Graffitti at IIT Bombay

IIT  Bombay Marathon which was held on 26th November 2017, the only time outsider get to enter the IIT bombay campus without any reference however marathon needs to be Pre-registered online.

During our marathon i enjoyed the view of the campus, it was lush green and even the hills which is connected to SGNP can be spotted at some point however it was impossible for me to snap the pics at that time.
I mean it is one of the dream campus for the college student like me - there is a Flora,Fauna, Sameer hills for a short trek, court and ground well maintained for every sports - you name it, powai pond nearby and vihar lake however it is unauthorized but can be reached through risky route.

There are many good night time stories that Mumbai IITians  share online, one of them is of leopard sighting, some of them lucky one have sighted leopard during night time specially students who get the urge of smoking cigarette and drinking coffee around 1am - 2am while taking a walk in the campus.

After finishing the marathon, we went directly to the small stadium, vibe around the campus was so energetic that we started dancing along with other marathon runners copying the steps instructed by instructor on the stage.After that we eat Upma provided by them, during that time i saw some girls training on the ground, i mean they were damn athletic which left my jaw drop.

Best thing about the campus was graffiti which is illegal in most part of the world but out here it is different, these people appreciate every single work of art no matter what. The reason graffiti was started back in the days was to deliver message, specially it was done during night time as it was considered outlaw and the artist who did it remained underground.

The most Highlighted part about the above graffiti is heisenberg fictional character featured in Breaking bad serial, the chemistry teacher who along with his student cook Meth and get involved in selling Meth, firstly it is B2C then B2B.

The most highlighted part about the above graffiti was Doraemon smoking cigarette and looking sick which i think was a metaphor message and Pikachu with black shades on reflecting Thug life persona.

I loved the font style of above graffiti, the one they mostly draw on skateboard.

Above graffiti shows baboons and white tiger in a artistic way.

Click on the above image to read what's written - How was your viva? , I hate canteen food, Cruel world with No Job, 5KT's Bro.This are the stuffs students discuss among's them, which is reflected through graffiti.'these kind of graffiti take all your stress away when you look at them. it brings a smile on your face even though i do understand its wrong. Shout out to IIT bombay for allowing students to express their thought.

Laira is a fictional Cartoon character.

Soni, Snehal, Priya, Me and Ajay

 After this we got out of the campus and hopped back to powai lake region to chill, out here we encountered some streets kids playing games.

They needed some money to eat so we gave them little money to eat, the small kid had a smile on his face constantly.After all this we went back to Our home.It was a tiring day but worth it.

Gorakhgad fort:Adrenaline rush experience

Introduction
Gorakhgad fort is like 51 km from kalyan station.I would rate this trek Medium to Hard but rating is not an fair indicator personally i believe,  since it differs from person to person, Season to season, also depends on psychology and group of the people you are trekking with. It stands at 2130 ft high above sea level.I would highly recommend Amateur trekkers to not to try and do Solo trek out here.

Journey
I was planning this trek from couple weeks ago however it was successful on 26th December 2016 which was Monday, so Me, Mandar, Aakash and Akshay meet near Azad nagar metro station and boarded metro at 6:35 am which costed us 60 Rs return ticket per person.
After reaching Ghatkopar we boarded local train to kalyan at 7:14 am which costed us 20 Rs Return Ticket.Once we reached Kalyan we headed towards kalyan ST bus depot waiting for the Murbad Bus, in that mean time we eat Medu Vada, poha and Purchased maaza for our trek.Once the bus arrived, we boarded it which costed us 30 Rs per person.
Once we reached Murbad we took the Sharing Tum Tum which costed us 15 Rs Per person, he took us to one of the jeep stop from there we took sharing Jeep to Dahiri which is a base Village of Gorakhgad. While these 3 of my friend who were enjoying the journey as they have no idea about the structure of the mountain, i was little tensed as i have seen some of the gorakhgad pics on the internet, the trek looked scary. On the way one can see Gorakhgad mountain from the jeep. Now what shocked me was that there were around 16 people inside the jeep and 5 people hanging outside the jeep, this had my eyes wide open.

Once we reached dahiri we went to one of the Bania aka grocery shop, at there we purchased biscuits and water bottle as there are no shops on the trek. At bania shop we were told to write names and mobile Number of ours on the register book to which we asked question to them - why? then we got to know that one year ago four of the boys who came for a trek and only 3 survived, after investigation it was found out that those 3 boys murdered the 4th boy, so police has given an order to bania man to register every name of the trekker whoever hop out here for a trek.After hearing this Me, Aakash and akshay smirked and looked at mandar telling him ''Bro this time that 4th boy could be you'', to which mandar gave an angry look to Us.

