Y I trek????

Thursday 7 May 2009

A lot of my trekking experiences have I shared on this blog till date, but what I haven't yet spoken of is why I trek?

Nature. Can't figure where to start talking about it. She has rightly been called as 'Mother'. She welcomes you with open arms. Now this may sound stupid, but when I am on a trek, I reach atop and I feel that I am relaxing and lying down on my mother's lap and she is caressing my head and taking all my worries away.

I love Mumbai as a place to live, but I believe it can become too strenuous, too hectic at times; not just physically; but mentally too. To relieve myself off the physical stress, I can take a break from coll, stay at home and relax, but what 'bout the mind? Trekking, takes my mind off from the work that I needs to be done and the pressure that comes with it. To get away from the daily hustle and bustle of life as we call it, feels amazingly good and trekking provides the ditto for me.

It takes me away from my routine, from phone calls, from television, computer and all the other things I do on a regular basis. It gives me time to think about myself, time for self-realisation, time to be with me.

Ever since I bought my camera, photography has become my passion, and I hope to excel in it. Nature is an amazing subject, and not just that, it teaches you too. Just going on a hike, taking my camera and clicking pictures by experimentation has taught me a lot about the art. Photography + Nature has given me the sight to see things; things of beauty, of others, of myself and most importantly of life.

I personally think its fun to be off on such adventures, where you go to a place with just water and Maggi; collect firewood and cook Maggi on it; sit and chat with friends atop a fort; relax under a waterfall/shade of a tree, with nice fresh breeze blowing on your face; getting to see new places, meet new people. I can say 'there are some things money can't buy, and this feeling/experience/sensation, is one of those things'. I find all these things amusing and to be high-quality stress busters.

There are a lot more reasons for why I trek but i just can't put them down on paper,. One has to realize the true nature of a trek to know what it truly feels like, it cannot be described.

To conclude i would like to quote:

"That's the best thing about walking, the journey itself. It doesn't matter much whether you get where you're going or not. You'll get there anyway. Every good hike brings you eventually back home."
- Edward Abbey

"In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks."
- John Muir

Ajoba – A Disastrous Experience

Thursday 12 March 2009

The Valmiki Ashram

One of the most pissing off treks so far (25-10-2008). Mainly because we wasted the morning trying to wake one of our friends who was supposed to come but was peacefully sleeping at home. I personally HATE the idea of waking people in the morning to go for a trek. If the person is truly interested, he/she will wake by himself. NO OFFENCE TO ANYONE, BUT THIS IS WHAT I BELIEVE.

From the time we (Viresh, Govind, Suraj and I) left we wasted nearly 1.5 to 2 hrs trying to wake Harish and also waiting for Jay who didn’t come because he got an upset stomach.

We left from Kalina at round 07:00am. Reached Asangoan by around 8-8:30am. Before even starting the trek we were late. I had to make sure my anger didn’t burst out else it would lead to an argument and make the trip worse than it already was.

We reached the base village, Dehne at around 10:15am. From here we hired a jeep which would lead us to the diversion from where our trek would start. Owing to all the delays, we started our trek really late at round 11:00am. It took us nearly 2 hours to reach the Valmiki Ashram from where we had to trek further to reach the top. Here we took a half hour break and then continued.

The climb further was difficult; it was through the jungle where in several times weird and scary at times as huge spiders would appear right in front of your face. We reached a place at round 02:15pm; here we decided to have little food. All through the break we were discussing if we should continue further or not. If we would, chances were we would probably miss the last bus back, also the way was through dense jungle and it would be scary if it got dark. We started climbing down at around 03:45pm

So, post lunch, we started our descent. We reached the Valmiki Ashram, here we decided to take a longer break and since all of us were hungry (yes!! hungry yet again), to cook Maggie. Maggie is the favourite food for almost every trekker. We (Suraj and I) made Maggie on firewood while Govind comfortably decided to shoot the whole process. After we were done filling ourselves, we randomly started dancing like tribals around what was left of the fire, singing the ‘jingalala ho, jingalala ho’ the so called tribal song. This break was long enough for us to be late and miss the last bus back. We left the Ashram at around 05:20pm and the last bus was at 06:00 from Dehne.

