Karnala Fort- Sound of its silence…

Karnala              कर्नाळा
Sound of its silence…

Height                       : 2500 Feet                                                             Date           : 25th Jul 2015 
Nature of Trek       : Easy                                                                        Duration     : 1 day

 
Author - Surbhi 

I was sitting at the favorite corner of my home, the big window in the hall. This is my favorite place as from here, I get chance to admire the eternal Nature. From there, I have witnessed the beauty of nature at different times of the day since years now. I saw the bright morning sky with melodious chirping of birds, cloudy rainy days, dancing trees in garden, beautiful golden sunset, evening paintings in landscape of sky, birds flying together high and of course the magical beauty of the moon with the stars during calm nights. What more a Nature Lover could ever ask for? After all, just even an hour sitting there with music and coffee always brought me peace. But things have changed now, for the better.

       It’s been almost 3 weeks now and I am not the ‘old me’ anymore. No big change has happened but that small change made a big difference in my life, positively. Sitting on the window, I saw the elegance of nature again every day after 25^th July 2015 but now on with different love for it, with different connection that has grown even stronger. So what you think is it that made the world around me so beautiful? What changed my life positively, all of a sudden? “You are in love”, said a few people around me, who don’t really even know me. But guess what? They were right. I am really in love!

       Yes, I am in love with Nature, with the sound of its silence, with the beauty of its elegance. After all, who said that you can fall in love only with humans? Want to know how it all happened? Follow the words…..

       It was 24^th July 2015 when at 9:30pm, I was confirming with my office friend about the things we must carry the next day. As the 25^th July 2015 was the day I was waiting for. I was about to have the first trek of my life. Kept things in check and lastly bid a temporary good-bye to my German course books as I was about to miss my weekend classes. Truly, ‘Kuch pane ke liye kuch khona padta hai’ did fit well in this case of mine.

Its Saturday Morning. All set with the trek sack at my back, I left home at 5:30am and reached near office gate by 6.20am, 10 minutes before time and 1^st one to reach. Soon came two office buddies and then came the master of this plan, Mr. Amol Chaudhary – The Nature’s Child, a hard core trekker and passionate mountaineer with silver jubilee experience, an observant photographer, a co-writer of his Blogs and Business Analyst by profession! Filled with enthusiasm, he shook our hands and appreciated the displayed punctuality by 3 of us. Till everyone reached the venue, Amol shared with us the different experiences he had during various treks he went for, at different times. Hearing to those fascinating, real life tales, we felt all more energized for this trek we were about to have. By 7:00am, we began to ride to our destination – Karnala Fort.

Background and Behind the Scenes:

Karnala Fort is a hill Fort in Raigad district about 10 km from Panvel city. Currently it is a protected place lying within the Karnala Bird Sanctuary.

       We were 19 people altogether. Having 4 cars arranged by the fellow colleagues cum co-trekkers, we had a ‘royal travelling time’ as labelled by Amol. Planning and timely execution of whole trek, in-between halts, breakfast, and lunch as well as rest time was taken care off by him only, the experienced one. Initial cost of 500 Rs per head was amazingly cut down to 355 Rs per head after effective money management and that too without compromising on simply anything. We were provided with a big packet of Chips & small packet of fruit juice as travel snacks, good quantity and quality poha along with soft idlis & tasty for breakfast, satisfying Neer Dosa and chutni for lunch and 10 mango bite candies to provide quick energy supply during the whole trek. Many colleagues actively volunteered for different tasks throughout the trek and so, naming a few of them would be unfair as I may surely miss on few names, as it was Behind the ScenesJ.

       I shared my ride to Karnala Fort with Amol – our trek lead, Chandu - I feel he is too intelligent to talk nonsense with and Ganesh – fun loving office buddy. As soon as the ride began, I was happy looking at the morning sky with rainy clouds and strong wind that I felt on my face continuously. Turning the AC off, Amol allowed us to enjoy the raw nature, which we really did. Having 1980s-90s songs played on FM just made our day. A Perfect Beginning I would say. I was simply over-joyed experiencing all this in real time throughout. Taking breakfast halt at a Dhaba in Palaspe, near Panvel, beautiful memories were created and captured. But it was just the beginning!

