Blank...

I need to break this travelog for this post... I feel so...

So when I am writing all this, I am "being", its like A 2 Z... or nothing, thinking nothing, because can't.

Its here... right now!!! I am happy, I am sad, I am confused. I convince myself sometimes by the quotes like "Confusion is the most honest state...". I know this is. People worry more about their sufferings rather than enjoying the moments which they can. Sufferings override the best moments they have at present... But as I said, I am highly confused; I don't expect myself not to show this. So, I also think that this happens, the suffering overrides the little moments of happiness, joy, a feeling of being juvenile again, a feeling of being in college again... :), but it can't take that from you. As I said I am confused, I can't explain everything... actually, not anything. And I don't want to do so also. If you force yourself to do so, that's being injustice with the moments.

Words like joy, happiness are often getting used now a days. The whole world seems to be trying to show this. We forget about reading the faces and feeling this thing, but we learned to talk about this a lot. That's a good thing also, we learned something... But the nucleotide thing is... what makes you happy, joyful? Can you do a bifurcation between happiness & satisfaction? I felt happiness inside me because I felt satisfied sometimes back when I was able to deliver some message, though hints, and in bits & pieces. I was confused, I am confused and I will remain confused about the same. And that is my source for happiness. To being not in this state, I will loose the source.

I read something very interesting about Joy... "Joy is not the result of what you do; Joy is a state of being that enters your heart when you are open to learning and taking loving care of yourself. Joy is the feeling of exuberance and oneness that envelopes you once you have opened to feeling your pain, learning from it, and moving through it." ... Though not completely agreed, as people may have different views/definitions, but I feel good to read this.

I am blank, I am empty, I am full, I am sad, I am happy, I am feeling anything, feeling nothing, I am feeling everything. Its not about love, liking etc..., it can't be. Either it is nothing or more than that. I always wakeup my lazy person inside while defining or giving name to something. Giving name would be injustice... defining may be injustice...Its here and there, its everywhere... its now!!! Experience life in all possible ways -- good-bad, bitter-sweet, dark-light...what matters is you should either feel good about everything, about the experience you are gaining or you have already gained, or should not feel anything. Being sad also can be beautiful, feeling being lonely can have its own experience. Don't know, may be depends...I am still on my stand... I am confused...If you really want to know what it is, you need to be absolutely blank.

As Osho said... "Mind can accept any boundary anywhere. But the reality is that, by its very nature, existence cannot have any boundary, because what will be beyond the boundary - again another sky. That's why I'm saying skies upon skies are available for your flight. Don't be content easily. Those who remain content easily remain small: small are their joys, small are their ecstasies, small are their silences, small is their being. But there is no need! This smallness is your own imposition upon your freedom, upon your unlimited possibilities, upon your unlimited potential."

"All the Buddhas of all the ages have been telling you a very simple fact: Be -- don't try to become. Within these two words, be and becoming, your whole life is contained. Being is enlightenment, becoming is ignorance."

So when I am writing all this above, I am "being", its like A 2 Z... or nothing, thinking nothing, because I can't. I don't have any problems when the time will come and I will say I am "becoming"... because I don't feel any issue being a human... We, the humans always have our own right and wrongs, we manipulate things, we always trying to "becoming"... not "be"... so what...? We are also leaning things, its learning phase... and at some/any moments in our lifetime, we will feel that we should be "being" and will implement...

So many things or may be nothing... :) ... but its like a feeling of joy, may be I take everything like this way, happiness, sadness... anything... I always take an advantage of being confused... someone can vouch on me for this, can say anything to me, good, bad, weird... Its again like being A 2 Z or nothing...

God bless!!! :)

Mumbai - Shani Shingnapur - Shirdi - Trimbkeshwar

This post I am writing regarding a ‘sacred trip’ which eventually turned the 'adventures trip' due to the weather conditions. We had been there many times, however, the best trip was this one which we enjoyed the most due to the reason of being in our own vehicle and I got a chance for a long drive of around 700 Km. Every time we made a plan to go Shirdi; our route was predefined (however not achieved sometime due to time constraint). So the decision was made to be at those pilgrimages on the weekend. We decided to start on Saturday morning and we planned to cover Shani Shingnapur and Shirdi on the same day itself following with Trimbakeshwar next day, post a halt in Shirdi on Saturday night.

We decided to start the trip at 9:00 AM or 10:00 AM on Saturday, however, we had the great 'time-killer' and 'trip-spoiler' this time with us, MM, 'the supari-man' (yeah, he was a replica of super-man, just some supari in his mouth every time). So there was no chance we could have start on time. I don't know exactly by what time we started as I didn't had time to note it down as we were hell late. Initially the plan was to reach Shani Shingnapur by 3:00 PM, reach Shirdi by 6:00 or 7:00 PM but due to our 'Supari-man's' expected delay, we were not even thinking to make this happen.

So we start driving towards Pune as if you have to go Shani Shingnapur first, that route is best. If you have to go as Trimbakeshwar -- Shirdi -- Shani Shingnapur, then you need to move towards Nasik first. Weather was cool and we had our 10 years old wonder-car with only one driver as me in that. 'Supari-man' (MM) and another desi version of 'Super Comando Dhruva' Mr. SPS already showed their intention not to try their driving skills with that wonder-car because the technologies as well as the supersonic systems of that car were not as per their standards. According to them, they are high maintenance guys (with empty pockets).

So we were on the express highway of Mumbai-Pune to cover the time we wasted (which was impossible). There is nothing as scenic as Mumbai-Pune highway during rain but on express highway, halt is not allowed. You can only stop on the patch of 8 kms (Lonavala) which is common for highway and express highway and we had foto sessions there. Driving was going smooth and we took a left turn for Ahmadnagar which straight goes to Shani Sighnapur. We reached there by the evening only, curtesy our 'supari-man'. Before I go ahead and start journey to Shirdi, there is something I want to explain about Shani Sighnapur pilgrim. Information is widely available on internet but there is no harm to repeat it and involved in this blog.

There are many Lord Shani temples in India, out of which, two famous places of Lord Shani are, Shani Shinganapur in Maharashtra, and one is Shani temple in Kosi Kalan (Mathura). Shani-Shinganapur lies 6 kilometers off Ghodegaon- an important market place along Ahmednagar-Aurangabad road. Ghodegaon is 35 kilometers from Ahmednagar. Distance from Mumbai is 330 Kms approx, via the route Mumbai-Pune-Ahmednagar-Shani Shignapur. This village is famous as a pilgrimage as well as for its door less mystery. The houses here have gaping, rectangular spaces at the facade of every home. No door frames, no latches, no padlocks or any other safety measures to guard the house. The door less architecture makes its presence felt right from the famous temple Sri Shaneshwar Graha Devatha. Male devotees clad in saffron cloth take a head bath before entering into the temple. Devotees also perform Abhishekas (rites involving
pouring of certain liquids over the idol) with water and til (mustard) oil. Thousands of people gather on Shani Amvasaya to perform puja.

One of the unique aspects of the village Shinganapur is that houses here have no door- frames or locks on them for safety. They are in fact not needed. The people here believe that it is the benediction of the god that no crime ever occurs in this village. Another belief attached to this place is the story of Neem tree standing to the North of the Shani idol. It is believed that the tree sheds its branches if one happens to cast a shadow over the idol.

Back to journey... we had our prayers at Shani-Shiganapur and moved towards Shirdi at around 9:00 PM. Our plan was to stay in Shirdi and to attend the early morning aarti, however, we forgot that planning is not what we should do to make things happen on time. We reached Shirdi by 11:00 PM and if there is some space to believe, we didn't got any room in any hotel by 3:00 AM, night. Every hotel was full as there was Saturday, Sunday and almost all the devotees came to Shirdi to offer prayers. Finally at 3:30 AM, one hotel staff shown some mercy on us and we got a room there. Our plan to attend the early morning aarti got failed as Mr. Supari man declared that he can't make it as he is hell tired and that statement was strongly backed by SPS. I was finding out the reason what made those guys so much exhausted because I was the one who was driving all the way. But there was no logic to convince them at that moment they got a bag full of reasons why not to go to temple at that time. So we drag into beds and wake up in the morning at around 9:00 AM. By noon 3:00 PM, we had everything done including lunch and we started for Trumkeshwar, Nasik. Again, before we reach Nasik, I would like to share few things about Shirdi.

Shirdi -- A pilgrimage for all. Its approx 80 km from Shani Shingnapur. It’s a place above all religions, castes and creed. Shirdi is the mystical town fragrant with the devotional intensity that sees devotees from across the world thronging to this small hamlet. Highly placed on the world map of spirituality, Shirdi is located in Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra and close to the holy city of Nasik. Shri Sai Baba is revered as one of the greatest saints ever seen in India, endowed with unprecedented powers, and is worshipped as a God incarnate. Shri Saibaba of Shirdi lived between 1838 and 1918, whose real name, birthplace and date of birth are not known. An Indian spiritual guru and a fakir that transcended the barriers of religions, Saibaba of Shirdi was regarded with great reverence by all religion followers.

