Chintamani Theur - Ashtavinayak

Garlands and trinkets fill up the street with colour. This street leads up to the Ganpati Mandir @ Theur, where the lord is called Chintamani. Close to Pune, around a 30min drive, this forms part of the eight Ganpatis on the Ashtavinayak circuit

Driving On Mumbai Roads

Traffic jams have become more a rule, than exception on the roads of Mumbai.A 25km drive takes anything from 40minutes to 2 or sometimes even 3 hours. So what does one do? I love observing people, trying to interpret them, a best way to spend time with your co-roadies, while they are fretting, cursing, lamenting,getting consumed by road rage, within minutes of getting behind the wheels. Suddenly, the road becomes an equalizer,windows are lowered, throats cleared, a merc talks to a honda,a two-wheeler and an autorickshaw exchange notes, suddenly people communicate on their common woes, the roads, the government, the policies, the daily troubles. After a few painful minutes,hours(take your guess), the front row buzzes,there's a sudden whiff of fresh life and engines start whirring....Once more the windows go up, people shake themselves off from small talk, focus and presto ! Everyone else is competition, only to be overtaken, squeezed past to get out of the mess.Mumbai roads have an unwritten language, a language understood by all roadies, a code of conduct well interpreted by all. Its reflective of the hurried and harried lives we lead and keep moving ahead......despite the odd distraction enroute in the form of traffic jams as we know them.

Eating Out-Self Service

We stopped at Yelur, a few kms after crossing Kolhapur towards Mumbai. We've found this perfect food court, clean, neat and serves simple, nice food - quickly! Located bang on NH4, makes perfect business sense. I've been observing that over the last two years this eatery has managed to attract a varied set of people, the turbaned farmer, cityslickers, boisterous travellers, cosy families from nearby Kolhapur - all kinds. What's remarkable is the same people who shout out at a waiter to take orders at any regular restaurant, turn humble pie at such self service eateries. Make their order, pay up, wait patiently at the assigned counter, collect their meals. What's it with 'Self-Service' joints that makes people toe the line ? Is it because its perceived as 'their need to eat' ? Or clear rules ? Or the fact that if you dont toe the line, there's literally poor guy to get your shouting ? No one pampers your ego - you just go hungry !! I am not against fine dining or swank eateries, but there's something fundamentally different in human behaviour when people get into the 'self-service' mode that brings out inherent good behaviour - or does it ?

Jawhaar - the land of the Warlis

Jawhaar is a tiny hamlet located in Thane district of Maharashtra, very close to Mumbai. Its actually known as Thane's own 'Mahabaleshwar'. More importantly, its the land of the Warlis, the tribe famous for its Warli school of painting. Around 120kms far from Mumbai, off Charoti naka on NH-8, its around 19kms ahead of Vikramgadh. htmlhttp://www.holidayiq.com/destinations/Jawhar-Overview.html Lush greenery, sparse population, pleasant climate, bird songs greet you at this relatively peaceful hill station. There are very few resorts, the one earlier managed by MTDC is now a private resort, thats where we stayed(recommended by a friend who runs a travel agency). The place is called Sunset Point Resort, named so since the closest and most popular point of interest is Sunset Point where almost half of the village gathers in the evening to watch the sun set ! And you would be glad to know that its not too many people - you can perch yourself on a rock, if you dont fancy standing in the viewing gallery, click endlessly till the sun sinks down in front of you into a patch of lush green hills.To think thats the most eventful part of the day describes why you should go to Jawhaar - just to enjoy the peace, be one with nature, nothing else, no fancy agenda - no treks - no itenary - just relax and watch ; people, tribals collecting wood and walking up and down the hills for complex chores like chopping firewood, washing clothes downstream.And for those who still want to 'see the place' there's a grand Jai Vilas Palace whcih was built by the erstwhile Warli king on top of the hill, surrounded by thick forst and kaju plantations. A beautiful palace, worth walking down the kaju trees - we couldnt get in since the king's current relatives were visiting. There are 2 waterfalls - Dabhosa which is easily accessible till a certain proximity after which its a nice half an hour steep trek (best to go early in the morning after breakfast) through a roughly strewn rocky path till the bottom. The second and more difficult one is the Kalmandavi falls, which requires atleast a 2 hour trek through fields, steep slopes and of course a lot of stamina (the village kids are more than happy to be guides in this trek, but beware - dont get deceived by the 'just 5 moremins' promises !) Its supposed to be a 100mtr tall fall, 365 days full of water, but we had to return half way. A must-see for me was the Warli painting shop cum school where a lot of village kids/youngsters come and paint through the day, all of them are deaf and dumb and they create some very beautiful paintings. It was touching to see them toil through the day, and walk down to their villages after a long day, yet welcome every visitor with such eagerness and cheer, with a smile. I spent quite some time with them, it was quite a learning experience and my dream of visiting a Warli village was also finally fulfilled.