The Novice Writer: ZENITH WATERFALL

The Banyan Tree.

ZENITH WATERFALL

30^th July 2016

Saturday

Ah!! The Greenery!!

After a long hectic week in my college, I had finally reached the long awaited Saturday. I was really excited about this Saturday just because I was going to go for a yet another trek. It was more of a picnic than a trek as the area that was chosen was just a waterfall. We didn’t have to climb rocks or go hiking on long dusty roads. We just had to see the beautiful waterfall amidst the woods. We just were going to sit by the garden at the foot of the waterfall and then maybe even dive into the water or sit under the waterfall itself. Well, that was what I was hoping for. Yeah!! Expectations were minimal but the excitement was at its peak.

To be frank I did not expect anything because I felt that just like last Saturday, this Saturday also I would make a fool out of myself and all my excitement would go down in drains. But as it is well said, “Good things happen to you when you least expect it.”

No sooner did I came back home from college the day before the trek, then I really got busy with the packing stuff, analyzing and optimizing the things that I should be carrying. As this was my fourth trek I was accustomed to the things that should be carried for a trek. Hence, I exactly knew the important things that are required for a trek of this kind! I was able to optimize a number of things I needed, making my luggage very light and comfortable to carry.

This was going to be my first trip to a waterfall in my lifetime. I don’t remember an occasion up till now that I have been to a waterfall before. I don’t even have photos of it. So, yeah this was the first waterfall trip for me. This feeling alone was so exciting that I was smiling the whole time and was enthusiastic about seeing yet another heaven on the Earth. I was so excited to see the nature and being amidst the greenery and calmness of the trees and smooth blowing winds. Just thinking of the experience I would gain at the end of this picnic kept me awake for the major part of the night. I was desperately and delightfully waiting for the moment when I would be sitting right under the flow of the water coming down from the waterfall. I just wished this wait of mine was worth the experience.

The day started quite early for me. I was supposed to get up at six in the morning but by 5:30 A.M, I was ready and sat excitedly seeing the watch to strike six. I just wanted to bolt to the Thane station and meet my friends with whom I was going to have fun for the rest of the day. I reached the platform which I was supposed to be on sharp at 7:20 A.M. For the time I was at home I watched some great YouTube videos and heard some TED talks. I am fond of these two things so much that I can spend hours on them and yet not get bored. They share some great content and teach me some valuable life lessons.
(No, they haven't paid me to advertise their brand. Although, you can check out my YouTube channel by clicking on this link.)

Heaven On Earth!!

I was quite early. It is a rare case that I reach a place on time.(You Can Ask My Friends! :p Well Comment Section Shall Be Filled With Stories About By Great Timings.) But this would be one of those days when I was waiting for my friends and it wasn’t the other way round. Well, some of my close friends would find it hard to believe that I was before the time for anything, because I have consistently been late for my lectures and exams as well. But the truth remains. I was waiting. It was not a long wait though, it must have been just fifteen to twenty minutes wait and I did not really care about it, as trains were also running late by ten minutes. I just put by earphones on and wandered around from the base of one staircase of the platform to another. Meanwhile, as I wandered around on the platform listening to my newly formed playlist, I observed the crowd around me and the haste people had, on a non-working Saturday morning at around 7:30 A.M. Well, that’s a life of a ‘Mumbaikar’ for you. They are never sitting quite at one place. Everyone is in a hurry and carry their own worries with them, carry their own struggles with them but yet they manage to be polite at times. I was just smiling at every person with whom I managed to get an eye contact with.(Always been a courteous dandy or you may call it being jay.) Some did revert with a smile while some did not even seem to have noticed me. I observed most of the humans around me and tried to understand their actions and what they were doing. It is my favorite pass time. People amuse me a lot. They always surprise me. They show me how different we humans can be sometimes! They show me new kinds available of our species. After a long wait, my phone buzzed with its amusing ringtone which always manages to catch attention, a minimum of three people who give me this weird look which makes me giggle a lot. (Click Here To Hear The Ringtone)

It was my colleague. I met her in one of my internship programs. Since then we became friends and had gone to a couple of treks before. You might know her from my Karnala Trek, she was there too. She was supposed to come here with few other female friends of her. One of whom was present in Karnala trek but I did not get a chance to be acquainted with her as that was quite big a group. But we knew each other by names as I was very active in our WhatsApp group. We had got a chance to chat and converse with one another but this would be the first time we would actually shake hands. The other friend who was having her first trekking experience was a dentist. Up till now I was the youngest one in the group and was proved to be the most talkative amongst us (Again being Jay :p the second meaning applies here).

