Nothing like Matheran in the rains...

Just weeks had passed after my Pondy trip and already it was time for a fun family get-together at a beautiful hill-station, 'Matheran'...

Almost everybody in and around Mumbai knows about this weekend getaway to one of the most picturesque hill stations in Maharashtra & that the best time to enjoy the beauty of this hill-station is the monsoons...

Now, I am not a big fan of rains. I agree that monsoon is extremely essential for the seasonal life cycle and the general well-being of agriculture in our country; but I don't tend to feel bad if one year the rains decide, not to make their presence felt. I would be delighted! People like getting wet in the rain... Why not??? When they show you in the movies, what awesome fun it is to dance around in the rain (especially when you are in love) who wouldn't like the idea of gallivanting through the rains, having not one care in the world! But sadly, the movies always have artificial showers and what they don't show is, the roads which get deteriorated every year, the train service which gets disrupted, the water logging in the streets, the over-flowing of the rivers and lakes leading to more water-logging, hours and hours of traffic caused by the in-general disruption of the transport services (I hope that was not bad enough, that you start hating rain altogether!)

So, the idea of a trip in the monsoons did not thrill me that much in the beginning...

My uncle and his family had come down from US after many years and we couldn't think of a better way to enjoy, than to go on a trip with our entire extended family (which included aunts, uncles, grandmothers, cousins etc etc.) Now it is a given that, when a 'Marathi Manoos' from Mumbai has extended family, most of them are living in Pune. So, around 20 of us from Mumbai, Pune & US set out on a wonderful weekend trip to Matheran...

We hired a tempo traveller ( Yes.. those vehicles still exist!) to take us upto the main entrance of the hill station. The small town of Matheran is situated further up the hill where there is no proper road on which any vehicle can travel. The only forms of transport up the hill, into the main town are hand rickshaws and horses. Another option is, to take the mini-train from Neral, which can take you right upto Matheran station in the town square. But, the train service is closed during monsoons, so you are left with no other option but to walk up the hill or hire a hand rickshaw or better yet, let a nice brown/black horse do the walking for you... (Animal rights violation?? More like, source of income!!!)

Reaching this main entrance was another gut-wrenching ride because of the steep slope of the mountain. We had hired a driver along with the tempo traveller, who turned out to be so young and so thin, that we began praying for our safety when he attempted to pull the tempo traveller and all of us, up the hill. At one point, I actually thought that the vehicle would just start sliding backwards, all the way down... But, thankfully after many twist and turns (Literally!) we managed to reached the top...

Here we let the senior citizens go ahead in hand rickshaws along with our luggage so they wouldn't have to tire themselves by walking all the way into the town which was another half an hour away... Like I said before, the road into the town is not a proper one; uneven and full of stones. Each hand rickshaw essentially had to have 2 people, because it was not possible for one person to pull the weight of a person sitting in the rickshaw, up the slope. The other person would often give him support by pushing from behind...

There are two routes which go into the town. The shorter route is the one which the mini train takes to reach the Matheran station. People usually take this route and follow the railway tracks to reach the main town square. The other, longer route is taken by hand rickshaws and horses, because it is not possible for them to travel on the railway tracks. We followed the shorter route and hiked our way into the town. It was raining continuously; a good sign, because half the fun was getting wet in the rains... ( Opinion of all the people, but me) On our way, we had corn on the cob, roasted over live hot coals. There is nothing that can beat the amazing taste of the spicy, tangy corn which has been roasted right in front of your eyes... Its just an essential part of monsoon fun... Corn in the rains!!! I really don't know how this delicacy became popular, especially in the rains, but I'm glad it did!

Now, Matheran has a dress code for the monsoons. It is worn by every other person to protect himself/herself from the rain and let me tell you, it is very effective. The 'protective gear' consists of a plain sheet of plastic which can cover your entire body and has a single opening so that you can pull it over your head. The second part of the dress code is a wide-brimmed plastic hat with an elastic buckle which goes around your chin and secures your head. So, you are taken care of from head to toe and there is no need to carry an umbrella. Delighted by this unusual way of dressing and foolproof way of avoiding the rains, we bought the plastic sheets and had fun selecting different colored hats to wear... Now, we were ready for the rains!!!

