First Impressions of Khurkheda

29th September

We reached Nagpur today after a turbulent journey in the night (the bus driver drove like a maniac). After walking for a kilometer we managed to locate a bus which would take us to Varsa, which was about half an hour away from our destination, Khurkheda. After napping for a good part of the journey, I finally somewhere near Bhivapur. I was really excited to when I was able to recognize soya bean from afar. But after a while, I could see stretches of grazing land with no cattle in sight. Finally my curiosity got better of me and I asked a co passenger why people did not put this land to better use.  The first thing he asked me was whether I was from the city and I replied yes. He then said that it was not grass but rice which had just started growing.

As we passed Aamgaon, which grows rice and not Mangoes as the name suggests, I spotted quite a few Langurs. I saw scarecrows, too, something I had never seen in my life. I often wondered how a stick man could keep birds away. A kaki sitting next to me told me that birds and wild pigs in the night often confused them for a man and stayed away. It was not 100 percent effective but it worked .

Nagbhide boasted of a forest range officer and a herd of deers and Brahmpuri had an engineering college! After all that I had read and heard from people about Khurkheda, I was really surprised to see an engineering college in the middle of literally nowhere.  It was then that I realized that how scared I really was about this entire trip. Behind my brave façade even I had nightmares and misconceptions about the place. Were they easy to let go? Not really, but this college did manage to bust a few myths.

The highlight of this trip was Vainganga, a gigantic, mesmerizing body of water which was just five minutes away from Khurkheda. And my journey had begun.

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After bathing and finally feeling ‘clean’ after nearly 18 hours of travel, we had a first meeting with Doctor Satish of Amhi Amchya Arogyasathi. We were given a few basic instructions and were asked to rest. We decided to follow sir’s instructions and slept for hours, till it was time for dinner.