Tikona 2007

Early morning on the 29th July at 10am IST, 12 MoRoNeRz set foot on the highest point of Tikona fort and claimed it as their own. According to sources, these 12 MoRoNeRz belong to Mumbai and have been eyeing the Tikona fort for almost a week now. After the successful conquer of Naneghat and Jivdhan last weekend, these elite ones took over the Tikona in less than 2hrs, under the leadership of Mr. Rahul Barve.
(The following tale is a first account version brought to us by a very valuable source, at a great risk to her life, who was present at the crime site at the time of the conquer.)


On the 28th July the 12 MoRoNeRz met at dadar station near the Hanuman Temple to give the final touches to their plan. Mr. Rahul Barve, the leader of the group, handed out some arms n ammunition ( a.k.a. head lamps) to his 2nd in commands and commissioned them to the post of a mobile lamp post. After quick introductions and fund collections, we slowly proceeded towards our get away vehicle (a.k.a. supposedly the Mumbai-pune express, which was wrongly christened the Mumbai-Pandharpur Express). At the platform we waited for around ½ hr before our vehicle arrived. After a short confusion regarding the name of the train, we got into the train and tried to make ourselves comfortable. Let me remind u all that finding a place to sit when you are traveling by the general dabba is considered to be a luxury. But I guess the Gods were smiling on us that day. All of us found a place to sit and 2-3 of us even found a place to sleep, including me. Well I am guessing that these people had sensed that I was a spy coz they had become the enemy of my SLEEP. Mr. Rahul with his very irritating line “ Pam… Pam… hey Pam… are u sleeping??....Hey Pam so gayi kya??” would wake me up every time I tried to catch a few winks. Main bechari bacchi, had spent the entire Saturday at office slogging, then gone home to cook diner for myself, pack my bags n leave for the trek. Fir bhi bhechari bacchi ko sone nahi deti yeh zaalim duniya.




Well in the train, the range span of our topics of discussion had no limits at all. From the Sahyadris treks to what people eat in China, we discussed it all. Rahul told us stories about his trekking experiences. Some good and funny and some spooky enough to give you the goose pimples. And then Mr. Nomad, a.k.a. Moiz started with the stories of China. From the food to the girls, he gave us every teeny weeny detail. Ahh…well ghambet girls are easier to deal with, than deep fried snakes. And he got so excited at promoting China for our benefit that he even proceeded to show us the pics of the various so called delicacies, one of them being the deep fried snakes. Sorry boss I ain’t gonna see that pic, I love my Maggie noodles too much. Then at a certain station, dunno which, some eunuchs came in with their claps. There was a rowdy group in the same compartment as ours who started singing the trademark chakka songs, irating the eunuchs who went away cursing. About after 2hrs all our asses had gone numb from sitting on the wooden seats in one position. Sunil sandwiched between me n Moiz and me sandwiched between Amol n Sunil. Saurabh n Kajol were sitting rite opposite to us, all six of us squeezed on the upper berths. Every few minutes we used to try n squirm around a little to keep the blood circulation flowing.




After 2hrs Moiz could no longer take the torture and went to stand at the door. Ahhhhh!!….. space at last.. The rest of us spread out a little and stretched ourselves. I saw this as the perfect opportunity to sleep. I put my head on Amol’s lap and curled up the rest of me in exactly 2feet of space to sleep. I guess I may have managed to rake in around an hour of peaceful sleep. Not at all upto my usual standards but I can adjust. We reached Kamshet station at around 3:15am and Rahul gave us a tour of our 5star accomodation. Saurabh spread out a sleeping bag on the floor next to a bench. Moiz, Sunil, Kajol n Saurabh lied down on it. Amol n I were resting on the bench. ( read as – me lying down and Amol sitting). We then started playing the 20questions game, which Moiz later told me was introduced into the group by Janakee. [ Thanx Janakee we had a lotta laughs coz of that game]. It was a hell of fun trying to guess the correct answer. And I am pretty sure these guys are gonna tease me all my life for some of the blunders I made. (Ohh… dun worry…word spreads like wild fire here…u will all be aware of my blunders even before this blog gets posted.). Woh bolte hain nah..every group has a scape goat to be made fun off….I was that goat on this trek.


After a few foto sessions, at around 5am we decided to move from the station into the village to find our transportation uptil Kale colony. Rahul had arranged a jeep for us which would take us to Kale colony. 12 of us were squeezed into the jeep with Saurabh worried about his future generations. Don’t forget to ask him why. The only thing on my mind at that time was, if 12 of us were feeling squeezed, how the hell 23 of them managed to squeeze into the same jeep. My imagination had failed me utterly. On the way we stopped at a khade gaon for breakfast. I was sooo sleepy that I was walking around like a zombie. After breakfast we left for our destination and I managed to get some more sleep along the way. When we reached our destination, I saw what I was expecting to see. The road stretched before us was full of mud n muck (khichad). I quickly changed from my Adidas shoes into floater. After around 20mins of walk we reached the entry point into the Tikona fort trek.


