A heavenly place for both the young and the aged alike. While the young go about enjoying the scenery, the aged can relax in the serenity of the temple. It is not often that you can find a quiet and clean temple, but this is definitely one. This temple at Hadshi temple is run by the Sathya Sai trust and has idols of Pandurang (Krishna) and both the Sai Babas. They also do all the aartis like the ones at Shirdi Temple.

I saw a photo of this temple on a blog. One look at the photo and the location convinced me to go there and i wasn’t disappointed. I have been there twice already. On one occasion, it was pouring like crazy and the other time, it was a sunny dry monsoon day. I would recommend this place to anyone who is looking for a place to take visitors out for a drive.

How to go to Hadshi Temple from Pune: Google Maps doesn’t recognise either Hadshi or Hadshi Temple. You have to go to Chandni Chowk, then Pirangut, then Paud –> In the direction of tamhini/Mulshi. In Paud, take the right turn just after the Bus Stand. After this. keep going straight towards Pavana Dam/Tikona, then you will start seeing signboards. At a fork after around 15 kms, the road to the left will be marked with an arch saying Hadshi Temple. You have to be really talented to miss this. Then, the narrow road climbs up a small hill to the parking lot of the temple.

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The first floor of the temple has the Pandurang Shrine while the ground floor has both the Sai Babas. The late sathya Sai baba visited this place in 2009 (surprising that i didn’t read about this in any newspaper) and the photos on the wall show thousands of followers on the lawns of the temple listening to discourses.

An added attraction is the good canteen. They had poha, sabudana kichdi, pakodas, bhel and lots more. Btw, learnt from my second trip that the hot pakodas are made only on Sundays! So, for those not religiously inclined, drop the ones who are so at the front steps and make your way to the canteen.

We had also packed lunch and had it just on the way down the hill close to a stream. It was a lovely evening with the sun playing hide-and-seek with the clouds. Then, we drove all the way to Pavna dam to see Tung Fort and the backwaters and then we retraced the same way back to Pune. If you have a few hours and need a place to go, this would make an excellent destination.

Similar Places Around Pune:

1. Neelkanteshwar temple between Panshet and Khadakwasla
2. Visit to the Bhuleshwar Shiva temple
3. Visit to Baneshwar shiva temple

You don’t need to be either a mallu or a religious person to visit the Ayyappan temple. You just need to be a person like me looking for some new scenic place to visit on a weekend! The Ayyappan temple in Dehu Road is a beautiful temple in a beautiful location. If you have never been to one before, this will be quite an experience seeing the rituals and the way things are done mallu style.

This temple is on top of a small hill near Dehu Road. Since the land surrounding the hill belongs to the army, photography is not allowed in this area. This place is popular with joggers and other runners who walk/run upto the top of the hill (through a trail or the road). The view from the top is unhindered on all sides and thus iit is also a popular hangout place for the people in that area.

How to go to Ayappan Hills from Pune(Magarpatta): Go towards Koregaon park, the Shivaji Nagar, then NH4 (old road to Bombay). This automtically goes to Dehu Road (a few kms before the toll or the Big Ganesha Statue). Anyone in Dehu road would be able to guide you. There is a State Bank of India ATM/Branch. Next to it is a road going in from the main road. This road climbs up to the top. It is a steep but easy climb for any car.

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There is another hill temple closeby, It is the Murugan Hill temple. Though it is called as Murugan hill temple, there are many dieties here including Hanuman, Balaji & Sai Baba.

If you drive on through Dehu Road, you will meet the bypass road coming from the left (the one to use to go Expressway). If you continue straight on,
you should see a left turn going up to a small complex on top of a hill. You can either drive to the top or climb a dozen steps to reach the teample. From thsi temple, you can also see the Ayyappan Temple across the road on one of the hills (though it looks quite far!).

This is a good evening trip for a few hrs, as it takes around an hr in traffic to reach Dehu Road.

Similar Places Around Pune:

1. Neelkanteshwar temple between Panshet and Khadakwasla
2. Kanifnath temple near Saswad
3. Visit to the Bhuleshwar Shiva temple

Shri Kanifnath Maharaj was one of nine teachers in the Navnath Sampradaya, a Hindu Parampara who believe that Rishi Dattatreya, an incarnation of the Holy trinity Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva to be its first teacher (Source: Bhatakanti). This temple is dedicated to him.

