जाणीव

वाटले सगळे, मज उमजले होते, 

ते पहाड मोठे, मी सर केले होते.

संपले होते तेव्हा, हे झुंजणे माझे,

शांततेत मी छान, पार रमले होते.

आज जाणले मी, मी हरवले आहे, 

माझ्यातली ती मी, कुठे सोडली आहे. 

खूपदा ती मी मला, आठवून दाटते, 

पायथ्याशी ती मला, खुणावून हासते. 

-    By AlpsAlive

 

We Miss you BABA...

When you got hung on the wall in a photo frame...
Life did not end, but its never been the same again.

When you left partnering in our games...
We didnt stop playing, but w/o you the joy of winning is always lame.

When you disappeared and hid forever...
We have not stopped searching for you in every bits and prayer.

When you decided to be silent forever and watch us from the heaven...
We can still hear you, deep within our hearts even from the sky seven.

When you are no more there to summon us on our late nights...
We have not stopped the nightouts, but the alert still rings in mind so bright.

When you suddenly left the back seat, teaching us drive your 1115 and your scooter to ride...
We didnt give up learning, have ridden n driven miles on own, but yearn to see your pride.

When you left us in our teens....
We didnt stop growing, but our maturity deprived of your sheen.

When you taught us to stay strong and never give up...

We always abide by the same, but at times its ok to fall weak & express the tough.

The list is long and listing it down is not so much of a fun....
Because...
When you got hung on the wall in a photo frame...
Life did not end, but its never been the same again.

विचार

प्रश्नांचे  हे एक संध से तुकडे 
त्या वर नाचे मनी चे अबलख घोडे 
या घोड्याला  लगाम  शोधात आहे
परी  मजला  गवसत  नाही 
-  sandeep खरे 

Unplanned trip to Desaru Malaysia

Finally I am starting to write … I couldn’t stop myself from penning down my blog on my Desaru Malaysia trip. Its been a long time that I have posted anything on my blog. And here is one.

Last Friday on 27Apr at lunch time I just happened to utter to my husband that I wanna visit the Ostrich Farm ya… And he said we can go tomorrow. 😊
That blinked a light in my head… Eureka… Yes…. We can…
Actually both of ours Malaysia visa is expiring on 5Jun and last couple of weeks I have been trying to plan a MY trip before that. But unfortunately my husband will not be able to take a single day leave before 5Jun. So the plan had not materialized yet. Because all the location that I was planning for needed atleast 1 day leave.
Wondering how come I didn’t think earlier about Desaru.

To give you a background.
I got to know about Desaru when I was planning for a day trip on the Chinese new year long weekend. And that time I had completed all my research and plan, and it only didn’t became successfully because I was looking for a road trip and it was turning out very expensive. That time I did understand from one of my colleagues that he had already been to Desaru years back, and they had gone via Ferry from Tanah Mera terminal. I had exhausted all my energy that time googling all possible sites, but no where I found the info about ferry from Tanah Mera.


So now, back to our lunch time on 27Apr.
I told my husband that yes, we can. Any which ways we wanna go to MY before 6Jun and Desaru is a perfect destination.
I came back to my desk and spent about an hr or so googling again in my office hours 😉 [w/o impacting my work ok :P] And I was really lucky. This time I came across a web page which mentioned that now there is a ferry to Penerang, Johor from Changi Point Terminal and from Changi ferry terminal.
Ferry from Changi Ferry Terminal goes to Belungkor, Penerang Johor.
Ferry from Changi Point Terminal goes to Tanjung.Pengelih, Penerang Johor.
Note: These 2 are different terminals both on changi beach side of Singapore. And there is a difference in route, boat type and cost and time taken for ferry.

Since Tg.Pengelih is closer to the places where I wanted to go and cheaper ticket, I explored info on it. I got the contact no. of Changi Point Ferry Terminal and enquired. The person who attended the call mentioned that first ferry to Penerang from Changi Point Terminal is at 7am. And I need to be at the terminal early.

Yepiee…. Atleast this time my googling efforts had been fruitful and I have the right info to execute the iternary with perfect cost.

I made all the plans that day, right from timing schedule to cost. But I was tempted to spend a night there rather than coming back in a day. So I started finding hotel. But none were available because it was going to be a long weekend for most of the folks as 1 May being a holiday. People had put leave on 30Apr (Monday), effectively getting 4days leave and were out for long vacations. As a result all the hotels in Desaru or Penerang were all full.

I finished my work and workday and left office at 6pm. I was raining like cats and dogs that Friday evening it was pitch dark as early  as 6pm. Usually in Singapore it gets that dark only at 7-7.30pm.
While returning back home, I went to Money changer and converted 500sgd to MYR and got 1200RM. The rate that day was 1SGD=2.96RM.

Then I came back home and did nothing but googling to find a hotel to stay. Also while on the day back home I had asked couple of my friends, Tarun and Shekhar if they wanna join. And for both of them it was too short of a notice and both said NO. They mentioned that I should have informed them earlier. Lol…. I didn’t know myself that I am going to MY tomorrow until evening 5pm 😝 Its very common with me and my husband to make and execute such sudden plans. When back in India, we had our another Crazy Partner Parag who use to join us on such sudden crazy plans. Infact we have a whatsGrp “CPCP” which means “Crazy People Crazy Plans” hahaha I so remember those days when 3 of us – Me, my now husband Kishore, then a friend and Parag use to go on such unplanned trips.

Anyways, so I came back home and spent lot n lot of time finding a decent hotel. I wanted the hotel on Desaru Beach. Not in middle of city. As such I had mentioned to my husband that if we don’t get hotel then we will return back in a day. But in my mind, I so wanted to stay back and spend a night on Desaru Beach.

It was already 8.30pm and my husband Kishore arrived yet I didn’t had a single hotel booked.

Kishore said lets directly call. And on calling different hotels we found that Lake View Resort had 1 room available. But that was not on beach and when we checked their room photos weren’t impressive. There was Tiara Desaru which showed rooms available for 84SGD online. But they didn’t pick up the phone. And we didn’t book  online because the google reviews of that hotel was not nice. But it was the hotel on Desaru beach like I wanted. Still we didn’t book it online because of its reviews.

All my enthu was going down by then as I had drained all my energy googling for hotel booking. Also my enthu went further down when I checked the weather forecast for Penerang and Desaru for Saturday 28Apr, it was showing all rains.

Anyways, we had a quick dinner. Did packing for a 1 day trip as 90% now we were going to return back in a day. Still somewhere there was a hope and wish, so we packed a night dress and tooth brush 😊


The day arrived – 28Apr 2018
We woke up at 5am. Got ready, booked a cab and reached Changi Point Ferry Terminal by 6.30am. Now I was all fresh and pumped back with enthusiasm and energy 😊 New Day New pack of energy.
Before us there were 5 ppl already waiting near the Penerang counter. The person at the counter took our passports, and mentioned that it’s a long weekend and going to be very busy. Good that we came early so that we can take the first boat.
We waited for long. It was past 7am still no signs of boarding. We found out that a old man had our passports and was noting down details on some paper. Later understood that he was the boat owner cum captain, and the one who was going to take us to Penerang in his boat.
Now, its 11SGD for bump boat and 13SGD for fibre boat. Bump boat takes 75mins, while fibre boat takes 35mins to reach.  Both boats take max. 12ppl. Boat will start only after boat is full with 12ppl. If we want to start earlier, then we need to pay for missing people.
We wanted to via Fibre boat, but when we are there we don’t have choice. Passengers are sent with which ever boatman comes first to the terminal. And this boatman who had our passports had a bump boat.
He was one man army. He did all our entries at the counter, helped us board his boat, gave us back our passports. Following him, we 12 ppl cleared our immigration. Then on his boat he collected $11 from everyone, unplugged the boat and started.

Our boat journey from Changi Point Ferry Terminal to Tg.Pengelih start at around 7.30am. Sun was just rising. I asked the captain how long will it take, he said it will take an hour. Hmm… but it was fine. We had time.
The boat was really old and like a khatara 😊 moving at very slow speed. Though we still did enjoy the time on the boat clicking and taking videos. It took us 1hr 30mins to reach the terminal in Malaysia.

We reached Tg. Pengelih terminal at around 9am. It was a deserted but nice silent terminal. We 12 ppl got down there. Immigration clearly quickly as there was no one else other than we 12 immigrants and the immigration officer. There was no one else on the terminal. What a amazing thing actually to happen on a long weekend. Had we chosen to go via roadways, we would have got stuck for hours at the Woodland Immigration, as 100s of ppl goto Malaysia from Singapore on long weekends.  Thanks to our plan via waterways 😊
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          
We came out of the terminal looking for a taxi. I had read that we get taxi from here. There were many vehicles parked in the car park outside the terminal, but there was no human being visible. I don’t know where the remaining 10ppl  had disappeared who came with us in the boat. We had spent some time inside the terminal taking videos and pictures, were left behind.
There was one man who came out of his cab. We approached him. He couldn’t understand English much. Only spoke in nouns … no subject predicate, not speaking a complete sentence in English. Meanwhile a lady cab driver arrived who knew English. We could establish some communication with her, in her broken English. She managed to tell the other man in Malay and to us in English, and finally come to a deal of 230RM for halfday booking.
So in 230RM the cab driver would:

Take us to a hotel for breakfast

Then to Ostrich Farm

Then to Fruit Farm

Then to find a hotel near Desaru Beach.

