Mumbai-bye to Pune

With city residents shifting to Pune for a variety of reasons, here is a look at both sides of the relocating coin

A traditional Maharashtrian family of four, the Kulkarnis spent the majority of their lives in the suburb of Dombivali, a few kilometers away from mainland Mumbai.

In 2010, though, the family that was addicted to Mumbai's Juhu Chowpatty and bhelpuri shifted to Pune when their son, who is an IT professional landed a plum job in a software firm.


Mohan Kulkarni with his wife Radhika, daughter Rasika and son Onkar in Pune

Soon, though, the Kulkarnis learnt that this shift was not merely about a change in cities but a complete lifestyle modification.

House

For starters, from a rented 1-Bedroom-Hall-Kitchen (1-BHK) company accommodation where the family barely managed to survive, they moved into a comparatively sprawling 1,200 sq foot 2-BHK flat, where each family member had space for himself or herself.

What mattered most was that this flat came at a price they could afford and they finally purchased a house of their own which they could call home. The couple, Mohan (59) and Radhika Kulkarni (48) and their two children Rasika (22) and Onkar (27) say that their house in Bibvewadi is the biggest event of their move to Pune. Yet, there are things they miss living away from Mumbai.

"We definitely miss Mumbai. They city has an aura of its own. Not that Pune is bad, but simply said, it's a nice city with a lot of problems," said Rasika, a mechanical engineering graduate from Mumbai.

Traffic
Like the Kulkarnis, hundreds of hardcore Mumbaikars have moved to Pune in the past few years. Cheaper homes, lesser traffic, better working hours, a growing metropolitan culture the list of advantages is endless. And yet most of these families refer to the city that never sleeps which they left behind as, "back home".u00a0

With the new expressways resulting in a shorter journey between Mumbai and its satellite city Pune, it has become easier for people to go back "home". That though may not be enough as more families find out.

Peace
The Patils, a family of four from Mumbai's Western suburb of Bandra, shifted to Pune in 2007. The decision was taken by head of the family Ranjit (56) who was a professor of civil engineering and who wanted to settle down in a city that offered, "some peace and tranquility" as a departure from Mumbai's hectic lifestyle.

So, four years ago, he shifted to Pune with his wife Surekha (48) and sons Vikrant (27) and Swaraj (25) in their 850-square ft 2-BHK at Kothrud. Shortly, afterwards, Vikrant moved to UK with his wife, where he works as a finance executive.

u00a0When asked to describe the most striking change in his life after spending 28 years in Bandra Reclamation area, the first word that came to Ranjit's mind was laidback.

"It is very quiet here. Nothing wrong with that when 28 years of your life are spent in a city filled with people in a rat race, the change to something relaxed is different and nice," said Patil.

u00a0Does this mean Pune is a city where one can enjoy retirement? "Of course not. I haven't retired but work as a Group Director with Navasahyadri Education Society Group of Institutes. The metropolitan culture here is similar to Mumbai but it's just a different way of life," said Patil.

Shopping

When asked though if they would rate Pune better in terms of lifestyle than Mumbai,u00a0 doubts begin to creep in. "There are some things that make you miss Mumbai shopping for instance.

While Mumbai has endless options, Pune has areas marked for shopping where you can buy things under one roof but at a very high price. There is no guarantee that you would get the type of things you are shopping for.u00a0 The only alternative is to go to malls which are very expensive or buy them when you visit Mumbai," explains Patil.

Besides shopping, eating out and entertainment options are fewer in Pune than Mumbai.

Swaraj, who is a DJ at Stone Water Grill in the upper scale Koregaon Park was used to a high flying lifestyle and late night partying in Mumbai. He feels let down by the 11:30 pm deadline to shut down restaurants issued by the Pune police.

"Pune has a lot of young crowd, with the biggest education hub probably in Maharashtra and its development as an IT stronghold. There are also a lot of automobile industries with young, educated and qualified engineers.
Youngsters work hard and do late hours but after office, they want to party and have a good time. I don't think there is any harm in extending the deadline, allowing a person to enjoy their drink as a stress buster," rued Swaraj.

But while in Mumbai, one can find a spot to have fun even as late as 1:30 am, he said Pune city resembles a morgue after 11 pm which is a big put off for youngsters like him.

