Reflections of India, after my 2 years away from her.
1. The airport
the Good: The swanky T2 terminal, free smarte cartes, tad sprinkling of Marathi on the murals.
the Bad: People landing in India from abroad need an Indian phone to place calls, say to their loved ones, or their assigned Taxi driver. While there was a phone at departures, there was none after the baggage claim at Arrivals. There were no instructions/ fare chart for how much would the phone call cost me. A normal PCO alongside the fancy debit-card payable phone will be a welcome addition. Or maybe the airport is too swanky for a lowly PCO? I had seen PCOs at the Delhi Airport so technically there isn't a reason why there shouldn't be some at the Mumbai airport.
Marathi only seems to exist on the murals. Very few of the airport staff I interacted with know Marathi. This was a very stark contrast to a firangi air-host in my United flight who said "हे घ्या" in perfectly non-accented voice when I asked for water.
There's no free wifi for you if you don't want a text message while on international roaming.
the Ugly: International passengers have to undergo 2 security/baggage checks. They are supposed to arrive at the airport 3 hours prior to departure. Savvy passengers will carry an empty water bottle, and once past the security they will fill it for the 3 hour wait. But another security check happens around an hour prior to departure, you chuck out the water, or drink it all; and wait out at the jetport waiting area where there are no restrooms/ water fountains.
I don't object to a second security screening, but it can be made much more streamlined so that we undergo second screening and directly board the plane, and not hang out at the jetport.
Not a new observation, but nevertheless a rant, while I blog about airports, is that the domestic and international airports are not in the same complex at Mumbai. Super confusing. Plus the airline ticket, calls both airports as CSIA (BOM) to add to the confusion. Currently the shuttles between the 2 airports only ferry the passengers who have a connecting flight from the other airport. Confused passengers who end up at the wrong airport are left to their own means.
2. Pune city
the Good: noticeable reduced number of street dogs.
the Bad: No one seems to use the footpath. The footpaths are a foot higher than ground ( ostensibly to prevent people parking their bikes over the footpath) and elderly people find it hard to step on/ of the footpaths.
the Ugly: Where exactly does the city limit end? Travelling from Pune to Mumbai airport, i kept on seeing buildings after buildings for the longest time, all the way to Lonavala. I woudn't be too surprised if, in future, Pune is declared as a suburb of Mumbai. The city is growing by leaps and bounds, and its neither pretty nor sustainable.
3. Traffic
the Good:Rickshaw meters show the exact fare in rupees. Lesser chances of rickshaw-wallahs swindling newbies.
the Bad: all of it
the Ugly: This time around, when I travelled in the PMT bus, I actually got to sit down. While this might feel very luxurious and comfortable, its signalling decline in public transport ridership. For a metropolis, this is an extremely serious issue, especially because Pune Today supplement of the Daily Sakaal kept showcasing traffic jam pictures each day.
4. Restaurants
the Good: CCD appeared to have a security camera on the service desk. Though a camera on the entrance will ensure security further, at least this is a good start.
the Bad: Waiters have started placing a Bisleri bottle at the table whether you have asked for it or not. People like me who are no longer acclimatized to the Indian bacteria lurking in water might prefer bisleri, but the rest of the people, who happen to be the majority, should have no issues drinking tap water. Even I had stopped boiling the water by 10th day of my stay, so really restaurants / people on their high horses..what's your excuse?
the Ugly: nothing
5. Shopping
the Good: Haggling still works!
the Bad: everything is overpriced.
the Ugly: I scoured ALL the shops in Kothrud, Lakshmi Road, branded + non-branded. None of them stock Women's casual cotton trousers which don't have a "pencil cut". The only straight cut trousers available are formal trousers which come in "Imported fabric" aka polyester. Apparently this has been the status quo since multiple years. I did find straight cut cotton trousers by Zola brand in Tathastu, but those were in a pile of discarded old stock. Last I heard, India was a troipical country, and loose cotton should have been the wiser and more comfy choice. If the straight cut isnt "in" anymore, I can only draw 2 conclusions: there isnt any demand for it, or the manufacturers are sick people who are forcing women to parade their bodies in tight clothes. Either ways, the collective IQ of all ladies in India seems to have gone down several notches, if they cannot set things straight with the shopkeepers by sheer customer-pressure.
