Summer 2007. Me and my elder cousin (Bhaiyya) were posted to Satara site (Dam site in interiors of Satara Dist). Being vacations, my younger bro Mithilesh (Mithu) too came to site with us.
Story goes like this,
It was hot and sunny afternoon of 9th May 2007 (Mithilesh's Birthday). At around 4 pm we were bit relieved from work and wondering what to do for timepass.
Mithu: Bhaiyya, its soo hot. Feeling like having a bath.
Bhaiyya: Arre jump in our Dam bro, have a swim.
Mithu: Common Bhiayya, we do it everyday. I want to do something else.
Abhi: Hey, I know one place. The river on which we are constructing the dam, the source of that river is a water fall there in the corner of two hill. That place must be appx 5 kms away. 2 kms by car and 3 kms walking. I have never been there but I guess, its a very nice location.
Mithu: Yes, lets go there. We'll also get to explore one new place.
We went to our room, got our essential clothes and headed towards waterfall in our Scorpio. After covering 2 kms, parked it under one huge tree and started walking. The walking path passed through dense forest, crossing river 4 times. It was soo thrilling and adventurous to go through that path where hardly anyone comes. There was nobody around. It took us 20 mins to reach the place.
Story goes like this,
It was hot and sunny afternoon of 9th May 2007 (Mithilesh's Birthday). At around 4 pm we were bit relieved from work and wondering what to do for timepass.
Mithu: Bhaiyya, its soo hot. Feeling like having a bath.
Bhaiyya: Arre jump in our Dam bro, have a swim.
Mithu: Common Bhiayya, we do it everyday. I want to do something else.
Abhi: Hey, I know one place. The river on which we are constructing the dam, the source of that river is a water fall there in the corner of two hill. That place must be appx 5 kms away. 2 kms by car and 3 kms walking. I have never been there but I guess, its a very nice location.
Mithu: Yes, lets go there. We'll also get to explore one new place.
We went to our room, got our essential clothes and headed towards waterfall in our Scorpio. After covering 2 kms, parked it under one huge tree and started walking. The walking path passed through dense forest, crossing river 4 times. It was soo thrilling and adventurous to go through that path where hardly anyone comes. There was nobody around. It took us 20 mins to reach the place.
And after having 1st look at waterfall, we all were surprised to see such a beautiful place in such a close proximity to our site. The waterfall was covered by dense forest around and the hieght was appx 20 metres. The flow of water was splitted in to small droplets because of wind and hieght. There was a big flat piece of rock under the waterfall. The moment I saw the water fall, I got impatient and without wasting anytime, changed the clothes to shorts and went under it. It was unbelievable to see such a good flow of water in the month of May. The water was chilling cold and I was almost shivering till the time I got totally wet. I had a nice shower for about 20 mins and then felt like tasting the water. I drank it and wasn't satisfied till I drank almost a litre of water. My bros too had a nice time. At around 5.30 we left for return journey. Again we were chatting and enjoying the beauty of surrounding, happy about the new exploration. there was one hill on the left side and one hill on the right side. The river was flowing from inbetween and path was from the bank of river. Sometimes, left side of river and sometimes right side of river. There was village named Mharvan on the left hill about 100 metres high. I looked towards it and imagined how fun it would be to stay in the village enjoying beauty 24x7. We stood quitely at one place taking pics and we realised some noise of people. I again looked upwards towards the village and close observation made me notice some 50 odd people coming down from village. We observed them for 5 mins and left thinking that there might be some wild animal. The moment we left, 7-8 people came out of nearby bushes with sticks in their hands and shouted "Stop". We shouted "what happenned?" One person again shouted, "Stop. Else, I'll shoot you". We saw that one person was carrying a gun. We realised that we are in big trouble and started running. Bhaiyya was leading, me behind and Mithu at the last. There was just a gap of 10 metres between us. Me and Bhaiyya were wearing shoes and Mithu was having tough time with his Woodland floaters. We were running thru forest, crossing trees, over the stones on the bank of river. The scene was pretty similar to movie "Jungle" of Ram Gopal Varma. Suddenly Mithu shouted, "Hey, My floater came off". I replied, "Drop the other one too and run fast". And while running through the stones, Mithu slipped. He fell and shouted, "Wait Abhi, I can't run any more". I shouted to Bhaiyya, "Wait Bhaiyya, lets try to face them". The moment we stopped the gang surrounded us and gunwala placed the gun on chest of Bhaiyya.
Abhi: Kya hua?
One Dark Person: Why are you running?
Abhi: Why are you following us? What happenned?
