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| Guhaghar Beach |
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| Guhaghar Beach |
She looked zesty. The vivacious figure of Amrita stepped down on the platform and waved at us cheerfully. The young daughter of Tommy Singh, my friend, was an awesome punjabi beauty. We waved back. Walking ahead among jostling crowd, a common sight on the arrival of a train, we met and hugged her gently. Kissing a girl, irrespective of your relationship, is considered rather culturally indecent especially in these small rural Indian towns.'Hi uncle Kiran, how's it going?' She asked me tucking her beautiful hair behind her ear.
'Oh, good,' then hurriedly I added, ' and now with you in, would be fantastic!'She laughed tilting her head back.
From Murud- Harnai, we had arrived at Chiplun , a major town on NH 17, a half way between Mumbai and Goa to pick up Amrita who was arriving from Mumbai by Jan Shatabdi Express at 9.30 AM. We proceeded immediately to our next destination- Guhagar, 50 km from Chiplun with a plan to stop in between in a rural village farm to spend some memorable moments with the nature.
We drove on Chiplun-Guhagar road for 45 minutes, 35 km, took a left turn from a place called-Mundar Phata and soon we were at exotic "Mamacha Gaon" ( uncle's village), a true village farm, a sort of mini resort. There were few non A/C rooms in a village house, a small dining cottage with a verandah and a Machan on the top of a tree. The entire farm of about 6 acres was surrounded by mango, coconut and chikoo fruit orchards. Wow!!
The lunch was fabulous! The bread was prepared with a local, highly nutritious grain-Nachini topped with ghee (refined butter), chilly and coconut sauce, freshly picked spinach and lentil curry, bhajias (fried onion dumplings), papad, yogurt and rice. The desert was of fresh fruits in saffron milk! Hell, we definitely over-indulged ourselves!
Then we climbed up on a tree with the help of a ladder, sat on a Machan (a wooded, grass platform erected on a tree) and played cards, dozing off for a while. Around 4 PM, we took a village tour on a 'bullock cart', arranged by the farm. That was incredible!
We left soon after enjoying the evening tea with Poha (fried rice flakes with groundnuts, coconuts) and biding a good-bye to Ramakant, the manager of the farm.
Guhagar was a 20 minutes drive from 'Mamacha Gaon'.
Amrita sat up like a shot!
She exclaimed, ' what a beautiful village!'
Yes, I thought. The roads and the village was a neat set up with a typical Konkan flavour.
And then suddenly a terrible history of the region struck in my chest like a sharp knife!This was a village with their shattered dreams! I remembered 1997 and told the story to Amrita.
About the horror and the disaster called- ENRON, at Dabhol, close to Guhagar where a closed gigantic gas plant still reminds of the sad historical events, the atrocities committed by the Police in connivance with the management of Enron. The plant was built with a loan of $ 2.8 billion from the American and Indian tax payer's money which never took off. The brutalities of Police on June 3rd, 1997 were labelled as one of the worst by the Human Rights bodies, allegedly committed by Enron as the Police were supposedly on their payroll.The reason-a peaceful demonstration against environmental pollution.The Enron promised a lot to the people of this region. Quickly- roads, houses, hotels were built and jobs created.
Then came the collapse of Enron,and with it went the dreams and future of thousands of people at the bottom of Arabian sea which this International hustler promised.
We checked in The Hotel Kismat, Guhagar, close to the beach. Most of the places being away from the village, Guhagar was going to be our base to explore the surroundings.
Early the next morning, we walked towards the beach passing the village houses with cows in the front, the a corridor of palm and suru trees and then, there it was- a magnificent view of the Arabian sea! Our eyes had a stupendous effect! A beautiful expense of about 6 Km of white sand, quite and serene. Amrita enjoyed fully running around and swimming. Later we went to pay our respects to the temple of Vyadeshwar of Lord Shiva, a local deity of Brahmin's (a supposedly higher caste). In the temple we met a local scholar who informed us about several natural caves near by Guhagar with authentic evidence of prehistoric occupation, an unprotected paleolithic sites.
Then we headed to a village 15 Km away-Veldur on the mouth of river Vashisht opposite Dabhol where we could see the closed plant of Enron staring at us menacingly. Then we decided to trek on a beautiful climb to Anjanvel beach (not Anjarle of Murud-Harnai).
We continued passing through a beautiful scenery and reached at the foot of the ruins of a historic fort called Gopalgad Fort! It had a mystic aura with it's light house silently watching the sea! The dilapidated walls of the fort and the elevation was snaking down and embracing the Arabian sea! It was a breathtaking view! The sea crashing against the rocks. A silence. Only broken by chugging of a passing by fishing trawler. There was a boat building workshop near by on the beach.
The sun was setting and the dusk was falling. It was an awesome sight. We watched for a while and returned back. It was enough for the day. Nothing could be better!
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| Hedvi Beach |
We had a discussion next morning and finally decided to go for a picnic to
Hedvi, another serene beach 25 Km south of Guhagar. The coastal road through jungle was stunning! The beach was 1 Km from the village of
Hedvi. A beautiful small and clean beach. Walking on the water front we found a shelter of dried leaves and woods and made it our spot. Tommy Singh and I took vodka with lime soda with Amrita going for an orange juice,
'Real Active'. Had some fried ground nuts and potato wafers followed by a packed lunch of Cheese sandwiches and Omelettes ! That was great!
Then a news session by Amrita on Delhi followed by playing of a game called "Antakshri"( a song riddle where a second person sings a song by picking up a thread from the last word of a song sung by the first person). We laughed and laughed as made mistakes one after another. Of course, Amrita won knowing the songs and lyrics better!
Next day we had to return to Mumbai as Tommy and Amrita had their flight to Delhi in the evening so an element of gloom descended. We had our quite dinner each engrossed in their own thoughts.
Where would be the next sun set and sun rise?
Route:
By road: Mumbai-Panvel-Mahad-Chiplun- Guhagar; Distance-320 KM; Time-7 hours
By train: Mumbai-Chiplun by Jan shatabdi exp at 5.30 AM from LTT then by road 1 hr.
Stay:
On the way in a rural farm"Mamacha Goan': Mumbai Phone of agent:91-22-24042501
Guhagar:
Hotel Kismat-91-2359-240156/7/8; Mumbai Phone-91-22-24467015