What a difference a day makes! I am watching cricket at my apt, typing up this email on gmail on my laptop, sitting on my fantastic reclining chair and just finished a long call to Preethi. Life is good.
Yesterday as I went out in search of the chair, I saw the beautiful palace fort of Shaniwar Wada. This wasn't wholly unexpected, I knew it was on the way. I just wasn't sure if I wanted to check it out then. Then I remembered that I had nothing to do for the rest of the day and went right in. Shaniwar Wada was a palace built by the during the 1700's, a relatively recent construction, but still older than independent USA!
As with most Indian tourist attractions, the place had a much higher price for foreigners. This is one place where it sucks to be White or Asian I suppose. Someone from the middle east, or any other country from South Asia, or even say Latin America could walk in without much comment. There were a lot of school children on the outside, I imagine this is a big favorite for excursions in the city. The palace itself was acceptably impressive, but doesn't compare to the magnificent Mughal palaces or the ones in Rajasthan or even the Golconda fort in Hyderabad. It was primarily meant for recreation by the looks of the gardens, but it's hard to be sure because most of it was burned down in a great fire.
The best part of the visit was seeing all the young couples in the palace gardens. Clearly this place is a big meeting spot for college kids since there aren't enough parks to hang out. They were there all over the place, everytime I turned a corner to explore a slightly hidden part of the palace, there was a couple there. Talking, sitting next to each other, sometimes sitting so close they were touching and (gasp!) holding hands! One couple was being even more enthusiastic, I was surprised the policewomen nearby didn't stop them.
To be fair there was a decent number of college kids who were there to study. They brought their books and notes and were pouring over them. I guess for either set of people, at Rs. 5 per person, this was a nice cheap alternative to Domino's pizza or Coffee day as a gathering spot.
It made me really appreciate Austin as a nice place for young people. With all its parks and river banks, coffee shops where you can sit for cheap, Mount Bonnell and "the Cliff", there are plenty of places for couples to hang out in private without running into people they know. It also gave me a glimpse of what my life would have been like if I was in Pune in college, with a girlfriend :)
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