Standing at the top of hill, looking down the crevice between the two mountains, there was nothing I could see but the vast valley ahead hugged by other mountains, one of them the Rajmachi. Down there I could see no terrain. The valley dropping more than 2000 feet or so. And that is where we’d to climb down ! Sounds like a nightmare, but unfortunately was not. That precisely coincided with the talks, blogs, info that I and Vj had been reading all long the week.
The excitement kept mounting as the Thursday night turned into the Friday morn. I’d to ensure that everything is ready for the trek, for which we’d start in the night towards Karjat. As the day progressed in the office, there were few talks with Vj and other colleagues about the talk, but much of the passed with a normally hectic work schedule (that was a bit exaggerated!). And it was almost 7.00pm, Vj called Ankush to confirm where we shall be joining our journey. There was one more friend of Vj, Vikrant कोर्डे (who is never dry on jokes). They both were supposed to meet us at Thane stn.
Traveling Directions
I was standing at Dadar FOB, waiting for Vj and watching the Mumbai’s ant army marching along. Even after 11pm the Mumbaikars tirelessly changing trains, commuting… I wondered is that one of the reasons for which Mumbai is quoted as the city that never sleeps.
Vj came at around 11.30pm, he had called Ankush and asked him to board an Ambernath fast local which was to leave Dadar @11.37pm. Our central railway time-table, Chetan Bhandary was helpful for this information. He is the guy who basically manages our time schedule while commuting the Central Railways, but still manages to never come along with us. We waited for the train at the platform, with the other non-sleeping Mumbaites. The train came with its payload, exceeding as always, but still it was a lot better, there was enough room for us to stand comfortably near the door. In Mumbai, you are considered to be enjoying a 5-star room luxury, if you are close to the door on local trains, I bet we were atleast in 2-star luxury room. Vj gave me a printout of one of the blogs on Dhak Bahiri, I kept my eyes on it and my ears on Vj’s chatter.
The train travel was easy enough, thanks it was quite late for most of the peak traffic towards the Central side. Yet we just comfortable place to stand. Vj called up Ankush and asked him board the 8th bogie of Ambernath Fast local instead of waiting for us at Thane stn. The message was sent to Vikrant as well. The plan was to get down at Ambernath and then wait for the last Karjat local. We closed near Bhandup, when Vikrant called asking the whereabouts of Ankush at Thane stn, he was with a friend on a bike to Thane stn. Vj due fully gave all the information. With Vj around you are never short of information, whether useful or not, who knows, but information. Thane came quick and fast, Vj had another call to Ankush confirming on Vikrant’s position. But Vikrant had managed to miss everyone. He even had his phone switched off, for whatever reasons.
At Thane station, Vj got down tried to search Ankush and Vikrant, but as trained jumped to life, Vj hopped back in, with none of them. He even tried to “pcheeeww….” them to find them. If you are not a mumbaite, u wouldn’t know this unique sound that is used to initiate a communication between far distance communicators, its a weird sound made by blowing in air using a very small aperture at the mouth. Vj came back to me and said, “Ankush must have got in, but I’m not sure of Vikrant”. A few minutes later, Vj confirmed Ankush was in the 3’rd compartment. For the rest of the journey to Ambernath, Vj kept calling Vikrant, he even called his friend who had dropped Vikrant at the Stn. But all information that he could get is, Vikrant was at Thane station, ’cause on of the incoming nos. was public booth on Thane’s railway stn. But thats all we had about Vikrant. hmm… so it could be just 3 of us for Dhak bahiri.
At Kalyan stn, while I was reading, Ankush asked, “Just 3 of us ?”. I was stunned to see him, I’d expected to meet him at Ambernath. But he’d managed to come back in our compartment. He started nagging Vj on his “8th bogie” information. Local train compartments were not called “bogies” and you generally give the compartment no. which is the closest to either end, Vj’s info didn’t go with these rules. Bogies are referred normally to the Through trains only, and guess what, Vj had noted the Bogie no. board on Dadar stn which is meant only for through trains. This was enough for us to chat till we reached Ambernath at around 00.30am, Saturday, 20 Jan 2007.
Ambernath stn, was lonely after most of the commuters had left, we were asked by a policewalla for our desitnation. We stayed on the same platform where we had got off. I had a leak, while Vj still kept trying to contact Vikrant, but… the phone was off. The train to Karjat was scheduled @1.08. Unusual time for unusual people and trips. Suddenly close to 1.00 Vj had a ring, it was Vikrant!!! He was calling from one of the commuter’s cell from Ambernath. He had made it. phew !! atleast 4 of us. Vj ran ahead to get him.
