Ajit has been asking me to come to Madhavpur for the longest time. I always found a new, very urgent assignment to avoid the trip. Well, not so much avoid it, for the thought of spending a week at a faraway beach village at a commune did seem pretty exciting to me, but the lethargy of train travel did get to me quite so often.

1. Slow Travel : Madhavpur ,
Gujarat - Sudeepta sanyal

2. “A getaway”
• Ajit has been asking me to come
to Madhavpur for the longest
time. I always found a new, very
urgent assignment to avoid the
trip.
• Well, not so much avoid it, for
the thought of spending a week
at a faraway beach village at a
commune did seem pretty
exciting to me, but the lethargy
of train travel did get to me
quite so often.
Read for the trip

3. • When his birthday approached
and he suggested a getaway to
this south west of Gujarat with his
lovely wife and he, I could hardly
resist.
• So post an unusually busy Friday
evening at work, I packed two
changes of clothes into my
overnighter and set off to Rajkot,
and then to Madhavpur.
• I was looking forward to my hours
on the train, to switch off from the
digital distractions and tune in
internally. And if that reception
was poor, then I was armed with a
good book, a few episodes of the
Office and some great music. So I
was all set. Surprise yourself

4. • The purpose of the
visit was to get an
initiation to the
Ashram life, to just be.
The plan was that
there was no plan.
• It was literally a
weekend getAWAY.

5. • When we started the drive towards
Madhavpur from Keshod, the temperature
dropped drastically, the landscape got lush
and abundant.
• We passed by beautiful boulevards of trees
and passed by lazy camels, lazier cows lining
the roads. Beautiful birds followed us a little
along the way.
• One we hit Madhavpur, we had the sea
lining one side and the backwater on the
other side. You could see colourfully dressed
women, and bare chested children playing
along the road.
• Goats and cows still lined the roads and not
much traffic passed your way. A curious
biker every 10 minutes would pass you by.
The drive from Keshod to
Madhavpur

6. Madhavpur vibes:
• Quaint seaside village: Of Course the
first thing you notice about the town
are the massive waves of the Arabian
Sea.
• The beaches are laden with crushed
coral and the sudden elevations and
descent on the beach will make you
realise the power of the waves.
• There is a spot on the shore where
the river meets the sea, and thats
where we spent our entire evening,
watching the sunset and floating
almost out into the sea, immersed in
the warm drifts of the river while
mixing with the cool drifts of the sea.
It was nothing short of spectacular.
I woke up to this

7. • We stayed in a modest
house with two bedrooms
which faced out to the sea
where we slept to the
sound of the waves and
woke up to it too. It’s a
good life when you get to
wake up to views like
these.
• Catch a sunrise or a sunset,
the adjacent land of the
village is fertile and laden
with banyan trees and
coconut groves. Lush green
scrapes or blue ocean
waves, you get to pick!
Where the river meets the sea

8. • Cultural significance: the village
is important from a cultural
perspective, according to
folklore Krishna married
Rukmini here after kidnapping
her. Thus a temple was also built
in its commemoration, but that
was torn down centuries ago by
invaders of the land. Due to this
a big fair is held in village during
ram Navami over 4 days. It’s a
hoot to be here then.
• Food: good wholesome
vegetarian Gujarati fare awaits
you in this village. You can come
here just to eat. Small road side
stalls or a few errant restaurants
or a thali at the commune ,if you
are registered.
Good wholsesome food

9. Beautiful people:
• Friendly shy smiles will greet you
everywhere. Locals were super
helpful and everybody seems to
have a strange kind of peace
that is quite infectious
When enough is enough

10. Time at the Osho commune:
• This remains my highlight of the stay
there. You can stay for 24 hours, a
week, a year or 36 years as a lady I
met there did.
• You can do a breathing course at
630am, or attend a
discourse/sermon by the resident
guru, volunteer at the kitchen, help
out in various tasks around the
ashram or in general community
outreach programmes.
• The ashram is a beautiful estate for a
walk, and when you see the quaint
bungalows in which the residents
live in, you will leave a little bit of
your heart behind.
• Amidst butterflies and twittering
birds, you hold puppies and cuddle
their siblings and marvel the
beautiful bloom of the petunia.
Somewhere right there, I realised
that life is so good right now, right
here
When the time is right, it too will open

11. Boulevard
We volunteered in the kitchen and made a million rotis together

12. Love A throne of flowers and vines

13. • My trip to Madhapur made me
realise that indeed small is
beautiful and how even a tiny
getaway like this can leave you
refreshed.
• I wouldn’t have made this trip
without Bapi’s (Ajit) insistence,
and am happy that I gave in, and
that he did not give up.
• I am definitely going back for a
week at the commune, perhaps
you should come with me!

14. How to get to Madhavpur:
• Fly to Rajkot and take a 105 km journey to this seaside village. You can
take the road, drive down, take a bus or take a train and reach
Keshod.
• If you want to try the Indian Railway adventure, then trains leave daily
from Mumbai to Rajkot, you need to get a train that goes to the
Veraval extension.
“And its all, for the sake of arriving with you” – Jack Johnson

15. /moonlitekingdom
/Sudeepta.Sanyal
sudeepta@theblueberrytrails.com
@sudeeptasanyal

16. THANK YOU