I’m planning a 3–5 day trip around Kalu Waterfall and the Malshej region in the next 2–3 days and would love some suggestions from people who know the area well.

I live in Vadodara, Gujarat, and I’m planning to take a night train and reach Kalyan around 6 AM. From there, my rough route is:

Kalyan → Murbad → Sawarne → Thitbi → Kalu Waterfall

While going through a few Reddit posts and comments, I came across several other places around Malshej that look interesting. I’m thinking of exploring:

• Kalu Waterfall
• Reverse Waterfall
• Shivneri Fort
• Jivdhan Fort
• Harishchandragad via Khireshwar
• Any other good places/treks that I might be missing in between

Since I have 3–5 days, I don't want to rush everything. I'd rather explore properly and enjoy the route.

A few questions:

1. What would be the best sequence/route to cover these places?
2. Where would you recommend staying overnight each day?
3. Are there any other waterfalls, forts, viewpoints, villages, or short hikes that I should add along the way?
4. Which of these places would you recommend doing with a local guide, especially considering the routes can be confusing?
5. I’ve already done Harihar, Kalsubai, Matheran and AMK, so I’m comfortable with moderate/difficult treks. Do I still need a guide for Kalu, Jivdhan or Harishchandragad?

Any advice from people who have explored this region would be really helpful. I’m especially interested in making the trip more of an exploration/adventure rather than just ticking off locations.

Over the past year, I’ve started becoming more interested in quality/luxury stuff and upgrading my lifestyle.

In January 2026, I bought a pair of ASICS shoes for around ₹17K and a Titan watch for ₹3K. Now, whenever I go to the gym or for a run, I usually end up buying Adidas clothes/shoes. Earlier, I never really cared about perfumes, but I started with Adil Qadri attar and now I’m looking at some premium perfumes. I’m also thinking about getting a better watch and eventually a good bike.

Basically, I feel like I’m slowly upgrading my lifestyle and becoming more conscious about what I wear, use, and buy.

The thing is, I’m 26 and currently earning around ₹7 LPA as a software engineer. I spend roughly ₹10K per month on things like clothes, shoes, protein, gym, grooming, etc. I can afford it, but I’m wondering whether I should increase this spending as my income grows or keep it around ₹10K/month until my package improves significantly.

Recently, I watched Raj Shamani’s podcasts on watches and perfumes, and it got me even more interested in these things.

I’m curious how you guys look at this. Is spending on lifestyle upgrades at this stage a healthy part of enjoying life and improving yourself, or should I be more conservative with my spending until my income increases?

I started running in December 2025 and started going to the gym about 3 months ago. Right now, I do 3 days of gym and 3 days of running. I also study at night because I’m preparing for a job switch.

Apart from that, I’m trying to eat healthier and get around 80g of protein every day. I’ve also started dressing better when I go out. I completed a 10-day Vipassana course and recently got into hiking/trekking, and I’m trying to do at least one trek or hike every month.

Now I want to work on my personality and the way I think. My long-term goal is to earn well, travel a lot, experience new things and enjoy life.

I’m thinking about learning horse riding or piano, but I’m not really able to motivate myself to start. So I’m looking for suggestions from people here. What skills should I learn or what experiences should I try that can genuinely change the way I think or make me a more interesting person?

I’m also planning a 30-day workation sometime in the future, although I haven’t decided when or where yet. After my next job switch, I’m also considering spending around 2 weeks travelling in Afghanistan.

Would love to hear what you guys have tried that actually made a difference in your life.

Suggest me any habit, books or anything that help you to change your life.

There is a common idea that humans evolved from earlier primates and that, throughout evolution, survival instincts such as competition, aggression, violence, and killing for food played an important role.

At the same time, as human societies developed, we created moral values, laws, social norms, and philosophies that encourage compassion, cooperation, and non-violence. Practices such as meditation and Vipassana also encourage us to observe our thoughts and emotions rather than react to them.

This makes me wonder:

Are we gradually moving away from our original human nature by becoming more peaceful, compassionate, and non-violent? And if so, is that actually a bad thing?

If aggression, competition, and the instinct for survival are natural parts of being human, should we try to suppress them through social conditioning and practices like meditation?

Or is the ability to recognize these instincts and choose not to act on them actually a higher stage of human evolution?

In other words, are we losing our original nature, or are we evolving beyond it?

I'd be interested to hear how others think about this from the perspectives of evolution, psychology, philosophy, and especially people who practice meditation/Vipassana.

Somewhere in March, I first learned about Vipassana, and I was extremely excited about the idea of attending a course. I kept thinking about what the experience would be like and hoped that it might help me with my overthinking and constant sexual thoughts.

Finally, I got the time and leave from work, and I have arranged everything to attend a course in September.

But now that the course is getting closer, I don't feel as excited as I did before. In fact, I sometimes feel like I'm going mainly because I've already taken leave and made all the arrangements.

Part of me wonders whether I had built up too many expectations earlier. I was hoping that after the course, my overthinking and certain unwanted thoughts might simply go away. Now, I'm trying not to expect any particular result.

Is this change in excitement normal? For those who have attended a Vipassana course before, do you have any advice on how to approach the 10 days and make the most of the experience?

I really want to be fully present and use the time well, rather than spending the whole course thinking about what results I should be getting.