The Fig Tree

Man is at its best in philosophy when it’s in nature’s bosoms and has no work. The Fig tree forced me into it. Lying down on a soft bed of pebbles with a pillow made of a boulder I started staring at the leaves and fruits of the Fig tree. I saw a sun bird hopping from a twig to another. The sun bird was so light hardly any leaf moved because of its movement. It looked confused, searching for something but not able to find, hopping from a branch to another to find what it wants. It flew away to another tree but without even disturbing the twig it launched itself from. Then came a gust of wind and it shock the whole tree and few fruits from the tree fell off. I started thinking about life. A sun bird lives its life without making an impact to its surrounding; quietly doing its job but a gust of wind rattles everything on its way. I started thinking about Thunderbolts, why Thunderbolts? I love cycling that’s why I cycle; People should cycle only because they like it. We need to be like the sun bird not the wind. Quietly waking up in the morning and locking the door so that our roommates won’t be disturbed and start pedaling with friends and come back home before it’s hot and relax and live a normal life like people who don’t cycle, watch movies, eat Pani Puri and enjoy the life and keep loving what we are passionate about. Passionate like the Sun bird to hop around till we find the thing we want.

It was 3 pm at Mulsi Lake, Hareesh and Yogesh too were taking rest under the Fig tree like me, Hareesh deep in sleep and Yogesh watching the leaves like me.

We had started at 7.30 am from Park Street near Kalewadi. We took Hinjewadi to Pirangut route instead of Chandni Chowk route as this was closer for us. Around 8.15 am we have Wada Pau as b’fast in a village just after Hinjewadi ph1. We reach Piranjut around 9 am and headed for Paud straight away. Just before Paud on top of Paud ghat we found a patch of trees with fallen leaves and the ground around was burnt, we took some photographs there and headed for Paud. It was around 9.45 am when we started for Mulsi from Paud Town. At 10.30 we stopped under a Fig Tree half way on the slope of Mulsi Dam. We took a long break there as we were bit tired as it was hot and sunny. After half an hour we moved towards Mulsi Village where we ordered our lunch (lots of Parathas) to be packed.

It was Noon when we got our packets and we started our search for a perfect place – a good shade for resting and having lunch and a flat portion to play badminton.

Just half an hour into in the ride Hareesh stopped the PERFECT SPOT! It was at Gonwadi village. The banks were really wide and there were lots of trees with long branches that gave lots of shade. We started riding towards that spot along the bank with muddy and soft soil. There was lots of inlets coming from the lake that forced us to get down and drag our cycles across. We took lots of photographs with our cycles near the bank of Mulsi Lake. Finally we went to a Fig Tree and rested under it for some time. I found two dogs drinking water from the lake and went close to them with the bare minimum stealth that I posses to take some snaps. It was 1 o’clock when we three started playing badminton. Our Badminton court was really windy and we had lot of difficulty swinging our rackets to follow the shuttle’s path.

We moved to a spot that had trees at all around. We first played triangular game J but finally because of the sun’s position and contours of the trees’ branches we started playing regular badminton with Yogesh and Hareesh standing linearly opposite to me with their faces turned towards me. We went on hitting hard till we plucked the feathers out of the shuttle and then came out the advanced version of the shuttle which manufactured using a material popularly known as plastic. With the shuttle sometimes taking a course that was not desired by the hitter and its getting stuck on some high branches encouraged to endeavor into sports which many call as shot put but I will like to call it as ‘boulder lifting and plunging into air’ to make it simpler for anyone interested to pursue this sport in future.

The lunch box came out at 2 and we started gulping things down. Thinking of the parathas makes me salivate even now. With full belly and no pending software coding to be done on Monday I started gazing up to the leaves of Fig Tree lying on my cozy bed of pebbles with my soft boulder pillow. That’s the perfect way to become a philosopher. I looked at Hareesh lying next to me, who was deep in sleep the moment he lying on his cozy bed.

