Lakh Lakh Chanderi...

            "लख लख चंदेरी तेजाची न्यारी दुनिया...." the old tune and the only first line of the song, my mind started singing since it heard that my next trek is to Chanderi fort. For us Chanderi was like that hard chapter that we see everyday in a textbook, but we keep it behind to study later. But our captain - Mehul had finally decided to hunt it down, he was ready with a voyage plan, we only had to follow his orders. My busy office schedule didn't allow me to do any preliminary research of the trek route. I was warned this time to get up early, pick Rajesh - my office colleague at Powai at 4:30 and get into a train to Panvel by 4:55 in the morning. I said OK! As planned I and Rajesh united with the captain Mehul and two new faces he had brought with him - Sharad and Shrikant. So, the captain and the crew was ready, ship was loaded and here we started our voyage with a rickshaw leading to the base village of Chanderi fort which is Tamsai.

          The rickshaw run on a narrow and rocky road giving us a nice massage with a rattling noise, the road was surrounded by green fields and it showed us some beautiful water streams and mountain silhouettes. We started locating and naming few mountains as Irshal, Chanderi, Malang and Sondai fort, some of our guesses were correct though. About half an hour later we reached to Tamsai, the ratting of rickshaw stopped but it started beating same sound in our hearts as our gazes got fixed on two magnificent mountains Mhasmal and Chanderi. At the moment we were unable to distinguish between them, the mountains and we were strangers to each other. From a distance it seemed like two giants shaking hands before a fight. Their ridges meet at a place forming a very big 'v' shape in the middle. Our trail started through the village, left it behind and our ship sailed towards one of the mountains we were not sure at the moment upon which we were going to be landed. We were filled with so much enthusiasm that first one and half hour we went on chirping and chattering. With each step we forwarded we were pushed into more dense forest. We had already started ascending, we could not see our destination but the dense flora and various kinds of insects living in it. The insects had got merged into their habitat so amazingly that we needed put pressure to figure them out. We found there a lot of banana trees that you would have called it a banana forest as the jungle and the mountains were full with them. 

           After about one and half hour of blind hiking when we only tried to remain stuck to the route, we found ourselves at an elevated place, near a beautiful cascading water stream and down below as far as our eyes can reach laid a dense jungle with the artery flowing through it. From there we could see the mountain tops, huge and high, one would never believe that he would make it to the top. I inhaled a deep breath and started ascending again, this time we were hiking alongside the water stream and heading towards the col where Mhasmal and Chanderi meet each other. We were greeted by many white crabs on the path, I called them white-walkers. The weather turned little muggy and damp we finally reached the col. The same trail on which we had climbed up descends down on the opposite side directing to Chinchawali village, which was going to be our returning route, but we still had a mountain to climb which was on third route which climbs up on the ridge. We could see the huge pinnacle of the Chanderi now, so we knew a direction to follow.

          The damp air and the hot sun didn't allow us to settle there for long, well we might have but we saw few wasps or honeybees hovering around us, Mehul said one bit him and in the panic moment we pushed ourselves to go on. The trail brought us in a heavy thicket again, I was ahead of the troop by then and when few fine spider webs broke upon my face, I put a sword in my hand, Mehul was not worried about the spiders as he had already eaten a few! I was only afraid of wasps but when I realized that the flying monster is some strange insect with orange colored wings and a deadly long needle, I got terrified because I didn't have any clue what it's bite would cause. It never deserted us and kept biting until we reached the top. It seemed to me similar to a girl we love the most, no doubt beautiful but brutal!

          About half an hour later we halted at a plain big rock where cool pleasant breeze gave us some relief from those irritating flies. Enormous depths of the valley and magnificence of the mountains made us forget the mundane world and it felt like being in another world. Although we wanted to stay there for more time we had to moved on. The places of green patches had then been replaced by yellow and pink flowers spread all over. The ascend became steep but it didn't trouble us as the weather became less humid and more pleasing. There we reached on another col where on one side there is a small temple and on another side is a cistern and a cave at the base of huge pinnacle. I got to know that once the pinnacle had stairs to reach the top but eventually got collapsed so now one could not climb it without ropes and on the top there is a statue of Shivaji Maharaj. Keeping the pinnacle on our left and walking along it's right edge we reached our destination point - the cave. To our surprise the cave had tiled floor and idols of lord Ganesha and a goddess and a Shivaling. We had our lunch there, took a nap on the cool floor, collected our stuff and the wonderful memories into our bags and started our return travel.

