Kamshet - a quiet time by Uksan Lake

18th Apr 2014

Camping by the Uksan lake

And finally! Yes finally I pitched my tent in the outdoors for the first time. It was a great feeling assembling it in not more than 15 minutes. The location was much more than apt. Under the shade of a swaying tree, by the clear rippling waters of the lake, with a view of the distant mountains, watching the odd egret takeoff from the serene water surface and not a soul to bother; our camping stint was more than a success.

Kamshet is a small hidden village on the way to Pune from Mumbai after crossing Lonavala, to the left of the old Mumbai Expressway. It is a peaceful getaway from the city humdrum if you prefer lazing in a hammock, reading a book by a water body, taking a short walk into the forest, waking up to the chirping of the birds. As you leave the highway behind, you are welcomed by the Indrayani River to your left. Getting through the market place would pose to be a small hurdle as cars and bikes are parked like stray cows and disorganization seems to be the only organized way as people walking in the middle of the road turn a deaf ear and a blind eye to your presence. Once through the market place, lined sugarcane fields welcome you, grazing cows give you an uninterested look, thatched huts sing of the village folklore, flock of sheep are being lazily disciplined by the shepherd, bullock carts carrying loads of sugarcane throw open a canvas of the true village life and what it does is bring a joyous smile to your lips.

Uksan Lake

Uksan Lake

Our destination was Uksan lake for the day. You need to ask for the road to Govitri or the Nane road. It is around 10 kms from the Kamshet marketplace. It is actually a small dam with a secluded, clean and placid lake. Some beautiful bungalows are built around it. Even in the summer heat, a cool and refreshing breeze didn’t make us feel the heat. Some beautiful bungalows are built on the periphery of the lake. Other than these, there is accommodation available for travelers like the Native place and adventure facilitators like Nirvana who offer paragliding activities. A walking excursion by the lake or the nearby forest should be a good adventure affair. The lakes’ water is very clean.

Kondeshwar Temple

A little before you reach Uksan lake, a road leads to the left which takes you to Jambivali village and Kondeshwar temple. This is an old Shiva temple and behind the temple is a clearing in the forest which is a good picnic spot and also gives access to a waterfall and some small ponds. From here you get a panoramic view of the forests and the nearby Dhak Bahiri mountain which also is a trekkers delight. The temple was on my itinerary but due to time constraints could not make it.

Soaring in the skies

Kamshet is known for other reasons too! If your desire is to soar like an eagle, with your heart pumping wildly and yet enjoying the sights below, to feel the power of the wind as you cut through it, to have a birds’ eye view of the landscape; all you need to do is land up at one of the paragliding adventure homes here, Nirvana or Native place being one of them. For a ten minute tandem ride in the skies, it would cost you INR 3000. There are accommodation facilities too but they cost extra. We were unlucky not to see any gliders or maybe were at the wrong place. The forests of Kamshet would definitely be a birders paradise too since we heard different calls and hoots from the winged fancies.

Places nearby:

• The hill stations of Lonavala and Khandala are not very far.
• The famous Karla, Bhaja and Bedsa Buddhist caves are at short accessible distances (by a vehicle of course)
• The visually mesmerizing Pawana Lake and Valvan dam are nearby too.
• There are many trekking options. The Forts of Tung, Tikona, Lohagad and Visapur are on different sides of the Pawana Lake. Dhak Bahiri is another option.

 Some more photos

 

Placid waters of the lake

The next drifting wanderer

Enjoying the fresh breeze

Some meditation by the peaceful waters

Sandwich time

Rajgad Heights - A treasure built with a treasure

Other forts and trekking destinations
Jaigad | Karnala Fort | Korigad | Kothligad | Korlai Fort |  Pratapgad | Rajgad | Ratnadurga | Tikona | Torna | Vijaydurg

The wise say, "Where there is a will(s), there is a way..."

The wiser say, "When you puff a Flake of Gold, you tend to get bold...."

