Monday, September 21, 2009

Trek to Sarasgad - 19th Sept '09

One should make use of every opportunity that comes one's way – and that is exactly what we did last weekend!

Planned, programmed and ‘sealed shut in an envelope’ was a trek to Sudhagad; but due to the blissful ignorance and some radical miscommunication among the organizers of the trek - That would be Milind, Prashant and Vish (that would be me) - We ended up going to Sarasgad instead! – A beautiful fort around 10kms away from Sudhagad.

The best part about all of this was that no one really knew that they had scaled the wrong mountain until they were all back at the base village. It was truly a comedy of errors! Not only did we manage to screw up the destination but also the schedule (and how!)

Here’s what happened:

1. 14th Sept Monday – 10:30AM

As usual Prashant and I met to have ‘cheese-aloo toast’ at Anna’s place outside our office building. We had been planning a group trek for a while but we could not narrow down our options to a single good location. The places we had in mind would either be too hot, too tiring or too difficult to scale. We thought of going to Kalavantin durg but later found out that it may not be such a wise thing to go there in this season.

By noon we had googled every possible fort in the Sahyadris within striking distance from Mumbai. We finally decided that Sudhagad would be a good option for Saturday. It was stated in most of the sites that it was an easy trek and one would not take more than an hour and a half to reach the top from the base village. We knew that the merciless heat would not make this trek an easy one, not by a long shot.

2. 18th Sept Friday – 9:00AM


By Friday we thought we’d have the final head-count for the trek, but things just didn’t seem to settle down. Several phone calls in the morning only added up to the confusion and chaos. It was already noon and we were still unsure about the number of people who’d turn up on Saturday! We wanted to know this figure as we had to hire a mini-bus for the trek. We took an impulsive decision to hire a 25-seater irrespective of the number of participants.

3. 19th Sept Saturday – 5:30AM - The journey begins…

I met Prashant outside my building early in the morning on Saturday. We had to dash towards the bus as we thought we would mess up the schedule if didn’t! But there were others who took good care of that :)

We started having our doubts about the bus driver when he couldn’t tell which way Kandivli was! After a lot of running around near Borivli station, the bus was finally in motion and moving in the right direction at 6:00AM.

We picked up Malli and Yamuna at Thakur complex, Kandivli East at 6:10AM. When I called up Karan, he said it’ll be a while till he reaches the TOI Building at Malad East. He somehow managed to be there in time though Prashant decided to stay away from Karan when he said that he hadn’t bathed properly ;)

As the bus set in motion towards Goregaon, Prashant had started to experience emotions he’d never felt before. He knew that the love of his life would meet him at the next pick-up point! He stood by the door of the bus and thought he’d do a ‘Shahrukh Khan’ from ‘Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge’ and lend his hand to a beautiful ‘Kajol’ running towards him.

But unfortunately the ‘Kajol’ waiting at Goregaon turned out to be ‘Ajay Devgan’ instead and Prashant realized his worst fears when the person on the bus stop was not a girl but a guy named ‘Tamagna’. This was the second time a Bengali babu had screwed Prashant’s happiness. No prizes for guessing the first one – Apna Soura Ray! :)

We kept on picking up people on the way. Luckily, most of them were on time – Arokia and Calvin at Andheri, Ashok and Dhanesh at Santacruz and Milind at Bandra. The bus was scheduled to be outside Sion station at 6:45AM. We picked up Smitha, Preetha, Pradip and Priya (who’d traveled for around an hour to get here on time!); but we were in for a surprise! Bharat and his friend Kailash would also meet us at Sion but an hour late! The duo arrived around 60mins later (stating “60mins” sounds like much more time has passed than stating “1hr”! Helps you kick-in the guilt!)

We left for Chembur at around 7:45AM and picked up Nawab sahib Hrishikesh who was also late by 15-20mins! The next stop was at Deonar to pick up Sonali who almost boarded some other bus. Her excuse was “mujhe toh har jagah Preetha hi dikhti hain!”

The final pick-up point was Vashi Center-one mall where Deepti, Payal, Hari and Anand boarded the bus. Our gang of 23 was now complete!

