The day I was born: 2nd October, 1997. And since this date till now, I’ve never thought of leaving my city to live in another city to pursue my dreams. This is the city that I was born in. The city where I was brought up, and where I spent my entire childhood and teenage.
Before initiating this article I would like to state that- I belong to a metropolitan city in Maharashtra: Pune. Now many of you might have some notion about my city, but very few know how the city exactly is. Let me start off with some basic facts about Pune. Pune is known as the ‘Oxford of the East’, ‘Queen of Deccan’ and the ‘Cultural capital of Maharashtra’. It is second highest in terms of population in Maharashtra after Mumbai. The city is famous for its popular regional snacks like Vada Pav, bakarvadi and Puneri Misal.
Many of us would not know that the name ‘Pune’ emerged from the term ‘Punyanagari’ (City of Vitrue), as it was known to be in its early times.
This city gained its pride from Shivaji and the ruling Peshwas who made it their capital. Pune, as a city has grown manifolds over the past few decades. Its baffling mix of capitalism, spiritualism, ancient and modern – has made it a city that people dream of living in. Today, it is a thriving centre of academics and business. Being born and brought up in such a lively and beautiful city has always made me proud.
I sometimes remember those days from childhood when I used to go for walks in the nearby park along with my grandparents. How they would take a walk and I would stand in a queue, waiting for my turn to swing. How I made my first childhood friend with whom I used to play ‘ghar-ghar’ where we used to sit on a bench in our yard and pretend we’re making delicious food with dolls. How I spent my 10 years of education in a prestigious convent school and had both, the nicest and nastiest experiences. How I spent my next 2 years in my college, in Deccan- A, a prime location of Pune. Those long chats with friends over discovering new places to hang out, or discovering trendy cafés.
Those eventful evenings of walking and shopping on F.C road, or having a delicious cup of hot coffee at Cake and Cream. Those days when I would complain about the distance that I have to travel everyday from my house to college and then just forgetting about it at the end of the day. Those unexpected visits to ‘Saras baug’, a popular tourist destination of Pune.
Those nights when me and my family used to roam the ‘Camp’ area during Christmas, as it was the liveliest during that particular festival. Or even those Ganesh Chaturthi evenings when the entire Pune would shimmer with lights and decorations and lots and lots of noise, of course.
The days when I thought I knew the majority of my locality, but then I would discover another unknown aspect of it and prove myself wrong.
And suddenly, I realized that I have to leave this beloved city of mine, for pursuing further education and go to a city that everyone fantasizes living in- Mumbai: The city that never sleeps. A place that brings many dreams to life, and changes those dreams into reality.
Aspiring to become a successful designer, I too like many other teenagers of my age dream of achieving the highest peak of success in my career and gaining recognition and respect in the process. There are so many cities in the world that make this happen. But in India, there’s just one city that I’ve always thought would bring a turning point in my life, which is – Mumbai. I always knew before filling my NIFT form that I will forget about this institute if I don’t get my desired centre- Mumbai. I always knew that one day I would have to live and settle here and make this city as my own. Ever since I expressed my desire to get into NIFT, this realization had never struck me, until now. And now suddenly I’m surrounded by the thoughts of how different Mumbai would be from my city! Countless questions are surrounding my mind – Will I be able to fit in there? Will I be able to adapt my new lifestyle? Will I be able to accept this city as my own? Will I be able to live a life that I wanted to live? How different would the thoughts of Mumbaikars be from my own?
Mumbai being merely a six hour journey by road, from Pune, I used to make trips several times with my parents, when I was a kid. But recently, a few months back when I visited it, I started seeing it in a different light. I didn’t see it as just a city, I saw it as a different place altogether. I don’t know why this happened, it could possibly be because of its growing popularity, but whenever I came across stories from people residing there, I was always intrigued. Those enormous buildings, skywalks on almost all roads, huge flyovers, and posh lifestyle, everything about this city screamed of recognition. And somehow I started imagining how different my life would be if I lived in Mumbai. I started wishing for my parents, college, friend circle, and possibly my entire lifestyle in Mumbai. I knew that wouldn’t have ever happened, but I still loved to think about it and come up with different scenarios.
But then one day during a trip to Mumbai, after giving my entrance exam, I casually made a small talk with a local sitting next to me. And when I mentioned to her about me coming to give the exam in Mumbai from Pune, she started expressing her love for it. I was genuinely surprised as I never thought a Mumbaikar would want to shift to Pune. Now at this point of time I would like to clarify that I’m certainly not saying that Pune is not a good and civilized city to live in. In fact, it has all the possible amenities, and large number of renowned educational Institutions that would attract any person to settle here. But till that day, I was living under the impression that people residing in Mumbai are lucky to call it their hometown and that they wouldn’t ever think, even in their wildest dreams about shifting anywhere else; but that was the day I was proven wrong.
When I asked her why she wanted to live in Pune, she replied saying that she always wanted to live in the same state, with the same kind of people, only in a less busier version of Mumbai. She wanted to live in a place where she could still live a comparatively relaxed life and yet experience the feeling of living in a metro city. And when I heard her say that, I was taken aback. Not because of what she said was something I never heard before, but because I knew this little fact about my city, but I never went ahead and accepted it or even gave it a thought which I could appreciate.
I never appreciated the lifestyle that I lived here. Nor did I ever ponder over the fact that the city that I live in is ranked at 145 and second after Hyderabad, in India, by The ‘Mercer 2015 Quality of Living rankings’ which evaluated local living conditions in more than 440 cities around the world. This fact was just one particular news I found recently. But I’m pretty sure there are plenty more fact about this bustling city that would not just make any Punekar, but also ever Indian proud of its achievements.
I realized that I never really embraced my city with open arms and enjoyed the walking on the bustling streets. Every city has its own set of problems and challenges, but what makes it better is when you accept them and look on the positive side rather than complaining.
I came to the conclusion that even though I love Pune for what it is, and even though I would thoroughly miss the countless number of things that it has given me, these thoughts in itself are not enough to express my love and gratitude towards this city.
And today, to make the love for my city exclusive and copious, I would like to narrate this to the entire world-
“Embracing the good and accepting the bad about your city is enough to make you fall in love with it. So join me while I eat a bakarvadi andas I recite the typical lines of every proud Punekar in their typical ‘we-are-awesome’ tone- Punyachi ae mi!”
Note: This post is a part of our #MyCityMyStory series. To check out more posts from this series, please click here.