We missed the bus. So we called the Jeep driver who had earlier dropped us to the diversion from Dehne. We convinced the Jeep driver to take us to Asangaon.

We think village people are not smart as city folks, this situation said otherwise. The Jeep driver knew that we had missed our bus, and that we didn’t have an accommodation for the night, so he tried to exploit money from us. He did succeed in his venture, partly for the reason that when Harish and I were trying to get the guy cut down, he could see the restlessness that was in some of us, and could judge how badly we wanted to get back home. We decided on Rs. 500/-, booked the jeep to ourselves, to be dropped till Asangoan.

To add to the frustration level and the fatigue, the Jeep driver smartly taking local folk for some minimal fare. At that point of time we were too dazed to argue. When we got off at Asangoan, Harish and I argued with him once again over the whole matter and to the dislike of the Jeep driver paid him Rs. 450/-. From there we got a train back to Kurla and were back home to end a very provoking trek.

To sum it up in short, it was the most frustrating treks I’ve ever had, despite the fact that it had bits and pieces of fun. The trekking part of it and the nature surely was fun, but on the other hand it was also arduous ‘cause sue to the delay the sun was at its peak when we started. Apart from that, owing to the delay, we couldn't reach the top and see the Luv-Kush caves and the other sites to be seen atop.

To conclude I can say ‘Leaving on time for a trek is of utmost importance if you truly want to enjoy the experience’.

Kalavantin Durg Conquered

Wednesday 12 November 2008


Kalavantin Durg - "Great things are done when men and mountains meet" - William Blake

Kalavantin Durg was an enjoyable and fast trek, before we (Mayuresh, Viresh, Vivek and I) knew it, we were back home. The experience was breath-taking, literally too, because it was a tough climb.

Since all our exams concluded, and we hadn't gone for a trek for what seemed like ages, we planned this trek. First and foremost it was relaxing to just get out of town after all the projects, studying and exams, leave alone how relaxed we were after the trek.

Sunday is the day for trekkers to come out of their shell, so was it for us. 19th October, 2008 was the day.


After like hardly an hour's rest at night (mainly due to the excitment), got ready for the trek. All of us were to meet at 04:30am in order to get a train of around 05:30am from Kurla to Panvel. We reached Kurla early and got the 05:19am local train to Panvel. It took us nearly an hour to reach there. The bus to Thakurwadi was at 07:00am, which meant we had to kill 40 mins to get it, instead we decided to get a rickshaw to the village. It cost us 160 bucks by rickshaw between the four of us.


We got off near Zoia Resort, where from one has to take the route left, after walkin on the road for a while, after which the ascend starts. Our trek started at around 07:00am. We reached earlier than we had planned, that gave us ample of time. There were a couple of other groups with us but we didnt bother waiting for them and took the lead despite us not knowing the way (lol). We made sure they didnt fall back over a distance behind us, kept them in sight in case we were lost.


The first half an hour of the trek itself was tiring mainly because it was a steep climb. After this region passed it was pretty decent, though we made it difficult for ourselves by taking ways which were not meant to be. Rock Climbing our way up at times, taking different routes just for the fun of it, and marking our way back so that we dont get lost at the descend.


At around 10:30am we reached the topmost point. To get to the peak one has to rock climb a patch of around 20m. Climbing this part was fun. Many people from the groups which were along with us decided to stay down owing to the steepness of this patch, but their fear was not something which was going to affect our determination. :)


We had lunch at the peak and were chilling for a while, after which we started our descend. After killing so much time too we finished the climb early, so we were relaxed and did not hurry while climbing down.


