Gurukul Visit - Dec 2014

Hey F.R.I.E.N.D.S

Gurukul.... when you hear this word, many may think of Yash Raj's huge set with a lavish college building. Mr. Bachchan with a stern face hammering discipline into his love struck students, while a violin obsessed SRK is contradicting his methods and breaking his 'parampara'. Few may also imagine Aishwarya suddenly appearing out of nowhere and running around maple tree leaves. But the Gurukul I visited is way too different. The surroundings may not be huge but are very scenic. The building may not be lavish but is very warm and accommodating. You may not find a stern and tall Amitabh but an ever smiling and equally energetic Mr. Shirodkar a.k.a. 'Dada', welcoming you along with the kids.The students may not be love struck but surely sweet enough to strike love through you. SRK and Ash are not at all conspicuous by their absence. 

The Gurukul (Veer Savarkar Gurukul to be precise), that I visited is a distant place situated close to Kanhe on the mumbai Pune old highway (Boravli, Vadgaon). As the name suggests, this place is for kids, who stay away from their home with their guru or teacher in pursuit of education (value education to be precise) run literally single handed by Mr. Shirodkar. Standing at around 5 feet in his simple shirt and dhoti,  wearing a warm smile under his Lokmanya Tilak styled mustache, Dada's energy at his age (around 75) is more than you can grasp. He left his service with leading Colleges in Mumbai & Goa and started working towards social cause at a very young age. Gurukul was earlier in smaller place in Vadgaon, but has recently shifted to this new place we visited, which is more spacious. There are around 28 kids (all boys) at present, ranging from 1st to 9th std. Dada not only takes care of their accommodation but also their studies and well being. The kids do go to a nearby school. The primary kids (1st to 7th) have to go to a school around 3 kms inside the village. Dada has arranged a jeep for their daily commute. The secondary kids have a nearby Marathi medium school. They have come from various villages from near and far away like Nandurbar. Some even from cities like Mumbai, Pune, Satara. They stay there till matriculation as there is no higher studies institutes or colleges around. The only time they visit their homes is during Diwali and summer vacations. Dada ensures that they are well equipped with knowledge and skills to make their own decisions so that they can decide their future path themselves. The proud alumni are successful engineers, doctors and people highly positioned in various fields. Heard a story about a boy, who was the most mischievous and non attentive towards education. His parents had left him at his aunt's place in Pune thinking he may improve there. But that was of no use. His aunt came to know about this place and admitted him in Gurukul. Initially the story continued here too, but slowly and steadily with Dada's efforts, the kid started improving. Improvement was such that that kid started scoring first in his class. He made a successful career further. Many such stories of alumni are great to hear.  Many also have becoming a helping hand in Gurukul's activities.

 
I happened to visit this place with a friend and an office colleague Mithun with his wife Charuta and their two year old bundle of chatter box Ratee. They had preplanned this visit to celebrate Christmas with these kids. They had even purchased some useful items like mats, useful utensils,  indoor and outdoor games like chess, badminton, etc for the kids on this occasion. The plan to bring in a Santa Claus for the kids couldn't go through but their secret Santa did have packs of chocolates loaded in nicely packed wrappers. We started a little late from Pune (actually noon). It is a 1.5 hour drive from Pune. But thanks to the company of Santosh, a friend of Charuta, who happens to be associated with Gurukul on a regular basis,  we made it to the exact place in the given time. 

