Masti in Mashobra

Prelude

Perhaps the most difficult part of organizing a team outing is deciding on the destination and the dates. And just how much so, we learnt this summer when our team was raring to go - somewhere, anywhere, away from the scorching heat, away from the grilling schedules. It took a number of "healthy discussions" after which we decided to go to Mashobra, which is about 10 km from Shimla, for an extended weekend in June. We wanted to go to the cooler climates, but avoid the regular hill stations which are usually very crowded. Mashobra was an ideal choice because of its beauty, as well as its proximity to Shimla. Next came the question of the mode of transport. Here too, there were almost as many opinions as the number of the people in the group. The suggestions ranged from hiring a bus to chartering a plane! It was finalized that we will travel to Kalka by train, and hire a bus or taxi for the rest of the journey. A detailed analysis of availability in trains ensued - quite a few iterations of reservations and cancellations, and a lot of frantic chaos later, our group was all set for a "cool" excursion.

Thu, 8th June

Most of us would probably never have woken up so early on a weekday, without a grumble. But Thursday morning saw us at New Delhi railway station, at what could otherwise be an unimaginably early hour, bubbling with excitement, as we waited for the Kalka Shatabdi. Once aboard, there was a lot of confusion regarding the seating arrangement, and the exchange of a single seat that was in another compartment. It was a good half an hour before we settled down. I have always maintained that half the fun of a group outing lies in traveling together, and I am not immodest when I claim to be proven right in this trip. We had a great time during the journey, and leg-pulling was the order of the day. While older kids were busy with their own games, the two babies kept us adults entertained. The hours flew by, and it was noon when we reached Kalka.

In the train

As we got down from the train, we were in for a rude shock - it was unbearably hot. We had hoped to take a chartered bus or a tempo traveler to Shimla; but our search for a vehicle which could seat all of us, failed miserably. So we hired three separate cabs to take us to our destination. A few kilometers from Kalka we stopped for lunch. From there, as we started climbing, the journey became tedious. When we reached Mashobra in late afternoon, all of us were exhausted. We scrambled up to our rooms and relaxed for a while. Then we came to the dining hall for snacks. A short passage led from the hall into the garden. The garden was quite good, but was soon taken over by monkeys. I never understand why there are so many monkeys in almost all the hill towns, and this place was no exception - during our short stay there, we had quite a few (interesting? No , I think not!) encounters with the monkeys.

The hotel staff had offered to organize a bonfire for us during our stay, but many of us were too tired, and so it was postponed for the next day. All we waited for was the dinner, so we could catch up on beauty sleep. :-)

Fri, 9th June

Naldhera

The next morning we were bright and cheery, the weather was very pleasant and the garden looked inviting. Some people enjoyed playing badminton, while others just sat back and enjoyed the weather. After a fulfilling breakfast, we were ready to explore in and around Mashobra. The first stop was Naldhera, of the golf course fame. We visited the hill adjoining the golf course which has been "developed" as a park so that people can explore and enjoy the scenic beauty of the hills and the valley. The development takes the form of few refreshment stalls, pony rides, and the omnipresent photographer who clicks your photo in the local finery. We spent quite some time there, taking in the beauty.

Watch, watch, watch ...

And then took place those "encounters". Rajneesh went to get some eatables, and on his way back, he was robbed of a pack of chips by a swift monkey. A little while later, another one (well, it could have been the same one, I guess) came over to the comfortable place we had found to sit down in the shade of trees. The chips and biscuits were quickly hidden, and twenty pairs of anxious eyes watched a single monkey. While we were almost scared, a group of local children out on a picnic calmly kept enjoying the lunch distributed by their teachers !!

Then we returned to the hotel for lunch. After the lunch, some of the people decided to go to the mall road in Shimla, but me and Nitin, along with some of the others, chose to stay back and relax. We found an almost dilipated table-tennis table in a room at the top floor, in a neglected looking recreation area, but we enjoyed many a game of TT there during our stay.

Bonfire

In the evening all of us gathered for the bonfire. The air had become pleasantly cold, and the fire was nice and warm. Snacks and cold drinks were served. Beer was also available, but it did not find too many takers (fools, eh?). By the light of the fire, we played a couple of games of Tambola. Delhi (and of course, office :-D ) was far away.

