Pune Blogging

2006-08-29T05:34:00.000-07:00

Relax ! Have a Char Minar

Trivial Thoughts In Pune

2005-09-24T22:12:00.000-07:00

{{ VIA TRIVIAL MATTERS }}

This Sunday morning is perfect for offloading those random thoughts accumulating in that empty head of mine.

All shops are closed beteween 1:30 p.m and 3 p.m . Why you ask ? Afternoon Siesta.
Punekar's love their afternoon sleep.Still wondering why they call Pune a sleepy city ?

All women here drive wearing lab-coats and use their dupattas as head gear which makes them look more like ninjas or bandit queens. There actually really quite fierce.

The Sakal headlines reads "Pune gella Khadeyat" [loosely tranlated into --Pune has dispeared into a Pothole --].

Punekars are really quite capitalistic.
Me - Here's the paper bill. [hands money and bill]
Paper fellow - Can you give it to me tomorrow. [giving money back]

200,000 cars and 1 million two-wheelers in 146 square k.m --- do the math.
I've had 3 accidents in 2 years. [all minor thankfully -- you could read about on them here]

People talk more in smaller cities. I sometimes have trouble keeping up with my rickshaw-wallahs.

How to read a Pune rickshaw meter ? {[Meter reading*6]add 2}

I get a lot of google queries about this --- One can get a Neeta Volvo to Pune near Dadar TT circle and it costs roughly 200rs.

Watching Sarkar, rohits and dabbas joint sentiment --- Where is Katrina Kaif ?
Pune is India's 8th Largest City but 5th richest, has the highest average per capita income for any Indian city which equates to least unemployment and one of the best standard of living.
Most maharashtrans can't pronounce 'J' it comes out 'jzee'[as in Issiah] for some reasons. It's especially hilarious if you studying vectors [i, jzee, k].
Poona traffic police are called 'pandus' not 'mamus' like Bombay and they eat 'kanda poha' not 'vada paus'. Paunch and other accessories same.

The other features you can look if you liked this one are -

Trivial Thoughts in Bombay & Dehli

Pune Photo Diary.

2005-06-21T23:01:00.000-07:00

VIA trivial matters.

[taking at Shaniwar Wada, Pune]

Photo/Pictures are regular features on this blog and have been for some time.
Here my most recent addition to my Photo diaries, the Pune Dairy. All pictures were taken in and around Pune during the last month.

[Shaniwar Wada front]{note - the first picture was taken from the top balcony}

[Taking in some of the sights.]

Shaniwar Wada served as a palace but nothing remains of this palace as it was gutted in a fire.

Off J.M[Jungle Maharaj] road lies, Pune oldest living heritage,The Cave Temples of Pataleshwar.

[Pataleshwar Temples- Carved out of one big rock]

[Orange Doorways - still Pataleshwar]

[siesta time !]

[Roots]

After walking around you sure feel hungry. Lucky's Biriyani to the rescue. Lucky's and Cafe Goodluck are among deccan food establishmnet. Long live irani restaurants eh?

[Chicken Biriyani at Lucky's - Rs 55 /-]{NOTE - yum !}

[Lambadi Women - taken at my house from the terrace]

With the old come the new. Pune happens to be India boom towns and has amazing growth in the past decade.
Here a sparkling new mall in Pune

[ Mall mania]

That's all folks for now. If you want look at some more pictures go over my flickr page.

Here are some my old Photo Diaries.

January 2005 Will be raining Films in Pune

2004-12-30T10:06:00.000-08:00

There are a lot of things to look forward to 2005 and the one thing I'm going to be really looking forward to this January is The Third Pune International Film Festival, I caught it this year and I won't miss it this time.And guess what? Its going to be bigger with over 40 films from all across the globe it going to be a scorcher.I'm so excited.

Pune Intl Film Fest aims at world
[via Times of India] says -

PUNE: It's all in the greater cause of promoting films. No one's complaining as French films, including big names, unreleased films, Alfred Hitchcock thrillers, retrospectives on Marlon Brando, Guru Dutt, Jayashree Shantaram, Homi Wadia, Mehmood and Laxmikant Berde, a world cinema competition and Shakespeare in cinema are just part of the treat promised by the 3rd Pune International Film Festival (PIFF).

The festival will be held from January 14-20, 2005.

You can check out the official site of the Pune International Film Festival (PIFF)
here [link]

The opening film is

Grill Point - Director - Andreas Dresen (Germany)

You can view the entire list of all the forty films here.[link]

and the closing film is

Taking Sides - Director - Istvan Szabo (Hungary)

As for me cannot wait.Expect updates.