        We descended down with decent pace up to the col where we took the trail which headed towards Chinchawali village. The descend afterward was little steep and the trail coincided with a water stream many times. Most of the people do a mistake and follow a water stream and end up lost, we're not going to do that, we insisted upon the route. With taking very few halts we descended down from there onward it was a long walk to Chinchawali. The two mountains looked the exactly same with the 'v' shape, the only difference was, we were on opposite side than the morning. Just when we neared the village we heard a loud thud in the distance, there was a mountain being slaughtered by our kinds for the construction purpose. Then only I realized why Chanderi and Mhasmal were holding each others hands so tightly, I glanced at them for the last time and continued forward. Our destination stop was Badalapur railway station, we were hoping to get a vehicle in Chinchawali but we couldn't, so we took another so called 20 mins of walk which turned into another 45 mins to a small village called Bhendshil, there we got a rickshaw which dropped us at Badalapur station. We hopped into CST train with sore legs but we had filled our bags entirely with sparkling 'Chanderi' memories.

Photo: Mehul Vast

The dense forest

Mhasmal Gad

The pinnacle of Chanderi

Attempted water painting one of the scene 

चष्मा

           एका मित्राशी असाच फोनवर गप्पा मारत बसलो होतो आणि तीने सहज विचारले "तू काहीतरी लिहलं होतंस ना..? मराठीमध्ये ? दोन दिवस तो कागद घेऊन ऑफिस मध्ये नाचत होतास! " हं! आठवलं .. तो दिवस होता ३१ डिसेंबर २०१५ आणि आम्ही म्हणजे मी आणि माझे दोन ऑफिस सहकारी मेहुल आणि सोनम नजर रोखून बसलो होतो नववर्षाच्या १ तारखेवर. १ तारखेला काहीतरी 'तुफ़ानी' करायचं एवढचं डोळ्यासमोर ! 'तुफानी' म्हणजे 'ट्रेक' ! सध्या पुण्यात असलेला अनुभवी आणि अस्सल ट्रेकर प्रसाद तांदळे आमच्या मोहिमेची आखणी करणार होता, प्रसाद बरोबर आहे म्हणजे आम्ही सर्व उताणे, निर्धास्त ! ३१ तारखेला ऑफिस उरकून आणि बस ब्रेकडाउन इत्यादी आव्हानांना तोंड देत रात्री १० - ११ च्या सुमारास आम्ही तीन मावळे लोणावळ्याच्या बस मध्ये स्वार झालो. बरोबर १२ वाजता जेव्हा सर्व घड्याळे १ जानेवारी २०१६ वर उलटली, संपूर्ण लोणावळ्यात फटाक्यांची आतषबाजी झाली, तो झगमगाट शहरापेक्ष्या आमच्याच डोळ्यांमध्ये जास्त चमचमला! दुसऱ्या दिवशी पहाटे नववर्षीचा नवसूर्य पाहण्याचा नूतन वर्ष्यातील आमचा पहिला संकल्प आम्ही पूर्ण केला! प्रसाद सोबत पुण्याहून आलेले आणखी तीघे आम्हाला सामील झाले आणि उल्हास दरीतून सुरु होणारा आणि नदीच्या ओबडधोबड पात्रातून वळवळणारा जवळजवळ २५ किलोमीटर चा सुंदर ट्रेक आम्ही पूर्ण केला.

         नवीन वर्ष्याची ती दणदणीत सुरुवात एका अविस्मरणीय आठवणीसोबत एक नवी उमेद देऊन गेली आणि त्याच उर्मीमध्ये दुसऱ्या दिवशी कागदावरती काहीतरी गीरगटलं. आज तो कागद अलगद हाती लागला, 'लिहणं' म्हणजे काय हे माहीत नसताना गीरगटलेलं काहीतरी तुमच्याशी share करतोय....