We finalized the deal at 230RM and dint bargain for 2 reasons

There was no other option. One can bargain only if there is other options 😊

230RM = 78SGD seemed pretty reasonable to us.

Our journey start with that Malaysia Cab driver at 9.20am.

To start he took us to a Indian Restaurant, where we had Dosa and Nescafe each. Bill was total 10RM only. It was surprising to find Bollywood songs playing in that hotel on FM. As I was filming my VLOG, the hotel waiters got curious. They asked my why I am shooting. I told I was making a YouTube video. Then they asked how and where can they see this video. They asked me to write and give it to them. So on our bill I wrote my channel name and asked them to subscribe to watch their hotel in my vlog 😊 And I hope & wish they did subscribed later 😝  And I will make sure I will not edit and will put their footage that I have taken 😉

Next, we reached the Desaru Ostrich Farm at 10am.
As soon as we got out of the cab, and approached the counter, one guy immediately removed something from fridge and came to us. Asked – “You have come for a the Ostrich farm tour?”. We said – “YES” and like a machine he started giving us the information about an Ostrich Egg w/o any pause, and w/o even we being ready to listen to him. 😊 He was so mechanical.
We finally managed to adjust to his talking speed and understand what he was saying. So that thing what he removed out of the fridge when we came was the Ostrich Egg. He has a whole unbroken one and a broken one.

I have recoded it in my video uploaded in Youtube.

This boy continued to speak non-stop for about 15mins. After that we purchased the tickets to go inside for 15RM per person. A lady took us inside. There opened the door to the world of Ostriches.

Wow. It was smelly and stinky inside. Was expecting that, because I had already read about it on internet. And Obviously can’t expect a farm of ostriches smell like a garden of flowers. So that was ok and bearable.

What we did inside the ostrich farm you can find it in my YouTube video. Actually, to see ostriches otherwise, I had heard or read of Australia only. Since the time I got to know so close by in MY I can get to see this rare and world’s largest bird, I wanted to visit it. So when I was finally there, I was living what I had thought of. We fed ostriches, We touched them. We stood up on Ostrich Eggs. Got info about Male and Female Ostriches. We also tasted Ostrich meat there. It tasted like goat mutton. Overall, we spent 45mins there.

At 10.45am we started for Desaru Fruit Farm now. It was a 30mins drive. That Johor area if anyone goes, will find vast acres of farms only. Manly of Banana tress and Palm trees on both sides of the highway. Last time when we went to Tioman, MY. via roadways from SG, also we saw same time of farms on the way then.


At around 11.15am we reached Desaru Fruit Farm. While entering we passed by ppl riding ATVs. Ofcourse we wanted to do that. As soon as we got down, there was BUS and many ppl had come to visit the farm. Driver showed us SG registered cars who had driven from SG and come here.
We booked for a double ATV ride for 20mins for 65RM.  There was a guide who would ride before us, and whom we were supposed to follow. One guy gave us KT about how to operate the ATV. I sat behind and Kishore rode the ATV. Our guide on ATV ahead of us, took us through the 100acres fruit farm, via small bumby trials, amidst the bushes and from besides the lake waters. He even stopped us at different locations and helped take out pics.
After the way, we exchanged the seats and I took on the handle. It was my first time to ride a ATV. Kishore had done is before. It’s a thrilling experience to ride a ATV on bumpy jungle type trails. And that guide defiantly took us for a tour which was more than 20mins i.e. for more than what we had paid for 😊 he was so nice.  After we were back, we clicked a picture with him.
Next, we booked the fruit farm tour for 26RM each. In this tour another lady guide took us from a truck inside the farm, and this was a walking tour. With us was a couple with 2 children. So we were total 6 of us and the guide. This lady guide explained and shared info about lifecycle of each and every fruit that is planted there, followed by their mini zoo. It was quite hot and sunny. Yet we managed to continue as the surrounding kept us motivated 😊 the 45mins walk tour turned to 1hr.
On returning back they gave us free box of fruits. One each. From there I bought a bottle of 3yr old organic honey. Now by 1.15pm we were done and exited the Fruit farm.
Overall we had spent 2hrs at the fruit farm and our driver was quite a patient guy. He waited w/o uttering a single concern man.

Now we were heading towards Desaru beach side area. It was only 1.20pm and we had completed our planned iternary. Now praying we get a hotel to stay.
Driver took us to Hotel Lotus, Tanumaya, Sand & Sandals where I already knew that online there were no rooms. Yet took us to each of these and we got down and checked personally if by accident or due to any cancellation if any room was available. But no where it was available.

At hotel Sand & Sandals one security asked us to check in “TIARA DESARU”!!! O man… the hotel that we avoided to book. Is where we finally wanna go?

Our driver was really cute. While on the way to Tiara Desaru Hotel,  he felt bad that we weren’t getting any hotel room to stay. He said to us, that  - “now what, if we don’t get it in Tiara Desaru? We can have come on a vacation and no hotel room”. We also were disheartened, and told him that he can drop us back to Ferry terminal in that case. We so wanted to stay back. And were double minded to stay at Tiara Desaru.

Yet, it so happened that we did get a studio room in Tiara Desaru. Our driver left us here. A nice guy, though from physical appearance he didn’t seemed so on first sight 😊

To my surprise Tiara Desaru is such a nice hotel, that too with a completely private beach side, and nice pool area also. Cost wise also we got it a rate cheaper that what was available online. Staff was also very friendly. I say so because for dinner we reached at 8.30pm in their restaurant by when it was CLOSED already. Yea, they close at 8pm. Yet on our request, they prepared whatever we wanted and served us with full dignity. We got a pool side facing room. Lovely room. What more to ask for on a unplanned vacation like this.

We were damn hungry, as after morning breakfast, we didn’t have anything. But the hotel restaurant was closed. It was going to open at 3.30pm. So until then we decided to take a nap.

At 4pm we got fresh and came down. We ate at the restaurant and then with all our gears headed towards the beach.

From 5pm to night 7.45pm we were at the beach. It was a the best time spent ever. There is are couple of hammocks as well as couple of swings here. Hardly any people to be called to be present.
Desaru beach is a black sand beach. Water is completely clear and unpolluted. Waves are so calm and non-dangerous. From a distance the sea appeared deep blue with dusky sky. It was such a blissful sight. All that I wished for from this vacation was happening. What more to ask for.

We took SOOOOOOOOOO many videos and pics. So many time lapse. It was the first time I used my new tripod cum selfie stick to a great extent. Paisa vasool. Spent enough time relaxing on the swing and hammock.

We were back into our room to refresh, and down for dinner by 8.30pm. And what happened with dinner I already mentioned above.

After completing our dinner, we took a round of the hotel premises and again headed towards the beach. It was so quite and peaceful. We again sat on the swing. It was a full moon rising over the sea as it was Buddha Poornima next day. The sight then was again so elating.
I played Marathi songs on my mobile like – “Chandra aahe Sakshila” & “Shukra Tara” to add to the mood.

It was only when mosquitoes started biting us that we left from that perfect place of ecstasy.

Back in our room all set to wake up at 6am next morning to witness the Sunrise.

Yes…. If you are conscious and aware of the fact that back in India where we stay is on west coast and get to see only Sun Set at the beach. And one need to goto all the way to KanyaKumari or Puri to a beach on east to be able to witness a Sun Rise. And we didn’t realize this, until in evening when we saw that the sun wasn’t setting at the beach, that on this unplanned vacation to Desaru Beach, we were going to be on the east coast of Malaysia. Thus, landing at the opportunity of being able to witness the rising of the ALMIGHTY SUN from that beach!!!!! Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!
We google and found that sun rise time was at 6.55am.


Next day 29Apr 6.30am.
We were at the beach as planned. It was for the first time in my life that I was at a beach in morning. I have been to many beaches in Goa, Ratnagiri, Malvan etc… but always at the time of sunset.
There was no one other than both of us at the beach that time. I setup the camera ready to capture the sun rise.
And then we both did Yoga and Surya Namaskar.

And Finally, the time came. 6.55am. Far at the horizon, I could see the light emerging. It was like watching the clouds getting enlightened, and getting enlightened with them. I was absolutely thrilled and overjoyed. More so because this came w/o me planning for it, or asking for it 😊 I am telling you, it is so lovely to see the rising of the SUN, when so far in your life you only saw it setting. I loved what was happening. Those moments stay and will continue to stay fresh in my mind. Whenever in future I feel dull, I am sure this is one of those moments which I will recollect and relive in my mind to recharge myself … lots of love and blissfulness filled in it.

Then we also took a dip in the sea that morning. Returned back in room got freshened and back down for breakfast.

After breakfast at around 9am it was like we had completed doing all that we could. So we checked at reception the timing  for ferry back to SG. And to our surprise found that 11am and 3.30pm are the timing. So we decided to check out and take the 11am ferry. Reception booked a cab for us to drop us to the ferry terminal in 80RM.