How to go to Kanifnath Temple from Pune (magarpatta city): There are two ways to go from Magarpatta. Either go to Saswad and then to Kanifnath (slightly longer) or go through Kondhwa Road (beautiful ghat section in the middle). The map shows the second option which i think is the easier and the more scenic option. Go towards Big Bazaar. Take the left after the one next to Big Bazaar. This is the Prince of Wales Drive. In the next major junction, turn left to go on Kondhwa road. After this keep going straight for few kms. You would come to a junction where the left goes towards Saswad, the right goes to the highway and the straight goes into the hills. Keep going straight. If you are unsure, ask for Bopdev ghat, dont ask for Saswad. People will direct you to the Saswad road if you ask for Saswad though the Bopdev ghat road also goes to Saswad. After the ghat, you will see a big board for Kanifnath on the left and then it is a straight road to the top of the hill. One of the landmarks could be the plane-shaped water tank we saw on the way!

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Once on the top, you get a beautiful view of Pune city. You have to climb around 20-30 steps to reach the temple from the parking or take your vehicle on the road (bad road) to the right of the parking to reach the back of the temple.

The unique thing about this temple is that the main shrine is in a closed room and only men are allowed to enter it. It is not just walking through a door! There is a small opening, probably a little more than a foot in either direction through which you (only men and topless too!)have to crawl into and also come back the same way as you are not supposed to point your foot towards the shrine. No photos were allowed so i dont have any, but it was interesting watching people of all sizes and shapes get into the shrine. Plan your trip such that you reach the temple around sunset as the evening light is just great on the temple as there are no other hills around. We did the usual stuff, lot of photographs , chai-bhel at the shops outside and we were back to Pune within a few hours. Hari and Akshara also had a separate photograph session on their own. Check out those photos here.

Similar Places Around Pune:

1. A short drive to Dive Ghat near Saswad
2. Neelkanteshwar temple between Panshet and Khadakwasla
3. Visit to the Bhuleshwar Shiva temple

If you are looking for the definition of a “Hidden Jewel”, then go to this place. Nestled on top of a small hill between Khadakwasla and Panshet dams, the Neelkanteshwar temple is the ideal place to experience nature as well as mythology. There is a Shiva shrine in this temple and it seems that it gets very crowded during shivratri, but the USP of this place are the hundreds of statues depicting every indian mythology story that you can think of. It is almost like “Amar Chitra Katha” coming alive in the form of statues. Added to this is the magical location of this temple with the backwaters of khadakwasla dam flowing down in the valley and the Panshet dam on the other side giving a “switzerlandish” feel. Click on the below image for a bigger resolution one.

How to go to Neelkanteshwar temple from Pune (Magarpatta City): A trip here would take you a total of approximately 5-6 hrs. 2 hrs to go, 2 hrs on the top and 2 hrs back. You first have to reach Khadakwasla dam (From Magarpatta: Go towards Swargate, Cross it and go on the one-way road to the t-junction, turn left, take the first right at the Mahalaxmi temple signal, this is the sinhagad road which will take you directly to Khadakwasla dam). Just before the dam, there is a road going down to the right with NDA on the sign. Take this road to go parallel to the dam and reach the other side. Once you reach the other side, turn left at the t-junction.

The above map starts from this road with the dam being on the top right of the map. The white line shows the route you have to take to reach the temple. After around 11 kms of winding road, you will see Splendour Country Club resort on your left. Keep going for another 3-4 kilometres and you should see an arch pointing to the left with signs for Shree Kshetra Neelkanteshwar. From here, the road looks bad, but it is ok to drive on with few bad patches in between. You will cross a bridge and come to a t-junction. Here, take left and keep driving. The map below is a zoomed-in version from this point (i.e. after taking the left after the bridge).

As you go along this road, you will see an arch on the right (click here to see the Arch’s photo). You have to take the right and climb up the hill. Going straight will take you to Panshet. Around 200 ms after you start climbing, you will reach the end of the village where you should see something like the photo below.

Many people park here (1st parking) and walk the rest of the way. The first time we went there, we had many kids along with us. So, we decided to drive as close as possible to the temple. A good decision! The distance between the 1st parking and the 2nd is at least 2 kms and it is all uphill. Unless you are in for a trek, better drive over to the 2nd parking. But, a big BUT, the road from the 1st parking to the 2nd is bad, full of rocks and loose gravel. I had taken a video of the road (with the camera attached to the bonnet) on the way down from the 2nd to the 1st parking. Check it out below and then decide for yourself whether your vehicle can handle it. The photo below is just before the 2nd parking. The cut part of the mountain is the place where you start your walk. For those with Google Earth, use this to see the location of the temple and this to see a flyover of the route from Khadakwasla.

From the 2nd parking, it is a steady uphill climb of around 20-25 minutes to reach the temple. Barring summer, this should be an easy and enjoyable climb giving you ample photo opportunities. The moisture in the air and the lack of a heavy lunch made us huff and puff our way to the top, but as you can see in the snap below, the local villagers made easy work of it barefoot!

