Every now and then, especially when I am working on something with a tight deadline, I like to look outside the window and ponder upon important questions.
What shall I have for dinner tonight, I wonder. Why do so many people want to know why Katappa knifed Baahubali in the back is another question that I can spend hours upon. Since everything is being banned in any case, why not add open letters to the list? And other such important and crucial queries that mankind ought to spend more resources upon.
Now, one such question is this: what’s changed in Pune over the last year?
That is, what is different about my favorite city this year, compared to the one that went by? What is better (cue derisive snort) and what is worse (how much time do you have?). These sort of questions are important, because they help you procrastinate more effectively, but also because they help you take stock of what is changing and what is not.
Here then, are four things that your columnist thinks are important markers of change in Pune. Two of these are on the assets side of the balance sheet, and the other two must, alas, make their appearance under the liabilities column.
Pune has better, newer restaurants, and more are being added all the time. Chalk that up as a positive. I was born in an era in which going to ‘The Place’ for a sizzler was considered exotic, and youngsters these days know what a duxelle is, so we’ve come a long way in matters culinary.
Today’s Punekar is adventurous, gastronomically speaking, and that’s a Good Thing.
Microbreweries are mushrooming all over the city, and colour me ecstatic. There was a time, long, long ago, when beer meant Kingfisher, and exotic beer meant London Pilsner.
But today, Hefeweizen is a word that every self respecting beer drinker knows, and Doollaly isn’t the only circus in town (although it is still a very good one).
The streets of Pune are more crowded today than they were yesterday, and they will be more crowded still on the morrow. Bangaloreans give me pitying looks and pat me on the head when I complain about the traffic in Pune, but that, to me, is scant consolation indeed. Knowing that we’re doing better than the innermost circle of hell isn’t saying much, now is it?
Every single Puneri, every single year, says that the summer this year is worse than the previous one, and that they couldn’t remember it ever being so bad. That’s because we are a morose people, happiest when we are unhappy about things. No arguments there.
But still, this summer is worse than last year’s, and I can’t remember it being so bad. Ever.
And so, on reflection, we’re a city that is more crowded and hotter than ever before, but we have great new beers to sink our sorrows in, and the grub is progressively excellent. On balance, the optimism shades the pessimism, and Pune is on an upward trajectory (if only on the gentlest of slopes).
Except.
Pray don’t forget, gentle reader, that they will be working on the Metro, and it will be purgatory of a sort and duration we haven’t experienced before, and on a scale we can’t begin to contemplate.
You may call me an alarmist, and you may think I exaggerate, but I assure you of this: if given a choice, I’d happily sacrifice every single microbrewery in town, to go back to a Metroless Pune.
Yessir, I absolutely would.
Now, if you’ll excuse me. I have an urgent deadline to meet.
He doesn't expect the paradox to be resolved in his lifetime
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