Unicorn

Noun: unicorn 'yooni'korn An imaginary creature represented as a white horse with a long horn growing from its forehead. Though the popular image of the unicorn is that of a white horse differing only in the horn, the traditional unicorn has a billy-goat beard, a lion's tail, and cloven hoofs, which distinguish him from a horse. Interestingly, these modifications make the horned ungulate more realistic, since only cloven-hoofed animals have horns.

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Hanuman Tekdi

After lots of enquiries, I was finally able to locate the address of Hanuman Tekdi (hill) which is a favorite of joggers and located in the heart of the city. This small hill is surrounded by BMC College, Fergusson College and Symbiosis. Also on the Symbiosis side we can find Ambedkar museum. We can start our climb either from symbiosis side - from Senapti Bapat road or from the BMC college or Fergusson college. We parked our bike at the BMC college gate (two-wheelers not allowed inside college campus) and started our trek up this small hill. Once on the top the view was terrific. We could see Parvati at a distance. The glass and concrete marvels erected on Senapati Bapat road were also visible from the hill top in their full splendor in the morning sun. We got to the Symbiosis side, visited the museum and then went inside the Symbiosis institute to capture the bronze statue of "The Common Man" in my camera. Incidentally, Hanuman Tekdi was the place where there was a student initiative for rain water harvesting. On the way back we saw a small valley complete with a moss-filled pond that added to its beauty, right behind Symbiosis. There were Kingfishers flying across the pond, Lots of flowers and greenery all around. The hill is small but you get all the shots you need for photography as many as you would get in a trek on the Sahyadri hills.

Monday, July 10, 2006

Trek to Vitandgad

when I came to Pune almost 6 months back people were telling me about the beauty of trekking in the monsoons and how the clubs organize those treks. Monsoons arrived and suddenly the brown hued hills around pune came alive in green. I decided on embarking on a trek with a club called vadventure1 on Sunday, the 9th of July, 2006.
D-Day arrives
I have never been to a trek before and I was apprehensive about it. I started working out and made it a point to walk atleast 4 kms everyday in the morning since the last 3 weeks. I woke up at 5 AM in the morning, got ready, had noodles and coffee for breakfast, packed my back pack with lunch, water, camera and torch and I was off to the bus stop by 6 AM to catch a bus to Swargate, our meeting point.

Bumpy ride
I still don't get it why they write the bus number only in Marathi (or use Devanagari script) instead of the regular Roman numerals. I don't know Marathi neither am I conversant with the numerals. I waited for a bus to show up, just saw if Swargate was written on it and just hopped in. I have used PMT bus for travel only once and even there I didn't sit in the last row. This time I had no chance to sit towards the front of the bus as it was full. I eased myself into the last row only to find that it was very difficult to remain in seat as the driver was speeding and the potholes in Pune roads made me jump up and down in the seat. I was relieved when I finally
arrived at Swargate bus stop.

Drive to Jawan village
We took the ST bus to Jawan village near Pawana dam. The drive was very scenic and it was a hint of the things to come. It started raining while the bus was edging its way towards our destination. We got off at the village. There were about 40 people ready for the trek now. We had breakfast of Idli-Chutney at a loacl hut there. The icing on the cake was the hot tea served while it was drizzling outside. Wind cheaters up, Cameras locked and loaded, ready for the trek we made a circle and introduced ourselves to the group. We then started to the foot of the hill.

Walk across the paddy fields
The walk towards the foot of the hill was through paddy fields. At first I was worried about all the mud that was getting stuck to my shoes. Then suddenly I slipped and I was in ankle deep mud. My brand new Adidas changed from dark grey to dark brown. Now I was no longer worried. Just continued walking while clicking snaps in between. All around me were small waterfalls about 3-6 feet in height. It was intermittently raining with bursts of sunshine in between. The hill tops were covered in fog but oddly our target - Tikona fort or Vitandgad was clearly visible from the foot of the hill.

On higher grounds
The walk across the fields lead us to our first resting point a little above the fields. After that the walk was through bushes we came to the second resting point at a temple. A Gurudwara was also nearby. After resting for a while we started on the most difficult and terrifying part of the climb. Of all the things that I weighed before I embarked on the trek, I overlooked one thing - My morbid fear of heights (acrophobia). I overlooked it because it was lying dormant for several years and I haven't been to great heights in recent times. The steep incline, the valley on
either sides, the height all made life difficult for me and time and again I thought of quitting the trail and sitting it out while the rest climbed up. I was only able to complete the trek owing to the psychological push given by my friend Vijaypal and the organizer Nitin. If not for them I would have missed the view from the top.

