A visit to Pune always brings back warm mem­o­ries of the time I spent there.

I have lived in many places so far. But in Pune, I felt at home. It was also prob­a­bly because I was young, and on my own for the very first time of my life. I got my first taste of inde­pen­dence and the respon­si­bil­i­ties that came along with it.

Though it was dur­ing this time that I went through a very bad per­sonal phase (the stuff that comes with being young, con­fused and a Pis­cean to boot) it was in this city that I felt a sense of calm and peace.

My par­ents were in Mum­bai at that time, and couldn’t under­stand why I pre­ferred the slow pace of Pune. But I was adamant. Pune suited me well. I was in no rush to live life Mum­bai style rush­ing from one place to another, always out of time. I resisted every argu­ment from my par­ents to con­vince me to come and live in Mumbai.

I loved the end­less cups of tea at Rupali where we dis­cussed every­thing under the sun. I loved meet­ing friends over dosas at Vaishali or roam­ing around Camp. I loved my daily swim at the Kothrud club. And my fre­quent vis­its to the British Library where I spent hours just brows­ing around. I loved the pace of life.

Pune truly has a unique charm.

On Tues­day, I drove down to Pune with Nidhi. She was dri­ving. I kept chat­ting on and off, to keep her awake, since she hadn’t had much sleep the night before.

It was fun. The weather was per­fect. It was only when I glanced at the dash­board that I realised that madam was doing speeds of 140 up. “I can’t go faster because the car wob­bles,” she explains. And thank God for that!

After a deli­cious lunch of palak paneer and dahi cau­li­flower (I am sure it has some name!) that Nidhi’s mom had pre­pared, and after our work was done, I went to visit an old friend of mine. Nidhi went off to get hon­oured as a young achiever by her college.

Indu shifted from Mum­bai to Pune about a year ago. One look at her and I could lit­er­ally feel the change the move had made on her life. She looked younger, less has­sled and really happy. In place of a cramped apart­ment in Lokhand­wala, was a row house about 3 kms from Camp. Her kids looked hap­pier. I men­tioned to her and she told me it was the best deci­sion she had made. I couldn’t help but agree.

She took me to Poona Gymkhana where she goes for a swim. Sat around and met her friends. It was windy that day and I enjoyed the cool weather. Watched her kids cre­at­ing a ruckus. Over a nice garam black chai, I remem­bered those good old days I spent in this city.

Unfor­tu­nately, I was run­ning out of time since we were dri­ving back the same day. I was tempted to stay back, but I had a meet­ing sched­uled the next morn­ing. By 11pm, we were back in Mumbai.

Alas! But I have to go back soon. And next time for a longer visit definitely.