I had gone to my native place Vareri in Devgad (District Sindhudurg) between 11 to 16. It is a place famous for the Alfonso mangoes. Here are some thing which happened during those days.
Day 1:
For the first time in my life I traveled in a train for long distance journey. Otherwise it use to be the Lal Daba which would take around 13-14 hrs to reach Devgad. We were really curious about the time it would take to reach. And we weren't disappointed. Compared to the ST, it took us 10 hrs to reach home, a saving of 3-4 hrs of boring journey. But I guess it wasn't going to be as happy as the journey was. We reached here only to find that the electricity supply wasn't restored. We had requested the MSEB to cut the supply earlier as we didn't have anyone staying here & due to my engineering we were sure that we wont be coming here for that period. Before leaving Mumbai we had made an application to local MSEB office. An application wasn't enough though. I guess money talks more in India than any other country. There is so much corruption at every level in the administration. Bullshit.So we had live in that situation for the whole day (or rather night). Now I know why people attack MSEB offices when load shading affects their home.
Day 2:
The day 2 was little better as the electricity was restored at an obvious cost of chai pani. I took my camera and started taking some photos when I realized that it wont be easy using this "roll-based" camera after all I had been using sidscope's digital camera. hmmm.... Digital camera is at the top of my list of things I needed to buy after my first salary. I went to Talebazar (nearest Bazar from my village) in the evening where I drank Thumps up. It turned out to be a bad choice as I got cold and cough the next day. Thank to Bunty who had brought those 2 books, I could pass my time. I started reading Indian Summer by John Wright. It seemed a good book to begin with.
Day 3:
We decided that after lunch we will go to Devgad. I had never gone there, even though I had come to my village several times. I had heard from Dad that it was near the sea. We had our lunch and took an ST. It took around 25 min to reach Devgad. Its a crowded place than my village though certainly not as much as Kankavali forget about mumbai. We had a really a good time there. We went to beach. There are lots of wind mills at Devgad. As they are at some height there wasn't a simple way of reaching that place, we decided to have distant view only. I wish I could go back to Devgad with my best friends and enjoy for as much time as i want.
Day 4:
Its getting more and more boring as the days are passing. Damn, the place could turn into a heaven if some one could stay there and take care of the house and the trees. I guess it will remain a dream for me. This we didn't go to see our Mango trees which are in the mountains. No no its neither that high nor that difficult to go there. It takes around 45-60 min to reach there. As the mango season was already over we thought it wasn't worth walking that much distance.
The book was almost complete by Thursday. I was worried that I would have to start reading "Lord of the Rings" which i didn't want to read. But then our neighbors came up with a suggestion that we should color the grills of our windows so that they do not rust during monsoon. My father bought the paint and started paining with my brother. As I was having cough I wasn't allowed to do any work.
Day 5:
Yehhhhhhhhhh. I completed "Indian Summer" today. John has been very candid in most of the part in the book. He has avoided naming people while criticizing them. The only person he has criticized openly is Bishansingh bedi. I guess he is absolutely right. Singh thinks that god has given him mouth to criticize Indian cricket team. I just wonder how many matches did India win when he was in the team. Apart from that John has described all the tours, many players like Sachin, Rahul, Saurav and Sehwag. He had had his own take on indian selection system. Must read book for a cricket fan like me.
I have started reading "Lord of the Rings". It isnt as bad as I thought. I think the reason why I hate it, is the movies. They were too long and I thought they were stretched to a point that a viewer would rather leave the theater or switch off the TV than watch the movie completely.If I had been in Mumbai, I don't think I would have red this book. But being in Vareri, I don't have many options(or should i say none).
I was also allowed to paint the window grills. Unfortunately I couldn't take my photograph while doing the job as the lights went off at that time. When it returned it was too late. Some other time... I told myself.
Last but not the least, it was a night to remember as it was raining like cats and dogs. All of us were really afraid that we may not be able catch up with the train or the train may be canceled. We couldn't sleep with that fear. We kept waiting for the sunrise.
Day 6:
Finally the day has come. We got ready at 11 and were waiting for the rickshaw. We reached Talebazar and subsequently got the Kanakavali ST. We reached Kanakavali station at 1.45pm. The train came at around 3 o'clock. An interesting thing to mention is when we were traveling to Kanakavali, there was group of youngsters from Don Bosco eng. college going to Madgaon. Coincidently, they were again with us in the same compartment during the return journey. At last we were back to Mumbai. It was 10.30 when we got to Dadar. We boarded a Taxi and were at home before 11. After dinner, I watched Shyamachi Aai on the Space Black channel. Quite touching movie, isnt it?
Overall it wasn't a bad trip. But then looking at the number of days I had before my job starts on 25th, it wasn't the best of timing. I guess sometimes you have to do some things for "others" rather than being selfish all the time. I hope I did the right thing.
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