hrs. Foreign visitors need inner line permit to travel on this route. Losar is checkpost point while coming from Manali to Kaza. Indians have to carry their valid identity proofs.

Sunday, November 4, 2018

HTML Hacks for Rediffmail Mailers

Mailers have become an important part of business promotions for any industry.  Creating a perfect HTML mailer which will work on all mailers has always been a question of discussion.  Few things which I discover while working and solving bugs are noted below.

1. <p> html tag doesn't support font color in Rediffmail.

<p style="color:#ffffff;">Give me some Sunshine!</p>

This code doesnt work on Rediffmail.  Its better to use <div> instead of <p> to avoid this issue.

Simply use <div> and avoid this problem.


2.  Background Image and Position:absolute CSS doesn't work on Rediffmail.

    Background color works but Background image doesn't work on Rediffmail.  You can use Background color in place of that image and compromise with your design.  But you must be thinking why not use Position:absolute and place one element over another.   But to disappoint you even the Position:absolute doesn't works.  You can use following code to get better result.

HTML:
<div style="width:600px; height:600px; margin:0 auto;">

   <div style="max-height:0;max-width:0;overflow: visible;">
       <img src="image source"/>
   </div>
<!--the image div which you will use as background -->

<div style="max-height:0;max-width:0;overflow: visible;">
     <h1>Text Over the Background Image</h1>
</div>
 <!--the div which will over the background -->

</div>
<!--both divs enclosed in a container div, the height needs  to be the height of the image used as background -->



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Thursday, September 20, 2018

Chadar - An Experience

Chadar an incomplete journey rather an extraordinary experience.  After a wait of almost an year I managed to spare myself for Chadar Trek.  It's a frozen river Trek on Zhanskar river in Leh district.  Trek starts from Shingrak Sumdo near Chilling which is around 70km from Leh.   One of my guide friend Hira Singh from Wan village in Uttarakhand whom I met during Ronti Saddle Trek gave me Tashi's contact for this Chadar Trek.  Tashi is a local boy from Choglamsar, Leh.  With paternal house in Zhanskar village and Choglamsar  he is the perfect Zhanskari.  He made all the arrangements for our trek.  A home stay in Choglamsar just 20 minutes drive from Leh airport and a pure Zhanskari team with all the porters from Zhanskar village.  We were very touched with his hospitality.  The moment you land in Leh ( 9,800 FT) you can feel the drop in temperature afterall its one of the highest airport in the world.  In winter there is no Road connectivity to Ladakh, flight is the only option. Tashi welcomed us with a traditional Bandhani (silk cloth used as garland).  We were very pleased with this gesture. It was a celebrity kind of feeling.   We hopped on the vehicle he brought for us and reached his house in Zhampa, Choglamsar.  Beautiful house.....pics here.....
Complete market was closed in Leh.  One of the royal members who was also posted as Chairman was expired and today his last journey.  After a warm lunch, Tashi accompanied his elder brother Mr. Wangtup with us to visit Leh market.  Few of us bought some locally made gloves and socks required for the Trek.  One of our member Santanu's gumboot was not arranged as his shoe size is little bigger then the normal size.  We filtered whole Moti market but no result.  Everything was set for the trek except Santanu's gumboot.   Keep in mind to acclimatize yourself you have to keep yourself outdoors as much as possible and drink lot of fluids.  If you manage to spend first 2 days without any health issues it means you are acclimatized and nothing severe is going to happen until you complete the trek.  Hot soup and delicious momos were served in dinner.



Day 02  (10,480 FT, 70 Kms drive, 4 KMs trek)

A mini bus was parked in time we loaded all our sacks, porter sledges and sacks and we left Zhampa at 0900 hrs. First 50 kms Road is good then last 20kms was under construction with lot of excavation work going on.   Indus River flows all along the route and we also pass through confluence of Indus and Zhanskar river at Nimmu, Magnetic hill and Gurudwara Sri Pathar Saheb.  Glimpse of Frozen Zhanskar was adding onto our excitement. We reached the starting point Shingrak Yogma (Shingrak Lower) also called Tilak Sumdo around 4 kms from Chilling.  Zhanskar River was flowing with all force with white and grey frozen sides and bottle blue colored water.  Our guide Tashi wanted to camp here but we insisted him to camp somewhere else where its less crowded. We stepped in our gumboots which  was our companion for next 6 days.  Few patches on the chadar are too slippery even gumboots doesnt find the grip. Only mantra to walk on chadar is to drag your feet like a penguin.  Still I bet you are going to slip.  Falling is part of experience so best thing is just keep counting and enjoy falling.  Even the porters and guide were falling.  Trail of around 4 kms and we reached Bakula.  Our guide decided to camp here.  Guide showed us a cave right up in the mountain adjacent to our campsite.