Back to journey...it was around 7:00 PM when we reached Trimbakeshwar, which was approx 110 km from Shirdi, around 22 km from main Nasik. Quite late because it was Sunday and we had to reach Mumbai to attend office next day. But the way from Nasik to Trimbakeshwar, the stretch of 22 km was so much beautiful so that we had lost the thought of next day. It was raining and road was superb with great maintenance. Although, we were unable to get a speed due to slippery way, but due to the reason we had a warm welcome by the environment, we didn't thought of speed. We offered our prayers at Trimbakeshwar and by 9:00 PM, we were ready for our way back. Something about this holy place…

Trimbakeshwar -- It is a religious centre having one of the twelve JYOTIRLINGA of the world, approx 180 km from Mumbai and 22 km from Nasik city. Trimbakeshwar Temple was built by Shrimant Balaji Bajirao aka Nanasahib Peshawe in 1788. This Nagara style temple is built with local black stone and the sanctum features a beautiful tower. Out of the four doorways, three have porches which are adorned with arches and pillars. The deity installed here has five heads which faces towards different mountains surrounding Trimbakeshwar. The temple houses three ‘linga' of the size of a thumb and they are called as Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh (Shiva). The Shivling in the main shrine of the temple is covered with a single-faced silver mask which attracts thousands of devotees from all over India. There is a continuous issue of water from the top of the Shivling. There are numerous teerths including the Gangadwara teerth, Varaha teerth and Kushavarta teerth in the vicinity of the temple. The temple is known for its appealing architecture and sculpture and is at the foothills of a mountain called Brahmagiri.

So it was time to get a start for back to Mumbai. As said, it was already past 9:00 PM somewhere and we were planning (again!!!) to reach Mumbai by 12:00 midnight to get a decent sleep of 7-8 hours, so we were cool. We crossed Nasik city by 10:30 PM (had dinner too in between) and as I said, we PLANNED to reach Mumbai (a distance of around 160 km) by 12:00 midnight, we were happy about our intelligent thought until the rain started like anything. It was so heavy rain that was making impossible to have a clear vision of even 10 meters, and that made us to stop the car for more than an hour in a dhaba. The clock was showing more than 12:00 when we again started our journey when the rain was not properly stopped, just drizzling, and I was able to drive at the speed of 40-50. Just after a drive of 30 minutes, we again had that show-stopper rain which was even heavier than last slot. All the three bravehearts took the decision not to stop this time and to continue the journey at the speed of even 20-30. It was dark everywhere and Nasik highway was under construction so we even didn't knew how much was the distance between the valley and the car tyres. It was impossible to have any idea about the road and still the roadies were jogging on that in a car. Twice it happened that a truck tried to smash our lil beast with inside us and that was for sure unintentional. We came to know that we were about to come under truck when its headlight were visible at a distance of a meter or so. But as we were not at a high speed, rescue was done on time. One more incident I remember was, due to the construction work, some big stones (from which divider boundary has been made) were there with the divider and were invisible. Our car's driver side's front tyre hop on it and it cost my full strength to control the car. In brief, the scene was completely looked like a crop from any horror movie, night was dark, the road was under construction and was dangerous without lights, heavy rains which made visibility the worst, a car with only one driver (I have right to appreciate me now!!!) who was driving from last 2 days with a small sleep of 3-4 hours, two other members out of which supari-man had no concern at all about what was happening as he devoted all his life to God (he turned saint and he was sleeping on the rear seat like anything...). For some more time I drive like that till the time it got unacceptable. It was almost 2:30 AM and we thought of another break. We again parked our car at some dhaba, I decided to stay in the car itself and to get some sleep, rest two of their own mankind decided to get into the dhaba to get some food (they were hungry as they though they were tired because of all that what was happening... OR may be like they were busy clearing the road to make me drive...). Another hour past when MM & SPS wake me and asked me if I need something to eat or should we push of as the rain was stopped. A thought of being a ‘driver’ crossed my mind at that moment... ;). So we again started after I toasted hell amount of water to wake me up while driving. It was a kind of night safari which we were doing since last 6 hours with worst road condition in the tan dark night, with heavy rain falls etc. and with antiqpieces like 'supari-man-- the MM' and SPS. It all looks like a fun now when we think about that night ride; however we were bit disturbed about what the aura was at that time. We would had not find any mechanics etc. if something would have gone wrong with our car and spending night in a still car with heavy rain falls is not something very enjoyable especially when you have to attend the office next day. But I must admit that my first car had not made us suffer from any of the crisis, not only on this trip, but by the time she was with me. That’s how I named it wonder-car...

We finally reached Mumbai and at our home by 5:00 AM in the morning. Nobody would be believing the fact that to cover approx 200 kms, it took 7 hours especially with a driver who got a sleep of just 4 hours in two days, and with the 10 years old spicy Zen. But that was again a very sacred turned adventurous trip of our life with 'three idiots' in one wonder car. (Sorry to use Aamir's movie name before it get release, but now I guess from where the producer got this movie name...). These are the only things which you cherish throughout your life, no matter how much uncomfortable and unacceptable situation you were in. But once you crossed those kind of difficult situations, the same moments turns into sweet memories...

Some more info on the route, places etc...

If you have any plan to go Shirdi, you can add Trimbakeshwar & Shani Shinganapur in that because it is very much possible and achievable to club those two pilgrims and to cover all three in one day. Though, it will be bit hectic if you are with family, children etc, but the pleasure of being at those two places is much larger than a bit of pain which may cause due to travelling etc.

There can be two ways you can schedule your trip.

Mumbai - Trimbakeshwar (Nasik) - Shirdi - Shani Shingnapur - Mumbai (via Pune)
OR
Mumbai - Shani Shingnapur (via Pune, Ahmednagar) - Shirdi - Trimbakeshwar (Nasik) - Mumbai

Mumbai - Nasik: approx 190 km
Nasik - Shirdi: approx 90 km
Shirdi - Shani Shinganapur: approx 80 km

Total: approx 360 km

OR

Mumbai - Shani Shingnapur: approx 330 Km (Mumbai-Pune-Ahmednagar)
Shani Shinganapur – Shirdi: approx 80 km
Shirdi - Nasik: approx 90 km

Best is to start on Saturday early morning around 4:00 AM towards Shani Shingnapur, reach there by 10:00 AM, reach Shirdi by 1:00 PM and have a lunch break there only, then push off to Trimbakeshwar by 4:00 PM (if you will be lucky enough to have 'darshan' with in an hour or so), reach trimbakeshwar by 6:00 PM, attend the evening 'Aarti' and push of to Mumbai by 8:00 PM. To have a smooth trip, you may have a night stay at Shirdi, attend early morning 'Aarti' next day, and then push off to Trimbakeshwar.

Whatever suits, it’s always been a pleasure and peace to be at those places. Some snaps below...

Some valley on the way....

Nasik - Trimbkeshwar road... something to talk about!!!

Wonder-car!!!

Happy journey... :)

Mumbai to Ratnagiri/Ganpatipule

Ganpatipule beach is basically named on Lord Ganesha. There is a Lord Ganesha's marvellous temple on the beach and in rainy season, sea waves use to come till temple dwar. One can't describe its magnificent view in words. Its a svayambhu (self-originated idol) Lord Ganesha idol, means no-one made the statue, but it is self-originated. It is one of the 'Ashta Ganapatis' (eight Ganpatis) of India and is known as 'Paschim Dwar Dewata' (Western Sentinel God). It’s a belief that whatever you wish here in this temple, it will get fulfil.

This place is really awesome. If somehow I would become the Tourism Minister, I will definitely put a proposal that "if any tourist comes here, and if s/he will not find the trip worth, the money will be back"... :). Whatever you want, peace, neat and clean beaches, temples, good market, helpful people, scenic highways, good roads... everything which comes under the radar of your brain, when you plan to go out somewhere, you will get it. This is a place where when I came first, I thought to buy some house to stay my old age there. I had been to this place twice, once, only and especially to Ganpatipule with AT, RN and SP. Another trip was not specific to Ganpatipule, but we (me, SP and RK) explored Ratnagiri as much as we were able to, within the given time. Second time we had great advantage of being SK with us who is working and residing there.

So I am here describing my two trips to Ratnagiri.









Ganpatipule Temple...

Phase I -- Specific to Ganpatipule with AT, RN & SP.

There was a public holiday and we took one day leave in continuation with Saturday & Sunday and the boys were ready with their bags. But before that, RN told us acc to his previous experience that if we are going to Ganpatipule, there is no other place as good as MTDC (Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation) to stay. As a matter of fact, in all Maharashtra coastal regions, taking MTDC resorts is always the best option. MTDC has its all resorts just on the beach.

