Destination No. 6 : Jejuri, Pune

Everyone worships God. Only a few don’t. But here, at this place, people worship god but in their own Desi Style. Jejuri, a place 200 km away from Mumbai, which will take around 4 hours of driving from Mumbai and is an hour’s drive from Pune.

The place is well known for its Temple “Khandoba”. Khandoba is regarded as the God of Jejuri. The temple is located in the Fort, which was built many years ago at a height of 2500 Feet. There are around 200 steps to climb up to reach the temple for visitors. The place is always populated with a good number of visitors every day and especially there’s a rush on the weekends. There are many villages situated in nearby Jejuri.I and my friend Bhavin went to one of those village to ask for shelter for just one night.

India is a melting pot of culture, where you’ll find unity in diversity. The cultures of different ethnic groups encourage different ways of worshipping and also poles apart Gods to worship. The most common way to devote to the Gods is to chant prayers and aartis, but the most effective way of praying, as believed by major gurus, is silence: Prayers is when we talk to God, meditation is when God responds.

Many scientist argue that the universe came into existence because of the Big Bang, and that the concept of “God” is made my humans, while on the other hand, popular religious saints believe that the universe and all that exists inside it, including the humans, is created with the power of The Almighty, The Superior; God.

However, I personally think that the Gods must be laughing when we put ourselves through so much of trouble to visit a temple when He has created an entire universe inside of us. Every individual has a whole living growing inside. Instead of worshipping that, we go and worship statues made of rocks.

 Note: Some of the famous temples are built at hard-to-reach places of the science happening underneath them. The lands that these temples are built on are of high intensity magnetic waves which produce positive vibrations inside the body.

Fortunately, the very first family we asked allowed us to stay in their home for just one night. Not only that, they also provided us the dinner with the next morning breakfast. That one night was a hell of night.Now let’s talk about the night that we spent in the village. Firstly it was really very generous of the villagers to allow us to stay with them for a night as we were complete strangers to them. We were correct on our schedule as we knew the TAMASHA Group was going to hit that village on that weekend.

TAMASHA will be well known to people by the song “Aa Re PritamPyare…”. The whole village accumulated at a school ground, a short stage was built up where a group of Middle Aged Women performed their dances which was enjoyed by the whole village. We could not cover much of the event as the villagers didn’t seem happy about clicking pictures of the Dancing Group.

It was a typical (typical what?), where people didn’t need alarm clocks to get up. Our next morning tea was made from Fresh Cow milk which was extracted from the cow the same morning. We saw men leaving for the farm and women handling the poultry. It was just like the complete weekend package for us with the country side along.

Bhavin Jain                          Viraj Lokhande

Destination No. 5 : Kamathipura, Mumbai

A Night in the Dark

 

Seeking something to others' -and our- interest, this time me and my wingman headed for one of the most popular places in Mumbai, Asia’s largest red light area “Kamathipura”. The various lanes, like “The Congress house, Navalkar Gali, Faras road” simply show what Kamathipura is best for. This One Night experience was finger licki'n good!
(PUN INTENDED)
Places like these don't need a description. We tried to click some pictures but there wasn't much we could do from a moving/bouncing cab. Though, it does convey the message very clearly.

From the very beginning, we got down at Grant Road Station and took a cab. We asked the cab driver to drop us at Faras Road. He gave us a wicked grin and started driving. The taxi driver was giggling all the time until he left us there. The time was about 10 pm, but didn't look like it because the streets were too busy. And then young and mid-aged women with three times the use of their make-up, glowing, literally glowing in the dark, were standing confident on either side of the roads showing off deep cleavages to attract men or "customers". To know more about the place we started walking down the road with prostitutes on both sides giving us a welcoming nod while making eye contact. Some of them even approached us. But we knew better, to walk by and make them chase us. We also saw a few men bargaining for the right price.
(By the way, it starts from 200 Rupees for one, we asked)
 heard some conversations, too. It all sounded funny in the beginning, but well, it wasn't very funny once we had our own up, close and personal encounter with those not so friendly "ladies". (I'm pretty sure one of them was a dude)

Few minutes later a lady approached us and asked where we were heading, and go directly to the point, saying: 'zyda nahi bolegi...200 ka rate hai...chalo aap andar toh aao..Aur bhi ladkia hai, hum bhi hai, bass haath rakho '. We got excited, not for the obvious reason, but because I firmly believed that we're going to get some interview of sorts. We asked for someone who could share their story and talk to us about their life, on camera. All of a sudden two more women joined her, blocking our path. We were so, so wrong and almost instantly, regretted our decision but went along, anyway. We also asked them if they could chat for a couple of minutes. Though, I knew it wasn't their prime business time and yet they didn't waste any time to invite us in. So, we offered one of them a small amount of money. She accepted (snatched it and put it away somewhere in her double D's )
 the offer and asked us to go inside with her again, saying: 'Aao naa...andar baith ke aaram se baat karte hai...photo bhi nikal lo aur picture bhi bana lo...sirf 200 legi main..' 

We insisted, we would rather have a conversation right there, outside. At this point the first lady almost pushed us in. Their room, which looked real unsafe as it was covered with 3 layers of curtains from all the side. We entered the first curtain without any hint of caution, but soon as we crossed the second and the third, and saw those old beds, 4 on each sides covered in macchar dani, (for a little privacy, I think). We realized it was the wrong decision, very wrong. Two of them tried molesting us, snatching our bags, the camera and tried to put their hands in our pockets but stopped for a moment when the other two, who were blocking our way before, got another man. When he saw us struggling and tried to escape, both of them literally picked him up and banged him right on the old dusty bed.
(Exaggerated, a little. but yeah they pulled him, alright).
It was during this commotion, we made our way out pushing them hard. But when I turned around, there was no "we". It was just me who made it out. Viraj was still inside, maybe having a good time talking to the ladies, maybe not. I waited out for 5 whole minutes, what felt like an eternity, calling him out and asking for help from people outside their room so that we could get the hell out in public where we were safe but none of them stepped out.
A tiny guy even asked for money to help me, chutiya saala.
A few minutes later, Viraj burst out. Half tangled in the curtains, half in someone's wig.
He still won’t tell me what happened. 

We reached the “Pila House” which was once called “The House of Safe Sex”. On asking some the localities about these women, they said that the unfriendly nature of these women is common. They added that the prostitutes persuade one with their make-up and exposed body parts and loot their bakraa once they get them naked. This was a very different experience from what we thought it would be. By looking at so many women who are willing to offer their body for their living. We now, understood why this area has been labeled the largest red light area in Asia.

However, looking at the trading of one’s body for a living kind of business, the dark side of the city needs some light.
Well, clicking pictures directly was a bit risky and could have been against one’s will, so please ignore the shitty one’s.

 21 Destinations

Bhavin Jain         Viraj Lokhande