      

By around 9:30am, we were there at the entry of Karnala Bird Sanctury. So green it was. But that was nothing at all. More was yet to come. It was just like a dot in the map. Getting done with entry formalities, we headed towards our destination. I could see that Nature was calling me with open gates [Entry gate of Sanctuary ;)].  After quick instructions and guidelines by Amol, we had a team picture and there we began to explore.

       We walked on the main trail through huge green trees around. Slowly and gradually the human sound began to slip away and mild silence began to creep in. This was the first unusual thing that I liked. Random chirping of birds we heard at the beginning had now become a part of this trek. I got to hear the heavy sound of dancing leaves, sounding like a welcome song to me. Now we were in the actual jungle with huge trees and its visible heavy roots above ground level, the louder chirps, variety of plants, leaves and flowers around with playful butterflies, fresh aroma of mud and giant, heavy rocks marking our way.

Going on, team began to scatter over a long stretch, with some walking fast to be ahead and some
walking slow, feeling every bit. We saw different birds and the most fun bird to watch was Peacock.

As we came, it just stood up and opened its feathers, displayed nature’s art and posed for us very religiously. It was great fun. Walking ahead, now we were standing at the place from where we saw the top of the Fort. It looked small and beautiful from huge distance, giving few of us a wrong impression that it will be very easy. Looking at it I just said one thing to myself, “I want to do it!”. After this warm-up halt, we began to move.

      
Now we walked, bit faster and continuously, making our way through small stones and gradually through big rocks. Selfie freaks had great number of halts for the obvious reasons. Step by step, we walked for around 1 hour now. I walked, jumped, hopped and now the time of my breakdown was near. I began to feel my running heartbeat on my head and face. I felt a warm blood rush throughout my body. I witnessed frequent sweat drops falling on the rocks in front of me. I laid my hands on the rocks and began to run out of breath. It was all getting difficult now.

Nature was challenging my stamina and I could feel the victory going out of my hands. Rains now added to the pain. Few days before this trek, I had randomly told Amol, “I want to be the first person from our team to reach at the top” to which Amol nicely replied, “Don’t think of reaching first at the top. Think of enjoying the journey leading to it.” But now, that strong desire to be the first one to reach the Fort almost began to fade speedily. It took me no time to have defeating thoughts about the remaining journey of this trek. But this wasn’t what I was here for. I was here for something else, for something better. I looked around and watched others. I saw some laughing; some really tired, some walking to get there at the top while some looking ready to give up. I saw many of my team members moving ahead, some getting out of sight too. Now I closed my eyes and repeated the sentence in my mind that I had said to myself in the beginning, “I want to do it!”. I said this 5 times, 10 times and till it went out of count. Now I moved my already shaking legs, looked straight at the top trail, looked at it with a reignited desire, took deep breath and there I started to trek again. It wasn’t easy. My body was not supporting me enough but the power of my thoughts did. I learned about the strength of thoughts that one can experience. I totally focused my mind towards thinking positive continuously. 1 step ahead and I praised myself till the time when my eyes saw something astonishing - Beauty beyond Barricades!

      This was like a piece of paradise to me, our first main halting point. I had my eyes and mouth wide open looking at this beautiful scene. I felt a strong, cold breeze all over continuously. Dark, heavy rainy clouds at the top, dense greenery on the earth’s body with no visible piece of land, dancing grass on the edges and all this beauty with no visible end. It was truly a treat to my eyes, nourishment to my soul. I stood there at the border and literally closed my eyes, opened my arms and felt nature hugging me. For that moment, I was lost somewhere; somewhere in the sky, in the wind, in the depth of green. I was already flying. Later a friend shook me and got me back to the ground. I was mesmerized.

