Gorai Beach

As a west coast boy, I always wondered what it would be like to witness sunrise at a sea. I was always ready to compromise my morning sleep, but I just didn't get the chance to travel to the eastern coast of the country. Lately, I found this beautiful beach in Mumbai and since then it has been a routine to spend every Saturday evening there. 

One can't forget this symbolic golden dome like structure that comes enroute to the beach. It was erected by the Essel World authorities to make a mark on Mumbai's map. And yes, you have to take a ferry from Borivali to cross a hundred meters or so patch of creek. Else, next available option is to travel all the way 30 kms by roadway. Auto-rickshaws and buses are available from the ferry point to get to the beach.

The best thing about Gorai beach is that the water is really shallow and calm. And when people are aimlessly walking on the beach, it creates illusion of walking on the water. Another thing is, people with not so brave hearts can also enjoy the sea. (Most of my friends would fall under this category.) During low tides, you could actually walk and touch those little fishing boats resting on the shore.

It seems to be just the perfect place to go footloose. Most of the people bring their vehicles to the beach for a nice run and ultimately end up getting stuck in the sand. It's been a number of times, me and my friends have helped the drivers to get their cars out of the mud. But I guess it's worth it. May be, even I would like to do that stupidity when I get a car on my own.

Most people would enjoy the sea from a distance without getting themselves wet. I have no respect for those kind of people. (This is my argument when my friends laugh out loud, at me whenever I can't resist my urge to take a swim in the oceans.)

Apart from all these jokes, the beach gets its real beauty in night. Believe me when I say, I even swam in those shallow waters, under the moonlight. Drifting like a wooden log, facing that dark grey sky, on those lazy waves covered in a shiny white blanket of moonlight. Indeed, an experience of a lifetime!

Way By The Sea

Marine drive may be the first place that pops up in most people's minds when they talk about Mumbai. May be that's how we are fed images of the place through Bollywood cinemas. A beautiful curve, blinding lights, tall buildings, classical horse-buggies and a Gucci showroom that boasts of its royalty. I hate those skyscrapers, they make me feel how small I am. But it's good in a way, you know that you have new heights to climb. Motivational stuff!

For most Mumbaikars, it's the sea that lures them. I am no exception. We used to spend hours watching that calm, sleepy sea at warm nights. I won't exaggerate it to level of a spiritual gateway, but all of a sudden, you have all the time in the world to yourself. The world starts moving in slow motion. You achieve what they call it as solitude! It gets really buggy when you are deep in your thoughts about life and other such heavy matters and then a Chaiwala comes and tries to sell you some tea  and cigarettes. Or the eunuchs disturbing a 'busy' couple, trying to earn a buck. Or a rare roar of a distant mighty motorcycle. 

This road is just the perfect place for some burn down. If you are lucky enough, you might even get to witness a street race. It all can be associated with the glamour in the city.

Those rock there always reminded me of my chemistry teacher. She once taught us what a CH4 molecule looks like and its resemblance these rocks. 

On a completely different note of memory, I used to laugh my ass off seeing those helpless tiny crabs walking on and falling from those rock structures. Never felt pity for them, but she did. Told me. Life is full of struggle. In the city. Of blinding lights. 

Experiencing Chennai

     It's been two weeks since I moved to Chennai. This phase of "exploring city" is more like a new marriage. You are enthusiastic and open to new ideas. I have been roaming in prominent parts of the city, trying to absorb as much as I could. The city seems good. Big and beautiful, blessed with a long coastline. Some of my friends would completely disagree saying that, it's a shitty place. I mean, if you have this pre-determined notion in  mind about a place, howsoever beautiful a place might be, it's gonna look shitty to you. And I don't blame them, it's just human nature.

Chennai Central

     Chennai is more like Russia. They don't speak English (or Hindi for that matter), taxis are a scam, and they talk of communism all the time. The people have helping nature nonetheless. A few days ago, I had to go Marina beach and I was asking a passerby for directions. He didn't understand Hindi or English. He might have just picked the word 'Marina' and figured that I wanted to go there. And of course he know that I don't know Tamil, still he is explaining me in Tamil. I mean it's not his fault or I am not undervaluing his help or anything like that. I was just staring at him while he was talking. He was talking with so much dedication, so much efforts that I had to nod my head in approval, as if I understood every single word. After ten steps, I asked someone, who could speak Hindi, for helping me out. One more incident. I was going to my place in Kazhipattur by bus and I pronounced it as what it sounds. And then this bus-conductor tells me its Kaipattur not Kazhipattur, making me repeat till I get it right.