At a certain place, on our way down, we saw a tree under which was built a concreted-circular structure. We rested here for like an hour, had more food, and continued. One of the problems we faced during this trek was that we fell short of water, despite the fact that we carried the same amount of water we always do. It was actually the heat which took the toll on us.


On our way down, we came across this medow, where there were like a million butterflies. Mayuresh and I stopped here for a prolonged photography session. Continuing our descend, we reached back the Zoia Resort from where we could get the bus directly to Panvel.


When we reached Panvel Station, all of us were so tired, that since we couldnt find any empty benches ro sit on, we sat on the platform itself. lol. Our train was nearly 45 mins late, so to kill time, all we could think of doing was shoot pictures and videos. The stares we got from the people around us was worth a look. Hahaha.


After a tiring, testing trek through the day we reached our respective homes at round 10:00pm. Even though the trek was tough, it was enjoyable for us, and what majorly helped us complete the trek with ease was the fact that it went as planned.


Naneghat

Monday 28 July 2008

The Roadway to Heaven


The Diversion to Naneghat


Beauty!


Heaven on Earth!!

Vivek and I just had an easy and smooth trek to Naneghat on the June 29. Truthfully speaking, our trek to Naneghat that Sunday almost got cancelled as many friends backed out at the last moment. It was on Friday evening that Vivek and I decided to cancel the trek. The same night, Vivek was watching ‘I shouldn’t be alive’, and he remembered our previous experience of Lohgad (lol). He called me and gave a green signal for the trek. Ready always that I am for a trek, I was happy that we were going despite the low headcount. It was just the two of us this time.

We were supposed to go to Prabalgad, Kalvantin Durg and if possible Irshalgad but since we were just 2 and Kalvantin is slightly difficult, we decided to go to Naneghat.

Vivek came to my place at 4:40 and we left for Dadar Station. We got the Indrayani Express at 5:50 and reached Kalyan within an hour. From Kalyan, we were supposed to get a bus to Murbad. The bus journey started at 7:15. The road looked incredibly beautiful with green cover on both the sides. It took us nearly 45 mins to reach Murbad from where we got another bus to Tokavade. We got the bus at around 7:50 and reached Tokavade by 08:40. At Tokavade we asked the locals how far Vaishakhare was and how far was Naneghat from there. We were told that Vaishakhare was at a distance of 4-5 Kms from there and so we decided to walk it. We knew that ahead of Vaishakhare we would find a diversion to Naneghat which was impossible to miss as there was a direction board there. We reached the diversion at 10:00. We didn’t stop here either as we weren’t tired owing to the continuous drizzle.

So it was from here that our trek started. I had made sure I had got chalk on this trek to avoid getting lost, keeping my past two experiences in mind. As we started walking we realized there was no way one could get lost here, as there were arrows painted on certain rocks to guide the directions and also the road right up to the top is pretty prominent. Still to test if chalk worked in the rains I kept marking our way down. The weather was simply brilliant, it didn’t get tiring at all even though we didn’t stop, it was calm pleasant and rainy, the perfect trekking climate. We reached the top at around 12:35, we saved 25 mins by not stopping.

Vivek was the entertainer of the day, with accent like ‘Niggars’, Arnold Schwarzenegger, with a banana leaf looking thing peeled from the mid-rib used as a prop to show a shotgun (lol). The whole trek was wonderful.

There was a huge crowd of people at the caves above. Foolish people who had got plates of food which they washed there, alcohol bottles and plastic bags which they all dumped there and ruined the beauty of the place. KINDLY DON’T DO THIS WHEN ON A TREK. LEAVE NOTHING BUT MEMORIES AT THE PLACE. Vivek and I were irritated at this and decided to go atop and have our food there, away from the crowd. We finished our lunch and started roaming around exploring the place, mostly staying aloof from the crowd. We wandered for a little over an hour and a half. Once again, the weather was simply amazing; there were times at which we could not see a thing ahead due to the clouds passing.

