Uncertainity, fear and 5400ft, on top of Kalsubai!

Hanging on the edge of a semi-tempo zooming at 40 miles an hour; tall green mountains around me and a series of windmills in the distant, the vista was slowly fading away. I turned back, and saw the white strips on the highway zipping by, one after another…

Day 1: We stepped out of the local at 0945 hours, and the irrational nonsense started right away. A notice read the words, “NO PLASTIC ZONE”; the board itself made out of the finest polythene. Tongue in cheek.

We made our way to Bhandardara- our destination for the day; via Ghoti. Ghoti is a small village located at half an hour’s “rattle-rattle in an ST”, from Kasara. After getting down, we had to wait for another hour and a half till we got a connecting bus to Bhandardara. The journey to Bhandardara was a picturesque one – the road was slowly winding its way through lush green fields, while the familiar black and blue Sahyadris far in the background bade you a good day. The climate was just righteous- cool and refreshing. After an hour’s drive, we reached Shendi village- the base for Bhandardara. And there it was, hard to miss- the massive Bhandardara dam was standing a few meters away, and we could see the enormous gates and the lazy river on our side. Walking towards it, we came across a small hillock on top from which we saw the most heavenly sight ever- the vast lake of the dam lay right before our eyes, surrounded by small hills and mountains from all sides. Such a big water body surrounded by mountains on all four was a truly breathtaking view - we stood there, mesmerized by the beauty of it. And then we went down to experience it. A local fisherman agreed for a boat ride, and off we went into the lake. All of us were totally engaged with our cell phones, clicking photos after photos of the exquisite panorama. Suddenly, it started raining! This was the unexpected surprise – it turned out to be even more beautiful than before now, with rain drops making ripples on the surface of the vast, smooth lake. Slowly, we turned our way back towards the shore, fully drenched with the showers. Near the bank, we saw a group of 6-7 young women who had come for picnicking, and here’s where “Ambarish’s babes” came into existence. We ragged him crazily, but there was a lot more in hide for the poor guy. After giving the boat rider our order for a sumptuous lunch, we proceeded to the bus stand, from where we could get transportation to Randha waterfalls. Here I had the most amazing vada-pav and bhajis ever in my lifetime, after which our stomach was more in synchronization with our minds; both at peace. We found a jeep who agreed to take us to the waterfalls, and we all sat in. But hey, this guy wasn’t budging so early- he wanted seven (???) more passengers for his jeep. And Whoa! What was this, but a mere coincidence? The very same “Ambarish’s babes” were the passengers he was looking for, and once again we crossed paths. Hahaha…poor fellow was getting ragged more badly now, than ever!

After a fifteen minute ride in the jeep, we reached Randha waterfalls. One should ever refrain from asking me why the peculiar name; I am obviously illiterate on the history of this waterfall. I and Mandar made up our own theories later; but mentioning them is beyond the scope of this blog. You can easily guess why.

Jumping across gorges of rocks, we made our way to the spot for viewing the waterfall. Thundering down from a height of almost 150 feet, the waterfall made a truly “Wow” experience. We were stuck by the sight of it, milky water splashing down and flowing across as a river, carving its way through the rocks. We even discovered a way to go down to the river, but were stuck half way and had to turn back reluctantly. We had come to the place hoping to take a bath somewhere in the waterfalls and loiter around, but both the waterfall and the river seemed inaccessible. Just when we were going back disappointedly towards the road, we noticed a small lake a few yards away from the waterfall. We made our way there, and this was just the blessing in disguise…the water was just right, and the depth was perfect. We changed immediately, and started loitering in the chilling lake….BRR!!! It seemed freezing cold at first, but gradually we got accustomed to it. After a while, guess who gave us a surprise visit? Hahaha…Ambarish’s babes were back again! This time they got him almost naked. Ohh, how hilarious it was! We were certain by now that something was cooking, or even if it wasn’t; we so damn wanted it too- this was but the perfect opportunity to pull Ambarish’s legs!

