Last Saturday at Aga Khan Palace (6/11/2011)

Staying with the guys on the weekends is a pretty boring affair. I quickly realized that I would pretty much waste my entire weekend if I didn't find anything to do. The guys after a long week of work don't like to get up until noon and because of the rain-showers, they don't like to go anywhere...which is understandable. So for them, the entire weekend was spent watching movies...one after another. Hence, I think I am doing the right thing by using my weekend to travel around India and not stay in Pune.

So last Saturday afternoon, I took a rickshaw to the Aga Khan Palace in Pune. The place was where Gandhi, his wife, and a number of other important Congressional Leaders were jailed in the 1940s for a few years. His wife, Kasturba and his personal secretary of 35 years, Mahadev Desai died there.


 It rained but it was a nice place to visit b/c it was tranquil and beautiful. I visited the room in which Gandhi and his wife must have lived in and was completely sealed off, and the place where the ashes of his secretary, his wife, and some of his were buried.

There is this huge painting of Gandhi touching the body of his wife as she laid dying. Afterwards, I went down to the place where the ashes were buried. Going there I felt this quiet tranquility which is almost impossible to find here in India with all its noise and pollution. It would have been nice if I had some company.

I'm not sure how accurate the movie was. But from the movie, Margart White was seen interviewing Gandhi at the Aga Khan palace walking down these steps...

The ashes of his secretary and wife with mango trees surrounding the courtyard.

 This Saturday I thought about making another pilgrimage to Gandhi's ashram in Sevagram but had to cancel it when I found out that it was pretty hard to find accommodations for the next 7-10 days b/c there is some kind of 75th anniversary going on at the ashram and tons of people are flocking there to celebrate it. I could go and be with the crowd but my house-mate after talking to the hotel manager at Sevagram said that it was a bad idea to go this weekend if my intention was to learn more about the lifestyle of Gandhi while he lived there for 7 years in the ashram. The people at the ashram will be too busy this weekend preparing for the celebration that they will not have time to show me around. I'll probably go to Nasik this weekend which is about a 5 hour bus ride from Pune and visit other cities that are around Pune. And then go to Sevagram next weekend. However, Vikas suggested that I should go to Mahabaleshwar instead b/c right now it is supposed to be very scenic...I'm a little skeptical but we shall see.