‘Soul’ Kadhi
Just an innocuous pickup at the Mumbai airport could end up costing you over Rs.300 even before you sit in your pickup vehicle. I guess I was just a minute late in locating the mini-van that had come to pick me up at the Santacruz Airport in Mumbai. The Airport was the first stop on starting from Dadar for Amit, Ranjeet-Preeti, and Nishant on the way to Dapoli.
Our destination, Harne-Murud was around 270 km southwards from Dadar (Mumbai – erstwhile Bombay) , and around 380kms northwards from Goa. Very much on the coast. And this region in general, is silently proud of its numerous beautiful beaches. Much like the less flamboyant but nevertheless very beautiful country girls.
The Konkan region is the beautiful south-western coastline of the state of Maharashtra in India. This verdant region, with bountiful coconut and betel-nut plantations had yet escaped my travel till date. Guess it had to wait for the first decade of the new millennium to turn over, for me to be able to leave my footprints on the sands of Harne. These footprints would in all probability would have been washed away even before I left beach… …
I hopped into the van around 8.45-9.00am. I had managed to fit in to be a part of the annual ‘year-transition IESMES get-together’ probably after 3 sessions of it had passed by. And I was quite excited about it. Was also looking forward to meet Nishant after over 3 years. He and I used to meet up during my stint in Concord. He used to stay near the Milipitas-Mountain View limits in CA, and the road to his apartment on San Bernardo Av. involved taking a couple of quick curvy exits.
The first stop along the way was a restaurant called ‘Kshanbhar Vishraanti’, somewhere near Panvel. The restaurant lived up to its name by taking quite some vishraanti between each order. We were so amused by the waiter’s ’10 minnte laagitil’ for most of our orders, that we reciprocated with the same information when he brought us the bill finally.
With our vehicle having ample space for all of us, the journey to Harne was not so tiresome. We ceaselessly reconnected and talk away any semblance of tiredness over the journey. The vegetation slowly changed to a lot of coconut palms and mangroves.
The last few kilometers embodied the pareto principle, and seemed to take excessive time aided by a traffic jam in a ‘thin’ village road which was actually a wrong detour anyway.
It took the better part of the day to reach the resort. And we were glad to have parked and disembarked. Kedar had reached from Pune a few hours earlier, and came down to receive us.
As the evening approached, the spirits in the mind rose as quickly as those in the bottle flowed. For me, it was a re-grouping after quite a few years. So, there were lots of gaps to be filled in. The amount of water that had flowed under everybody’s bridge seemed to have carved new formations in each person. Though it had left many parts of personality untouched or even accentuated some shades over the years, it also had washed some sediment away over time. However, the ‘iesmes’ part of the personality only seemed to have evolved more for the better.
While we waited for our snacks to arrive, some early observations seemed to convert into Realizations. Amit’s repository of songs, effortlessly recollected and rendered was quite a surprise for me…a chain of songs with a truthful effort to let the rendition emanate the intended feelings . He seemed to be a man completely at peace with himself. His active social and political life, apart from his professional one, sure has helped sculpt his personality positively.
Kedar seemed to have gone over the hill eventually and apparently had changed personality. He seemed quite unshackled, and was consequently more animated. For this season of the trip, he did bring in much vivacity to the proceedings, and was quite on a roll.
After a while, when the sun had gone down and the crickets had started stirring, I got up to explore the area towards the back of the resort. After a few meters though, it got overwhelmingly dark. Bereft of any sort of light, also far from any urban luminescence, the rhythmic motions of the sea took on a completely new personality. The sound of the waves caressing the shore purposefully, in the nocturnal hours, was wholesomely inviting. The sounds of the sea vacillated between gentle feels to noisily encroaching thrusts. However, I had by now conceded that I was sufficiently intimidated by the dense darkness in an unknown place, and renounced my attempt to approach the sea shore at night. I trudged back slowly to our small congregation.
