Long weekend-monsoon-college-friends-mood-excitement. All these were perfect ingredients to plan a trip. And from the internet reviews - Mahabelshawar seemed more than inviting. Just About 120 kms away from Pune city, the hill station seemed to be the classic get-away. The perfect weather to be among the hills and greenery and waterfalls (and ofcourse the PJ’s that come along with friends-no matter how much corporate experience they have had!!)
We began our trip - bang on time, as per to the “Indian Standard Time”… (i.e. just about 45 minutes later than our so called “scheduled” departure of 6AM)! There were 8 of us, including the driver, in a “supposedly” white [read: really dirty with muck, hence almost brown] Chevrolet Tavera . But once in, there was no stopping the FUN! From which song will play (7 people,ok 8- but many more opinions!) to who will sit where..it was like being back in school-just that we didn’t or rather couldn’t fight to sit at the window seat! ;)
Through the “vaadiyan”, valleys and hills…our car slowly climbed the slopes of Panchagani..and we were left to wonder...India is indeed beautiful. At the least, every single get-away near Pune was worthy of being converted into an exotic tourist destination. We just weren’t using the beauty of the place to our economic advantage. We were trying to sound all knowledgeable and concerned- afterall we had to prove it was MBA students out on a trip ( :P ) …but our talk eventually retracted to sad jokes! Little did we know that we would have revive the conversation very soon..except this time, we would be the “affected” party and not the “discussing” party!
So just as we were officially entering “Panchagani”, we see a makeshift toll booth..with “Panchagani Tourism Department Welcomes You” board stuck on a tree…and a person with a muffler stopping each passing vehicle. When our turn came, he handed over 8 “ticket sorta-things” and coolly asked us for 190 Rs .. (he had done the math before we reached - 50Rs for the car and 20Rs for each passenger!) So we were in a state of “not-so-good-a-surprise”. But we didn’t really debate much (apart from uttering a few light abuses) thinking that the beautiful hills really did need a lot of “taking care” from the tourim department to maintain it.
But this wasn’t the end of it. While entering Panchagani market…(which a small winding road, food stalls lined all over, leading to a mosque and church on either end), we were stopped by a cop. This person, just peeked in and said “Gaadi side mein lo”. We were all staring at one another…since we couldn’t for the world think of what was it that we had been stopped for. The Cop then walks up to us and says “Extra Seat hai. Hundred Rupees do.” We were like “WAAATTT” ??? According to us (and even the car) there was place to accommodate 1 if not 2 more people. “Extra seat” like seriously? We were totally impressed by the “Innovation” in terms of the reason for extorting money from tourists! And more specifically the money not being productively used!
To top it all….the place was not the best of conditions….the roads were pot-holed, mucky in considerable parts, road signs were hazy in places, there were no proper tourist desks-information points- I am not even getting to the beer cans and alcohol bottles and the huge amount of plastic lying on the roadside (that calls for a separate column)… The place was driving crowds solely by its scenery...nothing else about the place had changed in probably the last 65 years!
Thankfully, we were in too a good a mood to actually mull over the happenings or take them to heart…and we had a blast the rest of the day (with more makeshift toll nakas coming our way, ofcourse) – with the Fog, and the plants and trees, the flora and fauna..the moss covered shrubs and trees, the blind drops into valleys, the myriad waterfalls…there was no dearth of interesting, pretty, fantabulous and absolutely smashing sights! The fog rendered the “End of the world” look to the entire place…it was like being transported to some new (rather very old, mystical) land!
The day ended on a happy note…but this blog is actually an after-thought of the things that are actually important and should be taken up by us (and the government) and a reflection on the changes that India needs and can usher in with not too much fanfare!
1 comment:
That indeed is thought provoking on a lot of things that need to be done to better manage our beautiful and culturally rich tourist destinations. A multitude of them all across the country. They can be a big source of not only a lot of revenue and employment but would go a long way in bringing up the image of Brand India around the globe.
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