Strange beginning to the new year

Ok... first things first... though this is posted on the second day of the new year, HAPPY NEW YEAR.

Now that that's out of the way, let me get down to business and narrate how the new year started in a very strange fashion for me. Up until 6 PM on Friday, I had absolutely no plans on how to celebrate the New Year's Eve. I had met Tarun earlier in the day, and he had mentioned of finding a different way to celebrate, other than just drink and party. My phone conversations with Ranjeet had yielded nothing fruitful, other than empty promises that something would come up. When I called Ranjeet again at 6.45, he said Tarun had come to his office and they were coming over to the city. He asked me to meet them in front of Symbi in 15 minutes time.

I met them there at the appointed hour, and noted that Tarun had been accompanied by his brother Parikshit. Ranjeet had a radical idea. He wanted us to go to a village called Gondavale, about 150 km from Pune. A festival in celebration of the punya-tithee of the Saint Gondavlekar Maharaj was underway over there. Ranjeet and his family were devotees of the saint, and he wanted to be there for the celebrations. OK... I said to myself. Religion? Not my cup of tea. Tarun too was eager to carry out the trip. I asked how we were going, and Ranjeet said we would drive in his friend Sanchit's car, would accompany us too. I said what the heck... let's go ahead. Ranjeet asked me to meet him at his house at 9:30 PM, where everyone would gather.

The first sign that this was not going to be an ordinary trip was when I reached Ranjeet place to find Tarun, Parikshit and Ranjeet carrying a small bag each. Apparently, the pooja celebrations were to take place the next day, and we would be spending the night at Gondavale. So the three of them were carrying necessary equipment to make a night's halt. I sheepishly told them that all I'd brought along was my camera! The second sign occurred when Sanchit arrived with his car. This should have occurred to me earlier - we would travel in a group of 5 sitting shoulder-to-shoulder in the cramped confines of a Maruti 800! And the third and final sign was when Sanchit took the wheel of his car - he would not take the vehicle above 60 kph!

We were off from Pune at 10 PM, driving south on NH-4 towards Satara. Our first stop was after the crossing of the Katraj ghat, at the Joshi Wadevaale restaurant. We had a quick snack and were off again. The narrow and pothole-ridden road was stretching Sanchit's rookie driving skills to their limit. I could not have imagined I would hear the stroke of midnight bringing in the year 2005 singing bhajans on NH-4! At midnight, we stopped the car and wished each other. We even took a few photographs!

Near Satara, at around 12:45, we stopped at a garishly decorated hotel. There was a party going on, and someone was announcing that prizes would be given out to someone who was dressed entirely in white, someone who was dressed in white but with some amount of printing on the clothes, and someone who had white shoes! The entry was Rs 200, and we beat a fast retreat on hearing that. As we approached the car, the tunes of a popular song from Satya emanated from the speakers. Ranjeet even started dancing - now that's the height of ghantaa-giri!

Everyone was ready for a cup of tea, so we backtracked north on NH4 and stopped at the hotel Milestone. We had thought it would be one of the highway-types, 24-hour kind of place. But it was closed! The security guard said there was another restaurant half a kilometer north on NH4 that would be open. When we reached there, what we saw was a non-descript building belting out the latest tunes from Dhoom. We asked for tea, and had to endure 20 minutes of LOUD music. We could barely hear ourselves speaking, and even the speaker was stretched to its limits. Our request to turn down the volume was flatly denied, and we were glad to get out of there.

We resumed our journey south, and broke off east from NH4 about 10 km south of Satara. This was the second and final lap of our journey - a 55-km drive on a narrow road with very lean traffic. There were two occassions on which we came across midnight revelers celebrating right in the middle of the road. The third time we came across such a group was in the village of Pusegaon about 20 km from NH4. It was an incident that will be etched in memory.

There was a group of about 20 people right in the middle of the narrow road. (This number is disputed by the other four - they thought it was nearer to 50!) As we approached, they did not make an attempt to get clear of the road. The logical thing to do would be to stop the car some distance away and wait for them to clear the road. Sanchit had no intentions of doing this, and he continued towards the group. There was a gap of clear road on the right side of the group, through which we would have passed easily. Sanchit instead kept to the left, aiming the car right in the center of the group. They did not move, and Sanchit did not stop. I was at the navigator's position, and I shouted to him to stop the car. He didn't, and almost rammed into 2 people. This act converted a group of harmless and slightly drunk revelers into a frenzied and angy mob! We heard shouting all around us, and some of them started banging on the car. I shouted to Sanchit to step on the gas, and he did so immediately. How he managed to avoid running someone over, I would never know. He did not slow the car till we were 50 meters away from the mob. Meanwhile, 5 or 6 the people had landed some solid blows on the car. A couple of them had even inserted their hands through the open window and grabbed at Ranjeet's collar. Ranjeet had fended them off and we were lucky to get away without major damage to car and ourselves.

