Madh
Island to Jogeshwari Caves via Versova Beach.
(23/06/2013)
As my
Saturday was reserved for Dan Brown’s Inferno,
I asked Dev, one of our friends, who is fond of photography, if we can go on a
trek to Karnala fort on Sunday, to which he agreed as usual. But in the morning,
when I texted him, saying ‘At what time
shall we leave’, he did reply after 2 hours,” We will go next week.”
Huh. He is the kind of man to procrastinate things, lazing around. Lol
So,
what then? I didn’t want to waste my Sunday! Moreover, though the journey to Inferno was still not complete, I could
do that in between, as very few pages were left. So, my sudden plan to visit Madh Island, to which Deepali also
agreed to come. And, two of us set out at around 11:30 for Madh Island, which
took us around half an hour to reach there. And in contrast to the beautiful
images posted in Google, Madh Island was quite the opposite; it’s like seeing
the other side of the Metro, all polluted water, the beach encroached by the
fishing community, stinking air all around. I could feel how Deepali would have
felt as I read her expressions. Lol. The
moment we got down of the auto, we both looked left and right; on the right was
Madh Island cum Beach and on the left was L & T’s Madh Campus. As the
campus seemed quite attractive, we decided to trespass it. Quickly we were
inside, and yes we both were mesmerized by the beautiful sight. No one was
there, so after a while’s hesitation we made it our comfort zone and went in exploring
it. Though it wasn’t that big, but it was full of greenery, and adding to its
beauty, was a small and clean water pond, where we sat for hours. There was no
noise except for the melodious songs, sung by different birds, which were quite
soothing to our tired souls. J So, the
disappointment on seeing the Madh Island was made up by Madh Campus. Heaving
sighs of relief and clicking some pictures, we left with fresh minds & good
memories to carry along.
Then,
from Madh Island we took the ferry to go to Versova,
and there we made the sudden plan to visit Jogeshwari caves, as we had
enough time at our disposal. And yes, our decision was perfect. Jogeshwari
caves were worth a watch. (Whereas pre-plan always fails in my case, the sudden
instinctive decisions always work wonders, which made me a girl to shun
planning and live the present moment.)
As
per the historic accounts, the caves date back to 6th and 7th
century, carved by Buddhist monks. It’s dedicated to Mata Jogeshwari, from whom
the place got its name. Compared to Mandapeshwar caves, these caves are larger
in size and more spacious. There were temples at different ends of the caves; just
after the entrance was the temple of Mata
Jogeshwari. And as we happened to come on vad savitri day, the wife of the
pujari was fasting and offered prashaad. She told that during Navratras, so
many visitors come that it’s hard to get a glimpse of the Mata, not to speak of
paying obeisance from so close a distance. I said,” So, I am the lucky one, to
have a good darshan of Mata ji.” J
Then,
moving forward and crossing some rock cut gates, we reached the ‘temple of Lord Ganesha’, which was
quite broad and painted fully orange in color. It seemed that these places
would have been used as preaching centers for the monks in the past.
We
kept going ahead, and enquired from some local children, if there is more to
see? And they guided us up to the top, where there was a small temple of lord Hanuman ji. It’s here
that we saw, some students, studying their textbooks. Of course in the
tranquility of the caves, I guess more could they grasp in their minds. These
kids seemed to live in the small houses, less like slums, which have encroached
over most part of the caves. It’s not their fault of course, for the pace with
which our population is exploding; we cannot preserve our past treasures for
long, no matter how hard we try.
Then
we descended down and moved towards left, where at the corner was located the
temple dedicated to ‘Lord Shiva’. Though
the caves are said to be old, the pillars and some of the carvings seemed to be
the latest. We paid our obeisance there and roamed around the suuoundings for a
little while more, and then we left, completely satisfied with the tour. Oh I
forgot to tell you, another aspect of the caves, which attracted my attention
lovingly, were the ‘Pigeons’; a lot
no. of them, who have made the walls of the caves their home. So, they seemed
to be the real cave dwellers, sitting and clinging there on the walls, guarding
their homes with full pride. LOL
Still
more to explore, ciao. Keep smiling
always. JJJ
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