Holidaying in Pune and Nasik

I’m falling pretty behind on my blog and am writing a few ‘predated’ posts. ;-)

I was in Pune and Nasik in July, visiting family and friends. Here are a few pictures – I’ll need to fill in the rest when I get time.



My cousin Varun showing my mom his lovely drumset. He uses his room on the second floor to practice, although he has to cover the drums with a cloth dampener to ensure he doesn’t wake up the rest of the neighborhood.



Street scene in old Nasik. While I’m not an expert at this, the little gully, wall painting of Shivaji, and architecture of the building with its louvers appeared typical.



The Kala Rama temple, perhaps one of the most significant shrines in the city, is known for its idol made of dark rock.



Bees! Bees! Bees! All around the temples, there were several tiny bees near all the deities. I clicked a picture, but it may be hard to see the little ones. There’s a nice wikipedia article on identifying common bees and wasps.



More interesting than the Rama temple is the Sita Gupha, the caves where Sita is believed to have hid during the Ramayana. We climbed down into the caves through a narrow passage where we literally had to crawl through on all fours. One thing for sure, there’s definitely no way Ravana’s ten heads would have made it through it ;-) Picture of my mom with her childhood friend Bala and siblings Arthi and Adwait in front of the cave. They were such wonderful hosts.



The massive Kumbh mela which happens once every twelve years happens here.



Beautiful Nasik is wine country. Several rolling hills and miles and miles of wineyards. Here’s some pictures of the table grapes from Bala’s farm.