Once you enter the temple, you are greeted by a huge sleeping Hanuman. Maybe he was too tired by the time he reached the top! Once you climb to the left, you see the Dasavataram and if you look beyond the statues and onto the valley below, you will be greeted with a view which i guarantee will stay in your mind for a very long time.

You can easily spend 2 hours on the top seeing each and every statue and trying to recollect the story behind the same. While Akshara was  busy identifying the characters she knew e.g. cow, snake and the ummachis all over place, we had a nice time discussing the stories associated with them. See the photos below and check how many stories you remember!

Similar Places Around Pune:

1. Drive to Panshet Dam near Khadakwasla
2. Kanifnath temple near Saswad
3. Visit to the Bhuleshwar Shiva temple

Magarpatta City celebrates Diwali every year by lighting candles all along the inner circle and also by having a fireworks display. The fireworks display is very good and lasts for around 15 minutes. Today (Nov 3, 2010), we are going to have the fireworks/candle lighting within the city. Last year, i had gone to the terrace on Tower 2 for taking photographs of the fireworks. I had also taken my tripod for the long exposure shots. The view from the top was awesome. The fireworks were being lit from the top of the water tower at a distance which gave a good opportunity for wide shots including the other buildings.

On the day of Diwali, we got together at a friend’s place for the usual dose of sweets and savouries “imported” from the south! Akshara (below photos are from 2009, 1 yr ago) enjoyed the festivities and of course the photo requests from friends and family.

Akshara hadn’t reacted too well to the cracker sounds on the day of the Magarpatta fireworks, so we restricted initially to the “softer” stuff like sparklers (Kambi Mathappu), Flower pots (busvaanam) and Wheels (Thara Chakkaram). Later when she got used a bit to the sound, the bigger and louder ones came out. Got some some nice photos too, in the light from the sparklers.

After we exhausted ourselves with the crackers, we started “forcefully” finishing off the remaining sparklers. Then i suggested guys to start “painting with light”. The photos below are taken with a long exposure (10-30 seconds) while the person draws the shape. Why is it that people always start off with the heart shape when asked to paint something with sparklers? Then, people started trying their names and their spouse’s and kid’ with the warning from the wives that they wouldn’t be allowed back into the house without them getting the name right If you notice the last photo below, there is a gap between each letter. it is a single photo (no merging). Let me know how you think this photo would have been taken.

Looking forward to tonight’s show in Magarpatta. Hoping to capture some good panorama’s with the sweep panorama feature in my new camera (Sony DSC TX5).

Similar Places Around Pune:

1. shaniwar wada – the palace fort inside Pune city

Every hill/mountain/hillock in Maharashtra must be having something on the top. Be it a fort or a temple. The shiva temple in Bhuleshwar is on top of a small hill in the middle of nowhere. There is also this TV tower right next to the temple (like the one at Sinhagad) spoiling the atmosphere.

The temple was once within a fort, the remnants of which are visible in the vicinity of the temple. This temple gets huge crowds during Mahashivratri. The priest told us that there is a decent crowd on almost all days in the mornings. An unique thing about the shiv-ling in this temple is that the top portion of the shivling opens up and you can put offerings (usually pedas) inside it. If you are really devout, these offerings are gobbled up, not by a rat, but God himself. The priest told us that such miracles do happen even now, albeit for the rare devotee.

You don’t need to go to Bhuleshwar temple as a devotee. You can go there as a casual tourist to relax in the absolute calm surrounding the hill. You can take photographs anywhere in the temple and for the pious, the priest also does archanas. The priest also doubles as the guide and if he is not busy, he has lot of interesting stories to tell. This would make a good trip for the evening. We started from Pune at around 6 pm, we reached there close to 7, just in time for the sunset. The wind was blowing like crazy and Akshara enjoyed it.

How to go to Bhuleshwar temple from Pune(Magarpatta): Go to the Pune-Solapur highway. Turn towards Hadapsar and proceed in that direction i.e. away from Swargate. You have to travel around 35 kms on this road. You will cross a toll booth where you pay a strange fee of 22.50 Rupees. After the second toll (close to village Uruli), you have to take a right. This right turn is 3 kms after the second tool and 2 kms before the village Yavat. There is a sign on the left side of the road pointing to the right lane (marked as Bhuleshwar). You will also see another sign on the right (next to the lane) which has directions to many other places like Sasvad, Narayanpur etc. You have to go on this road for a further 8-9 kms before you reach a ghat section. This ghat is pretty bad, it is like driving through an open quarry! The problem with this ghat is that the whole surface is of loose rocks and gravel and can be quite tricky if vehiles come in the opposite direction. Update: The entire ghat section has been relaid and it is a good tar road to drive on. After you reach the plateau on top, Bhuleshwar temple woul dbe visible to the right. You have to take a right and then climb upto the temple’s parking. The last 100-150 metres was incredibly steep with me having to stay in the first gear the entire stretch. If you don’t want to try this, park it before this steep stretch and climb up on the stairs. I couldn’t find this village road on google maps nor could i do a visual identification of the temple on google earth, but the map provided below should give you an idea of the location where you have to take a right from the Pune-Solapur highway.