Nahi samjha to rehne do....

After a long hiatus, the heart of a mountain goat bleated for a return to the hills. Initially, a bigger number; the group was shortened controversially between the drinkers and the non-drinkers and the passionate drinkers decided to stay back. My and Anands' decision to join in was a last minute one. Kaushal awoke from his torpid state and decided to join us. A part of the group was going on bikes, and the rest by car.
Leaving office by 6:00 pm, we knew we had to hurry up to get home and then on this fresh expedition, but that didn't deter Anand and me from lifting our glasses at Military Cafe...3 warm beers in 30 minutes - WARM?? ya, sure we'r crazy...SO??

Just when I thought Sharmaji was not gonna turn up, he called to say that he'd left home and so should I.  The traffic jam buttered away time as AS reached Thane by 10:30 and zoom we flew to pick Mr.Kaushal Silent Sharma (yet another Sharma) on our way at Juinagar. Though we had missed him, rushed ahead and had to come back; he didn't miss us as he claimed to have emptied an entire KHAMBA of whiskey at the bus stop in about an hour...not a peg, not two, not a quarter, but a full bottle...well, HE claimed !!! And, to top it all, he hadn't slept for 15 days...

And then Silent Sharma sat silent for the entire drive....why did you burst out laughing?? am I joking??
But then someone HAD to tell stories of glory!! Dunno who it was as all I did was listen to Gulzar Saabs lyrical best on the radio.

Speeding on the Mumbai Expressway, our stomachs reminded us of its presence and we halted for a quick vada pav and some chai.  No more halts and a good many hours later, around 5:00 am, we reached Nasrapur. You have to look out for the right bend to Nasrapur on the Satara route after you have entered Pune and left the Mumbai Pune Expressway behind. Andy was overworked, driving straight for 7-8 hours and we were lucky that he didn't doze off behind the wheel with no streetlights and with all the 'ghanghor kaala andhera'. We called everybody from the 'monkey gang', rightly named by Andy, but nobody bothered to pick up and some even having the nerve to switch off their mobiles (with all their tall claims of "Sakali sharp 6:00 la trekking chalu karuya")...Nonsense!!

We decided to wait for some more time, till sunrise. So Andy dozed off in the car and SS found some villager 'Veeru' to tell about his 'Dhano' tales and I chose the scenery to talk to. Photography ain't easy my boy, at least for an amateur like me. Got some good bird pictures though. With sunrise, we decided to wait no more and took off for Gunjawane, the base village for our trek to Rajgad. En route, as the sun had risen, so had the village and between golden haystacks and green fields and long forgotten hand pumps, the children, dressed pretty, left for their schools. At Gunjawane, there is a small and beautiful Ganesh temple.
We hungry souls had a tasty helping of 'pohe' and 'omelettes' and some 'mast chai'. We three Charlies Devils finally started our trek at 8:15. The initial 20 mins itself spoke of the arduous trek that lay ahead and I started huffing and puffing. I say 'I' because SS is a born trekker (...again you are smiling!!) and AS seemed okay.

School time



Ganpati Bappa Mourya



SS and AS (The Sharmas)



Destination Rajgad



Yunhi chala chal raahi...



Tired Me

Rajgad - King of forts!!

 Stopping after every 50 steps to catch my breath, I yet again made those useless and worthless promises to myself:

• Ye new year ko happy banaonga aur cigarette chhod doonga
• Roz jogging karoonga
• 10 kilos loose karunga
• will keep a check on my diet