We started climbing down at around 2:15. Just as we started climbing down it started our descend it started raining heavily, I was having a little difficulty due to water on my spectacles, but since the heavy rain was short lasting, it wasn’t that big a problem. We reached the diversion at around 4:15, surprisingly even faster than the climb. It took us 2 hours to reach down, again without any stops.

It was at this at this point that we finally stopped for the first time in the day. My toe was hurting a lot, mainly because my shoe size had become small. We had some fruits and cucumber, filled our stomachs, and started walking towards Vaishakhare. At Vaishakhare we stopped at a hotel for some food and chai. I just randomly told Vivek that our way back I didn’t feel like travelling by ST bus, I would rather get a lift on a truck or something; he too was in for it. It had always been my desire to travel in a truck while on a trek. Initially we couldn’t find any trucks to give us lift, after walking back ahead of Tokavade, we got a lift from a 3-wheeler good carrier rickshaw, the back of which was open. We stood at the back and were enjoying the wind; there was heavy rainfall with small time spans when it started drizzling. But the wind, sitting at the back of a rickshaw, the rain and the fact that there only 2 of us, made our day.

We got off at Kalyan, paid the driver Rs.40 each, for the enjoyable drive. We reached Kalyan at around 7:45 from there we got a local train at 8:00, got off at Kurla, and were back at our respective homes by 9:30.

The trek had several aspects to it which made it magnificent, Vivek, shotgun, non-stop way up and down, the drive back in the goods-carrier. Overall, it was a pretty steady and an enjoyable trek.


Rajmachi – A Mind’blowing’ Trek

Saturday 26 July 2008

The Khandar

Waterfall

Manaranjan

Mountain Yoga Lesson II

Ohk!! Right, now this post is going to be a long one, as there is a load to write about it.

For once we (Ashish, Govind, Jaishankar, Kanha, Viresh and I) planned for a trek for over a week; else most of the treks we go to are planned within a matter of hours or a day to consider the most. We decided to go to Rajmachi from Lonavla (mainly because Viresh and I have been to Kondana Caves from Kondana Village, so we didn’t want to take the same route again) and return from Kondana. We decided to cover the 2 forts, Manoranjan and Shreevardhan and Kondane Caves in two days. (13&14-06-2008)

So we left our respective homes at around 4:30 in the morn, to get the 5:40 Indrayani Exp from Dadar. The 4 of us met near Viresh’s place to head towards Dadar Station, where we would meet Kanha. Viresh told us that Jai was still asleep and we had to wake him up. I suggested that 2 of us go to Dadar and buy the tickets in order to save time, Ashish and I did that, while Govind and Viresh went to wake Jai. On a personal note, I never really approve of waking up someone (in case we leave early) or convince a person to come, on the day of the trek, but since Viresh wanted him to come and I didn’t want to get into an argument, and so I kept mum. There were chances of Govind, Jai and Viresh missing the train, but they managed to reach just 5 mins before the train arrived.

We reached Lonavla at around 08:00. We started walking towards Tungarli that was the first village on the way where we could go to a dam and a lake. As we reached Tungarli Dam at around 9:00, we found something of which we had not heard and read about. A Khandar (An abandoned, destroyed structure).

The Khandar was extremely beautiful, so we decided to explore it and halt for a short photographic session. The short halt turned into a long one. We waited there for an hour fooling around while Govind and Ashish went for a poop (lol). We left the Khandar at 10:00.

There was mild rainfall to cool down the temperature, in short, great climate. We walked for another 45 minutes, saw a small waterfall, decided to clam down here for a while, since we were in no hurry, we were stopping after each hour. We chilled at the waterfall for 10-15minutes after which our walk resumed.

Here we met three other trekkers; one of their names was Jignesh. We walked along with them for a while after which we left them behind. Nearly half an hour later we halted for a water break. Jignesh and gang caught up with us here, this time they asked our names, and asked who Jaishankar was. They said his wallet had fallen, they had found it. We thanked them; this was the first time Jai’s wallet had got lost in the two days.

