The Historic trip of my life – Siachen

“WHEN YOU GO HOME TELL THEM OF US AND SAY, FOR YOUR TOMORROW, THEY GAVE THEIR TODAY”.


Landing in Leh by flight took my breath away. And I mean literally. The low oxygen content in the air hits you bad when you are a sea-level creature and you suddenly gain a height of 11500ft. and getting out of the airplane door did just that. The air was cold and crisp and no matter how hard you tried to suck it in, it wasn’t enough.
The first few hours of acclimatization was not too eventful as my body was still trying to figure out what was wrong and how to react. The only symptoms I could feel was the accelerated heart beat which was going up to 110bpm even for the simple task of drinking water. HAS set in later when I had headache, body ache and severe loss of appetite for the next 3 days. Hmm.. 3 days it took me to get acclimatized properly.

The first few days in Leh were heaven, leaving aside the acclimatisation period. The walk through the market, the local sight seeing trips, the beauty of the barren mountains and the snow capped peaks, the high passes, the traffic free roads with the hilarious and innovative road signs, the absolutely blue waters, the kind and cheery ladakhis with their pink cheeked children, the pleasant sight of the greens along the river, the chill, the army, the air force, the soldiers with pink cheeks, the big shaggy dogs, the monasteries, the lamas, it just stays with you.

We left for Siachen on the 6th day of my stay in Leh. Never have I been so excited. The entire journey I was hanging out the front seat window like some dog, who likes to taste the wind with its tongue out. I never stopped clicking, I couldn’t stop clicking. I wanted to take back each and every scene with me. I squealed like a kid at each and every thing that I had never seen before. The water leaking from a pipeline that had turned to ice, the cute and cuddly little marmots, the snow, the breathtaking scenery, the steep drops to one side of the road, the icicles emerging from the rocks, the cold air, the depleting oxygen as we went higher and finally Khardungla Top. My hair stood on ends as I finally came to a realisation that I was on the highest motorable pass in the world, come to think of it, it may have been because of the cold too.

Peeing is another task, the rate of recurrence of which highly increases in cold places. And when the road is as bumpy as it can get, holding it in really tests your bladder controlling skills. After we had attacked the souvenir shop, we looked like we wanted to open a shop of our own. We actually bought everything they had on offer. An hour on K-top and we set off again towards Thoise Air base which would be our stopover for the night.

5mins into the journey and we again had to wait for an hour, this time due to the breakdown of an army truck in a convoy in the middle of the narrow road. This is the 1st instance where I saw people of a totally different race, people who are extremely simple, helpful and kind, who don’t have a single selfish bone in their bodies, people who wave at complete strangers and wish them a safe journey, people who always have a smile on their face and people who are extremely thoughtful of others. Everyone who was stuck on that road had gathered around the broken down truck to offer whatever help they could, finally helping out in pushing it to one side of the road so that the others could pass. Me being from a fast city like Bombay, this is something you rarely get to see. Even though I love Mumbai as much as I do, yet the people of Leh have stayed with me.

2hrs with such low levels of oxygen had taken a toll of us. Severe headache being the 1st signs. Getting down from the other side, the landscapes change drastically from, snow, to barrens mountains, to sand dunes. Sand dunes in the Nubra valley are another spectacle. Bactrian camels on the sand with the snow capped peaks in the backdrop, paint a perfect picture of the cold desert. These camels are the descendants of the camels that originally traversed along the silk route between India and china. The mountains in this area looked like chocolate brownies covered with chocolate ice cream. And the tranquillity in this area was unsurpassable.
We arrived at Thoise Air base at around 5:30pm, which looked liked it has been built in the middle of nowhere. Siachen base camp is about 4hrs away from here which meant that we had to leave early morning at 6am to be able to spend a decent amount of time there. Sleep came easily due to the tiredness of the journey, the 1st uninterrupted sleep in days.

Next day morning we left for Siachen at 6am sharp, through the beautiful landscapes of the Nubra valley and reaching Base camp at 10:40am. It was nothing like I had imagined it to be. Everything was neat, clean and tidy. Everything was well planned, the roads, the bridges, the helipads and the officers’ mess. There were more people around than I had imagined. We watched the aircraft operations in pure awe, and met with all the pilots there. We were taken around a tour of the igloo huts which were a modification of the prefabricated huts. We sat in the conference room and were served hot steaming maggi and fruit juice. Later when I was looking at the maps curiously, one of the officers politely obliged to explain it to me. Having read “Heights of Madness” by Myra MacDonald, before coming to Siachen, everything on those maps seemed familiar. And it felt good that I could even identify few of the places.

When you think of a glacier, you can imagine only ice and that too white. What we were witnessing was the ending point of the glacier which was a mixture of ice, rocks and sediments. But before going to the glacier we first went to take the blessings of O.P. Baba. The O.P. Baba Sarva Dharma Sthal is situated right at the base of the glacier and every soldier and officer alike take his blessing before heading off to the glacier. O.P. Baba is believed to be the guardian spirit of the Siachen Glacier, protecting everyone who seeks his blessing, from coming to any harm. After darshan we walked up to the glacier and tried climbing the lose gravel and rocks. The rocks were sliding down due to the ice melting underneath it. We were finally on the Siachen glacier. It was a historic moment of our lives.

On walking a little more ahead we stood transfixed as we watched the birth of the Nubra River from the ice melting from the glacier. The water was muddy brown and so cold that as I dipped my feet into it, they went numb within seconds. We even built our own prayer stacks along the river bed. On returning back to the camp we were taken on a tour of the Air force living quarters, and their Ante room. We had lunch here and then went back to the helipad to bid goodbye to the officers.

The last place left to visit was the Siachen War Memorial. Our trip to Siachen wouldn’t have been complete without a trip to this place. This structure stands as an acknowledgement towards the bravery of all the soldiers who laid down their lives during the course of the 25yr long Siachen conflict. As you begin to climb the stairs, the gate justifies the lives of these soldiers by reading “HOW CAN A MAN DIE BETTER, THAN FACING FEARFUL ODDS FOR THE ASHES OF HIS FATHERS AND TEMPLE OF HIS GODS” As you move inside there is a modest monument of ‘AMAR JAWAN’ behind which is the memorial wall on which is etched the names of all the martyrs. Tears evidently well up in your eyes as you enter this place, as you read the names and the prayers. And it hits you most when you begin to leave, as written on the back side of the gates are the words “WHEN YOU GO HOME TELL THEM OF US AND SAY, FOR YOUR TOMORROW, THEY GAVE THEIR TODAY”.

Harry Potter and the Half ZZZzzzzzz..........

My very first attempt at a 1st day 1st show and i was almost snoozing... Had to order a bucket of popcorn and a keg of coke to make it through this one

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. Never imagined that it was humanly possible to make the 6th installment of the HP series so incredibly boring. And to top it all, there seems to be absolutely no flow in the movie, no visible connection from one scene to the other. So the the pre-requisite to watching this movie is reading the book first. Me for one have read the book in question 3 times and yet i was lost for the connections, imagine the plight of the non-readers.
No mention of Bill n Fleur's wedding, No DA classes wid snape, No crabbe n Goyle, . Total mess up of the climax, no fight happened, something which most would have been waiting for and noo funeral for Dumbledore too.

There are a few instances in te movie that might make you laugh but thats about it. Bah!! Im better off reading.

Harishchandragad 2009... Best Trek ever

Harishchandragad Via sadhle ghat trek
Its not the destination but the journey that makes all the difference. You know your destination but the path you take towards it is what is life all about. So for me after having trekked to Harishchandragad 3 times before, the 4th time novelty was not as much, if not for the new route that was decided upon.

After having to forego Nalichi vaat due to unavoidable circumstances, we decided upon the next best route i.e. Sadhle Ghat. Excitement was high to trek through a lesser known route which was also considered to be a tough one. Preparations were on full swing for me as I dint want to regret later at not having carried a certain important thing. Checking and double checking the check list. “Little did I know that all these preparations were not for me.”

Then on the day of the departure, a few glitches were trying to disrupt the plan. The oil worker’s strike meant that Mumbai was totally out of fuel and so was most of the country. I was frantically making calls to know about the oil status. We had even charted out an alternate plan of going to Matheran by train if at all the petrol run vehicles came to a total standstill. Then Raj messaged me about the confirmation from the bus. All of us were running a little late due to the unavailability of autos and taxis so the 11pm deadline had gotten stretched to 12am.

We then started towards Savarne village. But my tube light glowed a little late when I remembered that there was a motorable road that goes upto Belpada our base village. I had seen it in wikimapia when I was surveying the area for routes. The bus was then instructed to go towards Belpada. Everyone was sleeping due to the lateness of the hour and I was enduring a bus journey from hell. And then guess what the diesel of the bus got over and it was running on reserve fuel and we still didn’t know how far off from the village we were. The bus had come fueled for only a one way journey. “Smart Guy”, I thought. Everyone was relieved when the bus made it to Belpada and all I could think about was how is the bus going to make its journey back. On asking the driver he said that he would buy kerosene from the village and take the bus back to the nearest petrol pump. “Wow I didn’t know vehicles could run on kerosene. The only uses of kerosene known to me are in those lanterns and for bride burnings for dowry, which I get to read about every other day in the news papers. Well anyway good for the bus”

Well there was a different kind of battle I was fighting. My stomach was threatening to throw out everything in it but my tonsils and tongue refused to let anything get out. I was so queasy and nauseas that I needed some sleep desperately. Few of us slept in the verandah of someone’s house and the rest slept in the bus. In the morning at 6am we had tea and then left on the road towards Kelewadi.

