Hello, LG’s.
This is a recap of @TusharSuradkar 's heritage meet-up at Lal Mahal Palace, Pune, which was organized with excellent support from Pune local guides and conceived by Maharashtra local guides.
On Sunday, March 17, 2024, around 10 AM, 30 local guides from Mumbai, Ambarnath, Panvel, Nashik, and Aurangabad converged in Pune for what unexpectedly turned out to be a mega ‘Heritage Walk and Accessibility Check at Lal Mahal Palace, Pune’ meet-up.
This meet-up had already gone viral on social media, with countdown videos.
Photo 01: A collage of the social media clips designed by me.
There were up to 12 people who attended the meet-up for the first time, with many more participating virtually. That is extremely encouraging for us. Some family members were present to share in our enjoyment.
Many people travelled a long distance from their homes early in the morning, overnight, or the day before to join us for breakfast at Sudama che Pohe, a nearby food outlet.
Photo 02: All early-bird LGs enjoying the breakfast before starting the meet-up.
Tushar, @NERKARAMIT , and @abhishekpatk offered to drive from the train stations to the planned location.
Photo 03: LGs coming from various destination gathered at a designated station and then escorted to the meet-up location by Pune LGs.
Photo 04: A photowalk of the meeting place, Lal Mahal, Pune
Photo 05: A photowalk of the meeting place, Lal Mahal, Pune
Photo 06: On the way, we saw a few more heritage places like, Nana wada and Shrimant Peshwa Ganapati Mandir.
Few of them had checked the accessibility features at Lal Mahal Palace. A few seniors also shared Google Maps-related tips and tricks.
Photo 07: Some accessibility check
Ketan handed out T-shirts and caps printed as souvenirs of the meet-up to those who had booked it. Amit also shared some beautiful bag tags with everyone.
Photo 08: Ketan handing over the T-shirts and caps and some badges and momentos shared by the members among themselves.
Finally, Shrinivas, a level 09 local guide and editor of a well-known old newspaper, made sure to take a great summit photograph of everyone in attendance. The next day, it was published in the same newspaper alongside an article about the meet-up.
Photo 09: A group Photo LGs attended the meet-up at the location, Lal Mahal, Pune.
Photo 10: We are in the news!!! Our meet-up was published in a local newspaper. Proud of us indeed!!
Next, we went to see Kasba Ganapati Mandir, also known as the “gramdevata,” or “guardian deity of Pune”. Deepak Modgekar, our senior local guide and a fantastic mouth organ player, played some lovely tunes inside the temple to create a divine atmosphere.
Photo 11: Kasba Ganapati Temple entrance. Our beloved LG Dipak (seating in black t-shirt and cap) captured performing live at the temple with his mouth organ.
By 12:30 p.m., a few local guides had moved on to another Hinal meet-up in Delhiwale, Viman Nagar. I joined that group for her meet-up and later rejoined the other members at Pataleshwar Temple. The rest of the group decided to visit an important heritage site nearby, even though it was not originally planned.
Photo 12: Our great LG from Panvel, Maharashtra Dipak displaying the badges and souvenirs received at the number of meet-ups he had attended. All the LGs enjoyed took the group photos at the various places visited.
Photo 13: All the virtual attendees: Rosy mam, Praniket More, Anil SIngh, Jitender, Tandrima from WB, Pranav, Nikhil, and Santosh, Md Khokon and Kamal Hosssen from Bangladesh. My sincere apologies to whom who we could not let in the meet-up or unable to join. (Learning from this: Only one mobile from the meeting place was not enough to connect virtually and check every attendees!! 
)
Finally, it was time to say goodbye and promise to meet again. Despite the heat, everyone enjoyed their time together.
A special thanks to everyone in Mumbai for their enthusiasm and encouragement to join us here. It was a meet-up I will cherish for a long, long time.
I will tag all the attendees in the comments below, there are too many to mention!
My sincere thanks to all who attended and supported. Rest , we missed you my friends!
. invite me next time I have to follow alone by video live feed but would like to!
