FunderfulWorld

Flashback. Rewind. Memories. For eleven years, the Pune Camp (or Cantonment) area was almost a second home to me. A neighborhood synonymous with school. With school friends who lived in the area. With Hindustan Bookstall for textbooks and Modern Bookstall for story books. With Budhani for wafers and Marzorin for sandwiches. With Shivaji Market and St. Xavier’s Church. With Indo-Foreign Stores, Wonderland, and Fashion Street… Fast forward many years. When I spotted a Heritage Walk in the Pune Camp Area on this year’s itinerary of the Pune Heritage Festival, I jumped at the opportunity to walk down memory lane.

The Sahakar Nagar area in Pune is home to a string of hills. And these hills trace a path that eventually leads to the Parvati hill temple complex. The Taljai and Waghjai hills, known by the names of the deities that reside on their respective summits, have undergone a striking “urban” transformation over the years. On one hand, the approach routes have been modernized with tar and even cement, thus making them easily accessible (and hence, attracting large crowds!