Kelewadi is about a 1/2hr walk away on the route towards Sadhle Ghat. At Kelewadi we rested for a while, asked for directions and then started off again. From here we decide to follow the river as It would take us directly to Sadhle Ghat. Even here our pace was slow as everyone was busy clicking pics. As we approached the base of the mountain, the river forked. We decided to take the right fork. Still ahead we found a proper pathway leading somewhere and decided to follow it. A little ahead the pathway also forked. Sanjayji, Raghu and Pravin wanted to take the right fork whereas the rest of us wanted to take the left one as it was running around the mountain towards Sadhle. These three took the right fork to go and check where it lead and were dead sure this was the right route.

Meanwhile a villager had arrived on the route that the rest of us were on and confirmed that we were on the right route. But Sanjayji and Raghu were adamant of following their path so this is where we parted ways. And also this is where my hardships too started, coz Raghu had my bag and he was gone with all my belongings. All I had left with me were the clothes I was wearing, a small hand towel, my fone and camera and the group’s money.

We started moving ahead first in full swing and then rather slowly and the path was getting steeper by the minute. The route was scenic which prompted us to go even slower clicking pics along the way. Here group got divided into smaller portions with Maulik, Dhaval, Thakur, Bhavin, and Uday up front. Next came me, janaki, Praful, Amar and Nikhil and the rest i.e Vidya, Sai, Rags, Raj, Raksha, Kern and Glen far behind. Maulik and group were way ahead and resting just at the base of the “V”. As Janaki and me approached we found a fork in the path ahead. The left looked like leading upto a steel wall and the right leading somewhere. We decided to take the right one and also decided to make a direction arrow for those who were following us. So we made an arrow on a piece of paper and set it in place with the help of small stones. Another 1/2hrs climb got us to a place where the Maulik gang was sitting. As we slowly went to that place we saw a lot of monkeys running around on the rock wall. Maybe they were feeling threatened by the presence of the new monkeys (us) in the vicinity, because a few moments later we found them chucking huge stones at us from a height of approx 50ft, one of which had closely missed maulik. We decided to flee asap. We were no match to our forefathers who have the ability to run on walls.
The rocky “V” looked much easier upclose than how it looked from the base of the mountains – intimidating. This climb was the most interesting part of the entire trek and gave us lots of opportunities to explore. Maulik as usual was monkeying around again clicking pics and getting himself clicked. The rocks here were pretty loose and most of the time we got showered by small stones and pebbles, set loose by the person ahead of us. “hmmm.. A rocky bath… dats interesting”

As we got out to the other side of the ghat, we entered a forest cover and immediately afterwards into a plain field with dry grass and a few bushes. We took shelter at base of the bushes to save ourselves from the sweltering sun and waited for the others to arrive. We were in no mood to eat anything oily due to the heat and I was longing for the pears that I had so carefully packed into my backpack. Then Praful offered us apples which were most welcome. A little while later Janaki and Praful went back to see if the others had come coz this place was a little confusing.

All of us were now on the field and the discussions led towards which route to take next. We were on top of the mountain already and Konkad kada was a few hills to our right. Only issue, we did not know the route and the villager who was accompanying us was in no mood to go dat way and also sdviced us against it. The next options was to get down of the mountain again at pachnai which would take an hour and then again climb up to Harishchandragad which would take around 2hr. Still a long way to go and it was already 12:15pm, better get going. By 1pm everyone was at the Pachnai village except for Kern, Raksha and Glen. We had some snacks to replenish our energy stores taking care not to eat too much. We waited here till about 1:50pm and then decided to move ahead slowly.

We were under the impression that Kern and group were coming up rather slowly, and hence it did not occur to us to go back and check, as the road was pretty straight. But after I had a talk with Raksha later on, she told me that they had gotten lost in the field itself, unable to find their way to the motor able road that we had taken. They were lost for a good 1/2hr before they found their way back. After trekking for almost 6hrs how, all of us were exhausted and we still had about 2hrs more of trekking left before we reached the top. So we set off slowing. The sun was burning on the back of our necks and it was pretty tiring to trek in this hot weather. People took lot more rest at this stretch.

At 4pm we finally reached the top and it was a relief to finally rest. Janaki and I set off to look for the cave in which we had stayed the last time. It was empty as we had expected so took it up. All of us then gathered at the dhaba to finally have a good meal. Zhunka bhakar. It was heavenly. At 5pm we set off again towards konkan kada. This was again a 1/2hr trek. Kern, raksha and glen finally reached the top around 5ish. On the way to konkan kada I met Hemant Pawar and we talked all the way to our destination. The konkan kada as always was magnificient. We walked to the opposite end to view it upfront. The sun was already setting and the weather was getting cooler and there was still no sign of Sanjayji, raghu and pravin. As we sat there in awe of the grandness of the kada we paid witness to another beautiful phenomenon – the sun setting in the west and the huge full moon rising from the east in the horizon. It was just spectacular.

At around 7ish we decided to head back to the dabha for a cup of steaming hot tea and later our dinner. On the way back everyone was scavenging for wood for the bonfire after dinner. As it got darker the moon shone even more brightly flooding us with its light. So bright was the moon light that we did not require torches for our trek back. Everything looked eerie and yet strangely beautiful. I kept scanning the horizon from time to time for any sign of our lost guys. I had thought they would have made it to the top by now. We reached the dhaba and sat down for tea. My feet were terribly aching and I thought of giving them some cold water therapy. So Sai, Uday and Me went down to the water cave to sit there for a while. Uday and me sat with our feet dipped in the water and chatting with Sai who was sitting outside on a rock. We were playing with our torches and watching the dancing reflections from the water on the cave wall. We tried to capture it in our camera but in vain. “Sometimes the simplest of things are just so beautiful”

After dinner, which was delicious and hot bhakri bhaji and dal rice, we headed back to our cave. It was really really cold now and I was totally unprotected towards the cold. Raj had lent me one of his full sleeve t-shirt. We walked back to our cave at peace with the world, due to the delicious dinner. Once inside the cave, all each one could think about was sleep. Everyone spread out their sleeping bags and I borrowed from everyone everybit of spare clothing that they had. Praful lent me a really warm sweatshirt which I was really thankful for. Janaki shared her sleeping bag wid me. We spread everyone’s towels on the ground and used her sleeping as a blanket. I must say it was pretty warm. In all the commotion trying to find a sleeping place, Maulik was trying to clear out an area for him and bhavin as they too didn’t have sleeping bags, as they had not planned to stay back the night. When he kicked aside a rock to make some place, a baby krait sprang from behind it. I must say it was as startled on seeing us as we were on seeing it. We shooed it out of the cave as killing it was totally out of question. As it left the cave everyone settled back again as though nothing had happened at all. As Sai had later told me over the phone, no one was bothered that the mother of the baby krait could have been lingering nearby.

When I discussed this with Janaki later on, we both agreed on the fact that we found the snake event quite normal. It actually did not cross our minds that the mother krait would have been nearby. We just lit a candle on the door step and dropped dead off to sleep. “Everyone was just so dead tired that I guess they would have even let the poor krait sleep in the same cave”

Next day morning, janaki woke me up at 7:30am saying we have to leave at 8:30am as the last bus from Pachnai to Kalyan leaves at 11am. I had doubts about this. As far as I knew, there was no direct bus from Pachnai to Kalyan. We had to changes buses somewhere and it would take longer from here. I confirmed about the buses and then I decided that we should take the Khireshwar route to go down. This gave us options to explore a third route and also the motivation to go and have a dip in the dam below. So now since we had some time to spare, we decided to have a luxury breakfast. Out came all the cup noodles, the Maggie noodles, ready to eat MTR rice, biscuits etc. Janaki and we were handling the kitchen here. Boiling water for all the cup noodles and then also cooking the Maggie and simultaneously also eating the MTR stuff passed around by Raj. I was surprised to see that all the cup noodle and the Maggie got over. So much so that Sai and Rags were actually fighting over the leftovers stuff to the bottom of the pan. “Bukkad” I had called them. Raksha, Kern and Glen meanwhile had talked to some guys to show them around Konkan Kada as they had missed out on it last evening. They said that they would go back to Mumbai with those guys and that we should move ahead without them.

As Raksha, Kern and Glen left us; we then packed up and posed for some groups pics. Maulik and Nikhil were missing here too as they had gone to see taramati. I was still scanning the horizon for any sign of the lost 3. After a few pics we started off towards Khireshwar at 11am, crossing the 7 hills with me and Janaki at the front. “Walking up front is best. You don’t have many worries at this position. Once you start lagging is when you start worrying about how to catch up.” It was fun listening to others cribbing “How much more do we have to climb? I thought we were going down and we have been doing a lot of climbing” or “Are you sure we are going down?” or “Please tell us how many more hills to go.” And me and Janaki would point to a distant mountain ahead and proclaim that we had to reach there. At this many would announce that they would rather stay back and start a new life on the mountains as a lemon aid seller. After about 1.5hrs trek we reach the spot from where we had to go down a steep rock patch and then into the jungles to reach Tolar Khind. This rock patch has always been an interesting route to maneuver. It excites you by showing you the sheer drop. Right after we crossed the rock patch, Maulik and Nikhil caught up with us. From here the path is pure trekking through the jungle. The tree cover was most welcome after 2hrs in the sun. We still heard a lot of “are we there yet?” I’m surprised, the 10hr trek the day before never once got me a “are we there yet?” but this 4hrs trek down was showering me with it.