Transport
The one main thing that the Patil family misses the most about Mumbai is the over-burdened public transport system. According to Surekha, the auto drivers in Pune routinely fleece passengers. "I was once going to Pimpri-Chinchwad when the auto driver charged me Rs. 40 for a distance that he should have charged not more than Rs 12.

I started arguing with him initially but then realised it was futile and just got down mid-way. You have to commute according to their preferences," complained Surekha. She added that she at least had an option to travel by the local train in Mumbai or take a bus but as Pune doesn't have a local trains and bus frequency is not good she has no choice but take an auto.

This is a familiar lament by several families who have moved to Pune.

"You cannot commute in Pune without a personal vehicle. Although everything here is at a distance of not more than 30 to 45 minutes, the existing public transport modes are simply unreliable.

Although travelling in a local train is tiring and sometimes dangerous in Mumbai, you at least have the guarantee of some available transport even after 12 a.m.
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Less said the better about rickshaws here. The buses too are a safety hazard, also one must take into account the pathetic frequency," moaned Rasika Kulkarni.

There is a bright spot though, amidst all that gloom. Moving to Pune has shortened travel time by half, thanks to the traffic-less roads.

For IT professional, Piyush Patnaik (35) who moved to Pune in 2007, the best part about Pune is traffic or the lack of it.

"Compared to Mumbai, where a major part of day is spent in travelling from one part of the city to the other, it barely takes me half-an-hour to commute between my workplace and home.

I get so much time with my two-year-old daughter. I am able to give her full attention and even take her out on weekends.

I couldn't imagine doing that in Mumbai," said Patnaik. He added that in Mumbai, he would have not thought of going out on weekends because of the long distance and resultant frustration of being stuck in traffic.

Homes

This comes as no surprise. With the sky rocketing prices of realty in Mumbai, owning a house is a dream for the common man, a dream that may never translate into reality.

Comparatively, Pune's real estate sector has attractive houses, much more spacious, centrally located and with better amenities for less than half the price. For example, while the per square foot price in Mumbai's suburb of Andheri can range between Rs 6,000 to Rs 15,000, real estate in Pune's posh localities like the Deccan costs between Rs 6,500 to Rs 8,500 per sq foot while Kothrud costs between Rs 4,500 to Rs 8,000 per sq foot.

Like the Kulkarnis, Piyush and Shweta Patnaik found their dream house at Pimple Saudagar three years ago.u00a0 "We first lived on rent for a year and kept looking for properties. A year later, I bought a 2-BHK flat.

In Mumbai, this dream would be impossible to realise. Property rates in Mumbai are beyond our reach but Pune is still affordable. You can find all kinds of homes both in terms of sizes and prices and young professionals like us can think of investing in property here," Piyush said.

Not just buying property but rent rates are cheaper too. A corporate communication professional, Amber Sironzkar (28) who came to Pune to settle down before his impending marriage in May, chose Pune for its comfortable lifestyle and cheap rents.

"I was offered a job in Pune and I jumped at the offer as not only was I going to make more money but save more too. In Mumbai, I paid Rs 18,000 for a 1-BHK flat while here I am paying Rs 12,000 as rent for a 3-BHK flat. Not only have I got a spacious house but at a lower cost. I would not be able to think about it in Mumbai."

People

While there are many positives working in Pune's favour for these families, there is a missing element, which still makes them refer to Mumbai as ''back home' rather than the city where they formerly lived. Rasika Kulkarni says that the people in Mumbai and Pune are different.
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"The people in Pune are not welcoming at all; at least that's my experience. Many snub us or simply aren't friendly. Back home in Mumbai, neighbours were like extended family. Here, they act like we have intruded in their space by simply coming to Pune," she complained.

The Patils also complained that they get a cold shoulder from locals. "I think the locals in Pune are very arrogant and snobbish. I would even say they are self-centered. They refuse to exchange pleasantries unless they know you very well. This is a bit too much," complained Ranjit Patil.

Entertainment

For Sironzkar, though, overall expenses have gone down but what have shot up are his food bills. He rued that eating out is expensive in Pune. "In Mumbai, you have small eateries. In Pune, one cannot take the same risk as there aren't many local restaurants that are dependable," he added.

Movie tickets are one more wallet-pinching buy.u00a0 Said Onkar Kulkarni, "Movie ticket prices here are exorbitant compared to Mumbai.u00a0 Even if they are on par, you don't get the same service as neither are the theatres as good, the seats as comfortable or the food courts that attractive."

