A first-timer's experience

Pune is a visitor’s nightmare.

Right from when you set foot in the city, either at the airport or at the railway station, there are auto-wallahs waiting to rip you off. (Unless, of course, you happen to know the Marathi language, in which case they always charge you the actual rates.) For anyone who is planning to visit Pune and is unfamiliar with the sights and sounds of the city, please note that the auto rickshaws here mainly serve the purpose of taxis. Accordingly, you have to ‘reserve’ an auto rickshaw for your journey and cannot split the expenses with fellow-travelers headed the same way (as is the case here in Kolkata). Further, each auto rickshaw has a meter installed on the iron grid that separates the passenger seat and the driver’s, and it surprisingly records not the amount traveled but the kilometers traveled. How to figure out what actually needs to be paid, you wonder? Well, each auto-wallah has a fare chart – he is required by law to have one – wherein the kilometers vis-à-vis the cost incurred are mentioned quite clearly. Of course, the said auto-wallah may offer incredulous excuses of how he tragically lost the fare-chart or simply refuse to show it to you, in which case you just need to multiply the reading on the meter by 8 and then add 2. For example, if at the end of your journey you find the meter reading to be 6, then (6x8) + 2 = 50 Rupees is what you need to pay. It’s the same anywhere in the city.

Now, in case you’re wondering how it is that an auto-wallah may refuse to show you his fare chart and get away with it, the raison d’être is that you won’t find any policeman to report him to! In fact, you’ll be hard-pressed to find policemen anywhere in the city! Wonder what they’re up to!

Also, in the city of Pune, the concept of privately-owned buses is nonexistent. All buses that ferry people from place to place are painted yellow-and-red and are all run by the city government. The buses are thus quite crowded and difficult to travel in, and the auto-wallahs are left reeling in the cash.

Cutting to the chase, unless you own a car of some sort, or at least a two-wheeler, traveling around the city is a downright pain-in-the-ass. Not to mention really expensive. But one thing I really liked was that the number of women – young and middle-aged – that I spotted piloting two-wheelers in my three-day stay in Pune was far more than the number I’ve spotted in all my years in Kolkata put together.

For regular and frequent smokers like me, there is the added disadvantage that shops selling cigarettes are not really a dime a dozen. Far from it, actually. And for Kolkattans in general, or at least those of us who love street-side food, the sad fact is that there aren’t any small shacks selling finger-lickin’ food (at affordable prices) lining the Pune roads; what can be found instead are large restaurants and other such eateries that do serve good food but cost way too much.

‘To sum it up’, as I said in the Group Discussion where I barely spoke, the city of Pune isn’t really a dream destination by any stretch of the imagination. I had to visit because I had work to attend to. I wouldn’t advise anyone else to drop in unless he/she absolutely has to. I’m back home now and I really don’t want to go back there.

(Or, maybe I will. If I manage to gain admission into a particular institute situated

atop a hill. If I do gain admission there, perhaps the pleasurable company of a particular member of the opposite sex will outweigh the displeasure of living in Pune in the first place.)

p.s. For people who do not know who it is that I talk about above, please keep your noses (and your guess-work) out of my personal business. I am a rather insignificant person, and surely you have better things to do. Thank you.