This is ma first post from pune. Done with unpacking and stuff. I guess its ma first experience living in a metropolis n m already missing the greens of goa! Life is harried(hurried) here, yet ma pgmates out here have lots o time to spend. Most of them, like me, are doing one or two courses for enhancing their skills, so we got lots o time off.
I entered the city in the wee hours of Saturday morning, with sleepy eyes. We were picked up by a family friend. We entered the house with a realization that there was no water. WELCOME TO THE CITY. We prayed the taps to spill out the last drops of this now-rare necessity! The gods were generous, n the taps sang the golden song of gushing water. We freshened up, n mom n me were set to roam around the city. We checked ma pg. its this old house with stone walls and this 50s look to it, though it’s a decent enough place to live. Its cool n nice n not so much city like, a relatively at peace locality though not totally untouched by the voices of the vehicles around. It lies between 2 of the most happening roads in the city.
After dumping half ma stuff we went to buy some more commodities. A walk in the mad market, we walked from street to street amassing more bags in our hands. Thankfully I had a cousin as an escort (guy.. so he would periodically free ma hand off the bags). Shopping in malls is an experience, n for someone who is partly a shopaholic it’s a tough task. If my mom weren around I would hav emptied ma wallet fr sure. The signs of sales were so alluring, the speed of the car was the only thing that managed to keep me away from it. I somehow managed to avoid useless shopping, though I somehow convinced mom on 2 more pairs of footwear being a necessity, besides the ones I already had. I walked past racks of stationery, cosmetics, n clothes exercising all ma self control not to giv em a second look. On the road back home we passed over the mutha river that now exists only as a trickle, somewhere between the boundaries of a ‘nala’(waste water canal) and a river. Once upon a time the river was responsible for flooding the city, the only thing that floods it today are concrete structures big n small.
Pune is basically a city developed on the flood plain, though little remnants remain of these fertile origins. The city is expanding, growing bigger by the day. It’s a realtors paradise, as people become more picky about the places they live in, increasing further the divide between those who can afford and those who cant. Self sufficient complexes give birth to isolated islands of abundance. So when I visited such a complex and found a fountain working full swing and water flowing around to serve the aesthetics in a city that claims to be plagued by a severe water shortage, I wanted to yell (another time when I wondered why I din say nethin when I should have). The flats were filled with all awesomeness possible yet I wasn’t at ease standing there. Though fresh air flowed abundantly, the trees were few, the biodiversity had been replaced by engineered landscapes. To me, it felt like nothing more than a gold prison… a theatre, gym, conference hall,park, pool.. it was as if the complex aimed at confining u to its own boundaries, limiting ur interaction to the outside world as much as possible. I have been brought up in a school that mingled me with people from different social strata, most of my lessons of tolerance and understanding I received in my social interactions at public places. These complexes limit these possibilities itself. Standing in the open space that would be a garden, I felt suffocated!
How far away from these things Id lived all these years, n how much these things one day would be a part of the Goa I claim to be so much more different. It’s a battle for change. How much do we waste, over consume rather, n how much effort does it take to reduce consumption, not necessarily for the “lesser ones” but also for ur own future generations. Almost all cities in the nation today are plagued by the twin troubles of “bijli”(power) and “pani”(water). Though people in these cities learn to live with them, do they really learn to cut consumption?
I entered the city in the wee hours of Saturday morning, with sleepy eyes. We were picked up by a family friend. We entered the house with a realization that there was no water. WELCOME TO THE CITY. We prayed the taps to spill out the last drops of this now-rare necessity! The gods were generous, n the taps sang the golden song of gushing water. We freshened up, n mom n me were set to roam around the city. We checked ma pg. its this old house with stone walls and this 50s look to it, though it’s a decent enough place to live. Its cool n nice n not so much city like, a relatively at peace locality though not totally untouched by the voices of the vehicles around. It lies between 2 of the most happening roads in the city.
After dumping half ma stuff we went to buy some more commodities. A walk in the mad market, we walked from street to street amassing more bags in our hands. Thankfully I had a cousin as an escort (guy.. so he would periodically free ma hand off the bags). Shopping in malls is an experience, n for someone who is partly a shopaholic it’s a tough task. If my mom weren around I would hav emptied ma wallet fr sure. The signs of sales were so alluring, the speed of the car was the only thing that managed to keep me away from it. I somehow managed to avoid useless shopping, though I somehow convinced mom on 2 more pairs of footwear being a necessity, besides the ones I already had. I walked past racks of stationery, cosmetics, n clothes exercising all ma self control not to giv em a second look. On the road back home we passed over the mutha river that now exists only as a trickle, somewhere between the boundaries of a ‘nala’(waste water canal) and a river. Once upon a time the river was responsible for flooding the city, the only thing that floods it today are concrete structures big n small.
Pune is basically a city developed on the flood plain, though little remnants remain of these fertile origins. The city is expanding, growing bigger by the day. It’s a realtors paradise, as people become more picky about the places they live in, increasing further the divide between those who can afford and those who cant. Self sufficient complexes give birth to isolated islands of abundance. So when I visited such a complex and found a fountain working full swing and water flowing around to serve the aesthetics in a city that claims to be plagued by a severe water shortage, I wanted to yell (another time when I wondered why I din say nethin when I should have). The flats were filled with all awesomeness possible yet I wasn’t at ease standing there. Though fresh air flowed abundantly, the trees were few, the biodiversity had been replaced by engineered landscapes. To me, it felt like nothing more than a gold prison… a theatre, gym, conference hall,park, pool.. it was as if the complex aimed at confining u to its own boundaries, limiting ur interaction to the outside world as much as possible. I have been brought up in a school that mingled me with people from different social strata, most of my lessons of tolerance and understanding I received in my social interactions at public places. These complexes limit these possibilities itself. Standing in the open space that would be a garden, I felt suffocated!
How far away from these things Id lived all these years, n how much these things one day would be a part of the Goa I claim to be so much more different. It’s a battle for change. How much do we waste, over consume rather, n how much effort does it take to reduce consumption, not necessarily for the “lesser ones” but also for ur own future generations. Almost all cities in the nation today are plagued by the twin troubles of “bijli”(power) and “pani”(water). Though people in these cities learn to live with them, do they really learn to cut consumption?
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