The trek is entirely uphill with hardly a flat patch. Though a short duration trek than the ones we had done earlier, it does test your endurance. The scenery opens up as you keep moving ahead, nearer to the clouds and needless to say its a beautiful scatter of colours. All along the trek, you never lose sight of the fort, and sitting tiny on the top, its Balle Killa. You can see Torna in the distance to your right and Rajgads' Suvela Maachi to your left. For the trek to Rajgad, it's nearly impossible to lose your way as it is pretty straight. The last part does have small rock patches. Though the experienced ones would hardly bother to notice, its better to watch your step and not look down. I am sure there are other routes to the fort as well. The final steps cut in the rock led us to one of the entrances to the fort and like thieves we entered the fort through the 'Chor Darwaza'. Aaaaah!!! What a sense of relief and accomplishment. yet another fort, yet another successful trek.
And SS was quite all along....stop laughing!!
"Yunki, Ramgarh chalna hai, Ramgarh chalo,
Rajgad chalna hai, Rajgad chalo...Basanti tum jaise civilians ko Rajgad ke dus chakar lagvake le aayegi..."



Finally there !!

Valley below

Gunjawane Darwaza or Chor Darwaza

Like hungry cats, AS and SS slurped the salty/sweet 'taak' and I licked my glass clean of the 'nimbu paani' that the young local boys and girls were selling. Just ahead of the 'Chor Darwaza' is the 'Padmavati Talao', not meant for swimming though. As you cross the Padmavati Talao, you see the Padmavati temple and a guest room adjacent to it. Drinking water tanks are nearby and a few steps ahead lies the 'Kacheri' which we were lucky to find available and booked for all of us. The entire fort seemed to be booked by a group called 'Nature Lovers' as they got busy setting and settling their tents. This group (around 150 -200 kids, teenagers, uncles, aunties, ajjobas, aajjis) comes every year to do a 'Pradakshina' - walking the circumference of the fort and this was the 26th year.

We ordered the caretaker 'Mama' for some 'Aamti bhaat' and ventured to have a wash at the luring lake. The water was cold and refreshing. We lay down on the rocks and rested. Hunger pulled us again to our room. Just as Mama served us our Amti Bhaat, we jumped on it. AS wanted a spoon and was scorned at by the caretaker. The caretaker, like a good host, gave all the recent updates on Rajgad - about the 'Nature Lovers' group coming every year, about how a group of 3 drunkards lost 1 of them and found his body in the pond recently, how he had stopped various fights. He was from the base village Gunjawane. As we were filling our tummies, we heard sounds from the rest of the group. So, they finally reached, so what if not at 8 am, but at 2 pm...



Padmavati Talav

  After greeting each other with the normal pleasantries, our group got down to their maggi preparation. Nitin, as always did a good job and everyone now had their fill. Some dozed while others went to fill the bottles with water from the 'taake'. Pravin made his best efforts to purify the water and instead of putting 1 drop of the purifying liquid in about 5 litres of water, maybe put 1 drop of water in the small bottle of liquid. We have all the smart guys in the world. Then there was this heated discussion on the chemical contents of the purifying liquid. It was Sodium hydrochloride for some, potassium to others, chlorine to some. Pravin put his foot down and rejected the 'Chlorine' guys saying "Chlorine to swimming pool me SUSU saaf karneke liye hota hai".

Around 4, after our gappa goshtis and short naps, we ventured out to Suvela Maachi. The sun still shone brightly as we kadam kadam badhaye went through the edge of the mountain towards the maachi. The valley below showed the Painters strokes of light and dark green with the old burnt golden grass thrown in between. There is a small 'Hanuman' Mandir en route.  Almost towards the Suvela Maachi, you can see a huge rock standing tall, but wait till you see the same rock from the maachi. Ahead lies the 'Nedhe', a huge hole in the rock. While everyone wondered about this geological wonder, SS already knew the answer...
"Yunki, mai 15 din se soya nahi hun aur ye to hawa se hi hua hai". Maybe someone was cleaning the rock and overwashed it.....

Balle KIlla



Suvela Maachi



Click click click

Standing tall !!



Having some fun !!



Elephant pulling the mountain




Smile please...

At the summit of Suvela Maachi

A beautiful sunrise !!

Layered

Rise of the Sun God !!