We all waited for few more minutes for one more guy who was joining us from Harbor line. The train was supposed to reach the platform at around 8:00 A.M. but it was already 8:15 and there was no sign of our train. The crowd on the platform was increasing continuously and I couldn’t figure out what the rush was all about. The train arrived by 8:20 A.M. and we had to again part as the ladies could not enter the normal coach due to the crowd. They had to run towards the female compartment and I ran towards the general second class compartment. One couldn’t find a place to place a pin on ground – it was that crowded. But by the time train passed two other stations ahead of Thane and reached Kalyan Junction an hour later from the time I had boarded the train, crowd diminished to a great extent and I even manage to find a place to sit. We had to get down at Khopoli Station which was the last stop for this train. So, I took a power nap as I kept my earphones on. I must have had an hour of sleep.

No sooner did we get down then, I stretched my body to shrug off all the laziness that crammed me. This even helped me to loosen my muscles that got stiff due to lack of moment.Sleeping in a steady position for a long time is no joke. As I was busy getting back to reality from my transition state my crew members started clicking photos. Clicking photos were mandatory as they would set the proof of the beginning of our journey. (#WeMadeItToKhopoli_Alive!) They even became the conversation starter for the ones whom we were meeting for the first time. I wasn’t in most of these photos I was still trying to come back to the real world. The ones in which I was there they weren’t that good as I looked way too drowsy in them – (sheepish smile). I got back to the jovial me only after walking the whole platform and finally getting out of the “so-called platform” of the “so-called Khopoli station”. I know it is a village and according to that was quite developed and that platform was quite sufficient for the station as there are less than five trains reaching this place in the entire day. So, keeping that fact in mind the platform and station were quite developed. I could see dogs and hens on the platform giving the perfect feel of a village. I was not shocked to see cows just on the outskirts of the station. This scene did give me a sense of entering a place far away from my home though, it was within 50 kilometers from my home. I couldn’t believe that we had such a view so nigh to us. Yes, it is really easy to say that 50 kilometers aren't a long distance, these days we run 42 kilometers for a marathon and we can cross cities in a matter of minutes or max an hour. These aren’t the days where we have to think twice to cross a village. The world has changed. People's mindset has changed. We are getting more independent as each day passes. We are getting closer to our loved ones and can reach them in a matter of hours even if we are living in two different states. Even though the distances have boiled down to mere numbers, we still haven’t managed to find a way to people’s heart and feel them by their soul. We definitely have succeeded in saving time and reaching places in no time, but we still haven’t found a solution to really get connected to people’s life. Technologies and advancements in transportations have brought us closer to each other. It was not possible a couple of years before but we have lost the connections people use to build amongst themselves decades ago. Yeah, just a view of a village started the train of such deep thoughts within me. I was interrupted by the organizer’s voice; he had just given some important instructions and ended it with a hail and saying grace. I just moved with the flow and tried to cope up with them, and started small talks with the crew. I started with the members whom I met on my last trek and were no more strangers to me. They later introduce me to the new faces whom they had invited to the picnic. I made a couple of new friends and it was quite easy to talk to them, they made me feel comfortable. I was no more the youngest one as one of my friend had his younger brother accompanying her. He was a year or two younger to me. Everyone else was four or five years older to me. But the age difference was never a problem to me as I am friendly and can expatriate with anyone and everyone. I have a say over many things it could be due to the hobby that I developed in my 12^th grade of reading newspaper, and or reading novels which I developed in my 10^th grade. Maybe it is these hobbies that made it easy for me to communicate with people. And reading blogs about various places have added on to my hobbies recently. (#Reading helped me to become garrulous). It is obviously not wrong when elders say ‘reading is good’- it does develop your skills in many areas.