4. Breakfast at Kamat’s

We halted for breakfast at Kamat’s near Panvel. The place was as busy as the New York airport on a Christmas weekend! The waiter reminded me of ‘Squiward’ from ‘Spongebob square pants’ – with his eight hands handing out plates to eight different customers. I’m not even sure if everyone got what they’d originally ordered! I’m just glad that Malli didn’t work there as she couldn’t tell the difference between a token number indicator and a digital clock. Each time they called out “token 908” she thought it was eight minutes past nine!

There was so much confusion that I totally missed out on ordering breakfast for Deepti and Bharat. We ordered Dosa for Bharat and Mosambi juice for Deepti. Deepti said that it was difficult for her to gulp down the juice knowing that it didn’t contain a single ounce of Vodka! ;) We ensured that no one left the restaurant on an empty stomach. Everyone would need all the energy to scale the fort in this humid climate!

We left for Pali at around 10:00AM. We knew that we were way behind schedule but we knew that we could still complete the trek!

5. Reaching Pali

After reaching Pali, we were not sure about the way to Pachchapur – the base village to reach Sudhagad. We asked a lot of people but we still weren’t clear about the directions they gave us. We stopped the bus at a small shop and purchased some bottles of water. Few of us had a couple of glasses of Lassi at that place. We could spot a fort right over our heads. We were almost sure that this one was Sudhagad, but almost all of the people whom we asked for directions told us that Sudhagad was a little further away.


Convenience seemed more important than correctness and we decided to scale the fort in sight considering that it was indeed Sudhagad! We asked a couple of children to show us the way. They did show us the way to the fort but not once did they say that this fort was Sarasgad not Sudhagad!

6. The trek begins

We started off towards the top of the fort with great gusto. We spotted a huge butterfly that scared the wits out of Milind and Karan who walking ahead of all of us! We walked for a few more minutes when we saw a bunch of cows and buffaloes grazing. One of the cattle saw Smitha and got the shock of its life. It took us quite some time to calm the poor creature down (The buffalo not Smitha!)


It must’ve taken a toll on Smitha too ‘cos she seemed to be totally exhausted within minutes of the trek. The heat was getting to her and she decided that it would be better if she didn’t continue with the rest of us. We were really concerned about leaving her alone over there (For the safety of the buffaloes of course!). But Deepti and Yamuna also decided to stay back with Smitha. We left the trio at that spot and continued towards the top of the fort.

7. Half-way up there


We’d reached almost half-way when we saw the rest of the gang – the ones ahead of us – resting in the shade of small shrubs. The heat was getting to most of us as we scaled up the slopes of the mountain. Preetha was feeling the heat but Glucon-D and Electral were always there to the rescue.

After waiting there for a few minutes, Milind, Karan and I headed off towards the small rock patch towards the fort. Hari and Anand were already way ahead of us. We reached the base of the rock patch and decided to rest in the shade of the trees for a while.

The entire gang joined us within a couple minutes. We were all enjoying the occasional shade and the cool winds that helped us maintain our sanity. Priya had brought some home-made sandwiches which disappeared as soon as they were out of her bag! Karan, Dhanesh, Anand and Hari missed this welcome bite as they had already crossed the rock patch.

The rock patch seemed to be an easy one most of us, but certainly not for those with the slightest fear of heights. We decided to work as a team and collect everyone’s bags and stack them on the top of the patch. Climbing the patch without your bags on your shoulders certainly gives you more confidence.

Milind, Karan and I stood by the rock patch to help the others climb to the other side. Hrishikesh seemed to have turned pale during his turn. I think I saw the Tattoo of the Lion on his shoulder let out a soft purr like that of a pussy-cat :) but he conquered his fears well enough and we all managed to reach the base of the fort at the Rock cut steps.

Tamagna and Pradip weren’t feeling too great at this point. They decided to call it quits and stated that they didn’t have the energy to proceed further. I handed over my last packet of ElectralTM power to them as we proceeded towards the rock cut steps leading to the entrance of the fort.

8. Finally here!


The rock cuts steps which led to the fort were huge and steep. It would be an ideal way to burn fat off your hips and buns if you went up and down the stairs a couple of times, In case of Ashok probably a few more times would do the trick :)


The walk on the steps proved to be tiresome for some but the shade made it easier for the rest of us. Within a few minutes we were at one of the Darwajas (door) of the fort. We decided to explore the fort before settling down for lunch.

