Made with in India
Made with in India
So, this time around i went to Dapoli…..
Not the first time though, a better time nevertheless. I did not document my last trip which was a rather amazing one technically as it was my maiden bike trip with a friend. We applied all kinds of constraints on us (some got applied automatically). We had to return on time as my friend had to catch this train back. Pretty hectic but memorable. As we kicked an age old Unicorn owned by my friend, travelled through the wet and windy Tamhini Ghats from Pune, we felt a unique sense of freedom. There were a few hiccups, particularly with the bike, one of the jets of the carb of the bike was malfunctioning, resulting in repeated kicking to start it. Yes! I would have loved ES. That time when we went on a bike the weather was sultry bad and we had these scenes around us that resembled post-apocalyptic scenarios as if the whole place has been nuked the last night and only we were the one there. The fields around us were burned, nothing but the sweet Honda’s sound was heard. I was hopping nothing goes wrong ! It turns out people even in villages dont get up that early as elders told. There was limited crowd and since the fields were less bushy, the crowds did not prefer it for their morning acts.
Nevertheless, first “Clichéd” bike ride. We went around 450km, got lost a few of times. Went to Ladhgar Beach. Bad beach, all rocky, dont go ! Also went to a Parshuram temple which had this enormous statue of Lord Parshuram. The view from that place was great. As we moved around, the clock said it was time to go back. Couldnt even have any food there just Bananas #BadPlanning .
But the scenes in Tamhini Ghats when its about to rain is fabulous, similar to the ones you get up north, only much approachable.
Nevertheless, the trip in totality felt hasted and Dapoli needed a second trip for sure. But when was a question!
The second trip came in next 4 months, I have now moved to Mumbai. This time i visited Dapoli as a User Studies student, trying to use my new found skills of contextual enquiry to probe around with the idea of taking stuff on credit. This was an amazing fun trip.
The account that follows is emotionally and intellectually moderated one and any mentions are purely by chance and have no relation to anyone, intended or otherwise :P
We were a group of 30 students who visited Dapoli using MSRTC buses plying from Maitri Park. The day was a rather gloomy one. Downpour was inevitable. We had chosen a noon bus so that we could reach Dapoli in light. MSRTC had other plans. There was no co-ordination among various bus stops. The bus was 4 hours late. This is an interesting design problem, how we traced buses, when the arrogant stop manager made all kinds of excuses. We called each and every bus stop where the bus had to pass to know its whereabouts, like a CPU polling the GPIO pins ! There is no centralized tracking, purely a human infected relay system. Many among us boasted of having “designed” such a system. Well, people doodle all the time.
In a civil society, everyone has a seat number. But, when the bus came, it was pure chaos. First come first serve ! I felt that “self inflicted morality” is one of the worst human survival traits. I had booked the best seat, ended up getting least kinematic-ally favourable one ,in the corner with a rather ‘touchy’ alien co-passenger. This crowd behaviour raises important and sensitive issues like living the education or earning from the education?
But does it matter?
We reached Dapoli late in night, thanks to one of the students, we had a hostel booked in the local agri college. The place was absolute beauty. Such green, much wow !
Majority of the time it was work, we talked to tons of people regarding their credit habits. We even met one of the oldest people to have ever lived in Dapoli, a 100yr old lady. A small town is a rather accepting territory. We made friends with people so fast. Since, we had to have a well weighted demographics we had to move beyond Dapoli into smaller corners. Overall, it was a fun trip.
The itinerary was as follows:
We visited Harne Village/Beach/Fort. It can be reached via Buses from Dapoli. The route is great. The view from the fort is also fantastic, being a rather non-touristy season, there was hardly anyone on the beach. The beach is rocky and hence good-to-see kinds.
Then we visited Murud beach . This is the best beach around. Clean water, no rocks, nice sand. Due to monsoons, we couldn’t see the typical beach-wala-sunset but yeah it was good! People who have fish, can have fresh fish fished and fryed for them.
There a limited culinary choices in Dapoli. We went to mainly a Jagdish Hotel who served ‘Okish’ Thali and KBC who served nice “international” cuisines.
Once we were done with the course, it was time to leave. Its amazing how everyone knows everyone in Dapoli. When we boarded the bus, random people would ask others by names as to why they were visiting Mumbai. I even saw some random person cycling on the road in a different lane, wave to another in the bus ! Pure human beauty !
As we travelled back, I tried to relive moments that were spent in Dapoli. Soon, I woke up too see crowds of people walking around, trying to find the way, Horns blowing, people shouting. Welcome to Mumbai it said !
Now to leave you with some pictures clicked during the trip !
PS: Sorry for the bad photography ! The camera is a pretty good one this time :)
Cheers,
Rohit