Bike ride to Alibag

We exchanged at least 200 e mails to decide the date for the picnic. We first thought about it way back in November 2009. Initially it was planned on 7 and 8 November. But then Pune trip took priority over it and we had to postpone it to indefinite time. Sunil was very much upset because of this. Finally we again started planning the bike trip. But there was a huge conflict over the date. Some people were not comfortable with 20, 21 Feb while some were not fine with 27, 28 Feb. Finally Jayesh had to opt out as it was not possible for him to join us on 20, 21. We were 16 and half (Archit) with 5 bikes and 8 people from Mumbai and 3 bikes, a car and 8 and half people from Pune.

Mumbai people decided to go via sea road. No no, there is no road which goes through sea. Actually there is a ferry service from Bhaucha Dhakka which allows you to carry your bikes. To make sure we enjoy maximum time together, we decided to catch earliest possible ferry. The first ferry is at 6:30 am but it was too early to reach there before 6:30 am. We planned for 7:30 am ferry. To ensure everyone is on time we asked everyone to reach before 7:00 am at Bhaucha Dhakka. As Gurdeep stays in Ulhasnagar and it would have been almost impossible for him to reach there by 7:00 am, he stayed at my place on Friday. So did Pravin stayed at Sreegith’s place.

We got up early in the morning at 4:30 am. We had decided to give wakeup call to each other. Sreegith gave me a wakeup call. I was still in the sleep and didn’t realize that Sreegith had given me the wakeup call and called him back to wake him up. It was a joke. We all tried to call Sunil but he was not picking up the phone. I thought that he ditched us. Later we came to know that he had kept his cell on silent mode. Aata mi kaay saangu?

Gurdeep and I started at 5:45 am only. We all, Gurdeep, Ranjana, Sreegith, Pravin, Renjith and I met at Kanjurmarg and started our journey together towards Bhaucha Dhakka. It was 6:55 am when we reached Bhaucha Dhakka. Sunil and Pooja were already there with tickets. It costs Rs 30 per person and another Rs 30 per bike. We loaded our bikes onto the launch and the ferry started at around 7:30 am. Actually the ferry people load your bike and you need to pay them Rs 20. You need to pay another Rs 30 for unloading the bike. It was one and half hour journey. The picnic was planned in such a way that we will enjoy bike riding as well as sailing. But Pune people decided not to come to Mumbai and directly join us in Alibag. It was a wonderful journey which we enjoyed watching sea gulls, clicking photos, contemplating beautiful sunrise and having Wada Paav and a cutting.

We reached Revas (the other side of the sea) just before 9:00 am. Before resuming our bike journey on the road sandwitched by trees, we didn’t miss chance to take some snaps of a beautiful background at Revas jetty. It was around 30 Kms journey towards Alibag. These 30 Kms were awesome. There was no heavy traffic, the morning was cold and the road was in very good condition. We took a pause at Alibag for breakfast at around 9:45 am. After the breakfast we resumed our voyage to reach our actual destination: Nagao which is 7 Kms from Alibag. Finally when we reached at the Simran Bungalow, which I had booked 2 days before, thanks to Mandar, it was 10:30 am. We were pretty much on schedule.

We were all happy to see the bungalow. It was an ideal accommodation for our group. It is a 2 storey bungalow with 4 really big rooms; two of them have attached bathrooms and 2 halls. Most interestingly it has got a Zopala (Swing). We were fighting with each other to get it for 2 days. Pune people had not reached yet so we had enough time to enjoy sitting there. The plan for the day was to go to the beach, have lunch by 2 pm and leave for Murud-Janjia fort by 2 pm. And Visit Birla mandir while coming back.

After missing road many times, Pune people finally reached at 11:30 am. They too were very happy with the bungalow. Even after asking many times, nobody was ready to come on beach. Everyone liked the bungalow so much that they wanted to just relax there. Finally Ranjana and I left for the beach as I had to give her bike riding and swimming lessons. Since I have got a Unicorn which is 150 cc and it’s not ideal for learning bike riding, we borrowed Sreegith’s Splendor. I was insisting Ranjana to wear a helmet but she refused. I initially decided to put the bike in 2^nd gear and then give it to her, but I was surprised to see that she already knew how to pick up the bike in first gear. After a couple of hick ups, she comfortably started driving. Later I had to only tell when to put in into 3^rd gear and when to bring it back to 2nd gear. We continued our bike tuition for another 15 mins and then it was time for next tuition: Swimming.

When we arrived on beach, other people were already there bargaining with paragliding-wala.

You can enjoy a lot of water sports here including paragliding, banana ride etc. Without wasting time we tow directly went into the sea. Initially Ranjana was very worried and not at all ready to swim. She took at least 15 mins to be comfortable. I taught her how to move her feet, how to immerse the head into the water. I think it will take another 3, 4 turns to move her hands with the feet. No worries, swimming is not that easy. First thing one has to do is get rid of the fear. I think she managed to do that.