Thank goodness, I atleast found flat sandals!
6. Telephone
the Good: You can buy voice pack and data pack separately for smartphones. A boon if your major usage is through home/ office wifi.
When I used to stay in India, there used to be no dearth of places where you can get a sim card. This time around, the opposite was true. I hope this is a first step in making telecommunication more secure.
the Bad: Internet speed is around 30Kbps during the day, and a maximum of 200kbps in the middle of the night. I maybe wrong but there didn't seem to be any 4G plans. Yet, on the plus side, 2G plans were very reasonably priced and offered decent speed.
the Ugly: BSNL took forever to get the landline up and working.
Its very endearing to see people hang out their laundry in the sun. Apparently, people in the US dont do that because it looks ugly and drives down the property costs. India seems to have found a neater looking, convenient and yet sunny solution: aluminum rods that can go up and down on a pulley.
I have never stayed in a rental apartment or as a paying guest when I was in India. Whenever I shifted apartments in the US, I always commended how easy it was to shut/ shift/ start utilities, and how convenient it was to have a house that comes with a stove and a refridgerator. On the other side of the globe, my friends would be posting jubilant facebook pictures of how they got a LPG connection, as though it was a very long-drawn battle to get one. A friend put the judgemental me back on track: in a few years there would be LPG pipelines everywhere in India and hence moving would be as easy as in the US. The only change I look forward to is to have easy access to rental cars at airports and railways. Or maybe I be the change that I want to see, and start a business venture, hopefully creating Indian equivalents of venture capitalists, Kickstarters, and GoFundMes.
Lastly a word about the taxi system at CST railway station. Traffic police ensure that people stand in a queue, and escort the passengers to the taxi. Obviously there is no question of the taxi-wallah denying to ferry you. I have a dream for India, and this scene outside a busy central railway station makes me hopeful that better days are in store for India.
1. The airport
the Good: The swanky T2 terminal, free smarte cartes, tad sprinkling of Marathi on the murals.
the Bad: People landing in India from abroad need an Indian phone to place calls, say to their loved ones, or their assigned Taxi driver. While there was a phone at departures, there was none after the baggage claim at Arrivals. There were no instructions/ fare chart for how much would the phone call cost me. A normal PCO alongside the fancy debit-card payable phone will be a welcome addition. Or maybe the airport is too swanky for a lowly PCO? I had seen PCOs at the Delhi Airport so technically there isn't a reason why there shouldn't be some at the Mumbai airport.
Marathi only seems to exist on the murals. Very few of the airport staff I interacted with know Marathi. This was a very stark contrast to a firangi air-host in my United flight who said "हे घ्या" in perfectly non-accented voice when I asked for water.
There's no free wifi for you if you don't want a text message while on international roaming.
the Ugly: International passengers have to undergo 2 security/baggage checks. They are supposed to arrive at the airport 3 hours prior to departure. Savvy passengers will carry an empty water bottle, and once past the security they will fill it for the 3 hour wait. But another security check happens around an hour prior to departure, you chuck out the water, or drink it all; and wait out at the jetport waiting area where there are no restrooms/ water fountains.
I don't object to a second security screening, but it can be made much more streamlined so that we undergo second screening and directly board the plane, and not hang out at the jetport.
Not a new observation, but nevertheless a rant, while I blog about airports, is that the domestic and international airports are not in the same complex at Mumbai. Super confusing. Plus the airline ticket, calls both airports as CSIA (BOM) to add to the confusion. Currently the shuttles between the 2 airports only ferry the passengers who have a connecting flight from the other airport. Confused passengers who end up at the wrong airport are left to their own means.