Vikrant is a different human, he has an uncanny funny bone. He always is full with some comments, jokes or something that makes others stomach pain. Vikrant had boarded the Ambernath train luckily. He said that he’d seen a Mandgaon express near 11.30 and since Vj had said that it was the 8th bogie, he thought we’d be travelling till Ambernath by that train. But luckily enough his engg. logical thinking made him stick to the Ambernath local. We were again on Vj for his 8th bogie information. We sat at the Ambernath platform waiting for the Karjat local. Vj warned us that Chetan had informed him about groups robbing lonely commuters after Badlapur, since most of the stations were distanced more than 5 mins. apart, it was easy for the thugs. We had a laugh on that, Ankush had got his new DigiCam ~Rs.25K, we were like
कॅमेरा देना होगा तो दे देंगे, लेकिन उंको मारे बगेर नही। बहुत दिनसे मारा मारी नही की
The Karjat train came a little late, we boarded it still to find around 10-20 people in it. It was close to 1.20am, and even then…, life is bad for these poor fellows. We sat, and started our discussion on Gulabjamuns, Pista-rolls, Sevaiyaa and Kheer. Tempting enough for all those who read, except for us! We even met the generous commuter who had offered Vikrant his mobile to call Vj @1am on Ambernath stn. Without him, Vikrant wouldn’t have been with us for the trek. The journey to Karjat was safe enough, except at a place, where the compartment was full with some dust particles, I thought it was Cement powder, it made us choke… I asked Vikrant to open the doors, to clean up the air around.
Karjat stn, at night was busy enough. Being an important stn, where trains are added some muscle by shunting more engines to help the train navigate the Khopoli ghat section, there was plenty of activity around. It was close to 2.30am and all of us were damn sleepy, we had some tea, biscuits at a stall and asked him directons for Sandshi village, the base for Dhak bahiri. The village could be reached by ST bus which left not before 7.00am or Tuktuks which would charge around Rs.200. We had our stomachs working and went back to the bench, where Vikrant couldn’t resist the flat granite, he laid back on it with his hands tucked into the sweater and wherever he could get warmth 😉 We too decided to lay back till it was atleast 4.00.
Around 3.30, Ankush woke up and came where I and Vj were trying to sleep, but couldn’t. The granite was a cold tombstone for us. I had not even got any warm clothing, and was in my shorts and T-shirt. We went back to Vikrant and tried to wake him, he had his head covered with the monkey-cap. We roamed around till 4.00 when we finally moved outside the station towards the eastern side to see if there were any tuktuks, but none were to be seen, we moved ahead towards what we thought of a ST stop, when we spotted a tuktuk moving towards us, we asked about Sandshi and he said it would take 250, the least he could go was 200. Rs200 for 20kms was out of question we moved towards the ST depot, which was more of a ST parking garage than a depot, Vikrant, Ankush even sneaked into the cabins, where we could see a dim light, but returned sad to see all of them sleeping. I and Ankush joked
उठाअो उंको, ये कोई वक्त हे सोने का
With nothing much to do, we returned back to the station, where Ankush wanted to achive something close to Nirvana. I need not tell what ! He came back with his hands up, celebrating a Goal or something, He said, “Now I’m hungry… lets have food”
We then moved towards the western side of Karjat in a small hotel to have शीरा and चाय. With that even Vj wanted to have some freedom, so… back to Kalyan stn.
After that we went back to the eastern side in search of a tuktuk, we were lucky enough to spot a man with his vehicle. We tried to take him down from the std. rate of Rs.200 down to Rs. 150. But both the parties agreed on 175. The tuktuk ride @ 5 – 5.30 in the morning was hell, open on all sides, the cold air crept through every possible region in our body. The ride took us along a road, around which we saw some mountains and a faint orange light creeping through it, the dawn was about to break, in another 30 minutes, close to 6 – 6.30 were there at Sandshi, the road ended abruptly. We were greeted with dogs ! nothing new for their cousins 🙂 But this time around they were wagging their tails and licking… We were lucky this time. After a few words with the Villager, he asked us to get a guide who’d show the route in the forest. He even wished us good morning by a tale of a guy who had died trying to come down the forest. We didn’t want that, so we agreed on one, he called Balu, who seemed to be in his late 30s or so. He was brushing, he asked how much would we give him, Ankush answered 100, to which he immediately agreed. Damn… We could have offered a little less. He came back dressed for the trek, with a scythe hanging to his back. We were ready to leave around 7.15am.
