(Dramatic title, no...?)
Had been to Pune recently, recently being a good 3-4 months back. Considering the procrastinator that I am, this post coming 3-4 months late ain't that bad.
It had been more than a year since I had left Pune now. And I had run out of excuses for not coming back to meet my friends. And so began my nostalgia tour, on a hot mumbai morning, to the city where the number of two wheelers is matched only by the number of potholes on the roads, or even beaten.
After 12 long months I would be reunited with Neeta. How would she react to my ignoring her for so long, would she have lured some other guy with that thing that she did on the curves, with that sound she made in the tunnels, on the Expressway, did she still have those racks where I put my stuff if there wasn't enough space below, would she still charge only 200 bucks for that 4 hour long titillating ride she took you on, would those seats of hers still recline all the way back, did she still stop at Foodmall for petrol (Rama you won't understand what I feel for her). How else could I have reminisced. Part of my memories attached with Pune revolved around the round trips to Mumbai and back. Those movies you had no intention of watching otherwise (), the paneer franky at Food Mall, listening to The Gathering's 'How to measure a planet' (which coincidentally I was listening to for most of the time I was writing this ), the Expressway itself, during the rains, that chic with the tattoos and piercings who used to sit next to me most of the times (I made that up, ...not to fool you, but myself). I have always fantasized about a chic next to me on those innumerable trips. And when finally that did happen, I was so fcuked up that I was having trouble just trying to keep my teeth from chattering, forget talking to the female. You see on one of my earlier trips I had chosen to wear shorts and sit on that very seat just below the A/C duct which was broken and was now a gaping hole through which flowed the frostiest of air. Still I did manage to blurt out things like, "so... You work in Pune?", "which college you from?", "oh! You're in HSBC, I have friends there" and other such small talk...
No such luck this time. That remake of the Amitabh starrer mafia flick, ironically starring his arch nemesis of the day, was playing.
The bus stopped at a different place this time, one I hadn't been to earlier, and I thought that by now I would know Pune in and out... Met up with my friends, had a bit of the ol' KFS.
Then in the evening met up with friends from Mumbai and went to Apache. This is an amazing place. Had been wanting to go there for a long time. It's this pub where they play Heavy Metal. Metalica, Megadeth, Maiden, Cradle Of Filth, Children Of Bodom, et al... And the usuals - SOAD, LP. Imagine any place in Bombay playing such music! Had some more KFS... Ok, a lot more... Chandni Chowk rocks! Had dinner and came back home (Anshu's place). Paid 3 times the normal rickshaw fare. You would have guessed that by now I assume, if you had not slept through my earlier posts. By the way, No Man's Land (the road outside Anshu's house) has been much improved. Almost one third of the stretch has tar now. And traveling through it doesn't give you that feeling of a thousand bulldozers ravaging your guts anymore.
Finally home, we tried to get some sleep in that nasty Pune cold, wrapping ourselves in curtains and old newspapers. Thats all there was left in his house since Anshu's brother left for B'lore.
Next day had breakfast at Satvik, where I had had 93.07% of my meals when I was staying there. For lunch, had a Cheesy Veg Burger With Cheese (deja vu?) and a Green Apple Fram at Pune's own Burger King. Hmm... Burger King... You need guts of steel and a stomach as big as the Serengeti crater, which sadly I am endowed with, to finish off a single burger there.
After that spleen-splitting, gut-busting lunch, the 3 of us (those friends from Bombay) combined had 55 bucks with us. Decided that I had reminisced enough and came back home in the good ol' ST (Service for Travellers or Tourists whatever, don't rack your brains, it’s a chhedanagar joke).
Not very eventful, but to me, quite nostalgic.
All my earlier rants about Pune notwithstanding there were quite a few things I did like or found out that I actually liked. Which brings me to the Retrospection part ;)
Some of the things I'll remember and some changes that staying there brought about:
- Staying alone for so long taught me how to enjoy absolute solitude (I had also started reading Gabriel Garcia Marquez's "100 Years of Solitude" :P ).
- Experienced Pune's rain. The air is so moist that fish could swim through it (where have I heard this before? Seriously if you have heard this earlier let me know where).
- I had food in a roadside Dhabba in the middle of nowhere on a National Highway at midnight, something I could never do in Bombay.
- Tasted German Bakery's "Herbal" *wink wink* Chai (Choi as a friend corrected).
- Paid a fortune each time for traveling.
- Celebrated my birthday with 20-30 total strangers.
- Found out that Pune surpasses Bombay by a huge margin in the number of good looking woman (a Pune friend argues that even though there quantity in Pune, for quality you have to come to Bombay... Hmm... I don't think any girl would be reading this, if you are, here's something for you... :P ).
- Was asked by a Rickshaw driver, why do I travel by rick and don't own a bike.
- Discovered the beauty of Anneke Von Giersbergen's voice.
- Made some good friends.
- Ate Continental food for the first time, and probably the last.
- Paid a fortune each time for traveling.
- Lost my virginity. Now that I have your attention, I'll continue...
- Learned to derive immense pleasure from staring at blank walls (when you'r living alone in an empty home with no TV or computer, definition of what's fun and what's normal takes a back seat).
- Went on long drives to distant Dams in the rain.
- Discovered the beauty of the Mumbai-Pune Expressway.
- Discovered the beauty of the Mumbai-Pune Expressway during the rains.
- Found out I am pretty good at bowling (I am not talking about cricket).
- Lived through Siddharth's and Neeraj's rash driving.
- Made a Tang flavoured Hukkah out of a Mc Ds milkshake cup.
- Mastered Sudoku, Kakuro and Loop the loop.
- Paid a fortune each time for traveling.
- Did'nt visit the Osho Ashram.
- Still didn't learn to ride a bike (I can't).
- Still didn't learn to speak in Marathi. Though I now know JAVA, UNIX, PL/SQL.
- And finally, paid a fortune each time for traveling.
Wasn't much of a Retrospection, but I just remembered the words of some wise old man : "Its not the destination that matters, its the journey that counts". True... (or is it... *single raised eyebrow*)
Part 1:
Pune... the Beginning Part 2: A Tale of two cities
