“Sita Mai”
“Luv Ankush”
“Valmiki kay khayche kaam nahi ahe”
“Sita Mai ne pani bollavale”
I am sure when my co-trekkers of Ajoba Hill will hear these statements;
there will be a smile on their face.
There are some instances in life that make you believe in Humanity,
that makes you believe in the existence of GOD. Whether god exists, is a matter
of belief. Believers don’t need any reason and for non-believers, no reason
will suffice. I feel there is some pseudo force that guides you. This force
manifests before you in some or the other form when you need help and guidance.
Rendezvous with Ajoba Hill was one such experience for five of us who set out
on the journey on 30th of November 2014.
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| Ajoba Hill |
Ajoba Hill stands at a height of 4511 ft in the Sahyadri
range of the Western Ghats. The base village is Dehene in the Shahapur Taluka.
Local Folklore is that Goddess Sita stayed here during her exile after
separation from Lord Rama. Here, we see Valmiki Ashram and the cave where Sita
lived with her twins luv and Kush (the local insisted on calling them luv and
ankush). Luv kush use to address Saint Valmiki as Ajoba which means grandfather
in marathi and hence the hill got the name as Ajoba Hill. The two villagers we
met on the way also mentioned that the Samadhi of Valmiki increases in size
after every few years.
We took a morning train to Asangaon station on the central
railway. From Asangaon, we reached shahapur by ricshaw covering a distance of 3
km. Since we had left our home early, we had a quick breakfast and took a state
transport bus going to the village ‘gunde’. We got down enroute at the Dehene
phata and from here started walking towards the base village of Dehene. Enroute
Dehene phata there is a town called Dolkhamb. If you don’t get a direct bus,
one can come to Dolkhamb and avail jeep/track services to Dehene.
As soon as we got down from the bus at the Dehene phata, we
were accomplained by two villagers who were going to a village near Dehene.
They told us about the history of the hill, about the Saint Valmiki, about Sita
and luv-kush, sorry luv ankush. There was a pride, reverence and innocence in
the way they narrated the story.
“Valmiki kay khayche kaam nahi ahe”, said one of the villagers.
Literally translated means, being valmiki is not as easy as eating food. We
parted ways when their village arrived, thanked them and moved on to our first
destination, the Valmiki Ashram.
Valmiki Ashram is about an hour and a half walk from Dehene
Phata. It’s a long winding kachha road that goes till the ashram. There is also
a water tank near the ashram. The water there is potable. You would find fishes,
insects and frogs in the water. My friend says he even spotted a snake in the
water cistern, but don’t worry I have drank that water and I am fine and still
alive and writing this.
Not wasting time, on reaching the ashram, we had some food,
filled our water bottles, did some photo shoot and proceeded to the cave. We
asked direction from a group who had camped at the ashram for the night. They
saw us missing a turn and going the wrong way, but I guess they didn’t bother
to inform us. On missing the turn, we went straight into the jungle. Almost
close to an hour we were roaming in the jungle. We spotted an arrow mark but
just moving 5 mins ahead when we tried to return back to the arrow mark, we
couldn’t find it. We came across a rock patch that I attempted to climb, but
something told me that this was not the route. It was getting late and we
decided to find the way back to the ashram.
Somehow we spotted the way back to the Ashram. Throughout the
journey so far, we were making fun of the folklore and discussing whether the
stories of Ramayana and Mahabharata that we hear since childhood hold true.
This was in good humour but we all decided to apologies to the Goddess Sita and
just when we said that Sita Mai may be next time we will come and see you, we met
a villager near the ashram. We told him that we were lost in the jungle trying
to find the cave. He pointed to the turn that was just few yards away from
where we were standing and said that the path led to the cave and that there
were markings throughout the way. He said that it would take us about an hour
to reach the cave.
I had searched the internet before going for the trek, and
most of the blogs informed that there would be no vehicle available after 5 pm,
at the most. It was 2.30 pm when we met that villager. Even if we had trekked
to the cave non-stop, we would have reached back to the ashram by 4.30 pm. The
way from Ashram to Dehene Phata would have taken us one and a half hour. Under
no circumstance we would have been able to catch the last bus at 5 pm. But
keeping logic and reasoning aside, we decided to take the journey ahead. Not
even thinking for a minute, we embarked on our journey to the caves.
We trekked non-stop to the summit. We could hear the noise of
a group that had gone ahead. That noise kept us going. Many a times, the
thought to return back brushed our mind, but we thought that when we had come
so far, there was no returning back. Let Sita Mai decide what’s good for us.
When we reached at the top where the cave was, the feeling
was amazing. All the exhaustion of walking continuously for 6 hours was lost in
the scenic beauty and the sense of accomplishment that we were experiencing.
There was a group of 6 trekkers there, all teenagers from the nearby village. A
boy had managed to climb the precipice were the cave was but was finding it
difficult to descend. I helped him descend. They thanked us and we chatted for
a few minutes. They warned us that it would be difficult to find any transport
from the village by the time we would manage to reach there. We said that we
would give it a try once we reach the base.
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| Cradle |
The group left and we also took a break for half an hour for
food. Now our aim was to reach to the base village as soon as possible and try
getting a transport to Asangaon or Shahpur station.
We reached the ashram and without wasting any time proceeded
to the Dehene phata. On the way we found 3 members of the group that we had met
near the cave, waiting for us. They said they were worried how we would find
the transport to the railway station. They invited us to stay at their place
and take the first bus in the morning. We told them that we will give it our
full try to find the transport. They could have gone home, but they walked with
us to see if we can get any transport, all the time insisting to come home with
them. Finally we spotted a private jeep. The kids recognised the driver who was
from their village and told them that we were their guest and we should be
dropped to the asangaon station. We thanked the kids who had showered courtesy
and kindness upon us, without any expectations. Something that has become
extinct in our city lives.
The villagers are very simple people. The conditions in which
they live are not human. They go through a lot of hardships even for simple
mundane things that we don’t even acknowledge having. They might be poor but
they have a heart of gold.
If I had to count the days of my life that I really lived,
this day would surely make it to the list.
That is the beauty of trekking. It makes you humble. Keeps
you grounded. Makes you acknowledge life.
That villager whom we met at the ashram or those teenagers
who waited for us and helped us get the transport back home, who selflessly
invited us to share their home were all our guiding forces that day. We could
have been stranded there, spent the night at some place to wake up in the
morning and get the vehicle back home. But those kids made our life easy that
day and we could all reach home safely that night. We had walked almost for 8
hours from 9.30 am to 6.30 pm, but the physical exertion was overshadowed by happiness
and the bliss we experienced during the trek. Maybe this is what they call ‘Mind
over Body’.
So basically this is not the narration of our trek to Ajoba Hill
but it is the tale of those teenagers who helped us selflessly reviving our
belief in humanity and our belief in that force called God. In all this we didn't even realise that we had not taken a single photograph of people who helped us. May be this is how grateful we are with life.
Trek to Ajoba Hill was a beautiful experience that would be
treasured for the times to come. I would say, Ajoba indeed took great care of us.
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