As we started our walk towards our destination one of the crew member who was active last night in our WhatsApp group, continued the debate that we were having in the group. So, she asked me various questions about my views. I was answering every question patiently and calmly trying to prove my point as far as I could. I could convince them on most of my points and then there was this dentist the newcomer to our group, who graded us on the basis of the validity of the points given by either of us. As we debated I made some witty comments and tried to outsmart them in certain cases which made them giggle and laugh. They obviously caught me when I was trying to outsmart them but at the end of the whole debate session, we both agreed to each other’s views and started discussing on it without raising further questions on them. It was so much fun to get involved in such deep conversations and understanding another person so closely and making them accustomed to our views. It was so much fun to know them, to feel connected with their beliefs.

We had covered almost half the distance to reach our destination when we came across a crossroad and had to decide which part we had to take to reach the required point. Our organizer inquired for the route from the stalls nearby and took the necessary details. Meanwhile, rest of us stood in the corner of the crossroad waiting for the directions that the organizer had been enlightened with. We did random talks unless they were interrupted by our dear organizer who had a valuable piece of information to share with us. He was informed that we had to take a left and move straight and take a right from the place where there was a temple. We started heading in the direction which we were just informed about but we had to apply brakes to our paddles as he had more to say. He continued to speak, inculcating us about the fact that government had shut the entrance to the area we had planned to head towards for the sake of maintenance. We ignored the fact saying that we shall check it for ourselves.(When excitement and curiosity got the better of you. :p) We acted like small kids who denied taking a step back and searching for a new place. The organizer was left with no choice so he agreed to our stubbornness and we continued to head towards the temple. In Midway, the organizer and his colleague went back down to the stalls to get some breakfast for every one of us. We forgot to take it at first place. As he came back he had again inquired about the certainty of the gates to be open. He got a negative reply so he already had made some calls to get the direction to the next nearest waterfall zone. He knew there were a few more nearby as Zenith waterfall was not the only one area where we could find waterfalls in Khopoli. He asked for directions to some of his friends and by the time he came back we had a backup plan. He acted like a true leader and made sure none of us get disappointed by the fact that gates would be closed. Meanwhile, we enjoyed our photo sessions near the gates of the temple. The temple seemed to be of Mahadev’s (Lord Shiva) temple – temple of the destroyer. We took loads of photo at each corner of the temple as we had nothing else to do till our organizer came back.

Statue On The Way To Temple

Gate Of The Temple

Shiva's Temple

Our food was at our hands in a matter of twenty minutes which seemed like just five minutes. We ate our snacks, acknowledged him to get us such warm snacks and taking such pain for us. We moved towards our destination after keeping all the bits and pieces of paper in our respective bags and cleaning our hands with the paper, handkerchiefs, tissues and what not (As not everyone had handkerchiefs with them. #CleanIndia. #SwachBharat). We all had our own ways to clean our hands. One of us just clapped the dust off his hands – well this one was me and then I was the one to remove a napkin from my bag as well after getting an offer of cleaning my hand from the handkerchief that they had. Well, I showed how lazy I could be at times.

We saw some beautiful structures that were built in the gardens whose gates were closed. We even could see two to three waterfalls from our present location (near the temple). We were so excited to climb those hills and reach as close as possible to those waterfalls. We could even see a train moving past through the tunnel. The monsoon weather just increased the beauty of the mountains by a level which couldn’t be measured. The fogs and the clouds near the peaks of the mountains were just amazing to look at. We saw a group of trekkers retracing their path. We stopped them and asked for their return, we were just wishing the answer shouldn’t be that the gates are closed.

Base Of The Hills

Alas!! That was exactly why they were returning back. We waited there for a while and we saw the scenery of Zenith waterfall for one last time. We clicked some selfies and of course clicked a photograph of the beautiful mother earth. We also started a return journey with our sad disheartened faces which were soon going to lit up with the news organizer had to share with us. He said we were going to Aadhosi a place not that far. He said he had managed to plan another waterfall site nearby by asking the directions to one of his friends. So, we walked fast towards the bus depot where we would board our bus to Aadhosi.

