Farhan Akhtar jams at the event

It's ironic to celebrate the nation's Independence Day, or freedom, inside a prison, which is precisely what we did. But maybe the venue was auspicious still, if you consider that Yerawada Central Jail, founded in 1871, was once very much Ground Zero for India's freedom struggle.

The most famous alumnus of Pune's "reformation and rehabilitation school" — as BK Upadhyay, ADG, Prisons, liked to call it — isn't Sanjay Dutt, Ajmal Kasab, Abdul Karim Telgi or Arun Gawli (both current residents), but Mahatma Gandhi.

In fact, the first enclosure you go past on your left from the jail's main entrance is Gandhi Yard, an office now, and a memorial to commemorate Gandhi's term in the same cell. This is also possibly where the famous 1932 Poona Pact was signed. Not that we got to step inside. The entire 70 acres' prison campus is naturally kept out of bounds for visitors.