The Puneri Spirit. It's tekdis.

The night stills reigns supreme, but there is trouble at the far reaches of her kingdom.
Birds begin to stir in the trees that line the road, and their chirps can be heard in sporadic bursts.

There is barely any traffic on the road, as one would expect. Pune awaits yet another dawn, and it does so in silent, dormant style.

And in the dead of the night, on the road, there is the soft patter of rubber soled footsteps. Slowly at first, and then with more resonance, they head towards you. Slowly, from the dark haze of the night, there emerges into the ambient light of a nearby lamppost, a figure clad in a simple t-shirt and plain white shorts. White canvas shoes with droopy white socks, the middle aged figure has the beginning of a pot belly, but is otherwise fit.

He greets you as he approaches you, walking briskly, hands swinging loosely by his sides. You nod in answering fashion, and swing into stride beside him. And the two of you set off in tandem, as you did yesterday morning, and as you will on the morrow.

For if you are a true blue Punekar, you will go to the tekdi in the morning.

It matters not if you are a youngster who grumbles at being woken up in the morning and sent along for a supposedly reinvigorating walk (which, upon reflection, it was), or a middle aged income earner (as I will eventually be), or indeed, a retired pensioner (which all Punekars are). If you are a true blue Punekar, you will go to the tekdi in the morning.

Long long ago, nearly forty years back, the powers that be decided to make a new road that would take all the heavy vehicles straight out of Pune - a road that would not come within the city limits at all. And to to do this, they had to carve out a way between a small hill that lay in the way. And that's how Senapati Bapat Road was born.

Today, the two hills lie on either side of the road, with heavy traffic in between. Nestled at the base of the hills lie some of the most famous educational institutes in Pune - Fergusson College, Symbiosis College, BMCC, Law College, and MIT. Throughout the day, the two hills lie nearly abandoned, with hardly any people on them. But early in the morning and towards the evening, both Marutichi Tekdi and Vetaal Tekdi have people climbing all over them. Young and old, running or walking, they clamber with gay abandon on the various approach routes on either hill.

From behind the Economics department in Fergusson, or the little pathway that runs alongside Gokhale Institute, or up from behind the boys hostel in BMCC, or up from near Symbiosis. That's for Marutichi Tekdi, of course.
On Vetaal Tekdi, you could go up from Chaturshringi temple, or maybe from Patrakar Nagar. Perhaps you would want to climb up from the Law College Ground, or better still, from Kanchan Galli.
Of course, there are many paths that I have not mentioned here, but they are best left alone in more ways than one, and for reasons aplenty.

Up you go on any of these, preferably at the break of dawn, up the rough hewn paths, strategising your next step and figuring out the most effortless way to the top. Keep an eye out, if you will, for the rare peacock that you might glimpse, and hope to run into people you now know well. Dogs, happily free of leashes, run around with gay abandon, coming up to greet you every now and then. Right at the top of either tekdi, you will see some true fanatics punishing their bodies further still, doing their calisthenics et al. Why, I do not know. Such excessive exercise, and the desire for it, is beyond my ken. Thankfully.

But for many years while I was in Pune, and now that I think of it, not as often as I should have, I have climbed the tekdis. Either one of them and sometimes both. Long walks of solitude, or joyful excursions with my grandfather or with friends. Away from the maddening traffic, away from the uglier aspects of Pune, and up into the free air that the tekdis afford.

And of the very many things that I miss about Pune, the tekdis rank right up there at the top.

P.S. For more reasons than one, by the way. For you see, at the end of that long walk, lies breakfast. Which can only be had at one of two magical sister concerns, both of which lie on Fergusson College Road.

P.P.S You can smell the coffee already, can't you now? :)

P.P.P.S Visit, if you wish to, http://www.tekdi.org

P.P.P.P.S This was my 100th post on Life Beyond Gokhale. Hooray for me!