The Jivdani (Goddess of Life) temple Yatra, amidst Virar local horror

 The Jivdani (Goddess of Life) temple Yatra, amidst Virar local horror

(22/03/2014)

My climbing up seven floors daily at my office building has become so noticeable that people started asking me  as to why don’t I use the elevator?  Or am I a sportswoman, which of course I am not, and blah blah. My answer to them all would be,” I love walking.” And ever since my office people came to know about this, they wouldn’t stop suggesting me about the places to visit in and around, where I can walk and trek. And one of the places they recommended me recently was ‘Jivdani Temple’ located at the hilltop of Virar, which has more than 1400 steps to climb up to.

So, this weekend though I had no plans at all, for the days being busy and tiring at office, I felt like resting., but in the morning when I was sitting with my Laptop, Rishika, one of my roommates came and asked, “so, what’s the plan for the day?” , I instinctively said,”Ghumne chalna toh bol?” 

She said,” Really, let’s go, but where?”

“Let’s go to Jivdani temple.” I said,   and all of a sudden the plan for the day was made. Lovely, another roommate of ours from Kerala, also agreed to join.

We browsed through the net for getting information about the best time to visit, and came to know that we should go either in the morning to view serene environment amidst of rising sun or visit in the evening to view the beautiful sunset. As our morning was already over, we decided to go in the evening.

We left home at 3:00 pm, and boarded a Virar train from Borivali. And gosh! For the first time I realized as to why my friends, who had been to Mumbai before me, always warned me against boarding a Virar train. I always wondered, and then that day I got the answer after the real experience I had.  We didn’t get seats at that hour of the day even, when it’s not even the peak hour, i.e. morning or evening when all the population would be commuting to and fro for their work places.

"The never ending Nightmare at Virar station"

With great difficulty, we managed to tuck into the train and stand in between the huge crowd. The very next moment the train stopped at another station named Dahisar, where few people got out of the train, and many of them got into it, dragging hard their bodies, at the same time using their hard tongues, rebuking, shouting and yelling at others and making their way by pushing everybody. Lovely pulled herself in a corner. Rishika and I were still in the middle, when a giant or huge lady of 45-50 yrs old, weighing around 200 kgs. (I shapath I am not exaggerating) came between us pushing us badly, and soon we two were at two different corners, with expressions of wonder on our faces.  The wonder didn’t stop here, as after reaching Virar Station after 45-50 minutes, we kept standing there speechless, the moment we saw the crowd. Hell, where did they come from? Mumbai’s population and crowd was nothing if we compare it with Virar’s. Oh God, the moment we walked near the staircase, leading to the bridge, to cross the platforms to go to Virar (E), we were stuck in a long queue, which seemed to be not moving.  It took us another 20 minutes to cross the bridge, which normally would take less than 2 minutes to do so. We were breathless, and when we got out of it alive, we couldn’t resist seeing and observing the never ending crowd for a while before proceeding towards the temple. And then I realized the root cause of the hardened and frustrated faces of people around, lacking peace of minds. How can someone be at peace, when he has to wake up early in the morning to travel two hours to his workplace, struggling and fighting to get seat or even a place to stand in the train, then work like a machine at office due to heavy loads of work, and in the evening has to go through same struggle for train? By the time he reaches home, he is exhausted; mentally as well as physically. How can someone be at peace when he doesn’t have the time at his disposal to talk to himself, not to speak of his family?  Sigh…God do something, I pray!

"The happy faces, while climbing the stairs"

Then to resume our yatra, we hired a shared auto, which charged us Rs. 10 per person, and reached the base of the temple in 15 minutes. And there it was, as my office people described, a beautifully made, white temple, dedicated to one of the Hindu Goddess, namely Jivdani, meaning Goddess of life on the hill top, the mere sight of which wiped away our prior apprehension of Virar Local train and station. And to reach at the temple, we had to climb more than 1400 steps, which were wide and well maintained with shades and resting places at every point. Though there was a Ropeway too, but we preferred to walk, and as per Lovely’s wish to use the Ropeway while coming down later. As we climbed higher and higher, we came closer to the beautiful view below. We rested almost at every 100 or 150^th step, posing for camera and taking pictures of the surrounding views. And, It was all fun. :-)

"And, the beautiful temple at the hilltop"

And once we reached at the top, we went “WOW”!  The view from the topmost point looked just ‘Awesome’. We could see the entire Virar city as well as the nearby places. Everything looked awesome; the roads, the houses which looked like small cardboards or a town plan map, the lakes, the Arabian sea etc. etc. and the best was the Sun-set, for which we had to wait a little more. But when the sun was at its verge to set, turning everything into orange, it was beautiful and soulfully touching.