The swim in the lake truly refreshed all of us, and after a while we decided to head back towards Bhandardara. We realized that we had mis-managed our time, and were in for a fix- but we didn’t realize that things would be so serious…

Waiting for almost 15 minutes without any luck, we were at our wits end, when we saw a steel colored Indica waiting across the street. Ambarish went and convinced the guy to drop us for 120 bucks, and off we went. But this guy just didn’t look decent, and we realized it too late. After 15 minutes, he dropped us to the south end of the dam, saying that this was Bhandardara. We told him that we needed to reach the north side, but he simply refused to go for the same price. Temper rose, and before we knew it; we were in the middle of a dirty argument- and then the worst came as the rogue decided to call on his “friends” to look into the matter. Deciding that things weren’t going to get any better, as we were in alien territory, it was quite late, and the location was absolutely isolated; we decided to pay him off the amount and walk up the rest of the way back. We had to walk back almost 4kms, and time wasn’t on our side- it was 6.20 p.m already, and the last bus for the base village had a departure time of 7.45 p.m. Finding whatever shortcuts were possible, we tried to reach the village, but only made it by 7.30 p.m. The bus was already there, waiting. But we still had one issue to resolve- we had ordered our food with the fisherman, and wanted to pick it up before leaving. I went with the fisherman to bring the food, and here began another crazy search—this time for the fisherman’s mother’s house. It was pitch dark, and we couldn’t see where we were heading. After a few moments of hunting, we finally reached the place, and I got all the stuff packed. Somewhere in my heart, I heard the rumble of the S.T’s engines roaring to life. And my heart hadn’t mistaken. When I reached up near the road again, I was welcomed by the tire tracks of that very bus.

8.00p.m. in the night, and five of us had no place for spending the night. As if this was not enough, we had another headache already: a friend of ours, Kunal; was supposed to meet us directly at Baari. Now, we were stuck here for the night, and there was no way to communicate to him about the matter. Hell, we didn’t even know whether Kunal was in Baari, or not. And if he was, where was he? How were we supposed to find him now? With all these disturbing thoughts in our mind, we stepped out to hunt for a place to stay. Luckily, the fisherman was a kind angel in disguise, for he came with us and suggested places where we could stay. Luck, however; it seems, was not on our side today. Not a single hotel, not even a single room was vacant. Finally, the fisherman told us to come and spend the night at his place. Relief! At last, we had some place to stay for the night. We would have been royally screwed otherwise, since it was raining and cold; and we had no provisions of our own for shelter.

The fisherman’s house was far away from the town, in the middle of the forest. It was one hell of a spooky experience, walking towards his place at 9.00p.m. There was a faint glow in the night sky, a common phenomenon in the monsoon evenings in Maharashtra. But it just added to the daunting atmosphere. We made it to his place somehow, and then we had one of the best lantern-light dinners ever! Ohh, it felt like all this pain was worth the experience now! After this fantastic dinner, we set our alarms to wake up the next day at 4a.m, and immediately fell ran to sleep. Our bodies were aching so much from all the expeditions, that sleep was instantaneous. And we all prayed that such unfortunate incidents wouldn’t happen with us again…

Day 2: We woke up, packed our stuff and paid the fisherman for all his kind services. He and his family had been truly wonderful; they protected us and gave food and shelter. What more could anyone ask for, from a complete stranger? After wishing their family goodbye, the fisherman came with us till the bus stop. He had told us that the first bus would be leaving at 4.45a.m, and we made it there by 4.40 am. However, not a soul was to be seen on the streets. We all started feeling a little bit tense- had the bus left already? If so, then we were again for another horrible disappointment; since the next bus would only come at 8.00 am in the morning. All this while, Kalpesh noticed something that sank our hearts totally- fresh tire tracks in the mud. Wonderful! We had again, within the last 12 hours, managed to miss the stupid S.T. bus. Yet again!!! And the fisherman had already left us, so we had nowhere to go now. Slowly we recalled that while coming here, the fisherman told us that the bus’s actual arrival time was 4.15 am. When we discovered this, so frustrated we were by his actions- it seemed “Shendi” was just the apt title for this god damned village; everyone here was out to fool you!

