Duke's Nose Lonavala - Photo blog

Hello, there everyone,  here I'm with the new blog post, but this time with an unusual blog type. Yes, I'm trying my first photo blog. A learning photographer within me always wanted to fetch something like that from the year dot. As they say, 'A picture is worth a thousand words'; very rightly & so empathetically it describes way more than an anecdote. 

On the 18th March, I went on to a trek which was nearby Pune. Yes, it was our Pune's very own International hill station - Lonavala ;) . Sometimes I wonder, how Lonavala has played a-go-to-place for all seasons to us. Be it a deluge or a chilled to the bone December, it is always mesmerising & a pocket-friendly too. ;) This time, it was a Summer & a trek just around the corner. This trek was well organised by the team JOSH from Tech Mahindra. 

Here while blogging, I will deliberately try to mute the verbose in me & let my pictures do the talking. Come let's all have a short flashback of how it went. Was it easy or really adventurous? Aahaaa, don't labour your brain, just keep on scrolling..     

Tents

We reached at the base point in the village called Kurwande at 1 am, 66 km west from Pune, which also adjacent to Lonavala. And then as proposed, we were supposed to have food & a good night sleep under the open sky filled with stars. Most of us went on to prefer to get inside the tents. 

But Angad, my Chaddi buddy (a friend from childhood) & I preferred the open sky to be our roof for a night & ditched the tent. The wannabe singers were singing acoustic songs laced with guitar's background score, some were having banter & some were still having the romantic dinner date besides the campfire.  

Trekkers

After completing the morning rituals, we straight away headed for the cause which we were here for i.e. Duke's Nose Point. Duke's Nose, after Duke Wellington, previously known as Nag-Phani -- a pointed cliff belongs to Khandala besides Lonavala. To get there at the Duke's Nose, it's mandatory to go through an exhilarating trek. 

Target - The Duke's Nose Point from far away

I got this from a far away, just a few minutes after we start walking, rather hiking. It was a quite distance to be covered from the scrubland, which wasn't even to walk on before the real action begins.

Busy

He, Angad - once he started, never looked back, not even for a photo. :P  Well I guess that was the enthusiasm of a first trek; keep walking buddy.

Cheesy Smile

        Posing! Well well, that's an irony, of what I just said. Bro, what are you up to? :D 

Dutches Point

And this was our first mind boggling halt, the Dutches Point. What a scenic view we were rewarded!

Twisting Panoramic view of Western Expressway & Railways

    It was just a start of scenic views. The entire ranges of Sahyadri were waiting on the other side.

Gathering

The very first halt also meant we had to gear up for the real action. The instructor, Vaibhav (Techie & quite a gentleman) gave every possible information he could also, he shared his past experiences about the same trek & the rappelling & cliff walking to witness the Duke's Nose. 

Duke's Nose from Dutches Point

Beauty! This is what we were waiting for! Alike a Snake's pointed head section (hood) &, therefore, the name Nag-Phani. Since the cliff seems to be the shape of the Duke & hence the name Duke's Nose. 

After looking at it, I thought - What was that? Maybe a meteorite. :P

Keep Hiking

After getting instructed by the guide, folks started marching towards the Duke's Nose. They learnt that some thrill is just around the corner. 

DSLR Selfie Time

In the meantime, we were finding the ways to create memories with the aid of cameras. Sometimes I feel, Camera is the most beautiful entity scientists have ever discovered; just sheer love! <3

Bottlenecked

And there you go! We reached our most difficult task of the day. To be frank, initially, we were like, Oh my god, you gotta to be kidding me!  If we want to find ourselves on the other side, then we have to climb this rock, which was perpendicular to the base. Some guys & I felt a doubt, Is this a beginners' trek or professional beginners' trek?

Putting their best!

Anyway, we had to surpass it & so we did it whilst questioning ourselves about the next endangered rock climbing! Can we?

I saw our instructor Vaibhav standing tall on the rock without any support & with big rise smile on his face, which was towards us. I murmured to Angad, hey as climbing ha roj karat asel, nahi? (Isn't it looks like a cake walk for him?) Angad responded back with a well-pronounced thumbs up. 

The people who were finding it difficult, Vaibhav & his mates rescued them!

Looked like he was on a mission

                    Focused or timid? No, but the first adjective suits him better and so was he doing. 

Target Reminder

We really started growing in confidence after surpassing the complexed hurdle without any aid. We both kept on telling each other that, bro we are just about to reach there. But sometimes, these just about-to-reach are longer than the fortnights, aren't they?  Yes, there was still a lot to go through.

