Travelogue: Durga Tekdi in Nigdi, Pune

Durga Tekdi or Durga Devi Tekdi is a hill in Nidgi, Pune and Durga Tekdi Park is a public park over the hill. It derives its name from a Temple of Goddess Durga at the top of the hill. 

Durga Tekdi park is frequented by morning walkers, trekkers, travelers and wanderers alike. Visit to the park in the mornings are free of cost and the park is shut down between approx. 9 to 11 am and opens again at 11am. From 11 am to 5.30 pm, the park charges a nominal entry fee of Rs 10. 

It was amazing to visit the park. The park is huge; plus we have to climb the hill. Thereby, it can be understood that senior citizens won't be able to explore most of the park area. But the park is ideal for small kids and there are several rides and lawns where they play. At the time I was visiting, small kids of around 5 years of age had arrived in two big size school-buses and where playing ringa-ringa-roses and a lot of other games while their teachers watched over them. I could also see large families arriving for a picnic.

Important thing to note is that the park does not allow any plastic objects inside so if you need to take something inside, take steel or metal water bottle. Also, avoid taking eatables or carry small stuff.

Btw, Appu Ghar is an amusement park adjacent to Durga Tekdi. You can check out pictures of Appu Ghar on my next blog post here. 

So here are some of the pictures of Durga Tekdi from my visit:

Main entrance to the park (above)

Climbing up the hill

Children's play area at the top of the hill

From the top of the hill you can see far away but through dense greenery 

Beautiful flowers

Highest point is Ray-Band Point

Lake inside Durga Tekdi Park

White Ducks can be seen in the lake

Beautiful flowers (above)

Durga Mandir at Durga Tekdi Hill

Panoramic view of city from the Durga Tekdi hill

School kids returning to their buses after the visit (above)

- Rahul Tiwary | March 2019

Photographs: Some Nature Pictures (Part 2)

(Above) Two Sparrows sit on the chairs in a waiting hall

A stray dog waits to get some food from his host house

A couple of pigeons feeding on the grains provided in a balcony

A lone squirrel 

- Rahul Tiwary | 2018 - 2019

Travelogue: Appu Ghar in Nigdi, Pune

Appu Ghar is an amusement park in Nigdi, Pune. It has lots of rides for children to enjoy. You can also checkout Appu Ghar, Pune website: https://www.appugharpune.com/

Appu Ghar is adjacent to Durga Tekdi. You can check out Durga Tekdi pictures on my blog post here. Appu Ghar opens at 12pm while Durga Tekdi opens at 11am. 

Here are some of the pictures taken by me:

(Above) The road in front of Appu Ghar - this whole area is full of greenery

Main entrance of Appu Ghar

A plaque describing rides and facilities inside Appu Ghar

Rides inside Appu Ghar

It is a wonderful place and a family with kids must plan to visit it.

- Rahul Tiwary | March 2019

Travelogue: Laxmibai Barne Udyan near Dange Chowk, Thergaon, Pune

Laxmibai Barne Udyan (Garden) is a big public park in Gujar Nagar, Thergaon area near Dange Chowk and Wakad in Pune. The park has a children's playing area with several rides; a joggers track; a meditation center; an amphitheater and an open gym. 

In the mornings, the park entry is free of cost while in the evenings, it charges a nominal fee of Rs 2 per visitor. 

The park is always buzzing with small kids who enjoy the rides and play in the greenery and a natural environment. At a time when open spaces are shrinking, such public parks are a boon to the society and government and local municipalty should be appreciated for very well-maintained status of this public park. 

- Rahul Tiwary | Pune | Jan 2019

Magazine: Vivek Jyoti, Feb 2019

Here are some wonderful excerpts from Vivek Jyoti magazine. You can read more about this magazine at my earlier post here. 

An incident where a small boy came and greeted Swami Vivekananda:

Life story of Anna Hazare and how he was inspired by a book from Swami Vivekananda which caused a turnaround in his life: 

An article by Swami Nikhileshwarananda where he makes a very nice point about how to deal with stress in modern lifestyle: 

A funny incident where a young kid asked Swami Shankarananda that she wanted to eat "Rajendra Prasad": 

Magazine announcing that digitization of its past issues are done and available for sale in convenient formats like DVD or Pen Drive: 

Hope you enjoyed reading these portions. If you want to subscribe to this wonderful magazine, please do so by sending a cheque of Rs 130 in the name of "Ramakrishna Mission, Raipur" to above address with your own address and asking for a yearly subscription by post. 