GOLD

As I said, the big rock looks like a huge elephant with a mahout on top, ready for a hunting expedition and pulling the entire fort. It's a spectacular view. As we sat at the tip of the cliff to celebrate and rest a bit, the panoramic view below and ahead gave us the pleasure of a lifetime. A bird tweeted and flew above like a flying fish. AS saw a sweet little insect sitting on the hood of my pullover. Balle killa was the next destination for most as Andy, Pravin and me decided to go back to the Kacheri. We got some wood for the evening 'Shekoti' and dinner. Some came back half way, while others did go to the Balle Killa under the ultimate leadership of SS....
"Yunki, mai 15 din se soya nahi hun aur ye dhano, ghodi hoke taanga chala sakti hai, to tum aadmi hoke Balle Killa nahi chad sakte??"

As it got dark and most of them returned, Nitin, our official cook got down to making some delicious pulav as others got busy filling water, cleaning up the vegetables, room or just doing nothing. We captured a scenic spot on the edge of the fort which gave us the gleaming lights of the valley below and more stupendously gave us a view of the entire star studded sky above. A cold wind blew. It was a moonless night and the sky was filled with stars. You have to see it to believe it. Reminded me of Torna where we had gorged on a similar starlit sky. Everyone took turns at testing their astronomical skills, spotting the SaptRishi, the Hunter, the planets. It was surprising to see trekkers still walk in...night trekkers, have to say...gutsy guys.
Reminded me of the Floyd song 'Astronomy Domine'

Lime and limpid green

a second scene,

A fight between the blue

you once knew.

Floating down the sound resounds

Around the icy waters underground

Jupiter and Saturn

Oberon Miranda and Titania

Neptune Titan

Stars can frighten

Blinding signs flap flicker flicker flicker

Blam pow pow

Stairway scare Dan Dare,who's there?

  

SS showed of his powerfull flashlight and flashed it on Torna. Somebody from Torna also shared the same exitement and flashed his light towards us. We had a hearty time discussing previous experiences and laughing aloud.

And then, our dinner was ready - tasty pulav with pappad, 2/3 people sharing their plates - isse pyaar badhta hai. Hats off to Nitin and co. Eating our dinner, the topic for discussion was 'Ghosts'.
'Amavas ke raat 9 baje, dekhna na bhooliya, chikni chudaiil ki prem kahani'
Right from 'Kille ka Rahsya' to 'Honee Anhonee' and 'the Paranormal Activity', everything was discussed. We applauded Nitin for his cooking skills. After our post dinner smoking session, we got into our sleeping bags and dozed off while others still had a lot to discuss, so went out for a chat. In 5 minutes, we were snoring and grunting like pigs.

We all had a good sleep and got up around 6 am. We watched the sun rise as we went through our morning ACTIVITIES. Andy and me returned with my camera to capture the sunrise and the psychedellic colours in the sky combined with the layered shades of the mountains. I hope I did an okay job. After a group photograph, the rest of the group left for the planned Rajgad-torna trek as we started descending down the mountain.
We came down around SSs' various instructions and innumerous stories of heroism and saving the world.
"Yunki, befazool baat karneki to hume aadat hai nahi"
It was a Sunday; Lord Jesuss' birthday and a whole lot of people had decided to enjoy the day by getting to the fort. We saw a lot of groups, right from kids to an uncle aged above 70 to a handicapped person to huffing and puffing aunties...almost everyone was there - a great activity I would say than watching TV at home. Some of the locals were carrying the heavy luggage of these groups. You wonder at their ability to carry such heavy loads and get up this strenuous pathway. We got down in less than an hour and having our breakfast, left for home by 9:40 am.

We enjoyed our drive as Kishore Kumar and Nutan sang "M A D mad, mad mane paagal, B O Y boy, boy mane ladka". The latter part of the drive was intoxicating as we had Pankaj Udhas giving us his dose of maikhanas and saakis. The drive was a pleasant one as we didn't get much traffic and I reached home by around 2:30 pm.

