Pune Days - 1

It’s been a long time, almost more than a year that I have posted in this blog. My earlier post was in my final MSIT days. After that, I joined Kanbay. Like every fresher, I too underwent hectic training program schedules. After a series of daily quizzes, weekly tests for 2 months our FLP (Fresher Learning Program) was completed. Later I was given training in Vision Plus for 6 weeks.

Here is the turning point in my life. Like most guys in my batch, I was ambiguous whether to go to Pune or stay back in Hyderabad. Finally the big day came when I started to Pune.

I still remember – it was October 2nd – the day I started from Hyderabad to Pune. October 3rd morning around 5:30 - I woke up and realized that I was in Pune. I found people eating jilebi on road-side shops – I told to myself, “How come he’s eating a sweet early in the morning – that too he’s not eating a single piece – he’s eating as if he’s having his breakfast”. In my entire Pune episode – I could find one guy – Avinash – always accompanying me. He came to Pune along with me. I spent my time with him more than anyone else. October 3rd morning, he’s sitting adjacent to me in that Hyderabad-Pune Bus. Both of us were new to Pune. We don’t know exactly where to get down. Before starting to Pune, we were said that our accommodation was given in Kundan Palace, Nigdi (a place in pune, on Mumbai Highway) for one week. This is the only info which we both had when we started to Pune.

We were not proficient in hindi. Thinking that I knew hindi better than him (Later I came to know that he’s far better than me), I went to the driver’s cabin to ask him to drop us somewhere near to the area where we were supposed to get down. Obviously, he didn’t understand what I wanted to ask for. After some time, he dropped us near Pune Railway station. The moment we got down, an auto driver came and said that he would take us to our hotel. As we don’t know where to go and how to go and the time being early morning, we both agreed to his condition to pay him one and half times the meter rate. We started and I was staring at the meter. It started with 10 paisa. It was my 2nd surprise (first being the jilebi). In Hyderabad, I used to see auto meters jumping directly to 8 rupees. I told the same to my friend Avinash. He said, “The rupees display might not be working properly – after 90 paise – it might directly go to 10 rupees”. I didn’t leave that topic and was eagerly waiting for the meter to cross 90 paise. After few minutes, 0.90 turned to 1.00. I told him, “Unlike Hyderabad, here autos are pretty cheap; we can roam all the streets in Pune within 3-4 weeks”. He was silent.

It’s more than half an hour and we were still in his Auto. We were on Pune-Mumbai Highway. Meter reading was less than 15. We both were talking about many other things. Finally, auto driver stopped his auto in front of Kundan Palace. I saw the meter reading – it was 18 point something. I was about to take a 20 rupee note from my wallet when he said 260 rupees. He showed us an Auto Union printed sheet making a tally of kilometers to rupees. When asked how he was correlating the sheet with current scenario – he said 18 point something is nothing but KILOMETERS traveled. We had no choice but to give that amount and get into our hotel.

Life in Kundan Palace – something different from our daily life. We refreshed in our hotel room and took an auto to reach Kanbay. Our PM met us that afternoon and the very first question was “How were the potholes in pune?”. Roads in Pune were really bad. One never expects such roads in a city like Pune. Daily morning our day started with a cricket match in NEO SPORTS channel. A quick breakfast to catch the bus to reach Kanbay. October 3rd to 9th was a virtual bench for us. We were billable from 9th, the day on which Coding started in our project. We used to catch the 530 pm bus to reach Kundan Palace. The moment we entered the hotel room – we used to switch on to NEO SPORTS channel and order food items. We had no other option – no telugu channel. By the end of our week’s stay in Kundan palace, we even knew what the commentator says for the next delivery. Entire week, the India vs Sri Lanka 7 ODI series was telecasted. No other series. We had only three things to do in our hotel – Eating, watching cricket and sleeping. Towards the end of the week, we were in search of an apartment and found one in EMPIRE ESTATE.

I came to Pune 10 months back. If asked to vote on a poll for the best of the cities – without any hesitation – I’ll vote for Pune. I LOVE PUNE - especially climate. Much on my Pune days and trips in my upcoming blogs!!!!