Big brother is there
Both Gurgaon and Pune are expanding at the rate they are today due to the presense of the MegaMetro cities ( Delhi and Mumbai respectively) I would say.
Pune's growth started off as a retreat for the people of Mumbai. Filmstars and otherbig shots found Pune near enough and having a pleasurable climate for their weekend retreats. Add to it the cultural history, and Pune became a weekend trip to chill out. Even nowdays, the Page3 articles in Pune Times mostly talk about which movie superstar has come from Mumbai for a quiet weekend in the city. The proximity of Mumbai also means the proximity of an International Airport which makes access to the IT world of the West easy. With the making of the Mumbai-Pune expressway ( where, btw , bikes are not allowed) - the time taken to travel between the two cities has almost halved. Mumbai being on a peninsula really does not have much space to grow. The growth is mostly vertical with older buildings being pulled down to make way for skyscrappers. As such, people looking for a cheaper place to live in ( and a better climate) look at Pune - and started to push on to Pune. Pune also has quite a lot of universities - which makes it easier to access the young pool of fresh graduates.
Gurgaon, has a similar situation. Though Noida is also adjacent to Delhi, the close proximity of the airport from Gurgaon makes it a more appealing option for IT companies to set up shop there. Nokia, Flextronics, Alcatel to name a few, have made huge offices here. Delhi, being the capital of the country has a constant influx of people , and is now spilling over its boundaries into places like Gurgaon and Noida.
Infrastructure Woes
Both Gurgaon and Pune are suffering from Infrastructure woes. The government it seems is too slow to move with the fast pace of growth of these cities ( you can also add Bangalore to this list, but I am not going to talk about Bangalore as of now).
Lets take one thing at a time here.
Roads
Pune roads are almost gone by now. The recent rains there has quickly dispatched the roads. I will not entirely blame the rains though. The roads are just not being made properly. I was amazed when I came to Pune to see the road repairs being undertaken - the guys were just putting in the tar and stones, and there was no roller to flatten it. 2 days later, and the pothole was again there - that was before the rainy season. Now, its a matter of finding a piece of road in the potholes.
Gurgaon is a little better - as it does not rain here that much. However, 2 weeks of rains has suddenly left this gaon with a lot of bad roads. It rained equally in Delhi also - just 6kms to the boundary from here - but the roads there are still as smooth as ever. If this place was to have rains like Pune - god save the people !!
Transportation
Both places have almost non-existant transportation. Bus service is really bad. Gurgaon has a link with delhi with the DTC buses though - but the commutation within Gurgaon is tough for anyone coming from outside. Thankfully, being the nomad that I am , I rode up here on my bike - or else it would be really tough for me to go around. Distances in Gurgaon are huge as compared to Pune though. In Pune, my office was 13kms from my office - which most people thought too far away. Here, most people travel an average of 20kms 1 way. Weekends jaunts to Delhi for me is almost 60kms round trip. Thank god for my bike !!
Gurgaon is more dusty than Pune. I am a biker - and it is easily figureable when you keep getting mouthfulls of dust whenever you go out. Delhi though hardly has loose dust anywhere.
Electricity
Pune is slightly better in this department - as it has scheduled load shedding. Gurgaon seems to have a love and hate relationship with electricity. Most of the places here have powerbackup - without which you would probably fry in the summer months.
If you take away the change in weather , and the local lingo ( Hindi in Gurgaon , Marathi in Pune), the places are similar. Like a colleage of mine said about Gurgaon - take away the malls from Gurgaon and it is just a Gaon !
Why the Rant ?
Why am I writing all this ? Because people have the concept that Gurgaon has developed a lot - with all the pics about the Malls etc. Well, this a heads up for those people - guys, its not what it seems. I came thinking this place will be better in terms of infrastructure at least to Pune - but now, I find its almost similar.
Update : 10th Oct '05
I seem to be getting on the nerves of friends from pune as they seem to think that I only have negative points about their hometown, and that my posts are anti-pune. I just want to point out that I am not being anti-pune or pro-pune or anything. I am just stating the negative points which exists. There are many ways that Pune is much better than Gurgaon, but those points were not my crieteria of comparison - because I feel that they don't really relate to the choice of workplace - at least for me. Here are a few points :
- Rich Culture and history : Pune has quite a long legacy of history, and many events shaping modern India have had roots in Pune. From the adventurous life of Shivaji to the Freedom struggles of Bal Gangadhar Tilak. The Yerwada jail is also a historic monument as Bapuji has been jailed there for quite some time. The surrounding hills of Pune house the crumbling remains of Forts of yester years.
- Better Weather : Pune's weather is better than that of Gurgaon anyday. Gurgaon/Delhi have extreme weather pattern. Scorching summers with temeratures reaching 48 deg C to freezing winters with night temperatures dropping to almost 0 deg C. The monsoon also is a hit and miss affair here. Pune on the other hand is more temperate, and you can possible spend the entire year without wearing a sweater ( unless you are like me wanting to go for a ride at 2 AM in winters ;-) )
- Education heaven : Pune is known as the Oxford of the East - due to the large number of colleges and Universities. However, sadly, none of the Univs occupy the top spot in Engineering or Management fields.
- Women safety : Pune scores way above Delhi/Gurgaon/NCR when it comes to the safety of the fairer sex. Pune and Bangalore are that way really good for females. Gurgaon and Delhi make me feel sick with the way the women are treated here. A single woman going alone after 9PM in Delhi is just asking for trouble . But in Pune/Bangalore I was pleasantly surprised to find that kind of behaviour to be absent.
If you see the above points - they don't really come into my equations when I am looking at a job. Some points do come when I am looking at living in a place - most notably the weather. But if weather was my only criteria of find a job, I would be based in Bangalore.
:-)
Hi Vibhu,
ReplyDeleteWe have always had different views most of the time but facts cannot change with a point of view. Pune was never a retreat for Bombay people. The history of Pune dates back to several hundreds of years when Bombay was almost non existant, in terms of political, business and monetary supremacy. Like many more destinations, Bombay too came into prominence during Britsh era. Pune has a culture of its own and it has never copied Bombay. The existence of Pune is not because of Bombay. As a capital city, Bombay is referred to from time to time but then that will remain and we have no problems with it. Pune's current lack of infrastructure is a surely an issue today. There are certain things which are a hinderance for a small city to expand, especially if the city is like Pune. Pune is a small place which is surrounded by hills on all sides. When such a place exceeds its capacity (thanks to influx of people from all directions plus the growing population), it cannot expand. It spills over. Add to it the heterogenous traffic right from cycles, scooters to cars, buses and trucks, the sizes and speeds make it impossible for the small roads to streamline the traffic. First and foremost, its people who are important, its the values, its the culture, its the way the common man thinks that makes Pune the best place to live. Let me know a place where corruption does not thrive. Puneites largely are not corruptn people. Does that mean we should throw out everyone who comes to Pune to make it their home???
Hi Anagha, thanks for your analysis of Pune. I am sure I might have missed out something. However, the current growth of Pune does stem from the fact of the proximity of Mumbai - don't you think that?
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