Musings of a Musafir - Valsad-Nasik-Shirdi- part I

Life is a journey they say. And journeys have a life of their own. Its not very often that I get a chance to be traveling alone. But when I do, I always end up cherishing the experience. This one week, super-fast, super-short trip to Shirdi, Nasik,  Mumbai etc, which came up quite unexpectedly, was one of those memorable experiences which made me relish  the rich expanse of this country and of course brought a chance of meeting a mélange of people. Also, the kick that you get out of traveling alone is unparalleled. The uncertainty and the unforeseen make it all the more exciting.

The trip began with a train almost missed. The auto-wala was however more confident than me about the chances of boarding the train from Kalka. “Pehle kyu nahi bataya”..he fumed..”ab aapko seedha platform pe le chalta hoon”. And he sure did. This guy saved my day by taking me directly to the platform(can you beat that!). And then started my run across the platform, and finally catching the train just in time..whoo..a.la Kareena in Jab we met. My breathing returned to normal after only after two stations had passed.The trip was peppered with lots of such JWM-ish moments, which made it all the fun.

And I love the train journeys. The good thing about rail journeys is you get a chance to meet so many people and see a wide range of scenic and sometimes not so-scenic things. Sitting idly and watch life passing by. And you get to eat..a lot..train journeys are the best time to let yourself go. Chips, chai, chocolate, moongfali, you name it! And in between all that munching, you can curl up with your favorite novel, listen to the songs you want, talk to complete strangers, or just gaze out and remain lost in your thoughts. I am usually shy talking to strangers but once I get along, then there is no stopping me. And the things that surprise me is that how we can share very personal details with complete strangers. Met this lady from Vadodra, who was reading Shantaram, and I was so ashamed of myself, cause I was finishing up last few pages of Twilight. Chatted with her and fellow passengers. There were businessmen, cracking deals and tracking consignments over the phone. It’s fun actually to observe people this way.  And it was so strange that many people actually had the same link to this small industrial town in Himanchal named Baddi. Never knew one small relatively unknown industrial town could attract so many businessmen and entrepreneurs.

I woke up next morning at 4 almost sub-conscious. The train was at Ratlam..and again this JWM dialogue..ratlam ki galiyon main..struck my mind. I stepped out of my sleep just to get a vibe of the platform..which wasn’t filmi at all. Sad!. As the day progressed, I was in two minds, whether to go to Bombay or get off at Valsad. Valsad is a small, cozy little town in Gujrat. And why I showed confidence in stepping out of the train in this unknown place is because it was a small town. Had it been any other place, Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, I would have been okay, But this was Bombay, Mumbai, call it whatever. This was scary..very scary. Now, thanks to hundreds of Hindi films, the perception about Mumbai is of a scary huge city(partly true), and the first timers always land up in a soup. so, I was naturally scared of landing straight in Mumbai and getting lost in the Mumbai maze. Now that's the power of bollywood films, had it been any other city I would have gone ahead without any apprehension or hitch. But the way our films have depicted Bombay in such a larger than life way that it tends to get a little overwhelming. So, I asked my fellow traveler, about the Valsad plan. When he confirmed , I got off the train at Valsad station, hoping that things would be smooth. But me in an alien land, I was wrong to expect smoothness.

The moment I landed in Valsad I sensed its not going to be as simple as I had imagined it to be. The good thing about valsad is it’s a small town, and the architecture is pretty unique that tiled-stone roofs- a semi-Portuguese and semi-Guajarati influence. Now as the general notion goes, men are from mars and don't ask for directions, and i m no exception:), so instead of asking people i thought i would just look at the bus and destination name and I'll be through. But, I forgot that there is a thing called language. All the signs were in Guajarati. One thing I really like to see happening sometime soon is, with due respect to regional languages, that the signs should be marked in English as well, just for the sake of stupid souls like me. When I am on a trip alone or otherwise, people are usually nice to me(may be because the “ye-main-kahan-aa-gaya” kind of expression is too evident on my face). But sometimes people who are very laconic or reserved don't like me intruding their space, so they respond in monosyllables. Anyway, since the timetable was in Guajarati, i could still read Nasik written somewhere in the middle and time marked 3:15pm. To reconfirm, I approached a few people, and they told me different bus timing-3 , 3:30, 4 and so on. My watch said 1pm. so, with two hours to kill, I remembered a sign board that I had seen a few minutes ago- kirthal beach- 4kms. Oh god a beach. Now, I haven't seen a beach till now in my life, in real. so I was hyper excited. I knew I had to just go there, even if its for 5 minutes. I hopped an auto and rushed straight to the beach.

