The November and the Southern Scorpions

Every year, from as early as I finished my college days, November month was somewhat special. Some people who work for the American Clients can understand that. Yes, Thanks giving holidays. How thoughtful they are to celebrate a festival with 4 days of leave! For people like us, there are a lot of pains. We need to take leave for Diwali or Ramadan (although it is an Indian holiday) and work in night shifts. But, at free will, 4 days at the near-end-of-an-year. I don’t know if I’m lucky or un-lucky to celebrate my 7^th ever Thanks giving holidays. After I came to Pune, most of my thanks giving holidays were converted as a local trip to some place. May it be Goa (2007), may it be Matheran (2008), and may it be Malavli (2009). Let it be Alibagh this time (2010)! Yes, the one you are reading right now is gonna describe my experience to and from Alibagh.

Month-ends were always not so pleasant. Short of money but, we personally like the quote “You just have one life, enjoy to its extent”. So, we (I, Mujeeb, Venkitakrishnan, Vinodh, Vineet, Brabin and Ashok) decided to go for Alibagh this time. We booked a Tavera on a misty-Friday morning, 26^th November. We finished our breakfast at Wakad and started at around 6 in the morning. As our Tavera rolled on the Express way, we were busy taking snaps of the misty road. We couldn’t see anything after or before 10 meters from our vehicle. It was a pleasant feeling – as if you were travelling in the clouds. Why don’t we have express-ways all around India? Won’t that be good? Let’s not go away from our topic. So, yes, we were on the Express way and it was good to be on it. We stopped for some snacks and then moved on. At around 7:30 or so, on the yellow-or-red-sky, when the sun was just lazy getting up, we saw something that’s just above the sun. Something like a hook, brighter than sun (at that time). It looked like as if someone just made an awkward zero on a dusty glass. We couldn’t get a snap of it and as time passed, it just disappeared.

(Express way Snaps)

Our first destination was Kolaba fort. We reached there at around 9 in the morning, took some tea/ coconut water. The fort was a good 2.5 kms from the seashore. It was morning and I couldn’t see the sea water for about 2 kms. It was a dry-sea-sand. There’s a transport available towards the fort – horse cart. The person asked Rs. 40 per head and we decided to walk. We walked through the dry sand, took some snaps and finished crossing about 0.5kms of the sea water with ease.

(Pose by Mujeeb, Snap by Balu)

Snaps all the way in the fort, and at the top, we could see some nice “eligible-for-desktop-wallpaper” scenes.

(From left: Brabin, Vinodh, Balu [top], Vineet, Ashok)

(From Kolaba Fort)

We left the fort after two hours and there was a surprise for us. We could not see the dry sand which we saw couple of hours before. Sea water everywhere – all the 2.5 kms. Oh dear! We thought of crossing it again as it was less-than-foot-level before. But now, as soon as we stepped-in, we could understand that the sea level has raised. We had to take the horse-cart. We crossed the sea and reached the shore after 40 minutes. In between, we crossed atleast 5 horse-cart-nearly-sinkable-heights.

(Picture below taken @ 9AM – see the background, most places towards the fort is dry)

(Picture below taken at around 11:30 AM – see the same place fully covered with water)

(Picture taken on the way from the fort to the shore)

Janjira Fort was our second destination. Time flew away like the speed of a storm and it was almost 2PM when we reached Janjira. The fort looked like an abandoned island. You’ll need to catch a boat to visit the fort. They said it’ll take some time for the next boat to come, so we decided to have our lunch. During our lunch, the boat came and left towards the fort. Post lunch we need to again wait for the next boat. We took some snaps of the fort from the shore and we ourselves.

(Janjira Fort)

(A view from the shore to the right of the fort)

Time was running and we decided to visit the fort next time and started towards our ultimate goal – the Kashid beach. We reached the beach at around 4:30 PM in the evening.

(Mujeeb relaxing @ the beach)

(Sunset at the beach)

Most of us did not sleep on the Thursday night and so, we were tried. We played in the beach for the next 3 hours and started back towards Pune at around 7:30 PM. We reached our room late night and felt absolutely tired. It was once again, a wonderful trip to remember!

Extra bit:

Southern Scorpions is the name of our cricket team in Pune. The players in this team plan trips together.