We restarted walking, and didn’t halt till noon, which was when we found a beautiful waterfall at which we could walk right upto the end from where the water fell. This waterfall was actually a product of two other waterfalls from the hills which joined and came from under a bridge. The landscape was spectacularly scenic.

This place deserved some photos and some peaceful time, so we took a half hour break. It was Ashish’s desire for long to get wet under a waterfall, which was finally fulfilled.

The way was pretty decent, nothing exceptionally good except for the scenic views, the 17 km patch from Tungarli to Udherwadi had different parts, some parts are just walk, and some, inclined while some are muddy patches. The main problem with this walk is that while walking if you tend to get frustrated thinking you have walked long enough and the village hasn’t come, it can be a problem, simply because there are no villages between Tungarli and Udherwadi (Rajmachi). This can be a problem mainly for beginners.

Continuing our walk, after around 45 minutes we came across a river. Crossing the river can be tricky in the monsoon as the mud at the river bed get swampy. Later when we came to the other side of the hill, we could see the waterfall we earlier halted at and another one due to the force of which there was a naturally cut c-shaped rocky region.

We finally reached our destination, Udherwadi – Khandu Vare’s (KV) place where we were going to stay for the night at around 2:30.

We had lunch, rested for 1.5hrs and headed towards the village talao. Viresh had come completely prepared for a swim, with his costume, towel etc. Viresh, Jai and Ashish swam in the talao while we stayed out and relaxed for half an hour. Believe me putting your legs inside the cold water of the lake was amazing. I envied Viresh and others who swam (Why haven’t I learned swimming?)

We left the talao, went to the temple narby after which we headed towards Manaranjan. It was nearly 5:15 when we started our climb. It took us not more than an hour to explore almost every nook-and –corner of the fort. There was nothing overwhelming about the fort apart from the wind which could almost blow one off the feet, but being at the windy fort in it was relaxing. The most irritating part here was when Ashish and Viresh just vanished from behind us, without informing us, just to roam around a little more. The remaining gang was all annoyed, not because they vanished, but over the fact that they didn’t tell us before leaving.

Anyway, we came back down by 7:00, went to explore the village and were back at KV’s place by 7:30.

Over dinner, KV told us an incident of a person who was walking on the wall of the bridge of the waterfall; he slipped and was washed away by the force of the water. His body swirled around in the c-shaped region for days. Thumb rule while going for treks – NEVER MESS WITH NATURE. HER POWER IS MUCH GREATER THAN OURS. RESPECT HER POWER.

We had a good 7 hour sleep that night. For the first time in my life I slept well on a trek. We woke up at 6:30 and tea, and were off for Shreevardhan by 7:00. We had our wind-cheaters and raincoats on, as it looked like it was going to raining pretty heavily, but what did we know wearing them will turn against us. As we gathered little elevation the wind-cheaters were getting filled forming a balloon and pulling us down. So when we came to an open area, we decided to leave them there under a stone and continue. The wind blew so hard that due to it balancing was difficult. Some of us were getting second thoughts about going further up, as the visibility was negligible. But still we continued. Going a little further, we found a den there. We waited there for a while; it was warmer in there than the outside, felt comfortable. Resuming our climb, we went further ahead and right to the top. Exploring every nook-and-corner, feeling cold, due to the breeze, and also felt like a 1000 pins were poking on our face, due to the rains we had blast. In fact we almost felt like soaring with the wind, flying like an eagle. Shreevardhan become slightly difficult due to the wind, but i think it was 'mindblowing'.

We came back down to KV’s place by 10:30. We rested there for an hour, and this was when Jai thought he had lost his wallet for the second time but he later realized tht by mistake it had gone into Kanha’s bag. We had breakfast and tea and were off within an hour. After this we completely lost track of time.