"The beautiful view from the top, and the beautiful feelings within"

We paid our obeisance to the Goddess, spent more than an hour at the top, and then booked tickets for the Ropeway for getting down, which also was a beautiful experience. 

"The soul-touching view of sun-set"

We spent few times at the Lake, just near the Virar Railway station, as per Rishika’s wish, which looked quite beautiful as the reflection of the lights around as well as of the skywalk above, made it shine and sparkle nicely. And then we returned home happily and fully satisfied.

 

"Destination last, the beautiful Lake"

 (As always the day was A-Awesome…All smilesJJJ)

The Peb misadventure and lessons learnt.

The Peb misadventure and lessons learnt.

(15^th March 2014)

The Holi weekend, when I realized that we had three holidays at a stretch including Saturday, Sunday and Monday, I thought of making a good use of it. I called up Ruchi and Kapila, the beautiful newly married couple cum my friends, and asked them to plan out for the weekend. They agreed immediately, and after a lot of speculation over where to go, on the night of Friday, we ended up taking our decision for the Peb fort trek. Now if I ask my Marathi friends, as well as my office colleagues about Peb, they raise their eye brows,” Peb, where the hell is this place?” But never wonder, it is a lesser known hill fort, where very few people, especially the mountain lovers go. I got it from the website of some trekking groups, when last year after almost finishing exploring Mumbai, I was looking for places around Mumbai. And a mountain lover I am, and from the last few treks to some of the places at Western Ghats, I got really tempted to explore more of it. So here goes the account of our trek to Peb fort, which is also known as Vikatghat, and the final destination of it, is a temple dedicated to Pebi Devi, at the topmost point of the hill.

We set out from home at 6:30 am, with well packed food and 3-4 liters of water. We boarded the 7:15 am Karjat Local train from Ghatkopar, and reached Neral at around 8:45 am. We hired an Auto from the Station, which drove us from the interior of Neral for about 2 Kms and dropped us at the point from where we were supposed to trek. Everything seemed quite good and the mountains quite alluring. Unlike my earlier treks, this trek took us to the dry mountains and de-forested land through dusty village pathways. We kept walking till we found a well, where we rested for a while, before taking the upward journey. We enquired from the locals about the way and time it takes to go up. As per their information, we guessed that we will be up at the top in 3 hours. One of the village man offered to accompany us as a guide, but the over-confidence we had in ourselves made us reject the proposal with a huge grin.

 The initial trail was smooth. We kept following the electric poles, from the third one of which we were supposed to take a left for the trek. We didn’t mind to make our own ways in between, wherever we found something tempting in some parts of the jungle. The de-forested barren mountain, with few shrubs and small trees was just full of peace, and there was no trace of civilization there. Only three of us in that wide barren mountain, trying our luck to get on the right trail, as there seemed multiple ways, some of which would have been just used by wood-cutters and out of them one would be the right way to the top.

 We had been walking continuously for 2 hours, when we saw a man coming with logs of wood on his head. We asked the way to the fort, and he gave us direction, telling us to follow some Nallah/Stream (dried of course) and then walk straight. As per our calculation we were on right track, until we reached the end point of Nallah, where there was a dried waterfall, which I imagined as a beautiful, full of life waterfall, surrounded by greenery in a rainy season. We heard some noise and looked up towards its source. There were two trekkers, who said that they have lost their way, and they were taking some other way. I asked Kapila if we could follow them. But he said that we might be mis-led, so better find our own way. We all agreed. By that time our bellies also started making noises, so we decided to find a shady place and have our lunch. Till here everything was just perfect. We all were full of excitement and energy. And wherever we liked, we didn’t mind to pose, especially Ruchi and I, Kapila being the photographer of the day. :P Ruchi’s specialty; She packed everything, from bed sheet to tissues, not to speak of food, onion, cucumber, pickles, lemon and a knife. After the food, she made nimbu pani, which was the most delicious of all. We couldn’t stop admiring her for all that. So, up till here everything was like a perfect family picnic. The real story starts now. : P

