Matheran Diary

My curiosity about Matheran, a resort 80 km east of Mumbai increased several times when I came to know it was India's only automobile-free hill station. Cars can come at most 3 kms of the town and are prohibited thereafter. A toy mountain train runs from Neral right into main Matheran town but has been out of business since July 2005's rain devastation. Taxis charge Rs 50 per seat to ferry the 6 kms steep climb from Neral to the last automobile point, whereafter one treks amidst a beautiful wooded path to the main market, the town center of Matheran.
About 800 ponies and 90 hand-pulled rickshaws operate atop the hill station. Matheran mein aa ke ghode pe nahi baitha to kya kiya. The place is overflowing with people, mostly from Mumbai and Pune on weekends. From the bustling market, hills paths lead to Echo Point, Charlotte Lake, Lord Point and a dozen other Points, or hill edges jutting out to face a sheer drop into deep valleys. Miniscule streets in this tiny town are named 'Ambedkar Marg', 'MG Road', 'Patel Marg' and other heavy tags. The weather is cool all year round and the entire hill is green and thickly wooded.

Suicide is the Point

A single traveller is officially banned in Matheran hotels. You don't get a room unless you are at least a group of two. Why? The official version goes that Matheran is a popular suicide destination, and depressed people
frustrated with urbanese come to Matheran to jump to death from one of its several Points. So a solitary tourist is automatically adjudged a Suicidee and refused accomodation. Khali peeli police ka chakkar nahi magta hai.

I check with the local police station and the figures are appalling. There is one suicide reported per fortnight in Matheran!

My own hotel owner describes the last case involving a rich Mumbaikar, who arrived one day in a Skoda (special emphasis on the automobile brand) and hired a hotel room near one of the cliff edges. In the morning, nobody answered his door when a bellboy knocked. Panicked, the hotel and the police launched a search operation and the rich Mumbaikar's body was found at the bottom of a Point.

Car o Bar

The last hill-station to experiment with vehicular ban was Mussourie.The ban was lifted around 2000 and the thing has become a mess now. The entire place bears the look of an endless parking lot and the market on The Mall is a replica of Karol Bagh during Diwali.

The vehicular ban at Matheran has preserved the town and its air really well. But after the train service stopped, the ban has turned into a bane. The train was a cheap method to transport essential goods like foodgrains, milk, vegetables and LPG cylinders to the top. Post-train, ferrying costs have gone up by 30 percent, largely because of the manual labour costs incurred in carrying cargo from the last vehicle point to the town centre.

A gas cylinder is 10 rupees dearer at Matheran and a shaving razor is 2 rupees more inflated. A band-aid, however, costs the same.

Jignesh goes to Matheran

Every other tourist in Matheran is a Gujju. He comes loaded with entire family, lock stock and barrel, and immediately books three rooms in the Shiv Ganesh Gujarati Lodge, or some such. While walking from Taxi stand to Hotel, the younger members of the troupe are instructed to keep a watch for restaurants offering the ubiquitous Gujarati Thali. Nothing else would do.

The Gujarati tourists are an animated lot. Time after time, Jignesh, the nephew of the family head (who is also called Jignesh) makes a fuss and is disciplined by Shantiben, his mother.

These specimens also have an unending appetite to talk about money. At the slightest provocation, two Gujaratis (both being most probably called Jignesh) enjoying the nature at Matheran will erupt into a heated discussion on Business. Abuses would fly abound for some common acquintance (also called Jignesh) who is reputed unprofessional and does not deliver the maal on time. The deep discussion will carry on over lunch, dinner and late into night even as other family members give up on them. Only a cricket match viewing Live on TV can end their raconteurships.

Echo Point

When you shout out loud from this place, the voice is supposed to echo back from the rocky cliffs on the opposite side of the valley. In reality, it is quite a dampener. The echo is overrated - all that comes back is but a whimper of your howls.

A more effective way to make Echo Point work for redeeming the 2 kms trek is to locate a soul atop the hills on the opposite side of the valley. Most likely, that sould will be equally disappointed with the echos, or the lack of it. You then make a pact. Whatever you shout, that person shouts back and an echo is created. You then shout out loud and hear the same thing being shouted back from across the valley. Voila, you have an echo!

But then, that's cheating no?