When we came back on the bungalow, it was 1:45 pm. Everyone was shouting on me as I was the one who forces everybody to adhere to the timeline and this time I was late. I was not really late as like them I was not supposed to have lunch since I was on fast. 15mins were enough for me to have bath and get ready. Anyway, they had right to shoutJ. In any case it was not possible to leave for Murud by 2 pm as the food was not ready. The vendor said that it would take another half an hour. When we called him again, we came to know that it would take another half an hour. When food finally arrived, everyone was very hungry. I think everyone enjoyed the lunch.

As usual nobody was ready to get up after the lunch. Ranjana and I utilized this time to learn bike riding. This time we rode on the Unicorn only as I was quite confident about her driving now. When we finally started, it was 4:00 pm. The journey to Murud is 45 kms and the road is not so good. At some places it’s full of path holes. So I estimated one and half hour to cover the distance. When we started, I realized that the air in the front wheel is not enough. I was scared. Had it been a puncture, we would have lost at least half an hour which we didn’t have with us. We managed to find a garage where we filled air and the mechanic confirmed that it was not a puncture. It was a big relief for me. While doing all this, we had left far behind others. They waited for us after around 10 kms at a beautiful scene clicking photographs. Since we had one bike extra, Nitin didn’t get his car. We resumed our caravan and took a pause at a beautiful Kashid beach. This is the most beautiful beach of this area. Unlike Nagao beach it has got dry (almost) while sand also. Since we had to cover a lot of distance we could not spend enough time there. We had Nariya Paani (Tender coconut juice) and resumed our march towards Murud Janjira fort.

We reached Murud just before 6 pm. The Janjira fort is in the sea and you need to take a boat ferry to reach there. We were a bit late but fortunately managed to get the last boat. These boats don’t use motor to propel, rather they use sails. It reminded use of hindi movie Swades. We enjoyed sailing that approximately half Km distance with a faint fear of sinking. The boat carried 30 people.

The fort is very big and looks very strong. It would have taken generally 4 to 6 hours to see the entire fort. But we had only 45 mins as it was getting dark. The sun was setting. It was a beautiful scene to see sun setting from the fort. We hired a guide for Rs 250 who later bombarded us with a whole lot of history. As per him, the fort was built by African traders. They used the fort solely for trade. The fort was guarded by Siddhi Johar (this is not the same person who put a siege around Panhala). The fort was never conquered by any other king. The original name of the fort is Jajira meaning fort built in water. From the remains it is obvious that the palace in it must have been a glorious one. It was a 6 storey palace. People from 3 religions used to stay there: Hindu, Muslims and Buddha. There are remains of their temples.

It was almost dark when we left the fort. We started our journey back immediately. However we took a small tea break in Murud where my right foot got Sreegith’s bike’s silencer burn. I tried to calm it down using water, cold drink bottle. Thankfully the restaurant owner had burnoul. As per plan, we were supposed to go to Birla mandir on return journey. Most of the people were not interested to visit the Birla mandir. I hand only Nitin, Jayanti, Sreegith, Renjith, Sunil, Gurdeep and Ranjana with me. Others would directly meet us on the bungalow. It was already 7:45 pm there and the temple was still 30 Kms away. We came to know from the localites that the temple closes at 8 pm. There was no way to cover 30 kms and reach the temple in 15 mins. So we had no option but to drop the plan. Nevertheless I thought of just going there. At least I could show the temple dome to Ranjana. Others agreed with me.

We 8 started our journey back. It was very dark and was not a suitable condition for bike riding. The vehicles coming from the other side were continuously disturbing us with their head light. Nobody was using dipper even though we were requesting a lot. On one occasion, I had to go out of the road completely as I was not able to see anything in front of me due to a huge headlight of a bus. Then instead of leading, is started following other 3 bikes. Nitin and Sunil can drive comfortably during night so they were leading. We reached the temple just before 9:00 pm. Surprisingly the temple was still open. Everyone was very happy. The temple is beautiful. It is surrounded by a well maintained garden. Cameras and cell phones are not allowed inside. It’s a place which you must visit if you come to Alibag. Unfortunately we could not spend much time there. Nevertheless we were contended.

Happily we started our journey back to the bungalow which was just 12 Kms away from the temple. I think we reached back at 10:00 pm. The food had already arrived. After not having food for the entire day, I was looking forward for the dinner. The non-veg eaters were very excited as they had Promfet, Halwas and Surmai fry with prawns’ gravy. After a small yoga session we had a good dinner. Unfortunately, the vendor had delivered jain food which we had ordered for Pooja to some other group. Sadly she had to be satisfied with daal and roti. The vendor didn’t charge us anything for Pooja’s rice place.

We slept at around 12:30 am but before that we had a long gossiping session. The hot topic for our discussion was unnecessary opposition of parents in love marriages. Some of us played cards as usual.