So, after satisfying our hungry bellies and quenching our thirst, we followed a trail, which seemed to have been walked over earlier, and we guessed that we were on the right track. But suddenly, that trail ended, which would have been used by the woodcutters. Then what? We looked at each other, and then looked up. It seemed from below that a steep rise of 20 minutes could lead us to the top of that layer of mount, from where we could walk on the hill behind, where lies the trail towards the destination.  And in a state of excitement, we decided to take that un-walked, steep track to take a shortcut. We ignored the lessons our parents had given us as children, “Never take the short cut, for short cut means ‘death.’’” Hmm

"that dangerously risky point, after which we couldn't dare to take out our camera..." :P

And bingo! They were right. We soon realized it, when after 20 minutes trek upward, the slope did not end, and instead from there we were face to face with same top with same distance which we saw from below. All our assumptions proved wrong. We were breathlessly climbing through rough, bushy terrain, literally crawling on our knees. The loose soil made the climb even more challenging, as we had to struggle hard to catch hold on the dry bushes, pulling ourselves up to prevent every slip. And a point came, where there was nothing to hold our hand to and to balance our steps below. Then kapila jumped over to the nearby tree and pulled us up turn by turn, my feet slipping out of my floaters, when I realized that I am supposed to inculcate a habit of wearing shoes, which I avoid a lot. That was the most difficult climb for us all. We rested there for a while, drinking water, and resumed our trek. We had been climbing for almost for more than an hour now, but the mountain was just never ending. One point came after another endlessly, but our resources ended. Ruchi was on the verge of crying, when she said that she can’t climb further, still we were climbing with the hope that may be a little more and we might be lucky to get through. Before deciding finally, I said that I will walk up one more point and check if things are going to work or not. I climbed briskly at a stretch to reach the top of a black rock, taking it as the last point, but disappointment rushed through my head to toe when after reaching there, I was face to face with yet another layer. I sat and lied there for a while gasping for my breaths, then Kapila called, asking for the situation. Later he also came up, and when I pulled the water bottle out of my bag to offer it to him, we realized that only few drops of water we were left with. He denied it, and told to save it for Ruchi and me. But I realized Ruchi needed it more, as being born and brought up in plains of Rajasthan, Delhi and Mumbai, I felt the kind of pain she had been going through then, which kind of became unbearable for a mountain dweller like me too.  And since there seemed no way to reach the destination, and the scorching heat of super-shining sun falling straight on our eyes, penetrating deep into our heads, making it swirl, and the dried boiling mountain which seemed to be waiting for its beloved Monsoon, made us feel as if we were being fried on a hot pan, we finally decided to give up and save our lives to visit again in rainy season to finish the unfinished trek.

 

"wanderdust rose outa wanderlust, but the feeling was great..."";-)

Ruchi had the last drops of water, and then we started our climb down, dragging ourselves through the hot loose soil, struggling through same dried bushes, the gift of which we all got in the form of scratches, bruises and mud all over our bodies. Throughout the way we were worried about that point where we climbed dangerously, feeling apprehensive of how to get down of that point. But when we reached down, we realized that we came through yet another way and missed that point, and we felt glad.

We had no water with us, and we were walking back facing sun straight, Ruchi chanting,”Pani, pani, pani…” but there was no trace of water, and we kept walking with the hope of reaching up to the well, where we would quench our thirst. On the way we met four college boys, aiming the destination ‘Peb fort’, asking for the way. We told them our tale, telling them to be careful. We asked for water, and gulped few drops each. It was around 3 pm when we finally reached the Well. But disappointment rose in us, when we saw little black fishes, so many of them in the well. Without drinking water we walked ahead. Then we met few village girls, from whom we asked if we could get some water. They pointed to a house and told us to go there. We did likewise, and the woman of the house came out with a pitcher full of water, with a jug. We drank the water like anything, finishing more than half of the huge pitcher. Kapila offered them some cash out of courtesy. Really it was worth anything. That water made us alive again and we could resume our journey back.