Cliff walking

        Moral of the picture: Girls can literally pose anywhere before a camera, even if their next foot could be in the deep valley. :D   

                  

I chuckled behind my covered face.  Indeed, it was a just narrow strip of screes to walk on. I teased her about the same when we got back down. :D  These funny moments in the midst were helping us to shrug off the nervousness.

My favourite thing

I could have sat there all days & all nights without making a fuss of! I was in awe, it was just magical, to sit in such a serene ambience. I wish could have taken that place back home; I loved it! 

Wanna go downtown?

You should get an award for doing this all alone but, somehow you successfully managed to steal the attention of your fellows. Time to switch the job! :P :D 

Far away: Our base camp

At this moment, I stopped glanced down, wow how far we have come! It seemed inaccessible at the morning breakfast from the base.

Relishing friendship

You know, there is a quite amazing theory behind the picnics. Once you get back home after an excursion, you realize - your bonding has strengthened. No explanation!

Brotherhood

I'm not sure, what we were discussing about - definitely not girls! :P :D  We were just a few hundreds of meters above the sea level, we could have even rocked in the heaven as well, or hell for that matter. ;) :D 

I was trusting the pinnacles!

Finally, there - this was my solo picture, that too without my knowledge, or candid as they say. :D Propelling through some more boulders before we wind up.

When you become a 4 legs animal :P 

Not sure, how many calories we have burnt, but the Sun was burning quietly above our heads. On many occasions, we played reptiles, quite a childhood memory. :)

Naturescape

I, personally, am a huge lover of landscapes. I don't know how this is? But I enjoyed every unit of time I spent up there. 

Friends Forever

I don't need to say anything. The picture itself says a lot. Remember the excursion & friendship link that I just mentioned?

Wierd?

Probably, one could have seen the biggest grin on his face. Yes, he surmounted his fear. 

The Team

         Quite a thumping number it was! 

Better view

       This is the magic of wide angle lens. 

Priyanka, Angad & me

This girl was way behind when we started off the trek. And we found her just in time with us at the finishing line. I learnt, she indeed is quite adventurous & inspirational. Thank you!

People that matter

I had a wonderful trip with this idiot. I must confess here, I was in this trek because of his initiative, so thanks a ton. Brother, we made it to the top & rocked it.  

One thing that I always do unknowingly that - I offer thankfulness to this gracious nature & it responds by making me astonished on every next meeting of ours! And that amplifies my belief that, yes I'm a tiny part of this nature. 

Top of the world

  And finally, here I was with my signing off selfie, from 616 meters above sea level. 

This trek taught me something that, I'll cherish for the rest of my life. That was -- You got to trust the nature, especially when you're on an adventure, in it. If you trust it wholeheartedly, I'm sure your adventure will have more thrill. 

WORSHIPPING WHILE MENSTRUATING: Yes, what's wrong in it?

Yes, a lot of you might be thinking, what a man has got the business to write on such a sensitive & bold topic? I'm writing, because - I'm a living element of this society & because I feel responsible for reviving what has been lost. I write with the learning and the realization that none of these practices were originally meant to suppress women, but now they are playing like one! I felt the need to pen down something..

Menstruation… Periods and the life of a Woman. India is a country of religion, a home to some of the widest variety of cultures, all surviving together. It is a country where cricket players and film actors are worshiped as god while a woman, in her Periods is looked upon as dirt and not allowed to step into any holy premises. For ages, this belief and Rule has been blindly followed by women of the earlier generation, including some of our moms. Girls, do you remember, your mother telling you to stay confined in your room, not going out much, not entering the kitchen area and CERTAINLY not entering the temple during Periods? And I always had this question in my mind, Why they can't go to temples, cook or live a regular life, during periods? Why can't they treated normally and not like filth during periods? For a curious guy, this was a million dollar question. And this question certainly deserves an answer, WHY??? When I got to know the whole drama, I was stunned & I doubted our existence in the 21st century;  it is a ridiculous concept! Actually I really feel pity & anger, when I still get to hear these kinds of anecdotes. I thought, I must do something in this matter, whatever little I could! Hence a try..

What could be the simplest answer for this? Perhaps, the most common notion of all is that menstrual blood is impure and that it makes women impure. Interestingly, in some Indian cultures, the menstrual blood itself is revered and thought of as having potent power. I also read, about elderly women in Manipur who told that they had tasted a drop of their first menstrual blood, as part of a traditional practice. This blood was considered to be very powerful and believed to keep them in good health when consumed. Really??

