The last week of December is an apt time to wash away all the sins of the year gone by as well as seek divine blessings for an obstacle free new year. An ideal time for the Ashtavinayak Yatra which is what we decided to embark on in the last week of 2009.
After an grilling debate on Driving in your own car Vs. Taking one of the several tour operators, we decided on the prior option heavily decided by my love of driving. And what a drive it was !
There are many google searches which will reveal a wealth of information on the relevance, significance and mythology of the Ashtavinayak temples, hence I will spare my commentary on that here. What was lacking though in spite of best of my googling efforts were a concrete one piece information on how to go about on this route.
For the journey, We used a powerful navigation system called the VGPS system. It is essentially a seamless integration of the GPS chip on my Nokia E71 powering the Google maps in the hands of my wife Vini who acted my chief navigator and took the seat next to me on the trip. It proved to be a deadly combination of science, and a woman’s instinct with implied inferences when cross 
referencing the GPS navigator, the Paper map, a compass and general directions given by passerby’s along the way. It meant heightened emotions, adrenaline pumping especially when there were multiple routes to choose from. And ofcourse the VGPS effectiveness was greatly enhanced by the superb back seat driving skills of the rest of the gang with well timed emotional outbursts which I translated to mean “Why are we not on a road” or “Why are there no other cars around us” and the more often “Why don’t we stop and ask someone”
Amazingly though it resulted in some wonderful on the fly shortcuts and optimizations to the original route plan and some real adrenaline pumping experienced best only in mountain car rallys where one would wish for a turbo charged SUV and ultimately an All Terrain Vehicle (ATV) when the roads started looking like cross country terrain. None the less all along the 1000 Kms from Mumbai and back, the faithful Suzuki engine hummed on smoothly rising to the occassion when called for and the fairly worn Goodyear’s firmly gripped on to whatever I steered the car on to.
The interior of Maharashtra is not a car country, it is a motorcycle country – to be more specific a Hero Honda bike country and to be even more precise – a Hero Honda Splendor country. It was amazing to see the Splendor carry people, goats, Gas cylinders, big haystacks and anything else you might wish to carry with some real ingenious rope work. 3 people squeezed on to a bike was a standard practice. I immediately fell in love with the legendary Splendor and its service to the nation. While the leaders of the world were shouting louder than the other on their vision for climate change controls at Copenhagen, India’s masses have been riding these 100CC splendors avoiding millions of tons of carbon emissions and saving fossil fuel unlike the fuel guzzling hummers and trucks in the rich developed nations of the world. Indeed the Splendor and Hero Honda deserve a rightful place in world history for climate change controls.
Across 4 days we peacefully covered all the 8 Ashtavinayaks starting with Mahad & Pali, Siddhatek & Moregaon, Theur & Ranjangaon and then finally Ozar and Lenyadri.
For most days we landed up at one or the other location just after noon and in time for piping hot prasad meals served by some of the temples. Either free or priced at some 10 rupees per person, they served unlimited quantities of piping hot rice, a dal and maybe some sheera. We generously made up for the free lunch by donating a good sum of money towards Aana daan to keep the great ritual going.
Before setting off for the journey we had investigated some good places to stay and finally zeroed in on Hotel Shreyas on Apte Road next to Deccan Gymkhana in Pune. An old school lodging place very famous for its pure brahminical Marathi Thali. The delicious hot meals they served made the Ashtavinayak experience a complete and satvik experience. A wide variety of vegetables and cereals like usal, misal, poha, bhat, varan and generous serving bhakris, chapatis, pitale, ethnic chutneys, and so much more. The staff of the hotel was so very warm and friendly and they would overstuff you with the generous meal servings. They literally watched over you and the moment something was empty they would swiftly refill without an ask. You had to force them to stop serving and then again they would yet give you one more generous serving before going away. All this at a mere 130 rupees. Compare this to the exorbitant, frugal minded attitude of most Guju Thali joints in Mumbai. It was such a stark contrast.
Mr. Raj Thackrey if you ever read my blog, I am all for you to shake up some of the Gujju Thali joints and force them to serve such wonderful Marathi thalis after due training on hospitality from the wonderful staff at Shreyas in Pune.
There is a frightfully large number of bikes on the streets of Pune, all driving in the most irregular manner, yet I did not see a single incident of road rage. Confused by the maze of criss cross road network I am confident that I broke every traffic rule in the book, yet everyone had the time to stop and gently help you with detailed directions. It was so amazing that on several occasions the moment we asked a biker or a rick for directions – they would simply smile back saying “follow me” – leading the way watching over you all the way till they would stop and then give the directions to where we had to go to for the next couple of meters. Wonderful people – the punekars. It was quite an experience to be in this wonderful city of warm and friendly people in really cool weather, and experience the wonderful hospitality of Shreyas and the divine blessings of Maharashtra’s favorite elephant God – Ganpati Bappa Morya !!