We finally reached the bottom at around 1:30pm. We just dumped our bags at a dhaba and raced off towards the dam. After 2 days of no bath and in my case, 2 days to being in same clothes, we all wanted to just jump right in. But the dam bed was really rocky and all our feet were in a fragile condition from the 14hrs of total trekking. The funniest part was, no matter how deep anyone went, the water reached only waist level for all (chest level for vidya n me). After an hour in water, we all walked back to the dhaba in wet clothes. As we changed and put our respective clothes to dry and were waiting around for our bus to come and pick us up, we saw “The Lost 3” approaching us. Oh! Lord never been so happy to seem someone as I was then to see them ok. I was happy to see them and yet angry at them for having separated from the group. They had taken on another adventure al together and all of us were interested to know what had happened to them. When their story was out and o was finally at peace, we decided to play dumb charades until our lunch was ready. This was another memorable part where each one gave a spectacular performance. Rags acting to “Abhigyanth Shakuntala”, Sai to “The incredibles” and Raj to “ Zack and Miri try to make a porno” were some of the memorable ones. We continued to play after lunch until our bus arrived.

The bus arrived at 5pm and everyone was all ready to leave. The still waters of the dam and the mountain and clouds reflected in it provided some breathtaking pics. The journey back to Kalyan took about 3.5hs. Every one got down at Kalyan except for Raj, Thakur, Uday n me. We rode the bus till Vashi. I reached back home at 10pm.

To be truthful, this has been my best trek yet. I have always loved Harishchandragad. I had started off with this place as my first trek. This trip with morons was satisfying on many levels. We had covered a total of 29kms with a total trekking time of 14hrs in 2 days. We had managed to find the correct route towards Sadhle Ghat without hiring a guide. We had covered 3 different routes to Harishchandragad in just 2 days. And the best part was everyone got along so well with each other, helping out each other and understanding each other. And to think of, out the 20 people that had attended the trip, I knew just 6-7 of them. All the rest, I was meeting for the first time. And personally for me, I learnt that I can survive without my backpack for 2 days without much fuss. Everyone helped me out and I was truly thankful for that. I had Sai’s hat, Praful’s sweat shirt and Janaki’s sleeping bag. And I feel especially proud that I was the lone organizer and leader on this particular trip and it was a huge success. Janaki helped out with the decision making and it was like 2 females leading a group of 20 which consisted of 16males. As I said….. THE BEST TREK TILL NOW

Bike Trip Tarkarli March 2008

Even though im a littlen shaken up from my accident... yet Tarkarli had been the most exciting trip i have ever been to... "CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL MORONZ FOR A NEW RECORD OF 1300kms BIKE TRIP".

We had all kinds of excitement on this trip... u name it and we had it... Starting from mumbai at 9pm.. BERTY accompanied us till Kalamboli...Then people getting lost near Wadkhal naka and going almost 20kms in 2 diff directions... then finally after millions of frantic calls(ofcourse all of em were to and from me)....we finally found each other..YAY!!...then then rush to reach MAHAD with every one touching 90kmph....Suhas's chain breaking in the dead of the night in the middle of no where ...wid just me Raghu and Suhas together... ...Then Raghu trying to drop me with the rest of the gang trying to fight the worst road choke up ever....Then Raghu goin back to Suhas and we continuing to MAHAD... The scene of BROWNIE and MONICA getting almost getting pushed of the road by a bus and then us realising that he had dosed off..... Reaching Poladpur and dropping dead to sleep that very instant.... Waking up at 8am coz of the sun and just passing time time till Raghu n Suhas arrived....Playing frisbee in a school hall.... then leaving for CHIPLUN at 11:30am without RAGHU n SUHAS coz they said they'd catch up... Then our race against time to cross all ghats before night fall.... From Chiplun--->Sangameshwar and then to Rajapur... Raghu and Suhas catching up wid us at Sangameshwar...Then our race to Rajapur...and then the best / worst thing happened.... the rains caught up with us after Rajapur... so then NIGHT + RAIN RIDING it was for us.... the final run of 32kms from KASAL to MALVAN being the most nerve and ass wrecking... yet the funniest part here was no one wanted to lose sight of the other and all were riding in sort of a huddle formation...hahaha.....reaching MALVAN at 12:30am and looking for accomodation... finding an amazing place to stay rite next to the TARKARLI back waters... the view was breath taking.... then the nite discussion abt how to go to TARKARLI with gurls as the MALVANI holi is supposed to be extreme... Thanx to Mallik for taking the initiative and making sure it was sure to travel before 8am and reaching Tarkarli... TARKARLI the best beach i've been to yet... played in its cristal clear wates till 12noon.... then had amazing malvani lunch and came back to MALVANI encountering some holi players along the way... again geting lost in the maze type streets of MALVAN.... Packing up and leaving for RAJAPUR at 4:30pm.... Again doing Rain Riding but through beautiful scenic routes..... RAGHU-ME and SUHAS-MONICA being the tail gunners, having the time of our lives enjoinG the beautiful sceneries and clicking pics... SPOTTING A DOUBLE RAINBOW.. Playing witness to an unfortunate accident along the way where a sumo hit a bull, which flew off in the air and landed on the other side of the road...which shook my nerves.... Reaching Rajapur and putting up in a lodge... Having a lovely nite session were we listened to and told the most hilarious stories and everybody laffing their hearts out.... then getting the most needed 8hrs of sleep... Morning 8am leaving for Hathkhamba.... then towards CHIPLUN.. one the way making a welcomed detour to GANPATIPULE... the route to Ganpatipule being the most dangerous yet the most beautiful... Spending an hour on the beach playing frisbee and clicking pics... then again a race back to KHED... 3hrs of non stop riding.... Having lunch at 5pm at Khed and then again a rush towards mumbai... Again 2hrs of hardcore riding and a break at Mangaon..... Then again a 1.5hrs dash to Wadkhal naaka.... Dinner at Wadkhal and the final dash to Mumbai.... Bypassed panvel and on the route to Vashi, Raghu and Me met with an accident by running into a huge crevice in the road... skidding an falling in the middle on the highway.... GOD saved us... no injuries... but im still shaken.... "AND FROM THIS DAY ONWARDS NO MORE NIGHT RIDING IS GONNA HAPPEN UNTILL AND UNLESS EXTREMELY EXCEPTIONAL"

Bike Trip Murud 26th Jan 2008

First of all it was a great trip... even though it didnt fullfil some of my expectations.... first and foremost of which was dropping the plan of going upto harihareshwar..... truely speaking, going to murud for the 4th time wasnt too exciting for me.... none the less i had a great time.... the ekdam mast ferry ride with the seagulls......the beautiful lagoon that we had all to ourselves.... the amazing food (my mouth still watering for the chicken and the fried prawns).... the hilarious incident where we forgot ajay in the middle of the road and went off, realising that he was missing only wen we had gone a good 3-4kms ahead... the tour of phansad forest where we managed to spot 2 weird beetles(mating) and a tarantula... the story about sridhar and ajay doing a "TERMINATOR" jump on their bullet.... the "need for speed" ride back to mumbai and my two great riders ADITYA and PALI...

Tringalwadi 2007

The first trek of the season and what a trek it was. Well I will refer to it as a hike ‘coz it hardly qualified as a trek. After 2 whole months of no trekking, people had lots of expectations from this trek. Even though the hike itself was not very exciting, the company of people in which I was, made this one of my most memorable trips.

The meeting point was decided upon as CST station, but a few people decided to board the train from the station nearest and convenient to them. I being one such person was going to board the train from Thane. The train was scheduled to reach thane at 9:27pm but I was not pretty sure of the timings and also on which platform it was supposed to arrive. Hence I had stationed myself on the overhead bridge in between platforms 2 and 5 and constantly juggling my head in between the two indicators to see where it would come. After 10mins of waiting, “N 9:27pm” was finally displayed on indicator no 5. What a relief! I went down to the platform hauling my heavy sack on my back.

It was 9:10pm and I was waiting of the platform with several other people waiting for their respective long distance trains. I witnessed the arrival of two long distance trains before the arrival of my Kasara fast. The first being the Mumbai-Kolhapur exp and followed 7mins later by the Howrah mail. “Ok! What a relief! The platform looks empty, I will be able to board it with no diffculty”, I thought. But as soon as I saw the headlights of the train at the distance, I saw a million ladies standing all around me. “Hey! I was alone here 2mins ago. Where did all these ladies come from? Did they pop out of the ground or something”, I grumbled to myself. I decided to prop my bags on my shoulders in front of me, looking a good 20 months pregnant. The train was bursting at the seams and I some how, with great difficulty managed to reach the place where the other moronz girls were seated. “pheww! What a mess”. Janaki, Tanu, Deepti, Preeti and Aru were here with me. Uptill Kalyan I had to stand, after which most of the people had disembarked the train. “Wow! Finally some fresh air to breathe”, I thought. We all kept chit chatting until Ambivali, where some of the other women commuters told us to shift to the gents compartment ‘coz there wont be any women left in the woman’s compartment, who go to Kasara this late. It was 5mins to 11pm and the woman told us we’ll be reaching Kasara only after 12am. “What the F***!” So we called up the guys who were just 1 bogey ahead of us and decided to make the run to their compartment at the very next station. We heard a lot of jubilation as we reached there. And the best part was we reached Kasara at 11:07pm. “Stupid ladies, scaring us for nothing”.

