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?

चौक-मोरबे-वरोसा-हशाची पट्टी-माथेरान

“ये कर: कर्जत-चौक-मोरबे स्टेशन-वरोसा-हशाची पट्टी-माथेरान
जीव उरला तर गार्बेट उतर”

असे म्हणत गुरू ने वाट दाखवली होती

What's App वर त्याने डोळ्यात hearts असलेली smiley देऊन distance च वर्णन केलं होतं आता ते distance डोळ्यात गोटे कशे काय काढतात ते जाऊनच कळलं.

Team was Anil, Sudhindra, Tushar and Me. We caught 6.07A.M. Karjat local from Dombivli and took a Karjat- Panvel S.T. bus and alighted at Chowk village by 7.45A.M. Morbe dam’s massive wall was visible from here. All those bike rides and bus rides on this Mumbai Pune old highway had already imprinted Morbe Dam and Irshaalgad pinnacle on my mind. This time there were going to be different views from different sides.

The trail to our destination starts from the west of Morbe Dam from chowk railway station on the Irshaalgad waadi road. Just keep Morbe Dam to your right hand side and you will reach a dirt road going all the way to Varosa village, the village at the base of west side of Matheran.  This dirt road gives you a telescopic view of Irshaalgad and a panaromic view of Matheran range.

We had walked about 8K.Ms when we heard a vehicle coming behind us. It was a van. The driver offered us a lift upto village Arkaswadi. It saved our 1 to 2km walk. By now we could see Prabalgad to our west. Thanking the driver for the wavy ride we started our walk from Aarkaswaadi to Varosa. Louisa point of Matheran could be seen from here. I spotted a few tourists on the point.

It was about 10 A.M. now. Some kids guided us to get on the trail to Hashyachi Patti village. The trail climbs on the slope just north of Varosa and and curves onto a spur on the Matheran range. After climbing and exhausting my lungs out I looked behind me in the valley. It looked as if a paper was folded to make a plane and I stood on its wing. The other wing was the Prabalgad range. And there it was to my right hand side, mighty Kalavantin Durg pinnacle. With its exposed stone steps and round summit.

It filled me with hope and energy which was used to reach Hashyachi Patti plateau. On reaching the plateau we took the trail which kept Matheran to our right hand side, till we reached the village. We asked for directions and water in a house.

“कुठनं आलात पोरांनो?”,आज्जी ने विचारले.

“चौक वरून.”, मी म्हणालो.

“चालत?”

“हो”

“आग बाई, इतकं आम्ही पण नाही चालत, प्या पाणी प्या आणि सावकाश जा!”

एका दादा ला विचारलं, “ किती घरं आहेत गावात? “

तो म्हणाला, “ साठ एक असतील”

मी shock झालो. Wikimapia.org वर तर छोटसं दिसल होत गाव.

“माथेरान किती लांब आहे इथून?”, मी विचारलं

“ वीस एक kilometer असेल”, तो म्हणाला

हा, या दादा चा आकड्यांशी दो और दो पांच आहे अस conclude करून, good bye करून आम्ही निघालो.

From Hashyachi Patti a stone stepped trail will take you to Malang Point in Matheran. It was February, but we found a clean water stream which villagers said had drinking water. Me, always thirsty for mountain water had a sip. It was potable. Soon we reached Malang Point and from here we could see Chanderi( supposedly my next destination (^_-)), Mhasmal peaks and Malang range at the horizon. We took a short nap here and walked to Matheran.

माथेरान वर बघतो तर काय. Love was in the air. 14 February. Valentine day. इतके couple आयुष्यात एकत्र पाहिले न्हवते. आम्ही माकडाँ पासून( शेपटी आणि बिन शेपटी च्या) दूर अशी lunch साठी जागा शोधली आणि मस्तं, eggs, थेपले मारले.

We walked to Dasturi naaka and got a shared cab to Neral station. गार्बेट हुन उतरायला जीव न्हवता कुणाचा . “Next time”, म्हणून, trek संपवला.

Exploring Bhivgad/Bhimgad

"भीवगड  से एक रास्ता ढाक को जाता है. Bhivgad explore करके  आ", गुरु  म्हणाला,  "मैंने भी अबतक  नही किया है.  पानी कैसा है,  कितना time लगता है, देखके आ." Basically guru just gave me the name of the base village. मग काय? चला गुगलू या. So, with the Basic information from Google search, Blogs, Wikimapia, etc. Akash and I caught 6.07 AM Karjat local from Dombivli.

Train passed Badlapur and landscape turned from colored rectangles to green and brown streaks of trees. Temperature dropped down the mercury, air became lighter with drooping humidity. Fog and mist had occupied the horizon. First Malang Gad, then Peb, then Matheran, then Garbett Plateau, all on west of the railway line were all welcoming.

We reached Karjat and walked down to a bridge( commonly known as shri raam pul) from where we got a shared auto rickshaw to our base village Gaurkamath. आता इकडे रिक्षा वाल्याने थोडा game खेळला आमच्या सोबत. पण जाऊ द्या ते रडगाणं नाही करत इथे.

We reached base village at about 8.00A.M. we could see Dhak forest region of the Sahyadris and a small but prominent hill of Bhivgad. We realized that our destination was not at great height and I drew my route up from a trunk starting from the north side of the pen shaped hill. This pen is placed at northwest-southeast direction. 

We started walking from the west towards the northwest side from where i thought the trail on the trunk upwards starts, but I don't recall if we missed the path going on the trunk but we were now following a well paved path keeping bhivgad to our right. After a walk with few ascends we reached a col. From this col the route southwards goes to Dhak mountain. This trail looked interesting disappearing in thick forest on the mountain. "One day", I said to myself and got on the way to Bhivgad. 

On the slope we found two men paving a trail. They were members of a प्रतिष्ठाण. They had come for श्रमदान.