The trail started from the back side of the village, from there we could see 3 mountains, to the left was Dhak Bahiri and the right most was Rajmachi. we moved ahead from the fields, in the cold air. We took few leaks here and there as we kept moving towards the base of mountain. As we moved ahead we saw that Dhak Bahiri (DB) was a pretty vertical cliff from what we could see. Most of the mountain was flat rock face. As we moved ahead Balu narrated the story of the guy who fell from the cliff in the evening, he had lost his path while coming down and was searching for water, when he lost his balance and fell. The villagers searched for 5 days before they found him. The story was not exactly what we’d expected of him, but … that was fair warning on his end. OK. We were lucky to get a guide every time we thought the split path moved in a particular direction for DB, Balu took the other side. We were also followed by the Dog and its wife I guess. As we moved ahead, Balu pointed us a thick black line almost at the top of the mountain, it was about 30-40 feet below the summit. That was DB caves, and where the Bahiri devi idol is placed. And that is where we had to go… ! What !!! It seemed impossible, the Thick black line was amidst a big flat rock face of the mountain, nothing that we could see from here could lead to that feature. We moved on.
Moving ahead, we kept shifting to the right side, I asked Balu if we were going around the mountain, to which he replied an implicit “Yes”. Half-an-hour more of climbing rocks, jungle trail, etc and we came to a flat land. Most of us had water over there. Balu pointed us back to the hick black line, the DB caves. This time he showed us another thing, an orange dot, which he said is the flag just at the edge of the cave. hmm… As we were about to leave Vj spotted a shed snake skin, and close to it I found another. We were quick enough to hang it in our hands. The skin was fresh, there was some moisture in it. That means we have snakes around !!! I took both the skins and put it in the newspaper and into my bag. A leak and we moved ahead.
Now the climb had started to steepen. And unlike the normal treks that we had done, in which a steep climb stretch was followed by a simple walk, this trek had no such hospitality in its store for the Mumbai guests. It just continued. My last night’s stomach cleaning operation was not enough to subside my bowels, while we were climbing I had to … I asked Vj and all to move ahead and stop. I searched for a nice clean flat rock. I know its embarrassing to read, but it is important if you are a first-timer in a jungle. I saw the troop above me, Ankush shouted, “फोटो काढू का”, and I yelled a yes back. Finally found a nice flat rock, which was near cliff about 10-40m above the terrain. Few minutes, Vartak foundation was laid and I was back with the group. I too had achieved Nirvana. Yes. My day was now going to go fine, no tension.
The trail now had changed into a deep-jungle trail, the canopy of trees was enough to make the area dark. Balu who had been going freely, was now calculative enough, trying to cross-check the trail if it was the right one. I’m sure without his help, we would have missed the right trail. Jungles, big boulders, shrubs, thorny plants, sticking seeds, Cattle shit, all accompanied us through. The climb kept getting steeper. Now all of us had started to get a little tired. Vikrant who had come on a trek after a long time stopped for a break frequently. The break broke our momentum. We too started to feel the heat as sun now leaped into the sky and turned a cool morning into a damp, sweaty, hot jungle.
We kept going ahead, It was almost 2hrs now and I asked Balu how much farther do we have to go. He said “Yes more, a little more”. I think none of the villagers anywhere in India can estimate time. Nowhere have we found one individual predicted the right time or even the right distance. We had now lost the sight of DB caves, as we had moved to another mountain. We know this because, we had once climbed down and back again for a brief period. This is the most simple signs of switching the mountains. We had done this twice now. The 9.30 sun was now really hot, the dogs still continuing with us always took time relax in shade. The last time I had climbed for this long was during Mauli, and it ended … but not this one. We drifted along. Balu still having enough energy to hop and move ahead.
Another hr. or so had passed, it was almost 3hrs of steep climb, which had left us tiered. Our lower calf muscles were now aching. But not yet we moved. We chewed Balu’s head, with our single question, “How long before we reach the top?”, “A little bit more” ! but finally our efforts were awarded by a clean sky above, the top. Phew.. it had almost taken us 3 hrs. to reach.
