After a week in Pune, with and now without Manish, we have decided this would be a wonderful place to stay. Manish has gone off to Goa for a film festival and allowed us to further take over his hostel room. It is quiet and extremely peaceful on campus because the school is out of session but the guards are starting to become wary of us, traipsing in and out of the school with no chaperone. We spent four days intensely reading the Illustrated version of the Da Vinci Code out loud. Pune has many charms unique to itself. All of the apartment buildings have names scrawled on the sides and there are delightful old British-looking stone and wood buildings. We have found fresh figs, tasty papayas, and a beer store yards away from the entrance to the school. Walking around the Muslim section of town, we came to an old church-cum-chicken slaughterhouse where nearly one hundred hawks were gathered, swooping down and bombarding trash dumpsters filled with scraps, flinging dissattached chicken feet across the streets. Otherwise, Pune is extremely modern and progressive. Women abound (which is unusual for most Indian cities, where men certainly outnumber their counterparts) and ride around the town on zippy motorscooters, wearing mujahhadin-like headdresses to keep out some of the pollution. Pune also specializes in desserts and we have tasted wonderful creme caramel, chocolate mousse, and homemade ice cream (real reason y ingie wants to stay in Pune). There are several Iranian-style places around too and we have recently shared, over an apple-flavoured hookah, fantasies and thoughts on our upcoming, highly-anticipated novel. Most of the restaurants are outside, with patios, furthering the feeling like we are on perpetual vacation. When we realize some of our plans (i.e. motorcycle purchasing, etc), you all will be the first to know!
There is a new ablum of pictures on Pune, click the title!
I and A
Wednesday, December 08, 2004
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