Pune digs.... Bhosale Nagar

June 04, 2020

I initially spent two weeks in Pune in the Bhosale Nagar area; home of the main Pune Ananda Center. It is a lovely--rather upscale--part of the city, primarily residential and peaceful. However, I found that the peacefulness was often disrupted by the "gangs" of dogs strutting their stuff and barking furiously at every passing motorbike. Oh, and there was also a domestic dog in an apartment directly across from my room in the Ornate Villa guest house that barked at all hours as well, driving me bonkers! That, and the fact that the guest house was overpriced for what it was, and so often dirty, led me to find new digs in another nice part of town. That will be explained in the next blog post.

So, here you will have a little pictorial presentation of my time in Bhosale Nagar, at the Ornate (a misnomer if ever there was one!) Villa guest house:

Not too bad on the outside, when you first see the sign from the street...so one has cautiously high expectations...

Ahhh, but then you go inside...and well.... you see how "ornate" it is?!?! Ha ha ha....

This is Somo, super sweet guy with very little command of English, who does some of the cooking and cleans only when he feels like it, which is not often, as you will see....his phone is much more interesting, of course!

Vishnu, the manager.... more responsible and responsive, though also on his phone much of the time.... was a nice little patio to sit out on when not getting pestered incessantly by gnats, which was most of the time, unfortunately....

This is what I woke up to in the kitchen, EVERY morning, without fail! Horrifying, yes...because I needed to prepare meals here. I had lunch delivered, but needed to make my breakfasts and dinners.... no matter what I said, it never changed. Somo, who was supposed to clean...either sleeping or on his phone!

Aren't you impressed by the "ornate-ness" of this elegant establishment's kitchen?!?!

Somo, sleeping on the floor of the living room... when he wakes up, around 10 a.m., he does do the dishes, but not until well after I have had to make my breakfast in that mess! Ahhh, yes..."Ornate" describes this scene to the tee! Ha Ha Ha!!!

My room.... very basic, VERY hard bed! And...shares a wall with the kitchen... can you imagine?!?

Now, to take my little neighborhood stroll to see the sights, as it were....

I step outside the guest house and am greeted by my favorite street pooch, whom I have named "Shiva"...he's a sweetheart!

Raven, ruler of the roost! (Or at least, the garbage container!) Fierce dude, totally unperturbed by my presence!

Bougainvilleas, resplendently blooming everywhere! So gorgeous....

Little local park... one of the only ones open in COVID days...was quite a pleasant discovery.

Beautiful skies abound.... thanks to decreased traffic and air pollution! Definitely the "up" side to the lock down here. Birds are riotously happy, as am I! Love these blue skies!

A little jogging track around the periphery of the park. Very pleasant and lovely, as you can see!

Another view of the park

Strangely enough, garbage pickup is frequently done by old women! Can't fathom this...

Rare sight in India: extremely obese man, poor fellow. But unfortunately sugar and processed food have made their way into many Indian diets. Hard to see, but he is walking two dachshunds. Indians are fond of dogs as pets... I can never understand why so many dogs are ferule here, but it is heartbreaking.

Sneaking onto a closed park road.... you know I have to go where it is "verboten" !

Did they really thing that an overturned park bench would keep me out?!?!?!

Granted, it wasn't really all that interesting... so not worth the bother other than to satisfy my curiosity!

I was at least joined by this very sweet street pooch... I guess he was also curious!

Back over into the residential streets to continue my "legitimate" ramblings.... as you can see below, I am just always totally blown away by the beauty of the blooms...