Pune Saga

Finally the saga ends after a solid 2 week torture of Sleepless nights, haunting, evil faces and vampire smiles. Whether the biryani or the bomb blasts; you can’t take away the spirit of Hyderabad from a Hyderabadi. Brought up in a suburb in Hyderabad, the city has surely molded and added its touch to my personality. I should surely tell this, once you live in Hyderabad, you cannot live elsewhere in the world.

PUNE… pune…poooonaaa… whatever it is…..!

Pune, albeit known for its wonderful weather, is a disaster in summers. The dry weather where the sun not only pulls your cheeks from both sides (as if tearing them apart), but also drains every drop out of your system. One can hardly step out after 10am right up to around 4pm when the sun slowly sets.

Traffic….Every second person beyond the age of 18 was on two-wheelers. Every second driver resembled a terrorist with their faces covered beyond recognition, with only their eyes exposed (that too covered with sunglasses). And since I didn’t own a bike there, I was confident of my walking skills, of course, underestimating the severity of the sun above. Barely had I walked 10 minutes (that too at around 11am), with nothing covering my head or face except sunglasses, everything seemed to be going round and round and I had to hail a rickshaw to get me to my destination, which was just 2 lanes away.

The rickshaws in Pune are another story altogether .I would definitely want to write on the ‘Rickshaw-wallas in Pune’ (of course with all the hatred I can muster). The meter system in Pune is ridiculously over-priced as compared to Hyderabad, so for short distances you land up paying almost 2 ½ times that of Hyderabad. And after 8pm, it is a dream if you get a rickshaw anywhere within 5 minutes of stepping out. Rickshaws are there on the road but they flatly refuse to come to where you want to go or ask for Rs. 20 or 30 more than the meter (which is anyway- overpriced). The calculation for the meter is another story of its kind, where you have to multiply the number with 6 and add 2 to get the price you have to pay the rickshaw fellow. The math wizard that I am, had I sat calculating the fare, I could have gone and come back thrice in that much time.

The second difficult aspect in Pune was getting used to the ‘Shuddha Marathi’ here. I kept fumbling for words and then either shifted to English or Hindi. The ‘cha’ of the ‘Chandani Chowk’ or the ‘pha’ being different from the ‘fa’, I had to mark each of my words so that I didn’t goof up on the meanings or pronunciations.

The third and the most difficult thing of Pune was the mentality of the people here. The transportation charges were double than that of Hyderabad but Pune is yet different from Hyderabad. The Puneris, who wouldn’t think twice while watching a movie in a multiplex, would think five times over silly things like paying teachers their due for private classes. They would want everything at their doorstep at prices so low, that they probably won’t pay their maid servants that less. Now y did I ever mention about a maid?? Yeah I overheard that ….

Pune, in spite of all its differences, has a lot that I won’t get in Hyderabad. The superb weather (except in summer) all the time so pleasant that you don’t have to bother about the sweat marks showing on your clothes when you go out. The pace of life in Pune is another wonderful aspect that I love this city for. People here have a life beyond work, where they come in the evenings and either go for walks or just laze around at home, whereas in Hyderabad, you spend half your time travelling long distances, thus making it so fast paced that you crave for a break very soon. Shopping and night life is just tooo awesome!!Every city has its ups and downs, I might yet be very partial to Hyderabad. Bye Bye Pune….

Hyderabadddddd……here I come !!! I feels like a lost friend reunion after 20 long years!!!