During our Dang/Dharampur trip there was heavy rain, so could not get chance for trekking. All the way Megh was complaining about that and demanding to go for ‘trekking’ where there is no path! On our visit to Junagadh this March, my friend Nimit and Ankit arranged short trek to Upali Chhipar and since that day Megh was introduced to word ‘trekking’. So when told about trekking to barakhadi, he was very excited. He was the youngest participant on that trek and people were asking “will he complete it?”, I was bit worried as he was suffering from cough and cold. Heat and humidity level was high that day and it was tiring for adults too. He has lot to talk, lot to ask all the way and was in his favorite ‘trekking’ …so he completed without any complain. He found something and picked it up, then found it was a born…then many questions who’s that born? how it came to that place? how could you tell it’s of dog or goat and not of tiger? why pirates use born in their skull symbol? endless even after more than week at home. Though he kept himself enjoying bath under waterfall he taken luft of arranging stones and building bridge there. It was 15th August and we celebrated independence day there…it was first time for Ashna and Megh to salute flag and singing jan gan man… they will remember those moments for long.
During third week visited Modhera,Patan and Unza. After green dang and barakhadi, we have also found North Gujarat green which I was used to see dry mostly. We have seen ‘Tropic of cancer’ board at Bahucharaji , we have small geography lesson on the way. Modhera’s sun temple and Patan’s Rani ni vav….both left Ashna thinking how those people had done this? It was simply amazing for her. Work on stone mesmerized her completely. Megh loved climbing up and down steps of surya kund out side sun temple and Ashna enjoyed taking photo. Construction of vav and rain water harvesting took long discussion time. At sahastraling talao, there’s difficult to get clear idea of rudrakund and how sarasvati river’s water used to brought to sahstraling talao. There was no guide but a person told the place where we were standing was talao once ! Children enjoyed Harsidhdh Lake built by Sidhdhraj Jaysinh on the way to Patan. At Unza, we visited APMC market yard where trading of sesame seeds, cumin seeds, mustard seeds, etc. does in bulk. On the way children found ONGC’s machines in and around farms and many crude oil questions clicked.
Historical places and nature attracts us equally and during this trip we enjoyed both…double maza! This monsoon made whole Gujarat real green. Sun temple compound was full of green big neem trees and hundreds of stork nestings on it. Inside temple there are hundreds of bats! At sahastraling talao parrots and myna fight caught children’s attention. During whole trip big number of Parrot, Myna, Collared dove and Jungle bubbler and sometimes Indian roller, White throated kingfisher etc kept Ashna busy observing birds. Found whole area of modhera/patan full of big neem trees and enjoyed climbing whenever got chance.
After reading Kakasaheb Kalelkar’s story of squirrel coming regularly and drinking milk from his bowl , she wish for the same. She tries sincerely for that, keeping dish with fruit and rice on terrace and sitting reading besides and observes them coming closer. Kamatibaug, Vadodara’s squirrels are very friendly and children enjoyed feeding them. At Natural History Museam, Vadodara – 71’ feet long whale’s skelton amazed them most. Museum is very rich and we passed 2 hours there but found it still incomplete. Children enjoyed whole day with zoo,museam, toy train and rain on the road. They have their cousins with them who are of their same age which doubled their maza.
Before two days, when I have given 4th std.’s book of environment study to Ashna to read chapter on ‘our gujarat’…..it sounds very familiar to her.