The Return Journey

We walked pretty fast, with less of chattering and blabbering; we reached the bus stop as soon as possible as now we could not control our thirst to begin our new adventure and wanted to quench our thirst to see a waterfall as soon as we could. We reached the bus depot within half an hour and we boarded the bus as soon as we reached the depot as luckily the bus standing there was going to Aadhosi. We were slightly in luck. We took our seats and started our jokes and singing sessions even before our bus started. As soon as the driver put the metal on the paddle and gave a thrust to the engine making the whole bus vibrate, we all hailed happy journey to one and all and shouted on top of our voice “Ganpati Baapa Mauriya”. We even had fun talks with some of the other passengers. We even managed to change places with few of them so that we all could sit together and make a lot less fuss and not disturbing the other passengers that much. We might have hindered their personal space with the amount of noise we were making but we were too excited back then to think about it. We played games and entertained each other and managed to make some passengers laugh too. These actions of ours made our long journey look short and subtle. Within no time we reached our new picnic spot to venture our new adventure. It actually had been an hour of travel but it did not seem that long.

The bus dropped us near a bridge which we had to cross to reach the side where we could have our lunch and keep our bags. Instead of crossing the bridge we crossed the river directly as it seemed more close to us. The river was comparatively diminutive so we did gather the courage to cross it and it wasn’t even that deep. We were just trying to make our trip a bit more fun. We had no ropes so we made a human chain and one by one we moved ahead as we held each other’s hand. It took us ten minutes to cross that small river. But it was quite thrilling and adventurous.

The River That We Crossed

It was two o’clock in the noon, the half day had already passed and we had not yet enjoyed or even seen a water fall from our arm's length. Just within ten to fifteen minutes we had reached the top and could see a wonderful scene. There were many, almost a dozen of waterfall around us. Some were small, some were huge, some were wide, some were thin, and some did not have an adequate flow of water while in some others, there was a rush of water which flowed with great force. For a while I just stood there in silence looking at the majestic greenery and getting absorbed in the calm cool breeze whose moist touch raised goosebumps all over my body, making me feel alive and refreshed. Just those little soft touches of winds moved all the stress which had built up in me during the previous week. The scene was fabulous. It had awe-stricken me like never before. Seeing that made me realize that I had found yet another heaven on earth and was seeing yet another beautiful piece of Mother Nature’s soul.

Sab Moh Maya Hai! Par Kya Kar Dil Hai Ki Manta Hi Nahi!!

After having a bit of the self-timer, I joined my crew to the waterfall where we sat under the water and turn by turn two guys from the group took our photos while we sat there having loads of fun as we posed in loads and loads of different ways. I did a bit of a swimming, not worrying about the depth. A few of us did not enter the water for god only knows why?? We started splashing water on them and pulled them into the water until the time they were completely soaked in water. It was a great experience, sitting in the river singing songs splashing water, posing like an age old saint. We almost enjoyed ourselves in every waterfall present over there. We clicked our group photos in each one of those beautiful cascading waters.

Being A Saint - That I Am!! B)

After having three hours of fun in the water and enjoying ourselves to the fullest we decided to take our leave. It was thirty minutes past five when we actually started to take our leave. We were pretty late as it is and we still had to have our lunch. We were so engrossed in enjoying ourselves we almost forgot about everything else. As we were making our way to head downwards to the stalls, we all took the last group photo in a way that we could cover maximum waterfalls where we had had lots of fun. And for the one last time we youngsters started jumping on the small pond splashing water for the last time for the day. Other crew members joined us and we took a video of our last piece of excitement. We all had smiles, giggles, and laughter on our faces as we moved down.

Jumping Like Kids. Having So Much Fun And Bliss!

Our order was ready. Our table was set. The food was hot. We got some really hot ‘rotis’ (Flat-Breads) initially. The food was quite good. It was a full course meal for five people. We were nine of us but the quantity was just appropriate to fill everyone’s stomach. We were all exhausted by now but we still did not stop conversations amongst us. I was still carrying on with my lame jokes and was still passing witty comments on the topic of conversation. It was a fun time at lunch table too. The warm food made me feel refreshed and brought my body temperature to room temperature at a faster rate. My clothes were still drenched in water and the evening breeze made me shiver. My teeth also started chattering at some point of time but the warm food helped me to overcome the minor ailments. Towards the end of our lunch, we convinced our new friend – the dentist to tell us a story in her language – Haryanvi. We had to convince her for a while but eventually, she did say a story. It was a humorous piece of content there. She told the prestigious mythological story – ‘Ramayana’. You may think what could have been so funny about this story?? Well, the language itself made it sound funny (no offense) and the twist in the tail was just another add on to the content that made it such a humorous storyline. With that little hit of humor, we ended our picnic and started our return journey to Thane – the place where we all began the day which would be remembered and would stay alive in our hearts for eternity.

