Cycling and traffic phobia

I love cycling so normally Saturday is the day. Maximum distance i have covered so far is 18/20 km.
On 15th October , Milind and I was supposed to do the same , but a day earlier Punitji shared a message of doing 43/45km from Borivali to Bandra with all the bridges along the way and Mr. Milind Meher gave thumbs up !!!

I was like .. hya ... is he even thinking about it . Covering the distance may not be an issue for me as somewhere i still remember Vinod N's statement that you can cycle triple the distance that you can run. But bridges... too much and that to till Bandra and back ... guys there will be verticals on the road... are you kidding me!!!

But as usual, ever cool Mr. Milind said that we can try as much as we can and take U turn ... no issues. Well , that was comforting... but how do i deal with traffic :-(

And there we were at Saidham waiting for Punitji , Vinod and Deepa , till Goregaon we were almost together all going good, took small break near Hub and then came to know that Vinod would return from Goregaon. Post that Punitji and Deepa were no where to be seen :-).

We continued shortly , bridge after bridge ... it was a balance between changing gear , keeping the speed and most important for me, not think too much about the vehicles passing by me at speed of may be 100km/hr. I was almost riding side by side to Milind , whenever there is slightest need to cross the side.. this was also demanding me to be fast , as on bridge incline, he was quite ahead of me and i had to push my self to reach to him before the bridge starts .  
We crossed our college "Gov. Polytechnic" and all the memories put smile on my face.

And then it was last bridge ,near Bandra reclamation and somehow distance between Milind and i grew a little , i lost him and he was at the start of the bridge , and i was having panic attack in middle of the road and instead of going right I rushed to left. Milind was waited for couple of minutes , but could not reach him . Fear of crossing the road full of vehicles is not strength , may that's the reason i still cannot drive.

Mr. cool lost his cool and i got what i deserved to be a full :-) no details here , but he did say that if you act like that the vehicle would easily take you with it.
Controlling my fear , guilt of disappointing Milind ...I continued towards Bandra reclamation and we met Punitji and Deepa .
It was beautiful morning with sea in front and the sun turning everything gold.

     Punitji. asked if we want to get our photos here , and i told him this is known spot to us in our good old days:-)

While coming back , i thought , i will not be able to take any bridge , but was able to make it with whatever energy that was left in me. Still decided to skip Malad bridge. Water was almost finished and we were looking for coconut water badly. Took a break in Thakur village for same and back to Siddharth Nagar.

This was great experience , i am glad that i am pushing myself , testing my limits , giving it a shot without thinking to much about the end result . I am loving it :-)

  

Mind Vs. Body

I was back from Germany on Saturday Early morning and was all set (in mind) to run 15km on Sunday. Somehow I wanted to make up for the lost days of practice.

So there we (Milind and I) were, on the road . Shashi was supposed to join us after his warm up. In long distance, we normally start from Siddharth Nagar and all the way in BNP to complete the distance.

It must be 1.75 km , running at easy pace of 8, but still I got severe pain in both the ankles and calves. I somehow completed 2 km and then it was even hard for me to walk...I was wondering what was it ? 2 weeks of cold weather in Germany or not enough hydration or irregular work out ? or all of above

Meanwhile Shashi joined us and I asked the guys to go ahead , as I did not want to ruin their run.

I was determined to complete 15km when I started , but pain was too much at that point to handle. But I walked for almost 0.5 km to see if I can bare it ... and I was :-) . Then ran another 0.5 km and again break. Meanwhile saw Girish Aroskar pass by like a superfast train , when I was approaching BNP.

I imagined, what if this happens on The Day ... would I quit ... and I did not wait wait for an answer , change the track to my favorite Marathi collection , and pushed myself .

Few months back I had read FB post of Amit Sheth, that when you meet people during run and greet each other , it gives you energy to run little further and exactly thats what happened. All the smiling faces, exchange of greetings , courteous remarks ...there is just different energy in the air when you run in BNP.

With moderate breaks in between I reached the Kannheri Route and in ascend , met BNP gang ...they were on their way back to starting point .... hmmm after all , i did not do so bad :-)
It was great feeling.

On my way back. last 2 km were really tough ..I almost walked half the distance with feeling of throwing up ... must be dehydration .

But at the end to see 15.3km on the tracker was something else. Hurrey ... I did it :-)                    

Running experience in Germany

It had been almost a week in Germany and was trying to find my opportunity to run. I was totally disappointed initially due to rains and for a change was following weather forecast and sunrise timings. I was completely aware that I will not be able to do long run because of weather conditions and office timings, but still wanted to give it a shot ..first run out of India, or should i say out of Mumbai. I also had made a note in mind which route to pick for run while coming back and forth from office to hotel. The only thing missing was water bottle which I completely forgot to carry , but was saved by my German colleague. So here i was all set , but still in waiting mode.

