The city in between…

This might be my gift, but I kind of guess the nature of city very quickly. Moving to Pune was my plan B. And as expected I took plan B and moved OUT of Hyderabad to reach Pune.


Now, Pune is not totally new for me, I have spent 2 months of my training over here. My first away-from-home experience was from Pune. But for various reason I never liked that city in my couple of month’s stint. As I moved back to same city after 60 months, I found the things got worse.


Let’s see what goes wrong and what works for Pune.


When I see Mumbai, I like it for its crazy speed and when I see Hyderabad, I like for its peaceful and snaillike speed. Pune stands just somewhere in between and it’s not happy sight to see. It’s neither of it and I hate it.


There are many aspects that brings city down and to start the list – is its infrastructure.


No, the city does not have BAD roads, but the city just doesn’t have roads.


The supposed InfoTech park is THE filthiest place one can see [Ok you can blame monsoon] but you just can not have it as an excuse every time. Besides the public transports works in very strange way, for example This time, first I used to stay some 25 KMs away from my workplace and I had to change 3 autos to get there. Now I stay 12 KMs away from my workplace and I have to change 4 autos. The share autos here adds whole new meaning to word sharing, u not only share fare but also sweat, breathes, germs and everything that once can have from fellow passengers. As per norms the average 6 seater auto should not kick start unless at least 16 passengers are in it. The conditions of PMT and PCMT buses are as old as AK Hangal and as bad as Baba Sehgal, cherry on the top is the auto rickshaw drivers. They charge double for being polite.


But that goes for overall Pune nature, the inherent pride of Puneites for god knows why. The once-Oxford-of-East is lot to work on it’s hospitality. Trust me being a Marathi Manoos it gets irritating for me, so its definitely tough life out there for non-Maharashtrian.


But then what works for Pune?


Weather – oh yes, the gifted climate works bigtime for this otherwise ordinary city. Secondly it’s being touching distance to Mumbai and it’s definitely safe for the women [No pepper spray Ladies]


The Pune IPL team depicts exactly what the city is about. It has everything that the city should have but chokes when it asked to perform. I am just 10 days older now and I already getting bugged up here. However it could be the long Hyderabad stint that still hanging over me.


Hope the city works for me for it’s obvious reason [if you know what I mean ;)]

An Open Letter to MSD

This letter is long pending one, and a proof of nothing succeeds like success. 

Hi Mahendra Singh Dhoni, 

Ever since I came to know that you will be leading our cricket team, I have hated you for one reason or the another with some fair and some personal. However I want to start this letter with congratulating you on your successful campaign of IPL 4 and ICC ODI World Cup 2011. Apparently you would be the only captain who won ODI, T20 world cups, Champions league and most prestigious of all IPL twice, not to forget top ranking in test cricket, a very very rare feet to achieve.

I remember, the first distinct sign of yours in way back of my engineering days. When we used to bunk lectures to complete machine designs and listening commentary on Bhus's transistor [Yeah those days, when Lakshmipathi Balaji was new sensation in pace bowling and all MTV shows were considered as COOL] you hit those bloody 148 in Pakistan and we were all like 'wait a minute, this can be our own gillie'. Something that India never had; A wicket keeper batsman. Somehow Indian selectors were changing wicket keepers more frequently than Deepika Padukone changes her boyfriends so after a long loyal stint of Nayan Mongia we were just getting over of Vijay Dahia, MSK Prasad, Parthiv Patel and Saba Karim [the AAJ-TAK cricket expert] Then we found a hard hitting [literally] batsman cum wicket keeper from Ranchi - Jharkhand [seriously, do they have a cricket team?] someone who look like Kunal Kapoor with Tara Sharma's hair on him. Honestly we just loved the way you batted on that Pakistan tour of 2005, the HATHODA Shots of your were real treat to watch.

Meanwhile Greg Chapell happened to Indian cricket and after lots of abba dabba jabba, finally the captaincy came to your plate. It kind of did fall in your pocket, after World Cup 2007 disaster, Sachin - Sehwag was not ready to take the crown and offering Yuvraj to lead the team is offering Sherlyn Chopra a Parwati Bhabhi role. If I go back in time and try to find out logical reasoning behind why I hate you, it seems really difficult to justify myself. With the outrageous success you achieved in so short time, nothing seems to be wrong with you. 

You are manipulating, shrewd and selfish, but hey guess what, it all works for you. So this letter is nothing but to congratulate you on your success. As you continue to achieve new success milestones, I shall continue to hate you. 

With Best Wishes

MumbaiChaat.