After celebrating the New Year in Mumbai, Viraj and I made the journey to his hometown of Pune. Because Viraj had to return to work, I was often left to explore on my own. My efforts began with a train ride into central city and a visit to an 8th-century Hindu Cave Temple called Pataleshwar Temple. Outside was a beautiful Banyan tree, showing off its iconic above-ground roots.

The public parks were beautiful. Their natural aesthetic combined with decommissioned military equipment made them an interesting sight to see.

After exploring the park, I visited a palace fort built in the 1740s called Shaniwar Wada. Although the palace itself no longer exists, its walls still surround the old infrastructure, now converted into a peaceful garden and popular tourist attraction.

In the evening, Viraj and I enjoyed dosa and thali from a famous South Indian restaurant called Vaishali. And for desert: masala ice cream! I never had ice cream like this before. The masala was the perfect salty and spicy mixture to complement the sweetness of the ice cream. I was so impressed, I requested that the server pack a container of masala for me to take home to the U.S.

Over the next few days, I continued exploring: a temple high up on the side of a hill, a Japanese garden, a museum, a military memorial, and a historical place where Mahatma Gandhi’s ashes are kept.

At night, Viraj’s family and I attended his cousin’s birthday party. It was a huge celebration with party clowns, a buffet, professional photographers, and a pani puri wala! It was cool to be the mysterious foreigner, as many people wanted to meet me. After the party, dined at an “Italian” restaurant. I put air quotes around Italian because the flavor profiles I experienced were so foreign from what my Italian family eats at home. To be fair, I’m sure that the profiles of what we eat at home would differ from those in Italy as well. Either way, it was nice to spend some quality time with Viraj and his family.

The following day, Viraj and I set out to his family’s vacation house in Lavasa, a scenic area about 60km outside of Pune. Since he had just adopted a pair of stray dogs, he decided they should ride along too! We spent mornings relaxing near the river and every once in awhile, a small herd of cattle would pass through. At night, we enjoyed the warmth of a fire lit from the roof of the house.

We returned from the vacation house to his main home in a residential area north of Pune called Pimpri-Chinchwad. From there, we rode around on Viraj’s scooter with a few destinations in mind: a friend’s wedding ceremony, the gym, a pet supply store, a spice shop, and others. We also enjoyed the most delicious pani puri I’ve ever had in my life and churros at night!

At one point during the trip, I visited a clothing store to purchase some wedding attire (in anticipation of some friends getting married). The clothing salesperson mentioned to me that he was a DJ and he asked if he could snap a selfie with me. I obliged. However, I did not expect his post to raise over 5,000 likes in just a few hours! I also visited another temple elevated on a mountain. The goats had a much easier time with the climb than I did.

My days in Pune were coming to a close. Viraj wanted to ensure I had many memorable experiences, so we visited a tattoo studio where he got tattoos of dog paws on his arm – a wonderfully symbolic tattoo given his recent adoption of the two dogs. We enjoyed more thali and later I performed a religious rite called an abhisheka.

During my final hours in Pune, Viraj took me to the east side of the city. There, we visited a giant mall and a cool treehouse bar which had French musicians conducting a soundcheck. It was considerably more westernized than the areas I had been in previously. We also had a red velvet cookie ice cream sandwich. It was pretty good, but not nearly as amazing as the masala ice cream I had before.

I was glad that Viraj had only shown me the westernized side of the city at the very end. I felt as though I received a more immersed experience inside the temples and historical sites, away from the malls and other foreigners. Someday, I hope to return to Pune. Although I don’t love the city as much as Mumbai, I would absolutely love to go back.