Tag: Around the city in a MH-12…

This post is part of April 2015 AtoZ blogging challenge and I am writing about parks in Pune. My theme offered several options for some alphabets and very few for some. ‘S’ was among those where I could actually choose from the garden I want to write about!


S is for Saras Baug, a major landmark in the city. In the eighteenth century, Nanasaheb Peshwa built a small lake in this area which is at the base of the Parvati hill and a Ganesha Temple was constructed in the centre of this lake. To this day, the temple is much  revered among the Punekars. He also developed a garden which has undergone several makeovers thereafter. Here is a link to the Shree Deveshwar Sansthan website that has more information about the temple.


The garden is open all day long unlike most other parks in the city. The lawns are well maintained and seem healthy and green as they are kept off limits for visitors (this possibly protects them from footfalls of hundreds of visitors daily). A unique feature is the piped music played on specially installed speakers along the tiled walkway. There is a thriving street food market outside the park plus several activities for kids like horse rides, merry-go-rounds, carousels and so on…. The atmosphere outside is colourful, happy and highly energetic – one that never fails to cheer me up. People from all walks of life, all faiths and all ages are simply enjoying!

Pink Canna to border the lawns

Lawns

Pond with water lilies

Getting back to the garden, it has some wonderfully old trees and some not so old ones too! The Lagerstromia speciosa here are spectacular. This flower locally called Jarul or Tamhan is the state flower of Maharashtra.

Tamhan

Info:
Entry: Free
Timing: All Day

I cannot complete this post without a mention of the Sambhaji Park – yet another landmark garden in the city. I do not know its ‘age’ but suffice to say it has been around for four decades at least – the time that I have been visiting Pune…. The PMC Garden Department has its offices in a section of this garden and an annual fruit and vegetable show is held every year sometime in February. It has competitions for gardeners and home gardens and the displays using fruits/flowers/vegetables are absolutely stunning each year.  The creativity never ceases to impress me…. The Sambhaji Park is also home to a humble Aquarium and the Mutha River flows right alongside the garden.  This means, in case of heavy monsoon rains, when the river is in spate, the lower parts of the garden get inundated .. 


For tree lovers, the garden has the Bauhinia vahlii creeper, Kailashpati, Bottle Palms and an interesting coconut tree that has a Ficus growing on it… a classic example of avian propagation of seeds. 

Ficus growing on a Coconut tree

An Armoured Corps Vehicle On Display- an inspiration for the younger generation

A glimpse of the garden during the annual fruit and vegetable show

Info:
Entry: Free Aquarium entry ticket is INR 2 for adults and people over 4’4″. Kids INR1
Timing: Garden is 6AM to 11AM and 4PM to 8PM
Aquarium Timing: 8030AM to 11AM and 4.30PM to 8PM
Location Map here. 


Cheers!

This post is part of my April 2015 AtoZ Blogging Challenge where I have visited and am writing about gardens in Pune. I have depended extensively on maps (the old fashioned paper ones and e-maps on my phone and the PC) to identify gardens. As usual, one alphabet had me stumped and this time it was Q. Not because I could not find a garden but for an entirely different reason. Despite many maps indicating the Queens Garden, there is no ‘garden’ in the form that we all know.

The ‘star’ is the location of the Tribal Museum

Oh dear.

What does exist is a road that is called Queens Garden and the entire area is again called Queens Garden. It is a residential area with living accommodation for government officials! All my research skills were unable to spot existence of any ‘real’ garden in the past.

Now what?


I walked around the area and found that though I cannot write about a typical garden, this area has much to offer for tourists – for botany lovers, the heritage building that houses the Western Regional Centre of the Botanical Survey of India is a stone’s throw away and is a most interesting place to visit. 


The Tribal Museum is in the vicinity and should offer great insights into the life and culture of tribal folk. 


I saw this wall of sorts created by Banyan (Ficus benghalensis) trees on the road that leads to Queens Garden. It was amazing. This tree sort of ‘walks’ via its aerial roots that form a new tree wherever they touch the ground. The Ficus is like a keystone species in any jungle as its figs are an important diet of many animals and its leaves and branches offer a home for several species of reptiles, birds, bats, butterflies, moths etc…  Several species of the Ficus genus grow in India and many of them are wonderful for Bonsai as well.

So don’t lose heart because there is no real garden, there are other wonderful places to explore in this part of town. 
Cheers!

Info:
Visit this area not for its garden but for other attractions in the area. 
Being a defence neighbourhood, people passing through this area may be asked to prove their identity or subject to search.
Some parts of this area are out of bounds for foreigners.

My first choice for ‘P’ for my April 2015 AtoZ blogging challenge was the Peshwe Park in Pune. I have been visiting it since my childhood when it was a Zoo but more recently it has gone a total makeover from a Zoo to an energy park. Another interesting tidbit I have learnt is that way back in the late 1700s, this very site  had a menagerie which was created by Nana Phadnavis. Take a look at this sketch  “A Rhinoceros in the Peshwa’s Menagerie at Poona” 


To my utter despair, despite repeated attempts, I could not enter the Park (reserving this for another post!) so I must settle for the PL Deshpande Garden. PL Deshpande was an extremely popular author, poet, music composer, orator (to name just a few of his talents) and he is still revered among Marathi people around the world. The garden is named after him and is also called the Pune Okayama Friendship garden. Here is my original post. Thereafter, the park has an addition which is a version of the ‘Mughal Garden’ with terrace lawns, walkways and fountains. The entry ticket rates have also been hiked. 

