Tag: Around the city in a MH-12…

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Musically Inspired

The Sawai Gandharva Bhimsen Mahotsav is an annual event in Pune, Maharashtra that attracts classical Hindustani music aficionados from India and overseas as well. Obviously the festival has grown over the years and is continuing even after the founder Bharat Ratna Pandit Bhimsen Joshi passed away. 

There can be several inspirations for travel – architecture, history, natural wonders, food, bragging points (ahem)… But music too is a huge motivator for people to travel. India with its rich musical heritage has music festivals of repute held across the country. Its an excellent opportunity to hear stalwarts and upcoming artists and see the local sites as well. I can say that with confidence because it was music that took me to Bhopal and I could see Sanchi Stupas because of that visit! 


Here is my collation of music festivals around India. Hope it can inspire at least a few travellers!
(Kindly reconfirm information about dates and entry tickets before your visit.) 

1.  The Harivallabh Sangeet Mahasabha
in Jalandhar, Punjab. This
was first held in 1875 and is now held in the last week of December every
year. Entry is free. Here is the programme for Dec 2014.

2. Sawai Gandharva Bhimsen Mahotsav – Held in Pune each year in the first half of December. Usually spread over four days, the performances are held in the evening but the last day (which is always a Sunday) has events in the morning as well. Thus tourists can use the morning hours to visit other places in Pune, join a heritage walk and get some shopping done too! Ticketed entry. This is a link to the schedule for Dec 2014.

3. Dover Lane Music Conference in Kolkata, West Bengal. Here is the link. http://www.doverlanemusicconference.org/aboutus.html Ticketed entry.

4. Saptak Music Festival in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. Held from 01 to 13 January every year. Entry is for members. Here is a link to their Jan 2015 event. http://www.saptak.org/saptakNews

5. Tansen Samaroh at Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh is yet another important event for Hindustani classical music lovers and is a tribute to the maestro Tansen. Here is a link to their 2014 events and the festival will be held from 05 to 08 Dec 2014.


The DD Bharati Channel has live telecasts of some of the above music festivals. 


There would be many more such music events in other cities. We would love to hear about those too. 
Enjoy!

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Sunday Shopping

Many people in this city have a tradition of visiting vegetable markets like the Mandai to purchase vegetables for the entire week. I am not sure how or why this practise has arisen but there is no comfort like having a fridge full of veggies. An almost mandatory accompaniment to the veggie purchases is Patties or Misal. Patties can be from Santosh Bakery or Hindustan Bakery (almost iconic outlets) and the Misal can be from Bedekar or Shri Krishna Misal. Click here for an e-food walk of the city and then get yourself out to actually taste those goodies!!

But I digress. This post is not about ready made food rather about the veggies and to be specific, vegetable markets. Over a period of time, places other than the Mandai too have become popular vegetable shopping sites probably because of distance and parking constraints. Several vendors (not sure if they are  farmers of just middle men) set up shops on the street sides near the DRDO circle in Pashan and on Karve Road. The produce here is fresh, fairly cheap and all seasonal (and some unseasonal) stuff is available. There are also the established Mandai in Aundh and the iconic Shivaji Market in Camp.

Pune farmers market
Dehydrated Sweet Potatos, Lady’s Finger, Gawar (Cluster beans)




A new entrant is a farmer’s market near Gandhi Bhavan at Kothrud. Compared to the other venues mentioned above, there were fewer vendors but some of the vegetables seemed cheaper. I use the word ‘seemed’ because I cannot compare same-day prices across the city. My comparison is based on my last purchase! This place looked like a ‘haat’ with lots of interesting stuff. Besides vegetables and fruits there were dals, biscuits, papads, kurdai, pickles, dried vegetables, Bhel, ready-mix for fruit shakes, and a stall selling Pohe and Dhirda for the hungry birds. Here are some images from our visit. Its a good effort and is especially beneficial for those residing near Gandhi Bhavan. 


Direct sales, Kothrud
Fresh pineapple. He readily cuts it up for you

Gandhi Bhavan, farmers market
This weighing scale had nothing to weigh

Farmers market, food walk
For the hungry birds

Happy Sunday Shopping!

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The Hills Are Alive

My city is blessed to have many hills right within the city limits. Many have flat land at the top and one can walk for a long distance even upto 10 kms (depending on your route). This is especially amazing because this walk gives a feeling of being ‘above’ the city yet a part of it. In the city yet a feeling of being outside.

Hills, aforrestation, trees, plantation
The hill overlooks Baner and Pashan and one can see the city skyline stretching as far as the eye can see

Any one who has been to these tekdis (hills) will totally agree with me. I had not visited the Baner Tukai tekdi and eagerly took up an opportunity to visit it.


