The fog of Bhandardara

Located nearly 170 kms away from Mumbai, nestled in greens and clouds lies the village of Bhandardara. To reach the place you will need to take the right for Akola if you are going towards Nashik on the Nashik - Mumbai highway and again after the first toll booth you will need to take a right again.

At 2500 feet above sea level, Bhandardara is literally heavens as you pass through the clouds and fog; nature displays its beauty in all its grandeur here.


I went to Bhandardara on my bike, accompanied by one more friend on his bike and my brother and another friend in his car. Thankfully we missed the main turn towards Bhandardara and instead went all the way round to the other side of the dam. Though the long cut adds nearly 20 kms on your fuel meter its worth it, as you hardly encounter any potholes or problems. The other, actual way has been a victim of government and local apathy and you will struggle to find any roads worth driving on. The bumps generated by the pathetic roads are such that you will be worried if your suspension will exist after you have crossed the entire stretch.


Nevertheless the dam and the adjoining areas make up for this apathy. When the water is full, you can actually take a boat ride with the locals till the middle of water body; and trust me, the water is completely edible. I myself had quite a few gulps of the same water on which the boat was floating. Flanked by green hills on all its sides, the area is a panaroma photographer's delight.

Nearby you have the MTDC resort which you serve you the best of the veg and non veg delicacy, and needless to say that their quality is okayish and price is awesome. However, there is one more reason of visiting MTDC and that would be its backyard. The backyard opens up into the lake and you can have a lot many picturesque moments here.

Since we only had a couple of hours to spend, this was all that we could wrap up. However, this place is a treasure trove for trekkers and picnickers as it is home to Mt. Kalsubai and  Ratangad fort. Also, the Harishchandragarh fort is withing sights from here.

Ideally you should leave for this place on Friday evening , check into any of the numerous resorts available, preferrably MTDC and then spend the entire Saturday and check out Sunday evening by 4. You will be able to reach Mumbai within 5 hours at the max. And needless to say, the best times to visit this piece of heaven would be the monsoons.

You may check out Wikipedia for more details about here.

The quaint riverside of Pivri

Living in a concrete jungle is always a taxing experience.  You may get all the artificial pleasures money can buy for you, yet the satisfaction, the fulfillment eludes you. Hence, people throng to resorts, water parks, treks or other natural avenues which help them forget their concrete evidence and the price coming with it, if even for a couple of days.

Mumbai that way has been blessed with such natural getaways. From Karjat to Lonavala to Vasai-Virar, the options are galore. Yet there are some quaint, remote attractions, away from our knowledge, from our consciousness; places that force you to measure your life back, places that make you forget your five grinding days of life, places that bring you closer to nature.

One such place would be the riverside (if that can be called as a river) of Pivri village in Shahapur Taluka. Located nearly 80 kilometers away from Mumbai, this silent village is remotely situated. To reach here you will need to cross the JSW Steel Works factory on the Mumbai- Nashik Expressway at Vasindh, and then take a left towards Essel Propack (if you are going towards Nashik)by deflecting onto the service road.

Thereafter you simply continue your long seemingly unending ride amidst the shade of trees and the silent jungle dotted here and there with some rural habitation. The streams flowing with the fresh river water are excellent places to stop over and acquaint yourself
with nature as it is. The feeling is amazing when you force your naked feet against the stones, managing to balance yourself and sit silently for moments together as the cold flowing water washes down your feet and you have only the peace of the jungle trees to listen to.

Continuing together, you will reach a spot, where you will see a blue coloured board proclaiming "AashramShaala Pivri" in Devanagiri script. Take that right and continue right till where the road takes your vehicle.At the end,  you will see a small river like body; park your vehicle there and cross over to the other side and continue walking for as long as you like besides the river like body.

The water isn't deep, but a slight force is there, hence it is advisable that you exercise precaution if you do not know swimming. Yet, the beauty is such that you will want to lose yourself out there.