The place is hard to find on your own as there are no boards or hoardings of Gurukul. To reach this place, you have to take a right turn at Kanhe Phata on the old Mumbai Pune highway (if coming from Pune) and drive around 22 kms to reach their gate. This one lane road will take you through small villages, scenic mountains and water bodies around. For precise location on goggle maps, find these coordinates 18.893642, 73.514465 and it will give the exact destination. You can also search into google maps as "Gurukul Shirodkar" and you will be pointed to the right place. While driving, the main land mark is a Anajana Devi temple on the left. After the temple, its a right turn from a small gate just 100-200 meters ahead. The gate is hard to locate but its the first on right among the three huge iron gates. For those planning a visit, you don't need Santosh to be with you. ;) The localities are very helpful.:)

Gurukul is not a govt funded NGO. Dada depends upon individuals help and the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs. Santosh's company and his group are a regular help to Mr. Shirodkar in his activities. Currently they are also working on building a website for this NGO, which will help them to reach out to as many social enthusiasts as possible. Currently they survive on mouth publicity. Me and Mithun were discussing about starting a FB page for them as the website work will take some time to complete. Ideas are welcome. 

We reached around 12:45 and being a holiday, all the kids were relaxing from their daily chores during that time. As we entered the gate, the stoned road lead us to their facility, which is a mere 4 room house with a kitchen and a separate place for cooking and dining. There are expansion plans where in they will be building rooms to stay and study. The first sight was of a barber, who was called upon for his monthly visit to shave off the tots. Few started looking like Chanakya with a small tuft (shendi) hanging around. The kids welcomed us. They were equally excited to meet us as we were to meet them. 28 well behaved and disciplined kids and all at the same time. Being a X- volunteer at Akanksha, I know how difficult it is to achieve this. Managing even 10 kids of that age group for more than 30 minutes is a feat itself. But the discipline and behavior of these kids was clearly not a result of fear. It was dada's skills, his warmth and the respect the kids have for him, that made them listen to his each and every instruction as an army commander's order. They just followed them swiftly as if he was communicating to grown ups. Few kids voluntarily took care of Ratee as if she was one of their own. Kids at that age communicate faster and easier. Ratee too became comfortable with them and they with her chit chat. Dada showed us around and introduced us to their daily chores.

It was time for lunch. Two local ladies help dada daily for the kids meals right from break fast to dinner. The lunch is usually taken care by their respective schools. They treated us with pooranpoli, katachi aamti, bhajis and rice. Charuta was happy to help in the kitchen. Even few kids were helping in the kitchen to make chapati's and bhajis. They made perfect round polis. After the kids had their meals, we all including dada joined us in the small place for dinning. Having such a delicious treat was the bonus of the day. It was like our secret santa was rewarding us for the visit. After meals, we were just hanging around trying to digest the delicacies, roaming around the place, interacting with kids. Seeing them play with their roller sticks made most of us nostalgic. The kids showed us their local plantations, which they do over a small piece of adjacent land. They grow vegetables like fengugreek (methi), lima beans (pavta), bhendi, etc. They consume much of the output and try to sell the surplus. Most of the afternoon went by clicking pics, moving around and enjoying just being there at that moment.

It was time for us to distribute the gifts so dada called all the kids in one of the rooms. Some of them presented their local rhymes and marathi songs. It was fun to hear and see the kids display their learnings. Charuta being a sangeeet visharad, sang them the famous 'Tu buddhi de' aarti from the movie 'Dr. Prakash Baba Amte'. The kids were so in awe of the song and her singing that they had maintained a pin drop silence through out her performance. I was prompt to video capture most of the performances in my phone. The videos are available in the picasa album link I have shared at the end of the blog. After the performances, Ratee gladly helped distribute the chocolates and the gifts to the kids.  She was their mini Santa. Her dress code matched too :)
  
 
Due to time constrains, we had to leave against our wish. But dada offered us special chaai and we just got one opportunity to stay a bit longer. Without wasting any time, a kid climbed the pipe of the house to reach the terrace door, which was somehow locked from outside. Now we knew who would have locked it ;) We went to their terrace for few pics with the kids. The view from the terrace was mesmerizing. We couldn't understand the reason why we weren't on the roof in the first place. The water body in front of their place is soothing and best viewed from their terrace. The kids got a chance to show their monkey skills around the structures of the terrace. With a heavy heart and a hot tea on a cold afternoon, we left the place. The kids were thanking us for the visit. Being humble is just an outcome of being their with Dada I guess. But we insisted that it was us who are thankful to all of them. It is them, who shared a day of their enduring life with us. Its not as easy and sweet as they made us seem. Each day is an effort from dada as well as the kids to get what they want to achieve. We greeted them with our best wishes and a promise to visit again, which we would doing soon. We noted a list of things, where we could be of help to them. I am listing below things which they require on a regular basis. We would be collecting as much as we can and would be helping them on a regular basis. Unfortunately dada is not that well versed with internet and emails. Its just the direct communication that happens with him. 