After resting here for 10-15 mins we started. The path ahead was extremely narrow and plus fortified with wet mud and slippery rocks. The undergrowth was so thick that we cudnt even see our own legs Yet we managed to reach the first pit stop in just ½ hr. we waited here for around 15-20mins enjoying the cold breeze and the beautiful view. The next pit stop came in just 15mins. It was a cave which had been converted into a temple. There was a pond here full of green water and swarming with little fishes, and the panditji was very quick in telling us not wash ourselves in that water ‘coz its supposed to be “DRINKING water”. All of us were looking at each other at this statement, well atleast the girls were. The water dint look appetizing enough to even have a bath in, let alone actually drinking it. Here Rahul set up hiz makeshift tea stall and made a full handi bharke tea for just 12 ppl. And u guessed it right, we had so much leftover tea that it was enough to for 2 more groups. Well some other trekkers did have the good fortune to taste Rahul’s tea. After tea well all started the next phase of our climb to the actual fort. As we came to the door of the fort, we saw giant steps stretched infront of us. So big were the steps that it makes me wonder – how tall were the solders of the Shivaji era??.. or rather how long were their legs? Well big steps is one thing, water flowing on these steps like a small water fall is quite another. After climbing a few steps I saw this big, round, white thing on one of the steps. I thought it was a mushroom. After poking at it for some time I realized that is was a goddamed idli. Whoever leaves an idli on a step at a place like this. Stupid people. As I looked away from the idli pretending to be a mushroom, I heard a big commotion behind me, with a BIG thud and Raksha screaming… Kern..Kern… The voice of Raksha actually made my heart stop. I must not say it but I actually thought that Kern had fallen from sumwhere. I ran to the place where Kern was and to my relief Kern was safe. But maybe the people below weren’t, ‘coz Kern was standing at the edge of a wall and one of the rocks had come lose and fallen down. All our concern was for the people directly below the path of the rock. But we were lucky, everyone was safe.




We climbed on to reach the fort and reached the top. Five of us reached the top first, Saurabh, Kajol, Moiz, Sunil n me. The rest were down below somewhere, dunno where. On the top we expected us to be the only ones there, but were surprised to find a huge group of around 30people huddled together at a place which from far away looked like a party hall complete with tables and sofas. They were feasting on idlis n chatni. Now I knew the secret of the idli kept back there on the steps. As we waited for them to depart, a group of 7-8 utterly show off girls passed by us. They were behaving paranoid about getting down the smallest of slopes, and one of them proudly announced everyone to use their Dunlop pillows. “DUNLOP PILLOWS” we were zapped, and then we realized what she meant was her very precious bums. Ahahah… we were in splits. After they left we went to see the place where they were sitting. We were surprised that there was nothing there at all,no table or sofas.


Reaching the top of Tikona was the most satisfying experience. We had a 360° view of the entire range. From Tung and Rajgad to Lohagad and Visapur. We stayed up here for about 30mins, clicked fotos, enjoied the view, tried to distinguish if the small animals we could see down below were goats, cows or horses. And while I was standing at the edge of the cliff to see the straight drop below, Prema wanrned me not to, but I said I’ll be careful as I am not planning to jump off yet. But then Saurabh gave me the shock of my life. He held me by my bag and gave me a nice shake on that edge of the cliff. I had to hold on to Sunil’s hand to steady myself. At that instant I seriously felt like beating the shit out of Saurabh. My heart was in my mouth, about to jump out, and escape from the body which it thought was gonna fall off the cliff. Well I knew he never meant to throw me off the cliff so I don’t hold any grudge against him, but I sure did make him feel guilty about it all through the trek….hehe… I kept telling him “ u tried to push me, Sunil saved me” and his face showed how awful he was feeling. Sorry Saurabh, I was just trying to take the mickey out of you.


Before starting the descend, Rahul instructed us that the girls have to follow him as the road back down is gonna be a tricky one. But some of the others disregarded this and we saw the result none sooner. Prema slipped on a step and twisted her ankle. But luckily no damaged was done. When we reached back to the caves, Rahul informed us that we will be taking a different route from here instead of the one from where we came. And from this route we saw a few amateurs emerging, who promptly informed us not to go by that way as it was impossible to climb down, in a ‘Don’t-tell-me-i-didn’t-warn-you’ tone. We decided to go by that way anyway as we had long ago placed our faith in Rahul. So when he says we can do it, it means we can do it. After treading on this route for awhile we finally saw what those other trekkers were referring to. There was a small rock patch ahead of us which was wet with flowing water. It looked scary from where we were seeing it, but Rahul assured us that we will do it without any accidents if we just followed his instructions. Rahul informed the others to wait at the top while he took Kajol and me to attack the rock patch. It was both scary and exciting at the same time. Rahul left us and his bag at a safe place and then went back up to get the others. It was fun to watch the other climb down, watching the expressing on their faces, concentrating with all their might…heheeh. The path ahead of this was just ½ foot wide. But it was much much safer than the rock patch.




We came down in just 1 ½ hr I guess. And from here we were trying to spot the zhanda (flag) which seemed non existent. And when the clouds cleared we realized why the flag seemed non-existant. It was not at the place where we were looking for it, but instead it was on a different peak further away. That peak seemed really far away now, and we were amazed at how fast we had climbed down. The rains were more than welcome now, for me atleast. We feasted on Cadbury Dairy milks and went down to the road below, slipping and sliding on the muddy path. We reached the village on time to find our jeep waiting for us. The jeep dropped us on the highway of Kamshet. Here we had our lunch at hotel Rangoli. So hungry we were that we quickly finished the papads and even the plate of onions, before our lunch arrived. After we were all fed and watered, we were ready to head back home. Rahul surprised us by arranging for a tempo to take us back home. It was a much better ride compared to the crowded busses or trains. We were all seated comfortably. After a quick game of 20 questions, everyone was ready to doze off. I woke up only when Kharghar arrived. Moiz got down at Nerul and the rest of us got down at Vashi. It was 5pm and we made it to Mumbai in one piece and absolutely happy.