You need to get up from your room, take a small walk of 20-30 steps and you can wash your face from the sea water if you think you are a superhero and salty water will not have any affect on your eyes. So we booked a tent house of 4 in MTDC resort. Now the pending thing was travelling etc. After our great analysers ruled out the road journey, we planned to take the train option. Jan-Shatabdi express is train from Mumbai and Goa, everyday and it stops at Ratnagiri station. Travelling in this train itself is an experience. It has AC chair class option and no doubt this train is full with all the non-social kind of elements like us who goes to Goa on and of.
Stylish hairs, colorful clothes, some with their guitar etc, making pranks, throwing jokes and happy-go-luck-persons kind of creatures. Though, some of the elite class families were also there, with some 'Phoren' friends but there was no time to take care of all them!!! When you have destination like Goa, you already filled with some kind of nostalgia and dramatic feeling and already your level of energy booms like anything. There is no doubt that train is always the best option for Mumbai to the places like Ratnagiri and Goa. It roughly takes 5 hours to Ratnagiri and 7 hours to Goa. The route is one of the most beautiful and scenic route in India with river crossings, green fields, tunnels etc.

So we had MTDC resort booked and train ticket booked in hands and we were ready. AT came to Mumbai at night itself and we were at the Panvel station with our bags at 6:00 AM in the morning. At 6:30 AM, train arrived and the journey started. As described earlier, there were various kinds of people inside, hip-hoppers, rockers, decent couples etc. After sometime of settling down, we had our photo sessions etc while standing on the gate etc. Had seen many guys requesting to TT to let them be on the train, their tickets were not confirmed and some with other issues. I doubt if we had that kind of respect anytime in our eyes for our teachers, school principals, college lecturers etc which some people were showing to that TT. The voices were so smooth and honey dew like TT has to provide them a million dollar loan amount. If there would be a bucket, one could have collected some kilos of honey which was dribbling from their voices. We guys are like that...if we meet some person who is their for any kind of audit purpose, like policemen, TT, our personality suddenly change with in a friction of seconds. From juvenile, we immediately turn very social creatures who know that we are at fault but excuse we provide is always bigger than that.

We reached Ratnagiri at around 11:30 or so and one of our friend's driver was waiting for us. SK, our friend, who had his job there, had done arrangement for rest of our way from Ratnagiri to Ganpatipule, a distance of around 50 km. We first had our lunch at his home, and then pushed of. He also gave us the company for that day. So finally we were at Ganpatipule MTDC resort, just opposite to the beach. The first thinking was a big 'wow' from me and AT side. RN had been there once so there was nothing for him to say, SP, as always was in his own world of laptop, some office work, analysing something that he also didn't knew, looking at the tent house if that was in 'good' condition or not etc. etc.

The stretch...

The beach was neat and clean, well maintained, with white sand and green water. SK gave us company till evening and then he pushed of to his home, Ratnagiri. We all enjoyed our time of 4 days and 3 nights there. While SP was getting lost in his own world 'at times' (and recurrence of his this kind of 'space for himself' is too high), me, AT and RN at all the nights were getting into the mode of 'I love you guys' and 'I love the world'. Routine was predefined. Getting up at 11:00 AM or 12:00 noon types, have something, go onto the beach, play rugby kind of thing (still don't know what name should get assign to that play) with our sleepers, get back into tent house by 3:00 PM, have something which we named as 'lunch', but waiters were also sceptical about our orders, as according to SP, he never had in a mood to have lunch, AT always had some list of menu in his mind which he never solved what he really need, me, as always had a doctor inside me who suggest why 'not' to eat this thing or that thing at that time, and among all of us, RN was the coolest personality who always go with the wind and never say no to anything. Whatever friends decide, he goes with that. His theory I guess is not to get into arguments with fools and always do agree with them as that saves a lot of time and energy. Intelligent creature!!!

MTDC resort and view from there...

Evening time was again a kind of game time for all of us (the kind of games which are still searching for their existence in the dictionary...like playing rugby kind of thing with sleepers, pretending like we were in warfare and fighting with waves, drawing competition etc...). And sometime, SP set himself far away from the water, fixed himself on sand, thinking as he was the loneliest creature of his own kind in the world and asking to God that why either all the good or all the bad things happening to him only. His silent mode sometimes throws very powerful ultrasonic waves. Apart from his silent mode, the best thing is you never knew when again the bulb turns up and throw some enchanting light using the mode of smile. Yes, apart from exploring this 'sage' side of SP, we did many other things like bonfire on the beach at 3:00 in the night. Actually that got organized by some two other guys, with which we became 'janam-janam ke saathi' after we came to know that they have organized such a thing. Those guys were also finding the reason why they were at the beach and we gave them...to enjoy!! We gel along them and after some time, those two kind hearted people pushed off and we again were our own, AT -- 'I don't know what to do' theme guy, SP -- the lost sage, RN -- the 'no problem' bike imported from a south India coast and me -- a multi personality disorder. We had dance, photo session, some weird games in the sand like donkeys, also had some sleep etc kind of activities there, till the guard came and told us that staying late night on the beach is not allowed. He had a solid 'police wala danda' in his hands and we didn't wanted someone to kick us at that time when we will not find any hotel also. So we had to be inside the province of MTDC resort which was just 20 steps from the beach and again we were on the same 'hot' topics like 'ladkiyan and life mein kuch karna hai yaar... etc...etc...' till the time we realized that we need to get up again next day and to able to do that, we need some sleep.

Few moments...

So with this schedule, we spent 3 days there, and on the 4th day, we packed our bags again for Mumbai. Before pushing off from there, we had to go for Lord Ganesha temple (village name is Ganpatipule due to this reason...Ganpatipule, the Lord of the 'ganas' or army and "pule" means sand dunes). We gone to this utter beautiful temple and had blessed.

We didn't had any plans to call SK again from Ratnagiri to pick us and to drop till Ratnagiri station, so choose the MSRTC bus option to reach Ratnagiri station. It was very hot but as soon as the bus started and wind crossed our hairs, there was no time to think about that. It took an hour or so to reach Ratnagiri station and we had around 2 hours in our hands. So we decided to have our lunch there only, which ultimately turned something else...party time. We were lucky enough to get all the desired and delicious food there, and before half an hour of train time, we reached at Ratnagiri station to catch Janshatabdi express. Train was late and again our photographer knock the heart, so we clicked some snaps, did some more chit-chat and boarded in the train. Unlike while coming in this train, people were tired, exhausted and had a scary feeling of going back to work next day on their faces... :). We had also nothing much to do so slept for sometime and due to effected by Mr. SP, gone into silent mode until we reached Panvel, Navi Mumbai station.

Policemen were waiting there for checking the bags etc due to the reason most of the people buy whisky/scotch etc. from Goa due to price factor and which is not permitted in Maharashtra. You can't enter with the bottles with a tag of "For Sale in Goa only". That’s a common rule that you can't take one state liquor to another state, but you can't find that kind of police checking which we seen there. Anyways we all are good guys so we don't do these things (and even if we do, this is not the right place to mention that...) and moreover we were coming from Ratnagiri and not Goa, so we seen a kind of disappointment on 'police wale bhaiya's' face after we told him so... :).

We took a local from Panvel to reach our places, RN had a bit long way to go then us, me, AT & SP came back to our flat from where AT pushed of to Pune and as always, with a great experience for lifetime to cherish...!!!

Phase II -- Specific to Ganpatipule again, but turned 'exploring Ratnagiri' after reaching RK's place.


As said earlier, it is one of the most beautiful and peaceful place atleast for me and during my first visit, I decided to be there atleast once in a year. And this time when I decided to go there was New Year eve. Like all the past times, the first person I tried to contact for this trip was AT. I applied all sort of 'dosti ke vaste etc...' things on him but he had some assignments to finish. RN was out of town and SP was not at all in the mood to join. So after all this emotional dramatic stuff, which continued for 2-3 days, I decided to go alone there. RK, one of our friend's friend was still working in Ratnagiri and I talked to him about my arrival.

The most difficult thing to do for this trip was to get the train ticket and MTDC resort at Ganpatipule. As I didn't had much time in my hand and that was again going to be a new year, one of the biggest carnival in Goa etc..., one have to plan atleast two months before while going to Kankan stretch like Ganpatipule, Goa, Velneshwar. You will not get hotels or either you will need to do some compromise regarding the quality etc which may ruin your trip. December is anyways a peak season for Goa and the Christmas celebration, new year ever attraction pack Goa like anything. So it was just a week in my hands and neither I was getting the train ticket, nor the MTDC resort. I convinced myself to take the bus route to reach Ratnagiri (I hate long trips in buses, though, didn't had any option), I talked to RK and he convinced me about staying there and luckily I was getting the ticket for way back to Mumbai in Janshatabdi express. It was just a day before when I was about to book bus and train tickets, somehow somewhere a light flashed, some announcement happened in sky and SP's soul waked up for salvation. He asked me to book two return tickets as he was also joining me. That was actually a good thing happened because even if I planned to go alone, but 'what is life without friends' theory was hitting me again and again!!! So finally on the same evening I booked two bus tickets for Ratnagiri and two train tickets for way back. For stay and all other requirements, we decided to make RK one of our best friend for next week.