We started our climb downwards towards Kondana Village from where we were supposed to go to the Kondana Caves. But habituated that we are, to getting lost in the jungle, we manage to do it each time we are on a trek (lol). Instead of reaching Kondana Village, we somehow managed to reach Thakurwadi Village. Anyway we asked at the village and when we came close to Kondana Village I could recognize the route towards the Caves even though Viresh couldn’t, and I was confident of it. We walked a little further, and rested there. Here, Kanaha and Jaishankar refused to go further, as Kanha had already seen it before and Jai’s shoulder was paining.

The four of us decided to go ahead while Kanha and Jai would wait at Hotel Dream Land. Viresh and I knew the place so we could easily meet them there. As we went further even I couldn’t recognize the way, since the last time we had come was in December, and by now the whole map of the region had changed. With assistance of some other group we managed to reach the Kondana Caves. While going up I made markings on mud with a stick to guide our way back down.

Kondana Caves was familiar to Viresh and me, but new for Govind and Ashish. Ashish was more than happy to bathe in the waterfall there. After a short shower Viresh, Ashish and I decided to go a little further ahead, to the place where we had rock-climbed earlier. Looking at the same place, we were thinking to climb or not, even though we had done it before, but this time there was a waterfall coming down from the rocks. I told Viresh not to go, since we didn’t even have ropes and equipment, and going against the waterfall could be risky, and the climb wasn’t that simple.

Just when this conversation was going on, we saw 2 cute girls (can’t remember their names, I am bad with names) coming from ahead of us. Now that was a change for the eyes, you dont often see just 2 girls off on a trek. They had lost their way to the cave. We guided them and continued our climb down with them.

We all climbed down, led by me and guided by the markings, reached Hotel Dream Land where Kanha and Jai were waiting for us. After half an hours rest here, we started our walk towards Kondivade. Half way through our walk Ashish suddenly remembered that he had forgotten his umbrella at the hotel. He and Viresh ran back to the hotel and fetched it. We got a rickshaw from Kindivade to Karjat from where we got a train to Dadar and were back home by 10 in the night.

It was a great trek, two days of hardcore fun, may it be because of the climate, the landscape the wind etc. It was simply mindblowing.

Lohgad - Night Trek

Monday 2 June 2008

Vivek, Viresh, Ashish and Kunal. (From Top)



Lohgad Fort
Mountain Yoga!

Thrilling, adventurous, a little tense, and a lot of fun, are few words which can rightly define our (Ashish, Kunal, Viresh, Vivek and Me) trek to Lohgad. The trek was planned within a time span of not more than an hour. On 30th May, we decided to go for a night trek, and the following evening we were off with our backpacks. We got the 4:40 local to Pune - Pragati Express and reached Lonavla at around 7:00. From there we got another train to Malawli, where we reached at 7:45. At Malawli we asked a local the way to Lohgadwadi and Bhaje Caves. When we told him we were going for a night trek he said "Are you guys crazy?" There wasn't much we guys could tell him, so we just smiled and said 'Yea, maybe.'

We started walking towards Bhaje Village from where we could go to Bhaje Caves, where we could spend the night. On reaching Bhaje, and asking the villagers, we found out that resting at the caves was not possible, as it was banned by the govt. One of the villagers invited us to his residence and allowed us to stay for the night at his terrace. We left our bags there and went to look around the village. On inquiring further, we found out that we could go to the base village of Lohgad Fort, Lohgadwadi, by trekking for an hour and a half. So, we got all geared up, took our bags and headed out to open forest. We left Bhaje at around 9:30.

We walked, and walked some more, Kunal's stamina was giving him a real test. After nearly two hours we were getting the intuition of being lost as the village lights were nowhere in sight. The moon hidden behind clouds, hardly emitting light, making the night very dark and creepy.

A little later we saw a fort pillar, and we all got some encouragement. On walking ahead further, we came across a dead end, but the thing that was driving us ahead was the fact that we could see the fort wall adjacent to the path we were walking on. After going further, and being unable to find the fort, we decided to go back find some open area where we could rest and make some Maggi and fill our stomachs. We walked back, for nearly 20 mins and found a small shed, which none of us remembered passing.

