Visit to a Student City

Pune, the city of education. Also the city of military establishments. And more lately, the city of some serious construction. They're building everywhere, like there's no tomorrow. Or rather, like there is a long list of tomorrows, and they sure as hell intend to plan for them.

Not having been to a city undergoing that sort of constructino boom before, I was surprised to find girders and dug up roads everywhere. Adding to the chaos was the fact that no-body appears to follow any traffic rules. Maybe there simply are none.

Also, there were very few people lounging about. Pune is a city on the rise, where children of construction workers make Maggi Noodles on a portable stove, and go shopping for candies. Either the whole country has suddenly prospered, or something is out of the ordinary in Pune.

I wasn't allowed to have Maggi till very late in my school life. It was said to be 'wasteful' and 'bad for the health'. It was touted to be a luxury that only the uncultured enjoyed. Of course, later I learnt this was simply to keep me from asking from it. Didn't work.

So anyway, street-kids are making 2-minute noodles, an auto-ride costs the earth, and vada-pav is available alongside Dosas and tandoori rotis, not to mention chinese. And this is on the streets. Then you have malls that make you think you're in Gurgaon, and nightclubs more boisterous than the pitiable few in Delhi.

All this lends to a wonderful college experience in Pune. The people that I met, were very cultured, and at the same time as being 'hip', extremely polite and courteous. This is the good side of Pune.

The bad side, is that there are very, very, very few public amenities. By this term, I allude to the public restrooms, or rather the lack there-of. Besides this (to me) urgent lacking, there are also few good roads. The ride from the airport (which is quite a way from anywhere near the city) to Aundh make you wish you hadn't washed down that meal on the plane after all. Hanging on to your luggage, and yourself is enough without having time to really look around you the first time.

The next few times, are good enough, as you then have the sense to carry very little personal trappings for your expeditions. Bus rides are an experience I do not recommend in Pune (Speaking from a Delhi & Mumbai perspective).

Besides that, the main thing that kept me anxious was the fact that I was going to Pune for a reason. That was the Group-Process/Personal-Interview/Group-Task session to be held for aspirants of the prestigious management institution of the Symbiosis Institute for Business Management.

Very impressive indeed. But I had no time for such things as views and the impressing facade of VishwaBhawan. I was quite nervous about my first GP/PI/GT for an MBA school. And the anxiety turned out to be well founded. It was there that I realised that there was much to be anxious about. That I really hadn't prepared myself that well.

Although I made no obvious blunders, I did recognize instances where one could have been made through the lack of exhaustive previous preparation. And I thought about that a lot on the flight back. That helped immensely in the next GP/PI/GT round for yet another Insitution of the Symbiosis Family - the SIMS.

But more on that later. I must say a few words about the people that hosted me during my visit to Pune. Very wonderful people, kind, caring and deeply helpful. I didn't interact very much with them on our earlier meetings, but this time I found I could communicate and bond with them much better. I suppose this has more to do with my changing than any other reason.

I made quite a lot of new acquaintances there, and if any of you are reading this (and I do hope you are) HI!!!. In any case, that was more or less my account of the Pune Visit.