The day came and we boarded on the bus in the night. The drive was hectic, even that we were in AC volvo. The worst thing is you hardly get space to adjust yourself. But the thought of being in Ratnagiri/Ganpatipule was enough to overwhelm that pain of journey. We reached Ratnagiri bus stop in the morning around 5:30 AM. Had tea there which was the first 'feel good' factor. The air was neat and clean and was adequate to leave the bus experience on the bus stop itself. We hired one auto which was very much unknown to any name like RK, and the best part was I had a rough idea of address in my mind. This was again the result of thinking me as a bond, who never forgets something which he read or hear once. RK explained me the address on phone, I noted it down on some corner of some paper, which somehow I lost in my flat (which was more of a chemistry lab, where all the chemicals are misplaced and one never find anything on time one require the most). There was no reason for me to say anything about that piece of paper where I wrote down the address and a map of Ratnagiri treasure... "SK's house". I somehow managed to recall the place name and I gave kudos to myself for my sharp memory (without looking at SP, who was already gone into his deadly silent mode and was staring at me...). So the 'rick wale bhaiya' dropped us at the place which we told to him and we had to find out the building of where our proud engineer RK was staying. We didn't want to disturb RK as it was just 6:00 AM in the morning and he might be sleeping at that time like normal people. Some people have quite normal life and not like us, so why should they suffer...? Yes, we had to ring the bell once we would have been reach there, but why to make him get up from sleep before that, so being on this idea, we started recalling our last trip to Ratnagiri and SK's building (Courtesy: Phase - I of Ratnagiri) as RK had acquired SK's flat post SK shifted to north India. We got the building but flat number was still a mystery for us so we then decided to call RK. To our surprise, he picked the phone in first call itself. I think he was really working on 'Athiti Devo Bhava' quote before that, but RK didn't knew that sometimes 'Athithi' like us makes the 'host' to feel like 'Athithi' in his/her own house. We acquire the host's house and before anyone say 'feel at home', we make the host to think 'feel at home' for himself...we guys have a big heart and accept the things without any issue(s)...

So we put down our bags like RK's flat was our ancestral property and RK was just a caretaker. RK also was surprised to meet such nice guys... ;). We were at rest till evening and in between we discussed about our this trip, what to cover, what all the place to see etc...etc... Eventually our trip turned to "Ratnagiri Darshan" rather then "Ganpatipule revisited". RK told us that there are more than 10 unexplore and non-commercialized beaches in Ratnagiri itself. So we alter our plans and decided to go to Ganpatipule only on 31st December to celebrate new year eve. Before that, we were about to unfold Ratnagiri only.

Exploring Ratnagiri...

RK had a bike and he took one of his other friends bike because we were 3 people. It that 2 days in Ratnagiri was an experience in itself which one can only feel and atleast for an immature write like me, there are no words to explain the same. At the end of this blog, I have described what all the places one can roam in Ratnagiri and I am attaching couple of snaps too. It is a beautiful place with some hidden beaches (known to localities only), good roads, lush green sights and great taste of food. Two days we roamed with RK as our guide and he really made our trip worth to write this Phase II of Ratnagiri. He was in Ratnagiri since an year when we had our trip and he explored almost all the places there. Such a nice person, who never said no for anything, and yes, we tested his patience thoroughly. He made us so comfortable and we gel along with him so well that once we felt that we are his roommates and we are residing here only since long back. He told us about all the places of Ratnagiri according to whatever he has gained in an year and which was quite enough for us being new to that place.

So after collecting non-mentionable memories in two days, third day, the 31st December, we decided to go at Ganpatipule beach. Again the issue was getting a place there to stay, as we were planned to celebrate our new year eve there and we were not in a temper to come back at Ratnagiri after that. That was the most difficult thing to get a room in any hotel at that peak time, however, due to Mr. Ratnagiri, SK, we got a room in a hotel which was also near to the beach and MTDC resort. So we reached Ganpatipule by 5:00 PM in the evening and by 6:00, we were in between the waves...We came back to hotel after we got enough slaps from the sea and like all the past times, we declare the end of war by showing white piece of cloth to the ocean. Unlike to last time, it was more aggressive, as like he was also celebrating the New Year... We again got back onto the beach after change and some rest. This time, just to sit on the sand of the beach and to see its beauty at night, it was around 10:00 PM. People were celebrating, some had arranged the bonfire, and some couples got very cosy, and there were enough policemen to take care of any mis-happening and to keep people away from the sea shore. At 12:00 in the night, we saw enough fireworks in the sky to welcome new year. It was a very beautiful scene, water everywhere, some ships/boats with light in the sea, colorful fireworks and some funny people on the beach... it was a "cheers to life" moment... what kind of beautiful paradise it was...

Beaches @ Ratnagiri...

Post our New Year celebrations, we slept for a while on the beach itself till some policemen again came and asked us to go back to our respective hotels. This happens with us everytime, don't know why we are so precious to this world that everyone starts caring about us, wherever we go... ;). So we got back into our hotel with a magnificent picture in our mind. That was the most delighting New Year celebration and till today it is. What you want and how you want the things to happen, and atlast those things happens in the same way, what could be more beautiful than that...!!!


Next day before pushing off, we had gone to Lord Ganesha temple and this time, we had parikrama too (Its about 1 kilometre, round to the temple). Post that, we pushed of for Ratnagiri. Our train time was again in the evening at 5:30 PM like last time as I said that is a fixed and the best train from Mumbai to Goa and vice-versa. Train was late by an hour or so and in the meantime, RK took us to his office which was near to Railway Station itself. As like all other government offices, the picture was same with a difference of cleanness. It was pretty big and everything was properly arranged. We had some hearty and heavy lessons on semiconductor devices etc from RK. It was kind of KT that happened for another an hour and we were back on the platform. Train took another half an hour to arrive. Again we were on the way back to Mumbai with bang-up memories which will never fade and always become a cause for smile on our faces...


Description of Ratnagiri/Ganpatipule (Some copy-paste stuff…)


Kankan, one of the most beautiful stretch of Indian ocean covering Maharashtra, Goa and Karnataka and famous for white-sand beaches and palm trees, mostly coconut and betel nut. It covers Maharashtra's districts of Raigad, Mumbai, Thane, Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg, the state of Goa, and the Uttar Kannada, Udupi and Dakshina Kannada districts of Karnataka. The geogrophical location states that the eastern boundary of the Konkan is "Sahyadri Mountain range", the western boundary covered by "Arabian Sea", "Gangavali River" coveres its southern boundary and "The Mayura River" forms the northern boundary.

The district of Ratnagiri is located at a distance of 370 kilometers from Mumbai. The main languages here are Konkani and Marathi. Rice and coconut are the main crops produced in Ratnagiri, but it is also famous for cashew nuts, and fruits, delicious "Hapus" (Alphonso) mangoes across and abroad the country.
Other local vegetation includes fruit-bearing trees like betelnut, banana, jackfruit etc. Fishing is an important industry in Ratnagiri. Heavy rainfall results in highly eroded landscape in the coastal region. The climate is pleasant there all the months, throughout the year, except April to September when there is a high humid and sun reaches a point directly overhead.

Ratnagiri district offers the most diverse attractions and endowed with many tourist assets. The beauty of this place is a contribution of the rising hills of Sahyadri on east and the depths of Arabian sea on the west. It is blessed with hills, sea shores, creeks, beautiful rivers, hot water springs, forests and water falls among many others.

A few nationalist, socialist and educationist, including Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak; Bharat Ratna Maharshi Dhondo Kehav Karve and Raghunath Purushottam Paranjpe, were born in Ratnagiri.

Places to Visit:

There are more than thirty places in Ratnagiri distric to visit and are main tourist attractions. Out of which the below are most famous.

Places of worship: Ganapatipule, Velneshwar, Marleshwar, Hedvi, Hatis, Parshuram (Chiplun), Rajapur
Caves: Panhalekazi, Sangameshwar
Palace: Thibaw Palace (Ratnagiri)
Sea Shores: Kelshi, Murud, Guhaghar, Palshet, Ganpatipule, Velneshwar
Beaches: Mandovi (Gateway of Ratnagiri), Bhatye, Guhagar, Anjarla, Ganapatipule
Birth Places of eminent personalities: Ratnagiri, Malgund, Dapoli, Palgad
Forts: Bankot, Mandangad, Ambolgad, Jaigad, Ratnadurg, Mahipatgad
Sea Forts: Ratnadurg, Harne, Purnagad, Jaigad
Bird Sanctuaries: Vanadi valley, Anaskura Ghat
Exotic forests: Pat Panhale, Bavnadi valley
Water Falls: Parshuram, Prachitgad, Marleshwar
Hot water Spring: Unhavare, Aravali, Tural, Rajapur


Prime Attractions

Ganpatipule: This is the land of Ganpatipule, one of Maharashtra's almost virgin beaches. It is idyllic. It is famous not only because of its blue water and white sand, but for Swayambhu Ganpati Temple (Swayambhu means a self-originated idol, Ganapati). It is flooded by thousands of devotees and tourists every year. The beach here is still natural and pristine as ever. Sparkling blue waters, endless stretches of golden or silver sand, a cool breeze whispering sweet nothings in your ear.

Devotees take a "Pradakshina" around the hill where the temple is located, not just around the temple. Pradakshina is a form of showing obeisance. It is said that the will be done if devotees make a Pradakshina by their sole heart.

