Matheran is a small but famous place near Mumbai city. Nearest railway station is Neral Jn. on the Mumbai - Pune railroad.
We were almost 16 people this time. It was decided that i'll be meeting them at Thana station and then we proceed by the first train for karjat. I reached dadar and cought the first train to karjat. but at thane station, i couldnt find them. later on the cell they told me that I had taken first train that left from dadar while they took the first train that left from kurla. Hence we decided to meet at neral directly. Trains were empty so I decided to sit n stretch at the door with the breeze running on the face. Those 20 mins were some of the best lone moments I had.
I reached 10 mins after the group reached there. Only one of the group knew me. everybody else was stranger to me. I got down at station and suddnely heard - "Kiran dada, Kiran dada...". They all were waving hands to me and shouting from the opposite platform. I joined them with a quick introduction.
Then we had a small breakfast session with vada paav and chai first. three of the group who were elder to us, took a cab and went ahead. we all started walking uphill. Its a small stretch of 5-6kms, but the walk is worth it. It was raining little and everything was green around. Atomosphere was foggy and roads wet. We found many small waterfalls while walking and we treated each of them with enthusiasm of seeing niagra falls.
We reached up by around 12.Uncle and aunty had made arrangement for our stay. We quickly had one more round of tea to warm up a bit. Then it was a session of dance in the open place next to the hotel. Dance was lively enough to make people on road wait and watch the excitement.
After an hour of dancing, food was ready. Long table wa set with lunch. Food was nice and we had it as fast as we can. It was 2 in the noon and we started to see some of the points in matheran. We were supposed to return on the same day hence we had very little time left with us. We managed to see Echo point. The point was fully covered with clouds, we couldnt see a bit in the vally due to that. We also saw clouds running and dancing before eyes, it was a very nice thing to see.
Return journey was done partially on horse and cab till neral station. Trains were late, hence we had one evening snacks session on the platform. Tastey homemade khakara and pickle was just enough to make it a nice moment to remember.
Finally we had an antakshari episode in the train before we reached home...
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