Adhi Potoba

Like any big art school my alma mater gave India many successful artists, sculptors, architects and creative directors. Of course, it wasn’t enough to be at par with everyone else, so Abhinav Kala Mahavidyalaya gave us something no other art school has produced—the deadliest gang of serial killers in the history of Pune city. Jakkal, Sutar, Shah and Jagtap were students of the commercial arts stream, the same major that produced the lack luster career of yours truly. The four went on a killing spree for 14 months between Jan 1976 and March 1977. Being evil is one this, but being stupid and evil just isn’t a good trait to have. The four were finally apprehended as suspicions arose when the foursome went and inquired about the progress of the investigation at police stations one time too many. The first victim of the infamous foursome was Prakash Hegde, the son of the owner of a small hotel, Vishwa. Situated behind the college. Prakash’s murder was the only claim to fame for this otherwi...

Hostelites, especially males, living in the Deccan area were really lucky to have the Lucky restaurant. Situated in the prime location of Deccan Gymnkhana, between Hong Kong lane and the Champion sports shop, it proudly served most of the Fergusson, B.M.C.C and M.E.S Garware college students. Of course, it was a popular dining spot for families, too. The structure of the restaurant was very similar to Café Good Luck, the other Irani restaurant on the block. It was divided into two sections. One served tea and snacks. And the other was for dining and families. Dining at Lucky (or Good Luck for that matter) took you back into the sixties. Mostly because it hadn’t been redecorated since the sixties. The design of the Formica on the tables was a mere suggestion of what it may have looked like 3 decades ago. The surface of most tables was so worn out that there were huge black spots caused by wear and tear. There were areas of the walls with extensive water damage and the ones that didn’t w...

In spite of being situated in Satara district, Puneites claim the hill stations of Mahabaleshwar and Panchgani as if it were their own back yard. My first trip to Mahabaleshwar (or Mabby as the wannabe cool kids called it) was in 1980 at a ripe old age of 10. It was fascinating to see streets full of pretty much every kind of berry , honey and jam stores , swarms of monkeys , and vagabonds from Bombay and Pune trying to act extra cool. Equally fascinating were guys pretending to be expert horseback riders in the area around Venna lake , trying to impress women that were more interested in gnawing at their ‘ bhutta ’ (roasted corn on the cob) than any dude on a horse that can drop at any minute. Note to the ladies: Bhutta teeth is not a great look. There are a couple of cool places in Mahabaleshwar though. The shopping street, the horse rides everywhere. And what is the deal with those burnt Mahabaleshwar walking sticks? We were living at a Parsi hotel called Race View. (I have been t...

It’s President’s day today here in the U.S. and I am among the very few losers who has to work on this day. Nothing is more depressing than being the only one going to work while your significant other gives you the “sucks to be you” look while cozily snuggled up in a blanket. It reminds me of my school days when only some of the kids would have the day off on 'Rang Panchami' (A Maharashtrian version of Holi, 2nd day). It was pure torture to hear the kids in the school neighbourhood playing with their colours, splashing each other with coloured water on each other and throwing water balloons, while you sat in the 1:40 p.m. history class pretending to be interested in the renaissance in Europe. Today is a lot like that except that it is 25 years later and the urge to not be here is just as strong. Instead, I’d much rather be at home with Scanlynn and my cats enjoying some simple comfort food like Matki Usal and Chapati instead of what passes for lunch time fare here in midtow...

Tilak Tank is known to most Puneites as the largest ‘natural’ swimming pool in Asia. What it really means is that this is the largest natural body of water where some dude had the brilliant idea of putting pavement around it and a few changing rooms. “Voila, now we can charge people money for this” he said. “Let’s put a statue of Lokmanya Tilak in the front call it Tilak tank.” It is true that Tilak Tank is large by any standards. And for the most part, pretty scary. It sits right off Prabhat Road boasting beautiful moss green water. Mostly on account of the abundant moss, algae and random freshwater flora. It is dotted by large schools of guppies that live in perfect harmony with bullfrogs, freshwater snakes, eels and some uncomfortably giant crabs. To emerge out of this cesspool disease free after a summer is a testament to one’s immune system. (Yours truly spent six summers in Tilak Tank, almost 5-6 hours a day). The tank is divided into different zones by depth. 3ft and 4ft are mea...

During my primary school years my mother used to threaten me with taking me to lunch to a dreadful place by the name of Suvarnarekha Dining Hall on Prabhat Road. And rightfully so. People from the Deccan Area might be well accustomed to this sorry excuse for a restaurant. Owned by the Yenpure family, it was housed in one of those buildings where a permanent heap of construction material lies blocking the footpath. Suvarnarekha is one of the restaurants that serves only the thali. The menu for the day is a mystery till the plate of food is in front of you. So if you don’t like what you see on your plate, you’re S.O.L. The food was acceptable at best when I first visited the place in the 80s, but the quality has gone down as the price of a thali has gone up. I remember the ambience being the canteen-like and was only complimented with the hostile wait-staff that usually served you like they were doing you a favour. I am quite sure that it hasn’t changed and the mediocre food remains quit...

Kaathi Kabab Roll is a relatively new food to Pune and the first time I had discovered it was while interning for an industrial design company way back in 1991. We had just designed a sexy, stand-alone Dollops ice-cream parlour that stood outside the original Chinese room on East Street in Camp. It was a really boring job, having to supervise the labour with little or no contribution from yours truly. Just the way I like it. My then boss asked me if I was hungry and then suggested that we should get a Kathi Kabab roll. I didn’t know what it meant, but anything with the word kabab in it was cool with me. We got onto his cream coloured, fairly dented Bajaj Super with broken indicators and flew past Kayani Bakery to the corner of the block right opposite Victory talkies. A journey that took all of 30 seconds. As a rule, in Pune, walking is not only frowned upon, but ridiculed, too. At the corner of Central Bank stood a rusty, old, overloaded cart that was clearly a traffic violation in nu...