We reached the plateau. I found a water cistern. But the water was not potable. From here you see Matheran on the west. Giant pinnacle of Irshaalgad was on the outline of the horizon. I remembered my gurus words, "चढू नकोस अवघड आहे"

We went towards northwest to the edge. From here we saw our missed trail on the trunk, which I had read on blogs takes us to rock cut steps on the east. We decided to go there later. It was just 9.00A.M. Not much was visible due to the fog below. We sat on a rock facing Garbett plateau till we felt sunlight on our backs. That's when I looked down.  Light green grasshopper colored fields with dark green spots of trees were spread all over. Time had cleared the mist and the fog.

It was time to explore rest of the fort. We headed towards the rock cut steps. There was one more water cistern on the east side. The water in the cistern seemed potable but was drying up. Near the steps, on the middle of the plateau,  there is one more water cistern. Water in this cistern seemed potable but was drying up. On descending we found two caves dug in the stone. There was a somewhat difficult ( without strong handholds and footholds)  5 to 6 feet climb from ground level to reach the caves. We could hear screeching sound of bats in there.

We had our food on these steps. The श्रमदानी people were descending down by now. We headed back towards the col where we left the trail to Dhak to our left and descended down towards Vadap village. There is a huge waterfall to left while facing the village. A straight trail from the col will get you to a intersection on a dirt road which goes to Gaurkamath keeping Bhivgad to the right. We walked towards Vadap and reached the main road from where we got a 3 seater auto Rickshaw to Karjat. 

The Rolled Emptiness.

“Don't go there! “, she said, “ there aren't any railings “, He looked at her, with contempt. ‘There weren't any railings over there before, the mountain knows no limits. It's our limits that we speak of, think of, impose on’. He didn't mind her and went there. He was sure of his limits. He had seen that rock and had been there before. There inclined at 40 degrees he saw in the dark the lights, which gave people below visual perspective of the world. He saw the half moon, which gave outline to all those mountains in between itself and the lights below. He felt that he was somewhere in between the two lights. There was emptiness in between. He wished she was here, he just wanted to lie on her lap. “Limits”,  he said to himself and then he gave up. He lied cheek down on the rock. Tears rolling over it. The emptiness got another angle. The emptiness rolled over him. He called out, “mumma”, no body heard. Nobody was there. Just the rolled emptiness.

The Slide And The Tick

I haven't written about my past two hikes. Laziness, mind  bogged up with other earthly things at sea level, “ I don’t know”. So today I said to myself, “ let's write “, and what other to write than my last hiking experience.

Anil joined me this time. This was his second hike. One day hike plan to Mrugagad was set, To be executed on 26th January. The republic day of India.

26 January in Dombivli means there will be noise in the city. Republic day कम और सत्यनारायण की पूजा day ज़्यादा। तर चला ट्रैक करुया.

We fuelled up my bike at about 6A.M. and headed towards the base village Bheliv, which is about 25 kms from Khopoli. Road to this village goes through Jambhulpada on Khopoli- Pali Highway.  This was my fifth visit on this highway, 3rd time on my bike, so we reached here without any confusions and wrong turns. बाकी Jambhulpada to Bheliv was done with the courtesy of Google Maps. Road was undergoing a huge repair, so we lost speed, mileage and some spine on the way. But the welcoming Sahyadri Range made us forget the pain.

Moradi pinnacle which looks like a giant water slide grabbed my attention from the road. In front of this giant slide was our destination of the day. It looked like bunch of giant oval rocks were rolled down the Moradi pinnacle slide.

We reached Bheliv village at about 9.00 AM. We parked our bikes and found the marked trail. The trail starts with a mild ascend through the plain fields of the village, slightly angling into the forest cover, towards the hill. So keeping the hills to our left hand side we started walking through the forest.

We reached the rock cliff ascend in about 20 minutes. There is a way going between two giant rocks, known as chimney ascend. After climbing this we reached a plateau. I checked on the east side of the plateau. There was one more hill to the east and there was a col in between but there was no easy way to get there. I reckoned that the view of moradi from that hill would be amazing.

So we headed towards the west of the plateau. Towards the west you face a stone cliff which seemed to me was almost 90 degree inclined. To the right and towards the north there is a cave, towards which there are more steps carved in the rocks. I decided to check that out while returning. The stone cliff on the east side has rock cut steps in it and they looked like a 2D game. So we became Marios and started climbing those steps. There are proper handholds at difficult places.

We reached up and found 3 water tanks welcoming us. But to my disappointment there was no water in them. च्यामारी आज पण without mountain water. We got a mesmerizing view of Sahyadris from here. The giant Moradi slide was right in front of us.

We walked towards the west towards the edge of the hill. There are more water cisterns here, but they were all dried out. From here we saw our base village Bheliv and another Village Falyan which was on the north west side of the fort. Immense silence was what I heard. It spoke to me as a friend.

After a while we had our lunch under shade of the trees and decided to descend down. Down on the plateau we saw a guy with village kids coming up. He went to explore the caves towards the north. Anil found the descent to be a bit tricky, on reaching down he looked up and said, “I don't believe that I went up there! “.

The guy with the kids returned from the cave and I headed towards it. Anil decided to skip it. It was a bit difficult and tricky to walk on those steps. I reached the cave. There was some carving at its entrance and it was very moist and dark inside. From here you face the Sahyadris and the village Falyan below. I came back which was more tricky, thanks to the gravel on the plateau. I looked at the cave and said, “ I don't believe that I went there “.

We started our descent which was a bit strenuous because of the gravelly trail. घसरगुंडी करतच खाली आलो. It was about 12.30P.M. when we reached the base and started our ride towards Dombivli. I was sitting at home in the dark when Anil texted me that there was a insect dug into his hand which he doubted was a tick. He pulled it out and sent me it’s image which I forwarded to my guru who confirmed that it was a tick.

Jumped On The Flow

New year, the day some get new calendars, some make resolutions, some booze, some burn firecrackers, some watch them. Sushant Chopdekar told me, "Let's do something different this time. Let's see the sky from a mountain top at 12 AM of January 1 2016.". And of course I started hunting and frisking locations from here and there. Had a few places in mind, but then on 30th December, Guru asked me if I would like to join for a trek to Visapur on 31st night. Cool cool. बस इ भी कोई पूछनेकी बात है।. I agreed. Asked Sushant, म्हटला नहीं जमणर. च्यामारी म्हटल, जा नाको येउस . Sonam and Akash were invited too. They agreed.

