As my body heated up from the intermittent fever that had run up to over 104 degrees since the past 4 days, unaware of the damage that a creature named Aedes aegypti had done internally, I landed up in Kokilaben Ambani hospital for treatment and the casualty staff almost seemed adamant of wanting to keep me with them unless I showed any signs of cooling off, literally. Giving into their demands (& my fears), with pokes made through my largest organ - skin I mean, of course - bang in the middle of the night of 1st Jan 2013, I was admitted into a spacious room shared with another sleeping patient separated by a curtain; the new year sure had started with a bang!
The morning after was
a mix of some more fluids being passed down the intravenous as I consumed
colourful systemic solutions - the colours of the capsules, however, seemed to
fade when compared with the colours that awaited my arrival into the washroom
for my morning ablutions. With sprinklings of the leftovers of betel-nut leaf (paan) chewed with areca nut (supari) that clogged the drain,
the wide basin had transformed into a gory spittoon. As though the touch of red
in the room wasn’t enough, attempts were apparent to add more colour to the
background of the saintly white tiles through muddy outlines with an evident
treading of slippers all across, especially pronounced on the seat cover of the
WC.
Apparently, my
sleeping room partner was the father of the owner of a large ‘tabela’ in the
heart of the city (no offence meant, but basic hygiene compromises seemed to be
brewing trouble). Whilst the owner had slept through the night looking after
his weakened father who had shown no interest in consuming anything edible
since past few days; the responsibility of taking care of the old man would be
shouldered by the grand-son for the rest of the day – only the grandson was as
though, literally, blessed with a mobile phone. Turning a blind eye to the ‘Silence
Please’ notice strewn across the hospital, as the young lad played ‘Temple Run’
at high decibel, my thoughts increasingly started running to the temple for the
complete lack of sensitivity despite reminders to mute.
As my concerned wife
looked across with agony at the intruder of silence, the medical reports came
in to confirm the doctor’s initial judgments of ‘Dengue’ fever!
Numerous bends after
hitting Lonavla, we negotiated a few slopes on the road to head along a muddy path
that curved into the Jambulne village vicinity. Keeping our vigil for 2 white
painted rocks that seemed to be the only torch-bearers for the entrance of our
next 2-day sojourn at the Machan, we skipped the hidden treasure at first but second-time
around turned in to discover the estate that opened up in full throttle once at
the main gates.
Located in one of the
25 biological hotspots of the world and a mere 3.5 hour drive from Mumbai, our tree
house (1 amongst 4 within the estate) rose 45 feet above the forest to exhibit an
unimpeded, spectacular view of the flora
& fauna offering complete serenity in the lap of nature.
 |
| Our tree-house Machan |
 |
| View of the forest valley from our open balcony |
Carefully designed to minimize any impact on its natural surroundings, the elegant interiors and unique architecture of our wooded tree house seemed instantly perfect for our holiday - an island of green unto itself! The eclectic room was a mix of paintings of the Raj interspersed with meticulously picked handicrafts, evidently reflective of a connoisseur’s hand - the outstretched verandah-like private deck housed relaxing chairs offering an aerial view of the kaleidoscopic greens below, whilst the bright sun-lit washroom provided the perfect balance of a private space in the midst of the alfresco forest.
As our active urbanized minds and stretched backbones came to rest on the mattresses, the evening sounds of melodic bird calls on their retreat had begun to reverberate across the valley.
x---------- End of Part 1 ----------x
Part 2 & 3 shall be uploaded over alternate days
No comments:
Post a Comment