        Felt great after realizing that this is not it, best is yet to come. But a moment of worry too bothered me, as the ‘best’ will take my ‘test’ further more now. Observing my tensed face, Amol came and went quickly like a wind, saying actively, “Come on Surbhi. You need to reach at the top” to which I replied with a feeling of surrender, “I am enjoying the journey Amol J”. Soon after this halt and quick selfies, we all got ready to trek further. “Just 10% more and you all will be there!”, said Amol and again flew ahead. We all 1^st time-trekkers were just puzzled to see him remaining so active throughout, with no sign of breathlessness or tiredness inspite of having heavier sack at his back and heavy camera around his neck. Feeling our trek lead’s energy passing through us, we continued to trek with re-filled enthusiasm and heavy rains here added to our happiness. The view of mountain tops hidden behind dark clouds with rain was simply elegant. “Ab toh yaha maut bhi aa jaye toh koi gham nahi”, I said to one of my friend, Vidhi. Simplicity is just so beautiful, I felt.

       Now we were almost there, once we cross the last hurdle. It was time to finally enter the Fort now. A steep slope with difficultly carved steps to climb on, with bent barricades on right side and nothing on the left, giving you a free and easy access to the deep, thick green valley,  indirectly death! Trekkers from different groups were helping their as well as members of other groups too. Here, I saw a strong spirit of unity among all the different trek leads out there. Lending hands to everyone, known or unknown, was like an unsaid but understood rule to them. And this team spirit was displayed selflessly because their common passion for adventure connected them. These leaders were leaders in true sense; all of them…

At last came the moment I was thriving hard for. At last I was there, at the Karnala Fort – our ultimate destination.  “Yipee… I finally reached this place”, I shouted out of joy to Amol who was standing behind and he added, “Yes you did it! And see, you are the 1^st person of our team to reach here; as you had promised.” Hearing this, I was overjoyed yet surprised at this beautiful co-incident. I learned a big lesson here. I learned that you should not judge your success on the basis of the rocky road you are walking on. At one point, the journey will surely get difficult and painful, but never choose to give up. Give power to your thoughts and think positive when you slow down. But don’t stop; don’t fail to try one more time. Forget about being first. Focus on ultimately reaching there and you will surely succeed in most beautiful way.

       I entered the Fort with another great lesson and realized that I will be having an overdose of beautiful natural scenes today, but this won’t kill me. Learning about the historical facts of Fort by Amol, our team headed to have lunch under the wide open sky. After placing newspapers on the ground, we all had Neer Dosa and Chutni together. Sharing and caring was very visibly witnessed amongst the team members. Living a rare chance of eating together with office people, in a place outside office doors brought a good feeling to me. Sitting together on the raw ground, eating on steel plates with only hands and no spoons, amidst the strong breeze with a view so beautiful, quickly dragged me back to the best memories of 7 day NSS Camps I attended during college years.

       After our lunch, nature was silently awaiting us to witness another magical scene. This one reallyjaha pedon ki aabaadi insaano se zyada hai.

blew my heart and mind away. I still have that picture fresh in my mind. No wonder what Amol really meant when he said “Eyes are the best camera”. I again engaged myself praising nature and its wonders. I lost myself to it only to find ‘new’ me soon. The depth of the open valley ahead of me was scary yet beautiful at the same time. Gazing around, I saw a seat sized rock attached to the border of the Fort. Getting tempted to sit on this danger-zone seat, I asked Amol if it will be safe. He allowed and encouraged to go ahead and sit on the ‘Mowgli Point’. Such dangerous yet tempting natural seats are termed as Mowgli Point by Amol and his trek group, which are inspired from the animated cartoon series ‘The Jungle Book’s main character Mowgli. 15 minutes spent sitting at that Mowgli Point were the best minutes of my day. No words could really explain that feeling. The strongest wind moved my body again and again. The deep silence of nature took away all the pain and disturbing noise from the heart inside. It healed me heavily. I felt a strong rush of calmness in my heart, mind, soul and thoughts. I felt renewed, peaceful like never before. It was strange but best thing to experience at such a beautiful, paradise like place. I suddenly felt lighter from within. This magical touch of nature transformed an important part of me in a miraculous way, beyond expression. Absorbing the silence of nature within me, I left the seat, allowing others to have a chance to feel something beyond understanding. Having a genuine smile on my face, I enjoyed seeing a place

