Fri 12 Dec 2014 Pune
Up early. The internet is still way closed, so we walk over to a nearby garden and exercise area by the riverfront. There is a sign for a sponsored walking tour that departs at 7 AM Saturday and Sunday, covering some of the old parts of town we saw yesterday. The map also indicates the location or some other interesting possibilities. Mike snaps a photo of the route for future reference. Then we walk out to a pathway down to the river.
It is 0830 and Mike does not want to walk all around Pune just quite yet. Time to chill for him, so he goes back to the hotel room to work on the blog and rest.
Carol goes out and explores Koregaon Park. This neighborhood is laid out as a rectangle with six 'lanes' between a North Main Road and a South Main Road. Some of the Osho ashramites we spoke with yesterday said that the Osho gardens are a must-see, so she heads first to the Osho main gates, passing the roadblocks and police guarding the entrance. Bummer - the only morning time the gardens are open to the general public is 0600-0900. Absent the daytime maroon robes required for Osho-ites, not to mention the 1560 R short-term daily fee for international visitors and the mandatory HIV test, it's no-go for now.
Walking the lanes is like being in the country in the city. It's quiet; only the sound of birds and domestic animals. There are huge banyan trees. Up and down Lanes 1-4 there are mansion houses (AKA bungalows) on large plots, many of them with signs in front: NOT FOR SALE. At Lane 5 there is loud construction. Carol realizes that this is where our hapless rickshaw driver tried to deliver us the first day. It turns out that the first four lanes are governed by the Collector's Lease of 1930, which puts a restriction on high-rise buildings. Thanks to the stringently implemented rule, the four lanes have remained 'only-bungalow areas' even as the other lanes are punctuated with high-rise residences and commercial establishments. Time to head back.
There is a sign on South Main Road for the Sassoon Jewish Cemetery. A security guard watching the place has an entry book to register visitors, but there is no great formality to enter and browse around. It is a rather ramshackle collection of aged tombstones and some more-elaborated raised graves. Inscriptions are in several languages, reflecting the origins of those buried beneath. Some are Veddy British, extolling service to the Raj or containing sentimental Victorian couplets mourning the deceased.
After 1200 Carol comes back to Surya Villas. Mike is rested and ready to walk. We go out and walk around three crossroads of Koregaon Park. Along the way, Mike thinks about taking a picture of one massive mansion we pass that has two really fat and torpid guard (?) dogs lying in front. The gates obscure any view of the house within. As he pulls out his camera, a security guard comes over. No pictures, not even of fat dogs.
Then, around the backstreet to the Jewish Cemetery. Carol got in free earlier this morning, but Mike's camera costs 200 R (money probably staying with the guard instead of going to a cemetery restoration fund). A good number of the graves are for folks who were "born in Baghdad", which may or may not be shorthand for born in the Middle East. Others don't have that designation and are presumably Bene Israel (original Indian Jews).
It is now past 1300 and we are both really hungry. We catch a rickshaw back to the Muslim neighborhood - maybe to finally chow down on a "beef roll." It is not a long trip, for 80 R. We think our driver is taking us to Laxmi Rd and Nehru Blvd, as we requested. These are both major streets - we will explore from there. But it is eventually apparent that the driver hasn't understood (he is thinking of a much longer trip). We are on Laxmi Rd well past Nehru Blvd, all the way into the old city (where we were the day before). We see that we are past where we wanted to be, AND it is starting to rain, so we pay him and hop out.
Yikes. The rain is now coming down at a right respectable clip. Day 31 of the trip, and this is the FIRST rain of our trip! Wet feet and damp clothes. We duck inside a jewelry store, just to get out of this mini-monsoon. The nice people who run this gold store (and their guard) continued displaying some heavy gold items while we waited out the rain.
The guys staffing the jewelry store say there is a very good restaurant very near - 50 m down the street, up on the 2nd floor. It is called Bhagat Tarachand. We go in. It is veg (of course) but we anticipate Good Eats. Very nice, upscale, but with downscale prices. We order alu mutter (140 R), karela fry (100 R), and yellow dal (90 R), along with roti (30 R), and a bottle of chaas (buttermilk) (80 R, but it is BIG, enough for 2+ glasses for both of us). Really good, and really satisfying for two really hungry folks. The total price was 462 R, incl. a 5% service chg. (less than $8).