From Kasara we had to go next to Igatpuri. So we decided to take the mail from Kasara to Igatpuri which was scheduled at 11:45pm. We had to travel by the general bogey which is by default always crowded. All of us got in with some difficulty as it was difficult to maneuver our way inside with people strewn all over the floor. Me, Tanu and Vijay were at one end of the bogey with the twins some where in the middle and the rest towards the other end. Here Sandy was trying to say something to his wife, Tanu and was hoping that I did not understand Bengali. But to his utter disappointment I understand every word of Bengali. Tanu was not convinced though, so she was testing my skills by speaking in Bengali and asking me to translate them. She got so flabbergasted that I was able to translate every word of hers correctly. It was fun though.

Igatpuri arrived after just 20mins and it was a relief to get out of there. At Igatpuri station we decided to have dinner as it was already past 12am and we were all very hungry. I was carrying home made khichidi for all, but only Mallik, Tanu, Sandy and I ended up eating. Thankfully my load was a lot lighter with the food gone. After a nice satisfying dinner we decided to make our way to the base village.

We had been told earlier that it is just a 2hr walk to the base village. So we thought nothing about it and decided to make the walk without much 2nd thought. But boy! Were we in for a surprise. We had started the walk with lots of enthusiasm, which was steadily getting stubbed out as it started getting chillier by the minute. I have poor adjustability to outside weather, so I was feeling much colder than any other person around me. Well I know me, so I had come prepared with woolen caps, jackets, shawls, gloves etc and people kept making fun of me saying that I had come prepared for a snowfall. Well I have done winter treks in the Sahyadris before and I know how cold it can get. “Don’t worry u guys, we’ll see who is laughing when the cold properly sets in”, I smiled. Well the walk up to the base village turned out to be a ‘PRETTY LONG ONE’. We kept walking and walking and walking with no sign of the place we were supposed to be going to. We had a few instances of auto rickshaws trying to be formula one drivers and would zoooom past us breaking through the lovely silence of the night.

As it started getting colder and colder, more and more warm clothingstarted coming out of my bag and onto me. Both Tanu and I were some what identically dressed in scarves and jackets. And we had worn the scarf around our faces like a veil, to keep our noses from getting too cold. Others were finding this too funny. Vinay wanted a picture of the two of us like this, so we happily posed for him with nice 100watt smiles and thensuddenly realizing that the smile was of no use coz it wasn’t visible through the veil. Hahaha ….. everybody around was in splits. We then lowered our veils and posed for another picture, again with 100watt smiles. He he he cant let it just go.

After walking for some more time the discussions turned towards Berty’s orkut pictures in which he is holding a snake which looked pretty much alive but it was supposed to be dead. We were all thinking of a word for it when berty came up with “Freshly Dead snake”. Hahahah this was too much to take. All of us were practically down on all fours laughing our heads off.

After walking for about an hour we found ourselves joining up with the main highway and still there was no sign of the LEFT that we had to take to reach the base village. Pretty soon we realized that we were walking on the same highway which 2 months ago we were passing on our bikes on our way to Saputara. We this was a national highway and we were walking on it at the dead of the night. There were no street lights here so we had our torches out. After walking for what felt like eternity we finally found the LEFT that goes to tringalwadi village. It was 2:30am now and we had already walked for more than 2hrs. Everyone was tired and sleepy and up ahead we saw a nice and cozy temple which was providing good shelter from the cold, and all were more than eager to settle down here for the night. But then Mallikaji and Sandyji got into some kinda argument. Mallik wanted to rest for 15mins and then leave right away for the base village, but many of us wanted to rest at this temple and move ahead at around 5 or 6 in the morning. It was already 2:30am and everybody was damn sleepy. But then we didn’t want for the argument to get too hot so we decided to go ahead and walk uptill base village. A lot of us were not too happy by the way things were going with a bunch of people way up ahead and a small bunch walking way behind. And then we decided to have some fun of out own. We had all come here to enjoy and that’s what we were gonna do. Cracking jokes all the way…and Janaki, Bertram and Amey jumping every hay stack that they found along the way. Don’t know whats the obsession with dry grass… but it seemed fun all the same. Tanu and I were walking hand in hand swinging, like 2 kids in a park, wearing close to similar attire and looking like sisters. Amey even commented “These two are walking like inseparable twins, separating only when they see some shit or pot hole on the road.”

After a long nonstop hike a few of us got so pissed off by the planning that included no rest breaks, that we just sat down in the middle of the road refusing to move. I even lied down over there watching the stars. This is what is the best part about far off villages that have no electricity. Every damn star is the sky is visible to the naked eye. So much so that you might have not even know that so many of them existed. The sky was generously sprinkled with stars of all sizes and luminosities. The view was breathtaking and no matter what anyone said, it was a tough job to pull your eyes away from that sight. After a 15mins break we had start moving again.

After walking for some time, up ahead I saw some black shapes in the middle of the road. Large, black round shapes that looked like large boulders lying in the middle of the road like some road block. Only when did someone flash the torch light on them, did I realize that they were our people sitting the middle of the road waiting for us.

All along the road the dogs kept barking nonstop to try and scare away the strangers that were slowly creeping towards their beloved village. Amey even tried to imitate the dog’s bark and to his surprise, the dogs responded with much gusto. It was as though he was giving out mating calls and some dogs were getting really excited listening to it. And to our sheer hilarity he even hoped out aloud that may it be a female dog. We were laughing our heads off for almost 5mins.
By this time we had again lost sight of the bunch of people who were walking ahead with Hemant. Tanu and I had had it with the 5hr walk on the damn tar road. We had already decided that we would not be going to the fort in the morning but would be spending our time instead by the dam. I was really in a mood to throw a tantrum right then sitting down in the middle of the road and bawling at the top of my lungs. Amey and Janaki saw the tantrum coming and were cajoling me like a little baby, “A little more, just some more to go…” and I kept asking “Are we there yet?” I couldn’t make head or tails of whether we were any where even near the base village or not. Then we saw flashes up ahead of us near a lamp post, and safely deduced that we had almost reached base village and that the twins were clicking away to glory.

We reached base village at 5am. By this time the soles of my feet were screaming in agony and my calves were cramping up due to the cold. All I wanted to do was go to sleep peacefully. But I am guessing sleep or rest is something that people had forgotten to include in this plan. I just went to find myself some place coz even before we arrived the other who were ahead of us had already gone off to sleep, comfortable spread out. We had to wake them up to make them shift and create some space for us.

Sleep never came. The ground was sooo cold that even after spreading a bed sheet on it we were still shivering in cold. Mallik had been really kind to give Tanu and me his ‘Rajai’. But we were still shivering in it. We had everything on, our scarves and jackets yet it was damn cold. As it is sleep was refusing to come to us, and then some people decided that they wanted to snore, which scared the poor sleep further away. I was lying down next to Tanu. I don’t remember who was to my other side. Both of us kept twisting and turning trying to get comfortable, the whole 2hrs which was assigned to us for sleep purposes. But sleep never came.
Early morning everybody got up to shivering. My teeth were practically chattering out of control. My fingers and toes were numb with cold. Pali tried to light a small fire but there was hardly any wood around and hence we were reduced to burning hay instead.

After trying to warm ourselves at this meager fire, we saw the sun coming up and spreading its light and warmth around. It felt really good to bask in the sun right now. The sun was most welcome right now. Everyone was really hungry too. So we just had some tit-bits and decided to have a proper breakfast somewhere along the route. Everyone freshened up and relieved themselves. Well its easier for the guys, all they have to do is stand up against some corner. The problem comes about for the girls. We didn’t know what to do or where to go as there was no toilet around at that village. (I never expected it to have one anyway). The only place that we could think of was the small alley sort of place in between two huts. All we the girls would stand guard in a straight line guarding the alley like wall while one girl would go about her business. It was the most hilarious sight actually with all of us trying to make the girl in question nervous by passing comments nonstop, while the guys who were standing a good distance away wondering as to what new mischief were we up to, and why were we standing in a straight line, like a wall and giggling non-stop. Just imagine for a sec and you will know.

We started the trek at about 7am I guess. I had not checked the watch then. At first we climbed up to the dam and the view up there was breathtaking. All of us stopped here to click snaps. I can safely say that there was a sort of clicking competition going on here. Then we kept moving on and a few of us were getting irritated due to the lack of food. So after like a 1/2hrs climb around, 12 of us who were walking behind, stopped for breakfast. ( Berty, Janaki, Mallik, Vijay, Amey, Tanu, Sandy, Ashish, Rutu, Amol, Vinay and me). Well I am estimating that we had a nice, leisurely and hour long breakfast. There was bread n cheese, garlic bread, theplas, cakes, banana chips, apples and sweet limes. It felt really relaxing after a full stomach. So then we slowly packed up and decided to get moving.

