Greying memories - Panvel trip

A weekend outing to the Ghadeshwar dam near Panvel in Mumbai in 2004 June. After all the dreariness and the sweat and the dust of the summer, finally, the rains have arrived. Its hope back in life..water everywhere, gushing through all the waterways, filling all the pools and rivers. Its green again all around us, that walk in the drizzle is back again. A cigarette and a masala chai to add the spice to a late morning rain..its a way of celebration of life..

We (I and my collegue Hemant, photo being taken by my classmate Rahul) are walking across the narrow ridge to reach the dam. The photo was taken in a lush green setting with a misty hill in the background. The memories are greying. I dont know if I will ever visit that place again... The nostalgia alchemied in Adobe Photoshop to bring the shadow effect of the past...

We did walk around the dam drenched in the shower. We had our small lunch in the form of batata vada and masala chaat. We had a dip bath in the downstream in the dam. Well, since that wasnt enough relaxing we went on for a long walk along the bus route, eventually finding out a small water fall on the way, where we did one more round of bath... its green paddies and flooding waterways..you actually wonder whether this place is just 18km from Vashi (Mumbai suburb)...

Ghadeshwar has an old temple of Ghadeshwar, an incarnation of Shankar, overlooking the ‘Ghadi’ lake at the left flowing below it. Every year during Mahashivratri a yatra takes place from the temple drawing large crowds from villages nearby.

Some more googled text - Ghadeshwar also affords an eastern side distant silhouetted view of Matheran peaks including the Sunset point, Porcupine point (visible from Babdev village) and also the Panama point as well as the peaks of Pebgad and Bikatgad. From right to left of Ghadeshwar you see a table-land-like peak, which is Chanderi. To its left is Maishmaal next to it though very far away is Malang gad near Kalyan. You could not miss the curious sight of the ‘Toplya Dongar’ (the basket-shaped hill) which resembles the sight of the conical tip an inverted basket or the knobby tip of a monkey cap.