            नवीन वर्ष्याची सुरुवात झाली, अगदी दरवर्षी प्रमाणे ! आणि आम्हा सर्वांचे डोळे लागले ते त्या  नववर्षाच्या उगवत्या भास्काराकडे. प्रत्येकालाच याला डोळे भरून पाहायचे होते, आगतिक होते सर्वजण, अगदी माझ्याइतकेच.

                 प्रत्येकालाच हा सूर्य पाहायचा होता, पण रोजप्रमाणे नाही, तर एका नव्या आणि विशिष्ट कोनातून. सूर्य तर तोच होता कि जो मी माझ्या जन्मापासून रोज पाहत आलो आहे, कि जो माझ्या पूर्वजांनीही तोच पहिला आहे, एवढेच नव्हे तर ही पृथ्वी तिच्या स्वतःच्या जन्मापासून पाहत आली आहे. जमिनतरी कुठे बदलली आहे ? तीही तीच आहे. सर्वकाही तेच आहे, मग हे नावीन्य कुठले आहे ? वेगळे काय आहे ? वेगळे तर काहीच नाही, हो, बहुदा आमचा विचार बदलला होता, आमच्या दृष्टीवर एक नवा चष्मा आला होता.

                कोणतीही गोष्ट ही special केव्हाच नसते, तर आपण तीला special बनवतो, जेव्हा आपण तसा विश्वास करतो. प्रत्येक क्षण तर सारखाच असतो, पण आपण त्यातील काही मोजके आणि निवडक क्षण खास साजरे करतो. नववर्ष तर एक निमित्त आहे, म्हणूनच तर रोज दिवसभर सोबत असणाऱ्या या सहकार्याला नववर्षाच्या एक तारखेला आपण कवटाळून मीठी मारतो.

                  आपल्या सोबतही तसेच आहे, काही लोक आपल्यासाठी विशेष असतात, बऱ्याचदा ते विशेषपण त्यांच्यामध्ये असतेच असे नाही. पण आपला विश्वास असतो तसा. म्हणूनच 'दृष्टी' ही महत्वाची आहे. हीच्यामुळे आपण कोणत्याही सामान्य गोष्टीला असामान्य बनवू शकतो, पण तेवढा विश्वास असायला हवा. एक साधा चहासुद्धा आपण खूप आवडीने पितो, जेव्हा तो आपल्या ताईने खास आपल्यासाठी बनवलेला असतो. साध्यातील साधे आणि छोट्यातील छोटे गीफ्ट सुद्धा आपण जीव लावून जपतो, जेव्हा ते कोणी खास व्यक्तीने दिलेले असते. म्हणूनच फक्त असण्यापेक्षा विश्वास असणे मला महत्वाचे वाटते. प्रत्येकाने स्वतःवरही असा थोडा भाबडा विश्वास ठेवायला हवा, यामुळे स्वतःमधील सामान्य गोष्टी असामान्य होतील, आधी स्वतःला पटतील, नंतर जगाला.

- ०२ जानेवारी २०१६

Yeh laal rang kab mujhe chhodega!

        What a beautiful song! While Aanand Bakshi cooked the lyrics, voice given to the song by Kishor Kumar did an icinig on the cake. But a question that has been lingering in my mind since a while is, what was Aanandji thinking while he found his first line of the song 'ये लाल रंग कब मुझे छोडेगा'..! Well, I think finally, I have figured it out, he must have been come across few window glasses of our transport buses which are always painted in Red! or a fine art of scattered Red we always find in the corners of staircases! no? then it must have been the Red decorations few innovative designers make over our streets voluntarily! no!? then what about Red carpets which are laid across a Paan shops? no? then what was it exactly? then only Aanandji could answer me.

        I congratulate MSRTC(Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation) on their decision on making the buses all red. They tried all other combinations of white, yellow, purple... but when they realized that they can't stop 'the red rainfall', they just purchased barrels of red color and showered over the buses. If you couldn't find a bus to paint, don't be upset, "why do we have corners for?", well the answer is simple "to spit!". We know, we don't sit in corners, we just pass along them, whether the corners are in a temple or a brothel or just along staircases, we can color them! What if we make our rooms round? That would be a funny sight, a man would keep on spinning around the room with his mouth eager to spit! I have seen some people spitting in even their own houses! Yes I know it's disgusting, even I wouldn't have believed it if I had not seen it.