9. Hey this doesn’t look like Sudhagad!


After walking around the fort for few minutes, we could see small caves and ponds. We had to walk through tall blades of dense grass. The grass was easily 6feet tall at a few places. Prashant already had his doubts as he thought that the terrain did not resemble the one shown in the websites we’d checked out before we embarked upon this journey.

I had a firm belief that we were on Sudhagad. Milind and I tried to search every nook and corner of the fort, but we could not find the ‘Chor Vaat’ mentioned in one of those websites.

We stopped at a pond where we could see some fish and clean water. We were all so tired that we decided to cool off in the small water tank. Karan didn’t hesitate to take his shirt off, but to his dismay Preetha and Sonali caught a glimpse of him in his topless Avatar. Last I heard from the two of them was that they were undergoing therapy as they still suffer from horrible nightmares! ;)


Once the girls were repelled by Karan, we were sure that they wouldn’t cross the imaginary ‘Laxmanrekha’ drawn by him. We all got rid of our T-shirts and entered the tank one by one. The water was cool and we exercised extra caution as this was an unfamiliar territory to us. We got out of the pool and went and sat with the rest of the gang who, by now, had already finished more than half of the food items they had carried for the trek.


From Theplas to eggs, from bread-butter to Apples we finished of everything in sight. We were all quite relaxed by now as we were basking in the shade of the fort. Cool winds blowing over our faces never before seemed so divine.


After a few group photos, we were all set to come down the mountain. The rock cut steps and the rock patch now seemed a little easier as people seemed to have more confidence in themselves while getting down. But before we reached the half-way mark most of us started to feel tired again. Our knees started to buckle due to pain and made us to trip, fall and slide like there was no tomorrow.

At one particular point, we all felt like there was a sudden earthquake. The whole world seemed to have stopped in that second. But the earthquake was a false alarm; it was actually Ashok’s behind making love to the green grass below. Ashok had such a nasty fall that he left behind a crater the size of Halley’s Comet! Last I heard from the villagers was that they were planning to start a new civilization in that crater!

We could see three small specs waving at us in the distance. Yes this was indeed the trio of Smitha, Deepti and Yamuna. They made their way back to wards the bus so that they could arrange for some potable water for the rest of us.

After a lot of slipping and falling, we finally made it back to the base where we’d parked our Bus. There was a small well at the base. We requested one of the ladies drawing water from the well to lend her pail to us. The villagers were very friendly. It was now that we were told that we’d scaled Sarasgad not Sudhagad. Sudhagad was around 10kms away from this place. They said that this was the best time to visit Sudhagad as the villagers celebrate Navratri with zest. They said that the villagers decorate the fort and set up a variety of food-stalls on top of the fort. I guess we really missed going there.

While most of washed our hands and feet with the clean water from the well, Milind and I almost took a bath o’er there. It was really refreshing. We were careful not to disturb the lovely turtles in the well who weren’t shy to make an appearance every one and then.

After an hour or so, we were back on our way towards Mumbai. Milind said that he’d spotted a ‘Kokum juice’ center close by. We got off the bus and bought some Kokum juice and some Amla juice for everyone.

10. Jangal jangal baat chali hain…

Prashant was in great spirits on our way back home. He initiated the singing session ‘Malvan panya madhe killa…’ and started taking everyone’s case (Especially Milind and Karan’s). I’m sure Milind will never wear those shorts on a trek again as the gang couldn’t stop dedicating ‘Jangal Jangal baat chali hain…’ to his lovely shorts.

After a lot songs depicting male love for each other, Karan decided that it was better if he swapped seats next to Sonali instead of being seated next to Milind. Sonali threw an atomic bomb on Karan when she asked him if the songs being sung had a fragment of truth in them!

After sometime, Milind, Karan and I decided to start our own singing session to put Prashant back in standby mode. Prashant instantly did his usual Nakhras of having signs of headache and stopped his tape recorder in no time.


We dropped off everyone at their respective pick-up points one after the other on our way back from Kamat’s restaurant. We were all back home by around 10:30-11:00PM with sore muscles, aching bones but a lot more memories of good times spent with friends old and new alike.

- Vish