Another Independence Day ....

Independence Day , always a holiday,  this year, was different.

Thanks to my new trekking hobby, I learned about  an activity undertaken every year, by the Passion Group, headed by Ranchoddas Das , my trekking friend.  Every Independence Day,  this group visited the Sant Gadage Maharaj Adivasi Ashram Shala, at Bhatsai, Vashind , and carried food and gifts for the children, both residing at the school, as well as in 20 surrounding Adivasi hamlets, or Padaas.

Sant Gadge Maharaj (1876-1956) was a saintly social reformer of Maharashtra , who travelled through the viilages . He would wear his food pan upturned on his head, carry his trademark broom, and immediately start cleaning the gutters and roads of whichever village he entered. He would sing kirtans, and preach the virtues of  simple living, compassion, service to the poor. He preached against animal sacrifice in religious rituals, consumption of alcohol. He accepted nothing from the villagers till his work was done, and whatever he did accept went towards creating Educational Institues, Dharmsalas, Hospitals  and Animal Shelters.

 The Government of Maharashtra has started a 'Sant Gadgebaba Swachata Abhiyan' in 2000-01 in his honour. The Government of India has announced National Award for Sanitation and water in his honour.

Four friends from work joined me on this trip.  We were a total of about 25 folks.  We reached Vashind by the Mumbai Suburban Network by 10 am. Transport was provided  for our trip to the Ashram Shala, where the Adivasi Children study. Some of these children live there too. The school is run by some dedicated teachers, and a bunch of dedicated ladies cook hot meals for the children twice a day.

We then visited  12  Padaas or small Adivasi hamlets in the Shahapur region, in the shadow of the Mahuli Fort, where we gifted food packets to the children. The Padaas we visited were   Bershingi pada , Jambhul pada , Avale pada , Boricha pada , Vadu pada , Ambe dor , Sale pada , Tokre pada , Sutar pada , Kharepada pada, Kate koi and  Mukund pada.

A photo essay of sorts..

The first view of Vasind Station where we disembarked.  This was clicked on my phone. Vasind is a station on the Central Railway branch that goes towards Nashik, via Kasara . My trekking had often taken me as far as Kasara, so it was now interesting to see Vasind.

We reached the Ashram Shala by local transport arranged for us. The kids are normally provided  meals at noon. Today, in honor of visitors (us) on Independence Day, the lunch was a bit early, and you can see the kids in uniform sitting down for the meal, supervised by some senior girls and teachers.

Everyone in their Independence-Day best, with flowers in their hair and red ribbons in bows. The children are served on traditional eco friendly plates made of leaves.

As is customary, the children congregated in an assembly, and the program began with a welcome song rendered by the senior girls.

The audience of younger kids . Girls and boys sitting separately.  Which is very common in rural areas.  But notice the discipline.

Finally, someone acknowledged me .  These two guys gave  some real winning smiles, though the girls seem to wonder why I am there at all  :-)

A closer view, and except for the girl in red wearing the latest fashion , no one wants to look at me.

This young boy followed after the welcome song and was raptly listened to. I wonder how much they practiced.  The staff and some teachers watch from the sidelines.

One of the teachers addressing the assembly and perhaps giving an introduction to the visitors who have come.

Finally !  This delightful little girl and her brother know what I am up to, and oblige...

The kids line up to receive sweets and stuff which we carried. Here are two of my friends helping with the distribution. Notice the girl in navy blue, checking out what her friend got.

It is now the turn of the boys, and they line up under the teachers eye. No rushing, no crowding.

Some of the staff and teachers of the school who were present on the occasion.

The ladies who actually cook two fresh meals a day for the residential kids. These are local ladies, and they too were recipients of some sweets and stuff.

One of the rooms on the school premises, and my friends from work and some others posing with the girls from the school.

Gathering together for the mandatory group photo with us at the school porch. The girl walking in front is either some kind of monitor or late comer.

                 Our group joins them  and everyone raises hands as patriotic slogans fill the air.  .......and I click.             

 

Children from the various Padaas attend this day school too.  We now proceed from the school in the direction of the Padaas. A typical monsoon landscape in the Shahpur region. 

 

The transport provided for us. We often got down and walked to the Padaas.

 

This one time we actually reached a Padaa with the transport; a good idea given the imminent rain. Clicked in natural light.

 

Padaa architecture. A typical house .

 

Another house , another architectural style. Self designed. The clouds appear to be lifting , and we were hoping to sight the Mahuli Fort peaks in the distance.

This must be the house of a influential Adivasi .  A nice  house with an ever spreading expanse,  a solar panel on the roof,  a DishTV antenna , and several official banners of the government and maybe even political parties, possibly laminated, being nicely made use of for house protection.   It must be emphasized that this guy appears to be an exception, and possibly destined to go into politics later.