5.00a.m, Shendi village: Not a single living being on the streets. We were the only five fools, waiting for something to happen. Walking towards a tea stall, we took shelter in it. But our spirits were not so easily given. Me and Mandar started thinking of ways to spook the first local who would pass us…some hilarious ideas we came up with. Then we witnessed the most extra-ordinary love affair of all times: Two frogs had found the early morning to be exceptionally romantic, and were steadily progressing into “it”. We were laughing like crazy, conjuring songs for the male frog to dedicate to the female- it seemed that frustration had finally started taking a toll of our sanity. What could easily be the most unfortunate time of our life was being spent by cracking jokes and ridicule. It seemed like god was testing our patience. And I feel so happy to say, that we passed it brilliantly! For at 6.00 am the owner of the tea stall came, surprised to see such early morning “visitors”. After telling him the situation, he kindly gave us water to refresh ourselves and prepared some nice hot tea which we readily gulped down. All this while, he contacted a jeep driver who willingly offered to drop us to Baari. Finally, we were getting somewhere! After getting our bags ands stuff, we immediately hopped into the matador and thus started our journey. It was still 6.40 am, so we had decent amount of time. Perhaps we could still manage to trek up till the top of the mountain, since we had a strict time restraint, and didn’t want to mess around with S.T’s anymore. But there was an even more acute problem at our hands…finding Kunal. How do you search for a single person in a territory of 3 kms, at 7.00 am in the morning?

But finding Kunal was easier than I had expected. Someone at the rest house had noticed him the earlier night, and told me that he was in the base village. We immediately started the jeep and started hunting for him, asking village by-standers. Luckily, we found two guys on a motorbike who knew where he was. I hopped on the bike, and they took me to the bus stand- they told me that Kunal was at his wit’s end; he was bout to leave. He had told these guys that he would be catching the first bus to go back home…I hope I was in time atleast now. As the bike approached the bus-stop, I gave a huge sigh of relief- the tall fellow was right there, munching on his breakfast. When he saw me, there was a total mixture of feelings on his face- Anger, Surprise, Joy, everything. However, I just hugged him, shook hands and told him about our tragedy the other day; after which he cooled down a bit. I totally appreciate this guy’s patience to spend the whole night in some alien village, all alone. Trust me, it takes guts.

Without wasting further time, we quickly gulped down our breakfast and finally at 8.00 am, we were on our way- Mt. Kalsubai, we were coming! After all trials and tribulations, we were still given a chance to prove ourselves. Unfortunately, we didn’t have a lot of time in our hands. The bus to depart for Kasara would come here at 2.00 pm, so we had just 6 hours to make it to the top and back. But would we do it…?

11.45 am: “Clang, clang, and clang!” the final steps on the iron ladder were now behind us.

Kunal: “Shek, that’s it! We are on the top. 5400 feet. Can you believe it?”

Shek: “Wow!”

That’s the first word that came out of me, at the peak of Kalsubai. We were surrounded by clouds on all sides, the peak wasn’t really broad. In fact, it was perfectly like a peak- very small indeed. There was a huge black rock overlooking the peak, and I cautiously made my way on it- this was the most mind-blowing experience of my lifetime! A rain cloud was blowing straight at me, and I was wet with the mist and freezing with the wind. It was an “out-of-this-world” feeling…there are just no words I have to describe my feelings at that point. However, content I was at the fact that after going through all the pain, success was finally a nice big apple waiting to be chomped upon. With that satisfying thought, I reached for the big fruit I was actually carrying in my bag all along…

2.45p.m: Hanging on the edge of a semi-tempo zooming at 40 miles an hour; tall green mountains around me and a series of windmills in the distant, the vista was slowly fading away. I turned back, and saw the white strips on the highway zipping by, one after another…