History from an Age of Waste.

I was in Pune for the day, Pune where the 'P' stands for potholes. Speaking about Potholes I saw a flyer when I was there advertising a photography competetion, obviously I gave it a look. Guess what the subject was ? 'Roads of Pune', I almost died laughing -a nice bit of public sarcasm, not to mention 3K to the winner. If I where to send in an entry, this would be it.

Scorched.

If you're as ticked off by Pune Roads as I am you could sign this online petition. Anyways, I was on my way to town and therefore I decided to take a detour through Khadki [Khirkee] Cantonment rather than the dug up Ganeshkind road. For some reason Cantt. roads don't have potholes but roads under Pune municipal limits have large gapping craters.

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I've noticed Khirkee War Cemetry many times before but have never visited. There is a first time for everything. Behind the brightly polished red limestone plaque and the ivy ridden mesh fence lay a rather subdued, a depressing geometric array of white granite grave-stones all neatly paced out in neat rows and coloums, all facing this central block of sombre granite, as if they where in a parade of sorts. You could just imagine men them in uniform standing there on the richly manucured lawn shouting out their name, number and rank. There was a strange sense of history, a thought passed my mind that for each of these commonwealth officiers they're must have been a hundred of Indians who must have perished in strange corners of the globe. There was a history there, a history of an age of waste.

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An interesting fact about the Khirkee War Cemetry for all reasons it's a soverign part of Britan.Therefore, technically I wasn't in India anymore. I've visited a war cemetry before German World War 1 Cemetry near the Italian town of Brunicho in the Italian Tyrol. It was pretty eerie too, the interesting part about it was they they actually had a section for the jewish soldiers that perished, not to mention their turkish allies.

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11 comments:

santosh said...

The cemetery is a part of the U.K! That's a quirk that history forgot. To think I spent 22 years in Pune of which at least 10 were as an educated youth :-).

I was wondering if you could tell me how you manage to block comment spam?

Anonymous said...

Pune has roads?! you MUST send that pic for the competition.
a lasting image i my mind is that of a city bus in front our car, completely covered in dust - so much so that the bus looked brown in color - there was now window to be seen, even the rear screen was fully covered in dust...

livinghigh said...

hehehe.. so many names u got in ure petition then? ;-) come by to calcutta, and u'll see that petititions rarely solve anything! sheesh!

Viewer said...

I think i will most probably not make it so i really hope they allow u take some pictures ..... atleast i can see the pics

. : A : . said...

Nice photo essay Akshay. Really like the last 3 pics of the Cemetry, especially the sepia one.

gawker said...

Nice pictures.

I find cemeteries to be extremely interesting places. Even here in the US I've spent some time just wandering in old cemeteries, reading epitaphs. Every epitaph is a story in itself. Many graves turn out to be those of small kids, who often died of disease. Makes you think a bit.

Anonymous said...

Wow! As usual the pics are great... but that also is one part of Pune I did NOT know about. Will DEF visit next time I'm there.

And btw, have Tagged you! Visit my place for more details :)

Rahul said...

I have taken that road so many times, but never really made a visit to the Khirkee War Cemetry.

Now after looking at the pics, I think I will visit it.

Anonymous said...

The graves are many ... yet we realise not the futility of war and killing another human being.

Great post and nice pics!

Alex

Sid said...

dude, sorry I couldn't meet you. Anyways I'm at blogger too http://siddharthdawara.blogspot.com/

Give a care.

Nice pics of the cemetery. Btw potholes is to Pune as hmmmm, can't think of anything non perverted so I'm just going to say
"Potholes is to Pune as the gimp is to Pulp Fiction"

Right. Shiznit.
Sid.

Aarushi said...

that road is scary. i once saw a picture like that in an atlas and i spazzed.