Visiting hometown at 27!

It was after two years that I planned a trip to Pune for a month. I visited home for almost a month beginning from the New Year’s. I was super excited to see family after such a long time. The feeling was mutual. Mom, dad, grandparents, cousins everyone had planned variety of things for welcoming me.

One thing that slipped out of my mind which family never forgets, that I was returning at an age of 27!! Well for an Indian guy.. this is THE age. You know what I am getting into. You just have to look at your facebook wall and every other day one of your pals leaves the bachelor cult and puts a ring into someone’s finger! You can pretend to overlook this but your family won’t. Esp now, when even your parents are on facebook, you do not have any excuse.

So from the very first day people started indirectly asking me about my plans, about the girl. I tried to dodge the questions but couldn’t hold the fort for too long. It was the moment when my maternal uncle/ aunt asked me point blank.. “Dude.. it’s the age.. when are you getting married”. I had no answer! Grandparents added to the fire.. “We are ok with anyone, need not be Marathi, or Indian for that matter (haaw… ajobanche vichar pudharlele ahet). Just tell me if you have anyone in mind, or should we start searching for a match”. Then mom gave a bummer that her friends had already given patrikas of a couple girls for a potential match. Oh my God.. this means even the people from my housing society know that I am of THAT age. (Yeah.. In india.. if you don’t take any steps at the right age.. your family and even the society will put all their efforts in the ‘right’ direction. Jab saari kayanat use milane mein jud jaati hai.. that’s what we call as “arranged marriage”).

I don’t know how to answer these questions? You talk about not dating anyone, they will pull their contacts to find a match. You talk about career, they will tell you how your dad managed it after marriage when he was of your age. You talk about “not being mentally ready for this next step”, they will tell how everything falls in place after marriage. So basically.. they have all the strength to put the ball back into your court until you concede.

It was a fun experience. I am still not engaged or married and I am back to the US. So.. I can now postpone all such talk until next year. But probably I should do my homework before facing my family again! :) 

(image from google)

Déjà vu

This could be a case of déjà vu for Pune. As swine flu cases are rising day by day in the city, the state government has enforced provisions of a 112-year-old law that came into force because of an epidemic during the British Raj. It was the year 1896 when bubonic plague had struck Pune. It was the worst period the city had ever experienced in its history. About 300 to 400 people used to die at a time and it was difficult task to cremate all the bodies. The act empowered the government to take any decision to control the epidemic. Powers included taking possession of suspected patient, controlling places of crowd and examining any individual or any place without permission from a legal authority. The appointed officers took advantage of the situation and used to humiliate, torture and beat people, including women, which led to unrest amongst the junta. That time Chafekar brothers came forward as saviours which lead to the assasination of Gen Rand and helped in bringing the situation under control.

This time its little bit different. We would not need any Chafekars to kill any Rand. Under the act, the officials can forcibly take suspect swine flu patients for screening — but it does not apply in the real context because anxious people themselves go to hospitals without doctors’ references. Just a sneeze and there is a sure visit to Naidu hospital (the only hospital where Swine flu is being treated).

It all started with the arrival of an exchange student from Chicago. Abhinav Vidyalay english medium school was the first school to report swine flu patients. Daily the positive cases were increasing rapidly with growing panic in Punekars, esp children.

There were two groups of people in Pune. One who felt there was nothing to get afraid as it is just another type of influenza and the other group was taking all sorts of precautions to prevent the spread. The former group came up with statictics like, the mortality rate is just 0.01%, and making people remember the outbreaks of more dreaded diseases like SARS and Chikungunya. But they failed to understand that the infective period of H1N1 is from a day before you can see the symptoms to 4 days after, with symptoms just same as normal flu and hence deceptive. At early stage it is curable by Tamiflu, a drug which has to be taken only when tested positive. If someone takes it as a preventive measure, then the virus can develop resistance to the drug increasing the chances of getting infected.

