One of those days, we drive. From Diveagar to Shriwardhan. It’s a nice drive. As is typical of me, I am unsure of the way ahead. We look around, alight from the car and walk a bit. The landscape is inviting. We aren’t keen on arriving at Shriwardhan ‘on time’. We are just headed in that direction.
We look around.
He walks by. He. His goats. His calfs, cows and buffalos. Bermuda shorts. T-Shirt. Baseball cap turned backwards, as a baseball player would. Umbrella. A huge stick that could almost excite an amateur pole vaulter. A tan on the skin and weary twinkle in the eye.
He squints at us enquiringly !
I ask him, ‘Shriwardhan ?’
Before I could complete, he says in what seems to be indifferent yet focused tone : ‘Go straight and stay on the right’. The speed and ease, combined with the seeming ease of getting there by just ‘going straight and staying on the right’, for 20 odd kilometers dont add up in my educated mind.
Truth be told, i dont know if he is telling me or this is a standard instruction for his cows and buffaloes !
I repeat, using my professed urban intelligence : ‘Shriwardhan’. Slowly. Like a teacher of a English pronunciation class working on a group of students who have studied through Tamil medium.
“ Shriii-Wardhan ????”…
He replies with a tinge of irritation and a twang of dismissal. Accompanied with a body language which lets me know that I asked the way to Shriwardhan and not to the South Pole. “Go straight. Stay on the right”
He speaks Marathi which the missus struggles to pick up, much evident from her furrowing eyebrows. A couple of staccato sentence exchanges. She translates. ‘The scenery is beautiful, he says, but he urges us to go straight and stay on the right’
He moves on. Tending to disobedient cow and the svelte buffalo with swagger. We drive on too. Driving by such splendid scenery as I can ever imagine.
Roads. Greens. Sea. Roads with a view. And a view with no roads. Of cattle. Of boats. Occasionally of people. And of course, of bobbing fishing boats in every fishing hamlet !
In some time, we reach Shriwardhan. A simple quaint and wonderful place.
That evening, I walk by the sea thinking of the day that’s been. The waves rush to shore, dissipating into nothingness, at the speed at which they arrive. A smile escapes my lips. Thinking of us, our lives, our strifes and such else, much like the waves in perpetual quest of the shore.
A dog runs by giving me a sympathetic look. Bubble crabs run all around the sand. A few kids are wading into to the water.
For some reason, the mind races to a svelte buffalo twitching its dirty tail. Just as a voice rings in the ear : ‘Go straight and stay on the right’ !
A pause and a full minute later, i realise that is sure something to keep in mind.
Sure !
Wonderful posts and photos ! Waiting for more.
And there seems to be more to the fellow who manages “disobedient cows and svelte buffaloes”, and herds them along. “Going straight and keeping to the right”, is maybe something the previous batch of herders advised. We drive on the left, and it makes sense for him to herd his brood facing the traffic rather than be surprised by swift encounters from behind.
And did you notice the svelte and disobedient types kind of looking at you from under tired but heavily lidded eyes, as you conversed ?
Waiting for Harihareshwar ….
Lovely reading your travel experiences. The photos talk and your prose invites the reader to explore with you. So I drive straight and keep to my right 🙂
Sounds like a lovely place to unwind on a weekend!
I like !
Pics are really very beautiful. 🙂
I liked the discription of evening walk on seashore. 🙂
What description – which only Kavi can. And the Missus is remembered and loved by bringing her in by the loving hubby.
Yes, keep going. We are with you on this trip.
The straight,
long
and winding road,
of life,
sometimes
elevated,
protected,
holding you in
from the ebb and flow;
It slides down
and turns away
momentarily
leftwards
exposing rocky doubts.
But that
sudden bay
is a refuge
for the infinite waves
that endlessly
otherwise
keep dashing
and eroding your
confidence.
A comfortable
wandering around of waves
high fiving the sand
on
a magically created
section of beach,
and the
palms and supari trees
look on indulgently
as your car
“swiftly” purrs
in satisfaction,
on the winding road,
once again
turning
to the right
to another bay
and another dance
of bobbing boats
on the waves…….
Love the pics. Must have been an awesome drive.
Beautiful pictures accompanied by your effervescent narration. Waiting to hear more of your travel experience.
>> ‘Go straight and stay on the right’ !>>
An instruction for life travel..:-)
It’s always a pleasure reading your blogs Kavi … Keep them coming..!!
Sounds like a lovely weekend retreat. The pictures are as usual amazing!
amazing place..I loved the clicks..Shrivardhan it is..hmmm..never even heard of this wonderful place..I thought I had seen a lot in maharashtra!
Wish I pass such stretches and being bore to travel the same ECR often, I could imagine the splendid as u describe here. It’s been long time seeing crabs run all around the sand!
I too have sense the irritation when they can’t convince the destination as I sit beside the driver seat, I the first person to face it. Fantastic shots dear!
Diveagar and road to Srivardhan is my most favourite place. This road is very scenic. I have been going there very often. I stay with Mr.Umesh Limaye in Diveagar.
However I feel now the place has become too commercial and it has lost all it’s charm of typical village in Kokan. The original beauty is lost.
I take different route which I enjoy most.
Launch from Bhuacha Dhakka to Rewas, then to Alibag . From Alibaug to Murud viw Nagaon, Chaul, Rewdanad. Murud to Rajpuri ( the famous Janjira Fort ) . Then to Dighi by ferry boat and then onwards by rickshaw