Trip to Rajmachi-Part 1


After being stuck at home for a dozen weekends , i jumped at the opportunity of visiting Rajmachi at my friend's suggestion. A nice comfortable trek while i clicked award winning nature photos like a Pro was what i thought. Boy, was i wrong !Now, from what i had seen of Rajmachi( Courtesy forwards that are always sent when you are working!) , it looked beautiful. A 19 KM trek from Lonavala, almost fluoroscent green grass. Yeah, the grass in the photos did look unbelievably green and when you are from Mumbai....such things which may seem normal to most people are almost alien to us ! Accustomed to a brownish,grayish tinge to everything ranging from the skies to the grass and even to the supposedly white shirt i was wearing , we Mumbaikars are excited at even looking at something as mundane as green grass !!So, getting back to the story, i landed at Thane station at 7.00 after nearly 2 hours of journeying from my residence in Vasai ! Having cursed everyone and everything during this journey, i was hoping that unlike most of my journeys, this one would be peaceful and uneventful. Well, the first of the disappointments struck as the railway announcer apologized to all the passengers by stating that Mumbai-Pune Deccan Express had been cancelled in his most monotonous, incomprehensible voice possible. To show his weak command over other languages as well, he continued to state this in 3 languages !! Shortly after having heard this extremely encouraging statement, my friends arrived. All office colleagues of mine and with much smaller bags than mine ! Having heard my friend's advice of carrying every bit of precautionary measure possible, i was left carrying a bag which was much larger and heavier than the rest !! The helpful announcer then came back to mention that a special train had been started. The special unreserved train meant that every Tom, Dick and Harry boarded the train. Most without tickets ! Assuming gymnastic positions in the train while trying to hold a bag that seemed to be getting heavier by the minute was tough initially but soon it became OK and all of us friends were talking about office, movies, stocks(!!), the girl sitting in the corner and so on !