As soon as we reached our hotel, we rushed to the dining room because we were all famished! I have said this before and I will say it again.. Hot food is bliss! It makes you forget about your likes and dislikes and the only thought in your head is 'when will that yummy hot food go in my stomach?' (I particularly remember gobbling 'gulabjamuns' like I was starved for days)

After food, it was time for some sight seeing... Matheran, being the typical hill-station had sight seeing points, where people can watch and experience natural beauty at its best! We decided to go to a spot called, 'Echo point'. Good thing about Matheran is, there are directions and arrowheads at regular distance, so there is less chance of people getting lost. It was quite easy to navigate our way through the streets. We reached Echo point in no time and the beauty of the spot, amazed me! It is something which cannot be put down in words but I will try my best...

Echo point was at the edge of a cliff. It overlooked a deep valley and there were mountains looming ahead of us. But, the best part was the clouds which were at eye-level and obscuring everything in front of us. One moment, we could see the mountains in front of us and then, one gust of breeze was all it took and everything would be covered in soft white clouds... To top it up, it was raining all this while. The edge of the cliff was protected by a barrier for safety. We leaned against the barrier and shouted out our names and made mindless noise for some echo ... But sadly there was no echo that day, but we did watch, the clouds and the mountains playing a continuous game of hide and seek with us. My cousins were busy counting the no. of waterfalls which were making their way through the mountains. It was heaven all around us...

We just stood there mesmerized, because there is nothing much you can do when surrounded by something so majestic... Looking around, I remembered the words of the famous poet Firdaus, about Kashmir, "If there is paradise on earth, it is here, it is here, it is here!" The place didn't have to be Kashmir for those words to hold true! It was right there in front of me...

We literally dragged ourselves away from the clouds towards our next destination... Charlotte Lake! Perhaps there is a history behind all these places and why they are so named... But, I'm not gonna go into details because you can Google all that stuff; what you can't Google is probably the way you feel when you actually go and visit these places! That is something that you have to experience hands on!!!

Well, Charlotte lake turned out to be quite a disappointment! Imagine finding a dried up piece of land instead of a lake... Yes, that is what the lake is now! Not disheartened, we had another round of corn at a nearby shop. I felt good sitting among them, my family, my loved ones and I realised that this was the point of the entire trip. How often do you meet your relatives? We are so caught up in our routine lives, that sometimes its even difficult for us to make that one phone call which will keep us connected. So, I was happy that, even if it was 2 days, I was with my family having fun, not thinking about my work or my studies... Isn't this what every person needs?? A break?? I got mine... and I was looking forward to some more!

After dinner, all of us gathered in a room and played games. We had had some fun before dinner in the form of 'Rum' and no wonder all of us were smiling and happy throughout... We talked, we laughed... My grandmothers shared stories from their childhood and we all listened! It was a memorable night.. All three generations gathered together, in that small hotel room. It was hard to believe that life could be so simple...The day ended, with my father telling everybody to get up early in the morning, to go and watch the sunrise... All of us laughed out loud!

The next morning, we all tried the swimming pool in the hotel. Granted, it was still raining but because there was a pool, all of us wanted to take advantage of it! The water was cold, and there were cries from everyone who entered the pool and touched the cold, chilly water... But, later on we were happily playing in the pool and throwing around a plastic beach ball ( Courtesy - my dad, the organizer of the trip) Have you ever had hot tea in a cold swimming pool? We did that and let me tell you, the experience is out of this world...

After that, was time for some shopping and sight-seeing! Must-buy things in Matheran are jelly sweets, different types of chikki ( Peanut and groundnut... my favorites) and of course, the mouth-watering 'Fudge' ( And that too... chocolate walnut fudge... worth spending your money on!!!) After the ladies had taken care of the buys, we headed towards 'Alexander point'. This spot was a little far away and there was some whining from the kids ( and some adults too...hehehe) Basically, all the spots in Matheran are similar with regards to huge green mountains, little waterfalls running through them and the clouds! Each spot gives a different and wonderful view of the landscape... So, even if we were looking at the same mountains and the same clouds, it still managed to take our breath away! This spot is a photographer's delight... We saw an amateur trying to take a picture of the scene along with his assistants who tried hard to manage his equipments and battle against the wind and the rain. We watched his struggle for awhile but eventually he gave up in the face of nature! I bet, even if he couldn't get a decent picture, the mental image of the scenery, would be stuck in his mind's eye forever...