I moved ahead where I saw a two mountains coinciding, making a crevice. I ventured a little further… wo !!! All I could see was a splendid valley through it. It was like standing just behind a “V”, and through the V all you see is sky and the valley. I had read about it, this was the “Nali”, or the small path between the two mountains. I’d read that we had to climb down from here. But to where ? I couldn’t see any terra-firma below.. As Vikrant finally came trailing along, we had a few snaps. Balu said we’ve got to go from there. We looked at each other, “फटी”. But as we moved ahead down the crevice, which could accommodate no more than a single person, the descent was steep, we literally had to have our hands along the rocks, and let our bodies slide to the ground below, we moved a little further… We came across a huge boulder, which blocked the view, I moved aside only to see nothing but valley. I stopped there, Balu came from back and promptly climbed from the side and went below, I was amazed to see him do that, I gathered some grit and moved ahead to see him climb down a 6-foot wall which led him to a ground which was about 5sq.m. Ahead was the valley. Tackling a 6 foot wall was normal for me, except the height at which it was, I managed to get down and stand on the solid ground. When I came down, Balu said the big boulder had come down in rains which blocked the route, and made this bit little difficult. As he waited and directed Ankush to come down , I gathered my courage and moved a little further, to see a small 1foot wide road to left and another generic rock feature to right, below .. the valley. I thought it was this 1 foot road that we had to take, As everybody came down. I saw a similar feeling in them. Vj moved ahead and pointed towards the road to the right, I saw none, he said we had to move further below to that road on the right, Balu also spotted another lad coming from that road, he’d been coming from the caves. The dogs that had been following us were now crying… they were too fearful of climbing down that feature where all they could see ahead was the deep valley, but they knew that Balu and other guys had gone down, so it was still safe to get down, but couldn’t muster courage. I and Vj moved to the right where little bit ahead we could see the road which was literally carved into the rock. All of us had some water over there. Balu managed to get the dog down, but the bitch was still at the top, screaming, crying… Ankush said “That is common in girls, God has given them the same feature set”. Ankush took out his camera and started to shoot the video. The bitch finally made it down, still crying.
That was some experience! but it was just the beginning.
As we treaded along the narrow road, putting the balance on the rocks to the right, cause at this height none of us were sure if our balance was good enough to make us walk a 2 foot road, to its left was the valley. We moved ahead till we were not sure where to go. Vj now pointed me to the Dark thick line that we saw at the bottom. That was the same feature, it was the Dhak bahiri cave that we saw, we also saw the orange flag just at the edge of the cave. OK, we’ve reached here, but how to go to that cave…
Balu came from the back and he moved ahead, along a narrow road just about 1 foot wide winding down.. I wasn’t sure if we should follow. But he looked back and gestured us to follow him. Unsure of our fate now.. we followed him. I could sense the tension, fear in everyone. To the left I saw the valley, but immediately below the cliff I saw the terrain, still it was around 100 ft. below. But that was more comforting than the full valley. I think this view made us follow Balu. We suddenly saw Balu climb the flat rock. A careful look and I could see some rock features carved which helped him to climb above, we followed slowly.. We all were very excited, Vj, me and Ankush had waited for this for 3 months or so.. the Dhak Bahiri rock climb. It was here, we were doing it. I too didn’t realize that I was there. I always thought it was too difficult for us to do. No. But we were there. we moved along to the right, the caves now much clearer. Then a little ahead Balu waited. We wondered why. Then Balu suddenly started climbing straight, 90 degrees up. I saw him climbing the similar rock features that resembled a rung, carved into the rock. we followed him. He moved further to the left and waited near a small flat piece of land. We waited till everybody was there.
Now I could see the rung to the right, and then…nowhere. Balu climbed that rung and like an expert climber, shifted his weight weight and moved his left foot on a natural edge where he steadied himself and climbed further towards the left. A little bit more and he waited again on a flat piece of land. “Wo ho…” more of natural rock climb… we continued behind him.
We stood there, now the sun was scorching.. it was close to 11 and was really hot. luckily it wasn’t sweaty as in Mumbai. Balu now pointed us to the right towards the cave. We could see just below the cave were 3 big ropes dangling, attached to the ropes were bamboos. And they were not cut totally, they had their offshoots cut. With that it resembled a stem with its thorns pointing out. For us it was much more, it was something to climb on, those bamboo offshoots. Balu warned us that this final stretch was a little tricky and we should be careful and concentrating. He moved to the right and climbed through the rock feature towards a flat wall, where he carefully put his weight to the walls and smoothly but slowly move towards the dangling ropes. I advised ankush to follow him. The flat rock was was tricky to navigate as all we got to place our foot was around 2 inches rock cut.
