It was a Sunday, when Ateet and myself went for one of the most exciting treks to a waterfall near a small simple village called “Mohali”, which is around 15 kms from Karjat railway station.
We caught a local train from Dadar railway station for Karjat at 6:00 am.Many other trekkers welcomed us since it was Sunday. We got crushed in the train. It took us approximately 3 hours to reach Karjat. On our way we met some trekkers who had a professional setup and invited us to join them. We had first planned to go to some other place from Neral but after their description we decide to go to the Mohali village and a waterfall near it.
The weather was perfect, it was raining heavily.After reaching Karjat we started asking for a place called “Mahuli”, and to our surprise no one knew this place. We almost planned to go back to our old plan near Neral since Neral is 3 stations before Karjat. But to our luck one rickshawala said he’d take us there.
I asked him why anyone did not know about “Mahuli”, to which he replied that, its pronounced “MOHALI and not Mahuli.
Wow so much for pronunciation, I really pity the foreigners who come here”Why noone bothered to know about this small simple village?We came to know when we reached there.
Suddenly the rick wala told us to get down in middle of our journey, it looked like.There was a small village around 10 to 12 houses, very calm and hardly anyone there.Our first glimpse at the small simple village, which ill keep on talking about in the whole article — Mohali.
One side of the road there were small simple brick and mud houses and another rice fields and behind them were the huge mountains with many waterfalls ,looked as if the mountains were crying. Everything was so nice and clean; there was absolutely no commercialization here, not even a cutting chai shop or a pan beedi shop, as if someone forgot about this place.
I actually didn’t want to write about it because then everyone knows about it and then it will be another “Matheran” in the making.
It’s for those guys who want to get away from the crowded places and seek peace. A Plea: please don’t make it dirty and noisy.
We didn’t know our way to the waterfalls, but our sense of nature was our guide. We walked thru some exciting and beautiful rice fields, where ladies were working and the cattle ploughing the field .It was a perfect painting with the right colours. I immediately fell in love.
The peculiar cow dung smell, the sand, the clouds behind the beautiful mountains, the rains, the trees were looking so fresh and the land covered with the turf of grass.It was so real.everything looked so happy and nice. Oh forgot..No Pepsi cans, no human excreta, no plastic, no billboards trying to sell nature..Absolutely nothing’It started raining heavily while we walked thru the dreamy rice field towards the heavenly waterfalls.
Sometimes we had to walk thru waist high water of the stream and walk on slippery stones. Proper footgear is a must.
There it stood like a giant roaring in front of you. The power, the enigma of nature was revealed when we saw the 80ft high waterfall. It was amazing. At first we were a bit scared but then took off our shirts and made our attempt to enter the waterfall.It was like someone is hitting you from behind. The waterfall was very strong because of the strong winds.
We took our bath in the waterfall and meditated for around 10 minutes. It was very enriching, please try that at least once in your lifetime, it’s sure a different experience.There was a small cave behind the waterfall and had a very different experience going in it, as if u have entered in a different world and u could see your world outside. Nature sure does make u imagine.
After sometime we started our journey up towards the mountain, where the waterfall starts.As we followed a different small waterfall path to climb, suddenly Ateet stopped and called me.a snake was stopping our way.and we didn’t want to mess up with him cause its finally his area, so we turned back — we took a different without a hiss, a bit steep route, without disturbing our hissing friend and reached the top. It was the most amazing view above. Everything seems so small and tiny from there.Mountains surrounded the whole area and through one gap we could see the small simple Mohali village.
We slept for around half an hour there. Getting down is always easier, we said goodbye to our hissing friend (in a hurried manner) and bye to the waterfalls and walked our way back thru dreamy streams and rice fields.
The field workers were still there.
Said good-bye to all of them, grabbed certain memories in our cameras.Hopped in a rickshaw and had a hearty meal at Karjat and caught a train back for Mumbai.
I really missed the little Mohali village. A small simple village made so much difference in my life I felt so nice and happy.As one-song lyrics goes “what is simple needs protection”, I hope it remains as it is now. Let me rhyme.
Remains in my mind and heart wholly, ..refreshing me .. reminding me the symbol of simplicity“. A small simple village called ”Mohali”
Ps: does it rhyme? The words may not, but my heart and mind sure did rhyme with Mohali..
What stayed with you?
A line that lingered, a feeling, a disagreement. Great comments are as valuable as the original piece.