Monday, September 01, 2008

Back to School




Going to Jaya’s school in the monsoons is always such a treat.

Braving the rains on the Lonavala Ghats that puts you just so much on the edge speeding through the Mumbai-Pune Expressway, negotiating the truck-traffic and pot-holes of the Talegaon-Chakan section ( Pune’s new Industrial District ), as one turns off the Nashik highway at Rajgurunagar (Khed ) unending miles of green-hills greet us. Till just a couple of months ago, when we had gone to drop her off at the beginning of the term, they had shades of brown and golden yellow - still pretty like a dusky young bride wrapped in her Maharshtrian saree. But, now suddenly she was resplendent in green – the young wife in full bloom on the cusp of motherhood.

Finishing our mandatory stop for Poha or Chewda just before leaving the highway, we climb in soft pedal up the ribbon-like road towards Bhimashankar. As the town recedes, the population thins out and tiny hamlets begin to appear along the way, spaced afar from each other. It is hard to believe that so close to Mumbai – there can be a place of such unspoilt beauty, still untouched by the city marauders.

We reach the Chas-Khaman Dam which holds back the Bhima River from overflowing into the plains of Pune and get a first glimpse of the lake now full to its brim looking ready to spill over on the paramours lap. At this point one first sees the dots of the school dormitories up there, as if spying on the play at the banks of the lake – like the naughty teenagers who live in them - from a stealthy distance.

Going past the Shambhu Hill – which, as the name indicates, has Shiva temple atop nestled in the forest, we get to the fork from where the road to the school branches off, a short climb up the Tiwai Hill to the table-top plateau where the school is spread over 70 acres. Even in the last 2 years that we have been going there, the young forest – of teak and Jamul planted by the school - has thickened showing its first signs of moving from adolescence to maturity, though still someway from attaining adulthood. But, still it conjures up the feeling of driving through a light jungle.

Up there at the school, the rain-drenched trees and the slushy foot-ball and volley ball fields – with the boys emerging from them like little devils after a mud-bath – make another kind of a sight altogether. Though there are no flowers in this season and the fruits too are not in sight – the lush green all around gives it a certain pristine character.

Though the afternoons tend to get a little warm when it’s not raining, the mornings and evenings are invariably pleasant with a cool breeze coming up from the lakes wafting through the trees. And, an occasional light drizzle gently soaking the skin.

The sparsely appointed (basic yet comfortable) rooms in the guest-house, the home-style and near rustic food of the school canteen and the adds to the feeling of a holiday in the country side.

At sunset – one can walk across to the neighbouring Navalvirayatan , a meditation and retreat center, set up by a Jain foundation, and go till the right edge of the cliff to get an unhindered view of the Bhimashankar Lake – silent, calm and the ultimate picture of serenity - , while watching the sun set over the Lonavala hills afar. And, it’s then one begins to understand a little bit of what Krishnamurti meant by…. To live is to be related (and) there is no right relationship to anything when there is not the right feeling for beauty and a response to nature…


And then, suddenly the reverie snaps - as one hears that in just a couple of years the new Pune International Airport would come up in Rajgurunagar – when the school will be right on the flight path of the jets that would tear thunderously through the skies on their landings and take-offs. Land-sharks have already moved in grabbing the hill-sides smelling the opportunity of making a quick buck. And very soon, one won’t hear the tweeter of the birds and the rustle of the leaves any more. The children – looking up into the skies will count air planes rather than see shapes in the clouds or study the constellations at night. The sylvan landscape will make way for a concretized sky-line and the neighbourhood would be swallowed up by the swelling city of Pune as one of its newest suburb. The Tiwai Hills will be transformed for good. But one hopes that, Sahyadri will still remain a little island of tranquility where children can learn about the totality and the wholeness of life, just as Rishi Valley continues to be even after 75 years despite the onslaught of the environment around it.
Related Blog Post: "Masti-ka-Pathshala" (to read click here)

15 comments:

  1. Dear Sandip,

    Firstly, very nice blog. It feels nice to chat with someoen who is related to the school in some way.

    It's really disturbing to hear about the airport coming up here. I hope the plan fails miserably. It'll break my heart to see planes filling the skies that i only knew as blue.

    Hope your daughter is enjoying the school as much as we did. It's a pleasure to see the school grow up. When I joined, the walls would leak, half the dorms weren't there and the place was so different than what it is today!

    Keep blogging, and IITians aren't that bad..

