Ne Majasi Ne... Savarkar

ने मजसी ने परत मातृभूमीला सागरा प्राण तळमळला ॥धृ॥

भूमातेच्या चरणतला तुज धूता मी नित्य पाहिला होता
मज वदलासी अन्य देशि चल जाऊ सृष्टिची विविधता पाहू
तैं जननीहृद् विरहशंकितहि झाले परि तुवां वचन तिज दिधले
मार्गज्ञ स्वये मीच पृष्ठि वाहीन त्वरित या परत आणीन
विश्वसलो या तव वचनी मी जगद्नुभवयोगे बनुनी मी
तव अधिक शक्ती उद्धरणी मी येईन त्वरे कथुनि सोडिले तिजला ॥
सागरा प्राण तळमळला

शुक पंजरि वा हरिण शिरावा पाशी ही फसगत झाली तैशी
भूविरह कसा सतत साहु या पुढती दशदिशा तमोमय होती
गुणसुमने मी वेचियली या भावे की तिने सुगंधा घ्यावे
जरि उद्धरणी व्यय न तिच्या हो साचा हा व्यर्थ भार विद्येचा
ती आम्रवृक्षवत्सलता रे नवकुसुमयुता त्या सुलता रे
तो बाल गुलाबहि आता रे फुलबाग मला हाय पारखा झाला ॥
सागरा प्राण तळमळला

नभि नक्षत्रे बहुत एक परि प्यारा मज भरतभूमिचा तारा
प्रासाद इथे भव्य परी मज भारी आईची झोपडी प्यारी
तिजवीण नको राज्य मज प्रिया साचा वनवास तिच्या जरि वनिचा
भुलविणे व्यर्थ हे आता रे बहु जिवलग गमते चित्ता रे
तुज सरित्पते जी सरिता रे त्वदविरहाची शपथ घालितो तुजला ॥
सागरा प्राण तळमळला

या फेनमिषें हससि निर्दया कैसा का वचन भंगिसी ऐसा
त्वत्स्वामित्वा सांप्रत जी मिरवीते भिनि का आंग्लभूमीते
मन्मातेला अबला म्हणुनि फसवीसी मज विवासनाते देशी
तरि आंग्लभूमी भयभीता रे अबला न माझि ही माता रे
कथिल हे अगस्तिस आता रे जो आचमनी एक क्षणी तुज प्याला ॥
सागरा प्राण तळमळला

The poem “ne majasi ne” was written by V.D. Savarkar on the shore of Brighton in England. It’s a call by him to the ocean to take him back to his motherland. He refers to his country as his mother in the poem –

Ne majasi ne parat maatrubhumilaa, saagaraa praaN taLamaLalaa

(O ocean, take me back to my motherland, I can’t take it any longer here)

bhoomaatechyaa charantalaa tuj dhutaa mee nitya paahilaa hotaa

maj vadalaasee anya deshee chal jaavu, sRushTichee vividhataa paahoo

taee jananeehRud virahshankitahi jhaale, pari tuvaa vachan tij didhale

maargadnya swaye meech pRushThi vaaheen, tvari tayaa parat aaNeen

vishvasalo yaa tav vachanee me, jagadanubhavayoge banunee me

tava adheek shakt uddharaNee me, yein tvare kathun soDile tijalaa

saagaraa praaN taLamaLalaa

(bhoo-earth/land, charantalaa–bottom of feet, vadalaasee-told, sRushTi-nature, vividhataa-variety, jananee-mother, hRud-heart, virah-separation, maargadnya-back, tvari-soon, vishvasalo-believed, jag-world, anubhav-experience, shakt-strong, uddharaNee-betterment)

I have always seen you washing the bottom of my mother’s feet (as in the waves washing the floor of the earth). You told me – let’s go to a different land, see the wonders of nature. My mother was apprehensive about my separation from her, but you promised her that just like you were taking me away, you would soon bring me back too. I trusted your words, thought that I would return to my land with experience from far and use it for strengthening my mother (country). So I left her saying I’ll return soon.

O ocean, I can’t take it any longer.

