A Walk To A Sacred Forest....Ajivali Devrai

In today's world we are surrounded with so much technology and advancements that we often forget where we come from and what are we made of. Even though I am absolutely addicted to my phone I can totally ditch it when it comes to nature. When in the lap of nature I often forget that I have a phone or that in the normal world we are surrounded with so much of advance technology. I feel like stone age when in nature and I absolutely love that feeling. I got to live this feeling yesterday, when I took a walk to a sacred forest.

Now actually I should thank technology, because if it wasn't for facebook, I would never know about this sacred patch of forest, Ajivali Devrai which is just 50-55kms from Pune. One day while browsing my facebook feed I got to know about this place and I decided that I am going to visit this soon.

                     

So yesterday I woke up early and left my house at 8:30AM. My sundays often begin at 9 or 9:30AM, but yesterday was different. I was pumped and energized. I turned on the GPS on my phone plugged in my earphones and started my ride to Ajivali Devrai. I took the highway till Chandni Chowk. The road till Paud was normal, but as I crossed Paud my eyes were in for a treat. Lush green mountains, fields, big trees, colourful flowers, the nature was literally sparkling in front of me. Now this was all a village area and thanks to the rains the road wasn't at all in a good condition. This made my ride bumpy yet fun.

When I crossed Javan there was a small ghat which gave a lovely view of the Pawana Lake on one side and beautiful green mountains on the other side. I felt so relaxed and stress free. I so wished I had magical powers, I would build a house for myself there and would stay there happily ever after. As I crossed almost half of the ghat I read a small board on my left that read welcome to Ajivali. I reconfirmed on my GPS whether this is where I need to make a turn and then took the left turn. Just after taking the turn and riding for about half a minute I was in Ajivali village. I asked a little boy standing there were the temple was. He showed me the path. Then I asked him can I take my vehicle up to the temple? He said the road is very bad. If you are a skilled driver you can take it up. Now I am not a very skilled driver. Also if I keep on concentrating on the bad roads and how to ride here I won't be able to enjoy the natural beauty and moreover I will be polluting the pure air with my vehicle. So I decided to take a walk uphill to the temple.

the path that takes you up to the temple

I parked my vehicle, took out my scarf and jacket and got ready for the walk to a sacred forest. I saw two paths so I asked an elderly person standing there which path goes up to the temple. He told me both the paths go to the temple and asked me to choose the one which was less risky. He said the road on the other path has become mushy due to the rains. I thanked him and started walking. I hadn't even walked two steps and I heard a voice from behind asking me whether I was going to the temple. I turned behind and saw an elderly lady. I said 'yes, are you going there too'?. She said she was going up to pick some flowers and will accompany me till she finds some flowers. I thought that this was a good idea and agreed to it. She then started to tell me about her family, her fields and all the normal village talks. After about 10 minutes of walking she found some flowers. She said now 'I'll go back from here you go straight. Its just a single path and will take you straight to the temple'. I thanked her for accompanying me and said good bye. I don't know what she thought, she said ,wait I'll show you our fields. Its up on the hills, I'll accompany you till there'. I said OK and we started walking. She was really sweet and kept talking all the way. If you are alone or not sure about the path just ask the villagers for help and they will be more than happy to help you. As we were walking she was telling me tales about the temple and the village. It was refreshing to here all those things.

walking this muddy road can also turn out to be fun when you've got a great company like grandma

While walking I was also spotting places that were beautiful so that I could take pictures while coming down. Grandma was so busy talking that I didn't feel like stopping her for the sake of clicking pictures. After showing me both her fields she said that now she will go back to the village as she has preparations to do for Navratri. She then showed me a big stone which was stuck midway on the mountain and said that the stone has been stuck there with the grace of God. If it rolls down it will fall directly on the temple. But God doesn't let it roll down. We then bid adieu to each other, I thanked her, she smiled at me and asked me to come for lunch when I came back down. I agreed and we started walking on our respective paths.

now I had to go alone up to the temple

So basically the people of the village believe that Goddess Waghjai blesses the village and therefore they have a temple dedicated to her on the hill at the base of which the village lies. The villagers have cultivated crops on the hills, mostly rice. Almost quarter of the hill is filled with fields. Remaining of the hill is filled with wild plants. There are also waterfalls and streams that can be spotted all over the hill. The water is fresh and pure and the villagers use this water for drinking and farming.

waterfalls and streams can be spotted all along the path

I was walking towards the temple alone. I took a few breaks, sometimes to admire the nature and sometimes because I was tired. I was walking for almost an hour now. I'm not used to so much of walking, I was so exhausted and wanted to give up. But just then I saw huge trees a few steps away. I had finally reached the sacred forest. Huge trees through which the sunlight peeked slowly. I felt like a dwarf standing in the forest. All my tiredness had disappeared and I had a new found energy in me. This patch of forest is believed to be sacred and is called 'devrai'.

the sacred patch of forest or the 'devrai'

Now this was an absolutely a treat to my eyes and a blessing for my soul. I could see the temple which was now just a few steps away from me. But to be honest, the man-made temple looked really ordinary in front of the beautiful forest. I went up to the temple and offered my prayers to Goddess Waghjai.