Flanked by the mist and cloud covered mountains on one side and by the greens on its two sides, this place is a perfect insignia of harmony with nature. It is also the perfect setting for a small picnic with your friends as you have ample dry places to unload your stuff.
I and my friend simply sat there on the stones as the cold flowing water washed away our bodies. At some distance were some village kids swimming and jumping into the water unmindful of the tensions and negativities abounding beyond these greens and living life to the fullest.

Though I wouldn't exactly recommend this place for a couple or to a family, it definitely figures out for those who simply wish to embrace nature, and for small group of friends just willing to have some fun and joy in a quarter of a day and come back.

Also, this place is worth visiting only when monsoons are in their full force.  

Forts of Mumbai -- Arnala Fort

Forts and the sea have always fascinated me. Bought up in the new urban jungle and devouring the heroic stories of forts and knights through the alleys of history texts, I have always been fascinated by the opportunities to explore the standing remnants of these stories myself.

A fort reminisces me of a grand old knight, standing in his full glory wearing his uniform and helmet and brandishing his shining sword. Yet this knight is falling prey to the traps of time and can do nothing but be a silent bearer to a grand past and watch that past being silent and steadily eroded around him by an ungrateful and unconcerned present. Yet he does this with an unassumed pride, a pride that's a legacy of his glorious past and will be a legend forever.

Arnala fort, located off the beach of Arnala near Virar is one of the last standing well maintained forts in Mumbai. I am not sure, if the maintenance is a gift of the governance or local populace or a gift of the way it was constructed. Just that, the fort stands there in its full grandeur washed by the clear blue sea on all its sides ... yes, you got it
right; it stands in an island.


To reach the fort you will need to go to the northernmost suburb of Vi

rar. From Virar station you will get buses regularly for Arnala beach. Once you reach Arnala market, you will need to take a right instead of the left which will take you to the beach. About 10 minutes of walking in the right direction you will reach a makeshift port from where you can catch a boat to the fort.  This area is marked by the presence of fish hanged around to dry before they can be sold in the open market.  Please note, that there is no dock or anything even remotely like a dock here. You will actually need to wade through knee deep water and struggle yourself onto the boat and it is the same at both ends. The first time I went there, I had to beat a retreat as my accompanying friends couldn't risk their cameras while wading through the water.  But the second time I went with my DSLR and came back safely, without a drop on my camera

After crossing over you will enter a fishing village and nearly half a kilometer of walk later the mighty Arnala fort's gates will be standing there welcoming you.

Once inside, there isn't much to do besides covering the entire area of the fort walking through the side walls of it. You will see the entire wall area littered with fishes put out for drying in the open by the local fishermen families. After safely trudging the distance me and my friend perched ourselves atop one of the watch towers admiring the vast endless beauty of the sea from this grand proud monument.


Except for the silent beauty of the sea, the grandeur of the fort and the thrill of crossing over the sea to reach there, there isn't much that you may expect here. Yet, the history and its pride conquers your heart and memories as you take a trip down the walls of this fort.  There is also a watchtower at some distance from the fort. A lot of stories abound about it amongst the locals. Unfortunately, we didn't have the time to make it to the watchtower. That too should be a plan in the itinerary if Arnala fort ever comes up in your weekend plans. 

The Rock

Andheri is one of the most popular business destinations of Mumbai. This suburb of Mumbai commands a great amount of the working population of this city to throng it daily. Understandably the amount of residential and slum rises in this suburb has been enormous.

In the densely, kind of unplanned concrete urban jungle, however, lies a gem that surprisingly isn't known to a lot many here. The surprise graph rises exponentially when you realize that this gem is one of the only two kinds in the world.

Nestled amongst the slums of Gilbert Hill between Bhavans Campus, and Andheri Station lies a huge monolithic basalt rock structure known as Gilbert Hill. Aged nearly 65 million years old, the only structure similar to this is the Devil's Monument located in Wyoming, America.

