Fishing at Pendur lake

This year I happened to be in my village for personal work when fishing at Pendur lake was announced. I was thrilled to hear that. It was on 11th May. The night before we made two new fish nets in round shape. The slang for that is "aakya". Next day morning we all went to the lake. So many people actually participated in this event. The water was not really clean. It was only muddy. The fishing started after the "Gaokar" gave the green signal i.e. after the "garanha". Hundreds of people jumped into the lake with all the different shapes and sizes of fish nets. Everybody was getting excited after catching the fish. Most of us were getting only small fishes (modaka). Some of them caught small tortoise. The villagers were very excited to catch tortoise. I wonder why? If the tortoise has 21 nails in total it will sell for couple of lakhs!!! Is it not illegal?
The whole experience was superb. First time I realized how difficult it is to catch even a finger length fish. Some of them pass through the net, some jump out of it, some has scary thorns and some are so slippery. Well in the end, we got about a kilo of them and became part of our nice lunch.

My First 'HOLI' in village

Lately I was not into celebrating Holi much. First because of my rotation and then too old(am I?) now to take part!
Only one thing brought my interest back in Holi and that was idea of celebrating it in my Village. This year being in India it was possible to attend it and see how it actually takes place there. Mahesh and Sanjay joined me. Others also wanted to join but their job prevented them. We could not get confirmed tickets but somehow managed to board the train and reach malvan katta. Nana and Balu joined us in the same evening. We were previously told there is lot of fun like cutting mango tree, dragging it to the burning place etc. We were so excited to see all that. Our Holi did not kick off until late evening. We all got so bored. Anyway we got a chance to see our neighboring Holi. They brought a very long straight mango tree and put it straight up in the soil. That was very interesting to see. When they put a fire everybody started to revolve around the Holi. People offered coconut and prayed for their well being. Suddenly from nowhere rain started pouring. It was surprising to all of us to see rain in March. All villagers who were waiting for their mangoes to ripe were tensed.
We were then relaxing and somebody told that our village people are bringing the mango tree. We quickly jumped and ran to see that. We dragged the tree to some distance. Enjoyed that. It was all dark and very less could be seen. I managed to take few snaps. Villagers believe that on Holi day if somebody gives us "Sh*t" is a good sign. So they were all saying some bad things about each other very loudly and nobody was replying badly. That was quite funny. It was nearly 12 in the midnight when we finished everything.
Next day Ranga Panchami which was more fun. All small kids were colored red. Good thing about it was there was no chemical color, only natural gulal. We took part in coloring others and it was quite fun day.
I think it is not a bad idea to become kids and celebrate Holi. Lets play it next year.


 

Aanganevadichi Jatra

I always wanted to go to Bharadi devi Jatra but never could make it. This time taking a day early break it was possible. All the planning went in place. Nearly 10 of us decided to contribute. Everybody agreed that we should go and spend at least 3-4 days in our village in Nandos, Malvan Katta. The jatra was on 1st of March so 29 February was fixed to travel. We got two new friends Subhash and Mandavkar in our group. I boarded JAN SHATABDI Express at Panvel with Leena and Sharu. Rest of all boarded the train at Dadar. I took my telescope with me to have starry night sessions. The train journey was pleasant. We reached Kankavli at around 12:30 and then hired two Omni’s to go to our house. It was only 30 min drive. Everybody relaxed and had a fish in the lunch. Our liquor stock was waiting for us. We decided to have only beers for the lunch. Mandavkar gave us a beautiful gift, portrait of Shivaji. We took a quite stroll towards our bavadi. It was so wonderful. Tai prepared chicken for the dinner. Of course we had drinks. By that time I prepared my telescope and showed Pleades cluster, Aldebaran and surprised everybody with the rings of the Saturn. It was mesmerizing for all. Seeing Saturn with its rings clearly visible is a privilege. I also impressed my friends with few astronomical facts.
Next morning we all woke up quite early. Omni’s came on time. We reached Bharadi Devi temple at 8:15 in the morning. We thought there won’t be any rush at that time but we were utterly wrong. Everybody had a big question mark on their face. We stood near the entrance of Tula queue and waited for some time. It was decided previously that Avi and I will do Tula of Chinmay and Sharu. It was horrible experience to enter the pandal. When I saw Appa bent down to come inside I was scared. Ramesh is so heavy but even he managed well to get in. Finally we all got in but the struggle was not yet over. Tula queue was also very big and congested. Nearly 4-5 long queue from all directions were getting inside the temple at the same time. Avi and I stood in the Tula queue and rest all went ahead in the normal queue. After Tula we took darshan of Bharadi Devi. This time I enjoyed it even more. It was very clear view. When I came out of the temple I was so relaxed. Carrying small children in such a congested queues is scary. We were out by 9:30. I really appreciated all the village people who stood in the long queues for 5-6 hours to see the glimpse of the goddess. This Jatra is becoming very very congested every year. We left the temple by around 11:00 and went to our next journey.
After all this hassle to get inside the temple I wish to attend this Jatra every year.