Some Wonderful Temples in Pune

The original name of city of Pune was 'Punyanagri' meaning 'City of Virtue'. It is only natural that temples and places of worship can be found all across it. On a recent trip, I captured images of some of the Hindu Temples which I have often visited there and which adorn it so beautifully. While going through it you would notice the diversity of deities and forms which only prove the cultural richness of the city. 

Dagadusheth Halwai Ganapati Temple at Budhvar Peth, Pune

This is one of the most beautiful temples I have seen in life. Dedicated to Lord Ganesha, the temple also has a Shiva temple. Dagadusheth Ganesh Mandir was built by Dagadusheth Halwai (Dagadusheth Gadve) in year 1893 and was important point when Balgangadhar Tilak started public celebrations of Ganapati Festival (Ganesh Puja).

On a fresh morning I captured this image in which also you can also see the Lord: 

Shrimant Peshawe Ganesh Mandir at Shaniwar Wada, Pune

This temple dedicated to Lord Ganesha was built before work on Shaniwar Wada began. Built in 1732, Shaniwar Wada was the seat of the Peshwa rulers from where they ruled most of India. 

Shaniwar Wada Maruti Mandir, Pune

This is a temple dedicated to Lord Hanuman in front of 'Delhi Gate' or Dilli Darwaja of Shaniwar Wada. 

Premal Vitthal Mandir at Kasba Peth, Pune

Kasba Peth is the  oldest residential part of Pune and adjacent to Shaniwar Wada (fort). Lord Vitthala or Vithoba is considered manifestation of Lord Vishnu and his consort is Rukmini. Temples dedicated to him are found all across Pune and Maharashtra.

Sant Tukaram Maharaj Paduka Mandir at Fergusson College Road, Pune

It is dedicated to Saint Tukaram, a 17th century Marathi poet-saint of Bhakti movement. 

Vitthal Rukmini Mandir at Aundh, Pune

Lord Vitthala or Vithoba is considered manifestation of Lord Vishnu and his consort is Rukmini. Temples dedicated to him are found all across Pune and Maharashtra. This temple at Aundh is situated near a river. 

Chaturshringi Mandir at Senapati Bapat Road, Pune

This temple was built during the time of Chhatrapati Shivaji. Chaturshringi means 'a mountain with four peaks'. The main deity of the temple is Goddess Durga. It may be noted that Shivaji was worshipper of Goddess Bhavani. Durgapuja or Navaratri is celebrated with much fanfare here.

Mayureshwar Ganesh Mandir at Thergaon, Pune

Across Pune you would find Ganesha temples at several places. One such temple is shown below, which is Mayureshwar Ganesh Mandir near Dange Chowk, Thergaon, Pune

Dutta Mandir at a Housing Society in Pune

Hindus have this practice of keeping a small temple or place of worship in their homes. When housing societies became the norm, even the societies created small temples within their premises. You can see one such temple dedicated to Lord Dutt or Lord Dattatreya. Lord Dattatreya is considered an avatar of the three Hindu gods Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva. Lord Dattatreya is shown with three heads, one coming from each of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. You will find Dutta Mandirs all across Pune and Maharashtra.

Shri Ram Temple in Chinchwad

This is one of the most beautiful temples you would ever see. The whole temple appears as if made of gold. It is a big temple, very near to Chapekar Chowk in Chinchwad

All Pictures above (C) Rahul Tiwary

There are other wonderful temples which I missed visiting this time. For example, there is Shinde Chhatri Mandir - a temple built by the Scindia royal family which finds no parallel anywhere else!

Shinde Chhatri Mandir at Wanawadi, Pune

Hope you liked a sneak peek into the beautiful temples of Pune.

In next in this series I shall capture some of the heritage buildings of Pune.

Watch out this space for more!

- Rahul Tiwary

A Public Park in Noida

Noida has fairly good infrastructure at several spots. Below pictures are from a public park in Noida which is free for all without any entry fee. Children from nearby areas go there to play all day long. Walls have encroach-able breakages at several places but surprisingly no one seems to live inside it, except perhaps the toilet inside it which is over-used and hence stinks. There is one security guard at one of the gates who of course is inadequate and hence appears to have accepted his face. He makes a few rounds whenever he feels like or if he needs something; otherwise he sits at a chair grandly. In old days some zamindars and nobles must be enjoying what he enjoys at his workplace. 

The park also has an open gym which you can spot in above pictures. Found it surprisingly nice.

