What am I looking at?
Lok Bhavan formerly Raj Bhavan, Pune is the monsoon official residence of the governor of Maharashtra.
The quick answer
Lok Bhavan formerly Raj Bhavan, Pune is the monsoon official residence of the governor of Maharashtra. It is located in the city of Pune, India.
How it came to be
Raj Bhavan (The Dhapooree House - Pune) were the government houses during the British Raj era in India. It was the monsoon resort of the Governor of Bombay and was built in 1866. The building was impressively designed by James Trubshawe and is situated in Ganeshkhind, Pune.
The detail most people miss
Today Ganeshkhind might mean the Pune University to most. But half a century ago it suggested the Government House, the monsoon resort of the Governor of Bombay. Yet the name still evokes the memories of that fateful night of 22 June 1897. It was on this day that Walter Charles Rand, Special Officer for Plague in Pune, who invited the wrath of Pune residents for his atrocities, was assaulted by the Chapeker brothers while he was returning from the Government house after attending the Diamond Jubilee celebrations.
Why it still matters
But before Ganeshkhind became the official residence of the Governor, there was another house, at Dhapooree, where the story really began. It was here that the political diplomacy of the British, relating to the Southern Maratha Country, took shape. Today its tangible and intangible traces have completely faded out of memory.
Look closer
Pune has the distinction of being the monsoon residence of the Governor of Bombay, now Maharashtra, for almost a hundred and eighty years, through the period of stay has now been reduced to a symbolic month. Even so, the Governor today attends the Independence Day celebrations on 15 August at Pune just as he presides over the Republic day celebrations on 26 January at Mumbai, Shri Sri Prakasa (1956–1962) was, perhaps, the last Governor who kept the schedule of a stay of four months, away from Mumbai, residing at Mahabaleshwar in May and at Pune from June to August.