Mula Mutha

2004-12-15T12:04:00.000-08:00

I know all that’s left of the Mula Mutha is a meandering sewage canal. But if you look very carefully you might still find some beauty. Therefore in the search of beauty I went and surprisingly I found some. I found some stilts, sandpipers, plovers, open billed storks, marsh harriers. On Aundh Road just a few minutes drive form my house.

On the grasy banks I sat with the grazing buffuloes and the lazy goat and lest I forget the our winter visitors from Eurasia.Swooping in over waters edge as their reflections shown by the sun.

2004-12-15T12:03:00.000-08:00

Cranes, In water we wait.

2004-12-15T12:01:00.000-08:00

Harmony . Black and White. Cranes and some Egrets and my feet in foot deep mud. Pune .

2004-12-15T11:58:00.000-08:00

Lazy River Flowing in the shadow of Monstrosity .

2004-12-15T11:57:00.000-08:00

In flight

2004-12-15T11:55:00.000-08:00

My friend the goat.

2004-12-15T11:47:00.000-08:00

Well on a non discrete spot on the banks of the Mula Mutha river there once lay this beautiful buffalo ( such a lovely alliteration ).

2004-12-07T10:30:00.000-08:00

Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog.

Starling Sihaghad

2004-12-07T10:11:00.000-08:00

The road shines under the gaze of my front lights as we ride in the cold of winter morning. I can see my watch without taking my eyes the road and my hand off the right grip of the scooter, that it’s four-forty in the morning. The wind is cold as the breathe of the ice queen as she freeze my finger to senselessness. My eyes concentrate on the small elliptical path illuminated in front me on a moonlit sky through the dark visor of my helmet.

"Fuck, it's cold"

This thought is frozen in my head repeating itself like a stuck record. I juggle the grip of my cycle as I put my hands into the pockets of my jacket, trying to extract as much warmth from my body as possible.

I tap Nick on his knee as I point to my right and shout out to him

" Look Nick, a lake, this road seems familiar. "

Nick, a little apprehensive(as he should be)of my driving grunts in recognition as if to tell me to concentrate on the road in front of me rather than passing scenery.
Driving a two-wheeler has a very different dynamic to it then driving a car. In a car you're in your own compartment and what you don't realize is that thought the glass window everything appears like the television but on a motorcycle you part of the scene rather than be merely being a passive observer.

Nick and I are traveling to Sihaghad, having newer done it before we only have a very hazy almost literally on where we are going. I have found that most Indians(even me) are very bad at giving directions so probably even if you got someone to give you some direction you would most likely end up confused or even worse lost. Therefore in my infinite wisdom I have found a simple way to get somewhere is to ask as many people. Who said men do not ask for directions? Its simple lets say you want to get to point B from point A. What you do is ask various people along the way How to ? get to point B and follow the directions unless they contradict each other. If you've reached a contradiction ask another person and set the contradiction right. Probably repeat step 2 and step 3 and you'll get to your desired location. I’ll publish the full algorithm later if you like .
I followed my algorithm to the simplest of its guidelines and we reached with little or no problem.
Driving up a mountain on a 104cc Honda Activa scooter those have its problems coupled with bad roads and potholes so big whole armies could disappear into and steep inclines made the drive less than ideal. To add to this the tiny red indicator on my fuel dial pointed to empty. I didn't mean it to be like this but circumstances are sometimes stronger than human will.Trackback to 4:34 am as we pull into the Karve Road Petrol(gasoline, call it what you want) Station the power failis, leaving the station incapacitated and us with no fuel or at least not a lot of it. But we drove up the mountain in the cold and in the darkness and by some luck we didn't give ourselves the privilege of driving down a ravine.
As I said before navigation on roads in India is mostly by dead reckoning the compass in your head tells you where to do go . Let the North Star lead onto the path of Venus and in her beauty may you find peace.

As we rode up trying to avoid the unavoidable potholes Nick said silent prayers to himself, tightening the grip his legs had on the seat each time we bumped into something. As I said and have hinted at several times before we reached up, we conquered the cold , the road conditions and lack of fuel, we conquered Sihaghad.

Dawn is a time for creation, the creation of a new day a day conceived but not yet born .The starlings lit up the sky, a harbinger to this creation. In circles they flew dancing to welcome us.
TO BE CONTD ...in part 2

Note you could catch Nick's Blog and Read What He is Reading.

