Unknown Bond

Date : 25 Jan 2009 time : around 9 at Night
I set out of my home for an adventurous trekking with unknown group with only one person whom I know. I had many questions in my mind like how can I relate with unknown persons for 1 and a half day, what if that group is not soo friendly.hmmmmm.

With these questions in my mind, I boarded a train pandharpur-mumbai along with pallavi and nachiket (who was the 1st unknown person among the other ).
Boarding a train was also a nice experience for me. Coz, just 5 minutes before train arrives on platform no.5 , v all were on platform no. 1. huh.... Then, RUN ,RUN and RUN...with a heavy bag.. there started our trekking experience. :P
Finally, v all reached on platform just in time. :P. By our good luck, v got a good company in train and njoyed a round of "Antakshari" with them till 2 am. We ensured that no one in our compartment will sleep on that day at least till 2 am. :)
At 2 am v arrived at our destination called Karjat station where i met with all the other "unknown" persons in the group....
Huh, 1st was formal introduction....... and voila, within few minutes, v all were soo engrossed in chatting about this and that ...
Thanks to trek organizer Rupak lele. Now, we all were 10 ........ namely Rupak lele, Ajinkya bedekar, Abhijeet mulye,Mangesh damale, Gaurav barve,Parag joshi,Nachiket bapat,Madhavi gokhale,Pallavi mokashi and myself amruta ghaisas. Oh, in that few hours v all got mixed up like anything. To help keep all awake in those wee hours of night , v all had a cup of tea. Along with hot tea our chit-chatting reached new heights. We all didn't sleep at all except ajinkya and nachiket , who went to sleep on platform...On platform, there were other trekkers too, who were fully loaded with sleeping bags and we were envy of them. But, after some time, we all realized that no one is in mood to sleep. :)

In those 4 hours, we all chatted on different subjects from politics ( thanks to parag aka raje who is head of MNS,kalyan) to PJs. We left karjat platform at 5.30 morning without testing famous vada-pav of karjat. Finally, bus came at 6 and we set out for next journey till Pali village. After 2 hours of journey, we reached Pali and got a hotel ready for customers with all sorts of breakfast snacks. ummmm. We all had good and feeling breakfast. Behind pali, we could see our destination standing like backbone of pali. Now, before starting , we all met with new member salil gore who was the guide for us over sarasgad..thanks salil for guiding us soo well and finding paths where we all could climb. :P

we started out adventurous trek at 9.15.What a serene track was that leading to sarasgad payatha... though, sun was up above us, no one cared and we kept going. Sarasgad is quite simple except last patch where there are 90 % inclined steps. But, with each other’s help we all climbed those and reached on "buruj". wow, what a good view we could see from buruj. It was just awesome. On buruj, there is small pond where we got our now empty water bottles filled with that good water. Now, most of the members were tired but, salil boosted us to climb ballekilla of sarasgad.With wishes from all others staying on buruj, we set out for ballekilla. Me,Pallavi, salil,abhijit and gaurav finally were in that winning team.By boosting each other i finally, conquered my fears and reached over ballekilla. View was just seren.We could see pinnacles of sarasgad behind us and whole pali village at the payatha of sarasgad. On ballekilla to , there was a pond with cool water where we refreshed us well. Had a photograph of winning team. :) obviously, for that photo we took great risk and so much of efforts.

After descending ballekilla, we joined our other member who were sleeping :) yes, half members were sleeping. After some food, we all started to descend. And oh my god, descending was very dangerous. I was totally confident that i can’t do it. But, finally, gained some courage and started out to descend. Difficult part was that , when we were descending rocky patch, those rocks which was only support for us were sooo hott due to sun above us. And there it happened. My bag slipped through my hands while passing it to salil. Oh, my god, it started rolling over steep descend. We all were dumb stuck and my heart was leaping with every bounces of my bag. :)

Finally, it got stuck at some point on rock. Then, i got my bag back due to salil.Thanks salil.

While reaching at paytha, we didn’t have single drop of water. Actually, the idea of descending long patch for actual paytha to come without water was killing us. Over that patch, all were just saving their energy and didnt say a word with each other. :)

Once we reach paytha and got our self refreshed with water , all started chit-chatting again.

Now as trek was coming to end , and no one wanting to leave, all started to kill more and more time at "gola" center and we got his business done very well. :)

then we took bus from pali bus stand to borvali. Getting on that bus was also a fun as there was rush of local people and all were looking at us as if we have come from other planet. Those 2 hours were a great relief for us. In those, 2 hours , we got whole plan for next trip too. As, we all wanted to be in a group , we got our self a brand new name BHATko 96...

When we got down at panvel bus stand, all were emotional ( irks , not "rona-dhona" ) as, we all got so close in soo less time. Some unknown bond had been developed between us. In our journey back to pune, all were thinking of whole day and last night. With those sweet memories all puneits reached at 11. At home, a hot bucket of water was ready for me. Aai was ready with hot dinner for me and with some "pain-relieving" tablets :) Being my first trek out there on my own, she was quit worried.

Sleep was over my eyes but, couldn’t resist myself from re-living a day. Finally, sleep took over me god knows when.

but, definitely, Unknown bond was tightening over us all 11 "Unknown" members of BHATko 96.

Hope, this unknown bond binds us soo well in future.

( i missed all per names of BHATko 96 group , here it goes

Me => jambo

Pallavi => punjabi ( to be refined :D )

Madhavi => Maddy

Rupak => Gajju

Gaurav => Mahindra

Parag => Raje ...

Mangesh => Dadasaheb

Salil =>Tatya

Abhijit => Axis

Ajinkya => Modak

Nachiket => Lambu 6.5 )