A tale of two cities !!!

"Tumhala kon vhaychay - Mumbaikar, Punekar ki Nagpurkar ? " ... Like every other Maharshtrian (or rather Marathi manoos), even i cant help laughing my loudest after hearing this masterpiece by the legendary PuLa. The liking still remains the same for it and i still cant help exploding with smiles. The only thing that has changed a bit over the last 1.5 years is the fact that now i have also had an opportunity to experience some of those magical moments expressed in the original. Well, i always had the chance to feel the 'Mumbaikar' pulse in last 20 odd years; but its only this last one and half year which has given me the 'privilege' to know (at least make an effort) the 'assal Punekar'. Of course i can’t comment on the third front involved here - the Nagpurkars - due to lack of first hand expereinces. So as of now, Mumbai and Pune remain my domain of 'expertise'.

This short phase of life has nearly convinced me that Pune is surely better than her sister city. Let’s try and understand the reasoning behind this belief. While Mumbai stresses herself (ohh ... so boring…!! ) by the fast paced life, Punekars love to take it easy. And by easy, i mean reeeeaaalllly eaasssy (Live life Kingsize!). Imagine the Doodhwala coming at 8:30 in morning (how much they care for the precious sleep of the common ppl !!! ) The shop-operas here are also one of its kind. The earliest a general store can open (that too only sometimes) is arnd 9:00; the hotels dont serve breakfast until 7:30-8:00. Sorry, I sounded like offending the Puneri punctuality – that’s one thing which is truly special. If lunch hours are from 1 - 4 (yaa..ppl here love their food so much - 3 hrs !!! ) the shop must, in all circumstances, close at 1.00 pm sharp. The true essence of punekars is to follow the timelines and even if that invokes the ire of the customers, so be it. Nothing is more dutiful than shutting the shop on the face of the helpless customer, who has travelled for an hour to buy a famous item of your shop. After all, it's the customer's mistake - he didnt follow the time :- )

One of the other very striking feature of Punekars is their helpfulness... or atleast the will to help u out anytime. Now, imagine u being lost in a crowded city like Mumbai. How on earth wud u find ur way?? Even if u ask someone, there's no real use. U wud either get the exact directions or in worst case, someone wud accompany u till ur destination (assuming the other person too is going in same direction) So, what did u gain - nothing. U were given so very accurate directions, that u just followed them without even thinking. The result - the next time u go there, u again need to take someone's help. This is exactly where Pune scores highly over Mumbai. If u are lost and dare to ask for a lay-man's help, u r surely in or a treat. The most common thing being u wud be interrogated to such an extent that u wud forget the sole purpose of ur visit - so no question of asking for directions. Else, some really caring fellow human beings wud bail u out in the most amazing ways. Take this for an example : "Deccan gymkhanyala kasa jaycha ? " ..... this wud get a response like "CHAALAT " .... now what a startling revelation this can be for u. First - this wud save ur money - in case u thot of boarding an auto/bus. Second - u wud make it a point to find it urself - so next time u wanna go there, u r well prepared. Thats the real spirit of Pune - self realisation thru such small small things!!!

On the other hand, Mumbaikars are well known for their ‘indifferent’ attitude towards their colleagues and city-mates. So what if we saw some pictures of ‘snobby’ Mumbaikars helping out one and all after the recent blasts. Punekars are of the belief that such tragedies can be avoided. The motto followed is ‘Forewarned is forearmed’. Take this notice outside a bungalow – “We have a dog in our house; the owner’s not responsible if someone’s bitten”. The care and concern expressed towards outsiders is clearly evident in such acts of social awareness. If u thought that people couldn’t be more helpful than this, u are surely to be bemused. A notice outside a building indicates “Outsiders should not use the society lift. In case they use the lift and get stuck inside, the society won’t be responsible”. Now, this is what I call as brotherly love in its purest form.

Huhhh......I can very well go on and on about the Puneri magic, but I really don’t want to face the music from the irate Mumbaikars reading this. So, with no hard feelings in the air, this is an assal punekar signing off!!!

Statutory Warning : Reading such blogs is injurious to health.