Bombay-Pune

Hot and Humid, sweltering, sweating, grimy, dirty, slums abound, trees don't, esacalting property prices, as does the population, not to mention the pollution - yet there's no other place like my good ol' Bombay. Not Mumbai, mind you - but Bombay - of Churchgate, Marine drive a.k.a Queen's Necklace, Cuffe Parade, Colaba Causeway, Gateway of India, Malabar Hill, Worli Sea-face, Bandra Bandstand, Hill road, Pali hill, Juhu, 7 Bungalows, Versova - hell even claustrophobic Lokhandwala, and the far-flung very Guju suburbs of Kandivili and Borivili, or the next-to-impossible-to-reach suburbs of Mira Road and beyond! No city in India can compete with the sheer energy, diversity and electric vibrance that drives this city - no city rocks like this city - no city is more happening...

But go I must, bid adieu to the land where I was born, the terrain where I have walked for over 22 years of my life. Move on to a new city, a new way of life, seek new horizons, learn new habits...

Just back from that city - Pune. Spent a long weekend with my cousins. That was fun. Chatting, getting pakaoed by my jijas, late nights, early mornings, one meal blending into the next, some booze - yeah it was definitely a cool weekend! Apart from that I discovered a few cool places in Pune (obviously near and around the much famed Koregaon Park of Pune), saw my cousin's flat where we will be staying till we find our own "home" and its ready for occupation. I'll FINALLY be getting my own room in Pune - that's one advantage of moving there. Already planning how I want it to look (ofcourse alot will be decided by my talented designer Kunal Shah) - been picking up stuff for the room for quite a while now, starting from Paris! :)

Another good thing about Pune is the weather - days weren't too bad, and evenings were most pleasant and breezy, thanks to the still vast open spaces. Most upcoming residential areas are away from the main city and are approached through villages and fields of cabbage, cauliflower, corn, sugarcane etc - that's gonna take some getting used to - as well as encountering herds of cows/buffaloes, sheep/goats crossing the tiny winding roads, the odd donkey standing in the middle of the road refusing to budge depite fervent furious honking by the much agitated drivers!

Oh yeah it's gonna be a completely different life altogether!

P.S My dear friend Kunal Shah a.k.a Kunu Baba just started blogging - I'm shamelessly promoting it!