Feel of the Caves: Bhaja Caves

                If you love rain, then the monsoon in Maharashtra is ideal for you. There are many places to travel to in this state. If you are a resident of Pune, you also have a sufficient number of choices to travel, ranging from 70 Km to 250 km.  You can travel to theses nearby places by a motor-bike, by car, by local train or by booking a car, traveler or bus.

                Most of the places can be covered within a day if you start early and there is no need for an overnight halt. There are a variety of places to see and enjoy nature; mountains, hills, sea-beaches and the highway as well between Pune-Mumbai.

                This weekend I and my friends decided to venture out to the Bhaja Caves in Malavli. This station Malavli is one station before the famous tourist destination Lonavla.  The best way to go there with respect to money and in short time is by local train which costs only Rs.10 one-way and takes about 40 minutes to reach. Another good thing about going by train is that one does not need to hassle to find a place to park one’s vehicle, once you reach, because in that hilly terrain parking is nightmare.  One can find the local train time table at this site:  http://erail.in/#   the site is quite good. Search for Pune-Lonavala local trains.

All the Pune-Lonavla locals start from Pune station and the first one’s are at 0030 hours, i.e. midnight. We were five guys and the most convenient time for us turned out to be 1018 hours in the morning.  True, there is a bit of rush in the Pimpri station at this time, but if you start from Pune station you can easily get a seat.  Sit back and enjoy as Malavli station is the second last. We got down from the train at 1115 hours.

                Do not miss out the aloo samosa at the Malavli station. It is sold by many and it is priced at Rs.10 for two pieces.  With the clouds hovering above our heads and the rain falling, we enjoyed every bit of the hot samosa. It just relieved our hungry stomachs.  Ask anyone for the exit that one need to take for the Bhaja Caves, left or right as there are only two platforms or just follow the crowd.  There is a single road leading to the caves and on the way the scenery is beautiful. One will find the houses of local people and some road side tea-stalls selling local Maharashtrian snacks like Vada Pao, Miscel Pao, Kanda Pohe and Tea. In the rain, it gives relief to sip on some hot tea. We had our share of snacks and tea and we marched forward towards the caves.  On the right hand side of the road, the beauty of the mountains is majestic, lush green mountain slopes with their tops covered with the clouds during the rainy season. On the left side of the road as one walks on, there are many small and medium sized waterfalls.

 There are two main waterfalls on the way, one just before the stairs to the caves and the other after the caves. We decided to pay a visit to the caves first and then enjoy the falls. The steps of the stairs are steep and do become slippery in the rainy season, but since this is a national monument so it has been protected and maintained very nicely by the government. The road diverges immediately after the first major waterfall; one towards the stairs leading to the caves and the other  road leads to the Lohagad Fort. The distance from the station to the top of the caves is around 2.5 km, which one can easily cover in a matter of 30 – 35 minutes.

 As one starts to climb the stairs, the view of the landscape opens up and it is awesome. The cloud covered mountains on your right, the green water filled fields on your right and the waterfall just behind you. It is an ideal place for photography. As you climb the stairs on one’s left will fall the Ticket Booking Counter. Each ticket is priced at Rs. 5.

                Finally we reached the entry to the caves.  It will be good if one does a little bit of Google before any trip, it has certainly helped me in many occasions and I came across the following piece of information from Wikipedia.

 The Bhaja Caves are a group of 22 rock-cut caves dating back to 200 BC located at Maval, near Lonavala, Maharashtra. The caves are located 400 feet above the Bhaja Village. It belongs to the Hinayana Buddhist sect and has a number of stupas in open space. 

There are around 14 stupas, which are relics of resident monks, who died at Bhaja and display an inscription with the names of three monks, Ampinika, Dhammagiri and Sanghdina. The stupas and the architecture there will give you a feel of how great the human history is! How man facing many odds build such a structure. 

 One will get to see the caves which served as rooms to these ancient people. There are engraving of gods and goddess on the walls. These creations have stood the test of time. One need to be extra careful in the rainy season as the stairs and the pathways become quite slippery. The view from the top is beautiful. All the caves can be covered in around two and half hours, after which we came down. We took the path leading to the Lohagad Fort and after travelling around half kilometer, we came across another waterfall. People were enjoying themselves taking a dip and bathing there.

 

Since the depth of the water is not much, most upto the waist level for adults so anyone can easily take a bath. But caution needs to be exercised as rocks are present and can hurt anybody. After enjoying the water-fall for an hour we started our journey back home. One can always enjoy a hot cup of tea after getting wet. By half past five we were are home, nursing our tired feet. 

ONE WAY ROAD

“Life is a one way road; we can see back but we cannot go back. So live every second because today’s newspaper will be tomorrow’s waste paper.” I came across this sms message, forwarded to me by some friend of mine.  Everyone knows this consciously or unconsciously but we fail to live in the spirit of this message. How can happiness come to us or how can we share our happiness with others when we ourselves are truly not happy from within. Take a small example, how can you sign over a cheque of five hundred rupees when you have only five rupees in your bank account?