For the night, Me, Nishant and Amit dropped off in the bachelor camp on the first floor, reached by a circuitous staircase, which vibrated as we clambered upwards every time, though thankfully not with the resonant frequency . Ranjeet and Preeti camped next doors. Kedar and family were put up on the ground floor room.
Morning brought in a fresh perspective of the resort. With the tea delivered to our rooms, I readied myself quickly for a quick dekko of the sea and the beach, which I missed out the earlier evening.
In the morning, the sea presented a picture of unconcerned calmness and deep vastness.
The beach only seemed incidental.
Nevertheless, it was a beautiful beach. Miles of virgin beach stretching in two directions. Lush mountains rose and accompanied alongside for quite a stretch in one direction. The other had bountiful coconut and betelnut plantations stretching for hundreds of acres alongside. A limitless expanse of infinite tamed sand; sand tamed by hot and cold approach of the periodically advancing and receding tides. For a moment, it reminded me of some of the beaches I had seen on Highway 1 in California. Of course, I did miss seeing the best ones further away on that highway and those on the Big Sur area. Still I was fortunate enough to have been to the Monterey area and Point Reyes, and the Half-Moon Bay, all uniquely beautiful.
The highlight of this trip was much frolicking and banter in the comfortably agitated waters of the Arabian sea at this location. Relaxingly cool waters, enjoyable sunshine with the right amount of cloud cover made sure we spent a lot of time dobbing in the sea.
A lot of ruffles of life dissolved into the sea and were washed away for the time-being.
A little while later in the morning, the sands set the scene for a couple of miles of jog for Nishant, Kedar and Me. Terns that had flocked together and assembled far off became the turning back point. The terns though receded back as we came in nearer. It was fun to try and venture as near as possible to the flock, however, the multitude of tern droppings proved repulsive :-). Crisscrossing between the shallows of the sea and the settled sand, the jog was pleasant. Nishant is actually a good marathon runner, and completed the jog in good time. He had also planned to run the Mumbai Marathon since he happened to be here then. I think he has had the experience of running a few marathons in California too, and is of course a regular runner too from an exercise point of view.
Another high point of the trip was the food of course. The taste, made more flavorful by the obvious lack of attempt to sensationalize it. Beauty in Simplicity, and the original flavors blossom. The volume – Humongous quantities were consumed. Crabs, shrimps, a plethora of fish. Me being a vegetarian lived on the staple of batata bhaji (semi-mashed potato curry), and other veggie dishes which were flavorful too. Amit had agreed to scan and send the receipts of the consumption as a memoir. I must upload it here as soon as he sends it to me .
Ranjeet surely had his fill of the sumptuous and succulent sea-food. For me, since childhood, Ranjeet has been an embodiment of assertiveness and clarity of ideals and action. For us, he was our un-contested class monitor during our entire school stretch. I am pretty sure he must be carrying the same leadership charisma in his professional life now.
The day we were to leave, we had requested for ‘ukadiche modak’, another local delicacy (steamed dumplings with shredded coconut filling sweetened with jaggery or sugar). Justice was done to these with much alacrity.
One of our requests, was for Sol-Kadhi, a lightly spiced drink made of coconut-milk. The subtly delicious taste led to a lot of encores. The hosts were generous enough to provide to our demands. As I sat there with another glass of soothing sol-kadhi, I realized that this trip has been relevant to me on multiple fronts. It was for the first time in more than couple of years that I had actually been on a purely pleasure trip. I also looked at this trip as my official re-assimilation into my school friend circle. Spending time again with people whom you have shared your most innocent and uncorrupted times does a lot of good to your soul. By now, most of us have surged ahead in life on many fronts, though might have managed to get some scars too. Spending time with a group of forward-looking, talented, and successful individuals also does much to ignite new internal motivational and inspirational fires, and keep existing ones burning for another term. It feels so good to realize that you have so many more positive persons in your life, and silently hope that this positivity is hugely contagious. But most importantly, it’s the company of such great friends that one has that does you a huge good. Many of these things I cannot take for granted any more.