The lawns are off- limits which I think is a good idea as it protects the grass as the park tends to get fairly crowded. There are several interesting species planted here. Prunus serrulata and Platanus orientalis are among the important uncommon trees planted in this garden. 

Here are some images from the garden from a while ago. Enjoy!

Photo credit @puneribaker

Photo credit @puneribaker

Photo credit @puneribaker

Photo credit @puneribaker

Info:
Entry: Ticketed entry
Time: 6AM to 10AM and 4PM to 8PM
Parking: Available
Rest Rooms: Available (quality and hygiene not checked)
Drinking Water: Available (quality and hygiene not checked)


This post is part of my April 2015 AtoZ blogging challenge and I am writing about parks in Pune. You can read other posts on this theme here. 

My theme for the 2015 April AtoZ is gardens in Pune. I am really happy with my choice as I have been able to see first hand the state of the parks in my city. Matoshri Ramai Bhimrao Ambedkar Udyan is a pretty garden that is metaphorically sandwiched in a college (Wadia), a hospital (Ruby Hall) and a five star hotel (Courtyard by Marriott) and on a main arterial road. I have often admired the Lagerstromia that bloom in this garden little realising that there is a lovely park that they grow in… 


Two Shirish trees (one on either side) dominate the centre of the park and their golden yellow pods rustle in every gust of wind. The almost ubiquitous tiled pathway in these PMC gardens meanders around the lawns and bisects a small open air auditorium of sorts. A great place to have a talk or song/dance program for a small group of people. The gazebos would be a good place to shelter from the sun or rain as there are not many ‘big’ shade giving trees as we saw in Chittaranjan Vatika. 

Canna

 This red flower is the Canna. What looks like red petals are not petals but are highly modified stamens (staminodes) and the real sepals and petals are hidden underneath. It can be said to be a relative of the Banana and Ginger. There are a large number of horticultural cultivars available in a range of beautiful colours that make them an ideal choice for gardens. 

Cycas in the lawns

The garden has the usual tree speices : Silver Oak, Auracaria, Ficus benjamina. The Lagerstromia were not blooming during my visit but the Lily and Canna were. 

Lilies

Manicured lawns

One side of the park has a Plumeria hedge. Many more trees are visible here ready for plantation

In my quest for Gardens A to Z in Pune and I had mentally slotted this park for ‘B’. This seemed so apt as there is a road called Bund Garden Road which means there has to be a Bund Garden right? To my utter disappointment, when I actually went there, I found its official name as “Mahatma Gandhi Udyan Limca Jogging Park’. This necessitated a revision of my list and fresh research and I chose to use the second part of the park’s given name.


As I said, it is located on the Bund Garden Road and its almost a land mark in Pune. The garden is right beside the Yerawada Bridge (erstwhile Fritzgerald Bridge) but has now been sort of bisected after construction of a new bridge across the MulaMutha River. The jogging track is on one side and the landscaped lawns are on the other side and accessed via a walkway under the new bridge. 

Garden location

The jogging track seemed to be popular among senior citizens who preferred to walk instead of jog.. A good idea I say, protect the knees so you can continue coming to the park longer! 😉 Some visitors preferred to play volley ball and some were using the exercise equipment installed there. There is a small built up structure called the Weikfield Court where a group Pranayam and Yoga class was in progress. 


The track meanders around the park and at one point overlooks the Mula Mutha river. The almost bare trees (most are deciduous species) formed a mesh through which the slow moving water was visible. 

Clock at the gate

View from the road

At the entrance

The park has several blue benches to sit and rest and all of them bear plaques of Mr C H Kapadia, Consul General of Madagascar in India. What a wonderful gesture! 

The trees were mostly Peepul, Waval (Holoptelea integrifolia), Copper Pod (Peltaforum pterocarpum) and Gulmohor (Delonix regia ) plus the usual garden varieties.


The other section of the park has some really old and tall trees but I must make another visit to check out this area. I suspect I saw the Sterculia foetida and Pterygota alata but I could not confirm. This is a very old park in the city and I suspect that the new bridge and ever increasing traffic has wrecked havoc here. 


The area at the entrance is a buzzing with street food vendors and during peak hours, the crowds may mask the park entrance. Most of my visits have been in the morning and I strongly suspect that most of these parks have a different personality at another time of the day.


Info
Entry: Free (During my visit in the morning)
Timing: 6AM to 11AM and 4PM to 8PM
Drinking Water: Available (quality and hygiene not checked)
Rest Rooms: Available  (quality and hygiene not checked)
Parking: Available
Location Map here. 

This post is part of my April 2015
AtoZ blogging challenge and I am writing about parks in Pune. You can
read other posts on this theme here.