Pune Craft beers are JOKE,

On my trip to Bangalore in 2019, I had the privilege of sitting next to a Spice Jet captain. He asked me where in Bangalore will I be living. When I told him Whitefield , he said – “Lucky Dude” . I asked how? He said – “We drive 25 kms to relish “Windmills” you will be able to relish it any day...

On the first weekend, I was there and had the privilege of tasting ” Heffeweizen” , the emperor of all beers ( For the uninitiated, its a wheat beer of German origin made from hopps, caracao, orange peel. It was the best drink I ever had in my life.. Thus began the journey of exploring the craft beers across the world.. I stopped drinking bottled/ canned beers altogether.. The lowest, I would descend would be tap beers.. Tasted them in Amsterdam, Singapore, Phillippines, USA.. and got hooked on to it forever…

Relocating to Pune in 2019 was a big let down.. First , the folks hadnt heard of it .. Then came the folks who faked craft beers in the city..

Here are my experiences of trying it at various place

1. Toit Kalyani Nagar : I had been there in Nov 22. The dudes have ZERO idea what beer is. The carbonation is FUCKED up, the flavors are off by miles. You taste one.. its pissy and then they ask you to try another.. and then another.. Every sip hurts.. The jerks on counter are like dude strumming on a guitar which is totally off tune..
2. Beer farm , Pimpale Saudagar : I had dropped into their store in the mall. I was tempted to order Belgian wit, Heffe and Kolsch.. My wife stopped me . I just bought 1 litre of Heff.. 2 days later, on a weekend, we opened it up. It was so pissy and with so low carbonation that we wont even wash our shoes with it. 2 sips ..and we were over.. The remaining portion is in the fridge reminding me of my sins..
3. Effingut Baner/ Balewadi : My first visit to this pub was in late 2020. I was surprised to get a hint of real Heff . Few days later ordered 3 litres of it online in glass casks.. I opened the bottle, it was below average and I felt something fishy in it.. The next day was spend writhing and turning the whole day. The misery ended only when i finally vomitted it out.. Didnt have the courage to open the other 2 for next 15 days… Finally, when I did open, they tasted awefull. 2 sips and then the entire bottles had to be emptied in the sink.. Its been years, so I thought I can forgive them. Asked my friend to join me there yesterday ( 20Jan 23). By this time I have almost lost faith on all Pune brewers.. So, I asked them to provide a sampler.. The sampler arrived on 2 trays and the beers were as hot as a green tea which has been let to settle for 5 mins.. They tasted horrible. There was one from berry and another was apple cider.. They were the worst of pack.. My friend said the heff was ok, so we ordered a pitcher (Worth 1200). to our dismay- Heffeweizen tasted sweet . #WTH.. We had not ordered an alcoholic shikanji or neembu paani.. We had ordered few snacks which turned out to be ok. The ordeal of finishing the pitcher was over in 30 minutes.. Seems I will not visit them for next 5 years..
4. 24K Balevadi high street : We reached the rooftop. The view from this place was amazing. The LIVE karaoke musician was good. Ambience was great. The food was great but what we had come to this place was great beer and this is where they disappointed. The wheat bier was passable, Belgian wit was not worthy of mention. Their real innovation is on Ambe mohar ( A rice beer which captures the aroma of locally popular rice)
5. Kimaya online : I had ordered 3 different vairants from Kimaya online.. On the first order, the quality was amazing and they justified their existence with decent beers. I recommended it to my friend when he invited me to a dinner party. When we opened up, we realized that they too had screwed up. Cant recommend to any one..

To me, every one claims to be a craft brewer has turned out to be a sucker who gets the beers right only accidentally. Most of the times, its a disappointment. So what do I do now?

The nearest you can consistently get to a craft beer experience are by 2 ways a. Get Hoeggarden cans and b. Bira white.. These 2 brands seem to have professional, trained brewers who know the art and science of making beers.. For the rest of the FAKE craft brewers in Pune, I wont even waste my dime on them .. Their produce is not even worth washing my hair.

Reclaiming a fitter me in Covid times

Great work is impossible without a healthy body. Healthy body is impossible without sustained cardiac activity.

