सुबह सूरज से पहले उठना है, सफेद कपडे पहनकर भी मिट्टीपे बैठना है, वर्गमित्रोंसे मुकाबले कडे हैं मगर कड़वे नहीं, न शह है उनमें अपनी और न उनकी मात है, ये बस कुछ रोज पुरानी बात है.!!
हिंदी अंग्रेजी इतिहास की पसंदीदा क्लास है, विज्ञान, चित्रकला, म्यूज़िक की तो हर बात ख़ास है, SUPW, PT तो अपना फेवरेट टाइमपास है, बस मैथ्स का होना यही एकमात्र आघात है,
ये बस कुछ रोज पुरानी बात है.!!
डेढ़ बज गए अब और क्या सोचना है, बस खाने के बाद स्टडी में सोने से बचना है, आज किस हाउस की मेस में परोसने की बारी है? देखो उसे चपाती चाहिये जिसने उठाया ऊँचा हाथ है, ये बस कुछ रोज पुरानी बात है.!!
शाम को फ्रूट के बाद ग्राऊंड तो सबसे प्यारा है, असेम्ब्ली में हर हाऊस का अपना अपना नारा है, रात दस बजे तक होमवर्क करना पूरा है, कितना लम्बा दिन था, और कितनी छोटी रात है,
ये बस कुछ रोज पुरानी बात है.!!
छोटी सी दुनिया के छोटे छोटे ख्वाब हैं, हर मुश्किल सवाल के बड़े सरल जवाब हैं, स्केल पे नापा था मैंने कई बार, वो क्लासरूम का दायरा ही मेरी कायनात है.. ये बस कुछ रोज पुरानी बात है.!!
We once had trekked Ratangad just before the arrival of monsoon, and it was a heavenly experience back then. We met with thundering pre-monsoon showers while ascending. Also the whole night that we spent up there on top, it was heavily pouring with loud thunders. The next morning that we experienced on Ratangad was no less than a heaven. As we were watching the first rays of sun appearing on the skyline, entire valley slowly started filling with clouds of fog. Then came a time when except the pinnacle on which we were standing, everything around us got submerged in the clouds. We were literally floating above this magical and tremendously huge spongy white mass. It was like experiencing the wonderland stories in reality. Keeping this rare and magical experience in our minds and expecting to rejuvenate it, we at the end of May 2016, when the pre-monsoon rains had already showered a couple of days before, decided to trek the all mighty Madangad.
The trek of Alang, Kulang and Madangad is the most difficult trek in Sahyadri, and Madan is the most terrible amongst them. No one can climb Madan without the help of professional trekking guide and professional mountaineering equipment. Knowing this we too had booked a so called professional guide from the base village Ambewadi. On the trekking day we reached Ambewadi only to find that the guide we had booked was heading a committee which was busy in managing the next day village fair (Jatra/mela) arrangements in Ambewadi. He thus wasn't available to come with us and arranged another person named Ganpa to take us to Madan. So we proceeded with Ganpa. We had planned a night stay on the fort, thus had taken food preparing materials along with two hens that we were planning to cook atop. We four friends; Me, Nitin, Daulat and Someshwar began the trek with Ganpa at around 4 pm in the evening. There was a dense green cover all around us throughout the path. It was a bit tedious and long but wonderful journey of two hours upto the base of Alang. This was the junction point where the paths towards Alang and Madan were separating. There we noticed another group of about 15 people who were trying to climb the most difficult patch of Alang. But we didn't stop to see them because we had to proceed to Madan since it already was 6.00 pm and getting darker minute by minute. It was necessary to reach to the difficult vertical rocky patch of Madan at least half an hour before dark. Thus we continued on towards Madan and within half an hour reached the spot of the difficult rock patch. This was an extremely dangerous spot where we had reached. There was space only sufficient for one person to stand at that point. It was more than 1000 feet deep and steep valley on one side and about 50 feet straight vertical rock patch on other side which we had to climb. It is said that once there was a lot of treasure on Madangad fort. To protect this treasure from attack, the fort chief descended the fort and blew off the stairs at this patch so that no one could reach to the treasure buried somewhere on the top. This happened about 250 years before and since then until very recently, no one had succeeded climbing the fort. However, since a decade or so, the fort has been conquered by some (but none has found any treasure). Now we were at the same spot which was blown off by the fort chief. Firstly, Ganpa took the lead. He carried a rope with him tied to his waist and started climbing the straight rock patch only with bare hands and feet. It was an extremely dangerous act as even a minute mistake would have had his body shattered in pieces in the deep valley below. If Ganpa would have slipped, we couldn't have captured him because there wasn't enough space for one to even stand properly, forget catching or capturing the falling person. It took around 10-15 minutes for Ganpa to finally reach to the top of the patch where he tied one end of the rope to a rock and threw another down towards us. There was another rope which Ganpa was holding in his hand from one end. Other end of this rope was to be tied to our body. Then Ganpa was going to pull the rope tied to our body to give us a helping upward drag and at the same time we had to hold the other rope tied to rock and climb slowly by pulling it. It was not just an adventure, it was sheer madness, since the rope wasn't a professional one, and over that Ganpa too was the most unprofessional guide any trekker would ever come across in his life. While ascending, when for a moment I looked downward, I noticed that it was a hell of a scary position which I was in. It was a straight deep fall of more than 1000 feet with nothing to hold or grip except the rope which I was hanging on. Knowing the danger restricts you; so I decided not to look downward anymore and just continued on my ascent. Finally, with the help(?) of Ganpa's extremely unprofessional mountain climbing tools and methods, all four of us took nearly an hour to reach to the top of the patch alongwith all the material we were carrying for stay at the summit.