And there it was , clear sky on 5th October 2016 , sunrise at 7:30 and temperature 7 degrees. I was all set , did my warm up in the room and i was out. Although i had done my warm up , the first thing you feel is cold . With the wind , 7 degrees felt like 4 degrees. I started with slow pace and immediately had watery eyes and after few minutes palms were totally numb. But in all this excitement of running was much more.

It was so wonderful to run on the road with no traffic at all . I could see few moms dropping their kids to kindergarten, but apart from that it was all clear , as if it was meant for me to run. After the run a hot steaming cup was tea ... although instant .. just felt like heaven.

After my first run i was eager  to do little more . My colleague showed me forest and I instantly fell in love with the road in the woods. I am running now more than a year , but strange enough in recent times , where ever i go , brain instantly start scanning the roads for run.

And then again I got opportunity to run on 9th October 2016 , into the woods . Temperature 8 deg . Lesson learned from last time ... i put on my hand gloves 😊.

It reminded of my runs in BNP when people greet you. There its more " Apali manas " from group , but here its irrespective of that. It puts big smile on a sweaty face and encouragement to run further ahead.

It was busy work week , but all was worth it , the cold , the wind , the up hill ... everything.
The road straight ahead of me , was giving me opportunity to run , explore , put behind my fears , doubts ... and just be free ... feel free.

धागा......

धागा


एक सुखाचा , एक आशेचा ,
एक ठळक , एक लपलेला .

कधी आसवात ओथंबलेला , हुन्दक्यात दबलेला  ,
कुठ तरी गुंततय अस वाटतानाच  , सहज वाट सापडलेला .

माझ्या नकळत मला बांधून ठेवणारा ,
कुठे तरी नाळ जोडून ठेवणारा

एक धागा....

-- मीता मेहेर
    (२०१६)

Dodhani waterfall rappelling ...an awesomely thrilling experience

I have always loved trekking . It amazes me that however high I go ,there is always something higher than that and once I reach there , its gives the feeling of how small I am.
I have not done many treks but have experience of couple of medium difficulty and a few easy ones, but hardly done any treks with professional groups. I do read their itinerary to plan mine. Why should one reinvent the wheel :-) . While browsing through such events, I came across waterfall rappelling and it became to do in my list.

So we (Milind, Pranay , Jasmine and I) opted for 4th September 2016 event scheduled by Mumbai Travellers. As usual , No car , no Milind Meher in the plan , which  always works in my benefit :-)
After much internal discussion , we decided to leave from Borivali at 5:30 a.m. to reach Dodhani Village in Panvel, as reporting time there was 8:30 a.m. Jasmine tried to convince me to start by 6 or 6:30, but we anyways started at 5:30 , thinking that we will need time for breakfast.

We did start on time , took a halt at MacD , but it was too full with only two people working and taking orders . So rather than standing in a long queue , we decided to move ahead and have something along the way. We passed Nere and the temple where BNP members had organized run , and before we knew , we were at Dodhani village. There was not even "Chai Tapri" open on the stretch ... but we did pass through beautiful fields and river . Everything was green... just picture perfect. We reached there almost an hour early at around 7:45 a.m.

Dodhani village is more like Aadivasi pada. By now , villagers must have been used to of having visitors, who wander in the woods which they live and breath everyday. Few people were busy in their daily chores, few were waiting for the bus.

After some time we had one more family joining us, Hemang , Kinnari and their 10 year old beautiful daughter Arshiya. Arshiya was interested in rappelling and I felt sad that I could have got Tanaya along. We chatted for sometime and again there was this endless wait for rest of the team to arrive at the spot.

 So I decided to have a walk. 

and after some time i heard a local lady asking me , "kuth?" i.e. where are you going. I explained her that I am waiting for the bus (which will get Mumbai Traveller group to base) , but rater than waiting , I am walking. She was so amazed with the expression on her face "Are you mad ?" , but may be instead of saying out loud , she said i can just stand at the corner of the road and bus will stop for me. I smiled and asked her is there a river nearby , as I saw pile of cloths with her. And she answered "Ho na , hi kai ithach hai" i.e. its just here. I followed her but my ears still were at the road , as I did not want to be ignorant , for the bus to pass by.

In few minutes I saw a bus approaching Dodhani and turned back to join others in the waiting area. It was 9:00a.m. or so , the leader Vishu, Harshal and rappelling instructors Hemant , Manoj and 10 odd other people interested in rappelling . 
There was small introduction round , instructions , breakfast and Tea and consent form signing :-). 