View From Bakula Cave




On enquiry they said its Bakula cave.  Many years back a lama known as Bakula Rinpoche meditated here, so the name of the place and cave was the result.  Nice big cave but the trail is tough.  Very inclined and loose rocks.  Some how we reached there but coming down is the toughest task in such places and it was our first day so I was worried about the injuries or any mishaps.   Day ended with a delicious dinner and local sweet dish made of fruits.

Day 03  (10,760 FT, 14 Kms trek)

Most of the groups were returning today.  Locals warned us not to go further as chadar was breaking and temperature  increasing as well.  We were little worried but decided to go.   We left Bakula by 0800 hrs and our plan was to walk as much as possible.   We passed through Shingrak Gongma.  Chadar was little broken here, we managed to cross it.  Trail is almost even with slight  ups and down, one is rarely breathless.  Zhanskar trek is not tough only factor is cold temperature which makes it difficult and test your tenacity.  We had our quick lunch in noon and continue to walk.   Around 1600hrs we reached Tibb cave.  Beautiful campsite but dirty, ofcourse we are responsible for that.  Most of the agencies camp here.  There is a big cave on left where you can hangout in the evening and porters in this trek spend there nights in those caves only.  Few of them build small cave by raising stones as a wall to guard chilly wind.  They don't camp near client's tents, they spend there nights in those human made caves.   As soon as the sun sets temperatures falls rapidly,. So please don't expose yourself too much.  Day ended with nice hot dinner.  It was yak stew, first time we were having this, it tastes almost like mutton but dark in color.    For those who denied to have yak meat Pasta was made for them.



After dinner we all fill our Thermo flasks and hot water bags with hot water and get in our tents.  One important thing you must have with you on this Trek is hot water bags.  You will get them in any medical shops, but this is going to save you in those chilling nights.  Keep those bags inside your sleeping bags and keep your batteries and gadgets etc also inside your sleeping bags, otherwise batteries will drain.

Day04
Tibb to Nerak (11,150 FT, 12 KMs Trek)

Today was last day of our forward journey, from tomorrow we will start returning.  It was early morning when a man wearing Lama costume came near my tent and said..please return Chadar is broken, if we are alive we can do many such treks.  He was guiding a foreigner and returning from Nerak.  I was little worried by his information, but decided to go as we can't believe until we see it ourselves, from last two days people were saying that Chadar is broken but still we came so far.  We left Tibb around 0800 hrs, there was another team camping that night they left half an hour before us. We came across Tsomo ganga.  It's the only water fall which is never frozen.  There is a story behind this waterfall.   In ancient times people from Ladakh region used to go Tibbet for education to become Lama's.  There was a boy from Nerak village he went Tibbet to learn budhism and become Lama.  After his completion the head of the institution asked him his desire, he complaint about the water crisis in his village.  That head of the institution gave him a container and strictly instructed him to open this container after reaching his village.  That young boy turned Lama happily left monastery and started his return journey.  As days were passing the weight of the container was gaining weight. Young Lama opened that container with curiosity, as soon as he opened it, two golden fish flew and get inside the rocky mountains, from those holes stream of water started flowing.  That young Lama cursed himself for being impatient, if he would have opened that container in his village same stream was to flow in his village.  You can see those two big holes water flowing from one hole and another is blocked, there is a story behind blockage of that hole.

Video here...wangtup

After crossing Tsomo Ganga, we came across a place where the river was just 10 feets wide and wall on both sides are like canyon, straight wall.  After crossing this zone we had our quick lunch.  During our lunch we came to know about a tragedy just happened in the trail ahead.  One girl drowned in that Chilling water and she was dead.  Her body was wrapped in plastic and traversed on sledge.   Few more kilometers ahead and we reached a place where water was coming over the Chadar.   And there was no way we can cross over it.  Our guide went ahead to check the trail but return disappointed.  We had a quick discussion and decided to camp right there and wait for the conditions to get better.  After lunch we all went to collect some wood for fire.  It was a sleepless night, hundreds of thoughts were running in our minds.  Can we make it?? What if we reach Nerak and the chadar loose it's shape.??



