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| Deep-utsav at Rashtrakuta-era Pataleshwar Caves |
Glow (Wordless Wednesdays)
Glorious Sunrise (Wordless Wednesdays)
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.
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| 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.
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| Fresh pineapple. He readily cuts it up for you |
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| This weighing scale had nothing to weigh |
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| For the hungry birds |
Happy Sunday Shopping!
Lungs of the city (Wordless Wednesdays)
Lakdi Pul (Wordless Wednesdays)
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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| These caves are located at the foot of the hill and have a Shiva temple |
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| The ‘map’ of the hill area |
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| 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!
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| This Bibba tree was flowering (Semecarpus anacardium) |
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| Sagargota (Caesalpinia bonduc) inflorescence- the tree is armed with thorns on all parts |
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| 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!
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| Yellow Tribulus terrestris |
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| A purple-pink carpet of Cyanotis species |
The hills in Pune are at their full glory right now. Go enjoy!
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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
The Rising (Wordless Wednesdays)
Tedious Yet Satisfying!
An important part of Ganapati celebrations at home is preparing the offerings. Besides the usual retinue of flowers and garlands, the Pooja includes offerings of leaves of different types (generally referred to as Patri). Offerings of Patri is a topic which demands a separate post (read more in this article from The Hindu) and this post focuses on one particular type that is Durva (दुर्वा) .
The Durva to be offered is the tender shoot of grass with only three terminal blades including the new shoot. Usually a bunch of 5,11 or 21 Durva are offered. Panicum dactylon, Imperata cylindrica, Desmostachya bipinnata and Cynodon dactylon are some grass species identified as sacred grass.
In bygone days, possibly each and every household had a garden or at least a place where people could visit to pluck Durva. So-called development in urban Indian cities has created a concrete jungle with almost no gardens. The only source for Durva is the market where one can buy bunches of grass, which cannot really be offered to the God. Ideally the grass should be sorted out, almost akin to picking out leaves from a bunch of Fenugreek leaves! Its not a good idea to think about the origins of the grass, who or what has walked over it. One can simply wash the ready Durva before offering it to Ganesh.
It took me almost four hours to sort a bunch of grass into Durva for offering.
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| Each Durva is carefully separated into a steel plate |
Each twig has to be carefully examined and cut out at the
correct spot (so only the terminal three shoots are present). At this
stage the twig must be handled very carefully else a blade may break off
which means the Durva cannot be used.
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| Each twig of grass is assessed. |
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| Finally: the small pile of Durva and a big pile of blades of grass |
End result, 16 bunches of 21 Durva each! A time intensive, delicate process but strangely satisfying and enjoyable!
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| Each bunch has 21 Durva.The string must be firm but not too tight else the delicate stems will break. |
An alternative to this is to get a bunch of pure silver Durva that are available at most jewelers in Pune.
Have a happy, noise-free, eco-friendly Ganesh Ustav!
Here is a link to an article by Devdutt Pattanaik in Times of India about the legends associated with Durva.
Green Glory (Wordless Wednesdays)