So office छुटने के बाद, कसा बसा meeting जल्दी आटप्के Sonam, Akash and I, hurried to western express highway from where we had our seats booked in a ST bus up to Lonavala. We reached on time, but, on calling the depot we came to know that the bus had broken down and its gonna take time to come. आई शप्पथ, guru म्हंटला  होता , reach Lonavala by 9.30PM at any cost. Bus काही अली नाही guru said, " drop the plan, you guys are gonna be late". He said that he is starting the trek with his friends. We said OK, but then after a discussion, we decided that we will go to Lonavala anyways and spend the night in bus depot and do the Visapur trek the next morning. Bus came by 9PM. Then guru called back and asked me what we are doing. He agreed to wait.

We had reached Khandala ghaat. Traffic was very slow. We could see a beautifully lit city below the ghat from the Mumbai Pune expressway. Yellow lights everywhere, but wait I guess I saw a pink light for a moment amidst yellow there, wait now blue, now red, ohhh! फटाके! New year. Happy new year. “Better than the last one “, I said to myself. I was happy to be there.

We got down from bus at near Malavli station on the western express highway at about 1 AM. There is a overhead bridge that crosses the highway from above. We got on the bridge as instructed by guru and started walking towards bhaje village, he was waiting for us in bhaje caves.

We were walking quietly when we looked above in the sky, what a clear sky, stars and stars everywhere. When we started climbing the bhaje caves stone steps moonlight was so bright that we didn't need any torches.

We reached the Bhaje Caves gate when Guru came to get us. There were 3 more people inside, we had an introduction. There was Prasad, his roommate Sujan and his friend, Shefali, and Shraddha Mehta, I had read Shraddha Mehta's blogs, and trekking with her and Prasad Tandale(my guru) filled me with excitement.

We were thirsty, so Prasad, Sonam, Akash and I went to get the mountain water from the cisterns. A small walk ahead took us to a opening where there were multiple stupas carved out of a rock. we roamed across them round and about round and round. Here I came to know that the plan to go to Visapur fort was dropped as one of the team members was not comfortable with the trek and was sick, but Prasad promised us a जबरदस्त trek the next day. The night was beautiful and we were in the outdoors already.

We came back to the caves, Shraddha, Sujan and Shefali went to the sleep while we sat on the edge of the caves, and chatted a bit, इधर उधर का. Then we gazed the stars, guru taught us about the Orion Constellation, and how to find west direction with the constellation. Lohagad and Visapur forts were shining dark in the nightlight. We could see vehicle lights going up and down the vehicle roadway on Lohagad fort.

Then we went to the caves to sleep, Weather was pleasant, not much cold, not hot. I wasn't able to sleep though. It was 3 AM. I could see the hill in front of me, I stared at it and didn't notice when my eyes closed. Sonam and I woke up before everyone and were sitting outside the cave when a man came running towards the cave gate. He started doing his morning exercise on that hill. Exercise  तक सब ठीक था। but then he started music on his phone, चक्क कव्वाली  वर exercise करू लागला! च्यमारी  new year  च पहिल song  कव्वाली. ते ऐकून  काही उठले, काही तो गेल्या वर उठले. We packed our bags and headed out of there. Caves were looking beautiful in the morning sun and I decided that I would come here again to see them. Plan पक्का !

We walked to Malavali Station. Train was going to come in an hour, so we had snacks and tea at a local ठेला. Sujan and Shefali went to Pune in Pune local while we waited for a Lonavala train. Here we came to know that Shraddha is avid traveler and that she goes on Himalayan expeditions as well as solo treks regularly.

Lonavala Train came at about 9.50 AM, we took a rick from Lonavala station to Kamath Hotel in Khandala. Our Hike started from here and we walked towards Shooting Point, Khandala . I could see the Mumbai Pune highway to the left and Ulhas valley in front of me from this point. So many times I have been on that road yet I don't know that this beautiful location exists here, and that this is the valley, where the Ulhas River originates. We were going to hike down to the valley and then walk along the stream to Kondhane Village in Karjat, which is the base village of Kondhane Caves and Rajmachi from Karjat side.

The descend down was very steep, one needs to use hands to be safe, It was exciting. There came a steep 10 feet fall with good foot holds which was to be descended carefully.  आम्हा कच्चा लिम्बुन्ना अर्थात (Sonam , Akash  आणी  मला ) कमरेवर rope लाउन  खली सोडण्यात आल. We reached in the valley at about 12.30 PM. Had lunch. Shraddha was carrying ample food, Boiled eggs, Loaf of bread, Jam, Butter, Sauce, etc. etc. I saw the way she had packed the food. She told us that she has been trekking since 1991.  Akash बोला," मै  तभी born  भी नहीं हुआ था!!".  I found myself very fortunate to be trekking with such seasoned trekkers. We sat here for a while, besides the stream. The water looked clear but we the humans have started disposing our sewage water into the river right at its origin(Not judging, we the humans! just saying!).

We started our hike at about 1.15 PM. Basically the route was the water stream, There are huge rocks on which one could stand alone at a time, and there is water flowing beneath them. Sounds fun right! well it was!, but not for all. काही लोकांना  बघून वाटले की   इकडे दगडां वर जणू दगडच  चालत आहेत, असो, with a slow but steady pace we started hiking. Sun was right above us, there was no shade. Sipping water at regular intervals, seeing the flowing water and different rock formations we were treading like the water flow. Shraddha was arranging rocks like a pyramid at certain distances. I thought that she was just passing time while we caught up with her, but it was not just timepass, I came to know about that later.