The park is so big that children have no fears of getting overheard by their parents in the neighboring houses. Some kids ride bicycles in it while some play various games. Some kids just sit there and have a chat – in an old-world offline way.

Pretty amazing. 

And I have visited it only once. The pictures and memories are from the single visit. Sigh - time to visit again it seems. 

See you. 

- Rahul Tiwary

Happy New Year 2017!

Long Text Complaints on Facebook

At one point, I thought that people had lost the old art of writing long texts. It went on like that very well for too long. Then truth was revealed to me in the form of some really huge complains they started posting on some company's / online portal's / some shop's / or police's facebook pages.

It was shocking! People who until then posted only photos of their mountain trips 33 times a year on facebook wrote a complain to amazon.com which counted 95893953 letters till last count. Someone who only wrote in one-liners wrote a complain against his car service center which was so huge that I finished reading it in over 3 weekends. The girl with bad handwriting posted against Hyderabad police's apathy which was so impressive; think if she wrote some essay like that in her class 10th exam, where she would be by now? The super smart woman who visited facebook only 3 times in last 19 months used 2 of those visits to post stories of how she was cheated at her neighborhood jewelry shops!

This long text influenza is spreading like influential virus. And it is making life so unpredictable! Now whenever I see the face of a sensible yet funny friend, I fear what lies behind that clean windscreen of his spectacles? Some bad experience at the pizza shop; or some not so cold cold-drink served at McD? Since the days of lizards coming out of khichdi pots and cockroaches coming out of fruit salads are over; the remaining options to surprise us are only limited by imagination!

God please save the writers who write purposeless posts on their own walls. Because the growing tribe of complainers armed with long guerrilla texts will soon outnumber them!

- Rahul Tiwary

Puzzling Life

I realized quite some time back that wisdom comes with age. After every 4-5 years, we can feel that our thoughts and opinions of the past were impractical or not correct. After worrying about it for some time, I made peace with it. So it seemed we just had to wait till our hair started turning grey, and then everything will be okay. Finally, with age we shall attain wisdom. But now it seems that even wisdom has degrees. What appears wisdom to us now, may appear childish again after 5 years! So where does this end? May be never! 

And if we and our wisdom keep growing and changing, then it would also be true for others. What others tell today may be judged as incorrect by themselves after a few years! The realization is scary. Is everything fluid? 

If everything evolves then what we see today is true only for today and may not be so after some time. That makes life confusing for sure. What is the point of doing anything right, when the 'right' could turn 'wrong' just when our way of thinking changes, when we see some new worlds, or when we attain some new version of wisdom? 

Is this why they turn to scriptures; which hold truths which have survived centuries of evolutionary thinking? All rivers meet the ocean in the end. May be until we can see the end, we may mistake a 'river' for an 'ocean'. 

Sometimes it seems everything changes with time. Sometimes it seems nothing changes fundamentally. Sometimes what we can't understand is called confusing. Sometimes what we do understand is confusing. This life is a puzzle. 

- Rahul

From Feminism to Taking a Stand

For quite some time around my college days, I had thought of myself as a 'feminist'. It suited me because I had two sisters. From childhood, we all studied in the same school, were treated with same respect, and saw the same dreams. Why should not my sisters or all girls be able to make their career well and make their own decisions? I was so happy from inside about my thoughts which I found liberating at that time.

After marriage, my feminism evaporated in a phased manner. Having been proud of of my sisters' careers and education, I saw the downside of it as my wife worked and how it constrained personal life. And for the first time I started seeing a new world. Unless by some lucky charm two persons start thinking exactly alike, in the end either of them has to agree with what the other person says. Best would be to do things which both are fine with, but such an option is not always the case. Now feminism gave way to realism. I realized that women also liked things in the manner which suited them. It seemed that our inclination to do "what suits me" was a generic trait.

Looking from the ground of realism, everything appeared different. As they say, things are not always either black or white. Sometimes we are selfish, sometimes the other person is selfish. And a new popular line of thinking said that in the end we all were humans, prone to flaws. No matter how good you are, still you would have some flaws. I still can't say that it is okay to be at peace with one's flaws, but I think we should definitely be aware of them, acknowledge them and avoid them as much as we can. We are not so powerless.