 A fascinating mythological story:

According to Bhagavatha Purana, Indra had once disrespected Brihaspathi who was the Guru of all the devas. As a result of this sin, the asuras (demons) easily conquered the heavens and Indra lost his kingdom and glory. When he took refuge in Brahma, the latter insisted Indra to consider serving a young lad who is a Brahma-Gyani as his guru until Brihaspathi is pleased. However, the lad had maternal affection for the demon clan as his mother was also a demon.

Indra does ‘Brahma-hatya’:
The boy use to give yagna-havis (offering during havan which is consumed by the devas) to the demons too. Seeing this, Indra killed the young boy in a fit of rage. As the boy was in the position of a guru, Indra had invited upon himself the heinous of all sins, brahma-hatya-pathaka (killing a guru). The sin took the shape of a ferocious female demon that followed and haunted Indra wherever he ran. Finally, Indra hid himself within a flower.

Indra thought of distributing his sin:
Indra remained inside the closed flower for one lakh years and performed penance to please Lord Vishnu. With Vishnu’s grace, Indra was freed from the trouble of the demons but he was not cleansed from the sin of brahma-hatya. To get rid of this sin and earn his kingdom back he requested the presiding deities of water, trees, earth and women to take a quarter of the sin. In turn he promised that he would grant boons to all of them. This was agreed upon.



Bane and boon given to the Tree
The presiding deity of all the trees accepted a quarter portion of the sin. The tree sap which oozes out of the tree bark is the form of brahma-hatya and is considered as impure. For bearing this sin, Indra granted a boon to all the trees that they can regenerate and re-grow as long as they are not uprooted.

Bane and boon given to Water
Varuna took a quarter of the sin too. The froth or foam that gets developed on water is considered as impure as it represents the brahma-hatya. When a Hindu performs achamana, if the water has foam on it, it is dropped down. Indra granted purity to water as a boon for accepting the sin. It is said that it is because of this boon that water has got so much of importance in Hindu rituals. It purifies everything.

Bane and boon given to the Earth
Bhoo devi took another quarter of the sin. As a result earth lost its state of complete fertility and barren lands denoted brahma-hatya. The boon given to earth was the ability to refill its cavities over a period of time.

Bane and boon given to Women
Women living in that aeon have accepted the last quarter. As a result they and their progeny had to experience the menstrual cycle once in a month which denotes brahma-hatya. As a boon, women were granted more pleasure in sex than men. According to Hinduism, God cannot be seen or realized without a Guru. Menstrual cycle denotes the sin of killing a guru. So women are forbidden to see God or indulge in divine acts during that period for its sign of impurity.





Every religion has put restrictions on women:
If you thought that Hinduism is the only Religion in the world where women with Menstruation are restricted from entering temples or taking part in holy tasks, then you are on the wrong train.

Christianity: Women were forced into a separate menstrual hut during their periods and were not allowed to come out of it. According to a British Medical Journal published in 1878, it was believed that Menstruating women could actually cause Bacon to decompose. Women were prevented from cooking, churning butter, baking bread and from praying in the church.

Islam: The Holy Quran forbids women from having intercourse during menstruation and also from fasting. They cannot enter the Mosque nor recite the Quran.

Sikhism: Standing against all these religions, Guru Nanak strictly condemned this practice of treating women as impure during their menstruation and allowed them to pray and do their religious duties without any restrictions.

Hinduism: Women are restricted entry into kitchen, into the temple and are confined into their room during the menstrual days. They have separate sleeping beds, different clothes and different utensils for eating. Excuse me! But in Hinduism womb is considered sacred. Do you know that the reason why women do not prostrate themselves by laying flat on the floor like the men, but kneel and bow instead, is because the scriptures state that it is offensive to lay the womb on the floor because it is “the cradle of humanity,” in each and every woman. So our wombs are considered so sacred that the Gods themselves find it offensive if you lay your womb on the floor to worship them. Then how can Gods really discriminate? 



The Science Behind This Ancient Belief:

As for the records, there is no reason why women were treated so differently during the menstruation days in the ancient times. However, when we try logic-ing the question, the only possible answer that comes across our minds is the role of a woman and her hard tasks. During the previous generations, women had to perform several physical tasks such as grinding wheat, carrying heavy pots, farming, cooking food and also cleaning the house. But, during their menstruation, they suffered a lot of discomfort, cramps, excessive blood flow, depression, mood swings and also anger which took a toll on their health, physically and mentally. And the only way to make women rest and stop them from doing their duties was by imposing a taboo on Menstruation. This gave complete rest to women during the menstrual days, thus helping them recover well from their menstruation.