     The language barrier. For the first time in my life, I felt diversity as an issue. Imagine entire India speaking the same language, there would have been no IPL. Jokes apart, we really need to think over this "issue".

     Till now, I had this thought that only Ahmadabad is something that could be called as the city of malls. But Chennai is giving it tough competition. Spencer's and Express Avenue are really something (And perhaps the only places to spot some hot chicks). One shouldn't miss them on his Chennai trip. Four floors of pure awe each. Marina beach, Basy beach, Broken Bridge are some other places to see. I had heard a lot about Marina Beach but when I witnessed for myself, it was just another beach full of people.

     I am still exploring new places in Chennai. The thing I noticed about myself and my friend Madhu is that we wouldn't go to certain kind of places, howsoever good they are. Like museums or zoos or art galleries. Turns out, we are missing something in our lives.

Robbers' Cave at Dehradun

     We all grew up hearing bedtime stories about how Alibaba found a robbers' cave and enjoyed all the gold for the rest of his life. Probably even fantasized about finding one ourselves. Just never thought such a place would exist in Dehradun. Don't get your hopes high; it doesn't have any more gold left in it.

     At my first glance, the place looked like an extended gutter. Only after exploring further, I found sheer awesomeness. As they say, never judge a book by its cover.


     The place was like a passage for water to flow through those rocks. It pops two things in mind: The Grand Canyon and 127 Hours movie.  The rocks were corroded by water smooth, just like pebbles. It is ironic that a thing as hard as rock can be so smooth. It was getting narrower and deeper as we moved inside. The ankle deep water level soon became knee deeper. Though the water looked brownish, it wasn't dirty at all. I mean no plastic garbage in it. Just water with some soil in  it. Plastic garbage shows the existence of human race at a place. If you find a place without it, you can be sure that it's untouched, virgin!

     We were getting closer to water source. Discrete drops of water falling downwards were just adding up to the experience. Sunlight was getting rarer as we went deeper. Or should I just say, it was getting more awesome! At the end of the cave, it  went more than 7 feet deep. It felt good to drown in such a compact place, just like a cavity. I might be able to describe it down fully because it was an experience that can't be expressed in words. Indeed one of the best places I have explored. 

What's With the Ship?

     It's not everyday you see such a large vessel parked so elegantly on a beach. You must have seen this beauty making it to evening news for a past couple of days. For those without a clue, it's an abandoned Srilankan ship, named MV Wisdom, drifted to Juhu beach while being towed away to some scrap yard in Gujarat.  I don't understand why's everybody making such a big fizz about it. Authorities burning down cash to move the bloody thing. They don't freaking understand: It has become as unmoving as the sea itself. 

     People have doubts: Where did it come from, where's it going, why isn't that moving, is it broke? But the big question to me is why do they want to move that thing? It ain't eating nobody. And how many beaches in the world have such a vessel parked at? None! It really looks awesome this way. The beach has witnessed more tourist than ever. People pouring from all side to have a glimpse of this thing. My friends had been talking about it and today I couldn't control the urge to see it myself. It is nice to know how amazing things can happen in India. They should let people enjoy it for a while. May be, they should use it for something like a hotel, museum or just open it for public to see from inside. I am sure people would be ready spare few bucks to see it. I would pay. If they still want to move it, there are two possibilities. First, the authorities don't want people to be happy. Second, they are fools. 

The ship at Juhu beach

The 108 Feet Tall Hanuman

      I get a funny feeling whenever I see this place. The huge Hanuman statue, also known as 108 feet Sankat Mochan Dham, is situated right in the middle of Delhi. It is weird to see such a enormous, unmoving, orange statue amongst all those tall, concrete buildings with shining glasses on them. Amongst all those honking cars, those flashing lights, all the crowd, all the ad-boards. It points out distinctively amongst them. But it looks kind of beautiful. The only thing that disturbs its beauty is the snobby, immortal metro line laid in front of it. India has developed. And so its people. But its amazing to see that people here are still religious and that's a good thing as per me. People buy a new laptop, but before turning it on, they burst a coconut and put up a swastika on it. Funny!

     It looks to me like as if proud Hanuman is watching the city, its people, their deeds, its progress, its filth. If you see closely, he is protecting Lord Ram and Sita, behind his palms, in his chest. It is derived from that part of Ramayan where Hanuman is asked to open up his chest and when he does, they find Ram and Sita resting there. The statue also poses as he crushes the head of a devil with his foot. It implies the victory of good over bad and such similar religious stuff.

