My first trekking experience.

My first trekking experience

Hi, friends let me tell me u that at 18 years, I am not that type of person whose physique is strong. I am an average type of person whose weight is roughly around 75 kilograms and height about 175 centimeters. Hence, trekking was always going to be a challenge for me due to my weight.
The idea of going to trekking was first mooted to me by my friend, Sushrut. I at first was skeptical of going to a trekking adventure as I had never done it before. He did the work of assuring me that this is a small trek and u will not find any difficulty in trekking due to u r weight. Feeling confident by Sushrut’s words I hesitantly said yes as I needed a break from my studies and wanted to relax in the lap of nature. Hence, our trekking spot was fixed , that is Duke’s nose or naagaphani which is closest to Khandala station and can be seen through Mumbai – Pune express highway.
I did lot of preparations for my trek and packed my bags with tasty sandwiches prepared by my mom and extra set of clothes and some emergency first aid box.
We booked train tickets of Indrayani express after lot of discussion whether that train halts at Khandala station or not. Coming at a conclusion that it doesn’t stop at Khandala we decided to walk from Lonavla to Khandala
On tracks which itself was risky. So at every crossing we stopped and asked the men working on tracks and the person controlling signals about situation of trains coming and going and then we continued walking. Finally after reaching Khandala we asked about position of Duke’s nose to some people and they told us to climb the mountain just after station. After climbing, D Mountain we took a left turn and reached Tata water pumping station and taking that left turn was our first mistake. Walking straight would have helped us instead of going to tata station. Since, No one had gone there before, we thought that we r on right direction. We thought that our instincts were leading us in right way but we were wrong. Moreover the employees at the Tata Station said that we r on right route. We took the route starting from Tata station.
We climbed a lot of steep slopes and I was heavily panting as I had never climbed it before. Our group consisted of six boys and a girl.
Two of them had done trekking before and had no problem in climbing but the rest of us were heavily panting and desperately needed rest. The two of my friends were climbing swiftly like Spiderman n were always first to reach any spot while I was always at last. I had memorized the Google earth maps and drawing a rough map we proceeded. Frankly speaking, the map was completely wrong n I wondered if we had carried a hard copy of map. We walked till we reached a small stream. At that spot, we decided to drink water from that stream which was a bold decision as we didn’t know d source and if it was polluted we all would have fallen sick. But we desperately needed water and I drank it hesitantly. I thought drinking that wate, I drank the shit of numerous crabs in that stream!!!!!!!!
As we looked down d stream, we noticed d expressway passing through khandala. I told my friends that we r on wrong way as Duke’s nose could be seen from expressway far away from khandala near the end of tunnels on expressway. I thought for a second that duke’s nose was on the other side but till then one of my friends had started to go up on mountain taking the path of stream which was dangerous as we had to go against the flow of stream. I didn’t get time to present my views which was my second mistake in d trek. But I thought that we r trekking some mountain and from there we can go further to Duke’s nose.
Trekking against the flow of stream was a courageous decision taken by two friends of our group. We followed them as I had faith in them that they r always leading in correct way. As I began climbing, I had problems placing my shoes in right position. For some time I climbed without help, till at one point I had to cross a five feet boulder in front of me with water gushing at a high speed. I placed my feet at wrong position on the slippery stone and I slipped and came down from boulder with a huge pain in my leg. At that point I thought, it is not possible for me to go up with more boulders coming on my path. I looked down and there was no point going down again.
Till then my friend Sushrut came up who looked to my frightened face and told me my mistake about position of my leg and assured me that he will help me to climb huge boulders coming in my path and I let him go up to help me to cross that five foot stone. I saw back and I saw one of girls in group Ruta bleeding from her head and she also had slipped and fallen right on her head but still she was walking with courage. This ashamed me that if a girl can do it, why can’t I? At that point I thought, I will cross that mountain and I stared to go up. The one who had done trekking extensively, that is Nikhil helped me to cross six to seven high feet boulders and I am really thankful to him and he constantly advised me to place my foot at right position.
Climbing continuously for nearly one hour we reached the top of mountain which of course was a flat plateau. We had a small scare in between as one of my friends had dropped his mobile down stream and to go again down to fetch his mobile. We were delighted that he had got his mobile back. On reaching the top, I noticed a strange shape of mountain which resembled that of Duke’s nose. To my surprise, it was duke’s nose as some kind of structure could be clearly seen on the top of mountain which according to many trekkers blog who had gone to nose was a Small Shiv Mandir. I told my friends about it who also agreed that it was nose and we had missed it by a huge distance. We had taken a wrong decision and landed on top of mountain which was far away from our final destination. We were a bit disappointed with the wrong mountain we had climbed that mountain in such a difficult position that it was really harder than climbing Duke’s nose. I had satisfaction in trekking a tough and difficult path.
We ate our lunch at the top seeing our missed target from the top.
As usual descending was not a huge task as we got a ready made route which was made by cattle’s grazing.
I personally think some precautions to be taken during a trek is that u should consult locals and draw a rough map of u r route. One more sharp contrast I noticed that there were neither birds in surroundings nor any wildlife. May be it’s due to extreme pollution caused due to guzzling vehicles on expressway. Rest all trek was fine with no difficulties and we made a return trip to Kalyan.
I am eagerly awaiting fir next trek and I hope to reduce my weight by nearly 10 kgs so that I have a lighter body to climb mountains and also some sort of training to climb more difficult paths. Looking for better times to come so that I can successfully trek a right mountain………….