The nightmare worsened after the first death. The two prevaling groups started merging into the latter. Panic increased. One more hospital, Sasoon, was granted permission to check patients for the flu. More and more people started queueing up at these hospitals and the authorities started facing crunch of the medium in which swab was to be preserved. Although these two hospitals were not adequatly equipped the govennment was resistant in allowing private hospitals to do the testing. And without any permission private hospitals would never take a risk of dignosing any patient, esp after the first death.

The death toll is rising. Today the count is above 10, with age groups ranging from 9 months to 65 yrs. It is forecast that the virus would prevail for atleast a year after which it would make a sesonal appearance. Now a couple of private hospitals have been granted permission. There are preventive measures excersised by the citizens. Some of the household measures include- chewing 1 clove a day, inhaling clove oil camphor fumes, eating raw garlic, onion, ginger, drinking hot milk with 2 gms of turmeric, eating lots of vit C fruits and washing your hands thouroughly for atleast twents times in a day (as this virus remains active for 8 hrs and could be residing on hard surfaces like tables, door knobs newspapers etc).

Malls and roads are deserted. One can clearly see the difference ib the crowd on one of the busiest roads in Pune. There are hardly any people seen outside. and whoever is seen is seen with a mask on. N95 masks esp prepared for swine flu protection is not available in Pune. People are buying normal surgical masks for 10 bucks which were normally sold for a ruppee. Children are not permitted to go out to play. Schools are shut down for a week. Janmashtami celebrations in the city have been unanimously cancelled and people are taking care to avoid crowds.

As on one side we are gearing up for our beloved Ganeshotsav festival, with scluptures and decorations going in full swing, on the other hand people are apprehensive about carrying out this festival on public scale, just hoping that Vighnaharta will come our rescue.

A Ride to Remember!

Last weekend dad brought home, for a test drive, the world's cheapest car, The TATA Nano. Though its named Nano, the 623cc, MPFI, 4 geared car with a 2 cylinder engine on a single balancer shaft (for the first time in car history) can very easily accommodate five people. It is peoples car, perfect to drive in crowded cities like Mumbai, Pune, and can easily attain a speed of 100. It is an example of cost effectiveness and one really feels amused when he sees the places where the cost is reduced. After seeing it we realise we have so many unnecessary things plugged into our car just to make it look royal. For a couple of days, this engineering marvel was at my doorstep, I and can literally feel that our "market value" was increased. :D
It was Saturday morning and we decided to take a ride to my granny's place. As I unlocked the door, a couple of children came running and started looking at the car, as if they are seeing some UFO in the society. Uncle Uncle it is the same car that was shown on the TV the other day na.. they asked my dad! Wow!.. its soo small n cute.. their facial expressions could easily reflect their thoughts about the car, and the desire to take a ride in it. After observing the car inside out they suddenly remembered their unfinished cricket match and left.

Nano chalavtana yenari maja kahi veglich! (there is a diff joy in driving Nano!). Chalavna he kriyapad ithe hatyaar chalavna kinva chalval chalavna ashya arthana vaparlay.(idea given by manjo) This was the day, when I actually wanted to stop at the signals. Nano cha mukhya upayog vahan mhanun n karta, vahatya rastyat madhyabhagi kondala karun, pradarshanat thevleli vastu asa kela! With each and every guy on the road looking at us (actually at the car), I felt that our bhaav in the city has suddenly increased. People in front of us were turning their heads back and staring, and people behind us wanted to overtake. That day I actually let people complete their desire of overtaking! :). I heard a wife sitting behind her husband on a Pulsar saying with a largest ever smile I have ever seen.. "Aiiyaa.. kittti goad!!..Aho apan gheu na Nano." (So cute.. we will also take it!). Teens had similar expression.. "Abbey.. Nano dekh saale.. sexy hai!" and the girls who were clinging to their boyfriends on bikes, after seeing us, made them reduce their speeds from 100 to 10 Km/hr and sat in a posture that was comfortable to look at the small car. Children were literally peeping out even from cars like Scoda and Benz to have a look at this piece.

