Sunday is a day off at the Institute, so we made the most of it by doing some sightseeing. I enjoyed every photo opportunity and took enough pictures to last the week.

Here’s a picture I captured from the rickshaw along the way, a very common sight along the roads.
Btw, I’ve been asked to clarify whether we’ve been riding in a rickshaw or a tuk tuk. I believe it’s officially called a tuk tuk, but in Pune it’s called an “auto” rickshaw, abbreviated to just plain rickshaw. I haven’t seen a “real” rickshaw (man-pulled) here.

Nana picked us up at 11am and first took us to the Pataleshwar Cave Temple, which is an 8th century rock-cut cave temple carved out of a single huge basalt rock dedicated to the Hindu god, Shiva. If you’re interested in more history on this, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_rock-cut_architecture. The pictures inside the cave were taken without a flash to get the true essence of the cave, which explains why some of them are dark, however, there are some actual light fixtures in the cave.

L-R, Kathleen (Milwaukee), Me, ManYee (Hong Kong/Australia) & Agatha (Poland) in front of a very large Banyon Tree.Here I am with my closest Indian friends. These guys came up to me and asked to have their picture taken with me. Only me. They said I’m special (for some reason)… Bruce seems to think it’s because it looks like I’m expecting a flood (he gets a sneak preview of all my pictures through photo stream). Well, maybe. But, whatever the reason, they were very nice, even if they’re going to make fun of me later 🙂

Although I’ve been using my iPhone to take most of the pictures I’ve posted on my blog, I used the new little Samsung digital for this sight-seeing outing, and it proved to be a gem. Many more pictures will follow during the week.

Today, Prashant 7am class, followed by 9am open practice, then medical class for me at 4 with Geetaji.