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  2. Hi Sandip,

    I just admitted my daughter at Sahyadri and everything you say is so true, as there just two days ago and even though my daughter wants to come back i am trying to convince her to enjoy this haven. A place that will stay with her forever a corner in the heart and mind to visit when the outside world threatens to take over.

    warm regards,

    harmann

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  3. so finally am leaving you some fan mail!

    what a beautiful journey......i almost felt like i went on it too....and didn't feel hungry at the end of it!!!! btw am still waiting for the chorizo i was promised!!!!!

    ciao

    keya

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  4. Good to finally see in so much detail where my little sister is. Beautiful! Great post, DJS. Hope to visit her with you and Nina Aunty sometime.

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  5. Hey, i enjoyed that. Very poetic and the pix were just wonderful. there's hope for our messed-up country...

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  6. Hi....just to let you know I did read this....BTW, a very good friend of mine has put his daughter in the KFI school in Chennai....and they're very happy with it.

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  7. Hi, i really liked reading this.Pune during the rains is jst the way you described .

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  8. Great blog! Wonderful read. Want to know more about the school. Where do I go? URL?

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  9. Hey,

    Click here to go to the school website.

    Sandip, put the link of the school website on the blog. People who want to know more about the school, or see some more pictures can go there.

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  10. Hi,
    Wonderful read & well supported by equally good photos. I was on the same route this weekend but for different reason.
    I always thought Sahyadri is only boys school. Looks very much like Rishi Valley. Thanks for sharing it.

    Thanks for dropping by my blog.

    Cuckoo

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  11. Dear Sandip

    I was shocked to know that Bhimashankar Temple and Jaya's acedemy (not school ) is in the flight path of the new airport.
    I went once to Bhimashankar in March 08, to inspect and guide the restoration of the ancient temple. This has been done , and I am supposed to visit once more to certify the work. Let me see how I can go there once .

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  12. Nice reading about Bhimashankar. When I went for darshan of the famous jyotirlinga there some time ago, from the bus I could see the distant black clouds hovering the hills. Walking from the bus stand to the temple through the small vendors' shops and watching the selling of all sundry items of worship and interest to pilgrims was as enchanting as drenching in the drizzle. It was noon by the time I reached the holy temple. After darshan, when I was sitting at the entrance in utter quietness, I saw a young rustic woman coming towards me. With motherly intonation she asked me, "baba, have you had your food?" I replied in the negative. She immediately asked me to accompany her to her home which was up in the hills. Rural India is such that it cannot see a sadhu in ochre robe go unfed. Reaching her home, in that biting cold and amidst the rains, I found her child playing with her little brother. It was easy for me to establish rapport with those children. Within half an hour the unbeknown woman served me hot rotis with alu sabji. Did I feel it was nectar like? Yes, the love and affection that beamed in her face while feeding me cannot be forgotten.
    After food, she raised some questions about some puranic tales. My answers seemed to be satisfying to her. In my narration, I drew some of the similes spoken by Sri Ramakrishna to her attention and she ran inside her kitchen and brought a small photo of Thakur with great joy! I felt that Master only brought me to her home. And taking leave of her and thanking profusely for her wonderful hospitality, I offered a few Rupees that I had. It was quite difficult to convince her of the necessity to have that amount. Finally when I said that she should spend the money on her children's dress for the ensuing Diwali, she relented. A poor home but ever ready to serve sadhu with a rich heart. India is not a punya bhumi merely on poetical terms...

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  13. Dear Sandip,

    I just read your blog on RV and Sahyadri. It is true, once one visits the school , it is really difficult to come back to the city and humdrum of daytoday life.
    My son has joined the academic year 2009 in the sixth std., at sahyadri.
    Initially, he was homesick and slowly he has settled down and is enjoying the school.He was home in oct. and i see a positive change in him. I am glad i admitted him there.
    We also had been to RV for the interview and that school is also great. I being from Delhi, we settled for sahyadri,Pune.
    meenakshi

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  14. Thanks Meenakshi. Co-incidentally, just came back after watching '3 Idiots'. Tho' Sahyadri isn't exactly like the school Rancho set up in Ladakh - it certainly reminded me a bit of it.

    Don't know how our daughter is going to turn out - after she leaves school. Naturally - like any 'conventional' parent we do have our share of anxieties. But, there is no doubt in our minds that - the move was made for the right reasons and with the right intention. We feel even more convinced when we see how happy our daughter is in that surrounding and how much she has blossomed as a person in these 4 years.

    I wrote another Blog on the School: Masti-ka-pathshala - which you may like to read @http://ghoses.blogspot.com/2009/03/masti-ka-pathshala.html

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  15. Nice bolg, i want to join my child in rishi vally .
    But I didn't find any information in internet about interview process of admission.

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