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There were many disfigured statues in the temple. The priest told me that this was done by Aurangazeb’s men in an attempt to destroy and mutilate Hindu art.

Another interesting thing in this temple was the statue of Ganesha. It seems that this is the only temple in the world where Ganesha has a female form.

A very interesting place to visit and just relax.

Similar Places Around Pune:

1. Bhuleshwar temple during the monsoons
2. Visit to Baneshwar shiva temple
3. Neelkanteshwar temple between Panshet and Khadakwasla

Rajasthan is considered by many to be a remote state somewhere in the western part of India. The management of Chokhi Dhani wanted to ensure that this element about Rajasthan is not missed, so they established their traditional rajasthani Village experience in a remote corner of Pune, so remote that you can easily get scared driving along the approach road at night!

How to reach Chokhi Dhani from Magarpatta: Go on the Mundhwa road towards Nagar Road. At the Nagar Road t-junction, if you take left, you go towards the airport. You have to take a right here. This junction is 5 kms from Magarpatta. Once you take a right, you have to travel for 3 kms. There is a narrow lane to the right at this point. There is also a signboard for Chokhi Dhani (on the right side). So, it is quite easy to miss this (because it is on the opposite side) at night. Once you take this right, the nightmarish road begins and goes on for 3 kms until you reach Chowki Dhani.

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I made the mistake of going to this place on a weekday evening. Please don’t do that. This place would like a mela on a weekend where there are big crowds (many friends have said so), but on a weekday, it is absolutely deserted. Also, I have “attention-o-phobia” i.e. i become uncomfortable when everyone around comes forward exclusively for your service (much like a salesperson following you in a shop!). Since the place was deserted, all the performers were almost exclusively performing for us.Also, if you are not ok with hundreds of flies/insects around you, carry a spray or something, as this place is in the middle of the woods and it is infested with thousands of insects “exclusively” for you!

All the discomforts apart, they have put in a lot of effort to spruce up the entrance. The entrance fee is 300 Rupees per person which includes all the entertainment plus dinner. The moment we entered, we had a “horse” thing welcoming us. Akshara was shocked by the loud noise and she remained in a state of trance the entire time at Chokhi Dhani!

Attractions at Choki Dhani: When you pay the entrance fee, you also get 12 coupons which you use for various attractions. All the shows are free, but for the rides like the camel ride, horse ride , train ride or the Giant wheel, you have to pay using the coupons. The price varies from 2-3 coupons.

Horse Ride: One of the dirtiest horses i have ever seen and the ride was scary too. I almost fell off the cart! It is a 1 min ride through the darkness, more like a roller-coaster ride. Avoid taking kids on it.

Camel ride:  The best part of a camel ride is the time the camel stands up or sits down. You dont experience this here as you mount a standing camel. If you have never been on a camel before, go for it.

Train ride: This ride is located in a remote corner of the already remote Chokhi Dhani which means that the insects living there will relish your presence as they don’t get visitors often. An excruciatingly noisy and polluting train ride, it is on a circular track running on a petrol/kerosene engine powered through a loosely hung wire from the centre of the circular track which makes it extremely easy for one to get electrocuted!

With the rides done, it was time for the shows. They were good and would have even better on weekends with the crowds. With only us (plus few other unfortunate weekday visitors), i was struck by extreme attention-o-phobia to actually enjoy the shows.

Vidhya also get a Mehendi done on her hand (while i was watching the above guy show all his tricks). Unaware of this, i pulled on Vidhya’s hand and in the process, got mehendi done on my hand too!

The other things that we skipped were Head and Body massage, astrologers (of various kinds), Giant wheel, game stalls (absolutely junk prizes for the winners) and few other things on the sides.

Once we had exhausted the activities, we went for the dinner. Vidhya overheard one of the waiters ordering for 10 rotis for the 4 of us. 10??? 10 phulkas would be barely enough for just me. The waiters were overly eager to move on to the next course after the rotis, whereas i was stuck in a loop of “Ek aur roti”. After a while i got fed up of their attempts to push the rice on my plate to get me moving and stopped asking for more. The food was good, but just not enough for me after the exhaustion of fighting the insects.

Moral of the above long story:  Never ever go on a weekday. Go on weekends and i guess you would have fun. I don’t see the scope of going there more than once.

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