The queue was long I never thought I could make it. Finally got down at the last moment. Exhausted me headed towards the exit of main station. Badhe yelled from the bogie that Sujeet was on phone. Waved him to call me. Sujya called and the road I had to walk was easier. All we talked was how the trek was and how we missed him and he missed all the fun.
3 idiots:
Some thing made me awake......Looked around to get amazed finding the ceiling fan so close to me. From where the hell this fan came on my ceiling? The place was also claustrophobic...Looked around.. AC was sleeping peacefully on the next birth. I am in train. Exhausted. Wait then what did wake me up? The TT was asking for ticket. I played the usual trick. Badhe , from the side upper copied me. Didn’t work. Had to shell out 50 bucks. We had boarded the train Nagercoil Expr from Lonavala to Mumbai in sleeper coach. We idiots casually took the railways granted and thought we would b spared....Anyways......
AC was still sleeping and Badhe ran to charge up his bat(ttery).
Chocolate Sonpapdee:
We were waiting at the Kamshet station for a local towards Lonavala/Pune. Famished. AC took out all the stuff + bread and applied his chef skills. The chef-read:Rade- also obliged. The wrapper of chocolate sonpapadee was shown to all. SG can be that ruthless. Nevertheless, we relished on whatever was brought. And set to bid to farewell to each other. The group was then evenly divided. 3 heading towards Pune and remaining to Mumbai. Suhas, Rade had the company of SG. When our local arrived, a thought came to my mind .when would be the next trek? And would I be a part of that? Answer I didn’t seek. But I didn’t spare SG and got his Sonpapdee out of his bag and we all had the sweet at the real bitter moment of departure. Doston ko mitha kha ke bichadanaa chahiye, yaadein meethi rehatee hain!
Furious ve:
From Tikonapet one has to catch the truck/tempo/red bus to come back to Kale Colony stop. We were exhausted and already had curse in the morning. We waited at the bus stop only to understand that one bus recently left to Kale Colony. AC showed some of his photographic skill when he clicked Suhas sleeping (Ok! I know u know Suhas.. he was actually resting . Bus (from Paud) came and we boarded. AC's cam was with me. Me too tried my hands on photography in running bus. And also updated the conductor of bus regarding skills needed for photography. Kale Colony we reached and found that the next queued tempo driver was off somewhere. We managed to get one driver convinced regarding the trip. He, we knew, already decided to stuff us in his trax as may be an over-enthusiastic chef would stuff his first burger with cabbage leaves. It has to a world record. A trax meant for 9 passenger carries 16 seated (+few hanging at footboards). AC occupied the front seat as having problem with knees. Rade got in to back seat and remaining four of us took the middle seat. The driver rudely ordered us to pay for 5 seats for we occupied space for his 5th passenger there. We were open to share "space", but he insisted on us sharing that among 5 of our troop. We argued. Heated up. Badhe got furious. Finally we declared to abandon the vehicle. Badhe continued to abuse and driver got angry, got down in complete mood to fight (he knew he was anyways losing his passenger when there was dearth of those). We did not buckle. People gathered. We kept on "arguing". All of us knew who the first to be on the back foot was. Happened. Finally, we resorted to the next queued Trax and, believe u me, all six of of (with size of XXX) managed to occupy the back seat(like we did on our way up) to march towards Kamshet station. "Jagah gaadee mein nahin dil mein hotee hain", my eternal statement one more time.
