Reflections on the ride from Pune to Mumbai
The soul, long suppressed in terms of travel and solitude, found utterance this 22nd Sunday of October, as in my usual impulsive way, I set out to Bombay on a bike. The journey to Bombay can be made from pune, either through the expressway or the old highway. The prohibition of 2 wheelers on the expressway left me with little choice about the route, though owing to its scenic beauty, the old highway would have been my natural choice.
The initial stretch is no source of great joy, though the fact that you are on your way, can give you quite a high. As you reach the outskirts of pune, you encounter beautiful yellow wild flowers on either sides, which makes you feel as if you are riding through black tarmac laid amidst a lovely garden. The metaphors are not quite flowing out of me today, but I must admit that it was an experience of immense solitude. The ride till, the ghats of lonavla and khandala is quite ordinary. The route is replete with commercial establishments, dishing out food for the travelers.
Than you run into the most beautiful part of the journey. The most striking aspect of it is the amazing contrast it offers between, or rather similarity along some lines of thought, between mans ability and nature’s beauty. On one side you see the large valley in front of you, that’s inhabited to quite an extent. The houses look like a million lamps burning in a beautiful pattern in the depths of the valleys in a calm moonlit night. Then you notice the beautiful stretch of expressway, winding its way down through the mountains. A true tribute to mans’ unrelenting quest for supremacy, and his ability to conquer. The melting point of these two view points, one of the supremacy of nature and the other that, man does not get intimidated by nature is quite an exhilarating experience.
This feeling does not last long, as the ride down the mountains is not a very long one, and than you are again in the plains. What happens next is a mixed feeling of affirmation of mans’ ability to build and also reminder of his constant battle for space on earth. You have just reached “navi mumbai”. The extension of the great city, which by its very vastness has the ability to intimidate a small town fellow like me. Mumbai, carrying the clichéd tag of “city of dreams”, where thousands spend their life time with half filled stomachs on the footpaths, even as the Ferraris speed past at breakneck speeds. The city of great contrasts, a city which was the first glimpse for millions of visitors to this country of unfathomable variety. A city which hardly seems to sleep, a city where people go about their work as if programmed from their birth to be a part of this great melting pot in an unassuming way.
All these thoughts crossed my mind, as I was seeing this city for the second time. And here while I rode through this great mass of humanity, I was able to put these thoughts in perspective. While I sat at marine drive, seeing the waves mildly striking the shores of Mumbai, it was as if the seas had taken upon themselves the responsibility of reminding this city and its caretakers that people were rushing in like these brown waters. Somewhere there was a lesson to be learnt. I remembered the essay in “Late night thoughts on listening to Mahler's ninth symphony” on the absurdity of centralization of growth and of the effects it will bear on the generations to come. This was written decades ago, and man only seemed deaf to these insightful words.
Mumbai evoked in me a plethora of feelings, of which so many were diametrically opposite to each other. Admiration and agony, of human ability and self destruction, of an infallible spirit and at the same time so fallible a mind.
The journey between Mumbai and Pune is getting shorter by the moment, as one more brick is laid to fulfill the needs of shelter and commerce. But the mountains will still keep the charm alive; in some way limiting mans reach, thereby fueling people like me to make this journey one more time.
The soul, long suppressed in terms of travel and solitude, found utterance this 22nd Sunday of October, as in my usual impulsive way, I set out to Bombay on a bike. The journey to Bombay can be made from pune, either through the expressway or the old highway. The prohibition of 2 wheelers on the expressway left me with little choice about the route, though owing to its scenic beauty, the old highway would have been my natural choice.
The initial stretch is no source of great joy, though the fact that you are on your way, can give you quite a high. As you reach the outskirts of pune, you encounter beautiful yellow wild flowers on either sides, which makes you feel as if you are riding through black tarmac laid amidst a lovely garden. The metaphors are not quite flowing out of me today, but I must admit that it was an experience of immense solitude. The ride till, the ghats of lonavla and khandala is quite ordinary. The route is replete with commercial establishments, dishing out food for the travelers.
Than you run into the most beautiful part of the journey. The most striking aspect of it is the amazing contrast it offers between, or rather similarity along some lines of thought, between mans ability and nature’s beauty. On one side you see the large valley in front of you, that’s inhabited to quite an extent. The houses look like a million lamps burning in a beautiful pattern in the depths of the valleys in a calm moonlit night. Then you notice the beautiful stretch of expressway, winding its way down through the mountains. A true tribute to mans’ unrelenting quest for supremacy, and his ability to conquer. The melting point of these two view points, one of the supremacy of nature and the other that, man does not get intimidated by nature is quite an exhilarating experience.
This feeling does not last long, as the ride down the mountains is not a very long one, and than you are again in the plains. What happens next is a mixed feeling of affirmation of mans’ ability to build and also reminder of his constant battle for space on earth. You have just reached “navi mumbai”. The extension of the great city, which by its very vastness has the ability to intimidate a small town fellow like me. Mumbai, carrying the clichéd tag of “city of dreams”, where thousands spend their life time with half filled stomachs on the footpaths, even as the Ferraris speed past at breakneck speeds. The city of great contrasts, a city which was the first glimpse for millions of visitors to this country of unfathomable variety. A city which hardly seems to sleep, a city where people go about their work as if programmed from their birth to be a part of this great melting pot in an unassuming way.
All these thoughts crossed my mind, as I was seeing this city for the second time. And here while I rode through this great mass of humanity, I was able to put these thoughts in perspective. While I sat at marine drive, seeing the waves mildly striking the shores of Mumbai, it was as if the seas had taken upon themselves the responsibility of reminding this city and its caretakers that people were rushing in like these brown waters. Somewhere there was a lesson to be learnt. I remembered the essay in “Late night thoughts on listening to Mahler's ninth symphony” on the absurdity of centralization of growth and of the effects it will bear on the generations to come. This was written decades ago, and man only seemed deaf to these insightful words.
Mumbai evoked in me a plethora of feelings, of which so many were diametrically opposite to each other. Admiration and agony, of human ability and self destruction, of an infallible spirit and at the same time so fallible a mind.
The journey between Mumbai and Pune is getting shorter by the moment, as one more brick is laid to fulfill the needs of shelter and commerce. But the mountains will still keep the charm alive; in some way limiting mans reach, thereby fueling people like me to make this journey one more time.
posted by Prashanth Bhat at 7:43 AM
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