Into the Clouds

Leaving Home
14 June 2013...
Its 10:30... A Friday night...
My bag is packed. I have had a bath and have put on a fresh set of clothes. I am about to leave for a long weekend trip.
11:00... At Andheri station. The station is a bit crowded, even at this late hour. Its a bit awkward - people staring at me as I walk around in three-fourths... I quickly catch a bus.
11:30... I am at office. I decided to go there and spend some time with Sushant. He has spent his TGIF evening in office. So I thought might as well give him some company. We have a fun time capturing videos of him dancing and making a total goof of himself.
12:00... The bus isn't here yet. We call Aditya, the Trek-Lead. it seems the bus left late. It will be here in half an hour...
12:45... Aditya calls and tells us "Come down. We are waiting near the night lover". Don't misunderstand. "Night Lover" is a Hotel. ;-) We go down and get into the darkened bus. Finally the Trip has begun...

The Fellowship of the Trek
There are now 10 of us in the bus. Sushant (the organizer of the trek), Aditya (the trek lead), Shafi, Dharav, Selvi, Supriya, Shobith, Rakesh, Jenil and myself.
We head towards Ghatkopar. There we plan to pick up Harshal, the final member of our our fellowship / group of eleven... 
Aditya is betting Harshal will be wearing his Red T-shirt, for that's what he is known to wear on every trek. He is wrong. Harshal is wearing a green T-Shirt.
Finally, we are ready to roll...

Dark Night, Long Road.
Thats how our trip began. On 15th June 2013, a Saturday.
It was past 1:30 in the night, as we headed along the Eastern Express Highway towards Nashik. It was dark inside the bus. The conversation had died away. Except for the sounds from outside, the silence inside the bus was total. It had been a long evening and soon heads were rolling left and right as the bus tore its way through the rains towards our final destination.

I had had a good long siesta (I was on leave that day). So I was wide awake, staring out at the rain-drenched cityscape zipping by. But a swaying bus is a powerful sedative. Soon I felt my eyelids getting heavy...

For a while Harshal, the last one to get in, had been sitting in the front seat, besides the driver, Ramakant. But finally he got up and came back to get some peaceful sleep. I relinquished my seat to him and went and sat in the seat he had vacated.

Someone once told me it is not good to sleep or doze away besides the driver... Bad for the driver's moral, especially at night. So I tried to stay awake. And failed miserably. However much I tried, I kept dozing off...

Finally, we stopped at Kasara Ghat for some tea. Even then, I felt drowsy. Thankfully Sushant took over from me and I went back and had some sleep.

Finally There...
It was past 5:00 am when I woke up for good. We had reached our destination - Trimbakeshwar. We hunted for a suitable place to park. Finally we parked for a while in a square near the famous ancient temple of Lord Shiva. It was 5:20. The temple would open by 5:30. We got down and walked around for a while.

Then we went and paid a visit to the temple. Even at this early hour, there were quite a few devotees in the temple. Its huge and very ancient. Made up of black stone, with lots of nice carvings on it. Pretty impressive stuff, but not so well maintained, which is evident from the broken carved pieces here and there...

We came back to our bus, brushed our teeth and had another round of tea. It had stopped raining in the night itself. But the rain clouds were there darkening the sky and obscuring the mountain tops.

Trimbakeshwar is surrounded by hills and mountains on three sides. So its very wet and windy during the rains. Rain clouds and wind wage a loosing battle against the mighty, almost vertical flank of the mountains. This almost vertical face of the mountains can be seen ascending high up as it disappears within the misty haze of the rain clouds. That's where we were headed today...

We got rid of the excess stuff in our bags, and began our trek towards our final destination - Bramhagiri.

Let the Trek begin...
We kept walking in the general direction of the mountain face, picking up our way through the lanes surrounded by old and new houses. We passed the famous "kund" where people take a holy bath, a lake (where we stopped to capture a few pics) and quite a few large and small temples. One thing to be noted about Trimbak. It has more temples than any other place I have ever previously visited. Almost every street has at least one temple on it!

The morning was a new-born child. The sky was dark and heavy with rain clouds. Much to my consternation and the delight of everyone else it might rain after all...
It was just past 6. This time, on any sane Saturday, I would be deep in the embrace of sweet sweet sleep. It had been a long night. But the damp cool morning breeze was as good as a gallon of tea. I felt neither sleep, nor fatigue.

The street turned and we came across an enclosed lake, with a brick border. A little gate lead to a small temple (even here) by the lake. An ideal place for some group pics. The streets became lanes. Lanes became a footpath. And the footpath soon opened up into a wide open area.

The open area afforded a beautiful view of the mountain face. There was a nice waterfall slicing it in the middle. It was too early in the season for there to be enough water to make the water fall look spectacular enough. As of now, it was a simple white line across the otherwise brown-green mountain-scape. I almost missed it at first. I was too busy looking at the foot of the mountains where there was another lake. A natural one, this time, unadorned by human structures. The top of the mountains was lot in a haze. The haze was thick grey white whiffs of cottony clouds. Clouds that could be seen descending with noticeable speed from atop the mountain. That's where we were headed. It was breathtaking... For a while I went silent, just looking at it. Then I went crazy clicking away at it... We had some good group photography sessions.

Up the holy stairway...
From here, the footpath turned into rough stairs made up of arranged stones. The climb had begun. We passed little shanties where locals probably sold eatables. But most of them had a deserted look. As if they had been vacated on temporary basis. As we went higher through the tree-flanked stairway the view became better and better. Soon we could see the panorama of the entire Trimbak town below us, and the mountain face above us piercing the clouds...

All the while, Sushant was busy taking pics and Aditya was busy posing for him. We teased him, called him Sushant's model. It was fun, everyone was laughing, cracking jokes. For instance...

I stopped to point out a faraway building with interesting architecture. Aditya says "Where? where? show me..."
"See, there..."
"Oh yeah, I see it...", says Dharav, "Look Aditya, its ____"
"Whats ____?" I ask
"___ is the building where Aditya lives"... He was pulling Aditya's leg

Another example: Me and Jenil were ahead of the group. We took a break and sat on 2 benches along the road. We were sitting opposite to each other. So when the others passed between us, they called us the "Dwaar-Haati" (elephant effigies that are known to adorn ancient palace entrances)

There was no pressure, no haste. We were taking our own sweet time reaching to the top. And enjoying every minute of it.

On the way we came across an abandoned "waada". It had nice arched doorways and windows. We stopped here to captured some pretty nice pics. Then some of us opened up the foodstuff we had brought with us, and that's when I realized how famished I was. It must have been past 7 o'clock. But the sky was a uniform grey and there was no way to guess what time of the day it was.

Monkey business...
A local lady had arrived there. She looked at the food stuff we were having and warned us about monkeys. For sure, there was commotion in the surrounding trees. We stuffed up the eatables back in the bags, but the damage had been done, as we would soon realize.

Now the way became steeper. We were walking nearer and nearer to the vertical mountain face. Trees became sparse. The stairway turned into a staircase. The steps were wet. I could feel my feet slip every now and then. I took very careful steps.

I was wearing floaters. While the do have good enough grip on dry ground, they proved utterly useless on the wet hard slimy rock steps. As it is, I have a displaced center of gravity (thanks to the fat I have accumulated at all the wrong places). So I have been known to have "unhappy" feet when climbing. The weight of the 2 water bottles inside the sack on my back did not help. And add the slippery floaters to the equation and there was a very good probability that Humpty Dumpty might have a great fall... So I was being very careful with each step I took.

Then... the monkeys made their appearance... They had been following us along the trees I guess. But now they had descended down on either side of the staircase. The stairs cut right through the rock, with rock-walls on either side of us. As we made progress through this "valley", the monkeys kept following us on the top of the rock-walls. One look at them and you could tell they meant business. Their sights were focused on our bags and our hands, darting this way and that, searching for eatables.

It was a good thing we stuffed the food back into the bags. I had my windcheater pulled over my sack. But some guys had their sacks exposed to the sights of the little devils. I guess the smell of the food we had just had lingered and attracted them. Shobith was bringing up the rare of our human chain. And some monkeys had to be shooed off as they tried getting at his sack.

I was at the front of our group. They have put iron railings right in the middle of the stairs. And these proved a great support as we made our arduous way upwards along the wet slippery steps. A point came where the stairs took a U-turn. At this very point, one monkey which had been tracking us for a long time suddenly jumped over our heads and landed straight in front of me. It stopped right there. I stopped right there too. We all stopped... It stared at me, then at the others behind me. Then it began to descend with a leisurely pace of a tiger that had cornered its prey...

Its not always fun to be visited by our tree-dwelling kin... When we enter their domain, we are at their mercy. You are always outnumbered. You are ill-equipped by years of evolution to match their speed and agility or chase them up the trees. They are fast, you are not. They can climb up trees, you cant. They can bite you, you cant return the favour (yuck). They can't understand you. So no point talking sense to them. It is best to be careful when passing through a monkey-infested region.

