Thread by @gauravsabnis

Alright, let's start with Pune then. This is all from memory, so please bhool chook dyaavi ghyaavi.

Obviously not going to explain obviously famous names like Mahatma Gandhi Road and Tilak Road and such. Rather names of roads and spots that are famous.

Starting with Nal Stop!

https://twitter.com/inigmati/status/1501525610711363586

Nal Stop only recently regained its status as a proper stop. Cos it's a stop on the brand new metro.

It gets its name from the fact that once upon a time, it was the final stop on the then bus lines. So the city had installed a lot of faucets of drinking water there.

नळ (Nal) is the Marathi for faucet. So it was quite literally the last stop, with a lot of faucets, where people could fill up water before heading out into the then wild lands of Erandwane and Kothrud and Pashan and whatnot.

The faucets were removed decades ago.

Not too far from Nal Stop is Senapati Bapat Road.

Who was this Bapat fellow and what was he Senapati of?

I'm glad you ask!

Senapati Pandurang Mahadev Bapat was exactly and approximately the opposite of Vinya Savarkar.

Both were India House revolutionaries in England.

Bapat was an engineer who went to England over a century ago and probably established the desi engineer tradition of going abroad and not doing actual engineering, hehe. Dude spent time learning bomb making and all. Considered blowing up the British parliament, he later said.

He was an associate of Savarkar back in the days when Savarkar was into fighting the British, not hating Muslims. So part of the early Indian freedom fighters who chose violence as the path. He came back to India and helped plan many bombings including the famous Alipur bombing.

Was arrested and then released after a few years. This was when the first world war was on. And Gandhi had returned and started his satyagraha thing.

Here is where Bapat becomes the exact and approximate opposite of Savarkar. He embraces non violence and doesn't hate Gandhi.

And he ended up leading THE first anti-dam protest in history! Using nonviolent satyagraha means!

In Mulshi, near Pune, against the Tatas for 3 years. This was in 1921, and there is no recorded history of an anti dam movement before that.

He was arrested even for non violence.

Bapat after that got disillusioned with Gandhi and tried many different movements, from the communists to Bose, but was still always active and often in jail. Generally nonviolent, although always a maverick.

Right off Senapati Bapat Road is Bhandarkar Road, which starts at the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute. One of those few academic institutions where "Oriental" is not a bad word, heh.

Would you believe it if I told you that Bhandarkar researched the orient?

Ramkrishna Bhandarkar was one of the earliest serious scholars of modern India. One of the earliest college graduates and one of the earliest PhDs.

He was also extremely liberal! Sanghis would totally hate old man Bhandarkar today. He was a brahmin who hated casteism in 1800s.

Bhandarkar believed that political reforms weren't possible without social reforms and social reforms weren't possible without reforming the Hindu religion, which he thought was a bit medieval for his tastes. He championed widow remarriage and opposed child marriage.

Bhandarkar also championed girls education and was part of establishing Huzurpaga, which is THE oldest continuously running girls school in India to this day.

By the way, Tilak vigorously opposed that girls school, calling Bhandarkar "too woke" in the parlance of the times.

Bhandarkar Road meets Jangali Maharaj Road.

Ah, JM Road, my favorite road!

The road is named for a local religious saint who lived in that forested area in the 19th century. Because he lived in the forest, he was called, well, Jangli Maharaj.

He had a great life story.

The story goes that he was born and raised in Bombay but got involved the the 1857 revolt and then decided to become a sanyasi following Akkalkotkar Maharaj. And retired to the jungles of, well, JM Road, and became an influential guru of the bhakti movement.

Today JM Road is known for restaurants and shopping centers and feels like a totally commercial street. But it has some of my favorite places in Pune.

1. Jangli Maharaj Temple itself! Such a chill and serene temple. And such old trees. You can see why "Jangli" Maharaj!

2. Pataleshwar - Right next to the temple are these rock cut caves, an 8th century temple to Shiva and THE oldest structure in Pune city.

Do go there!

In any other country, a 1500 year old rock cut cave in a city would get millions of visitors a year.

https://twitter.com/gauravsabnis/status/808237537055490048?t=a1AVDFEVRRFB8VJcFMq8AQ&s=19

3. Bal Gandharva Ranga Mandir - A beautiful theater complex built by a group of people including PuLA Deshpande, easily THE best theater in the city if not the state. It even has a "crying room" where parents can take crying children and still watch the play. How cool!

4. Sambhaji Park - It's a gorgeous park by the river bank and next to Bal Gandharva and my favorite time of the year in it was during Diwali when it has all those lovely forts for the competition.

Now let us move on to what should be the most glamorous of all Pune roads.

Prabhat Road!

Because Prabhat Road gave us...

Prabhat Road gets its name from Prabhat Studios.

Before the Hindi film industry well and truly decided to just consolidate in Bombay, there used to be this outpost on the (then) outskirts of Pune called Prabhat Studios. Started by two gents named Damle and Fattelal.

Also a gent named Shantaram Vankudre, aka V. Shantaram.

That film studio produced some quality world class cinema for decades. A lot of Bollywood classics were conceived or shot on Prabhat Road.

What happened to Prabhat Studios after it launched many many great movies and careers including Dev Anand and Guru Dutt, you ask?

It was turned into the Film and Television Institute of India.

Many Bollywood greats traversed the length of Prabhat Road to go to Goodluck or Lucky

Trying to remember more road names and origins.

Hmm.

Law college road cos law college
University road cos university
Paud road cos goes to a village named Paud
Dhole Patil, rich oligarch
Moledina, rich oligarch
East Street, presumably for the direction East

Let's end this thread where it started.

Nal Stop is on Karve Road.

Dhondo Keshav Karve was an interesting character and a career educator.

Sidenote - most famous roads in Pune are named after educators or academics, have you noticed?

But about "Maharshi" Karve.

Dhondo Karve was another one of those 1800s social reformers who believed that Hindu society needed social reform first.

He set up a Widow Remarriage Association, cos the Hindu religion forbade (technically still forbids) widows from remarrying. And forced them into horrid lives

Karve also started the first women's university in India, which still flourishes, called SNDT. It's a lovely sequestered campus I've never been in, though I'm an Abhinava boy who literally knows every square inch surrounding it, hehe.

Another claim to fame of Maharshi Karve is that his son was smart enough to marry Iravati Karmarkar (who attended the aforementioned Huzurpaga school) who is a renowned scholar better known as Iravati Karve.

Who wrote a feminist take on the Mahabharata called Yuganta.

Alright, this is the extent of my memory about Pune street trivia.

Hope y'all enjoyed this thread.

Btw, all this Nal Stop info is first hand. My grandfather lived there since the 60s when it was mostly माळरान. For him, the existence of Karve Road itself was a huge development, hehe.

My school was there. My earliest memories are there.

I am Nal Stop!

https://twitter.com/aseemtamboli/status/1502000133827104768?t=nocYS7bubxnASNnYlixcBg&s=19