| FACTS
& FIGURES
Population : 5,500
Altitude : 800 m
Languages : Marathi, Hindi, English
Best time to visit : April–May
STD Code : 02148
A PASSAGE TO MATHERAN
"Do not crowd on one side of the coach,
it is dangerous, reads the cryptic sign, and the point
is further driven home by a graphic illustration of
several stick-like figures weighing the scales down
on one side, while other helpless figures hang in the
air on the other balance. Parents and children and weekending
couples obligingly spread their weight around inside
the little toy train as it trundles up the winding hilly
slopes to Matheran.
The train ride sets the tone for the rest of your holiday—languorous,
and pleasant. Friendly dales, the shimmer of a lone
waterfall, a brief length of tunnel, and loamy stretches
of green sweeping upwards greet the eyes.
Nimble-footed school children spring expertly onto
the running board and jump off a half hour later. Their
village and school are a hill apart.
Fruit sellers perch themselves on the footboards of
the train. People buy and savor the juicy sweetness
of the fruit. After all, there is nearly an hour to
go before you grind to a halt at Matheran station
The air is bracing as you move out of the station into
the open. A babble of voices interspersed with neighing
sounds greets you. You are in the tiny bazaar where
stalls and teashops and rows of fine-boned horses abound.
In line with the horses is another strange sight—of
men standing as though tethered to their one-seat wagons.
This will be your main mode of transport in Matheran—man-pulled
buggy.
Somewhere deep down in your heart, you cringe at the
thought of what you are doing—making fellow human
beings carry you like beasts of burden, but after a
while you get used to it. One could opt instead for
sightseeing on horseback, but the buggy has a charm
of its own. Besides, it is one of the chief livelihoods
of these wiry mountain men, and their cheery faces and
merry spirits do much to quell your conscience.
THE SERENE LANDSCAPE
It takes only a few minutes to realize
why Matheran has this untouched, pristine quality about
it. Automobiles and vehicles of any sort are not allowed
into Matheran. This little hill paradise has been left
largely undisturbed, since the time an Englishman, Hugh
Mallet, Collector of Thane, discovered it in 1850 and
declared it a fine place for shady walks.
The inhabitants used to fish and keep goats; they still
do, though today the tourist trade takes precedence
over everything else.
The roads are still kutcha, there has been no attempt
to prune the hedges or smarten up the vegetation, or
introduce any kind of uniformity into its environment.
Yet, nature herself maintains a mild discipline. The
heavy branches of trees are not so thickly interwoven
that you cannot see through them; the shrubs do not
spill over indiscriminately on to the roads.
Monkeys are your companions wherever you go. They sit
in your verandah and on your porch, hugging their babies,
combing their hair, squabbling occasionally as humans
do. As you jog along in your buggy, monkeys dangle themselves
strategically, one paw hanging free to grab your packet
of chips. You could wave your crooked pandhari stick
(a kind of walking stick) at them, but their mournful
expressions would melt the sternest heart.
It is possible that you will meet Abbas in Matheran.
He belongs to the village that nestles in the narrow
picturesque valley, a few furlongs from the bazaar.
Abbas is among the younger set of buggy pullers, and
perhaps the most buoyant of them all. He will keep up
a lively stream of conversation as he runs on light
feet, describing the variety of trees and shrubs, the
lake, the bharang leaves that are used to treat snake
bite, and he will guide you with proprietary pride to
the most spectacular viewpoints. You can stand atop
these peaks and survey the wild ravishing landscape,
and the reddish brown mountain ranges.
The red soil is everywhere. Matheran is a continuous
poem of shady, thickly wooded paths of red mud and velvet
moss, stretching endlessly.
Getting away from a city is not always possible on
a holiday, it travels with you to the most unlikely
places and is heard blaring from portable transistors
and motorcars, merging with the raucous of streets overflowing
with thoroughfare.
But in Matheran it is possible to forget that cities
exist, it is possible to believe that you are ensnared
in a time web from which release is not desirable. Such
is the balmy calm of the place, the quiet and the green
of the woods that seem to transform the most strident
noises into gentler sounds.
THE MARKETPLACE
Even the bazaar is just that—a
small marketplace, not a commercial shopping complex.
It runs the length of one street, and contains shops
and stalls that sell the produce of Matheran. You can
see workmen hunching over strips of leather, fashioning
the Kolhapuri chappal that Matheran is famous for. Leather
bags, leather belts, leather shoes…the workmanship
is exclusive and the prices reasonable. There are also
glass birds and dried wild flowers for sale that have
a quaint appeal.
One other thing that dominates the market is chikki,
a confection made of gram flour, jaggery and cashew
nut. You could buy chikki in kilos to carry home; it
is a universally popular sweetmeat.
FOOD AND ACCOMMODATION
Tucked away amidst these stalls are
any numbers of hotels. Some of these are simple lodges,
while a few up the hill are luxury places. The Regal
Hotel at one end of the bazaar is the quintessential
Gujarati eatery. Large gleaming thalis filled with sweet
fragrant kadi, bajra rotla and ghee, dal and undhiyo.
Waiters drift around on padded feet, refilling your
glass of chas while carved murals in wood exude an ethnic
charm.
As one goes up the hill, one comes to Scott Bungalow;
that is part of the MTDC Holiday Resort, and is a carryover
from British times. A sprawling, old-fashioned bungalow,
its rooms are let independently to guests. The rooms
are large with high ceilings, quaint long-stemmed fans
and spacious verandahs.
Why is it that in Matheran, you think only the pleasantest
thoughts, people have been known to wonder aloud. Perhaps
it is because as you recline in your verandah, ancient
trees with spreading branches rest quietly with you,
and you are reassured of the sweetness of life and the
continuity of things.
GETTING THERE
The nearest airport is Bombay (Mumbai),
around 100 km away.
From Mumbai, one can take a local train to Neral, where
a tiny toy train waits to take people to Matheran. Mumbai
to Neral takes around two hours, while the toy-train
journey takes an hour and a half.
Mumbai to Neral is around 90 km, while Neral to Matheran
is 21 km.
WHERE TO STAY
MTDC Holiday Resort, Royal Hotel (5
km from the station), Rugby Hotel (about 3 km from the
station) are some hotels providing comfortable accommodation
at Matheran.
WHAT TO SEE
There are numerous viewpoints like Chouk,
Panorama, Garbut Point, Louisa, Echo, etc., in Matheran.
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