Shuk panjari vaa, hariN shiraavaa paashi, hee phasgat jhaalee taisee

Bhoo-virah kasaa satat saahu yaa pudhati, dash dishaa tamomay hotee

GuNasumane mee vechiyalee yaa bhaave, kee tine sugandhaa ghyaave

Jari uddharaNee vyay na tichyaa ho saachaa, haa vyartha bhaar vidyechaa

Tee aamra-vruKsha vatsalataa re, nav kusum yutaa tyaa sulataa re

To baal gulaab hi aataa re, phulbaag malaa haay paarakhaa jhaalaa

saagaraa praaN taLamaLalaa

(shuk-shikari-hunter, panjari-trap, hariN-deer, phasgat-cheating, satat-continuous, dash-ten, dishaa-directions, tamomay-dark, guNa-good qualities, sumane-flowers, bhaave-with the intention, sugandha-fragrance, saachaa-treasure, vyartha-useless, vidyechaa-of knowledge, aamrra-vruKsha-mango tree, vatsal-kind, nav-new, kusum-flower, gulaab-rose, phulbaag-flower garden, paarkhaa-alien)

Just like how a deer gets trapped in a hunter’s harmless-looking net, I was fooled by your words. How should I bear this separation from my land, all directions look dark now. I picked flowers of knowledge just so she (my motherland) could smell (avail of) them. But if it can’t be used for her progress, the knowledge is more of a load. She is like a mango tree that gives several different things to needy people, she is like a new flower, but that garden has become alien to me now.

O ocean, I can’t take it any longer.

Nabhee nakshatre bahut ek pari pyaaraa, maj bharat bhoomichaa taaraa

Praasaad ithe bhavya pari maj bhaaree, aaeechee jhopaDee pyaaree

TijaveeN nako raajya maj priyasaachaa, vanvaas tichyaa jari vaneechaa

BhulaviNE vyartha he aataa re, bahu jivalag gamate chittaa re

Tuj saritpate ji saritaa re, tad virahaachee shapath ghaalito tujalaa

saagaraa praaN taLamaLalaa

(nabhee-in the sky, nakshatre-constellations, bahut-many, pari-but, maj-for me, praasaad-attractions, bhavya-large, bhaaree-heavy, aaeechee-mother’s, jhopaDee-hut, tijaveeN-except for her, nako-don’t want, raajya-kingdom, van-forest, vaas-abode, bhulaviNe-foolery, aataa-now, bahu-lot, gamete-hurts, chittaa-heart, saritpate-feeds, saritaa-river)

There might be many constellations in this universe (world), but the star dearest to me is my country. There might be several attractions here, but it’s my mother’s hut I long to be in. Except for her, I do not desire any kingdom, I would rather prefer a life of hardships within her confines. You have fooled me enough, now it hurts my heart. Imagine how you would have felt if separated from the river that feeds into you (by analogy the river is the mother of the sea).

O ocean, I can’t take it any longer.

Yaa fenmishe hasasi nirdayaa kaisaa, kaa vachan bhangisee aisaa

Tvat swaamitvaa saamprat ji miravite, bhiunee kaa aangla-bhoomee te

Manmaatelaa abal mhanunee phasavisee, maj vivaasanaa te detee

Jari aangla bhoomee bhayabheeta re, abalaa na maajhee hee maataa re

Kathil he agastis aataa re, jo aachamani ek kshaNi tuj pyaalaa

saagaraa praaN taLamaLalaa

(yaa-this, fen-foam, mishe-form, hasasi-laugh, nirdayaa-cruelly, bhangisee-break, tvat-own, swaamitvaa-dominance, saamprat-thus far, miravite-claim, bhiunee-frightened, aangla-English, abal-weak, vivaasanaa-pain, bhaybheet-afraid/coward, kathil-will tell, aachamani-like in aachaman/drinking from the palm, ek kshani-in an instant, pyaalaa-drank)

You are laughing at me (in the form of the foam in your waves), but why did you break your promise of taking me back to my mother ? You have always claimed to be strong, but you are in fact afraid of the British rule. You try to call my mother weak and coward, but it applies to you. My mother is not weak, Agasthi, one of her sons had swallowed you in an instant (from the story of Agasthi Rishi).

O ocean, I can’t take it any longer.

Pics from Torna Trek

Trek to Torna

Torna, Its not just a fort, but a it is the place where Maratha empire founded by Shivaji maharaj started to take shape. This was the first fort Maharaj won at the early age of 17 and that too without a war. It has been rightly said by James Douglas "It was Shivaji's first conquest, the nucleus around which all the others clustered, making it virtually the cradle of the Marathi Empire, which shocked the throne of the great Moguls. It has been the scene of many bloody battles. If Sinhagad is Lion's does then Torna is Eagle's nest." How true indeed, you can feel the greatness of the fort just by looking at it. It's the tallest among all in Pune district.