Sat, 10th June

There was a divided vote on what to do on Sat. The options were to visit Chail or Shimla. Some people had been to Shimla the day before, while some were not interested to go to the mall road; so, this group opted to go to Chail. Others had been to Chail earlier, or were not keen to go there, and chose to go to Shimla. GD was not interested in either, having been to both places several times, and decided to hold the fort at the hotel. (aadhe idhar jaao, aadhe udhar jaao, baki mere peeche aao !) ;-)

Chail Palace

We have been to many typical hill stations, and their mall roads, although pleasant to walk along, are almost the same. So we decided to be a part of the group goiing to Chail. Chail is about 30 km from Shimla, and known for its scenic beauty. The drive to Chail was treacherous, as the roads were bad,winding and narrow, with sudden changes of slope that occur in the hills. But the beautiful scenery en-route made the effort worthwhile. Air was fresh and cool, and the hills were so very green. The road leading to Chail palace (the holiday resort of erstwhile maharaja of Kapurthala) was shaded by the canopies of tall trees (Deodar? Cedar? I can never remember!). The park had many beautiful flowers blossoming. But again, the place was lorded over by monkeys! The palace is now converted to a hotel, and we had lunch at its restaurant, and shopped for wooden handicrafts at the souvenir shoppe before heading back to the hotel.

Colorful flowers in the Chail Palace gardens

By late afternoon, everyone was back. When Ranjeeta and Nirajana entered their room, they were shocked to find things ransacked. After a quick assessment, they did not find any valuables missing, but a few cosmetics were gone. On the window sill lied a badly chewed cap of a deo. They realized that they had forgot to latch the window inspite of a warning note, and it did not require Sherlock Holmes to deduce who the thief was. Perhaps the monkeys had a party that evening ;-)

Where's the party tonight ?

An army of monkeys invaded the garden in the evening, and chased us inside. Later we found GD's twins in the garden, with no one else around, holding out a couple of biscuits to the monkeys, who were merrily playing and riding the slides. They were promptly sent inside, but I was part amazed and part shocked at their act of bravado.

A wild flower we saw while taking a walk

We spent of the rest of time in leisure, lazing about, sitting in the garden, taking short walks. Another peaceful day passed, a little too soon.

Sun, 11th Jun

The hotel : Goodbye

The day started with a relaxed manner, but soon we got busy to arrange for taxis to ferry us back to Kalka, from where we could catch the train back to Delhi. The arrangement and packing done, we found time to trek down the hill. Soon after we sadly waved goodbye to the quaint little town of Mashobra. Even before we covered half the distance, we were stuck in a huge traffic jam for almost an hour, making us anxious that we will miss our train. After what seemed like a long time, the traffic started moving again. We reached Kalka just in time for the train, and heaved a sigh of relief. On the return journey everyone was much subdued. It was rather late when we reached New Delhi (given that the next day we had to go to office). As we waved our good-byes, we promised ourselves another outing soon.

Errata : Ancestral Goa

In last post, I mentioned that we went to Old Goa, where we saw the huge laterite sculpture of devotee Meerabai. Well, it seems that either I misinterpreted the name of the place as mentioned by the guide, or my memory played up :-)
The place that we visited is actually called Ancestral Goa, and it is an open air museum. It houses an art gallery called Big Foot Art Gallery, and is itself sometimes referred to as Big Foot Museum.
The sculpture of Meera was carved by Maendra Jocelino Araujo Alavres, and at 14m X 5m, is the longest laterite sculpture in India.
Here is a link to an article in The Hindu:Goa Original
And here is a virtual tour of the place itself:
Ancestral Goa

Goa – Day Two

We started the next day again with a walk on the beach. We even dared to venture into the water. I use “dared” because the water was rough (as I mentioned earlier) and neither of us knows swimming. There was no life guard, in fact there was no other soul on the beach. We had the whole stretch of the beach to ourselves - it was beautiful :-))

Testing the waters

In the second half of the day, the resort people had organized a sight-seeing tour for the guests who had arrived in last 2-3 days. So, we decided to visit some of the nearby beaches in the morning, and headed for Colva.

As we drove, we discovered the biggest advantage of having a two wheeler by means of conveyance. We traveled on the internal roads through the villages, enjoying the “real” landscape of Goa. We took a detour whenever we saw a road or lane that looked promising, and in this way we “discovered” many lovely old mansions, pretty houses, quaint churches, and ponds covered with red and white water lilies.

Somewhere...

The beach at Colva had quite a few visitors, and had some basic infrastructure like lifeguard station (no lifeguard in sight though!). The day was sunny and the sea looked a nice blue, just a little bit darker than the clear blue sky.

Colva

Colva is one of the better known sites for water sports. However, since the tourist season had not yet started at the time of our visit, there was not much activity. There was just one parasailing organizer .

Parasailing (No, it isn’t either of us)

We stayed there for a little while before starting back for the hotel.

The bike, the rider and orange flowers

After lunch and a short rest, it was time for the sight seeing tour. I am not a fan of such tours, but the tour included two items that looked really exciting – a visit to Old Goa, and a cruise on the Mandovi river in the moonlight (but both of these turned out to be big fiasco, as we learnt only later! – hindsight wisdom ?!!).