We walked back to our hotel, each one of us thinking the same thing, "We don't want this trip to end". It was time to get back to our lives in the city... Our weekend fun had come to an end! But, no trip to Matheran is complete without an encounter with the original inhabitants of the place... Monkeys! Yes, our ancestors are quite active in this small town... Beware of these creatures because if they get the slightest hint that you are carrying any eatables, they will attack! And when I say attack, I am not exaggerating! If your hotel room is on the ground floor, always make sure that your door is locked. We learned this lesson soon after we were done packing. We were all gathered in a room one last time to share gifts, sweets, take pictures, when we saw a bunch of monkeys heading towards the other room, which was left open. One of them managed to get inside the room and amidst all the luggage, snatched the only bag which had eatables in it! We couldn't do anything but watch, as the monkey and his friends enjoyed their little snack ( a treat from us) So, be extra careful when buying eatables. Always keep them covered and out of reach!

After watching the monkeys happily gulping down our food ( there was nothing we could do, so we watched, as the monkeys rejoiced yet another victory over man!) we headed off in the direction of the main entrance... the same way we had entered Matheran.

Two days in such a beautiful place was all it took for our entire family to re-unite and have some much needed fun! By the end of the trip, I had completely changed my mind and knew that, if not for the rains this trip would not have been as wonderful and as memorable, as it is right now... The way I remember it!

To my dad,

the organizer of the trip!

Pondicherry Baby!!!

Its been a long time... my last bit was where i had resigned from my workplace and was looking forward towards a new start! So now i am successfully unemployed.. still hurts!

Lots of things have happened, lots of paperwork, lots of meeting people, lots of tears and lots of goodbyes... which was a difficult part; but i sailed through.

The most amazing part in the last few weeks was an unforgettable trip that me and my friend went on; without any proper plan; without a proper place to stay at and without any clue of what we were going to do in that place... sounds irrational?? Well i beg to differ, been there and done that rite?? It was one of the most amazing, beautiful, crazy and also life threatening experiences of my life.

We decided to go to Pondicherry, a small coastal town located 3 hrs from Chennai. The entire town (its a union territory by itself) spans hardly over a few kilometers and you wouldn't realise while sight-seeing in this small but beautiful little town that at some point you have actually left the outskirts of Pondicherry and are in a different place altogether. How can i say that?? When we were lost for directions one day while sight seeing, we asked a person for the way ahead and he replied, " Go straight and you will reach Pondicherry"... What a way to realise, we were not even in the place that we were supposed to be!

Why our trip turned out to be so eventful in spite of spending just 2 days ( Believe me, 2 days is more than enough) in this place was because of the life threatening and yet life changing experience we had on the first day...

We reached Pondicherry in the morning and after having an amazing breakfast of croissants and coffee (My friend tried the classic French bread tuna sandwich but regretted it after having the first bite; saved by the croissants...) at a French pastry shop, we rented out a two-wheeler (best way to go around in Pondicherry) and went in search of a local market which is the main shopping hub of the town. Shopping hub is too fancy a name for an old, worn out stone building whose entrance is almost completely hidden by an array of two wheelers and bicycles. It took us almost an hour and half, to finally locate the entrance of the market and once we entered we knew that the place certainly shouldn't feature on anybody's sight seeing list. Its more like a place where the locals go, to buy their groceries and general household stuff... So, if you are looking for some local buys at a cheap price, this is the place...

Kinda disappointed by our first non-adventure, we went roaming around the town, just going through lanes and by-lanes, looking at the different picturesque houses which truly define the character of this quaint little French Muslim Hindu Christian town...

It is very easy to get lost in Pondicherry! The entire town is divided into the Hindu quarters, Muslim quarters, Christian quarters and The French quarter which is called 'The White Town'.. The White town is separated from the rest of the town by a canal which runs through the entire city lengthwise. Now, all the streets in this town are parallel to one another and are named differently in different parts of the town... So, the street remains the same but in the Muslim quarters it is called ' Mohammed street' but in the Christian quarters it becomes ' Mission street'.. Interesting right??? Don't worry, once you get over this, it is very simple to navigate your way along the different streets and lanes... provided you are left with that much patience and petrol!!!