Hanuman
While going up right at the base of the fort there was huge stone carving of Hanuman. Nitin told me that people still come here from the village below to pay their respects to him. I too pad my respects and took a snap of the God in his cute red avatar.

Why steps are high in forts?
Nitin gave me an explanation as to why steps are high in forts - to prevent animals both domestic and wild from climbing up. If the ascent is steep then if the enemy starts climbing up the steps they just need to dislodge the top one and send him down and the rest will all tumble down. He also told us that Shivaji made good use of these forts which were built by the Satavahanas. When I questioned the logic behind constructing these forts on the hill tops when the actual city and money are in the valley below he said that the fort was for the protection of persons and not the property.

Theory of Relativity
Climbing up from the base of the fort the steps became steeper and the height of the steps was about a foot and a half each. I was getting worried about the possibility of slipping. It was a little over 90 minutes since I started walking and already I was feeling like I had been walking since five hours. When I told the same to Nitin some trekker climbing ahead of me shouted down "Theory of Relativity"!

CheGuvera
Crawling, Pushing, Hanging and hauling myself up, I made it to the top of the steps. There was this guy who was smoking wearing a red T-shirt with a Cheguvera print on it who remarked that I would die if I had been to the BhimaShankar trek. He was arguing with an odd sense of
logic when he said that he would drop his plastic water bottle on the road so that it would get picked up and get recycled rather than in the dustbin where it might not get recycled at all. While all this discussion was raging I was trying to go to the top most point of the fort. Incidentally there was a huge step on the way and that was the only place when Nitin had gladly accepted to give me a hand and pull me up to my relief (I was worried that my weight might pull him down).

Jeans are bad
Through this experience I learnt that jeans are bad for hill climbing treks. I walked towards the end of the top most point in the fort. The breeze was cool and soothing. Suddenly it started raining and we all decided to start the climb down to the base of the fort where there was a man-made cave to have lunch. That was when I noticed that Cheguvera was going into the temple of Lord Shiva present at the top of the fort with out removing his footwear and smoking a cigarette. I heard him say that God wouldn't mind.

Trek down was uneventful, it wasn't as bad as I imagined it would be because of the constant support and enthusiasm given by Vijaypal and Nitin. Finally I made it to the point where we took rest for second time while we were climbing up. After that I took a close up snap of a flower which I have never seen before - Nitin told me that it is used while worshipping lord Ganesh. We visited Chota Himkund, a gurudwara which was a replica of the Himkund gurudwara in the Himalayas. We were treated to wonderful tea by the master of the house which takes care of that gurudwara. It started raining like cats and dogs when we reached the foot of the hill and I missed several good shots because I couldn't get the camera out for the fear of rain water spoiling my lens.

The aftermath of the trek
We finally got on to the bus that brought us back to Pune. I alighted at Karve Road only to find that there were some riots going on at Deccan Gymkhana and there were no autos or buses available. I was finally able to coax an auto driver into taking me to Aundh but he charged me double the normal rate. I was home - all muddy and wet. It took me about 20 mins to clean my shoe while it took me another 20 mins to get cleaned up myself. There is no such refresher as a hot water bath after a hard day's toil to soothe your muscles.

Acknowledgements
I wouldn't have been able to complete this trek without the enthusiasm and help of Vijaypal and Nitin.

Monday, July 03, 2006

Pune Darshan

IMay 27th, 2006: Today I finally embarked on a journey across Pune city - to know the place where I live, better. I booked Pune Darshan. The trip started at 9 AM and ended at 6 PM . The trip was both demanding and yet exhilarating. I was always aware that Pune had a rich heritage. I was unaware as to where to start looking. Pune Darshan trip organized by PMT is very good endeavor in helping non-puneris understand Pune better ...

First point was Tilak museum in Narayan peth. This was the residence of LokManya Balgangadhar Tilak. It was also the publishing house of his newspaper Kesari. We can find life size models of Tilak in the museum. Looking from a distance you feel that indeed Tilak is reading in his study.