 

"Dear Peb, we gonna come again. till then good bye...."" :-)

We reached home at around 6:00 pm, and we were full of mixed feelings. Everything just felt like a dream. But overall it was awesome and memorable. One lesson before every adventure,” Be prepared & don’t use short-cut, esp. when it looks chocolaty tempting.””

(Waiting now for monsoon to walk up the 25% of the unfinished trail, till then all smiles. J)

A peaceful visit to Global Vipassana Pagoda, Mumbai

A peaceful visit to Global Vipassana Pagoda, Mumbai

(22^nd February 2014)

Hello Mumbaikars! Do you know one of the 7 wonders of Maharastra State, declared by Maharashtra Tourism dept. is in your city? Well, some of my friends, who have been born and brought up in Mumbai, do not know it.

Last weekend a quick instinct made me plan a day out to the Pagoda. Though my plan for the day was to visit my bank for some official paperwork, for which Kapila, a friend of mine sent a reminder message, saying, “Get up, you got to visit your bank today.”  But I have always put paperwork and office tours on my tertiary list, and most of my documents would be made at the last moment when there is no other way, but to get it done on some urgent basis. For example, I had no proof of my being a citizen of this country till I completed my postgraduate and when later everywhere I was asked to produce an ID proof while applying for some exams and all. Hmm.

And on 22^nd Feb. also, I felt like postponing the bank visit to some other Saturday, as soon as the word ‘Golden Pagoda’ started ringing in my head, like an alarm clock. As Deepali and I had got done with the breakfast at 11:00 am, I said,” Hey, just get ready, we will go to Golden Pagoda today.” She wasn’t surprised with the instant planning, as by now she is aware of my impetuous instincts, and said,” OK, let’s go then.” And we both smiled widely at each other.

We boarded the train to Borivali, and from Borivali (w), we hired an Auto to Gorai Khadi, from where we were supposed to take a Ferry ride of 15 minutes towards Essel World. From Essel World, a 5-10 minutes’ walk towards its left took us to the Pagoda. Though you can have a beautiful glimpse of the Pagoda from the Khadi and Ferry ride, but once you reach at the Pagoda gate itself, you just remain awestruck, and admire the massiveness and beauty of the Pagoda from there for few moments, before grasping yourself to enter its premises. Peace prevails there, surrounded by clean environment, which you hardly get to see in Mumbai.

As we go by the story, the Pagoda was a gift or a tribute to India as a sense of gratitude, for being the birth place of Buddhism by Sayagi U Ba Khin, from Mayanmar, founder of Vipassana Meditation tradition of Lord Buddha, and whose Indian student, S.N. Goenka , a Padma Vibhushan was a pioneer in teaching and spreading this tradition in India.

As we walked up and up towards the main Pagoda, we kept stopping at every point, where we got to admire the architectural marvels in the form of Statues, Buddha’s’ relics, huge Prayer bells and Prayer drums with words of Dhamma engraved on the walls. The main pagoda was huge, which could accommodate around 8000 people in it, and which we came to know is the largest dome in the world, made without a single pillar to support it. The height of the Pagoda is 99 mtrs. And there are two other smaller pagodas on its south and north. After we had finished the Parikarma of the main dome, we sat at the nearby garden, with a beautiful fountain and Budha’s Statue, for more than half an hour; meditating, contemplating and washing our polluted spirits clean. ;-)

Then we started descending back and on the way, the direction arrows took us to Video-Audio and Picture galleries, depicting the life stories of Buddha and Vipassana tradition of mediation. It took us around 3 hours to complete the whole chakra of the Pagoda, and at around 4:30 pm, we got out of it with fully satisfied hearts.

To all the Mumbaikars or to others as well, I recommend a visit to the Pagoda, which will take only few hours of your busy schedule, but will give you a soul touching experience of your lifetime. And also, if any of you want to learn Vipassana tradition of meditation, there are courses they provide free of cost.

As for me, I am thinking of taking the 10 day course, once I accumulate my leave balance, which I’ve exhausted by now.

So, here I end the note with the quote of our great teacher, S.N. Goenka ,“ When one experiences truth, the madness of finding fault with others disappear.”

(“It was again an A-Awesome outing. Keep smiling JJJ: Nawi)