Just as I finally gave up on my hunt for a rock climbing gym—searching on the internet for a gym since the day I decided to study abroad 6 months ago and wandering around Pune only to find abandoned gyms—I discovered from a friend of a friend that hisss friend (yes lots of friends) built a bouldering cave in his house nearby. Skeptical as all my other attempts were to no avail I told myself Harmony don’t get too excited  . . . you might just have to cry yourself to sleep again . . . I hopped on a motorcycle with a friend and arrived at a small house wondering where the wall would be. As I walked inside, there it was . . .  like the shining mountains of gold discovered by Aladdin—and like Appu I couldn’t hold back and had to touch the wall . . . sigh* alas there was a homemade beautiful sea of holds, chalk, and crashpads. Ah, I was home.

Thanks to Tuhin and his climbing guru father I have a place to climb whenever I so desire—which is always. Tuhin is the number one climber in India and him and his father are the pioneers of climbing in Pune. They bolted all the outdoor routes, house the only indoor gym in Pune—a city of 4.2 million people—and are one of the few people that actually climb in a 200 mile radius. I feel like I entered an underground club that is in its infancy just waiting to catch fire . . . unfortunately its been in its infancy for over 20 years. I plan to do a documentary film on rock climbing in Pune and the difficulty faced with lack of facilities and it not being recognized as a sport. What got me hard was discovering that Tulhin could count the number of Indian girls that climb on one hand . . . sigh.

Enough of the tear jerker talk . . . this definitely qualified as the best day in India

Felt sooo good after 3 weeks of not climbing

Tuhin!

The awesome cave