The Wall On The Ghaat

They say that after burning wood in holi the summer heat and the sun starts burning you. That made me think, is that why they burn lots of wood in holi? Is it supposed to be a revenge party? "You're going to burn me for couple of months now, so I will burn you before that so that we are equal, then we are also gonna throw away lots and lots of water on each other, till we are out of water."

I don't know, like I don't know about a lot of things, but yes I did experience a lot of heat on my last hike, just 3 days after holi and less leaves to shade myself, and less water to quench my thirst.

On guru’s instructions I decided to visit Thanale caves in Thanale village near Pali then continue on to Waghjai ghaat to TailBaila village in Lonavala, hike up to col between two walls of TailBaila, stay in the village and get down to Bahirampada village near Pali via Savashni Ghaat. Akash decided to join me.

We took first local train to Khopoli. Then a bus to Pali, then another bus to Thanale. It was about 10.30 AM when we reached Thanale. Sun was already shining bright. The trail to Thanale caves starts from the south of the village and enters east, as had been shown on the Google Maps. But we started from the center itself and headed east towards Sahyadris, as instructed by the villagers. Soon we lost our way. On realizing that, we started taking turns towards the main trail. After about half an hour of struggle we found the main trail.

We could see Thanale caves by now. They were on the opposite side of the valley at about 200 meters. First a walk keeping caves on left hand side then a turn across the ridge made us cross a dried stream. There are two ways from here, route towards left and North will take us to Waghjai ghaat, while route climbing upwards will take us to the caves.

We took the cave route and reached the caves in about half an hour. Most of the outer part of the caves is destroyed with time. Huge boulders have separated from the cliffs and have fallen down. There are carvings and stupas in the cave. Destruction due to time and environment was not enough, so some smart humans of this century have painted their beautiful and meaningful names on stupas and walls of the caves. Their efforts must be admired and honored.

We left the caves at about 12.30P.M. and came back the stream from where Waghjai route bifurcates. Keeping caves to our right we started walking on the plateau. There is a spur to the right which we had to climb to get to TailBaila village. This spur is the Waghjai ghaat. I found a prominent trail going towards the right and on the spur. We climbed on the top of this South east placed spur and started walking towards the ghaat.

It was about 1.30PM and we had already finished most of the water we had. We were totally exhausted, we had already hiked about 4 hours and there was no shade at all. My body was spurting water and salt from all the pores available. My lungs were pumping air like hand pump. When I tried to take shade from a tree trunk it felt as if I was a भोपळा and the trunk was a दुधी भोपळा.

We kept walking and ascending and the route started to turn leftwards when I noticed a house like structure, a bit towards right. Waghjai temple!! I exclaimed and we ran into it, in the shade we just threw our bags and took in the coolness of the temple floor. There are a few stone idols here and a pillar in the middle. Behind the temple there was a dried up waterfall.

After resting for a while we started again. Soon we were standing on the Deccan plateau. A mango tree and it's cool shade welcomed us. Behind this tree we saw it, the huge magnificent walls of TailBaila, these walls kept changing their shapes with our every step. So frequently that at one point it looked like a Cannon gun.

As we were walking towards TailBaila village we heard drums in distance, which started sounding louder and louder with our every step. Villagers were celebrating Shivaji Jayanti. After asking around for a bit we reached the house of Mene family where we were going to have our dinner and stay. We had दोन दोन तांब्या पाणी , relieved ourselves of our bags and started walking towards TailBaila.

Already exhausted and tired, legs started shouting their existence. In a while we found ourselves under north edge of the wall, and yes the views, the scenes, the height, everything seemed under me. My legs rejoiced and joined in the spectacle. They found it wrong to complain at that place.

When we reached the col, we found a group of climbers climbing the wall. One of them lectured us on haphazards of trekking in small group of two. In the col there is a cave in which there is a water cistern. The water in it was so cold that it hammered my teeth and send a shrill down my spine.

I sat on a rock and took a look around. Memoires were refreshed with a breeze, the windy night on Sudhagad, the rainy bike ride to Ghanagad, the unexplored but welcoming Saltar, all spread across the landscape. Konkan had hid itself in white light. The sun vanished in a while, before it reached the horizon. We vanished ourselves from the place.