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A lot of physical activities like gymming, running, outdoor team sports have become unpractical in lockdown & containment times. There is only 1 activity which stands out in these times and that is CYCLING.

It has been recommended as the best exercising in Covid times to maintain great health. It not only maintains physical distancing, it works out the largest muscle group in your body (Thighs, calfs, ankles). It does so, without causing impact injuries on your knees. //Read Tiger woods answer how running 50kms/week, destroyed his knees & body. Tiger Woods reveals the advice he’d give his younger self

Cycling has seen 150% jump across the world. The people in Wuhan moved in cycles to provide supplies to people stranded becuase of large scale house sealings done by govt. Biking Provides a Critical Lifeline During the Coronavirus Crisis

Here is my snapshot of 12 km trip, I did this morning in Baner- Wakad~ Balewadi areas of Pune, India

I was delighted to analyze that my heart rate sustained over 170 bpm for a really long period of 21 minutes. . Also the VO₂ max, which measures the athletic endurance remained high.

What is VO₂ max?

VO₂ max refers to the maximum amount of oxygen your body can utilize during exercise. It’s commonly used to test the aerobic endurance or cardiovascular fitness of athletes before and at the end of a training cycle. VO₂ max is measured in milliliters of oxygen consumed in one minute, per kilogram of body weight (mL/kg/min).

It’s not the same thing as heart rate, though it can be just as effective, if not more so, to measure and track your fitness progress. VO2 isn’t excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC), which refers to the increase in oxygen your body uses after a workout, not during. … // Read more about VO2 max here : VO2 max: How it can help you run faster or train better).

This burned calories equivalent to 2 cans of a Budweiser beer 😎 and it feels good to do great workout without feeling NUMB

#health #wellness #fitness #calories #cardio #covid #pune #beer #cycling #knees

Torturous road to justice against corrupt

“This is really fast ” said Mr Pandit ( name changed ) one of the resident owners. He was commenting on my impatience with the speed of prosecution. I have currently taken up a big battle to unmask massive corruption in my residential society. Distt Deputy Registrar ( DDR) and Deputy Registrar of society Pune City for societies are exchanging letters to bring the corrupt to the book. He further elaborated – ”   The first step here should be to totally insulate them; take away their right to spend our hard earned money.  “.   I had been following up with Registrar of societies ( RoS )  for last 3 months and now the formal investigation on grounds of financial crime is about to begin. The office bearers in  our  society office had illegally done spending of  our maintenance fund without General body approval. Read the original story here

Why should  this  concern all of us ?

We all probably live in or will be living in residential societies where corruption /misappropriation/ can occur. A typical residential society of 400 apartments can have a fund of 1 crore+. The so called volunteers to selflessly serve the society can have their morals taking long vacation when they smell so much money. This may lead to huge leakage of your cash and dilapidated state of your residential society.  Either you can accept that corruption  citing various reasons ( from lack of time, awareness, intent or chalta hai etc) or will have an urge to fight this disease. Its when you decide to fight, will need to know how to proceed. The path to justice is long and torturous. The officers who tried to prosecute Laloo Yadav spent 17 yrs to send the scoundrel to jail.  You may need to be mentally prepared to fight for months, if not years.  I am already in my 4th month 🙂

How often is this kind of fight done ?

Very rarely.  99.9% of such cases of corruption either go unnoticed or people forget about it. Often they are too lazy to even confront the corrupt. The govt procedures of addressing these crimes is too slow and tests your patience and tenacity to extremes.

Why people do not raise voices ?

Its excruciating to fight against corrupt both at lower and higher levels.    For example, if some scoundrel makes a backdoor entry into society office position, its very tedious to throw the him out. They have society funds to hire legal advisors, crook accountants and 5 to 6 partners in crime. You may have to initially hack it all relentlessly

Why is it difficult to throw scoundrels out ?

