“Jai Bhawani, Jai Shivaji, Jai Maharashtra…”

“Pune” – one of my favorite places. It was love at first sight :). It got me a sense of freedom, independence and responsibility. There are many things for falling in love with this place. Form eating joints, movie theaters, sight-seeing places, safer place for females, great shopping place (for I am a shopping freak), it offers everything you can ask for. It has all types of cuisines from kashmiri “wazwan” to typical southindian. The best part is that it offers everything for everyone in the crowd, from large college crowd to families. You talk about movies, and this place has loads of multiplexes and theaters. Plus you have to stand for the national anthem before movie starts in any theatre here . isn’t it awesome? Do you remember the last time you sang one? I bet you won’t have sung it anytime after school. Puneites have a great spirit of festivity; they celebrate everything here with full enthusiasm. They are so full of life whether its Ganpati, Durga Puja or any other festival. Every occasion is accompanied by colors, loud music, people dancing all the way, its an marvelous sight. Sunday is a family time for all here. You will see restaurants flooded with people. Student go out because all the hostel messes are closed, people go out because moms have a day off from kitchen. It’s so good to see older people enjoying themselves, having food, deserts and gossiping with all family members. What can make them happier than sharing a meal with the whole family and adoring grand children? You can see their happy glittering eyes. I applaud puneities for showing such a sensible and responsible behavior.

“Maharastrians” – extremely humble and decent people with a great love for their motherland and culture. My classmates in college used to get dabbas (tiffins) for I was an OMS (Outside Maharashtra State) student and came from so far. Only thing I was sad about being in Maharashtra was the food, it was so different from what I ate. But the homely gesture showed by my maharastrian friends made things easy for me. In a latest incident, one of my friends joined IIT Bombay. He has been to almost 3 IIT’s, so when I asked him which his favorite is, he immediately replied – “IIT Bombay”. And all I heard was more praises for maharashtrains. All I did was smile – for there was another admirer of Maharashtra. This place has some charm, some attraction, a great pull – greater than the gravitational pull of earth :). No matter how much you deny, once you live here, you will always want to come back and settle here.

My OMS friends always complained about the bias nature of maharashtrains. They were so anti-maharashtrians and called them “Ghaatis” (meaning brainless, I guess). No matter how much I tried to convince them. As the local crowd here believed we (OMS) were hunting down their seats as well as jobs in engineering and other fields. It’s not that I have not seen any biased attitude of maharastrians. Once I joined my college, I was elected as the class CR (Class Representative). My Class in-charge called me and started talking to me in Marathi, I interrupted and said “sir, I don’t know marathi”. He was hell shocked and he asked me “What! You are not maharashtrian, how can you rule maharastrians?” I was hell shocked and didn’t know what to say. But being forthright I just said “sir there is nothing like ruling as I was elected plus Britishers came to India for the first time and ruled here for like 50 years”. I was so much at peace; I just smiled and went back. From that day he never said anything “maharashtrian” to me, for I was a good student and I gave him no reasons to complain. Till date I wonder, how could I do that, how could I talk to some professor like that? Looks like my pressure safety relief valve had just failed, for I am just too short-tempered.

My parents and my schooling had taught me well about other cultures. So my foundation was quite strong, I always believed in respecting other cultures (whether you like it or not). Culture is a mirror image of a person, how he has been brought up, his surroundings, convictions, ideas, set of principles.. So in order to know someone, you will first have to be friends with the mirror image. May father always told me, “people will always love you, if you respect their culture” and believe me it’s so true. I am happy that I well-timed use of my father’s experience as it made my life so easy. Till date I have never had settling problems anywhere I went; whether it was as backward as “Kanpur” or conservative South India (Kerala, Tamil Nadu or Andhra) or too modern like Delhi, some parts of Lucknow and my first love “Pune”. I don’t know what’s in this place that keeps you attracted to it. Even after spending 3 years in Delhi, I was so very much interested to come back to Pune. And lady luck smiled on me when I got my job here. Sometimes your luck/ destiny bedazzles you.

Jai Maharashtra……………