While in Pune…

Something that I wrote some time back. Enjoy!!…

Disclaimer: I have nothing against Pune!! … in fact I love the city! ;-)

While in Pune

. . . … it’s better to own a two-wheeler. If you don’t, you could be looked down upon!

… never drive a two-wheeler without a face mask. No, this isn’t some sophisticated contraption to reduce pollution. It’s just a scarf wound around the face in such a way that only the eyes are visible. This ‘haute-couture’ is practised by the female populace of Pune while riding two-wheelers (who needs all those sun-blocks with TPFs and anti-UV formulae when you have a scarf!!)

… speak Marathi. If you don’t then be ready to get blank stares…though some of the Pune population has, under the guise of cosmopolitizing (is that a word?!) started speaking other languages…. a blasphemous notion for the ‘assal punekar’.

… visit Vaishali. No, that isn’t some lady don that you have to pay a visit to. It’s the most popular hangout of Punekar youth on this side of the river. Well, it’s basically a restaurant… but it’s more of a place to meet than a place to eat.

… order food items using abbreviations. The waiter will laugh at you on your face if you don’t order Sev Potato Dahi Puri as SPDP or Masala Dosa as MD.

… call the ‘nallah’ that flows through the city, a river. The river flowing right through the city can be called a river only during the rainy season. At other times it shrinks to a measly nallah. So much so, that they’ve built roads on the dry river bed so that people can drive/walk on them during non-rainy seasons.

… embellish trivial things. Pune is a city of supermarkets! Well, don’t get carried away. The street corner grocer in Mumbai becomes a supermarket in Pune. A smaller sized grocery shop becomes a mini-market.

… make sure you enter shops well before their closing times. Even a chemist will refuse to sell you an emergency medicine because it is 5 seconds past the closing down time!

… as a corollary to the above point, make it a point to never try and go to a shop exactly at the time it is supposed to open. The shopkeeper’s timepiece runs in a different time zone altogether. Its not uncommon to see a crowd gathered outside a shop in the morning waiting for the owner to come and open the shutters (”Customer is the king”…no way!… not here in Pune!!)

… take a siesta in the afternoon. Afternoons are for naps. Working or doing business in the afternoon is an unheard of notion for our Punekars.

… don’t rely on public transport buses. Ask me! … I’ve spent hours waiting for a bus which never comes because PMT believes that cancelling buses at the drop of a hat is their holy duty.

… ensure that rickshaw drivers don’t take you for a ride. Well, they just use your ignorance about the city to take you to your destination by weaving through the lanes. Also do make sure that you pay by a correct tariff card. Twice, I have nearly paid fantastic fares because the rickshaw driver tried to charge me using a Mumbai taxi tariff card!!

… enjoy your stay. Whatever people say about Pune’s transformation into a second Mumbai, it still is a quaint place to stay, with a reeeaaaally laidback lifestyle.

cheers!