Day 05
Camp before Nerak to Tsomo Ganga (10,760 FT, 12 Kms trek)

Next morning we started early. With packed lunch and two support staff and guide we were again on the same trail with our fingers crossed.  Just 200mtrs from campsite Hirak decided to return.  Chadar was not completely frozen.  Still water was coming over.  One support staff returned with him. Again we were at the same point from where we returned.  Condition was even worst, still water was flowing over the frozen ice. Still we wanted to try, few more metres and water was inside our gumboots.  Our legs were inside chilled water upto knees.  We were out of mind, immediately we were looking for the support we climbed on siderocks, and put off our shoes and socks. One of our member had a nervous breakdown, after offering hot water he was normal condition.  We all were looking at each other, confused disappointed.  Guide Tashi said it's risky to continue, still asked for our opinion. Wangtuk another support staff very positively said let's do it, he said let's fix the rope we can cross.  But he was not sure what will be the condition when we return.  Already a team was strucked in between Nerak and this point.  We had a small team discussion and decided to return.  Immediately we returned to the campsite, packed all our tents and left the campsite.  Our target was to cover as much as possible, as the water level was increasing.  For next few kilometres we tried to avoid the water and walked over the rocks on the banks.  We reached Tibb cave, condition here was worst.  There was no way we can walk through, we have to climb the side walls and cross that broken patch.  Ropes were fixed, luggage was crossed first then one by one we climbed over.  It took us around an hour to cross, which in normal condition will take just 5 minutes.  As we crossed that patch few locals were coming towards us without there pants and informed us about even worst condition then this patch, they said you have to get into water to cross.



 Next few kilometres was something which we will remember whole life.  We were literally walking in chilling minus temperature water shouting, laughing, singing ofcourse with pain.  Sometimes water was around waist level.  Somehow we crossed this particular patch and immediately changed our socks and pants and continued walking.  You should not take rest if your body gets cold it can be harmful so our guide doesnt allowed us to take rest and we kept on walking.  After an hour we stopped and prepared a quick lunch and dried our socks and pants.  Trail after this was normal, it was getting dark so just before Tsomo Ganga we found a camp site where we decided to camp for the night. 




Day 06
Tsomo Ganga to Shingrak Yogma (12.5 Kms)

Lazy day, we started around 0950Hrs from Tsomo Ganga, we knew today is going to be our last day, noone wants to leave this trail.  We wanted to spend one more day, so we thought of camping again Bakula stay tonight and then tomorrow morning we can reach Shingrak Yongma to board the bus to Leh.  Around 1230Hrs we were at Bakula,  We were busy with clicking photographs, our guide informed us that there is a bus standing at Shingrak Yongma, which came with a team and now it has to return without any passengers.  So we decided to catch that bus and reach Leh.  We had CHADAR SNAN (Bath in Zhanskar river, Chadar) had some maggi and left for Leh.  Around 1500Hrs we left for Leh.  Enroute we stopped at Nimmu - Confluence of Zhanskar and Indus river, Magnetic Hill and very famous Gurudwara Sri Pathar Sahib.


By 1900 Hrs we were at Tashi's house.
Watch this video, complete story of our attempt.

Friday, August 17, 2018

Mt. Kanamo 19600ft Peak Summit

Mount Kanamo, 19600 ft from sea level almost 6000m. On 07th of July 2018 1750 Hrs me (Jaydhar Chowdhary) and Susanta Mudi successfully summited this peak. We did this without any guide or porter. We started the trek from Kibber Village in Himachal Pradesh. First day we reached Summit Camp and next day we did the summit. and third day returned to Kibber. Biggest challenge on this trail is the altitude you gain, in a day n half you are gaining almost 5500fts, the Kibber village is at 14108ft and the peak is 19600 ft, at this altitude oxygen is really thin. And second biggest problem is water. There is only one source of water that is way before the basecamp. You have to carry all the water from that source only. Its Kanamo Lake. We had just 5 Litres of water for 2.5 days. Less intake of water made it more tougher. But the moment you reach there, the view all around is just breathtaking you can see all small and big peaks of Spiti Valley.

Day 1: 2nd July
Kgp to Delhi
Train from Kharagpur to Delhi Anand Vihar Railway Station.

Day 2: 3rd July
Evening bus from Delhi to Manali
Reached Delhi, had lunch with few friends, who came to meet us.  Gajendra already booked bus tickets for us.  We reached Majnu ka Tila, where the bus was supposed to leave.  We reached there at 1800hrs, but bus came around 2030hrs.