At 9.45am the cab came. On our way back to the Tg.Pengelih Terminal, the way seemed a little longer. So I checked on maps and found that this guy was taking us to the Belungkor Terminal instead of Tg. Pengelih!!!! O man… The only glitch was cost of the ferry ticket. We had cut to cut cash left in RMs. And we had calculated the return fare of 13sgd each. But now at Belungkor Terminal, bigger ships are there and costs higher.
So when we reached the terminal, found that per person the ticket as 65RM=23SGD. Since we somehow had exactly that much to be lucky we continued from that terminal. Had we not had that much, we had already spoken to driver to drop us back to Tg.Pengelih terminal instead.

So from Belungkor terminal the Ferry started at 11am and we reached SG Changi Ferry Terminal at 11.30am in only 30mins. It was worth the ticket cost. Plus it was a AC ride.

By 12pm we were back at our home 😊

Also I want to mention about the misleading weather forecast that I had read on internet. We didn’t get any rains anytime of the trip. Thankfully I didn’t change any plan based on weather forecast.

Yipieeee what more should I say. Such a unplanned trip turned out to be such a success. And it has been like that so far with us. Unplanned trips turn out to be great than planned trips. May be because you don’t know what to expect on unplanned trips and you explore as you go. While on planned trips you have a set expectation.

That’s all to pen down for my trip, that I want to cherish and share. Keep travelling Keep exploring.

पुन्हा माझ्यात हरवशील का?

हरवशील का माझ्यात पुन्हा
वेङ लागल्या सारखे
ध्यास घेतल्या सारखे
वाट चुकलेल्या सारखे

डोळ्यात माझ्या उतरूनी तू
भान माझे हरपवावे
विसर पाङूनी जगाचा
मी स्वताःला हरंववावे

रुप माझे, शब्द माझे तेच तरी ही.
नवे तुला भासतील का...
पुन्हा नव्याने, जुन्या सारखे
माझ्यात माझ्या गुंतशिल का.

मला पाहता तुझे बोलणे
एका एकी थांबेल का.
ते बारकावे नीट निर्खावे
से पुन्हा तुला वाटेल का.

कोशातले शब्द सारे
साथ तुझी देतील का.
साठलेले आत  सारे
व्यक्त होउ देशिल का.

पुन्हा नव्याने, जुन्या सारखे
माझ्यात माझ्या हरवशील का.

- AlpsAlive

Sachin - A billion dreams...

After watching #Sachinthebilliondreams....Madness Revisited..

All the pocket money spent on Sachins's posters...

Buying Sports Star n other cricket magazines only to read about Sachin and cutting his pictures...

Calling his fan phone to wish him Happy Birthday on 24Apr.

Visiting Sahitya Sahavas only with a hope to see Sachin...

Praying for his century in every match...

Watching every match n highlights again...

School friends scribbling my slam book only critizing Sachin purposely because I was his fan...

Books piled up at home only with newspaper n magazine cuttings of Master blaster...

O man.... I remember all those lovely days when I was a teen...

Wish I could travel back in time to watch and live those moments once again.

This movie has refreshed all those memories...

Will Cricket be back again of such a passion to me again? Na.....!!!

It's takes a century for a Master Blaster to reborn.

SG Diary: Nostalgic

परदेस मैं रेह्ने के बाध...

नजाने क्यू... ख़याल आता है...
शायद यकीन हों रहा है...
की
येह दुनिया एक दुल्हन...
....
...
..
.
लेकिन
....
दुलहन के माथे की बिंदिया....
वो मेरा
.
.
.
इंडिया.....

Singapore Diaries - Driving Patience n Discipline

While I am awake sitting in the balcony, trying to acclimatise to Singapore clock at 1.30am...

Listening to music,
Missing the absent,
Staring at the empty silent signal junction right opposite,

Remembering the busy roads of Mumbai...
Especially the ever busy airoli Nahur bridge junction visible from our Nahur home window, Roads which are never left alone by its speedy running traffic anytime late night....
And the blinking signals post 11pm for not to be followed by traffic so late night...

Suddenly here one car comes at the signal junction from right side road n stops... I wondered why?
And the Signal turned GREEN and the ONLY LONELY Car on the road moved ahead ......

Ufffff yeh discipline hajam nahi Hoti......kudu kya abhi bahar...... &#@&#&@&-+$+#&@

Confused Wait

A wait accompanied by confusion...
Will piss peace into pieces....

A wait accompanied by confusion....
Will take thoughts to treachery...

A wait accompanied by confusion...
Will shrink sweet sights...

A wait accompanied by confusion...
Will bitter beautiful blooms...

A wait accompanied by confusion...
Will cut the cold cocoons...

A wait accompanied by confusion...
Will slaughter souls so sleepless...

- AlpsAlive

व्यर्थ

त्याला जर कळणारच नसेल, 
किंबहुना कळुण पण विचारणार नसेल.....
तर रुसणे किती व्यर्थ अाहे.

Our Dream, Our House In Mumbai

26 Nov 2015 -  It is a milestone day.

One of the many dreams/goals nurtured for several years...  To be precise for 9yrs. Accomplished!

If not today,  then some time later in future it would have surely happened. But what's important is its timing.

Within 1yr of our marriage, me and Kz have achieved our dream of having a 2bhk INSIDE MUMBAI :)

It's always worth noting it down when you achieve something that you have been chasing very passionately. And so is this house.

At the beginning it was only me who started aggressively as I had made it as one of my goals to achieve in 2015. It was time for it,  was what my inner voice was calling. That was when for Kz it appeared to far,  while for me I felt it was approaching. 

Months passed by in q1 n q2 of 2015,  I kept watching ads n talking to ppl. But dint really pick it up.

It was after Kz got job in Mumbai n both of us started our life finally by staying together on 26jul2015 in a fully furnished rented apt, that the thought translated into serious efforts.

Ads visits roaming googling...  Kicked off in full swing. And we realised and started believing that a 2bhk is not achievable in our budget in our preferred locations.

What we wanted was
high floor
Connectivity to office Pen n pune
Decent locality
With  decent neighbours.

Fitting all this, both of us halted our search on a 1 BHK in powai on 11th floor in Sun City Complex.  It was just perfect.

On the eve when we spoke to agent of putting token for this house, I returned back home.  Was casually browsing through emails n deleting them off.
Piled up magic bricks alert emails. Select all n delete.
Only one of them opened off by mistake when I was  selecting it delete. And inside was an alert of a 2bhk for 90lacs with possession in 2015!  Excuse me...  Did I read it correctly?  Yes. Well there shud be a typo in ad or its shud be a very old ad of some yrs ago. So I checked the ad date. It was recent!
I couldn't ignore it. So I checked contact details. Looked at the watch. It was 10pm. Well...  It's not too late. Thinking this I dialled this no. Expecting to hear that
- wo bik gaya hai (sold out)
- ad main mistake hai
- it's a 1bhk instead
- location is wrong,  n is outside Mumbai
- possession is after 3or 5 yrs
Etc etc...

But....  The agent that I spoke to didn't say any of these. And the opportunity actually existed!

I actually couldn't believe it n hence I wanted to grab it if it really was.  So, I asked him to show us the flat immediately next morning.

And there we go.
On morning of ddmmyyy we saw a house that was going to be ours :) 
Both of our faces were enlightened with smile n anxiety. With  which we went back to office for the day.

Both of us decided on that journey from site to my office that we were going to purchase that house. Our dream 2bhk which is at a mins walk from railway station in Nahur East and 5 mins drive away from Eastern Exp.way.

In between there happened an episode of choosing which of the available flats. Because the one we saw n liked was 1203 the flat of an investor for 90lacs. On each floor there r 2 2bhks... 03 n 04.
03 flats were back side facing to E.exp way n were East West too.
04 were North facing with Windows towards Road side.

Next day the agent mentioned that it was 1204 of investor which is for sale n not 1203. 1203 is not available.
:( we were a bit upset.

What builder told us is if we wants 03 then it's there on 13th floor. And is for 95lacs.

It's was sad to know.

We did a lot of talking on why it was communicted wrong earlier to us. Don't want to go into its details,  but in the end what both of us wished is if we could have got 1303 in same 90lacs.

And as it's said by someone...  Bol ke dekhne main kya jata hai. At least will have the satisfaction that we tried.
So I spoke to our agent to do something n get us 1303 in same price.
Agent was pessimistic about it.  But he said he will speak to builder.

And next morning I get a call....  Yuhuuuuuuu builder was ready to give 1303 at same price!!!!!!

Yeeeeeee now it's truly dream come true.

From then started our struggle to gather all the money required.

And I cannot forget... My Ritz's contribution too towards helping achieve our dream. 
My Ritzeee got me a top up loan on it in just 10 secs (muuaahhhh.... I love my car).

With all the necessary stress,  efforts and roll a coaster of funds...  We have made it today to complete the Registration of our house :) 

Our first common goal achieved jointly.

LUV you. >=<

Aj mera jee kardaa....

Aaj kuch jee chahta hai...
Aaj kuch jee chahta hai...

