Recently was in Pune visiting a friend who has been pressing for sometime to visit his place... With about 3-4 days in hand (which is again a luxury in my current position), we decided to visit Mahabaleswar and Panchgani... As our car wound its way through the hill with the mighty western ghat rising in the distance, it brought back fond memories of my earlier days there....
The photographs below are taken during the visit....
Circa 2004 February, at TISS Campus in one of the classroom...
The faculty was about to brief the MHA batch of 2004-06 about their final placements. It has been a very stressful and exhausting final semester for the students with academic rigour coupled with the final campus placements.
The final internship was always with the Directorate General of Health Services of state in the country. The previous batch had it in the hill state of Uttaranchal. Chances were bleak that the current batch would get the same place again. rumors was agog that either it would be with the state of Gujarat or Maharashtra....
A silence fell in the class as the teacher approached the podium...
"Maharashtra it is" she announced... Sighs of dejection can be heard throughout the class...
"Your district of posting would be Satara" she announced gravely... "A group will be at the Wai block and the other will be at Mahabaleswar block"
A rapturous shriek of delight went through my batch mates of MHA-2004-06......
Of the lucky half who were assigned to Mahabaleswar taluk, I was one too....
We started one morning on what happened to be a moderately cold Mumbai morning on a state transport bus. By mid day we were at Satara and reported to the DM&HO at the district hospital where we were again briefed about our assignment and stay...
From Satara onwards the group split as we took the bus to Mahabaleswar. the entire road was dotted with scenic beauty with the mighty western ghats rising majestically on the side...
The breathtaking and proud western ghats
The road was serpentine and wound its way up the hill... We reached the rural hospital at Mahabaleswar by sundown....
Rural Hospital, Mahabaleswar
Here at the rural hospital we met the medical officer in charge and the Gynec surgeon Dr. Tadas.. We were shown to the guest house (which was actually the quarter of the surgery specialist who commuted from Satara). It was a small quarter and had a 'sarkari' feel to the whole place...
This was to be our home for the coming 3 weeks......
Guest House for internship at Rural Hospital, Mahbaleswar
Daily routine at Mahabaleswar used to be a rigorous and a monotonous one... We were 4 of us together... Rising from the bed was an early affair at 6 a.m... It used to be very cold and chilly at that hour of the day.... Daybreak used to be a good 1 and half hour later.. The hospital attendant used to boil water for our use...
Two of my friends were in one PHC nearby where as myself along with another batch mate were posted in Panchagani PHC...
We used to have early breakfast in the Mahabaleswar main market place which used to consist of 'poha' (a spicy preparation of dry beaten rice) and 'sheera' (a sweet dish prepared from much akin to the sujisuji halwa)
By 9 a.m we used to be present at PHC, Panchgani reporting in for duty. The M.O and the Deputy M.O at the PHC were cool customer and helped us quite a lot in our assignments... We also got to attend the birthday party of the deputy M.O the cooking of which was outsourced to the nurse in charge. The preparation was a local dish and till today the memory of the chilly laden food sends shivering chill down my spine... ;) However the dish was very tasty and we ate to our fill despite the chilly only to realise our folly later....
By 6 P.M we used to be back to our solitary quarter at the rural hospital.. Evenings used to be very boring and a never ending affair.... We used to stroll around the market place which used to be full especially with honeymooners and couples.. This used to frustrate some young men in our group to no end... ;)
Mahabaleswar Main Market
The food at Mahabaleswar apart from being very spicy used to be an expensive affair and the money of each of us from home got exhausted almost at the mid way of our internship...
The only other solitary confined person apart from us was Dr. Tadas who was a bachelor and lived life king size.... He had a bullet motor cycle and a car...
Dr. Tadas' residence. Still the bullet motorcycle stands proud ;)
He took us around Mahabaleswar and showed us almost all places of tourist attraction (Mahabaleswar has 12 such points part from the temple, numerous strawberry firms, lakes etc)
Our friends from the plain (Wai was a place at the foothill leading to Mahabaleswar) used to visit us some time during weekends and public holidays... In turn we also visited them at Wai...
Boating in the Lake at Mahabaleswar
The memory of Mahabaleswar remains etched in our memory till date and when we left I made a promise to come back to this place sometimes in future...
The current trip was like a walk down the memory lane... I visited every single place and location that we visited during our internship and was like a local guide for others with me....;)
The high point of the trip was when I visited the rural hospital... after my wife was totally exhausted taking snap at the various places we used to stay, hangout etc etc... we were about to exit.. Thats when we saw some staff of the rural hospital siting in the early morning sun and I thought I recognized a familiar face... Suddenly I recognised him to be Dr. Tadas and I gave my introduction to him.. He still remembered and reminiscences the happy day which all of us had as a group.. He also lamented the fact that the rural hospital has been in a very bad shape since we were last here.. The IPD previously was closed but now the OPD hardly functioned.. A typical and universal grief of the public hospitals in India... After sometime of chatting thus I stood up to take his leave....
With Dr. Tadas at the Rural Hospital
After wards we visited Pratapgarh fort... During our internship we had stayed in a small lodge called Kailash lodge when we visited the fort...
Kailash lodge near Pratapgarh
The majestic view of Pratapgarh Fort
By afternoon we had completed Mahabaleswar pilgrimage and were ready to leave for Pune and as we left with the sun setting in the back, I fondly looked back and bid the beautiful land adieu for one more time with promise to return once again....
Bidding adieu with a promise to yet meet again.....
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