मोगलीच्या जंगलात - पेंच अभयारण्यात

डिसेंबर २०२० मध्ये पुन्हा एकदा जंगलात जायचा विचार सुरू झाला. यावेळी श्राव्याला पहिल्यांदाच जंगलात घेऊन जायचं म्हणून वेगळा उत्साहही होता. आदित्य, गिरिजा, प्रणवची ठरलेली एक जंगल सहल, २०२० च्या लॉकडाऊनमुळे घडली नव्हती. आम्ही त्यांना चिडवत होतो, आम्हाला सोडून जाणार होतात त्यामुळे लॉकडाऊन झाला, म्हणून आम्ही असताना जाऊया :). शेवटी ओंकार बापट (Wildlife Unlimited) बरोबर पेंचला जायचं नक्की झालं आणि त्याप्रमाणे कोण कोण येणार आणि वेळेत तिकीटे काढणं वगैरे विचार, चर्चा सुरू झाल्या.

जानेवारी २०२१ संपता संपता आदित्य, गिरिजा, प्रणव, श्राव्या, पार्थ, मी, सत्यजित आणि संहिता असे सगळे जायचं ठरवलं.

फेब्रुवारी २०२१ मध्ये पुन्हा एकदा कोविडला उधाण आलं आणि लॉकडाऊनचं सावट आलं. लॉकडाऊन होणार का नाही, कुठे होऊ शकतो, आम्हाला महाराष्ट्र आणि मध्य प्रदेशात जायचं असल्याने कोविड चाचण्या कराव्या लागणार का नाही असे सगळे प्रश्न निघायच्या ४ दिवस आधी उभे रहायला लागले. संहिताला आयत्यावेळी काही कारणानी येता येणार नाही असं कळलं. शेवटी २ दिवस आधी कोविड चाचण्या करून, सगळ्यांच्या प्रकृती उत्तम आहेत याचे दाखले घेऊन, आम्ही २६ फेब्रुवारीला पुण्याहून पेंचला जायला निघालो.

Kartiki Ekadashi celebration at my ancestral town

This year, on 22nd November, it was Kartiki Ekadashi / Prabodhini ekadashi. This is the 11th lunar day (ekadashi) in the bright fortnight (Shukla Paksha) of the Hindu month of Kartik. It is believed that Vishnu sleeps on Shayani Ekadashi and wakes on Prabodhini Ekadashi, which marks the end of the four-month period of Chaturmas.
This Ekadashi is linked with different things for different regions in India. In Maharashtra, Prabodhini Ekadashi is linked with the god Vithoba - a form of Vishnu. Varkari pilgrims throng the Pandharpur temple of Vithoba on this day. The celebrations in Pandharpur continue for five days, till the full moon day (Kartik Poornima).

Now, I am not really a huge believer nor I am a person who does lot of poojas, but I am from a family who does believe in god and have been serving as poojari (priest) at different temples of Balaji at Valkeshwar, Mumbai as well as Vithoba at Phopheri, near Alibaug, both forms of Lord Vishnu. My great great great grand parents had come to Pedhambe during early 19th century, the grand mother became an entrepreneur in that time as well as they did development like constructing a well for local villagers, constructing a temple for the villagers around the area. They gave a piece of their own land for building a temple of Vithoba Rakhumai, and since then the villagers have been celebrating one of the most important Ekadashis here. Since my ancestors have been taking care of the temple, being a priest and making preparations of the utsav (celebrations) for the day, it is very much special for my family. Since I was a child, I have heard about these celebrations as my grand mother has been going there for past 61 years and has a very strong bond with the place, people and the temple.

Trip to Nagzira

I recently visited Nagzira Wildlife Sanctuary. I have been doing treks so far and had visited a jungle only once. Since my last jungle visit was to Melghat, some years back, and we had not had much sightings of mammals / birds / butterflies, I was curious about what wild life we would see there.

A trek that tested our strength

Koldher

In past couple of years, since all of us got a bike / car and have started working somewhere, we have started enjoying luxurious treks with respect to food variety, taking vehicle till the very end of the road before we can start climbing up some fort. It has become very easy and time saving with a vehicle at our disposal and we can cover any forts at far distances, but every time, at some point we feel that we should now go to a real trek.

More on coins and notes collection

Since last time I posted, it has been a wonderful time for me.
I bought the largest coin album Venus had (192 Coins) since they didnt have any smaller ones in stock, and I was wondering how much of it will be filled once I start placing coins in that. To my surprise, I had 87 different coins with different pictures on it. As I started checking more coins for different mints, my collection increased very fast. For starters I found out that there are four mints in India, that is coins are made in Noida, Kolkata, Mumbai and Hyderabad, which has their specific mark. While scanning coins for these mints, I found few more mints which I could not recognise. Then I found that, in past years Indian government has got coins from some foreign countries and all the mints I could not recognise were foreign mints.