Down Under:
Habit of taking nap after lunch continued at 5ooft MSL. We decided to climb down. Took leave of our new friends there near temple. I also suggested the Pune gang to be good to them; they might have given a ride till Pune. Anyways. On our way down, first halt was at the water tank and it was horribly cold water out there as if refrigerated! Drank at will. The watchman was kind to take us there. Downing we found the steps toooo steep. We
LITERALLY had to sat down to down. I was at the max risk. Had to bear the entire load should any one tumbled. No casualties although. We then got to the place where we found the old monk on our way up. This time the dogs acting cop sniffers tried to scare us. Finding SG with us they just left, scared may be, like a newly inducted gets scared of his boss. Aso. Me, Badhe and surprisingly for all, SG took lead. Downing we got new route suggested by the watchman and the Pune friends whom we met near temple. The path was initially kind of discernible till a slippery patch. 3 of us almost screamed to others to hold till we confirm the further path. We were not sure. Yet we felt even if we lose track only place we would reach be down. So thought to give it a chance. Well, didn’t miss to get a snap at that place. (U can spot AC, Suhas and Rade following suit). It was only getting picturesque as we looked down. We could easily spot the-correctly-taken-wrong-path. On our left the rock showed signs of water during rains, on right, there was greenery till the sight could stretch. Just imagined, what could be the path (read: fun) during Monsoon here!!! The route went for a while like that. Watched at the clock, I was amazed to find that such a distance we could cover in such a short span. Clearly, only 3 of us were together. Other 3 were slow enough to catch. Walking along side the cliff, I many a times imagined that I would have never done this trek if someone had told me this magnitude of its (the matured trekkers like AC and Suhas would disagree regarding my perceived difficulty of this trek...Who AC and Suhas???? Didn’t I tell u they were lagging the entire path.....never mind). We rested near the end of cliff. Now the peak we conquered was right behind us above and to the left we could have an awesome sight of Tunga gadd and its reflection in the waters of Pavana nag
ar. This time very clearly and even my D-cam could capture. Greenery on left had not given up the companionship. And ahead of us was a great path as might have imagined reading a poem like Daffodils. A ridge was leading to the destination. Knee height grasses all along. Picture taken. Clearly it was a path to enjoy with everyone. We waited till the laggards could catch up. Seriously, the view of path was totally refreshing. We started. I did not miss to look at the peak and feel the same all over again. The road ahead was usual, though we enjoyed a lot. The sun above suddenly seemed cooler with all friends together. We did not stop till we reached the abandoned look-alike bungalow overlooking the deserted car of the Puneites. This car also served as a lighthouse during our navigation. We rested near the rough path meeting the village road. Tikonapeth village were we crossing refreshing our memories in the morning. We were totally exhausted. Near the crossing there was a school we remembered. Also we earlier hoped that the school tempo would give us lift till Kale colony. Life is not always at the mercy of our hope. We too overlooked and first took plunge into the chilled drink the local vendor was selling. He claimed it to be mango (or whatever) we didn’t care the flavor. It was enough for us to gulp something cold.Up and above:
The school was the landmark where we got down and had a first fight of the day with the carrier driver regarding (his) misinterpretation of the negotiated value of trip. Who bothered even when he cursed us that he would see none takes us back. We started. The highest point I could watch. But really did not think that its gonna be the same one to be 'conquered' that day. It was 11.10 in the morning. As per the web prints, we had to walk for near 45 minutes or so may be. We enquired. "go straight!","same road ..", we were on right track. You know
the route to trek, any for that matter, is never that 'great'. Imagined the real rough patch would be what this road was taking us to. We had to cross Village TikonaPeth. The village on the face of it does not seem to have population of more than 500 (demographers, plz correct). Suddenly, we were lonely on the road and realized that the road is actually on the fringes of the village. We crossed the abandoned-look-alike bungalow. Someone even joked "Ohh ..even ghosts trek here...". We kept on walking. Two guys on bike overtook us (they were on bike they easily could....what a stupid I am). We called them to ask the road above. They said "Straight ahead" (none of us imagined that they too were new to the place). Four of us just got our memories of last trek refreshed when we had missed the path and were lost leading nowhere. Wise we asked the wise old man whom we spotted carrying the logs. He said, "Go ahead on the same path to find a BIG tree on your right. Take right from there and start climbing." We thanked and moved. Every tree on right hand side started looking like a BIG tree to us. "thats the one", "No, the one ahead is bigger”,” are, the bigger one we already crossed"...all we could not come to one conclusion. But we did not stop walking. Only when we spotted that BIG tree, we realized the old mans wisdom and experience in the woods. At least then we were assured that the path had to be correct one. Now as the 'one trek tradition for us' we cut the cake specially meant for the trek. You would be amazed to