     There's more. The open mouth of the lying devil is entrance to the temple having idols of lord Ram and Sita. The core looked just like any other temple. That might be because I am not such a religious. Irrelevant! If you are driving around the Carol Baugh area, Take your heads out of car windows and look up. He shouldn't be too hard to spot.

Entrance to the temple

The Last British Hill Station

There couldn't be any quicker runaway for a Mumbaikar than Matheran. Being just 90 km away from Mumbai, one actually doesn't need to plan  much to tramp there. He could just put on his shoes and head right there. Neral is the base town and can be reached through local trains. When we got there, we found that the toy train running on Neral-Matheran was called off due to rains. I kind of expected it. This toy train is one of its kind in the country. I feel bad I didn't get a chance to experience it a single time, despite going so many times to Matheran. 

Matheran Hill Rail

We took taxi all the way up. If you visit this place in monsoons, you can notice the frequent, tiny waterfalls at the side of the road. One could just pull over and have a nice little shower there. It's that awesome. Well, we reached the top and had to take tickets to enter Matheran. Let me tell you, there are other ways too. One could just wander through the jungle and get into. 

Falls by the road

It was sunny. We decided to go to Panorama Point first. It was a healthy three kilometres walk there and back. Oh! I forgot to tell you that motorised vehicles are banned here. The most comfortable thing you could get is a horse. At the Panorama point, one could see 360 degrees standing there. Punit explained me the meaning of Panorama and the fact that digicams have such a mode, used to capture long, continuous images.

A lovely path

People talk about hundreds of vibrant colours in a scenery. For Matheran, there are just three. Red, green, blue. The red soil, green woods and blue sky. And it didn't make it any less beautiful for sure. It was getting darker as clouds were having a get-together in the skies. We scrolled back to the main area, called Bazaar. It soon started raining. Gradually, it was all white. It surprised me that being just 800 metres high, we were already walking in the clouds. Punit and Ankit were not ready to get wet, but a little persuasion worked. It felt good, and cold. We had some snacks and started skipping again. 

Bazaar

There is this point, One Tree Hill, which is quite amazing. I loved the empty spaces on that tiny hill, for a change. Other points seemed pretty much ordinary to me. We couldn't take out time to visit the temple on the other side of the hill. There's nothing special about it except for there's a dam nearby. Don't get your hopes  high; they don't allow swimming there. Although there is a club which does this thing. Crossing the valley on a rope. I don't know what do they call it exactly. 

One Tree Hill

Dam reservoirs 

While coming down, we chose to go by the railway tracks. The scenery was just amazing. Also, had a natural shower. It was an awful long  and lonely way down. I noticed some numbers besides the tracks, like the ones they write for informational purposes. 109... after some time 108...107...106. To my horror, those meant fucking kilometres. It was actually 109 km from Neral to Matheran via the railway. I kept mum about the fact and let my friends enjoy the scenery. Tired, exhausted, we took a cab from the first intersection point, to Neral. We reached within minutes. Took a local back home. 

The Railway Track

The Ganesha Idol

As Punit Says - Boys love it, nature isn't too far behind.

Waterfalls at Marleshwar

Last summer, I got chance to visit Konkan with few of my friends. It's just a couple of hundred kilometers south of Mumbai. Konkan is a region consisting of three districts namely Raigad, Ratnagiri and Sindhudurga. The region is blessed with a beautiful coast line. And the scenic beauty of course. I have an equation about Konkan.

Konkan = Goa - crowd - foul things

There are hundreds of places to see in this region, but this one held my heart aback. Marleshwar. I would surely put this one on the 100 places before you die. The place is just radical. Especially when it's raining out there. Marleshwar is known for the temple of Lord Shiva, beautifully carved in the caves. One has to literally crawl down to get into the caves. The caves are so small that only three or four persons can enter it at time. Inside, it's pretty much same as any other temple. The only thrill is the small cavity dug into  big mountains.

Caves at Marleshwar Temple

The temple is surrounded by hills in all four directions. Hundreds of water streams from these hills unite to form a bigger one. I remember spotting a single dirt water line among hundred brighter ones. And the clouds... it seems like an ocean on milk floating in the sky. It is the beauty that can not described by words (May be that's why they invented photography). 

Waterfalls at Marleshwar

Beauty without equal!