Up ahead we saw a fork in our path, one which first went down and then up and the other which straight led us to the plateau above. We took the path which led us directly to the plateau whereas all the others had taken the path going down. It was a gradual climb. Infact it didn’t feel like a slope at all, felt like walking in a garden. The plateau stretched out for acres, almost like 9 full sized football fields merged into one. Even by being almost an hour behind, we had still reached the plateau first and had even finished clicking all kinds of artistic pics suggested by sandy. There was the huddle, the shoe pic, the train, the freak out pic. (Refer picasa albums for visual details :P ) The others arrived after about 1/2hr I guess. After the others arrived we went in to explore the fort. There was nothing much to see around actually, with tall dry grass all around. After a few minutes of wandering we came upon a small water cistern which had “green” water in it. And Hemant told us that this was supposed to be drinking water. “Really !!”, I was astonished. It had a layer of what looked like the early signs of muck floating on it. Plus God knows how many people must have come and washed themselves in this water, which I later saw VJ was doing. No count of howmany Dogs must have peed in it. Yuck! Yuck! Yuck! And people were actually drinking this water. “Ewww… I’d rather stay thirsty”, I thought.

There was an isolated temple on top with a big ‘Trishul’ posted in the ground some way ahead of it, which Mallik was all determined to uproot. We had to ultimately bribe him with a smaller replica before he would leave the actual one alone. The dry grass by now had started to itch at various places. We slowly walked towards the other end of the fort to get a view of the other side. The sun was now directly above our heads burning down the back of our necks and there was not a single tree cover anywhere. I specially cant tolerate the sun much and just wanted to flee from that place. Somebody, I don’t know who was assuring us that there was a tree up ahead and we would be sitting down there for lunch. Well I could not spot any tree in the near horizon and was getting exceedingly cranky in the sun. After climbing a small hillock we finally saw a tree providing a welcome cover. We were to stop for lunch here and again out came the bread n cheese, cakes, biscuits, chips, chocolates, apples etc. There was some chocolate doing the rounds that looked like goat droppings, which I refused to touch. But Berty and I were having a good laugh about it. Mallik had found himself a place right next to the tree trunk, and after some time we were all amused to see him standing still hugging the tree. “Is it breeding season for him at this time of the year”, Janaki wondered aloud and all of us were cackling. He was a hilarious sight. Well maybe he was REALLY happy to see a lone green tree in that mass of all dry ones, but then he has a weird way of expressing his emotions.

We sat here for about an hour and then decided to move. We went from a different path this time. It was a steep slope covered entirely in dry grass with no proper defined route. So instead of trying to walk down, which way we would have definitely slipped, we decided to come sliding down on our bums. It was fun at first but we realized the disadvantage soon after, when we found broken fragments of dry grass down our pants and which was itchy as hell. I saw awkward walks everywhere, with people trying to get the grass out. Once down again people went in separate ways, 6 of us went right and rest went to the left taking the same way down. We six, Janaki, Berty, Amey, Hemant, Mallik and me had taken the Chor Darwaza to get down. It was a small walk after which we went and joined up with the others. The walk down was pretty uneventful. All everybody could think of was a nice cool dip in the dam up ahead.

Mallik was trying to inflate his tube while walking down. I was walking very absent mindedly lost in my own thoughts. Then all of a sudden I stepped on an unstable stone which rolled over and I twisted my already busted ankle again. The pain was excruciating and I was close to tears. I was fearing that this time around it must have surely broken or something. But luckily for me the pain subsided in just a few minutes, and I was able to stand up and even walk without a wince. But now I was walking very gingerly and with calculated steps. After a short walk we reached the place where the others were already in the water. I wanted to get in too.

The water looked so welcoming that everybody was eager to jump in right away. But as soon as we stepped into the water… brrrrrrr…. It was so cold that I instantly started shivering and my teeth back to chattering. I stood rigth there, holding my pink float in one hand, covered in goose bumps having the 'n'th thought of whether i should enter the water or not. But then we saw from far away that a bunch of cows had been let loose on us and hence there was no other way out but to jump into the water. Well at this point amey and rutu were fighting over my float doin unmentionables to it, and i was worried about the sanity of my poor float. Mallik had bought a flat bed type float for me...so i inflated that one and calmly rested on it while the rest were fighting over my ring float. Berty was still having problem with his float. It was already time for us to move out of the water and Berty still hadnt even come in. Well guess he got about 10mins in the water.

After changing into dry clothes we walked back to the base village. After the dip in the dam all of us were damn hungry and we were all out of food, except for some tiny tit-bits. So we ordered tea and kaanda poha at a small tea stall. There was this dog who kept following us but we were ourselves scavenging for food to have anything to spare to this dog. At this point Pali had made a nice comment to the dog. "Boy! are u optimistic to be hoping to get some food from hungry people like us". After the kaanda poha our next task was to find a ride to the highway. Walking all the way back again was absolutely out of question. So a few of the guys had managed to convince a sort of a tow truck to drop us till the highway. From the highway we were supposed to go by rickshaws.

The ride back to the highway took about 20mins i guess. When we reached the highway there were no rickshaws around and the ones that were there refused to ply us. So we managed to arrange for a mahindra. Now the difficult part was to fit 17 + 1 driver into the mahindra. So we were 4guys in the front. 7 in the middle and 7 at the back. God! we were all packed like sardines in a can. It was so tightly packed that if u tried to pickup the mahindra and shake it, u wudnt hear it rattle. Oh my God! our legs had gone into sleep mode within the first 10mins itself. Everybody was trying to shift once in a while to keep the blood circulation flowing. During one such shift that VJ was making, Janaki let out a blood curdling screeeeeeem..... We all got so scandalised as to what happened. She was absolutely quiet for the longest time with her eyes closed and her face buried in her palms. It so turned out that while trying to shift VJ had stepped on Janaki's foot with all his might. Well the thin frail thing that she is, her foot must have gotten flattened to a pan cake. Poor thing.

We were more than glad to reach our destination. We had directly come to Kasara station. I was worried whether i would be able to stand up on my legs after i got out of the mahindra, coz i couldnt feel my legs at all. I staggerd a little as i was getting out, but kept my balance. All of the others too staggered out of the mahindra one by one, all of 'em massaging some body part that had gottten squished in there.

We waited for the next train back all the while munching on something. Pali had gotten bananas for us. This is when the banana jokes started. Sandy wasted no time in catching hold of Amey as his next victim. "ooo Amey has his banana in his hands and he is opening it. He is opening the wrapper now. Anddddd it is in someone else's mouth now (this was when Janaki had taken a bite out of Amey's banana). Lolz all of us were laughing so hard and Amey and Janaki were so embarassed, they were practically red in the face. Amey didnt know where to look and Janaki had her face buried in her palms again. Lolz.....

As we got into our train, everyone got sort of scattered to find a place to sit. Amey, Ashish, Janaki, Sandy, Tanu, Aru, Vj, Rutu, Mallik and me were all in one place, some sitting and some standing. Here started of photo viewing sessions. Checking out the photos in everyone's camera, passing comments and relieving the moments. After some time dont remember how but somehow but the topic of discussion shifted towards 'phlegm'. Rutu and Mallik had full frontal decided to take Janaki's case now. They kept asking her stuff like "Have u tasted phlegm?, Have u ever blown a phlegm bubble with your nose??" And when Janaki replied in the negative, they continued to badger her with " How can u be so sure? U may have done it in your chilhood. Remember small kids, when they have the cold and a flowing nose...and their mom's forget to wipe their noses...Thats wen the kids blow nose phlegm bubbles." Hahahahha..... Janaki was getting disgusted by the minute and I dont blame her. Poor thing sitting between Rutu and Mallik and having to listen to their non-sence all though the journey.

Next to me, Amey had happily dosed off and so had the others to the other side of Amey. He was in such deep slumber that even when i clicked a foto of him upclose, he didnt get bothered by the flash, whereas the others next to him woke up with a start. So then Vinay thought of taking a nice closeup micro pic of his nose, which showed all the nose hairs and stuff. Lolz...this flash did wake up Amey and he looked like a cranky little kid all ready to bawl any moment. All were having a good time about this as usual. total paisa vasool.

So here comes the end of our journey. I got down at Thane along with Vinay and the rest continued to their destinations. I was a really good trip after all.

Peth / Kothaigad 2007

Phone conversations the night before

Kalpesh: Hey Pam, I just spoke with Rahul, there are some problems and the rafting event might get cancelled.

Pam: No surprise, I was expecting it already coz that guy was not giving us the details.

Kalpesh: He is saying that he is at kolad and trying to do something about it. He said he will call me up in an hour.

Pam: Why is he at kolad now? To make our reservations now which he should have done 2 months back? He must be here only somewhere and just doin bahana of being at kolad.

Kalpesh: We have to let everybody know what is happening.

Pam: Yeah we don’t want complications to happen if people arrive at dadar at 5am and there is nowhere to go. We should have some backup plan. I was speaking to VJ some time back and this was his idea.

Kalpesh: Yeah we should do something as backup.

Pam: I’ll plan a trek and send you the details in sometime. Just review it and put it up on the msg board to inform people.

Kalpesh: Ok! You plan it and lemme know. Also talk with Amey about it.


Meanwhile Mr. Amey Rediz was at the I-Rock concert and when he was available for talks, he was ready for any trek.

