
Raghu brought his WagonR to mumbai after Diwali vacations and since then we were making plans to go on some outing to a far-off place where we can enjoy the drive. We zeroed in on trim break and decided to go somewhere around 25-26th but that didn't work out as I had PE and he had some other submission; he called me up on 29th and said why not go somewhere on 31st to celebrate New Year, I said that would be great. But then we had to decide the place, Tarun said Aksa Beach but we wanted some place far-off so that we can enjoy the long-drive; Aseem suggested Kashid, around 140 km away where he had been to last weekend; Ganpati Phule also crossed our mind but it was too far-off (375 km), so we decided it would be Kashid where we would say good bye to 2008 and embrace 2009.
We five, Raghu, Tarun, Arvind, Hemant and me gathered together around 12 on 31st afternoon at college to leave for our longly-awaited expedition with nobody having any clue about the route, we asked Aseem and Potare for the way and they said go to Sion via BKC then take the road to Panveil via Chembour from where we had to go to Alibagh and then Kashid, pretty simple. But we didn't even knew the way to BKC leave aside Sion so asking at every auto and taxi driver possible and taking innumerable no. of U-Turns we managed to reach Sion in one and half hours looking ahead for the way to Chmbour. So this way asking auto-riksa drivers and taking U-turns we were finally on our way out of Mumbai (the city of traffic jams) to Alibagh; enjoying every bit of scenic beauty of mountains on our way, drinking, eating fruit salad at the Toll plaza; Raghu gotten curious due to plethora of ads on road-side even tried Nira (a drink made from some fruit I don't know what). But the most enthralling part was the road to Kashid, with sea on one side and hilly road. Finally we reached Kashid at around 5.
It was a long white sand beach having hammocks along with small restaurants, crowded with people like us gathered to celebrate New Year. As it was getting dark we decided to venture in to the sea, the beach had slightly uneven surface. I decided to move forward in to the sea to a point where nobody dares and until a wave crosses-over my head; my long time criterion on beaches with memories of Colva, Goa 2003, when despite being at night me and Jaggu decided to move forward in to the sea until a wave crosses over our head and completely thrills us, and there was a wave, we were up-side down, lost for a few moments but somehow managed to hold ground. This time that part was missing because for that you need a companion, holding whose hand you have confidence with no logic; but still I managed to meet my criterion. For some people its foolishness for others like me its adventure; otherwise what else is there in life of routine, these are the moments when we actually live life, testing yourself against the unknown power. By the time I came out, others had left and I was lost for half an hour when I eventually found them near car.
We spent some time on Hammocks, making plans what do for the night, earlier we had planned to spent whole night over the beach, but the hammock owners said that, police will get the whole beach emptied after 12 on account of safety, so we decided to look for a hotel where we can stay for the night. Some people suggested Murund, a small town around 18 km away where we can find a cheap hotel, but it was far and we wanted to avoid that option. We searched a few hotels near the Kashid beach it self and found one at last which had space and met our budget, we put in our luggage over there and came back to beach free of all the troubles after all we had a place for the night not knowing what was in store for us.
There we met 5 more guys from our batch, Chajjer, Puneet, Rahul, Vishal and Asheesh; they had arranged wood for camp-fire so it was going to be a rocking New Year eve. We lighted the camp-fire and waited for the watches and mobiles to tick 12 O'clock. With crackers in the sky and sea waves in the background it was a rocking beginning of 2009. We spent the remaining time on the hammocks until police came and forced us to leave. We left for the hotel and were ready to sleep when caretaker came and asked us to leave, we were shocked and asked why?, he said we had told him to prepare food for us, now who gonna eat that, we refused initially as we had told him that we were going to beach and will eat there itself. But later realising that we don't have any other option, we told him that we will pay for the food, he was still not ready and wanted us to leave, we thought a new customer must have come in who was ready to pay more; there were several round of heated verbal exchanges but to no avail; ultimately realizing that he was a locallite and we can't fight, we decided to leave. Obviously none of us had ever experienced such a thing, it was never even heard of. We were kicked out of the hotel at 1 O'clock, What a rocking start to the New Year!!
Shocked to the utmost with such a beginning, we looked few hotels around only to find them full, leaving Kashid at that time was not an option because Raghu was the only one who knew driving amongst us and he was exhausted; so we were left with only one option Murund, the place we tried to avoid from the beginning as it was 18 km further. In the mean time Ragu said there was petrol worth only 40-50 km of drive left in the car; we had earlier learnt that there was a petrol pump in Murund but that used to be closed at night, other one was around 15 km away towards Alibagh, so if we were leaving for Murund, there was no option to come back at night. We reached Murund around 2, found a hotel and realized that it was sea facing, and at a price cheaper than our earlier one. It was for the first time that any one of us was staying in a sea-facing villa. Oh it was Destiny's kick!!
So we again prepared to sleep, Raghu and other set in alarm to wake up at six, to see the sunrise (on a west coast). Raghu didn't awake by the alarm but others did and went to watch the sunrise, only to realise its west coast, idiots!. I woke up around 7, and went for a walk on the beach. It was just awesome and we would have certainly missed something, had we not visited Murund. Far better than Kashid, I realised that destiny wanted us to see Murund; sometimes life has better things in store for us, what a surprise, it was sheer happiness. I took some wonderful snaps of nature at its best, unspoiled by humans. A bull cart racing also started on the beach, where I observed that the last one was whipping his bulls the hardest. There was a fort deep in to the sea, which I plan to visit next time as we had to leave by 11.
Others also woke up around 9, had a bath on the beach and we were ready to leave by 11. We went to petrol pump to get petrol only to find that its short of stock, oh the adventures continue. Raghu said we wont be able to go beyond 20-25 km, and the next petrol pump was around 35 km, we enquired about some local sellers and found out that there is one around 10 km ahead, but we didn't find any petrol out there. I was somehow confident that we will make it to the petrol pump, I had serious doubts over raghu's ability to judge car's capacity because you can know only if you had pushed so far in past. In the end we made it to the petrol pump. Sometimes when you leave yourself with only one option you make it because then its a question of survival.
Again it was a nice journey back, but we got entrapped in to traffic jams once we entered Mumbai; I had a train to catch in the evening and I was running short of time, little safety margin that I leave was being eaten in to and I was wondering, will I be able to make it??
At last I must say it was an amazing trip and I must thank Raghu for his WagonR as without that it would not have been so beautiful, but agar thodi badi car hoti to better hota, you know the leg room problems in these small cars ;)