Gunwala: Who r u and what r u people doing here?
Abhi: We just went for a bath under waterfall the weather being very hot.
Gunwala: Is this a time to bath? Tell us who you are..
Abhi: We are sons of the contractor who is constructing the Dam.. Tell us whats the matter. Why were you running behind us? Whats our mistake?
One Lambu: You scared one lady.
Bhaiyya: Lady? We never saw any lady over here.
Abhi: Wheres that Maushi(Lady)? Lets ask her.
Lambu: You'll face her soon. You have to come with us to our village-Mharvan.
Abhi: We won't come to your village. You talk here or come with us to our site.
Dark person: No, lets go to an open place.
We walked for some 20-30 metres and reached open plot of farm and within 5 mins, we were surrounded by app 40 more people, everybody armed with sticks.. Even 3-4 kids came along with them (Kids too armed with sticks).
Again the same questions and same explaination by us.. couple of men were soo aggressive that they used to raise the stick everytime even while questioning. We somehow tried to explain them that we are kids of the contractor. We are constructing the Dam since last 6 years. We come from respectable family and we never harrassed any female. Now we were just anxious to meet the famale who claims to be harrassed by us. After 10 more mins one female came to the place along with 3 kids, looking confused and frightened and couple of men with her.
The moment she came, she saw us and said, "These are the 3 guys..!" With this 2-3 men became more aggressive and approached us with sticks. I somehow stopped them and approached the lady.
Abhi: "Maushi, you say, we frightened you. Tell us what we did? Did we shouted at u? Did we chase u or did we even noticed u?"
Maushi: Noo, parr 3-3 hatte-katte ladke dekhke akeli aurat jungle me daregi hi naa?
Abhi (to mob): Lo, humne kuch kiya bhi nahi.. Ye mausi to aise hi durr gayi..
Bhaiya: See, we are kids of contractor. We are doing the work of Nivakane Dam since last 6 years. We are here for work and we went to waterfall just for a bath. Nothing else.
Gunwala: Tum log bhaagna nahi chahiye tha.
Mithu: Kamaal hai bhai sahab. You people run behind us with gun and sticks and you expect us to not to run? You come to Mumbai. I'll make 15-20 people run behind you and lets see if you wait or run.
Everybody laughs
Gunwala: You are right.
Now that the atmosphere was relieved a bit, We had some casual discussion with people.
Abhi: You know our site. Do visit us whenever you come nearby. And also take us to your village sometime later. I really liked the location of your village - Mharvan.
3-4 People: Of course Sir, You are always welcome.
Abhi: Now its bit late. Almost 7pm. Shall we leave? Its getting dark.
2-3 people: Yes, you may leave.
We left the place, walked till the place where Scorpio was parked and left. At 8pm, being Mithu's B'day, we went to the Taluka place, Patan for dinner. And returned to site after dinner at 10pm. Mithu slept at the quarters and me and Bhaiyya went to site as night shift was in progress. While we were standing at the place where excavator was working, we again saw people coming from the direction of Mharvan. 4 people were carrying mashals of fire and 2-3 people were carrying powerfull torches. We saw them coming towards the direction of our site. We observed their progress for 5 mins and after 5 mins, saw one person focussing his torch on our site. I were damn sure that they were searching for us. We assumed that the mob must be drunk now and are again searching for us. Me and Bhaiyya immediately left the place went to Quarters, disturbed the sleep of Mithu and left towards Patan for night halt. To avoid getting noticed, we left the site with Headlights switched off. It was pretty dark and it was tough driving without lights but still I managed bcoz I knew every corner of the road. We stayed in a Lodge in Patan and called at site in morning. Our supervisor informed us that the people belonged to Village Aral and not Mharvan. They went to bank of river to cut the Bali ki Murgi, there they had drinks, dinner and they were returning back to their village Aral. We laughed on ourselves. But the situation was such that anybody would behave in the same manner in that situation.
Next day we met a senior lady from Nivakane Villege who is popularly known as Kamal Bua. We shared our experience with her. She was shocked to know this and assured us that she'll give a good dose to people of Mharvan. But she too had the same question, "Why you people went there?" We replied that we went for a bath under the waterfall. She rolled her eyes and informed us that there is a big Bhoot at that place? I asked, "Where?" She replied, " Its on that big rock on which the water falls". I said, "Ohh come on Bua, I was laid on that rock and nothing happenned to me." She said, "Shut up, and don't ever go to that place again..!"
P.S. : Even after that incident, we visited the waterfall thrice.
Abhi: Kya hua?
One Dark Person: Why are you running?
