A day trip to Raigad

 गवत उंच दाट दाट

गवत उंच दाट दाट
वळत जाइ पायवाट
वळणावर अंब्याचे
वळणावर अंब्याचे
झाड एक वाकडे
माझिया प्रियेचे झोपडे
माझिया प्रियेचे झोपडे

Amidst tall and dense grass

A foot way that keeps turning along the way

With a mango tree standing around the corner

Over there stands my beloved’s humble dwelling…..

This pretty much was the scene for most part of today. 

Late last night made an impromptu plan to hire a car and driver and do a day trip to Raigad, the glorious fort , the capital of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj’s legendary regime, from which my home district gets its name. I had two young ladies to give me company, one is a psychologist working in my Preventive Medicine department in Pune and other a recent Berkeley graduate, daughter of my friend and colleague from California who is visiting me for 2 weeks. 

The trip to the summit of the fort came after nearly 50 years since the first time I had been there. It was the 300th year mark of Shivaji’s coronation in 1974 and an eight year old me had no difficulty scaling those formidable heights of the mountain on foot with my father, notwithstanding the heavens that kept pouring down rain ceaselessly that day. Many memories were still fresh in the mind and many were blurred. Many things also were no longer the same. My dear father no longer here to go there with me and my physical condition no longer the same to scurry past the crowds up the mountain from the foothills. Fortunately there was no need now to do the climb on foot like 50 years back. A new ropeway, the recent attraction at the site, efficiently carried us to the top. The only common denominator was the rain! And that felt like a steadfast connection between the past and the present. 

We roamed around the vestiges of the once glorious location that not only served as the residence of the King of Hindavi Swaraj but also the place where he held his court. The normally breathtaking views from the top were obscured by fog and the monsoon clouds but these very conditions created an aura of mystical beauty and also kept us cool at midday. The intricate architecture designed to sustain a select community up in the mountain as well as to protect a sovereign is a marvel even today. We surveyed the ruins of the royal quarters getting briefed about the history from a local guide before visiting the Jagadishwara temple located within the walls of the fortress. The dome of this temple was deliberately created to resemble a mosque to mislead potential invaders. The samadhi of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj sits across from this temple. A remarkable peace pervades the entire surroundings of this temple. Rain was playful throughout our entire tour of the fort, prompting us to pull out our umbrellas and ponchos for short periods and then putting them aside.

Equally impressive as the visit to the fort was the drive to and from this destination. Lush greenery overwhelmed the entire countryside. Tender paddy fields lined the roads. Dense forests spread on either sides of the ghats. The Sahyadri mountains looked like veiled brides with the waterfalls all around. An old classic in the voice of Malti Pande “ tya tithe palikade maziya priyeche zopade “ kept playing in my mind as we kept driving over curvy roads past small huts, paddy fields and mango trees for miles and miles. 

My mulberry silk-cotton mix Assam weave was soaked starting from the first gondola ride on the ropeway itself but the day was too beautiful to care.