A (now declared) Grade 2 heritage structure, this would have been silent confined to the annals of history had a few good men and women not woken up to the ill effects of quarrying work being done upon it by scrupulous unchecked builders under the nose of governing authorities. Today, you will need to clear an entire maze of ugly buildings and slums to reach this wonderful monument.

Atop the monument are two temples; as ugly as it may sound, but the truth is that Indians fear only God or someone stronger, not the law. God had to intervene here, for nobody would dare bring a temple down, and this structure today stands silently amidst the human squalor.

There isn't much source about the history of the hill. Locals say that it used to be an enormous structure dwarfing the entire landscape of Andheri, but the callous government and greedy builders couldn't bear that and in connivance with mute citizens they quarried down the structure to its sorry state today.

Nevertheless, climbing up the hill can be an amazing experience for you get a clear view of the landscape of this suburb and for once the sky looks clean, clear and without any clutter. I had some really memorable moments as I shot the naked skyline along with the mighty eagles fluttering around.

To reach Gilbert Hill, you will need to get down at Andheri Station and start walking from the road besides Ahura Bakery right infront of the West side station. It may take you about 15 minutes by foot and you may wrap up the entire excursion within a couple of hours at the max.

Before I wrap up my memories on this structure here are some of the beautiful web links written about the structure :

Forts in Mumbai -- Sewri Fort

After a lot many days I decided to push myself out of the self induced lethargy, out of the inertia and just move around. The daily routine had taken its toll on me. What was once a lean and mean structure was now struggling to fit into its once loyal clothing. The energy of the youth had been replaced by the pains and laziness characterizing a retired life. I just knew that I had to throw myself out of my 250 sq feet pigeon nest. I had to abandon visiting the world on website and feel the air and the soil myself.

Hence I just got up, had a bath, put on my shorts, tee and my pair of Woodlands. I slung the camera in my pocket, covered my ears with my Android powered Radio and set off to the world outside my room. I didn't know where exactly would I be going. I had researched a bit or two about the long lost monuments of Mumbai --- the forgotten forts... the ones who once protected the grandeur of the rulers of Mumbai and were today merely the suffering their fate at hands of a careless government and a socially amnesiac public. All along had been mentioned that the forts were surrounded today by slums and were not safe to visit. Fear was an inborn factor within me. But I knew that fear could become an excuse for a sin far more. I had to overcome fear and lethargy.. both. Hence, just kept walking !!!!

I boarded the locals to Sewri to visit the Sewri fort. My numerous trips to South Mumbai had always taken me via Sewri and all that I knew from these short sighted visits were that it was a place dotted with petroleum and oil products and actually a place like this in the midst of a population burstling city was actually a disaster waiting for an invitation. However, life here has a lesser value than even the worn out steel coins. So this was acceptable.

Anyways, my cynical thinking aside, I decided to venture into this petroleum complex and search for the hidden fort. After getting down at the station and venturing out, on the eastern part of Sewri I just felt like I had come to a remote village of India. There were a few taxis standing outside, no crowd (a rare sight in this city), lesser roads and some amount of constructions going on. After getting directions from the few trotting locals, I started my trek through the dusty sand covered paths. These paths directly led me to a slum, which later on gave way to a truck parking shed, which in turn opened up at the HPCL petroleum complex. This fifteen- twenty minutes trot led me to some weird complex of completely worn out underconstruction buildings. I was unable to understand if the buildings were being torn down or were being sewed up. Anyways, in the midst of these massive eye sores, stood a brightly painted white stoneway to the Dargah manning the entrance to the Sewri fort. I recognised this from my research on Google about this fort. Despite the hatred generated over the absence of any infrastructure my heart gave a smile that the fort had finally arrived.