In general I realized that in most of the things, whenever we are taking sides we are actually compromising somewhere and being unfair somewhere. Think of any decision govt takes - if we agree with it, it might be because it suits us and if we disagree it could be because it does not suit us personally. Coming in terms with the real world was like ice bucket challenge done to me. I miss the old days when I could say, "I support this", or "that is bad" and "this is good". Such youthful yet unwise stands which we could take. It made life interesting and purposeful. Having even some amount of wisdom is so boring.

- Rahul

Irony

Subsidized LPG is bad for our economy and has a stigma attached to it - but 'Free WiFi' is ultimate sign of good governance and we all celebrate it - while both are same.

Women keeping 'ghunghat' on the head is a sign of old-school society; but women wearing full body 'burkini' is about letting women make their own decisions - while both are meant for same.

Asking someone's caste is bad and can land you in jail - but when govt asks our castes to let or not let us have jobs and college admission, it is social justice - while both are same.

If you have 70% males in your company, it is a shameful situation and needs more female hiring - but a 70% women in areas like HRD or nursing is never a problem - while both trends are of same nature.

If a mother-in-law hurts her bahu, she will land up in jail; but if daughter-in-law hurts saasu ma, nothing will happen - while both acts are same.

If you earn 3 lakhs annual salary working in a company owner by someone else, you have to pay tax; but if you earn 13 lakhs doing farming on your own land, you don't - while both are money.

If a private company defaults on loan and goes bankrupt, its owner is arrested, his property sold off to pay back; but if a PSU/govt company makes billions of losses, govt just has to pay them to continue - while both events are similar.

So what is wrong in one situation becomes right for another situation; to a large extent just because of the way it is perceived by people in general. After next 50 years, our perception may reverse and hence things may also reverse. But until then, some of us have to suffer while some others will benefit unfairly.

But someone will ask - when was it that life was fair? It is just that the equation has reversed! That is also so simple to answer. You can't punish the ghosts of yesterday by hurting the humans of today. You can't reward the sufferers of 20th century by doling out red carpet for today's undeserving lot. So, in the end nothing can justify what is stupid.

- Rahul Tiwary

Way to Get Around Entry Restrictions

There have been a few places of worship where females are not allowed inside inner sanctum. So court says that this violates equality of genders which has been ensured by our constitution. 

But equality is not violated when there are job openings, college admissions or monetary help only for women, only for men, only for some particular castes, or only for some religions, right? So what is the catch? Have you ever thought about it?

I think the catch is that when govt offers a job to only a woman, it also offers some other job only to a man, and hence it succeeds in balancing (i.e. confusing) the equality clause. So when it offers some jobs only to some particular castes, it also offers some jobs only to general castes, and hence it is seen as doing fair deal. Similarly, it spends some money for building churches, but also spends some money on protecting old temples. Hence all is fair and does not violate equality ensured by constitution!

So what could the conservative and traditional religious organizations had to do to protect their traditions and yet not get beating from the court? Simple – hire me as consultant! Kidding :) I think what they had to do was this - inside the religious complex, they should have made another shrine and put a board saying “Only women allowed” before it, and then they should have put “Only men allowed” over the original shrine – then since something is on offer to both men and women, equality clause would not get violated! Think!

I am sure someone would challenge this scheme saying the ancient shrine was for men and new shrine is for women, which is unfair. So, confuse them further. Take something out of the ancient shrine, e.g. a stone, or a few bricks, and keep it in the new shrine, and say that since all places of worship have been renovated, rebuilt, restructured across their history, there is nothing wrong in creating another shrine in the same complex, and since it also has some portion of the ancient structure, it should also be treated with equal respect.

In this scheme, since there is something for women (new shrine) and something else for men (original shrine), no one will stop you from keeping the ancient traditions alive while still satisfying all the legal hassles :) How do you like it?

- Rahul

Cousin Vs Bhai

In a train journey I came across families of two brothers traveling together. Elder brother and his wife had two beautiful sons and younger brother had one son who was slightly behind in growth. Younger brother was apparently richer in wealth and elder brother was certainly simpler by nature, if I could guess by watching them. Younger brother’s wife was not so kind towards elder brother’s wife, and sent hidden taunts and veiled ridicules. Then at one point elder brother told them that he had booked a car. “Which car?” younger brother was obviously surprised and curious. When he heard, “Maruti Ciaz” which costs around 9 lakhs, he was confused. “Bhaiya log have booked Ciaz”, he informed his wife and then there was a silence…

There is no scene as ugly as two brothers not behaving warmly. But then they were adults! What happened between their children was even more interesting.

