The night dawned on me

Completed first successful night trek. Thanks to Petcy who was keen on having me on this trek with Outdoor Adventure Management.

The trek as such is simple since it is easy to hold the rocks or step on it or climb over it. Except for one 100 degree horizontal turn on one particular rock patch, is something I found risky and scary. It is similar to being on the 40th floor ledge with the heavy bag and you try to move from one edgy side of the rectangular building to the other edgy side with your face towards the building. The vertical gravity force on the heavy bag, the breeze, your fear, your courage are all in action at this point. At times like this, you wish you were a spider man who gets stuck to the walls as easily as a lizard does.

Lots of brown monkeys and big black ants on this mountain. I was trying to make sure I did not step on the ants. They were just too many in the path. The ants were looking like an army that could conquer your delicate body very easily. I am very scared of everything that is non-human. So ants and monkeys are no different either. The monkeys would fight with each other for food. At times they try to pose for camera like humans. They probably have been staying up the mountain for a very long time and probably seeing humans pass by everyday. The funny part about monkey and myself was, whenever we saw each other, we both jumped away in fear .. 'mammaaaa !!! ..' ;-)

At around 100 ft below the top of the mountain is a temple cave which became our resting point. We could not rappel from the top of the mountain because of aggressive breeze. The team leads took a very wise call to abandon it. So we descended down the mountain where there were no breeze issues. We did 2 short rappels at two different descend spots. Many were first timers, some got scratched a little bit during the rappell but it was overall exciting. Full length, full sleeves clothes are mostly preferable to lessen the hurts caused by scratches or even insect bites, especially on a night trek. Imagine you are unknowingly walking through a spider web or a snake is under a stone that you step on. Usually every animal stays away from light or a group of people, unless ofcourse it has become habitual for them to live with the humans or they are confronted unintentionally.

We had a good team. It all ended well with spicy Vada Paavs, Lemon juice and lovely old Marathi songs sung by a melodious singer ( this one voice was heavenly..I almost thought I was hearing an angel sing.. it was not sounding like a human voice at all.. I just felt blessed). I was accompanied with people from various profession like journalist, actor, psychologist, software programmer, lawyer, fence seller (this one sells fences that are used to divide boundaries like that of a country.. amazing ah..), etc. Invariably couple of them funnily kept calling me 'Uncle' during the trek because Petcy occasionally kept calling me 'Uncle this, Uncle that..' .. ;-) Ha ha.. I am fine with whatever anyone calls me but I feel nice when Petcy relates with me so well.. par meraa Dil tho bachaa hi rahegaa (but my heart will always be like that of a child ..) .. I was safely transported back closer to my house in Borivli. So there was no stress on the travel part.

At the end of the journey, I was glad Petcy did her trek and I was glad everything went well. That is how the night dawned on me ..

Leadership, Fun, Adventure !!!

I am back from Sandan Valley weekend trek and my legs still ache a bit. ooh maa ... :-) It is probably because of the heavy bag that I carried. Sandan is different because of its repeatitive ponds, streams, rappells, boulders, rocks and narrow passages. There were a few times, we had to move like a snake through one to two feet opening between rocks to get to the other side.

We were led by experienced team of Nilesh Patil, Harsh Bharati, Rahul Barve and Jayesh. We were in all 22 people and it was a fun group. I especially loved Saajan Dhiver. He was so spontaneous with his comic timing that it reminded me of Kapil Sharma from Comedy Nights. Some of his dialogues in the midst of the junglee mountain were "Hi. Ab idar mile. Ab udhar mat milnaa .. (you met me here. now don't meet me there .. ) .. "Hum aaye hain. Swagat nahin karoge .. (I have come. Will you not welcome me?)".. He has a collection of songs, shayaris and jokes.. He would invariably call Koyel Ghosh, "Gabbar" and keep asking me "Hi James Bond. Where is your Bond girl?" I had a good laughthon since ages.

What I liked most about the trek was, it had elements of leadership, fun and adventure. When the task at hand gets difficult for the team, good leadership and endless fun makes all the difference between fear and success. Within 15 minutes of trek initiation, we came across a narrow passage between two cliffs filled with water as high as my chest. I was very worried about my camera and my bag was around 8 kilos. We were suppose to carry the bag above the head and walk through the water body. Nilesh Patil, the trek lead, realized that I would probably drop my bag in the water. So he immediately carried it for me till the depth of the water reduced until waist length. I was very touched by his gesture as I was literally down by the load. Nilesh keeps ensuring that no one suffers on the trek and fun is constantly on. That is what TrekMates India are good at.

The experience of carrying a heavy load on my head shook me a bit though. What happens in reality, is that the pressure of the heavy load hits right on the neck portion. The pressure that I felt on my neck made me feel a little dizzy and I remembered all the poor labourers who carry heavy weight on their head. Going forward, I can never see these labourers in any other way but with much greater emphathy and respect.