Hey!!! Where are you going?? “Picture abhi bakki hai mere dost!”- In this case actually, it is the article though (sheepish smile, lame joke, well that’s who I am. I can sometimes manage to remove the fun from best movie dialogues too).

So, after hearing to such a fabulous content we all got up with laughter plastered on our face and moved towards the bus stop on the other side of the bridge. There no such great conversations going on now and we walked in small groups talking amongst ourselves rather than a group as a whole. We all walked slowly as the bus was yet to arrive, we had a time gap. This time we did cross the bridge and avoided any further adventure for the day. We skipped the river adventure for this time. Moreover, we don’t believe in repeating the same adventure again and again it actually would have lost its essence then.

We got our bus on time; it might not have been the last bus though as there were still people enjoying themselves up in the waterfalls. Whatsoever, it must have been I was just relieved that we got a bus on time and I just wanted to sit and take some rest. I had walked and had a lot of fun. I did felt a bit exhausted but I had loads to talk with the two women sitting behind me. One worked in TCS and the other one was a dentist. Both of them had interesting stories to share with me and explain their jobs to me. The dentist was not just a dentist, she did something else with it too. I don’t remember the exact details but the work seemed quite interesting. I got to know about new medicines and stuff related to it as to how they are brought into market and how their quality testing is done? I also got to know how they resolve the problem faced by customers and deal with the side effects. Meanwhile, as I was talking with the ladies, all the images that were taken from different mobiles had completed being shared with me. The bus was quite crowded by the time it reached the final destination. And the journey seemed a bit long this time as we did not have so much to do rather we couldn’t do many things as there were too many people around.

We were almost half an hour early to the Khopoli station. So, we planned to have some tea and coffee as per our choices and interest. Tea break was quite useful to get me refreshed and get me back into the mood to enjoy the rest of the journey. Somehow, I felt good having a hot cup of coffee. No sooner did we completed our tea break we joked around with the guy behind the counter about the bill. I guess everyone’s energy level was refilled. Even after passing the time in tea break our train was still not on the station it was late by half an hour. Well, what I was even expecting from the Mumbai locals!! As we walked back to the station my friend’s younger brother and I got into an intense conversation with him about the gaming world. We waited there on station for quite a while and did some random talks which mainly included dancing and singing.

No sooner did we board the train, the TCS lady took out the sketching material and her paints. We all were supposed to draw something on that paper related to the trip we had just completed. She did not have paint brush so we painted with our hands. So, one of us drew a waterfall scenery, one drew a tree on which each one of us painted leaves with our fingers. Then our names were written beside the scenery as a remembrance of who all attended the trip. I borrowed a pen from one of the passengers who saw that I was struggling drawing with my pen as its refill got over. Well, the help was unexpected but the man kind of was staring at my drawing as if he was some kind of an art critic. I was glad that someone was taking interest into the portrait I was drawing.

The Art Work We Created!

Portrait That I Made!!

After an hour of drawing, we all started saying dialogues which were famous and had some deep meaning into them and even sang songs. After half an hour of such fun, the TCS lady told us a story. A story that gave me goosebumps. The story was about a girl and an old man. The story had a great meaning in it, and when I was inculcated with the fact that she had written this story. I was impressed. I have also written some short stories but they were never so impactful. I never felt about them the way I felt about this story. Indeed I had a long way to reach and conquer the skies. But I know one thing no matter what one day I will reach there.

The trip was prodigious. I was in Beatitude at the end of the trip. When I reached home and set my bed and was about to fall asleep I got these warm fuzziness – to have completed yet another trek with a group of some really delightful people who knew how to live their lives. Yet another heaven on earth was explored and captured in my memories forever.

~Jay Mehta