Kahi duur ek tamanna... Saans le rahi hai
Saason se ghehri...  Chah yeh meri hai.

Aaj kuch jee chahta hai...
Aaj kuch jee chahta hai...

Thehri nahi jameen... Na thehra aasamaan...
Chal pade hai sab... najane kis disha...

Sapno ke sheher se... Gujari ek churi hai..
Rah takhti dehleej pe... Ummeed hi khadi hai...

Aaj kuch jee chahta hai...
Aaj kuch jee chahta hai...

- AlpsAlive 

Long.....

Miracles happen
And I want one too....
Miracles happen
And I want one too....

I close my eyes
And that what I see....
That is how
I want things to be....

Its not too much
To ask from you....
Because I know
You have it all, just show....

This is not a request
Nor a helpless prayer....
It is an O R D E R
You take it, and deliver....

If there is anything you owe me
Its the time to reflect....
I put all my deeds in one
For you to collect....

For once I want
No excuse to do...
As Miracles happen
And I want one too....

Amen!!!

- By Alpana A Satam

Ladhak

I am finally attempting to write down about the remarkable tour to the Crown of India, which is also called as 'Roof Of The World' i.e. LADHAKH!
While I am begining with this writing effort, I am also afraid that I will never complete this blog. I may get lost in writing. Even now I am not sure from where to begin, what all to write about and what to exclude. It may go on and on and on....
Lets see... how it goes.

28Jul2014 - Mumbai to Srinagar:

It was raining too heavily in Mumbai. Me and Amey had started at around 7am from home for airport. We booked flights from Mumbai to Srinagar. Ours was the 9.15am spicejet flight which took off at 10.45am, 1.5hrs late. I was finally at the airport and the trip for which I was planning to go since last year and for which I had started planning since April this year had begun.
We were 5 from Mumbai - Amey, Vaidehi (aka Vaishu), Kishore (aka Kz), Pranay & myself.
This was my first flight at day time from Mumbai. So I was looking forward to see Mumbai from above. But it was heavily raining, so the view was not clear. But still it was beautiful. Soon our flight was in clouds. Me and Vaishu were sitting together while Pranay, Amey and Kz were sitting together. Now a funny thing happened with these 3 boys. Actually weeks back when we booked the flight, I had also booked the seat nos on Spicejet site. I had chosen 32a, 32b & 32c for them. While me and Vaishu were in 30a, 30b, 30c. When we actually boarded the flight... we reached the end of the flight looking for 32 row, and 31 was the last row :P LoL. When they showed the boarding pass to attendant, the attendant was surprised too. And eventually these 3 had to travel standing in the flight :P hahahaha no no.... how I imagined this would have happened. Jokes apart, seemed like the bookings were low so they changed to a smaller aircraft. Even this smaller one was not full. So Kz, Pranay and Amey got seats just in the row ahead of us.

The flight reached Amritsar @12.45pm. From here I sms Tejas ( our tour operator who was suppose to come to pick us at Srinagar airport) that flight is delayed. Here first time I was in a one stop flight, that too of type where same flight was to continue. So I saw that like in trains a TC enters the flight. He rechecks everyones boarding passes and marks in his sheet, and also checks corresponding cabin luggage. Then new passengers board. An then flight took off at 1.15pm.

So sooner had the flight taken off and gained some height, that the pilot announced that soon we will be landing. So Amritsar to Srinagar was the shortest journey. I was wondering what about the passengers who boarded newly at Amritsar... unka paisa toh wasool bhi nahi hota :) Bass chade nahi ki utaro :)
So we finally landed Srinagar at 2pm. I again sms Tejas. He replied that he was already waiting outside at arrival.

I didnt know how this guy looked. We collected our baggage and moved out. Srinagar airport was very disappointing. It was too hot afternoon. after coming out of the airport my eyes were looking for Tejas and I was also ringing his cell phone.
Finally Amey found him. That was the first time I saw this guy Tejas. He was not as per my imagination. This was a slim short guy, pretty younger. We followed him. He took us to the bus. A man joined us and helped us keep our baggage in the tempo traveller. We realized that he was just another porter only after he asked for tip. He climbed inside the bus and was not leaving. So I finally gave him 20inr.
From there our bus started. Tejas wore his Red colored Iris outdoor Tee. And introduced himself. In our tempo traveller it was only 5 of us and one old uncle. I did understand that there was another tempo traveler standing adjacent to us. This also seemed to be with us only.

We were now in Sringar. Hot Srinagar. From the flight u see the difference. When you are flying over Mumbai, u see lot of slums and then sea. When Amritsar came, u see lush green carpet with checks design. Very well designed land full of fields. And when Srinagar comes, u start seeing the ranges of mountains all over and the rivers flowing through them.

And now I was passing through Srinagar. Its lanes, its markets. It was weird. Traffic is very undisciplined. The development is very weak. Very first thing that strikes is their dialect. I was trying to listen to the drivers conversation carefully to make out of there are any similar words they use. But no. I couldn't understand anything. Kz told me that they dont have any script for this language. Its just a verbal language. Srinagar seemed to me a very dusty city when I recollect it. Dhul and mitti... is what I recollect. The lanes are very narrow. Traffic jams very easy and frequent. That too Ramzan Eid was just next day. There was military placed every 100mts. There were bunkers at junctions. Still civilians were comfortably shopping in the markets. It was pretty for the localities. And we were gazing out at the people and military with curiosity. Then our bus passed through Lal Chowk. Kz mentioned that this place has lot of significance and is very sensitive. It always in news. I remember seeing extra military posting at Lal Chowk.

On the way we saw a beautiful fort on a hill top. It is suppose to be Akbar's Fort as per our then driver. Its name is 'Hari Parbat Fort'. But now it is with military. The fort looks very beautiful and looks well maintained as well. It took us good 1hr too reach our destination at Nigeen lake house boat. I had offline maps saved. So I was tracking on it. We got down and were walking towards the lake. Now we were suppose to cross the lake in a shikara and go to the house boat on the other side bank. Straight in front of us from this bank of Nigeen Lake we were able to see the Hari Parbat fort. Now here we saw faces of other people from the other bus. They were all gals.

Tejas introduced us to Nitish, stating he was his partner and here on will take care of us and Tejas moved ahead in the first shikara. It was very hot and sunny. The beauty of the place was getting washed out in that bright sun. I was still gathering myself, and trying to sink in the feeling that this was Srinagar where I am ... and the lake that I am seeing is the Nigeen lake just adjacent to Dal lake. We standing there in sun for quite sometime waiting for instructions and our chance to get into the shikara. Not that there was rush and we were in queue. But still we were waiting for instructions. Lately after closely looking around, I realized that huge houses in my side of the bank that I seeing, were all over the house boats. On this side of the bank that I was standing, there were himalayan ranges and other side I was seeing that fort, so civilization more seemed to be on other side. I was wondering that if the fort is on that side, and we just passed from the base of the fort, then how come he got us on this side. I am sure there should be road way directly to go on that side. So just for the sake of feeling we were on this side of the bank of the Nigeen Lake.

Now our chance came. They put our luggage first. they put it at the very tip of the shikara. I was worried it might fall off the shikara anytime into the lake. Then we boarded the shikara. All 5 of us in one boat. And in another were 4 gals and Nitish. Now that I knew this guys name. But our shikara had no rider. We were just sitting alone. Later we saw that this guy was toeing out shikara. He was sitting in other shikara, tied our shikara to that one, and he alone was rowing the 2 boats, loaded with heavy enough 10 people and lots of luggage. He was a HE MAN ! ..... he has the Powerrrrr of the Srinagar!!!! hehehe anyways. Soon in the bland brightness of the sun... we started feeling the calmness and depth of the blue lake. The silence was heard. The voice of water as the oar moved in and out of it drove my attention. I now started sinking & believing that I was in Srinagar.

The boatman rowed us safely to the other side, where the house boats were parked. From this shikara we directly entered the house boat. There were many house boats parked in a row. One of them was ours. They were beautifully carved. Made of Deodhar wood. The Door was closed. We were standing in the lobby like area at the houseboat door. Soon the sliding door were opened, and we peeped inside.

It was beautiful hall. floor was covered with thick red carpet. Wooden Ceiling completely with carvings and design. Nice lamps hanging over. There were sofas, TVs, tea table and on... I we went inside further, there was kitchen, way up to terrace, 4 bed rooms. It was a big enough house boat. We occupied one of the rooms. Tejas had did the division and we had a gal named Namrata with us. So it was Namrata, Vaishu and myself in one room.

The room was gloomy. There was one double bed and one single bed. Again covered with nice soft carpet. I went ahead and opened the wooden sliding window. Light entered the room. I saw the boat man came outside that window in his shikara. He asked us to identify the luggage. The window had a wooden plank running end to end outside. Where one could sit or walk over as well. The boatman delivered the luggage at the room from this window. We pulled it inside.
I went ahead to explore the room. It had a dressing space with wardrobe and a nice bathroom. The bath room was floored with carpet again, which was weird.