We are through before 1500. Time for some internet, just around the corner.
After internet, we walk a little, and then get a rickshaw back to the hotel. We relax a little, take a walk together through Koregaon Park, trying to find the Osho teerth, another set of gardens. We don't succeed in finding the gardens, but we do buy some delicious roasted corn from a street vendor. Mike smirks that these are 50 R each - tourist gouging compared with our corn at Elephanta Island, Champaneer and Rajkot (20-30 R). While we eat our corn we chat with two other customers - a cute young maroon-robed English-speaking couple. Nothing like Osho attitudes and an exotic locale to put some bounce in your step.
A little after 1800 we get a rickshaw to the synagogue. We tell the driver "synagogue," but also add "near Nehru statute." This combination of instructions works and we arrive there around 1820 or 1825, in plenty of time. Inside, Carol slips off her shoes to conform with other congregants and enjoys the feel of the cool marble floors. Everything is perfect, EXCEPT that the service started well before 1800 and is now just finishing up. They did not have a minyan. GRRRRR.
Mike sits next to a Pune gentleman who left for Israel 40 years ago, and is now back visiting. He, and the others really want us to come back tomorrow morning at 8 am or so.
Some history: Ohel David Synagogue, reportedly Asia’s largest synagogue outside Israel, was built by Sir David Sassoon in 1867. It is also known as “Lal Davel” (the red synagogue) because of its red brick construction. The English Gothic style structure, with a 90 foot high spire, is part of a compound that houses a non-operational mikvah as well as the burial site of Sir David Sassoon.
After services we walk down the road a little bit. This is Sarbatwalla Chowk, the ethnic center of Pune. A little Queens or Buford Highway, if you will. Here's the story:
"Many generations back, a king eager to attract Brahmins to his kingdom offered land grants to any who would come and settle in ‘the village of Pune,’ as those with long memories still call this now bustling city of Pune. Many took up the offer, made their homes alongside the purifying waters of the town’s broad rivers, and established Pune as a stronghold of Brahminical culture and learning. It is still today a great place to come to study that culture’s lifeblood, the Sanskrit language. Brahmins’ status as Brahmins depended on maintaining ritual purity. The necessary distance from potentially polluting factors was upheld physically as well as socially. As such, those who are not members of one of the upper castes were discouraged from making their homes within the boundaries of the heavily Brahmin Pune village. Even today, it is within the ‘village’ of Pune that Brahmins and members of the upper three Hindu castes tend to make their homes. And for generations now, everyone else - Jews, Jains, Christians, Muslims, Parsis, as well as members of those Hindu groups once called ‘out-caste’ or ‘untouchable’ - has made their homes outside that central area of Pune, and away from the pure waters of the city’s two rivers. This extravaganza of religious pluralism, ironically enough, turns out to be a by-product of the exclusivist impulses of Pune’s Brahmin community."
Our walk takes us to Dorabjee, a grocery store/ restaurant established in 1878. Feels like a Parsi Zabar's for imported food and groceries. They have strict rules against entering the store with backpacks of any kind, so Mike waits at the door while Carol goes in. She soon calls for Mike and they trade places. There on the wall is a sign advertising "Leg of Ham." The butchers are evidently taking orders for Christmas. In two days, we have seen signs for beef and pork. Not easy things to find in India.
Around 1915 we catch a rickshaw back to the hotel, just as it is starting to rain again. By the time we get to the hotel, it is raining hard! Up to our room to wait out this downpour.
By 2030, the rain has stopped, so it is over next door to Yogi Tree. Our choice is to eat inside the already-crowded indoor restaurant or to take a table under the outdoor tents. We choose the later and order Russian Soup (Carol) (120 R), Cream of Mushroom Soup (Mike) (120 R) and a pot of Ginger Lemon Tea (100 R). At the next outdoor table is a German guy who has just flown in. We try to get some conversation going, but are finally convinced that he is so exhausted that he just wants to be left alone.
For some reason, we left the umbrellas in the hotel. Just as we sat down on the patio under a canopy it started raining again, and rained hard while we were eating. Most everybody else was packed inside the restaurant = no room for us now. As we finished eating it let up a little bit so we could hustle back to our suite, where we appreciate the abundance of room to hang our wet clothes, wash some others, and dry wet shoes. TV, then to bed.
It rained hard all night. The next morning we were told that Pune had received 35 mm of rain (1.3").