Most of the people in societies either are not aware about implications of corruption or take it as a part of their ordinary lives. They seldom rise against the corrupt. most believe, its somebody else’s job to fight corruption. Those who rise against corruption have to fight a machinery ( Administration, Sympathisers of corrupt, security employed and inertia of people ).  The cases of illegal committees ( Folks who get into office without getting elected ) of society offices are not dislodged by Registrars any more. One has to go to Co Operative court to challenge that. Going to court means hiring a co operative lawyer and paying his fee. This is enough to give an ordinary citizen jitters. While the crusader has to pay legal charges from her own pocket, the scoundrels have war chest of maintenance fund at their disposal which they utilize to engage legal advisor, bribe civic officials, forge documents with help of corrupt chartered accountants and circulate false justification using society resources.

Alternate method of throwing  illicit and corrupt committee out is by calling an Extra ordinary general meeting ( EOGM)expressing no confidence against the dishonest and corrupt.

Why  EOGM method  is a difficult thing ?

Calling an EOGM for no confidence requires written signature of 33 % of members  (  As a norm only  less than 25% of resident owners attend society meetings ). This means if you have 100 members in society and you want to throw the corrupt out , while you need 33 signatures, you can only reach out only 25 people. Often out of the 25 active members 10 to 12 may already  be huddled in crime. Further, to boot the corrupt out, you need 2/3rd people voting them out.  This means in a society of 100 apartments, you need 67 people voting out . Or if its permissible 2/3rd of attending members. This means if 25 attend the meeting you need 17 people to vote the corrupt out. If the committee comprises 10 members,  mathematically , it may never happen. Its a scenario like no matter how much you hate Congress and its crimes you cant throw it out for 5 yrs because they manage the floor using Mayas, Mulayams, Karunanidhis and Sharad Pawars.

What is the way out ?

Society is like a cell of democracy and none of the provisions work unless there is large participation from all the owners. With 25% or less voting and participation, crooks invariably win . We, thus have the state of society like that of the nation where the ugliest crooks float to the top. Its important that there is large voting turn out ( >75% ) to select people . Also it must be ensured that only the members who are elected through voting become the office bearers. There needs to be an internal lokpal in all societies with power to suspend Chairmen/President/ Secretary/ Treasurer if there are sufficient grounds for dishonesty , corruption or procedural impropriety.

This is what I have done in my society till date in my fight against corruption :

Its been 3.5 months now since I first started it all.  This is how the pieces on chessboard look like

1. The accused  still disgrace the office . Few  or many steps away from check mate ( I do not know)
2. The District Deputy Registrar has requested an  eight point response ( In hard core Marathi even difficult for Marathi professor to understand ) for detailed inquiry to  proceed. This  moved some of my pieces into central square
3.  The evidences which justify detailed inquiry are ready with me.
4. The thick skinned refuse to vacate the office. In professional chess, no player waits for the check mate. They resign when they have some irrecoverable disadvantage like a major piece loss or a vulnerability.  However in real life, the shameless till they are driven out with force cling on. Fools die hard, crooks die harder
5. A lot of paper crimes, dishonesty has been perpetrated example : showing an audit report on a date it didn’t exist.  Falsifying the minutes of meeting of AGM, misusing office staff for personal service, etc. When people who are cheats get caught and are incriminated, they try to be even bigger cheats.
6. As per Maharashtra Co op act, 15 clear days before AGM, the committee needs to circulate audited books of accounts to the members. The crooks in my society sent unaudited balance sheet and asked for approval for audited report which no one had seen. In layman’s term its like taking an approval of financial crimes without even you knowing that crime has happened
7.  The counter move from those seeking justice has been to submit a written  request from over 30 residents to Dy Registrar that AGM held was illegal.
8. Momentum often works against the weak.  Approx 70% of people voting in AGM have given in writing that they  want the corrupt to be dismissed.
9. The partners in crime have gone into a huddle trying to delay the incrimination. Some stooges croak in between on trivial issues to  divert attention from the main issue of corruption
10. The society and its residents suffer as the apartments get the least resale and rental values in its area.
11.  The wheel of justice though slow,  is moving in a right direction to ensure that guilty gets exemplary punishment.

If however you persist with right process there is always hope for justice : Watch Shawshank Redemption  to understand it 🙂

Ray of hope

Keep soldiering

Splitting the expenses and fraud accounting

2 weeks ago, I wrote a post on how people with questionable values lead  to collapse of propriety in a housing society. How it affects the citizen mindset in the whole country.