Younger (and richer) brother’s son who behaved freaky very often, was being avoided by elder brother’s two sons. So his mother who was street-smart, thought to proactively do something about it. She said to the older kid, “he is also your brother. You should take care of him”.

What the boy replied shocked me. He said, “he is only my cousin” (wo mera cousin hai).

“But cousin also means 'chachera bhai', so you are still brothers!”

The boy now got visibly irritated and said, “When did I say he is not my brother?”, and then he looked away, stopping that line of conversation.

I remembered our childhood. We had so many cousins and we always introduced them as "bhai" to our friends. It was so confusing to kids counting how many brothers one could have, so they used to ask back, "is he your ‘real’ brother?" (‘apna’ bhai?) And then we learnt to say "chachera bhai" or ‘mamera bhai’. But we were still "bhai". We picked up the term "cousin" very late, only when it was impossible to not pick it up...

- Rahul

India at Olympic Games Rio 2016

The way and extent to which media is guiding our perception and feelings surprises me. Let us take this year’s performance in Olympics. I bet you would say that this year has been worst – or at most one of the worst years; since we have won only 2 medals so far. We are reminded that last time in year 2012 India had won 6 medals – and hence we are expected to feel sorry and disappointed this time. What if I told you a fact that except last time in year 2012, India has never won more than 3 medals in our whole history? Then current tally of “2” can be seen as a much better performance. After knowing this, you would feel less sorry, less disappointed, but wait – media does not want you to be so. Media thrives on our outrage!

Now absolute number of medals is not that all matters. Overall Ranking matters more importantly. How about if I told you that in Olympics 2012 when India did an outlier performance by winning 6 medals, it stood at world ranking# 55, "down" 5 points from year 2008 Olympics when it won only 3 medals but still stood at overall rank# 50? Media bubble of "last time we were better" bursts off.

What if I told you that from year 1956 onward in our history – if we ignore outlier year 2012, there has been only one other Olympic Games when India won more than 2 medals? That was year 2008 when we won 3 medals. With 2 medals already won, if we win one more, we shall match second highest total medal count in our history! Not as bad as we felt, right?

Now Economic Times published an article saying “Dear Mr Modi, India can get you 10 medals in 2020 if you spend Rs 480 crore”. But I believe each rupee spent on sports is a rupee snatched from the poor, the hungry, or indebted farmers. We can live without Olympic medals and this sense of urgency with which we are expected to spend Crores on sports is illogical.

This time India spent Rs 122 Crores on training Olympics participants; which is a shame for a nation which is home to world’s largest poor population. Even with revised poverty line, India is home to 172 million people below poverty line (living on less than Rs 123.50 per day). We need schools, toilets, roads, new railway lines, hospitals, police and army, and sorry, these things won't come of we spend Rs 500 Crores in training our 100 sportspersons for next Olympics, or burning Rs 1000 Crores of electricity or lost productivity watching Olympic games on TV. I don’t mind not winning 10 Olympic medals, until Govt continues its rural push and industrial reforms, to pull people out of poverty.

- Rahul

Happy Independence Day India!!!

"I love my country not "because of" any reasons. I simply love my country and that is pretty much all of it!" - Rahul Tiwary

Happy Independence Day!!!

Why Women Hate Men

It is history’s worst kept secret. It is kept secret so sacredly that if it came out, it could destroy the very nature of life that flows on earth. And yet, it is everywhere. You see it daily, you feel it quite often. But you must deny it. You must forget it. You must destroy it.

For some time I have wondered why women hated men for nothing but just because men were men. If you do not believe they hated, you would either never realize it or else it will come to you at some point of your life. The ‘hatred’ is plain irresistible. To the extent that women have often fallen in love with the men they hated. It is captured in history and in the literature of all times. It is just that it is so subtle and the realization so revolutionary that it could mean to destroy all things we believe in and hence it was better to be denied – to be turned blind eyed to.

