Guhaghar Trip - Cyclone, Earthquake, Mafia.... Friends.

It is exactly 1.30 in the morning of 16th Nov4 2009. After a long trip and having had 2 sandwiches, all I really want to do is lie down on the bed and sleep. But before I lose my will to write and/or forget details which I remember now, am penning down about our Guhaghar trip.

I guess the plan was made on Mihir’s birthday when Suhas said that Guhaghar is an awesome place. Then Gari and Akshay started aggressively planning for the trip. The power down being this weekend most of us were free from any turnovers. So here we were 12 of us Anchal, Lalli, Gari, Maddy , Anuj, Nemo, Akshay, Nikhil, VD , Dhawal and me all set to go to Guhaghar. Mihir and Suhas would also have come but m too bored to write about that now and plus it seems needless detail.

Dhawal cancelled out on Friday, he had some work in the office. Friday began with ‘See you at Dadar” mail from VD. I was to leave early at 6 from the office. Was so exicted could hardly work. Then VD,AK Gari pinged and called for an urgent meeting. The person we had booked accommodation with had called up to cancelling the bookings. IT was due to the cyclone. There was no electricity in the village. They said we would get other accommodation, but for higher price. Well no problems there. With these few hiccups we were again ready to go.
While Maddy and Nemo boarded the train from Borrivalli , the other were at Goregoan station. Reached well before the train at Dadar. Nemo and Maddy were out for some credit card bill payment work. And they would have one more episode to add to this story. We were to go to Chiplun by Konkan Kanya. I fancy the name. Clicked photos at Dadar, ate apples. The train was on time. And we were on the right platform too. So no troubles there.

I am feeling sleepy right now. I guess i’ll continue tomorrow. And as I say that i just remember that Maddy did not tell us the scary story he was going to. Anyways will remind him later.
Ok I m back. 11.16 in the morning 17th Nov. I took a leave from office. Back is aching. Ok back to the train journey . We had two compartments to ourselves. There is so much to write , I don’t to what extent I should be going into details. Well Maddy and Akshay and Gari and also Anuj were adjusting the seats so that all of us could sit together. Finally we sat on seats around each other. Started with jokes and listening to songs . I got Tum Mile from VD. Then we started playing Dumb Charades. I was sleepy so went on the upper berth to sleep. The game continued for long after I slept I guess, I could hear noise. When I woke up Maddy, AK Gari, VD and Kanwal were listening to old songs. Around 3.30 in the morning every one woke up. We could see stars from the windows. They looked awesome. People in the city really miss a lot of beautiful things, lovely mornings, starry nights.... the train was 1.5 hours late but the journey was awesome. We got down at Chiplun railway station at 5.30 in the morning. (Am not too good with the stats, will have to confirm) Then we took rickshaws to the bus station. It was very cold and dark, but beautiful never the less. I heard later that the ricksaw wala had dropped VD’s precious bag.

On reaching the bus station, some people wanted to brush their teeth before having breakfast. Well am not too concerned about that so weren’t Anchal , AK and Maddy, which was good because the person selling tasty pohe outside the station had enough left for only two plates.  Gari and Nikhil got a bite from our plates. The other had to do with the vad pav from the station canteen. Which was not bad but not as good as pohe.

The bus to Guhaghar was at 6.30 but by the time Nik and I could reach it, it was full. So we waited for the 7 o’clock one... I guess that wait was the longest... there were mosquitoes and classical music on the station.... plus people were sleepy... at least I had slept for 3-4 hours... the others had hardly slept.
Finally the bus arrived and we ran to get seats, which was useless, as we were the only ones boarding it at that time. (hehe) I was mostly asleep in the journey. See that is the reason why it should be Maddy, AK Gari or VD writing this. I fall asleep as soon as the vehicle starts moving. But as I am writing it you have to bear with me. By the time I woke up the bus was full of school students. Completely packed. And Maddy was dozing. Poor guy was awake the entire night.

The roads clearly showed signs of cyclone now. The trees were uprooted at places. Some sign post were fallen. There is news of nearly hundred electricity pole being uprooted. So Guhaghar had no electricity since last 3 days. Not even then as we travelled to the place. On reaching Guhaghar I found my cell had no network. Damn, that’s bad for my parents. They have to do with two days of not calling me. The place where we were staying was close to the bus stop, so we walked.

Guhaghar is a pretty big village, not as big as Manvat but not as small as Salgoan.

We had three cottages booked amongst us. They were beautiful. Nice cosy rooms, surrounded by coconut trees and close to the beach. They guys room was adjacent to ours. Pretty cool!! Dream like, how nice to have all friends stay next door... 