The resort people had arranged a bus for the tour. The bus was not in a very good condition, and had barely enough seats. The guide initially tried to amuse people (with little success), but gave up after some time. It had started raining by the time we reached our first stop, Old Goa. What we visited was not the ancient part of the state, as one might imagine (at least we did), but a kind of museum, which used mannequins and other props to show how Goans lived in old times. It depicted the kinds of huts and equipment different craftsmen used. We did not find this museum particularly appealing. The only thing that interested us was an image of Meerabai carved in Laterite. The image, which is more than 10 m long and 6 m wide, was carved by one man using only basic tools, in a month.

Meera

While we were still there, it started raining very heavily; and since the entire area was essentially open, movement became difficult, delaying our departure. We took shelter in a stretch of path covered with a canopy, and looked like a cave, but with leaks!!

The next stop was at Mangueshi temple, in the village by the same name. It is the hometown of the famous singers Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhonsle. The temple is dedicated to Lord Shiva and Parvati. The uniqueness of this temple is that this is the only place in India where Lord Shiva is depicted with a beard. When our guide told us so, we had to strain our mind to realize that we have indeed never seen a picture or idol of Shiva with a beard. The legend has it that Shiva came down here to relax from his Himalayan abode – hence the beard. Wow! Interesting!!

Lord Shiva with a beard

Next we went to St. Fracis Xavier Church in Panjim. By the time we reached there, the rain had stopped, but it was still cloudy, making the weather very pleasant. The guide informed us that we were not allowed to wear caps and sunglasses inside. We could take the camera, and even take pictures inside the church, though not of people. This came as a bit of surprise, as we have not been allowed to take cameras inside most of the famous temples anywhere in India, or not allowed to take pictures, if we could take the camera, for many years. In the church is kept the body of St. Francis Xavier, for last 400 years or so. A wonderful story is associated with it. Here is the story, as it was told to us (I later found that some of the facts were not so accurate). After working in India, St Francis traveled to China, but died during the journey. His body was brought back in a coffin to Goa, as he wished to be buried here. When the coffin was opened, the body was found to be intact, two years after his death. A message was sent to Rome, and a special coffin for his burial requisitioned. It took four years for the new coffin to arrive, and when the older one was opened to transfer the body, there were still no signs of decomposition! It has since been in the church, in a glass box in a coffin. Every ten years, it is opened for airing, and for public view. It is said that the body has not decayed at all, in all this time, though it is not embalmed with any preservatives. It is shrinking though, and they say that when it disappears, the world will come to an end. Amazing story, if I ever heard one. (However, given the rate with which it is shrinking, the world is safe for a few thousand years, unless it is destroyed before that by the unscrupulous ways of humans). :-))

Mortal remains of St. Francis Xavier

Yet another story is associated with this church, though I did not make any effort to determine its authenticity. All churches have a cross at the top, this one is an exception. It is said that the church authorities tried to put up the cross several times, but it kept falling off . The reason is believed to be a curse, as the Portugese had demolished a temple that stood at this site, to construct the church. The cross now stands on a pillar a few meters away from the church building.

St. Fracis Xavier Church

We spent quite some time at the church, appreciating the golden décor, seeing old oil paintings on the walls of some of the rooms, and taking pictures. It was almost dark when we left, and proceeded to the bank of Mandovi river for the cruise.

At a point near the mouth of the river (Panjim lies on the banks of Mandovi, where it meets the sea), a large number of “cruise operators” were running shop. There were huge crowds, and long queues (and quite a bit of jostling) to board the “ship”. The “ships” were essentially larger boats, were embellished with lot of lights, and played loud music. After a long wait, we finally boarded our ship, and were directed to the deck. Our hearts sank at the sight we saw. The deck was covered with tarpaulin (hey! This was supposed to be a moonlight cruise !! Where do we see the moon from ?!). Whole the floor space was packed with plastic chairs – as many as possible – leg space and aisles seemed to be an alien concept to them. There was just a little space in the front for the performers, and a snack counter at the back. A little while after the ship started sailing (it sailed upstream into the river), the performers took the stage. The performance consisted of hindi, Punjabi and goan songs, sung tunelessly for most part. What they lacked in the melody, they made up in the volume – the ensuing noise was ear-shattering. We put up with it for few minutes, before going to the lower deck. It did not have fancy lightings or seating arrangement, but was quiet, and provided a view of the river, the lighted buildings on the bank, and other ships sailing on the river. We stayed here for the entire journey which lasted one and a half hours, and watched a lot of other people come down too as it progressed.

Panjim by night

I must say that we did get some pretty views of Panjim by night-time, but we couldn’t capture good pics from the boat in the night. And I would definitely avoid another such cruise, if I ever go there again.

On the way back to the resort, the bus stopped in the market, and the guide referred a “reliable” shop, if people were interested in purchasing ‘Kaju Feni’ (Cashew Wine) and salted Cashews, that Goa is extremely famous for. We passed up on the offer, and wondered if the guide got a fat commission from the shop owner.