Thebaw Palace: The Thebaw Palace was built in 1910-11 for the 1911-16 stay there in exile of the king and the queen of Burma (Myanmar). The place has tombs of the royal couple.

Malgund: The famous Marathi poet, Keshavsut, was born in the village of Malgund. His house has recently been renovated and converted into a students' dormitory. It is just a kilometre away from Ganpatipule. Visitors like to take a look at the house of the poet, now a student’s hostel. Also a must visit to beautiful monument called the Keshavsut Smarak. It has also constructed in Malgund.

Jay Gadh: This 17th century fort offers a spectacular view of the sea. Standing high and proud on a cliff with a spectacular view of the sea the fort is at the entrance of the Sangameshwar river and is 35 kms away from Ganpatipule.

Pawas: Naturally beautiful and serene the place is also prominent for the ashram of Swami Swaroopanand a spiritual leader who influenced an entire generation of Maharashtrians. His residence has now been converted into an ashram.

Velneshwar: Velneshwar is located 170 km from Ratnagiri. Its adjoining beach is clean and lined with coconut trees. There is a well-known Shiva temple near Velneshwar. The village comes alive each year during the Maha Shivaratri far when pilgrims in large numbers visit the Old Shiva Temple.

Ratna Durga: This fort was built during the Bahamani rule. The Arabian Sea surrounds it on its three sides.

Parashuram Temple (near Chiplun): This temple was built in 1685 by Maharshi Brahmendra.

Shivasamarth Gad (at Sawarde near Chiplun): contains sculptures from Shivaji's times.

Getting to

Getting to Ratnagiri is easy and convenient. Travelling by road to Ratnagiri is an experience by itself. The vast Konkan stretch abounds with scenic greenery. There are narrow mud-roads, the earth is red and the roofed houses with clean courtyards add a quaint touch to the panorama. The district of Ratnagiri is well-connected by roadways with all the major cities and towns such as Kolhapur, Mumbai and Pune. NH-17 passes through the district. From Mumbai, (Ex Panvel) a comfortable car journey to Ratnagiri will take around six to seven hours.

The National Highway 17 connects cities and towns of different states as follows Mumbai, Mahad, Ratnagiri, Panaji, Madgaon, Karwar, Kumta, Bhatkal, Udupi,
Surathkal, Mangalore, Kasargod, Kannur, Thalassery, Vadakara, Kozhikkode, Kodungallur,North Paravur and Kochi. The NH 17 passes through hills, forests, rivers, rivulets, and streams,. Most of region has typical scene like coconut trees dotted all along with paddy fields. The road is not even, with humps, bumps, curves, steep rises and narrow paths in between hillocks are found all over this highway.

Apart from Road, Rail journey is having an owesome experience for life. It is called the most scenic railway track so far. Ratnagiri is having a distric railway station where most of express trains halt. From Mumbai, Jan-Shatabdi express from Mumbai to Goa halts here which could be the best option due to AC chair option and its time. The train starts from Mumbai at 5:00 am and takes aprox five hours to reach Ratnagiri. From here, you can take a taxi/cab to any hotel in Ratnagiri or Ganpatipule. Ratnagiri city from Railway station is five kilometers.

Distance

Mumbai to Ratnagiri - 370Km
Pune to Ratnagiri - 380Km
Goa to Ratnagiri - 220Km

Where to stay

A number of good options are there in Ratnagiri, from lexurious suits to economical rooms. If you are going there just for Ganpatipule, MTDC resort is incomparable. The best feature of MTDC resort is you open your eyes in the morning and the sea is around you. This government resort is on the main Ganpatipule beach and consists of AC cottages, Non-AC cottages, general rooms and tent houses under coconut trees for those who want to feel a forest touch.

Best time to visit

The best time to visit Ratnagiri is either between the months of April and June or October and December.

Happy Journey... :)

Pune to Goa

Like all great young warriors, we also decided to have a trip to Goa as like its our right to be there atleast once in our lifetime or one have to suffer in many ways. Its a liability on our soul to be there or we will not be in a count of 'responsible youth'. And why not to be there atleast once? Various colors of life, everything is an occasion there, a life full of happiness and energy, beaches (apart from all the temporary assets I mentioned why one should be there, beaches were the main reason for me. Like Clark Little, "I love the ocean - I am addicted to the waves").

So once the mail thread started between various like minded people (who likes to do many things in one life, but can't do...because they can't do anything)...the program seemed to be fixed. Before that email which arrived from Bangalore and hit our inbox in Mumbai & Pune, everyone was chopping the time and were discussing about how devour the life is by saying our favourite quotes "Kuch Karte hain yaar...kuch nya, kuch alag" etc... etc...

So the thread started with a very decent manner of "Hi, Hello, missing you friends so letz met and cover Goa etc" and certainly ended with billingsgate each other. But finally the program was fixed, 8 people, 2 from Mumbai, 1 from Pune, 3 from Bangalore and 2 from Hyderabad will meet up in Goa. Date which got fixed was of 15 days later. We were counting the days and counting of people was reducing day by day. As in Ramleela, the fight between Shri Ram and Ravana starts and day by day Ravanas worriers become lesser in numbers. And often it happens in this kind of multi-state gathering, one day before the actual departure day, only two guys were left... one, the great plan maker and the other one who survived a lot due to my great plans at times or rather, many times.

So two people were left and the height of desperation was that at 12:15 in the night also, we were looking at some possibility to go Goa with couple of other friends to whom we call 'so called money saver' (you know its pretty good to have big group when it comes to money irrespective of if some people likes you or not!!! We are enough practical now). So all the plans to get some people etc. were failed and we were about to close the Goa trip then suddenly a sound came from my inner soul like in typical tollywood movie that "No, you should go to Goa anyways or you will not attain "Enlightenment". That was the time when I bent on my knees, talked to my bike-guru through mind waves for a minute, took his blessings and told my decision to my other pal that we have to go Goa by bike this time and he, who was desperate to listen "okay we are not going this time, but some other time" confirmed this twice what I said.

In our college days, whatever distance we had covered, whatever we had done with the bikes, but such a nice thought of covering so many kilometres was never crossed any of our mind. Somehow I convinced AT to cover Goa by bike by giving all the absurd excuses, anyways he prepared his mind with the light (as since his childhood he has a misconception for himself that he is really a miracle in terms of taking decisions and finding pros & cons of something) but I didn't wanted to cancel the program so I didn't gave any loose point from my side too.

So in the night at 12:30 AM, we searched internet, got the different distances from Pune to Goa on every blog, sites etc, and finally we concluded by ourselves that Goa is not too far yaar. Its just a matter of few hours...that’s it!!! And what it takes for two young people to cover it? Nothing, only Petrol... (I am searching for that moment again in my life because post that we had many bike trips but that kind of crazy thought never crossed...)


So atlast we decided to push of on next day at around 11:00 AM because at that moment we were thinking ourselves as the greatest and fastest bikers who can cover aprox 500 kilometres with in 5-6 hours. Our thought had been changed dramatically as we had in our mind that there is no silencer in the bike but nitrogen cylinders and also bike will get wings in the traffic jams so that we could fly (but our honest idea was to stick to the road for most of the time...). So I got a job to reach Pune by sharp 9:00 AM. It was so sharp so that it could have cut my throat once. 9:00 AM, com'on...means I need to start from Mumbai at 6:00 AM, means I need to get up at 5:00 AM, means I need to finish the packing stuff before I drag in bed and it was already 1:00 AM...means it was going to be a sleep of 3-4 hours that night and I need to be so proactive even while in sleep like if I am not sleeping at all. I was wondering if 3 alarms couldn't made me wake up at 8:00 AM in the morning on working days when I used to go to bed at 2:00 AM, how the hell I will get up at 5:00 AM if I am going to bed at 1:00 in the night???...But one should appreciate the kind of enthu I have shown and finally got up at 6:30 AM... So it was a good start. Reason being we knew that I can't get up at 5:00 AM and we obviously gonna late anyways, but no-one was thinking that I am gonna make it so early... I mean it was kind of the very-early-late stuff, and I got kudos for that (from myself only).

I made a call to AT on the way to Pune about if he is ready and got a reply in very irritating voice that "you just reach here fast, I am reday to push off". I just smiled and cut the phone because somewhere my sixth sense imagined what could be the scene of the flat when I will reach there. I reached Pune at 10:30 AM and I knew my smile on AT's reply was worth and he was not only sleeping by that time, but also didn't had his bag ready. So next half an hour was to apply some humiliating and emotional things on him but we guys are born covered by some kind of shield so that those humiliating and emotional wordings don't touch us at all.

I had a quick nap of an hour then, while AT was getting ready and at our kind of SHARP 12:30 noon, we had first kick in Pulsar 180 CC. The day was good, not so much heat up, not cold, as October to March is one of the best time in Pune and Mumbai, its just need some patience to gel along with some humidity but at highways, that also need not of to pay any attention. After fighting for 45 minutes with Pune traffic, we hit Pune-Banglore highway and we started with our life changing experience (someone adviced us to think that way OR we would not be able to drive so long... :)).











