The "Beverly Hills" of Pune!

You have seen some of these photos in previous posts, but I thought it fitting to put all the mansions together in one place.  Especially since I have acquired some new ones since then.

Also, I realized that the "Beverly Hills" of Pune actually encompasses two areas: where I am presently residing, in Koregaon Park, and also the next neighborhood (across the river), Kaliyani Nagar. The latter--spoiler alert-- is the unfortunate home to one of the horrible icons that has infected the whole world... yes, none other than one of the many properties of the man-who-should-not-be-named... if you haven't guessed who that is already, you will find the photo of the property toward the bottom of this post, where it symbolically belongs! 

I call these areas the "Beverly Hills" of Pune because, as previously explained, these areas are home to the millionaires and billionaires of India: Royal families, IT tycoons, and various others...some of whom I have heard about, but others, not. Nonetheless, these mansions--and the lovely streets on which they are situated--are worth gawking at! 

This is some data I DID find, just to give you an idea... and I would be willing to bet that that these people have at least one home in "Beverly Hills" here: 


RankNameNet worth (USD)
1Mukesh Ambani64.5 billion
2Lakshmi Mittal18.6 billion
3Shiv Nadar16.1 billion
4Gautam Adani15.7 billion
Can you imagine?!!? and yet a few short blocks away... hungry street dogs and beggars.... such as it is India!






Have to admit, I do enjoy roaming these streets... so very well-kempt and beautiful! 


The beautiful skies add to the overall effect... truly been amazing ever since I landed in Pune.


The long road through the arc of trees makes this mansion hard to see... I took this photo through the gate... not possible to get any closer, of course!














This was actually a public park in the area of KP. I snuck in--all the parks are still closed--and got yelled at by the live-in grounds keeper. No matter... was worth it... quite beautiful, as you can see...shame they are off limits... which doesn't make any sense at all: people are now congregating everywhere on the streets!









Hard to get a good view of most of the mansions because all of them are behind walls and ornate gates, such as the one you see here. So the view is just a partial glimpse, but enough to get an idea of the enormity--and extreme opulence--of these estates!


This garden is quite the marvel...one of the few that are actually visible from the street. 


Yes, if you hadn't already guessed it...here is the horror that I spoke of. The guards objected to me taking the photo... so I got to rail at them about this monstrosity... of course they had no clue what I was saying. No matter--it was satisfying just the same!!!


Equally satisfying? The fact that one of the gates to the Trump Tower was graffiti-ed!  Do you think the ones who did it were connecting this man to the ills of the virus brought to India?! I tend to think, yes.... 



The hotel name didn't show up in this photo, but it a very fancy Weston, which, as you can see, overlooks the Pune river. While you may think, "how nice!" Not really.  It is a horribly dirty and polluted river, most sadly. But not surprisingly...you will see this river up close in my next post. 

I would have loved to explore inside this hotel--of course ALL hotels in Pune are still closed.

I asked a guard at the Pune Hilton when he thought it might open up, as I am hoping to buy a swim in the pool. Sadly, after phoning admin with my query, he told me that they had no clue. I don't know when I will EVER get to swim again, and I miss it horribly. I saw some kids swimming in the river... yikes! I can only imagine what horrible infections they might incur as a result!


This Pune river separates the Koregaon Park side of "Beverly Hills" from the Kaliyani Nagar side... I like to cross it because--overlooking the polluted facet--the openness of the bridge over it makes for magnificent views of the incredible skies, and it looks pretty if you don't look too close.... 




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