List of things required:
1) We are helping them to build up a small library system with marathi story books which can be enjoyed by kids at all levels. They include vinda karandikar's books of stories for kids, books of Sane Guruji, Vi Sa Khandekar's books. Books on Veer Savarkar, Shivaji Maharaj, etc which would inspire them. Note that the kids are from Marathi medium so we plan to make Marathi books available that should not be too heavy on them. Light hearten stories, inspiring heroes, etc. would be a good choice 

2) Stationery items like pens, writing pads, etc. There is no specific list, but we can assume what kids would require during their 1st to 10th school life. Everything may not be possible but we can at least give sensible items.
3) Donations of course. Note that they have been registered for 80G for income tax deductions. Donations by individuals or groups are welcome. 

You can make your contribution online.
Name: S.V.D SAVARKAR
Account number: 322202010009763
Bank Name: UNION BANK OF INDIA
Branch Location: MAVAL (VADGAON) 
IFSC: UBIN0532223
Account Type: Savings

Again, once their website is registered and working, I would update that in my blog and on the FB page, which is under progress. That would help them reach more and more helping hands. But as of now, if any one feels like they could lend some help, feel free to get in touch with me. Those who know me in person can directly contact me. For others, you can reach me at amol.jbk98@gmail.com

Link to the pics and videos.
https://plus.google.com/photos/114702086921512698045/albums/6098487258836238481?authkey=COeWhtWwqLfgfA

Hope my blog can reach to many more who can help. 

Regards 

Amol Potdar

Hivrebajar - Sept 2014

Hello F.R.I.E.N.D.S

Usually my blogs mingle over a trek or a picnic spot. But this time our venture was a little different. I had never been to any field trip during my school days, but if at all, they could have been designed around such places. Aniket and Dipti, our sweet Madhav-Ramabai couple (Ramabai not in terms of age off course ;) :P), incepted an idea to visit Hivrebajar - A self sufficient, self developed and a role model village, which is a mere 10 kms away from Nagar (around 125 kms from Pune). We  made it to the place on 27^th Sept Saturday.

Short intro – Hivrebajar: 

Situated in a drought prone area in Ahmednagar district, with a population close to 1300 now, this village was a prey to drought and alcoholism. I wonder if they pegged raw :P. Ironically the presence and absence of two different liquids and that too at the same time can be so devastating. So basically the youth migrating out, villagers dipped in loans, insolvency and water shortages. Such was the picture of this typical Indian village a few decades ago. But there came a turning point, when a graduate local youth, Mr. Popatrao Pawar came to the Sarpanch position with unanimous voice. With lots of persuasion and efforts, he started implementing small trenches and drip-irrigation techniques at house hold levels to conserve water. The biggest step was to eradicate liquor shops from the village. It may sound simple but imagine the protests and the hardships that young fellow must have faced to implement such a drastic step. This changed everything slowly. The farmers got enough water to plough their farms for a major part of the year. People migrated back and now the village is awarded the status of a role model village. The average income of the village had increased twenty-fold with 50 of the villagers becoming millionaires and only 3 families below the poverty line.
 

Coming back to the start of the journey, Aniket was already in Pune from Thursday, while Dipti was greeted with a fantastic treat at South Indies on her arrival Friday night. The menu was so exclusive that we ate as if we were starved for a week.  Our tummies were full but our souls weren’t :). We started from my Hinjewadi home at around 8 a.m., estimating to reach Hivrebajar around 11. Google map showed us a 3 hours drive, but it did not predict the 10 punctures (in 1 tyre) and a tea-idli break :P :D. Thankfully it was detected at an air refill center. We filled petrol worth 2200 and air worth 1400 (with the puncture and valve of course ;) :P). So with such a mini adventure and a pleasurable drive on a smooth beautiful road with passing small villages, we reached around 12. 

