Pune Challenge

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On Friday, Griff and tackled the Pune Challenge, which is part of the Sangam programme. It was really exciting to do something that event participants would get to do, even though I was an independent guest.

To explain, you can attend Sangam as an event participant. Sangam runs events throughout the year with specific themes. Events are seven to ten days long, and run somewhat like a camp for adults. Some events are more serious and have a goal, such as focusing on one of the Global Action Themes (e.g. “Girls worldwide say we can save our planet”) from the UN Millennium Development Goals. Others are designed more to meet Guiding and Scouting members around the world.

When someone visits Sangam outside of those times or without registering for an event, they are an independent guest. There wasn’t an event taking place when Griff and I visited Sangam because they were getting ready for their next event, focusing around World Thinking Day. For those not in Guiding or Scouting, World Thinking Day is like celebrating Girl Guides’ birthday. It would have been incredible to be at Sangam for World Thinking Day, but as you can imagine, they were booked solid.

To attend an event at a World Centre, you need to book your place at least a year in advance, depending on the centre. I attended an event at Our Chalet, one of the other world centres in Switzerland, when I was fifteen. I’ll come back to the World Centres in a later blog entry.

Anyways, back to the Pune Challenge. Griff and I had a tuk-tuk for the afternoon to go to various places in Pune to explore. This was definitely a “challenge by choice”, as we decided ahead of time how many places we wanted to go to, based on the time we had. We visited Pune University (there are a number of universities in Pune), a palace where Gandhi was locked up, a war memorial and MG (Mahatma Gandhi) Road. MG Road is a main shopping area. Griff and I went to this awesome coffee shop called Barista.

Before Griff and I left for the Pune Challenge, I saw on the Sangam bulletin board that I could get a sari tailored by a woman who comes to Sangam regularly. When I talked to Christa, she suggested that I have a punjabi suit made, but I would need to buy the fabric and have it tailored by a man named Mr. Singh on MG Road. I could not find Mr. Singh’s tailor shop anywhere, and there were a lot of textile stores. Boooooo.

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Photos

Tuk-Tuk!
I was just a teeny bit excited to ride a tuk-tuk.

Pune University
I really enjoyed this sign at the entrance to the university.

Pune Sunset
The sun was setting as we were heading back to Sangam.

Comments

[Griff]

Barista was such a great coffee shop. I have some very good memories from Pune/India. I enjoyed it thoroughly and would totally go back.