Trek instead of run..

I had to go for running along with my friends here. It was all planned, exchanged emails and all set. It was a 10 km run and guess what, I had to cancel my run. Read on..

I went for a trek on saturday. It was an instantaneous plan. At least I came to know at the very end. Group of friends from the other hostel had decided the place and googled for information as to how to reach, where to reach and stuff like that. They had planned for Bheemashankar. Fortunately this place is also amongst one of the twelve Jyotirlings in the country and also the source of the Bhima river. It is considered as a difficult trek by many.

We started off from the main gate at 5 in the morning. Actually I was supposed to go for a run at six in the morning with my friends but cancelled it in the last minute. We reached Karjat by around 9 am. Did some shopping here, biscuits, fruits etc. We also filled bottles of sugarcane juice which was good idea. We took a state transport bus to Kasala from where we boarded a rickshaw to Khandas village which is the base camp for the trek.

Our starting point

The inital route was simple but as when we climbed up it started getting tougher. It was just after rainy season and the moss had gathered over the rocks which made the trek streneous. We had be cautious all the time. I slipped an slipped again at places. It was not uncommon for others too.

Mukund had something to say

Pitstop #1

Suvajit with the cactus

Pitstop #2 (time for few photos)

The road wasn't very smooth

After we had climbed for say 2 hours or so, it started raining. The place was already covered with fog and with this rain the visibility had dropped to nearly 1 m distance.

It started raining

I had come prepared with my umbrella and shorts.
Others got wet and they did enjoy it. While we walked through the jungle we came across several small water falls and rivulets. We refilled our water bottles here, took breaks for nature calls and biscuits. We also found an old man selling tea for the trekkers.

Chaiwale chacha..

View of the village from half the way

Pitstop #3

Rains made it even more enjoying.!!

Low visibility zone. You can see how beautiful it is

This one was right in the middle of the jungle

We reached the top at around 2 pm after climbing for say four to four and half hours.

We were almost there. The lake on top of the hill

We took our lunch in the nearby restaurant. Paid visit to the main shrine. The best part here was that, there was no crowd and hence didn't have to wait in queues. Also we could pray for much longer time inside the main shrine unlike other piligrimage places like Vaishno Devi and Tirupati.

The final 120 steps leading to the shrine

On our way back we took a bus to Manchar and from there to Mumbai. Reached back to the hostel by around midnight. It was an amazing experience.

Teachers' Day

It is true most of the times that we miss our teachers after we have passed out of the school/college. When I entered this professional world I realized that there used to be a time when someone always had a watch on me. He/She used to care for me. He/She listened to me, read what I wrote and had all the time in the world to explain to me the doubts I had. He/She led from the front and corrected me when I was wrong. Today is Teachers' Day.

At this point I can remember the famour Kabir ke dohe:

"Guru govind dhovu khade kaake lagav paay;
bhalihari guru apne govind diyo bathai."

Meaning: If you have your Teacher (Guru) and the God (Govind) before you at the same time, I would respond respond to my Teacher for he is the one who introduced me to the God.

Today my supervisor was felicitated with the Excellence in Teaching award for his selfless service in his field and the best part was that he was selected by his students.

There was a debate on the dinner table today on this topic. One of them was telling how he studied in a small rural village in the district of Basra in Chattisgarh. He went on to tell that his hindi teacher was a simple man yet a great person. He quoted his teacher's words "You (students) reflect us (teachers) in someway when you go into this outside world. Make us worthy enough that you were our student..!!". There is so much thought in this statement. For a young boy, this might not make much of a sense but now that we are old enough to see deep inside we realize how much depth this statement really has. When we speak something or when we put up an act, it all reflects how we were brought up.

I salute you all teachers..!! Happy Teachers' Day.