I had 2 options to deal with this ugly situation :

1. Crib at the errant and ugly behavior of office holders. // Easy and practiced by many.

2. Do some concrete action to restore propriety and my own faith in the system. // Its was as difficult or as instinctive to me as confronting a drunk molester in a running bus. The  story of confronting molester is here

The majority in my society exercised option 1.

The option 2, I exercised put me up fighting against a group of people ensconced and fortified on a hill ( Just like Kargil intruders ). They have a war chest of society resources (  Maintenance money worth lakhs, legal advisors, security, accountants etc)  to harass me.

As always, its unnerving for most individual crusaders to fight the alligators in pond.  A rational man is advised by friends to give up under provocations.

Look at one suggestion from a well wisher on facebook :

I accepted the suggestion to be an Aam aadmi , An aam aadami , today is frustrated with the corruption and willing to take to streets.  Many of the aam aadamis may fail, bleed during the trsyst  but their is light at the end of tunnel.  There are some glorious instances where a single guy brought down an entire army of crooks by following the right path of truth example  J . B Patel of Panchwati society,  Andheri Bombay :http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2012-10-15/news/34473028_1_society-office-bearers-jayant-patel

Even without knowing his inspiring story, I  had gone ahead on the confrontational path.  The following is what I did.

1.  Filed a complaint with Dy Registrar of society, Pune. Explained how there is a possibility of serious SCAM and immediate inquiry should begin . The inquiry should begin with sacking of office holders.
2.  Sent a copy to Joint Registrar of Society. He manages Dy Registrar.
3. Sent an email to CM office of Maharashtra . He forwarded the case to Secretary of state ( Co operatives)
4. Demanded from office holders full life cycle documents of questionable transactions and a detailed list of bank transactions.
5. Engaged a top ranking CA to investigate all documents.

Why I did this ?

Sometimes, its easy for accused to bribe/influence/threaten a small officer. Its however, beyond their capacity to buy 3 levels of high officials in the system. I tightened accountability at three levels to prevent this. Further, demanding and getting full lifecycle documents upto the current date leaves very little to accused to manipulate the documents at later stage.

What were the results ?

The Ad Hoc committee went vengeful. It complained not against me but against my little startup.

• Electricity Deptt : Inspectors came, searched my startup, searched my entire home and said, I just need to readjust the tarriff to commercial rate.
• Corporation license Deptt : Inspector came and told me to get a license to operate business in municipal area. He asked me the intent of why society secretary did a written complaint. I showed him the cases they are embroiled and how even the CM office has acknowledged the complaint. He understood and said, we wont harass you at all.  Apply for a license, it just costs Rs 1000/= he said and we will fully co-operate with you. I smiled and said, I will do it.
• Police Deptt : Local chowki summoned me to police station. I went with my wife to the police station. I was asked about illegality of my startup in residential area. I showed them Maharashtra IT act of 2010 which allows IT companies to work from residential areas. They didnt ask me any further. Read the blog on how IT companies can legally operate from residential complexes : http://www.wicfy.com/blog/working-from-apartment-is-legal-for-it-companies-startups/
• Society Security    The Secretary  told the security to harass the employees of startup by. Not letting them park their bikes in authorized parking area.Sometimes they even prevented their bikes from entering the society. They made them to sign register everytime they came in an out of society. 

Thus, the accused were exhausted of their arsenal. The amount of harassment was coming to an end. My business just emerged stronger from all these harassment. The employees rallied around me in these tough situation because I kept everything transparent.  The values I hold, the fight I take and the possible consequences.

Now comes the funniest part.  When, the accused had little to defend themselves, they resorted to dirtiest tricks which crooks in  Govt or Corporate world resort to i.e Splitting of expenses.

Please see the image of response given to me by the Society secretary.

Also, the accused, thinking the residents to be Dumb and weird, appointed their sympathizers to do an investigation and award them a clean chit. Recall how Gadkari had got himself a clean chit by  a person he appointed to investigate his own crimes ?

This also reminded me of my days in central govt.  Procurement in such large organization happens either centrally or locally. There is huge amount of money made by some people at central level but its more interesting at local level

At local levels for any transaction above Rs 5000/= needs a CLPC approval ( Central logistics purchase committee ). This CLPC comprises 3 independent officers and give approvals for any purchase above limit. Also they examine all the quotations.