find the inscribed words on it!!! (Spot). Real climbing was starting. I again looked at the peak. It looked too far and in some corner of mind was sure that thats not where we were heading. Just to capture my thoughts I did not miss to capture that height with AC's SLR. Unknowingly we were already in the dark greenery (which we were to spot on our way back from above). There was no discernible path. Yet enjoyed unsuccessful attempts of not crushing the leaves and branches in the way. Guess what...we realized that we missed to get water along with which we decided to while having misal at Kamshet. So getting exhausted for water was no option. We found few metres ahead that we had a company. The two gentlemen authenticating the straight road ahead on bike were following. They confessed that they too were directed by the locals. They had parked their bike near the BIG tree. Only place where we were at plateau was nearly at the entrance of the fort on that mountain. We halted. It was great view from up there. To our back we had the same range of mountains with 
a clearly-destined-for-awesome-photograph water divide. A small road was looking like a painter’s skill amidst the green splash. To the left another breath taking view of a seemingly small pond looking like a pot of water for the same painter. The Photo session went on, needless saying. Looked at the clock it was already 12.15. A bit relaxed I felt we are late by few minutes, may be 10-15 minutes more. The trek had different plans, I hardly knew. The two gentlemen again 'overtook' us. We reached at the watchman and old monk step. We left inscription in the visitors’ book there. The watchman told us that the correct (he meant easier) road would have been the other one, he was pointing. We moved ahead, actually up. The steps were really steep. Those lead first to water pond. We had only choice left to taste that. Amazingly, it was sweet and cold. We felt like tasted nectar. NO...literally. Our next halt was at the end of the steps above from where we turned Raghu Rais there. Best photograph by me remains the one that of AC taking snaps there. Next we headed to reach a small Shiva temple. Least I realized that I was heading to the peak. Damn, thats why the legs were complaining! But till then I knew it was worth it. Small structure remains was where we gathered for group photo because that was the apex. I could look the starting point in the village. I did it. Excitement and hunger started a fight to find precedence. Finally hunger won as we opened up the boxes to relish on the food. Then, we were joined up there by two guys from Pune who also found a place of shelter near the temple where we were.Kamshet Summit:
AC had already boarded. I was to join from Thane. Indrayani started to Lonavala. We absolutely had not planned till then so as to where we all to assemble as 4 were coming from Pune. We just had this rough idea to reach Tikona. We knew we could catch something from Kamshet. But to avoid confusion we decided on phone to meet at Lonavala and then start from there either by local towards Kamshet(Pune) or catch a jeep or something. SG was being annoyed regarding the cake all the way. As we reached Lonavala, Badhe called to tell that they have already boarded Pune local for Kamshet and it was about to start. AC and me got down and decided to forgo the ticket formalities as we were running (of time). We, all six of us, hardly met at the platform then the local started. The destination was couple of stations away. We finally were on 'track' on the trek which we planned haphazardly. Kamshet station was funny. SG had to be convinced that those are not two words to be understood separately. Dirty mind!!! We crossed the tracks avoiding the fob (don’t imitate, could be dangerous) AC got his knee injured which haunted him all the day. We enquired with people and understood that we had to go to Kale colony first and from there transportation would take us to the final destination. Was 9.30 in morning and many of us had nothing for breakfast. So decided to feat on Misal there. Was (seemed) great! As expected SG had faulted in one more area of cake. So suggested we should pack cake from there from Kamshet only. From that small shop we also had bread packed (which we later realized too much). We - all of us- got stuffed on the back seats of a trax and we too qualified for Guinness being a part of trax carrying 1.5 dozens of humans to Kale colony stop, 20-25 min.s away. Getting there was easier than getting the feeder to TikonaPeth. Yet we managed to confuse a carrier driver. The ride gave us nice view of Pavana Nagar dam. (Damm pavan-a !!!)
To be or not to be?
All unwatched movies on my new external drive were driving me crazy. Finally managed to sleep at 1am in morning telling myself to keep promise to AC that I would see him at Thane station at 6. Alarm too did not flunk. Got up at 4:45. But never wanted to start. Thought would give some excuse to all friends. Finally decided to take a chance and call AC and check with him. I guessed as he had not called me to wake me up as I told him to, he must be asleep. So just wanted to have another excuse not to start, and counted on AC, he would give me one. He picked up the call only to tell that he had started and already approaching CST station. Alas, I had to get going. Told him that I would join him soon at the station. I would have missed all the fun had AC was not there. Guess what, I was not the only person calling AC to check his status. We all knew he had to start first to cover maximum distance. Even Badhe checked with him. Suhas and Rade were then moved. The entire starting problems were shared by all of us only later following days. Really, it was a trek that never meant to be......
