Escaping the city

This weekend I had the pleasure of traveling to Dahanu, a small coastal town about 150 km north of Mumbai.  After weeks spent in the crowded dirty city, I can't even begin to tell you how nice it was to take a break and relax in the countryside.  Instead of incessant car horn honking, I heard the breeze blowing through the palm trees.  Rather than elbowing my way through throngs of people, I was swatting lazily at mosquitoes.  In place of the constant motion of Bombay was a permeating calm, which allowed me to rest and regenerate after several hectic weeks.

Dahanu is the hometown of one of my good friends here, Priyanka.  She had invited me to come visit and meet her parents - an invitation I readily accepted.  I feel like I haven't seen enough of rural India - my time has been spent almost exclusively in large cities or at commercialized tourist destinations. We took the first train in the morning to Dahanu - departing at 5:20 am.  Given my (at times demanding) social calendar, this meant that I was only able to get about an hour's worth of sleep before heading to the train station.  Yikes - it wasn't a pretty sight. 

Thankfully, the train wasn't very crowded, and we took our seats in one of the "ladies only" cars.  Given that this was my first time traveling by train in India, I can't explain to you how relieved I was to find that these ladies cars exist.  I have heard some horror stories about women being assaulted on trains (albeit during longer journeys), and so I was happy to see that we were given the safety of our own space.

 

The train interior was similar to a subway train in the states. It's a local train, so there weren't any amenities for long-distance travel.   Just benches and handles to hold onto if you aren't able to get a seat.  There were two main differences between the subway in the states and this train, however.  First, the tickets cost 25 rupees (about 50 cents) to go 150 km.  Second, the doors to the car stay open throughout the journey.  There are no polite accent-neutral announcements at every stop saying "You are now approaching Bandra.  Doors opening..." - because there is no loudspeaker and the doors are always open.  I had a lot of fun holding on to one of the rails and sticking my face out the train door - the fresh air felt amazing.  Plus there was a little adrenaline rush from partially hanging out of a moving train :)

 

The journey takes about two hours, so we arrive at our destination early in the morning.  Priyanka's father is waiting at the train station to pick us up.  The town is very small - about 40,000 people - which is tiny by Indian standards.  Most of the jobs in the town are driven by a power plant located there, which supplies power to Mumbai.  Interestingly enough, the town itself is powered from a power plant somewhere else in India.  They don't even get to use the power that they generate!  That's Indian efficiency for you....

 

Priyanka's family's home - with the two dogs running to greet us

 

We arrive at her family's bungalow (e.g. house) and are greeted by the rest of the household - including her two boisterous dogs, Oliver and Guguli.  Oliver is a handsome 2-year old yellow lab, and Guguli is a <1 year-old stray that the family took in when they found her abandoned as a small puppy.  Her name means "something wonderful but unexpected" in Hindi (or Marati?).  I can't even begin to tell you how excited I was to have some quality dog time - I'm missing my Tiki Monster a lot these days.

 

This could practically be a photo of Beta and Lucy, don't you think?

 

Priyanka has a younger sister, who she lives with in Mumbai, but her sister had to work this weekend and so wasn't able to join us in Dahanu.  Instead it was just her parents and me and their household help.  Their employees are "tribals" - which from what I can tell, means that they still practice indigenous tribal practices and distance themselves from most of the modern amenities of today's world.  Apparently this particular family has worked for Priyanka's family for generations - going back to Priyanka's great-great-grandfather.  Priyanka's family wants to provide them with opportunities beyond being household help, so they insisted that the young girls of the family attend school, which is a first for the tribal family.  I'm not sure whether these young girls will end up being maids or if they'll go onto do something different, but I think it's admirable of Priyanka's parents to make sure that they get an education.  The household staff seems to be treated more like members of the family than anything.  Yes they do the majority of the cooking and cleaning, but Priyanka exchanged hugs and sat down and gossipped with the maid like old friends - probably because they are old friends!  Priyanka has known this woman her entire life, after all.

