PUNE — 4D3N
24 Jan 2024
The last week for me was pretty hectic. Thanks to all the socializing during the long weekend, I needed the first working day to adjust myself to my routine. On top of that, I was excited about visiting a city that has given me everything in my life after four long years. During this exile, the Sensex has dropped from one of its lowest points to its highest, India now runs EVs, and food prices, petrol prices, and rent have gone up drastically. It was a visit to refresh those memories and visit the places used to frequent during college.
Over these last four years, I have also realized that there’s actually a lot of difference when it comes to the attitude of folks who have grown up in their hometown versus the folks who leave their hometown for a different city. They’re just different in many ways — more honest, welcoming, and adjustable. It might also be that my sample size is a bit different, and I know there are exceptions. But folks who don’t originally belong to a particular city and choose to make it their home simply at least value things a lot more. It could be the endowment effect, as they had to make their way through to establish themselves somewhere in a new city where they most likely came with little or nothing at all.
Coming back to my busy last week — I had just about three working days, and that combined with the excitement of this trip and Parkinson’s law made sure that I didn’t get time to do things I actively plan not to miss on any day — read, check newsletters, and write, all in the order of importance. I managed to do the urgent things, leaving the rest for when I would come back from Pune. But by this time, I started to worry because I couldn’t get any significant reading done. I was reading a book by Stephen King on Writing; it’s one of the very few non-fiction that he has written. The book was a Christmas gift, and it was pretty heavy despite it not having any significant points to note down and highlight as he talked more about the philosophy and process of it. The book came out in 1997, so it completely missed out on the internet and writing online bit, just that fundamentally, it is a good book to read to understand more about writing.
Stephen King says:
At a playoff game a couple of years ago at Fenway, a sports-caster cozied up next to me and asked if I always brought a book with me to the stadium. He seemed to think it was the funniest thing he’d heard of since the FOX News ‘Fair and Balanced’ slogan. Books at baseball games!
I take a book with me almost everywhere. Books are the perfect entertainment: no commercials, no batteries, hours lost in other worlds. Why, I wonder, doesn’t every- body carry a book around?
During my train journey to Pune, I had many hours to kill because the train was horribly late, but I was anxious and couldn’t read anything or actually do any other meaningful thing. When traveling, I break rules of reading, dieting, not worrying about expenses, etc., so I didn’t pick up a book at all. Finally, during my return journey, I was settled with a nice crowd in my compartment, and I started reading. I wasn’t annoyed at all by a little girl who kept staring at me very curiously throughout the journey, signaling to play with me. I did play, talked a little as she keenly observed what I was doing, and she even offered me a wafer from a pack that her mom gave her to keep her engaged! That was pretty sweet.
I placed my book on my seat and left the train as it reached Ahmednagar to search for food, do some stretching and send a pic of the platform to my close friend. I returned to fix the middle seats for the night, lied down on my seat, and it struck me: Where’s my book? I turned my head around and saw that it was on the other side of the compartment, and the little girl was kinda trying to figure out what the heck I was silently seeing and staring at inside those pages (the answer to that is everything and nothing). By the time I was again awed by her gesture and about to capture this moment, her mom smiled and returned the book to me. During this time, I had already thought of the caption for my photo: “Dear Indian Railways, I would like to report my possession being stolen away by Miss Cuteness Overloaded.”
I start reading again, and just within some time, I finish up the book, and it clicked that my friend Pranav, who hosted me for a day at his place in Pune, had offered me to read Tokyo Ghoul. I gladly accepted it, promising to return it and meet him at his place in Nagpur later in the week. So, just within these few hours, I managed to complete the Stephen King book and also read halfway through the manga!
Going by Stephen’s suggestions once again — when you are stuck somewhere, engage in mundane and trivial things like walking or doing the dishes. They are effective in unclogging things for you. Like I didn’t get a chance to read, I also didn’t get a chance to write anything significant over the last few days. It is also interesting to see how going out and spending time in a familiar but unfamiliar city helped me clear my thoughts. Thanks to suggestions like the one shared by Stephen King, I also welcomed things that were happening around me, like the little girl’s attention or a chat with a didi who was selling pohe (not poha, since we’re in Pune rn) at a roadside stall. I was actually stunned by the mundaneness of a different town and whatever it threw my way. The suggestion worked I feel as I am writing about it!
We might feel things are not happening as we’re not spending time on them, but sometimes they actually need a time and place for them to happen. I was very happy about how I was able to get so much reading done during one train journey despite the disturbances. This is also important because most of my state of mind and emotional well-being is directly linked to the book that I’m reading, so stuff like this really counts.
The same goes for writing, I feel; there are days, and there should be days, when you’re not able to write, and feel okay about them. A hiccup in the routine will allow you to feel the pain so that the amygdala and hippocampus and dopamine will eventually make sure to book a slot sometime soon to sit down and write. Similarly, how a break in a relationship sometimes helps people come closer. And sometimes on other days when you’ve not been able to read or write, the universe will combine the energies so that you’ll be able to do that — just make sure you have your tools handy.
Coming to Pune — I absolutely loved every single second of it. Apart from meeting many of my old friends IRL after years and years, the meeting highlight would be meeting a colleague IRL for the first time since I started working with him back in 2021. While walking towards college, I had another happy encounter when I met mess wale dada. We instantly recognized each other, and he invited me to join the Sunday feast at the mess. Thanks to quizzing for getting me my bread and butter and also thanks to a quiz fest that became the central reason for my trip to Pune.
I loved how all the places and roads looked similar yet different to what I had seen years ago. The skies were beautiful, the small interactions with the strangers were nice (I miss this in Nagpur, there’s a certain rudeness here, at least I feel that). I used a lot of public transport, also traveled in Pune metro, did lots of people watching, had sugarcane juice, saw the buildings and landscapes, and whatever was around me. It was me who was looking at things I had seen years ago that looked similar, but over the four years I had changed a lot and the way I see things is now very different. I also forgot my jacket somewhere, tried lots of good food, and also got lots of it back to Nagpur and ofc had a good time at the quizzes. No update on the yin and yang/143/🫶 yet but something might be brewing in that department thanks to this trip, we’ll see.
One might ask, would you give any advice to your younger self? I don’t think so, as whatever came your way and the intensity and depth with which you let it enter yourself shaped you. Also, I have started to feel that my story of whatever I’ll do in the future is already written somewhere and I should just go with it — good or bad it will be my story and it will also end someday.
The newness of anything has lessened as I probably know how things now work out in the world (I might be wrong). But what I like now more is the interactions, places, nature, experiences and whatever is the literature that I’ll be consuming and then making out of my trip. Things are empty, like a vessel that gets its actual value by the stuff it holds inside it. Yet another memorable trip — the niceness, fast pace, nature, art and culture, and business; I feel Pune keeps a really good balance. I have started to really like the satisfaction and the completeness I feel as I complete a trip.
Was humming this song as I reached Nagpur.
I have another Pune trip planned later this year, have written about it here. Highlights from this trip (and all my other trips) are on my IG.
Would love to know your thoughts on this piece. Feel free to comment here or reach out on LinkedIn or Twitter. Stay updated with my new pieces by following on Medium or subscribe via email. A donation will go a long way and will make my day (& life if its significant enough?); always happy to talk about writing and life.