Abhi: Why are you following us? What happenned?
Gunwala: Who r u and what r u people doing here?
Abhi: We just went for a bath under waterfall the weather being very hot.
Gunwala: Is this a time to bath? Tell us who you are..
Abhi: We are sons of the contractor who is constructing the Dam.. Tell us whats the matter. Why were you running behind us? Whats our mistake?
One Lambu: You scared one lady.
Bhaiyya: Lady? We never saw any lady over here.
Abhi: Wheres that Maushi(Lady)? Lets ask her.
Lambu: You'll face her soon. You have to come with us to our village-Mharvan.
Abhi: We won't come to your village. You talk here or come with us to our site.
Dark person: No, lets go to an open place.
We walked for some 20-30 metres and reached open plot of farm and within 5 mins, we were surrounded by app 40 more people, everybody armed with sticks.. Even 3-4 kids came along with them (Kids too armed with sticks).
Again the same questions and same explaination by us.. couple of men were soo aggressive that they used to raise the stick everytime even while questioning. We somehow tried to explain them that we are kids of the contractor. We are constructing the Dam since last 6 years. We come from respectable family and we never harrassed any female. Now we were just anxious to meet the famale who claims to be harrassed by us. After 10 more mins one female came to the place along with 3 kids, looking confused and frightened and couple of men with her.
The moment she came, she saw us and said, "These are the 3 guys..!" With this 2-3 men became more aggressive and approached us with sticks. I somehow stopped them and approached the lady.
Abhi: "Maushi, you say, we frightened you. Tell us what we did? Did we shouted at u? Did we chase u or did we even noticed u?"
Maushi: Noo, parr 3-3 hatte-katte ladke dekhke akeli aurat jungle me daregi hi naa?
Abhi (to mob): Lo, humne kuch kiya bhi nahi.. Ye mausi to aise hi durr gayi..
Bhaiya: See, we are kids of contractor. We are doing the work of Nivakane Dam since last 6 years. We are here for work and we went to waterfall just for a bath. Nothing else.
Gunwala: Tum log bhaagna nahi chahiye tha.
Mithu: Kamaal hai bhai sahab. You people run behind us with gun and sticks and you expect us to not to run? You come to Mumbai. I'll make 15-20 people run behind you and lets see if you wait or run.
Everybody laughs
Gunwala: You are right.
Now that the atmosphere was relieved a bit, We had some casual discussion with people.
Abhi: You know our site. Do visit us whenever you come nearby. And also take us to your village sometime later. I really liked the location of your village - Mharvan.
3-4 People: Of course Sir, You are always welcome.
Abhi: Now its bit late. Almost 7pm. Shall we leave? Its getting dark.
2-3 people: Yes, you may leave.
We left the place, walked till the place where Scorpio was parked and left. At 8pm, being Mithu's B'day, we went to the Taluka place, Patan for dinner. And returned to site after dinner at 10pm. Mithu slept at the quarters and me and Bhaiyya went to site as night shift was in progress. While we were standing at the place where excavator was working, we again saw people coming from the direction of Mharvan. 4 people were carrying mashals of fire and 2-3 people were carrying powerfull torches. We saw them coming towards the direction of our site. We observed their progress for 5 mins and after 5 mins, saw one person focussing his torch on our site. I were damn sure that they were searching for us. We assumed that the mob must be drunk now and are again searching for us. Me and Bhaiyya immediately left the place went to Quarters, disturbed the sleep of Mithu and left towards Patan for night halt. To avoid getting noticed, we left the site with Headlights switched off. It was pretty dark and it was tough driving without lights but still I managed bcoz I knew every corner of the road. We stayed in a Lodge in Patan and called at site in morning. Our supervisor informed us that the people belonged to Village Aral and not Mharvan. They went to bank of river to cut the Bali ki Murgi, there they had drinks, dinner and they were returning back to their village Aral. We laughed on ourselves. But the situation was such that anybody would behave in the same manner in that situation.
Next day we met a senior lady from Nivakane Villege who is popularly known as Kamal Bua. We shared our experience with her. She was shocked to know this and assured us that she'll give a good dose to people of Mharvan. But she too had the same question, "Why you people went there?" We replied that we went for a bath under the waterfall. She rolled her eyes and informed us that there is a big Bhoot at that place? I asked, "Where?" She replied, " Its on that big rock on which the water falls". I said, "Ohh come on Bua, I was laid on that rock and nothing happenned to me." She said, "Shut up, and don't ever go to that place again..!"
P.S. : Even after that incident, we visited the waterfall thrice.