The village is approx 9-10 kms drive from the main highway (a left turn at Chas phata). But the tar road does not leave you till the end. It even follows you inside the village. Hivrebajar welcomes you with its symbol of success – The Hivre Bajar primary school. This point onwards it’s simply spic and span. Abhijit, a friend who saw the pics said that even their dustbins are so clean ;). The village was smaller than I had imagined. But the surroundings are explicit. The lush green mountains, small farms and the flower plantations take you into a trans. 

We first visited the gram panchayat office, which is just at the beginning of the village. It has a small Hanuman temple and a big banyan tree in front of the one storied office. Even though the sun was high, the breezy trees and the soothing view around kept us cool. We met our guide who was prepared to show us around. We first went to a hill top pagoda swirling around the curvy road in my Liva, which not only tested the newly patched tyre but also my driving skills. During the whole drive, our enthu young guide gave us a full speed narration in his local Marathi dialect :P. Kept me wondering if I really grasped what he intended to part. But this was not the case with Aniket and Dipti. They were keen listeners with lots of questions. But Aniket later expressed that if we had someone with us, who has lived his life (or a part of it) in a village, would have been in a position to ask more profound questions to give us a real insight. E.g.  when he mentioned that the villagers started a different type of irrigation technique digging trenches around the hill contours to trap water, we could not understand the difference between their system and usual system. We actually don’t know the normal course of irrigation systems. But we understood that such trenches not only conserve the rain water but also helps afforestation and avoid  soil erosion. 

We came back to the village with a small insight read of village lanes. Few villagers were still working on the hill top doing the fencing work on the road.  We understood that the funds come from state and central government but the work is undertaken by the villagers themselves. Their funda is that if the govt funds Rs 100, they work worth 25 Rs (Shram daan) towards the project and make the value worth Rs 125. This is how they have developed so much systems into their villages. It was a kind of surprise to hear that they have implemented mandatory HIV check ups before marriage. Unfortunately we did not have the honor of meeting Mr. Pawar himself as he was out of the village for some cricket tournament. We were back in one of the office room, which was displaying all the trophies, paper cut outs and acknowledgments received by the village and Mr. Popatrao Pawar. The place wasn’t really big enough for the displays. I wonder how they will manage the trophies that are going to come their way year by year. With Dipti writing a note of appreciation in their book of testimonials, we were already on our way back. It was around 2 pm and here we felt that we should have reached early morning around 9 at least, to enjoy the village and its activities live in action. We actually reached at a time when the school was closed and the villagers were having their afternoon nap. It would have been more fun interacting with the villagers, visiting school and see them perform their morning chores. But a lesson learnt. To optimize the visit, we should start either early morning around 6 (midnight for me) from Pune or reach a day ago and stay at the lush PWD quarters a few kilometers before the village on the highway. Also reaching with a bigger group makes more sense.The more the merrier. This will increase the interaction.  

We were finished with our visit with lot of more enthusiasm  and a want to visit again starting early in the day.  We did not notice the upcoming training center just at the start of the village road, which we did on our way back. This training center is funded by both state and central govt and will be used for training leaders for taking other villages on the path chosen by Hivrebajar. 

We retired back at my Hinjewadi home around 7 pm, enjoying our walks around the urban man made- gardens and landscapes and digesting our waanga bharit and bhaakri lunch and by sweating out at table tennis. We still wonder what we have really achieved by this so called urbanization, when we still try adding such unnatural ‘nature elements’ into our concrete lives, ignoring and harming the real nature surrounding us. I guess we are trying to complete the vicious circle of nature?