Day 3: 4th July
Reach Manali, Stay at Manali for acclimatization
Booked tickets to Kaza from Manali bus stand.   Himachal tourism buses are available, you must book your tickets in advance, otherwise you might have to travel standing.  Fare is 310 Rs. from Manali to kaza.    There is only one bus for Kaza at 0530 hrs.  Its rare to get some shared vehicle for Kaza.


























Day 4: 5th July
Bus from Manali to Kaza then vehicle from Kaza to Kibber
200km + 19km










Manali to Kaza is one of the toughest but the most scenic roads in the world.

Manali - Rohtang Pass - Batal - Kunzum La Pass - Kaza
Scheduled time to reach Kaza is at 1730 hrs but it's never on time.  We reached Kaza at 1900 hrs and immediately hired a cab to Kibber.  1000rs for cab to kibber.  Reached Kibber at a homestay, cab driver dropped us to a home stay.




Day 5: 6th July
Kibber to KBC to Kibber Summit Camp
7.5km + 2.5km
Only source of water Kanamo Lake, carry as much as water from the lake, there is no other source of water on this trail.



Day 6: 7th July
Kibber Summit Camp to Summit back to Kibber
2km to summit + 2.5 km to base camp

Summit at 1750 Hrs.



Day 7: 8th July
kibber summit camp to kibber to Kaza
Left kibber summit camp at 1100hrs reached kibber at 1400hrs. Had our lunch and left for Kaza.  Detour to Key monastery and night stay at kaza.  Tickets to manali are booked in advance from kaza busstand.  You will get tickets after the bus from manali arrives kaza. There are rooms at busstand where the bus driver and conductor spend there night. You can directly visit them and book your tickets.


Day 8: 9th July
Kaza to Manali
Bus left kaza at 0500hrs
Reached Manali at 1800 hrs
Night stay at Manali



Day 9: 10th July
Book tickets for Delhi
Bus from Manali to Delhi, left manali at 1700hrs reached Delhi next morning 0700hrs










Thursday, November 23, 2017

Vertical align images and content in middle of a div

Center aligning CSS is simple when we need horizontally, but vertical alignment is not simple as horizontal.  We can simply use text-align: center for inline elements and margin-left and margin-right values auto for centering horizontally.  In our table based layout days we used valign attribu
te but for div based layouts vertical-align attribute is there but useless.  It doesnt work as it reads.  Vertical-align is similar to valign, it also applies to table cells only and it works with inline elements.
This vertical-align doesnt work with block level elements like a paragraph inside a div.

A common rule which you can use and get results is as follows, using pseudo selector it can be achieved. Simple CSS rules to vertical align your elements in the middle of a div.

0


CSS Rules:
.imgCont{ text-align:center; height:300px; border:1px solid red;}

.imgCont:before {    /* create a full-height inline block pseudo=element */
    content: ' ';
    display: inline-block;
    vertical-align: middle;  /* vertical alignment of the inline element */
    height: 100%;
}
.imgCont .fpImage {
    display: inline-block;
    vertical-align: middle;  /* vertical alignment of the inline element */
}

There are few methods depending on your requirement.

1

When you want to vertically center a single line of text simply use line-height .  line-height value should be larger than its font-size.

HTML:
<div id="parent">
    <div id="child">Text here</div>
</div>

CSS:
#child {line-height: 200px;}

You can use any value in place of 200px whatever suits your requirement.
Same method can be used for image, with adding another line of  CSS.

HTML:
<div id="parent">
    <img src="image.png" alt="" />
</div>

CSS:
#parent {line-height: 200px;}
#parent img {vertical-align: middle;}

*Line height value should be greater than the height of the image.

2

Vertical-align works with table-cells.  We can display our element as table and table-cells and then use vertical-align to middle the content.
HTML:
<div id="parent">
    <div id="child">Content here</div>
</div>

CSS:
 #parent {display: table;}
#child {display: table-cell;vertical-align: middle;}

Content can be dynamic here, it works with multiple line of content.  If it doesnt works in all browsers just add "display:inline-block;" to the child element.

3

This style is usually used for the popups, which we use to center in the middle of the screen.  Child can be centered both vertically and horizontally. "position" is must for both parent and child.  relative for parent and absolute for child.

HTML:
<div id="parent">
    <div id="child">Content here</div>
</div>

CSS:
#parent {position: relative;}
#child {
    position: absolute;
    top: 50%;
    left: 50%;
    height: 30%;
    width: 50%;
    margin: -15% 0 0 -25%;
   }

You should have noticed value of margin-top is -15% that is half of value of height (30%) and value of margin-left  is -25%  that is half of value of width (50%).

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