Nala Park(s)?

2004-11-15T01:18:00.000-08:00

I'd been in Pune for 3months before I visited Nala Park a.k.a Osho Teerth Park, on the insistence of a friend who was visiting us. Nestled in a by-lane of Koregaon park, it is one of the most idyllic places in Pune. Unlike the commune which is open only to members, the park is open to public as well. I’m glad, for I’d have missed a divine spot if it had restricted entry. They’ve made the park over a “Nala” which has been cleaned up and winds its way through the park like a stream, its waters flowing smoothly over certain regions and gushing down or bubbling over some rocks in others. Narrow winding lanes lead you through the cleverly landscaped park – the dense green foliage has an appearance of natural growth. No space for artificiality there…words really can’t describe the sheer beauty of the park. It’s a most serene experience to walk though the park early in the morning, with the sun-rays filtering through the leaves of the tall trees, the only sounds being the birds chirping in the distance and the water murmuring to you as it makes its way through the park…

As Kunal said : “At the very end of the park, nestled amongst these “rainforest-like” trees rests this serene statue of the Buddha, which is where I would like to take Milton (twisting his ear all along till I get him to this spot). I will sternly reprimand him for his pessimism- now that you have regained paradise…sagla bara aahay na?”

Truly, paradise in Pune! :-)

{Around a month back, I read in the papers of similar projects that have been undertaken elsewhere in the city by some samaritans who were concerned about the rapidly disappearing trees and decided to utilise the abundance of Nalas in the city for some good. Surprisingly they faced resistance not only from the slum dwellers who perceive the Nalas as open-air, free Sulabh-Shauchalays, but also from the residents of the high-rises that are sprouting up all over the city. I'd have thought that these people would welcome the beauitfication of their neighbourhoods - personally I'd welcome such a movement in Mundhwa, where even a rivulet has been transformed into a Nala because of the lack of basic civic sense. I'm all for more of these paradisical spots in Pune!}

Sleepy city of 4 million people. I love.

2004-09-25T13:01:00.000-07:00

Pune Blogging has been in a coma for some time so I thought better rekindle the link before Pune Blogging disappears all together.
Pune/Poona call what you like has been for more than a year and I've grown to like her for all eccentricities .
Eccentricities like killer traffic , her failing simplicity , afternoon siesta and all that come with this

sleepy city of 4 million people

If you don't know where Pune is here's the Wikipedia entry on Pune I'm sure it will help you along with the basics.Anyways all I would like to say is that I would like to keep this blog updated with new post on Pune .
By the way if you want to post here, my email is on my profile.

Rickety Rickshaw

2004-06-29T02:28:00.000-07:00

Our three-wheeler friend, the black and yellow Rickshaw (actually comes in an assortment of colours).
This transport of millions is not exactly what I call the breakfast of champions. Yet, the auto-rickshaw is India's most used urban transport.
When I came to Pune a year ago, I found few transport options to get from point A to point B. Let's face it, Pune like many other growing Indian cities has a public transport problem.

Yes there is the Pune City Bus system (PMT), but there is one major problem with it all the busses go either to Swargate or to Corporation. Therefore if you get from to your destination you have to via either Swargate or Corporation, which can be a tad irritating when your destination is in the other direction.
Therefore my choice of Public Transport The Rickety Rickshaw.
Actually most of the world's auto-rickshaws are made in Pune, by a company called Bajaj Auto.
A rickshaw ride constitutes first finding one .You will most likely find one at most Pune Nakas. There you'll probably find the 150cc 4stroke beast in the colours of the tiger. The anatomy of the rickshaw both exterior and interior greatly varies from city to city in India. For example ricks in Bombay are fitted with extensive 1000watt sub-woofers hi-fi systems with makes them moving bose speakers, punching the latest the Hindi hits one after the other. Who needs FM RADIO, thus Bombay rick embodies the city and the pune rick embodies pune, a more quieter and sleepier city.
What do you mean by quieter and sleepier? The classic example to the fact is that all shops (except the business like marwadis) close form 2:30 pm to 4pm for their "Afternoon Siesta”, now you know why I said sleepier.
Thus the Pune Ricks are simpler looking with plain more elegant interior. Our friend the rickshaw walla, bhau (brother) to you and me sits in the rickshaw cab, reading yesterday's edition of Sakal (Pune's most read daily).
After supplying Bhau with your destination and on him agreeing to it where off with the ring of the tariff meter. The streets of Pune like many another Indian city can be chaotic and sometimes hellishly gushing with traffic (cycles, lunas, scooters, motor-bikes, PMT busses, cars, trucks, rickshaws, the occassional cow or stray dog and of course pedestrians.) The rides starts as the he power ups his 150 cc 4 stroke engine zips out with sound that youth grandfathers vespa may have made.
Piercing to traffic, ricks are perfect modes of urban transport in heavily populated cities, which have sometimes-bad road conditions in diverse weather.
Once you are finished you have calculate the tariff, from the meter.which most of the time is governed by a complexed mathematical quation.
In Pune it is X*6 - (absX - 2)
, Where X is meter reading.
There for if you meter reading is let's say 3.20
You multiply by six and minus it from the difference of two
Thus the fare is 18 Rs (20 pause) but we round it off to 18 Rs.

