Aug 19th

For three years now my mum has screamed at me for making harshad wake
me up early mornings ,if we have to get up that is.i always tell
her,the big ben can miss,not this guy.she does what she always
does,listens.it was abt 545 i guess,its his rule to wake an hr before
the scheduled meeting time.i slept a bit after that,and was brushing
when eddy called to find out how am doin.with a brush in my mouth i
speak just a little more than vowels and noises,but than we've talked
long enuff to know our vowels only too well.the finer points of the
day were discussed,including whacking shreyas in case the "picnic"
bus wasn't the way a normal human being wud want it to be.(i have a
thing against the word picnic,or even a trip ,doesn't a trek sound
much better).lets not forget more than a couple of us were barging i
newer territory,sounds as exotic as faraway lands but dombivili shud
just be faraway land.a glance in the morning newspaper told me i was
gonna miss the drew carey show,hopefully get one half of the match
between India and the aussies,and get to see the finale of conair
which i like watching over and over again.when i was leaving the
house,cnn was showing the ongoing battle in liberia,espn had the indy
car racing,star sports as usual had golf.i've waited for him 3 yrs
now and i know he'll be late,or if i come late he'll only come
later.he had the usual excuse of not finding a rick so early,it was 7
than.hes eddy,i believe u wud have guessed.we reached dombivli,not as
exotic as i imagined it to be,at 725.not late enuff for everyone to
start swearing at us.we checked if we had enuff water,and enuff
everything else before we left ,that should be around 8some of us
hate travelling by bus get various kinda of sickness.like sujit who
gets motion sickness ,the kind which starts when the bus is
moving.Vicky has his version ,it starts if the bus doesn't get in
motion soon enough.each as unique as a snowflake.the usual
blabbering,banter,teasing,swearing,singing,annoying and more followed
in the bus.i was horribly,horribly,very horribly drunk and except
knowing that there was a lot of smoke,and a lot of noise i didn't
realise much that was going on in the bus .
The first stop
i was the last to get out of the bus,with bhairav i guess.sitting on
the last row isn't a habit its more like principle.the first thing
that struck me was that the water was obscenely cold,add the rain in
forest gumps words"rain comin from down below,up above,sideways rain
and more",which made it even more heavenly.i was still drunk and was
having difficulty climbing and so i didn't venture too far.we sat
under the water,gods own children,realxing under the piercing cold
water that was hell bent on breaking our backs.nature can never be
put down to words,and if it could be ,lonely planet would sell lots
of copies more.i'll just say the place was of almost cataclysmic
natural beauty.i was getting a hang of the place when everyone
started walking towards the bus,i didn't know why .i got to know we
were to see another fall before we'd have lunch.i was more focussed
on the lunch part.the second fall was twice as high,and it was like
crushed ice falling on u,the first contact would send a shrill shiver
through u realising how good it is to be under a warm quilt reading
grisham and listening to u2,and how this was still way better than
that.we couldn't stand there for long,as everyone was hungry and
noone was ambitious enough to freeze to death under a waterfall .
The second stop
Flamengo,till yesterday that was either a bird or a football club in
brazil but it turns out its also the only resort anywhere near
malshej.we had to walk a further 15 mins towards the place,visiblity
was good enough for robert kennedy to crash once again.we were
walking shuddering in the cold winds with the only warmth of the
jokes we hate to listen too.i was starting to make sense,not the
common one though and the topics of discussion now were the usual guy
topics,and its very easy to miss things u wish u had but u don't.the
food was good,i can't really tell u about the herbivores but the
chicken was hot n spicy enough to let us know we were still human.we
ate all we could and were ready for another dose of anything that
could come our way.we didn't go to the bus directly but hung around
near the place where i realised we were on a cliff.than we talked
and argued about the elevation,existence of wild animals,survival
rates,went as close to the edge as my caretaking friends would allow
me after which we were in the bus once again.
The third stop
The third stop came faster than what i thght was going to be a siesta-
in-motion.this time it was near a lake,it was actually on the path
that would go on ahead to the shivneri fort.not many actually came to
the lake,which was a bit far and the road there had a squeamingly
soggy marsh,some rock piles and mudwater the equivalent of half a
football field.the water wasn't very clear either.on our way back we
encountered a snake,albeit a dead one.from what i know about snakes
it was a non-poisonous viper,and a very common one.it was funny to
see guys afraid of a dead snake,i mean c'mon they can't even play
football.some of us had tea,the rain was yet to subside and the
weather was fantastic.
Near life experiences
Death is for the ordinary,life defines the immortals.Quite a few
people do believe this.we were back at the first stop yet
again.drinking and driving kills,rockclimbing can kill u either
ways.the water was colder now,the rains are taxfree in that area i
suppose.i wanted a trek and i was gonna have one,and also had some
company.we decided to venture a little higher to see how it was
like,there were 6 people in total ,half carnivores and the rest u
know what.a statistic i didn't find appealing,being a proud carnivore
i believe we are better climbers and inclined towards adventure.but
than this wasn't a competion among us.in rockclimbing the competition
is against nature,gravity and rain does add in a few surprises.the
initial few metres was easy enough after which it got very tricky and
it wudn't even need a mistake to end up with a broken leg or
worse.it was getting steeper and the fun was beginning.the first
breakpoint we came across was another fall that was formed in between
various clusters of rocks.it was getting better.getting above that
one wasn't a easy thing to do,but we did it anyways.the best part was
when we had to cross the falls,using a rock platform of about 4
inches or less meaning u could not put more than one foot at a
time,facing the rocks at an hieght of over 15 metres,the warm quilt
again came to my mind.there were no firm grips and the rain made
visibility farces.in our own silence we could hear nature daring us
to go ahead and 4 steps,and that was all it required to separate the
alive from the dead.pankaj mahajan and boricha,vicky,sharad,eddy ,and
me ,we had a moment that is going to live beyond our memories and our
life.we were sitting in a very small pond,about 2 m deep in front of
a water fall,hidden from humanity with rocks all around.above the
fall,there was a plain about 20 sq metres and it was easier to walk
there,water flowed endlessly from creches in the rocks.what we felt
cannot be put in words,nor should it be out in words.near life
experiences,thats what we call it.jubilation,exstacy,delirious might
come close,but not close enough.we had to descend now,which was far
more easier,lot more dangerous.easy because we knew the way,dangerous
because nothings easier than helping someone to pull u down.it took
half as long as climbing,and we certainly weren't tired.we came down
screaming till our lungs would allow us too and joined the others
giving the details of whats up above and relaxing in the water
slapping our backs.we were getting ready to head back home when a bus
with very interesting tourists delayed things.most of us got in the
bus changed into dry stuff,and it did feel good to be dry again.
The return journey
Everyone was tired enough to make the return journey a peacefully
uneventful one.the discussions took swings like astrology ,sports,a
certain gay chap and other things.the day had been vastly enjoyable
and we reached dombivili at 9 which wasn't any more exotic.before
reaching home,me,harshad and eddy washed down the sins of the day
with lots of icecream,the warm quilt was now closer.i reached home at
10,mum greeted me with a smile and her friendly voice sayin"don't
walk in if u have a broken foot","look honey,am i not running",i said.

postnotes:thankfully i didn't see India lose 4-1 to the aussies,got
to watch the cute kiddo in conair with her toy ,drew carey can come
again next week.