The life threatening part comes now... In the later part of the evening we decided to go to Paradise beach which is only accessible by boat from a place called Chunnambar beach resort. So, we started off on our two wheeler in search of this beach resort which would further take us to our final destination... the beach! Sadly, the locals out there can be equally confused about directions like tourists... Often you will find a person telling you to go straight ahead and take a right while his hand is pointing towards left (that happened to us 3 times)... then u follow his directions and take that fateful right turn, only to be told by some wise guy that the place you are looking for is actually 5 km behind. We even came across a group of 3 people, who when asked the directions to go the beach resort gave us three different answers.. one saying it was 21km away and the other surprisingly saying it was just 5 mins. away!!! Like i said, it is very easy to get lost in Pondicherry.. so once again we were lost!

We still kept on going on the road, we thought would take us to the beach resort till it started raining.... raining like hell had broken down loose! not the rain that you see in movies where the heroine is frolicking around in her see through saris... but real actual torrential rain with thunder, lightning, all the works.... It was difficult to even see where we were going! But both of us knew one thing, we were lost! We were far away from civilization... we had gone really far in search of this beach resort. My friend was the one who was riding and it was becoming extremely impossible for her to go on... we decided to stop somewhere till the rain reduced... We turned back and started going the same way we had come from... Guess what we found?? Chunnambar beach resort: Timings - 8 am to 12 pm and 2 pm to 6 pm. We looked at our watch... it was way past 7 pm... the beach resort was closed! We were soaked by now, but we decided to wait for some time because it was no use travelling in such dangerous weather...

The rain was doing us no good, it just wouldn't stop! Me and my friend even fought during that time we were stranded under the tree outside the closed gates of the beach resort. But it was nobody's fault! All we wanted was to go back to our guest-house. We just got on the bike and went on. Even today i don't know how my friend managed to drag us both on that two wheeler ( which looked like it would give up on us any time) through that rain. We stopped every few minutes so that my friend could wipe the water off her face. Finally we managed to reach Pondicherry... at least we were in the town! Here the situation was worse... In addition to the heavy downpour, the streets were flooded with knee-high water. We got off the bike at one point and decided to wait some more for the rain to calm down. Let me tell you it was a bad idea! We were standing on the steps outside a bank, when there was a huge cracking sound and a bright flash in front of our eyes. My friend screamed her lungs out!! Yes.. we had just experienced lightning some distance away from us.... though not close enough to have had any serious injuries. But, it was frightening to the core and i still remember thanking god a million times to find me and my friend alive! Not wanting to wait there for another minute, we got on our bike and fled...

We were saved when we came across a familiar church we had seen nearby our guest-house... My friend remembered the way and literally God saved us that day!!! Somehow,we made our way to the guest-house through those water filled streets .. not helped by a bus when it came from the opposite direction and sprayed us with more water.. (as if we were not soaked enough!) Food was the need of the hour... My friend and me, found a Chinese restaurant and the sweet lady took one look at us and immediately made us feel at home!!! Nothing helps brighten one's mood other than piping hot food (the hot spicy crab soup we had could have been the best soup in the world at that time) . And nothing cheers up the mind other than booze... So we bought our quota of liqour for the night and retired to the guest-house, not to be seen till the next day...

The next day was picture perfect! I guess God decided that we had had our share of bad luck and bad rains, so he just decided to make things easy for us the second day...

We visited Auroville - a beautiful must see ashram which is a civilization in itself!!! The ashram houses the 'Maitri Mandir'- a big golden dome structure which is a meditation chamber for the people living in Auroville and a select few visitors. Believe it or not, first timers are not allowed inside the 'Maitri Mandir' at all. You have to essentially visit Auroville the second time and in order to get admittance into the meditation chamber, you have to successfully remember the date of your last visit and convince the people out there that your sole purpose of going inside the chamber is meditation, purification of the soul and literally use words which sound like a sermon from a great philosopher or mahatma...

People who live in the ashram are not those who have given up on life or those who have run away from the harsh reality of the outside world... Its merely a choice!

For eg. Why do you watch a particular movie or decide to read a certain book? Because you want to! Similarly these people want a different, more simpler way of life... Thats why they are here in the ashram... I believed this all the more when i saw a white guy in a simple kurta and pyjama, wearing a turban over his unruly dreadlocks and riding a bicycle to go to the meditation chamber... He wanted to be that person and thats why he was doing it! That was life for him...

