First hike

This was when bhavnagri ghatiyas were
sold at 4 am and all Gujarat passengers
got their savoury breakfast with teas that came from heaven
with ginger and elaichi

and hot samosas and wadas and ghatiyas were devoured as we
went to the national park
still huge

still filled with leopards and monkeys an birds and bees
and as dark as Karori on a rainy day

We climb the 2000 year old caves that have women all over
them and bat shit coloring them

we climb to biscuit point and see Borivali..the huge statue
of Buddha or Mahavir

the little train that we never got into only Utkarsh got
access and Chelna

The mountains are unrelenting and the occasional burp and
roar keeps us walking as i tell my first spate of bad jokes
not half as good as Maharashtra Hiker's Club described by
Sandeep on radio

We got down and aborigines feel the land keeping a watchful
eye
Bharat has a thing for low strata women and died of AIDS 6
years ago

We cook. I watch by the river. Papads and potatoes and rice
and puris
Bharatdada knew whole of Thana when we reached the other
end of false lakes and dam construction

Now they tell me there is a concrete road that utkarsh
bikes through
But leopards millins of them feel the largest National Park
in Asia

103 Km when they last counted the mosquito infested grey
solid houses
for camp fires from Maharashtra tourism board