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 2nd 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
