**Link to the pictures..
The five of us.. hum panch -->
PrologueLong weekend was nearing.. Not really a long weekend though but Tuesday being a holiday for Independence Day, Monday was treated as an obvious off.
Naveen asked me if I would be interested in joining them for going to Mahabaleshwar. My spirits were high as usual. I agreed instantly. I had been to my hometown few days back so wasnt very keen on revisiting despite the confirmed reservations. This seemed to be a very nice outing and to a place I had not been before. The plans did not seem to materialize seeing the pouring rains of Mumbai.
As if the indecision was not enough when on Friday, Mahabaleshwar was declared to be on high alert due to floods. Hemant pings me in the morning and says that the plan is CANCELLED! sob sob! I was still in the dilemma to go home as did not want to spend the three days at home without any solid plans! But all is well that ends well :).. We finally made enquiries.. Abhi searched for hotels, weather, routes et al.. Again a ray of hope seem to be emerging and I kept my fingers crossed. By evening time we decided that we ARE going to Mahabaleshwar. I finally cancelled my tickets that evening and bought a trek bag for myself. The preparations had started :) My mom was scared that I was going in such weather but Abhishek helped me keep my spirits high !!
Saturday went in packing stuff, went to teach the kids.. Made poha and parathas for the journey.. Waited for THE time to come.. slept waiting for Hemant to come to pick us..
Finally got a call at 1.30 AM and was all set to leave.. Picked Sweta from Raheja and Naveen from Kandivali and headed towards Ruchika's place in Andheri.
Was hoping that should get the phone network during these three days.. But wasnt very sure so had a long conversation with Abhi in worst case if the network did not work.
At Ruchika's place we filled the waterbottles and she seemed to be carrying some nice eatables :D Thats the benefit of having a locallite along :D
The journey finally began with five of us all in ready to rock for the coming 3 days!! The driver was Mr. Shaqeel, a guy with a moustache and a simple look on his face and who wore a bright red cap for most of the journey.
Our qualis with Mr Shaqeel -->
Sunday storyEveryone was sleepy during the journey. And for me it was more of an icebreaking time. Did not know Ruchika before except for having seen her in treks. And with the others too had interacted only during the treks. This was sure going to be exploring more of each one of them :) Naveen chose to sit behind and Hemant took the navigator seat. We three girls had the only option of occupying the middle seat of the Qualis.
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Had cheese sandwiches in between.. yumm! finished off the poha and parathas. We took a break at 6.30 am at a food mall. Weather was getting colder and our spirits higher! We finally were on our way!! Hurrah!
At the food mall we had vada and samosa pav, tea and butter scotch icecream..slurp slurp!
I was surprised to see soo many tolls in between. Naveen managed all the expenses during the entire trip.
Food mall break -->
The Qualis had music system and Hemant tried hard to discover the eject button in it but to no success.. hehe. I finally got the hidden place at the stop in between and we had some nice music playing after the food mall break. Sweta got lost looking out of the window, seemingly thinking something and so comes the name 'Sanyasan'. Reached Panchgani around 10am or so and saw TCS guest house in between. Naveen and myself tried our luck for accomodation out there. But as expected, it turned out to be full for next month. The roads were slippery and weather was rainy!
TCS Guest house -->
Panchgani was 20km from Mahabaleshwar and we decided to go straight to the hotel which Ruchika's brother had suggested. Every corner in Mahab seem to have the govt laid taxes. It sounded strange to me. Anyway..
I did not have the slightest idea that Mahabaleshwar was such a commercialized hill station. It was getting very foggy and cold. We halted at this hotel and discovered that they do not have any spare rooms. We were hoping against hope that the influence and recommendations of Ruchika's brother would work and so we waited and waited there. Sweta and myself managed to play two games of carrom kept there while Ruchika was busy co-ordinating with her brother and Naveen and Hemant went to find other rooms around as contingency plan. We know better what the actual intentions were to go out roaming in surrounding areas ;) Guys !!
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Me and Sweta busy playing carrom -->
Anyway..So finally when we knew that there aint gonna be any luck in this hotel, Ruchika went with Hemant to have a look at the two hotels the guys had seen earlier. Hemant happened to like the one with bath tub and was hell bent on we going to that place. I wonder what how much time he intended to spend in that bath tub!! He has got this simple guy look and hence the name the guy with deceiving looks. Luckily, Ruchika had other plans and we headed for a Govt guest house recommended yet again by her brother. In between we halted near a roadside which gave a lovely view of a waterfall at a distance and had a corn stall around the corner. Experienced the first feel of the weather and nature around. The halt wasnt long and we continued towards the guest house.
