Up , up and Away !!

Hey what’s up there ? is it a goat ? is it a tree swaying ? No, it’s karthik climbing a hill !! Fine I know it was bad…….but definitely my trip last Sunday wasn’t !! It all started when I got this Pune Guide and Map from Crossword(famous book store) and started going all around pune during the week-ends.That was when I got to know this place called Sinhgad … that’s lion fort just for the heck of translation !!

It is 25kms from Pune and is one of the forts of Shivaji…no ganeshan….just Shivaji . The fort was won by shivaji while most of the dishum dishum was done by his loyal and brave kshatriya Tanaji Malusare who unfortunately lost his life during the battle. The fort has his Samadhi and also bungalows of Lokmanya Tilak and the famous Marathi poet Ga Di Ma …..yeah that’s his name…..we shud’ve studied history better!! Fine let’s forget the past and come to the trekking part….

The fort is 1200m high …..yeah 1.2 kms is no big deal…but it is when you go against gravity on dicey rocks and creepy plants with the hum of water just beside your ear….and when you try to take a look and find a 1200m drop and realize it’s a waterfall ….yes it is a BIG DEAL !! I went there all alone but just at the foot of the hill met up with 5 more ppl planning to trek. The 5 of them were just awesome…all from in and around pune…3 of them doing the 2nd year engineering…if u r thinking if I’d have scene potufied…you are perfectly right !! 2 of ‘em were working in NARI…c’mon guys wipe that look off…it’s National Aids Research Institute !

We started climbing up at around 12:00 in the afternoon….initially we were all pumped up and it wasn’t very tiring ….but as the altitude augmented, exhaustion started creeping in…and after a point of time…say 350m…we just couldn’t carry ourselves and the temperature started dropping…it wasn’t a problem for them but having coming from a place which hasn’t seen the 20degreesC range for a long time…it was another problem….

The route was bad….infact there was no route…we had to make our own way up…and owing to the perpetual rains….the entire path was damp ! That made it a lil more difficult to get a grip on the rocks…but it was just awesome…we kept taking breaks fer almost every 100-150 m ….there are these small huts at certain places ( jus imagine ppl really living in the jungleee areas) … where we used to stop for buttermilk and chai..or chaha as in Marathi ! ! The best part was … when you are panting for a gulp of air and just turn around and look how far you are (‘you just can’t look how much more….’coz its all clouds)…you get this utterly stunning view…which makes up for all the effort…all the energy comes back and you start walking !!

At one point there was this path…wherein there was place for only one foot…so you need to put 1 foot at a time and go through….the sides were totally covered by trees ..we just didn’t know what was there…but there was this perpetual sound of water from somewhere but due to the heavy vegetation we just couldn’t get a glance….but when we tried to clear a bit of leaves and check out…boy it was the most blissful spectacle I had ever seen….we were just beside a waterfall… and the sight just can’t be put in words!! We carried on having rendezvous with snakes, a maajar variety of birds, mongooses and ofcourse the ‘we are everywhere’ insect world !!

After about 700m we could actually see the clouds passing through us and it was soo cold that all of us started puffing out smoke from our mouth, nose and strangely our ears also…it was soo cold that my gherkin started puffing … HA!ha!..that was the first time I was seeing this happen and it was quite amusing…we kept going and then the worst part started….it started raining…and it became even more slippery and since we had to look up, the rain was lashing straight into our eyes…that was really difficult and we started taking more breaks …. And finally after 150 minutes of excitement, adventure and eye-popping spectacles….we were there…..at Sinhgad !!

It was continuously raining there…and all of us were tired and hungry !! The temp. would have been around 10 or 12 degrees C up there… and since we were all wet…god it was freezing !! And to top it all the wind up there was blowing at around …… I dunno the kmph but if I was 20kgs less I’d hve been blown off the cliff…ah! So now you are thinking how much this guy would weigh…am I 20kgs less than him ? HA!ha!ha! The best and most amusing part on top was that there was an Airtel and BPl tower…and I also got a phone from office….now what can I say about that !!

We looked around the place for sometime…and then went to a dhaba there…yes it is a tourist spot and so there are small hotels there…actually there’s even a road where jeeps bring people up and down…but what fun is it sitting in a jeep and going all the way up!! The wind blowing soo fast, it made the rain drops hit our faces soo hard that it actually started hurting a lot . So we took shelter in the dhaba and first had black chaha. Then there’s this roti type thing called Pithle-Bhakari which is as famous as idli in tn,here. It was served hot with dal and we hogged like hogs…then we had Kanda Bhaji(nambe normal rende rubaa bajji) and Meeti dahi(sweet curd) in small earthenware pots.

We didn’t realize but it was getting late…it was almost 5:00 pm when we finished and it was time to climb down as it is impossible when dark(it was already dark ‘coz of the heavy dark clouds)!! So we got some Bhuee Mugg (Oh! that’s not some high funda parlance….it’s just ‘kadale’ in marathi J ). The trek down was not as taxing as climbing up but needed utmost precaution and one thing which kept going on in my mind all the way down was ‘look and put your step’…’coz one small mistake and you’ll land up in a hospital !! It took us about 90 min to climb down. As we came down the rain slowly stopped and once again mother nature proved aishwarya rai is no miss world ….she is !! fine you might argue saying it is ‘mother nature’ and ‘miss world’….so forget it !! It was gorgeous …..that sums it up…ok ?

It’s not fair if I don’t mention the kinda company the five gave me…if I’d have done this all of my own…I dun think I could have dun it..i’d have come back and taken the jeep instead…they kept singing all the way up and down…they thought me a lil marathi…I dun remember any and I thought them bit of tamil and telugu…it was great fun !! They were sooo sweet they invited me for dinner to their place…so we took a bus from the foot of the hill to their place…and just because I said I eat rice a lot in Chennai…you know they made rice for me !! it was totally sweet of them…we had a gala time and even before I knew it, it was 11:00 in the night…then I took and auto to my place and crashed !!

I can just go on writing about this all day…but all of us have work…all thorough the trip I just wanted to stop and rejoice every sight, every moment …. I just wished I could just stand there all day and keep watching that out of this world exhibition but we have to move on. It might be only a momentary bliss but the memory will stay for eternity!! The only thing I regretted and was totally disappointed throughout the entire trip was that I had neither a handycam nor a camera….i didn’t expect all this !! I know these spectacles are like readers envy , writers pride when you read all this and think about it…but it’d have been great if I cud’ve put some of those snaps with along with this !!

The trip is definitely not one of the best in the entire world…but for me … though this is not my first trekking experience…it’s been one after a long time and I will remember it for a long long time….one day I would tell my grandchildren (hey wipe those stupid smile off ur faces !!) by starting off ….hey what’s up there !!