Gorakhgad(Left one),Machindragad(Pinnacle one), Siddhagad(Behind pinnacle one)

Gorakhgad

I had divided the post in to three parts so that it would be easy for y'all to plan and strategies the trek in advance and also how you approach each part.

First part of the trek 

Take that right trail from the temple heading upwards

Ascent of the trek at the start is quite easy, it goes from the right trail near the temple, perfectly my kind of trail going through bushes.Beside temple there is a veranda which can help you sleep at night in case if you are stuck or want to start trek early in the morning.

One thing about this trek is that - there is a very less chances of you losing the trail.In between we took a rest as you get tired due to sunlight popping every now and then, however you will get saved by dense forest at least at the start of the trek.After 45 minute or So we reached one of the temple where there is a shiv ling and also one of the best place to get shadow.

Second part of the trek 
Now the trek gets little tricky as you ascent, there is a a tree nearby, so i would suggest you take a rest and energized yourself by drinking and eating snacks.

We had a smile on our face but it wasn't going to last forever.Now we came to the point where the mountain was clearly exposed to the sunlight.Real trek begins now

Sunlight exposed area

The orange part y'all see above on top of the mountain which is a door shaped that's where we headed, that's the entrance.By the time i reached at the entrance i was fully drained so i took some rest standing there which was providing me enough shadow.

Break at entrance(Orange color)

Now we came to the point where our eyes was burning due to exposure of sunlight and it gave us headache.From here one can easily view machindragad who is a teacher of gorakhgad even though it looks small compare to gorakhgad but it is not trek-able . 
Problem is not only the heat but you have to stay focused.My palms are soft compare to my other friends so it was burning every now and then while i was trying to make a grip so i took the handkerchief and i wrapped it around my palm which was helpful, make sure you also got cap.

Machindragad

Now we came to the point where Cave was visible, most importantly there was no heat.So we sat down and eat fruits.I can't describe how relief i was specially after i smelled orange, it took all my pain away.While eating fruits we saw two monks descending, these monks meditate in the caves, drink water from the tank and pray on the summit of the gorakhgad where there is a temple, these people warned us about the trek further, it gets tricky and complex but we came too far to go away and continued with our trek.On the way mandar, Akshay and aakash drank water from the tank except me, akshay was surprised after looking at all these things i mean he was on his 3rd trek at this time so it was obvious.

Third Part of the trek

Caves

Good news was that there was no heat around here, one need to walk straight from the tank as you can see in those above pic to get across the mountain.Out there me and akshay stumbled somehow we managed our balance, one mistake and you will go straight down the valley, one advice i can give you is that get in the sitting mode and drag your bump slowly all the way to the left.
After getting across you will encounter big rock, through team effort we managed to climb that obstacle. People with heavy weight can have a problem climbing this part.

I would say Gorakhgad is more a complex version of Harihar fort and kalavantin fort.Further there is more 80 degree of inclined rock cut steps, the trek is not for people suffering from acrophobhics and also avoid heavy bags unlike harihar it does not have the holes for the finger to make a grip at some point.

Rock Cut steps

Finally we reached the top of gorakhgad , the view of siddhagad and ghats around was astonishing, there is also  a shiv temple on the top.Out here we rested and did a little bit of photo session.Just like kalavantin there is a limited space on the top.

Me looking at siddhagad

Shiv Temple

Me, Akshay, Mandar and Aakash

We started our descend around 3:45 pm, while descending i stretched my arms and legs too much.In that process my spinal cord was little hurt.What surprised me was on that specific day there was no group trekking but us.

Descending

We were at the dahiri village till 5:05 pm ,we drank mazaa ,after waiting for some minute we boarded the sharing jeep which costed us 35 Rs per person till murbad village, from there ST bus till Kalyan station which costed us 30 Rs per person then the same means of transport as we used while coming.I was home till 9 Pm.

Total Cost
Travelling cost - 175 Rs per person
Snacks and breakfast cost  - 60 Rs per person

Bhivgad/Bheemgad Fort:Tales Of two Kids

INTRODUCTION
Bhivgad is also know as bheemgad Fort, it is like 7.4 Km from karjat station. Vadap is the base village.It is an Very Easy Grade Level Trek ,Fort stands at 800 Feet high.There is not much info available of this Fort on net, neither there are any fortification.To reach Summit it will take you around 5o Minute to 1 Hour.

Village 
One will encounter More kids in the village than Adults. What i noticed was Girls washing clothes and picking up vessel while boys playing games with coins early morning.
There is also a Waterfall nearby if one want to enjoy it, i am not a big fan of waterfall specially during weekends time where People get drunk,play loud music and dance,they turned that in to resort.Recently one of the Man died in Mahuli waterfall where he was copying stunt which was inspired by bahubali movie, i mean seriouly damn!