Now if everything  goes through CLPC How do people at local levels misappropriate public money ?

Ans: Splitting of expenses. Any thing which is to be bought for 9900/= is split in two purchases of 4950/= each and can be bought with or without quotations.  At one stage I saw that there were 350 transactions, all between 4900 and 4999/=. This is how  people with corrupt intent try to loot public money.

I realized that people do not bring in good things of their experience in large systems to the society but ugly , dirty and corrupt practices are rapidly brought in . Even  in such small theater as housing society, this disease of splitting of expenses is brought in. Though the annual budget is as low as 40 lakhs.

Whats the way to rein in such ugly practice?

I consulted the Registrar and he suggested requesting a govt audit of all books of accounts and processes under section 89 of Mah CHS act. This independent inquiry by a govt auditor may reveal a lot more irregularity and doesnt cost much.  For a society its Rs 37/member/year of audit requested.  So for my society of 200 members, it would cost me Rs 7400/= approx.

We had seen creative accounting done by Ramalingam Raju ( Satyam Fame ) and how the reputed CA Pricewater house Coopers was party to crime of splitting salary expenses of ghost employees .  Well that was a 1000 crore + scam and this is worth a few lakhs.  The efforts to expose and prove the crime is more challenging till the accused are thrown out of office.

What will you do if you see such financial misconduct in your society ?

Are you aware that corruption is not just in govt, its a cancer which eats housing societies as well ?

How can you establish a clean system in your society ?

Please do share your experiences of taking the accused head on.

The iPad guy and the drunkard – A society story

The young man on seat number 10 was busy working on his iPad.  To me, it seemed that this will be one more eventless  journey in Shivneri* back to Pune after a VC meeting in Bombay. When we passed Chambor, I heard the iPad guy scream.

Ipad Guy ( IG) : Can you please let me take my seat ?

Drunk man(DM) (retorts) – “I am not going to get up from my seat, I sat here after asking the conductor, do whatever you want “. 

 

IG : Sir, I had booked this seat and on my ticket the seat number is mentioned “

DM :  “I don’t care whats printed, and whats not, what I know is that now I have this seat , you go find your self whatever you can find to rest your bum.

A lady just behind the iPad guy wanted to protest and told the drunk guy to vacate the seat but to no avail.

IG( irritated ):  Driver! Can you check this guy ? He is not getting up from my seat. Can you please ask him to move ? 

The  driver just ignored his pleas and kept his gaze on the road. The drivers, I learned are on contract and  lesser the journey time, the better for him . Defeated, the iPad guy resigned to the rear most seat in the bus. Couple of guys murmured, cribbed but none came to the support of the iPad guy.  My wife asked me why no body in the bus is human enough to help this iPad guy or stand against unjust behavior?  I said –  “We do not know who has the real claim to the seat and possibly cant take someone else’s fight unless he insists.”

Minutes passed and the drunk guy reclined his chair back. His hand was on the headrest of the seat. He discovered that there was hand of a lady there. The  middle aged lady in white kurta feeling the unwanted touch asked the drunk to take his hand back.

The drunk :  Its my seat and my headrest, I will keep it here.

The lady :   This bus brakes hard , I need to put my hands here to rest , Please keep your hand forward.

The drunk ( Now more obstinate ) started putting his hand behind more audaciously and was touching  lady’s hands more often.  The lady had taken out a pen from her purse and was needling his hand every time he was touching her.

The lady :   Haath aagey kar ….. haraamkhor ( Put your hands forward, you illegitimate predator).

The drunk  : Chup kar MAAAAADARC…D  ( Shut up mother fucker )..

Hearing the incestual abuse on lady, pandemonium reigned in the bus.. There were large howls of Aiyyyyy…, Aiyeee…, and rants ruled. Yet no one was willing to do anything. One guy with a white scarf on his head started sermonizing the drunk in Marathi.  The Drunk was adamant that he was right in abusing the lady and was  trying to extoll how grave calling him “Haraam Khor” was  At this stage, my anger crossed the threshold , I went straight to seat number 10 and confronted the drunk.