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Enjoying the butta in the cold.. -->
The guest house wasnt far from the market area and initially seemed very plain and simple. But it was the best that we could have asked for. Not amongst the posh ones but surely of the kinds one would love to be in, relaxed and comfortable. It was a house with two bedrooms and a hall kind of place, which we later chose as the place to dry clothes. There was a person who took care of all our requirements. Neatly laid beds with blankets, sofas, a table, mirror, attached restrooms, and a fire-burner (angeethi) were put in place. It was secluded in a way and had 'khas' covering in the entire house. Two tractors lay in the open space outside and a house of the person incharge was just opposite to ours. Each room had a bell facility to call the man incharge when needed. We did trouble him time and again :D
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We changed into comfortable clothes and dozed off to sleep as were tired and sleepy after the 8 hours journey. We woke up around 4.30 pm. Nobody really wanted to explore outside leaving the warmth of the angeethi and the cover of the blankets. Wow! This seemed like the perfect place to come and relax completely!
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We around the angeethi -->
We anyway got ready and went to the market area. We realized that we would soon need floaters in this weather to sustain the rain and the slippery roads. It was pouring continuously. Fog was getting thicker. The market reminded me of Manali. It was much like any other hill station with horse riding, games, a lot of shops, restaurants, tourists all around. We caught glimpse of few TCSers too. We hogged on chats, pani puri, sweet candies, and corn at a corner. The rates were sky-high!! We explored the market a little more and came to a decent looking restaurant where we opted for Pav bhaji, tomato soup (which was not very palatable), jeera rice and daal. And so we left that place half hungry only to stop by at yet another restaurant for second meal :D. That was a much better place and we had chana masala and rotis. Naveen bought a pair of playing cards and finally satisfied roaming around in market we came back to the cozy shelter. Changed into sleeping clothes and everyone got comfortable around the angeethi. Then long discussions about TCS Management, trek co-ordinators, in general corporate world et al went on. We played cards for sometime and had a hard time teaching Sweta. She seemed to be hell bent not to play cards. LoL. Our creativeness took toll when the electricity went off for a while and we took torches and created the ghost effect. I agree that I could have done without it too ;) But special effects always are helpful you see. hehe. It was nice sitting around the warmth of the coal fire and discussing on everything and nothing in particular. We finally slept at 2.30 or so.
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Bhooot.. me and Sweta -->
Monday storyWe had decided to get up at 6.30, and the girls-clan would take bath as we had plans to go to the temple. Guys had agreed on getting up an hour late as they did not intend to bathe. But it was so chilling cold and the cover of two blankets was so very comfortable that no alarm helped and only when Hemant knocked at our door aloud for a long while at 7.30, did Ruchika managed to wake. We then took bath which was so much needed with hot water available and got ready by 9.15 or so. It was still pouring continuously but we had become use to the rains and were infact enjoying it. We reached the temple in an hour. It was a Shivji temple and after that we halted at a local eating joint. Had vada pavs, poha, sabudana khichdi, idli and tea. Best part of the entire trip was that everywhere the tea served was fantastic! There we got to know about a place at some distance which was the origination of five rivers. We went there and saw the kund where people were bathing. There were idols of shivji there too.
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Temple at the top -->
After that we headed back for Pratapgadh but in between stopped at a place which had a number of points listed down. It included monkey point, echo point etc. The breeze was blowing hard and rains had not stopped even for a second! By this time we had changed places and Naveen and myself took the backseat. The best part was we had the back door opened so that I got a chance to click snaps from the qualis of the roads and waterfalls behind. The music in the entire journey mainly was of Himes Resamiya and some nice soft numbers from Hemant's CD. We also halted in between at a waterfall where myself and Naveen went under it and enjoyed the chilled water. Having hot butta with lot of masala over it in that drizzling rain was WOW! We had completely surrended to nature.
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In a short while we reached the base of Pratapgadh where we had Misal and tea. I was not sure if I would have network once we reach the top and by the time I could pick up Abhi's call it got cut. Finally smsed from Hemant's cell and he called back :-)
We decided to take a guide along with us. There was a temple and Shivaji Maharaj fort and it was a 350 steps climb. the stairs were slippery and Ruchika and myself had bright chances of falling as we were in our slippers. Naveen was very careful about helping us walk safely. He is like 6' 2'' and completely suits the 'Saboo' personality from Chacha Caudhari, and hence the name :-)
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Under the waterfall -->
The guide was not any ordinary guide mind you. Someone sure would have given better inputs here;) Who knows.. that someone might write a separate article on 'The Guide' ..hehe. He was wearing folded jeans, a black jacket and had a big umbrella. He knew to click snaps well too. Well all this explanation does not come for no reason at all. If you-know-who happens to read this article she sure would be disappointed if details of the guide are not mentioned ;) He explained the history behind every cave, and various points very well and clearly. And the best part was he explained it in hindi. We reached a point where Shivaji Maharaj Statue was placed but the area was damn slippery! Atop was a handicraft exhibition from where Sweta n Ruchika did pickup some stuff. I chose not to go initially as my leg was aching badly due to a cut beneath it. But we did have a look at the exhibition. Naveen got all of us good luck momentos made of shells. :)
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While coming down we had a good laugh at the new happening or chemistry between the guide and our very own you-know-who;-) From behind it was a picture perfect, both in black jackets with a black umbrella above them and talking as if they had known each other since ages :)) Poor Ruchika once managed to go underneath the umbreall but was left behind with no concerns whatsoever! We stopped in between at a local eating joint where the guide did the serving.. imagine!! He was not ready to leave us and continue the downward journey.. reason better known to all of us ;) We had bajre ki roti and pitalla (made of besan), palak pakodas and hot steaming tea.