Some villagers probably made the shed; it had a c-shaped stone for making food on firewood. Just when we were breaking down the firewood we had been collecting for making food and were about to cook, we saw a fire at the distance. We decided not to go to check who or what was there. Shortly after that, we saw some torches coming towards our shed. Initially we thought it might some patrol troops to check if someone is lost or something like that. I went out of the shed and flashed a torch at them so as they would know where we were. As they came closer, I was scared to death. I saw 3 of them, one had a huge gun in his hands and the others were carrying pistols. When I saw the pistols I was like 'Oh fuck.' The others had a similar expression when they came out and saw the sight. At that point of time, none of us knew what to do. We asked them who they were, they were hunters. We told them we were heading to Lohagadwadi and might have missed some turn to get lost in the forest.

They volunteered to guide us to the place. Despite the fact that they were helping us, we weren't at ease around them. We were all terrified. In fact Viresh was even planning for himself what we could do to defend ourselves in case something happened. The night was dark, we were lost, didn't know where we were and we had people with guns for company. Now scale that for a scary night. Yes, it sounds filmy but believe me it was frightening.

They said they would take us to the village, which according to them wasn't far. Just when we were walking with them, the guy with the big gun dropped back. Hell! Like it wasn't scary enough already. Vivek wondered why the guy dropped back and so did everyone else, but then after some minutes (which seemed very long) he rejoined us.

Within 5-10 minutes we could see some lights and were at the village. So the hunters actually were helping us. We breathed a sigh of relief. We thanked them for their favor. But, believe me, the 35 minutes that they were with us, a thousand thoughts were going through each of our heads, and it was scary as hell.

We stopped at the village, made Maggi with the little firewood that we had (thanks to Vivek and Ashish, who had forgotten their collection). It took us 20 mins to make 2 min noodles, but to make it on firewood was fun. After finishing dinner at round 02:00 a.m we decided to rest for a while under a shed of a hotel.

We woke up in the morning at 05:00 met the owner of the hotel, it was then that we found out that we had ended up in Visapur instead of Lohgad. We asked him for directions to Lohgad fort and told him we would be back for breakfast. We climbed up, mostly taking unusual paths, with Ashish climbing the fort wall like Spider-Man (lol), rock climbing and making our own way up. We reached up at around 6:15. The fort was amazing; a cool breeze was blowing across, giving us the feeling of clouds passing through. All of us didn’t feel like moving at all. We explored each and every nook and corner of the fort, clicking snaps in all possible angles. Exploring the huge fort itself took moer than an hour.

At around 08:30 we started off towards Lohgadwadi and reached at 10:00. We were discussing over breakfast to go to Visapur Fort or not. Kunal refused to go, while the others were charged up for Visapur too, in fact he even refused to come to Bhaje Caves. He wanted to rest at Bhaje village while we went to the caves. We started walking towards Bhaje Village at 11:00. It took us not more than hour to reach Bhaje, since we took n-number of shortcuts, in fact we didn’t at all take the road. We reached the destination at 12:00.

From Bhaje, Kunal stayed back to rest and we headed to explore the caves (like throughout the trip, again making our own way up). The architecture at the caves was simply spectacular. We roamed around for an hour at the caves clicking snaps. After we were done walking around the caves we took a long short cut (Yes!) back down.

We walked back to Malawli Station and got the 2:35 train to Lonavla, had lunch there and got an ST bus back to Mumbai.

The trek might have been 'risky', and in the words of Kunal, there were chances of us being 'extorted' (lol), but it was an experience which will not be washed off from our memories with ease. Cheers to all of us. Hope you and an enjoyable experience.

Kerala - "Industrial Visit"

Sunday 6 January 2008

I never thought I would put up a posting of the “Industrial Visit’ to Kerala as I felt I wouldn’t be able to do justice to the trip, as there was so much to write about and too long tends to get boring at times. But since I was forced to write about the trip, here I am trying to put down a few things that happened on that trip.