We started at around 10:00 a.m with 45 mins trek through beautiful fields , water streams and some very narrow path where you hardly have space to keep both your feet side by side.

 And finally we were at the top with breathtaking view in front of us.

There is this main waterfall from Matheran, which actually turns into Dodhani waterfall down the line. Vishu said , we were lucky as this is the last batch of the season for rappelling and we have favorable conditions. Heavy rains a day before resulted in tremendous force to the water, and they had to shift to other side and event was also delayed by few hours.  

We were the only group there as this place is less known , so all were happy that there would be less waiting time. Hemant explained us all about rappelling with the note that when you stand at the cliff you may forget even left and right when i give you instructions, quite possible.... :-). Then Harshal asked us , who wants to go first and without any hesitation Mehers and Hemang's family were first ones to raise hands.... for obvious reasons... we did not want to be stuck in evening rush :-) and had other things to attend later in the day.
So Hemang, Kinnari, Arshiya , Jasmine were all ready with harness and safety gears and were supposed to move towards kind of staging area. Hemang reached there easily , I could see Arshiya little afraid , so Monaj helped her out. Then Kinnari joined them. 

 Jasmine was worried... and I was trying to have some lite conversation with her to get her out of the fear zone. She started for the staging area and ... slipped .. it was bad ... later she showed me bruises on the hand / elbow.

Then slowly Milind and I moved towards staging area.

Hemang was first one to go. 

                                                                  (Photo by Jasmine)
We were cheering , clapping for him, but could see the initial struggle to get the body in right position. He slipped a bit, but then handled himself very well and off he went ... I could not see beyond that point ... and we waited where Harshal / Monaj got signal from Vishu to get the second person ready.

It was Arshiya's turn... 10 years little girl. One could easily make out that she is little uncomfortable . Standing at the cliff at that age and letting your body go with the Newton's law is not easy ...she was saying "No" after getting off the cliff a bit , but then it was not possible to pull her up again...so she had to go down and she did it ... hats off to her.

Then it was Kinnari, and then Jasmine. Jasmine was tense.. when you approach something with doubts, it shakes you and affects the performance ... and Jasmine had a fall and had to slide down the cliff. This girl is amazing. We did couple of treks together including Rajmachi ... and now this event. She just sails through it , little slow , but she makes every possible effort to complete it with her will power.   

Till the time Jasmine was completely at the ground , I was been hooked up to the main and safety rope. Hemant and his team mates were hungry , so we helped them with some snacks we had ..Ya we had to rappel with our bags..

And within no time, it was my turn. I found myself at the cliff, facing the huge mountain, looking at the main waterfall and my back towards beautiful landscape. I was asking myself ... are you scared? After watching four members from the group fall / slip through the cliff .. the answer should have been yes ... but I was too excited. I was only listening to Hemant, as he said when you stand at the edge , just listen to me . and I did ... as far as I could see and hear Hemant I followed exactly what he said, and Manoj's advice to have complete foot on the rock. Not the heal , not the toe, complete foot.

When I was just about down from the cliff , Harshal asked me to wave with both hands , and I was like , are you kidding me ? but I did let go of my right hand which was behind my back ... he shouted again , let go of the left hand as well ... you are in locking position ... you wont go down .. and I did.. I did let go of the rope ...it was just rope with which I was hanging on ... and a small little thing called faith :-)

                                                          (All photos by Jasmine)
I was doing good with my body posture and Hemant asks me , are you doing this for the first time .. I said yes ... he said so am I .. and made me laugh , After that I could not see Hemant. I was in the waterfall. For few seconds I was not able to find rock to position my feet. The water was pouring with a force and there was nothing much visible around me .It was just water all around me and its sound. My helmet was not secured properly , so it was covering my eyes, but anyways I had to look down to breath properly in the water. I quickly found the wall and adjusted myself , remembering Hemant and Vishus words , you should not stop in between, that's not a choice. and slowly I was descending.

I could see Vishu at the other end helping me with descend and realized it was not just Hemant but Vishu at the other end holding the lifeline called "Rope" :-) . Finally my feet were on the ground and had huge smile on my face and sense of achievement in my heart.

                                                       (Photo by Jasmine)
I saw Milind at the cliff from down and then he was down in no time . He has issue with height, so I was telling him in staging area , not to look down and just look at his shoes. I am sure he must be proud of himself as I am of him.

                                                               (All photos by Jasmine)
Pranay followed soon.