Best thing to do in such situations - carry a stick along with you and scare them away whenever you can. Avoid confrontation - you don't want to face an entire "vaanar sena" attacking you. Avoid displaying eatables. And avoid eye contact. Just ignore them as much as possible, and they will do the same to you.

Unfortunately in our case, confrontation was inevitable. As it approached me, I took hold of a stick that Supriya was holding besides me. I did not intend to use it. But if I had to, I would. I thought Supriya would relinquish the stick to me. But she held on. I guess she was scared. No wonder. I was scared too. I held on to the stick for support as the monkey came right up to my feet and caught hold of my pants and began to pull lightly. Now I panicked. The pant had an elastic weight. It it pulled harder, I would have a "wardrobe malfunction". I panicked so much that I began talking to it in Marathi. It looked up at me. It was evident it did not understand a word I said. Instead of listening to me, it pulled itself up and put its hand inside my pant pocket! It did not find anything of interest... Then (thank God), it let me go and turned its attention to others. I quickly grabbed the opportunity and climbed up as quickly as possible. As I moved on, the spell was broken, and the way was no longer blocked. Other followed quickly behind me, shooing away the bold monkey...

On the Roof of the World...
From there on, the stairs led us right through a deep gully carved through the rocks. The rock faces flanking either side of us were very high. It gave a kind of a closed in feeling. Like passing through a narrow but high tunnel having no roof. After navigating our way through this "valley", we finally emerged onto flat ground. We had reached the top.
We were all tired. So we took some rest. We sat in a corner along some old stone fortifications. Beyond the fortifications, the land dropped straight down. We has a beautiful view of the landscape below, albeit, obscured by the hazy wisps of clouds... clouds that were now below us! It was an awesome sight. The breeze was quite strong here. It was cold. It had not yet started raining. There was a small shanty nearby that offered tea and lemonade. But we were too excited, too eager to explore. So we soon set off.

The way was flanked on either side by shanties and huts. Most of them were closed. The air had suddenly gone from being crystal clear to misty. It was clammy, one could feel the moisture on the skin. The visibility became less and less as we progressed. We were walking straight into a fog. Or to be more precise we were walking straight into the clouds...

We progressed along a very gentle slope. The red mud was moist. It felt slippery if your shoes had a mediocre grip. There was a footpath that indicated the way to us. We followed its serpentine route as it led us upwards. The visibility was now hardly 40-50 feet. Beyond that there were just dark-grey shapes against an almost uniform light grey background. The world had suddenly gone very small. Trees looked like monsters lurking just beyond the mist. The footpath ahead led straight into a foggy grey wall. What lay ahead was a mystery every step of the way. It was thrilling. Some of the guys tried a shortcut along the gentle slope. It involved climbing up the rocky surface of an as yet dry water spring. I was very tempted to follow them. But my floaters with zero-grip held me back.

Finally the slope seemed to level-out and the path ended onto a plateau. The first thing I noticed was the wind... It was blowing impossibly fast... It tore past us, howled in our ears, made our wind cheaters fly behind us like they show in the movies... The fog moved past us in the wind, I could see and feel the cottony tendrils of fog rush past my face... It was awesome!

The plateau itself was covered with short green grass. The fog was too thick for us to see how far the plateau stretched. But no further rise in the slope appeared anywhere around. So I guessed we had reached one of the highest points on the mountain top. As we walked ahead, an iron railing appeared out of the thick fog. As we approached the iron railing and stood besides it, the wind speed became even more intense. Beyond the railing, the ground simply dropped off into the thick grey fog - fog that was moving up towards us, lifted up by the winds... The fog parted every now and then and afforded us the view of the land stretching way down below at the foot of the mountain...

I was suddenly very cold. The wind-chill factor must be pretty high. There was some difficulty breathing when I had my face straight at the winds, such was their enormous speed... But then I just let go of my analytical thoughts and simply opened up my senses. It felt awesome. Was this how it must feel when flying? Every one was shouting into the chasm that stretched before us. And the winds simply blew our shouts away. When we talked to each other, the words came out as just hissing sounds. Listening and discerning them was difficult. One had to shout in order to be heard clearly... We were feeling the raw power of nature...

After a while we moved on... The iron railing ended to the right. But they continued for a while to the left. So that's where we headed. We soon found a path that seemed to take us down... After a while it turned 180 degrees and led further down. To one side, the land simply sloped away into the fog. No way of knowing how far it sloped before it simply dropped off into a steep falling cliff... It was a simple mud path. The mud was wet. So I kept slipping. I had my heart in my throat. If I was destined to fall during this trek, I did not wish to fall here... But fortunately I made it ok.

Where a river is born...
The path zig-zagged downwards and the leveled out. It led us past a little settlement. On either side of the path were shanties and huts. The tarpaulin over the roofs stretched right over the path between the huts on either side to form a canopy. And that's where the specter of the stealing monkeys came back to haunt us.

The first sign of their presence was an urgent staccato sound atop the rooftops we passed... Then they appeared at the other end of the canopy right in front of us. Sushant was very concerned for his camera. He passed it on to Shafi and asked him to hide it below his windcheater. I guess the monkeys spied this exchange. For a monkey cut Shafi's path and frisked him the same way I had been frisked by it's kin. The consternation was clear in Shafi's eyes. The monkey simply wont let him go. So finally Shafi held out both his hands out, camera in one, nothing in the other. The monkey looked at the camera for a while, did not think it looked edible enough. So it finally let him go...

The path led to an iron railing, at the end of which was a small temple. The monkeys followed our group along the railings. In order to escape them, we rushed inside the temple. the temple had a statue of a cow's mouth (gomukh) out of which flowed a stream of water. This is where the great river Godavari originates. We spent some time here and then left.

Following the edge of the World's Roof...
The monkeys were waiting for us outside. But we shooed them away. We were a tight-knit group now and they dared not approach us. But Sushant and Aditya were left behind. They were too busy capturing pics. When they did emerge, the monkeys surged ahead. One of the monkeys bared its large teeth at him. He simply withdrew back into the temple. He was more afraid for his camera than for himself as he later confessed to me (I mean here is a guys who, during a trek, as he fell into the water, his first reflex was to throw his Camera Mobile up to save it...) Finally, I went in again, and the 3 of us came out in tight formation. Thus we were finally rid of the monkey menace.

We followed the iron railing into the other direction, opposite to the temple. We were now in search of the other Trekking destination - Bhandardurg - an ancient fort known to be nearby. But its path was an unknown variable. We knew the general direction, had seen it on Google Earth, but surrounded by fog and having no point of reference, there was no way of discerning any specific direction. So we followed the railing to see where it led us.

The railing went on for a while and then it turned at a corner. At this corner we took a break. By now, everyone was famished. So we decided to eat. We were careful, lest the monkeys made an appearance again. But there were no more monkeys and we ate to our content. At this corner, we could see the cliff face very close by. The fog had thinned out. Much of the cliff face was clearly visible. The winds were so fierce, that the little rivulets of water trickling down the cliff face were thrown back upwards in a "reverse waterfall"... it was a rare sight indeed.

The fort from which no man returned...
After a while, we continued following the railing. The ground began to slope up again. And soon  we reached another temple. The railing ended here and beyond this there was a simple unguarded footpath, only a foot or so wide. Some of us asked the Pujari in the temple, "Does this way lead to Bhandardurg?"... The Pujari gave a very ominous reply - "No it doesn't. Dont go there. No one goes to Bhandardurg. No one who goes there ever returns back..."

It was a dialog right out of a Horror novel. In spite of this ominous warning, we decided to give it a try. The little path meandered into the thick fog ahead. No way to know where it led. To our right lay an upward slope covered with green grass. To our left, the ground sloped away for a feet or two and then simply dropped off. We went ahead a few meters, then Sushant and Aditya took a call. They asked us to wait there while they would sortie ahead and see if it was viable to press on. So, Sushant, Aditya and Shobith went ahead while we waited there. I could see them untill they became hazy grey shapes a few feet ahead. Then I saw them halt and discuss something. Then the taller shadow, Shobith, detached itself from the other two and went ahead. With every step he took, he began to loose definition. Soon, he was almost invisible - at one moment, I saw him taking a turn and then he simply disappeared, engulfed by the fog. For a while there was no sign of him. Sushant and Aditya who were halfway between us and him could probably still see him. After a while, I saw him materialize our of the fog -  a hazy shape that soon took definition and was back to join the two shapes that were Sushant and Aditya. The came back and told us to make and about turn.

It seems the path was slippery ahead. And considering the number of first time trekkers with us, it was probably not wise to press on.