Highway was pretty cool, road was nice and scenic, with greenery everywhere (we convinced ourselves that this is because we were to hit this road, whilst reason we knew by our heart that Monsoon has just passed and Mumbai & Pune outscrubs used to turn like heaven in that season). Anyways we were least bothered about negative energies/thoughts and were enjoy the driving at fullest. Before I continue, I would like to thanks again to some unknown friends who gave us an idea about the route. Below is the route we followed.

Pune to Kolhapur to Nippani to Amboli to Sawantwadi to Goa.

The trip was going great. Like normal human beings, we stopped after every 60-70 kilometres and had some refreshments (not heavy food, because I have a doctor who live inside me and who directed us that if we will take proper heavy food like we have our normal lunch, we will catch up with sleep and we will not reach Goa in a day). Everything was great till Nippani where we stopped by luck to have tea and sandwiches. That was the same time when we realised that we are professional guys and we have our cell phone and watches with us to check the time. It was around 6:30 PM of evening. We counted on our fingures and calculate that its almost 6 hours when we started this trip. We looked at each other and there were some unanswered questions in both of our eyes and that was not at all the good time to ask or answer those Q's. Somehow I can tell that the telepathy session was about last night discussion which we had related to reach Goa in 5-6 hours because we 'thought' we are extraordinary. We had those telepathy Q's & A's session for some more seconds and then we broke the ice by asking the rest of the distance we have left and to reach Goa. The answer was which we were thinking. Goa was still around 200 kilometres far and trust me we had a solid reason behind getting back our energies and resume to our trip. The reason was 'Chai wale bhaiya', (seldom are the chances for whom to see any biker) asked to us that from where we are coming and we told him. He had some lovely appreciation words for us which he exchanged with his chottu, like the chottu was the only person who was supposed to give us trophy on our way back from Goa for this 'social & community work'.











NH-4

All right, so by the time we left from Nippani, it was dark and bike's headlight was ON. Till Nippani, we were driving at the speed between 90 to 120 and once you get used to with that speed for 5 hours, its loosely impossible to get out of that mental situation. We were hoping to get a nice road of SH which connects NH-4 (Pune - Bangalore) and NH-17 (Goa Highway, starts from Sawantwadi). And no doubt our hope was based on the 'chai wale bhaiya' who immediately turned a 'highway specialist' post we ask him the way forward to Goa. He was so confident about the SH road like he himself made it or atleast supervised it. As soon as we took a right turn from the highway towards SH, we got our first hard jerk after katraj (Pune). We again convinced ourselves and remembered the face of our well-wisher 'chai wale bhaiya' and murmured 'it happens yaar, road will be all right in sometime'. But it turned bad to worst in sometime and we were in a place like world's end point. There were no lights, no vehicles, no roads, no shops, just two brave guys without water and one bike with few liter of petrol which we were not able to drink at all in the worst case too. It was like a night safari on a camel because due to our government blessings, we were not able to touch even a speed of 40. After covering some more distance, we got enough conscious about that situation!!! Who wanted to be left at that place without bike, without shoes, even without clothes...!!! But where there are two audacious boys, there is always a hope... just modified one quote!!! :)

Some electric bulbs were finally the reason of smile on our faces. It was a small police booth kind of thing. We asked for the way forward and they told us. We looked at the bulbs like that was some alien thing to us and started again. After few more kilometres, we stopped in some village and asked 'How far is the highway' from a 'Pan wale bhaiya'. First he looked at us like we asked him to transfer his all paternal property on our name. Then he asked where we want to go. We told him Goa. Reply was as he wanted to say 'there is no such place exists' but before he could have said this, AT clear his intentions. AT asked the same question in a different way and that was very first funny moment on that SH. He asked "Bhaiya, tell us how far is that place where there would be lights everywhere, good and broad roads, some shops and moreover, some life". I guess 'Pan wale bhaiya' got his point (it depends on person-to-person, I mean it depends who understand whom and 'Pan wale bhaiya' got AT's frequency). He told us that just after 5-6 kilometres, that kind of place is there. At that moment, we got a feeling to bent and touch 'pan wale bhaiya's' feets.











The SH...

Yes, we were about to touch NH-17 from where Goa is just 60 kilometres away. Atleast we thought this at that moment and till that moment when we cover 5-6 kilometres and saw another small village of 15-20 houses (With some lights, a 20 feet road, 2-3 shops, and some life... :)). AT looked at me, I looked at AT, we though of 'Pan wale Bhaiya', nobody said nothing and we proceeded further. After 10-20 kilometres, by God grace we had petrol pump with only 2 machines there, from which, one was out-of-order. Our bike had some food there and according to petrol pump guy, NH-17 was around 30-40 kilometres more. We had a sign of relief than but we didn't turned happy OR didn't made any smiley face because since we started on SH, we got these kind of 'highway measurements' 3-4 times. So we decided to kill our 'happiness' and 'joy feeling' by the time we could have reach NH-17.

We were finally in Sawantwadi from where NH-17 starts. We enjoyed that moment with some refreshments on a small shop. We calculated that the SH which we had crossed was 110 KM long. And there were many irritating and funful moments we had on the same stretch. The one most interesting was the hording we read many times on that SH and that was in Marathi. It was written many times "Vahane Savkash Chalva". None of us was so much known to Marathi and we made our own meaning for that quote. We thought "Vahane Savkash Chalva" means "Gadiyan saath-saath chalein". I remember a trip in North India region when we took the inner route from villages to shorten the time because it was night; Police stopped us and told us to be with some other vehicles for safety reasons. In friction of seconds we had expressionless faces after we read that quote "Vahane savkaash chalva". Our question was some "Vahan" kind of thing should also be there on the road to drive with. While we just about to reach Sawantwadi, we crossed one ghat and Police jeep was there. They stopped us and there were some other bikers who were with them. I just thought that the board of "vahane savkash chalva" is hitting our head since past 80-90 kilometres and now when we are about to reach NH-17, we got several "vahans" to go along with. Even the ducats will not think for a loot near populated area. We were just about to tell them that we are very social and kind guys with all the required papers and license, but before that one gentle policeman started telling that "go very slow you all bikers, this ghat is very dangerous with steep cuts and bad road condition, many mishappening happens here". Curiously I asked to a policeman that what this "vahane savkash chalva" means and answer was worth a boxing match between me and AT to hit each other. Policeman told us that "vahane savkash chalva" means "Vahan, gadiya etc. kripya DHEERE chalein". I wanted to have a photo of the painter's hands who painted this all over the road where you can't drive more than 40 km/h. Did that mean one has to put the vehicle on his/her head and walk? No matter what now I call that, but if today also I remember that 110 KM stretch, I am feeling very good abut the bike, the experience, the company and moreover our thoughts we had all along that way.

So we were about to reach Goa in an hour or so from Sawantwadi and yes that one hour was nothing for us now because we already spent more than 9 hours of our life on bike and rest 1 or 2 hours of drive stands nowhere against that. We had our chit-chat with police while entering the Goa province about bike papers etc which is a due course on everyone who enter Goa (especially other state vehicles). That was the time when our superhero AT (who think faster then computers at times) told me that we don't have original papers with us and already we were driving with one helmet, where in Goa, as per those policemen, rule was of to wear helmet even if you are pillion. So we used our Delhi wala skills and we became nephew of one police uncle by buttering (by using our famous hindi dialogue "Uncle, aap ke bacche jaise hain hum, apka beta bhi to kabhi aisa karega OR usne bhi to kabhi aisa kai hoga... Galti to insaan se hi hoti hai naa...etc...etc...")!!!

Finally we entered in Goa and I don't remember the place name where in the night at 11:00 PM we were searching for a hotel. The first feeling which came was a complete 'disappointment'. There were very few lights on the road; nothing was opened apart from one dhaba which was not at all giving the feeling of being in Goa. We had very different picture of Goa in our mind when we started our trip but that seemed to be vanished untill we met some policemen and asked for some nice place for dinner. They told us that we are in the outskirts of Goa and famous places like Baga, Anjuna, Kamagud etc. are about 10 kilometres from here. We had no sick plans to go to those 'famous' places for another hotel as we were about to fall if we could have drive 1 more kilometre. As we think we are born intelligent, so again we proved it by deciding to have our dinner on that 'Dhaba' which was also closed during our inquiry time. But we both appreciate each other for our decision because that's what we do even if our plan won't work. Somehow we got entry in that closed Dhaba and the owner told us that due to police they use to keep the half shutter down but some 'experienced people' like you (me & AT) who knows that what a half shutter down means, get an entry. So we had delicious food there and got back to our hotel.