And this is how the plan for Peth was finalized over the fone. Kalpesh , Mallikarjun, Amey and me passed on the message to everyone over the fone and we had around 40% of junta turning up for the event. I take great pleasure in introducing to you the characters of our new movie – Peth and Pam’s blue umbrella.


Kalpess Bhai – Kalpesh Rawal

Mallikaji – Mallikarjun

Amey – Amey Rediz
Princess Keta – Keta
Deeti – Deepti
Preeti – Preeti
Suraksha – Raksha
Doc – Shraddha
Purvi – Purvi
Browny – Amit
Potty Guy/Tarzan – Nitin
Bull Fighter – Santosh Kutty
Saurabh - Saurabh
Sanjay – Sanjay Bhutani
Bhaskar – Bhaskar Desai
And me PAM – Anupama Mantry

Scene – I : Wakeup Time

It is 4:30am and Mallikaji is frantically trying to wake people up from deep slumber, much to their annoyance. Me having slept at 1:30am last night, after informing everyone of the trek, was not in a mood to wake up. After I finally did wake up it was time for me to wake up some of the others. Mallikaji was already on his way to dadar station and I was at home getting ready. I was gonna board the train from Thane station hence I was in “no hurry”. Amey and Keta arrived late at dadar as they missed their train from Andheri and consequently the Karjat local from Dadar also got missed. These guys had no clue what time the next train was gonna come and I was getting restless sitting at home. I kept calling Mallikaji and Kalpess bhai every 15mins. I know I know you guys must have gotten enough calls from me to last you a life time J. By 7am I was almost dozing off again and having second thoughts about going for this trek, when Mallikaji called up again to tell me that they have already boarded the train and that it was a fast local. Marr gaye!! A fast local comes to thane from dadar in 30mins and it takes me to reach thane station from my home around 15mins plus add to it the time required to find an auto, buying tickets, looking for the platform on which the train would be arriving. Damn it! Its gonna be a close call. And somehow everything seems to be moving at snails pace whenever you are late. Me staying on the 11th floor, it takes an eternity for the lift to come up from the ground floor.



Lesson No:1 – Whenever you are in a hurry, the damn lift will always be on the ground floor when you are on the 11th floor.

I found an auto with no problem at all, but I am in a hurry remember? So I found an auto with a very Buddha rickshaw driver. Ballz!! The pace at which he was driving, I would have reached faster if I would have walked to the station.


Lesson No:2 – When in a hurry, don’t sit in an auto with an ancient rickshaw driver. Wait for the next auto.

I reached the station with 5mins to spare but I still had to get my tickets. Luckily I had CVM coupons with me, but remember “ I am in a hurry”. The bloody coupons refused to go into the CVM machine slots. I somehow managed to coax them in and then rushed to the platform. But remember “ I am in a hurry”, so how can things be right?


Lesson No:3 – Whenever you are late, the train is on time and whenever you are on time, the train is late.


Hmmphh!!....

Scene – II : The train to Karjat

I met Bhaskar Desai at platform no-5 at thane station. Poor guy was waiting at the platform since 5:30am. We waited for the train together. The train arrived at 7:30am and as I was anticipating, we got into the wrong compartment. (Grrrrrr…. Mallikaji maine aapse kaha tha nah, either get into the 1st or last compartment so that it is easier to find you guys. But nahinnnnn… yahan meri suntan kaun hai? Hmmpphh….) We both had gotten into the compartment behind the 1st class, whereas the others were in the compartment in front of the 1st class. We then got down at Dombivali station and did a marathon run to reach the proper compartment. And there they were waiting to give me a “WARM” welcome, afterall I am PAM… hehe.. The train journey was in itself total paisa vasool with Kalpess bhai, Amey and mallikaji leaving no stone unturned in pulling Purvi’s leg, which was making Purvi madder by the second. But we didn’t spare Mallikaji either. We had a great time reminding him his meanderings and sharing his exotic snaps. (Sorry peeps the rest is supposed to be classified information J) We even had a public poll about the color of our group t-shirt and the winner is NAVY BLUE. We had quite a few phote sessions too in which mallikaji kept jumping in front of every snap to remind us of his presence. (Don’t worry mallikaji we no you exist, a lot of us have an experience of that J)

Scene – III : Karjat to Ambivali

We arrived at Karjat station at around 8:30am and while the rest of us waited Sanjay and Amey went to look for our transportation whereas Kalpess bhai and mallikaji went to arrange for our bhojan pani. ( We are a spoilt lot you know). We were waiting for about ½ hr with no sign of the others. Then Ameyji called up Suraksha and gave really weird instructions to reach the ST bus depot – “From where you are standing, take a right then again take a right then again take a right” (Wow! Ameyji, that really helped. Had you added another ‘Right’ to it, we would have just revolved on the spot) Then someone showed us the proper way ( Sorry guys I don’t remember which one of you it was ). Ameyji was waiting for us there and he informed us that he has arranges a very special bus for us. When we arrived at the bus stop we saw that an ST mini bus was waiting there exclusively for us. How cool is that! Whoever has heard of such luxuries. We seem to spoil ourselves. (Hey but all of you don’t expect such top treatment ok. This was just for those who came to the trek at such short notice :p )

The bus journey consisted of breakfast of absolutely delicious vada pav ( don’t miss this u guys) and a real good round of antakshari where everyone showcased their vocal skills and mallikaji even displayed his boogie woogie.

Scene – IV : Ambivali to Peth Village

We arrived at Ambivali village at around 10am, which was already too late and it was rapidly getting hot and sunny. At this point all the caps, goggles and sunscreens came out of the bags. It was really sweet of Suraksha to apply sunscreen on my face, hehe I was being too lazy to do it on my own. As I had forgotten to get my cap, I had borrowed a “woolen” one that Shraddha had.

Lesson No:4 – Beggars cant be choosers

After a quick round of the morning tea at around 10:30am we started on way up. I was up ahead and mallikaji was far behind me and from there he was trying to throw pebbles at me. To which I commented “ Tere patthar mein itna dam nahin ki mujhe aakar lag jaye” Woo hoo… male ego seriously hurt.. ouchies.. He chased me halfway into the jungle and then gave up… he he mallikaji, mujhe pakadna bhi aapke bas ki baat nahin. The sun was threatening to roast us alive and with very little tree cover and breeze we were having a tough time trying to climb up the slope. It was then, that out came my blue umbrella. ( Yes peeps, I did the entire climbing with my blue umbrella open in my hand) It was too damn hot and I could almost feel my skin blistering under the harsh sun. After about a half an hour of climbing, we heard the sweet sound of water flowing. Ahh!!... The sound of flowing water seemed like music to the ears in this hot weather. Mallikaji was leading and found the narrow pathway leading to the waterfall, and guided all of us there. Even though it was not a very big waterfall, it was big enough to accommodate 16 of us. All of us had a nice shower under the falls for about an hour to cool ourselves down. The Thomson sisters dint come into the water but instead got busy clicking the pics. Being in this place felt so good that no one wanted to leave. When Kalpess bhai handed out kool lassi, we felt pampered again. Hmmmm… good life. But it was time to get goin now if we had to reach the top and get back down on time. Slowly we packed up our stuff and made our way back to the path towards Peth. Walking on the man-made rock path was getting boring so people started deflecting away and reached a lush green plateau. The beauty of this place cant be described in words. All the various shades of greens were a feast to the eyes. After resting here for a while we moved towards our destination. We reached Peth village at around 1:30pm. At the village we waited at a small rest house and had lots of nimbu paani. Nimbu paani refreshes you instantly.

Scene – V : Peth village to Peth fort to Peth village

At 2pm it was time for us to leave for the final climb else we would not be able to make I down on time. Purvi decided to stay behind as her leg was hurting. The final climb would take us around an hour of climbing but it got stretched to an hour n half due to the hot weather and the frequent rests. The climb up was pretty uneventful expect for a point where Suraksha had climbed up a tree wand was resting on it like a lazy cat. As we got closer to the top of the fort, we could hear the drums playing Another group had reached there before us and was enjoying their afternoon. We waited for a while until everyone had reached. Mallikaji and I still throwing pebbles at each other and as usual his pebbles never seemed to hit me. hahah u missed me there Mallikaji. After me getting my foto clicked by climbing up a tree and everybody drinking nimbu paani we started moving ahead.
The spiral staircase which has been build from inside the rocks is the main attaraction of this place. Climbing the stairs in any of Shivaji’s forts makes me always wonder “How bloody tall were the soldiers of Shivaji’s era??” ( Wonder how they would manage to climb those stairs in a hurry in case of emergencies. Or may be they were the olden times exercising machine, like we have the stepper now) Well it took us around 20mins to climb all the stairs and reach the top, and all through the climb again mallikaji and I kept throwing pebbles at each other. I have become a good shot you know and mallikaji is still not able to hit me. ( hehehe devil horns)

The view from top is mind blowing. You can view the entire BHIMASHANKAR complete with its semi circular cliff and numerous waterfalls (see the pics), Peb and Matheran is also supposed to be visible form here but we couldn’t spot it. Also visible is lohagad and visapur. We waited here for about 30mins clicked pics and then decided to leave as it was damn sunny.