Next day, Sunday, I woke up at 7:00 am. Then Ranjana, Jayanti, Gurdeep and me went for a morning walk on the beach. Ranjana drove the bike till the beach. She was getting more comfortable with my Unicorn now. We walked a long distance on the beach. Jayanti was in dietician role and gave us a big lecture on what should we consume in the evening. Nitin, Sreegith, Sunil and Saurabh had gone to the beach even before us. Then they went for Datta mandir which they said was an awesome experience. We missed it but we will go next time when we come again to Alibag. After coming back Ranjana, Gurdeep and I went to have breakfast. Then we spent a lot of time at bungalow just sitting. Pooja was suffering from acidity so she didn’t go anywhere. Meanwhile Atul, Vinayak, Pravin, Gurdeep and other went to beach where they enjoyed banana ride. There are so many tamarind trees there. Ranjana and I decided to get some tamarinds from the tree. Since these trees are owned by people, it is not easy to steal them. However we tried to get some from a tree. Surprisingly the owner had no problem rather they offered us tamarinds from their home. That’s why Konkani people are known for their hospitality. But we enjoyed snatching tamarinds from the tree directly using a long stick. We returned to the bungalow with handful tamarinds. Everyone enjoyed the sweet-n-sour taste of tamarinds.

Ranjana and I decided to continue our swimming tuition and went to beach. But after arriving on beach we decided to drop the plan of swimming and instead decided to do bike riding on the beach. The Nagao beach is very long and has a huge space suitable for bike riding. But it is not that easy to ride bike there as the bike was shaking a bit in wet sand. We decided to go to Alibag by bike but when we reached the extreme end of Nagao beach we realized that there is a creek which divides Alibag and Nagao beach. We came back to the center of Nagao beach which is around 4 Kms from the creek. While getting our bike out of the beach, a police unnecessarily threatened us of snatching my license. In fact if bike riding is not allowed on beach then there should be a huge notice board stating that. Anyway….

When we came back to the bungalow, it was 1:30 pm and we were supposed to leave by 2 pm to reach home early. Nobody wanted to leave the place but still we wrapped up everything. Finally when we left it was 3:00 pm. But we didn’t miss to click final group photo. We had lunch at Alibag. After a veg meal on Saturday, I enjoyed having Promfet, Crab masala, Mussel masala (Kalwa).

Now it was time to say bye to Pune people as they would travel by different road from here. With a heavy heart we left for Revas jetty to catch a 5 pm ferry. I just realized then that the first SA and India ODI was in progress. India was batting and was 210 for 4 in 37 overs. We reached Revas jetty little late and missed the ferry. We had to wait for an hour to get next ferry. Before getting into the ferry I checked the score again. India had lost 8 wickets and 4 overs were still remaining. The score was around 275. After one and half hour sea journey we reached back to Bhaucha Dhakka. While getting out of the ferry, a drunken passenger fell down and had almost drowned. The ferry people were very quick to pull him up when his head showed out of the water.

We struggled a bit to find our way back via Wadala. After Dropping Ranjana at Powai, I reached home at 9:30 pm. The match was still on and SA needed 41 runs from 18 balls with 2 wickets in hand. But the match went into a breath taking mode where SA needed 3 runs on last ball. They managed to take only a single and got their last man run out while attempting second run.

The 2 days went like a flash. We haven’t decided yet about our next picnic.

A match that cannot be forgotten

30^th November 2009. 7:15 pm. It was our second match in Godrej cup. In the first match, we defended a reasonable total of 63 runs in 8 overs despite conceding 25 runs in 2^nd and 3^rd over. The team in the second round was much stronger and the same team had beaten us last year. We had a much better team last year but still we lost our quarter finals match to this team. When we reached in quarter finals last year, it was an achievement as before that Geometric had not gone past the first round only.

We lost the toss and were forced to field first. I bowled the first over and it went well as the score board read 5 for 1 at the end of it. I was on hat-trick before bowling first bowl as I had taken 2 wickets in last 2 deliveries of my bowling in the last match. I thought I would take a hat-trick again like last year. But I could not take hat-trick but I did manage to get rid of their captain caught behind the wickets. I handed over the second over to Suboth Yadav, who is a very good left arm fast bowler, but he could not find line and gave away few runs in the form of wides. We got another wicket in the second over as Pravin took a fantastic catch on long on boundary. I continued bowling and the scoreboard read 15 for 2 at the end of the 3^rd over. We dropped 2 catches behind the wicket in the same over. We conceded around 17 runs as Pravin got hit to two boundaries out of which one was a miss field and another was a clean hit in long off area. Next 3 overs were shared among Shriram and Pravin. Shriram bowled both of his overs very well but he was not supported by fielders properly. On many occasions we gave away two runs where only one run was possible. At the end of the 7^th over score board was showing 55 for 2. I called up Subodh to bowl last over but on the second thought I decided to take a risk and handed the ball to Vishal Prajapati who got beaten severely in his first over in last match. But he bowled a superb over giving a way just 3 runs and taking a wicket which was fantastically caught by Devidas in cover area. At the end of the innings score was 59 for 3 and we needed 60 runs in 8 overs.

Our openers, Ashwin and Subodh, gave a descent start and score board was showing 23 for none at the end of the 3^rd over. We lost momentum in next few overs and we could not maintain required run rate. We got 3 runs in the fourth over and we lost Subodh in the same over. Vishal Prajapati was the next to go who could not stay on the crease for long. We scored 6 runs in the 5^th over. I went in 4^th over when we had around 22 balls and 32 runs to score. We scored 4 runs in the 6^th over and we needed 34 runs from 24 balls. We badly needed few boundaries. I was hopeful since Shriram was batting with me and he has caliber to thrash the ball over the boundary rope. Unfortunately we lost Shriram in the same over and got only 6 runs.