       A last spot was waiting to have us now, after lunch. The Rock-Climbing spot. This was that part of the Fort which could not be trekked as it was too straight towards sky. It could only be rock- climbed and so it was unexplored by our team as we had many first timers, toddler trekkers in the group. But to reach to that location to view it was the most dangerous part of the whole trek. Just 15 seconds in your hand to make it to life or shake it to death. Right side had the heavily slippery Fort rock we had to step on and cross, while the left side was completely open to the deep, dense, scary valley of death. 1 wrong step and you will be gone. Looking down at it, almost half of the team decided not to do it but other half wanted to do it, including me. Amol’s courage to stand at the edge to which I would call as ‘Death Point’, till every member reaches to the place was worth the appreciation. Reaching there, he spoke about the minute techniques of rock climbing while few others were already lost in the cloudy scenery. Few clicks there and now came that time of the day when we had to trek back. Now we were done exploring. It was time to say good-bye to the Fort and all the beauty around it.

       Having a quick flashback of this wonderful trek, from its difficulties to its rewards beyond measure, I was filled with the feeling of peace and victory that has now overcome the little hidden fear in me. Bidding a last good-bye to that Mowgli Point was very painful as it gifted me many emotions, attributes required to live a peaceful life. But as they say, ‘All good things comes to an end’, this was one of them.

       After a quick instruction round by Amol regarding the techniques required descending safely, we were ready to leave after living memories. Going back, people became their own guide. Small groups were formed that playfully headed to hit the bottom, safely. I was with 3 other friends; Vidhi, Vipin and Akshay. Good rain made the trail very slippery and having canvas shoes added to my trouble. Now I had 2 options of getting down. 1 – Take constant help of my co-trekkers with the fear of getting slipped and getting muddy or 2 – Be like a Mowgli in the jungle and get ready to fall, slip, get muddy, climb over thick tree roots and swing over long hanging tree branches to make my way down. With no doubt I went for the 2^nd option. After all, I was in Jungle. Getting here and not getting muddy would have been a shame on me. So I took help wherever needed but went toofani wherever I could. My co-trekker friends wanted me to stop with the fear of me getting myself injured. But this wasn’t a reason good enough for me to stop. So I didn’t.

       At last we 4 reached at the point where our team had taken our first mini halt before we began the trek. We 4 were first to reach down back. We felt crazy realizing we are here, safe and sound. Our bodies were filled with tremendous pain; mind feeling victorious, heart filled with delight and soul feeling satisfied. We stood back at the place from where we had seen the Fort in the beginning. It was a different feeling to realize that we have at last done it. We gazed at it for a while and I proudly patted my back in imagination. I thanked this Fort and the nature I saw in abundance for teaching me so many things, for cleansing my soul to the deep, for making me a new version of myself, a better one, just in a matter of 15 minutes.

       When we successfully achieve something that we in the beginning had thought will be difficult for us, we tend to shape our perspective and begin to aim higher in life. But in my case, after living this day filled with colors of different emotions and feelings, I have aimed ‘deeper’. I have aimed to dive deep within my soul and my thoughts. I have aimed at listening to the silent sound I have in me, that gets lost when I give importance more to outer noise; but not anymore. Because living a life without nourishing your own soul is not a worthy living. Afterall what a soul will any demand? Not money, no fame but only peace, purity and satisfaction. It isn’t difficult to provide your soul with these but sometimes it takes forever for one to understand how he can achieve these. It won’t take ‘forever’ in my case.

       Only now I understood why I couldn’t really explain well to my co-trekker friends when at Mowgli Point, Amol asked me – “Surbhi can you please explain them in your own words what all is it that you ultimately get when you trek?”. I couldn’t explain them the exact chain of thoughts and feelings I had running after hearing this. I tried but couldn’t put it all in words the way I could actually imagine the answer to this question. May be Amol asked me to answer it because he too somewhere knows that what we get out of it, cannot be really expressed in words but can only and only felt in the best way.

       Coming to the end of the trek and end of this write-up, I would share a beautiful thought by Helen Keller that would confirm the feeling of a true Nature Lover and will answer the question above in the sweetest way possible – ‘The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart.’ In my case, I was lucky enough to see, touch and also feel indeed one of the best and most beautiful things in the world…..