While I was still waiting down, I saw Balu grab the ropes, and climb the perfectly 90 degree cliff with help of the bamboo.. He was skillful at what he was doing. As I saw his skills, he was through, in the caves. He peeked down and was advising Ankush on the rope climb. He kept shouting, “Do not let go the ropes, whatsoever!!!” Akush too some how managed to climb. But then midway between the ropes, Ankush just stayed there. He couldn’t find any feet to place and push ahead. Somehow sticking his body to the ropes, the bamboos, he manged to climb into the caves. Vikrant was next to follow. He somehow managed his muscle power and moved into the cave. Vj was next, he grabbed the rope, when I moved along the flat rock feature till the base of the ropes. The first half of ropes was navigated easily by Vj till he reached the halfway mark, where he couldn’t find anything to put his feet on. He tried … when he suddenly found himself swirling to the right with the ropes, मेरी तो फटी. I was never so scared my whole life as when I saw Vj dangling. I asked Vj to calm himself, wait. He did that, and very successfully manged to get into the cave. Now it was my turn. I did the first half of rope easily. Now was the difficult part, I too couldn’t find anywhere to put my feet on. I just had two ropes, and bamboo to hold. This was where I tried to pull a little stunt, something that I’m used to. Climbing a 6 foot flat wall with absolutely nothing to place your foot on. I managed to move the ropes and the bamboo 1 foot wide and using full power of my hands, I pulled myself up, just trying to scrape the bamboo with my shoes, I knew I couldn’t put any weight on my shoes, my legs. Just a little rest of shoes on the bamboos. I pulled myself further up till I got something to land my feet on, then there was a rounded Orange rock to which the rope was tied along. I grabbed hold of it and pulled myself into the cave right in front of the Bahiri goddess, painted bright orange with the lead colouring.
पैसा वसूल
, I shouted to Ankush, to which he gave a broad smiled and yelled back…
वसूल !
It was 11.15, it took us 1hr from the “nali” till up here in the cave. We were all tiered and hungry. We moved to the right of the cave where we saw chicken bones all over, people come here and cook food, chicken and enjoy. I went back to main cave, where I saw 2 water cisterns filled with water, with a yellowish green coating. I looked beneath the water, were big utensils, lying at the base around 3-4 feet below. We all agreed, that we should have food, and we sat near the cistern, opening our bread loaves, Cakes, Biscuits, etc. We joked all the way. We joked how much Vj had put up (in his big belly). To which Ankush laughed remembering Mukti’s statement in Gujrati, She’d quoted her mother, In English it translated .. “Eat and u die, Don’t eat and u die, better eat and die”. I know I’ll get the exact local version of it in the comment, please do the needful Mukti.
After having our food, we laid back. Joking… Vikrant joked, “I’m not coming down, I’ll stay here for rest of my life, I’ll marry here as well.” Ankush said “I’ll ask the government to get you down”. To which he said “OK, only if they get a chopper over here.”. It was close to 12, I asked everybody to to get up. Vikrant said, “let me sleep before I die, or else my soul will trouble the villagers”. We had enough jokes, rest, till 12.15 when I got up and asked everyone to be on their feet. None of us wanted hot rocks beneath our palms. They were already heating for 3 hrs in the sun. We all got up and moved towards the rope and stood still. We could see nothing below. How do we climb down ? !!!
Balu asked us to get down, to which we replied “But how ?!!”, I asked. To which Balu replied by grabbing the ropes, and moved down. He placed his right foot on some edge which I couldn’t see. But I believed him all this way through, and had to continue to do that. I followed him slowly, Then came the half way rope hurdle. But this time it was easier. All I did was release the grip of rope on one had, while I gripped other even more firmly, and then the other hand… and so on. And I was back at the base of rope. I yelled back to guys at the top to follow my instructions, Ankush, Vikrant started…
Balu by now had crossed the flat rock feature which was the worst, at first I was so scared to let loose the rope grip and move down towards the left on a descending rock feature. but somehow I let go the rope and moved ahead. I moved a little further till I reached the flat rock, where I was stuck. My feet were stationary , I couldn’t see how I could place my next foot on the rock, which was just about 2 inches. But somehow I manged to do that, I placed my body weight to the right on the rock, I was careful not to put all the weight on the right, that could have made me loose my foot grip and sliding down. Now that I’d placed one foot, it was time for another, and that was when I was shocked with fear, I had to somehow make enough room between my foot and the rock face to allow my next foot to go ahead.. Some how I managed to do it, and moved ahead after that it was little simpler descend to the flat rock where Balu was standing instructing others down the rope.