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Once back at the base, the journey which continued in the sumo was fun. Someone chose to take the front seat and the songs which played thereafter were sure different from the earlier ones. The basic theme being 'judaai' ;) We were teasing her so badly that at one point we realized that it is affecting the driver! Sounds strange eh!! LoL. But then I thought that might be the driver is having hopes that she is being teased by him. His concentration on driving had sure gone and so we decided to bring her back and Naveen exchanged places with her.
We finally reached our guest house at 7pm or so. No one was in a mood to have dinner in any of the restaurants nearby and so eventually we decided to pack some stuff and bring home. We changed our wet clothes and Sweta, Hemant and myself left for the market. Brought lots of eatables from a shop, biscuits, namkeens, wafers, choclates etc. Then we found a nice fast food joint suggested by Hemant and hogged on 3 strawberry icecreams, 2 french fries and packed one icecream for Naveen and Ruchika. Before leaving also had meetha paan.. yumm!
Back in the comforts of the heat of the fireplace we started with our hot discussion on girls, marriage, people et al. There was a moment when the discussion on trek group got so heated that made Ruchika cry. I noticed that Ruchika doesnt like to click her solo snaps and gets very conscious. But she has got a nice dressing sense and I had once mentioned that she is "Matkoo" for all the expressions that she gives. Our Hemant gave this item by explaining the meaning of Matkoo as someone being in the shape of a matka. LoL.
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There were no lights for almost entire night and we were enjoying the cold. After a lot of bakar eventually slept at 4.30am.
Tuesday story - The Independence DayWoke up on Tuesday morning at sharp 8am and got ready in an hour. Ruchika expressed her idea of wanting to reach mumbai by 9pm. The reason given was parents would not like she being out for longer. But but but.. The actual reason was discovered while she was talking over the phone to Abhishek (her best friend). It was his birthday and she wanted to meet him. That sure is fair enough but why lie!! She was in for a lot of questions and doubts from all of us! Poor girl. At times I really felt sorry for her ;) :P That did not mean I teased her any less.LoL We clicked snaps on the tractors kept outside the house, packed all our belongings and left the place for Panchgani.
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Me in the tractor -->
Ruchika wanted to visit few schools of Panchgani to find out some information about admissions there. After that we left for the main spot in Panchgani which was another typical hill station spot with lots of tourists, balloon shooting and other games, stalls all around, horse rides, et al. There was a huge land full of weeds and mud during that time. The wind was blowing hard and rain was pouring nonstop. Enjoyed the breathtaking view from the top. Ruchika managed to finally slip in that wet ground. There was an icecream-wala and everyone enjoyed local cone icecreams in that cold. We later decided to take a baggi-ride and leave the spot. But the fog had increased considerably and so cancelled the plan. Instead did baloon shooting and ate chana-chor and buttas again and left the place.
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Enjoying the weather of Panchgani -->
While heading back we discovered yet another place from where a lot of people were enjoying the view. We took a little break over there. There was a steep slope where people had not ventured till then. We all went down and rested there for sometime. It was very windy and cold breeze had begun to hurt. Hemant found a babe in ford icon but alas! The couple seemed to have stopped only for a click or two and then left.hahaha. We left from the place around 2pm or so.
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Our stomachs were by now full with anticipation of good food. Shaqeel was sure that we would catch hold of nice dhaba on the way and how right he was! We had chana masala, dal, rice, rotis and frooti. Clicked some snaps of rabbits and pigeons in a cage. This is really surprising. We want to capture every little thing when out thought everyday more than 5 pigeons come at our window.
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Rabbit and Hare -->
Sweta sung some patriotic songs on the way and I got a call from one of the Kulupwadi basti kids Rahul asking me to attend the function in their area. Alas I could not :(
With our stomachs full with nice meal we finally bid good bye to the three day stay in heaven beyond the hustle bustle of Mumbai. It was a much needed break and I am glad that I decided to go for it. We did keep our promise of dropping Ruchika at her place by 9pm sharp ;) Naveen also got down on the way. We finally reached the Kulupwadi road and Sweta and myself headed towards my home while Hemant settled accounts with the driver. There ended my visit to yet another hillstation.