It was completely dark when we climbed this extremely difficult rock patch. We had mobiles with everyone so each of us used our mobiles as torch and proceeded further. Ganpa was leading the line followed by me. Since it was completely dark and cloudy, not even stars were visible. To make it worse, the mountain got submerged in fog due to which we were not able to see anything beyond 3-4 feet with the mobile torch. At one place Ganpa said, "here walk carefully". This was the first time he had said something like that. There wasn't any space to place foot at that spot, so slowly after Ganpa I traversed that point balancing myself somehow. All others followed the same. We were not able to judge the exact height at which we were walking, nor were we able to see the top, or how steep and deep was the valley on our left. Ganpa was walking rapidly and so was I. Then we came across a turn which was at the little gap between two mountains (Alang and Madan). It being a pre-monsoon night, wind was blowing from that narrow mountain passage with maximum possible speed. I had a bag on my back, and the wind was so powerfully pushing us back that we were not even able to stand upright there. Hence we decided to move further by leaning halfway down in forward direction so that our bodies would provide minimum resistance to the blowing wind. This turn was really taking the hell out of us. To make our ascent further impossible, there were a lot of small loose and spherical rolling stones on that elevated path. Even without the wind it wouldn't have been easy to walk on them as our shoes were getting no grip on the ground because of the loose stones. There wasn't even any surface or shrubs, trees etc. to get a grip or support. Yet all of us however managed to pass that portion of about 100 feet height and came to a staircase. This was the last staircase before the summit. We crossed those stairs and reached the mountain top finally.
There was a big cave carved into rock where we had decided to stay. So after all the adventure, we finally found ourselves sitting successfully in that cave. It was about 9 pm when we set our bags and sleeping mats there. Then we decided not to make any further delay in preparing our meal. After this tiring ascent, the quacks of the two hens which we had brought for our dinner were luring us. I asked Ganpa to firstly start preparing rice. Ganpa meanwhile had collected enough firewood from outside and arranged three stones to make a chulha stove. After all this arrangement he asked us for the matchbox. None of us was a smoker, hence there was no question of carrying a matchbox or lighter. So we asked Ganpa to look in to the Kirana bag. He searched that bag and one by one all other bags but there was no matchbox to be found anywhere. It was Ganpa who was supposed to carry the matchbox, as he only had agreed to arrange the meal. We got very angry with this utter negligence of Ganpa but knew that shouting on him wasn't going to help us up there. We had to look for some other option to light the fire. There was some ash in the cave. Daulat started scratching that ash with the hope that we might find some unburnt matchsticks left by previous climbers. Nitin and Someshwar started trying to generate fire by hitting two pebble stones together and I was trying to make fire by rubbing two dry wood sticks on each other. All these efforts started at 9.00 pm and till 10.30 we were not even able to generate a spark, forget fire. Additionally, Someshwar who was trying his luck with the pebble stones, got himself injured during the act. So finally at 10.30 pm we gave up. Here we learned that whatever is shown in the discovery channel series 'Man Vs Wild', is only as true as any other drama serial on Indian TV. The two hens must have been laughing on us as they had survived the night. We were not even able to cook rice. Thanks to the few biscuits, bhel and wafers which we had carried along, because of which we managed to put something in our stomachs. With all the Kirana and masala lying unused, the two hens alive, stomachs less than half filled, and loudly roaring and terribly whistling winds outside, we managed to sleep by 12 in the midnight.
Morning was a refreshing one. The heavy winds were still there and had carried some fog and clouds with them. Just from outside the cave, the scene in front of our eyes was tremendously beautiful. Though it was foggy, the heat of rising sun rays was making life difficult for the fog, but to help it, the winds were continuously providing cloud inputs. All the mountain peaks in front of us seemed playing hide and seek with the clouds. Madan probably is the smallest fort in terms of top area, while Alang which was just at less than half a kilometer aerial distance from us, is the largest fort in Maharashtra. The huge crescent moonlike shape of Alang was looking marvelous from Madan top. Maharashtra's tallest peak Kalasubai was clearly visible just a couple of kilometers beyond Alang. On the western side of Madan was the Kulang fort encircled by deep greenery from all sides. Just a little southward, the backwaters of Bhandardara and Ghatghar dams were clearly visible. We spent lot of time enjoying the all-around beauty from Madan top but since we had not had dinner last night and the winds also had slowed down, we decided to start descending sooner. So we started packing. Normally for any trek this is the end of the story, because what remains from here onwards is just a descend on the same path. So was this too the sweet ending of our trek? No, our worst suffering was yet to come.