The valley got a bit narrow at a point where we rested and had Buttermilk. It cooled our radiators and filled us with energy. We started our hike after the break. The terrain had not changed yet. At about 3.30 PM Prasad checked the map and realized that we are waayyyyyy behind schedule and have to cover a lots of distance to reach Kondhane. He estimated that we will reach Kondhane by 8.30 PM. च्यामारी, अंधारात हे दगड गोटे पार करायचे . We kept walking, Sonam was pretty tired. Her face looked red like a cherry. Akash मस्त sunglasses डालके दुपुक्क दुपुक्क चल राहा था. Everyone was walking on their own. No one was listening to anyone. Prasad was like," hurry up! hurry up! keep moving keep moving".  आणि आम्ही बैला सारखे. दुपुक्क दुपुक्क. Trying not to get our feet in water and get shoes wet.

A little ahead we found two Buffaloes skinny dipping in water. They were alarmed by us and were looking at us as if we had intruded into their private moments. Here Prasad found a trail going from east side of the stream. We took it, It was a cattle trail Prasad said, Cattle use this trail for skinny  dipping in the river I assume. Trail पे एकदम जबरदस्त pace  मीला. दुपुक्क दुपुक्क turned into सपसप सपसप. Sonam's face again changed back to her normal color.

Our pace increased so dramatically that now Prasad said that we will  reach the village before dark. I must say that this is A beautiful trail. Not steep not sunny, in forest cover, away from civilization, I could keep walking here forever I said to myself. I like these kind of trails भयानक!!. But not today. Everyone was tired. Waking walking and walking we reached where Rajmachi mountain starts. We had to walk along this mountain keeping it to right hand side to reach kondhane village.

Shraddha was still arranging the rocks which then she told me that she is doing it so that if we get lost we would find where we were and that it would help for rescue operation if needed. We reached an open ground like area, where we found few buffaloes grazing in the grass. Wait they were different. Not buffalos. They were larger with horns like an arc, then Prasad said,"गउर आहेत ते".Gaur, commonly known as Indian Bisons are extremely aggressive wild animals. They are larger than bulls and are very protective of their herd. There were about 4-5 with a calf. The Gaur besides the calf looked at us with a suspicious air. They were right in the middle of our trail, about 60 meters away. Prasad walked towards them when the one with the calf came a few steps ahead. Warning us to stay behind.

We took the warning and found another trail which was more prominent and larger. What a beautiful route. I just can't stop admiring it. It was evening. Sun light had gone. And the forest was green and grey. I fell back from the group for a bit, when I caught up with them they were sitting with their bags off. There was water on the ground. Prasad आणि Akash त्यात तोंड  टाकून नर्ड्यात खेचत होते! मीही पहिल्यांदा घोडा झालो. लय् बऱ वाटल.

We started walking again, and we came across a cultivated land. The village was near. Shraddha stopped and said,"come here I have something show", that something was light in the village at a distance. We had reached Mundhewadi village. We walked ahead to Kondhane village. To my right there was Rajmachi. To left there was huge Ulhas river. It's water now deeper, filled, flowing with no rounded rocks coming out of it.

We sat on the road while a Rick driver agreed to get his Rick to take us towards Karjat station. I looked up, stars were still there, like they were yesterday, Orion with its sword, flown with us along the river.

The Open Door

Bhoranda dwaar
Dwaar means door.
This is an ancient trade route from Konkan to Desh. adjacent to Nane Ghat. Guru mentioned it to me the last time he met. He had told me to ascend via Bhorandyache daar, stay in Nane Ghat caves and descend via Nane Ghat. So after my knee pain had significantly subsided I decided to take the route. Winter season that too December end,    मस्त trekतो होना ही चाहिये, यही सोचकर हमने अपने साथियों से पुछा। कुछ ने कहा के इस weekend नहीं। कुछ गाव गाये थे तो कुछ का बदन दर्द हो रहा था। इतने में हमारे पुराने मित्र शार्दुल मालवंकर की याद आयी। कहे थे के exams के बाद वो trek करने आ जायेंगे। and there he was on Kalyan Station 1 hour late due to the courtesy of local train लफडा। कोई बात नाही

We took Kalyan -  Ahmednagar bus at about 7.30AM. Conductor didn’t knew where the village Bhorande was, but he agreed to stop the bus where we wanted to get off. The bus swept through the Kalyan Malshej ghat road like a hot wheel toy car. This road is so beautiful that I recalled all my bike rides through here. This was the 5th time I was coming through this road for a trek. Beautifully paved. Well banked at turns, this road makes you wanna keep riding. We alighted at Bhorande village which is about 7 kms from Nane Ghat starting point on Kalyan Ahmednagar Highway and about 11 kms from Tokawade village, where there is a official bus stop. You if you reach Tokawade you can get shared jeeps to and fro from here.

I had read that the trail to Bhorande Cha Daar starts about 200 meters from this Bhorande village junction. So we started walking towards Malshej Ghat in search for the start point. except we were walking in the wrong direction. After walking about a kilometer ahead we realized that there is no trail and we need directions. We decided to go back to Bhorande village and ask someone. We did so. The villager said that the trails starts a couple hundred meters towards the Kalyan side of Bhorande village, and not towards Malshej Ghat. So off we go. We had clocked 4 kms till now. It wasn’t a waste as now we got to see the mesmerizing view of the Sahyadri mountain range from Bhorande village. The only recognized by me was the Bhairavgad and the Nanacha angtha.

So, the Bhorandyache Daar route starts on the highway a few hundred meters towards Kalyan from Bhorande village. It is marked by a tree shaped maharashtra shashan sign post with “भोरांडा द्वार वॉटरफल”. The route started with a concrete trail which ended in about a hundred meters giving way to off beaten dirt and stone trail. A few villagers were chopping and collecting wood here. On telling them that we are going to Ghatghar in desh from here, the villager told us that he is ignorant of  any way from here, the way is through Nane Ghat. I told him that there is a way from here too and that the route is called Bhorandyache daar. He was from Tokawade village so he prefered the Nane ghat route to Ghatghar village.

The trail was not marked, and seemed barely used. so we used to take the most prominent trail where there were diversions. The climate was at its best, the cool breeze was whooshing the ears, दह्याच्या हंड्याला हाथ लावल्या सारखी सगळी झाडं आणि दगडी यांच्या मुळे  गरमी जाणवली नाही. We reached a wide dried stream way and rested for a bit in the cool shade of the mountain. Sun light had not touched us from the start of the trail as the trail was pointing South East.