Auroville was an amazing experience where even if you don't want to or you don't believe in it, you get in touch with your inner self and sooner or later you have that conversation with yourself about the purpose of your life... Sounds clichéd right? All i can say is, experience it for yourself...

Like i said the day was perfect. After Auroville, we went in search of Chunnambar beach resort again because we desperately wanted to visit the island beach - Paradise beach. This time we did get to the place and it was open, but we were way past the timings to go and visit the beach. Yes, the beach has timings!!! You are not allowed to go and visit the island beach after 4 pm in the evening. I guess, because it is an island beach and the only way to access it is via the beach resort, its more of a safety measure to have beach timings so that people don't get lost and have no way to come back to land!!! We still managed a boat ride from where we could see the pretty island beach looming in front of us... It was worth it anyway!

Another must see in this beautiful town is the Gothic church - Our Sacred Heart Church which is shaped in the form of a cross. The church is an architectural wonder and you would be amazed by the intricate detailing of the towers and the beautiful glass windows depicting events from the Life of Christ... By the way, this was the church we had seen the day before when we were lost in the rain... Saved by the Sacred Heart Church!

We spent our evening at the shore front in the French part of the town! Mesmerized by the waves crashing against the rocks and the beautiful moon, we thought of the same thing.. 'Does life really have to move on?'

Well, it did move on because we had big plans of having French food a.k.a Continental at one of the jazzy restaurants in the French town. We realised one important aspect after dinner, that even though it was the French part of the town and the restaurant was French enough, the chef was probably not from anywhere near France!

Our day ended and so did our short and wonderful trip to one of the most amazing places i have seen... Pondicherry! While i was packing my stuff i was reliving all the fun we had; Staying in a warm and comfortable guest-house, which had a different theme for each of its rooms (ours being, the superstar of Tamil cinema - Rajnikanth), the amazing French pastry shop where we had breakfast everyday, the rental super bike which got us through the heavy rains and the water filled streets of Pondy and never gave up on us, the kind lady from the Chinese restaurant who gave us hot food when we were soaking wet, the shore-front where we sang 'When you say nothing at all' by Ronan Keating in loud voices, getting blessed by Lakshmi- the elephant in the Ganesh Temple and so on...

Life after resignation had started on a good note and I was more than fortunate to have such a great friend with me on such an amazing journey of my life!!!

To Reva...

I'm glad I found you!!!

New Start

It all starts with a resignation... Resignation doesn't necessarily means that you QUIT... Not in my case atleast... I just call it, to stop doing something when u realise you dont wanna do it anymore! There are times in life when u know that what you are doing is not making you happy and you just want to do something else... So a way out, is a resignation! Believe me, its not an easy thing... Suddenly you fall into the category of 'Unemployed'... A harsh word! It is, for me...

I remember the days when i used to flash my card especially in front of my friends when it was time to pay the check or just put in my netbanking password and order things online.... Not anymore! Now i have to seriously consider while spending because there is no invisible hand putting money in my bank account anymore... That's right; I'm unemployed.. Ouch! That hurt again...

But lets get to why i resigned or the term that we use at my workplace.. sorry ex-workplace... 'put down my papers'; I wanted to follow my dream! My dream of travelling around the world...

I really have no clue how to go about doing it... But i know one thing for sure... I am gonna do it! There was something my ex-employer said when i was resigning... Something about passion and ambition. It goes like, what i am doing at my workplace is my ambition and to take up a hobby like travelling for example would be my passion... Hmmm... Mind started thinking... Passion and ambition! Was it my ambition to excel at the place where i worked??? Does following my passion mean that i can only take it up as a hobby??? While my ex-employer kept saying things in order to confuse me and make me change my mind about resigning; i was on a totally different level! Passion and ambition.... The answer was right there! Combine the two...

Why can't my passion be my ambition as well??? Why can't i travel which is a.) my passion , then make my name in that field and b.) it becomes my ambition.

It made sense to me... That's it! I made my decision... I swear on the glass show piece of the eiffel tower of Paris that my friend ( you know who you are) gave me, I'm gonna follow my dream, take up my passion as a serious profession and do something that i really wanna do.... Travel! Travel all over the world... Throughout my life (if possible!!!)

Make people believe in following their dreams....