day drive to pune

paul and me drove to and back from pune today, three hour each way on the expressway- door to door. the speed was exhilarating and was only frustrated when we got into pune and into mumbai on the way back. in pune a one way loop through the university where a humongous flyover was being constructed in prefabricated modules created a traffic jam; and in mumbai- just the evening traffic.

as you enter the outskirts of pune the highway becomes subsumed under large billboards selling dreams instead of homes. besides the swimming pools and clubhouses in buildings like 'orchid avenue' and 'garden heights'; they 'no neighbors' and ‘jerk free ramps’- whatever that means. even more interesting was the striking blue billboard that went ‘if you are not being hounded by the paparazzi- find another place to stay’. paparazzi in pune? ok. i admit to being a big city snob.

the reason why paul and me drove to pune is a meeting that we has at the mahratta chamber of commerce in this hulking mass of a new alucobond clad office building, regarding making pune a ‘poor friendly’ city. the building was anything but friendly though. on the top floor with views of the docile pune landscape was a café entirely made in tacky catalog furniture and fittings. orange was the color that someone said was appetizing and all the tables were in matt finished laminate of that color. to offset it yellow umbrellas leaned opened against the curtain glazing. the floor was the marbonite that you see in all malls- buff colored nothing. and while the space waited desperately waited for metropolitan-ness four customers including paul and me were served in plastic plates and cups. it was a three hundred seater café- i counted.

the meeting was on the 5^th floor where bureaucrats, non-governmental organizations and us sat around a table in a freezing room with no windows; and spoke of the jnurm, the sra, the pcmc, pmc and how all of these can possibly provide pune with affordable husing for slum dwellers and migrant labour.

lunch was good marathi food at shabaree, off ferguson road.