Malangad

This was my 10th trek. As usual, dad told me about the trek a day before and I just could not say no to such an alluring offer. Next day I came to know that my brothers Shivendu and Atharva were also coming for the trek and so was my uncle Vijay
Me and dad set of from my house at 5:30 in the morning. Vijay kaka and Atharva had stayed at granny’s place for the night and met us on the way. Together we went to Kalwa station. Shivendu was meeting us over here and so were dad’s friends. Soon Shivendu came and we boarded the train. We met Mr. Anand Sawant in the train accompanied by his son Neil. He was an old friend of my uncle and my dad. Soon I and Shivendu were chatting and just didn’t realize when kalyan came. Soon we were joined by our fellow trekkers and dad’s friends Mr. Bhushan Meher who was accompanied by his brother Prajyot and some other new friends. We moved towards kalyan S.T. stand. Here we were joined by Mr. Eknath Marathe an old acquaintance of mine who was with me during my Himalayan expedition. We boarded the bus to Malangad and after traveling for around 45min we arrived at the foot of the fort.
This fort has a “mosque” which is supposed to be of a Sufi saint named haji Malang. This place is still a point for historian’s discussions as according to the scriptures the grave is a princess and a Hindu saint. The story goes as; in ancient days when the fort was under a raja’s jurisdiction a Hindu saint had come to the fort seeking for a place to reside for some days. The princess was very much impressed by this noble saint and proposed him for marriage which the holy man refused. But she still continued to serve the saint. After some days both of them died and their grave was build on this fort. After many years, a Sufi saint named haji Malang arrived at the fort and resided there for some days. Due his presence many Islamic devotees started visiting this holy man for his blessings. And after the saint died they declared the graves of the princess and the Hindu saint as the grave of haji Malang. Till date this is a place of Muslim pilgrimage.
After gathering here we all started ascending. In primary stages the road was through villages at the base of the fort. But soon, we were facing staircase as at many pilgrimages. This was not the trek we had come for. This was not adventurous at all. It was lacking the instinct or the vibes we get during any trek. In midway we encountered some Langoors who were used to see devotees coming there and now they expected us to feed them something. After walking for around two hours we reached the mosque.
Now on our real trek was to begin. First it was a casual trek. After sometime the difficulty rating grew on. Now we had reached a point where we could see some old broken stairs carved into a huge rock. They were in real pathetic condition which increased our hardships. But while on a trek we do bargain for it. But the thing which none of us had expected was presence of monkeys! They were in groups and attacked fellow travelers at will. They were really horrific. Due to them our group was split into two parts. Me dad and Marathe uncle were opening the route and the rest were following and so it happened that we quickly climbed the broken stairs and reached the plain at the top. We were waiting for the others to come up. But it was decided that it would be risky to bring small kids up here from those rickety stairs. On a trek one always has to remember that where ever one climbs he has to get down and looking at the risk that we would be facing while descending it was a right decision to hold the kids back.
Soon the seniors also came up. Meanwhile we were enjoying the scenery from the eye of a bird. We could see number of forts in the surrounding area. Some pinnacles were also visible. At the top I found a dug out with steps leading inside it. Marathe uncle and I decided to explore what was inside as it appeared as some secret passage or something mysterious. Marathe uncle led the way and asked me take his snap and follow him inside. Till now my dad too came to that spot and asked what was happening. We told them about our discovery. He asked to be careful and watch our step as it could be a death pit. Death pits were used in ancient kingdoms for delivering capital punishments. The person found guilty was thrown down these pits with their hands and legs tied and blindfolded. These death pits opened up in the valley and the person would fall down and have an instant death. And so right my dad was. It really happened to be one of the death pits. Marathe uncle peeked and realized that no more stairs and he could see the deep valley with its jaws open.
So after this horrifying experience we moved forward to another. This time there was a rock patch with a space of just around 3feets to walk on. To its one side was deep valley and to the other side, stonewall. The view from here was breathtaking. We took some snaps here and moved on. We had to really careful as these 3feets were standing in between our life and death. But we had come here do the same thing challenge death!
From here on there was a way leading to the top which was much more dangerous. And with out proper equipments it would be foolish to try it out. Some of our members still decided to take on their fate and walk this horrific way. Over here, two steel pipes were laid connecting two cliffs. We had to walk on these pipes to reach the other end of cliff. We had a rope tied above to catch hold of. A snap link was attached to it and the rope connected to the snap link was tied around the persons waits. Below the pipes lied the land of dead!
So we decided to turn our back from here on. We again reached near that death pit. To the other side of it was a plain area. This area was most suitable for photography. We could see some remains of a house or something similar to it. There was water tank too. After spending some time here and taking some beautiful snaps we decided to return back.
Our way back was much more difficult than we had thought before as we had some uninvited guests-Monkeys. On those horrible stairs one mistake could prove very costly and distraction like this could spell the end for us. But soon we proved it that why we were humans and they were monkeys. Marathe uncle had a novel idea. He removed the leather belt he was wearing and started rotating it in the air. Monkeys might have thought that it was some weapon and stayed away from us for a while. This much time was enough for us to get down to safety.
Soon we joined our other companions who didn’t accompany us to the summit. We were busy telling them our adventures at the top while they were telling us about their encounter with our ancestors. Soon we had lunch and moved forward. Our other mates who had moved on further were to wait for us here. But due to some communication problem they descended down the other way while we retraced our way by which we had came up.
After a long trek we at last regrouped at the S.T. stand and went home cherishing some adventurous moments and new friends.