It is a mixed bag really. Yet, for those who shift primarily with the idea of getting away from the hurly-burly of the financial capital of India, it has been worth it as Pune allows you to put the brakes on fast-paced Mumbai life. The trick is to find a balance between the good and the bad, so that living in the new city becomes easier and one can enjoy all the upsides that Pune offers.

Single in the city

When I first moved to Pune, a year-and-a-half ago, I regretted my decision barely two weeks into the shift. It had nothing to do with the fact that I was pining for my family.

I had taken this decision after a lot of deliberation. Though I loved the fact that I had more time to spend with my fianc ufffd and boyfriend of many years and also get accustomed to the city where I was to live for the rest of my life, given that my marriage was merely a few months away, I still wasn't happy.

There were many reasons for my state of mind. For the first time, I was living in a rented accommodation and the day I moved in, members of that housing society blocked the entrance for my mom and me preventing us from entering their property.

I had not done anything criminal but simply had a negligent landlady who hadn't bothered to take the society's permission to let out the house. Instead of contacting my landlady, 15 men who all claimed to be chairmen and secretaries of that building started raining questions on my mother.
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It was then that I learnt that they were dead against the idea of a single working woman living in the midst of their homely, "family-type" surroundings.

"Yahaan pe party nahi chalegi, aapki beti ko bolo. (Tell your daughter that we will not allow any parties here.) And no men coming in, her fianc ufffd should meet her in the lobby or we will not allow her to live alone," said one of the men, minutes before my mother gave them a piece of her mind.

This was just the initiation for me. As a single woman in the city, for a year this is more or less the attitude that I had to face. People didn't need to spell out that I was unwelcome to this city, the message was clear.

Though not outrightly unfriendly, people who I met by way of work, be it in the media fraternity or people I interviewed as a journalist, were different too or viewed me as an oddity.

Maybe, I didn't fit in, as I didn't talk very fluent Marathi, which was a must even for a journalist from an English language paper here. I am still trying to figure it out and though many people have opened up, there seems to be a long way to go when it comes to fitting in here.

Though I miss the trains of Mumbai, I would trade it for the traffic-less roads in Pune anytime. I miss the late night partying in Mumbai but I could trade it for the less heavy work hours I keep here. But I miss the friendly people and the feeling of belonging that I had in Mumbai and there isn't a thing that can make up for it in Pune.
However many months after I shifted, I can say that I have found my own space here and also that I quite like it. Though I do miss (for reasons I don''t know) the maddening work hours that I had in Mumbai and the crazy people who I worked with, I am content in going home early more often and spending time with my family.

Besides that, the lack of traffic on roads and the pleasant climate is something that I absolutely love about my life in Pune. But while there are many things that have made my stay a very pleasant experience (my marriage included in these), I still blurt out Mumbai whenever I am asked the question about my home. The writer currently works for Pune MiD DAYu00a0

Chosen Address
According to real estate agents in Pune, areas like Aundh and NIBM road are the preferred destinations for former Mumbaikars when they shift base to Pune, given that they have a cosmopolitan culture. Bijendra Tiwari of the Vimannagar based Earthwell Consultancy says that Aundh, Wakad, Kalyaninagar, Vimannagar and NIBM road are the most preferred given their well-developed metropolitan culture because these areas are new and have a lot of migrant population. "Mumbaikars are used to living in a mixed culture because Mumbai itself is a city made up mostly of migrants. So they prefer not living amongst people of their own community, since for them it becomes a little boring," said Tiwari. Vijay Sabnis, from RS Consulting, another city-based real estate consultancy, said that these areas apart from having metropolitan culture, are highly developed otherwise as well.u00a0 They have the best of restaurants, malls and other places meant for family outings. "So, not only families from Mumbai, but single working professionals too prefer to shift here."

Iconic
Purushottam Laxman Deshpande or the late Pu La Deshpande shifted from Mumbai's Girgaum area to Pune years ago. The writer, playwright and poet became the Pride of Pune with his trademark brand of humour and a well-respected figure in Marathi literature. He often poked gentle fun at Pune culture with his books, plays, films and one-man shows.u00a0 A cultural center called the P L Deshpande Kala Academy at the Ravindra Natya Mandir in Prabhadevi, Mumbai has been named after him.u00a0 A garden, Pu. La. Deshpande Udyan, in Pune has been named after him.u00a0

With inputs from Alifiya Khan