I will not describe the next four days in details because we had our fixed schedule and we were very particular about that. Schedule was to get up at 12:00 noon or 1:00 PM. Reach Kalamgud beach by 3:00 PM (actually its Calangute beach, but as we least care about what people will say about our English, me & AT renamed it KALAMGUD with our personal trademark...), be there by 8:00 PM or 9:00 PM, be in hotel by 1:00 AM or 2:00 AM and go to bed... This schedule continued with small changes like we had been to Baga beach, Anjuna beach, South Goa beaches, the famous cathedral in some day time etc. Yes, one other night also was crazy when we seen Tetos disc at Wagha beach. It was 11:00 PM in the night and Bagha is the place which gets alive till early morning. So we decided to be in that desc not-knowing that some word named 'girlfriend' do exist and can be very useful sometime. We didn't got the entry until we applied our so called 'emotional atyachar' on the guy who was making the entry passes. We applied all the tricks, gave him his mom's refrence, told him that if anytime he has to come Mumbai, do call any of us etc..etc.. And we got entry atlast at 1:00 AM in the night. We had been there till 5:30 in the morning when one bouncer came to us and told us that the tradition is if someone will not go after certain time, tradition is to throw him/her out from that place (Noticeable thing is there were 3 Phoren-walas also with us out of which 2 were girls, so that bouncer, who thought he was the masterpiece God has made said the same word to them too I guess). So we said good bye to all (don't know who all, but yes, we said gud bye) and returned to our hotel. Anyone can recall 'Vikram-Betall' series if s/he should have seen us. AT was driving (and also telling me again and again that if something happens, not to blame him) and I was laid on him. It was a ride like 'Maut ka kuan' as someone was paying us for that. We reached hotel, and on next day at 3:00 PM, our day started.











Kalamgud...

On our last day in Goa, we just wanted to relax so we explored Panaji, seen 'Don' movie at Galaxy theatre (it’s beautiful and unlike Delhi, have a great parking space, garden etc...).

The 'way back' day had been come and we got emotional... Not because we were going back to Pune, but to take the ownership of driver seat. One practical thing is when you are driving, you are mentally busy and least remembers the pain. But the pillion has to survive because he has nothing to do apart from remembering his pain. Only AT or me knows how again we droved back to Pune with giving all the past 'dosti-dushmani ka vasta' references to drive the bike. Unlike our departure, we covered distance from Goa to Pune in more than 12 hours, unnecessary stoppages, giving excuses of pee, hunger, thrust etc... And almost all of those excuses were coming from whoever was the pillion. Anyways, we reached Pune at around 11:30 PM in the night and in between, I purchased my ticket to Mumbai for the last bus, which was scheduled at 1:30 AM night (next day was Monday, office...). After reaching Pune, meter was showing more than 1200 KM and bike was literally yelling. I took a bath and tried to remember all the things happened within five days and there was no moment which didn't made me smile. Me and AT made our next trip plan to Goa from Mumbai-to-Goa via cruise and the same plan is still pending. Looking forward for the moment to be in Goa again near or on Carnival season. A place where I like more alive... with the waves...with the never ending sea...with the golden sand... Like Clark Little, "I love the ocean - I am addicted to the waves"... :)


A brief intro of route...

Pune to Kolhapur to nipanni (NH-4, very nice drive, its just katraj which will test your patience and car's/bike's shockers)
Nippani - right turn (Or you may drive some more on NH-4 and ask for Sankeswar from there you need to take right turn)
Ajra to Amboli
Sawantwadi to Goa (NH-17, nice road)


Something about Goa...

Beaches in Goa rank among the top beaches in the world. Its coastline stretches (known and famous as Konkan stretch) for around 120-130 kilometres. There are more than 35 stunning beaches in Goa (Most commercialized beaches are Baga & Kalamgud). You can see the different life-style that consists of a blend of Indian and Western influences as can be seen in its varied culture and architecture of its towns and villages which shows that Goa still maintained its Portuguese heritage. Goa is also known as 'City of Bhagwan Parshuram' because due to his legendary bow and arrow, this paradise came in existance.



Will paste more snaps sometimes later as I need to dig out in which corner of my hard-drive I kept those.


Happy journey... :)

Retro trips

So the theme is "Retro Trips". I have been into some places for which I want to share my experience because anytime while starting any of the trip, I found out many unknown friends who wrote the blogs and articles about the directions, road conditions, best time to go etc... which were of great help to me and my pals to reach our destinations. Although, second thought is to write something as my handwriting getting bad to worst day by day and the best thing to improve it is to write more and more... well you can connect handwriting with the typing speed now a days!!! So we are enough technical, we are enough cool to read/write the repeated things...

As far as my memory allow me to get a pic, our group covered almost all the places near to Mumbai & Pune and near means within the range of 500 KM. Although getting leaves is quite a task but thanks to our ex-managers (God Bless them all!!!) who knew since day one that we guys were not of any use and can't add any moral & social values to society and can only disturb other working people. Its fun to remember their relaxed smiley faces (like if you offer an ice-cream to a demon kid and s/he spread his/her torn lips) while asking for leaves especially on Fridays and Mondays...

While the first trip was being start with the royal feel, an A/C cab with driver etc., eventually we figured it out that if we continue like that, we need to ask for money from our home on monthly basis. So since next time, we hooked on our bikes, with fake posters of R100, dukati on those man made creatures and enjoyed. Later on somehow one guy managed to save some money by doing huge cost cutting in his daily expenses and brought a 10 years old Maruti Zen. Trust me, that was like a wonder car for us and she did all the good things to us. It was a great feeling like a king in his chariot irrespective of she was too old to carry 5-6 guyz, but at times we made her so strong to do so...

Okay, so below is the list in my mind I am thinking to cover in next blogs on the basis of what I can recall...


-- Mumbai to Harihareshwar-Shriwardhan (In Cab)
-- Mumbai to Igatpuri-Bhandardhara (In Cab)
-- Pune to Goa (On Bike)
-- Mumbai to Dapoli (On Bike)
-- Mumbai to Daman & Dui (On Bike)
-- Pune to Mahabaleshwar (On Bike)
-- Mumbai to Pune-Shanisingnapur-Shirdi-Trambkeshwar to Mumbai (In Car)
-- Mumbai to Ratna giri (Train)
-- Mumbai to Alibaug (In Car)
-- Delhi to Amritsar-Chandigarh-Delhi
-- Delhi to Orissa
-- Delhi to Jaipur-Ajmer-Pushkar-Ringas to Delhi
-- Delhi to Govardhan-Vrindavan-Mathura-Agra to Delhi

To be continued... the list as well as blog...

Jeevashram

Hi There,

Thanks for your time. It has been tremendous pleasure to share this information with you. We all have been passing through a number of sayings/quotes about the essential elements of life "Peace & Love" atleast once in our days schedule. Love human beings because of being human. I just want to add a bit into the same, love life because of being life within you, no matter in what and which form it is, human, animals...all. Anything which is making a response to you, have feelings, emotions, something is going through their mind, they are thinking, acting and responding to you in their own way they are made to be respond. A small and common example is of a dog, when you pass a street dog and just whistle, he starts wagging his tail in a slower sweep that is exactly a response of being confident that you are not going to hurt him and about his friendly gesture towards you. If you ever tried to make an eye contact with a wild cat, you would have noticed the bristling tail and hairs get standing. These are just forms of emotions which they express by their body language. Animals feel love, they feel pain, they feel everything what you feel on certain course of action which would have been taken by/to you.
It is just not a matter of feed some street dog or cat. It is more to do with the question "how much" and "how can" you can help them by taking care of these orphans. It is not a matter of having pets at home for decoration purpose and to show how upper class you belong to. It is not a matter of how much money you have spent to take a high class breed. It is not a matter how conscious you are about your own pet so that you don't take chances when your pet is not feeling well. It is matter of how you feel about animal community as a whole. It is a question on how you feel when you see an animal on the street and road roaming here and there just to get some food. It is a concern what you do apart from uttering a loud inarticulate cry on government while you have to use emergency breaks of your vehicle due to the reason some animal on the road or street comes on the way.

Come on!! They have life inside them, they have a soul to be live, they have a body to feel, they have heart just like you which actually beats as of your heart's do, they have their own brain to understand the things.

Yes, we are facing big issues in our own life. In India we have a huge population density. We are not able to take care of orphan humans which have sleepless nights without food. We are taking these issues in UN, generating reports and dashboards about how poor and helpless we are. But do those animals have some government to publish all these things they are going through? Are they able to write out to some governance authority or system about their sufferings? It’s us who have to think about them because it’s us only due to which they are in this condition. They are also the integral part of this our complete circulatory biological process. It is an unsaid fact that to save the existence of humans, it is necessary to save the nature, a part of which animals belong too.

Jeevashram, means a shelter for animals, is one of those organizations which are working for betterment of these unspoken lives. It was founded in 1990 and working continuously to help animals in all the way they can, i.e. shelter, treatment, helping in adoptation of pets, to prevent cruelty to animals etc. It holds a fully equipped veterinary hospital inside the campus that offers all kind of animal care services. The hospital facilitates with mobile dispensary, X-ray machine and operation theatre. They have a separate space for dogs and a cattery. You can find a combined section for birds and rabbits. They have and take care of peacocks, peahens, roosters and pigeons etc. Cattle, horses and donkeys are also in their campus.Currently Jeevashram Foundation is under supervision of Dr Vinod Sharma, Chief Veterinary Officer-in-Charge. The foundation is affiliated to the World Society for Protection of Animals (WSPA).

