Matheran

I just can't recollect the exact date, but my photo feed says it was 28th of July, 2003.

Maybe this was da day I transferred these pictures from my digital camera to my home PC, and these are some of the rare pictures I still have!

Because the day Mumbai flooded, I lost all my memoirs, thanks to the digital age, I still remember that unfortunate day, when water started rising inside my ground floor office and we had to vacate the place as it just kept rising at a tremendous speed, it was a wise decision as the water rose to almost 6ft (inside our office) and had crossed the 7ft mark on vidhyanidhi school road at Juhu, when we left we could see both our cars almost submerged in the water! But this post is not about that..........

It all started on a mad saturday night, we take it as 26th July 2003, as the pics I see are of the return on 28th July 2003 (monday)

I used to party 3-4 times a week, as I used to host "events" in clubs across mumbai, we have witnessed packed houses, and I still own records that no one can shake till date! (Will explain that in some other post)

It was one of those crazy nights where all my friends and I instantly decided to leave for "out of Mumbai" after the club shut down at almost 4am!

We picked up all that we cud :) and stuffed ourselves in a "Maruti Zen" we collapsed the seats like always and 8 people got in (crazy), 5 guyz and 3 girls and Jaishree was one of them!

It was a common feeling to drive down and reach our destination (these feelings were very common on those days as we used to head out almost every weekend) in that windy monsoon midnight.

We always decided “where to go” after sitting inside the car, and we always came to a agreeable destination till we reached the highway!

Driving through the highway in the early morning fog was really tough but we were relieved when we saw the beautiful hill station nearing us and it was “Matheran”, I was totally against driving down to matheran as I had visited it just 5 days back with my college (college trip) but majority wins and I gave in!

Matheran is a unique hill station in India in a way that all vehicles are banned and there are no concrete or tar roads, just dirt roads.

It gives a feeling that you are transported in a past era. We parked our car at the entry and decided to hike till the top. I remember clearly how the thunder was rumbling, lightning was striking & heavy rain was pouring making us all drenched when we had no spare cloths.

It was murky & mysterious in no time. We all held each other’s hand and followed our friends making a slander zig zag path, I also remember taking a few easy short escapes. Taking bath at every turn on the waterfall was so much fun, I still remember the feeling of water pouring on the head, the moment u get out of it, you want to submerge yourself again, but you move ahead as you know, another one is just around the corner!

And finally we were there, glorified with this scenic beauty, the climate so cool & toxic free, surroundings were massy green with deep forest & to your eyes they become the world’s best waterfalls you have ever seen, the air is so clean & fresh and you can see clouds around you, the feeling is as if you have reached “heaven”.

I felt time had just stood as I passed rummaged though the small bazaar and reached my resort. I was telling everyone the stories from my college visit and that we were made to stay in a cheap hotel and given horrible food, even though the teacher had taken 800 Rs. Per Person!

But this time we stayed at Brightlands resort at a “special price” as one of my friends knew the owner and payment was supposed to be done back at Mumbai! This meant that we had more money to blow up in Matheran :)

As we were all drenched and all the walking was about to give us all a rash (as we were all wearing party clothes) the first thing we did was “bought local branded undies and shorts” to stay as dry as possible!

We walked a lot covering all the points, even walked in the jungle at late nights and scared each other, but the news that there was a landslide due to the heavy rains, soured our plans to stay back, many said that it cud get more worse and the roads could be blocked for weeks! We as guys were ok with it, but not the girls!

We even decided to send one couple back (who were really scared of getting stuck) but as they were leaving, we all thought that it was not wise to send them all alone to hike down (as transport was cut) and decided that we all should leave together!

But it was a wise decision to leave together, what we saw (the land slide) was a huge portion of the road had given in and water was still flowing downhill with full force. People made a human chain to cross the stretch and yes, it was dangerous, coz the water was flowing with speed and with a lot of mud, and anything could have happened at such a point, another landslide, a rock maybe, but by the grace of god, we crossed it and did not hear of any news of any incident at Matheran after reaching back.

But I have to admit that “Matheran” is truly 'The Best Hill Station in Maharashtra.

I wish I could publish the pictures but all are group pictures and 1 couple who are in all the pictures have split, so it would not be wise to put up their pictures now as they are already married now and not in touch with us!