                                               

Mehers passed in flying colors without any fall at the cliff and all decided to go for Kokan kada next time :-)
This was yet another excellent experience , in quest of knowing myself more and better.  
Now waiting for Pranay's video :-)

Bhimashankar ...and back in one day :-)

It all started when Tushar suggested that we can do a trek together and it would be Bhimashankar. I eagerly wait for this season of the year... friends , nature, adventure ... sheer refreshment.

As usual, whatsapp group was formed and on 5th August , we were debating whether to go ahead as planned due to bad weather. But i am glad that we opted otherwise.

Milind volunteered to drive and I know his passion for it ... but somewhere i felt its sheer madness , as we all would be exhausted after the trek... But ya , its Milind :-)

We (Milind , Ruchi and I) started from Dheeraj Upavan at 4:15 a.m , picked up Snehal and Tushar , headed towards Pranay's place. Team complete !!! and then we are on our phones for which route to pick. With some missed turns and bridges , with few kms extra drive :-) around at 7:45 a.m, we reached Khandas. We had decided to take Ganesh Ghat , even though it was longer route and i promised myself to come back for Shidi Ghat in winters.

Tea and Bread butter for breakfast and we started at 8:20 a.m. , Few photos here and there we got our first climb before Ganapati Mandir

Ruchi suddenly was feeling dizzy. We all were looking at each others faces as it was just a start and we had 4 more hours to go. With little break , water , jelly , Ruchi was back on her feet , little slower in her pace , but she was determined, reached the temple and i am sure she must have prayed for strength to complete the trek :-).
Thereafter it was all about climbs and for first time I used stick in trek and it really helped to distribute the weight. Along the way i saw so many shoes , as if  "unhone dum tod diya".
After continuous climbs, we reached flat land and everything was picture perfect , like a dream .
I was trying to get all the green within me , listening to the sound of water gushing either in streams or smaller waterfalls. You suddenly feel alive .. I was able to see so may waterfalls pouring out of the mountain , each one with its own layer / structure and it was amazing experience.

Walking was easy now due to flat land ,but still looking at the time, we decided not to get socked and carried away with waterfalls and we would do that on the way back . We were progressing at good pace with some tricky spots where you have to get your weight on the rock and pass the patch as other side was slippery slop to nowhere.

After some time we reached a spot where we had corn and Ruchi decided to walk ahead (after informing) as she had concerns about her speed. Rest of us decided to finish the corn and then start due to monkeys over our head. We started and we walked and walked , but there was no sign of Ruchi . Here the area looked little spooky , with dense forest and clouds making the path blurry.
And suddenly we stopped. A huge tree had fallen off blocking the way, and it got us thinking if Ruchi really had gone so far ahead of us , or we missed her behind .
Pranay and Milind decided to walk back 15 mins stretch to the corn shop and came back , and we concluded that Ruchi is on her way up to the top. There was no way for us to contact her as her phone was with Pranay.
We frowned , little irritated and we moved on. Some time later Pranay received a call from unknown number and there she was, calling from fellow trekkers phone and we were relieved that she is fine.

After 45 mins we reached the top and we saw Ruchi in small tapari ,which was selling Vadapav . There we started Ruchi's class :-) along with tasty Vadapav . But poor thing was scared as she came long way and still there was no sign of us after corn shop , so afraid of waiting alone , she chose to tag along with a trekker.
We lost around 30 to 45 mins in this scene and reached top at 1:00 PM or so and we were not able to see beyond 10 feet due to clouds and it was freezing cold. but was an amazing experience.

Then we visited the temple. Hated marketing of pujaris as always. It feels like they have divided the places/ gods in the temple to earn money. They have their valid reasons to do so , but somehow does not go well with me. By now everyone was hungry, had Delicious lunch at "Kshitij" , as suggested by flower vendor and started descend at 2:30 after having not so good Tea.
It was chilling at the top and we quickly wanted to get into the woods so that we are protected from the wind/ cold.

On way back we enjoyed our time in waterfall

and reached the car parking at around 6:30 p.m , left Khandas at 7:00 p.m and reached home at almost 11:00 p.m.

It was excellent experience and all thanks to my running routines, it helped me a lot in the trek and even after that. and of course the Gang for supporting each other.
Pranay summarized the trek excellently in his video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7nL8M-fYc0

One thing which I observed and true for any popular place in India , that people have no civic sense. I could see countless plastic bottles, plates , wrappers  right from beginning till end. We are so destructive, that we do not care about anything. Its sad to see that we make full effort to destroy the beauty of nature. I am not religious, but at least people who are and visit these places, can they answer simple question , is their GOD happy to live in such a filth ?