I moved to
Boston nearly couple years ago. I have lived the Midwest culture, experienced the west
coast life now trying to be a Nor' easter. And I must say.. there is no
greater joy like living in Boston and being a true Bostonian. But.. you have to
prepare for that!
As soon as I
moved to Boston, I felt closer to my home country when I was driving. People
honk, that is a means of communication telling the other person to yield, just like in India. You have to be aggressive on roads.. this
is how you clear the prelims of being Bostonian. Other things are add-ons. You
can honk on turns just to be safe if anyone is coming from the opposite
direction. You do not have to show respect to pedestrians as they are not supposed
to stop you from driving. (“rastyat
sarvat durlakshit goshta mhanje padachaari”). There is no lane system on
the roads. Two lanes can change into one or three without any indication. But
there is an unwritten code of conduct between every driver. You have to master
that to be a Bostonian. If two cars can be accommodated alongside each other
(on an internal road, or a freeway ramp/exit), no one cares about how many
lanes are there. Organically traffic keeps on flowing making optimum use of the
space. And esp in peak hours, people calmly keep flowing as and where they find
space. Until there is a “road romeo” who tries to cut through and merge in
between a lane to save time/ go faster. That’s when Bostonians unite to make
sure he cannot cut through their lane. It’s a matter of Bostonian pride now.
That time you’ll hear honks and see fingers flipped at our road romeo. Most of
the times, this road romeo is someone from outside Boston or new to Boston ..or
from New York. Being Bostonian on the roads is not about following traffic
rules, it’s about utilizing space and time optimally so that everyone can reach
their respective offices on time (and then bitch about how bad the traffic is
getting these days …:aaj kal chi pora
na.. “).
A true Bostonian
will hate New York, or a New Yorker. A true Bostonian cop will ticket almost
every NY license plate seen on Boston roads (and from a personal experience,
vice versa is also true :/). It’s much like how a true Punekar feels about a
Mumbaikar or living in Mumbai and vice versa. You need pride in being a
Bostonian. Bostonian honyasathi
abhimanachi garaj aste. (jajwalya
abhimaan nai.. to punyakadech ahe ajun). And unlike Pune, where pride can
to be of anything and everything, here the pride has to be about the Patriots,
and Red Socks (Tom Brady and beards). And when it comes to Red Socks v/s
Yankees, nothing can get better than that.
(image from google)
Unlike in Bay
Area, where most of the people are migrated from outside, in Boston, you can
see people living here for generations. People are family oriented, live with
families, together. People are very friendly at work and outside. Not to say there
is huge population of students here (due to world class universities like MIT
and Harvard), but there is also a huge populace of people living in this area
for decades. These people know every gali
nukkad of the area. They would not use google maps to “show” you how to get
to a certain place, but will tell landmarks, names of streets, restaurants that
you would come across as you navigate. It’s similar when you ask you
grandmother how to go from shanipar to nagnathpar (google gets confused here
but not your grandma). You as a newbie, you would require a personal guidance initially. Google need not rescue you
And when it
comes to snow…!
Boston gets a
lot of snow. A lot! So much that there is no place to pile it up or dump it. This
time, being Bostonian is about writing at least one article in a local
newspaper (every other weeks) expressing how the govt sucks and does not take
any measures to remove snow.
Boston does not
have a luxury to have garage spaces for everyone and hence people park on
streets. This is where it becomes interesting when it snows. Streets reduce to
half there widths and the “spot fight” starts. Being Bostonian in winter is to
get creative in your “space savers” A “space saver” is something that you keep
on street to “reserve” your so called parking spot. It can be anything, a
chair, a ladder, a tire, a discarded computer, a hand glove.. anything. Well,
by law, parking on streets is not allocated. Anyone can park anywhere on the
street where parking is permitted. But, now you dare to move this “space saver”
and park your car in someone else’s “spot” and you cannot guarantee the well-being
of your vehicle anymore. Windshield could be trashed, tires may be flat, windows
could be broken with snow on all the seats. People can get much more creative.
Oh.. and cops.. they have given up in tracking people who put space savers and
ticketing them. They have better things to do.
(images taken from google)
But, being Bostonian means respecting a space saver and not parking your car there. It’s an unwritten rule. A true Bostonian knows the effort one has put up in digging his car out, and he would never go and park in his spot if there is a space saver there. (True reason is he loves his vehicle and is aware of the consequences: P). Still some people clarify the consequences like below
People are very
patient in winter. If a car is stuck in snow, some do get out of their own and
help push the stuck car. The honking percent goes down. On single lane roads people
wait patiently for the oncoming traffic to pass or effectively navigate around
them if space permits. Bostonians face winter in a united fashion. The most
agitated people in winter are the plough guys though. The people who plough the
roads. I guess their boredom in ploughing in this cold winter when everyone “works
from home” is reflected from the aggressive driving they do when ploughing. If
you are on an internal single lane street and a plough truck comes in front of
you, don’t even try to navigate from around it, just back up all the way and
let him go!!
To all those
Punekar’s… just be like those oaks and leles from sadashiv peth, and it’s not
very difficult to be a true Bostonian thereafter.
(This article is not written to insult anyone and is a work of fiction… Boston chya snow madhle sanskar ahet amche!)
