Footprints on the Mountainside

As usual, ready for something new!

I had heard about blog advertising a while ago, but their “regular posting requirements” had me stumped, as until recently, I was caught up in so many things that I rarely had time to post regularly here.

For a blog to be selected with them, it must have 20 posts in the previous 90 days….. which I finally have, huh? This is a celebration for me, because it means that I am now able to live up to the commitment of keeping bringing in something new for you readers… that I’d been promising for a long time now.

So what is PayPerPost? As the name suggests, its a site which offers reviews for other sites and products. Advertizers who want to create a buzz about their product can pay for bloggers to review them, bloggers earn money…. for me, the reason is something different.

Money, yes. Who doesn’t like money? But if I know myself, I will not be able to write about things I don’t care about. This is, actually a good opportunity for me to discover different kinds of sites and services that I otherwise would never have known about. If I like it, great. If I learn from it, still better and if I earn from it…. what more do I want?

But, if you think this is going to change the “feel of the blog”…. I don’t think so. I’m too much in love with this place to let its charm go. What I am planning to do, is look at the different sites that are promoting something, and see if I can bring it here for you. In short, I’m going to go on an exploring spree!!!

I invite you to fasten your seat-belts and join me. And yes, if you find something interesting to share…. money or not, let’s go for it!

Its becoming a habit. I have a conversation with someone that sets me thinking and I come here and write about it

This time it is about Kanheri Caves and what is happening out there.

When I learnt climbing, Kanheri was a regular haunt of climbers. On Sundays and public holidays, the place was literally swarming with outdoor people. A public bus service ran up to the caves from the Borivli station. We used to use that shabby bungalow to hold training camps. Those were the good old days.

Today, the crowd is hardly there. For some bizarre reason, the authorities have forbidden climbing there. Probably something to do with their weird sense of preservation of ancient monuments.

Let’s face it. Rock cut caves that have withstood the centuries and have fairly nothing in terms of paintings or delicate art are not exactly going to crumble when they see climbers. In any case, no one actually climbs the cave walls (mostly - no promises - climbers are crazy). Climbers sweat a lot, but I am fairly certain that caves will not faint or erode from it.

Sarcasm aside, I see this as a situation changed for the worse:

1. The area has hardly any people any more, and trouble with anti-scial elements is on the rise. Earlier, the abundance of the climbers made it a pretty busy area with an abundance of fit and valuable free people who were passionate about the sanctity of the place likely to come across trouble makers.
2. Climbers generally have a well developed sense of affinity with nature and served as excellent policing of trash throwers and often brought back stray trash they found in remote spots. Today, you have families throwing garbage all over the place with no one to try and make them aware of the need not to do such things.
3. The social feel of the place. The climbing community, the families and the overall busy feel brought an impression of a busy, thriving place with immense value to a variety of people. Today, there are few people who dare to go beyond the main area for fear of the isolation, except for couples who use the caves like private bedrooms to make out in.
4. Monkeys are a menace there. A busy community makes it less likely for someone to be attacked and hurt. A simple suggestion of not bringing any eatables to the caves would have sufficed to discourage moneys over time when they realized that there was no food stuff forthcoming. However, the authorities are not interested in anything like that, even after repeated suggestions of solutions, complaints about monkey attacks…..

I miss the old Kanheri Caves, where I as a teenage girl could walk around without fear; where we were there to stop tourists from littering, rather than make occasional visits and be depressed by the litter; when monkeys could actually be scared away without resorting to extreme measures……..