We started again and soon heard a distant voice from up, someone was coming down the valley. They were two villagers, they expressed their surprise on seeing our group size of two people and as always they asked us why we do this, may be now I have many answers for that question why, but I don’t want to answer. They told us that we have reached the main steep ascend and that we will reach the top in 30 mins. कसलं काय आम्ही आपल चढतोय  30 - 45 मिनिटं पण टॉप काही गवसला नाही. We did lose trail a couple of times but we soon were able to find the right one.

By now we were out of the forest cover and were climbing stones between two stone cliffs closing down on us with every step. Like a double doored opening. The mountain range has really cut itself like a cake slice to pave way and habitat for living organisms. View of Konkan from here was breathtaking. It took away all the tiredness and filled us with excitement and hope. We reached up. I looked back and thanked the sahyadris for opening a Door way, a द्वार to its heart for us the organisms, the foot holders of food chain.

We reached the top. We had our lunch under shade of a tree and started walking towards a water body which we could see before us. A short hike further took us to the paved vehicle road which comes from junnar to Nane Ghat. Road to a beautiful location means vehicles to a beautiful location means people to a beautiful location means plastic to a beautiful location. This wasn’t my first hike to Nane Ghat but last time I was here it was scorching october sun burning everything, it kept the vehicles with their people with their plastic away. This time it was 26th December, हमारे बचों का christmas vacation, people’s reason to get out in their vehicles with their plastic. The problem is not them bringing the pastic, the problem is leaving it there. As I had predicted I saw lots of cars parked where the road came to an end. As we went towards the caves the silence was slowly being engulfed by giggling and पोरांचा चिवचिवाट आणि त्या पोरांच्या चिवंचिवाटात, “ए तिकडे नको जाउ”, “त्याला हाथ नाको लाउस”,”बेटा go carefully OK?”, “don't put your hands in that water बेटा “, म्हणत त्याच पाण्या च्या टाक्यात दगडी टाकत होते.

असो, I will try not to talk about buffons this time, let them do their buffongiri. So The Nane Ghat Caves. Carved more than Two  Thousand years ago these caves and potable water tanks look like black crayon sketched over dark grey paper. We went into the largest cave of all. The cave where the history to the सातवाहन काळ  is inscribed on the walls, the caves which gave rest to many traders  and villagers and trekkers/hikers like us even till date.

I spread my make shift flex banner mattress on the floor in the cave and we relieved ourselves of our sacks. Outside we could see slope of the mountain going deep in konkan. A guy from archeology department came in and asked us if we were there for stay. He told us not to have alcohol or set campfire in cave as it damages the inscriptions on the walls. We agreed. He also gave us a heads up on a group of 30 rappelers who were gonna stay the night in the cave. झाली ना रात्री ची पण चक्की, च्यामारी 30 लोक, हि कुत्री भुंकून रात्र जागावणार.

After a family entered the cave with mattresses and रझाईs and चटाईs. WTF!, I said to myself. It was a family of about 12 people. Kids and elders and ladies and old people. They stormed in the cave spread their mattresses and sat in circles. I will not mention their चपड चपड, as it was sound of utensils being wash for me. They also bought large water vessel, lots of food and utensils to eat the food. OK they just came to have food in the cave. Point नही समझा अबतक मुझे. There was a kind of digged hole in one end of the cave. They started washing their hands over there. बस आता मला राग आला. They were gonna eat and go, leave the place, but we were going to stay there, many people are going to stay there for fuck's sake. I asked one of the family members not to do that. He agreed and instructed his family not to do it. Still some buffoons washed their hands anyways. Fuckity Fuck.

While this family was at it, another family was outside the cave with their mattresses and food and water. They waited for the first family to be done, like they wait outside the hotels for a table on weekends. साला डोम्बिवली च गोविंदाश्रम बनवल त्या लेणीं च . We went outside, but kept our things in. After a while we came in and we saw that one of the kids was running around the cave beating the walls and ground with Shardul's jungle treasure, the wooden walking sticks. Shardul became furious and started running behind the kid and got his treasure back from them.

The rappelers came in after a while, equipped with huge backpacks, sleeping mats, propper head lamps, they seemed professionals. They were from Pune a group of mixed aged, men and women and guys and girls. They had trekked hadsar fort and came there by bus. They were gonna stay the night and head for jivdhan fort the next day.

As soon as they came in, a few of them started preparing food on their stove while others went out to see the sunset. We also decided to go see the sunset. A short hike took us to the highest point of nanacha angtha. Towards north and west there was huge konkan below and towards south and east there was huge vast sahyadri Mountain range. I could recognize Jivdhan fort to the south, with it's Vandarlingi pinnacle, Gorakhgad and Machindragad, far far towards west in Konkan region and Ahupe ghat right behind it, rest all was unknown to me then. The sun was red orange by now. Going down slowly, disappearing right in the middle of the sky, till it was gone, leaving streak of red behind it.

We climbed down, went near the caves and I climbed a smaller cave opposite to the larger one. And sat in silence. Looking at the टीमटीमणारे lights in konkan region. Lights of cars on Kalyan-Ahmednagar road were playing hide and seek in the jungle. We sat there for a while and went in the cave. The cave sounded like School recess. चपड़.चपड़ चपड़ चपड़. I had left all hopes of having a peaceful evening. We couldn't even leave the caves as we wanted our space to sleep. It was dark outside anyways. We spread our mattresses and dozed off for a while.

When I woke up it was 8 PM. We had our dinner. Shardul's mother had blessed us with theplas. I had the theplas. After a while I came to know that one more group of about 20 people was going to come. Fuckity Double Titty Fuck.

We went out for a short walk and whooooosssshhhhhhhhh came the wind on our face. It dried my lips and watered my eyes. We went on the plateau. Torch was not needed as there was bright beautiful Moonlight outside. Nothing mattered then, in that moonlight I saw everything. Saw everything that I had and saw everything that I didn't. Its not only what you see that matters, it’s also what you don't see that does. The thought still lingers my mind as I write this.

We went to sleep in the चिव चीवाट. If sleep intensity could be measured I was 3 fourth asleep, when the group of 20 people came in at about 3 AM and the चिव चीवाट turned into तांडव. It was a huge family, they had trekked the nane ghat route in the night. Now they were cooking dinner. Camping ethics and silence ki marriage ढोल ho gayi thi. Tried to sleep amidst the तांडव, but I couldn't, Shardul was snoring stones. Some of the rappelers were snoring hail stones.

Unable to sleep I stood up, wrapped myself in shawl and headed outside. Whooosssshhh, the wind was still there and my shawl started फदफडing in air. Moon was brighter now. Konkan was lit with moonlight in shades of grey and black. अंदर cave से लडकिया चिड़ा रही थी, “कौन है भूत बाहर?”, “भुत आल बघा”  etc. etc. I wasn’t minding them I sat on the stairs and stared at the sky. Spotted jupiter, the brightest shining object in the sky via Phone Sky location Application

It was 4 AM. One thing about being on the mountain is that it will never tell you to leave, it will never ask you to go. You go yourself understanding your own place and limits. These limits told me to sleep for now, told me that I was tired. I agreed. Even the तांडव group was asleep by now. I went inside and slept.

We woke up at 6 A.M. and went to see the sunrise on Nanacha angtha. Wind was gushing towards the angtha like streaks of winds were racing and jumping off the cliff. Few people were already there on the cliff waiting for the sun to rise. Wind was trying to dry my eyes, but they were continuously producing tears in protest and my nose joined in too. Through these tears I saw the sun rising. To a little left of Jivdhan it pushed itself up.

We sat there in peace till it was completely up and then we headed for the caves. We found a few water cisterns on our way down. I had missed spotting these cisterns on my previous visits.

We went to the caves, had our breakfast, packed our bags, chatted for a few seconds with the तांडव मंडळी, waved good bye to the चिव चीवाट मंडळी and started our descent from Nane Ghat. The trail is of stone, wide, continuously steep, winding the valley like a thread pulled and released from both the ends. There was cool shade of the mountain on the trail.

I wished that the trail would never end and I would keep walking endlessly but alas! it turned left after 2 and a half hour and vehicle sounds were audible. We reached the Nane Ghat trekking point on Kalyan - Ahmednagar highway and relieved ourselves of our sacks, ate bananas and started off towards vaishakhare village to find transport to Kalyan. We reached Vaishakhare village in about 30 mins. Got a shared vehicle to Tokawade village and hoped into a Kalyan bus. The conductor warned us that there are no seats and said “standing standing”, we agreed. The bus swept on the road while  the conductor shut the bus door close.

Hooked a Thread

Rajmachi. A name heard over years. When I hear the word Rajmachi, a memory comes to my mind. An old conversation by an old friend about his visit there which includes lots of Forest officers, jungle and rain. So when I planned about this trek I was very excited.

This time the team was Sudhindra, Akash and me. With eggs, and fruits, and clothes and blankets, and water we caught Pune bound Indrayani express. This train always takes me back to my CDAC training days in Pune. The journey didn't take long and by 8.15AM we were at Lonavala station.

What a pleasant morning. The thrill of walking in this morning set a धधम धधम rhythm in my heart. Having सटर फटर breakfast we started our hike. On some enquiry we found our trail. Which was a dirt motor-able road along the beautiful mountain range of Lonavala. To our west was a deep valley which raised a mountain far away running parallel to our path. To our east was a huge mass of stone wall. Wow! Magnificent. The mountain on the west had a railway track running on its stomach. Like an ant line the train passed blowing its horn. There was no sound except the thud of the railway diesel engine.

We walked with a fair speed. There wasn't any ascend or descend. Plus the morning air with low humidity. वाह!!. We reached a clearance and we found four huge buses parked on the way. लफडा. Four buses, we thought our silence and peace was gonna ruin. On enquiring with the drivers, we found out that they were gonna return the same day itself. A relief!. So again धधाम धधाम we continued. Many bikes, cars passed us on the way.

Shrivardhan and Manaranjan which were to our north west magnified with our each step. We reached a fork in the road, left way was Rajmachi. We took it and the way entered a thick forest which curved the mountain range to left. Here there was a very mild ascend. We heard a very distant चपड चपड. Kids! We thought and there they came a whole bunch of 5-6 year old with their barbie and doremon zolas towards us. So they were the ones who came in those buses!. Akash waved the stick in his hand in front of a kid and did हहेहे. That kid angrily snapped back at Akash with a louder हॅहॅहॅ and an insulting ,” चल जा बे”. Further one cute little girl in the group said, “ hello, go and see the Rajmachi fort”. We thanked her and said, “ sweet kids”. “But not that other one”, said Akash. We successfully stopped him from complaining their teacher about that knucklehead.

Now the fort shrivardhan was to our right. We had turned over the curved mountain and the route we came from was to our left. It felt like we were heading towards the pointed end of a hook. A short walk took us to Rajmachi village. The village has a tourist air to it. The development was new and decent. The primary source of income seemed to be from the tourists visiting the forts. An hour long rough drive through forest has made tourism possible. We found our contact - Janire family's house and made dinner and stay arrangements at their place. We reduced the weight of clothes and blankets there and with food and water we went towards the forts.

The trail to the forts start from a col between the two hills. There is an ancient temple in this col. Or should I say was. Because the pictures I had seen of this temple were completely different. What I had seen was an image of a ancient stone built monument with silence of nature. What I was seeing was a shop, laid at entrance of a house, oil painted with yellow and pink. There was drunk मंडळी in its yard cooking food in a huge vessel. Their clothes and undergarments laid out on its roof and stones. Keeping that monument to see for some other time( without the undergarments but still with the oil paint ) I headed towards shrivardhan fort.

This hill is stone walled beautifully, the walls dissolving in the mountain do not make its existence known. Let's just hope buffoons don't paint this wall with yellow and pink, their underwear color. This fort has beautiful caves and potable water cisterns carved in it. Water in one such cisterns was so clear and tempting we just filled our bottles with the sweet stone juice. It cooled our bodies and soothed our muscles. The view from the top of this fort was tremendous. Mountains and mountains around. I was sure that all these mountains and hills had their names with numerous trails in their midst. But I knew none of them. I could just see but not know where I could go. But yes they were all welcoming. And yes some day from one of those cliffs and trails I would recognize the place from where I was seeing them.

We descended shrivardhan. None of us were hungry and in hurry for lunch as we had been munching on fruits and snacks on regular intervals. It was about 3 PM. We started to hike Manaranjan. It was a pleasant and a short hike. On Manaranjan there are water cisterns and some damaged house like structures. The reflection in these cisterns was another sky in the water. We hiked Manaranjan on along its edges witnessing a different view with each step. Rajmachi village looked beautiful with slanting roofs on its head, fields on its shoulders and a lake in its ears. We had our lunch in a stone walled house with no roof.

It was about 4.45PM when we came to the edge where trail towards the col starts. Seeing that we had time on our hands we laid down on a flat rock bed. I was seeing a tremendous vast sky with streaks of clouds, high in it. When I saw the sky and the mountains I knew that they will be there. The question is will we be there? Sun was slowly going down the sky to light new mountains and trees somewhere in the world. We descended Manaranjan quickly.

Reached the col and saw that बेवडा buffoons were now painting the wooden columns of the temple with pink. There was a different trail going somewhere. A man told us that there is a potable water cistern there. We went there and came back to head towards the village.

We relieved ourselves of our bags and shoes and rested for a while. Our dinner was being prepared in the house. We decided to take a stroll till then. Mountains around looked orange in the twilight. When it was dark we looked at the stars. Played with them actually. Mind was wandering towards everyday worries but stars brought it back to the now. There was singing and noise in the village. Silence was stolen by अंताक्षरीs and किलकीलात. It's OK I said to myself. It's still beautiful out there.

A group was sitting around a campfire singing. We went to our place for dinner. There was a group of middle aged बेवडाs swearing and cursing their fate. Apparently our hosts had not let them drink because they were swearing and disrupting others. They were furious. I was glad and felt good that commercialization had some ethics after all.

We went in for dinner. Such food!. अंडा कडी, तांदळाची भाकरी, भात, कांदा, लिंबू, ठेचा, आणि ते पण unlimited. Had a good conversation with Janire family and headed out. Akash and I decided to take a stroll in the night while Sudhindra decided he would go and sleep.

So we went out. People around the campfire were gone leaving sparks in the fire behind. We sat there and took some warmth off the hot extinguishing wood and went to sleep. It was after years, many years that I slept at 9.30PM. We woke up in the morning at 6. Again it was after years that I had slept for such a long time. We freshened up packed our bags and had our morning breakfast. कांदा पोहा cooked by Janire काकी.

We asked for directions to descend towards Kondhivade village near Karjat and bid our farewell to the Janire family. The view from the edge from where we were gonna descend was mesmerizing.

We kept our pace slow and had fruits on our way down. Our next stop was kondhane caves which I knew were somewhere on the right hand side while facing the valley. We went there and found that the entry was restricted on account of a film shooting. They said that shooting would go on the whole day. We decided to leave because the sound of their generator and restricted access was frustrating.

I don't know, if holding a public place, for a movie shoot or any such thing, where people come from distant places is right or not. But it's not good to make others adjust for your benefit either. I believe in, "your poop, your mess, your job to take care of it". We continued down. Many people were on their way to see the caves. They were either gonna be excited that they were going to see a film shoot or they were going to be pissed off. “Beauty lies in the eyes of the observer”, they say.

We descended down. Looked at the mountain we had descended. We could see the beautiful Manaranjan from here. About an hour walk from base took us past Kondhivade village to Khandape. From where we got a shared टम टम to Karjat station.

So we took a hook like trail from Lonavala to Rajmachi and tied a thread to it towards Karjat. GPS device clocked 30 kms of hike. This hike has again hooked something in me.

Elbowed away

Pleasant morning. Didn't feel like coming to work. Work? Stuck in abyss of blue desk partitions. Pinned and stickered  with other colours. Not everything is blue. Started a little late today. Actually started at proper time but slogged and dragged along the bath, the oatmeal breakfast and travel. If I was riding the train I would have dragged it too. Felt like train was in tremendous speed today. Got a seat too. Dozed off to wake up to अगला स्टेशन destination. Huh!! Destination.
Again dragged through the steps over the bridge. Through the walk towards the bus stop. Ahhh!!! No buses. Stood in the line happy that situation was dragging itself. But the bus came. Hopped in. Commuters had already occupied almost all the windows. Just the last row was रिकामी. Sat there. Bus का cushion portion was not screwed properly. Bus was decorated with plastic and paper decorations on occasion of Diwali festival but wasn't screwed properly.
Wait I got distracted. I was talking about the morning.
So a pleasant morning. Morning in which you wanted to go deep in till it fades away. Just go and go and go. With every step the morning would slide away like the sliding bus का seat. It was really annoying till another bunch of commuter asses put their mighty weight on it.
Now the seat was fine. It was bummed and didn't need screwing. But the bum sitting next to me was taking his phone , earphones, and what not from his bag elbowing the shit out of me. OK. He didn't settle but I got settled of his elbowing.
See I again got distracted. But then the pleasant morning was distracted too. Gone, elbowed away.

The Golden Canvas

This was an important trek for me as I had not done a long trek since Nane Ghat. Also my last two treks didn't go without any incidents. Of course it was well planned, researched and googled. There wasn't much information about the trek on the Internet. No GPS track file was available. But I got a rough sketch of a map explaining the route from a blog. So with this information and my gurus instructions I finalized this trek. which was going to Matheran Via Garbett Plateau.

One thing that I noticed from all the blogs I read was that everyone had got “lost ” on their ways. That everyone “should have” taken a different route, which “would” have been easy. Important thing for me from all these blogs was that all these people had finally reached to the top. So after Researching a lot, gazing at the map for hours I finalized on a rough route and decided to go for it.

Akash was going to be there for sure. Sushant was going to confirm me at,”the last moment” whatever that is!. Sudhindra was busy. Bagade was wavy.