We needed 18 runs in last 6 balls which was almost impossible task unless we get a very weak bowler who would bowl a couple of short pitched deliveries. We had no option but to try for six. I was on strike. The first ball was a good length and with all the power I had, I hit the ball in deep mid-wicket area. The ball managed to land just out side the boundary rope. It was a six. This is what we needed to believe that we could get another 12 runs from 5 deliveries. They changed fielding position and added one more fielder in deep mid-wicket area expecting me to hit there again. I studied the field and decided to take advantage of a little gap that was left in the off side. Next ball was neither over pitched nor shot pitched. I managed to get bat onto it and it went to deep point. On any other occasion we would have taken a single but we had no option but to run for second. Pravin, who was on the other end, told me that the only way we could win the match in to take at least doubles. When we needed 10 runs from 3 balls, I hit next ball in long on area and Pravin completed second run amazingly as he was running to the danger end. The equation was looking relatively simpler now as we needed 8 runs from 3 balls. I again tried to hit the ball in deep extra cover region, but I missed the ball completely and it was a dot ball. We needed 8 runs from 2 balls. We desperately needed a boundary. I re-looked at the fielding position to find if there is any gap which I could make use of. I was hoping a short delivery which I could hit in square leg area as the ground is shorter in that area. I could not have aimed long on or long-off as the boundary is too far and I hardly remember any occasion on which I have hit such a long six. It would have been a dream six for me if I could thrash the ball over long on or long off boundary. I was ready for the next ball hoping a weak delivery but the ball was perfectly over pitched. There was no time to go on back foot. I just took the ball under the bat and hit it straight over the bowler. The fielder at long on had enough time to come under the ball as the ball was high in the air. As the ball came closer to him I saw him jumping to catch the ball. There was no chance that he could even touch the ball. Oh my god it was a six. A straight six. My dream shot. On a dramatic occasion. I saw Geometric supporters jumping.

The Mission was still not over and we needed 2 runs on the last ball. We needed 2 and not a single as even if the match was drawn we would have been thrown out of the tournament since we had lost 4 wickets and the other team had lost only 3. So we needed 2 runs. I just had to hit the ball somewhere and I was sure that Pravin would have run for 2. I saw a huge empty area in off side but the ball came right on the bat and I hit it between min on and long on. Again there was almost no chance for second run but we had to run for it. By the time I had reached non striker end, Pravin had covered half of the crease for second run. With all the power I had, I run for second run. When I reached safely at the striker end I turned back just to see that Pravin had reached the non-striker end long back.

Geometric supporters were running towards me and I was running towards them raising my bat. It was a marvelous victory which I cannot forget ever. Though it was already 9 pm and everyone was supposed to reach home, we spent half an hour discussing and enjoying the victory.

Next day, Geometric Sports committee's report was as follows:

Kamlesh Guides Geometric-A to a Sensational Victory over GEE (Godrej Electrical and Electronic)

Slamming an unbeaten 23 off 10 balls, Kamlesh pulled back Geometric A from the brink of defeat to post a six-wicket victory over GEE in a 2nd round cliffhanger of the Godrej tourney. The win has consolidated Geometric A’s position in the pre-quarter finals.

Geometric had lost to the same team last year in the quarter finals. After losing the toss and having forced to bowl first, Geometric started well getting rid of their captain in the very first over. However few wides in second over and a couple of boundaries in 4th over put the opponent in comfortable position. At one point, with 56 for 2 at the end of 7th over, they were set for a huge total. But Vishal Prajapati’s stunning over restricted the score to 59 runs. A fantastic catch by Devidas in the same over was very special. Shriram bowled a disciplined spell but he was not supported by fielders.

Geometric A were on the verge of defeat with 18 runs needed from the last over while chasing 59, but Kamlesh, with the help of two sixes and three twos in the last over, tilted the fortunes in our favor.

After a solid start from Ashwin & Subodh, Geometric A was sailing smoothly to an easy win. But quick wickets in the 4th & 5th overs put breaks on the score. From 23/0 in 3 overs, Geometric A were pushed to 42/4 in 7 overs losing wickets of both the openers (Ashwin and Subodh), Vishal & Shriram.

Kamlesh took the game from there to clinch what at one point looked like an improbable win. He was supported by Pravin from the other end stealing risky runs.

Friends unite at Pune

After so many YESs and NOs we finally decided to go to Pune on first weekend of November i.e. 7th and 8th of November. Actually the plan had been almost cancelled as Atul and Deepa were not available. So we (people from Mumbai) had decided to go to Alibag on bike via Revas. But finally we had to postpone our bike trip for indefinite periodL. In a way its good as Ranjana can join us for Alibag bike expedition.