Jeevashram pic

A question to you after reading all above article is "How you can help"??? And the answer you will be able to give in a better position, I am just writing down my own ideas.

-- Atleast, not to be cruel to animals.
-- Donations (contact details below).
-- Any baronial help (providing food, medicines etc for animals to Jeevashram).
-- Adopting a pet. Please don't show so much of concern about breed of dogs etc. Normal Indian breeds have the same emotions and feelings and pets are not just artificial things to decorate the house so that you have to be specific about choices for their breed.
-- Taking care of orphan street animals.
-- If there is something wrong (accident, mishappening) with the orphan animal(s), do contact your nearest veterinary hospital. Trust me, there are some government owned hospitals and NGOs too just a phone call away from you which will not charge for this OR the charge will be less than your daily food cost.
-- Taking good care of your own pet.

Jeevashram Foundation Location:

Village Rajokri, Near the Temple, New Delhi - 110038.
Phone: 91-11-25064114, 91-11-25064118, 91-11-25063696
email: jeevashram@yahoo.com
Website: http://www.jeevashram.org/

The friends and forever...

Hi There,

So this was a place I always want to own…yes, its not the place I want to be, but I want to own… :) …three reasons…First, this place is on the beach…extremely vast beach, water all around till the eye sight range allow you to see…Second reason, you can drive cars & bikes on that beach!!! No compulsions, no speed limits…

The third and the most important reason is because I got my best, my favorite, most honest and loyal pals there!!! They were around 20, most in pairs…and I loved the most “Great Dane” due to there silence, the second most important thing in life. They were giving very silent friendly gestures. The feeling after looking at them was like they have no issues what is happening all around; they have no worries about food, the kind of place they got etc. However, if you are thinking of breaking their silence in a non-friendly way or either any way they don’t like, forget about walking or having food by your own hands for a month or so. They are calm, but not cowards, they are silent in nature, but not non-violent, they have tremendous patience, but not for testing purpose.

So I got most of the special breeds there, which exactly the match with my choices, the kind of souls I want to spend most of my time…No politics, nothing to talk about schedules, less demanding, and most important thing…nothing they can do to harm environment, (which we are prone to do)!!!










Okay…so we can here talk about some more buddies…as I mentioned, they were around twenty of them…most in pairs…some were puppies. We had breeds like Indian, Great Dane/ Viszla & Hound Mix, German Sheffered, Labrador, Pointer etc…

The Great Dane OR Viszla & Hound Mix










The Great Dane OR Viszla & Hound Mix (the red brown one, behind the one who is getting pampered)…Regret for the mix up of breeds here but me too was really confused which breed was that…and still I am…But what I tried to explain below is 99% common between both breeds.
Their physical appearance can make anyone scared of them, they are tall and large, and having a muscular looks. But in nature, as I said, very gentle, patient and loyal. You can depend on them and they are very easy to train. Precaution one needs to take about them is training. They turned uncontrollable without proper training. They love to be in discipline and if trained well, they can become the great guard for you and your family.
The next one who catch my view was an Old English Bulldog…lazy looks, but very active actually, gives you the feeling that he is ready to take all the pain you have… :). They are very friendly in nature, courageous and fearless by heart. They can save you and your house at any cost, can count on them. The only mandatory thing for them is proper training.

Old English Bulldog










The next one who catch my view was an Old English Bulldog…lazy looks, but very active actually, gives you the feeling that he is ready to take all the pain you have… J. They are very friendly in nature, courageous and fearless by heart. They can save you and your house at any cost, can count on them. The only mandatory thing for them is proper training.

Pointer & German Shepherd










German Shepherde

Emmm…there comes the tiger!! First look of this breed gives you the feeling that they are quite ready to attack…brave heart, very courageous, but soft heart dogs…They carry a muscular and robust physique. They are damn intelligent, loyal and faithful. They require special attention for their daily exercise and brushing. I like them for their looks and their daredevilness nature.

Pointer…

As its name said, they got points… I didn’t had a great idea about the exact breed of this pointer that was there, as there are many breeds and this one is not the pure Pointer breed…however that hardly makes a difference in the nature and built they have. They have great stamina and large in size. They have gentle and obedient temperament. They need lots of exercise on daily basis, that's their maintenance…

Labrador (top on pointer...)










One of the world's most popular dogs…Mainly police dogs for bomb squad etc…they are very gregarious in nature and family-oriented. You will always find them eager-to-please and adaptable. They love water like fish, and as they have to win world championship in swimming… :) They like and need human companionship…In my personal views, they are most beautiful too… :)

Regret for the low quality of pics, needed to keep them with low size...

Thats for now...will back soon...

Something is wrong...

With the great zeal and enthusiasm of trying to being happy and cool, something strikes everytime in head...the news around you, people around you, the government factors, internet stuff which you always think you are behind someone atleast regarding surfing, information etc... Even this my post also could be considered as a cruddy thing which talks about all the factors which are here to frighten all of us, to help in pulling up our inner instinct of fear. Could we be happier post reading or writing a great story, a story of cheeriness, some inclusion of romance, jokes etc...Yes, for moment of time. By the time you can make that within your memory. As soon as it will diminish, again some kind of fear factor popup, will get heavy on your moment of joy.

Fear of being in a plane which is about to land in water, fear of your kid who is alone inside the house, fear of clashing your plane (on which you haven't onboard till yet and not booked the tickets too) with a chopper, fear of being robbed in your own city, fear of being beaten by some extremists while hanging out with friends, fear of being accused to break any of your cultural law which you never mind or concerned before and you are not ware of that too. Every moment fear of pink slips, everytime news comes for someone about firing, irrespective of someone known or unknown, making and reviewing future plans and checking bills or balances. Everytime a scary feeling comes and go, we convenience ourselves that how the life it is, but don't dare to speak up...why this is how the life it is...

Everytime there is something under the carpet, pinching again and again...something is wrong. Though sometime that WRONG thing is something we are very much aware but, again for our own sake of good, still try to convince ourselves that it is not going to happen what we are thinking. Are we daring enough to unfold that pyramid of uncertainty and figure out what is waiting? No, even if we will have the powers to do so. Because the people who got those powers, are not afraid and reason being, they got those things after all the suffering we are dare to even think about. Anyways, this post is not again to divert the topic from fearing things to great people. Was going through one of the great quote..."On this earth, there is no security, there is only opportunity" which made me to think about what is that "Security" and where is that "Opportunity". But again, to be on the so called positive side of this statement, want to figure out the fact, how to be secure enough to get that opportunity...Again...something is wrong...

Cheers...

Your God, Our God and The God

So recently I have been impressed from the message (or rather a question) I got from one of the movie...question was raised if God has created the man or man has created the God of his own purpose...? Too simple to read, most difficult to answer...first do something then to cover the same, make a God for yourself, to help you, to convince yourself, to answer your question(s)...sometimes don't we feel that we turn our own God while ask about certain task to do or not to do?

In your inner soul, if in case we have to do something, we anyhow will convince ourselves...weather it is right or wrong...we raise a question for ourselves, making our own answer for the same (and the answer is always what we want to do since the time we raised the question...)...but somewhere, we need to convince ourselves and that is what takes time...to go to our Almighty and ask for the permission by giving pros and cons (not to say always pros wins if we need to do the task, and cons wins if we don't want to do the task...)

So here again comes the matter weather God created the man or for own convenience, we created him, for our own purpose... To blame someone if something goes wrong with us...to call someone in bad time...to ask for something (and almost all the time we need to get something...)...This again creates another question of faith...if someone do have faith in God, in destiny and all related things, then what is there to ask...? It is a very simple confusion (though its a confusion...) that if we believe in Almighty...we need not to ask for something because believing in him itself means we are on the same page with him, we are agreeing with the fact that what all we get till now in life, what all happened with ourselves in past, what all is happening in present and what all future holds for us...is alright...and it is his wish for us, which has done in past, which is getting resolved in present and which will be done in future too...no matters what will happen to our faith, it will remain same, it will not change, can't be manipulated...

In second case, if we don't carry a faith...even if we think we have the greatest faith in almighty, but somewhere it is not (otherwise we should not be in a position to question in any case about past/present/future...) so in this situation, we create our own God to convince ourselves, to pamper ourselves and giving a strong feeling if we should do the thing what we think or not to do the same...in any case, one creates his/her own God, create question, get the answer, if not getting the answer, waiting for miracle like Almighty will appear in dreams and will assist me...(or anything and something like that...)...if miracle also don't work...then anyhow convincing our own God for anything we want to do, is for a good sake for sure.

Not commenting on anyone's faith, believe, feelings...just thought of it if this is what we are doing...or if you are also thinking if this is what we used to do with ourselves...with Almighty...manipulating him like what and as we want...blaming him whatever for we want to blame him...creating him as and when required...Just to remind one quote...God loves us the way we are, but too much to leave us that way...

Someone said it right...What we are is God's gift to us, what we become is our gift to God...and I am convinced that He (God) does not play dice...

In the start and the end...its the matter of faith and belief...not one's writing...