The next day our group told us about their great trek from Rajgad to Torna and how they completed it in 4 and a half hours. Great going guys...keep the adrenalin rush going.......

Happy trekking until next time !!

More photos on :

https://picasaweb.google.com/118362428902777579464/Rajgad24thDec2011?authuser=0&feat=directlink

Our gang - Nikhil and Nagesh are missing...

Some history:
Rajgad, literally meaning King of forts, one of the forts of Maharashtra state is situated in the Pune district, the fort is approximately 1326 meters above sea level. This fort is built on the hill called "Murumb Devacha Dongar" Rajgad boasts the highest number of days stayed by Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj on any fort and the burial of Afzal Khans head in the Mahadarwaja walls of Ballekilla
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rajgad

• There are buses from Gunjawane to Pune as well.
• You can enquire at the base village and arrange for your lunch and dinner up at the fort. You can even arrange for the locals to carry your luggage

Tornagad beckons !!!

Other forts and trekking destinations
Jaigad | Karnala Fort | Korigad | Kothligad | Korlai Fort |  Pratapgad | Rajgad | Ratnadurga | Tikona | Torna | Vijaydurg

Torna Trek – 02nd Oct 2010

The Wanderers
• Soumen Da
• Nikhil Bhau
• Nagesh Batata
• Yashwant Yo
• Chida Chal na
• Pravin Charsi
• Jitesh Gujju
• Kaushal Major
• Shibu loan waala
• Nitin cameraman
• Vineet trekker
• Sonal – Sonal ladke ka naam hai

          'Batate ukadli ka' - ye bol bolke Nagesh ko Yashwant aur maine poora 2 week pakaya...there was more to come. The new innovation about this trip was cooking.The Wanderers were on a Khichdi expedition to Torna. Nagesh had just come from Somalia, so pohe, chai, maggi, khichdi, sandwich, tandoori, ukadleli batati, farsaan, maybe eggs too was on his menu...phew!!

          He was toooo excited about the khichdi and he had discussed the khichdi menu with everyone possible, almost everyday; to the extent that our office users and maybe the watchmen too had become aware that we were cooking up something. He had thought about all aspects of the mighty potato; its size, weight, look and feel, diameter, circumfurence etc. etc. but when he was given the actual list of ingredients by me, he conveniently omitted, forgot, had a memory loss, or just became stupid and the bloody *ucker forgot important items on the list. He never forgot the POTATOES though.

'Batate ukadli ka Nagesh'

 

          Then came the 2nd most important decision of our lives - choosing our vaahan. Here also Nagesh participated and his views were changing every day, then every hour - bloody unreliable gaay. Yashwant kept saying...'kashaala tya Nagyacha aiktoys, topya lavto to'.

          After verbally bashing him, initially we were going by bus, then train seemed more convenient, then bus again, then came the question of catching it from Parel or Thane?? Aaaaaah!!! Aadhe idhar jaao, aadhe udhar jaao, baaki ke g***d marao!! Finally, Thane - the city of lakes was considered as the meeting spot to catch our Asiad bus. Meet at 11:00, if possible catch bus at 11:30 or then last bus at 12:30. Everyone came by 11:45 and after getting introduced to the new fellas, when the bus finally arrived, the 12 wanderers swarmed it like an army of bees. The bus conductor neither gave us any concession, nor gave a half ticket for Chida. Everybody wanted to sleep but only few of us dozed. Chida slept with Nikhil as his bed, hope he didn't wet the sheets. Half the way, he was sitting like a hen ready to drop a egg, coz he was feeling cold.

          On the way we saw Dehu cha Ganpati. As usual Chida came up with a unique question, Ganpati idhar hi rehta hai kya? Nikhil said - nahi raat ko ghoomne jaata hai. We reached Swargate at 5 a.m. and our jubilance (sarcasm, guys) knew no bounds to hear that the 1st bus to Velhe was cancelled.

'Batate ukadli ka Nagesh'.