So we retraced our steps till the temple with the ominous Pujari. From there, instead of going back the way we had come along the railing, we spied a shortcut path that went up diagonally across the slope. We started going that way. The going was a bit difficult for me. But Shobith brought up the rear of our human chain and I was glad to have him guarding my back. Every time I lagged behind, he would be there waiting by my side. At one point the path cut across a water stream. It was a trickle really, but the accumulated water made the path wet and the stones below our feet slippery. Here Aditya went ahead. Shobith and Harshal took station at one end of the stream and Sushant waited at the other end, forming a barrier with his hand and giving support to some of us non-regulars, as as each one of us passed by him. Finally, the path seemed to level out on to a plateau and I breathed a sigh of relief.

Back to the roof of the world...
As I looked around I realized that we had reached the same place where we started from. The plateau of the winds and the fog. The highest point we had visited so far... If the speed of the winds had been impossible before, now it was ridiculous. It howled and swayed us as we walked. The fog was much thicker too. I looked up and there was the sun, a little bright spot in the uniform greyness. So thick was the fog that one could look at the sun with naked eyes without hurting...

But all this added to the thrill of this unique place. As we enjoyed the wind and the fog and the cool dampness on the skin, one question kept pondering in some of our minds... We had gone to the left along the railing. But what lay to the right beyond the point where the railing ended? Sushant, Aditya and Shobith decided to to explore. Was it possible the way to Bhandardurg lay there? It was the first trek of the season - after a long time - and the guys had tasted the adventure and were looking for more... How I wish I could accompany them into the unknown. But I was not in the best of shape. And I would simply become a burden on them.

They deposited their bags with us and simply disappeared into the fog. What were we to do? The ladies just went and sat down on the ground near the iron railing... One by one, we all took cue from them and sat down on the stones nearby. For a while all were silent. We opened up and began eating some chakli. The wind kept blowing some of the chakli out of our hands.

The damp and the cold was too much for some of us. So Shafi, Dharav and Rakesh picked up their sacks and went back the way we had first come, to find some shelter under the roof of the some nearby house. That left me, Jenil and Harshal. The ladies came back and sat with us. After a while of quiet and silence, Selvi suggested we play Antakshari. The girls versus the guys. I was reluctant at first - I am not so good at remembering songs. But soon we all warmed up and it was fun... We were singing loud above the whine of the winds... The time flew...

After a while the three musketeers suddenly appeared out of the fog. Bad news, the plateau ended in a dead end. The way to Bhandardurga was still a mystery...

Another shot at reaching the mystery Fort...
We picked up our sacks and headed back the way we had come. We stopped at the corner where the stairs start downwards. There, at the stall we had some refreshing tea (a bit bland and a bit too sweet with a hint of some spices) and sat and chatted. It felt nice and refreshing and relaxed. While having tea, we asked the tea-vendor lady the way to Bhandardurga. She indicated the direction right next to the entrance of the stairs. Now we had a decision to make. Back to the pavilion? or go in search of the fort?

Aditya was all excited and enthusiastic about going for the fort. Some were game, most others were neutral. Then the tea-vendor lady said that it was not very safe, since the soil would be wet and slippery, and we would probably not find the correct way in the fog. Then some of us began to have second thoughts. But finally, we all decided to give it a try.

So we set off, once again in search of the elusive Bhandardurga. There was no path really. We were just walking along on a gentle slope. Unlike near the top-most plateau, there was no iron railing here. So we were unprotected in case of a slip and a tumble down. The slope kept going upwards, and we had no way of knowing in which direction lay the fort. We kept pressing on for a while. The slope disappeared into the fog on one side, and dropped off way down on the other. Finally the futility of the endeavour dawned upon us and we retraced our steps back.

On the way back, we saw some big colourful (mostly bright orange) crabs. Aditya was so engrossed in watching one of these that, Supriya had to remind him that we should now head back. He could go to a fish-market the next day and watch the crabs as long as he liked.

What goes up has to come down...
Finally we began our descent back from the roof of the world (as I now like to call it, misnomer though it is). The descent was fortunately uneventful. The fog cleared as we lost altitude and we were trudging our legs back the way we had come.

One of the locals had mentioned that there is a path to the Bhandardurga near a temple down below. As we reached the temple, some of us decided to give it a final try. We set off along this path that cut through the thick of the surrounding tree. Selvi, Supriya and Jenil decided to stay back. They were tired - it was their first trek. But then at the final moment Jenil changed his mind. And that forced Selvi and Supriya to trudge along behind us.

The path passed almost parallel to and very near to the vertical cliffs that can be seen from the Trimbakeshwar temple. The rock face is pockmarked with what looked like caves. I counted atleast 2 or 3 of them. They looked huge even from so far away. How they came to be there is a mystery to me. Probably formed by water erosion? But I could see no water trickling out of them.

Finally we reached a clearing that boasted a mango tree. Some kids were busy aiming stones at the raw mangoes on the tree. Selvi and Supriya again decided to stay right there. After a bit of deliberation, we finally decided to give up and head back. Then someone told Harshal to ask a local if the path would lead us back to Trimbakeshwar. The local said it would. So instead of going back, we decided to take this route. That was a mistake as we would later discover that that was a longer route.

The path opened up onto a solid set of steps. If you turn left, the steps go up towards Ganga Dwaar (which can be seen as a white patch right in the middle of the cliff face) Turn right and the steps lead down towards Trimbak. We obviously turned right. 

Humpty Dumpty finally did fall...
The steps were well defined - must have been constructed more recently. At regular intervals we could see the little shanties and huts on either side of the steps; shanties where locals sold "holy" goods. The steps were solid and well defined. But they were much more slippery than the ones we had encountered on our way to Brahmagiri.

As I took careful steps, I mentioned to Jenil: "You know, one should fall atleast once."
Jenil: "Why?"
Me: "Because you can always point to your backside and claim... See that sore patch over here? That's where I fell at Brahmagiri... It becomes a kind of a memento for you..."

I was just kidding. But no sooner had I said that, than there was this high pitched shriek up ahead. We looked and saw the source of the shriek down on her backside. It was Supriya - she had slipped and fallen. We had a good laugh. Sushant told us how one should step sideways. That reduces the chances of slipping and falling. He told us how he was once similarly teaching his wife Smriti to take careful and proper steps during a trek (at that time they did not know each other so well) and the very next step, she fell... We had another good laugh.

So then I was giving this KT to Jenil about how one should step when coming down... "See", I said, mimicking Sushant, "One should step side ways... like this..." The next moment, my leg was up and I was down. I got up quickly for anyone else to notice. But Jenil had yet another laugh - this time at my expense...

Back to the pavilion...
We cursed our decision to follow this route. The steps kept going on for ever and ever. Finally we hit the road and trudged our tired legs and hungry stomachs back to the bus.

As the bus left, we took out our goods and had some pretty tasty food. Hunger is the best pickle - an old Hindi saying... :-) So all the food tasted awesome... 

On our way back we took a different route along the Nashik Ghoti road. We planned to explore the backwaters of the nearby dam. It was a small road with hardly any traffic and adorned with beautiful greenery.

Swaying bus and tired bodies - a deadly combination for blissful sleep. Most of us took a short nap... After much asking around, we finally met a biker who direct us on how to reach the backwaters of the dam.

There we guys had a good dip, while Sushant and the ladies took photographs. It was more refreshing than all the energy drinks in the world combined. By the time we changed our muddy wet clothes, I was refreshed and fully awake.

The trip back to Mumbai involved passing through the fog covered Kasara Ghat, and then a long wait in the traffic near Kalyan.

By the time darkness had descended on the world, we were back in Mumbai and one by one the fellowship broke up. I got down at Goregaon around 9:00 in the night and made my way back home. I hit the bed and was asleep before I knew it...

So ended the first trek of the rainy season 2013. Most of the prerequisites of the Trek were met:
We trekked up a mountain - Check
We explored the unknown -  in the fog - Check
There were no rains, yet we enjoyed the cool damp bliss of the rains in the clouds on Brahmagiri - Check
We got to take a dip in the back waters - Check
And at least one of us had a great fall... :-P - Check

So the trek was a success. And worth writing a blog about :)

My very first visit to the Kala Ghoda Art Festival

Originally Posted on: Friday, February 8, 2013

One week back... 

2nd Feb 2013, Saturday...
Its 1:30 in the afternoon...

I have just had lunch. My friend Tish calls. Asks me when I will be leaving. I tell him, I will be leaving in a while. Will call him when I leave. I am supposed to meet him at Dadar. But I am facing the Saturday afternoon crisis. My stomach feels so heavy, and my mind feel so light... I curse myself for agreeing to go out with my friends on such a nice drowsy Saturday afternoon... That's the last thing I remember...
I suddenly wake up to the urgent ringing of my phone. Its my friend Tish. Have I left yet? I say, am about to leave. I look at the clock. Its 2:15. Shit! I was supposed to meet him at Dadar by this time. I kick myself out of the bed and into the clothes.

And soon am on my way to Dadar on the train.