Human mind has been created in a way that we can only move forwards not backwards. It has the ability to forgive and forget and move on with life. You cannot make anyone fall in love with you nor can you make yourself acceptable to a person if they fail to accept you the way they are.  One thing that I believe in is this; we should not change ourselves for the sake of getting into others attention. Yes, change is necessary when it will help you to resolve in a positive way. People should accept you the way you are..

Move ahead. Life is a journey with rest houses, hotels along the way.  And who knows who’s there in the next bus stop waiting to board your life’s bus.  Once I read in a book, which helped me a lot. If you are not feeling good or you are upset with something; stop all thinking for a couple of minutes and think consciously as to how you are feeling. What has made you upset? Can you tackle the situation or it depends on external situations and circumstances to unfold. If so, let go of it, think positive about it, visualise yourself as already having it and shift your thought frequencies to positive thoughts, happy thoughts. Suddenly as well with practise you will find that the pain that was there in your heart and mind has lessened.  As if the thorn in your heart which was causing all this pain, has been plucked out. You will discover that there is a way, there always is and it always existed, all you need was to open your eyes and guide yourself out….

Remember there’s no lock without a key.

Ek baksho misti (A Box of Sweets)

Ek baksho misti in English means a box of sweets. Let me tell you the story revolving this box of sweets that was gifted to me by friend. There’s nothing unusual with gifting someone sweets, but I beg to differ. It holds a very special place in my heart. If I had not received this present I may not have known goodness, kindness, benevolence, I may have not known what true care or even true friendship is!

I come from a city quite different from Kolkata. I come from Delhi. The two cities are very much different in their tastes. When I came to Kolkata I didn’t know what true friendship was. Now three and a half years have passed, I have made many friends, made many acquaintances, fallen in love, know the pain of loving someone who seemed to be yours but was not yours, so I guess I know I can tell you something related to me and the people around me.

I will not hide it from you that I was in love with a girl for whom I cared and still I care a lot. But something was never right between the two of us. Everyday, whenever we talked we ended up upsetting each other. What I thought was love from my side was not love from her side. I cared for her day and night, told her everything I knew, never hid anything from her. But the magic between the two of us was missing.

Had it not been for my friend Akshay(name changed) I would have been not writing this story to you. This Bhai Phota when all and sundry were busy with their friends and families, celebrating family reunion, celebrating Bhai Phota with their brothers and sisters, I as usual alone in this city, Kolkata was sitting and giving tests in my tuition centre. I meet with this guy, Akshay only on weekends when we have our classes in tuition centre for five to six hours only.

After having attended Bhai Phota, he came to the tuition centre. That day he returned my notebook and alongwith it he gave me a box of sweets. It contained five different sweets one gulab-jamun, one Sondesh, one Kheer-Kadombo and two other sweets whose names I don’t know. I thank him form the depths of my heart, not as a courtesy but for doing something so noble. When all the people I cared for, I loved were busy with their life, with their festivities it was he and his mother who thought about me.

I have never met his mother but had talked to her on one occasion and by accident on that very particular day on phone for thirty three seconds. The mother- son duo thought about my loneliness, they thought about how miserable I feel when I am not with my family. He felt my feelings and this moved me, raised me to a new platform, made me realize that its time to move on in life, there are more important things in life than caring for someone who doesn’t even bothers to think about me. The girl I loved has had a tremendous change in her attitude towards me. She was not like this before and I know this has happened because I behaved wrongly with her. I tried to make it up with her but sometime everything that one does makes no effort what-so-ever.

This guy in this world cared for me, the one who was feeling very lonely on that particular day. He made me realize that it’s better to let go and not hold on to things over which you have no control. When you try to hold on to people, they make you feel miserable as they don’t value you. Once one of my friends very nicely said to me what the reason for your gloominess is. Why do you feel unhappy for someone you doesn’t see the real you. He asked me, “what is the precious thing that I hold in life?” or rather what is the most precious thing that all of us possess in life? This treasure is our mind. Do not borrow it to somebody or anybody. It is the thing that is yours only. Take care of it, don’t hurt it for anyone. It needs to be taken care of and nurtured very carefully.

The box of sweets for me was nothing short of a miracle it made me feel strong, it made me see that there are other people beside her who care for me much more than her. I should invest in them because thy are the ones who are going to make me feel special, they are the ones who are going to care for me, they are the ones who are going to help me when I am in trouble, they are the ones who are going to make me see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Adversities always make the best come out of us. It happens in my case atleast. This crucial period in life will not come back again. The past doesn’t matter even a single bit, it holds no significance, as you cannot change it. Live in the present and work hard, make yourself strong so that you have a nicely carved out future, so that you don’t have to beg to anyone. This life of ours is a one time affair, make the most of it because once the wick of the candle burns out you are not going to get another chance to light it up…

Where can one find ANGEls!!!