Mumbai local trains -2

MUMBAI LOCALS -2

As I had told you about Mumbai locals in my previous blog, I would like to elaborate more about it.
Here’s a reason why they call Mumbai local a lifeline:
The economy of Mumbai also revolves around it. A lot of people are involved in selling goods in local trains. A variety of goods are sold on them. Lot’s of people grumble at the fact that u don’t get peace of mind even on trains as Indian markets already full of noises and now trains become full noises. U get a variety of vender’s on trains from selling food items to stationery items to daily needed items. Also u see lot of beggars on trains who try to extract money by standing near u for a long time making strange faces trying to make money. They sometimes can be a huge nuisance.

Mostly d middle class people travel by trains. In trains, d favorite pastime is playing cards or singing bhajans. Most people have formed groups and they relieve there worries of day to day life with there close friends formed over many years in train. They discuss about current affairs and touch a wind variety of subjects I there one hour traveling .

Also, those who want to understand the working of INDIAN RAILWAYS, they can visit a very good website which gives all information about railway engines to history of railways. The link is www.irfca.org . Indian railways fan club association, ya, that’s d full form. Try to visit it. U get so much info. That u wonder …….my ghosh! , this how this works. And u really start admiring them .everything from FAQ’s about engines to railway routes is given.

Hey, guys, have u checked d new local trains running on CR and WR. They r really a cool stuff. They have really good ventilation unlike d old trains and have a announcement system announcing the next station. I hope that the planned 157 trains depict a bright future of Mumbai in next 25 years and help Mumbai to become a world class global city.
Let’s hope for a bright future for Mumbai.S

Mumbai local trains

Lifeline of Mumbai: local trains

Well many people have written many things about local trains in there blog. I m also going to write about it but in a different manner such that a person not living in Mumbai feels himself lucky to be not a part of so called good life of Mumbai.

My exp. of traveling in local trains is for past two and a half years. From my experience, I can say traveling in d train is equivalent to a nightmare specially during d peak hour of morning. Also from my exp. first class has equivalent rush to second class with only plus point that u have decent people around u who do not pass comments at any other people while traveling and u have a peaceful time ( although I have heard incidences of pick pocketing in first class but very rare)

As my engg. is in Navi Mumbai, I have to travel by train from Kalyan . I have other option of city bus but it takes a lot of pain as concretization of road is taking place on route of my college n speed of bus is reduced thus increasing traveling time. My travel starts with boarding a packed train coming from Titwala, Ambernath, or Karjat. I relax in train for 7 minutes as this is the time I get to take out my hanker chief n wipe my face full of sweat. Then comes Dombivili, a twin city of kalyan where the whole train gets crowded n from there my nightmare starts for 14 minutes till thane. many people try to board d train even if it is packed n try to say to get inside even if it there is no space for an ant to climb inside ….
The train ……..I admire them d most ……..as far my exp., I haven’t heard incidences of train stopping due to tech. errors. It is truly difficult to maintain trains with d mammoth population of Mumbai which uses it.
Also I travel by first class mostly in d two and half years I have traveled for d peaceful environment it offers as I can study in d train.
Every time I travel by train in first class I remember my parents .i recall a incidence 20 years before. They were caught traveling ticket less in first class after coming from a trip. When they boarded d train they realized they were in wrong compartment.
They got out at next station n were caught by ticket checker n they had to pay fine.I say what a bad luck. Whenever I see people traveling by first class getting caught, it reminds me of my mom and dad……..