Up the Pune

It is a sign of how frequently things go wrong on the roads that a morning in which we had to get a mechanic to fix our gears before we even started, ran out of petrol (again) and were fined 200 rupees for driving illegally on an expressway (discrimination against three wheelers...) was deemed a huge success and we made very good time in getting to Pune to visit CTspace, the Pune branch of our sponsor Idox. Initially not the friendliest welcome into Pune as we accidentally took a wrong turn into a Rickshaw car park and were soon surrounded by a group of drivers asking to see our papers and demanding to know why we were trying to park in their precious parking spaces. Soon enough we'd jovially explained that this in fact was the last thing we wanted to do, that we were in fact lost and eventually got directions to the correct office block. A tight squeeze and a bit more lost paint for Granny ensued on the exit from the car park, whilst HKC had to endure a highly patronising lesson in how to spot a gap in the traffic from a local who couldn't quite comprehend that a foreign girl could possibly know how to drive a rickshaw. 

However, in spite of this slightly inauspicious start to Pune, the incredible generosity of Sameer and his team at CTspace ensured that we had a truly fantastic time there. We were warmly and kindly welcomed into the office, and our need for tea satisfied with a good cup of chai. Tales of our trip so far were shared with the staff and we foolishly boasted that despite innumerable breakdowns so far, the rickshaws were in fact on excellent form having not broken down at all on the journey today. As I'm sure all our readers know, pride comes before a fall and shortly after our bold claims we were left red faced and once again desperately shouting "mechanic" as Granny had a punctured rear tyre and her gears had stopped working (again). Pats on the back all round for being able to identify the problem, but like every other breakdown we had neither the skills, tools or spare parts to fix the issue. Granny was left in the capable hands of a local mechanic whilst we went off to explore Pune and search for sexual enlightenment (http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rajneesh). 

Sameer very kindly gave up his afternoon to show us round Pune. We visited Aga Khan Palace, where Ghandi was held under house arrest and where some of his ashes still remain, a local flea market and then joined several members of the CTSpace team for a Pune style thali dinner. The hospitality of everyone from CTSpace was exceptional and it was a pleasure to meet people from the company so kindly sponsoring us. We would also like to reiterate a more general thanks to Idox for their kindness and generosity in sponsoring one of the rickshaws. The logo makes for fantastic photos of the back of Mr Mercury but much more importantly the funds will make a big difference to our charity Broomwood in Ethiopia. Including the Idox sponsorship we have raised over £3200 for BIE, a sum that will be a huge help in helping the school with its planned expansion. We have set the ambitious target of raising £5000 overall so if anyone reading this fancies digging deep and donating (many thanks to those of you have been so generous already) it would be greatly appreciated by RickinIt and by BIE.