 

This visit was not supposed to be a picnic. It was more like a get together so that we all can meet and enjoy. From Mumbai, Pravin, Pooja, Gurdeep, Renjith, Sreegith, Jayesh and I were supposed to join. But Sreegith had to cancel at the last moment as he had an important meeting on Sunday to decide the date for our Keral picnic. I mean he had to see a girl for marriage J. As usual Jayesh opted out because he had to attend office on weekend due to release. Strange thing in software industry is that though the delivery is planned on Friday, with no exception, every project gets delayed and the team has to work on the last weekend to make the release. I wonder why people plan release on Friday. Why not on Wednesday or Thursday. For every picnic Jayesh is the first guy to confirm his availability but somehow for one or the other reason he has to opt out. As usual I say “Better luck next time Jayesh”.  But next time never comes for Jayesh.

 

We caught Sahyadri express from Dadar at 6 pm. It was a bit difficult for me as we had intermediate release that day. But I managed to escape on time. Unfortunately I had got a boil again. This time it was on the left elbow. We reached Pune at around 10 pm. Except me everybody went to Vinayak’s place. I heard later that Deepa had cooked chicken. I missed it L. Anyway Jayanti had cooked mini chicken, I mean egg. 

 

After so much thinking and changes in the plan, finally the plan was Saturday morning Sinhgad trek and Chokhi-Dhani in the evening. And Balaji temple on Sunday.

 

Kaustubh called us late night and asked us to leave early in the morning at 6:30. Like obedient kids we left quite on time just to find Kaustubh would come at 7. Too bad kaustubh J. We had 2 cars and 2 bikes in our caravan of 11 and half people. From Pune, Vinayak, Deepa, Archit, Jayanti, Nitin, Kaustubh and Saurabh joined.  What is this Atul? I was very much excited about the Sinhgad trek. I had climbed Sinhgad 2 years back with Rakesh, Nitin, Jayanti and 2 other friends of Nitin. It was very tiring and awesome experience. We reached at the base of Sinhgad at around 8 and started having breakfast in a restaurant. It took us 1 hour to complete breakfast. And that’s when the plan of Sinhgad trek was spoiled. I was still firm on the trek and Gurdeep too was ready to join me while other would come via road. Because for me Sinhgad is equal to trek. But at the last moment Gurdeep showed loss of eagerness.  And then I have to withdraw the trek plan. I was very disappointed.

 

We started our upward journey via a road full of path holes.  On the way Nitin spotted a garden. We just stopped and went inside. I cant recollect the name but it’s a place on a hill. Its not maintained properly but one can spend an evening enjoying beauty of Sahyadri (Maharashtrian hill range). We left the garden after some time and resumed our journey. Kaustubh and Saurabh, who were following us on bikes, didn’t notice us going into the garden and passed us. They had to wait midway till we joined them.

 

Like other forts, Sanhgad which is also known as Kondhana, has a big history of Sacrifice. This time it was Tanaji Malusare, a knight of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, who sacrificed his life for the Maratha Empire. Shivaji Maharaj had to surrender Sinhgad along with other forts to Aurangjeb in the truce of Purandar in 1665. After getting cheated by Aurangjeb, Shivaji maharaj broke the truce and started conquering all the forts back. Sinhgad was one of the strong forts and it was not at all easy to get it back. Tanaji Malusare, despite upcoming marriage of his son, went on to capture the fort. After a lot of survey they found that getting this fort was next to impossible. First it was difficult to climb and second it was strongly protected by mughal fort keeper, Udebhan Rathod. But Tanaji was not the one who would accept defeat so easily. After all he had promised his king. They set a high risk plan of reaching on the fort by climbing a steep vertical rock. This would not be possible to do without somebody tie a rope on top. Tanaji used his Ghorpad (a big lizard) named Yashwanti to  do it for him. He tied a rope around waist of Yashwanti who went up and held firm on a rock. Tanaji and his men reached on the top using the rope. Next impossible task was to defeat Udebhan. He was a very strong man and Tanaji lost his life fighting with him. Nevertheless Tanaji captured Sinhgad as he had promised Shivaji Maharaj. Shivaji Maharaj was very much disappointed on losing his fine knight and childhood friend.

  

We started roaming around on the fort. There are quite a few places to see. We spent a lot of time at Kalyan Darwaja (Kalyan entrance). The wind was blowing like anything. After that we started walking towards another point. It was almost 11 am and it was really hot. After around 15 mins walk we reached at another point from where you can see range of Sanhyadri mountain. We didn’t leave any chance of clicking photographs. After spending 15 mins there, we started walking back to center of the fort. Everybody was very hungry so next plan was to have lunch.

 

There are no sophisticated restaurants on the fort. But there are many country restaurants which serve food. If you have a big group, better place the order one hour in advance. You get only local food including rice, bhakari,  daal, curd, onion pakode (kanda bhaji) etc. You can enjoy the food sitting on the floor under shade. This is an awesome experience. It reminded me of Van-Bhojan (meal in jungle) during my school days. Anyway I could not have lunch as it was Saturday and so I was on fast.