I hope you've enjoyed my ride in the rickety rickshaw.
---

if you have something to share about pune you can leave a comment or you email me at akshaym@gmail.com

Perplexing Pune.

2004-06-11T07:25:00.000-07:00

Pune , like many other cities in India is strange, sometimes unexplainably so. For example no one seems to be able to explain Why?? my wheeler has been picked up twice in four days when it was in a parking zone and parked clearly in the faint yellow parking demarcation painted on the side of the road?? It looks like I'm going to make my customary trip to Deccan Police Station.For the help of people who have got their vehicle towed (in my case picked up) in the Deccan . DPS (deccan police station) is behind the side screen of deccan cricket clubs' ground. In only a few minutes I'll be a 150 rupees lighter while a eversmilling mamu (policemen in pune is lovingly referred to as a mamu in mumbai it is pandu I think) writes you a chalan(receipt). If you ,never have seen a pune traffic policemen , he is really hard to miss actually with spotless clean white uniform and is blue Nehru cap , and not to forget his overflowing paunch ... He likes his chaha (tea) and kanda poha (hard to explain really).

The Queen of the Deccan , Pune or formerly Poona never fails to perplex me ..

P,S-
yah, before I forget please comment , it keeps me going!!
and also if you something interesting to say about pune or poona ..email me at akshaym@gmail.com

An Unknown

2004-06-01T06:17:00.000-07:00

An Unknown
As I walked into the garden , my eyes immediately noticed the intensity of light drop from a torrid white to a more mellow blue filtering down thought the now dense foliage ,in contrast to the shield less sky , except for the odd cloud of course. I walked at a slow yet calculated pace scanning the surroundings , which I must mention where not entirely new to me yet not familiar either. I have been here before once.. a few days ago I was here.. yet now it is strangely different , yes it has rained and ,the soil has retained a certain moistness as cotton would if placed in front of an air conditioner in a humid coastal city .It is strangely different as I already said not to sound redundant but it is I tell you as I can't put my finger on the reason.. & Yes then it was morning and now it is mid afternoon.
Under the apparent shade of the somewhat tall , aged dense woody tropical trees sat people some in pairs , some in threes and some in larger groups , yet some like me where here alone.
Lovers seemed sitting on dense unkempt grass , some in deep conversation others in deeper mood of silence.. but This should not preoccupy me , I was here for a reason,.
I was here to find a place where I would rest my self to peer into rather large technical book and study. After about minutes in the this unfamiliar yet growingly familiar place I found my self at what seemed to be raised stone plinth. In the centre to be which , appeared to look like a memorial from far which on closer investigation was a grave...in the shape of a cross on this elevated surface. I sat my self on the stone plinth and worked on my as I mentioned on my "rather large" textbook. At first I didn't notice this strange marble cross on the ground ... But as time walked by my eyes fell on the following inscription..

"BORN MELROSE SOUTH AUSTRALIA NOVEMBER 13 1856 AND DIED AT THIS SPOT OF CHOLERA AT THIS VERY SPOT JANUARY 1886"

Curiosity got the better of me , as I got up walk around this central object and on the other side inscribed on the dark stone

" IN THE SACRED MEMORY OF THE LOVED"

I did a rough calculation in my head the person in question was or is 30(not got beyond 30 at least) when he/she had died of cholera as I already mentioned..
A name came then came to sight a name Alice Richman on the front end was inscribed..
As went back to my place and then to my book.
I began to think and a question resonated in my mind
Who is Alice Richman?

P.S
Now you will ask me how this related to pune..
Anyway to answer your question the place in question actually exist in Pune University in the student garden... pay it a visit it's worth it..

More on Pune.. next time . just let me get my exams out the way