The car ground to a halt 50 meters away from the spot, as the road took an almost right-angled turn to the left. The road was too narrow, and occupied by an oncoming truck! Sanchit aimed for the small empty space to the left of the truck, and found he couldn't get through. Now the two vehicles were in a situation where neither could go forward. Sanchit swore, and just then Parikshit shouted that one of the mob were running towards us! Now Sanchit panicked - the car was stationary and the truck driver was in no mood of backing up. I shouted to Sanchit to back up the car. He snapped out of his reverie and had the car moving almost in slow motion. Parikshit again screamed that someone was running towards us. I looked at Sanchit and he was a frozen bundle of nerves. I told him to relax and continue backing the car. Finally there was enough space for the truck to go through. The road was clear for us, and Sanchit shot the car ahead. We had escaped!

After the initial shock passed, the four of them started cursing the revelers and thanking their lucky stars. Ranjeet said that we had escaped because of the blessings of Gondavlekar Maharaj. Tarun and Parikshit concured. Sanchit said he had started doing jap, and thought that his last moments had arrived. He too said we'd survived because of the blessings and such shit. I think the others expected me to say the same things they had said. I had remained quiet, and Ranjeet asked me if I did not have faith.

I was in no mood for such bullshit. For me, the mistake was entirely Sanchit's. He could easily have taken the car from the right hand side of the road without incident. But I did not say this. That was unimportant, and could be said later. What ticked me off was this tripe of faith and blessings, and I told the four of them that I had no time or use for such crap. The words I uttered thankfully did not echo my exact thoughts on this topic. Sanchit told me that he too had once been like that before becoming very religious, and asked me to do the same. He then said that there would be no difference between man and animal if one does not have faith. That was enough to set me off - I angrily told him that faith was not what separated man and animal, but the fact that man was conscious of himself and his surroundings. Faith would come to mind when there was no consciousness left, and nothing else to hang on to. Sanchit started to protest and preach, and that made me even angrier. It took a great effort to keep my temper in control, but I thankfully did. What the hell was with these "religious" and "faithful" preachers, that they have to insist on lecturing on how one should be religious and have faith. The single thought that kept hammering my mind was the the fact that "non-religious" people like me never harp on them that they should NOT be religious, so why can't they do the same and leave us alone? I had never even once cursed, laughed at, or otherwise detracted a person who believes in all this stuff, so it pissed me off when they started this preaching.

After my temper cooled, I pointed out the fact that it was Sanchit who lost control of the situation. He and the others insisted, however, that there had been no space for the car to go through. I did not press the topic. Someone then mentioned that a stone had been thrown at the car. The incident dominated our conversation for the next twenty minutes, and I was amazed at the over-reaction of these four otherwise normal guys.

Coming back to the trip, we reached Gondavle at around 3:30 Am without any further incident. Ranjeet then dropped the next bombshell of this trip, that was slowly making me feel more and more out of place. He said the pooja was starting at 4:45 AM! We would have to take a bath and get ourselves ready. There was no way in hell that was going to happen. I told him that I would sleep in the room he had mentioned, and the others could go for their poojas. Thankfully, they did not insist. We got into the room where Ranjeet pulled out a few satranjees. We spread them on the ground, and Sanchit and I dozed off while the others went to their ablutions. Sanchit joined them after they were done, and I was alone in the room.

The ground was hard, and my back was aching due to the journey. I slept fitfully, waking every now and then due to the continuous chanting in the temple close by. At the prescribed time, the pooja started and even louder chants blared over the loudspeakers. It went on continuously for two hours, by which time I was numb and couldn't wait for it to end. Ranjeet came in the room briefly at 5:30, raising my hopes by saying the pooja would end soon. He didn't return till 6, by which time I just couldn't sleep. So I did the next best thing to do in such circumstances - exercise!

At around 7, Sanchit came to the room to attend to nature's call. I asked him where the others were, and he said they were in the adjoining temple. I went with him when he came out of the bathroom, and what I saw stunned me. About 300 people had filled an enormous hall, ladies on one side and gents on the other. In the long and narrow space between them, groups of men were dancing! At the far end of the space, an old man was chanting into a loudspeaker while two men fanned his face! Only men were dancing, the women were all seated. I spotted Ranjeet and Tarun, and they were dancing the fugaDee while Parikshit looked on. Sanchit and I arrived alongside them, and Ranjeet pulled Sanchit into the melee. Parikshit refused to join. Ranjeet tried to make me dance, but I firmly denied. A little while later, the pace of the chanting picked up and everybody abandoned the fugaDee to dance in a more frenzied manner. Finally, the chanting ceased and the pooja was over at 7:30.

