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Harishchandragad, Ajit & Me

It is 3 AM of 20th May 2013, and it’s just been few minutes, that I returned from a trek to Saandhan Valley.

I don’t know why today throughout the day, I have had a very strange feeling & I am motivated to write this. This post isn’t about today’s trek; this is an account of a trek completed seven and a half years ago! Those were the days when I was a total amateur mountaineer rather just a hiker and a very confused person. I hardly thought of this business as a lifelong passion. It was perhaps to socialize that I joined for this trek. Said to be a tough trek, this was taken also a personal challenge. Harishchandragad it was.

There are 3 well known routes to the destination; we took the one from Khireshwar.  It was mid December 2005 & the sky that night fascinated me way beyond my expectations. Almost every star was trying to prove its existence that night. I had never seen a sky with so many stars, least that I had thought they existed.

As the darkness of night faded, we kept marching up & down the hills. A few hills later I was tired, and the leader kept telling just some more distance & we will be there. It was day break when we had reached the destination. Right in front of us was the ancient “Hemadpanthi” temple of Harishchandreshwar.  

We rested there for a while and ate Kande Pohe, traditional Maharashtrian breakfast. And then it was time for sightseeing. First we went to Taramati, the highest hillock on the mountain. Ajit – the guy I knew only as leader then kept telling us that view from the Kokankada – the legendary concave cliff is breathtaking so we decided move along the ridge to Kokankada. And something fell down just 10 feet below the ridge & was clearly visible. What, How, whose & why were the secondary concerns for many. Well, it was my wallet! It had two precious things apart from money & cards. Everybody advised me to forget about it and I panicked. But then Ajit came to my rescue.
Ajit made an anchor of few guys and used a rope to climb down the rock face. I was horrified… The terror that a mountain can strike had hit me, and I trembled. My brains had stopped functioning. It was a matter of few minutes but it felt like a life time for me.  The want that felt like a need had vanished in a moment.  I didn’t want that wallet anymore.

And, then he slowly raised his head above the cliff, and I felt as if life was returning to me.  The other outdoor experts helped him back on the ridge. My senses were returning but I wasn’t back to normalcy completely. He handed me the wallet & I didn't know how to thank him.

After all this drama, we walked to Kokankada & then back to Harishchandreshwar Temple. After lunch we started walking back to the base village of Khireshwar.


I was and still am obliged to Ajit for saving my family legacy that afternoon. This legacy was passed on to me for protection in spiritual / religious senses. We visited this mountain again in Jan 2010, this time I was a volunteer & not just another participant

Today Seven and Half years later, sometime during the day every day, the thoughts still flood my mind and I am still unable to sort out a lot things. Ajit suggested I should to write a note about this trek. And I kept saying, I will. But I hadn’t till date.

I hadn’t written a word because I didn’t know what to write… To write about facts of that afternoon or to write about the things that changed inside me on that afternoon. Should I be writing about how strong Ajit is as a human being or how good mountaineer he is. Well, who am I to certify him in either case!

After this trek, with time, my friendship with Ajit & Manjiri – his wife flourished. I did most of my Sahyardri treks under Ajit’s guidance. And even today, I seek Ajit’s advice before I set out for anything new.
Today, just one line will hopefully suffice it all & I know everyone who knows Ajit will agree with me.
“If you have a friend like Ajit then you will know what friendship means.”
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