I don't mind going out on weekends. Its the get-up-and-get-going part thats the most difficult... Once I am ready and out of the house - you bring it on, baby, I am game!

I am supposed to get down at Dadar, meet Tish, and then continue with him to Churchgate. But midway, Tish calls me that he wont be able to make the rendezvous at Dadar. He will directly meet us at the Final Destination. So I continue an unbroken journey to Churchgate.

Even after being so late, I am the first one to arrive. The others are still on their way.
Once in Churchgate, I ask for directions to an area named Kala Ghoda (which means "Black Horse"). Its right opposite to the David Sasson Library, besides the Jehangir Art gallery. Today the area is decorated - like a bride dressed up for her Marriage - so full of makeup that you wont even recognize her, unless you are her relative or a very close friend. I pass the security check and enter the hustle bustle of what appears to be a modern day fair.

That's how I found myself in the Kala Ghoda Art Festival.

I am not an artist. Neither am I big connoisseur of arts. Ok. May be I do appreciate art in the written form, and some times in its colourfully painted form. But that's as far as I dare venture into the wonderous Artland..
So although I have been hearing about this annually held art festival in this Kala Ghoda area, I never thought of visiting it. Not until a few days back, when one of my friends Sush, suggested this to me. And so here I was, standing there clueless, gawking around at the carnival, like Alice in wonderland...

Sush and gang would be here soon. Meanwhile, I started to roam around but soon found it very difficult. Every step was an evasive maneuver to avoid walking into someone, while avoiding getting hit by someone else. Everyone was busy staring at something or the other - and NOT looking at where they were going... including me... There was suddenly so much to see! In vain, I tried to take in everything at once, and failed miserably. The sensory input was simply too much. Soon I discovered that the best way to actually make some sense out of everything that was on display, was by concentrating on one thing - taking in one art display at a time...

Right at the entrance, besides the security checkpoint, where there once used to be a triangular traffic island, was a collection of various art structures flanked by display kiosks on left and right. The back side facing the street was blocked off by a temporarily erected wall. And the front had a massive imitation of a projector surrounded by life-size photo-cutouts of famous bollywood film personalities. I tried to look around trying to make some sense of the art-forms around me. But the place was too crowded. People were staring at various displays. And I was staring at them all. This did not seem right. When in Rome, do what the Romans do... So I moved off to a display and tried to look at it appreciatively, trying to imitate an art patron, except not really understanding what it was all about.

The place was crowded. Very crowded. Like a Kumbh ka Mela in Mumbai. I noticed that there were 3 kinds of people present there.
1> Those who really appreciated the arts - the collectors and the art-lovers
2> Those who were there for the fun of it. Better to visit the festival than do the usual weekend stuff (namely go to mall or watch a movie). And it saved the money - free-of-charge entertainment.
3> Those who had no clue what the heck was going on and why they were here in the first place.
I certainly fell in the third category.

I proceeded further to an area which boasted some beautiful looking canopy made from little white and red similar-looking pieces joined together. On closer examination, I found out that it was all made from paper - by folding the paper to make single units, then joining the units together to make a square master unit, and then joining these squares to make the entire canopy! I was blown away! Imagine, the kind of effort that was put into making it! And that's when my true trip down the rabbit hole to Artland began!

Sush and gang arrived soon, and then I was no longer alone. We roamed the display of art structures collected at the entrance. There were a lot of structures made up of waste materials - trying to spread ecological awareness, I guess. The rest of the gang was well armed. Sush and Mole had got cameras. And they were busy shooting away. They had also got some eatables and drinking water. Another great forethought - because roaming around can make you both hungry as well as very thirsty.

Most of the structures here looked very haphazard to me - all jumbled up stuff brought together to form a design. It was impressive, but I personally did not find it much attractive. There were 2 displays I liked most. One was the plastic bottle rain. It was a small 7 feet high and some 5-6 feet wide frame. Inside the frame they had hung lots and lots of plastic bottles. And you had to pass through it. When I walked through the bottles, it felt strange - but nice. It was a very different kind of feeling. The bottles would instantly close around you. Would make you feel slightly claustrophobic, even disoriented. The bottles had a little water at their bottom to give them weight. So it felt cool as they brushed against your skin. And after the closed-in feeling, it felt great once you were out. On the whole it was a great idea. Another display I liked was done using lots of paper birds, and a light inside a closed pitch black canopy. That was impressive too.

From there on, the displays kept getting better. There was a huge fish made up of CD-ROMs. There was a horse made up of cardboard. There was a turtle made up by joining marble slabs - separated from each other by about 1 inch - so the effect of the equidistant slits forming the turtle's body, looked great. There were painted auto-rickshaws and cars. One of the cars was covered fully with coins. There was a very fancily decorated cycle. And a scooter decorated to resemble a bee - complete with wings! There was huge skull constructed only using e-waste. And a huge statue of Dabba-wala along with a huge dabba made by joining together hundreds of cans. Another artwork displayed a coffin with hands jutting out of it and holding a R.I.P. placard. It signified not to use mobile phones when driving.

All these structures were arranged in the middle of the road. And on either side of the road were the kiosks displaying artwork from different vendors. The artwork displayed there was great too - but pretty costly. We all refrained from actually buying anything.

We had roamed the entire display. But there was one thing that I was searching for, but did not find. There was no Black Horse in the Kala Ghoda Art festival. There was a Black Cow. But a cow is not a horse... Truth be told, there was a horse. But it was not black.

Soon it was evening. Darkness had descended on the entire fair. And the lights came on. And some of the displays looked even better in the dazzling display of colourful lights. How the time flew away! I never realized this festival could be so much fun! By this time, we were all tired and decided to call it quits.

From there we went on to the Gateway of India. There we had Vadapav, pani-puri, chana-jor-garam, roasted corn (bhutta) and tea. But not in that order. And Sush took a lot of pics.

Then we all decided to have something to eat. And so we went to the famous Delhi Durbar hotel. There we had a very sumptuous meal. I conveniently forgot it was a Saturday (I usually don't eat non-veg on Saturdays) and enjoyed some nice chicken. Then we had some nice paan and soon we were back on our way home.

My Trek to Rajmachi

Originally Posted on: Sunday, March 4, 2012

Yesterday (3-3-2012), I went on a Trekking trip to Rajmachi. It was a great experience (a statement even I wouldn't expect from a lazy couch-potato like me).

It so happens that one of my friends in office, Sushant, is a regular trekker. He invited guys from my team on this trek. Everyone agreed and there was no reason for me not to. And that's how I got myself involved into this little adventure.

The Auspicious Beginning
On Friday (2-3-2012), me and 4 of my team members (Rahul, Ashish, Sam and Rizwan) left office on time (shamelessly leaving our poor TL to grapple with the bug-infested code). The Thane bus dropped us at Kanjurmarg. From there we caught a train and went to Rahul's home in Ambernath.

It was a nice experience. We got to meet his family, especially his playful cute little daughter. Rahul and his family proved to be very generous hosts. We freshened up, had some nice food, and decided to catch a few winks. The plan was to meet Sushant and the rest of the trekking team at Ambernath station. So we had up to 1:15 am to catch some sleep. But the 5 of us were busy chatting (mostly cribbing about the job in general and the boss in particular :-P) until midnight. Then one by one they all fell asleep - except for me. For some reason, the fact that we had to get up in an hour's time kept nagging at me and 1:15 am found me still awake as alarms went off in more that 1 mobile phones. We brushed, freshened up and left for the Ambernath station.

The ticket window was closed (obviously). We punched some coupons we had, and met Sushant and the rest of the gang at platform number 2. From there we caught the 2:15 am train. It was the last train to Karjat.

Sushant was accompanied by 6 others including Sachin, Amol, Nilesh, Shobith, Aditya and Harshal. All of them are regular trekkers, which showed later as the 5 of us (apart from Rahul and to some extent, Sam) struggled while the rest trekked effortlessly.

Most of us fell asleep in the train, but for some reason I was still wide awake. Same was the case as we spent 2 and a half hours on the Karjat railway platform, waiting impatiently for morning to arrive. It was a long wait indeed. Sam entertained us with his tales from his days when he was studying in Delhi.

It was cold and getting colder as the night progressed. There was no tea available on the station. The first tea-stall opened outside the station after 5:00 am. Most of us had some nice warmth from the tea and the little bonfire lighted besides the tea stall.

On our way to start the Trek
We left the station at around 5:30 am. The first lap of our journey involved traveling to the Kondivade village that resides near the foot of Rajmachi. We were informed that we could get a 6-sitter rickshaw or an ST bus from a nearby bridge. It took us 15-20 minutes of brisk walking to reach this bridge. There was a rest-stand nearby. There was a ledge (bench like, build into the wall) that stretched along all the 3 walls. We went inside and sat down. It had no lights. It was dark and smelled of fish. Most of us tried to catch a few winks. I was still wide awake.

