Karjat Feast in a Day

 

Many Bombay-dwellers have visited Karjat at least once. Part of a sub-district in Raigad district, on the outskirts of Mumbai in Maharastra, I made my first trip there too.

About a three-hour drive from Bandra, we were lucky enough to skip the traffic from all the road-digging. The roads were pretty decent, much better than city roads for sure, narrower, but pothole-free. But these roads don’t come free, right? We live in India, so some three toll nakas (booths) had us pay them about Rs 250 both ways… not a bad deal, add a couple more hundreds and you could be in Goa.

On the brighter side, my eyes and lungs were in for a treat! Since it was just a month after the rains, everything was still green, the air seemed cleaner, and best of all, noiseless. Aahh how a city rat loves some peace and quiet…

In Karjat

And I wasn’t going to drive all the way to go get smashed under the influence in the hills (which I’m thinking is a good idea now), I can do that at home too. We went to Karjat because it was the feast of Our Lady of Fatima on October 13. There is a shrine in the tiny village, the only one in India. It was feast that day.

The local maushis (women) were all dressed, in their colourful saris and heavy jewellery. Their ears looked like they’d rip any moment.

People come to this shrine from all over. Many hire buses, or come in groups. The railway station is a 5 min walk from the shrine too.

After mass, there was a big feast being served to the devotees, but my brother being so picky in life, had us leave and go eat lunch at a restaurant.

Our way back was pretty normal, getting stuck in evening traffic, not long before our car was punctured on the Western Express Highway. While the boys changed the tires, I was busy revelling in being stranded at sunset.

Timeline:

9:45 am – Leave
11:50 am – Reach the shrine in Karjat for the 12:30 pm mass.
2:30 pm – Finish mass, check the area out a bit. Eat lots of cucumber sprinkled with salt and masala.
2:45 pm – Reach restaurant. Eat a delicious thali.
3:30 pm – Cruise around, check out the road to Neral (which leads to Matheran). Then decide to head home.
6:30 pm - Home sweet home

** Remember: Carry water, a cap, sunglasses and some hard-boiled sugar sweets. And keep your windows down. Use your air conditioning in the city, to stay away from pollution…(while you’re creating it :P).