Trust Me! : Found my roots! Yay!

As a child I always heard stories of my friends going to their village for vacations, I never had such stories because I didn't know my village! For me village was Pune where grandparents used to stay. But about 6 years ago my grandmother passed. In her last days all she would do is talk about old times and memories. In one of those memories she mentioned that we have an ancestral temple in a small village near Khopoli-Pen, in Maharashtra. She also mentioned that my grandfather's great grandfather had a big house there. But after she passed away, her wish/idea to find this place was forgotten! Only until recently her idea was forgotten. At one family get together, this whole topic came up and so did all the bad feelings of not having a 'gaav' as was called my childhood friends in Marathi!

Finally this Diwali with all the back and froth, we decided to go and find the place! So I went on my trusted friend, guide Google Maps, and luckily it knew where my village was, I was so glad and amazed as well. A very small village on the Khopoli-Pen Road in Maharashtra and yet Google managed to find it for me. After narrowing the distance, place to halt etc. we decided to make it a one day trip! So on Thursday, 12th November, after managing to get up at 6 in the morning, me mom and dad left our house at 7.30am. As they saw breakfast is the most important meal of the day, we decided to have a good and healthy one at my dad's college hangout place at Matunga east. Sharda Bhavan, a small Udipi joint, which I think, has the best idlis! We hogged on the food, idlis, upma, dosa and coffees! With happy tummies, around an hour’s drive on the Mumbai- Pune express highway, my ipad said please take a sharp right after the Khalapur toll. After the right, we were on the Khopoli-Pen highway after around half an hour came a right to my village road. The varsai road from the main road was so under developed it barely fit one vehicle, filled with dust and stones and no street lights but on the plus side parallel to the road is a river called Bal- Ganga. On the end of the road, we reached the main market chowk of Varsai.

A small one of those typical villages, which have tiled roof houses, with courtyards, happy faces in the harsh sun, which is barely found in our cities. Honestly it was like a very small village with no computers or Internet, no fast food joints barely any cars like a village in the 1990’s.

But the people living there were so amazing and warm. They welcomed with open arms showed us around their an entire ‘waada’ i.e. a huge house with an courtyard with an tulsi plant in the middle, a well outside the house and the farms ahead of that. Then we went to our family temple, which was almost looked one of the houses of the village. There was an simple idol of the elephant headed God with a small lamp light. After finishing all our prayers, we sat in the temple for 20 minutes, on the rock floor and I was so at peace. Ironically whenever I go in the Temples of Mumbai or Pune, which are filled with lights, places to sit like marble benches or even ACs in few, there is no peace but here there was all peace and you could feel the god with you there. In the month of Magh i.e a month according to Marathi calendar which comes between January and February, there is a festival in this temple, which is a great fun! Then of course how can I leave a place without eating so we went back to waada, and the aunty there made yummy typical Marathi style batata pohe and tea! With a little resentment of not being able to stay in our ancestral house, we left back for Mumbai. But the sad news is that this village soon being uprooted and moved to a higher place as there is dam built on the river which will cause the level to rise and the place will be under water.

Here are the photos from the trip I managed to click!