By 10 we girls were ready. There were two cars waiting for us outside. Well these people had really planned well. There was an Omni and a lovely Xylo. Did not want to sit in Omni first. But am not fussy about that. So Anchal , me , Maddy and Anuj and Kanwal in the front sat in the Omni. With the exception of the driver being too talkative the ride was awesome. Small huts and farms are not new to me, but it was fun to watch Maddy and Anuj watch outside with child like admiration. Whenever the driver, Naval, kept quite we had an awesome discussion of what we’d like to do in the future. Well people really think. Me, am happy at the moment. Never thought what I want, except good friends, which (touch wood) I always got. Oh that’s carrying me away, back to the journey. The driver kept talking and Maddy actually had a question for him. Triggered him even more. Poor Kanwal couldn’t even avoid the man sitting right next to him. But Naval looked a good guy. Just too boring.
We reached our first destination. A Shiv temple. Painted in nice bright colours. The temple had a well . We sat next to the well and talked. Gari , AK and Maddy set out to make arrangements for lunch. There was a beach behind the temple. Beautiful beach. There were little crabs that the waves got with them. Ak and Maddy were trying hard to get photos of the creature. We wrote our name on the sand. Chased the crabs. I think they managed to take a few snaps of the little thing. Anchal and I ran across the beach. The water splashing all around. Been days since I did crazy things like that.(But now with a aching back I guess I overdid it this time) We had coconut water at a hut near the beach. There were little chicks and a hen there. All the chicks followed the mother as she taught them to peck.


The place where we were to have lunch was close by. It had a swing, just like in Manwat. The food was awesome. The aunty there was very sweet. Ate a lot. Was feeling drowsy as we walked back.
We went to a Ganpati temple next. We sat outside the temple chatting. There was that thing where you make a wish and try to stick a coin on the wall and if it sticks your wish will be ful filled. Personally m scared of this. What if I ask for something I really want and the coin does not stick. I know this is illogical , but in the back of my head i’ll still have the fear. I don’t really want to take chances.

Next we went to Hedwi , there is a Shiv temple and behind it is rocky beach with a deep crevice in the rocks. The road was blocked by trees uprooted by the cyclone. We had to go through the fallen trees to get across. Was fun. Though feel sorry for the trees. The view was good from the rocks. The crevice was quite deep. The beach had lots of cranes waiting for crabs to be thrown out by the sea. In the water in the rocks we found ugly tadpoles. Niks even saw a snake. Though m not sure it was a snake. On our way back there were a lot of monkeys on the surrounding hills. But there were terrified of us more than we were of them. While coming back Anchal , VD, Lalli Nemo and I came in the Xylo. Well I slept the entire way back home. Though the ppl in other car had a nice time with Naval. ;)
We reached the house just around sunset. Called n for cold drinks and tea, and then went to freshen up. My plan was to sleep now and have a night out on the beach. But life would become boring if things went as planned....


Ok don’t remember the exact sequence...am writing exactly after a week... and was a crazy week that followed. But here goes... there was going to be no power till 7 so we were in little light after sun set. And the mosquitoes were huge.... I don’t remember exactly but Ak and Maddy went out to enquire about dinner and VD, Gari , Anuj, Kanwal,Nemo and Nikhil went out to check way to beach... I went to our cottage to sleep. Later Ak, Anuj and Maddy must have been back. And Maddy and Anchal were in our cottage when I woke up... Those damn mosquitoes did not let me sleep... I hate the buzzing sound they make... So we were chatting in the dark... and Lalli was outside on the cell... and Ak was in the other cottage. The cottage started shaking... There was an earthquake!!! We ran out of the cottage, which was a stupid thing to do... There were coconut trees outside. Ak ran out of his cottage. In a while it stopped. God we had witnessed an earthquake!! And were alive... and together..... Now if this gets in the news my parent are going to freak out.... Plus there is no network here... God let this be earthquake away from here and a little one (which it turned out to be but I did not know it then).
The others were back and had not felt a thing... They had got Odomos... thankfully... These mosquitoes were eating me up. We sat in our cottage talking. We could not go to the beach.... Uncle said there were dead bodies being found...So no bon fire... sigh... I m definitely having one this New Year... But no worries... It is not bon fire that is imp.. It is more of us being together... And the night that followed was one of the most awesome nights I’ve lived... Well except the one after last Ghandhar when the ten of us sat talking and went to Parvati in the morn... sigh I miss college friends too... But these are lovely friends too... I don’t know how I have lived without knowing them... Anchal , Suhas Mihir Ak, Sujit.... then came Laksh, Aadhar, Rahul, Abhi, Maddy , Gari, Anuj... Sweta, Giri, .... VD, Nikhil , Kanwal, Nemo, Dhawal,......Anil, Venky, Neha... Love g08m... So proud to be one.... I’ll write testimonials for them next...
Ok forget I said it.... Back to Guhaghar.... We went out for dinner ... It was pitch dark outside.... Thankfully we had torches... We came out of the cottage on the road.. and realised Ak and Maddy were still in... I did go back to get them... but it was creepy... The trees cast weird shadows in the dark... plus they sway... the food was good... but the solekadi was horrible... ok... I’ll take a trip to Diveagar and have it at the Bapat’s next... We had nice a nice dinner laughing and chatting.
Later we decided to go the bus stop to check the timing of the bus we would be taking back to Chiplun the next day. It was dark.. I know i’ve said it... but am emphasizing it. Maddy got us coffee bites. We fought over it like kids. The bus stand looked so diff than what I had seen in the morning. Not that I could see it much right then. Anchal scared the hell out of me as she stood behind me while we walked back home when I wasn’t expecting anyone to be there.