I : How can you misbehave, harass and abuse a lady in public place? Do you have some sense of behavior ?

The drunk :  Aiyyyyee ….Kyaa kar lega ?  ( What is  it that you can do.?)

My fists clenched, the fingers coiled and before I could realize, the first punch hit the back side of his head like a lightening.  He screamed and thought of hitting me back but before he could retaliate, the next punch was on his left cheek. He wanted to give a fight but realizing his drunk state,  and the impact of blows he thought it best to not hit me back.

He resigned but still kept sitting on that seat number 10. Most of the passengers were now rallying behind me. Some suggested, that I just throw him out. A short lady in brown red kurta suggested beating him with Chappals till he lost his consciousness.  I however reclaimed my calm and was not hitting him any more. The drunk was silent now. I came back to my seat.  My wife got up said – ” We need to help this iPad guy get his seat“.

She went to the driver and along with some passengers requested driving the bus to a police station. The driver tried to avoid going to a police station but on severe insistence with many co passengers finally drove to a police station  near Vashi station.  8 or 10 of us  got down. We spoke to the police.  To our chagrin we again saw a govt babu behaviour from Police. The police men said – “Hum traffic police hain.. Agar usne ticket liya hai toh hum kuchh nahi kar sakte. Go to crime police chowki.( We are traffic police and if the drunk has taken a ticket, there is nothing we can do  , go contact the crime police ” )

I got exasperated , I went to the control room and asked the Police guys to act. To this one of them said- “We will have to think who can go and handle this “.  I was now frustrated with it.  I screamed – “If you cant handle a public nuisance with urgency, how will I have any trust that you can handle any other crime against women? I have myself been a class1 govt officer and I know how to handle this. In military campuses if we ever saw a person doing this, we would give an  instant natural justice. DO you want me to do this here ?  Call your SP , I want to talk to him ”

At this , the police got activated. 5 of the policemen went inside the bus. They grabbed the drunk by his collar and pulled him out of the bus.  They were just about to administer natural justice to him that he folded both his hands, cried for mercy and agreed to spend the remaining portion of the journey sitting at the back.  He left the seat #10.  The iPad guy got his legitimate seat and the remaining part of the journey was eventless.   We came back home in 2 am in the night and I did have some deeper thoughts.

Ruminations : Think of the bus as a co operative. The drunken-ness in society is not always alcohol but can be post, position and power. When people are drunk and intoxicated, they try to usurp the seat which legally belongs to somebody else. These guys snatch the seat/position in their libidinous state of erections for power and position. They often want to get glued, get wedded to SEATS and wont leave it unless kicked HARD in their…..  No matter how untenable their position becomes, they wont just give up. Nice guys often surrender their SEATS to nuisance  to avoid uncomfortable exchanges. Arrogance of the drunk there after become more rampant. In an open display of audacity, they assume that all other co passengers are weird, dumb and impotent. They also harass some co passengers to the hilt. While majority of the members remain apathetic silent spectators and watch the decay, there are handful with conscience, who make some sounds. No body wants to mess with a drunken passenger. If there is some real blessing, a passenger may stand up  and give the drunk some good treatment before he vacates his Gaddi. This brings some order. This too mostly happens when the drunk is not travelling with his gang of stooges. Now try to do some realization.  Who you are ?

The ipad guy ? //Accept injustice

The lady who gets harassed? // The common citizen who blows whistle

The driver who wants to just do his job? // The state machinery

The police who says – “Its not my job ? ” // The upholders of law, the registrars, and other govt officials

The passengers who howl? //  The cribbers who have some conscience but wont go beyond verbal criticism and do any action

The passengers who will keep silent ? // Those fearful chickens who think its not my problem

The passengers who will do something?    // Activists

The timid passenger who will pump up the confronter – “Aap aage badho, hum aapke saath hai ?  ( You take the fight , we are with you ) or  the

The person who confronts ? // The protagonist who sometimes breaks rules to ensure that faith in humanity is retained.

