the pune trip: an event (and food) list .... chronologically

expressway

happiness

the st stand at night

day 1- wednesday

after sen kapadia’s ‘inversion’ workshop begins that is going to sustain the fourth year for the next two weeks amit, mukul and me climb into the car and drive in a blue grey evening to pune on the expressway. the rain seems like its about to start pouring but the sunset is that golden light that can only happen in bombay in the monsoon.

in pune we are living in a tube lit pista green room with a thick red carpet above the state transport terminal at shivaji nagar- courtesy amits dad- the ‘vip suit’.

dinner was sizzlers at zamu’s where amit got drunk on two glasses of wine and i struggled with some really tough pork chops.

day 2- thursday

breakfast at sunrise café and the national film archive of india at the end of prabhat road for the main course. the compound of the archive has two buildings- one older and one newer. while the new one is this huge muscular brutalist building in form finished concrete the older building might be one of my favorites with cascading long sloping roofs leading all the way almost to the ground, a complex array of textures and surfaces, windows peeking out of the most strange crevices- a strange eccentric little cottage which seems like a really cool witch lives in there.

the theater where we were to watch the films was on the first floor of the new building- a plush wood paneled 25-30 seater. our own private screening room. ‘garam hawa’ first and then lunch at ‘china gate’- a tacky little restaurant with pretty tacky food. back to the theater and first ‘i am 20’ and then mani kaul’s ‘uski roti’. (more on all the films later- i can’t think much right now).

m g road is the happening road of pune – or so i am told.. it wasn’t that happening in the evening when it basically seemed like a cheaper cousin of its namesake in bangalore. its strange how all i am doing in documenting places we ate- marzorin on a verandah overlooking the street with the cool crowd.. but dinner was on the road at “chowpatty”- a pavement with red chairs for non vegetarians and white for veggies.

that night i beat mukul and amit at teenpatti- the only time in my life when i have won at cards.

the st stand in the day

ak, amk with the old wing of the nfai

ak, amk with the new wing of the nfai

the preview theater

me and the screen

the vault in the basement of the new wing

films in cans

amit at marzorin on mg road, pune

three boys at chowpatty

day 3- friday
breakfast at sunrise café and ritwik ghatak’s ‘subarnarekha’ which made me cry and cry and cry- even over masala dosa at kamats. finally then a film that was not indian- ‘shadows of forgotten ancestors’ by sergei paradznov. madness it was.

mukul and me swam in khadakvasala lake while amit stood guard over our clothes. the water was soft, sweet, gentle and the light heavenly. cool evening breeze.

to check the nightlife of pune out we called johns' cousin roy and his wife megha after chicken off m g road. that was a fiasco with us rejecting one club after another for not being crowded enough and others rejecting us for not having the appropriate footwear (i was in floaters). finally we settled for 'a thousand oaks' all of which were packed and smoky. roy and megha are very sweet and i felt so guilty for having them sacrifice a peaceful friday evening at home to entertain us.

amits desperate urge to see khadakvasala lake in the middle of the night meant that we drove to it on the dark road. stood there in a night light for 15 minutes before heading back to sleep at 1.30.

khadakvasala lake

mukul putting on shoes after the swim

day 4 – saturday
while mukul went off to ftii for a meeting amit and me drove to koregaon park- 'german bakery' with many foreigners with glazed eyes having coffee. maroon robes that take them away from themselves in the everyday to help them be part of a more universal human / spiritual experience. the responsibility that they take is only for their own personal fulfillment- more on that particular diatribe in my head later.

mukul then gave us his guided tour through ftii that always starts off at the water tank at the end of the road, goes through the studios, then the sound recording areas and finally the editing tables. i loved the cameras again- the arriflex and the mitchell with their pistons, levers- such mechanical precision.

correa’s iucca in the pune university campus where were not allowed in – the three layered stone façade, the jantar mantar in steel, the courtyard with the statues of scientists.

it was raining on the expressway all the way back to the traffic of bombay. sometimes i think there is nothing more beautiful in the world than the spray of the waterfalls down the black rocks of lonavala.

the tank where sandhya swam

ghatak the god on the walls of ftii

sound studios, ftii

ak, amk- pune university

the three of us