Back to School Days

This Saturday was a day of adventure, with my School friends... Our most awaited visit to ShinhGadh (Shivaji's Fort near by Poona, will discuss about it briefly in later part of this post).

Rainy day, three bikes and five old friends, biking till we reach top of the mountain. During rains this fort is under clouds; nature is at its absolute lovable mood. I am always in love with such places. On the way there is Khadakwasla Dam (Whole Poona city drink water because of this Dam)... We specially go to sinhgadh to just chill out and have typical village food on top of the fort.

Its is really wonderful to have school friends and being able to freak out with them... Each one of us have some or other nick name (given by someone in school in some and the otherway.) .
Nikhil named nikhlya, nikhya, taklya.
Uday named udya
Rupesh named rupya, rupdya..
Ashish named ashya,ash,ashu,ashi, kashi, boo, lambu,tangya, tangs... ohhh my god so many names these people gave me during my school days...

Sinhgadh is one of THE spots for us... Whenever rain starts first thing come in our mind is just to visit sinhgadh. This place has its own beauty which I just can't explain...

Yes... this time also I was doing crazy thing there, I went up on top of some hill on the range of high mountain, to take snap of one flower... :).... Only thing is; the WIND was in its full speed and felt a big time push to valley, I was about a one-and-half foot away from valley and somehow managed to hold some small stone... Flash of time... and ... I was smiling with a wonderful WOW experience, uday with his stupid and helpless face looking at me...


Ofcourse we visit Wind Point (This point has historical back ground too...) to experience treamandous wind force and clouds moving directly on face from damn green valley... Wind point is too good place...



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Brief history of SinhGadh


Tanaji Malusare (Maratha worrior) is responsible for the capture of fort named KONDHANA from Mughals, this fort is strategically placed in the center of a string of forts of Rajgad, Purandar, and Torna. The capture of Kondana was necessary if Shivaji Maharaj was to re-establish de facto control over the Pune region.

Recognizing the strategic importance of Kondana, the Mughals had maintained a battalion of 5000 troops led by Udai Bhan, a relative of Mirza Raja Jai Singh. The fort was built in such a way that all its approaches were covered by cannon-fire. Only on turret was not well defended as it was at the top of a vertical overhanging cliff.

Tanaji decided that this was the only way, he could enter the fort. He dressed himself as a Gondhali (devotee of the Goddess Bhavani of Tuljapur) and roamed the surrounding villages. He won the trust of one Mahadev Koli who was in the service of Udai Bhan. Koli presented the disguished Tanaji to Udai Bhan, who was suitably impressed by this "devotee" and allowed him free access to the fort.

Tanaji carried out a careful surveillance of the fort and at that very night when he was told that at the overhanging cliff Udai Bhan and all his senior commanders would be celebrating a usual party with an alcohol and dance orgy; Tanaji decided that he should seize this opportunity.
With almost all his troops, Udai Bhan had a roaring party on top of the overhanging cliff. Unknown to them after midnight, Tanaji and his brave followers who numbered 300 scaled the cliff using ropes tied to a reptile called Ghorpad. The Ghorpad can stick fast to any surface and a number of adults can use this force to scale a vertical cliff with the help of a rope, one end of which is tied to the Ghorpad. Silently Tanaji and his comrades slunk up to the top of the cliff.
On the other side his uncle Shelar Mama and his brother Suryaji had moved close to the other gates of the forts with another 300 Mavalas (Maratha Soldiers). On a signal from Tanaji, all his comrades who has taken up strategic position all round the celebrating Mughal army, broke into the party and mercilessly fell upon their enemies. They started slaughtering the surprised and ill-prepared and drunken Muslim soldiers.
When Udai Bhan saw that Tanaji - the leader of this invading band of Marathas was no other than the devotee whom he had given permission to visit the fort, he flew into a mad rage. On seeing Tanaji, Udai Bhan rushed at him and we are told that for a few fatal seconds, Tanaji started dancing in the same fashion as he had done as a Gondhali (devotee) when he had met Udai Bhan earlier in the day. The enraged Udai Bhan lunged at dancing Tanaji and cut off the arm with which Tanaji was holding his shield. But undaunted Tanaji used his turban to ward off further thrusts from the blade of Udai Bhan's sword and continued fighting him for 2 hours in this state with his wristless left arm bleeding profusely. It is for this feat of Tanaji, that he is called Narvir - Brave amongst Men.At the end of this ordeal, the exhausted Tanaji fell to a fatal swish of Udai Bhan's sword. But Udai Bhan too was throttled by Shelar Mama and thus lost his life.
When Tanaji was in midst the festivities of his son's wedding and he was summoned to fight and recapture the fort of Kondana. All the guests persuaded him not to leave until the wedding of his son was over, but he was determined to fight back and he said the following words in Marathi," Aadhi lagin Kondanyache, mag lagin Raibache", (Marathi: आधी लगीन कोंढाण्याचे, मग लगीन रायबाचे) which means"First the marriage of Kondana(Fort) and then the marriage of Raiba(his son). By the statement, what he meant to say was that first priority was to recapture the Kondana Fort and then attend the wedding of his son Raiba. Due to his bravery and courage and his selfless devotion towards Swarajya and Shivaji, was he able to leave his son's marriage and die a martyr's life for the Maratha kingdom. So deeply moved was Shivaji by his devotion, that Shivaji himself quoted, "Gadh aala pan sinh gela", (Marathi: गड आला पण सिंह गेला) which means,"The fort is ours but we lost a lion". and this was the time when Fort Kondhana became SinhGadh, in the honor of great Tanaji Malusare. He was the Lion (सिंह) and Gadh (गड) means fort.

WIND POINT is the exact place from where Tanaji and his soldires came to Sinhgadh, top of the cliff... (How they would have manged to climb in Midnight.?????)...

I feel really proud to know so many things about the Great Marath Shivaji Maharaj and his loyal army, who were always ready to build Swarajya for Shivaji. Somewhere in the English literature I have read that, if shivaji would have lived for more 5-8 years, british people whould not even looked at India to cpture it... They were so much scared of Shivaji so Mughals too...