The way to the beach was very nice, twists n turns and a cool breeze. And then it appeared. The expanse of the sea was overwhelming, when I stood at the shore. But then as I approached closer, all was not that nice as it appeared.

The beach, though there were hardly a few people during this time of the day, was rather dirty. As I went closer, I immediately removed any thoughts of stepping into the water. But it was still a good sight. A few kids were playing around. a young couple was cozying around. But it was largely silent and windy. I stared into the horizon for sometime and then settled for a nariyal paani  in the shade with cool breeze on my face. The hot sun and cool wind, deadly.

I rushed back soon, to catch the bus. I met this enterprising Guajarati man, who had some factory in Baddi.(the B town connection again). The way from Valsad to Nasik was quite scenic. so, I got to see an altogether different landscape which I am not used to and also the different ways people live.

Once in Nasik, i just searched for a “hotel decent”(taking a cue from JWM again). A bath and quick dinner followed. And dinner in a Marathi style kaka da dhaba restaurant. No matter where you go in India, chances are you will always bump into some Punjabi restaurant or dhaba.lol.

Next morning, I finished the work that I had come for and I was left with lot of time. Now Nasik is a part of my childhood memories. I had come here when i was in 8th std. so that's a good 12 years back. Nasik has changed(obviously) a lot. so, i decided to relive my memories and feel nostalgic about the city.

Marathi is easier to read and understand for me than Guajarati. don't know why, may be i have some Marathi genes lol;). But I still couldn't read the bus plates.The auto wala was charging like anything. I tried to play it around. I tried to act local. Not much help.

I landed at Paandav caves. Though this a site of historical and architectural importance, but mostly lovers throng this place for obvious reasons. I mean you can hide inside the gufas and can do you stuff.ahem. The problem is, it can get quite embarrassing for others. Imagine, someone has brought his kids to show them the architectural and historical thing. And inside the caves you get to see the real life versions of khajuraho.  I mean, guys do it, but spare the public places.There was this Buddha park at the bottom of this pandav hills. There were a few museums including a film museum but people were there for some other reasons. This was the official PDA space..If you are alone traveler, you will feel it all the more weird. On my way down, I stopped by a lady who was selling guava and kheera and stuff. Talked to her for a while in broken Hindi. simple folks are the best to talk to, even if you don't know the language.

I decide to give Traiyambkeshwar a miss and headed straight to Shirdi. Met this person from Bangalore, who again had a Baddi connection. Nice interesting conversation about what the older generation feels about our current generation. When he got to know about me  working in software field , he went on like-“all you young folks these days work in IT and make softwares which make life difficult for us”.  He then went on explaining how his ATM card, internet banking and stuff  is giving him troubles. I thought next he would blame me for degrading Bangalore.lol. Interestingly,he had high regard for infy and murthy in particular.  It was good to talk to him but I was little too optimistic about future. He was not. He said you will realise when you grow old. May be I’ll grow old, but will I grow up! This went on, till we reached Shirdi. The vibe about this place is just like any other religious place. But then Sai baba is highly revered for me and my family. The darshan queue brought back memories again. A lot has changed over the years, new construction, LCD screens, new systems in place, but the essence and the power of this place remains the same. People still come from all over the world to pay a visit to Sai baba making it one of the richest shrines in the world. And I am a follower and a fan too:). Once the darshan was over, we headed to an udipi restaurant and ate a lot and ofcourse, Uncleji payed the bill.:)

I came back to Nasik. Now again the big problem started. How to get to mumbai in the middle of the night.Though PF kept guiding me throughout the trip on sms, but then my friend Vijay suggested some other route to come to his home at andheri. And a dumbo that i am, I asked a sleepy conductor- “mujhe andheri ke flyover tak jaana hai”. He stared at me in disbelief. I quicly modified my question acc to the sms instructions-“okay mujhe borivali tak jana hai”. The conductor regained senses and suggested that I go to Bhiwandi then to Borivali. and then to Andheri. And so it began, finally I was going to mumbai..the megacity!A city that never sleeps and blah blah..I was excited and anxious..The bus roared to life i dozed off.

continued in next part..

PS: I know its a little too long, so decided to make it a two part series. Also, I think the two days in Mumbai were quite packed with lots of things, and Mumbai as such deserves a dedicated blog.:)

PPS: i know its a little too late also, but lets blame it on my health this time.Got a little down with health. Its been two weeks that I came back, so the duration of journey was 15-22 feb 2010.