 

I don't know what trees they are. But it was unusual to see a pair of them growing so close to each other in the middle of a field.

 

And then there were such houses too.  Bearing the brunt of heavy showers, and old construction, not to mention uneven ground leading to slushy land in the monsoons.

 

A typical landscape with the traditional planting of rice. I think the clouds were about to clear the mountaintop in the distance.

 

The lady of the land walking along the edge of her small field. Immense hard work at her home, in her fields, nurturing many children, and you admire her strength and her posture. 

 

Leaves of the teak tree, collected and organized into piles containing specific number of leaves.  These are used in making products with flowers , and one often sees  women in the suburban trains  carrying baskets full of these leaves to the big flower markets of Mumbai. 

 

One of my friends and the adivasi lady who probably collected these leaves.

 

Two junior citizens of the Padaa with the food packets (puri bhaji) that were distributed.  . 

 

Another junior citizen, posing in his doorway for me, puri bhaji in hand.

We distributed the extra school gifts to the children in the padaas, and there was never a rowdy crowd . They always lined up .  (I think Mumbai teaches us indiscipline. ).

 

Amidst all the signs of progress, these continue to bloom, year after year, unchanged.

 

         The clouds lift off the mountain, displaying the awesome peaks of Mahuli, as we make our way back from the padaas to our vehicles. It is now evening and we must now return to a civilization of trains, cars, autos, noise and concrete. 

We leave carrying much of this green with us, on Independence Day .

The Amazing Harihar Trek ...

The Harihar fort is situated in the Trimbakeshwar range of the Sahyadris, which covers areas north of Igatpuri and west of Nashik.  The Vaitarna Dam is in this area. There are several forts here, roughly split in two areas, with Basgad, Utvad,  Fani Hill, Harihar and Trimbakgad in one part , and  Anjaneri and Hargad in another.

In the olden days, this fort was with the Ahmednagar Sultans,  and this was an important area where rulers could keep watch on trade and defence routes  that connected Maharashtra and Gujarat.

At an elevation of 3676 feet above sea level,  the fort has an amazing construction plan. From the village at its base , it looks as if it is rectangular in shape, but is built on triangular prism of rock. Two edges of this are absolutely vertical, and one edge is at a rough 80 degrees angle.  On initial approach, the land  ascends with a somewhat mild slope for about 200 feet, and the next 200 feet is a very steep , almost 80 degrees ascent, through 117 steps cut into the stone.

History indicates that the British had a policy of destroying all forts that were not under their jurisdiction.  Sometimes, these forts were used to store grains , and so were spared. Some held political adversaries of earlier rulers, who were released. Captain Briggs attempted a  Harihar Fort climb in 1818, and commented on the difficult , almost vertical, last 200 feet, with a steep 500 foot drop on the side.  He was so smitten with the climb and the Fort, that he decided not to recommend its destruction. (He is supposed to have stated that,  the Fort was so formidable that just 5 people could defend it against any attackers).

200 years later, no one attacks, but today, young and old trekkers crowd the difficult paths, more so in the monsoon.  With great respect for the place.

Captain Briggs might have been pleased. 

One of the vertical drops from fort faces the Nirgudpada Village and is called "Scottish Kada"  (kada = cliff)  , in honor of the legendary Himalayan mountaineer Doug Scott, who climbed this in 1986.  He successfully climbed the vertical cliff of 170 metres, over 2 days.  

Nirgudpada is the base village when one approaches Harihar Fort.  About 35 kms from Kasara, which we reached early in the morning by the Mumbai suburban railway network and then took local transport to the viilage.

One moves away from the Nirgudpada village towards the mountain, and crosses a largish stream. The monsoon has been generous, and several sheep are apparently interested in joining the trekkers.

The farmlands of the village and the traditional agriculture of rice. We cross these fields on our way to the base of the mountain.

Wooded landscape with slushy paths  as we make our way. You can almost feel the boots sinking into wet mud.

Rice transplanting in progress in one of the rice fields.  From a small patch , where the soil has been treated  to a "raab" (covering land with diverse botanical and biological waste and then burning it ) treatment, to improve its quality after a previously taken crop.  The small saplings of rice grown on this patch are now transplanted to  the larger ploughed fields. Full family at work early in the morning. The work is hard, the rains uncertain. But one ploughs on.

  Another view , and a farmer posing for me. 

Two local heroes.

The sheep of Nirgudpada,  out on their daily trek for food.  So much more beautiful than our daily  trek for food in Mumbai.