We missed a ST Bus which did not stop long enough for us to run out and hail it. But soon a rickshaw arrived. It was a 6 seater. The driver said, he could accommodate 10 people. All 12 of us crammed into the rick. I was the last one to go in. Already the vehicle was crammed with guys and bags. 3 guys were sitting in the front with the driver (Aditya, the leanest one, was on Sachin's lap). 7 (3 + 4) were sitting on the two 6-seater-seats. One more was sitting on the left hand side rod that blocks the entry-door at that side. Where was I supposed to sit, or even stand? Sushant, who was sitting near the door let me sit on his legs, with my backside jutting out of the door.

It was a rough ride. I could feel every bump in the road in the strained muscles of my body. I was unable to get my bowels cleaned up during the night. I had made the mistake of mentioning it to some of my friends. And there was some teasing about my "doors opening up" at the wrong moment. I took it all in stride. But soon most of them were dozing off. I was too uncomfortable to even think of sleeping.

As we neared the village, Sushant, now quite awake, suddenly said "Hey, look, that Dog". At first I did not get what he was referring to. Street dogs are quite common everywhere and I had no idea what the fuss was all about. So I looked back and there it was. A somewhat dirty furry canine chasing the rick, right below where my butt was hanging out of the door! I was scared. Getting my backside bitten off was the last thing on my agenda for the trek... But fortunately we reached the end point just then. The rick stopped and I jumped out. The dog had stopped a few paces back. It approached us cautiously. At first we all ignored it and started walking our way towards the foot of the Rajmachi forts. But it kept following us. It looked tired from its long chase of the rick. So finally, one of us threw a biscuit at it. We thought it would now leave us, but after gobbling away the biscuit, it kept following us. None of us had imagined that this dog would follow us all the way to the top of the Shrivardhan fort and back! Later we named him Yedu.

Somewhere near the foot of the hills, we stopped for some tea and snacks at one of the houses in the village. The sky was beginning to brighten, but the sun was still hiding behind the hills. We all had Poha and some had Vadapav. Some of us even had double helpings of poha. It was tasty. The tea was especially awesome. The proprietor owned a dog named Khandya. It was a small canine, probably just 4-6 months old. But was it full of spunk! That little dog kept growling and trying to intimidate Yedu! It was curious too. When Aditya suddenly decided to change into his trekking gear, and went inside the house, Khandya followed him in to investigate.

The Trek Finally Begins
Finally, with our stomachs full with (much-more-than-)breakfast, we moved on. The Sun was finally sneak-peeking above the edge of the hills. Further on, we took a left turn and that's when our trek began. We passed an Emu farm. The terrain was flat for a while. But it soon gave way to boulder-strewn rough terrain. Foliage became denser and the trail we were following became narrower. Now we were in business.

Yedu and Pedu, our resourceful canine guides
Somewhere during this time, Yedu was joined by another dog. We named it Pedu. These two canines kept walking with us all the way. It might sound unbelievable, but they were acting like guides to us. One dog would accompany the leading guys, while one of them would wait until the last one of the group had passed it, and then trail us. The trailing one would sometimes get impatient of the slow pace of the laggers and then it would dash forward right past us, sometimes passing between our legs! But both of them acted pretty intelligent. They both had specific tastes. Neither would touch plain bread or sweet laddoo. But they easily ate biscuits and stuff. Every now and then, we would stop and offer them water. We would pour some inside a concavity in some rock, and the two would lap it up thirstily. Both of them guided us and followed us up to the top of the fort. But on our way back, Pedu got enamoured to a tasty looking hen in the Rajmachi village. That's where we parted ways with Pedu. As for Yedu, he faithfully kept us company right till the end of the trek. During the afternoon, as we descended back on our way down, Yedu would follow us for a while. Then he would find some nice shadow, lie down panting, take some rest and then he would come bounding back to our group. He kept us company until we reached back to the Kondivade village. And then he disappeared as suddenly and mysteriously as he had appeared. That was the last we saw of him.

Up, up and (the destination is so far) away...
On our way, we visited the Kondane Caves. One can see some pretty nice stone carvings on the walls of the caves. As we moved on, we passed open plateaus that afforded us a great view of the ever expanding miniature landscape below. We also passed a few dry waterfall beds. Now the stress was beginning to show on some of us, especially Rizwan and Ashish. Even I would have felt tired since I am as out-of-shape as they are. But I like climbing. I was enjoying every moment of it. So was Sam. He was in a great mood. One time, at the mention of Rajmachi, Sam asked "where is the Rajma in Rajmachi?" Yup, only a true foodie like Sam would see the "Rajma" in "Rajma"chi...

In fact, Sam was so excited, that once he mentioned "Its great we came along. This Sushant revived the dead worm of trekking inside me." But following our careers and the soft city life, we all had become out-of-shape. And by the time we reached halfway, it was beginning to tell. Later when I asked Sam about his trekking worm, wiping his sweaty forehead, he said "What trekking worm? Its already dead, man."

But this was not the case with Sushant, Sachin and the rest of the regular trekkers. They were experienced. They moved faster and effortlessly. We lagged behind. Me and Rizwan always managed to be the tail end of the group. By the time we reached a clearing, the rest of them would be waiting, some sitting, some refreshing themselves with precious gulps of water. As a consequence we hardly got much chance to rest.

The Sun was trekking too, as it ascended towards the center of the sky, and we all had discarded our sweaters and jackets. The shivering cold of the yester-night was a distant memory. We all were sweating and puffing and breathing heavily. Each of us had carried at least a couple of 1 liter water bottles. Its back-breaking, yes. But its the most precious thing you will carry on your trek. Apart from water, the 5 of us were carrying some picnic snacks (bread, jam, biscuits, etc) we had bought at Ambernath. Again our inexperience showed. Picnic snacks are not much use on long treks. The experienced ones carried Glucon-D, chocolates, oranges, etc. Glucon-D was especially useful - an instant source of energy. Our Trek Guide (Sushant) and Trek Leader (Sachin) advised us to have it raw, in its powder form, instead of wasting precious water to mix it with.

Sushant, the avid photographer, was always busy clicking away either using his Cam or using his Mobile phone. I tried to click a few snaps, but as the going got rough, carrying the camera in the hand became too cumbersome. So I stowed it away for good. I would have liked to click a lot more pictures. But I had to have both my hands free in order to balance myself at some rough spots.

Sachin, the Trek Leader set our pace. He would advise us where to stop and for how long. He would rush us whenever we were lagging behind schedule. And in a way, it was a good thing. Its important to stick to the schedule when on a trek. If you take up too much time on your way up, you will have to hazard a descent in the fading light of the dusk.

We conquer the Fort...
After what seemed like eternity, with cramps threatening to stop us in our tracks, we finally reached what appeared to be the end of our mountainous trail. it was past 11:30. The Sun was high in the sky. We saw in front of us a flat plateau, and to our left hand side, above a cliff, was the Manaranjan Fort. As we followed the wide well-trodden trail, we came upon the small Rajmachi village. We decided to place an order for food at one of the villager's place. Then we continued on our way to the Shrivardhan Fort. The climb became even more rough as the cliff became steeper and steeper the nearer we approached the fort.

Riz and I take a bold decision...
Somewhere near the entrance of the fort, we were passing a steep cliff-face. Sushant, Shobhit and Aditya had stopped and were debating whether to risk climbing the wall, instead of following the regular easier route. Rizwan was dead tired so I was surprised when he said "Lets climb from here". It was a thrilling prospect for me too. So I encouraged him. Shobhit had already scaled the wall and reached the top. Rizwan started climbing and I followed. Sushant was encouraging us from below. Somewhere in between, Rizwan appeared to get stuck. He could not find a foot-hold to proceed. Then Sachin arrived above us. He guided Rizwan and Rizwan reached the top. All this while I was stalled at one place. Before I began to proceed, Aditya passed me. He is light-weight and very agile. He eats so little, yet where he gets all his energy from, God only knows.

I proceeded further and then I got stuck. My legs had gone wobbly. My foot-hold was weak and so were my hand-holds. I could not seem to find the next strong foot-hold. Neither was there a prominent enough hand-hold in sight. Now I was really scared. Was I gonna let go and fall down? Should I stay where I was, and cry for help? Help from where and from whom? I was right in the middle of nowhere. Where were the guys gonna get help from? Would someone from the village come with ropes to rescue me? How long could I hold on? All these scary thoughts raced through my mind. But the fear pushed me forward. In one of those rare occasions, I took the name of God, and forced myself to move up. I groped with my hands and pushed with my legs and soon I was heaving myself at the top where the others were standing. Sushant followed me. What took me 5-10 minutes to scale, Sushant climbed in less than half a minute. He was that fast!

When I finally reached the top, I was thrilled and scared and fascinated and terrified. It was a great experience. In fact it was so great that I decided then and there I would not repeat such a reckless feat again in my life... Am I a scaredly rat or what?

