Magnificence of Mahabaleshwar

Don't you hate it when you 'think' your flight is on time. On the dot, the aircraft doors are shut and you are waiting to take off. You wait a little longer and then longer... only to hear that you are 7th in line for take off. Its worse when you reach the destination, there is no 'parking space' and the aircraft has to circle the airport for over 25 minutes before it finally lands.
This is how my trip to Pune last weekend began. Not a very good start, but was a great trip in all. My cousin's wedding was on Tuesday so we (2 of my cousins, my brother and I) decided to go to Mahabaleshwar for the weekend.

It was a great, smooth drive on the highway. We reached Harrison's Folly right in time for sunset. This is such an amazing spot where you can drive right to the tip of the cliff. Our driver zoomed on, at top speed while we held on to our lives as best as we could, pleading with him to stop the car before we flew right off :)The best part was that there was absolute no one apart from us at the time. The setting sun, the evening breeze, music from the car, the company... nothing else mattered!
(Little did we know we'd have go back to the same spot later on...)
It was dark by the time we reached Mahabaleshwar so we couldn't do any sight seeing. We drove off to the MTDC resort. Though its Government run, it is pretty good - could have been maintained better, but is very convenient when you aren't going to spend too much time in the room. Believe it or not, we stayed at Krishna Cottage in Room # 13; co-incidence? I don't think so :)

I am not a morning person, but I wanted to go watch sun-rise. Asked around and found out that sun-rise was at 6AM so we decided to leave at 5:30. Woke the others up and asked them to hurry, lest we miss the view. Walked out only to realize it was pitch dark. I was asked to check if my watch had stopped or if I'd kept the alarm for an hour earlier, neither... but how could it be this dark.... Off we went in search of Wilson point. Since it was early, there was no one on the roads, no boards to give directions, no sign of the sun to determine in which direction we should be headed. Finally we met a dhobi who got on to the car and showed us the way.

6:30 - no sun yet, just a few people around. In the cold dark morning, there was a person playing soothing tones on his flute. The chill air, mellifluous tunes , a hot cup of tea, waiting the rising sun - get the picture? :)
Slowly... we saw the sun rise. For the various positions of sun rise check out the pictures here.

After sunrise I asked uncle if I could take a picture of him with his flute. He readily agreed.
He then exclaimed - Let me give you a better frame... and he thus posed.
Later in the morning we visited the Mapro garden/farm and factory. Tried out every possible Mapro product, bought a few flavoured drinks and bought strawberries that had just been picked from the farm.

Later during the day we went to a viewpoint called Arthur's seat. It was here that we again met uncle. Only this time he was painting the scenery in front. We walked up to him, stood and watched him proficiently use his water colours and when he looked up said a big hi. I asked him what else he did... played the flute... painted and..? His exact words were - I'm an architect by profession and I flirt with music. Yeah that we had already seen.
He said his family had gone for a walk to the next view-point, he couldn't walk that far so he was waiting for them here. 'Time is too precious, that's why I'm trying my hand at painting while I wait for them' he said. Such an interesting person....I took his email id and promised to mail him the pictures we took.
It was almost dark when we reached the para gliding point.
This is something that I've always wanted to do. When we'd gone to Manali, people advised us against it because of the recent freak accident of Director Maniratnam's brother. But this time I was sure I wanted to try it. Major Ajay Singh who conducts the event asked us to call up in the morning to enquire about the wind conditions before setting out.
So off we went... end of an eventful day!

The next morning when we called up the major, he said there was not enough wind and that he would call us back in an hour's time. We decided that if he didn't call, we'd visit the 'table top' point and then head back to Pune for the function in the evening. It was less than an hour, within which we got the call. He was an Harrison's folly and asked us to hurry there as it was pretty windy and the wind conditions would change rapidly. It took us a good 45 minutes to reach the point.

The previous time that we'd been to this point, we were dead scared of the drop and the endless fall. Now to actually jump off this point? Who's going first he asked. I raised my hand. Without thinking too much I donned the safety gear. kya karne ka hai?? bas chale ka hai... and that was what I did. With the major strapped a few feet behind me to the chute off we went... soon followed by my cousin. At that altitude, it was so damn windy. The only scary part was the gear swerving left and right with every gust of wind. The feeling... I just cannot describe.
After safely landing, the feeling of triumph overwhelming.... I called up/messaged every person who mattered and told them just what I did. My mom wanted to know if I was calling her fro the air... and my uncle wanted to know if I'd carried the video camera with me and had shot the entire event.. family!! I tell you :)
After that, we visited the Table Top spot, before we finally headed back to Pune.
That was an amazing trip to Mahabaleshwar.
Indescribable feeling ~ Unforgettable experience.