Enjoy the pics of the visit here

https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/114702086921512698045/albums/6064185817447222225?authkey=CJXw7IG17MuZiQE

Also links to the great bhet interview of Mr. Popatrao Pawar by Nikhil Waghle.

Part 1/5: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ds1QXgJSD3A

Part 2/5: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5trVMacsqI

Part 3/5: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Yf4gXK5xkw

Part 4/5: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGY-fU68zy8

Part 5/5: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbKxAKXSKws



Regards
Amol Potdar 

Raigad - July 2014

Hello F.R.I.E.N.D.S

Shriket - Planner 1

Namrata - Planner 2

It’s time again that I jot down the fun filled moments,we all had during our trek to Raigad this monsoon. July 2014 was welcoming heavy rains, especially in the Sahayadri range and Mumbai wasn’t spared either. Statutory warnings from many caring sources were pouring alongside the rains. Most of them advising not to venture for treks at this point of time. I won’t blame their genuine concerns, but they were based on too many inflated news in the papers and on the idiot box. I say inflated because most of the incidents flashing across the media were more of human errors/misadventures. But my AAOO group is full of responsible, caring and safety loving creatures ;) :P :D. Although most of our parents were skeptical to allow us for the trek, we still got 20^th July weekend fixed for visiting our beloved Raigad.

Shweta - New comer 3

Rahul - New comer 1

Yogesh - New comer 2

Trupti

Swapnil

The excitement started building almost a month back with the exchange of emails on planning, responsibilities and dos and don’ts for the trek from our planning committee. Finally TGIF. We all started with our journey on Friday itself. We had booked a bus staring 11:30pm from Bombay central to Mahad. We all gathered near Trupti’s house at around 10:45 with three new faces (for most of us) in the group. Rahul (naam toh suna hi hoga :P), Yogesh and Shweta were coming with us for the first time. Shriket being the center of the circle, most of us knew them by their name and ‘kaarnaamas’ :P. We took a taxi to the BC bus depot, where a shower of heavy rain was planning our welcome. The excitement started from the depot itself, when we came to know that one of our super heroes (read Swapnil), who had been given the responsibility of the food bags, had forgotten the bag of the delicious theplas, which Yogini had got for us. The bag included her windcheater. We were not sure whether it was left in the taxi or at our initial assembly point. Veins on her forehead were about to pop, when Trupti’s brother went down the place and confirmed that both things were intact as they were left :) Thanks to him, who also got them to us at the depot before our bus took off.

 

Yogini - pro photographer

This ST journey to Mahad reminded me a bit of our Pu La’s Ratnagiri journey. The twists, the turns and the bumps of the road, the passengers around (including myself) trying to grab their share of sleep and the blurring site of the running world around the bus reminded me of the starting stanzas from his play 'Mhais'. I can’t sleep in journeys, especially with vibrating buses. So till 4:15 Saturday morning, when we reached Mahad depot, my knees were bumping off the front seat and my head off the window glass. To add to the fun, the bus had its own alarm system for me. After every 45 mins or so, the water clogged in some secret compartment above the luggage stand used to drip over my neck. Getting off at Mahad was such a relief. Fortunately we got a connecting bus from Mahad to Paachad, which we understood was waiting for us from 3 am. There was another trekking group in that bus with us. They were such a loud chatter box. The girls in our group were convinced that we guys are really not that bad (and vice versa ;)). Finally the bus dropped us at the Paachad bus stop at around 5:30 am. There is a small tea stall adjacent to the stop. The stall is attached to a small but a beautiful house of the owner. Fortunately he was awake and offered us the best of his hospitality and a room to freshen up. The kaanda poha with the garam chaay with some biscuits at that moment of the day (mid night for most of us) was heaven. We were fresh and ready to begin for our trek at around 7 am.