Waghjai Temple on the hill

I came out from the temple and went to the forest. I felt as if I was a part of a fairyland. Since childhood I would always dream of staying in a fairyland and this seemed like a dream come true. I just didn't want to go down. I wish I could stay there all my life, bit sadly that wasn't possible. But that didn't mean I couldn't spend quality time there. So I did just that. It was just me and nature and the feeling of bliss. After I was satisfied I started my walk back down.

the huge trees making me look like a dwarf

Coming down was much easier than going up. I took stops at all the beautiful places that I had spotted while going up. I sat near a waterfall for a brief amount of time. The sound of water was so magical. It was loud, yet felt like soothing music.

sitting by a waterfall and enjoying myself had been a dream for so long

After a brief stop at the waterfall I started walking down again. I took longer to come down than going up because I took many halts to admire the beauty of nature. I didn't want the road to end, it was heavenly. But sadly, I had now reached at the base of the village. My walk to and fro the sacred forest was done. I looked for grandma's house who had accompanied me up hill, but I forgot her name and couldn't find her house. I then left the village and started my journey back home. The ride till Paud was lovely, but after than I entered the concrete jungle. The world filled with dust and dirt. We are absolutely insane for destroying the nature in the name of infrastructure. I would rather live in a small hut in the pure and non-polluted forest away from technology, than living in a luxurious house filled with all amenities.

wish this path wouldn't end

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Would You Like To Have Some?

chocolate charcoal ice cream

Activated charcoal. Its in our face wash, its in our toothpaste, its in our shampoo, its almost everywhere. But what if I told you that activated charcoal is in an ice cream as well. Yes, you read that right, charcoal ice cream. So I recently came to know that an ice cream parlour in Pune makes ice cream using charcoal. Now we all have read that activated charcoal is good for our skin, teeth, hair, almost every part of our body. So when I read that there  is activated charcoal in an ice cream and that too in Pune, I had to try it.

So I made plans to go and have this charcoal ice cream. There are three outlets of this ice cream parlour, but I decided to go to the Viman nagar outlet (no particular reason). So I went there. I started going through the menu, but couldn't find charcoal anywhere, I hope I've not come to the wrong place, I thought. Then I hesitantly asked, "ummm, do you have some ice cream made from charcoal"?, "yes, chocolate charcoal ice cream" the guy behind the counter replied. "I'll have one" I said.

Then started the process of making the ice cream. Brownie crumble, nutella, oreo, chocolate cookie crumble and activated charcoal, everything on the pan. Then started the mixing process. Oh! By the way, I have uploaded a video of the process on my YouTube channel. You can watch it if you are interested. The link is given below. So coming back to the ice cream. After mixing all the ingredients together, it turned all black in colour. It was truly a black beauty. The guy started to roll the ice cream and stack the rolls in a black cone and I in my mind was like, 'oh give it to me already!'

Then he handed me the black beauty. *play angels singing in the background and a halo on the ice cream* I'm so weird, no? But I actually felt that way. Now it was time to dig right into the ice cream. I had one bite, and it was amazing. I absolutely loved it. Now I'm not sure how many of you will like or hate the taste of this ice cream, but I absolutely loved it. It tasted like charcoal and chocolate. Like duh! Were you expecting something else? I really enjoyed the earthy taste that came from the charcoal and chocolate is an all time favorite, so it was just wow for me.

I then asked the guys about the ice cream. I asked them what is the charcoal made of? And they told me that the ice cream contains real activated charcoal. I asked them about the process and the other stuff that they have there.

My lips had turnd black due to the charcoal in my ice cream and it took me about half an hour to finish the ice cream. I was so full that I didn't even have dinner that night. It was one of the best ice creams I've ever had. Not that I would share it with anyone, but as a formality, 'Would you like to have some?'