Driving slowly, we reached my granny's place. Now it was pensioners time to have a look. People over sixties gathered around bombarding questions at us.. "Kay ho.. on-road performance kasa ahe?" (what is the on-road performance like), "Kay 1 lakhat milte ki vadhliye kimmat, amche kinai, bara ka.. chiranjeev mhanatayt ghyavi mhanun!!" (Is the price still 1L, my son is planning to book one). Tackling all the questions we finally went home and had dinner with my grandparents.

The next day we went on a ride to Girivan. Its a place in mountains, nearby Pune, where we have a plot. The surrounding area is developed by a private company and made it a tourist attraction. We had some work at our plot and after finishing it we went on a mountain hike. As it was Sunday, there were lot of people. We parked the vehicle and got mixed with the junta. Without they knowing we were behind them, I heard a group of people chatting.. "ara Nyano ali bagh dongarat... chayla Ratan Tata cha kooni bhau banda distoy aalela!!! Chadli ki r pan choti gaadi!! (in a rural accent.. 'see Nano is in mountains.. I think some Ratan's Tatas relative has come'). I couldn't control my laughter and started laughing. They soon realised that it was our car and we had heard whatever they were speaking... and went in other direction. (I shouldn't have done that.. but it was so involuntary!)

Well after these two days, when I think of them, I feel that its a real marvel that the Tatas have given to India. I feel proud that we have got such great visionaries, and it does motivate me. Something regarded as impossible 10 yrs before, is seen on roads today. It was just like a very beautiful college gal walking down the streets and the pedestrian teens commenting on her!!!!

Water Crisis..

Place: Pune, Maharashtra

Day: 25th May - The monsoon is predicted to arrive on 6th June - Pune weather report
5th June - Monsoon hit Western coast, might delay its appearance in Pune
10th June - Monsoon may be delayed by a couple of weeks, rains expected on 25th June

Today: 12th July.... No rains in Pune!!!! Sharad Pawar declared draught situation in the city.

This year two world records might have been created... 1) Draught condition in Pune after around 51 years and 2) Maximum number of times weather forecasting went wrong!!

Its raining heavily everywhere around Pune, but not in the city. Today's condition is very bad. There are two dams which are primarily used for supplying water to the city. One has existing water storage amount of 5% and other 0%. Zero percent!!!! That's something I never thought can happen in Pune. Every year, in a news paper called Sakal, I see a picture of a farmer sitting on his arid, cracked land looking at the sky (I think, they copy past the same picture every monsoon!!), but this year I saw a happy farmer, and worried Puneites queueing up for water tankers. Accha hua.. hum apne aap ko bahut khush naseeb samazte the... ab bhugto saalo!!

The corporation stopped water for hours, people had to fill tanks and keep water ready for morning programs! I remembered my second sem in BITS where we had a similar water crisis... par us waqt authorities ko gaaliya to de sakte the.. ab kya karen!! Today we have to find our way out. My mom, being the secretary of the society, made a schedule of how to save and use water that was stored in the tank effectively. She was very involved with all this situation, and I said.. humne 6 mahine aisi situation me nikale.. tum log to 2 din me hi frustrate ho rahe ho!!.. She called me to accept this challenge of managing this crisis... obb..I backed off!!! :D (pata tha mom kitna kaam kar rahi thi.. its really laudable!) As I am going abroad now, I am learning to cook... Lekin ab 1 hafte ke liye chutti... coz if I start cooking, I will use all the stored water in one shot... and that will not be acceptable to anyone! :D (one benefit of water crisis)

Something more was there to worsen the situation...Borewells were drying up (8 wells in our society are completely dry!). Ye kam nahi tha ki.... MNS attacked the water tankers (obb for no reason) and the tankerwallahs called for an indefinite strike... LOL!! ab woh bhi paani band!! After many many phone calls, and meeting with nagarsevaks n all, finally the strike was called off.. but now knowing the situation the tankerwallas demanded Rs 3000, Rs 4000 for one tanker (which is generally for Rs 200). We had to pay!! :(

Now the situation is better. Its still not raining that heavily, but yes, the rains have appeared in the city. Corporation has resumed the water supply every alternate day and tanker wallas have also come down to 800-1000 Rs. ....... n I have started cooking!!!