We reached Velhe a base village around 29 km. from the Nasrapur phata on NH4. On this trek, we were seven people, Me, DP (Durgaprasad Pawar), Anand, Santosh, Rajashree, Sonal and Ashish (Anand's roomate). I picked up Rajashree early from her house at 5:50 AM. DP picked up Sonal from kothurd, Anand, Santosh and Ashish were at kataraj. We hit NH4 at around 6:10 AM and reached Velhe by around 7:30 AM. After having breakfast in one of the local tapri hotel and ordering our lunch, which one of the local from the velhe was going to bring on top of fort by noon, we started our trek.

Path to Torna was long and steep. For first half we climbed around three mid-size hills which bit steep to climb. Since it was already march and temperature was already high, I felt this was bit difficult part. We took many small breaks, consumed lots of water and other hydrating liquids. The second half was the Rock patch, were we climbed the actual fort. This as bit easy as there are railings now which makes the climb easy, without it it would be very difficult here.
Finally we reached on Binny darwaza after 3 and half hours trek, much more than we had estimated.

Torna or Prachandagad is truly a huge fort and fortified walls still are in good condition. The view from top is really amazing, especially the view of Rajgad from the top is breathtaking. There is a temple on top of fort and some ruins of monuments. As summer has already started, water is sparsely available on top and many of the tanks are dry or the water is contaminated. Everyone in group had brought at least 3 liters of water, that actually saved us.

While climbing down its not that difficult except for few places in the rock patch, but since the slopes are steep, it puts lots of pressure on the ankle and calf muscles. Everybody of us was fine, except Rajashree as she was visibly tired and so had to take few extra breaks for her to gain the strength. But everything was alright at the end.

This was one of the best forts I have visited so far, we had lots and lots of fun while climbing it. I wonder how beautiful it would be in rainy seasons or in winter. That would be best time to climb this fort. Santosh was usual best cracking jokes and making everyone laugh.

Some things to note which may help if anyone wants to trek this fort in this period ie. in summer.
1. To reach velhe there are State transport buses available from swargate, from 6 AM in morning, so reach velhe as early as possible.
2. There is very little water available on top of the fort, hence takes lots of water along with you.
3. Food is not available on top, so would need to be carried or you can ask some hotel guy to bring it on top(they charge extra 200 bucks for this).
4.Climb slowly, take breaks whenever needed and drink lots of water.
5. Citrus fruits would be helpful.

Purandar Fort Pics

Some Pics from our Sunday outting.

Beautiful Kaas

On Gandhi jayanti we went to Kaas in Satara district. During this time of the year, lots of wild flower blossom in this part of Maharastra. With Koyna dam 100% full, the backwaters of dam make this place awesome. Some pics from amazing one day trip to Kaas, Bamnoli.

Trip to god’s own country!

It all started in May when Vishpala, my wife found some real good deal on a net for an air fare to Kerala. The plan was to visit Kerala in month of August.

We were not sure if it was a good time to visit Kerala as it was still a monsoon season. But still, we decided to continue with our plan, even if it rains. We started on 12th night after logging off from the office, Vishpala came home at around 7:00 PM and we manage to hit the express way to Mumbai at 7:30 PM. It was raining quite heavy in ghat area, but still we manage reach at my parents place in two hours. Had a dinner and went to bed as we had to catch the fligt earl morning 5:45 am.


13th Aug

Phone alarm buzzed aloud at 3:15 am to make sure we don’t miss our flight. Soon after having quick shower, I was ready in next 15 minutes; Vishpala was ready in next 10 minutes. My brother dropped us to Mulund check naka from where we got a taxi for airport. We reach airport on time and despite of all the heavy rains and cracks one of the runway flight was scheduled on time.

After getting the luggage from the conveyer belt inh Kochi air port, we headed towards the exit where Subbi our taxi driver/guide for next five days was standing with a placard mentioning my name in his hand. We were quick to notice him, with a smile he greeted us and we boarded his taxi. Our first destination was Munnar, a Hill station around 150 kms in south east of kochi..In general roads are kerala are narrow but scenic.