The Shrivardhan Fort
Finally we had reached the fort. Most of the walls and fortifications are crumbling. But the view from up there was awesome. I could see the valley below, the village we had left behind a few moments back on the mountainous plateau below, a lake on it's left and the Manaranjan Fort on its right.

After a brief photo-session, we began our descent. This time I was really scared. I like climbing. I can do it, with some efforts. But descending down is very difficult for me. I always seem about to loose my balance and pitch forward. So I usually descend slowly and cautiously, making use of my hands wherever I need to. Sometimes I have to squat on my backside and slide myself down from one boulder to the next one. The boulders were hot, their edges were sharp. My hands and my bum were scraped and sore. But apart from the initial difficult patch, our descent to the village was comparatively smooth. But my legs were done for. I was having intermittent cramps and all my leg muscles were aching. Sachin suggested we next proceed to the Manaranjan fort. But we decided to instead have food first. And a good thing too. I don't think I could have managed one more climb.

Lunch-time, at last!
We reached the Rajmachi village and had lunch. Some of us had ordered Lunch plate which consisted of traditional Maharastrian style potato bhaji, bhakri, rice and dal. Others had ordered the traditional Jhunka Bhakar. Me and Rahul had got tiffins. But I tasted the food from others and it was very tasty. Then again, isn't hunger the best appetizer?

After lunch, we visited the lake. There is a small ancient Shiv Temple near the lake. We took some rest in it's cool shade. There I finally fell asleep - the first wink I had in more than 36 hours. I managed to sleep for just 15 minutes but it felt like eternity. When I was jolted awake by Sushant, I had a massive cramp in my leg. I had to rest for a while. Sachin offered me a Relispray (these guys were really well-prepared), but I declined.

Finally I felt a bit better and we started off on our way back.

The hellish Descent
Descent was difficult and not just for me alone. Most thought it would be easy but for some of us it wasn't. Sushant, Sachin, Aditya and some of the others pulled it off pretty effortlessly. But me, Rizwan, Ashish and Amol found it pretty difficult. Even Sam had a massive headache. Fortunately most of us were equipped with caps.

One time, Ashish lost his footing and slided down. Sushant and Nilesh tried to hold him, but he slipped past. Finally Rizwan caught him, with one hand, his other hand holding a nearby tree branch for support. So, Aditya carried Ashish's bag and Sachin carried Amol's.

Our clothes were dirty, our bodies sweaty. Our faces were shining red with the heat and sweat.

I myself was pretty tired. I had to rest every now and then. While climbing, I had managed to ascend most of the part without much rest. But now I had to stop and rest whenever I could. While climbing I had lent a helping hand and encouragement whenever I could. But now I was just concentrating selfishly on myself.
Rizwan on the other hand seemed to have gained his "second wind". He would stop but hardly did he ever sit down - always standing, ready to proceed.

When descending, it is a good idea to hold a strong stick. It helps a lot. Nothing fancy required. Ant strong enough branch would suffice. Rizwan an I did the mistake of not carrying a stick, which we realized much later.

We finally reached the foot of the hill. But the village was pretty far. Now we all were so tired that even this simple straight walk was becoming impossible. We had run out of water. Time was running out. Our plan was to reach Karjat by 6:00 pm. It was already 5:00 and we had not yet reached the Kondivade village.

The Final Countdown
Then came the tractor. We spotted it as it clamoured noisily from behind us. We hailed it. The idea was to ask the driver to give Ashish (who was badly exhausted) a lift. Sachin decided to accompany him. There was seating space for only 2 people on either side of the driver. But is so happened that a wagon was hitched to the back of the tractor. The driver said he could give a lift to all of us if we climbed into the wagon. But the wagon was full of wet earth. And we would have to sit on top of it. As they say, "necessity, thy name is Gandhiji". As I began to climb up, I felt my legs cramp. I just climbed over and flopped down in the middle on the wet earth. I couldn't even move out of the way as others climbed up. Some were squatting, some were sitting, some were standing as the tractor lumbered towards Kondivade village. It was dangerous as there were no hand-hold of any kind. Those who could not find place to sit like I was, had to hold on to each of us as the tractor swayed this way and that.

Finally we reached Kondivade village. There we hailed the first available 6-sitter. Just like morning, we, the dirty dozen, jammed ourselves into the single 6-seater and finally reached Karjat. From Karjat, we caught the 6:15 train headed for Mumbai CST. I got down at Dadar with Sam, Ashish and Rizwan. Then we caught the 8:30 Borivali train and thats how I finally reached home.

Finally, home sweet home...
I was tired, my muscles ached. My clothes were dirty. I "smelled like a wet dog" (to quote my sister, word for word). I had some dinner, popped a painkiller and went to sleep. Right this moment as I am writing this blog, my legs are still aching. Was it worth it? I think it certainly was. If you ask me, will I go for another trek? The couch-potato in me compels me to deny flatly. But the feeble voice of the newborn trekker inside me says "May be"...

Celebrating the New Year's eve at Marine Drive

Originally Posted on: Sunday, January 1, 2012

To a lazy Garfieldian like me, the ideal way to welcome the New Year on the midnight of 31 December is by sleeping early and ignoring it's birth. But it seems that the entire human race minus one has other ideas - including my siblings. And so I found myself accompanying them yesterday, traveling on the southbound Mumbai local train headed for Churchgate.

The train was unusually crowded for so late an hour (around 9:30 pm - the south-bound trains are pretty empty even during weekdays at this time of the night). Apparently, there are a lot many people who share the same (silly?) ideas about fun and enjoyment as my siblings. So there we were on our way to the sea-face along with so many others - like lemmings on their way to mass suicides...

We got out of the Churchgate station and walked towards the sea-face. The footpaths were pretty crowded as people waited outside the restaurants and pubs that flank the streets there.

While I was trying pretty hard not to look at all the good looking gals (since my sisters were accompanying me), I was trying to observe and understand what motivated people to leave their cozy beds and come all the way out here. The good looking girls was the obvious reason for some of the guys. The loud music and the advertisements of liquor brands outside the restobars was certainly the reason for most other guys. As for the gals... let me not hazard any guesses into that area which I understand nothing about (a.k.a. the female psychology)... But mostly, I had this feeling that most people gathered out here had no idea what they were looking for, except for this deep urge to do something (which also means anything other than 'nothing') till the midnight hour struck...

As we reached the road, that runs along the sea-face, I could feel the pleasant sea-breeze. It was cool - and felt invigorating, rather than chilly. This added to the general festive atmosphere. Quite a few people could be seen clad in jackets or winter-gear.

I was very apprehensive about the crowds along the sea-face. For it is a well-known fact that during New-Year's eve, this part of the city is crowded with drunks, thus making it unsafe for women. But as of now, that 'well-known fact' turned out to be just a rumour. For certainly the Queen's Necklace (that's what they call this jewel of a place that adorns the otherwise bleak crowded city of Mumbai) was crowded, but not the 'overflowing' variety crowded. People sat in groups along the ledge as they faced the sea, or faced the road, with their backs to the sea. And one could even find nice little vacant spots between these groups to sit and enjoy the sea-wind. We preferred to stroll instead - headed towards the other end of the necklace which terminates at the Girgaon Chawpatti (Charni road)...

There were hawkers selling balloons, blow-horns, devil's horns headgear, and lots of other kid-stuff. Many people had bought and were roaming around with this kids-stuff, most of them adults. Even we bought a balloon for one of my sisters. My brother wanted to have the devil-horns (God knows for what crazy reason). But it was too costly - New Year's special prices...

It was low tide. A short strip of sandy beach was visible below the sea-face ledge, just beyond the spiky-boulders. Some people had managed to climb down along the spiky-boulders and on to the sand-strip. My siblings also wanted to descend and have a walk on the beach. But I refrained pointing out that - sure, we could climb down, but how difficult it would be to climb back up, with no lights to illuminate the shadowy boulder-scape (of course, my ulterior motive was my laziness. But lets just keep it between ourselves :-P).

A little way ahead, we saw people gathered along the ledge and there seemed to be some kind of commotion. We climbed up and saw the source of the commotion... A pot-bellied guy was dancing on the small strip of sandy beach below. And everyone was looking at him and cheering him on to make an ass out of him... He was certainly drunk; for how else does one get that kind of courage to make an ass of oneself in front of so many people?

Along the way, we noticed many policemen and police vehicles, obviously there for safety reasons after what happened on 26-11 (2008). Sometime after 11:30, an SRPF van full of commandos passed us twice on their round along the entire boulevard. I personally did not envy them their job. If I was in their place, I would be pretty apprehensive about the security measures, considering the number of people gathered there. If so many people gather in such great numbers at one place, then the people themselves (because of their sheer numbers) become a security hazard.