Up early. The internet is still way closed, so we walk over to a nearby garden and exercise area by the riverfront. There is a sign for a sponsored walking tour that departs at 7 AM Saturday and Sunday, covering some of the old parts of town we saw yesterday. The map also indicates the location or some other interesting possibilities. Mike snaps a photo of the route for future reference. Then we walk out to a pathway down to the river.
It is 0830 and Mike does not want to walk all around Pune just quite yet. Time to chill for him, so he goes back to the hotel room to work on the blog and rest.
Carol goes out and explores Koregaon Park. This neighborhood is laid out as a rectangle with six 'lanes' between a North Main Road and a South Main Road. Some of the Osho ashramites we spoke with yesterday said that the Osho gardens are a must-see, so she heads first to the Osho main gates, passing the roadblocks and police guarding the entrance. Bummer - the only morning time the gardens are open to the general public is 0600-0900. Absent the daytime maroon robes required for Osho-ites, not to mention the 1560 R short-term daily fee for international visitors and the mandatory HIV test, it's no-go for now.
Walking the lanes is like being in the country in the city. It's quiet; only the sound of birds and domestic animals. There are huge banyan trees. Up and down Lanes 1-4 there are mansion houses (AKA bungalows) on large plots, many of them with signs in front: NOT FOR SALE. At Lane 5 there is loud construction. Carol realizes that this is where our hapless rickshaw driver tried to deliver us the first day. It turns out that the first four lanes are governed by the Collector's Lease of 1930, which puts a restriction on high-rise buildings. Thanks to the stringently implemented rule, the four lanes have remained 'only-bungalow areas' even as the other lanes are punctuated with high-rise residences and commercial establishments. Time to head back.
There is a sign on South Main Road for the Sassoon Jewish Cemetery. A security guard watching the place has an entry book to register visitors, but there is no great formality to enter and browse around. It is a rather ramshackle collection of aged tombstones and some more-elaborated raised graves. Inscriptions are in several languages, reflecting the origins of those buried beneath. Some are Veddy British, extolling service to the Raj or containing sentimental Victorian couplets mourning the deceased.
After 1200 Carol comes back to Surya Villas. Mike is rested and ready to walk. We go out and walk around three crossroads of Koregaon Park. Along the way, Mike thinks about taking a picture of one massive mansion we pass that has two really fat and torpid guard (?) dogs lying in front. The gates obscure any view of the house within. As he pulls out his camera, a security guard comes over. No pictures, not even of fat dogs.
Then, around the backstreet to the Jewish Cemetery. Carol got in free earlier this morning, but Mike's camera costs 200 R (money probably staying with the guard instead of going to a cemetery restoration fund). A good number of the graves are for folks who were "born in Baghdad", which may or may not be shorthand for born in the Middle East. Others don't have that designation and are presumably Bene Israel (original Indian Jews).
It is now past 1300 and we are both really hungry. We catch a rickshaw back to the Muslim neighborhood - maybe to finally chow down on a "beef roll." It is not a long trip, for 80 R. We think our driver is taking us to Laxmi Rd and Nehru Blvd, as we requested. These are both major streets - we will explore from there. But it is eventually apparent that the driver hasn't understood (he is thinking of a much longer trip). We are on Laxmi Rd well past Nehru Blvd, all the way into the old city (where we were the day before). We see that we are past where we wanted to be, AND it is starting to rain, so we pay him and hop out.
Yikes. The rain is now coming down at a right respectable clip. Day 31 of the trip, and this is the FIRST rain of our trip! Wet feet and damp clothes. We duck inside a jewelry store, just to get out of this mini-monsoon. The nice people who run this gold store (and their guard) continued displaying some heavy gold items while we waited out the rain.
The guys staffing the jewelry store say there is a very good restaurant very near - 50 m down the street, up on the 2nd floor. It is called Bhagat Tarachand. We go in. It is veg (of course) but we anticipate Good Eats. Very nice, upscale, but with downscale prices. We order alu mutter (140 R), karela fry (100 R), and yellow dal (90 R), along with roti (30 R), and a bottle of chaas (buttermilk) (80 R, but it is BIG, enough for 2+ glasses for both of us). Really good, and really satisfying for two really hungry folks. The total price was 462 R, incl. a 5% service chg. (less than $8).
We are through before 1500. Time for some internet, just around the corner.