Just as we were few kilometers from Munnar, we visited a Spice garden. en had around 100 different spices plantations. From cardamom to clove, ginger to cinnamon.We spent there about an hour, also they had some counters where they had some spices for sale. We bought few.


After four hours of journey we reached Hotel Eastend, which is in the center of the Munnar town. Hotel was pretty good with a very beautiful garden.Munnar is a small town which stands at the confluence of three rivers the Muthirappuzh, Nallathanni and Kundala. Moonu in tamil means "three" and aar "river".It has major tea industry.

After a nice shower and a heavy lunch we decided to roam around instead of resting in the hotel. In the evening, on Subbi’s recommendation, I decided to get a famous Kerala Auvervedic message. Subbi took me to nearby massage center and had good relaxing massage followed by steam for around 2 hours. It was bliss.



14th Augst

The day began with a heavy breakfast in the hotel. Subbi was ready on time, ready to go. Our first stop was beautiful flower garden cum nursery where they also sold those plants. Garden had lots for different types of plants bot big and small, with flowers in all different colors one could imagine. One thing about Munnar is whichever direction you look at, you would always see green color dominating every other color in the nature. Every inch of mountain surfaces is covered with green beds of tea plants. Place were green mountains try to touch the blue sky and sun beams its rays from middle of white clouds, making the tender leaves of tea plants shine like gold petals.

Our next spot was, Mattuppetty dam, a water reservoir for the Munnar town and since the rain was not heavy this year, the water levels in the dam were not too high. The wall of the dam is also used as a bridge. There were many small shops as they are near any sight seeing spot selling food, handicrafts, spices etc, accompanied by horse elephant rides. We crossed the wall and headed towards jetty. We took a 30mins speed boat fairy which cruised in the dam waters. It was great fun, we were lucky to spot couple of wild elephants at the bank of the lake.

Our next spot was echo point, I tried to shouting few times making some wired sounds, but I never heard the echo back. Not sure why it was called echo spot. Vishpala got a new hat and few bangles from the nearby shops there. It was around one hour past noon by now and we headed towards top station. To our next spot was top station was highest point of Munnar. We had to park the taxi couple of kilometers away from the spot as there was road was very narrow. After a 30mins walk we reach the top station point, the view was breath taking. It scared me bit by its sheer magnitude. It was so quite out there, I was able to hear me breathing as clear as crystal. We spent there about 30-40mins.

On the way back we had a lunch in a restaurant located near echo point and headed towards Eravikulam national park. Park was 15km, on the other side of Munnar town. This is a place were one can see Nilgiri tahr (a type of goat); if you are lucky; which were not on that day! We went to base of the park, from were a bus took a very narrow road between the tea plantations and took to base station of the park. From there we were supposed to walk for 3 kilometers as no vehicles are allowed from there onwards. It started raining bit and we took our rain cheaters and umbrella along with us. It was sort of a Mini trek. The experience was fascinating, we walked through the clouds. We walked for around an hour and reached almost at the top, but were unlucky not to find the goat. So we headed back towards the base station. It was nice walk back through curvy roads. Rain cheaters, Umbrella did not help much as we were almost soaked. Anyways that was our last spot of the day, so we headed straight to our hotel and had a good relaxing hot water bath.

15h Aug:
India’s Independence Day. After having a breakfast and settling hotel bills, we said good bye to Munnar, and headed to coastal side of Kerala to a place called Alleppy or Alappuzha a.k.a as Venice of east. Alappuzha means the land between the sea and a network of rivers falling into it. We once again had a chance to see fascinating nature and luxurious houses on the way back. Since it was our independence day, we often saw school children parade having tricolor in their handle shouting various patriotic slogans. In the center of every parade, there was a young girl in white saree, with her hair untied, wearing a golden crown and golden belt at the waist and having a big Indian flag , which she held with her both the hands, which we crossed. The kids paraded while whole of the village/town watched them with a patriotic smile. We were already running late as we were suppose to check-in Into houseboat at noon, Subbi tried his best to make sure we reach there on time by driving fast, sometimes it was scary. Finally we made 200km journey in around four and half hours, with no stop in between.