As we neared the end of the Queen's Necklace, it was nearly midnight. So we stopped and waited for the golden hour to strike. The crowd was getting thicker. We literally saw a wave of people cross the road as they came out from the Charni road railway station... As the clock struck midnight, a wave of cheers went through the crowd. Everyone was wishing everyone else. People were hollering and blowing on whistles and little blow-horns. Now everyone along the ledge looked up with anticipation at the sky above. Everyone was waiting for the fireworks.

What attraction people have towards fireworks is something I will never understand. And we have so many fireworks during Diwali. So I did not understand what was so special about the New Year's fireworks; not until the first rocket burst, somewhere towards the south, above Churchgate area. It was a pretty sight indeed - The burst of lights above the lighted city, the colourful twinkling sparkles reflected in the sea water... I am still to find out where exactly did rockets originate from, and who burst them. The fireworks continued for a while.

By 12:30, the fireworks ended and we were about to head for the Charni Road railway station on our way back home when my brother suddenly remembered that he was very hungry. There was no point going back to Churchgate - it would take too long. So we headed towards the nearby Girgaon Chawpatty beach to have something to eat from the various stalls along the beach.

By this time, the people were really going crazy. Many of them were constantly blowing on the blow-horns and whistles. One person would blow on his whistle or blow horn, and ten others would follow suit, imitating the first one, and so on, triggering a chain reaction... What had sounded cheerful at first, now sounded crazy and cacophonous. For those who doubt the Darwin's theory of our evolutionary origin from monkeys, here was proof positive. For how else can one explain the mindless imitating behaviour people were displaying here?

My sisters were beginning to grow a bit scared of the way the crowds were behaving. Maybe most of them were drunk. Maybe not. But they were certainly acting like drunks... This was what I had been worried about all along. On our way we got split up and lost in the crowd and had to call up each other and coordinate until we were reunited again. By that time we had almost reached the beach. But we were in for a big disappointment. The police were vacating and closing down the beach, for obvious security reasons. Stalls were being shut down and people were being herded out of the beach area.

So with ringing ears, confused and scared minds, heavy hearts and empty stomachs. We decided to head back home. We got on a local train at Charni road station at around 1:00 am. The train was pretty crowded with men, women, kids, balloons, drunkards - all on their way back home.

We came back home, cooked up and ate some kande-pohe, and then thankfully welcomed the first sleep of the new year 2012.

My Trip to Yewat – Day 3

Originally Posted on: Sunday, July 5, 2009

Following is a brief account of the third and final day of my stay in Yewat.

Another trip to Bhuleshwar
The next day, my paternal aunt came to visit my uncle, and we decided to go visit Bhuleshwar temple in the evening. This would be my second trip to Bhuleshwar temple in two day. But this time, it was not just me and my cousin – it was the whole family – my aunt, her husband, my uncle, his wife, my 2 cousins, and my grandma – and of course me.
My aunt had brought along their car. We decided to travel in it. But our head count was too high. We were, in all, eight people, and that was too much human substance to stuff within the confines of a Maruti Esteem car. And the road that leads from the canal to the Bhuleshwar temple is pretty rough. Soon we realized that at least one person will have to get down and hitch-hike his way to the temple. I volunteered.
I was lucky enough to quickly get a ride from a lone biker. But the biker was headed towards a village for which he would have to take a detour away from Bhuleshwar. He dropped me off near the foot of the hill of Bhuleshwar.
Before he left, I asked him – “Will I get a bus or another ride from here?”
He said – “No, you don’t stand much chance of getting a ride from here. But you can walk your way up the hill. You see that path?” He pointed towards a small path that lead away from the main road. “That path leads straight to the Bhuleshwar temple. It’s a shortcut. The main road is quite bad, and you will reach there faster if you take the path.”
With that he continued on his way and left me behind staring up the path at the hill of Bhuleshwar. It was the same path I had taken yesterday as I had hiked down the hill. But things were different now. Yesterday, we had hiked in broad daylight. But today, it was evening. The sun was about to set. It would be dark soon, and then it would be really difficult to find the path (The path was not really demarcated. It did not even look that well-trodden). Moreover, yesterday I had my sports shoes on. But today, I was wearing plain chappals – the type that don’t even have a support in between your toes, just two straps criss-crossing each other over the base. They were hardly an ideal choice for climbing a hill.
But I had no choice. So throwing the thoughts of risk to the wind, I simply set off walking. Initially the walk was easy. I had hard ground under my feet. All I had to do was avoid the thorny shrubs that grew in profusion along the base of the hill. But soon the slope became steeper and the going got a bit rough. But I kept going along the path. And that helped me – for the path ran right alongside a dried up waterfall-bed (if there is such a term). So there was less rubble and loose stones underfoot and this helped me.
At one point, I climbed a rough steep spot and reached a ledge. I had passed this point yesterday, but had never cared to stop and look around. But I was a bit exhausted and stopped to catch some breath. But the view I was afforded took my breath away. The sun was setting and the western sky was a painted veil made up of various hues of orange and purple. The few clouds dotting the sky were bathed with sunlight on one side, and were plain white as cotton on the other. Down below, the lands stretched for as far as the eyes could see. There were green farms and plain land criss-crossed with grey lines of the roads, pathways and irrigation canals. There were small clusters of dwellings scattered here and there. Birds were flying back to their homes. And there was the constant wind that lashed against my face, cooling off my body and drying off my sweat within moments. Sometimes the gusts were so strong that they threatened to push me back and topple me.
I stood there for a while awestruck by the beauty of nature spread before my eyes. Then it was time to move on.
As compared to climbing down the hill, I found that climbing up was much easier. And then I realized that when climbing down your weight becomes your enemy. But when climbing up, if you are fit enough, and if you do it properly, you can use your weight to your advantage. If you find a proper foothold – your heavy weight will give your feet better friction against the rock face.
After a while, I could see the dome of the Bhuleshwar temple up ahead. And then I realized that we had taken the wrong path while climbing down yesterday. Had we taken the path that I was following now, we would not have had so much trouble climbing down. This was because, even at this height, the path was made up of hard rock (probably washed clean of all rubble by the waterfall during the monsoon rains).
Soon I reached the Bhuleshwar temple where my family was waiting for me. I looked at my watch and realized that I had hardly taken half an hour to climb the entire hill!
When it was time to leave, I decided not to risk climbing down again – for the sun had almost set, and it was getting pretty dark. So we stuffed ourselves somehow inside the tiny confines of the car and we set off for home.

My Trip to Yewat – Day 2

Originally Posted on: Saturday, July 4, 2009

Following is a brief account of the second day of my stay in Yewat.

My Trip to Bhuleshwar
We started off
As mentioned in my previous blog entry, there is an ancient temple near Yewat – called the Bhuleshwar temple. On the second day of my stay in Yewat, me and my cousin set off in the morning to visit Bhuleshwar temple.
We crossed the irrigation canal using the little bridge that’s located behind the building where my uncle stays. It was 8:30 am in the morning, and the canal was a busy place - Village ladies washing clothes; A few men-folk, lots of kids and one or two buffaloes taking a bath in the cool canal water.
On the other side of the bridge, there is a road that leads away from Yewat across farm-land and open brush-land towards the hill of Bhuleshwar and beyond. This road starts off at the highway some distance down from the bridge. From the highway, it runs across the canal and then parallel to the canal and the highway until the bridge. From the bridge, it turns 90 degrees and then runs straight towards the distant range of hills where Bhuleshwar is located.
At the point where the road turns, there is a huge tree at the corner of the road. Local transport – mostly a jeep or a tempo – can be usually found under this tree. After we crossed the bridge, we noticed a jeep waiting under the tree. My cousin asked the driver, but the driver was waiting for a minimum number of fares to assemble and until then he would not leave. So we waited for a few minutes under the tree.

My roadside encounter with the canine kind
While we waited, I noticed a dog lying under the shade some distance away. It was average sized and had clean luxurious white fur. Its hair was neither too short like the street-dogs, nor too long as some exotic breed like pomerians have. It looked cute, so I tried to catch its attention with a little whistle. It looked up at me. I took a step towards it, but my cousin warned me – one can never be sure how a street dog may react to a stranger. So I stopped and whistled to it again.
Now, my cousin naturally attracts cats and dogs. But me, I am usually ignored by the canine and feline kinds. Yet to my surprise, the dog got up and came towards us. I noticed that it was limping. It came and started smelling us up. I have always wondered why, when dogs check up on a new stranger, they tend to smell that human at the oddest of places – like the base of the palm, or the tip of your finger, if you have your hand extended, or on the lower legs – especially the feet, or – most oddly - in between the legs… This dog, did the same – as I extended my hand to caress it on its head, it moved its head away to first smell my fingers and the base of my palm. Then it proceeded to smell us up in between our legs – for what canine reasons, I do not know.
Then, it did the oddest thing. It stood sideways to us, and touched its left side of the body along our legs. And it kept standing like that. Both, me and my cousin found this gesture very endearing. It was as if it was the dog’s way of expressing that it liked us? Or maybe it just liked the feel of the roughness of our jeans? No idea…
We decided to offer it something to eat. So my cousin moved off to a nearby shop to buy biscuits. The dog continued to touch my legs with the side of its torso. My cousin came back with a packet of Parle-G biscuits. We both offered a few biscuits to the dog. But it would not eat. Either it was not hungry, or the biscuits were too cheap by its standards? I do not know.
Just then, a tempo passed by. One of the villagers waiting nearby hailed it. There was no way of knowing when the jeep would fill up. So we had to grab this opportunity. We left the dog behind and rushed towards the tempo.
While coming back I tried to find the dog again. But it was no where to be seen. After that first time, I never saw that dog again.

