Pune

I travelled to Pune by coach yesterday, my linguistic deficiencies compensated by my luck and ability to get friendly middle-class Indians to help me at both ends of the trip. The Bombay end was a bit hectic, as several agents for coaches to Pune all operate from stalls right next to each other at Dadar station, and when I arrived there several guys ran to drag me and my kit out of the taxi and towards their stalls. A bit of British stiff upper lip and a couple of determined cries of "Nahi! Nahi!" saw them off. Young scallywags. What-ho.

Then at the other end I easily got a rickshaw to the hostel where I will be staying for the next week. I got settled in, and then suddenly realised I didn't have the fan on and that I wasn't sweating. Such a situation would never arise in Bombay. Pune is further inland than Bombay and located at a higher altitude in the Western Ghats (foothills): hence the more European climate. Also it isn't surrounded on three sides by the sea, like Bombay, and doesn't attract thousands of immigrants/economic refugees from other parts of India every day, like Bombay. As a result there is a bit more space to breathe (and air - a day of just breathing in the air in Bombay is equivalent to smoking two and a half packs of cigarettes). So Pune is a healthier city, and cheaper to live in. But I think it lacks the energy of Bombay; there doesn't seem to be the same dynamism and variety here that results from Bombay's magnetic attraction to people and businesses from inside and outside India. Maybe it will grow on me.