The girls, assigned their daily work.  Hopefully discussing their dreams of making it to school one day.  On the other hand, may be they attend school in addition to this work.  In our villages, it is always the girls and women who work the hardest.

The first sight of the majestic Harihar Fort as we get closer to the base.  Amazing green landscape, making it a pleasure to trek in the monsoons.

The sheep are determined to trek. They are familiar with the paths, and nimble on their feet. Must be fun for them , as they can take off for a bite on the side , anytime they want, at the natural Food Malls ...   :-)

Local stars posing with the trekkers. And the sheep know how to photobomb.

A typical view as we climb higher. Monsoon clouds descending.

We get closer through fairly wooded paths , the slope increases and we sight the majestic face of the Fort.

A view  of the valley , somewhere half way up the Fort.  These are the easier parts of the climb.


The view in another direction. All mountains of the Trimbak range of the Sahyadris, who must have been witness to all the history over centuries.

Approaching the almost vertical climb of 200 feet, we cross a ridge . The gradual slopes are over and now comes the hard part. You can see the stone cut step pathway on the face of the rock. Strangely, the ascent is easier than the descent, more so amidst heavy blowing monsoon winds, rain and slippery steps . And so we will post more photos of the descent across the same steps, later. 

In the meanwhile....

(this photo below by Ganesh Naik)

A sheer vertical drop on 500 feet on the left (first photo) , and one must pass, through this rocky overhang as one ascends the final  difficult feet.  The second photo shows the sharp drop into the valley. (That's me behind my friend.)  Not easy, but one learns.  The first set of rock cut stairs lead you to this gallery path, after which you ascend through some more curved difficult steps,  fairly narrow (allowing only a single person ), through a cave like enclosure to reach the peak.



Another one of those vertigo inducing locations, and the trekker keeps his eyes focused on the top.

Wonderful landscapes with the Upper Vaitarna river waters in  the distance. The dark of the mountain clearly due to monsoon clouds.


But the shifting monsoon laden dark clouds do sometimes allow a sudden morning sun to light up the greens and the rocks.



Another view .

We reach the top, and are greeted with this amazing view of a natural pond (there are several), and an Hanuman temple.  Closer to the pond is a Shivling with a saffron painted Trishul. There are several such water sources on the top. 

A closeup. Notice the several worship areas on the banks of the pond. 

One of the trekkers celebrating  having reached the top. All Forts will traditionally have this flag flying at the peak.

Another pond, another bank. One of the ponds has potable water.

There are some other folks also enjoying the ponds at the top at an elevation of 3676 feet. A Water snake out to see what the excitement is all about....

There is this old thatched stone ruin on the eastern banks of the pond-with-potable-water.  It can hold about 20 people comfortably. and the monsoon waters actually trickle and leak inside.   Shouldn't be anything different for  those from Mumbai, who live in houses of concrete (but in worse surroundings), actually behaving the same way.

Yes. I needed to pose at the entrance to the structure.

The sky above, the wet grass below, and the mountain by my side. Some poetic folks need wine, but I was so hungry, I badly needed a vada pao....  :-)

The last set of rock cut steps, are filled with sharp turns , and this is the narrow cave like structure through which we emerge on the very massive are at the top.

As promised, the pictures of the descent.  Much more difficult that the ascent.

We leave through the narrow structure.

Trekkers lined up , slowly descending, careful across the wet and slippery steps, in single file.

Something to remind you of the sharp vertical 500 foot drop all around you as you manoeuvre down the steps, many of which are broken and worn out. But there are cuts in the rock , where you can anchor a hold with your hands. Whoever did this was a very very thoughtful person.

Another view of the sheer vertical rock. And yes, smiling through it all certainly helps.

The interesting mode of descent.  The descent on the rock cut stairs is almost completely done backwards, as you can see. Notice the turn of the stairs, the places hewn in the rocks to hold on by hand, and you slowly carefully go, one step at a time, looking out for those above and below you. It wouldn't be advisable to slip.

And yes, I wouldn't look at the steep drop on the right, if I were you.

(PC above  pic: Ganesh Naik)
The sheer size of the mountain face

Emerging from the narrow cave like structure, a view of the trekkers

A backwards descent....continued

A view of those descending after us. Notice that everyone descend backwards, and there is much co-operative effort to ensure safety .  What you don't see on either side is the sheer vertical drop.

Another view.

A much needed rest after a thrilling but traumatic descent

It's stop and go. Looks like there is some traffic , but one looks back and follows the person descending.

It gets easier....

And another fort alongside, which must have been witness to Captain Briggs, history , and everything,  sits and wonders about the endless line of folks continuously going up and down those stairs , in the middle of the monsoon, and feeling thrilled about it all.....