 

Meanwhile I had prepared Gurdeep to join me for downward trek. I could not have gone home without this. I knew that they would spend at least one hour sitting there after the lunch. So just after finishing lunch Gurdeep and me filled up a couple of bottles with water and started our trek. I estimated an hour to complete the trek. Initially we found it difficult to descend as it was a bit slippery. After some time we got used to the conditions and we kept descending comfortably. Though we were focusing more on our steps, we were enjoying scenic beauty intermittently. All the while we were talking a lot as you don’t need lot of energy while descending. We were mainly discussing about Gurdeep only. I was giving him a lot of Dnyan (Knowledge). I am not a great person but gave him tips which I myself follow. He was quite open and was freely discussing things in his life. We were mainly talking about anger and how anger can spoil relations. We took a pause at a tapari where we had sugarcane juice.  Though it was 2 pm and it was very hot, still some people were going upward. I really appreciate their efforts. It took us 1 hour and 20 mins to reach the base of Sinhgad.

 

We thought other people must have reached and we were expecting Saurabh and Kaustubh to come and pick up us. The crossroad where these people would come is around 3 kms from the base. We started walking on road towards the crossroad. We were very much engrossed in talks and we were hoping that these people would not reach before us. It took us around another 20 to 30 mins to arrive at the crossroad. Nobody had reached there before us. After 10 mins we saw Nitin’s car arriving.

 

Nitin, Jayanti, Gurdeep and me went to Nitin’s place while other had to go to Vinayak’s place as they had left their bags there. I don’t know why L .

 

We spent good time at Nitin’s place till all people came. Gurdeep was a bit irritated since he was not able to take bath as his bag was at Vinayak’s place. Our next plan was Chokhi-Dhani. When everybody arrived at Nitin’s place it was already 7 pm. And we were still debating on whether we should go to Chokhi-Dhani or not. Finally we decided to go there.

 

After a small journey which took 45 mins due to traffic we reached Chokhi-Dhani. It is a Rajasthani theme based place. It’s original version is in Jaipur.  As compared to Jaipur version, this is very small. The entry fee is Rs. 350 for adults and Rs. 250 for children between 3 and 9 years. We started having snacks just after entering. You can see Rajasthani folk dance, puppet show, a guy walking on rope tied 10 feed above ground, folk singing etc. You can also try your skills of gun shooting, arrow etc. You can check you fortune as there are few astrologers. First we saw Rajasthani folk dance which later got converted into Garba (Gujrati folk dance) due to a group of 3-4 girls who wanted to dance in Rajasthani style. But soon they started doing Garba.

 

Then we enjoyed watching rope walk. Nearby there was a puppet-show point. Once the rope walk was over, he started puppet- show. This was quite funny. He showed many characters including Aishwarya Roy who was dancing as if she is boneless. Then he showed a madari (snake charmer). Funny thing was the snake was biting madari only.

 

Nitin and I were very interested in Ferris wheel which was not so big. Nobody was ready to join us so finally we two only started. It cost us 3 coupons per person. They give us 5 coupons per head for free on entry which you can use for gun shooting arrow shooting etc. When it was going up it was swinging a lot. I was really scared but I kept shouting “Dar se mat daro, dar ke aage badho kyuki dar ke aage jeet hai.” That gave me some spirit. Then we tried our luck at astrologer.

 

At around 10 pm we were very hungry so we went for dinner. They serve pure-veg Rajasthani food. After a little search, we found a place for 12 people. The food was very delicious and full of sweet items. They are allowed to talk only in Rajasthani so it was quite difficult to us. After some time the waiters found that we were not eating sweet items so they started feeding us. It was quite funny. We left Chokhi-Dhani at around 11:30 pm and reached Nitin’s place in 30 mins. We stayed that night at Nitin’s place.

 

Next day we were supposed to visit Balaji temple, Katraj zoo (if time permitted) and Kaustubh’s place. We all woke up on time and got ready. Jayanti made good omelet for us. We spent some time in club house playing carom, TT, Lawn Tennis and pool. Unfortunately Pooja was suffering from headache. Then we left for Balaji temple. But before that we had lunch. Lunch was a treat from Nitin and Jayanti. By the time we finished lunch it was 2 pm and we didn’t have enough time to visit Balaji temple so we dropped the plan and went to Katraj zoo straight away. The zoo has quite a few species of snakes, turtles and different species of stags. There is a small lake which reminded Saurabh of special moment of his life. Contact him to know more about it. The zoo also has a white tiger. I never knew that there is something called white tiger. There are also normal tigers and leopards. Gurdeep cracked a PJ on leopard; nobody will laugh on it except him.

 

After leaving the zoo we went to Kaustubh’s place. We spent around one hour sitting and enjoying Dhokala and tea.

 

We, the guys from Mumbai left kaustubh’s place and reached Pune station at around 6 pm just to find that the train was delayed by 1.5 hours. Gurdeep was very restless as he had to attend engagement of his close friend. Finally the train left at 8:30 pm and we all reached safely.

 

It was a nice get together cum picnic. When are we meeting again guys?

