Trip to Elephanta Caves

It was a busy day. I had my presentation scheduled at 9.30 am. My presentation was not that good. One of the professors of communication skills droves me nut. But I agreed with him. He was not satisfied with formatting neither I but due to sheer laziness and procrastination, I went without making any changes in the report. When I came back, Adarsh, one of my wing friends, was sitting in my room.  

Adarsh- what is the program of tomorrow?

Me- what about today?

Shubham-why don’t we visit Ajanta and Ellora caves?

Adarsh- ok final. We will leave at 11.

Me- I think you are joking. In planning phases everybody says yes but when the final time comse to go, we change our plans.  

Adarsh-Its final from my side. I have nothing better to do. Most of the people are not in the hostel and it is very boring out here.

Me- ok. Get ready. We will leave as soon as possible.

We left the college at 11. 15am as planned and took an auto to Kanjurmarg, a local station in Mumbai.

From there, we travelled in Mumbai Local to CST. Like always, at this hour also there was no space to stand in Mumbai Locals. Mumbai Locals are really the lifeline of the city.

From CST, we hired a taxi and finally reached Gateway of India. We were waiting desperately for the rain but it seemed weather was also playing its game today. It was very hot and humid. We enquired about the details and came to know that Ajanta and Ellora are very far. People go to Elephanta caves from Gateway of India, We were shocked for a moment and decided to go to Elephanta caves. We purchased a ticket of 130 bucks for the to and fro journey. It was a 1 hour journey on the jetty from Mumbai to Elephanta caves.

Adarsh and Shubham at Gateway of India

We stood in a queue and to utilize this non value adding time, I captured some of the beautiful views of Taj Hotel and Gateway of India. It was the same hotel which was attacked by the terrorists in Nov. 2008.

Taj Hotel

We boarded the jetty . Due to Rainy season and high current, it was a very bumpy journey for complete 1 hour. As soon as the journey started, I thought as the sea is calm at the centre as compared to the shores, it will smoothen our journey in the middle but that didn’t happen. People were shouting, vomiting, some were trying to sleep. Even I became very uncomfortable and didn’t felt like to take the pictures. All 3 of us became very uncomfortable. I asked one of the vendor at jetty, how much time it will take more? He said, we have just started the journey and have a long way to go. It will take 45 minutes. I saw the time and was shocked that only 10 minutes were passed in the jetty. As there were not many people, so we tried all available seating locations at the boat to find the most comfortable one. For a moment, i was lost in contemplating about life. How the journey of life resembles with this bumpy journey of ups and downs in sea. We can always learn from nature provided we are receptive enough.

View at the upper deck of Jetty

  After half an hour, we decided to move on the upper deck of the jetty. The staff at the Boat asked us for the money. We were shocked, we had already paid for the ticket so why this extra money. But after a lot of arguments, we gave up and paid him 30 bucks and went to top. It was very beautiful at the top and also, the effect of current was not that strongly felt at the top. After capturing some beautiful shots, we took a seat. We were completely dehydrated and feeling very tired. Finally, we saw the shore and went down to board the toy train to the elephant caves. They toy train part was very nice.

L to R. Adarsh, Shubham with Toy train

We boarded a toy train and reached the elephant caves. After purchasing 3 bottles of 1ltr. water for each of us, which we emptied in just 5 minutes, we started our way to caves. The route was 10 minute walk on the steep slope. In just 5 minutes, we all felt breathless. After 1 month, another journey of  Shikharji, a holy place and the salvation place of 20 Teerthankaras and large number of saints,near Parsvanath city in Jharkhand state is planned. And Shikharji is known for its sleep slope which we need to cover by foot. We thought how we will be able to make that. I have never been to Shikharji in my life but one of my friend Shubham told me that only way to cover that arduous task is to stop smoking before 1 week. 

Finally, we reached Caves. After buying the ticket, we entered. I was amazed by the beauty of the caves.

Entering in Cave no. 1

Not only this, Location was so strategic and nice. Mountains, Island, Greenery,  Ocean, everything was there. It was really breathtaking view. 

View from Elephanta Island

At peace with myself

The scriptures were also beautiful, however, most of them were broken. It is one of the world heritage sites of India. I saw one of the foreigners observing one of the pillars from last 15 minutes. I went there and observe the pillar. He was taking the pictures of the pillar from different angles. I  did not understand this thing. I felt bad about myself and thought I did not have  the taste of it and perhaps I am not able to appreciate the real beauty of the pillar. May he, he was a civil engineer or architect or artist. There were lot of monkeys, cows, dogs, goats over there. We enjoyed the scenic beauty. It is hard to imagine such natural beauty in the outskirts of Mumbai. When we came out from the exit gate of the caves, we saw one of the arrows showing a route to Canon Hills but as we were perspiring continuously, we thought to avoid it. We asked the people coming back from there about the place. AS we didn’t find their response interesting, so we avoid that place.

On our way back to Toy train station, we spotted a South Indian Restaurant. I didn’t like the south Indian food at all but as most of peoples were eating there and not in nearby restaurants, we also thought to eat there. After all, it is very important to avoid stale food in slow selling restaurants and take care of Hygiene in this rainy season to avoid any miss happening .  We ordered 3 Masala Dosas which we consumed in just 5 minutes. After that ,we ordered 3 Uttapams which were not that good but fine to satisfy the appetite of the hungry persons. Finally, we went back, caught a toy train and boarded the jetty and retraced the whole route again. It was a good experience. The only thing was bumpy ride. But when we were coming back, I felt that I became used to these bumpy and rough rides.