          Left with no option, we caught a bus to Cheladi as the Sun God started showering his divine rays. On the way, we were mesmerized by a blanket of orange flowers all along the highway. It was truly beautiful; natures' blanket always is...there was more to come. From Cheladi, we cramped ourselves into a Trax, Sumo, whatever and in INR 20 each, our driver Manya snaked us to the base village Velhe where we had our breakfast of Misal paav and chai.

 

'Batate ukadli ka Nagesh'.

 

          Ahead, the mighty Tornagad beckoned us and like adazzled child we got lured to its call. We started our trek at 08:45 a.m., only to realise that 2 of our guys were missing. While we were looking for them and shouting Yo Yo (Yashwants identity call), Pravin and Yashwant were being chased by an angry bull cause they were answering natures call in his territory...how dare they!! After their narrow escape, we started our ascent in the scorching sun. We had just covered some distance when we were called back by Nitin and Vineet and asked to wait. Sonal needed some rest as he was feeling giddy and needed Hamdard ka tonic Cinkara. We all felt exhausted in the initial lap itself. The entire climb was completely uphill with very few plains. Half way up, we could see the railings and knew that these were the rock patches and the real adventure was still to come. Below on the right hand side, we could see the Gunjawane dam (i suppose). After some rest, we walked though narrow paths with dense vegetation on both sides. It felt like walking in a sugarcane field, though I'v never walked in one before. Chida did some drill exercises on the way. The scene and the feeling as usual was beautiful. Charon taraf pahad hi pahad, clean crisp air, no pollution, no vehicles, no crowd. We were completely dehydrated and our stock of water was soon diminishing. Paani...Paani...Paani...abe dhakkan aage dekh waterfall hai. Tornagad quenched us by providing us this water body. It wasn't a Niagra falls exactly, the shower being very limited, but the water was very very very sweet. No matter how much you drank, it was not enough.

 

'Batate ukadli ka Nagesh'

 

          We wet ourselves, filled our bottles and while Major did his extra bit of stunt as usual by climbing to the source of the fall, Vineet gave a demo of this unique water pain reliever course:
Pre-requisite: Slog in the sun, walk walk till you drop, become completely exhausted.
Process: Talk a bottle of water, pull your shirt up from the back and pour the water on your scorching back and let the pain ease out.
          Vineet and Nitin did it and looked at ease, so we believe them :) Then came the rock patches. Not very difficult, yet need to be very carefull. One mistake and I don't need to tell you what can happen. One crossed, then the next, and the next...phew...aur kitna!! Then came the rocky stairs which were more damaging to our legs. Finally came Bini darwaza, and a little ahead passing through a tank (taake), we climbed to Mengai Devi temple. It was a neat little temple which can easily accomodate around 20 people. This was the destined place for our night halt. We paid homage to the Devi and thanked her for keeping us safe, booked our space by keeping our luggage, rested for a while and then ventured out to take a bath. To find the taake where we were going to bathe was an expedition in itself. We first went through a wrong route and then when we finally located the pond, didn't know how to reach it coz their was no visible pathway. Finally, trying through 2 different routes, we made our own pathway and reached the pond. Sonal saw a snake in the pond but that didn't deter us from bathing there as the water was cold and we were too tired reaching to it...Aaya hu to naha ke hi jaoonga. We got down to our basics and one by one drenched ourselves in the cold water...real fun...Nagesh was shivering and was about to fall in the pond while pouring water on himself.