2. Pune city
the Good: noticeable reduced number of street dogs.
the Bad: No one seems to use the footpath. The footpaths are a foot higher than ground ( ostensibly to prevent people parking their bikes over the footpath) and elderly people find it hard to step on/ of the footpaths.
the Ugly: Where exactly does the city limit end? Travelling from Pune to Mumbai airport, i kept on seeing buildings after buildings for the longest time, all the way to Lonavala. I woudn't be too surprised if, in future, Pune is declared as a suburb of Mumbai. The city is growing by leaps and bounds, and its neither pretty nor sustainable.
3. Traffic
the Good:Rickshaw meters show the exact fare in rupees. Lesser chances of rickshaw-wallahs swindling newbies.
the Bad: all of it
the Ugly: This time around, when I travelled in the PMT bus, I actually got to sit down. While this might feel very luxurious and comfortable, its signalling decline in public transport ridership. For a metropolis, this is an extremely serious issue, especially because Pune Today supplement of the Daily Sakaal kept showcasing traffic jam pictures each day.
4. Restaurants
the Good: CCD appeared to have a security camera on the service desk. Though a camera on the entrance will ensure security further, at least this is a good start.
the Bad: Waiters have started placing a Bisleri bottle at the table whether you have asked for it or not. People like me who are no longer acclimatized to the Indian bacteria lurking in water might prefer bisleri, but the rest of the people, who happen to be the majority, should have no issues drinking tap water. Even I had stopped boiling the water by 10th day of my stay, so really restaurants / people on their high horses..what's your excuse?
the Ugly: nothing
5. Shopping
the Good: Haggling still works!
the Bad: everything is overpriced.
the Ugly: I scoured ALL the shops in Kothrud, Lakshmi Road, branded + non-branded. None of them stock Women's casual cotton trousers which don't have a "pencil cut". The only straight cut trousers available are formal trousers which come in "Imported fabric" aka polyester. Apparently this has been the status quo since multiple years. I did find straight cut cotton trousers by Zola brand in Tathastu, but those were in a pile of discarded old stock. Last I heard, India was a troipical country, and loose cotton should have been the wiser and more comfy choice. If the straight cut isnt "in" anymore, I can only draw 2 conclusions: there isnt any demand for it, or the manufacturers are sick people who are forcing women to parade their bodies in tight clothes. Either ways, the collective IQ of all ladies in India seems to have gone down several notches, if they cannot set things straight with the shopkeepers by sheer customer-pressure.
Thank goodness, I atleast found flat sandals!
6. Telephone
the Good: You can buy voice pack and data pack separately for smartphones. A boon if your major usage is through home/ office wifi.
When I used to stay in India, there used to be no dearth of places where you can get a sim card. This time around, the opposite was true. I hope this is a first step in making telecommunication more secure.
the Bad: Internet speed is around 30Kbps during the day, and a maximum of 200kbps in the middle of the night. I maybe wrong but there didn't seem to be any 4G plans. Yet, on the plus side, 2G plans were very reasonably priced and offered decent speed.
the Ugly: BSNL took forever to get the landline up and working.
Its very endearing to see people hang out their laundry in the sun. Apparently, people in the US dont do that because it looks ugly and drives down the property costs. India seems to have found a neater looking, convenient and yet sunny solution: aluminum rods that can go up and down on a pulley.
I have never stayed in a rental apartment or as a paying guest when I was in India. Whenever I shifted apartments in the US, I always commended how easy it was to shut/ shift/ start utilities, and how convenient it was to have a house that comes with a stove and a refridgerator. On the other side of the globe, my friends would be posting jubilant facebook pictures of how they got a LPG connection, as though it was a very long-drawn battle to get one. A friend put the judgemental me back on track: in a few years there would be LPG pipelines everywhere in India and hence moving would be as easy as in the US. The only change I look forward to is to have easy access to rental cars at airports and railways. Or maybe I be the change that I want to see, and start a business venture, hopefully creating Indian equivalents of venture capitalists, Kickstarters, and GoFundMes.
Lastly a word about the taxi system at CST railway station. Traffic police ensure that people stand in a queue, and escort the passengers to the taxi. Obviously there is no question of the taxi-wallah denying to ferry you. I have a dream for India, and this scene outside a busy central railway station makes me hopeful that better days are in store for India.
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