Tempo-back riding
The tempo was already full in the front. This meant that we would have to travel in the back compartment of the tempo.
This was the first time I got to travel in the back of a tempo. The first big challenge for me was to climb over its collapsible metal guard onto its back. I am quite hefty, and not very athletic. So I found this little stunt a bit difficult. What I did was this – I found a foot-hold on one side of the tempo. Caught the edge of the frame at its side with one hand, caught hold of the edge of the collapsible metal guard with the other, and heaved myself up… Halfway up and I felt my arms about to give up on me… they simply won’t respond to my brain commanding them to heave, heave, heave… My cousin standing behind me asked whether I could climb, or did I need help. The last thing I needed was the embarrassment of my cousin pushing me up by my butt… So with a final heave and push from my legs (which are my strong points) I some how managed to tumble into the tempo’s compartment. (“I should start exercising”, I thought.)
Then I turned back and saw my cousin climb up… and understood what I had done wrong. There was a rope hanging from the ceiling of the tempo’s compartment, right down the middle of its backdoor entrance. The rope was there for a reason. All I needed to do was catch hold of the rope, find a foot hold and heave up like tarzan – piece of cake…
Apart from the two of us, the only other passengers were a couple of village ladies. One of the ladies had with her two little kids. I was still holding the Parle-G biscuits in my hand, and when one of the kids saw it, he pointed at it and started wailing. I offered the biscuits to the two kids, and that made the kid go quiet… A dog’s loss - a kid’s gain…
Fortunately the sides of the tempo were open, and we got to enjoy the scenery pass us by and the wind whipping through our hair. There was no support to rest our backsides upon, so we had to squat down on the floor of the compartment. But the road was quite rough and the jolting was too much for my tender butt to withstand. So I got up and went the rest of the way standing.

At Bhuleshwar Temple
We passed along many a hair-pin turns and climbed up the hill. A small path leads off from the main road towards the Bhuleshwar temple. This is where we got down from the tempo and started walking.
Soon we reached the temple. From here, when one looks around, one will observe that the range of hills are not really hills per se, but they look more like a set of high elevated plateaus connected to each other with hardly a valley in between any two hills. At least that was the impression I got from my vantage point.
A lot can be said about the Bhuleshwar temple. But I find myself short of words to describe it and a picture would have better expressed the temple’s salient features. I still regret I did not carry my cam with me. Anyways, it is mostly carved out of stone. It has lots of beautiful sculptures. Unfortunately, most of the sculptures are broken – whether due to negligence or done on purpose by past invaders is not known to me.
The temple is quite old. I do not know its history so well and hence will not go into many details.
One of its features I found most impressive is the largest statue of “Nandi” the Bull I have ever seen – carved out of a single stone.

My Climb down the Hill
When we left the temple, my cousin suggested we climb down the hill instead of going back via road. I was intrigued. “What a brilliant idea”, I though. The temple lies on a wide flat plain at the top of the hill. We walked towards one such edge of the plateau and began to descend down along the slope.
No sooner had we taken just a few steps down, that I felt something tugging me down. Every step I took made me stall myself, as my legs stayed back, while my upper body threatened to topple ahead. It was as if gravity was literally holding me by my collar and pulling me down. If one has a protruding mass of stomach at the front and a protruding backside to counter it, his center of gravity is bound to go a bit haywire, I suppose. “I will need to reduce my weight”, I scolded myself for the umpteenth time.
I struggled ahead a few more steps, while my cousin had already descended quite a bit ahead of me. The soil here was quite loose. It was made up of small stones instead of fine dust. There was not much vegetation, except for an occasional thorny shrub every few feet. And neither were there much hard big boulders one would expect on the slope of a hill. The loose stones did not afford any strong support underfoot. And the next moment I found myself sitting down squat on my backside, wondering how was I ever going to climb down?
When climbing down hills your excess weight becomes your foe. And loose stones underfoot don’t exactly help either. So there I was squatting on my ass and looking down at my cousin who was half way down already. By half way I mean, half way towards the edge of the slope that was visible from my vantage point. The slope where we were located currently was quite gentle. It extended a few feet down, flattened out a bit to form what looked like a small path, and then simply ended there. Whether the hill face sloped further on or simple fell off to form a steep cliff, I had no idea. I did not even want to know. Because the more I saw it, the more I worried what would happen if I lost my balance and went tumbling down and over the edge (Humpty Dumpy had a great fall). I looked back and seriously considered retracing our steps back up the slope and go along the roadway – the way that all mortals in their right mind take. But we had already descended quite a bit, and I did not fancy climbing up a slippery loose slope, more than climbing down one. Besides, now that I was resting on my butt, I was not really sure I could collect enough courage to stand up again.
By this time, even my cousin had realized how difficult it was to walk upright with the loose stones rolling around underfoot. Years of sun, rain and wind had eroded the rocks and broken them down into rubble – small stones and soil, waiting for years for some rolling stones like us to stumble by and dislodge them. So even he squatted down. But like me, he did not just sit there wondering what to do. He simply slid down. And soon he had reached down to the little flat ledge near the edge of the current slope.
Standing down there, he asked me to simply let go and slide down the slope taking help of the loose rubble under me. It was easier for him to say. He is slim, and average in weight – not overweight like me. And however much anyone says – letting go is not always easy.
So began my slow and perilous journey down the first slope of the hill of Bhuleshwar. Down the way, I would have my tender bums assaulted and poked by various bric-a-brac – bric-a-brac including stones big and small, dried tree branches and a big half-inch long thorn (ouch). I have never worked off my ass (literally, in this case) so much before. Also down the way, I would have my hands scratched by the stones, and blistered by the heat of the sun – for the stones become hot very quickly. My legs, in a vain effort to find some foothold, would dislodge even big boulders from their place and send them rolling down the slope. And I would have to take support of big boulders, small shrubs and even loose soil, to hold on and stop myself from simply succumbing to gravity and sliding down the slope… and beyond…
After what felt like hours, but were just a few minutes, I reached the flat ledge, where my poor cousin was patiently waiting for me. Actually, he probably had a pretty good time standing down there, looking up at the spectacle of a fat guy struggling to get down a gentle slope, and having a good laugh at my expense. If he did, he was pretty humble not to express it to me.
Anyways, the flat ledge turned out to be a path of sorts, occasionally used by local villagers. From there onwards, it was comparatively easy. I say comparatively because, though I did not have to squat down and slide much after that, the way down was still perilous enough. Many a times down the way, I caught myself just in time from loosing my balance and stumbling ahead. And that’s when I realized that climbing down a hill can be a very difficult affair. May be more difficult that climbing up.
Anyway, we reached down safely and reached the main road at the base of the hill. From here we would have to flag down a bus or a private vehicle and ask for a ride back to Yewat.

Our long walk back to Yewat
Instead of waiting for a ride at one place, we decided to start walking. So we walked… and walked… and walked… We kept walking and walking. We must have walked for hours (that’s how it felt, but to tell the truth, we just walked for appx. 2 and half hours). And all the while there was no sign of bus or a private vehicle. Sure, a few trucks passed by – but none would stop to take on passer-bys. Also, a jeep and a tempo passed us by. But they were completely filled up and had no place to accommodate even one of us.
So puffing, panting, sweating and dragging our legs, we kept walking.
And we ended up walking all the way to Yewat…

How many people can sit in a Jeep?
In the evening, I accompanied my cousin to Pune. We went via the roadway – along the Pune-Solapur Highway. There are buses that run along this route. But buses here (like everywhere else in India) are not known for their punctuality. So we hailed down a private jeep. Such private vehicles form the bloodline for people commuting between a city and the rural areas.
The plan was that the Jeep would drop us off at Uruli, and from there we would catch a bus to Pune.
When we sat in the Jeep, it was already filled to its normal capacity – 10 people including the driver. But the driver kept picking up people along the way, and by the time, we reached the final destination – Uruli, the jeep was filled with 14 adults, 6 noisy children and lots of luggage (from suit-cases to gunny-bags filled with vegetables). It was an experience worth taking – sitting in a jeep that’s filled up beyond capacity and is speeding rashly along a busy highway.