Morachi Chincholi - The Peacock Haven

Last Saturday I had been to a place called as "Morachi Chincholi" about 60-70 kms from Pune off the Pune-Nagar state highway. The place is called as such due to the unusually high number of peacocks inhabiting in the profusion of tamarind trees in that village for in Marathi peacocks are referred to as "Mor" while "Chincholi" means a tamarind thicket or a jungle of tamarind trees.

We travelled from Pune in our car early in the morning as we were told that the peacocks are usually found in open at that time. As we left highway to travel down a small road to "Morachi Chincholi" the magic of the place slowly started to make its presence felt. The fields appeared on both side of the road. We passed a village the name of which I forget now. It had a typical rural setting. There were old villagers sitting at their usual "kattas" and the small kids eyeing us with curiosity as we passed through the village. These and other sights and smells of the village made me realise that how simple life is in a village. And it also made me realise how different and stressful life do we lead in our cities. I could actually feel myself relaxing in this atmosphere.


We were now nearing the village when we stopped the car for a break. Immediately the unmistakable cry of the the peacocks came to our ears. And they were so many of them. We went into the nearby field and immediately saw a small of flock of peacocks. One of amazing sights that we came across was that these birds were perfectly at home in the fields with the villagers working nearby. So used were they used to their presence that they frequently passed by within reach of the villagers. We were told that this is a common sight in the village as villagers actually took care of these birds. But for all their familiarity with humans, the peacocks were shy of any outsiders. However much I tried to get close to get decent photos of these magnificent birds they took flight. So getting a good enough snap with a standard 50 mm lens was nearly impossible. The one that I managed to click appears so distant that it is difficult to decipher whether the bird is a peacock or just a common cock. Suffice is to say that to avoid further embarrassment I have refrained from showcasing my photographic talents. All the peacock snaps are courtesy of a friend with us from whom I have borrowed few snaps (with permission of course).

The magic continued to manifest itself as we travelled further into the village. The villagers were very helpful in providing information as to the whereabouts of the peacocks. We could see the pride in everybodys face when they talked about how unique they were to have such a beautiful coexistence between the humans and the birds. We soon arrived at the local school which was situated on agricultural college research and nursery lands. The peacocks are said to flock there in large numbers given the fact that they are regularly provided with grains over there. But we were a bit late in catching that sight of feeding birds. Instead we spent what remained of the morning clicking photos of the many varieties of flowers blooming in the nursery.

We soon lost ourselves in the restful atmosphere of the place. We just lazed around for some time in the cool shadows of the tamarind trees. However, soon it was time to leave. It was hard letting go such was the hold that place exerted on us. On our way out we enquired about accommodation availability. We were glad to know that the nursery grounds had basic accommodation available. So with a heavy heart and a promise to ourselves to return back to this magical place again, we bade "Morachi Chincholi" a good bye.

First Bus Journey

A few days back I was travelling from Kolhapur to Pune via the state transport bus with my 4 year old kid. Like any 4 year kid the world over, who has always travelled in the family car, he was excited about travelling in a bus. His reason for the same was pretty simple. A bus is much more impressive as compared to a car. At the bus station, he was at first bewildered by the chaos that you always associate with these places. But soon he started enjoying the sights and sounds of the place. A packet of popcorn and he was set. He then took to suggesting which bus he liked and we should be taking to Pune. He wasn't happy that all the impressive and big buses were for other places and none for Pune. He extracted a promise from me to escalate the matter to the "Boss" of the bus station.

By then I convinced him that the green and white "asiad" buses were actually better as they were faster. I think that were boys are concerned "fast" is a magic word. This dialog took me back to my childhood days when I too was attracted to multi coloured tourist buses and we inevitably always got on the red&yellow state transport. My father used to convince me that the bus that we were travelling was the fastest. And then I used to be happy as we passed almost all the vehicles that were passing in the same direction. I guess that some things never change.

By now my kid was impatient why the bus that we were in was not yet in motion. I had to be inventive in my responses to ensure that he didn't get bored. Eventually the bus started and the smile on his face when he heard the roar of the engines start was worth all the pestering of the past 40 minutes. A window seat ensured that he was occupied with all the sights and sounds of the travel. Throughout the travel he kept the questions coming thick and fast and thankfully I gave satisfactory answer to most of them..

Well in all it was a successful baptism of travel by bus for my kid. And through him me, as I relived all my childhood memories of travelling long distances via bus. Hope both of us have many more such travels together.