Stop,look,click

Between the gargantuan concrete jungles of the city is a world that everyone passes by but rarely stops to reflect on.

Between the gargantuan concrete jungles of the city is a world that everyone passes by but rarely stops to reflect on. Buildings from the erstwhile British Raj period offer valuable insights into the culture,the architectural styles and even the mentalities of people long gone.

Trying to understand the complex nature of the world that revolved around these colonial monuments,Aranyavaak conducted a heritage walk on Sunday morning,as part of an ongoing series of heritage walks. Beginning from the GPO,traveling down towards the St Paul’s Church,one was introduced to the Victorian era complex by the expert for the day – Kiran Kalamdani,who is a conservation architect. The church building that came up in 1867 was built by the Eurasian community here and is one of the most classic examples of the revived Gothic architecture of the Victorian era, he said. In fact,most of the restoration work was done 13 years back. The stone gargoyles were restored such that the original designs were not compromised upon.

Moving further down the road,the history enthusiasts chanced upon what now appears as a small plot of land with obscure blocks of stone protruding out and a Greco-Roman style influenced dome-shaped structure. A closer inspection and another quick bit of information from Kalamdani made the crowd realise that it used to be a graveyard,more like a memorial as Kalamdani put it,for the officers of the Raj. The broken ramparts of the wall are now home to wild creepers,the grounds to towing vans and the dome-shaped structure to a clothesline! The domed structure is an example of the Tuscany architectural style. Notice the pillars,how they grow thick towards the centre. The aim is to allow a person standing far away to see the pillars in a uniform line and also to show its sturdiness, he said.

College student Amogh Pande remarked about the walk,They all have a story to tell. The bricks,the wood and stone structures,even the air around them. Turning a complete semi-circle,the group then found itself at the remains of the old quarry from where the stone was hauled to build the buildings here. Across the road sat the David Synagogue built by David Sassoon. Straight down towards the Zilla Parishad office in a-blink-and-you-miss turn was another lost world. Eaten by decay and ruin,cowering amongst the high-risers,was the memorial dedicated to the Gosavi clan. They formed the network of spies for the Maratha empire and here is where they honoured and remembered their ancestors, said Hrishikesh Talwalkar,founder of Aranyavaak. The broken temple remains were a classic reminder of the ones seen in Orissa and Assam. Doesn’t it tell you a lot about the style of the workers who made them? asked Kalamdani.

A point that came across clearly is that most of the buildings here,be it the Sassoon hospital,the Photo Zinco press,the Central Building or the GPO,they all had elements of the Palladian architectural style of the 16th century interspersed with the Gothic,the Tuscany and even an improvisation of the Indian styles. Kalamdani added,It just shows how a foreign government that ran the country for 200 years had the far sight to incorporate the local elements of various places to create a style unique with the city’s identity.

Walking out of the last stop – the General Post office,a quote by the German photographer Stefan Koppelkamm struck one – A city within a city. This is what Pune was. And seeing the way the tower at Sassoon was shrouded by a water tank and how the stone walls of the European graveyards were mercilessly felled,one would be compelled to believe that statement.

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