I remember the day when I received a job offer from a Pune bases company in early 2000. I was so excited about going to Pune especially, when I was born and brought up in a comparatively smaller city named Gwalior in the state of Madhya Pradesh.
I had heard all the good things about this city, its cultural heritage, its people and their so called love with their city. Being close to India's business capital, Mumbai, I thought, that the life in this city will also be hectic and I will have to somehow get adjusted to that life.
Going to Pune for work was like a big leap in my career and hence, I packed by luggage and landed in Pune in the month of March 2000. And here you go, the moment I landed, my impression about Pune was totally changed. Opposite to what I had imagined, I had landed into a city with chaotic and unruly traffic, small narrow roads (they should be actually called lanes), citizens who felt proud in breaking the traffic rules, garbage littered here and there on the roads etc .....
Since, I did not know anything about the geography of the Pune city, I decided to hire a rickshaw and go directly to my cousin's place. The rickshawala, I sould say was very smart and immediately came to the conclusion that I am new to the city and hence, instead of taking me by the shortest route, he took me through all the busy and narrow streets of the city, making more money through the meter. I realized this only when my cousin asked me how much did I pay to the ricksahwwala to reach to her place. I was stunned to know that I as charged double the amount than the actual fare.
Since that day, I have been staying in this city called Pune. I have seen Pune growing from a city to a metropolis in last 10 years only in terms of the haphazard growth, increased population and increaed number of private vehicles on the road. I should say, that the city's infrastructure has collapsed and is not able to sustain this rapid growth.
I am not the only person complaining about these things. There are lot many other people who have to face this reality everyday. The people here feel proud in breaking the traffic rules. Nobody cares about the traffic signals. There is no sense of lane driving in this city. The public transport in this city is pathetic resulting in increasing private vehicle population on the roads.
The pedestrains are the worst affected as the local authorities seem to have a thinking that nobody in Pune city should walk. Everybody should drive his/her own vehicle.
I will try to update this post with my day to day encounter and adventures with the Pune city's traffic as I travel to my office, crossing almost entire city.
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