'Batate ukadli ka Nagesh'
 

          It was really refreshing!! Going back to the temple, Vineet and Nitin got down to our lunch (Maggi) preparation while some dozed off, and others smoked and chatted. The Maggi was made really well and we hungry souls feasted on it. While we were having food, Chida got up in a drunken state and maybe forgot where he was and was saying...'Jaaneka hai'...i guess you know where..
          After a small nap, Majors adrenaline started pumping and we all ventured towards Zhunzhar machi. On seeing the small iron ladder going down, we could guess that this was not going to be easy and we had heard and read that there were dangerous rock patches on the way. Standing on the ladder is like floating in the air as you can see the valley vertically down below you. Pravin, Jitesh and Chida decided to stay back and the others went ahead. The rock patches on the way are really frightening as you can see the entire valley below you while you are getting down. You cannot afford to make a mistake, but the experience is really thrilling. Once down the rock patches, we went to the summit of Zhunzhar machi, its chor vaats and also saw a nest with 4 eggs in it. Don't know whose eggs they were, reptiles' or birds'. Another photo session and we were on our way back to the rock patches, climbing it this time....huhuhu...vichaar karoonach lagte.

          Next destination was Budhla machi but since it was getting dark, we decided against it, but Major being our Shahenshah with rope and all on his shoulders, akele hi nikal pada...

andheri raaton me...sunsaan machi par...
julm mitaane ko...ek shahenshah nikalta hai....
usse log Majorwa kehte hain...

          After going for a distance, his analytical evaluation was that we should not go ahead as it was getting dark and the road ahead had rock patches and was dangerous....abe humne kuch alag bola tha kya?? Koi isse samjhao...

          The sky was on fire, and the reddish orange tint was simply amazing. A canvas of colors was being painted by the great artist, The Almighty which had yellow, pink and blue in the form of flowers, green dominated the mountains and a fiery vermillion sky. Couldn't have been better. Thank you Lord for showing these spectacles which we never observe in the city. Last time we has seen a rainbow on Tikona, this time the sunset was really amazing. We got some fantastic photos of the sunset. Nitin captured the sunset brilliantly and one of the photos he clicked is now my desktop wallpaper. Kudos Nitin!!

'Batate ukadli ka Nagesh'.

          We returned to the temple, it was already dark by then and got down to the most awaited activity...khichdi!! There was not enough water, so Yashwant, Chida, Pravin and I went with our torches to get it from the taake behind the temple as it seemed to be the only potable source. Pravin fell, Yashwant slipped, followed by Chida and me. The preparation of the Khichdi actually turned out to be a rigorous event as our estimations went wrong. For 12 people, the amount of daal and rice we had brought was much more than required. On top it, Nagesh's potatoes added to it and the thing was going out of control. We then decided, we need to chuck some of it and prepare the remaining bit. However, it finally turned out to be okay according to some, good according to some and mast according to others. The khichdi plan was ultimately a success and we feasted on it. Everybody was tired and it was cold outside, so we let our shekoti plan be a plan only and got into our sleeping bags, mats and put ourselves to sleep. There was complete darkness in the temple, you couldn't even see your hand.

          Day 2, we got up early, prepared chai and got down Tornagad in about 1 1/2 hours after carefully dealing with the rock patches. We also got a ST bus from Velhe to Swargate immediately. In the bus, Chida couldn't stop his kidaas and was assaulted by almost everyone and was almost gang banged. The bus driver was finding it difficult to drive with all the noise we were making. Then somebody suddenly remembered it was my Birthday and everybody wished me. Let me not talk about the rest of the journey as it was a disaster and I spent my entire birthday tanning myself in the hot Pune sun and watching the Pune bus-stops and railway stations. Anyway, Yashwant and Sonal left by Shivneri, Nagesh, Vineet, Nitin, Shibu and Major left by train and the less lucky guys viz. Pravin, Jitesh, Chida, Nikhil and me finally caught a bus at 6 pm. My nice nice nice friends bought some pastries for me and celebrated my birthday at the Food Mall as we were ogling at the pretty Puneri girls. Finally Neeta helped us reach home by around 11...arre Neeta Volvo re...

Reached home, had a much needed bath, cut the Black Forest cake my family had brought alongwith Sahil, my nephew, ate food and was dead on bed.
          Another adventurous weekend came to an end. Till next time, adieu!! There is more to come....watch this space...

Nagesh batate??….jaoon de…