Though I managed saving my bag this time from getting wet, it would never be the case. We crossed multiple ponds, streams, boulders and rappelled at multiple locations. But it was the last short rappell that shook me. I was held with the help of a rope by Rahul Barve on top and had to trust that he will hold me tight and believe that the rope will never break. There was a big stream of water flowing during my rappell and I had to get through it, holding the rock crevices (if I find), with a heavy bag on my back. Can you imagine that.. a gush of water is flowing over you with a force, while you are trying to get down the big boulder with no idea where or how you should grip this boulder which is as huge as a tusker elephant. You can grip a stick, a rock but boulders are a little different. At one point, I almost slipped my grip and Rahul held me like a puppeteer holds a puppet. When my grip was loosening, I remembered death and I was yelling 'I am falling..I am falling..." . I wonder if anyone heard me amidst the pouring gushy water. But the leads had ensured that even though we lose our grip, they would hold us with the 1200 kilo bearing rope. It is scary but safety measures are always in place. It was an adventurous experience of nearly 4 minutes over a 12 feet rappel. My bag and me, both were drenched at the end. I was worried about my camera.. :-) But I had fortunately wrapped the camera in the plastic within the bag and my bag prevented a lot of water from sipping in. My camera and me, both were fine.

We spent the evening in the open jungle. This time around I had a proper sleeping bag and mat to sleep in the open night under the million star. I woke up a few times in the night. As I opened my eyes, I saw stars welcoming me. What a sight! The next day, we walked a few hours and later we were dropped by jeep to Asangaon.

I returned safe and felt great that my dream once again came true. Everytime I think of these experiences, I feel blessed and tell myself that this is bonus life that I am living. I never thought of doing these stuff. The only dream that I had when I was small was to see snow. Many of you know that I got much more than that. God has been good to me. Life has been cruelly exciting and beautiful.

I have learnt something. Problems will always be there. But there will always be something to be happy about. India is in good times where various sports are available now since last decade or so. TrekMates India are making India proud by making all these dreams possible. Thanks to the experienced leaders who are doing real excellent work.

The beauty in the trash

Trash beach! Yes, its the Arnala beach, few kms from Virar station. It was horrible to walk through the messy environment. It is sad to know that the beaches of Maharashtra and especially Mumbai have been ignored, not maintained and never promoted when it has such a big potential for tourism.


Keeping the trash aside, my day was magical. The first part of the magic was reaching the beach and watching the buzzing fishing community on it. It was obvious that the men will be responsible for fetching the fish, un-meshing the net, boat maintenance and any other activities that require immense physical strength. The ladies would be responsible to gather the fish, sort them out into prawns, prom-fret, crabs etc. Also, they would be responsible to distribute it into appropriate baskets and carry them all the way into city markets for the eventual sale. No broker is involved and the fishing community works together and runs it like a family business. The children look very happy playing marbles, digging sand and playing all kinds of lovely games that my generation played.

The second part of the journey was getting into a small ferry boat which would take us from the beach to the island that was 5-10 mins away. The team had to wet themselves, squeak few 'eeks' while walking through the dirty water and eventually board the boat. If we miss the boat, then the next one would take around 20-30 mins to return back. Hence people were rushing into it in great hurry. The boat was crowded with all fish filled baskets and shy fisher women while me and my team were standing squeezed in center of the boat without any support. Every time the boat tossed, my team tossed over each other too. I was just feeling like a little child who is thrown in the air by his dad for fun. I loved whenever the waters played this mischief with the boat. 

The island was where Arnala fort was. One of the reason why forts were built on islands was because it would be difficult for the enemies to reach through the waters or even fire their cannons from the distant land. The small fort was probably 100 * 100 square meters. It was surprising to see a mosque and a temple within this small enclosure. Our lunch spot was in the temple's verandah. It had an absolute refreshing soothing breeze. Whereas many were aggressively playing 'Mafia' after lunch, I simply chose to explore the fort all by myself. The fort had few trees, unnecessary bushes and little plow fields. I was fortunate to find some beautiful flowers and I wondered what is this beauty doing amidst the thrash bushes. 

The third part of the journey was returning back to the beach in the evening around 4 pm. Since it was Sunday, there were lots of local visitors. Between 4 pm and 6 pm, I chose to walk around the beach as it was constantly changing its beauty during the sunset. While the sun was singing to the beach and the sky, the people and the children were riding horses, camels, huge bikes and so on. The beach was buzzing all around with play, cheer, laughter and calmness. These two hours on the beach was an healing experience. Arnala beach was looking like gold in the evening and I wondered if it's the same dirty place that I saw earlier in the day. I was very sure that particular moment that Mumbai is losing this beauty to the thrash. As one of my friends tells looking at the mess humans create 'I am ashamed to be a human being'

How often do we feel that we are are in a trash situation but Arnala beach teaches you that no matter what, I will shine like pure gold each and every day thereby making everyone happy and fore mostly I will be happy with myself  for I believe I am the beauty in the thrash.