I went up the stairs and came to the Dargah... And infront of me stood the vast sea.... I could very well see the Pink Flamingo Marshlands beyond and the Chembur Oil complex was easily visible from there. I aimed for my camera and started capturing these jaw dropping views, which are just a rare sight in the otherwise clutter of this concrete jungle.

I headed to the other side of the dargah and there stood the majestic fort.............well majestic is an exaggeration. The majesty has been robbed off by the people and the government through years of neglect. What stood infront of me was a badly restored concrete structure which might have once commanded the salute and the respect of the seas. History says that Britishers built this fort as a watchtower over the western shores.  Today it just remained as a watchover to Pink Flamingoes coming up and down over the oil licked western shores lining the refinery complex.

The inside of the fort was a victim to the misunderstood love statements of the stupid, insane Indian lovers,who believe that engraving their names on historical complexes will make their love stories collated in the annals of history aka Heer-Ranjha etc. The fort was restructured by the government, a rare instance indeed. However, like most of the government actions in this country, it lacked sense and direction. The border walls were broken down. One side of the fort was just a mini garbage dump. No inscription could be found detailing out the history of this structure. And most importantly it didnt have any roads leading to it. As I said before... the only human infested road to the fort was gobbled up by slums.

You can have a wonderful view of Sewri skyline from one side of the fort while the other side overlooks the sea. The inner areas of the forts are today used by the nearby locals as their cricket pitches. Tourists are a rare sight here, mostly because of no knowledge of its existence and also due to an insecure environment having developed here due to absence of any governance infrastructure. 

On one side of the fort are the dilapidated buildings, on the other side is an upcoming Colgate Palmolive factory. The third side overlooks the sea and the fourth side lurks in the shadows of ugly slums. 

History is a hated subject in India, and as Indians we are hardly aware of our history, leave alone being proud of it. And in such a situation, when we are ourselves chipping off the last remnants of our modern history, I don't think there would be any proud moment for our future generations to look back upon. 

I hope that someday, sometime all these lost monuments are dug back from the annals of neglect and are given a fresh dose of life. We can create museums in these monuments, levy fees for them. I am sure that learning about history in these historical places would make history come alive aka "The night at the museum  " kind.

If nothing else, I hope to be a part of something that will help me bring back the lost glory of these silent monuments slowly awaiting their death at the hands of an ungrateful citizen and a lame government.

For more information about the fort you may always fall back on the ever reliable Wikipedia.

The beginning

It has nearly been a decade of me staying in the megalopolis of Mumbai. I never knew, and have never understood why, when and how did the travel bug bite me; just that I know travelling is my second nature now.

This melting pot of cultures, people, colours, sights hides within itself an entire plethora of travels and stories. Right from the Dhobighat at Mahalakshmi to Elephanta Caves off the Gateway of India, to the forlorn forts which once guarded the pride of this city, I have seen a great many architectures and characters dotting the city and its surroundings.

This financial magnet, also the kingdom of service industry in India, attracts an enormous population of the youth of India. Singletons, married couples, committed couples etc everyone descends on this city trying to grab his/her share of pie from the richness the city has to offer. And after an exhausted week of grabbing, the one thing that everyone looks forward to is unwind.  And the city does not disappoint.

Nestled within itself and a midst its surroundings are spectacular attractions of every kind that you may conjure. From the glitzy malls to the silent greens to man made structures flanked by the beauty of the sea, the city has everything for everyone.

However my experience in the city has been that not many are aware of the options surrounding us. A popular weekend destination would be a typical mall or at the best the Sanjay Gandhi National Park. As I said, besides these Mumbai has a lot more to offer and the better part being, these are within 24 hours of driving range.

My blog is intended to bring to fore all such unknown or unpopular gems into the realms of the daily lives of Mumbaikars, the succor from which we so desperately crave. They will feature destinations that can be wrapped up in a day or two at the max and better still without burning a hole in your pocket.

So stay along, buckle up and join me as I drive around and within this Mayanagari.