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| Sajjangad- Swami Samarth Samadhi |
Adi and me were skeptical, hypercrtical and voiced our displeasure but Amol promised that this curated road trip would win us over. And boy! a mini paradise just 6 hours from home was found.
After the first day of Ganesh Chathurti welcome home lunch , we 3 joined by Shiva, with snacks stuffed to the boot sped off on Mariamma ( A white BMW christened JOY drove herself from the showroom into a tree- so she became a blue BMW, now Mariamma)
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| Amboli Dattatreya temple |
We drove through Inuli ghat with a drizzle and reached Amboli before nightfall. Other than waterfalls( which we were stricly forbidden from entering by Amol) and annoying monkeys(1 even climbed over Mariamma and tried to get in through the sunroof for some chakna and proceeded onto loot another 3 cars under our watch)
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| Monkey on Mariamma's sunroof @ Amboli |
Amboli has not much to offer. 20 years ago I have been gastrnomically traumatised by misal in Amboli. I wanted to turn things around this time . But only masala Maggi and anda Maggi was on offer ,and, this Maggi took a good 10 minutes to make. While waiting for the sous vide Maggi I found a leech on my leg. Though Amol insisted it was not a leech, and Adi snubbed me for wearing my shortest shorts, others sat up with legs folded on the chair, just in case. I gave out the ," this trip was a bad idea and I told you so "vibes. Amol desperate to please lit up a tissue paper bonfire in our Air B&B accommodation. A couple of gramable photos and rounds of playing Uno , we set out to check our first results of the night.
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| Tissue paper bonfire |
NEET had put out their answer key and A had scored a decent score to get into GMC. We were pretty chuffed and went to bed hoping for similar results in JEE.
Early morning we set out for Kolhapur Mahalakshmi, only after a sumptuous brekie prepared by Adi and a dozen photos at the MahadevGad viewpoint.
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| Mahadevgad point -Amboli |
Kolhapur had so many sarvajanik Ganapatis and in such vibrant colours. We reached in time for a fuss free darshan and mahaprasad for lunch. And I had the first brush with the spicy food of this part of culinary world. It was more of a skirmish but I survived . I also concluded that their water is also spiced and made sure we gave a heads up to all the stays from here on, to keep the food bland. With this standing instruction food only singed the tongue but rest of the oropharynx and nasopharynx was spared. Shiva our MBA graduate pointed at how 'Kolhapur' is used and overused as a brand label. Kolhapur chai, K - bhel, K-mutton....K was prefixed to all and sundry. K was actually was a detour for us, I was too nervous about the JEE results( I am speaking for myself here because the boys hid their fears very well), so I thought paying obeisance to the divine mother of fortune will be a good sign before we check THE results.
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| Kolhapur Mahalakshmi Temple |
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| K-Ganapathi |
Amol planned the sunset from Ajinkyatara fort. The climb was cobbled and steep. Lots of marathon runners scaled the fort with ease but our German engineered marvel was left grunting and groaning. When we finally reached the views were sublime, washed sepia with the setting sun but the anxiety about getting Mariamma down that murderous fort safely, did spoil the moment for all of us. But technology more than covers up goof ups by technology. We got some great photos and the smiles did hide our fears well. Sab Maya Hain.
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| Sunset @ Ajinkyatara fort |
We reached Khaas plateau by night fall. Khaas plateau has been on my bucket list from the time Facebook has been influencing our holidays. Some hotel booking goof up landed us in this overpriced , understaffed shanty of an accommodation. Amol let off some steam by firing the person responsible but it was more out of the anxiety of what was to unfold that night on the computer screen. A quick bite on that deserted plateau was made remotely bearable by Adi's ingenuity with food and Shiva's gift with people The weather also turned a bit weird and it started to rain adding misery to the musty rooms and 4 kindred JEEvathamas.
There was a chill in the air and in my spine. My finger tips were frozen. Adi and me decided to sit out on this one( while watching Koffee with Karan) and asked Amol and Shiva to check the results in the other room. In a blink Amol was back and said the results were no good and Adi had scored 1 in the Maths section. The first reaction as expected, I started mouthing words of pseudo encouragement and said it would all be ok. But I could feel different parts of my body kind of collapse into a heap. while the head and neck was just about to cave in, Shiva stormed in and said that the option in Adi's paper and the answer key are in a different order and we have to match them to get the score. I picked myself up and slumped in front of the computer in the other room. Shiva and me began the count now by properly matching the options. We got a grand total of 4/60 in Math paper 1. Now IITB that set the paper had a qualifying criteria of minimum 10% in each subject including both paper 1&2 and a total aggregate of 35% . So we had to score 12/120 ie a minimum of 8/60 in paper 2. While I am bad at numbers I dont know how I computated this so fast. Under pressure my brains works to autodestruct faster. All the while, my logorrhea was if it was so bad for Adi it would be bad for all too. Paper physics and chemistry was ok and for paper 2 we decided to check math last. Manhoos Math. Math in paper 2 had 3 section. Adi had scored 8 in section 1, taking the total to 12 already. We did this mini jig that we have scored the qualifying marks. Section 2 was a -1. Words cant describe what cortisol and norepinephrine was doing to us. If I had been held at point blank range maybe this is what it would feel. Section 3 unfolded like the first 5 minutes of any bond movie. High octane scenes, many building and bridges razed to the ground but Mr Bond walks out hot in his tux with small cut lip. Math totalled to 15/120 and JEE advanced score totaled to 138/360. . When I announced to Adi that we have qualified and we may still go to IIT he just had a blank stare. I think more in his sleep than out of shock . Senior A just said we will go to BITS Pilani to do computer science. I slept soundly because my sympathetics had completely emptied and I felt nothing.
