Albert
Einstein’s compliment for India: “We owe a lot to the Indians, who taught us
how to count, without which no worthwhile scientific discovery could have been
made!”
I,
being one of those teeming average-at-mathematics Indians, use this Indian
invention for one main purpose – counting the number of days before the next
holiday arrives… Counting holidays was done throughout school, college and now
at work! I’m writing all this because I couldnot describe the pleasure of
getting a satisfactory count of 4 holidays nearing after the 14th of
august this year.
I’m
proud of the Indian who taught us to count!
Now, what matters is not the holidays,
but how we spent those holidays. Most of my batchmates and roommates decided
that they should take the way home to Mumbai and Bangalore…
But few like me decided to take the
path less trodden… Those few were the Gypsies!
And those less trodden paths were in the
parts of Western Ghats on the point where Karnataka meets Maharashtra and both
of them together decide to surround the tiny Goa! Living on the edge (read
border) is an excitement in itself…!
That Friday , the 17th of
august, was one of the most restless Friday I have ever come across. I was
counting every hour from the time I boarded the bus to work in the morning till
the time the clock struck 5:00p.m which is when I ran to the bus bay to take
the first bus going out of the Infy campus that evening. A few hours and a
flurry of activities later, I was in the bus, which would take us to Belgaum in
the next 8-9 hours. Overnight bus rides with friends and cards are always fun…(Sona
faced the wrath of most “+” cards while playing uno and I was proved to be the
most honest person in bluff master:P
Sahana was laughing as usual.)
Belgaum arrived early morning the next
day and we stopped at Hotel Ramdev to freshen up and have breakfast. From there
we were escorted by Hrishikesh of Infinity adventures (who was to be our tour guide/organizer
for the next 2 days)
On the way we passed by VTU
(Visvesvaraya Technical University ) which is the alma-mater for most of the
engineering students of Karnataka and many of the Gypsies, having been a part
of this university, paid their “due respects” and got themselves photographed
in front of this historical institution.
After approximately two hours of
journey in a mini bus, we reached Delta Jungle resort which was going to be our
home for the next 2 days. Just beyond the habitable point of this resort, stood
a 2 feet tall cubical milestone which had Karnataka engraved on one side and
Goa on the other. It thus announced the borders of both the states. There, near
the milestone, a picturesque, aggressively flowing stream made its way from Goa
to Karnataka cutting through thick vegetation. In that vast expanse of
greenery, there was no indication of borders except for the blackened, mossy
milestone…!
Delta Resort, unlike the fancy name, is
a cluster of a few cottages and a central courtyard. The entire resort can be
mistaken for a small village in a thick forest. The cottages can be described
as “one room-bathroom”(analogous to one room-kitchen ) with sufficient
beddings, enough to fulfill basic needs of “gypsies” like us. This secluded
place in the Western Ghats has the luxury of electricity only in the evenings
after sundown. Mobile networks have to be “caught” like butterflies in flight
even as these butterflies are visible only in a small 2x2 square feet area in
the central courtyard!
Moreover, leeches found a way to get into
the cottages even through closed doors! For the two and a half days when we
stayed there, we were totally in the wild without any luxuries of urban life.
The continuous pouring rain ensured
that we never dried up!
The food we were served here was, however,
the best we could ask for in the middle of a forest.
I was feeling really glad about
celebrating the Independence week in this wild nature, defying borders (so what
if they were just regional borders!) away from the luxuries of my daily life!
We checked into our “one room-bathroom”
cottages on that rainy Saturday afternoon, dumped our luggage, changed into our
trekking gear and proceeded towards our first destination – the Shimbola Falls…
To be continued…
The milestone behind Delta Resort
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