Then we got freshen up, and then went for our lunch. The lunch was arranged in a house on the bank. A wooden plan was placed from the boat to the other bank side. One had to be careful while walking over it. It was past 4pm by now that we were having our lunch. The lunch was placed in a buffet in a garden of that house. It was the house boat owners house. Vaishu and me were sitting waiting for Amey, Kz and Pranay to come. We had no idea which boat was allocated to them. Our phones were working though, so I called. They came. Then we had our lunch. It was nice, tasty homemade lunch.

In front of us we saw green apple tree and many apples over it. Later we realized that we were sitting under one. Then on looking around with open eyes, we noticed more beauty. There were flowers of many types never seen before. There was a red apple tree as well. There small birds over the trees. The path from this garden to boat was covered with lotus leaves and lotus flowers. There were pigeons coming to sip water in the lake. And from here the nature and surrounding kept surprising us with it beauty. This was just the beginning.

Post lunch we had a introductory session. Where everyone in the group introduced themselves. So I saw the other faces in the group. Though didnt remember everyones name in first go. We were total 21. Most of us were youngsters. Except Raikar uncle, Kulkarni uncle and Thakur uncle. They were retired people.

Next it was the time for Shikara Ride. It was past 5pm and I was worried that sun will set soon and I will not get good shots then. So I was bugging Tejas as to when will we go for Shikara ride.

All of us were now waiting again in the lobby area of the boat for the shikara. It was 5.30pm now. The shikaras came. Each one of us boarded. There were total 3 shikaras. ANd we set out for our shiraka time in the lake. I was all set with my D7000 sitting at the end of the shikara. While on the ride, there were sellers approaching us in other shikara. They were selling accessories, flowers, seeds of flowers, kashmiri clothes etc... I only did window shopping. Didnt buy anything.

All the 3 boats were running parallel. Our shikara was being rowed by a young kid. The other shikara was being rowed by a man, who was quite informative. He took us to area where there were floating farms. People grow vegetables on water. We saw tomato and dhudhi. Then we also saw more lotus plants. The shikara then entered a village. There was a bridge constructed of wood in the water which the villagers used. It was pretty long. It was quite interesting to see how these people live. Their houses, their shop, their pets which included ducks, dogs and hens. Their curious children peeping out and looking at us like foreigners. Their language and style how they communicated to each other. Their woman.... who were shy and pretty with their heads covered with cloth all time, though none were in burkhas.
While on the return shikara journey, the sun was setting. The droplets on the lotus leaves had got lighten up and every leaf floating over water had a lining of light. Amongst the mosaic of leaves we saw far off 2 men in a boat doing fishing. The sun was setting behind the Hari Parbat Fort. It had thrown nice colors over the sky. A picturesque site. It was quater to 8pm and we still had light in the sky. The houseboats at the periphery of the lake started lighting up.

Suddenly, we saw lightening in the sky as well. Long thick lines of electrifying lightening passed through the skies over the mountains. It became dark as the clouds took over. And in no time it started raining heavily. We were in the middle of the lake, still far off from our house boat. The winds started blowing with speed. The boat started swinging. The boatman row the boat to the nearest bank under a tree. We waited there for a while. But the rains didnt stop. So finally he decided to take us in those heavy rains to our house boat. It was a scary journey now in the middle of the lake, with heavy rain, thundering, lightning, winds swinging the shikara...
But we safely reached our houseboat. We had got wet enough. It was dark, there were no lights in our house boat. Candles were lit. We changed our clothes and were now waiting for dinner. It was dark inside the boat. We informed that due to rains the electric pole got damaged and light would come back in some time. Me and Vaishu went to other boats looking for Kz Amey and PRanay. We finally found their boat. We came back with them to our boat. Finished our dinner in Torch light. Then later I did some slow shutter speed photography using Kz's tripod. Then the lights came.

We were tired so we went to sleep by 11pm. There was a B'day celebration suppose to happen at 12am. Tejas had informed us in the bus itself about it. I was going to wake up at that time. But I feel asleep and I didnt wake up. It was Apeksha's bday.

29 Jul 2014: Srinagar to Kargil

We woke up by 6am or so. First thing I did was I opened that sliding window, which opened into the lake and mountain view. w/o brushing my teeth, I took out my camera, as the morning was so serene and enchanting. Breathing the fresh air itself was something unusual. There was chirping of birds over the wires running from one house boat to another. Many lotus leaves floating below outside that window, were bathing in the rising red Sun Rays. Early morning there were 2 people going some where in their shikaras. Very undisturbed morning. Everything seemed to be so disciplined and neat out there. Just like a still photo frame. I just felt like sitting there at that window and keep gazing out for hours. We had enough time that morning. We were to set out for Kargil by 9am. So I spent good time photographing the views.

Then later we got ready, and went for breakfast. I was surprised to see Pohe as one of the items in the breakfast menu. That too very well prepared. After finishing the breakfast, I went to meet the cook. We had some nice dialogue with her, made her comfortable. Understood her routine. It was the Ramzan Eid day. She was not just a cook. She was the wife of the house boat owner. Due to Eid, they had their servants on leave. So she herself was working that day. Even the man who as serving us was the owner himself. We understood that this family i.e. cousins and uncles total, owned all the houseboat ships that we saw parked on this side of the bank. WOW!!! they were filthy rich! And just look at them... their life style, their clothing, their nature, they were so humble and down to earth. So nice. I asked her for a photograph with us. She was not ready initially, but later she agreed.

Now everything was done, and we were all set to see off the house boat, waiting for the shikara to come and carry us back to the other side of the lake. The boat man again picked back the luggage from that same window right into the shikara, and then came to the entrance of the shikara to pick us up.
By now I knew the names of all the gals - Apeksha & Jinal kapadia who were cousins, then Anisha Parab who was Nitish Parab's sister and then Namrata Jain who was Tejas's friend.
In one shikara we gals went first ahead to the other side. Jinal spotted a Kingfisher posing perfectly on the top of a wooden pole. It was the right opportunity which I didnt wanted to miss. So I clicked many pics.
Then slowly rest of them came. And we took more photographs.

Here then with our luggage, we wait for 1.5hrs as the bus came late. It seems it was EID day and tempo traveler was stuck in traffic. We finally started for our journey to Kargil by 10.30am instead of 9am.

In our bus we had - Tharkur Kaka, Anisha, Jinal, Vaishu, Namrata, Apeksha, Kz, Nitish, myself, Amey and Pranay. Rest of them in 2nd bus.
It is suppose to be a 5 to 6hrs journey to Kargil.... iff one goes non-stop and faces no natural hassles.
As our bus moved through the lanes of Srinagar, we again saw military posting at every 100mts. It was EID day. Though Srinagar is a Muslim majority city, it wasn't blowing out with celebrations. It was not crowded with people wearing round white caps and jhabbas, nor woman dressed up in glittery clothes and jwelery. There were no speakers shouting any songs, nor were there any gatherings or mandaps on roads, with maulana's shouting on mics the Holy Quran stories. I was actually disappointed and surprised. Because this is ALL that I see in my area i.e. GOVANDI on EID day.
It was quite a disciplined EID that day in Srinagar. Woman were decently dressed up and very few were on the roads. Men also were not necessary in Jabba kurtas. Though I did see some Mosques on the way, where I saw comparatively more people and chappals outside.
As the bus moved outside the city, it became more and more silent and only miltary could be seen. I saw rice fields. So Kashmiri people do lot of rice farming along with Rajmah. Saw more apple tress outside houses. The way houses are built in Kashmir is very beautiful. Very prominent are their artistic wooden windows. The tapering roof shades and the color combinations that they use. Very royal castle types.  While these are the types of house of the rich, on the contrary there are other people who stay in villages in small houses which do not even have plastering. Just bricks.

Now we were on the Srinagar Ladakh Highway i.e. NH1. As soon as we are out of Srinagar, we pass through prominent village Ganderbal. From here on the road started running parallel to Sindhu River / Indus River. And we started getting clearer and closer views of Mountains. I remember we crossed a bridge over Sindhu river where we had a quick photo stop from inside our bus only. Post which now the river was running to our right side. Then post Kangan village or I guess it was in Kangan only that we stopped our bus for a proper photo stop. The bus driver stopped at a place from where we could to near to the Sindhu River. We spent like half an hr there. Clicked some photos and then resumed our journey.

Post Kangan we started seeing snow clad mountain peaks far off. After some more time we took another halt at a picturesque place which was just about 4km before Sonmarg. There was the Sind river flowing and a bridge over it. We were now on the other side of the river i.e. river now on our left side. From here to our backdrop we could see a snow clad mountain peak. That time I didnt know its name. But today when I googled I found it was the 'Thajiwas Glacier' that we were looking at and photographing. There were horses gracing, Greenary with white ice far up and blue white water of Indus flowing.

All the way till now, I desperately wanted to sit on the top of the bus. So I went myself and spoke to the driver of our bus. This was my interaction with him. He asked how many will sit. I said 4. I asked him how long is Sonmarg from here. He said 4kms. So I said since its a short distance please allow us to sit. He agreed. Tejas and Nitish were shocked that we got the permission :) And then from this point to Sonmarg Kz, Amey, Pranay and myself sat on the top of the tempo traveler. Superb!!!