After internet, we walk a little, and then get a rickshaw back to the hotel. We relax a little, take a walk together through Koregaon Park, trying to find the Osho teerth, another set of gardens. We don't succeed in finding the gardens, but we do buy some delicious roasted corn from a street vendor. Mike smirks that these are 50 R each - tourist gouging compared with our corn at Elephanta Island, Champaneer and Rajkot (20-30 R). While we eat our corn we chat with two other customers - a cute young maroon-robed English-speaking couple. Nothing like Osho attitudes and an exotic locale to put some bounce in your step.
A little after 1800 we get a rickshaw to the synagogue. We tell the driver "synagogue," but also add "near Nehru statute." This combination of instructions works and we arrive there around 1820 or 1825, in plenty of time. Inside, Carol slips off her shoes to conform with other congregants and enjoys the feel of the cool marble floors. Everything is perfect, EXCEPT that the service started well before 1800 and is now just finishing up. They did not have a minyan. GRRRRR.
Mike sits next to a Pune gentleman who left for Israel 40 years ago, and is now back visiting. He, and the others really want us to come back tomorrow morning at 8 am or so.
Some history: Ohel David Synagogue, reportedly Asia’s largest synagogue outside Israel, was built by Sir David Sassoon in 1867. It is also known as “Lal Davel” (the red synagogue) because of its red brick construction. The English Gothic style structure, with a 90 foot high spire, is part of a compound that houses a non-operational mikvah as well as the burial site of Sir David Sassoon.
After services we walk down the road a little bit. This is Sarbatwalla Chowk, the ethnic center of Pune. A little Queens or Buford Highway, if you will. Here's the story:
"Many generations back, a king eager to attract Brahmins to his kingdom offered land grants to any who would come and settle in ‘the village of Pune,’ as those with long memories still call this now bustling city of Pune. Many took up the offer, made their homes alongside the purifying waters of the town’s broad rivers, and established Pune as a stronghold of Brahminical culture and learning. It is still today a great place to come to study that culture’s lifeblood, the Sanskrit language. Brahmins’ status as Brahmins depended on maintaining ritual purity. The necessary distance from potentially polluting factors was upheld physically as well as socially. As such, those who are not members of one of the upper castes were discouraged from making their homes within the boundaries of the heavily Brahmin Pune village. Even today, it is within the ‘village’ of Pune that Brahmins and members of the upper three Hindu castes tend to make their homes. And for generations now, everyone else - Jews, Jains, Christians, Muslims, Parsis, as well as members of those Hindu groups once called ‘out-caste’ or ‘untouchable’ - has made their homes outside that central area of Pune, and away from the pure waters of the city’s two rivers. This extravaganza of religious pluralism, ironically enough, turns out to be a by-product of the exclusivist impulses of Pune’s Brahmin community."
Our walk takes us to Dorabjee, a grocery store/ restaurant established in 1878. Feels like a Parsi Zabar's for imported food and groceries. They have strict rules against entering the store with backpacks of any kind, so Mike waits at the door while Carol goes in. She soon calls for Mike and they trade places. There on the wall is a sign advertising "Leg of Ham." The butchers are evidently taking orders for Christmas. In two days, we have seen signs for beef and pork. Not easy things to find in India.
Around 1915 we catch a rickshaw back to the hotel, just as it is starting to rain again. By the time we get to the hotel, it is raining hard! Up to our room to wait out this downpour.
By 2030, the rain has stopped, so it is over next door to Yogi Tree. Our choice is to eat inside the already-crowded indoor restaurant or to take a table under the outdoor tents. We choose the later and order Russian Soup (Carol) (120 R), Cream of Mushroom Soup (Mike) (120 R) and a pot of Ginger Lemon Tea (100 R). At the next outdoor table is a German guy who has just flown in. We try to get some conversation going, but are finally convinced that he is so exhausted that he just wants to be left alone.
For some reason, we left the umbrellas in the hotel. Just as we sat down on the patio under a canopy it started raining again, and rained hard while we were eating. Most everybody else was packed inside the restaurant = no room for us now. As we finished eating it let up a little bit so we could hustle back to our suite, where we appreciate the abundance of room to hang our wet clothes, wash some others, and dry wet shoes. TV, then to bed.
It rained hard all night. The next morning we were told that Pune had received 35 mm of rain (1.3").
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