The rest of the evening was spent in talks with Mene आजोबा. त्यांची एक line आठवते, आज शिवजयंती, शिवाजी एकच आला, आणि गेला. आता त्याच्या सारखा आहे का कोण, येणार पण नाही. आज्जींनी जेवण बनवलं होतं. डाळ, भात, भाकरी, ढोबळी मिरची आणि बटाट्याची spicy भाजी. पोट भर जेवलो. थोडं फिरलो आणि तैलबैला च्या मेणेंच्या घरात बैलांच्या घंटीच्या ding dong मध्ये केव्हा झोप लागली, समजलच नाही.

Next day arrived with cool breeze….. थडथड फडफड, it rocked the house. I laid with my senses open till the morning light, lighted the door. We had tea and packed our bags for our descend to konkan. मेणें आज्जी म्हणाल्या सवाष्णी आत्ता वापरण्यात नाही, वाघजाई ने जा. आजोबा म्हणाले, न्हाई वाट हाई चांगली अजून. मी तुम्हाला सुरवातीला सोडून येतो. We bid our good bye to the family and left the place, आजोबा पुढे, आम्ही मागे, धपाक धपाक चालत सुटलो. Savashni Ghaat starts from the plateau at about 8 O clock from TailBaila facing north. A few meters down from start of the ghaat there are seven stone steps carved in the rock, which gives it another name: सात पयर्यांची वाट. Sudhagad from here looks like a friendly neighbor and Sarasgad in distance looks like an inverted conical aluminum bucket

आजोबांना good bye Karun आम्ही सुटलो. Trail wasn't much in use. The gathered dried leaves and overgrown vegetation on the steep slope made the descent slow. Straight down we saw our destination, Bahirampada village, to its left and further ahead was Dhondse village and a kilometer ahead was Vaitaagwadi, Nadsur. We kept taking leftward trails and soon reached on a plateau. We went leftwards and got on to our final descent to Bahirampada.

We had missed our Bus to Pali from the village, so we had to walk all the way to Nadsur village which was about 2 kms from Bahirampada, from where we got a टमटम to Pali. From the टमटम , I saw TailBaila rock wall on the ghaat. It was becoming smaller and was going further, on the other side I could see Sarasgad in Pali, which was getting larger and was coming closer.

                       

Duke's Nose - आंबेनळी - सावरदांड - Chaavani

गुरु शी phone वरून बोलून route नीट समजून घेतला होता. Kurwande, Duke's Nose, Umberkhind route नही पकड़ना है, Ambenali village, दोन घर, blue roof, अरे smoke आहे तो roof नाही, jungle patch, compound, relative north आणि actual north, tower at two O clock Tower तक नहीं जाना है. अस wikimapia.org वर trace करत करत map, डोक्यात घुसवलेला होता. तसच Anil आणी Shriganesh ला घेऊन "route" वर निघालो. We caught my favourite Indrayani Express to go to Lonavala.

En route after Karjat and before Khandala, Ulhas valley towards left gave me flashbacks of my New Year trek-Stones, river and Indian Bisons , All piled up on each other. It was about 8.30AM when we started walking from Lonavala towards our base village Kurwande. It was a pleasant walk.

Trail to Duke's nose is quite simple. Sun was bright but, air was cool. We reached top to find a group of rapplers rappling down the Duke's nose. गर्दी मुळे तिकडे जास्त थांबलो नाही आणि पलिकडची टेकड़ी गाठली. We sat on the cliff adjacent to Duke's nose for a while. Duke's nose rock face went straight down into the valley. Rajmachi, Mumbai-Pune Expressway, Train tracks speeding on mountains and disappearing into trees and mountain like thread stiching on a cloth were the magnificient views we were blessed with here.

अजुन भरपूर चालायचय अस म्हणत आम्ही निघालो. Route to Ambenali village starts from North Of Kurvande village alongside Compound of INS Shivaji. Keeping the compound wall to our left and beautiful valley to our right we descended on a plateau from where UmberKhind route breaks down into the valley. Leaving that route to our right we continued southwards on the plateau. We reached AmbeNali village, where there is a potable water source and a couple of houses. डोसक्यात घुसलेला map लक्ष्यात घेऊन, I recalled that I was not supposed to take the prominent trail that goes eastwards into the jungle but the less prominent one that goes westwards towards electric towers.

We entered a small forest patch, This patch cooled our sun heated bodies and minds, but for a while. Soon we were on a plateau bright and yellow with sun. Further ahead there is again a forest cover with few cow sheds and houses. From here to the northwest at the end of the plateau, lies Savardand Ghaat which descends into Chavani village in Konkan. The trail starts just before reaching a tower on the edge of the plateau.

