Shivneri

The great maratha king "Charttrapati Shivaji Maharaj" was born here in Shivneri (शिवनेरी ) in the year 1630. Shivneri lies at 3500 ft on top of a rugged mountain that over looks the "Junnar" town in Maharahstra, India. Junnar or "Jirna nagar" as it was known in the ancient times was ruled by the "Shaka" dynasty. The era of the "satvaahan" was the most glorious, many artistic activities were carried out during their rule. Junnar becabe their capital city. The mountain on which the fort is constructed, is very well protected by steep scarps, and is suitable for constructing caves. It was named "Shivneri". After the Satvaahans the fort went into hands of "Yadavs" and then to "Bahamani" kings.

Shivaj Maharaj left this fort in 1632 and then it wents into the hands of the "Moughals" in 1637. In 1650 the local fishermen revolted against the "moughals" but lost and were assacinated cruelly on the fort. In 1678 the "Marathas" tied to conqure the fort but they were not able to do so. Fourty years later "Shahu Maharaj" brought the fort under his control. And finally it was under the control of "Peshwas".

The fort has a significant shape, like an arrowhead, point north. It is surrounded by about 7-8 forts in the region, and was biult to guard the city of "Junnar" and the ancient route of "Naneghat".

Rainy Monday Morning Blues

There are a few greyer combinations in life than a monday morning and rains. It is a strange thing, the sound I love to wake up to on a sunday morning, the swoosh of rain on the road outside, the drops dripping on the windows, I dread so much on a monday morning. Because rain on a sunday morning means more time in bed, reading the long lazy articles in the Sunday Times.

But the rain on monday morning is cold and damp, floods the road with garbage floating on the water and distrupts the trains and airlines and make me curse myself that I have once again postponed buying an umbrella.

And the idea of venturing out in the rain and then,finally doing so. Crossing the increasingly wet city through pools of water that ripple and rise in waves as vehicles pass through them, and the rain, lashing across the face, the back and the cold wind accompanying it.

It is not a healthy rain, the rain in the city it serves no purpose. It does not help the farmers nor it helps the water supply to the city because the lakes where the water is collected are outside the city often in places where it does not rain. And the raind do not clean the city either, because nothing can clean Mumbai, not even the municiplity.

I am not objecting to rains. I am only objecting to rains on monday morning.

Korlai's call.

Weekend had arrived ... this time around there were no last minute cancellations and finally we were travelling to Alibaug. This was the first time that my new car was going to travel so far..... and thankfully the journey was without any incident .....except for the "Engine Check" light that turned on mysteriously.... and thankfully went off after sometime in a similar mysterious fashion. We reached Alibaug at around 12:30 PM. Oh.... and BTW after reaching there Ashutosh and I realized that it was a Dry Day (26th Jan).

Problem 1: Finding some booze.

Solution 1: Vikram knew about the Dry-Day and he had managed to smuggle two bottles of whisky from his dad's cupboard........ problem solved.... :)

Problem 2: Finding a place to stay (.... place to booze actually)

Solution 2: Unfortunatley we were not the only ones's who had this problem. Wherever my eyes went I saw nothing but cars with numbers starting with either MH-01, MH-02, MH-03 or MH-04....... it seemed to me that the whole of mumbai was here in Alibaug. Every place that was there for renting was taken.... we decided to move ahead and go to Akshi or chaul..... After driving through beautiful tree lined road for 15 minutes we reached chaul.... only to find more MH-01's and 02's..... there was no place to stay.

We tried our luck at various other places.... but everything was occupied..... this weekend was turning into a nightmare...... somebody suggested that we travel to Pune and spend the night in some disc. But since we had travelled so far..we decided to try one last time..... therefore we crossed the Kundalika river and reached Rewdanda's Birla mandir..... but it was the same old story. Dejected we were about to go back when the parking lot attendent suggested us to go to a place called Borli which was just a few kM's ahead..... he said there is place over there and you can try....... we went there and Guess what.... Problem Solved.

The place was under construction owned by a person called Sandeep... he sympathized us bcoz he too was from Thane and moved here a few years ago. So after searching for 4 and 1/2 hours and burning almost 5 liters of petrol ...... we had finally managed to find a place to stay.

Problem 3: Arranging for cash to rent the Room.

Solution 3: Now we had the booze, a place to drink that booze.... but we were short of cash to rent that place. Following things were on our agenda.

Arrange for cash for the following:

1. Renting the room. (1000 Bucks)

2. Dinner (300 Bucks Aprrox)

3. Chakna for the booze. (200 Bucks)

4. Cash for emergency until we reached Alibaug (atleast 100 Bucks)

We searched deep inside our pockets ....and collected what ever we can... but felt short by aprox 700 bucks...... our only option was that some one stays here at Borli and I would driveback all the way to Alibaug..... cause that's where the nearest ATM was.

Vikram saved the day just like he had done last time around by arranging the booze. He was carrying extra 800 bucks and that settled all our problems.

All Problems solved......

Finally almost at 7:30 in the evening we had solved all the problems and were finally relaxed. It was then I realized how beautiful this place was. We had a half constructed house facing the sea. A private beach all to ourselves..... the wind blowing through my hair made me forget all the hardships that we faced during the day.

That evening we managed to finish off 1 and 1/2 bottle of booze..... it was one of the best experiences of my life..... I had never thought that after spending one of the most hectic day of my life looking for a place to stay... we would end up like this boozing on our own private beach... under the starlit sky with nobody to disturb us.

There is saying in Hindi that goes like this "Sabar ka fal meetha hota hai." Today I realized how true it was..... this was one my best experience on the Borli beach under the watchful eye of the ancient Korlai Fort and its beautiful lighthouse, that flashed its beam a long distance over the vast windy sea.