candid times...

When i sit on the chair...i dont feel like getting up and when i am standing...i dread to grab a seat, cause the transition between these two states...is what i dread the most of...! With the every bit of pain my neurons makes me feel...there are those connecting one's which bring the adventurous, fun filled and worth the pain moments of the trek...to "Rajmachi" back to life, chucking the pain away!!!
Yep, had been to a trek to "Rajmachi" a small village 20kms off lonavla...this weekend!
And this was one of a kind experience...cause there were many "first time" kinda events...!
The journey started from the bus-stop waitng for bus. no. 212/1 and after 5-10mins or so we were in the cab n heading towards Dadar TT...!
Buses came n buses went... none were ready to take us to Lonavla bus stand.(it rhymes)
Within a span of about 15-30 mins we actually managed to question the man at the inquiry counter...a hundred times.Also the conductors of the arriving buses were not spared from "Will this bus go to Lonavla?"The wait for the bus lasted for an hour or so...but then it was not boring at all...time was passing as were the buses..n we enjoyed as if we never cared...!
Grabed the last seats of an heading to Nanded ST...and begined with bus mein masti...!(this one rhymes too...whoa)
Inacting movies one after other...there was a splater of laughter ...in the other wise snoozing shant types gather!(its a threesome rhyme here)
The conductor was oversmart kinds...and cared more of we getting down off his bus at the destination.Memory game followed as the bus got packed ....Saxena-kutta-tempo-bus-chak-kobi-gas-acetabullum-czeckoslovakia...n on it went...
Finally at Lonavla we had a pick up "sumo" and at "Ram Krishna" we were "8+3=11" ka gang now!!!
Now as i said "Rajmachi" is about 20-22kms off Lonavla and the best part is we started at about 23-23.30 or so from Lonavla.
And this road...i must say was not even worth calling a kaccha road...was really bumpy...single vehicle pass...with no street lights...no sign boards...no human habitation...and pitch dark...wow! Frankly speaking it was adorned with pure darkness...and couldn't keep my eyes of the beauty of dark. we also managed to convince the driver to put off the headlights for that rare experience of absolute darkness!
I must tell the first sight of the tree adorned with fireflies was just mast...i mean how beautiful it looked in the dark! After that we spotted countless fireflies...wandering here an there...attracting their mates/prey.
Finally at around 1 o'clock we reached "Rajmachi"...this village with 20-22 houses...and no electricity...wow!!!
We headed to the house were we intended to spend that night...the floor was clad with cowdung and cold breeze made a feel good effect...! Spent the whole night in the verandha and the street just outside the house..doing nothing at all...listening to the golden silence!!!It almost felt like listening to the silence and observing the hide n seek game that the cloud and half moon played till eternity...!
It had hardly been an hour or so since my mind had shut off and i went to sleep, then the natural alarm of the hen began with advanced snooze set ups which was not supported with the snooze off algorithm...this created god save me kinda situation...!
At around 6.30-7 we began our climb on the "Manoranjan" fort...the climb wasn't difficult at all...still doing duniya bharka timepass and mazza masti we were heading with a snail's pace...enjoying the view, the caves. the on the way water bodies, sipping in cloud nine .(the trek superhit) After photoshots and relaxed moments up there on the fort we headed down to "Rajmachi" again....had lunch at one of the locals place were we stayed the previous night.
Then came the decision point...to go the way we came...to lonavla or to climb downhill to karjat, which according to the locals was "faster" and most recommended. We began heading to karjat at around 14hrs in the brightly shining sun...with the expectation of reaching Karjat early and without the trouble as it was to be in the Lonavla wala road...
But something totally bizare, unexpected and first time kinda thingy was in store for us...something which made this trek the most adventurous one...
We had no clue about the road to Karjat, we took few directions from the lady in whose house we stayed and in another 5 mins or so...one of us had to go back to her for directions again...! Finally we began on the right track...all 11 of us plus a black doggy called Raju or Raja (something like that) he himself volunteered to accompany us. In the scorching heat with our caps and scarfs and glares on...we walked. All was going good untill we came up to the first slope...wherein our actual journety downward began...frankly speaking i still remember the sight of that first slope and its steepness...and then continued the series of steep slopes. I have never seen such steep slopes, in my life.With frequent breaks of water and cloud nine we continued downwards. Other groups one by one overtaking us...but the loyal raja continued to stay with us...in return he enjoyed Parle G and few licks of water...from true dog lovers snehal and mihir.Along with this one there was another brown colored dog which accompanied us. The dog had a perfect overtaking timing, he would wish to overtake at the difficult patch of the route and scare me to the core...i hate dogs!
Actually we could quite frequently hear train ka engine...which later sometime...i designated as a "psuedosignal" cause it used to make us feel we are nearing to Karjat stn n it should be near by but it never was, it indeed was a psuedo signal!
Even we girls in the group managed to slip quite often...making the guys wonder...how someone can slip so frequently...! Waise toh at quite few points i had to sit down and push myself to the lower level...but at one point when i was in the process of doing so...the huge stone on which my hand took support went loose and was about to fall on my legs below...thankfully it was put on hold!
Steep slopes came and went by...but there was no "namo nishan" of any gaon "dur dur tak" forget Karjat. It looked like we were completely lost....It had been hours we were climbing down and heading nowhere it seemed...still we continued. The hopes of even finding a small village were diminshing now...we continued. Admist of all this situation we were doing all sorts of bakwas and laughing and giggling...and this was the prime reason due to which atleast i myself slipped quite a few times. Actually no one of us cared about the passing time and also about not seeing habitation "dur dur tak". We continued, finally at around 17hrs started the patch with no more slopes...and our expectations of expecting a village increased exponentially!
We got completely lost in the plane land, had to ask a group of co-downclimbers the way ahead...and were shocked to hear that there was this another village called "kondwae"(something like that) from where we can get a transport to Karjat which was 30-40 mins away from there(that village).We kept walking, villages came and villages went...at one point we saw a rick standing on the road and it seemed like an oasis in a desert! We were just walking walking and walking completely lost....till we spot a board "Karjat 9.5kms"...OMG!
We walked and walked and finally...actually finally reached this village "kondwae" and before even looking for a suitable transport gulped in a bottle of mango juice and quenched our thirst and recharged ourselves.We were lost and found! Took the 10 seater auto and threw ourselves into it and headed to Karjat stn...finally...finally came the Karjat stn and we were on the right track in the local!
I mean common never in our lives we had such an experience, such feeling of being unsure...of not even knowing whether the destination is going to even come or no, whether we were on the right track and still we were so tension free enjoying ourselves like insanes...!
It's amazing to be insane!!!