After a hasty darshan at Pali, we were looking at a very long drive all the way to Ranjangaon.
Fuming and fretting that I was due to the excessive cold thanks to the AC, now I was fuming and fretting for some cool breeze. For the bus operator was quite frugal with the AC supply - a typical uncle scrooge for the air conditioner. And the afternoon heat made things almost unbearable inside the closed bus. Add to that the dry climate of Pune and vicinity. For a Mumbaikar, the feeling of dry lips and dry nasal track are an alien feeling, I tell you. If they are going to keep the AC off for majority of the time, why the whole fuss about "AC bus only", I contemplate.
Ranjangaon lies just beyond Pune. We travelled the familiar Mu-Pu Expressway admiring the ghats of Lonavala and Khandala. Just before 6:00 pm, we took a rest stop at Nakshatram, a hotel that lies just past Talegaon. Had tea. Tea offerings nowadays surprise me and leave my tea-cravings yearning for more. In the name of 'cutting' they offer just a couple of gulps of tea in a plastic cup so small, it would put the tequila shot-glass to shame. But the tea was strong and super-sweet and thankfully bereft of unnecessary masala - just the way I like it. Freshened us up for the 2 hr journey that lay ahead.
By 7:00 we have reached Chakan. The bus halts for a while, giving us a grand view of "Hotel Chakan Gaavraan and Tanduri, Chinese Chicken". While I contemplate on and try to make sense of the multi-cuisine name, the bus suddenly does a mammoth-like-graceful about turn and heads back the way we came. The tour organizer steps back and announces that there was some change of plans. Ranjangaon is cancelled for today. It would take us till 9:00 pm to reach there, 10:00 pm to leave and midnight to reach hotel. With oldie-goldies making up the majority of the tour populace, that's a strict no no. We will head back to hotel now. Ranjangaon will have to be squeezed in tomorrow. But we will need to leave early. Early translates to leaving by 4:00 am... And I thought today was the earliest I had seen. I am wondering why bother sleeping at all...
Our tour stay was at Hotel Saptaruchi in MIDC, Chinchwad. Ok hotel, ok rooms.
Dinner was served at 9:30 pm. Most of it was only acquainted to chilli and oil. I would be reminded of how spicy it was the next morning.
Went to bed right after dinner. Nights can get pretty chilly in Pune, especially for a Mumbaikar who is only acquainted to 2 seasons - sweat and downpour. You get under the blankets and wait for the body heat to normalize the temperature of your temporary cocoon.
Dec 23 - Day 2 of the Tour
Deja Vu. Once again I am staring at the alarm which says 3:30 am. Damn these tours... I had slept like a log. We had not given ourselves enough time for the dinner to settle in before retiring to bed yesterday. The better half cold not sleep well because of minor bout of indigestion. She was reluctant to leave the warmth of the bed and the embrace of sleep. Finally and with much reluctance, we started getting ready. The hotel boasted 24 hrs hot water. Bovine droppings. You don't get hot water at the witching hour with solar heaters. Finally they provided some in buckets.
Finally we left the hotel at 4:45 am only to be greeted by the angry waiting stares of the passengers in our bus that was waiting outside the hotel entrance. Turns out there was 1 more family who arrived 15 minutes after us and took the major brunt of the passengers' ire. Thank God for small blessings. It appears that the tour manager had given wake up calls to almost all at the unholy hour of 2:50 am. But we never received the wake up call. Ditto for the last family. Though this makes me feel very guilty to have kept all those sleep-deprived people waiting for so long, inwardly I once again thank God for small blessings (that we never received the wake up call and got to sleep an extra 40 minutes :-P)
Now we make our way to Ranjangaon. The bus is jumping and shaking. The sleep is heavy on the eyes, but the shaking body refuses to relax... Damn these tours...
Tip: In winter carry your winter wear. This one is specially the likes of us who hail from winter-agnostic Mumbai
6:15 am. Most passengers were jolted out of slumber as we reached Ranjangaon. The cold was pervasive. And yet the locals went about as if it was nothing. The Mahaganapati mandir has a grand entrance with almost lifelike statue of a grand elephant. From the inside, the entrance archway has carved sculptures of all the 8 Ashtavinayak Ganapati avatars.
A small walk leads to the entrance of the main temple. There is a footwear stand outside the entrance. There was a queue even this early in the day. One of our fellow passengers ahead of us was an aged fellow, perpetually wearing a cap that does nothing to hide his fully white hair (is there a term "jet white" to complement the term "jet black"?). The tour guide had given us all same-coloured caps with the tour logo, so that they are able to distinguish their flock. This guy wore the tour cap over his own. Apart from the cap he also perpetually carried a muffler wrapped around his neck and dark numbered glasses. (I wonder if he removes any of his gear even while sleeping or bathing? Or maybe he had a fevikwik misadventure and now he cannot dislodge the cap, the spectacles and the muffler?? He reminded me of one of the avatars of Doctor Who - only a dark Indian version. Maybe he is the actual Dr Who reincarnated in India, who knows?) He was not wearing any winter wear. Shivering slightly, he declined my chivalrous offer to share my hoodie jacket. Must be a seasoned traveler...
The Darshan was swift and short. We had our tour aarti outside the main temple.
There are public toilets to the left at the back of the temple. Gents toilets are on the upper floor in a building tucked away farther down. You will have to go there barefoot.
The infant light of a new day had begun to lighten up the sky.
By 7:00 am we were off to next destination - Theoor - 33 kms away
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