Hazrat Babajan's shrine

Located near MG Road in Camp Area, Hazrat Babajan's shrine is one of the few female dargahs (shrines) in the city. Hazrat Babajan was a Baloch Muslim saint, who arrived in Pune in 1905.

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Born in Balochistan, Afghanistan, she was considered to be a sadguru or qutub by her followers and spent the final 25 years of her life in Pune. Now an old woman, her back slightly bent, shoulders rounded, with white matted hair, and shabbily dressed, Hazrat Babajan "was seen sitting or resting at odd places, in different parts of the City" before she finally located to a slum area called Char Bawdi (Four Wells) on Malcolm Tank Road, part of a British Army cantonment.

The white marble dargah of Hazrat Babajan was built alongside a neem tree - under which Babajan and Merwan (also known as Meher Baba) sat in silence with tears flowing form their eyes for many years.

The shrine is at the centre of a busy Babajan Chowk. It's a small one-roomed dargah with her grave placed under the neem tree, which emerges through the rooftop. Her dargah is frequented by people of all religions. u00a0