 

Priyanka's parents are very sweet and welcoming people.  Her dad is a little quiet, and her mom quickly reprimanded him for not being chattier with their guest (me) and then apologized to me by saying "sorry, he's just a typical Indian man.  Doesn't talk much..."  Upon our arrival, the first thing her mom did was sit us down at the table and feed us breakfast.  This wasn't a small breakfast, mind you, but a large affair.  First we had chai and fresh bread and cakes that they had bought from a local bakery that morning.  After that, her mom prepared a slew of omelets and toast.  Seriously, the food just kept coming.  As soon as I was close to finishing what was on my plate, her mom would be telling me to eat more and then serving me another helping.  We had some dried masala channa as well - mmmmmm.  By the end, I was absolutely stuffed and had to tell her to stop serving me more food.  Apparently this is a common thing with Indian mothers - they never think that their children eat enough, so they will keep serving you food and insisting you have some more.  It's very sweet, but I'm pretty sure I would gain 20 kilos if I were to stay at her house for an extended period of time!

 

The rest of the day we spent relaxing.  We played with the dogs, took a nap, sat around and chatted.  The atmosphere reminded me of Walloon, actually, how there isn't a lot to do and so people just spend their time relaxing together and spending some quality time.  Around sunset, Priyanka's dad drove us to the beach so that we could walk along it.  Unfortunately there were a lot of clouds so we didn't get a great sunset, but it was so peaceful regardless.

 

Arabian Sea...

 

View of the beach...

 

The sand on this beach wasn't white and pillowy like in Goa, and there was some trash strewn around the shore, but it was still a nice place to walk around and take in the breeze.  We saw a camel in the distance as we were walking and tried to go up to it, but couldn't figure out how to do so without getting wet...

 

Why did the white girl cross the bridge?  To get to the other side....to see a camel!

 

After our walk we went to a local hotel/resort to have dinner.  Priyanka's dad drops us off, and we go take our seats.  I assumed that it would just be the two of us eating together, so I tell Priyanka that I'm buying dinner and will not be taking no for an answer.  She responds with an amused "you can't do that - my parents are coming to eat with us!"  In my mind, that was all the better!  She then explains "no you don't understand.  In India you can't pay for anything if a parent is present.  My dad would never let you..."  I dropped the matter then but still want to pay her back for her hospitality.  I'll just buy her a dinner in Mumbai or something, I suppose...

 

Dinner was delicious - which is how I feel about pretty much every meal I've eaten here.  We had chilli mushrooms and paneer butter masala with naan and papadum and paneer tikka.  Oh I also forgot to tell you about this delicious chaat that her mom made for us that afternoon - they were green onion pakoras.  Green onions are only in season during the monsoons, so it was a special treat for me to get these.  I didn't have the presence of mind to take a photo but I've found one online that's close enough...

Mmmmmmmmm pakoras.  Ours had less breading and were greener, but it's still the same idea...

 





After dinner we all went back home and relaxed before going to bed early.  During the night, we experienced the same issues with power outages that we had encountered in Goa.  The power went out a couple times even in the restaurant at dinner!  Thankfully the climate there is cooler than in Mumbai, so I didn't wake up from being too hot when the air conditioner was off.  I can't imagine living in a city with a power plant and having to deal with power outages!

 

One of the cool things that their family introduced me to is the way that they serve drinking water - in copper jugs.  They have these delightful copper containers that come with a cup on top.  There are religious reasons for storing water in copper containers, and apparently there are health benefits as well (I need to research exactly what those are, though).  Anyway, it's a really cute way to serve water and I'm going to buy a couple of these before coming home :)  Mom - I think these would be really fun up north - let me know if you want me to buy some for you...

 

Jug and cup with water in them.  Drinking out of the copper cup made me feel a little bit like Indiana Jones in the Last Crusade...

Cup fitted on top of the jug as a lid.  How cute!

 



Our second day in Dahanu was equally relaxing.  I slept in until about 9, which felt late since we had gone to bed so early.  Priyanka's father had made arrangements to take us to visit the farm of one of his friends so that I could see what an Indian farm looks like.  Most of the region is employed in small scale agriculture, so it was nice to be able to visit a farm and see what it looks like.

