Weekend Escape :Bhuleshwar

That day I was reading about Pune and got a very interesting explanation of it. It says, Pune is a place where every hilltop needs to have something on it. Be it a fortress, a temple, a view point and if not anything atleast a TV antennae. I know this is completely out of context but just want it to be on my blog so here it is. Well coming back in context, after a long break I was on roads again this weekend.

To start with, I will confess that some weeks back, I didn’t even know of this place. Thanks to a friend of mine and facebook, the secret broke to me. After doing some google over Bhuleshwar, I found it a very interesting place to dump me this weekend.

Going out of box, a Saturday afternoon start (I usually like an early morning start), a 50KM ride on Solapur Rd. and then a right turn on country roads. You can see the temple from a distance as good as 2 KM. This temple is temple by no means.

The first site of the temple that catches you is an Islamic Architecture styled Tomb and you will forced to reconfirm if you are on the right way or not from a local. This Temple has been razed by Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb in an attempt to mutilate Hindu art and restructured it with a mosque styled tomb. This suddenly took me back to my memories of Babri Masjid. You can find more symbol of destruction once inside the temple.

 In the meantime, as you close the place you will find it walls to be that of a fortress, again confused. Well actually, before being a temple this place was a fortress to pheshwas, east gate to Pune.

Finally when you are in the temple, you will be all taken by the iconic Dravidian styled rock curved sculpture.  The temple is dedicated to Lord Shiva. Bhuleshwar in Marathi means “Lord to Seduction”, and you will agree to it by looking to these sculptures.

Though most of them have to destroyed or disfigured, it will take a very little of your imaginative power to appreciate the art, had that been untouched. One of the very unique and interesting sculpture was of Lord Ganesha in feminine posture. This for sure will be one of its types in the world. I spend good 30 min over here to decide if it was a mistake form artist or he meant something.

The place is very rarely visited, peaceful and scenic in its own. Even if a temple visit doesn’t excites you much, you can drop here to see the sunset. Open landscapes all around the hillock will surely put your thoughts churning and you will return back home satisfied.   

It’s already dark here and time to leave. Sign off!! J

Weekend Escape :Tulapur

It’s a beautiful Saturday morning.

My clock has positioned its needles at 217’ 30’ and 90 degree to the zero point for the smaller and bigger respectively (it is 7:15 in the morning). My GPS is perfectly doing its job, uttering “Somewhere 20 km Northeast of Pune”. My best pal, my phone, sitting beside me is singing “MA REWA” of Indian Ocean for me. The climate has also made the all thing perfect for me. A slow breeze is waving things left to right and temperature is not more than 14 degree on Celsius scale. All other things are going as perfect as I would have liked it.

And to add more beauty to this there is a ‘Sangam’ of rivers Bhima, Bhama and Indrayani. Probably that’s why “MA REWA” was the first choice to me here. I’m sitting at a river bank facing east (actually want to say braving sun) with my jeans pulled up to my toes and legs dipped in water. It’s all green all over and the yellow is slowly gaining grounds. Beside me, sharing the screen with me, are few more creatures, a sparrow, a kingfisher and few fishes, to name a few.

And after detailing down all the particulars, even now you find it hard to picture one for yourself here is one for you.

After a heavy week at my desk, I badly needed a cut off. And what better time can be to use the cycles, my company have now allowed be with you even on weekends. It was some of very few weekends, where my plan was set. All started with early retirement to bed on Friday night and hence an early start on Saturday morning. Paddling down some 20-25 km, ‘m here, TULAPUR.

It’s a place not far from Pune but of course not very popular, one the best place to dump you down for weekends. Out from busting traffic and howling crowd, you will get a feel, might be a pinch of it, of traditional Maharashtra hinterland.

In case, you are one who needs a destination to travel up to (I mean all those who find it hard to enjoy a travel to nowhere), there is a temple named “Sangameshwar” and also “Samadhi” of Raje Sambhaji (son of Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj). I always feel irked to give such nitty-gritty details of a place, but then some of us like it to be complete, END-TO-END, as my managers says.

Well, it’s 9 in the morning, and time to get back to my world. There is good number of action items waiting for me. Will sure update you once find a new to place to explore.

Signing Off for Now…..