For understanding the societal perspective you can read this : https://arunpurohit.wordpress.com/2013/08/04/india-is-doomed-and-we-need-military-grade-governance/

Good and Ugly in Pune : Two discoveries in same weekend

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1.Not just Jazz by by the bay :  Located on the E square complex on Pune university Road, this place is a revelation. Last Saturday was a Classical Rock night. The vocalist was good playing nos from Deep purple, Scorpions, Bryan Adams etc.. The guitarist was better, the effects he had put in Smoke on water was note worthy.
It was actually the drummer who was a revelation ..he gave amazing solos and improvization on drummming techniques.
For a cover charge of 600/couple and 500/stag( redeemable against snacks and drinks)  the evening out was great.Great place to take your friends out if they love Rock music.

2.Sinhagadh  : A good account of historical perspective of this fort exists at :

http://sunilshinde.wordpress.com/2007/06/02/shivajis-forts-sinhagad-impossible-in-nothing

If that inspires you than you may consider the following before planning to visit this. This place is a nightmare to go during day time. The roads must be the worst for any place of historical interest. There is absolutely no maintenance of this fort. It said to have been destroyed by the Britishers The abysmal state of this once great fort shows the stinking apathy successive Maharashtra govts have shown towards tourism development or maintaining its heritage.  Probably , this is the highest fort in Maharashtra you can avoid going. . The road state is horrible and and dangerous to drive. Two SUVs crossing , if not grazing each other  have genuine chances of falling into the valley. The fencing is breaking at many places. The contractors who are repairing the fences with GI pipes are not even grouting the pillars. They can be uprooted at any moderate push. The collection of Rs 50/ vehicle charged at the climb to peak probably goes to fill coffers of some Govt  Officer/ politician. Once on the peak you can see mushrooming dhabas inviting you for Kanda Bhaji ( Onion Pakodas) and Junka Bhakhar , pithla ( Maize bread , Gram floor viscous soup). I came back hugely disappointed with the time/fuel and money spent visiting this place 
Definitely wont recommend this to any person visiting Pune unless he wants to write a thesis on – What govt apathy is doing to our forts and heritage.

On retrospect and comparing this with Great forts of Jaisalmer or Aamer , Jaipur , one erudite Maratha told me that Shivaji was not concerned with luxury or comforts ..so you wont find a palace here. Also he unlike Rajputs didnt compromise and shake hands with Mughals . His only interest was war with them so , this for has all strategic interest but no architectural value or artistic beauty..

Cultural Assault on Pune’s Habitat

   

I am waiting for this action to begin

 

  I strongly admire the campaign launched by local manoos in putting Marathi signboards and ensuring that every thing in the state should have native names and connotations. I am surprised how they missed out on the great assault Builder , promoter community is inflicting on the culture of city of Pune and around . I wish they notice the names of societies and housing projects which are launched in Wakad, Aundh, Hadapsar etc.

1. Regalia
2. Edenn Garden
3. Megapolis
4. Capprichio
5. Megapolis
6. Blue Ridge
7. Apostrophe
8. Blue dale
9. Rose land and Blah Blah…..

Why cant they be named

1. Rajkeeya wada
2. Manu Watika
3. Bhavya wada
4. Lalchi ghar
5. Maha gaothan
6. Neel pahadi 
7. Ardhviram vada
8. Gulab Peth …etc..

They need to collect all their resources and start blackening , boards of these societies and send warning to these builders and their residents to either localize their names as shown above or pack their bags. Enough is enough. We cant let the rich culture of this great city be desecrated by this builder community.. After all what are the terms caprice ,Regal, Mont Vert supposed to mean to a manoos..

I strongly suggest a campaign to eradicate these names from the landmarks of this Punya nagari. This probably will gain them more headlines on TV channels and also galvanize more followers in his fold.. This will mean bigger vote bank.Also , this can generate a lot of revenue to the state as every builder has to re register their society name. Local advocates will make more money in processing this legal process. Local signboard painters will get a lot of employment .. All their brochures need to be printed in local language.. This will give lot of native writers a chance to write flashy campaigns.  Further when investors come to invest , they wont be able to understand any name, specification, brochure etc and they would need translators. Imagine how many translators we would need and millions on jobs which can be generated .There is so much to do .. to reconstruct these cities ..we cant afford to get tired.. The show must go on.. Let us open this front too..