Punyanagari 2....rickshaw unplugged

Nw heres the second idiotic part of my pune sojourn...

Flashback: (in black n white)...
i m called to pune for scmhrd gdpi...i reach pune station wid ma frend alok,,,..desperately seekin
a pmt bus ...we finally catch an auto...BUT we missed his wicked smile....
AB AAGE.....................................................

the rickshaw tries to cut thru peak pune mornin traffic....unlike mumbai...pune solely depends on personal vehicles and public transport...so all the more traffic menace
the journey provides a glimpse of changin face of pune...the old waadas co-existing with the new multistoried glass buildings...(glad to see a guy stil spittin on the walls of a hi-tech office compound....places change...ppl dnt?) co-incidently most of the spit in pune is observed on "yethe thoonku naye " (do not spit here) boards...

many roads have been simultaneously dug....n wrk on most of them has been held up due to some reason or the other...(officials of pune municipal corporation pat themselves for their duur-drishti..wrk on all roads at once = faster wrk...(huh...traffic snarls))
lookin at the city of my birth...i got nostalgic...(no family serial business pls..)..neways we conveniently forgot to look at an important thing ...the PUNE RICKSHAW METER...(stress on pune) ..the meter ws ticking like a race-timer....i wonderd to alok abt it....bt i said even i m a punekar....like lokmanya tilak...i too will fight for justice...whatevrr....

nw since i stay in mumbai ...i too am used to autos...n their meter readings...follwin mumbai rates...the meter had already ticked 150 bucks....(even train travel to pune costs 65 bucks)
n finally after much askin here n ther...we finally saw a board of Symbiosis Institutes...felt relieved wen reached ther...
nw..the important part payin auto...i said nt more than 40 bucks...auto walla ws startled at my bravery,...non punekars dnt argue wid pune autos....after much bargainin n he swearin on ambabai...we gave him 52 bucks..
(HOW TO CALCULATE PUNE AUTO FARE??
I lrnt this l8r frm my didi...who ws at the interview process team ...
ok heres the golden formula....for first time for public viewing...
whatver the meter reading...multiply dat by 6....divide it by 10 & after that add 2 bucks....
n lo u r the pune rickshaw fare champ...to fight for the poor looted by these monsters!)

n finally we left the auto...n walked towards the insti feelin happy wid da bargain...
i saw the rickshaw...on its rear ,message was written...

...kar bhalaa so ho bhalaa....(wid a face of man wid a wicked smile)

.....to be contd...

PUNYANAGARI !!...(the city of good karma) part 1

PUNE......is abt 200 km frm mumbai...bt has existence of its own....n its reference goes back wid the history...... frm being the capital of Marathas n the Peshwas ..to being the recent IT capital...on the brink of overthrowin bengaloruu...
( a new lore in pune goes....if u throw a stone in the crowd, 9 out 10 times..it will hit an IT guy..no wonder IT has taken a hit nowadays... bad one..)

Neways dn wid pune intro....why did i land up there?...
first...some basics..
1) i m not new to pune...i was born in bhor taluka in pune...(nw no questions hw n why..dis is nt bollywood)...so i can be called a citizen of pune..by Principia Natura...dunno if dats correct..bt it shd mean citizenship by birth.
2) i had flat in pune till recently v sold dat off...why ..bcos the neighbours ther wernt sexy...no lame reasons man..
3)..i love pune...its ppl..its colleges..(der was a time i was seriously considerin doin engg at coep,pune....bcos it has a boat club in its campus...which other collg can boast bout that?)


so...if i m already a punekar...
(pls dnt make it puneite...it is criminal offence to call a citizen of pune by that name...)....whats new if i visit it once again...
there lies the fun....the thing is u cant get enuff of pune..in a lifetym..4get a in a few days stayin there)

my MISSION in pune:
my numerous hazardous attempts at givin every goddamn mba entrance exam paid off....finally some lower rung exam like snap..which the serious mba toppers avoid...made me the intelligent lame cow among calves...(srry for literal translation of marathi idiom )
...so...i got a GDPI call from symbiosis institutes...(some b-magazines list it 4th rank...among mba institutes in india...while some other magazines say..whers dat?)
point is ,,,since i m expectin a call frm better institutes in near future(...dats infinite time,..)i thot this wud b an opportunity to have a good match-practice..n so...

nw the intrview is in that part of pune..which i m not greatly familiar with....
add to that...the institute doesn clarify well the address of intrview process...

so i reach pune wid my friend alok....who had taken the same batch as mine for the process,,,who gave up his volvo dreams to accompany me by train to pune...n trust me the journey sucks wen its for a interview...dat tooo on chilld winter mornin..i cribbingly wore my "main hoon naa" imitation sweater...

nw at pune station...we ask for the bus to reach the place...
n i swear..all the ppl..we asked, guided us to diffrnt places ( so finally we ended up circling the station itself)....phew....n whats more they told us diffrnt bus numbers too...
some said 13, some 24, some 204, some 365....finally we wer like on seeing the bus...checking it frm the growin list of numbers we had...
.n Usool no. 1...everybody in pune..tells everything wid conviction n confidence..even if they dnt have the slightest idea of what that is....
so, frustrated...we ask the pmt( pune municipal transport?) conductor sittin in a tapri....n his reply....he spits out the red blood paan spray...some drops narrowly miss my special intrview pants...i frowned...bt he murmurs somethin as our answr....well i dunno what language was dat..bt surely nt marathi,hindi,english,gujarati or kannada..alok still doubts dat to be a paan accented tribal language...newayz i gues he was a bad conductor....oh bad one again...

neways wid the co-operation receivd frm ur friendly neighbourhood conductor....we decided to try our luck directly at a big bus-stop ahead...correction the stop wasnt big....bt the crowd in frnt was....as if some movie shoot was on....neways....
(NOTE: Usool 2: wen in pune....be at ur stingy best...irrespective of u havin a swiss bank acount....bt we wer early ..so dint take an auto...n decided to try our luck..wid bus)
we finally receive the appropriate bus no...dat too ,frm school kid...yes sarva shiksha abhiyaan is rite on track...
a big BUT.....the bus we wanted had just left...n ther wasnt going to be one..for an hour or so....

so relenting to fate...remember we had wrse to follow at gdpi....we decided to take n auto...

bt since i was a ded shaana guy...i enquired the rate of auto to go to the place wid ppl b4...so confidently sat in an auto ....
i dint notice...the wicked smile on auto-wallas face...ther was more to it...
..............................................................................................................................(to be contd.)