        If we can't even spare our own houses then what's wrong in spitting on the streets! Streets are Ours! It's our birthright! Indian driving rule book has got two new rules, as in case you don't know this yet, I am here to save you. Rule no. one, if a man driving in front of you leans on either his sides, don't presume that he is intending to take a turn, he may be just wants to 'empty his mouth'! If you are a rookie on the street then he can happily empty it onto your face! And second rule is, never ever drive or even walk too close by a bus, since any random window of the bus could anoint you by sprinkling upon you. Now, dodging these misfortunes, if you could safely walk across a Paan shop with your white collars up and if you don't find any red around it and if it's too clean, then wait! don't buy anything there. A Paan shops is considered legitimate only after it is able to produce fair amount of Red around it.

        On opposite to my balcony there live a very tidy family, my and their flat is on 6th floor, the family is so wonderful that they collect all the litter they could find in their house and one by one they come in their balcony and just drop it off through window without even looking down, they are fearless, I admire them, they don't bother about what they are throwing or whether it is falling on someone's head! When I tried to tackle them they just defeated me with "अपने काम से काम रखो". For the kind of people our Prime-minister tried 'स्वच्छ भारत अभियान'! All these people and places give me insight that I live in world of artists. All are pledged to decorate our surroundings with plastic carry bags, the red paint and other possible litter. Other artists get motivated when one makes a 'first stroke' on a new clean canvas and they will not stop until the canvas is overflown. Do not hesitate to make your own Red stroke, as God has given us mouth only for three reasons, 'to eat', 'to speak' and to..."wait a second, let me find a corner!".

Pim-Pom

          "Yeah... look at our new Bike!" a father says to his three years old son putting him on the tank of the bike. Didn't he have anything else to show him? No!, only horn! and because it can whistle and we all love sounds!. The next moment the child grabs the bike, his baby fingers finds the tempting button of the bike!. You know what happens next .."Peepp...Peeepp...Peepp!... Peeeee.." and the child goes "aya..ayan...yaaan...yaaya"!. Then four more people around and Gokhale uncle from his balcony pretend to be admiring the bike and at the same time starts thinking 'which one should I get rid of first, the baby or the horn!'.

          I don't understand what is so much fascinating about horns, I don't like them at all. You know, crazy people try to set a distinct horn to their vehicles, only to show how much weird they are! Can you imagine how would a dog sound if you snatch a bread out of its mouth ? "Bhhooowwn", exactly! I remember, there used to be a van in our market with this frightening sound. Truck's horns are the best, they are the only place where Himesh Reshmmiya's songs are still played. Loud, sound in rhythm, you could hear them from miles away, if set so, otherwise they can make you jump two feet in the air, raising your heartbeats.

          In my school time, at Environment lecture, I never understood the term 'Noise Pollution'. Being in a rural place in a small village and where your shout can reach to last alley, it was hard for me to imagine 'noise'. Until now, in Mumbai, I live with it, my day starts with noise and even if I shut my ears and fall asleep, it continues. No, I can not blame the city as I know, only we people have made it a hard place to live. Everyday, getting onto my bike to leave for office, I instruct myself that 'I will not loose my temper to any idiot on the path, at least today', but I am still waiting for that quiet and peaceful day. While I try to make my way through a herd of bullocks, some idiots put their finger on horn button and completely forget to release it. The sprouted horn whistle first travels in all possible directions then reaches my ears, thrashes onto and then the signal travels to my half frozen brain, my brain gets attention of the fool and my eyes casts gaze at the fool and my mouth spits "साले...नया लगाया क्या बे हॉर्न !"

          My bikes horn is such an antique piece which only works when it is raining. I don't know what happens inside it, only water make it blow! as we always say 'Water is life', I think my bike's horn has heard it somewhere. All other time I ride without it, initially my finger wiggled a bit but then I got accustomed to it. Surprisingly it hasn't affected me much, instead knowing the fact that my bike is unable to speak, I drive more carefully. I am not asking you to throw off your vehicle horns, all I am trying to say is there is little amount of percentage where we can contribute to our society to maintain it's peace.

