Camping Out

It was time for a little adventure for Tiku, my 5 year old son and what could be better than a night out camping. We packed our rucksack, tent and sleeping bags in the boot of the car and set out on a Friday afternoon to a campsite near Khopoli, about 100 kms from Mumbai. There are a few campsites around Mumbai where you can experience the thrill of camping with the family while being assured of some basic infrastructure and security. One such campsite is run by Big Red Tent near Khopoli.

Chugging up to Matheran

Portrait of the founders at Neral Station

During the Raj, the gora sahibs seem to have been constantly in search of places that even remotely resembled the climes back at home. Mr. Hugh Poyntz Malet, the collector of Thane, during one such pursuit discovered a flat wooded hilltop, close to Bombay that could provide the ideal escapade from the heat and dust of the port city. And so, with the blessings of Lord Elphinstone, the then Governor of Bombay, he set about converting Matheran (meaning Forest on the Hill) into a hill station. This quaint hill station, about 100 kms from Mumbai, soon became popular with both the white and the brown sahibs. One such brown sahib, Abdul Hussein Adamjee Peerbhoy took it upon himself to build a mountain railway from Neral at the foothills to Matheran, a climb of almost 760 meters to ease the rigors of travelling up the steep slopes of the hill. This extraordinary feat of engineering was accomplished between 1904 and 1907 at a cost of Rs 16 lakhs, financed by his father, Sir Adamjee Peerbhoy. The Neral Matheran Light Railway is just one of the two narrow gauge railways in the country, the other being the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway between New Jalpaiguri and Darjeeling. The Toy Train, as it is popularly known, more than a century later, continues to run regularly between Neral and Matheran for most of the year and not so regularly but determinedly during the monsoon months.

Neral Matheran Light Railway

Tarkarli

It was almost the end of spring (if there is such a season in Mumbai) and time to wander again. And off we were to our next mid-week destination. Over the years I have steadfastly avoided week-end destinations where waves of humanity descend along with their metropolitan baggage in an often unsuccessful attempt to run away from the monotony of city life.The same destinations on weekdays are a different story all together - peaceful, quiet, undisturbed by the cacophony of tourists competing with each other to make the most of  what is on offer. This time on, we did not have to spend a lot of time deciding on a place to visit as that decision had been made on our last trip. Once again, early in the morning, we hit the roads on our way to Tarkarli, a  quaint hamlet on a sliver of land sandwiched between the meandering Karli river and the Arabian Sea.

Ganapatipule Again...

It was again one of those times when the urge to drive off to a distant destination overtook us. I was already on leave, Munmun would manage a couple of days off from her school and add a weekend to it and we could make out a four day trip to someplace close. Kuti and Tiku would just have to miss a few days of school. That was not an issue with Tiku, but Kuti would have to do a lot of catching up being just a week away from her tests. But the very idea of going off on a trip got her all excited and she promised to put in some overtime to catch up with her studies. She wouldn't miss it for anything.

Beach at Ganapatipule

Banganga - a piece of the past trapped in the future

While having a leisurely cup of tea on a lazy Sunday morning, Mummun casually remarked "Have you ever been to Banganga?". Probably something in the newspaper she was reading triggered her question. It took me a moment to register what she meant. It struck me that even though I have lived a sizable portion of my life in this city and have on numerous occasions passed within a stone’s throw, I had never actually ventured to this ancient quarter of Mumbai’s cityscape. Having nothing better to do, I suggested we visit the place right away. Munmun jumped at the Idea and so we set out to explore the ancient tank of Banganaga located in the heart of one of the poshest localities of modern Mumbai.

A panoramic view of Banganga Tank with the Walkeshwar Temple in the background.