Journey
On Sunday 16th July 2017, Me and Vikrant met near Azad nagar Stop around 5:50 am, Vishesh was supposed to board metro from versova and he was late by couple minute, the reason he was late was because that guy hopped straight in to Medical Shop purchasing Vitamin Tablet since it was his first trek.Finally he boarded the metro, the same metro we boarded from Azad nagar at 6:15 am, the ticket costed us 70 Rs per person return ticket. By the time we Reached Ghatkopar, 6:35 am Train left in front of us, however we purchased karjat Return ticket which costed us 40 Rs per person.In that mean Time we eat Idli and Vada which costed us 30 Rs per person.

In that mean time we discussed like how one of the guy who studied with us in our school time did a suicide recently, i mean he was going through a lot - Various Bike accident, Girl Friend Issue, Drugs Abuse and many more you name it.I still Remember Getting my Ass whooped by this guy in 4th grade, during my childhood day i barely picked hand on anyone so it was obvious.Anyway life is too beautiful to give up your life but i am not here to criticize anyone since i don't know what this people go through, i have never been on that side.
     
Finally we boarded 7:14 am Karjat train, second class was crowded like crazy so we boarded 1st class as Vishesh said ''Don't worry i got Big connection if we get caught by TC''.We reached Karjat Till 8:41 am.One need to take a walk to shri ram Pul from Station which will take you around 7-8 Minute.From there we asked Rickshawala about fare to vadap he quoted 150 Rs total, somehow we negotiated and got it down to 130 Rs Total.
In 20 minute or So we reached Vadap, the way go through Gali from village ,there are arrows and also villagers are helpful.

Reminded me of malgudi days

Vikrant, Way to Fort

Temple

One will Encounter Temple on the left however one need to walk straight as you can see in those above waterfall pic, Left hill to the waterfall is bheemgad, it is easy to recognize as you can see flag on the top.On the way two small local kids who were brothers accompanied us, Vikrant had wireless bluetooth speaker switched On - playing Old Bollywood and 90's Pop songs.
Trail turned in to small water stream during monsoon, now it was raining moderately.In 35 minute or So we reached the point where there was a board which showed direction - Right one go to the dhak bhairi and left one to bheemgad.

Right Dhak Bhairi,Left Bhimgad

Vishesh with Two Kids

On the way be little Careful with algae, it gets slippery neither there is nothing to Worry about.After 10 minute or so, we reached the top.On the top we met 2 men who were descending they too were from andheri west.

Tales Of the two Kids
Since it is a small hill, these two kids trek everyday to enjoy the scenic view.When we asked them about their age, they were little confused ,that's how it is in country side.They were not even aware about which grade they were studying. There are resorts and Mansion but no descent school in the village.I asked them about which sports they play? they said ''Cricket near Temple''.
We shared snacks with them, i could literally see happiness on their Faces, at that time these two brothers were Looking at each other smiling while eating. To the max they descend hills by 5 Pm.There was moderate Rain every now and then, every time it rained they used to hide under umbrella with us and sometimes under windcheater.

Bigbrother with small Brother

I could see little hiphop in Bigbrother, the way he was moving and dancing.So we gifted them cap that we had with us.

Scenic View
Scenic view bheemgad offered was beautiful enough after looking at height it stands at.One can view Waterfall, Bhimashankar range which includes many notable mountains and also temple from the top 

View from the top

Waterfall

Bhimashankar Range

After resting for couple minute, we started descending and got down at base in 30 minute or so, we said goodbye to two kids and gave them little money, we walked for couple minute then we took rickshaw till karjat station which costed us 100 Rs in total,frequency of rickshaw and tumtum is very high specially during weekend times then we boarded train from karjat station, we sat in the 1st class instead of 2nd class as it was crowded and as vishesh said he got connection.
We were happily taking a nap in 1st class, few station passed by and guess What? TC entered the train, we had our heart in our mouth at shelu station, we were giving a tense look at each other and vishesh was like i only got connection in mumbai only.At vangani station TC checked our ticket which was 2nd class one and told us '' per person will be charged 350 Rs'' we told him we will halt at Next station then he replied ''that he is going to do that anyway,now take out the Fine'' Somehow we negotiated and got the charge down till 120 Rs per person, at next station which was badlapur we got down and boarded 2nd class which was crowded as hell.We reached ghatkopar till 3:45 pm and then metro till our stop.I got down at Azad nagar stop,i was home till 4:20 Pm.