Watch the process of making the ice cream here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QU0aghl9Vv4&t=5s

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Life Admist Nature.....Muredha Nala Park

"While the world wants to live in the lap of luxury, I find pleasure in the arms of nature"

I love to travel and explore, but my recent schedule was refraining me from doing so. But, whenever I find some free time, though not far away places, I go and explore the nooks or the unexplored places of my city. Recently I had some free time, also it had been long enough that I had been out to a place that I've never been before. So I thought of making the most use of my time. Now I generally like to search for places on google or visit places suggested by family or friends.

So I started going through the list of places to visit on google. But every time I saw a place in the list, I would be like, 'been here', 'too far', 'too crowded' or 'not interesting'. Now the list was slowly coming to an end & my level of anxiety had started to increase. Come on girl, there has to be at least one place that you can visit. Don't give up yet, and soon as I thought so, I read a name 'Muredha Nala Park'. At first I ignored it. I mean, come on, I ain't gonna visit a nala (drain), but when I couldn't find anything in the list of places to visit, I thought about giving it a shot. So I went to the review section and started reading the reviews and to my surprise all the reviews were good. Every review said that the place is good or its a must visit for nature lovers.

entrance to the park

So it was finalized that I will visit the Muredha Nala Park. So I turned on my GPS and left for the park. The timings of the park are 6AM to 10 AM and 4PM to 7PM. I left my house a bit early as I had no clue of the exact location. But since I was using GPS, I reached there before time. It was 3:40PM. I saw that the gate was open and there was no security. I went in, they have a parking facility, so I parked my bike there.

information board

logs like structure in the parking 

There was a bike in the parking and a bunch of people who seemed like a group of college going students. Now I have a habit to read the information board before I enter the venue. So that is what I did. It said that this place was a wasteland that has been converted into a nature filled landscape. While I was reading, I could hear the sound of water but couldn't really understand from where was it coming. As I set foot on the walking track, I noticed a stream flowing in between the two tracks that were opposite to each other. There were little causeways connecting the two tracks.

walking/jogging track

little causeways joining the tracks

It was a true treat to the eyes, but my mind was somewhere else, I still could hear the water and wanted to find out from where was that coming, because it surely wasn't this stream. So I started walking ahead and the sound of the water started to become more and more clear. I finally reached a spot where I felt that I am standing in the water, but couldn't see it. So I just turned to my right and then to my left and look, what do I see. A waterfall, it was a waterfall from where the sound was coming. I hadn't seen a waterfall for very long, so I was very excited to see one right in front of me. Though it wasn't a natural one, it was still a waterfall.

the waterfall

I went closer to it and guess what, there were benches to sit there with some lovely art carved on the walls. What more could I ask for? I immediately went and sat on one of those benches. I forgot to mention that apart from that group of friends in the parking, there was no one in the park. So basically, it was just me and nature. It felt so divine, I could stay there all my life admiring the waterfall. If you want to get your zen on, find peace of mind or simply want to de-stress, this is the perfect place. I spent a fair amount of time sitting there. But after a while, I guess the mosquitos started to dislike my presence. Yes, its a wasteland you see, you cannot expect that it'll be mosquito free. I buzzed the mosquitos off at first, but later it became really difficult. Now they had increased in number and were distracting me and I didn't want to get dengue, so I decided to get moving and explore the remaining park. So I took the track and started walking ahead.

carved art on the walls

So the park isn't too fancy, but it is definitely worth a visit. It has got two tracks on either sides with a stream flowing from between and lush green plants everywhere. Though not fancy, it was sure a treat for a nature lover like me. I went till the end and then from the causeway went to the opposite side track. There was a small play area for children on the other end. They also have toilet facilities, I cannot comment on the cleanliness as I didn't use it, but it was good that they at least have the facility.

There were many plants, I'm sure an expert can definitely distinguish between them. But for a nature lover like me, just looking at the green colour was a true treat to the eyes. There was even a broken tree house there and it is in middle of a military area, so its very peaceful.

tree house

Overall, I absolutely enjoyed my visit at Muredha Nala Park. The lush green carpet of plants, the water flowing between the tracks, the little causeways and the waterfall all reminded me of a fairyland. The only negative point is that there are many mosquitos there. As the day begins to fall the number of mosquitos increase. Other than that the place is a must visit. I've even read that in winter one can spot migratory birds. So I've already planned my next visit. I would recommend you'll to visit the park at least once.

Where: Muredha Nala Park General Thimayya Road, Camp, Pune

-A must visit for nature lovers

-Total time required: half an hour (until and unless you want to sit there and spend some quality time with yourself)