Like most tekdis in Pune, this one too suffered from deforestation and must have been really bare. It has been the ceaseless and untiring efforts of Dr Garudkar and the Clean Earth Movement that is showing its fruits now. Here is a link to their website.The group has been active since 2006.

Trees, plantation, pune, Poona
The almost flat top is perfect for long walks


The Baneshwar caves are located at the foot of the hill. As one ascends the steps one is immediately struck by the extent of the city’s growth, the spread of concrete jungle almost into the hills. Yet, look up and one can see the green flat top of the tekdi as it meanders away into the distance. Get off the steps and follow the foot trails to enjoy the greenery. The tekdi spans a vast area hence has been ‘divided’ into different sectors named after forests of Maharashtra. The naming is purely for the sake of convenience of the activists working there.

Shivlinga, Pune, caves
These caves are located at the foot of the hill and have a Shiva temple

aforrestation, hills, Pune, poona
The ‘map’ of the hill area

 

water tank, Poona, Pune
The activists have built such tanks to store water for the trees.


Here
are some highlights of the Baner Tukai tekdi. If you happen to live in
the area, do join the group and help nurture the trees, and keep the
‘lungs’ of the city healthy and green!

Dhobi nut tree, Bibba, Pune, Anacardiaceae
This Bibba tree was flowering (Semecarpus anacardium)

Caesalpinia bonduc, Caesalpineaceae, Pune
Sagargota (Caesalpinia bonduc) inflorescence- the tree is armed with thorns on all parts

Pune, trees, Gmelina arborea, Verbenaceae
Shivan (Gmelina arborea) was seen growing at many sites.

Besides these, many other tree species had been planted and seemed to be pretty healthy. Some which I identified were several Ficus species, Neem, Arjun, Laxmi Taru (Simarouba glauca), varieties of Bauhinia, Prajakta, Awala, Waval.

The flowers that grabbed all our attention despite their small size (and by small I mean half a finger nail) were the seasonal herbs. They were in full bloom and created yellow and purple carpets on the hill side, almost reminiscent of the Kas Pathar. We saw Hyptis suaveolens (with Tulsi-like-fragrant leaves), Sida species, Trichodesma sp, Sopubia sp, Alysicarpus sp, Stryka sp, Sonchus sp and many many more that we could not identify. There were some lichens too!


Zygophyllaceae family, Kas
Yellow Tribulus terrestris

 

Commelinaceae family, cyanotis, purple
A purple-pink carpet of Cyanotis species


 The hills in Pune are at their full glory right now. Go enjoy!

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What do the figures indicate?

Pune is fortunate to have two rivers, the Mula and the Mutha. Yet the present condition of these rivers shows Punekars do not care at all for their natural wealth. 

An annual debate before Ganeshutsav has almost become a ritual as environment activists and local authorities urge people to immerse their Ganesh idols in specially built ‘houd’ and not in the river. Traditionally, the idol is supposed to be made out of ‘Shadu’ a kind of river mud which means the idols dissolves easily in water once immersed. There are umpteen workshops to help people make their own idol which can be easily immersed at home.


Yet many idols continue to be made with Plaster of Paris. These often do not dissolve in water and the idol that we have worshiped for 10 days suddenly becomes a ‘problem’. Here is a stark article in The Alternative about fate of Ganesha idols.

The river becomes almost a trickle as water and is often highly polluted



This year we reached the river early to immerse our idol. I was pleasantly surprised to find the entire area absolutely clean. I could see the bottom of the ‘houd’ and I was very happy to immerse our idol in its clean water.

It was possible to see the bottom of the ‘houd’

Yet an article in Maharashtra Times dated 10 Sep 2014 was very disheartening. It has published data which indicates that the number of idols immersed in the river in the Sep 2014 Ganeshutsav has actually increased y/y and the number of idols immersed in the ‘houd’ has reduced y/y. The article does not mention number of  idols immersed at home nor the total number of idols in the city. 



However if one considers only the figures available in the article then there seems to be shift towards immersing the Ganesha idol in the river, tanks, lakes and wells. 

Above figures for Sep 2014 repeated below with y/y figures in brackets. The figures in red are higher y/y:
Ghat, Nadipatra: 1 lakh 37 thousand 730 (1 lakh 11 thousand 24) 
Houd: 1 lakh 59 thousand 456 (1 lakh 20 thousand 365)
Tanks: 45118 (29095)
Canals: 38323 (56120)
Talav: 509 (359)
Wells: 1096 (805)

Why? Why? 
Lets hope the situation improves in 2015. 

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