A toll on two Indian (post-lib) cities

What if you slipped into deep sleep in Pune and woke up in Bangaloremdashwould it feel the same Depends on the gated township or neighbourhood yoursquore in obviouslyWhich could be Balewadi High Street in Punemdashrecent migrantsexpats bars restaurants all lined up etcmdashthat is Indiranagar in Bangalore Are they what Bandra is to Bombay Unsure Or the good olrsquo Koregaon Park is to Pune what Koramangala is to Bangalore Yes Hence what Colaba is to Bombay NoItrsquos clear to me you canrsquot compare Pune and Bangalore to Bombay or any other city You can instantly compare them only to each othermdashprimarily as Indiarsquos postliberalisation stackedup urban sprawls for Pune as Maharashtrarsquos BangaloreTheyrsquore 734 kilometres apart Never known distant cousins seem such siblings Only Bangalore 3XPune Since when did size matter better between sisters from other misters How do they stand together in historyAs I obsess over a deacutejagrave vu having woken up in the two cities a weekend apart it turns out they once even had the same ruler in the 1600s Shahaji Bhosale a military leader fighting for Adil Shahi who defeated Kempe Gowda III to take over Bangalore Shahaji had already inherited Pune from his Bhosale clanThe British eventually came over What did they bring equally to Pune and Bangalore Their army cantonment around which another city came up making both pucca Indian military towns as well Fit for exservicemenofficers to settle with old civilians joining turning both into Indiarsquos top retiree homesWhat did the government of free India do with Pune and Bangalore Headquarter several public sector establishments and research amp development institutes Along with PSUs both cities are full of colleges The largest number of colleges in India is in Bangalore The university with the most affiliated colleges is in PuneUnsurprisingly the lsquoTwIndianrsquo cities on streets and pub crawls look younger than any Also with that many single people You can tell this far more anecdotally from randomly scrolling on dating appsmdashwouldnrsquot surprise me a bit if their consumer data reveals Bangalore and Pune per capita to be the singlesrsquo capital of India for all age groups to be fairThey take pride in their love for beer Bangalore is of course where the national fizz Kingfisher comes from The first time Bombayites heard of microbreweries was from Doolally off PuneMost Bangaloreans hold the potential to bore you with their snobbery around their favourite microbrewery in town or its crafted crap Yoursquod hear a lot more about PuneBrsquolore rock bandsscene in the rsquo90sIn the massive spaces for packed bars and nightclubs Bollywood seems more the scene three decades later Not that I mind but wersquove a situation here What else could it be if not the effect of North Indian migrationFor all its apparent cosmopolitanism the Pune we experience is inherently a sleepy Maharashtrian town Much as Bangalore is decidedly still a South IndianKannadiga cityThey branched out on steroids simultaneously in the late rsquo90s with a boom in the infotech servicesrsquo industry Anyone remembers the faux Y2K apocalypse looming over the world once No okay Irsquom too old thenThat kinda explains Hinjawadi is to Pune what Whitefield is to Bangalore And so many other townships that open into dark dirt tracks for city roads Just bumping out of one called Bhartiya City within a cityReading American public I suspect wouldrsquove most famously encountered Bangalore as the global future first with columnist Tom Friedman extolling its virtues in his bestseller The World is Flat 2005mdashawestruck by the Infosys campus in Electronic City At least I was mesmerised when much youngerBangalorersquos Infosys became shining Indiarsquos finest story Where was Infosys founded Pune The collegiate young from across the country I guess were already in lsquoPoonangalorersquo or lsquoPunengalurursquo to ride a wave with skillbased jobs and stay on further What followed WellBangalore became lsquoSilicon Valley of Indiarsquo Pune was always lsquoOxford of the Eastrsquo Silicon Valleyrsquos population three million Oxford 15 lakh Pune over seven million Bangalore I guess anywhere between 14 to 18 millionPunengaluru got the greatness of big city thrust on a TwIndian town Neither was meant to be a metropolis State canrsquot catch up Newcomers offer fewer incentives to politicians Their votes emerge from elsewhere Locals sense the brunt Lawmakersenforcers by all accounts are the most corrupt in Bangaloremdashopenly demanding their share of the new moneyPunekars have traditionally been stereotyped for their grouchiness I find Bangaloreans especially ones at the steering wheel driving you to nowhere particularly crabby The quality of cabbies anyway canrsquot match the quantity of demandIt takes me two hours to get through eight kilometres in Pune fine itrsquos Ganpati night Bangaloreans perennially fret over trafficdistances with plans to socialise ldquoToo far too farhelliprdquoThey close into their shells for selfsufficient neighbourhoods ideally walking to work bypassing the rest of the city Fair enough I suppose this is how yesterdayrsquos future becomes todayrsquos nightmareBut then therersquos one more thing that unites Punengaluru Talk to blokes in either city Beyond all that complaining theyrsquoll suitably defend the chaos ldquoBut look at the weatherrdquo Okay for however long that lastsmdashwersquore talking weather nowMayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass culture He tweets mayankw14Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper