Knots are many Ends are none

Everything is silent
Everything is numb

Things are clearer.

The graph has a slope and a rise
And is now on a hump

Lump in the throat is sticky,
The gulp is painful and slow

Investments are done
Money has been paid
Saving is still none.

Go there and come back
Never stay
Never overdo your welcome
Guests we are
Guests we go

Things are many
Interests are none
Interests instead have made their run

Facts are here
Tied on strings
Knots are many
Ends are none

Sound of a knock
Sound of a call
In the ear
One of body one of mind
Hears the one.

Flow was there
Vessel was empty
To fill it there was no one

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?

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.