I think the roots of this hatred go into some very basic stuff. Men are seen as ‘free’ – free of burdens which women necessarily and inescapably have to carry. It is not only the womb, although it pretty much is almost all of it; or enough of it. The child bearing capacity which is often glorified, celebrated and worshipped in all religions and cultures for obvious reasons, at some level of the female psyche turns into a burden. Why should men get away without it? That is the million dollar question. And then it is not only about it. I don’t know if it is only because of female hormones, which has been repeated in such a simplistic manner in modern scientific world, that we come to think of it and hence divert our attention from the female folks, but women feel the kind of vulnerability and insecurity which no men ever feel. Men can never imagine and guess what women feel. And hence they pay the price for not knowing their enemies well…

Women know that they are weak and need to be dependent on men in some way or the other – and they ‘hate’ it at some level of their psyche. Women hate men’s guts and confidence. There is no horrible scene for a woman than to see a confident and happy man. Such a man represents everything that the women not are – and can never be – and hence they must hate it. Put in this way you may think that women may hate the idea of a man than the man himself. I will not object to it but whenever they see a man – the idea manifests into a shape and they must hate that shape – that creature – that monster – that something which they can never be – that man…

History of the mankind is the history full of hatred which could not always get chance to manifest into something concrete. It is really a miracle that for so long you could avoid getting stung by that hatred. Or, did we?

© Rahul. 

पं. रामप्रसाद बिस्मिल

आखिर वह सन् 1927 की छह अप्रैल का सूर्य निकला। हम प्रातःकाल ही जल्दी-जल्दी स्नानादि प्रातःकालीन क्रियाओं से निवृत हुए। उस रोज सभी साथियों के चेहरों पर एक अजीब गम्भीरता छाई थी। पं. रामप्रसाद बिस्मिल कट्टर आर्यसमाजी थे। वे अपना भोजन अलग बनाया करते थे। उस दिन भी वे अपने पूजा-पाठ हवन आदि से निवृत होकर भोजन करने बैठे ही थे कि पीछे-पीछे मैं पहुँच गया और हाथ जोड़कर डबडबाई हुई आँखों से उनसे प्रार्थना की - "पंडित जी मालूम नहीं आज इस बैरक से जाने के बाद हम लोग दोबारा मिल पाएं - न मिल पाएं... आज मैं अपने हाथ से आपको दो कौर खिलाना चाहता हूँ।" तत्काल अपने भोजन की थाली मेरे सामने करके बोले - "लो भाई, खिलाओ। मैं भी तुम्हें आज अपने हाथ से खिलाऊँगा।"... यह खबर बिजली की भाँति सभी साथियों में फ़ैल गई। सभी साथी दौड़े-दौड़े आए और उन सभी ने पंडित जी को एवं आपस में एक दूसरे को खिलाना शुरू कर दिया। एक प्रकार से एक दूसरे से आखिरी विदाई ली जा रही थी। हम लोगों के हाथ एक दूसरे के मुँह में कौर के साथ जाते थे और उधर आँखों से टप-टप आँसू गिरते जा रहे थे। एक अजीब हृदय विदारक दृश्य था।

जज ने फैसला सुनाना शुरू किया। सबसे पहले अंग्रेज जज ने पं. रामप्रसाद बिस्मिल का नाम पुकारा और उन्हें मृत्युदण्ड सुनाया। दूसरे नंबर पर उसने श्री राजेंद्रनाथ लाहिड़ी को भी उतनी ही सजा सुनाई किन्तु जैसे ही तीसरा नाम ठाकुर रोशन सिंह का पुकारा, हम सब आश्चर्यचकित हतप्रभ से हो गए। ठाकुर साहब और फाँसी की सजा! ... सजा सुनते ही ठाकुर साहब का चेहरा खिल उठा, जैसे कि गुलाब का फूल। तुरंत ही पं. रामप्रसाद बिस्मिल की ओर घूम कर बोले - "क्यों पंडित! अकेले जाना चाहते थे!" ठाकुर साहब का व्यवहार देखकर सब दंग रह गए।

सबसे पहले मैंने अपनी जेब से जेल से लाए हुए फूल निकाले और उन्हें पं. रामप्रसाद बिस्मिल, श्री राजेंद्रनाथ लाहिड़ी एवं ठाकुर रोशनसिंह के चरणों में रखकर प्रणाम किया। उन तीनों ने मुझे कसकर गले लगाया। उसके बाद सब साथियों ने मेरे पास से बचे हुए फूल लेकर आपस में बाँट लिए और एक-एक कर सबने बिछड़ने वाले तीनों साथियों को प्रणाम कर उनके चरणों पर फूल चढ़ाए। चिर विदा के इन क्षणों में उम्र और पद वरिष्ठता की सभी दीवारें ढह गईं। श्री सचीन दा, कर दा एवं सुरेश दा सरीखे ज्येष्ठ साथियों ने भी भावविभोर होकर उक्त तीनों महाविभूतियों के चरण छुए थे।

- रामकृष्ण खत्री