The menstruating Goddess of Hindus:
Have you heard of the goddess who menstruates? Only 8 km from Guwahati railway station is located the most famous temple of Assam, the Kamakhya temple, dedicated to Goddess Sati, an incarnation of Durga. According to ancient Indian scriptures, one of the 51 ‘Peethas’ or holy spots, Kamakhya temple is also known as ‘Yoni–Peetha’. Every year, Kamakhya temple observes a unique festival called ‘Ambubachi’ when, it is believed, the goddess menstruates. The festival draws a large number of pilgrims to the Kamakhya_Temple

Kamakhya Temple: Story of the bleeding Devi
The temple of Kamakhya has a very interesting story of its origin. The story of the Shakti Peeths goes like this; once Sati fought with her husband Shiva to attend her father's great yagna. At the grand yagna, Sati's father Daksha insulted her husband. Sati was angered and in her shame, she jumped into the fire and killed herself. When Shiva came to know that his beloved wife had committed suicide, he went insane with rage. He placed Sati's dead body on his shoulders and did the Tandav or dance of destruction. To calm him down, Lord Vishnu cut the dead body with his chakra. The 108 places where Sati's body parts fell are called Shakti Peeths. Kamakhya temple is special because Sati's womb and vagina fell here.

Kamakhya devi is famous as the bleeding goddess. The mythical womb and vagina of Shakti are supposedly installed in the 'Garvagriha' or sanctum of the temple. In the month of Ashaad (June), the goddess bleeds or menstruates. At this time, the Brahmaputra river near Kamakhya turns red. The temple then remains closed for 3 days and holy water is distributed among the devotees of Kamakhya devi. Closing the temple for 3 days and then celebrating the end of her menstruation. In this temple, the menstrual cloth is considered highly auspicious and is distributed among devotees. The idea of resting and not disturbing menstruating women, including a Goddess, does not arise from any superstitious belief. It is because of the thought that menstruation and the release of energy during this time should not be interrupted in any way. It is a natural cleansing process which helps women remain healthy, and should not be affected by external influences. If these menstrual rituals were meant to suppress women, surely we would not be doing the same with the Goddess.

But if you think, there's no real logic behind these customs. Many people who believe in supremacy of God don't even think that how a God can become unclean or polluted by a touch of menstruating women. Does this mean that a women in her periods has more power than their all powerful God? Why god should fear a menstruating woman? Womanhood is a gift from nature to females and they should cherish it and feel proud about it, shame or guilt should not be associated with any gender. Unless women themselves start questioning these type of beliefs we can't bring that change. 

Yes, it’s time to take a stand! I understand very well that many times it's not fair judging past societies with current social values and knowledge but this practice of seclusion of women in this way due to some biological processes associated with their gender should stop. We all should know that this is totally wrong and it is our duty to stop it. Let's show some courage to eradicate this practice, let's confront these things wherever we see them and let’s start this from our own homes.

A symbol of a woman's creativity:
There is no scientific proof that the blood actually turns the river red. Some people say that the priests pour vermilion into the waters. But symbolically, menstruation is the symbol of a woman's creativity and power to give birth. So, the deity and temple of Kamakhya celebrates this 'shakti' or power within every woman. What do you think about these religious ways in which a woman is observed during her menstrual cycle? Hasn’t someone overreacted in history? 



I understand very well that many times it's not fair judging past societies with current social values and knowledge. Here I am not trying to do this, rather I am questioning beliefs of present societies which are based on past social or religious values. Because of these types of beliefs and superstitions situation of women in our society are suppressed. They are treated as inferiors or like a burden in many societies from the moment the fetus is known to be a female. I think time has come to get rid of all these types of customs and rituals. We have come very far from those medieval times. As far as I am concerned I don't care what any religion or scripture says about this topic, if I see this type of prejudice and discrimination I voice my opinion strongly against it, I question it. I know it may not change anything but I do it anyways. Unless women themselves start questioning these type of beliefs we can't bring that change. I hope that more and more women will start doing it. I am sure we all can create prejudice-free environment with our efforts and I am very optimistic about it.

To everyone - Happy Women's day, let every woman to be proud of herself!

Do share your views in the comments below… Thank you!

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