Day 1:
It was a busy Family-Wedding weekend. My Cousin, Devyani was getting married to the Love of her life Vishal at his home town in Kolhapur. It had been years since we all had gone for a vacation together and hence our family had decided to grab this opportunity and take a short trip to Travel Kolhapur. Thus, our journey began, I was accompanied with my whole extended clan except for Devyani's Family because obviously they had to leave a bit earlier than us for taking care of all the arrangements of the Wedding. Anyway, this weekend went by like a whole adventure joy ride with my family including my dear in-laws which was really great! We started our journey by bus from Mumbai at about 6.30 on Friday morning. Had great fun in the bus singing songs and joking around. We took a halt near Satara for lunch and had traditional "Tambda - Pandhra Rassa" or Spicy Red and White Curry along with soothing Solkadhi at Khushboo Dhaba, Satara. For dessert we ate "Chocolate Paan" which was more than delicious. Now that all of us were kind of drowsy because of all the food, we played Antakshari singing All the cliche`d but mandatory songs including "Imli ka boota, Na Na Karte Pyar, Oh Oh Jane Jana, Maayi ni Maayi etc." With all this going on, I couldn't help but notice how my Grandma was enjoying each and every minute of the journey. We reached Kolhapur by evening 5.30. The level of exhaustion was ultimate, yet we left our hotel rooms within an hour and went to experience the beautiful Panhala Fort. We were staying at the fort itself which has been converted into a Tourist Destination by the Government of Maharashtra. Built on a Plateau, Panhala Fort really takes you back in the time reminiscing the days that might have been spent then surrounded by Adilshahi and the mighty Mughalshahi empires. As we reached the main gate or the "Mukhya- Dwaar", the history of Great Escape of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj from Panhala which was seized by Adil Shah's Siddi Jauhar , Shiva Kashid's courage as well as Baji Prabhu Deshpande's valour came right in front of our eyes and we were stunned. Such a Proud moment it was. We kept locking our eyes with the Valleys beneath, astounded by the ability that the people back then had to travel to and fro that too under such difficult and unpredictable circumstances. Felt really privileged to be a part of this great culture which was amongst the leaders in promoting independence or Swarajya. I was feeling fortunate to have been able to revisit this place which I already had a few years back.
How could we miss the golden opportunity of taking tonnes of Selfies?! We took enormous amounts of group selfies appropriate for the social media and headed back to our hotel room. Just a thing that pricked me was how we forget to appreciate about the history of these places and concentrate our mind on the number of selfies and the time and places that we still have to cover and rush through even these golden monumental things abruptly. We need to relearn living and cherishing every such moment. Anyway, we enjoyed the "Raan- Meva" aka Seasonal Fruits from that area including bush plums and Java plums (or Karvanda and Jambhul) which gave us a new wave of freshness within soothing our tiredness from all the travel .. just then, we got to know that the bride and her mom aren't well.. all of us were worried but they were treated well immediately. That was a relief indeed..
Soon we reached our hotel rooms and began a few last minute preparations for the next day's Engagement Function and the Wedding as well.. and before we knew, it was dinner time. We had arranged a traditional clay-oven-cooked food including Zunka, Bhakri, Bharli Vaangi and Buttermilk on the side. Had the most simple yet tempting dinner after a longtime. I decided to complete my work for the next day's function (while my other cousins kept enjoying the rest of the night on the hotel roof, Not Fair!) The next day was going to be a long one. So, I called it a day and went off to bed.
Day 2 was filled with a lots of activities including site seeing and of course the engagement ceremony..
Stay tuned to experience what happened next..