People go to temples, churches, mosques and other places of worship and religious places either to seek God or to wash away their sins. What many of us do not realize is that God, the Almighty does not reside in temples; he’s in our hearts. We just need to channel our energies in the right direction and we will experience the perfect bliss. My next question to you have you seen an angel or experienced a miracle or where can we find one? The answer to this all this soul searching is really not tat difficult to find and literally quite straight forward. What I think may not be correct, but one things for sure I have felt his powers by my side and they do assure me that all that is happening  around me is because of his bliss and when nothing will be their, the omnipresent will hold my hand and make me cross the bridge safely. Let me share one experience of mine with you all out there.

Persons or guys and girls like me who work away from home due to various reasons have to travel a lot. This time when I was traveling fromDelhito Pune, my place of work, the AC-3-Tier ticket that I had was an RAC. For those who don’t know what it means, it actually means that I would have to share my berth with another person during the entire journey of fourteen hundred kilometers. The journey began as all journeys should, but it had an experience in store for me that I had to undergo and it did leave an imprint on my mind. I did not ask the Ticket checker if any vacant seat was not available nor did I try to bribe him. I don’t know how to do all those things and for a Bengali like me honour comes first than money or stress. But an hour before Jhansi junction (a station on the way) was to arrive he came to my seat and asked me to remind him that seat no. 8 will get vacant and you an avail it for the rest of the journey.

Well this was nothing short of unusual and I was delighted, so when the mentioned station came, I went to search him and remind him about his words. But alas! To my utter disgust and disappointment, by rule it is in this junction that the ticket checker change duty. For me the ordeal started again but this time I had a thread to hang on to. I requested the other ticket checker about what the previous one had told me and finally I did manage to get hold of seat/birth no 8. I immediately shifted my luggage to that berth and settled myself down for the night’s sleep as it was already 9:30 P.M. by 10 o’clock I was already asleep.

Knock! Knock! The same ticket checker woke me up saying, “Bhai Saab! Yeh seat to book hai. Yeh dekho confirm ticket. Seat khali kar do please. ” I was taken aback, what the hell happened, checked my watch to see what time it was. It was just five minutes past midnight. Before I could ask him anything or come to consciousness, he asked me again to vacate the seat. The checker was adamant, “Nahi na. Dekho iss ticket pe inka no. likha hai. Jaldi se seat khali kar do.” Disappointed, disgusted and flabbergasted as I was about to get down from my upper berth seat, a gentleman in his late fifties very casually told the ticket checker, who was just standing their tha, “ Arre yaar, abhi to tere saath 8 no. seat lekhar baat ki aur tune fix bhi kar diya. Arre beta to hamare saath jar aha hai, usi ticket me 8 no likha tha . fir se dikhana padegya kya tere ko.”.  I could tell by the look on the checkers face that he was deeply confused and thinking had to recollect what the gentleman had just told him. He was just standing their, confused, when the man again said, “Kya hua ?? sab thik to hai na, abhi tosettle kiya tha, yeh to hamare saath hi jaa raha hai.” The checker was confused as he could not recollect so he just did what he was told. He looked at me and told me, “ Oh sai hai, thik hai. Sorry sirji, please go to sleep. Sorry to disturb you.”

The events that just happened were something that I could also not believe. This gentleman, who had just helped me in keeping my seat, just came out of the blue to help me. Before this interaction with the checker I had not seen him. He was the angel who had come there, only to help me. I can simply say he was GODSENT. I thanked him earnestly for what he had done for me and all those people out there who travel know what it means to have a seat for the night. Had it not been for him I would have had to vacate the berth and return to my earlier berth where once again I would have had to share.  But this man who did not know anything about who, who also like me had not seen me earlier, who had not even talked with me, helped me not for any reasons or gains that he might get. He just helped me.

 I am more than cent percent sure that angels walk through this earth in disguise of a common man and it is up to us only to realize that we have met one. Let me remind you I did not find him in temple, church, mosque or a synagogue nor did I find him in the most religious of places but in a train compartment as a fellow passenger who was on his way to some destination.  Many of you out their may not agree with me, will also argue with me when I say to you that I go to temple only when I feel like not every Tuesday or Saturday. But I am more confident than any of you that I will find help, that God will help me when-ever I am in distress. He will definitely come forward and help me whether in the form of a friend, an unknown person, a telephone call or any event that on cannot think of. I know that what I want in life, I will ask the Almighty for it and since my prayer is sincere he will give it to me provided the time for that thing has come. So I might have to wait but if there is truth and purity in your heart and when you ask for it your soul does not stop you will get it.

And last but not the least do not complain about the small as well as the big things, whatever the situation be. Please know one thing for sure, that there is power in this universe beyond our comprehension that will put together people, event, circumstances and time to bring forth to what you have asked for provided what all I mentioned above are true and you have started working towards it. In the end I can only say that ask for what-ever you want from the depth of your heart…….