An affirmative realization sunk in with each sip, that a dose of this periodic 'soul'-kadhi was not only extremely enjoyable, but was unarguably good for the soul too.
Our destination, Harne-Murud was around 270 km southwards from Dadar (Mumbai – erstwhile Bombay) , and around 380kms northwards from Goa. Very much on the coast. And this region in general, is silently proud of its numerous beautiful beaches. Much like the less flamboyant but nevertheless very beautiful country girls.
The Konkan region is the beautiful south-western coastline of the state of Maharashtra in India. This verdant region, with bountiful coconut and betel-nut plantations had yet escaped my travel till date. Guess it had to wait for the first decade of the new millennium to turn over, for me to be able to leave my footprints on the sands of Harne. These footprints would in all probability would have been washed away even before I left beach… …
I hopped into the van around 8.45-9.00am. I had managed to fit in to be a part of the annual ‘year-transition IESMES get-together’ probably after 3 sessions of it had passed by. And I was quite excited about it. Was also looking forward to meet Nishant after over 3 years. He and I used to meet up during my stint in Concord. He used to stay near the Milipitas-Mountain View limits in CA, and the road to his apartment on San Bernardo Av. involved taking a couple of quick curvy exits.
The first stop along the way was a restaurant called ‘Kshanbhar Vishraanti’, somewhere near Panvel. The restaurant lived up to its name by taking quite some vishraanti between each order. We were so amused by the waiter’s ’10 minnte laagitil’ for most of our orders, that we reciprocated with the same information when he brought us the bill finally.
With our vehicle having ample space for all of us, the journey to Harne was not so tiresome. We ceaselessly reconnected and talk away any semblance of tiredness over the journey. The vegetation slowly changed to a lot of coconut palms and mangroves.
The last few kilometers embodied the pareto principle, and seemed to take excessive time aided by a traffic jam in a ‘thin’ village road which was actually a wrong detour anyway.
It took the better part of the day to reach the resort. And we were glad to have parked and disembarked. Kedar had reached from Pune a few hours earlier, and came down to receive us.
As the evening approached, the spirits in the mind rose as quickly as those in the bottle flowed. For me, it was a re-grouping after quite a few years. So, there were lots of gaps to be filled in. The amount of water that had flowed under everybody’s bridge seemed to have carved new formations in each person. Though it had left many parts of personality untouched or even accentuated some shades over the years, it also had washed some sediment away over time. However, the ‘iesmes’ part of the personality only seemed to have evolved more for the better.
While we waited for our snacks to arrive, some early observations seemed to convert into Realizations. Amit’s repository of songs, effortlessly recollected and rendered was quite a surprise for me…a chain of songs with a truthful effort to let the rendition emanate the intended feelings . He seemed to be a man completely at peace with himself. His active social and political life, apart from his professional one, sure has helped sculpt his personality positively.
Kedar seemed to have gone over the hill eventually and apparently had changed personality. He seemed quite unshackled, and was consequently more animated. For this season of the trip, he did bring in much vivacity to the proceedings, and was quite on a roll.
After a while, when the sun had gone down and the crickets had started stirring, I got up to explore the area towards the back of the resort. After a few meters though, it got overwhelmingly dark. Bereft of any sort of light, also far from any urban luminescence, the rhythmic motions of the sea took on a completely new personality. The sound of the waves caressing the shore purposefully, in the nocturnal hours, was wholesomely inviting. The sounds of the sea vacillated between gentle feels to noisily encroaching thrusts. However, I had by now conceded that I was sufficiently intimidated by the dense darkness in an unknown place, and renounced my attempt to approach the sea shore at night. I trudged back slowly to our small congregation.
For the night, Me, Nishant and Amit dropped off in the bachelor camp on the first floor, reached by a circuitous staircase, which vibrated as we clambered upwards every time, though thankfully not with the resonant frequency . Ranjeet and Preeti camped next doors. Kedar and family were put up on the ground floor room.