The climb down was easy for me coz I hate to tag along slowly when on the downhill slope and prefer to go fast almost in a sprinting fashion. Mallikaji had left at full speed and right behind him were Sanjay and me. I had no clue how far behind the rest of them were. Due to the slippery rocks I even slipped and fell nicely on my bum but luckily I didn’t hurt myself. We touched down to the village in just 30mins and the rest came in about 15mins after us.

At the resthome we rested for some time and had Nimbu paani whicle the kind kaka served delicious food for us. There was chapatti, bhakri, rice, pitla, dal, and anlu matar ki sabzi with pickle and onion. The food was soo yummy and after the hectic day that we had this food felt like heaven. The taste was such that even 5 star hotels cant serve you such tasty food. And such food even increases your appetite. After eating to our heart’s content and having some more nimbu paani (we are getting addicted to this stuff) we rested some more. By this time I was having a splitting headache as at the waterfall, water had gone into my ear and it refused to come out no matter what I did to it. Kalpess bhyai even commented that “Kya u bhi ek boond paani ke peeche tab se padi hai, chod na usko jaane de”. (Wah kalpess bhai, yeh ek boond paani hi mere dimag ko pareshaan kiye hue hai subah se) We tried all sorts of technics, cotton buds, banging my head and mallikaji even blew hard into my ear (That water drop must have gone further inside :P ) but nuthin seemed to help. So I let it be.

Scene – VI : Peth village to Ambivali village

By the time we started back from peth village, it was already 5:30pm, and it had become heavily overcast. We feared that it might start raining soon. The whether was getting extremely cold with a cool breeze blowing. Mallikaji as usual was chugging ahead in full steam with me and sanjay behind him. The rest were way behind. Just after 15mins of walk it started raining. Slowly at first and then heavily all of a sudden. All of us were soaking wet in minutes.( Stupid rains…It couldn’t rain when we were getting roasted in the hot sun in the afternoon but it rains now when its already evening and it is getting darker) When we reached the plateau, mallikaji was already waiting for us there. Sajay and I reached and all of us lied down on the soft grass. It was only drizzling slightly now. By now my headache had gotten worse due to the water in my ear. Now my entire left side was aching including my left eye. Mallikaji took pity on me and massaged my forehead for me.( Thankooo mallikaji for that kind gesture J) After some time the others had caught up with us and all of us were enjoying the rains on the plateau. It was raining heavily now and the cold whether was sending chills down our spine. Now was the time to open my blue umbrella. Hmmm… now everyone wanted to get under my blue umbrella to escape the cold rains. Hehe whoz laffing now. J

We decided to walk along the plateau instead of taking the reagular path which was rapidly turning into a small stream. Walking on that road would have proved dangerous as it was entirely made up of rocks and it would have been really slippery. The plateau slowly changed into small hillocks and the slopes started getting steeper. Kalpess bhai was walking under the umbrella with me as he wanted to avoid the irritating water from dripping onto his face. On seeing the slopes we decided that closing the umbrella would be a better idea than losing our balance coz of it and go plummeting down the slope. (Let me inform you that the slope ended abruptly into the deep valley). At this time I was merrily telling Kalpess bhai the story of my trekking trip to Kodaikanal last December. I was walking slightly ahead of him while carefully maneuvering the slope, when all of a sudden Kalpess bhai slipped and fell and pulled me along with him. We slid a good 10-12 feet on or bums. (Ballz… I had tried my best uptill now not to fall but now I was all covered in mud and smelled of grass.. Hmmpphhh…) I was telling Kalpess bhia of one of the falls I had had whicle on one such slope in kodaikanal and I guess he wanted to experience it practically. And then he even has the audacity to tell me that he fell because of me. We were bickering all the way down. Ameyji was trying to guide me through one of the tricky slopes and instead of listening to him I kept jabbering away with Kalpess bhai. He got so irritated and was like “ Yeh kitna bolti hai yaar. Main isko rasta bata raha hu and yeh toh bas bolne mein busy hai”. Mallikaji as usual was no where in sight. No doubt he must have already reached the village. We all slowly made our way down to Ambivali village.

On arrival all of us were soaking wet, but we were really happy to see that 2 tuktuks were waiting for us there. At the small hotel some of us changed into dry clothes as it was getting really cold and the tuktuk ride back would have chilled us to the bone had we been in wet clothes.

Scene – VII : Ambivali village to Karjat station to Mumbai.

All the people who were dry got into one tuktuk and all the people who were wet got into the second tuktuk. It took us about an hour to reach Karjat station. Along the way we clicked some more pics and reviewd the ones that we had clicked along the way. We had left from the village at around 7:30pm and it was already 8:35 by the time we reached Karjat station. The train back to Mumbai was scheduled for 8:40pm. All of us rushed to the platform while mallikaji hurried to buy our tickets. We got into the train in a hurry but luckily for us the train left a little late. (Now I know why the fast local to CST from thane always arrives late. It never leaves on time)

Once in the train all of us tried to relax a bit. I was standing at the door trying to dry my clothes a bit and made a few fonecalls. All the others were listening to either their mp3 players or ipods or phone (Showoffs… hhmmpphhhh…) And when I tried to snatch away mallikaji’s earphones, he tried to scare me by showing me his big eyes ( oye jaake bacchon ko darana.. im not a kid ki aapse darr jau :P) Saurabh had gotten a big dairymilk chocolate for me which I refused to share with anyone ( I don’t share chocolates sorry).. At which mallikaji and Kalpess bhai tried to cheenofy my chocolate from me….( Oyeee khabardaarr…) When kalpess bhai couldn’t take the choch from me he started maroing senti… “5gram ke chocolate ke liye mujhse itna zhagad rahi hai… dekhli teri dosti”… ( Hehe.. lolz… main toh 2 gram ke chocolate ke liye bhi itna hi jhagadungi… main chocolate share nahin karti :P)

I bid senti goodbyes to all and got down at Thane station. Mallikaji came to see me off…(or rather push me off the train….heheh sorry sorry just kidding). HE bid me a verryy loud goodbye which im sure the entire station must have heard…lolz…

At last I was back to home sweet home… Thanx to me for suggesting such a lovely trek…Thanku Thanku… *taking a bow*

Peb / Vikatgad 2007

“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.”

Getting away from the monotonous office life is what we MoRonz strive for. And the scaling of PEB / VIKATGAD was one more feather to our caps. Work / Office is part of the slavery to our “Paapi Pet”. Our Adventures together is what we term as “Life”. This time around our adventure started from CST station on 25-08-07. All the moroners were required to report to the station at 11pm and we were going to catch the 11:28 train to Karjat. I arrived at 10:30pm, as the first citizen of our group Mr. Kalpess Bhai had decided to grace us with his presence and give us his blessings. But then he dared to come in a tee which said “I am allergic to morons”. How dare u Mr. First Citizen??.. Iska badla hum zaroor lenge..heh he. And the first thing Mallikaji does on my arrival, is introduce me to Nitin. He he… the portable potty guy… Everyone was most eager to meet him actually…

At 11:30pm all of us got on to the train to Karjat and occupied almost 50% of the compartment. We sure can make our presence felt everywhere we go. The “WAZZUPS….” Never go unnoticed or unanswered. It was so nice and peaceful with the nice talks and the jokes, until Ghatkopar arrived and devil (RAHUL BARVE) got in. “Hey bhagvaan maine aapka kya bigada hai. Why have you send this guy to spoil my sleep…. Why why why ….. Miane aapko kitne baar samjhaya hai… I havta work on Saturdays whereas almost all the others have a holiday…so please next time tell Rahul to lemme sleep…Amen”

After Kalyan Stn.. the compartment had gotten almost empty except for a few commuters and was majorly occupied by us Moroners. Well so as I was already getting cranky due to lack to sleep and rest, I thought of standing at the door, or rather hang at the doorway. With Janaki giving me company we were trying to do the TITANIC pose with one hand to get the 50% feel of it.. hehe. And then the elite few… Rahul, Viju, Venkat Mallika came and sat at the door and started with their singing sessions. Half the songs I havnt heard in my life. How old are u, u guys??.... Pata nahin kaunse zamane ke gaane gaa rahe the.

We got down at Neral station at around 1:30am I guess and were again introduced to our 5 star accommodation. Well it was a better place than the Kamshet station as we were a little away from the actual platform and away from the ruckus the high speed trains create. As soon as everyone had deposited their bags, they scattered in every direction looking for toilets. Hmm…. Where was Mr. Nitin… I wonder…

After quick photo sessions, half of them went on to play a game of cards and a few of them went off to sleep including RAHUL BARVE. Wow!! God finally answered my prayers. Can u believe it, Rahul actually went of to sleep. Aahhhh…. Freedom at last. Freedom to sleep peacefully. Viju, Amol and I went to sleep on a broken down thing of a train… I dunno what it was. And I managed to get at least 1 ½ hrs of peaceful sleep I guess…interrupted a little by the barking of the maniac dogs. At around 3am we woke up and went to play Dumsharads with the others. Never have I played such a hilarious game of Dumsharaads in my life. U cannot believe the type actions people did and the type of associations people created. We had Mr. Santosh Kutty trying to explain to us in actions the movie “MOMENTO” Now we had guessed “mo” and “to” and the clue we had was it starts with “mo” ends with “to” and is the synonym for “GIFT”… and then our very talented Janaki even even went ahead to guess the whole story of the movie…she even announced that there is a tamil remake of the movie…she even narrated the story for us…but she couldn’t name the movie. Can u beat that? And Santosh was getting exasperated by the minute. ( I don’t blame him. Who wudnt J ).
Then came in Amit. We had given him the movie “The Bourne Supremacy” He misheard ‘Bourne’ as ‘Brown’… and the en-action and connection he treid to make was just out of the world. First he pointed to someone’s pants to depict brown…but no one got it…then he proceed to show us a brown dog.. still no one could guess….he went on further to make people to guess names of dogs to come to browny and then down to brown…still no one could get it… Only when Janaki enquired as to what he was actually trying to do, did we get the above explanation. My GOD!!!.... All of us were in splits of laughter. Whole 15mins Janaki and I were laughing like crazy. After Damsharaads we decided to rest for atleast ½ hr, and leave at around 7am afer breakfast.

