Pune

From Hampi I wanted to find a place that was a reasonable train distance away, and a night train took me to Pune, home of the world-famous Osho Ashram (that's the Bhagwan Shree Rashneesh for those who remember him in Oregon). This wasn't really on my list of places I was excited about but it turned out to be my favorite larger Indian city so far. It was clean, had nice architecture and good food due to all the ashram attendees. I stopped by the ashram but didn't go in - it cost $30 a day and they seemed really into primal screaming and dancing. Instead I had another unexpected and surreal experience.



I was walking by this building and saw what I thought was a political poster on the wall. You see them everywhere in India, a big picture of the main guy in a white robe, and then a bunch of smaller mugshots of the other people in the party. But when I looked at the mugshoots, I was like, "That's funny, it's all these beefy shirtless guys holding sceptres". Just then, about 10 heads popped around the corner of the door and invited me inside. Turns out I was standing in front of the practice gym for an Indian wrestling club!



They were very excited to have a guest and proceeded to show off for me for over an hour - doing endless pushups and burpees, as well as lots of practice rounds that got pretty violent. Indian wrestling evidently takes place in a pit whose floor is full of crumbled red clay. When someone loses a round, they take fistfuls of the clay and throw it on themselves and the other wrestler. After a while everyone starts to look completely red, like Hellboy or something. Very unexpected and fun experience!