Dipti - our Sita mayya

This stop was approx 2 kms away from the Raigad base and right at the junction, where the other road goes to the Jijau samaadhi. We started walking with our heavy bags, which not only contained food and water but also set of clothes for almost 4 days (considering we would get wet at least twice a day). Dipti's bag was a little heavier for her. Shriket, being such a dragon heart, took some of her load in his bag :) Here I realized my grave mistake. I couldn’t find a back pack big enough to carry my stuff, so I had carried a shoulder hanging bag. This penalized me throughout our journey :( Moving along the U-bend road, we reached the base and decided to visit the man made ancient caves called “Waagh dolay. They look like two eyes of a tiger when seen from the base and are right in the middle of the hill. These caves are simply two through and through holes made in the mountain with few carvings inside them. They are at a climbing distance of just 10 mins from the base in opposite direction of the Raigad. The way goes from behind the small tea/snack stall. The windy caves were amazing and cold. Digi cams, mobile phones and DSLRs made their way out of our bags. Our (IT) professional (part time) photographers were at work. We just couldn’t resist the magnetism of the place. We returned back to the base at around 8:30 a.m. The returning slopes were a little tough (rather the toughest part of the whole trek).

Yours truly

With the coconut breaking at the first step of the hill and the chantings of Jai Bhavani Jai Shivaji, we began our trek with a sense of pride in our hearts. The lush green mountain and the dark grey steps embedded on them just mesmerized each of us. We began our journey to halt at our first stop – khub ladha. It’s believed that most of the battles for acquiring the fort started here (many even ended at this point). It's almost at the base and thus the name. Beyond that we just kept climbing the stairs, halting at each waterfall and clicking pictures. One of the falls with water falling from almost 50 feet above was simply awesome. The force was strong enough to resist you from raising your arms in the air. ‘Just Soaking’ under the fall relaxed most of us and we were fresh as we were on step one. This was the place where we got hungry and tried eating some of theplas and puris we had got in our bags. But unfortunately, there came a fierce monkey trying to break in and take away all what we had got. Being a big group of 10 wild animals against just one small domesticated monkey, he did not dare to come too close. But waiting there would have just served as an invitation. Plus there were a group of other trekkers, who were enticing him for more action. So we hurried our way up and closed the lunch boxes to proceed further. Slowly the gravity was working on us and our stop intervals started increasing. More clicks and more fun. The enthusiasts of our group were pushing the rest to move forward. The ‘15 minutes to go’ distance to the main entrance was extending again and again. Finally we reached the huge main gate to enter the fort area. It was almost 12 when we reached our Zilla Parishad quarters (Thanks to Namrata and her State government ID Card :P :D). This whole journey, we were piercing through the thick fog and strong winds. Thus taking the last step, which led us directly to our rooms was a sense of achievement and relaxing. The Zilla Parsishad quarters are immediately next to the Ganga Sagar lake. 

Although it was not raining continuously but the wind current and the water falls had us fully drenched till the end. The second adventure began when we understood that the place had no lights and thus no water from a long time due to some MSEB repair work going on around the base and the nearby villages. There was no choice but to bathe with the freezing cold rain water, which we collected in the buckets from the flowing roof tops :). The first two pours on our head in such a weather really requires guts. Being the only room available, boy and girl took turns to rule over the room and get ready for a heavenly zundka bhaakar and daal bhaat at around 2 in the afternoon from our housekeepers.

