Exploring the city
Howdy fellas! So this weekend I had no plans as such, but guess what those plans that are made at the spur of a minute end up being more enjoyable. Sunday was Friendship’s day (yes, it’s all commercial now-but still people in a B-school happened to celebrate it!) A late morning followed by working on an OB presentation, I got a brainwave of sorts to go explore the city with my friends. Mother nature seemed to be on our side with the Sun out at full blast. The stage was set and all that I had to do was find out the places we’d enjoy visiting. Google and Justdial as friends and inputs from local students, this wasn’t a hard task.
The plan for lunch was with my roommate and 3 other girls (well no prizes for guessing, we went shopping) was to roam around FC(Fergusson College) road and soak in one of the famous areas of Pune. Walking on the streets, we happened to bump in to one of our faculties-the marketing professor! With my roommate as our guide we didn’t have to bother much, from Goodluck, to the famous tapir sandwich guy. A narrow lane of the name Hong Kong lane was where the girls go most of their shopping needs fulfilled. While I had a different agenda: wanted-a cobbler! It so happened that my footwear had ripped apart thanks to the immense rains and only a cobbler could work the magic. That done, we were walking around and it was a wonderful experience in all- the roadside hawkers, the booksellers, clothes at throw away prices, little boys blowing bubbles around, people selling rakhis and of course the friendship bands for the last day. With one of my roommate’s birthday round the corner we even hunted around for a present but in vain.
Next up we sat and tasted the Cad-B: a one oft famous and typical item of Pune. My verdict: overrated, not much of a sweet tooth perhaps that’s why the disparity :p I then had plans with my classmates to head out to the the Aga Khan palace at Yerwada. A long journey coupled with immense adventure was something to remember! Catching a rick in the city is difficult, once that’s done what’s even difficult is to get them to run by the metre. We were able to get through round 1 however our rickshaw broke down mid-way. Changing ricks and going through the ordeal of getting another by the metre, was a task in itself. Once at the palace, we were surprised at the extremely nominal entry fee: Rs.5 per adult! Woohoo! (the miser within me was soooo happy). Once in, we observed the paintings, the variety of clothes that Gandhi and his wife adorned, their chambers, the utensils used and even their washroom! Post this brief in History, we went to view the Samadhis of Gandhi, his wife and his secretary.
Once youngsters are together, how could we possibly not have clicked photographs! So much that one of my friends actually slipped and fell in the mossy area because of the ardent need to be clicked!
Our next stop was KP. Known to be the most happening place in the city, we thought of checking out the all famous German bakery. Hardly a stone’s throw away from the palace, we reached only to find ourselves waiting to enter the bakery. A 10min wait and a slight stroll around the O Hotel (Osho) we were in, and it wasn’t just us but a couple of few from our college were already in enjoying the savouries. Oddly enough the only “sweet” item we ordered was a cheesecake. The rest of the order depicted our hunger-pangs immensely, from fish n chips to pizzas we relished everything. What was the most disappointing part of the experience, was the slow service! We waited more than half an hour for our drinks and obviously they obliged with complimentary muffins 🙂
On our way back it wasn’t our rickshaw that had broken down but somebody else’s and the driver actually went ahead to offer his help-humanity exists! Reaching the college way before the in-time we went on to continue with our day’s (or rather night’s work) and I completed my assignments.
As I type this in, I realise I’m late for breakfast and eventually will be for the lecture too: so a next update at a later date. Cheers! 🙂