BEAUTIES WITH BRAINS AND GUTS - A TRIP TO MAHARASHTRA

Vidya and Sushmitha and I took a flight from Bangalore to Mumbai. Priyanka came from Chennai and we met in chatrapathi shivaji airport in Mumbai. Indraja came from Nashik and swarna came from Hyderabad . We booked a car in advance that stayed with us for the entire day. It rained heavily that day. We started from the airport at around 12 o'clock in the afternoon. We ate lunch in a  restaurant which has good food that satiated our hungry tummies. We saw many places on our way to a hotel that we had booked to stay for the night. We went to Worli sea link, Mannat - Sharukh Khan's home , juhu beach, gate way of India , Taj hotel. We were completely oblivious of the fact that it was raining and took many pictures together while we were getting drenched in the rain. We sipped tea at gate way of India in that rain. At around 7 pm we reached Manama hotel and got freshedup. After that, we went to Marine drive, sat on Marine lines like every other lover of the sea, feet dangling and hearts full! We ate the authentic Mumbai street food and celebrated Priyanka's birthday on Marine lines.I have to mention here that it didn't rain while we were at Marine drive. We walked on Marine lines, took many photographs, savoured the girl gang moments to the fullest and went back to our hotel at around 10 pm.Then we ate there like we didn't have anything from the morning, since all the energy got drained due to travelling all the day. And then we slept, talking about our college memories.

Woke up early and got ready for the trek we had planned, that is at Matheran hill station which took more than 2 hours to reach from Mumbai. We had booked another car that stayed with us till our trip ended.On the way we ate Mumbai's breakfast at a small hotel. There was no rain in the morning, so we took many photographs at beautiful waterfalls on our way to the top of the hill. Then we reached the hill and started our trek. It was such a beautiful place covered with greenery everywhere and it was so much fun to walk up on a hill that's covered with fog all over. There were many restaurants on the hill and we ate good food for our lunch, frankly speaking everything tastes good to a stomach that spent more energy than it's everyday threshold. Don't think the food was bad, it was tasty. The trek experience was almost similar to what they show in movies , it was such an eye feast to see the beauty. It took longer than usual for us to complete the trek due to rain. And then we started our journey back to a village named kolad, we had booked a camping there through a travel agency named bigredtent. It takes 3 hours to reach kolad from Matheran. We reached kolad by 9 pm. Our guide received us and took us to a house near our tents. We got freshed up and sat near the barbeque kitchen of the house, by the kundalika river, near our sleeping tents in the dense forest . And then, they served lip smacking items which we ate till our tummies had become full. Then we played uno cards while we enjoyed the serenity of the forest and river. Then we slept in sync with the nature, in the camping tents.

We woke up and admired the beauty of the river and forest that surrounded us since we had reached the forest in the night and  couldn't see much of it's  beauty in the darkness. We sat near the river, took photographs, had a tasty breakfast (pav bhaji) while having a good talk with each other. Then we started for a waterfall trek for which we had to walk through the forest. At the starting of our trek was a beautiful scenery where we took photographs and began our journey towards the waterfall. It was my first adventure ever in my life to walk in a dense forest . We had to bend a lot to save ourselves from the thorns that protruded from the trees. We walked in mud but we were closest to the nature and we felt it. We spoke with the trees, with the birds, with the fruits, that were awaiting for humans to come to them. They were actually very lively, they were happy. It's we, that make our lives complex. We think too much, but we and our problems are trivial. Life is simple. "Do good and only good comes to you". I think trees follow this one liner very sincerely. So, they will make us forget our unnecessary worries when we speak to them. They have no egos, they are innocuous. We walked through the forest singing songs, chattering joyfully and finally reached the waterfall. All the pain that it took to walk had vanished when we saw the impeccable waterfalls. It's the water which is 0% impure, because there will not reside any humans in a forest. We spent so much time feeling the youthfulness of the forest water. Then we started our journey back to our house, took baths and started to Lonavala. We didn't have lunch and we ate some chips and drank maaza on our way. We reached Lonavala by the evening. We went to the hotel that we had booked in advance. Then we got freshed up and went to eat dinner. We ate normally. And then we were back in our room in no time. We slept with our hearts full.

We woke up and were awed by the beauty of the place that surrounded us. We had quickly got ready and headed for the trek we had planned. Before we reached Visapur, the village in Lonavala, we ate vadapav in a small shop. There we were with tiny rucksack bags with chips packets on our backs,standing before a hill, trying to comprehend it's unfathomable beauty and slowly started the trek, we walked through high slopes, rocks, trees, all the places we never thought we would ever walk through. There were water falls flowing through the hill, we walked through them and again exclaimed at the freshness which the water had.  I personally feel that, hill trekking let's us know more about our innerself. It requires a great control on our body to walk through such slopes which makes us realize that we are capable of maintaining contact with our centre of gravity, the belly button. We always hate our body, but it always helps us. It does whatever our mind asks us to do. You decide that you have to walk up to the top of the hill, it takes you. It takes you happily.  And then, we reached the tranquil space; the flat surface of the hill,  and were spellbound by the incredible freshness of the air. The breeze, that went through the hair, the clouds that touched the skin, the godliness that was in the pure air, we felt everything. And then we started our journey downwards the hill, reached the village, had food in a villager's home, simple Dall -chaval, roti-sabji. I have to mention that you shouldn't forget to hire a guide when you trek on an odd day. Generally, you will have many people trekking with you on weekends but we trekked on Monday, so we hired a guide. And then we  reached our room and took rest for some time. Headed to Pune airport where we had our flights booked.
That's how it ended. An experience to cherish :)