We could not move out immediately. The taste of the food and the climb up was taking toll on each one of us and we were in a full zombie mood. But we couldn’t do so because the fort itself is so huge that even two complete days on the top, would not be enough to see each and every point. So we moved from our room at around 3 p.m. Shriket and Namrata had a very interesting idea. They had T-shirts printed for all of us with our group logo (Shivaji maharaj's pic) at a very last moment. The planning committee had planned so much for us to see, that we tried covering most of the points on that day itself.  But the fort is so grand that we may have covered only almost 60% of the fort. We were able to cover only the grand statue of shivaji raje, baajar peth, takmak tok, jagdishwar temple, shivaji maharaj Samadhi and waghya Samadhi (now fenced from all sides). Few enthus wanted to visit more points on the other side like the Bhavani tok. The locals suggested that it’s not so safe at this point of time and we won’t be allowed to go beyond its gate. A few sparks ignited among the group over this decision. But thanks to the cold weather and the frequent showers, the sparks were put off faster :P :D. Thus instead we visited the closest point to us. The queen’s palaces and the grand darbaar which has such acoustics that a low tone voice from the other end of the place could be heard easily at Raje's Sinhaasan and vice-versa. We returned back to our quarters by around 7:30 planning to finish off the remaining points the next morning. Even after 7 p.m. and with all the fog around the fort, there was enough sun light for us to walk back without the use of batteries. We freshened up a bit and were really hungry. We placed the order for the dinner and started going over the day’s pics on the cameras. We were a little tired but our enthusiasm levels were high as usual. A lot of dumb sharads after the delicious hot dinner and the usual Kawla udd, popat udd had the clock ticking 2:30 a.m. and we began ‘trying to sleep'. The fun during the games and the punishments couldn’t be explained in any blog. You have to be there in those moments. We had broken the ice with all the new members completely. They had already started teasing the usual target members of our group :). The so called 'saadhi saral mula' started showing their true colours. All the conceptions were broken and now they are no more the new members of our group.The girls, as expected, had invaded the beds and we were finding our peace in the mattresses on the floor. The wind was so strong that the ‘whooooooozzzzzzzing’ sound from the window panes couldn’t let us sleep. I think it must be around 3 – 3:30 when the room was drop dead and we let the sleep take over all of us.

It was almost 7 am when we started waking up, planning to move out as fast as we could so that we could finish off the remaining points from the list. We had our food packets opened up for breakfast with the hot tea from the housekeepers. But we were so lousy that it took around 10 a.m. for us to get over our laziness, packing our bags and stepping out of our rooms. Me and Swapnil had a bus booked from Mahad to Pune at around 3:30 pm. So doing the math backwards, we were supposed to start the downward journey at around 11 am. Even the Mumbaikars had to catch a bus around 4. Thus after a lot of thinking and discussions, we decided to skip the rest of the points as neither we could have enjoyed the points in rush nor would have reached the base in time. So we started directly from the quarters to the way down. We thought we would drench again because of the rain but surprisingly we did not encounter heavy rains. It was a light dripping all the way. We were obviously faster to reach the destination this time, as we reached the base at around 12:30 p.m. This time we took a ten seater Mahindra cab from the base itself. We booked the cab till Mahad bus stop but visited the Jijau Samadhi on our way. Its just a kilometer away from the paachad stop junction, where we had halted on our way up. The place is beautiful with a copper made bust of jijaai (al teast it seems to be copper). We returned to the stall again and changed to dry clothing. From here we could see the Raigad rope way very clearly. There were two dots going up and two coming down over a distant rope way clad with fog. They couldn't be captured in even a DSLR. We decided to have lunch in Mahad itself so that we won’t get late for our bus. The Mumbai team had to book their tickets too. So finally most of us entertained our taste buds with non-veg food at the near by restaurant. We had cautiously decided not to eat non veg on the fort. It has already been banned in few forts like Sinhagad but yet to be implemented on Raigad. But we paid our respect in our own ways and that includes no littering over the fort. We made sure to carriy our plastics and papers with us till the dustbins. The Mumbai team had got the tickets for the 4:30 return bus, while we two (myself and Swapnil) started our journey at 3:30. For me the malshej ghat and the greenery on the way back was the only positive thing to board the return bus. For Swapnil it was his arrears of sleep all the way :P. With heavy hearts we parted ways. With boards like Garudmachi on the way home, I am waiting when we would start exchanging mails for the next trek this monsoon itself.  

Till then enjoy the pics of the trek from the link below:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/114702086921512698045/albums/6040334480582027201

The photographer's link :)
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=107872696776724158893&target=ALBUM&id=6040219958889105185&authkey=Gv1sRgCOqhlpmrqMmx6AE&feat=email

Regards
Amol Potdar