As we got into the restaurant all the places were occupied except for the one next to Mr. Rahul Kumar. God alone knows what compelled me to go and sit down there. And to top it all even Viju came and sat down next to me. I don’t remember how it started but both these guys started making up grossy names of supposedly food items …ewwww… which included “potty kababs, tatti makhanwala, potty rolls, alu potty….. and so on… YUCK!!!.... im still disgusted… and they kept on continuing with this charade to my utter disgust… GROSS…. I then poured water over both their heads to shut them up… that sort of back fired… both of them started wiping their wet heads on my sleeve and Rahul went ahead to even blow his nose on my sleeve…… “Double ewwwwww….” I had lost my appetite completely and even the enthusiasm to speak. I went without breakfast even though my stomach was growling with hunger L. And Rahul giving me the so called “CHETAVANI” ‘The day has just begun..just wait n watch’

We walked for about 30-40mins to reach the base village. Well actually we skipped the base village and went trespassing through private property, crossing barbwire fences, walking through cow shit strewn paths. Hence it is rightly said for us, we choose the road less traveled. Well it was now a favorite pastime for Rahul to disgust me. He had found this BIG disgusting beetle from God knows where, which he kept dangling under my nose whenever he got the chance. “ Tripple ewwww..” And I could hear people warning him, “Jyada gussa mat dila, bhadak gayi toh teri khair nahi”. Well I am guessing that was Mallikaji.

As we kept treading along after like an hour we reached a plateau where there was a big electricity tower. All of us were sweating profusely by now due to the lousy weather. Here we saw some stunts by our official group monkeys who climbed up the tower. Rahul K., Viju, Venkat and Mallikaji doin the honours. A 10min break at this place and we were ready to move ahead. Amey showed us from here a ‘V’ formation in the mountains that we were supposed to be climbing. It looked far. We started our march ahead. Somehow every one was very quiet and kept walking in a single file, which is strange considering we are “THE MoRonz”, but I guess this was due to the tiredness. As we walked ahead the steepness of the path kept steadily increasing. And as we were on the wrong side of the mountain, there was no breeze around. We kept climbing to the tunes of Rahul’s singing. U can call it singing as he was singing his own modified versions of some popular songs. Disgusting yet hilarious lyrics though… heehe… After some time we reached a small stream and everyone freshened up here and we filled our water bottles” As we finally reached the ‘V’ we realized we still had a long way to go. After walking further for some time we reached a rock patch which looked really difficult to climb due to its steepness. We completed the rock patch successfully with some help from our strong men.

From here it took us about 30mins to reach the caves. All of us were so relieved on finally reaching the caves. There was a small namesake waterfall here and Viju, Janaki and I went and stood under it to beat the heat. Aahhhh!!.... the cold water felt soo good. Then Rahul B. announced that we still had to go a further ahread to reach the top, and we would be eating our lunch after we get back. After a 5min walk from the caves we reached a metal ladder which was leaning straight against the fort wall. It was quite a tall ladder and look scary to climb, for me atleast and even before climbing I was wondering how the hell am I gonna climb down from it. But all of us climbed up without any mishaps. From here a little walk away there was a steep slippery climb up for which we had to make use of ropes for support. I was very eager to reach the top just to see wat was up there and catch the much needed breeze. But the top got us just disappointment. There was just a small monument up there of some saint’s feet. And nothing else. The breeze was still non-existent and the weather was getting hotter as it was already noon. We rested here for about 30mins and decided to move down. 6 of us decided to get down through the same path by which we had come, the rest decided to take the easier but longer route which turned out to be a mistake (or not). The route they chose took them halfway upto Matheran. On the way they encounterd 2 bulls that chased them…hehe. I wish I was there to experience this. The 6 of us reached back to the caves in less than 30mins. We were at the caves by 1pm. By this time Mallikaji had already reached and cooked maggi for us. After a nice cool washup under the small waterfall we sat down to eat maggi.

As were started eating our lunch (all of us had forgotten to get plates or spoons, except for the kid of our group – UMA) All through the trek she had behaved like a introvert and quiet kid. But now as she opened her mouth we realized that she was far from being a quiet kid. She had full on started accusing the leadership abilities of Mallikaji.

Uma: You are the leader of the group. You are supposed to inform the people to get the plates.

Mallika: I had informed everybody on the message boards. It is not my mistake if they didn’t get their own plates and spoons.

Uma: But u had not informed me. Mallika: U are not a group member, hence u do not have access to our message boards and u didn’t get informed.

Pam: Yeah he had informed all of us. We forgot to get it. Uma: Then as a leader it is ur responsibility to inform me personally.

Mallika: No it is not. I had informed all the members and since u r Nachiket’s guest, he is supposed to inform u.

Uma: But Nachiket didn’t inform me.

Mallika: Well then that is not my mistake.

Uma: Ok chalo thik hai that u didn’t inform me about the plates and spoons, but then why don’t u have the ladel to mix the magi? Why are u using a stick to mix it?

Mallika: I did not have the pertromax stove and the vessel with me. Rahul had it and he gave it to me at the stn. So I didn’t know that there was no ladel.

Uma: Then u shud have told him nah to get ladel also, that is ur responsibility as a leader.

Viju: Mallika, yeh ladki toh teri acchi tarah le rahi hai.

Mallika: Arre how was I supposed to know that he will not get a ladel?

Uma: But I am saying generally also, that it is the leader’s responsibility to take care of everything

Rahul B.: Aga tujhi unchi kiti ani tu boltes kiti (the length of ur tongue is more than ur height)

Viju: I have just one line for u. As a guest u should not expect too much.

It was then that this NICE and ENTERTAINING conversation ended.(It had many more line to it, but this is all dat I could remember. After a long and leisurely lunch we had all lied down to rest and yet the other group hadn’t arrived. It was already past 2pm. Then at a distance we saw the group slowly making their way towards the cave. All of them exhausted and looking food deprived. All of them pounced on the maggi as soon as they came. By the time all of them ate, I decided to take a much needed nap. By now it had become nice and sunny and all of us were getting worried about getting down in the hot sun. We had decided to start moving down by 3:30pm so by that time everybody had lied down to take a nap.

When I woke up at 3:15pm, I was happy to see that it was nice n foggy n cloudy n breezy n a little cool too. I was shivering a little as I had slept off in wet clothes. Viju and Janaki wanted a nice pic of just the two of them but nobody would allow them to do this. All the others would come and crowd around the two of them each time they tried to take a snap…heheh… well after mayb a half dozen such snaps we let them have a moment of their own.

At 3:30pm we started our descend. It was nice and cool and relaxing due to the breeze. It was nice till the “V” but from here we would be again going down the wrong side of the mountain, hence no breeze again. The climb down was nice and slippery with each of us having had at least one nice fall and nice spoilt bums. But then the falls became the fun of the journey down.

As we came down to the plateau and reached the 1st electric tower, Venkat asked “ Kitna bada tower hai nah! Soch kitna purana hoga” , to which Viju replied “Abe who koi ped (tree) hai kya jo, jitna bada, utna purana??” and Rahul K. who as usual never leaves a chance to reply or crack jokes, stated “ Haan bahut chotasa tower boya (planted) tha kiisi ne, dekho kitna bada hogaya hai. Arre 2500watts ka power chahiye, aur paani daalo.. arre 3000watts the power chahiye, aur paani daalo” All of us were in splits and Venkat looked highly embarrassed.

The others were waiting for us at the 2nd tower. Rahul K. and Janaki arrived last, and as they proceeded towards us, Janaki slipped and had a nice fall with both her legs in the air. Ahahahahh….. all of us were in splits at the sight even Janaki herself. Then she came and announced “That was a really nice fall, I could see the entire group between my legs (NO PUN INTENDED). Ahahahah we were laughing even more at this statement.We halted here for a small break and took our Butt Snap. What is a Butt Snap you would ask? Well it is the snap of all those spoilt Butts who had fallen on the way down. A Kodak Moment!!

From this tower we had about 1 ½ hrs worth of walk left. Slowly yet steadily we kept walking on our route taking pictures wherever we could. Finally we reached the base village and I changed into fresh clothes at a Tai’s house. We reached Neral stn at 7:20pm and our train back to Mumbai was at 7:56pm. After saying nice Goodbyes to everyone we gurls went to the ladies compartment which was nice and empty. At thane 4 of us got down and Janaki proceeded towards Dadar. All in all it was an Amazing trip with the Moronz. I enjoyed a lot. Thanx to Mallikaji and Amey for a nice and enjoyable trip