pune the master of calligraphy was at work on the pavement of the bustling jangali maharaj road unmindful of the blaring horns and unending traffic his eyes were glued to the 40 feet canvas on which the spirit of pune came to life calligraphy artist achyut palav captured the colour and spice of the queen of deccan to inaugurate the amstrad times celebrate pune festival on saturday the festival is powered by phoenix marketcity cosponsored by sankla buildcoon with the pune municipal corporation as a partnerthe foot tapping beats of an allwomen team of drummers and the agility of mallakhamb players provided a backdrop to palavs calligraphy demo municipal commissioner shekhar gaikwad got things rolling with the first stroke of the brush by painting the outline of the shaniwarwada rampart and then it was palavs team that worked in tandem to give a linear backdrop depicting the iconic landmarks of the city including shaniwarwada phule mandai sppus main building and the sinhagad fort complete with chhatrapati shivaji maharaj palav chose the vibrant orange to draw the first letter p of pune the brushes and rollers dipped in a rainbow of colours glided smoothly to paint pune in english and devnagari script as a riot of colours erupted on the canvas passersby could not help but pause and admire in awe earlier renowned actor prashant damle declared the festival open he lauded the times of india for putting its might behind a cultural fest damle a veteran who has performed over 12300 shows spanning 36000 hours spent on stage to present 35 plays said such festivals gave a solid platform to present different art forms he also appreciated the municipal commissioners decision to clean and improve all auditoriums owned by the civic body gaikwad said the civic body would partner with times group for any such cultural initiative he said when social and cultural activities takes centre stage in a city politics takes a back seat i am willing to spend rs10 crore every year to encourage such activities and i am hoping to use the many municipal gardens to stage live music shows he said the function was also attended by chief procurement officer of amstrad sanjay mane chairman and managing director of sankla buildcoon subhash sankla jaideep vadulekar of phoenix marketcity and pune mayor murlidhar moholthe amstrad times celebrate pune had an early start with an old city food walk over 30 participants explored the traditional eating joints under the guidance of jayesh paranjape after a trip through the heritage structure of phule market the foodies relished breakfast at four locations puneri misal and shira sabudana khichadi and a variety of laddoos thalipeeth dadpe pohe and mango mastani were on the menu after a tote bag painting workshop by kala kollective it was time for the play devbabhali music lovers formed a beeline to balgandharva rangmandir to listen to punes own classical vocalist rahul deshpande