Mahabaleshwar Musings- 1

 Lonavla, Khandala, Matheran and Mahabaleshwar.... four places where Mumbaikars head for weekends. They are popular and close by. These four places are on the hills of Sahyadri. Alibaug is another preferred place which has a beach and good coastal cuisine. Lonavla and Khandala are twin towns and sound like sisters too. For years, I used to think Matheran and Mahabaleshwar are also twin towns. I never knew they are in totally different directions. When I was younger, Foreign trips meant Singapore and Bangkok. Later European trips meant London, Paris or Switzerland. No one differentiated between cities and countries. Some countries like Switzerland was more famous than its cities. And when one thought of London, England did not come into the picture. Like Paris was an entity in itself. There was no  difference between Bangkok, Hong Kong or Singapore. Manila and Malaysia were places you learnt to mark on a map during your Geography class. Life was lost between Grasslands, Steppes and Prairies. No connection with the Indian DNA. Even now the child in college, is taught History from 1757 to 1857 about all the Governor Generals who ruled India and nothing about the Indian Kings who resisted British, Mughal, Turk invasions. No teaching about the torture the Indians went through or how the wealth which was forcibly  taken away by the East India Company. I mean, the First Year History portion is about 14 Governor Generals and their reforms. Seriously? All history is a convenient version of the truth. History should at least give two sides of a coin, unlike most journalists, who have left behind fact checking as an unnecessary tool. May be those fancy universities abroad, from where my children's school 'Houses' take its name Harvard, Stanford and Oxford, have not talked about reporting everything from both sides. May be it is the journalists' vision which blurs the truth. 

No ingenuity in naming your school Houses by those names, our residential buildings also do the same. They are named Verona, Glencroft, Avalon, Andulasia, Orovia, Tiara, Cadalia, Castle rock etc, No new building will ever have an Indian name or a local name. The Builders are obsessed with putting Western Names to the buildings and new Projects. The old name of the area or existing space is totally wiped out by the time the new construction comes up. New Building is never given an Indian name like Godavari (name of a river in South India) or Anand ( Happiness). We are so obsessed with English as a medium of education, the govt schools which were in the local languages are getting privatised and becoming exclusive English schools with IB or ICSE curriculum. The money exchanges hands. The private school developer gets a huge land for a pittance in the name of school and the Town Corporation guys who do deal go home with three bags full. These schools, then become inaccessible to the common man. Fees go up thousand fold . Soon the whole school is air conditioned. The name of the school is ofcourse changed to a non Hindi name. Happened to two BMC schools in my vicinity in the last two years. BMC schools have good teachers and good infra structure, Mid-day meal facility by the govt, but all want to send their children to English medium schools which may not provide even a playground to the child nor well ventilated classrooms. All the lower middle class children then have to go for private tuitions because the parents are unable to cope with the subjects, in English language. The brain functions the best in Mother tongue, but who will tell this to our colonised generations. Our  NCERT or state government syllabus is so biased against our own Country.   China, Japan, Thailand all have retained their mother tongue and are doing well. 

Mahableshwar, in the Sahyadri mountains, is origin of five rivers . There is a Mandir where all the five rivers meet and come out from the GauMukh. The rivers are Savitri, Gayatri, Koyna, Venna and Krishna. Bhagirathi comes out once in 12 years and the Gupt Saraswati flows once in 60 years. Savitri, Gayatri, Koyna and Venna merge into Krishna river at various points. The locals drink this water and come to fill their pots constantly. The water is pure and full of herbal properties. Lots of herbs of medicinal value, grow in the hills there. When we did a small trek, the guide made us smell the leaves of plants and one could connect with medicinal properties of the leaves. The streams in the hills flow into the villages. The locals drink pure water which has so much power. And guess what, with the crazy number of hotels, there is a severe shortage of water in Mahableshwar. Tankers are continuously driving into all properties to take care of the innumerable swimming pools, baths, toilet flushes, spas and cleaning. When we went to the Le Meridien, they were washing perfectly clean  private roads within the property. The hotel is full of greenery all re-planted . Hotels are never happy with the local vegetation. They have to create lawns which are water guzzling and put palm trees. Le Meridien, Mahableshwar has tried to create a Taj Holiday Village, Goa  within their property. The rooms and restaurants are fully air conditioned. I was stunned that no care to the environment is given. All from Maharashtra go to Mahableshwar for its pleasant weather but a hotel brand can only think of standardisation of all properties, nothing to do with the environment , climate or surroundings. Of course, they will do some NGO kind of project of adapting one village and get a lot of local press for it. Indian weather in a lot of places allows us to live in fresh air with open windows. Why do we need to make ourselves so physically dependant that even on a vacation, we need a golf cart to move around a property. I mean, people with physical challenges can definitely use it but what about the rest of us? The thing is when we were young, vacations were about going to a Teerth Sthal and see all the places around it. Have taken numerous road trips to Benares, Prayag, Ayodhya like that. We would wake up early for Ganga Snaan, Saryu Snaan or Sangam Snaan. It was so much fun to bathe in the river, do Puja on the banks or Surya Namaskar and then eat hot jalebis with hot milk. Clothes were never important during vacations , we washed and repeatedly wore them. Nowadays, vacations are all about eating and over sleeping and late nights. And for some of us, it is about dressing up or down and loads of makeup. All of us have our priorities and our stress where vacations are concerned. 

Mahableshwar food is fresh. It is most known for its Gujarati Thali. Most hotels are owned by Gujarati or Marwari community. Most tourists are also Gujaratis because they get good vegetarian food. There are lot of bungalows with British names n colonial era lingers in some parts. Now there are some novae restaurants screeching that they serve non vegetarian food. Mahableshwar caters to 80 percent of India s strawberry supplies. Strawberry farms can be seen all over as one drives up from Wai, to Panchgani to Mahableshwar. Panchgani is the twin town of Mahableshwar located a goof 15 -20 km away. It is known for boarding schools. Lot of private houses with views are given on rent. Accommodation n food  is cheaper in Panchgani and it has its own small town charm. 

To be continued....