The weather was perfect and road was perfect for the Top of the Bus ride. It was not freezing, but cold. The roads were good with no pot holes. And the nature around had just started disclosing its beauty.

Soon we saw the board - Welcome to Sonmarg.
It was approx. 1.15pm.
Hmm so here I was in Sonmarg. Had heard a lot about it. Construction of houses / guest houses all with green roofs. Boards arounds were also in Green. Lush Green fields over the hills, and horses grazing over it. Pine trees stood upright over the hills now. Hills were just in our neighborhood now. And in between the pine trees there were patches of ice/snow at some places on the hills.
Sonmarg seemed ok types in this month of July. Pranay mentioned that this place is known for its snow and people come here in winters. Sonmarg is at height of 9000ft. So all snow had melted by now as it was summers there.
We had lunch in Sonmarg and resumed our journey.

Post Sonmarg, the REAL ride begins. The GHATS of HIMALAYAS start from here until the Zojila Pass.

The route from Sonmarg till Zojila Pass is poor an scary. The Mountain ranges that lie in between are majestic and tough. Hats of to BRO - Border Road Organization who took up this challenge of constructing roads in this tough terrain.
Soon after leaving Sonmarg, as we pass by Baltal (Base camp of Shri Amarnathji Yatra), the tar roads end. And nude muddy roads in the ghat begin. Cannot even call it a road. Its just a track that is carved by the bulldozers. The bus started moving up in the ghats over the Himalayas. The route is only as wide as one vehicle can pass. So I was wondering what would happen if another vehicle come from opposite direction now? How would that be tackled? But later it struck me that Tejas had mentioned that this route (Sonmarg to Zojila) opens only for one directional traffic at a time. There is no same time that they allow traffic in both ways on this route. So for the onward journey from Sonmarg to Zojila the route is open after 12pm only. Hence, I didnt see any traffic coming in opposite direction.
By 2.45pm we faced a road block. There was a BRO worker who had  put his bulldozer across the road and stopped the traffic. He mentioned that Mountain had slided over the road further and BRO was in process of clearing it. So till traffic was halted. This is a very common scenario while passing through this route. We had no clue how much time it will take. The point were we were stopped was a valley point. We could see right in front of us the Baltal village and Amarnathji Yatra's valley. We could also see the twisty ghat that we had traveled. So all of us utilized this time for photography.
Finally by 3.15pm the man moved his bulldozer and declared the road open.

Our journey had just resumed, that we faced another road block by 3.40pm. Again we were at a point where all the traffic had halted and this time we were very close to the mountain slide site. We witnessed how the BRO folks clear the roads with bulldozers. It was commendable on part of the BRO workers, while it was scary for us as naive travelers in this region. Wee went closer to the site which was getting cleared. Suddenly people started screaming. We saw Kulkarni Kaka had gone far ahead of the site that was being cleared and suddenly more stones were sliding from up. So people were shouting to alert the people below. And they ran away from it. This terrain is indeed dangerous. The land slides happen anytime. Luck is really required to pass through this terrain safely, though we have BRO, ALWAYS ALERT to clear the routes for us.  This work of clearing the route took quite a lot of time. I was worried that Kargil War Memorial will get closed. Because one of my friends which had been here last month mentioned that they couldn't see the War Memorial because they reached late. I mentioned my worry to Tejas and he said, current road blocks and delays are not in our hands. And if we miss the War Memorial in our onward journey, then we will still have 2nd change to visit it in our return journey. I was fine with this 2nd alternative.
It took about an hr for the road to be cleared and by 4.30pm our journey resumed.

They say and its mentioned on internet that this route from Srinagar to Leh is the safer and better route to enter Leh, as compared to the way from Manali. I am wondering that if this is what they call as "BETTER" route then how the hell would the Manali to Leh route be!!!! Got to see it once.

As far as I remember, the road was better after we crossed the ghats on the mountain facing Baltal and traversed to other side of the next hill. Now we were at the elevation of Zojila i.e. 11575 feet. And we road ran at the same level for quite some time until crossed Zojila.

Zojila: It is the gateway to Ladakh region. In the Ladaki language La=Pass. So the name is Zoji La or Zoji pass. This pass falls on the NH1 @ 11575ft. The specific force/project of BRO which takes care of this pass or rather maintains the road between Sonmarg to Zojila is called 'BEACON'. Now this I understood after coming back when I googled. because all the way I saw milestones and boards where at the bottom it use to be written 'BEACON' and something like [x]TF where x= some number and TF=Task Force. :) That is what I learned now.

I was very keen about this Zojila. I had read that in the first Indo Pak war of 19947-48 on Kashmir conflict, this pass was seized by Pakistan. And then there was a OPERATION BISON in which we recovered this pass with the help of Air Force and Amry. And this operation is particularly know because, for the first time ever the Tanks were used at such an high altitude in any combat. And this record still remains unbroken.

So now our bus was running at an altitude of 117500 feet. We were very close to ice and snow. Frozen river was running parallel to the road. The surrounding had become more pleasant than muddy and dusty like before on that ghat. It was a tar road now.
All of them were eager about the ice, so the driver stopped in between where ice was just close to the road. And some got down to touch and feel and the ice. As such it was negligible left over ice. As it was summers, most of the ice had already melted and we got to see the left overs.

In between inspired by us, rest of the people of our bus had climbed up on the bus top and enjoying the journey. While we inside the bus were half out from the window :) And enjoying the cooling breeze in the arms of the Himalayas.

It was evening now, the dusk time. The direct sunlight now rested only on the Snow clad peaks before they finally see off the region. And the rest of the terrain enjoyed the shadows and mild shades of sunlight. There were military camps in between.

At one point our driver showed us one peak far off, and said that Peak comes in Pakistan Controled area. that is PoK!!!! OMG!!! Was that true??? Was he serious? Well he was pretty serious while making that statement. We clicked many pics of that peak. Felt the thrill that we saw a peak which was in PoK!
But................. I sill doubt that statement. So now after coming back, I googled. And below is what I learnt.

Point 5353 - The highest peak in the Kargil region is called Point 5353 where 5353 depicts the height of the peak in meters. This point is near to the Tiger Hill in the Drass sector. After the Kargil War of 1999, the point 5353 still remains with Pakistan [Pakistani Army’s Baluch Regiment to be specific]. Why??? 

The controversy over it goes like this - during that war, our then PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee had ordered our amry that NOT to cross the LOC, while Pakistan army had clearly invaded the LOC. Though Indians had recaptured all other peaks which fell on India side of LoC, this point 5353 was unclear whether it fell on India side of the LoC or on Pakistan side? It is said that Indian army has made several attempts to occupy that peak Pt.5353, but never succeeded yet. Because that peaks is easily climbale from Pakistan, than from India side. And later after the war, our ministers and press released proofs that Point 5353 falls exactly on the LoC. And as per the agreement no one occupies the peaks over which LoC goes. Pakistan had clearly violated this. Later one press release also presented maps which were signed by Indo-Pak during Shimla agreement of 1972 which clearly indicated that Pt.5353 belongs to India. But Pakistan denies this fact and says that Pt 5353 always on Pakistan side of LoC.

The threat is that this Pt.5353 is just at an artilery distance of 25km from NH1 and Drass is at an air distance of just 1km from this point. It is quite dangerous to have Pakistan occupy this post even today. They have clear view of NH1. Only good thing is that the 3 other peaks surrounding Pt5353 are in control of Indian army, and its said that if Pak tries to behave or fire then India can control it.

Going further, I tried to find videos and pics of Pt.5353. While I had the pic of the peak which the driver mentioned to be with Pakistan. After comparing the pics on internet and the pic that I had clicked, it makes me believe that IT WAS PT.5353 which the driver showed us :)

ok, Now lets move ahead.

Next after we passed by this peak, we came across a long tall wall build along the left side of the NH1. The driver told us that in 1999 Kargil war, the Pak army targeted civilians and other trucks which got artilery and food supply from over NH1 for the Indian army. Hence, in one night, the Indian army built this tall wall of more than 2kms over NH1, such that Pak army positioned on those peaks would not be able to see the movement over NH1.

Post this wall passed, we soon reached DRASS.

Drass - the 2nd coldest inhabitat in the world. 1st being Siberia, though it is just at about 10,760 ft. In winters the lowest temperature recorded here is −55 °C and would other generally go till −40 °C. Besides having geographical significance, Drass again has significance in the Kargil Indo-Pak war of 1999 when it was captured by Pak. 

As I had read about it earlier, I was again keen to see how the 2nd coldest habitat in the world look like? How the people here would be? How much of civilization would exist here? And all my questions were answered as we entered Drass.

At the very beginning was the Drass Police Station, and we stopped our bus right after that for a tea break. These guys who were sitting on the top of the bus got finally got down, but one - Anisha.
Anisha had difficulty getting down. She was scared. I remembered the saying in hindi - 'Khud hi ko kar buland etna, chadi wo jaise taise. Khuda ne bandi ko tab poocha - Aray ! Ab utaregi kaise?? " LoL :) She took looonngggg time trying to get down. Drass is a small village with handful of people. Everyone gathered to see the show, and so did the police :) After finally Anisha made it down, the police called the drivers of our bus, accusing them for allowing the tourist to sit on the top of the bus, which was not allowed. The negotiations and discussions and convincing with Police went for quite long time. All the boys and uncles of our bus had also gone to the police station and returned finally succeeded. The Police excused us with warning to the drivers.