Our expense
Snacks and Breakfast charge - 40 Rs per person
Travelling Charge - 185 Rs per person
TC charge/Fine - 120 Rs per person

Sondai: Lesser known Fort of Karjat Region

INTRODUCTION
Sondai is not an popular fort compare to other forts in karjat, it is like 10.5 Km from karjat station.Base village is Sondewadi, One can also take a walk all the way from the station depending on the season if it's pleasant or sunny accordingly. The reason i said 'walk' as this trek will take you around 40 minute - 1 hour to reach the top or maybe less.Difficulty level is Easy.

INSIGHT
Even though the place was green, it was sunny all around due to early stages of monsoon.Farmers were patiently waiting for Rain, so that harvesting season begins and also Morbe Lake which is nearby get filled.

JOURNEY
On July 17th 2017 Me and Atul headed towards AZAD NAGAR metro station, by the time we reached there, it was 4:40 am,metro gate was closed so we waited for like hour,waiting for mandar and Ankit to board metro from versova,once they boarded it, we too did it from azad nagar which costed me 70 Rs per person Return ticket and we told aakash to meet directly at ghatkopar station, he was late like usual.So we took 6 return Ticket For karjat which costed us 50 Rs Per person.Luckily 6:25 am train was late by couple minute, till then aakash reached and this time he was accompanied by his friend Trupti.
We boarded karjat train around 6:28 am, journey on the train was smooth,it was not crowded.After reaching Karjat station, first thing we did was eat Idli and vada which costed us 20 Rs per person then we grabbed Biscuit,water and Maaza bottle from nearby station as there is no shop in sondewadi, after that we took TumTum which costed us 400 Rs in Total I.e Around 65 Rs Per person.It was a very remote village however scenic view it offered was awesome, on the way you will get clear view of Morbe Lake and Irshalgad Fort.

SONDAI FORT

Way to SONDAI FORT

After reaching Sondewadi, we started our trek and started following mandar who was trekking too Fast and he took us from all the way around, Mandar and Atul they both with monkey grip started making their own trail, Ankit alone with shorts and no Bag was enjoying the ascent , he had that beach vacation kind of attire with smile on his face but guess what, that fun was't going to be last forever, until he encountered shrub with thorns on it now he was like 'aah ooh' with tense face while ascending,at that time aakash  and I smirked at eachother.

I warned mandar, this is one the easiest trek in the western ghats and still he was like ''Follow me''.The way we took was little moderate, luckily there was no rain neither this route would have been difficult.Finally we came to the point where the mountain was exposed and the scenery was awesome with breeze going on so we took a rest drinking Maaza. Now we could clearly see the staircase which was going to help us reach on top of the fort.

Staircase leading towards the Fort

Water Stream Dried

Now we came to the point where we saw giant Frog in the tank.One of the frog was dead while other were alive.Probably this was the biggest frog that i ever saw in my life.

Giant Frog In the Tank

After couple minute of walk, we came to the point where we have to climb staircase which was well painted with orange color.On the way mandar gave his bag to Ankit.

Me

Ankit

Now we reached the top, there are no fortification but got sondai Goddess idols and bells under the tree.It is also one of the best watch point to view mountains.Out here we rested to eat sandwich which mandar got with him and drank mazaa. The weather was sunny indeed it was good for photography,neither if its rainy the visibility gets too low. 

View From Top of Sondai Fort

Irshalgad

Karnala Fort(Pinnacle One)

Matheran Range

Amazing

Morbe Lake

Sondai Goddess

In between Atul took a break,he looked little stressed as there has been too many 'No's' in his proposal, his love life is always been too complicated.

Sandwich and Mazaa Time

Atul Break Time

Me,Trupti,Aakash,Mandar,Atul and Ankit

After a Break, we started descending.This time we saw arrow which was showing straight route at that time we realized mandar took a wrong route while ascending and we followed him blindly, however i already knew it but that arrow was the proof.we were shocked after reaching down in 20 Minute or So, i mean this route was so easy.On the way Me and aakash made fun of mandar in a good way, we were like '' If mandar ever became a Leader of the Firm, that firm will go Bankrupt in no time''.
We called TumTum wala, he said ''he will there in couple minute''.In that mean time we rested near one of the hut and requested water from one of the villager which they gave happily. TumTum wala arrived in 20 minute,he took the same fare I.e 400 Total INR.We Reached Karjat station till 2:40 Pm and train was at 3:27 Pm,somehow we killed our time and boarded train when arrived,everyone got the seat comfortably.We halted at ghatkopar, from there metro till our stop.Me and Atul got down at Azad Nagar stop, then we headed home.I was Home till 5:30 Pm.

We took the yellow route as you can see in those above pics while ascending and Red one while descending.Red one should be taken while ascending and descending, nonetheless i would say if red marker route is very easy then yellow one is Easy.

Our Expense
Snacks charges/Drink Charges per person - 60 Rs
Travelling Charges - 185 Rs