A Day Trip To Pune

For a Mumbaikar a day trip to Pune is super easy. But we were driving from a week long vacation in South Goa and staying a day in Pune. That is from a sleepy laid back life in South Goa to the hustle bustle of a city. Pune is the Education capital of India. If I could go back 25 years then I would love to go to a college in Pune. Its buzzing with young students and the cafes are vibrant and lively. It is also home to some luxurious residential areas such as Koregaon Park and Boat Club Road. If you love horse racing then this is the city to be in. We stayed for a couple of nights at the Conrad Hilton. The hotel is quite a stunner and their restaurant Aldila on the roof top has great food, good ambience and a magnificent view of the city.

Kelkar Museum in Old Pune

As a lover of antiques, and a mention about hidden gems in almost every town or city in India in my blog on Gogunda Palace, Pune is no exception. On a very small and narrow street called Bajirao Road in Old Pune is the Raja Dinkar Kelkar Museum. We were told availability of parking would be impossible there so we took an auto rickshaw from our hotel.

The museum is three floors and here is the astonishing part. This Puneri wada with its arches and doors is home to a mind blowing collection of antiques. The entire collection of 2000 that are on display belongs to one man Raja Kelkar. He travelled the length and breadth of India and possesses 20000 ancient antiquates of which only 2000 are on display. The passion is overwhelming and from room to room you will be able to relate to the way of life back then even today. Each door on display has stunning carvings of wood and Ivory from Gujarat, Rajasthan, Odisha and South India. The utensils are so practical they have one for every thing. There are noodle makers, spoons for pouring Ghee, Chapati Impressions made of wood, Rice Server made from Brass, soup servers, Spoon stands, carved spice boxes and the list is endless. There is an entire beauty collection that was used by women. There are musical instruments of all kinds, shapes and sizes. It will simply blow your mind. Things back then were so artistic, well thought off and detailed that today’s plastic, steel and aluminium seems so flat and unimaginative.

Then there is clothing on warfare, victorian furniture, Chariots, chess boards, playing cards and games, silver jewellery, carpets, vases, large utensils, Treasure boxes and innumerable figures of deities.

It is one of the finest and comprehensive collection by one man to be ever seen. Dr Kelkar donated the collection to the state government in 1975, as a huge financial support is needed to preserve and maintain our cultural heritage.

Do go and visit this marvellous museum when in Pune.

It was so hot and dry in Pune, we were craving chilled beer. We headed to a brewery cum cafe called Effingut. It is located at Koregaon Park 6th lane. They have tons of beer options for you to choose from and if you are not sure you can sample. The ambience is great and they play some nice music. The young student crowd makes it very lively and vibrant. We had the Hefeweizens, its a wheat beer. The Thai chilli vegetables in mustard sauce and the nachos are to die for.

IPL Cricket Match at the MCA Stadium

Do you love sports or do you love cricket is the question you need to ask yourself in this cricket mad loving nation. Cricketers and Bollywood actors are treated like god in India. As for me I love sports and I like to watch a good game.

So my husband and I decided to go for the much talked about match RCB vs MI (Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Mumbai Indians). We hired a taxi and considering what transpired, that was the best decision maybe of my life.

This nice looking stadium is located just off the Mumbai-Pune Expressway and every time we would drive to Pune from Mumbai we would pass this stadium. Watching a match here was on our bucket list. So that day finally arrived and we had fabulous tickets that said ’hospitality pavilion’. We left at 5:30 from our hotel on Mangaldas road and we got there at 8pm! Thats two and a half hours which is the time you take from Mumbai to Pune! There is absolutely no concrete approach road leading to the stadium. We just couldn’t believe it. There were no signs. There were no directions on where people should head. The lines were long. They just did not know how to manage an event of this size. Guys there is just no road! Im still processing how can this happen. Never heard of anything like this before.

After a miracle of some sorts we managed to get to our seats which were just behind the RCB dugout. The stadium inside is totally open and airy and is quite well built. We did enjoy watching the players and the eclectic atmosphere within the stadium. The long throws from the boundary straight into the wicket keepers gloves, the towering sixes, and to see the agility of Virat Kohli quite amazing. The Mexican wave with the flashing torches on the phone is my favourite. Well, RCB won quite easily though I had hoped for MI to win considering I am a passionate Mumbai-ite.

We left early to avoid the huge crowds and traffic jam. Going back to the hotel I was still mulling over the fascinating collection I had seen at the Kelkar Museum and grumpy about the chaos due to mismanagement of which otherwise was a beautiful day in Pune.