Then we had tea, and walked till the end of the marked. I bought a nice colorful winter cap from Drass just for 100 bucks. And then we resumed our journey quickly as we had to reach the Kargil War Memorial.

Kargil War Memorial was just few kms away. And we soon reached there. It was approx. 7pm when we reached there. Huge Indian Flag and then smaller more flags were seen prominently from outside.

Everyone came out. I came out only with my SLR. I left my handy cam inside. All gathered outside the gate and we clicked a Group Pic. 

Nasheeb

Ek swapna, visarlele
Ase achanak sakar jhale...
Tevha tevhache ghadlele saare
Aata majhya smarnat aale.

Ek vichar,  kadhi kalacha
Asa achanak aakaaras aala...
Pahile je mituni dole
Tyache nakalat sakshatkar jhale.

Ek paul, aata uchalale
Tar Saarya Vaata julun aalya....
Kevha pasun phasalelya gathi
Logopath ulagadat gelya.

Ek saath, aata kayamchi
Karnyache hey pakke jhale...
Ann Haravalelya pakharas,
Akher aapale ghar milale.

- By Alpana Satam

Tandulwadi Trek

Yesterday 19th Jul 2014 we went for a trek to Tandulwadi Fort.

Trekkers - Amol, Kaustubh, Bharat & myself.

I started at 5.28am when I received a call from Kaustubh. He has already reached his pick up point i.e. below the mulund east bridge just before the Thane Toll naka. As such I was suppose to leave from Govandi at 5.15am and reach there to pick up him by this time. But I was late.

I quickly geared up and drove to Tilak Ngr to pick up Amol. Amol came near the Sahakar Theather circle. From there my next stop was where Kaustubh was waiting...  I reached there by 5.47am i.e 17mins later than the planned time :) But that was ok.

I introduced Kaustubh to Amol, and Amol to Kaustubh ;-) because to both of them I had mentioned that they seemed alike to me... though after they met each other... they didn't find anything similar :P
Anyways...

Next pick up was of Bharat from Thane east station. So within no time we reached Thane east station, where Bharat was already waiting. From there we packed breakfast - 2 upma & 4 pohe. And started to our journey to Tandulwadi Village in Palghar area.

On the way in the car, Amol told us the story that he had read of a person who had been to Tadoba. The story in short was that this man who went for Tadoba trip, he went to a temple inside that Tiger Santury. He was at the temple praying for about 15-20mins and then he spotted twinkling eyes in the tress around the temple. When he looked carefully there was a movement also. There were 2 eyes looking at this man from behind the dense trees some feet away. As the movement became obvious, this man identified it was a leopard staring at him. The man got goose bumps. Though he had noticed now, he was quite sure that leopard was there and looking at him from quite before. But for his good grace the leopard did nothing and walked away after some time. [Now what is the point in me telling this story here? You will understand as you read further :) ]

While on the way, right at the point on a bridge in thane, where I was suppose to take a left turn, I got busy in a conversation with Amol and..... I took a right turn instead :) which went on the Nashik highway.... But I did realize immediately. We thought there will be U turn soon, but there isn't any. I drove until we reached Karegaon Toll naka. Paid the toll and went ahead & stopped there. There Amol was saying that we will follow this same road and go ahead as we have already came so far. It seems that thru that road also somehow as per AMol we could reach NH8. But after discussion of sometime, I suggested that we rather take a U turn and go back to ghodbander road only rather than exploring new ways and losing on time. So all agreed and I took a U turn whcih was right after  the Toll Naka. This time to the Toll wala we mentioned that we had missed our way and bla bla bla... and he very soon agreed and let us go w/o paying the toll again.

So with this 1st quota of missing our way while on trek was completed :) which is the tradition of DHs.  (And I am always thankful of completing the missing the way quota while driving rather on the actual trek route after we start trekking :) because here the cost is fuel and there the cost is stamina. And the most costlier for me losing the stamina rather than the fuel :P )

So ! now we were back on our way to Thane and then soon on the correct way i.e. Ghodhbandar Road. As such this missing of way approx. added 10kms extra.

The drive to Tandulwadi village was nice. Rare traffic on the road. No rains as such. Nice cloudy weather. (Ofcourse the car windows though weren't open and we were still driving in AC ).

On NH8, we took the left turn at Varai. And from here until we reached Tandulwadi... the road, the drive the weather was simply awesomeeeeee..... super country side tar road, fresh white strips on the black road... greenery and farms on both sides and amazing weather to compliment it.

Here the way was so empty and tempting that we had to stop the car and get down. The road was like pulling us out of the car :) So finally I stopped the car. And we took some pics.
  

Here when we got out we smelled the pure air. And kept the windows open and drove further. Our next halt was at the bridge over the Vaitarna lake. This is a bridge in very nice condition w/o any pits. Don't know if it was recently built. And here is from where you start getting the view of the Tandulwadi fort across the other side of the lake. We clicked some pics here. The river looked quite muddy and brown in color. Supringly it is the source of water for Mumbai. Villagers were digging reti out of it and carrying it in boats. No wonder it was brown.

 

Above you can see the Vaitarna Lake in left pic and straight across the other side the view of the Tandulwadi fort hill. And right pic shows the bridge over Vaitarna.

Next after crossing this bridge, we took a right turn for Tandulwadi. The landmark is a police chauki which is at the very beginning of this right turn and its a kind of checkpost.

From here in few mins we reached the Tandulwadi village. At the beginning there is a plan ground outside the 'Amchi Shala' school, where I choose to park the car. We got down had the breakfast which we had taken packed from outside Thane station. Each one of us had pohe and half of upma. And then we started getting ready for the trek. While we were doing that it started raining all of a sudden in full force. I rushed inside the car, while Amol, Bharat and Kaustubh took shelter under the car's trunk which was open. I wore my wind cheater and got ready. Amol & Kaustubh were shocked as I had not got my slr. Amol was looking forward to hands on my new Nikon D7000. But after giving a complete thought I had decided not to carry the slr. Because
1. I didn't wanted to get it wet by any means. (as I have damaged my earlier canon 550d in prev Kamangad trek rains :) ]
2. D7000 body itself is heavy on the top of that I put on it heavier 18-200mm lens. So it would have increased the weight on my shoulders while my stamina was already very low.
Having said that, I was carrying  my small pocketable Sony wx300.

Now it was 8.45am and we started our trek.

In full energy and enthusiasm, I was clicking while crossing the village. We passed across a small pond (Bandhara) which was created to collect rain water. A duck was swimming in it. It was a very picturesque place. The water, the duck, the muddy track, the huts and the Tandulwadi Hill right across.

From here, we went to left of the pond and then started the climb.

The trek started. The last patch to reach the top did look steep. From the base village where we were standing I could see 2 levels of this trek. Anyways.

As soon as we started it was climb upwards. But not very steep. Doable and track was also goodie goodie. With continuous doubts in my mind about my own stamina, I was constantly monitoring by when will my stamina get over....  After 20mins of trek up I started breathing fast, so took a break. Though the terrain was not steep, habbit was lost of any cardio exercise. Not a problem. After a little break I was ok and resumed the climb. I was already having my pil of energy i.e. orange goli in my mouth :)
The rains had stopped so I removed my windcheater and walked further. By now we were at a good enough height and got the view of Vaitarna Lake.

 

 On the way there were many crabs of different colors - brown, yellow, white, magenta ...

If you keep your every open and observe carefully, you will also spot disappearing arrows in "few" points on the route .

But, at one point we were searching where to go. At that point the direction which Amol chose seemed to go away from the Hill. I was not positive about it. I was worried that we will go wrong way climb up and then find it was wrong and then again will have to do double trek. And by now I was already panting. But I just followed like always :)

And now were amidst of the jungle and mosquitoes had started having nice treat over us. So I wore the wind cheater again. I forgot to take the mosquito repellent.

After walking straight in a direction opposite to the target hill for some time, then we again started ascending upwards. Here at a point Bharat also started creating doubts. So I finally took out my S3 and in maps I started looking. I had already star marked Tandulwadi fort. And I remembered that in maps it does show the trek route pretty prominently. Thankfully the maps loaded and GPS also tracked our current location nicely. Now we found where we were from the actual trek route.