Descent Down was steep and the trail was full of dried leaves and dirt. घसरत घसरत खाली उतरु लागलो लै मजा आली, मला पण आणि माझ्या knees ला पण. A straight trail took us to Chavani village across a river stream. Roads on Chavani village were full with cattle, lots and lots of cows and bulls on the streets हम्मा हम्माing at us. We started our long walk towards Khopoli-Pali Highway.

Enroute, just after the village there is a temple on the other side of the river bed. Here the river bed seems to have teared itself to form a pool of clear still water. After a long walk we reached the Umberkhind Monument where we rested for a while. Soon a group of Men and Women came there in a car. One of the uncle carried a Watermelon on his head. They asked us how we came and appreciated our efforts. They had just hiked Mrugagad. They were on their way to Chavani village. They offered us mouthful slices of नमक लगाया हुआ watermelon and bid us a good bye.  कलिंगड़ खाऊन आम्ही जे काही refresh झालो ते सरळ बैला सरखे चालत सूटलो.

It was about 3.45PM when we heard a car coming behind us, it was the same group. They asked us to hop in. From here life was fast forwarded for next 45 Minutes. Train to CST from Khopoli was at 4.28PM and the next one was at 6.02P.M. Unless one loves to wait on a platform for full 1 and a half hour, 6.02PM train was not an option. They dropped us at Mumbai Expressway faata and we hopped in a 6 seater tumtum which was already filled with 12 people. त्याच्या मांडी वर bag, तिच्या मांडीवर तो अश्या अवस्थेत खोपोली शिळफाटा गाठला. From Khopoli Shilphaata we took another rickshaw to Khopoli Station. Rickshaw वाले काका म्हणाले पळा पळा, and we started running. Train was on the station. Ticket vendor was on the platform besides ticket vending machine. दोन Dombivli एक Vikhroli द्या. गाडी चा हॉर्न वाजला. पोम्मम्मम्म!!  Dombivli आल  Vikhroli येत नाही आहे. Touch screen वर काकान्नी 10 वेळा thumb मारला तेव्हा कुठे मशीन च्या काखेत टिकिट आल. ट्रेन सुटली, काकांना 100 ची नोट दिली आम्ही ट्रेन मधे, काका प्लेटफॉरम वर पळत पळत एक एक करून 10 च्या तीन आणि 5 चा कॉइन आम्हाला देऊ लागले. Tape recorder चे pause button दाबल्या वर जस loud music थांबत तसं सगळं जग थांबलं होतं. Journey ला pause लागला होता, आता Play button पुन्हा काय play करतं, बघुया!

The message sent and the message reached

I was talking to a friend today. Suddenly the topics of conversation started to drift. From, how kids these days have motorized pedal tricycles instead of good old, " use your quads and glutes to move your ass!" ones, to kids who cry their asses out to play games on smart phones, and to people who are missing out true essence of intimate physical conversations because of social networking. Well this is what I want to talk about.

I know we live in a smart information age. Where social networking has become as important as having masala Puri after paani Puri. Without social networking we feel as vulnerable as we would feel without wearing underwear.

We spoke of how intimate reactions have been converted into likes and comments with lots of virtual :) :) :) :P faces. Where people post about how they had fun at aqua Imagica for a whole day, just after they had their costume rip off a slide. No sorry they don't post about it these days, they tag people with exact location on map where they were, which by the way no one cares to click on and check where it is.

How good moments in a day, one in the morning, one in the evening, makes us feel that the person is having best time of life and is all happy and gay with the new, " Happiness is to have someone to call at 1 A.M" status messages. What we don't see or wonder is why the person needs attention so badly at odd hours. Has the Strom gone? Or is the person still having the pain in abdomen that still needs attention.

Does, " Eagerly waiting for new Game Of Thrones  season ", mean that the person is biting nails with anxiety as we read it and is going to continue for 2 months moving on to toe nails after being done with hands?

Does, " XXX was with YYY at ZZZ", really mean that they had an orgasmic evening. That it doesn't mean that YYY was damn furious with XXX because XXX kept YYY waiting and sweating for full one hour.

Does it mean that a man really cares about women empowerment just because he has liked a, " beti padhao" video, after commenting with hearts in eyes to a, " mere photo ko seene se yaar chipkaale saiyya fevicol se video".  Will he really be happy and satisfied after his first child is a girl and stop, " trying " for a boy just to, " carry forward " the family name?