Next day my logorrhea continued. I kept asking A how was he so brave to go in for paper 2 when in paper 1 he scored only 4 in Math. He only asked for no further discussions on THE paper. Senior A drew his flow charts. I am yet to find some use for these flow charts but they are comforting for sure. Amol's flowchart always ends with a happy ending.
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| Flowers of Khaas |
Not so Khaas , Khaas plateau flowers had still not bloomed. Like all things on FaceBook , reality looked like the Adhaar card photo. Most flowers I had seen on our Dabolim plateau in our backyard. Shiva clicked some photos, Amol feigned enthusiasm, Adi surprisingly was unperturbed( he was still planning on best meal plans)
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| Khaas plateau |
Thorseghar water fall was just as disappointing as Khaas but we had some of the best pics here.I think it was the law of averages working here.
Thousands of windmills, slowly moving, eerie up close but spectacular from far just like all things beautiful in life. Chalkewadi windmill farms drive was the highlight of this road trip
We drove to Koyna dam through bad roads and worse emotions. But Koyna changed all that. We had this room with an eye level view of the dam, shimmering sun on the dammed waters(we couldn't capture its magnificence in a cam), food that didn't burn, bon fire by the night, early morning walk to the waterfall that Amol actually let us in, A thousand pictures by our really sweet guide who called rainbow "rambo" and birds "buds".
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| one of the 1000 waterfall pictures |
Khaas was washed over with expectations while Koyna unexpectedly lifted our spirits. Expectations are always a bummer. Buddha and Vedas and Amol have been preaching it. But when did I listen to anybody.
Mariamma jostled for space with big trucks on big 4 laned dusty roads to take us to Panhala. Panhala was my first brush with Maratha history 15 years ago and the guide then made an impact with his passionate rendition of the Baji Prabhu Deshpande's valour ,it left me with goosebumps. Many Maratha forts later, Panhala remained my first M-fort love. This time the guide could speak only Marathi, and our only Marathi speaker Amol couldn't make much of it. He was mouthing Shivaji like Alia's Shiva in Bhramastra. When an experience is extraordinary never reattempt to recreate it. Also Shiva landed in fresh dung and before we found water to clean it , it started to rain and we did not even get a decent pic of my favourite character BPD.
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| Panhala fort |
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| A hasty photo with BPD |
To make up, we saw Paavan Kind, the narrow gorge where BPD stood guard till the canon shots were fired, signaling Sivaji's safe arrival . Goosebumps were back again, partly with the ergonomics of the gorge and how brave he was, partly with the wildlife we encountered on the Amba Ghat. Thick fog where visibilty was zilch, an overzealous Maruti 800 who honked Mariamma down to overtake, a Gaur grazing in the wild who could take both of us down put together and no network meant we could be circling these Ghats forever.
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| Pavan Kind |
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| Gaur- wild bison |
By the last few photons of sunlight we did find our accommodation and network returned to bring us some cheer. Adi's coaching institute was asking names of students scoring above 140. Bar was dropped from 200. We all hugged and breathed a small sigh of relief. Rounds of snacks, Uno, Ludo, pandra rassa. bakri n mutton later Shiva and me again checked from the official answer key. But only Math. Why? IDK. It was tedious to match answers, disappointing to relive those horrible chapters like surface tension, collision, to give away marks to negatives because Adi had marked 1 extra option correct in multiple correct questions etc. So our calculated total was unchanged at 138. Return of network brought in fellow students marks too.
See sawing emotions and a 4 hour pee holding, non stop drive belted us back to Goa in good time for Ganpati Visarjan. I prayed fervently to the good Lord to have Adi visit him next year Chaturthi from an IIT
Ganpati Visarjan
We headed back home and for the first time Adi matched his answers with the official answer key and with some bonus marks the score came to 142. Not all was lost, there still was hope. I attributed it to Boomer prostrating in front of our Gods while Adi was at it into the wee hours of the night. We had atleast made the cut off set by the coaching institute. The trip too exceeded expectations .
Post edit-
September 11,Sunday 10am
JEE advanced results were to be declared. We were all plastered to our beds just hoping the moment would pass. Finally Amol’s breakfast bells in his stomach could not be ignored anymore and we all ate previous night’s Mohan’s leftovers. Adi and me quietly exited while Amol started to punch in the details to fetch the results. Shiva stayed on to help as always. I could hear Amol curse like Captain Haddock downstairs and then a loud cheer. Adi & me ran down the stairs together and Amol said we were CRL AIR 1734. His next words while hugging Adi was “WE ARE GOING TO IIT BOMBAY”
Our total went up to 150( 🙏 to K - Mahalakshmi, Ganba, boomer, hills of Satara)
IITB- 2022 JEE advanced paper setters had dropped qualifying marks to 4.4% & aggregate to 15.8% , it was historically the toughest paper till now and the marks vs ranks were skewed the most but Adi walked out of it like Mr. Bond dusting his tux, shaken not stirred, dapper as ever.
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