The eighth edition of Chikoo Festival, an interesting annual event will be held on the first weekend of February on 1 and 2 February, 2020.
Fringe benefits of a Mumbai stay include possibility of escape to quiet beaches a few hours away by road. When you are bored at Mumbai, head to Bordi beach 2.5 hours from our home at Thane. It is a quiet and shallow beach with clayey black sand. And no tourists. It is like your own private beach. Fringed by Casuarinas that look like pines but are not, Bordi is a sleepy town with adjacent Gholvad a slightly bigger one.
Gholvad is famous for its Chikoo orchards and Parsi homes many of which now serve as home stays. The area is also used as a sanatorium (in modern times to reclaim your sanity from crowded Mumbai). There is only so much Chikoo you can eat fresh and the rest can’t be kept fresh refrigerated. So the local growers now make chips (yes, and air dried), powder (with which you can make milk shake), pickle, Barfi and chocolate. There have been more unusual products in recent years with Chikoo Wine and Chikoo Vinegar making their appearance at Chikoo Festival.
A basket of Chikoo fruits
At the annual Chikoo Festival in February each year you can buy fresh Chikoo and the above products. Also amla products, pickles, papads, home made spice mixes, snacks and dried fritters (wadis). We bought Metkut or a methi powder to mix with rice and eat and thalipeeth, a multi grain mix to make rotis (that turn out to be a meal by themselves).
Lot of local entrepreneurs, mostly women get a chance to showcase their products and make money selling to the 140000 visitors (2019). One lady was selling bags and cloth merchandise under the brand Sew Good and her products were good and inexpensive. She was selling tissue holders with tissues in them for just INR 30. We thought the tissues were for display but were told we got them too free when we bought the bags. The brand also makes coin purses for just INR 30 using scrap cloth that would otherwise be discarded.
Another lady duo was selling Maharastrian delicacies from where we bought lunch - they threw in free an additional rice bhakri to go with the brinjal subzi we had ordered. Interacting with these sellers from small towns likes Gholvad and Dahanu is a pleasure with their genuine smiles and willingness to offer something extra even on the very reasonable prices they quote. Another interesting dish to taste us the Ukad Handi loosely translated to Pot Barbeque. A locally delicacy, it is made by a mixture of local vegetables slow cooked by roasting in a clay pot in fire on the ground. It can be bought and eaten straight from the small clay pot.
The beautiful Flame of the Forest
This year the festival is on two days - 1 and 2 February 2020. It is a fun event and has nice scenery en route. I found the Flame of the Forest or Butea monosperma in flower along the road. This tree with ochre flowers that resemble a bird has leaves used to make bowls and meal plates after being dried. The road from the NH to Dahanu has numerous Flame of the Forest trees; where they are numerous and flowering they do look like they are on fire, which is what gives them their name.
Dark clayey sand at Bordi
In under 8 hours we could make a quick trip to Bordi and get back to Thane the three times we have been to Chikoo Festival. The Gholvad Chikoo has been given GIS registration which means it has to be grown there to claim to be Gholvadian. We went to the Chikoo Festival in 2016, 2018, and 2019 and shall be going to the next the coming weekend. The festival organizers have been innovating and introducing interesting features each year. Like last year this time too there is a night safari and star gazing organised by the Jungle Farm. There are going to be Masterclasses in cooking Mahasrahtrian, Gujarati and Tribal cooking sessions for food enthusiasts. A Chikoo Winery tour is also being offered like last year apart, from tour of a chikoo orchard. Music concerts by local troupes including a tribal one are a new feature of this year’s edition. So too are classical dances in multiple traditions which are a new feature added this year. For the first time there is going to be a beach marathon and beach Kabaddi.
Getting there from Rustomjee Urbania: By road one has to taken the highway to Surat and turn left at Charoti Naka soon after the second toll plaza. The Parsee owned restaurant Athithi at Charoti Naka is a good place to stop for breakfast en route Bordi. The restaurant also has clean washrooms. Stalls around hotel sell sweets, paan and more and one can stock up for the trip at this place. On the way back one can load up on weekly vegetables grown locally. Interestingly the tribal vendors sell vegetables by heaped portions and not by weight.
