Becoming a Puneri - II

Woke up around 6PM after a long sleep when Ravi returned from office(he stayed in same guest house last 15 days, now shifted to a flat in front, so he knows about all things happening there) and then we were discussing many things, what all happened in Chennai n Pune in last 15 days, we were sharing the information with each other(a KT u can say). He said Sandhya(4th of us 5) is in his project in DLF so they are together having fun there but Isha(last, but not the least, of 5 of us friends) is alone till now as she is posted in Hinjewadi Phase-1. Our lives were no different from each other’s in year 2010 as all of us were in a strange south Indian coastal city in the first half and like a typical Indian movie which has a twist just before interval, our lives too had this twist at the end of first half that we were to show the second half in west-central India. Ravi left around 9pm, I laid back after a good north Indian supper.

Meet my new friend Scento, first friend I got in Pune, my roommate in guest house.  A decent guy from Kerala(wow, one more state of India connected to my life), my favorite state, if given chance to find myself, to look for a bride. Born in the feet of India and brought up in the heart of India(Delhi) Scento was very good in Hindi so we were happy conversing in usual Hinglish, quiet a famous language in our generation. Woke up to a Saturday morning, my first sunrise in Pune, after a small conversation with Scento introducing each other(as he returned late last night after watching INCEPTION), went on to explore Pune along with Sathya and Ravi.

It was really a wild decision to go on exploring a city without knowing an each of it, not knowing the local language too. “When we can pull it through in Chennai without knowing Tamil, why can’t we manage in Pune when we have Hindi to our rescue at any crucial time”, I said to Ravi, didn’t knowing that I’d regret saying this at the end of the day. As Sathya wanted to visit any good fort, we enquired many strangers on the road with a single question, “where is Sivaji’s fort?” ,kudos to that great warrior who built so many forts, no two persons gave same answer. Perplexed as what to do, asked a guy looking completely Puneri as a final try, he said its near Sivajinagar. As name is also after the king, we believed in his words, “Take any bus from here towards station n get down at Sivajinagar stop, fort is walk able from there”, which gave us instant energy.

After some trouble we managed to board a busy bus at last. An old Puneri was sitting beside me, started conversing with me (he was bored it seems, unlike me observing strange local buses with a bell in the front n conductor would pull the string tied from the rear end to indicate the driver to stop) and when I said we are going to Sivajinagar to visit fort, like BigB in KBC,”GALAT JAWAB, AAP KAROD RUPAIH HAR GAYE”, he said it’s in Shaniwarwada near Corporation but not Sivajinagar. Following that old man’s advice we alighted at Corporation and walked along the way that old BigB asked us to go. Crossing the bridge with whole city’s drainage running under it, we found a fort entrance at last, with a warrior on horseback holding a knife victoriously in front of it. It was a fort less and a garden more with lot of fountains (destroyed badly) around. Walked all around the garden, going up and down the stone staircases, taking pictures of every other stone, spent nearly 2 hours in that compound. Bored, we wanted to visit something else but with our experience in the morning, thought it’s better to ask some of our friends who might know a bit of Pune. I remembered an old friend of mine was here in Pune so rang him up and after Hi, Hello, asked him where else I can go from Shaniwarwada. He told there is a famous Ganesh temple near here but forgot its name (great!!!). Believe me Pune might be the city with most number of temples of Lord Ganesha than any other city under the Sun. With a task to find that FAMOUS one out of those myriad Ganesh temples, we 3 came out of the fort like military on war.

Stopped an extremely decent looking man on the middle of the road, who appeared to have the whole world’s time with him, Ravi started,” Bhai saab, is there any Ganesh temple nearby?”

“Ha, aap agar seedha jao to ek hai, is chowk se dai mudh ke seedha jao to aur ek aayega, aap ko kaha jana hai?”, that was a carom ball, clean bowled.

“Which is FAMOUS of the two?” remembering the keyword told by my friend, I asked.

“Waise to Dagdusheth Ganpathi bahut famous hai, wo raha” he pointed his finger. It was glowing even from the distance, Shukriya to that Bhai saab, we went to that temple and were mesmerized seeing such a wonderful Ganesh idol. That was a wonderful temple built in a small area on a busy road-side.

Saying thanks to Shree Ganesh for bringing smiles on our faces at the end of the day, we returned to our respectively homes.  

Becoming A Puneri

Being a Hyderabadi and living as a Chennalite for 6 months, it’s the journey of a guy in becoming a Puneri now. Confused, read on then….

After completing my training in Academy Chennai, to my surprise I was posted in Pune, leaving my first two preferences Hyderabad(my home) and Chennai. As I’m always interested in going to places, consoled and convinced myself that it’s a good opportunity for me to visit all the scenic beauty around Pune. At that time I didn’t knew what was to come in future. Greatest solace was that I was not alone, as four more of my friends were also posted in Pune.

So finally we started our journey from proudly standing, century old Chennai central railway station at exactly noon in Mumbai express. Three out of us five were already in Pune, left pretty early as their projects were calling them, so only two of us were going now, my friend Sathya(please note, it’s a girl) n me. Crossing Tamilnadu, Andhra, Karnataka, we entered Maharashtra n after a long journey, reached Pune station next day, around 10am. Sathya’s not so close friend(her close friend’s bro’s friend’s cousin’s …. Close enough na) Prabhakar came to receive us. Coming out of the station I was in doubt am I really Pune in train or travelled in a time machine back to 1980’s. Autowallas were ready to grab us, one autowalla said something, I could make nothing out of it. Habituated of saying “Enna”(what) or “Tamil teriyade”(Don’t know Tamil),only golden words that I learned for survival in Chennai,whenever we hear any jargon, I was about to use the same that I heard Sathya saying “Enna sollre”(what is he saying)?, it was only then I realized that we entered the great Maratha n now it’s time to take on Marathi(huh!!).

Usually Tamilians r very poor in north Indian languages(even national language) so we both were stunned to see Prabhakar, a tamilian, talking chaste Marathi(atleast I felt so) with the autowalla. He was conversing with Sathya in tamil   n in Marathi  with autowalla, both are foreign languages for me so I was sitting dumb in the auto waiting for my destiny. Dropped Sathya at Aundh where she was given accomadation, Prabhakar also left to his place n then alone I was conversing in Hindi(happy I know that at least) with autowalla, reached Pimple Saudagar in a few min after Ravi(remember this guy, he has lot more to do) helped us with address saying its near Jagtap Dairy. Names of areas are not so tough in Pune to remember, but when you change cities every 6 months it’s very difficult to remember areas names. It took me nearly a month to pronounce properly the word “Sholinganallur” an area in Chennai, now working on areas of Pune similarly.

On reaching Pimple Saudagar, I felt like I came to US or Uk, now I’m not talking about the roads or infrastructure there(boys should have guessed by now what I’m talking about). Paid the autowalla the amount he asked without bargaining, as being bluffed by autowalla is a daily routine for a Chennailite. Feeling the fatigue of journey, lied down on bed, throwing the baggage in a corner of my room in guest house-Sunshine vila. Remembering the dumbness in auto I decided, albeit missing the chance to learn Tamil in Chennai, I must not miss the chance now to learn Marathi. I remember I had a Maharashtrian friend in school, I learned a sentence too in Marathi from him, that is “Mala Marathi nai yethe…”

 to be continued..