Peter Principle

I’m spending 2 weeks at our office in Pune, India. I arrived on Sunday morning, and have not seen much of the area yet. But I did a bit of sight-seeing on Sunday, and have some first impressions.

From the air, Pune is a lot greener than near Delhi. Surrounded by low green hills. And the country side around town doesn’t look bad. But there are a lot of slums in town. And more trash in the streets than I’m used to. Lots of little shacks on the roadside where vendors did brisk business. In some of the shanty towns, the walls were painted with cell phone advertising. And a painted ad on a wall advertised “Learn CAD and EDA”. Pigs and goats routed around nearby.

I supposed Pune is segregated into rich and poor. The biggest office buildings in town are the call centers. They look like modern western office buildings. But squatters live right next door.

I first went off in search of an ATM, which gave me a good appreciation of life on the street in Pune. I also went running in a park nearby, that actually has a running track. I still owe the custodian 4 rupees for that. I was afraid he would lock me in…

I had to dodge motorcycle cabs, demonic drivers and people on the roadside to get there. They all seemed pretty amused. I also used the health club and pool at the hotel. From the pool I could watch constant traffic on the street and hear the constant car horns.

Of course, no Westerner should drive in India. You hire a car and driver instead. My driver came early and was told to take me to see some sights.

The big sight in town is the “Osho Commune“. That’s an ashram that was founded by Osho Rajneesh. Or Two Car Garajee. Or somebody. From the photos it looks like a kind of meditation center meets Los Vegas resort.

Anyway, I could not get in, which might be a good thing. I might have been lured in by all the singing and dancing. Next time you’d see me I’d be wearing a red robe and handing out flowers in airports.

Instead I walked through a nearby “Osho park” run by the commune. This seems popular with the locals. In fact, it seems to be the prime spot for young lovers to hide out. Every few paces I’d run into another young couple holding hands. Or worse!

The best thing I saw yesterday was the Aga Khan Palace. It’s a fine example of colonial elegance, now a bit run down.

This is famous for being where Gandhiji and his wife were imprisoned in 1942. She died there, as did his secretary. Their ashes are interred on the site. You can tour the rooms where they lived. They had a faded setof posters showing pictures and events from his life.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 20th, 2007 at 5:15 pm and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.