The Iron Fort - Part II

This write-up should have come some four weeks back if it had to have any reasonable accuracy. But as has been the long continuing tradition, laziness got the better of me.

In the meanwhile, however, I have managed to complete another (un)successful trek to Lohagad, leading a pack of office junta - Varun, Arunav, Rhea Shaama (Nishant Kumar being an absentee) - the "(un)" part coming in because we ended roughly two kilometres west of where we were supposed to end up (i.e, the adjoining Visapur Fort)! But, what the heck... trekkers can't be choosers! In hindsight, I comfort myself by mouthing some lines from "Yun Hi Chala" ... (Movie: Swades)

...जो राह तू चले अपने मन् की
हर पल की सेब से मोती ही तू चुने
जो सदा तू सुने अपने मन् की

At the end of the day, we had a great time during both treks and that is what matters!

Before I get into the narrative, let me have a preliminary digression to give some relevant travel information for the avid trekker.

Destination: Lohagad Fort (9 km away from the nearest railway station, Malavli)
Route: Mumbai (Dadar) - Lonavla - Malavli (by train)
Mode of transport: Train
Start time: 5.50 Am Indrayani Express from Dadar - scheduled for halt at Lonavla
Arrive at Lonavla: 8.05 AM
Catch the local train from Lonavla to Pune - 8.15 AM
Reach Malavli (Next station after Lonavla) - 8.20 AM
Start Trekking: 8.30 AM
Reach Lohagad Fort: 11.30-11.45 AM (at a fairly brisk walking pace)
Explore the fort and have lunch in the meanwhile: 11.45 AM - 1.30 pm
Start descent: 1.30 PM
Reach Malavli Station: 3.45-4.00 PM
Take train to Lonavla: 4.50 PM
Reach Lonavla: 4.55 PM
Catch train to Mumbai: 5.30 PM
Reach Mumbai: 7.45 PM


Now, since our two treks were largely similar in nature for the most part, I am combining the narratives into one.

The red-eyed mornings:

Let us take some time out here and contemplate the life of a sparrow. Have you ever thought how early a sparrow has to get up in the morning to start hunting for the unwitting worm? Have you thought how animals have to make do without snooze buttons? Have you contemplated how boring it must be to be up and about at the crack of dawn? Must be immensely difficult, no?

Even for me, a person used to an "up-and-about-at-6-am" ritual at one point of time in the distant past, getting up at 4 am for a trek on a Saturday morning can be a pain, me having lost the 'early-rising' habit long back. Additionally, since I had spent a fair few late nights during that week at work, I was cursing myself under my breath for having such a hare-brained trekking idea when I got up.

The first time round, Me and Vix managed to get up in time (just about) and left for Dadar Station from our respective homes at 4.40 AM(!). The second time was more of an adventure, as I became the "Mr.Alarm Clock" for all of my team-mates, giving all of them some wake-up telephone calls, yet getting another half hour of snooze time in between! Still, I managed to leave for Dadar station by 5 AM

A tale of three stations:

Dadar station, as many people would know is probably THE busiest station in all of Mumbai. The amount of hustle and bustle there at 5 am is unbelievable. Serpentine queues, busy porters, chai stalls doing roaring business, bewildered travellers trying to navigate a labyrinthian scheme of foot overbridges and platforms (for the uninitiated, there are multiple platforms with the same number in Dadar station - apparently due to two separate sets of railway lines passing through the same station! Be careful when you ask a fellow traveller to meet you at Platform No. 4!!). If ever there was a setting designed to make one feel like an ant, this is it!

Now, given that Vix and I had left together, the trip to Dadar station and the attendant navigational bloopers were much diminished. The journey to Lonavla too was uneventful, with the only interesting incident worth recounting being better described by the following picture.



Things, however, were different the second time round.

Arunav Tripathi and Shaama were the unfortunate victims of the 'dual Platform number' confusion. There are two Platform No. 4's in Dadar station. I did not know this fact and had asked everyone to assemble on Platform No. 4 at 5.30 Am sharp. Shaama managed to overcome the confusion in time and reach PF. No. 4 by around 5.35 or so (thank God for cell phones). Arunav Tripathi, of course, was not so lucky. Not only did he come a bit late to Dadar station, but also got lost in the maze of foot overbridges in his attempt to come to the ill-fated platform.

The Indrayani express puffed by 5.50 Am (dot on time!) and was scheduled to depart in the next couple of minutes, closely followed by Arunav Tripathi huffing and puffing his way onto the platform, and that too ticketless! Better late than never though... we hurriedly boarded the train and it chugged out of Dadar station shortly.

After the usual cloak and dagger deals with the TTE, we managed to extricate Arunav from his ticketless plight and sped away on our serene journey to Lonavla - beautiful scenery sped rapidly to greet us. The refreshing smell of the fresh earth was a welcome change from the smoggy pollution of Mumbai roads. The change of scenery from Kalyan to Karjat (stations en route to Lonavla) was stark - dank shanties and stinking streams, nay rivers, of sewage giving way to verdant fields, idyllic thatched houses and gurgling silvery brooks.

The way from Karjat to Lonavla was even better, with steep valleys fading away into the depths on one side and gorgeous waterfalls greeting us with their spray on another. (This experience was better the first time when I went with Vix, thanks to it raining intermittently then). The train too was fast, just halting at three stations en route to Lonavla.

We reached Lonavla by around 8.10 Am, greeted by swirling clouds and fine drizzle the first time and with warm sunlight the second time. But oh man! Lonavla station sure is DIRTY! One look at the tracks below and you would want to puke! The station is dirty even by normal Indian standards, with the track just being one unending mass of plastic litter, paper bags, carelessly thrown chikki packets... grrr.... when will the Indian public change its mindset?

Anyway, me and Vix managed to grab a breakfast at the station, and, unknowingly, missed the 8.15 local to Malavli in the process. We had to wait for another couple of hours for the next local and occupied ourselves by searching out photo-worthy scenes within Lonavla station. Nothing much could be classified as photo-worthy material, except, of course, a seedy, run-down building that claimed itself to be "Suyash theatre- Dolby Digital" - If that theatre is Dolby Digital then I am George W. Bush.

The second time round, I was wiser, running down to the ticket counter and getting the team some tickets to Malavli and running back in time for catching the 8.15 local from Lonavla. Thank God we made it in time! Spending 2 hours in that dirty station was not my idea of fun!

Malavli is the next station after Lonavla on the way from Mumbai to Pune. The train made short work of the miles in between and 5 minutes after it started from Lonavla station, we found ourselves in the quaint railway station that was Malavli. You reach the station and you perceptibly feel the nature of life undergoing a sea change - fewer people on the platform, a much slower pace of activity an infinitely cleaner station than Lonavla! A lazy, contented feeling envelops you like Chanel perfume and the mood is set for a lovely trek.

(rest in next)