So we were on the level 1 ridge now. And we should be moving now to right towards the target hill. walking at the same level now we reached joined the track which was marked in Google maps. Moving ahead, walking at the same level, we reached a point where it was a plateau and next level i.e. the Tandulwadi Fort top was visible. Here, very carefreely we walked and were taking pics. We saw there were 3 buffaloes grazing. Nicely we moved ahead, that all of a sudden we saw the mood changed of one of the buffalo. I got scared and warned Amol that the buffalo was not in a good mood. Amol said don't worry just keep walking. We walked ahead towards the buffaloes as the route passed from besides them. But something was wrong. The buffaloes got mad and they started running towards us. They were actually attacking us. O God!! yes they were looking at us, making that maaooo maooo sound and running towards us...O Man!!!! First time ever in any trek.. or for that matter in my life ... some animal was actually attacking me. Never even a dog did that me till now. We brisk walked backwards. The buffaloes speed was not very fast and there was quite a distance between us and them. So brisk walk was sufficient. And all the more by running we didn't wanted to urge the buffaloes more. Bharat picked up a stone. But we warned him that not to do anything of that sort as that will probe the animal more and we will increase the trouble for ourselves. We walked fast and hid inside the trees and bushes around. The buffaloes didn't reach us. And tried to take another route. But Amol saw that the buffaloes came from other direction. O man... so we didn't proceed in other direction and just waited where we were. At the back of my mind I had started thinking what to do if they actually came here where we were .... only idea was to climb up a tree. While Amol was keeping a watch on one side and Kaustubh on another side, Bharat was searching a stick and he did find one, and I was standing still looking at the trees around n gauging which one of them I can climb up :) After some 15-20mins halt and silence, were spoke to each other in whispers. Amol judged that the buffaloes might have gone down from other way. Kaustubh towards right also said that they were not there on his side as well. So from right (from where we came in) we came out bent, walked silently w/o making noise and spoke in whispers to each other. Gauging if our enemy (the buffaloes) were still there... Amol was ahead, then Kaustubh, then Bharat and me in the end. When we came out quietly back to the plateau, we saw the buffaloes were no more there. So were walked fast but silently to cross that patch as early as possible. But we also had another doubt - What if there were more buffaloes in the forest from here on :P
But by God''s grace - KHatra Tal chukka tha... and there were no more buffaloes ahead and we crossed the patch safely. HUshhhhhhhhhhhhhh..... what a sigh of relief.



Level 1 Plateau

The Angry Buffaloes

Amol Keeping a Watch over Buffaloes

Silently and in full alert getting out

Chupke se Dushman se Bachkar Niklo!!!



Next patch was again inside the jungle. We were at the base of the  Target hill now. Walking across the periphery of the main hill that were to climb. At the back of my mind I was thinking... O man.. I am already exhausted and now we are yet to climb this final patch. I looked upwards as we walked ahead at the same level in the jungle. We now finding the route that will go upwards to reach the top.
At one point we stopped. Took a break. Sat over a stone. Drank some water. Now here!!! Bharat saw something some feet away behind me. He said, can u see some animal there? Kaustubh and Amol looked in that direction and they were not able to spot what Bharat was showing. I also turned behind. Bharat showed me that he can see something sitting there. When I looked in that direction... I got goose bumps... because I spotted what Bharat was showing... I spotted the ANIMAL! Sparing no second, I turned behind and said quick quick move... lets move... I can see there is a Tiger sitting there looking at us. Bharat also said Yes... in those tress there he saw the same. Kaustubh and Amol looked there and they couldn't see that and they laughed. I know it cannot happen that there could be a actual tiger actually sitting in that position calmly the position in which I and Bharat saw it. So I took out my 20x zoom camera, zoomed in to see it clearly. And below is what it was :)

Can you see what Me and Bharat saw???  :)

Yes, above is the pic. It was a log. Doesn't it look like a Tiger sitting? The front portion is his face?  It does :) Hehehe this was all because of the story told my Amol about Tadoba jungle lingered in our minds :P

Huh!! a mind game. And we moved one. We were still walking straight at the same level and we came across a place where we saw a pond formed around trees. There were really nice reflections created.

From opposite of this pond, we started climbing up the final patch. This patch was pretty steep. I looked upwards. O man! This was certainly another 45mins continuous climb. And it was already past 2hrs since we started from base village. On this patch I stopped and took break almost after every 10-15mins. It was definitely a 45-50degree elevation climb. I knew this was the last patch and we will be done once we are over it. But still I was over my stamina. I was at a 0 energy level dragging myself. pessimistic thoughts started coming to my mind as to
1. why do I do this to myself, when I am not physically fit anymore.
2. Why do I don't do exercise
3. Why didn't I climb staircase till last floor of my office building atleast that will help.
4. I m sure gone. THis is my last trek. [Since last year this is my thought while in ascend in every trek]

But there was no option. I had to move on. Though slowly. In between we saw a stone with a message, which was totally suitable for me :)  [Pic below]

We climbed on and on and on... and it was not getting over. I asked Amol... - ' Ajun kiti baki aahe!!! Kadhi sampnar!!!'' This what we usually ask Amol :) heheheh  And Amol like always answered - '' Aray aala hey kay jarasach rahilay"

I again stopped at a point. breathless. Bent down and was controlling my breathing. All of us stopped there. Here again we stopped for good 10mins.

[Disclaimer** - Please do not get scared of Tandulawadi trek. The track is nice. Not easy but not very difficult as I am portraying. It is of medium level difficulty. It was just that my stamina has decreased and it was becoming difficult for me. Because Kaustubh, Bharat were totally fine with the climb. And Amol need not to mention, he climbs like a rocket.]

So, after the last break, and a 15mins  climb up after that.. we were finally on the TOP!!!!! Yepieeeee!!! It was 12pm. So we took 3hrs 15mins to ascend. And definitely this can be done in lesser time probably in 2-2.5hrs. It was only because of me that we took this time.

On the TOP.... It was a different me! :)  O man.... I forgot all strain, pain and breadthlessness!!! It was sooooooo windy... cloudy... rainy...greenyyy.... it was simply SUPERB!!!

The Wind was blowing at such high speed, that we were actually getting pushed back. And the rains also came. It was simply WOW!!!!

We could here some people's voice. There were some more other than us on the top. As we walked ahead, we saw there was one more group. We came at the point from where we saw the confluence of Surya and Vaitarna Lakes.

Surya in the left and Vaitarna in right. Their confluence.

Post which I saw on a stone, from where I could leave my legs in the valley and enjoy the view.

It was enchanting. I felt recharged. I was there in my all 6 senses. Meaning no sense of mine was thinking or feeling or sensing elsewhere. It was right there absorbing the surrounding and recharging self. That is the power of nature. It will make you forget everything. It makes you forget all worldly matters.

What office? what home!
What Internet? No network in phone!
Just you and the winds,
The clouds and the greens....
Get lost in valleys for not to be found,
Close your eyes for a moment & you will feel GOD is there around!   :)

Its no exaggeration... actually this was the first trek of this year. And hence this effect.! :) And this trek came as a complete package, absolutely fulfilling. No matter what pessimism came to my mind during ascend. Once you reach the top its all paid off and worthwhile :) So its a matter of having the will and the right push by yourself and by your trek leader (Amol)  :)

So - moving ahead.

After spending quite some time at the point from where we see the confluence, we moved ahead to explore the rest of the hill top i.e. the Tandulwadi fort.

As we walked ahead we saw 2 water tanks. Then we came across a big enough pond. Inside the pond there is a tip of a submerged stone on which "Om" is written

   

Near the pond we saw many butterflies. Overall on the hill top at many places we saw many butterflies and bees. We also saw a rabbit. Then we saw many spiders and crabs of course.

We also saw the 7 water tanks about which its written on many websites on internet. [Pic below] Here near the tanks it was most windy and rainy. To the right of these tanks is a valley. and the wind was blowing upwards from the valley. Bharat did a experiment. He threw a Rs 2 coin in the valley and each time it came back up. That was interesting. He did it several times, and each time it came up back on the grass where we stood. He did it untill the coin finally went and landed at a spot from where we couldn't get it back. And then we moved ahead.

Then from here we moved ahead and completed our PRADAKSHINA... i.e.1 round from where we had started.

Now it was time for lunch. We found a place where it will be less windy and dry and sat down to have our lunch. POst lunch Amol told his experience of the 1 month mountaineering training (or rather self paid harassment) that he had just been through. We didnt realise when time passed by and it was 3pm. So it was 3hrs that we spend over the hill top. Now we started from the point where we had for lunch for our descend. It took us about 15mins approx. to walk back to the point from where descend starts. Now I was leading the group. :) as I was fully charged up.

We reached down to the mountain periphery and then back to the point where there were nice reflections. Then we crossed the Tiger point, then the plateau and the buffalo point :)

Post this plateau we took a different route. Not the one from where we ascended. THis was the acutal trek route which google maps showed. Which was a steep descend. Thankfully we din't climb up from this way, else I would have lost my stamina quite earlier. Descending it was fine. Only Bharat had problem as during ascend he had at one point sprained his left leg muscle. But we soon reached down in 2.5hrs.

This is the trek route that we approximately followed. Yellow shows ascend, Blue shows descend. Pink shows the common track followed during ascend and descend.

I had read on the blogs that there is a rock patch in between, but we did not come across any rock patch on our ascend or descend.

We started return journey at around 5.45pm. Drive back from Tandulawdi to Varai was again amazing.... We reached Thane east station to drop Bharat. Had tea and bhaji pav and wada pav. Then return back. After dropping Kaustubh and Amol, I reached back home by 8.15pm.

And a wonderful trek was over. Thank you to Amol again for initiation and executing it.

Keep Treking!