The blue tarpaulin sheet suddenly gives way and my feet impulsively tries to gain hold on the rocks. I lose grip and one of my slippers hits the rocks about hundred and fifty feet below. Even before I have time to think on what’s apparently gone wrong I foolishly tag the rope in my left hand instead of the right. And just one thought zips in my mind.. Damn! I shouldn’t have volunteered to be the first one to rappel down! ...
[fruitful_tabs type=“default” width=“100%” fit=“false”] [fruitful_tab title=“Blog”] There are three reasons why I’d not forget this trek! The first being, I wasn’t the youngest member in the team; the second being we had a 10 year senior,quite oblivious to us, sitting silently listening to all the *facts* about organisations and policies that we were putting forward; the third would get pretty evident as the print runs through till the end of this post! ...
[fruitful_tabs type=“default” width=“100%” fit=“false”] [fruitful_tab title=“Blog”] Boy, Oh Boy! For the past two and a half months, I’ve been pampering hard ground every weekend ; but believe me, I’ve never been this satisfied as I am today after the trek. It’s been an adventure in the real sense! Walking through the dense vegetation with no idea where, when or how we’re going to turn up, not even remotely bothered of what could have been happening in the cities out there; losing paths and realising it after you’ve covered two or three kms;Tramping the 40+ kms in the splintering rain stopping just for nourishment en-route right from 09:00am all through till 09:00pm; taking respite in those scores of waterfalls rejuvenating our muscles and senses; crossing knee deep torrential streams just to find another just a few kms away; Groping to find directions in the dark.Phew! Indeed been one of THE best treks I’ve covered till date during my brief stay here in Pune. ...
[fruitful_tabs type=“default” width=“100%” fit=“false”] [fruitful_tab title=“Blog”] Dhok pings me and Vaibhav at about 4:00pm to let us know that we may have to get to Muralgad on bikes, as commutation by ST may become a problem. There were about eight of us and we weren’t really sure how many would fancy biking to the base. With all this, Muralgad as this weekend’s destination didn’t sound that interesting! I’m not sure whether it was me or Vaibhav who brought about the idea of changing the plan and getting Abhishek to agree on Torna instead. Couple of minutes later, Dhok sends out a mail to the Deccan Highlander group and by about 06:00pm the count stood at 7. Later, I get to know from Suhas, Dhok received a solid dose from him for changing the plan. I’ll let Vaibhav take that honorable priviledge :-) . ...
Last thursday, late at night as I check my gmail, I happen to get a mail from Shashi with pictures of Kalvantin Durg. Almost instantly I decide to re-plan this weekends trip to this place instead of the Raigad trek. A few minutes later, as I get out of the instantaneous glory; intelligence looms and I realise that the Hyd folks would screw me real bad had any more changes been made! Just a day back I’d changed the previous plan of the Lohgad-Visapur trek to Raigad as the previous one had very few takers initially. ...
I love Americans! Why don’t they have a lot many more National Holidays? The last week had been been pretty stuffed up with tickets and deadlines. And damn! Murphy’s always right - they pop up right at the moment you need to leave. Thanks to the American Independence day, this friday was a paid holiday. A much needed break! Done with some mundane work, I sift through BBC to catch up with some news.Sometime at around 4:00pm the much awaited mail from Rahul arrives - The latest count was 23! This trek was going to be a bit different. The positive response was probably because of the emphasis that was laid on the simplicity of the trek and the late start timing that was decided - But for a few nuts, who would like to wake up early on a saturday morning? ;) ...
June 27th I’m quite surprised! I seem to be the last person to wake up this time! Ideally Suhas was to drop by my house at around 3:30 am after his night shift. When my alarm hoots at 4:45 am, I sense the first drop out for the trek. I anxiously dial his number only to hear that he’d be reaching my house in a few minutes. The routine starts again. The next person on the roll was Rahul- someone well known in our group to doze in mighty glory when his presense is really required. Quite surprisingly, today he picks the call right at the first ring and he pretty much sounded alert enough. So i move on to the next person - Amrita. The call goes on but no one picks. A few minutes later she calls back telling me that even she was very much awake. Ashutosh too was almost set and he’d be reaching Parihar chowk in a couple of minutes.We’d to reach Shivaji Nagar Stn. by around 6:00 am to board the train to Karjat. ...
The vote was almost equal - About eight wanted to leave on Saturday and seven on Sunday. So finally we decided to have two batches for the Sarasgad trek. 21st June: Snehith had come down to my place the night before. We’re up by around 5:00am and start dialling numbers on the cell. A few enlightened souls were still asleep.. and they had to be woken up! Pranav’s already awake by the time I call him. Rahul still hangs in heavenly glory till about 6:10 am. About fourteen of Snehith’s friends were supposed to join us . All drop! Akhilesh arrives at the bus stand well before time. At about 06:25 I get a call from Nikunj saying he’d be joining us soon. Vaibhav, Siddharth and Trupti turn up at 06:30. Rahul’s surprising there at the Sivajinagar bus stand right on time! Finally we’re a team of 12 - Pankaj, Prashant Rathore :-) , Falgun , Nikunj, Vaibhav, Trupti, Siddharth, Pranav, Rahul, Snehith and I. Sivanand would be joining us enroute. ...
This week’s been pretty tiring. Moving over from KT phase to Secondary support, solving stuff which seems simple but turns out to be worse than what it shouldn’t be, filling the same old excel sheets multiple times for reasons unknown even to the person who send it, needless formalities and processes just to send a message across to the person at the other side of the globe…Boy, Am I complaining? ...
It’s about six in the morning. Just another drop makes its descent on the already created pool right outside our tent. It’s ben raining cats and dogs ever since we reached the base point and there seems to be no sign of it subsiding. Though it’s been just about four hours that I’ve caught some sleep after having reached the river rafting camp at Kundalika, my brain shows no signs of drowsiness - It’s probably the smell of rain that’s spruced up my spirits but I believe it’s more to do with the sense of a tentative accomplishment of what I’ve been wanting to do for quite some time now. ...