 

The products grown in Dahanu are primarily tropical fruits.  A popular fruit here is called the chickoo (which I had never heard of before this weekend, to be honest).  Dahanu produces almost 1/4 of India's chickoos, so it makes sense that the farm we visited had chickoo trees. 

 

Chickoo trees, planted in a row with a well in the foreground

 

Chickoos resemble kiwi fruits but are slightly larger and don't have the small hairs on their skin.  Beyond that, to be honest, I still haven't actually tried a chickoo so can't speak to what they taste like or look like on the inside.  I brought home a bunch with me, but they will take a couple days to ripen so I'll report back once I've tried one.  If it's any indication of their taste, Ami was REALLY excited to find out I had brought some back with me, so hopefully that means they're as delicious as I'm hoping...

 

 

Another new fruit I tried during my stay in Dahanu was jack fruit.  I'd seen this being sold on the streets but had never actually tried one.  It turns out that the large fruit contains a bunch of individual seeds with flesh around them, and that's what you eat.  The closest thing I can compare it to is a pineapple, but that doesn't do it justice - it tastes more tropical than a pineapple.  And the texture is less moist but equally full of flavor. 

 

Peeled jackfruit...

 

A pile of jackfruit ready for sale in Mumbai...



 

Next to the chickoo farm was a mango farm.  My mouth started watering just looking at the mango trees.  I may be addicted to Indian mangoes.

View of the mango farm

 

The farmer also grows coconuts, so he had one of his workers bring us fresh coconuts with straws in them.  I don't know what it was, but this was the best coconut water I've ever had in my life.  So fresh, so organic, so delicious.

 

Priyanka and me, enjoying the coconut water...



 

In addition to the fruit part of the farm, we also visited the farmer's dairy shed and his garden.  All of the cows had gone out grazing for the day (probably stopping traffic somewhere), so the only cow left was a 3 month old calf.  She was adorable but scared to death of me!  She actually jumped from her shaded area over a concrete barrier that's as tall as she is to get away from me - despite the very short length of her rope.  I tried not to take it personally...

 

Before I scared the poor calf...(note the concrete wall that she jumps over and the short length of rope)

 



Priyanka trying to comfort her after the poor baby jumped out of her skin...

 



The farmer also grows some herbs and flowers that he sells.  We stopped by this garden so that he could pull out some plants by the roots and give them to Priyanka's mom to grow in her garden - peppermint, periwinkle, and hibiscus were just a few that we saw...

 

I'm pretty sure my mom would have loved this place...

 





 After our morning visit to the farm, we headed back to the house for lunch and then to go catch the train.  Priyanka's family giggled at me a little bit over lunch as I ate with my hands, as they do.  Apparently I don't mix the dal and rice together properly to make it sticky enough to grab it.  Oh well - it was messy but delicious.

 

The train ride home was absolutely beautiful.  I had slept for most of our outbound train ride, since it was so freaking early in the morning.  On the ride back I got to enjoy the scenery truly - and wow was it spectacular.  As soon as you get outside of Mumbai, you see these lush green fields and forests framed by rolling hills in the distance.  Rice paddies dot the countryside, and small rivers appear out of nowhere to reveal old fishing boats drifting along with the current.  This is they type of scenery they show in the "Incredible India" tourism campaign - and in this case I think they've picked the perfect adjective to describe their country.  I've shared some of my favorite photos from the train ride below:

 

Rice paddies

 

The view of the buildings doesn't quite match up to the vista behind them...

Hidden fishing boats...

Gorgeous.  Just, gorgeous.

More rice paddies - this one with a cow in it

Temples along the way...

Who else thinks this looks like a scene out of a movie?

A town nestled at the bottom of the hills

Lots of fishing boats this time 

 

And then we start to get closer to Mumbai, and the scenery changes.  We start seeing rows of trash with children and chickens picking through it. 

 

 

We see crowded railway platforms, and the train car becomes congested. 

 

Sigh - they've paved paradise and put up a parking lot.  I had to deal with women pushing and shoving to get in and out of the car on the last couple stops. 

 

 

Thankfully, whenever I want to get back to that state of peace and calm that Dahanu brought me, all I have to do is look back at my photos and remember...

 



Shangri-la