Sonam expressed that she would like to come. My blog research said that this trek could be done as a first time trek. So I agreed. I knew somehow that she would be able to do it. So on the last day it was Akash, Sonam and Me,l

I decided that we would go by train as the trek starts from a place and ends at another, so public transport would be ideal. We all voted on the first CST-KHOPOLI train which reaches Dombivli at 5.42AM.

So Akash came by bike to Kanjur station and took a train to Dombivli from there. Sonam took the same train from Mulund station and came to Dombivli. Now the catch was that Akash wasn't knowing that Sonam was the third teammate. It was supposed to be a surprise for him. I had just told him that a girl is going to join us this time. So this guy अगदी केस-बीस मस्त वींचरून came to Dombivli station on perfect time hoping to meet a new girl. But then he saw Sonam and he was “WTF!!!”. So it was three of us very comfortable with each other. I just knew that it was going to be a wonderful trek.

Sonam got some batteries from a local shop near dombivli station for her torch, which is “useless” for a day time trek according to Akash. The train was on time. We hopped in it, and our journey together started. I took a short nap in the train while Akash and Sonam were चपड चपडing their mornings out.

I woke up and saw a beautiful mountain peak from the train near Vangani station. I supposed that it was Chanderi. We went to the train door when we almost reached Neral. Matheran lied right ahead of us and I started picturing my route from Garbett Plateau. I made a mental line of the supposed trail on huge canvas of the mountain.

We got off at Bhivpuri Road station. We were blessed with a beautiful sunrise. We had breakfast in a local hotel on Karjat highway.

The trail started right at the end of the Diksal village. There is a beautiful lake to right of the village which we traversed from its left hand side. Sonam lead us through here using her navigation skills. The lake water was clear and steady with tri colored reflection of the yellowish mountains, green trees and blue sky.

After hiking around the lake we came across a water stream. Its magical sound filled us with some enthusiasm. We cooled ourselves off with the cold water and started again.

A small ascend had started now. We came by a huge tree along the trail. It provided ample cool shade. We sat here for a while admiring the views, when we realized that we had missed a turn after the stream and were now heading towards Sagachiwadi village which was to the southwest from our base village Bhutivaliwadi. Again my research said that Bhutiwali wadi can be reached through Sagachiwadi too. So we decided to stick to the taken trail.

We reached to the border of village Sagachiwadi in a short time and I decided to pass the village from its east and not entering it. When a kaka carrying stuff on his head asked us if we were heading towards Matheran. He told us to go through the village. We listened to him and started walking through the fields. Different fields here were at different heights. We had to climb up and down to avoid getting our shoes wet in a water stream. Following a trail we reached at Sagachiwadi Public well. It was a huge well. A मावशी was filling water there. Akash and Sonam helped her fill the utensils using the rope to pull water from the well using their s"trong" hands. I refilled one of my bottles with the well water. Somehow water from wells/cisterns streams is more thirst quenching than water we bring from the cities. I asked kaku the way to reach Bhutivali wadi village when she said that there is a trail to Garbett plateau right from this village. She said that it's easier and marked. We agreed to take the trail.

So again we started. So did the ascent. Ascent was steep but was tiring for us. We took occasional rest whenever we spotted some shade. We were maintaining our pace slow but steady. At a point we had a quick bite of Apples and Bananas. View now was awesome. We could see the lake, hill from where we started, the lake which we crossed., the way to the village, and the well from where we came right in front of us, in a single sight.

After our quick break we were able to maintain a steady pace up. Garbett plateau was just five minutes ahead when we saw down the valley. Wow what a splendid view lay ahead of us!. We could see our whole way and also Bhutiwali, wadi village which we were considering our base village. Canvas was golden and red with streaks of green.

Then we reached the plateau. It's plain was vast and golden with grass. It was magnificent. To the north there was the Garbett point and to the west there was Matheran hill station. View towards east was of course magnificent but view to Matheran valley in the west was also mesmerizing. There were few houses in Matheran valley too.

We walked on the Garbett plateau towards the Garbett point. We had our lunch below shade of a tree near the start of Garbett point ascent. After a while we saw monkeys hurrying down the Garbett point towards the plateau. We were almost through our lunch, so we packed our bags and started towards the point.

Here the ascend is a bit steep, with rock patches to climb in the middle. Akash had reached up before us and was sitting on a rock. So we sat on an adjacent rock and there it was ahead of us, The Garbett plateau. Golden with grass and cool patches of individual green trees.

We were talking when I realized that Sonam was meditating, we stopped talking and Akash asked me if I have a pencil. I said no, but then Sonam the stationary की दूकान took out a pencil and a notebook from her bag and gave it to Akash. Then Akash converted the pointed pencil lead into mountains, valleys , plateau, and trees. Everything was quiet till he finished. A kite floated above us in the air, its wings spread, its eyes on the ground looking for what he wanted. He will be up there until he gets it.

We started off again, reached the Garbett Point in seconds. The point is guarded by a grill. It was ironic to climb the edge which was guarded by the grill so that people won't fall off the edge. On viewing the valley and the plateau from that guarding grill we started to walk towards Dasturi naka, Matheran. Here the forest started, shading us off from the hot sun. Walk was pleasant. I saw a crowd of noisy 10 people walking towards us, wearing jeans and formals. They asked us how far to get there? I asked genuinely where there? For me there was a huge infinity. For them it was an iron railing.

Ahead we reached our last landmark, A Huge Stone, which was mentioned by my guru. I was advised to take the rightmost trail. We took it and a long walk took us right above the Neral Matheran valley serpentine road. Where weekend tourists were hooting, whistling, their lungs out in their vehicles. After a short while we reached Dasturi Naka. We realized that we were inside Matheran Hill Station. While I had read that the trail would lead us to toy train track from where we would reach outside the Hill Station Checkpoint. Anyways we walked towards the checkpoint, took a shared cab to Neral and descended down the serpentine road.

I have read in books that Hiking is more fun and enjoyable when done with people you know well and are comfortable with. On this hike everybody was comfortable with each other. Every time I hike with these few people I understand it better.