Taste of Life: Serving food and bonding with people since 1925
New Poona Boarding House, started by Gururaj Ramkrishna Udupikar, fondly known as Maniappa, completes a glorious hundred years on November 10, 2025
Pune: In 1885, Gopal Ganesh Agarkar, educationist and social reformer, wrote in his essay “Bhojangruha” that a truly progressive city is one where every person — local or outsider — can find a place to eat to their heart’s content.
Carrying forward that very spirit of inclusivity and hospitality, the New Poona Boarding House — which has fed students, workers, and families alike for generations — completes a glorious hundred years on November 10. Few establishments can claim to have contributed as meaningfully to Pune’s social and cultural fabric as the New Poona Boarding House.
Gururaj Ramkrishna Udupikar, fondly known as Maniappa, came to Pune from Udupi around 1920. His elder brother, Subbarao, was a gifted cook in his own right and ran his own boarding house near Fergusson College, “Vaidikashram”, established in 1916.
Maniappa worked for a few years in other eateries. On November 10, 1925, he took the leap and founded the New Poona Boarding House in the Wadekar Building in Sadashiv Peth. The auspicious “muhurat” ceremony had been held five days earlier, on November 5.
Maniappa’s venture was named thus because it was in proximity to the New Poona College (now SP College) and catered to its students.
The unprecedented demographic growth that started in Pune in the late 1800s exacerbated the need for eateries that served students, clerks, teachers, and workers. With its many reputed schools and colleges, the city attracted young learners from towns and villages across Maharashtra. Finding accommodation and regular, affordable meals, however, was a major challenge for these students.
In 1862, the government of the Bombay Presidency established a boarding house in Pune for students enrolled in government schools and colleges. It provided both lodging and meals. Over time, a few such boarding houses emerged across the city, offering accommodation and food to students.
Eventually, however, the meaning of “boarding house” began to shift. The newer establishments that offered only meals, primarily to students, without lodging, started calling themselves boarding houses, too. They provided meals twice a day at set times.
The boarding houses were an upscale version of the “khanaval” – a kind of home-style mess. Most of these “khanavals” often faced complaints about food quality and hygiene. The rigid restrictions of caste system and notions of “purity” and “pollution” also posed their own challenges.
For the emerging middle class — students and office-goers alike — there was also a growing demand for eateries that offered something beyond the basic “khanaval”, yet retained the comfort and purity of home-cooked food. The New Poona Boarding House filled that gap with grace.
Maniappa strove hard to make his new venture popular with his clientele, who were monthly subscribers. When the establishment first opened, Maniappa and his wife, Laxmibai, handled everything themselves. Maniappa bought vegetables from the market every day and cooked food himself twice a day. Laxmibai chopped vegetables, kneaded the dough for “polis”, and washed utensils, while he would serve meals to guests seated on wooden “pats” (low stools).
In 1925, monthly membership cost ₹12 — a modest sum for some, but steep for many students who had come to Pune from smaller towns. As a result, it was mainly the middle-class and well-to-do students who dined here regularly.
But for Maniappa, the boarding house was never merely a means of earning money. He saw it as a place of service, not business. No one was ever turned away hungry — not even those who couldn’t afford to pay. Many students ate there for months without settling their bills, yet Maniappa never uttered a word of reproach. The boarding house became a second home for generations of learners.
Students from not just SP College and Fergusson College, but also the College of Engineering and BJ Medical School, found their daily meals here. Many would ride their bicycles from college, have lunch, and pedal back for their afternoon classes. The Udupikar family treated these students as their own, always attentive to their needs. If someone sneezed or coughed, a glass of warm water would be brought to them unasked.
In a remarkable gesture of goodwill, the New Poona Boarding House actually reduced its rates in December 1929, which reflected its deep concern for affordability and the welfare of its patrons.
Until 1932, the boarding house would close during the summer vacation, as most students returned to their hometowns. But as the years passed, the clientele expanded beyond students to include working men and walk-in customers from the city. This steady growth meant that, except for a short break during the Ganpati festival, the New Poona Boarding House began operating year-round.
After Maniappa’s passing in 1962, his son Ramkrishna, who was then employed with the State Transport Department, left his job to take charge of the boarding house. Under his care, the establishment entered a new phase — one that blended tradition with modernisation.
The old “pangat” system, where diners sat cross-legged on wooden planks, gave way to tables and chairs. Yet, while the appearance changed, its food and warmth remained untouched.
“The menu has hardly changed since those early days,” says Suhas Udupikar, Maniappa’s grandson, with pride. He has overseen the boarding house with quiet dedication for the past forty-eight years. The simple, wholesome thali still includes “polis” (flatbreads), two vegetable preparations that change every day, “amti” (spiced lentil curry), salad, pickle, “papad”, and buttermilk.
People travel from far and wide to savour the signature dishes that have made this boarding house a legend: “aluchi bhaji” (colocasia leaves curry), “kadhi” and “khichdi”, “panchamrut”, and “lal bhoplyache bharit” (mashed red pumpkin with yogurt), among many. Each dish carries the taste of home. .
From the very beginning, the entire staff has come from the Konkan region. At the boarding house, everyone — the Udupikar family, the staff, and the customers — eats the same food. There is no separate meal for owners or workers. Perhaps that is the secret behind the unwavering quality of its cooking, which has remained consistent for decades.
Through every upheaval — the rationing during the Second World War, the shortages during the wars with China and Pakistan, the devastating Panshet floods, and the drought of 1972 — the boarding house never abandoned its vow to feed its patrons.
By the 1960s, Pune began transforming rapidly with the onset of industrialisation. New industries demanded a large workforce, drawing migrants from across the region. Many of these factories were located in Pimpri-Chinchwad, which at the time lacked adequate housing and amenities. Workers would commute daily to Pune, and for many, the New Poona Boarding House became their dependable dining place.
Much of the credit for bringing the New Poona Boarding House to life goes to the women of the Udupikar family. Laxmibai, her daughter-in-law Padmaja, and Sapna, Suhas’s wife, have worked in the boarding house’s kitchen and managed its other operations with extreme dedication and efficiency.
The New Poona Boarding House shaped Pune’s culinary landscape by blending trust, discipline, and the unmistakable warmth of home-style food. There are few establishments anywhere that have served their patrons with such sincerity and satisfaction for a hundred years. The New Poona Boarding House stands as a rare example — not just of culinary endurance, but of a family’s deep-rooted belief that good food tastes best when shared with all.
Chinmay Damle is a research scientist and food enthusiast. He writes here on Pune’s food culture. He can be contacted at chinmay.damle@gmail.com