I thought of all those things (craps for an IT Professional) that I mentioned before till 4 pm when we got up to do the packing and fitting of torches to our Handles. Only one torch could be fitted as the clips I bought the day before were tight and I had forgotten to oil them. At 4.30 pm we started out journey ahead, the mission was to reach Plus Valley before sunset.

We filled water at a hotel met two black colored dogs and took some photographs there and headed towards Palse Village. I went in to Green Gates Resorts to check out the prices – Family (4 Bed Non-A/C) at 1600/- and Deluxe (2 Bed A/C) at 1200/- only. Some steep climbs greeted us after Palse Village till Sarole. We filled in our water bottle after Sarole at a villager’s home and went ahead.

It was at 6 pm that we reached Sunset Point just before Plus Valley, the place where I have thought of having a home in future. We went bit off-road to see the edge of the ridge but it was bit far from that spot so we took some photographs of the bikes in the grassland and headed forward towards Plus Valley. The sun set was mesmerizing and we spent a lot of time there taking photographs and resting.

It was dark when we started for Adharwadi’s Raigad Inn where we had planned to halt for the night. We were damn tired to do Tamhini ghat at night also we had only one torched fitted to the handles and that too was so lose that sometimes it was focusing to zenith and sometimes to nadir. After a hard pull and body aching ride we reached Raigad Inn at 7.30 pm. The Inn keeper was out of habit of receiving any guest, the lack of any interest in his face and tone seemed like we were troubling him. We ordered dinner around 8.30 pm.

Just in the way man is philosophical when the belly is full and work is not pending, similarly man becomes more compassionate and benevolent when damn hungry and tired. The ‘Topics’ started when the big question was uttered by Hareesh with the sound waves travelling from his throat towards Yogesh’s ear – So what you wanna do in life? Then started the big discussion when big brains meet – they ranged from ‘How IT can help in Agriculture and Irrigation’ to ‘Rock Music’, from ‘Obama’ to ‘World War II’. Hareesh was the one leading the discussion and enchanting us with his views, I felt he is a guy with the fire within (though I personally doubt, the fire is from the soul or from the cigar). The brain storming finally end after 3 hours with yet another bigger question – “Where’s the bloody Dinner?”

I went to the kitchen and asked, “Can you please tell me if there is any good restaurant nearby?” Dinner came in 5 minutes. We checked in into room no 5 and were snoring within 10 mins.

My alarm rang at 5 am but as others had told me that they not gonna wake up early I stopped it and slept back. It was 6.30 am when Yogesh woke me up. At 7.30 am we were back on our saddles, jack hammering towards home. We stopped at Green Gates resorts for b’fast around 9.30 am. The place was bit costly compared to the hotel in Mulsi Village we had packed our lunch from, so we thought of having some light b’fast here and go ahead to Mulsi Village for a heaver b’fast but the taste at Green Gates was so good that we kept on eating and drank Lassi till we uttered “Jada Hogaya!”

We started back around 10.30 am and moved on and on in hot sun taking breaks under tree shades. Finally we reached Paud at 12.30 and stopped at a hotel to have Lassi. I again had 3 glasses of Lassi till the body uttered “Jada Hogaya!” We headed for Pirangut and had Nimbu Pani again till it was “Jada Hogaya!” And again in Maangaon we had Lemon Juice till it was… J. And we were at Hinjewadi Phase 1 at 2.30 pm and Home at 3.15 pm.

I have been cycling for so long, it’s been 10 months Thunderbolts started, must have rode for 10K km by now, sometimes racing against time, hurrying to finish in time, urgency to go home. This was the first time I was relaxing on my bike, feeling as its part of my body, giving it rest more than myself. Cycling is not just about a cycle and a cyclist, it’s a life style, the badminton racket, the broken shuttle, the bed of pebbles and pillows of boulders ,the lake and the Fig Tree.