- Rahul Tiwary

History: Major Defeats of Tipu Sultan in Hands of Maratha Empire

If you use Twitter, you can choose to follow a very good account called Indian History Pictures whose handle is: https://twitter.com/IndiaHistorypic

Recently, it posted two tweets which show the timeline of major defeats of Tipu Sultan, majorly in the hands of the great Marathas:

While most of us consider Tipu Sultan as a brave warrior, to consider him invincible and a greater force than other Indian kingdoms of the time is not true. Maratha warriors at that time ruled over most parts of India and defeated Tipu many times; as indicated in above image. 

- Rahul Tiwary

Travelogue: Garden inside Aditya Birla Memorial Hospital Pune

Visit to a hospital is mostly stressful. But imagine a hospital which has such a beautiful garden inside it that for a moment you forget if you have come to a hospital or to a park! Aditya Birla Memorial Hospital (ABMH), Pune is one such hospital. Just treat yourself with following pictures for example:

- Rahul Tiwary | Pune | Jan 2019

Travelogue: Jijau Paryatan Kendra, Chinchwad, Pune

I visited Jijau Paryatan Kendra (Jijau Tourism Center), Chinchwad and here are some of its pictures. It is named after Rajmata Jijau who was Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj's mother.

There was no entry fee inside the park when I went. There is very nice children's playing area with lots of rides etc; there are seats where you can sit on the bank of Pavna river and watch the sun set; there is an open gym where you can exercise under the open sky; there is an area with big sculptures of animals which look very "real" and there are lots of stuff which children can enjoy; included a scary crocodile!

This is a must visit place for small kids and I can't wait to go back there again. 

- Rahul Tiwary | Pune | Feb 2019

Online Donation to Ramakrishna Mission

I wanted to donate something worthwhile for a long time and finally took the courage to go and do it in September last year. Before this I have been donating in small amounts but this was my first bigger donation. I am not posting this here for any ego satisfaction; I did not post about it on Facebook or anywhere so far and now I just felt this is worth sharing to encourage others and hence I am doing it. 

While donation I thought about which category to donate and finally chose "care of old and sick monks". Old age is most vulnerable period of life for most and if someone had chosen to become monk/sadhu, most likely he or she does not have access to funds and can't afford proper healthcare. This is why I chose this category. 

You can follow below process to donate:

Go to https://belurmath.org/ and choose "Donation" option on the right hand side Or Else, go directly to https://donations.belurmath.org/

You can choose "Donate to Ramakrishna Mission (Indian Donors) if you are an Indian donor. 

Minimum amount for donation is Rs 100.

It is a very simple process and you can use Credit Card / Debit Card / Net Banking in order to donate the amount.

You can choose from the following categories:

• Relief and Rehabilitation
• Tribal welfare
• Widows' welfare
• Scholarships to women students
• Rural development
• Rural development training
• Pallimangal (Integrated Rural Development)
• Gadadhar Abhyudaya Prakalpa (GAP) - Holistic Development of Children
• Monetary help to the poor and needy
• Monetary help to the poor for medical treatment
• Integrated development of backward class people
• Charitable dispensary
• Viveka Tirtha - Centre for Human Excellence and Social Sciences
• Swami Abhedananda Convention Centre
• Scholarships to poor and meritorious students
• Research work
• Scholarships to students for higher studies
• Care of old and sick monks
• General Fund
• Philanthropic and charitable activities

You can also to through FAQ page in case of any queries: 

https://belurmath.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/articles/6000035173-how-do-i-donate-online-

While donating for social cause, it is still important to choose the right organization. For example, recently, Government of India had banned a number of NGOs and social organizations because they were doing all sorts of activities including religious conversions and funding social and political unrest in our country. This is why it is important to choose the right organization instead of donating to any random NGO based on advertisement. When in doubt, which organization can be better than the one established by Swami Vivekananda himself?

- Rahul Tiwary