The Hindu Business Line : Finding peace in God & nature

YOUNG Vasudev Bhatt at Kankeshwar off Alibag is a priest at the Lord Ganesh temple, runs a 2-3 room lodging outfit and serves Maharashtrian food to guests with godly devotion. Ask for a glass of water and the couple offer it with a sunny smile as if they are your near relatives. Like any 5-star hotelier they realise the economic value of being courteous but Vasudev Bhatt goes a bit beyond. He inquires of you, from where you come and to where you plan to go and in return parts with details of his life. No great aches of a globalised India disturb his mane. His kids study in Hubli in Kannada schools and the couple miss them.

In the morning, wearing a red dhoti in traditional panchakachha style, Vasudev enters the temple and offers prayers with red Hibiscus flowers. He rings the brass temple bell wishing the best for all; he could also be praying for some favours (like all of us) like most visitors to Kankeshwar.

Then there is Madhukar Mahadev Gurav, who resides near the Lord Shiva temple and tells you the India-Pakistan fifth one-day cricket score, while serving tea or a cold drink. Living in a typical, two-tiered wooden wadi, Gurav is not the restless Mumbaikar. Nothing has changed him being quite happy in your company even if it does not get him any orders. In the courtyard of his wadi, sipping a Mangola, one watched the dance of a young male peacock with its tail feathers held up like a fan at around 12 in the afternoon.

On an evening at 5.30 p.m., Jaya of the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), Meethil Momaya and this writer took a motor launch from the Gateway of India to land at Mandwa beach at around 6.30 p.m. From there a bus took us to Chondi village and an auto ride placed us at the foot of Kankeshwar hill. Around 8.15 p.m. we started the climb up under a darkness stippled with starlight (there was no moon) and short bursts of a refreshing cool wind. "Except for a steep patch at the top, the climb will not be hard for you," said Jaya as by about 10.15 p.m. we made it to the top after trudging up some 900 stairs (about 1,000 ft) marked with white chalk to guide the unwary visitor and three short water breaks. Vasudev Bhatt gave us a good dinner and we stretched out on the open veranda adjacent to our room.

Kankeshwar is a reserve forest (one doubts the claim) with temples for our famed Lords Shiva and Hanuman, apart from some minor heavenly operators. Breaking sleep in the morning to bird song is a free-coupon luxury for any Mumbaikar and one watched the red-vented and red-whiskered bulbuls calling to the world. Trails dribble down the face of Kankeshwar and for two days we touched a few of them.

One evening we sat down at a spot, which Jaya described as "the raptor spot", when two steppe eagles flew towards us carried by the air currents, dipped and turned away. They were skiing the air, rarely flapping their wings, as they found their pathways in the blue sky for one to neatly decipher them with binoculars; we spotted tawny eagles, a oriental honey buzzard, black kites and a few more who were too far up in the air to make out.

On a Sunday morning, we took the trail leading up to Gomukh (a water hole). The sun was dispersing the cold bite in the air and across one's vision flew three yellow-footed green pigeons (the state bird of Maharashtra), to rest on the top end of a bare tree. The looped flight of a Paradise flycatcher with its long, white streamers cutting the air is not a daily event and here was a couple making it from trees at one end of the water hole to another. Possibly, it was nesting time as Dr Salim Ali notes, "the nesting season is from February to July, varying locally."

In a spring-green bush, one saw a brilliant blue bird (the colour of blue Parker ink) and Jaya identified it as the blacknaped blue flycatcher. It was my first sighting of the bird and I have stored it my memory byte for future reference. All over Kankeshwar bare silk cotton and coral trees sported bright red flowers, while the frangipani served up the heady aroma of its yellowish white offerings. One could note the first signs of fruits in the jackfruit trees, while flowers like the purple bane and blue eranthemum crowded the forest floor. A rare Ashoka tree stood primly with its red flowers, while the plum-headed parakeets screeched through the day taking off from one fruiting tree to another.

For this writer, the fine point of reference will always be the 100-year-old mango tree opposite Gurav's wadi. One has not seen in a lifetime a mango tree with such a wide girth standing like a witness to all that was and is passing. "We have not been able to cover all the trails," Jaya told me and two days at Kankeshwar is not enough.

Walking down was easier even if one's knees and calf muscles shivered but it was worth it as down below at around two in the afternoon one saw two Indian robins and a couple of crested larks. Landing at Gateway of India one thanked Jaya for the outing and wondered whether Kankeshwar and Vasudev Bhatt will remain the same as the years roll by.

P. Devarajan

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