We reached the jetty around one hour late and called the houseboat contact. In 5 minutes a magnificent House boat with one bedroom arrived and boarded in. The houseboat was a boat, bamboo weaved together. It had all the facility which an hotel room provides including TV, a small dinning area, air conditioners, bar, good clean toilets and place to relax. The houseboat had three staff members, one of them was chef, which cooked the food on the boat and sewhich had a ade of rved us hot. The plan was to stay in a boat for remaining day and night and it would drop us at our next hotel. The engine started and we began our houseboat journey of backwaters. There are small pieces of land or islands in the water were people build small huts or some places they have luxurious houses, surrounded by coconut trees. People commute by private boats of various sizes and shapes as vehicle cannot reach there due to lack of road. But it’s a complete town settle in the water. There are churches, temples, schools, telephone exchanges, public boat stations, small size restaurants etc. Water is integral part of their life. Many places other side of houses there were endless paddy fields. It looked like someone has spread a green color carpet on the group. Our chef Sabu, informed us that Alleppy is the largest producerla. Main occupation of people was farming, fishing and tourism. It was quite a experience, as we moved one side of the Alleppy to another. There were many houseboats in the water; Sabu informed us that there are around seven hundred boats floating in Alleppy town alone. House boats were of different sizes, having two, three up to eight bedrooms. Some also included conference rooms, swimming pool etc. It was truly majestic. Sabu servedwith a hot food which included mainly Rice and fish for me and vegetables along with sambar for my wife. Our boat stopped in between for one hour for staff to have their meals and t us of rice in Keraroof msymbolizing mother India, walked along with other children. This scene wa hen in the night at around 8:00 PM for the night halt.





16th Aug:

It was a very good night sleep and strangely enough there were no mosquitoes (although we had odomos etc. just incase required.). After a good continental and Indian breakfast, the boat began its journey towards Pamba heritage resort. One of my colleagues in my previous company had some contacts in Alleppy as he too had his native nearby. His friend owned a ancient house in Alleppy on the bank of back waters, the house was converted into resort and had few rooms which guest can occupy. Mr. Thomas the head of the house and the owner was very nice and gentle human being. As we got off the boat, he greeted us with a broad smile. The room was big enough, with ancient floor and wood ceiling giving it an ascetic touch. We had our bath and had a very good food made by mrs. Thomas. It included mainly rice, chicken and a fish for me and veggies for Vishpala. After a stroll in the near my places, we decided to go to Kochi for some shopping and sight seeing. Subbi was present at the place were we boarded the houseboat; just fifteen minutes walk from the resort. The first place in the Kochi we went was a ancient Jewish colony, were there was on Jewish place
Of worship and series of shops selling antiques things. As it was Saturday, everything was closed, bit strange. Then we headed towards naval museum. In the museum there was exact 1:50 scale down version of many Indian navy fighter ships were on the display. The museum had many artifacts about the naval system, few ancient maps of Kochi city and photos of sailor’s right from the days of Shivaji, Vasco-de-gamma era or before. One section had all the artifacts from modern naval systems, like torpedoes, radars, compass etc. We spent around one hour in museum and headed towards Kochi beach. Kochi beach was not up to my expectation. It just had a long pavement spread across the beach, there was no beach actually, no sand. One thing to look for in Kochi beach is Chinese fishing nets. It’s really amazing, though I did not see it in operation, but it looked a great machine to me. After spending for around 1 hour on the beach, we went to store to buy some memento of our kerla trip. It was big shops spread across three floors which sold antiques, Carpets, clothes, furniture etc. We bought couple of flower pots made of marble and studded with stones of different color and a pen holder of same material.

After we completed shopping we headed straight to Alleppy, where we stopped in the market place to buy some Kerala special banana chips and fried jackfruit sticks. It was already late around 8:00 PM according to Alleppy standards and had become very dark by then. We had a very light dinner; Mrs. Thomas had prepared a local delicacy idiappam. After settling the bills, we went to bed. Mr. Thomas said he had arranged for a motor boat at 5:15 AM.




17th Aug:
We heard a knock on the door at 5:00 AM, it was Mr. Thomas cook/servant/guide who had knocked the door to make sure we wake up. In next ten minutes he bought a hot cup of tea for us. We got ready at around 5:20 am and boarded the boat. Mr. and Mrs. Thomas were also awake to say us good bye. I thanked Mr. and Mrs. Thomas for their generous hospitality before getting into the boat. Subbi was also ready and awake. In next forty five minutes we were at Kochi airport. We said good bye to Subbi with five hundred note as tips, he smiled and as soon lost in the traffic. That was it. The end of fabulous trip to humble and beautiful land, which is truly gods own country.