Kolhapuri Misal

Kaustubh took the whole responsibility of arranging Kolhapur picnic. He has stayed in Kolhapur so he knows all the places very well. Saurabh, kaustubh's friend, who is also from Kolhapur made it easy for Kaustubh to arrange the things. Here onwards I won't refer Saurabh as Kaustubh's friend as it will be wrong to call him only Kaustubh's friend. He joined us as Kaustubh's friend four five months back in Shrivardhan picnic and since then he has become a confirmed member of our picnic group.

We had option of 3 long weekends to choose for and finally we decided on last weekend of 

September. Unfortunately our group has dispersed now. Some of the people have moved to other companies so we were only 9 members for the picnic. Kaustubh, Vinayak, Deepa, Atul(for a change he was with us, after his marriage he has stopped coming to picnics), Saurabh from Pune and Pravin, Pratima, Ranjana and me from Mumbai.

We reached Kolhapur early in the morning and took auto to reach our hotel which is very close to Mahalaxmi temple. We had 3 days to roam around. We got ready quickly and we were set for the first rocking day in Kolhapur. We had hired a car: Sumo.

 As everyone was hungry, we went to a small tapari type restaurant nearby. 

I had a misal as usual and we left to Jyotiba temple. It is situated on a beautiful hill calledJyotibacha dongar. We just heard that it was raining heavily in Mumbai and Pune but the weather in Kolhapur was fantastic. It was completely surrounded by clouds and we were experiencing a cold breeze. I love cold. We parked the car and went to Jyotiba mandir. It was not at all crowded so we took darshan of all gods comfortably :). We wanted to spend some time on the hill and enjoy the weather, so while coming back, we just stopped there. We clicked some snaps too. 

Our next location was Panhala fort. I was very much excited to see the fort. It has a huge history behind it. The history of bravery that motivates to die for the nation. The history of pain that brings tears to eyes. The history of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and his spirited mavale. 

In 1660 when Siddhi Johar attacked Maratha Empire, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj intentionally latched himself in siege to Panhala  laid by Siddhi Johar to keep him busy at Panhala and let the rest of the Empire be safe. The fort had capacity of feeding the army of Shivaji Maharaj for 3 years. But the siege continued for more that 3 months so Shivaji Maharaj put a high risk plan into action on a full moon night. Shiva Kashid who had physical resemblance with Shivaji Maharaj, dressed like Shivaji Maharaj and got himself captured to divert Siddhi Johar's attention. As expected Siddhi Johar killed Shiva Kashid when he found that he had been fooled and started chasing real Shivaji. Meanwhile Shivaji Maharaj fled to Vishal gadh with a small force lead by Baji Prabhu. As Sidhhi Johar's force was very close, Baji Prabhu forced Shivaji Maharaj to leave for Vishal gadh while he was fighting with a very huge army of Siddhi Johar. It was not easy to climb Vishal gadh as it was already under siege and Shivaji Maharaj had to defeat Bijapuri Sardar to reach Vishal gadh. Baji Prabhu continued his fight with his few men for almost two days despite serious injuries and inspired his men to fight against all odds. Baji Prabhu let himself die only after Shivaji Maharaj's safe journey to Vishal gadh was signaled by 3 cannon volleys. Ghodkhind, the place where Baji Prabhu and his men sacrificed their lives for the Maratha Empire was named as Pavankhind(Holy pass).

On reaching Panhala, we hired a guide who took us through every place properly and bombardedus with a lot of history.   Among many places Sajja Kothi was very special. Sambhaji Maharaj, son of Shivaji Maharaj, was imprisoned(najar-kaid) here. 

Then we visited 3 huge warehouses which were used to keep food grains. The size of these warehouses is just un-believable and the mechanism to fill in grains and empty it back is commendable. The guide told us the story of a lady named Ganga. The fort Panhala was developed by King Bhoj in around 12th century. After so many failed attempts to build a particular wall, he consulted an astrologer to know what the problem was. The astrologer advised him to sacrifice a pregnant woman to ensure the wall is built up successfully. A lady named Ganga (teli by profession) came up to sacrifice her life. In return she asked the king to take care of her two daughters: Jamuna and Saraswati. She also asked the King to do something so that the world would remember her. After Ganga's sacrifice the wall was successfully built. As promised the King took care of her daughters, got them married and also offered them good wealth. He also named 3 warehouses after Ganga, Jamuna and Saraswati. The hindi phrase "Kaha raja Bhoj, kaha Gangu teli" must have been originated here. This is the story as told by the guide.Now it was time for lunch.

We had already placed an order 1 hour back so we didn't have to wait much. It was a good lunch. 
We had Kolhapuri special Pandhara Rassa (white gravy) and Tambada Rassa (Red gravy) too. They taste fantastic. After lunch, we spent some time in the restaurant enjoying cool breeze again.

After lunch we went to Tabak garden. It is full of trees. Wherever we went that day, we were enjoying cold weather. It is not so big garden but you can spend some time there. It was almost 5 when we left Panhala fort. 