When we climbed, it was completely dark, windy and foggy. We were not able to see anything around us. But while descending it was full bright sunlight and no fog or wind. Everything was clearly visible. We came down from the uppermost stairs to the 100 feet patch of small loose and slippery stones. When I saw the patch in daylight, my heart literally was gonna come out in my mouth. It was a terribly steep slope covered with lots of loose rolling stones with no any barrier or even small tree or shrub to hold in case of a skid or accidental slide. The valley was so scarily steep that we were not able to see anything beyond the edge. The stones were so loose and slippery that I was not even able to balance or stand properly. Even a minute skid and anyone would have had himself slipping directly into the deep valley. I got terribly panicked. Just a few hours before I had walked quite fast without any hesitation or precaution in complete dark where now in bright daylight I was not even daring to stand properly. It was an extremely slippery slope of about 100 feet distance beyond which there was a scary and hugely deep edge. If slipped there was no stopping. I was not even daring to put a single step forward. So I with the bag on my back sat down there and started slithering ahead extremely slowly and carefully. Doing so I managed somehow to reach beyond that slope. But reaching there too wasn't gonna be the end of all the adventure.
We then traversed ahead a little on a path which was narrow enough to accommodate only a single person at a time. It was a steep and dangerously deep valley on one side of the whole path. What was giving me goosebumps was the thought that last night we had passed it casually without being aware of all this danger. Soon we arrived at the spot where yesterday Ganpa had asked me to walk carefully. The loose stones patch which I had just passed by slithering had at least some space for a single person to sit or stand, but this spot where we had arrived had no space even for standing on one foot. It was a steeply inclined patch of rock where there was no option to place even single foot or to grip the rock with hands. It was about a 20 feet long patch with a dangerously deep and an extremely steep valley on the falling side. In the dark last night, I had passed from there just casually without noticing the associated risk. But now, sighting the extreme danger and enormous risk in daylight, made passing it nearly impossible for me. It wasn't just madness to attempt to pass it; it was a sure suicidal attempt. But there wasn't another option. So with all the courage that I could gather, I stepped forward. By placing just the tip or at times far less than half portion of the foot on some uneven surface of the rock, and literally piercing the fingers of hands in the rock to get a grip, we managed to pass it successfully without any unfortunate incidence. The next difficult 50 feet vertical patch that had to be rappelled with help of rope to descend, didn’t bother me much after experiencing these two horrible patches.
We then came down and headed towards Ambewadi. To our surprise, there was an ambulance waiting at the base of the mountain. We went to them and learned that amongst the other group which we had seen climbing Alang at the junction last evening, one person had fallen while descending the 70 feet vertical patch of Alang and was severely injured. We also came to know that it was a very professional group with all modern equipment and yet they had met with the accident. We realised that with the extremely amateur and unprofessional methods and tools we used in last 18 hours, it could surely have been our fate too, but the misfortune had somehow skipped us.
We were lucky to come back safely. So were the two hens which must have been the only hens in the history of life on earth that survived a successful trek and came back alive. However, their luck lasted only until 2 pm next day as this was the time we reached Ambewadi and asked Ganpa to prepare the chicken.
We already knew that Madan was a difficult trek and one needs a professional guide to climb it. But we didn't know how dangerous it actually was. Afterwards when I inquired about how people trek the mighty Madan, I came to know that they use ropes and hooks not only at the rock climbing/rappelling patch of 50 feet, but also they tie a long rope at the 100 feet loose stones patch and the 20 feet no grip steep patch so that by holding the rope with hands it becomes much easier and safe to cross these two patches. But since our Ganpa was the least professional guide one would expect, he took us across them without any safety and in extremely dark and stormy wind condition. Its none the less a miracle that all of us managed to return safe without even a minor detriment or harm.
Will I go back to Madan where we fortunately skipped a certain death? Yes, sure I will..!! But offcourse with pro arrangements only.!! This trek has made me more careful and precautionary in life. We all know the term 'fear of unknown', but on this trek I learned that there also exists an opposite thing which I will call the "dare in unknown". This 'dare in unknown' is the reason why that night in extreme darkness I casually traversed the two extremely dangerous and risky patches of Madan without even a fraction of doubt in my mind. It does happen many times in life. When we are not aware of the risk or consequences, we dare doing weird things and end up in a mess. Thankfully this time the outcome of this 'dare in unknown' on Madan had a happy end for us. It gave a lot of lifetime prevailing memories; some of which actually made us experience the extremes of fear.
