Cochin, Kerala!!

I decided to end my yearlong stay in India with a short vacation in Kerala:




Church - I think this one used to house Vasco de Gama's remains

Jews, Muslims, Christians, and Hindus all find a home in Kerala

Chinese fishing net

A fisherman caught several crabs and fish and left them in this steel pot. As I sat reading my book, the crabs trying to escape caught my attentions. Out of five, three escaped after many tries! It was quite fascinating to see the crabs go.





because I love trees. how they provide for us.


yummy keralan meal, banana leaf and all!

Mulshi

Shrita, Matt, and I went to Mulshi to pick up my mom from the Kare Ayurvedic clinic. It's located in the beautiful village side of Pune. The rains made the hills look divine.

kathak peshkash

Ulhasnagar

On Saturday, I visited Ulhasnagar. Of note was my meeting with Narayan Bharati and singar ji mithai. Delicious. I could reflect a lot more of course but am not quite sure what I am feeling. I was very moved by my visit to "barrack #2", now Kamla Meghani's house. Sitting inside the barrack, I felt waves of nostalgia for something I have never known.


an army barrack cum Sindhi family home.

Chaaliya mandir

Walk through the old city.

famous Ganapati mandir

On Thursday, my friend Sarathy and I roamed the old city. This included the red light district. The descriptions I have read in short stories were right on par. The brothels were marked with mele kapde on the balconies. It's interesting to see how integrated the red light district is into the city landscape. It appeared to be in the middle of a residential area with the usual number of corner shops. There were families with children around and the people traffic was no quieter than expected.

We ventured into Tulsibaug where the demographics changed dramatically. Women and more women all over the place. Apparently, Tulsibaug is the place for ladies to get a deal on kitschy jewelery. purses, and the like. On the way, we stumbled upon this really awesome wholesale market. The railings in the old city are so intricate, and so beautiful. The elaborate railings give a lot of character to the buildings. A really fun day all and all. We both were provoked by the pronounced difference from one end to the other end of MG road. Narrow to wide, vernacular to English, cycles to cars, old to new.


cool building


typical lane in the old city



a dargah smack dab in the middle of a street


if you think the world might run out of onions, you haven't been here. (wholesale market)

a day in the life.

beautiful/strategic lookout point


the fort's parameters


part of the gang

baaaa


top of the hill


Maharasthra boasts 600 some odd military forts. Those of the Portugese, the Marathas, the Moghuls, etc. are speckled across the state. Many of them are still relatively unexplored. After visiting Singhagad and all of its commercialism thereby tons of consumer waste, it was refreshing to see another fort outside of Pune proper that had been left alone. Today we hiked up Marhalgarh Fort, reputed to be the last fort that Shivaji built. After a nice drive on the Mumbai-Bangalore highway we hit Saswad. From here on there was a kaccha path through villages to the fort. It took us about an hour to get to the top and besides some detours…my sunglasses came off with a strong gust of wind and they fell down a ways so I had to backtrack a bit, it was a very smooth, pleasant hike. The weather was just great – slightly cloudy with light rain showers here and there. We hung out on the top for a while, took a nap, and ate some grub. On the way back we stopped for bhajiyas but got Maharasthra’s famous missal pav instead. All in all a fantastic day followed by awesome night out to attend the highly anticipated Bauchklnag concert. Gotta check this Austrian acapella band out, yo.


relaxing, all cool

lunch time!


gotta love Harshita's hair...the winds were crazy, hence the sunglasses also falling off

only on my beautiful campus

Seriously, sometimes I feel like I am studying in a tapovan setting. The Deccan College Campus is so lush and green. It's beautiful. My classroom is small but it's got a nicely sized window so I have a nice view of the banyan trees on the lawn. Lately there has been such a nice breeze that we just leave the window/door open and don't even turn on the ceiling fan. Frequently, herders bring their cattle to graze. This makes for a lovely scene.

July 4th Festivities

Happy Independence day y’all! My Amreeki buddies and I decided to celebrate all out American style at Hard Rock-Pune! The celebration was made complete with items such as apple cobbler, French fries, and chocolate malts! That and some good ol’ Amreeki classics: Bon Jovi, Aerosmith, MJ, and how can I forget, India’s fave: Akon.

But first:
Today we went to check out the 2^nd century BCE caves in Karla and Bhaja. These excavations are very near to Lonavla and thus very near to Pune. All I can say is wow. It was doubly awesome to have two of my Art History friends with me to share lots of really interesting insights that made me appreciate these caves even more.

Team Texas!!

the entrance, note the saffron flags encroaching upon this Buddhist cave. Shrita affirms that this is the better form of nationalism as it does not require the site to be physically modified to accommodate Hindutva reconstructions of history

I just can’t easily conceptualize the idea of “ancient.” These places make me feel really small in the whole scheme of things – always a nice reality check so I don’t get too caught up in my life. Actually even hearing all of these intense partition stories from people part of my Sindhi community shake me up. So much energy and effort has gone into making me. Just two generations ago, did two sets of grandparents struggle to stand up on their two feet. And that’s about as far back as I can even really learn about in a personal sort of way. My head starts to spin when I attempt to fathom the depth to which my existence owes itself to.

the gang minus Anya.

Update: I ended up also taking Shan, Anish, and Neha to the Bhaja caves. Round 2 was a lot of fun too. By this time there had been more rains and thus waterfalls! One huge one and several smaller ones. Tons of desi tourists had turned up not to see the caves as much as to dance, bollywood style, under the waterfall. Quite entertaining. We had our lunch in what I think was the monastery’s meeting hall. A rather quaint feeling.

monks' quarters