Our next stop was Rankala lake which is in the city. By the time we reached Rankala, it was already dark. We walked for some time on the bank of the lake. We spent some time there eating Pani puri, Paav Bhaji, Kulfi etc. It was too early to have dinner that time so we decided to go to room and get fresh. After refreshing we went to Mahalxmi temple. We didn't go inside the temple as it was in the itinerary of the last day. The setup of the temple is such that one can see the goddess from the gate of the temple also. When it was around 10 pm we decided to have dinner. We were too late to get any restaurant this late in Kolhapur. After a big search we managed to find a restaurant that served snacks. After coming back to room we played cards before sleeping. I spent the whole day in pain as my left shoulder had developed a boil. 

Next day started with rain. We were afraid that the rain would spoil the plan completely. Though it was raining very heavily in Mumbai and Pune, rain here was comparatively very less. We had a plan to visit Bahubali temple, Narsobachi wadi (place of LordDatta) and Kanheri math. We left for Narsobachi wadi after having breakfast. Bahubali temple is on the way to Narsobachi wadi but we were not sure whether to visit Bahubali temple first or not. After some travel the rain stopped so we decided to visitBahubali temple and then go to Narsobachi wadi.

The temple is place to see. It has a big idol of lord Bahubali.  Around the idol there are models of other places of lord Bahubali. Many Rushis (monks) have achieved Moksha (Spiritual liberation) from these places. These models also show count of monks who have achieved Moksha. We noticed few followers of lord Bahubali who were completely naked. Near this temple there is one more temple which has shape of a ship. We saw it from outside only as were running out of time.

It took us another half an hour to reach Narsobachi wadi. The temple is not very crowded that made it easy to take darshan. We spent some time in mandir. After buying prasad, we went to a restaurant. Ranjana and I were on fast so decided to have lunch and skip dinner as we were treating the lunch as prasad. 

After an hour journey back to Kolhapur we arrived at Kanheri math. This is a place of Siddhatek Maharaj. There is a Shankar mandir which looks too old but beautiful. There is a hall which has an idol of Siddhatek Maharaj (I guess). This is a nice place for meditation. I didnt do meditation but spent 20 mins inside the hall. Outside the temple there are two huge models of elephants. There is a mammoth idol of lord Shankar just in front of the math with Nandi (Bull). Kaustubh mentioned that there was a good museum in the math. Surrounding of the math is not less than a museum. Before entering into the museum we did shopping. I bought two sarees for my mother. When we came out of the shop it was almost dark. Nobody had enthusiasm to go in the museum except kaustubh, Pratima, Ranjana and me. Others had to regret. The museum starts with a long tunnel. 

On every 2 meters there are statues of ancientRushis (monks) including Vyas, Kanad, Gargi etc. There is also information on their contribution to the world. Unfortunately we were not allowed camera. Inside the museum, there are lots of models of people depicting life of every profession of rural life. The models are so realistic that sometimes we were wondering whether these were real people or what. We thought that we should have come much before in the museum so that we could have seen them properly in light. The people who didnt come inside missed something that they wont see anywhere. Museum staff told us that they were not yet done with all the models. What we saw was just 40% of the planned work. It means if we go there after 2 years, we will need a full day to see the whole museum.

Before going for the dinner we went to Saurabh's place. His mother treated us with Kande pohe. Unfortunately Ranjana and me could not eat it as we were on fast. :(.  Saurabh and his brother are great musicians. They play various instruments including Guitar, Sitar, Keyboard etc. We asked them to play some tune for us. He played "Duba duba" on guitar and we all were singing. It was a fantastic experience. Then he played Dilruba, which he had just started learning. we all were lost in the tunes of the instrument. Finally Saurabh and his brother together played few songs on Guitar and Keyboard. Everybody was enjoying the music and nobody wanted to leave the place. But finally we had to take a leave as we knew that if we get late we would not get dinner. After the dinner we arrived at home and started playing cards again. I spent another day with pain due to a boil on my left shoulder. Next day's plan was Mahalaxmi temple, Dudhganga dam and city palace.

We left for Mahalaxmi temple as and when we got ready as the temple was very close to our room. Recently I visited so many famous temples. But everywhere there is a lot of mess. Most of the temples are not clean and are  full of beggars. But this is an exception. It was very clean and i didnt see a single beggar. The queue was very well managed. The temple is very beautiful and stood on hundreds of pillars. It was marvelously decorated from inside with flowers. It didnt take us too long to reach inside the temple. 

Before leaving for Dudhganga dam, we had breakfast. Dudhganga dam is quite far from Kolhapur city. The road is also not good so it took us almost 3 hours to reach. The dam is very huge. As the place was open, wind was rocking and almost pushing us. Photography is not allowed there to protect it from terrorism. Atul wanted to see turbines, which are not functional, but they didnt allow us to go near turbines. Anyways we didnt enough have time. 

We had lunch on the way back. After another 3 hours journey we were back in the city to see the city palace. The palace is now a museum; obviously. You can see various things used by kings including their general accessories. You can also see different weapons possessed by those kings. Specialty of the palace is, it has live models of all the animals hunted by the kings. All the models are made using skin and horns of the animals. The models are recreated so brilliantly that they look like real animals. There is one garden near the palace which has peacocks and stags. 

It was almost 7 pm and we had to quickly come back to room, take our bags and go to station to catch our train back to Mumbai. Bye bye Kolhapur.....