Second point was Shanivarwada fort. Already been there once. Built by the Peshwas, all that is left of the fort is its wall.

Then the third stop was Mahatma Phule wada - The once upon a time residence of Mahatma Jyoti Rao Phule, a social reformer of the early twentieth century. A passing reference is made to this great man in Nehru's Discovery of India. Located in the twisted and congested lanes of old Pune the house brought back the memories of my ancestral home in my village. It was remarkably well maintained but the department taking care of it should have put enough lighting inside the house to shine on the portraits and other artifacts that were housed inside.

Shinde Chaata - The temple of the Shindes
A magnificent temple tucked away inside a remote corner of the city in Wanowrie off NIBM road. This temple was built by the Shindes. I was in for a surprise when the guide told me that this was built by the family better know today as the Scindias (They moved to Madhya Pradesh and Shinde became Scindia). The most famous of them being MadhavaRao Scindia and Vasundhara Raje Scindia and the current scion Jyothiraditya Scindia.

Katraj snake park (Rajeev Gandhi Udyan)
Until I visited this snake park I never knew that there were 3 types in the turtle family - I always thought there were only two: Turtles and Tortoises. Here I met the third kind, Terrapins - These have webbed feet with claws protruding out of their fingers. Several species of snakes were on display inside. It was very touching to know that the scientist who was instrumental in setting up the park lost his hand due to a snake bite! It seems he still preaches that snakes are harmless and don't harm you unless provoked. I bought a WWF calendar inside the park that now adorns my desk in the office.

Sarasbag Ganesh temple
A very picturesque garden, a small lake in the middle. In the middle of the lake sits Lord Ganesh in his island abode. The temple is serene and cool. The specialty of the temple is that in all other Ganesh temples the snout is bent to the left hand side while here it is bent to the right hand side. Apart from that the temple houses a museum that has various types of Ganesh idols made from all sorts of materials on display. The temple and the garden are great but you have to stand the stench of the lake.

For lunch we halted at a nice little restaurant tucked way inside a quite corner of sarasbag.

Dr.Kalkar museum
This was one of the most elaborate and biggest one-man collections that I have seen. The exhibits were neatly arranged and information was posted alongside of each one. There was very cute Ganesha made out of utensils. Also they were planning to open a new wing in the museum - Mastani Palace - They literally cut out a piece from a palace in Kothrud and pasted it inside the museum as a tribute to the eternal love story of BajiRao-Mastani. When I heard that Sanjay Leela Bhansaali was making a film called BajiRaoMastani with Salman Khan in the lead, I had no clue what it was. Now thanks to the museum I understood that it was a love story between BajiRao, the Peshwa and his court dancer Mastani.

Konark bird sanctuary
About 20 mins away from the museum and outside the city on the Pune Mumbai highway lies a small resort tucked way in the hills. "Konark" is its name. Not until you get into the first aviary, do you realize that this small resort houses a huge collection of rare birds including macaques (giant parrots from south America whose cries are deafening), Ostriches (about 8-9 feet in height), Emus, Cassowary (a bird like the Ostrich except that it is found in Australia) and loads of other avian species. The money you spend on the entry fees (about 10 bucks) is worth every penny. This is private collection and owned by an ornithologist and photography is strictly prohibited (Though I did manage to get a few snaps of the Ostrich and Emu)

Ambedkar museum
The last stop on the tour after the arduous climb at Chatu shringi temple. This museum is very well maintained, neat, clean and has sufficient air conditioning and light. It houses the relics of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar along with the Bharat Ratna medallion that he was awarded along with his personal artifacts. It is adjacent to Symbiosis college in Senapati Bapat road. The entire halle is under a huge dome built in the shape of a Buddhist stupa but only here it was covered with blue cermaic tiles giving it a very modern look. The surrounding garden near the dome make it look like a piece straight out of StarTrek! What struck me was the fact nobody bothered to take his shoes off while entering into this dome that housed the remains of Dr. Ambedkar and even the staff at the museum were very laid back and didn't ask for that to be done.

By about 6.15 PM we were dropped back at Deccan busstop. During the course of the tour I had exposed a complete reel of photographs, bought Rs.200 worth of souvenirs and was exhausted. But I felt good because I now know the city and its heritage better.

http://www.punediary.com/html/punedarshan.html