Dheeraj Kalgutkar

  India is a strange country but more stranger are its people. The old towns and villages have their own gods and those gods have their own homes aka temples in this country. It’s an established order. The temples have their annual anniversaries, gods go to jungle tours, river bathing, to meet other gods in other temples; all on the decorated vehicles pulled by the ever-growing tribe of humans. But that’s in old towns and villages. What happens in newly built cities? The old temples I have visited have their own stories, how they came into being. The stories with myths and magic. If the building isn’t very old then there would be someone with a mystic dream in which certain god comes into their dream and throws in his/her wish (or rather a command) to have an abode of his own in that village. And in most cases, these stories are highly unverifiable (of course, what did you expect? — peer-reviewed theories?). It’s not my desire to find the god himself (or herself!) but ...

For those who rely on adventurous sports or places driven by nature's glory in and around Goa, Dudhsagar is no new name to your dictionary. With picturesque forest covered mountains at rear, a railway bridge before it and milk ( Dudh in India stands for milk and Saga r for ocean, that's how this falls got its name! ) sprawling from uncanny mountain range, it is a sight one would crave to watch and cherish forever; and euphoric tourists from abroad lined for tickets at ticket-counter speak exactly that. How do you go there? Not so tough heady task. Once you reach Goa, the work is almost done, the place is quite famous that anybody will get you to the heavenly spot ( not to falls but ticket counter of course! ). The actual bargain begins from here on. First and foremost, if you have come with a private vehicle of yours, you are stopped little far from where tickets are issued and you are made to walk for about 5-10 minutes, depends how you put your steps or how bad shoppin...