The four of us went outside the temple premises and had breakfast. We returned to the room at around 8:45, where Tarun, Parikshit and Sanchit decided to sleep. Ranjeet wanted to attend the pravachan, and asked me to come along. I resisted, but he asked me to sit there for at least 10 minutes. I went with him to the same hall, which had now been darkened with curtains. A huge screen was telecasting a lecture delivered by an old man. I listened for 10 minutes before returning to the room and dozing off. I hoped that when we woke, we would be ready to leave for Pune.

Ranjeet woke us up at 9:30, saying some relatives had come and wanted to occupy the room. The other three said they'd sleep for some more time. Ranjeet and I went to the kitchen and got upama for breakfast - a whole bucketful of it. I couldn't deny it for it was prasad. After breakfast I had top-priority interrupt for core dump. I had been ignoring the interrupt till now, but the plateful of upama had triggered off an NMI! When I came out of the toilet, the others were nowhere to be found. I went outside and searched for a full ten minutes, before finding them back at the room! Ranjeet then took us for a tour of the village's many temples, most of them dedicated to Lord Ram because Gondavalekar Maharaj was His devotee.

We returned about 10:30 , and Sanchit finally making noises about leaving for Pune. Ranjeet said there would be a pangat for lunch starting at 1:30 PM, which everyone would be required to attend. Sanchit said he had to reach Pune by 6 PM, and if we were to stop by any other places while returning, we would have to leave now. Ranjeet said he would accompany us to the nearby Pawangad, then come back to Gondavale while the four of went on to Pune. He said it wouldn't look good if he left without attending the pangat, and he would spend the night there and catch the Asiad back to Pune the next morning. Tarun did not like the idea of breaking up, and the matter was discussed at much length. Finally Ranjeet procured permission from his relatives to skip the pangat, and we were out of the place at 11 AM. I was extremely thankful to be out of there at last. I had felt like an outcast wandering about the temples dressed in jeans and T-shirt, hands in pockets, most of the time desperately searching the others, while devotees milled about with folded hands and prayer at their lips. On occassions I would see an otherwise normally walking person suddenly prostrating himself at the feet of one of the old priests. This was not a place for me.

We discussed what to do next, and finally decided to go to Panchgani. As we approached Pusegaon, the four of them displayed an inexplicable behavior, almost bordering on superstition. They got more and more tense, as if expecting that the mob that had attacked us yesterday was lying in wait. Windows were pulled up, doors were locked, and Sanchit was driving as if there was deep water on both sides of the road! Last night's encounter had been jokingly discussed when we left Gondavale, but this reaction was unbelievable. What were the chances that the mob would be on the lookout for us. Truthfully, this thought had never crossed my mind!

Needless to say, we passed Pusegaon without incident. Sanchit was driving slowly, which was good when there was oncoming heavy traffic of buses and trucks, but excruciatingly frustrating when the road was empty. We reached NH4, and headed north for a brief while before breaking off west towards Panchgani and Mahabaleshwar. We reached Panchgani about 1.30, and had lunch. It was actually a long search for a decent hotel, and by the time we were finished it was too late to go to Tableland. So we were finally off homewards at 2:30 PM. I dozed off till around 3:45 PM, when Ranjeet replaced Sanchit at the wheel. He started driving as if he was in a mad rush, overtaking dangerously and hitting the potholes with regularity. One impact was so jolting, that Sanchit woke up from his sleep with a shout. He reprimanded Ranjeet and took command of the car. And it was a different Sanchit that drove the car now, taking unimaginable risks while overtaking and driving with general disregard for oncoming traffic. At one point while overtaking, he drove on the wrong side of the road on a collision course with an oncoming Sumo. He didn't let up even Ranjeet shouted him to stop, but the Sumo gave some room at the last moment. He drove us to Pune on a razor's edge, justifying his rash driving by saying that he wanted only to prove to Ranjeet that speed was not the only thing while driving. I was glad when we got out of the car outside Ranjeet's house - glad that I was away from Gondavalekar, away from this superstitious foursome, away from the dangerous NH4. I reached home at 5:30 and the first thing I did was have a nice shower. I dropped off to sleep at 6:30 PM, and woke up at 3 AM due to mosquitoes! Put on the fan, and did not wake till 8:30 today morning!

And that concludes the account of my New Year '05 "celebrations". This post has taken two hours of editing!