Ohh God!

       What an auspicious occasion this is, while writing down this every letter I feel blessed, it's a Ganapati (lord Ganesha) festival ongoing, he is lord of intelligence and here I sit holding my quill and my intellect in my hand.

       There is enormous amount of literature already present on the word 'God'. Literature present in every language with countless number of gods and goddesses within it. Here I scroll down through countless number of messages everyday based on God. Just few decades ago in India and possibly few centuries ago in other modern and more advanced countries (in terms of technology), there was no single word of doubt on 'existence of the God'. A just 'हरी आेम' message with a picture of lord Shiva I used to get in the morning time has now been altered to a paragraph of 'God is a truth or just a fake belief'. This change and the fact that 'change is the only constant thing' has now started to intimate me that may be the God is also on the roll of 'change'.

          With increasing literacy, advancement in the area of science, technology, people's longing to know and understand things better, freedom we are getting to think freely and independently, are few of the reasons that this question is now being raised. A true believer of god doesn't need a proof of his existence, this is why he is still alive. I am really not interested in the answer of this question. So then you might ask me, what is god to me? Whenever I think about God, he fills me with extreme amazement, god is wonderful isn't he?

        What I see as god is, he has supreme level of values and qualities we pursue in our lifetime, values like love, compassion, intelligence, honesty, trust, peace, integrity, happiness, patience, bravery, passion, courage, pride, blissfulness ... the list can go endless. On the top of finest and greatest level of all good qualities resides the God. And with each level of declining slope of these qualities there are all others including humans. No human alive or dead can ever match with any of the qualities with god, he always tops. The utmost level of holiness where a man can never reach but can strive to reach is God.

      Recent few lessons of my life taught me not to get obsessed with anything or anyone in life, but the term god gives me realization that, at what incredible level of possibility an obsession and a belief of the people can reach. Here also the god tops, people's obsession towards god is astonishing, sadly this gives birth to superstition, which is really horrible. All the holy qualities of god makes him such an ideal person, in front of whom without any hesitation, we can bow our heads, confess our misdeeds, share our desires and to our small and small pleadings he is always there to say "तथास्तु" !

A Comment

           I was trying to understand meaning of the word 'Comment', as I always do I opened Google Translator and it answered me 'टिप्पणी'. Talking about the application, I know I owe a great deal to Google Translator, I remember I would keep a book of 2kg labelled with 'English Dictionary' with me, I don't know how to weigh the app, all I can calculate is my mobile is of 135 grams and the app has consumed few mbs.

           I have heard (or mostly seen) the word along with Facebook and I remember the comments, 'very nice'... 'amazing'...' how wonderful'... 'so cute'... 'how awesoooommmm' (this isn't a typo!) and it goes on and on till you get diabetes. And the comments are just unstoppable to a girl's post! You put something on the social garbage, you feel it is the most awesome and greatest thing that had ever happened to you and it may not happen at least for two more centuries and you hope for at least 5 likes or 1 comment! Please!!!...and to your great fate an average looking girl puts an average looking photo of her (like she had seen a rat under her bed) and that's it! you're GONE! vanished! and then Amrish Puri's voice whispers in your ear "तुम्हारी जायदाद तुम्हारे इकलौते बाप ने तुम्हारे चचेरे मामा के नाम कर दियी है .. हा हा हा !"

           All these things led me misunderstand the meaning of 'commenting'! I have seen people beg for "Like! comment! and Subscribe!". It's only after I created my own blog, I am realizing what a comment means for the people who put their personal affairs and (literally) shits on the social sites and wish us to 'comment' on it.

           "Encouragement is an oxygen to our souls", (with utmost gratitude, this line I have stolen from my friend), but the line really means something. Appreciation is indeed important at certain stages of our life, I can feel the gravity of the sentence when I take a glance at my childhood. Commenting doesn't just mean appreciating, it just means 'commenting' whatever you feel and however your inner voice respond. Did I forget to mention  "Please Comment"!