Day: 24th November, 2007.
Place:
Munnar

Well, when it comes to writing about those days, I just can’t help but smile remembering all the things that happened over the time we were there.
Before I start writing further I have to mention watching Mallu music videos which were as good as semi-porn. Imagine watching similar videos for every song (which of course we didn’t understand), with a horny girl or a guy, rainfall, 'pe-cock' white-wet saree etc..... Boy!!!! Didn’t we laugh our asses out that day, or at least that’s what we thought (lol)
Another great thing about the stay at Munnar was the football games between the ty's and the fy's. We kicked butt that day. Go fy's. The ty's lost 12-4 against us.
Further, it gets better, you know how when people get drunk they act stupid, we had one of those days as well. With most of us drunk and dim, that day was a complete entertainer. Some trying to stand up straight, some others quoting 'I am a duck', some who start puking the moment some alcohol went into their bellies, while some others capturing the whole scene on video just for the fun of it.
Apart from this, I havnt even mentioned the petty hilarious incidents, like when Prerna, Vaidehi, Kanchan, Rash, and I were at the gate, and Kanchan was tryin to prove how brave she was by walkin from there to the building all alone, while she was at it someone yelled 'look left', she howled and started crying just by looking at a flower, the brave woman that she's turned out to be, hehehe.

Day: 26th November, 2007.
Place: Kottayam

Despite Kottayam being a fucked-up place, it was quite enjoyable for us guys. To begin with all of us sat in the balcony, singing old hindi songs in a unison backed by some wonderful ‘late’ music by none other than our dearest Mahesh. ;)
Hahahahhaahahahahahha.... This was what we (B, M, Mahesh, Rash and Me) did for nearly four hours that day after we were done with the singing. Curious to know the reason for us laughing our asses out??? Well so are we, simply for the fact that there were none. There were times when we started laughing just by seeing each other's faces. We laughed to the extent till our eyes started watering, stomach's started aching and we rolled off our beds. WE WERE NOT STONED OR DRUNK WHEN THIS HAPPENED.

Day: 27th November, 2007.
Place: Cochin

The last day of our ‘industrial visit’, an eventful day it turned out to be, starting with the ty’s fucking the tour guide Mahesh’s case for improper accommodation. He looked so terrified at that point of time, mahn!!! The expression on his face was worth a look. They protested for nearly two hours, sat at the reception, not ready to go to their respective rooms till appropriate accommodation was given to them. The Hoteliers had to put their hands down against of their remarkable unity. Hats off to you guys!!!
After we settled into our respective rooms, later in the night, there was this huge argument, which I am sure none of us are ever going to forget, concerning the video that was shot in Munnar. Apparently the content of the video was ‘offensive’ and hence was deleted without prior permission. The video was supposed to be edited and sent to desimad, but since it was deleted, it ignited a lot of anger in quite some people, and the story doesn’t end there, there were roomers about some ‘offensive’ pics being clicked of someone from one of our camera’s, this was something which added fuel to our anger. While all of this was happening it was the ty’s to the rescue, they were the one’s who calmed us down and helped us understand how dull the whole issue was. This whole matter was finally sorted out by none other than our coordinator, Shivani Madame the following day.
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Aside from the time we spent at the hotel's the bus is definately worth a mention if i am write about the trip. Despite us spending almost 5-6 hrs of each day in the bus, leaving aside the tiring aspect, it was fun, watchin people sleep with their mouth wide open and stuff some banana chips, which they would realise only after a while. Singing songs, eating and sleeping were the major ways of time pass for us (I think Prerna will agree with me about sleeping as Tp).
I still feel i havnt done justice to the trip as a whole since there is so much more to write about, but to conclude it was simply an amazing trip, and the amount of fun we had was unlimited. The whole trip brought to light a lot of facts which remained in the dark earlier. Overall, to terminate, the first industrial visit of the course couldn’t have been better.