Rustic Retreat-To Mukund

[Guest guest]

Hello Mukund,

That was indeed a peaceful travelogue,of ur wonderful stay in Goa.

U description of that place,reminded me,of a talk,I had with an hippie,once long

back,in the early 80 " s,when I happen to go to ISCON's Hare Rama Hare

Krishna,temple at Juhu,Mumbai.

I happened to ask him,what made him get attracted to this sect,and he

said....Well,after years of leading a materialistic life in the west,which gave

me no meaning,I was drawn to this sect,due to it's utter simplicity,and values.

It so looks like, that u too all were drawn to the natural,peaceful

habitat,where the noise of cars,phones were all shut off.

I was telling one of my friend,a Gujju banker,here,about this place,owned by ??a

theatre personality(Ujwala Achrekar,if I am correct,was involved with Marathi

theatre and dramas),and he immediately,like a true businessman,answered... " Yaar

apun ko aisa kuch invest karna chaiye,Paisa ka paisa,aur nature ka nature...... "

Shyam(84)

Rustic Retreat

Dear all,

We had been to Goa for 4 days for a camp called " Shodh

Sahjeevanacha " I will like to share the experiences of the camp.

This camp was located at " Rustic Retreat " , Valpei, Goa.It is

approximately 60 KM north to Panjim.A place of approx 100 acre area owned

& managed by a lovely couple Mr Sham and Mrs Ujwala Achrekar. This peace and

nature loving couple stays there with a 10 yr old son and 6 servants and looks

after the Jungle with various trees,birds and animals.They have an

extraordinarily human hospitality for their guests. There are 10 nice cottages

with all amenities to accomodate the guests. They organise camps for Kids or/and

elders " Nature Camp " , for ladies " Disha " For Fathers and sons and now for coules

" Shodh Sahjeevanacha " . This Camp costed Rs. 3400/- per person which included

stay, food and beaverages camp fee and travel from Panjim to site. In other days

they charge Rs. 750 to 1000/- per person per day for the same if you are more

than 6-8 people. There is no mobile range or TV connection or no sound of

vehicles running. Yet you forget these amenities in toto. So here is this

excellent site open for your exciting holiday trip to Goa.

Another exciting interest was the guide couple for the " Shodh

Sahjeevanacha " Mr Anil and Mrs Shobha Bhagawat. Mr Anil Bhagawat is a

construction consultant and organises camps for couples, talks to college

students about sex education, career guidance etc.and writer of few books.Mrs.

Shobha Bhagawat is in charge of Garware Balbhavan Pune and looks after parental

counselling, camps and classes for personality developement of children,and also

writer of few nice books on the same Subject like " Aapali Mula " , " Garancha

Paooos " etc. There were total 12 couples who attended the camps.The couples were

coming from varied professions e.g. a psychiatrist, a teacher in a school for

mentally retarded, a homeopath, a journalist, a retired govt officer, a

gymnasium instrument maker, few financial consultant, few engineers so on and so

forth. But everybody had come to make the married life more interesting and

enjoyable. Most of us were quite a rational thinker and had an eye to solve the

problems of life. Anildada and Shobhatai made the calculations still more

rational and advised us to have a greater dialogue to search the priorities and

to face the situations of life together.As per words of Anildada whatever is

retained in the minds of listeners is knowledge and rest is just a play of

words. But one thing is sure we havd an excellent four days excursion with added

advantage of knowledge and bonus of big friendship with such a varied and

interesting people.

Mukund (1974)