Morning brought in a fresh perspective of the resort. With the tea delivered to our rooms, I readied myself quickly for a quick dekko of the sea and the beach, which I missed out the earlier evening.
In the morning, the sea presented a picture of unconcerned calmness and deep vastness.
The beach only seemed incidental.
Nevertheless, it was a beautiful beach. Miles of virgin beach stretching in two directions. Lush mountains rose and accompanied alongside for quite a stretch in one direction. The other had bountiful coconut and betelnut plantations stretching for hundreds of acres alongside. A limitless expanse of infinite tamed sand; sand tamed by hot and cold approach of the periodically advancing and receding tides. For a moment, it reminded me of some of the beaches I had seen on Highway 1 in California. Of course, I did miss seeing the best ones further away on that highway and those on the Big Sur area. Still I was fortunate enough to have been to the Monterey area and Point Reyes, and the Half-Moon Bay, all uniquely beautiful.
The highlight of this trip was much frolicking and banter in the comfortably agitated waters of the Arabian sea at this location. Relaxingly cool waters, enjoyable sunshine with the right amount of cloud cover made sure we spent a lot of time dobbing in the sea.
A lot of ruffles of life dissolved into the sea and were washed away for the time-being.
A little while later in the morning, the sands set the scene for a couple of miles of jog for Nishant, Kedar and Me. Terns that had flocked together and assembled far off became the turning back point. The terns though receded back as we came in nearer. It was fun to try and venture as near as possible to the flock, however, the multitude of tern droppings proved repulsive :-). Crisscrossing between the shallows of the sea and the settled sand, the jog was pleasant. Nishant is actually a good marathon runner, and completed the jog in good time. He had also planned to run the Mumbai Marathon since he happened to be here then. I think he has had the experience of running a few marathons in California too, and is of course a regular runner too from an exercise point of view.
Another high point of the trip was the food of course. The taste, made more flavorful by the obvious lack of attempt to sensationalize it. Beauty in Simplicity, and the original flavors blossom. The volume – Humongous quantities were consumed. Crabs, shrimps, a plethora of fish. Me being a vegetarian lived on the staple of batata bhaji (semi-mashed potato curry), and other veggie dishes which were flavorful too. Amit had agreed to scan and send the receipts of the consumption as a memoir. I must upload it here as soon as he sends it to me .
Ranjeet surely had his fill of the sumptuous and succulent sea-food. For me, since childhood, Ranjeet has been an embodiment of assertiveness and clarity of ideals and action. For us, he was our un-contested class monitor during our entire school stretch. I am pretty sure he must be carrying the same leadership charisma in his professional life now.
The day we were to leave, we had requested for ‘ukadiche modak’, another local delicacy (steamed dumplings with shredded coconut filling sweetened with jaggery or sugar). Justice was done to these with much alacrity.
One of our requests, was for Sol-Kadhi, a lightly spiced drink made of coconut-milk. The subtly delicious taste led to a lot of encores. The hosts were generous enough to provide to our demands. As I sat there with another glass of soothing sol-kadhi, I realized that this trip has been relevant to me on multiple fronts. It was for the first time in more than couple of years that I had actually been on a purely pleasure trip. I also looked at this trip as my official re-assimilation into my school friend circle. Spending time again with people whom you have shared your most innocent and uncorrupted times does a lot of good to your soul. By now, most of us have surged ahead in life on many fronts, though might have managed to get some scars too. Spending time with a group of forward-looking, talented, and successful individuals also does much to ignite new internal motivational and inspirational fires, and keep existing ones burning for another term. It feels so good to realize that you have so many more positive persons in your life, and silently hope that this positivity is hugely contagious. But most importantly, it’s the company of such great friends that one has that does you a huge good. Many of these things I cannot take for granted any more.
An affirmative realization sunk in with each sip, that a dose of this periodic 'soul'-kadhi was not only extremely enjoyable, but was unarguably good for the soul too.
Comments
Ranjeet
reading ur blogs was amazing......