I too stood there and waited for others to get down, Everytime the lads came to that flat rock feature, I advised them to stay calm, while I myself got extremely tensed, I could feel the sweat in my palms. Luckily enough everyone did well and reached. Balu now swiftly descended further, with Ankush following him. I was now waiting … But the next descend even though tricky and difficult was nothing compared to the descend of the flat rock wall, that we’d just been through. Another 15 more minutes of rock climb took us to the flat road that lead back to “Nali”. But this was not the route were using to go back, we were going to take a straight route down towards the village instead of the winding, coiling road along the mountains. The climb down was a straight one along the ladders carved into the stone, till we were into a thick dense shrubs and trees. The dogs were still following us, they never came to the caves but waited there till we came down.
The route down was amongst thick bushes, full of thorns, fallen trees, rocky gravel. But it was infinite times safer than what we had been through. I and Vj were thankful we’d not managed to get any other colleague with us. We just didn’t want that little extra responsibility during that descend and climb. The route took us dowm, it was a steep route, I and Vj were sure that it was that of a rivulet flowing down in the rains. We continued down..
It was now more than 2 hrs and we were still descending, we all were now extremely tired, Vikrant was exhausted. We were not doing anything better. But we worked ourselves down.. I joked with Ankush “किस चूतियेने कहा था डाक बहिरी आने के लिये”. We all laughed.. trying to rest ourselves. Balu said that we could get the ST @ 3.00 from the village, but we needed to hurry a little bit, we all agreed to him but we just couldn’t hurry… We all just dragged our bodies down the rocks, boulders, everytime thinking that we were almost there, but only to move ahead and see the valley down… “Nopes, more to go”…
It was now 3.00 and we were still going, we surely had missed the ST, the next one was @4.00. Vikrant said “भाड में जाए वो ST, बैठने दे मुझे” All tried to laugh, Vikrant still using his funnier side to a good effect. We continued, we now saw a flat land, and then a little valley where we had Sandshi village waiting for us. We knew we had yet another mountain to descend before we have our final descent of the last mountain, we managed to move on. I and Ankush discussed that it was the most tiring of all the treks and definitely the most difficult one. It was close to 3.30 when we finally reached the base, but still we had some distance to go before we reached the village. We carried ourselves forward.
We came and sat on the ground at Balu’s house, Vj had asked if he could get any Lassi, or Curd-milk. Balu had come back from the local market with Curd, and had given us curd, water, sugar. We kept on drinking, Vj and I moved towards the Hand pump where we tried to wash our tiredness, which we were somewhat successful. After coming back to the house , we just laid back waiting for the 4.00 ‘o clock bus which never did. Balu said the bus was late and it will probably come at 5.00. To this Vj just went into a deep sleep, I too slept a bit, but was up again. I, ankush and Vikrant were hungry, We manged to find some remaining biscuits and snacks to chew till we waited for the bus.
It was close to 5.00 when Ankush heard the bus coming, I never believed. He had done that many times, his tired body could only hear a roaring bus coming towards Shandshi, but it had this time. We got in, Vj purchased the tickets and … darkness … the bus was in Karjat where Balu got off, he too had come with us till Karjat. Finally we got off at the station, where we found ourselves eating the famous Karjat “Vada Pav”. We had some cold drinks at the stall and waited for the train.
The train came at around 6.40, we got into it. There was enough rush, it seemed like 1/4th of Dadar’s rush hr. We manged to get ourselves the helpful 4th seat. The trains electricity was off, so no fans… who cares… darkness…
Somewhere in the sleep I found the train moving along Kalyan, Dombivli. Then it was passing through the Thane tunnel, where Ankush stood with Vikrant. They got off at Thane, and I knew there were another 3-4 stations before I and Vj got Borivali train @ dadar. Time moved and so did the train. We got off at Dadar, where I was lucky enough to find a Andheri train in the peak hr @ 8.30, Vj waited for a Borivali fast train.
If you were reading all the way long, I know it was tiring for u to read all this, believe me I can understand that, ’cause I’ve actually experienced it.
I reached Home, … Food … then the Darkness till the daylight.
Traveling Directions
- Reach Karjat Station (Central Railway) by Train early morning @ 5 or 6
- Get a tuktuk (10 seater rickshaw) or ST bus to Sandshi, the base village. Get there by the break of dawn.
- Hire a guide to lead you