This is when the fun began, we played Mafia at night. With always kicking Nemo out, to then kicking Nikhil out it was fun. More fun cause I never play to win. I could never win anyways; I completely suck at the game. (Yet another) But that does not stop me from playing. Man! people can trick so well and even judge other pretty well. There was this one game where Maddy was the mafia, he fooled us completely. But turned out to be bad for him later because you play good Mafia in a game you are bound to be kicked out by the mafia or the villagers. Though he did not suffer as much as Nemo. Or even Nikhil, but my reason for throwing Nikhil out is he talks a lot :P. Anuj got first very heavy dose of Mafia. In fact even after the last game, people couldn’t help discussing the game.

As anchal and Lalli slept in our cottage we moved to guy’s one. Maddy Gari aK must have been really sleepy. But yet refused to sleep. I wasn’t feeling sleepy at all. I had had my share of sleep while travelling. The talks moved to crushes. People have stories yaar. Makes me a big Loser. Don’t have even one to narrate.

It had started raining outside. Awesome I love rains. AK dropped off to sleep. Then Gari and I moved back to our cottage. Gari did not let me stay out in the rains. So went back to sleep.

I really wanted to watch the sun rise by the beach, but the alarm I set did not wake me up. So we got up around 10/ 10.30. We walked to the beach. It was beautiful but we were warned not to go into the water. I spent most of the time collecting shells. If I could get bare photo frames and stick the shells around it. It would make an awesome show piece. But these people have not let me collect enough for 10 frames. VD and Lalli made an awesome fort. While others made a nice sand structure. We had lunch at a restaurant and came back to get ready to leave.

Worth mentioning, we played Mafia again as we had spare time. This was when Nemo showed his Mafia skills , there was a moment in the game with only one mafia left, and three people claiming to be Healers. Lalli who was the healer, Anchal who was the mafia thus faking and Nemo for reasons he knows the best. :D

The journey back to Chiplun was awesome. It was bit cloudy. And except for these guys singing in extremely bad voices, it was quite enjoyable. Teased VD and Lalli a bit. Back at Chiplun bus station, the cells had network. Called mum and Dad and mama - The most anxious people on earth. Took ricks back to railway station. The station is beautiful. Hadn’t realised it when we came the day before. It was a beautiful evening. Orange sky. And little clouds. It rained a bit. And we walked in the drizzle - One of the happy peaceful moments.

We returned back to play Nemo’s game “one calling one”. Was fun. I was almost ROTFL. The train was late by an hour. Even better!!! I did not want this trip to end. If only time could stand still there at Chiplun station, with all my friends besides me.... (missing Suhas and Mihir here).

We sat in the Jan Shatabdi express. There was a Chinese woman sitting on the other seat, She had a Chinese book with Chinese words. Could be Japanese for all I care. But I had never seen a person read vertical. We sang for sometime in extremely loud and pathetic voices. Should be mentioning (on VD’s demand) that Maddy and VD are pathetic singers. So thankfully for the others we stopped in some time. Finally back in our seat, Maddy, Anchal and I talked about anything we could think of.

Back at Dadar it was close to midnight. And we still had to stand in the locals. This city never sleeps. Always in a hurry to do something. They should learn to be happy from Pune. Anyways we were back to Mumbai. And then Goregoan. And Bangurnagar and home. Hunted in the fridge and found bread, made sure that everyone reached home right while eating sandwiches. And wrote the first 4 lines in this document.....

Have missed out on things, mentioning them as they are worth remembering,
- Gari’s snacks filled bag.
- Cranes on the beach
- Lalli swearing on VD.
- Nemo’s weird style of Mafia.
- Shells
- The old grandpa predicting rains and earthquake... that had me freaked out.
- Nikhil and the lip gloss joke.
- Stars from the train.
- The classic sand structure by Nemo.
- Tum mile song
Feel free to add more!!!!